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Another Dimension - TV Tropes "Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go." An ancient trope, still used. Another Dimension refers to universes that are "next" to our own, which require magic or high-end technology to travel to and from. In theory, from our world they are in a direction other than the directions we are familiar with. The popular usage of this term is incorrect; "other dimensions" are not locations, but the means by which you get to them. note : And let's not talk about "parallel dimensions", which is a contradiction in its own right. Our universe, as far as we know, contains four dimensions: three dimensions of space, plus time. We have free movement in the first three, but are locked in a continuous forward motion in the last. Free movement in the fourth dimension is called Time Travel. Free movement in the fifth dimension, or "time squared", is usually seen as jumping sideways from branch to branch within the tree of choices and alternate events that make up the multiverse — so called alternate universes. The sixth dimension, or "time cubed", is where things get really weird — because we as a species don't have the capacity to comprehend what the temporal version of "up" is, we tend to see the sixth dimension as home to wildly alien places with their own laws of physics where literally anything can happen. Travel to and from another dimension is usually via some sort of door, vortex, portal, gate, window — the exact term depends on the story. Sometimes some kind of teleportation suffices. There may be a Void Between the Worlds to go through to reach them. Characters might need the aid of Weirdness Search and Rescue to get home. Entering the dimension can sometimes be used as an Extradimensional Shortcut. Dimensional Travellers make such journeys regularly, either via a device or spell they possess or as an innate power of their own. Not to be confused with More than Three Dimensions, which is about higher spatial dimensions. Despite 'dimension' being a relatively new term for it, the concept is Older Than Dirt. The "fairy lands" of Celtic Mythology and European fairy tales, the various universes of Hindu cosmology, Hell, Heaven and The Underworld, and so on. Types of Other Dimensions: <!—index—> <!—/index—> If you were expecting to find anything related to Dragon Ball Z, you're looking for Never Say "Die". ## Examples: - 3×3 Eyes: there are three main dimensions in the world: the human world (our universe), the Sacred Place/Sanctuary (the now desolate former home of Triclops and monsters) and finally the Subspace, which is essentially outer space between the dimensions, which can only be accessed through certain spells. The Sacred Place and Earth are connected by special magical portals known as "Kunlun" and scattered across the world. - This is where the aliens in Bokurano come from. \|\|They're actually humans from alternate timelines, but that revelation comes later\|\|. - CLAMP is extremely fond of this trope, most notably in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, where the characters cross over into several different parallel universes. - Muge Space in Dancougar. It is also seen in Super Robot Wars Compact, Super Robot Wars Compact 2, Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 and Super Robot Wars GC. - Digimon: - The Digital World is described as this by the human protagonists. - The third season of Digimon Fusion has DigiQuartz, a world between the Human and Digimon world. - The door that Myotismon used to get to the human world in Digimon Adventure connects to any number of these depending on which nine of ten cards are placed in what spaces in a grid. - Digimon Adventure 02 has the Dark Ocean and the realm of dreams. - In Digimon Universe: App Monsters, the Digital World is replaced with a physical representation of the Internet called the Net Ocean. It can be reached through the AR Fields that crop up whenever an Appmon causes mayhem. - Fushigi Yuugi features Miaka and Yui going into an alternate universe that resembles Ancient China, by way of a book, and becoming priestesses to Suzaku and Seiryuu, respectively. - Naruto: Kaguya Otsutsuki has the ability to travel though these through the use of Amenominaka. - Saint Seiya: - These are weaponized, used by Gemini Saga \|\|and Kanon\|\| as a way of removing opponents from the battlefield without much difficulty. Gemini Saga's delivery of the attack tends to be really overblown, to the degree of becoming a Memetic Mutation in some fringes of the fandom. - Phoenix Ikki also uses one at one point \|\|in an attempt to defeat Virgo Shaka by sending both he and Shaka there. This earns him Shaka's respect, and he asks Mu to bring both Ikki and himself back.\|\|. - In Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Saga \|\|and Kanon\|\|'s predecessors display similar aptitude in the art \|\|and actually uses it at one point to rob a Physical God of the capacity to control time by simply transporting both of them to a dimension where time doesn't exist.\|\| - The page image is from successor series Saint Seiya Omega. The Gold Saint Gemini Paradox can use the attack "Crossroads Mirage" to put the target outside of time and space so she can show them the effects of the choices they have before them. She uses it to try to force Ryuho to decide between betraying his friends or dying through fighting her. The sadistic part comes in that she shows him a utopic future if he betrays them, and thousands dead if he resists. To add extra danger, it is an actual attack, and it puts the victim body and mind between the two choices and will destroy them via psychic pressure unless they decide. - So, I Can't Play H!: All three of the shinigami females come from Grimwald, a plain of existence that lies between the human world and the afterlife. - Tenchi Muyo! alludes to this in the third installment of the OVA series. Though all of the story takes place on the prime plane, there are some sequences which feature inter-dimensional travelers attempting to wage war against Tokimi. In the final episode, it's revealed that the universe contains eleven planes of existence — \|\|and then Tenchi threatens to break past all of those into the Hyperdimension, which is apparently the dwelling place of the gods themselves.\|\| - Seems to be somewhat of a recurring theme across all the major series in Yu-Gi-Oh!: - Yu-Gi-Oh!: The world of the Pharoah's memory inside the Millenium Puzzle and the afterlife, as well as the Duel Monsters Spirit World in filler arcs. - In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, Aigami's Quantum Cube can trap people in other dimensions. Anyone not part of the dimension originally will die, and he wants to stop Kaiba and Yugi because if the Pharaoh is reborn into the world people in Aigami's dimension will have no future. - Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The World of Darkness and the Duel Monsters Spirit World, which was greatly expanded on from the Duel Monsters filler arcs. - Yu Gi Oh5ds: The Netherworld and the Duel Monsters Spirit World (again). - Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Astral World and Barian World. - Yu Gi Oh ARCV: The four dimensions based on the previous four shows, as well as the ARC-V Dimension which is a much more clear example of this trope resulting from the aforementioned universes being forcibly recombined. - Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: The Cyberse. Link VRAINS itself also becomes a hub connecting the setting to countless parallel universes in the finale. - Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS: At the end of the first episode, Yuga is told to seek out the door to a new world, though whether said new world actually exists or is a metaphor is one of the show's most enduring mysteries. - Atomic Robo: Bad things only happen with other dimensions (the dimension of vampires), and especially the zorth axis (the Eldritch Abomination staking Robo, or the accidental Time Travel). - This is the premise of Black Science: endless travel in the eververse across the infinite parallel universes separated from each other by decisions or chance. - The old Earth-One and Earth-Two of DC Comics, now replaced by the Fifty-Two. - Doctor Strange often travels to other dimensions with typically psychedelic visual effects. His wife Clea was born in one of them. - Although the Fantastic Four often visit the Negative Zone, it's their Ultimate Marvel counterparts who actually use it as part of their Super Hero Origin. And they use the nature of other dimensions as a \|\|weapon against Gah Lak Tus\|\|. - This is Marvel Comics' favorite Hand Wave whenever something requires physics-breaking power; The Hulk's extra mass is taken from one, Nightcrawler travels through one when teleporting, and Cyclops gets his eyebeams from one where relativity works differently. - One notable example is the Microverse. Most associated with the Micronauts, it's the place where your mass goes when you shrink. If you shrink down far enough, your consciousness goes there, too, and you're suddenly in a strange new universe. - Marvel Comics has an Angler, too; a very minor character with only two appearances, he was radically transformed by being in Another Dimension and though he returns from it, isn't quite suited to "normal" space and tends to be in two places at once. Not to mention crazy, deformed and speaking in weird symbols that look like broken glass. - The Marvel Universe is number 616 out of thousands. - Nightshade travels through the Land of the Nightshades while teleporting, which may or may not be related to the Shadowlands from which most characters in the DCU with shadow based powers pull from. - Shade, the Changing Man comes from a realm with very different dimensional properties called the Meta-Zone. - Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation². Hinted at twice in the second issue. The Doctor, who claims to know every star and planet out there, identifies Worf as a Klingon, but then informs Amy and Rory that until seeing him he'd never heard of a Klingon before. Later, when Picard receives the Distress Call from Delta IV, the Doctor reminds us of his familiarity with the whole of the universe and then states he's never heard of Delta IV. - Superman: - In Demon Spawn, Supergirl is kidnapped and brought to the Innerverse, an alternate dimension created by her dark side which exists inside her mind. - Mr. Mxyzptlk is from the 5th dimension, a world where everyone's nigh-omnipotent and there's a month called Pants. - Let My People Grow!: Rokyn, the world chosen by the Kandorians to rebuild their civilization, is a phase-world. It really exists in another dimension, and it only appears in their universe during a brief shift of the cosmic axis. - The Phantom Zone: Superman and his friend Quex-Ul travel through several parallel dimensions while making their way back to Earth. - In The Condemned Legionnaires, the Legion of Super-Heroes visits a faraway, unknown world which is used as a playground by the children of a giant alien race from another dimension. - Walk-In is based around this premise. - A Wonder Woman villain called Angle Man adopts a weapon called the Angler that allows him to manipulate dimensions, giving him teleporting, Time Travel and travel of The Multiverse. - Zenith has not only the traditional Alternate Universe setup, but a dimension outside of space and time which the Lloigor call home. - Monsters, Inc. shows an alternate universe inhabitated by Monsters that use children's screems as energy source and travel to the human universe by using closet doors. - Most of the adventures in the Lone Wolf series take place on the world of Magnamund in the plane of Ao. There are other planes of existence such as the Daziarn, a strange dimension divided into mini-dimensions that have almost nothing in common, and the Plane of Darkness, which is basically Hell and the hometurf of Naar the King of Darkness. - Isaac Asimov's "The Author's Ordeal": In the Science Fiction outline, the heroes use hyperspace to quickly travel between star systems, but find themselves in the wrong galaxy. - In The Boy who Reversed Himself one could get to the fourth dimension by learning to step 'ana' or 'kata' (the extra directions added to make it 4D) and needed special glasses in order to see more than floating blobs, as our eyes weren't designed for the dimension. "Ana" and "kata" are the ancient Greek words for "up" and "down," respectively. - Kenneth Bulmer wrote a series about the Contessa Perdita di Monttevarchi, an interdimensional tyrant, and the various people who opposed her. - These Broken Stars: Hyperspace ships like the Icarus travel through dimensional rifts. It's probably while investigating these rifts that LaRoux Industries discovered the whispers, dimensional beings with Psychic Powers. These beings were trapped and experimented on, driving their tormentors crazy as a way of begging for release. - The Chronicles of Amber: After walking a sentient maze and gaining the ability to do so (which nearly all the major characters have done), someone from either Amber or Chaos can walk from world to world, essentially willing the transfer from one to another. The transfer is gradual, but can do literally anything, including taking the traveler to a world whose mythology predicts the arrival of a deity who looks exactly like him or her. It's mentioned that no one is quite sure whether these dimensions actually exist before an Amber or Chaos resident enters it, but there is currently a sort of two-ended multiverse with Amber at one end and Chaos at the other, with the hundreds or thousands of worlds in between being more similar the closer they are, to both Amber and Chaos, and each other. And the laws of nature don't always work the same from one to another—for example, gunpowder doesn't ignite in Amber. Oh, and all of them except Amber and Chaos are called Shadows, because it's believed that they are only inter-dimensional shadows of the two true worlds. - Narnia is another dimension in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series of books, with specific rules about time. Indeed, the sixth book, The Magician's Nephew provides a very good fantasy description of dimensional travel, likening the space between worlds to the rafters in a block of townhouses. The titular magician also makes it clear that Narnia, Charn, and similar worlds have no geographical relationship to our world at all. - Most of Clive Barker's stories revolve around traveling to and from another dimension, whether through a rug, painting, etc. - According to Word of God, the races of Codex Alera all arrived in the lands of Carna from other dimensions. The Alerans themselves are from Earth, the descendants of a Lost Roman Legion and associated Camp Followers and nearby locals (there are Germanic names peppered among the Alerans' Latin-based ones), though this happened so long ago their oldest texts barely hint of it. The Noble Savage Marat are descended from Neanderthals, but not our Neanderthals: they have legends of fleeing a great threat across at least two other worlds before reaching Carna. Some other creatures in Carna are descended from prehistoric Earth animals that crossed over even longer ago. - Other Dimensions connected to the Discworld include Death's Domain, Fairyland, The Dungeon Dimensions and Roundworld. - Eden Green/ New Night heavily feature an alien dimension (later called Fortuna) that has made invasive contact with Earth, releasing thousands of black needle monsters meant to destroy Earth ecosystems and prepare for colonization. - The Empirium Trilogy: Multiple worlds exist beyond the Deep. One in particular- Hosterah- was where an alien race of predators called the cruciata came from. - Kay Kenyon's The Entire and The Rose series involves humans discovering a manufactured universe called the Entire. The beings in charge apparently copied sentient species from Earth's universe (the titular Rose) so all the creatures of the Entire supposedly have counterparts elsewhere in our universe that humans just haven't found yet. And there's trouble actually getting to the Entire from the Rose because the beings in charge refuse to share that information. (Those beings themselves and some mysterious attackers called Paion coming from two other universes.) - Somewhat subverted in the web serial novel Fishbowl by A. B. Boekelheide. Sam ridicules Lachlan for suggesting they've traveled to another dimension, then gives him an almost correct explanation. - Edwin Abbot Abbot's Flatland is one of the few examples of the term "another dimension" being used correctly, so perhaps qualifies as a subversion. It is set in a 2D universe where men are geometric shapes, women are straight lines and "up" and "down" are dangerous heresies. - Used correctly in The Fold, where the other dimension folds to make two points in three-dimensional space adjacent. - The works of Simon R. Green ( Nightside, Secret Histories, Ghost Finders). In addition to the usual alternate-realities and bizarre Cosmic Horror Story-worlds, his Greenverse includes the concept of "higher and lower" dimensions: higher, for ones that are more "real" than our own, and lower for ones that are less so. One lower dimension traversed in Secret Histories was dim-lit, crumbling, and denuded of all but the most primordial (albeit far from harmless) life forms. - Book 4 of the Forest Kingdom series ( Beyond the Blue Moon) introduces the dimension of Reverie, home of the Blue Moon and the Transient Beings, and source of Wild Magic. The Inverted Cathedral serves as the last real Gateway to it. - In The Gypsies in the Wood, fairy changelings leaving our world to return to their own are described as seeming to get flatter as they approach an entrance that looks like a narrow crack, hinting at an other-dimensional location. - The Land of Stories take place in a world physically separate from the storys version of Earth. - Applied in all kinds of weird ways in A.A. Attanasio's The Last Legends of Earth. The space between lynks permits time travel and goes off in weird ways. Gai, the alien Rimstalker, comes from a realm at a much higher "energy level", known only as "the range", allowing a relatively small Rimstalker ship to create entire solar systems (this is also the cause of their problems — the zotl are Always Chaotic Evil and don't care that the range is inhabited, just that it's a great energy source). A character who wandered in from another book in the Radix Tetrad had a congenital brain defect fixed by an alien from a realm even a Rimstalker-programmed AI was amazed to learn existed. - In "Little Girl Lost", young Tina Miller falls off the couch and manages to find herself in the fourth dimension. The family dog Mack goes in after her but has trouble getting to her. In the end her father Chris falls in himself and manages to grab a hold of both as all three get pulled back to safety. - The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones uses a similar "place between" which is clearly written in reaction to The Magician's Nephew's quiet, sleepy Wood Between the Worlds; it's misty, muddy, slippery and somewhat dangerous terrain. There are definitely no guinea pigs. - H. P. Lovecraft liked this idea and inserted it into many stories, especially the Cthulhu Mythos. It was used not only to explain where the various Eldritch Abominations hid from the world, but also to explain some of the Alien Geometries of the various structures and beings he created. - In Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy, there is a long section set in Tanjecterly. It's a strange place where trees are different colors, and the heroine is menaced by grotesque, slime-eating creatures called Progressive Eels. - Medusa's Web involves contact with other-dimensional alien beings. Invoked by two-dimensional diagrams, the beings in fact exist in only two dimensions, possessing only height and width, no depth — and no duration in time: for them, all times are the same, so if two people interact with the same spider at different times, it's in a sense the same interaction and makes it possible for the two people to also interact with each other. - The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin has multiple dimensions between which the protagonists often travel. Also, almost all the protagonists originate in different dimensions (Skeeve from Klah, Aahz from Perv etc.) - Brian Lumley's Necroscope and Titus Crow series. - Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy incorporates a wide variety of these (scientifically dubbed "continuum's"). The most prominent is the "Beyond", where \|\|most\|\| souls end up after leaving the body. It's non-spatial, but it has time, so that the souls of the dead are aware of the passage of time but have nothing to do but leech on to each other's memories for the feeble semblance of life that they have. - The Dark Continuum is as close to an actual Hell as it gets. This is a dimension of near-absolute entropy, where the souls of whoever ends up there are compressed into a zero-Kelvin mass of writhing agony called the Melange. In case you are wondering, yes, they are also fully aware. - There are also various "pocket universes", not much bigger in volume than a planet, where the Possessed transport the worlds that they steal. - Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast uses this as a Hand Wave for traveling The Multiverse. - Of Ducks and Universes has an alternate universe (at least one) with alternate selves of people born after a certain date (when the universe split into two.) - Once: On a plane described as "the spirit of nature", the faerfolkis exist in dimensions generally beyond human perception. - Paraiso Street: Ptiamuzcuaro, the land of the dead, accessible via the Paraiso Street gateway. - Realm Breaker: Some of Allward's inhabitants were originally from other dimensions before crossing into the Ward. - The Mirrorworld Series: The Mirror World is an alternate version of Europe with 1700s politics...cameras, railroads, and \|\|airplanes\|\|. The primary mode of travel still appears to be horseback, though, and characters don't recognize modern guns or flashlights. Oh, and there's a whole range of supernatural races... - Much of The Red and the Rest takes place in Papyrus, the world of lost things. Notable landmarks include an enormous mountain of mismatched socks. - The Reluctant King: There are at least twelve other Planes of Existence, the First being Earth, which provides the afterlife people on the world in the trilogy go to. All the rest seem to be inhabited by various demons, gods or spirits. - The Territories in The Talisman. Both worlds tend to mirror each other such that doing one thing in one place causes a similar effect in the other. The inhabitants are also mostly the same apart from population differences. - The Jakub Wędrowycz stories feature at least one Another Dimension — it's a Medieval European Fantasy realm with some comedic twists. - In Wicked Lovely: Sorcha's high court, most halflings and sighted ones, \|\|a formerly-mortal dreamwalker named Rae and later Devlin and Ani's 'shadow court'\|\| live in a world known only as Faerie. It is also said that the dark court once resided there, but not during the events of the main series. - A Wrinkle in Time features a trio of mysterious guardians who are able to transport the protagonists through space via the fifth dimension. According to them, they are able to tesser, or "wrinkle," by bending space around so that they're in another place in an instant. As one character states: "A straight line is not necessarily the shortest path between two points." - Buffy the Vampire Slayer/ Angel: - The demons often hailed from some hell dimension or another; our heroes on Angel have visited at least three of them. Most of them have different rules on time. For example, in "Anne", a demon continuously captured teens to use as slaves, working them until they're in their old age, then finally dumping them crazed and confused back into our world — all of which happened in a matter of a day or two, Earth-time. Also, Connor was sent to the worst dimension imaginable, and came out a couple weeks later as a teenager. - Glory's world, an H. R. Giger type dimension which we see bits of in "The Gift". - There is a running joke about shrimp entirely based on this premise, which has been liberally and enthusiastically embraced by online fandom at large: In "Superstar", when explaining the concept of alternate dimensions, Anya says: "You could have, like, a world with no shrimp. Or with, you know, nothing but shrimp." - In "Triangle", after Olaf was banished she said that he could have been sent to "the world without shrimp." - In the Angel episode "Underneath", Illyria talks about moving between dimensions, she said that she went to "a world with nothing but shrimp" but "tired of it quickly." - "The Wish" introduces an alternate continuity timeline caused by Anyanka, which was supposedly destroyed when her demonic power source was destroyed. But it gets confusing because this alternate timeline is actually ALSO an alternate dimension, since "Doppelgangland" has AU!Willow being pulled from that universe into the primary universe. Just to make it vaguer, the time she gets pulled from is during the events of "The Wish"; whether the world continues beyond the point where that episode ends is unknown. - Doctor Who: - Adric comes from Another Dimension called E-Space, which is also where the Doctor leaves Romana and K9 Mark II. - In the 2011 episode "The Curse of the Black Spot", \|\|a spaceship from one dimension is lodged in a pirate ship in ours\|\|. - Grimm in the last season shows an alternate dimension from where the Wesens come from apparently and is basically like Earth in the Bronze Age, with monsters. - Kamen Rider Ryuki and its adaptation Kamen Rider Dragon Knight both dealt with another dimension on the other side of Earth's mirrors. - Kamen Rider Decade is similarly about travelling to multiple other dimensions, all of which are merging into one. Tsukasa and co visit a new one every fortnight, with each dimension representing a Kamen Rider series. - The Outpost has the Plane of Ash, the place that the portals opened by Talon's kinj lead to. It's a volcanic wasteland in a perpetual twilight, and time there seems to work differently, as the Blackbloods banished there centuries ago don't seem to have aged since. - Sliders is built on this trope. Each episode they slide into a new dimension, and they never know how it will be different from their own — some are very weird, and some are very dangerous. They have to spend a certain amount of time there before they can slide to the next. If they miss the slide, it's a long, long time before the timer will allow them to slide again, making them essentially trapped in that dimension. They don't want that, because they hope if they keep sliding, they'll be able to find their home dimension again. - Star Trek: Voyager - Fluidic space, the area inhabited by Species 8472 ("Scorpion", Part I and II). It's an alternate dimension, only accessed through portals established in the region itself. - In "Bride of Chaotica!", Energy Beings from another dimension mistake holodeck supervillain Dr. Chaotica for a genuine threat and go to war with him. The "Fifth Dimension" (as Chaotica dubs it) is based on energy. As a result the aliens think the holoprogram is real, whereas Voyager and its crew don't show up on their sensors, making it impossible to convince the aliens to stop fighting. - The "Upside Down" from Stranger Things is a classic illustration of the "6D" take on alternate dimensions — a world "up" from our reality. - The Twilight Zone (1959): In "Little Girl Lost", the six-year-old Tina Miller falls out of bed and into another dimension through a Negative Space Wedgie that formed in her bedroom wall. - Nearly every religion or collective spiritual belief speaks of an otherworld beyond human comprehension. Sometimes that edge of comprehension can be on top of a mountain, in the sky, or underground; but as human understanding increases, these realms are pushed farther and father away. These days, realms such as Heaven, Hell or similar are usually said to be outside our physical understanding. It makes sense; after all, if a god creates the universe, it must, by definition, exist outside it. - Arc 2 of Sequinox deals with these, as Gemini's stars Castor and Pollux are able to send the Sequinox girls into several different ones. - The world of The Dark Eye consist of seven planes, generally imagined as concentric spheres. The first is unaccessible and "only" a core. The second is a place of raw elemental powers. The third is the one where all the mortal life happens. The fourth is where the souls of the dead rest. The fifth is where the gods dwell, and cosists the paradises particularly worthy mortal souls may be eccepted into. The sixth is the sky with its stars, and some lesser gods can be found here. The seventh sphere is hell, a realm of chaos and infernal cold (ice/cold being the opposite of life in this world's elemental philosophy). In effect, the entire world, from the gods down, is just a relatively insignificant speck in a universe that wants to destroy it. - Dungeons & Dragons features planar travel, explored greatly in the Planescape setting. Jumping from plane to plane can be as simple as having access to the right spell or magical item, or sometimes planar breaches can occur naturally (or unnaturally) to allow people to move from one plane to another. The "Great Wheel" is the default cosmological model, with the Material Plane(s) in the center, and things getting weirder the further you go from it. These planes often have multiple layers to them that can be vastly different from each other. - The Transitive Planes are alternate dimensions that make it easier to move around on, or go beyond, the Material Plane. The Ethereal Plane is the foggy realm of ghosts, where travelers can spy on the Material Plane and simply walk through most Material obstacles. The Plane of Shadow, or Shadowfell, is a Dark World home to a great deal of dangerous shadow monsters, but since terrain there is fluid, it can be used as a shortcut to get between two Material Plane locations faster than normal. And the Astral Plane is the cloudy, timeless Void Between the Worlds studded with color pools that act as portals to the rest of the cosmos, but has its own natives that may prey on interlopers. - The Inner Planes are devoted to the fundamental forces of the universe. The four Elemental Planes of Air, Earth, Fire and Water are here, each home to a different variety of genie as well as elemental creatures. The Positive Energy Plane is a brilliant void bursting with Life Energy, which will eventually cause living creatures to explode, while the Negative Energy Plane is a lightless void that will eventually drain the life from any living creature within it. And the interactions between these planes produces what some call the Para-Elemental Planes (Air + Water = Ice, for example) and the Quasi-Elemental Planes (Air + Positive = Lightning, Air + Negative = Vacuum, etc.). And then you hear talk about Para-Quasi-Elemental Planes and it gets even more confusing. - The Outer Planes are the realms of the gods, home to beings devoted to the great philosophical forces of the universe, and where the souls of dead mortals reside as petitioners. They span both the Good-Evil and Law-Chaos ethical axes, with shades of neutrality between them. The Upper Planes are the mostly harmonious realms of Good, while the Lower Planes are wracked by the Blood War, a conflict between hordes of demons and legions of devils over who will lead the final assault on the bastions of heaven. - The Blessed Fields of Elysium are devoted to pure Good, and are so tranquil and beautiful that visitors will eventually lose any desire to leave. The Gray Wastes of Hades in contrast boast such undiluted Evil that those sent there will succumb to crushing despair and lose all sense of self. - The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus is an Eternal Engine of continent-sized gears home to creatures of pure Law, while the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo is a utterly Chaotic maelstrom of randomized elemental energy that some creatures can temporarily shape into pockets of stability. - The Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia are the Lawful Good afterlife, where petitioners undertake a spiritual journey to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence upon reaching the great mountain's peak. The Nine Hells of Baator is the plane of Lawful Evil, where petitioners are subjected to mind-shattering tortures until their ruined, gibbering soul shell is reborn as the least of devils, instinctively seeking to climb the infernal hierarchy. - The Olympian Glades of Arborea are the Chaotic Good realm of unsullied nature and passion for life, while the Infinite Layers of the Abyss is a Chaotic Evil realm of demons in which each of the endless layers is somehow worse than the last. - The Heroic Domains of Ysgard are a Warrior Heaven where the valorous dead are revived each morning for another chance at glory, while the Infernal Battlefields of Acheron are where amoral soldiers wage pointless war for all eternity. - The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium are endless stretches of tunnels filled with a shrieking wind that drives visitors and natives both deaf and completely mad. The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia is a land of law and harmony, whose inhabitants are so convinced of their righteousness that they are blind to their flaws. - The Twin Paradises of Bytopia consist of two layers facing each other, one dedicated to idealized pastoralism, the other a rugged wilderness to challenge the hardiness of outdoorsmen. The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna is home to the evil yugoloths, who live on the sides of enormous volcanic mounts rising into a dark void. - The Wilderness of the Beastlands is a domain of nature unbound, where predator and prey play out the game of survival without the intrusion of civilization. The Tarterian Depths of Carceri are a Prison Dimension home to the universe's worst traitors and exiles. - Sitting at the hub of the Great Wheel are the Concordant Domains of the Outlands, a True Neutral plane that borders all of the other Outer Planes and is home to the planar metropolis of Sigil, the greatest City of Adventure in all creation. And somewhere outside of this cosmology is the Far Realm, an Eldritch Location where the laws of time and space do not apply, home to any number of nightmarish horrors. - There's a great number of other planes that don't easily fit onto the Great Wheel, too: the Plane of Faerie, or Feywild, is a twilit land inhabited by sylvan creatures both beautiful and monstrous. The Plane of Mirrors is a specialized transitive plane that uses sets of mirrors like a Portal Network and spawns a Mirror Self of any visitor, while the Infinite Staircase can serve as an alternate way to get around the Outer Planes if you can find the right door on it. Neth isn't so much a plane as it is a massive organism. Then there are the Region of Dreams, the Temporal Energy Plane, the Elemental Plane of Wood... and if none of those are to your liking, with the right high-level magic you can just create your own demiplane to shape as you see fit. - The Delver's Guide to Beast World, a third-party campaign setting for D&D, refers to planes as "worlds" and each one is accessed in a different way. The Broken World (humanity's original homeworld) requires either an eight-hour ritual involving several expensive ingredients including the blood of a Broken World native, or a warlock of the Ghost God. While the Dreaming can be visited simply by entering REM sleep, though going somewhere specific requires a 2nd level spell. - Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok uses the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, located on the branches of the cosmic tree Yggdrasil, each one being its own dimension. - In Atlas Games' Feng Shui, players can travel through time by means of "The Netherworld", an alternate dimension made up of gray tunnels which lead to portals which allow access to and from our world at fixed points in time and space. The Netherworld is home to refugees from alternate timelines that have been erased from reality, including four siblings who ruled the earth in an Alternate History. - In Nomine is a natural for this trope, possessing not only a Heaven and Hell, but also a Dream World known as the Marches, and even a "no-place" called Limbo for the souls of angels/demons who were killed and unable to return to their proper realm. - White Wolf's Old World of Darkness games featured another set of dimensions called the Umbra, which was based very strongly on human perception, to the point where a shaman and a scientist in the same part of the deep umbra would see it as a surreal swirling nexus of spirit energy populated with arcane ghosts and a section of interstellar space populated by aliens, respectively. - The New World of Darkness has its own sets of dimensions. There's the Shadow Realm, which is like the Umbra, only it's nearly exclusively animistic. Then there's the Underworld, which is home to dead knowledge and concepts and the place where ghosts go when they've finished their business but aren't ready to pass on to their final reward. Then there's the Abyss, which is pretty much anti-reality. Then there's the five Supernal Realms, dimensions of pure magic. Then there's the Astral Realms, which are where the collective unconscious is made flesh. Then there's Arcadia, which is not the Supernal Arcadia and is a constantly shifting chaotic wasteland that plays home to The Fair Folk. Then there's the Hedge, the predatory gateway dimension between Earth and Arcadia. And on top of all that, apparently there's Hell. - Genius: The Transgression has smaller Bardos — pocket worlds made of concepts disproved by science. The more prominent ones include an alien-inhabited Mars, the Hollow Earth (home to dinosaurs and cavemen and Nazis), and the Seattle of Tomorrow, which Lemuria tried to bring into this world with disastrous consequences. - The Astral Planes of Shadowrun. - The resistance movement in The Splinter claims that the titular game world is actually one of these. - Jump Space in Traveler. Not much is known about it, as its main purpose is simply to justify Faster-Than-Light Travel. - Warhammer 40,000's Warp is Another Dimension... 40k style. In essence, Hell. They use it for FTL travel. It doesn't always work. The ship might disappear then reappear, with everyone inside turned to dust from age. Or it might reappear hundreds to thousands of years later. Or appear at its destination before it left. "Time" is a funny thing in the Warp. Not funny Ha-Ha. - The Dark Place from Alan Wake is a bizarre realm "beyond the shores of our reality". It is home to more than a few dark entities of calamitous intentions and it is by nature "fluid", constantly shifting according to the whims and thoughts of its inhabitants; works of art created here or at contact points with our reality (such as Cauldron Lake) can influence reality by coming true. The protagonist, a novelist, writes a book that comes true over the course of the game, and once in the Dark Place itself, finds himself surrounded by words and ideas that he can turn into physical reality, and manifestations of his own fear and hopelessness coming to kill him. It's stated repeatedly that even though signals can travel from it to our reality, once you're in the Dark Place, it is next to impossible to leave, at least without bringing something terrible along with you. By the time of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, two years after the first game, Wake has become much more adept at handling the Dark Place and its inhabitants. He is able to write himself as one of the protagonist of one of his works and travel back to our reality at a point of contact (this time near a town in Arizona), but it's hinted that this is not an actual escape and it's not even clear if the events of the game actually took place. - Siren powers in Borderlands involve other dimensions, which is why they always begin with "phase-". Of note, Lab Rat enemies in Borderlands 2 apparently see some other weird dimension, and see it more when phaselocked by Maya... which is somewhat concerning, given that the Destroyer is said to have come from another dimension, and may have some connection to Sirens... - In City of Heroes, quite a few of the high-level missions involve visiting other dimensions or fighting invaders from them. - As well as the Shadow Shard, a series of 4 zones set in an alternate dimension that may very well be the mind of a god, inhabited by aspects of his personality. - Also, there is the interdimensional dance club Pocket D, a neutral zone where heroes and villains can get together but are incapable of attacking one another. - Clive Barker's Undying has both Oneiros and Eternal Autumn, magical realms that are either enslaved or created by two mages in the story, Keisinger and Bethany. - In Corpse Party, the main characters are transported to another dimension. - The 10th Dimension in Crash Twinsanity. Containing twisted versions of (at least) N. Sanity Island and Slip-Slide Icecapades. May also count as a Dark World due to the similarities when compared to the regular dimension. - The Darkness features a hell like world that the Darkness resides in. - The later installments of the Dark Parables series have begun sending the detective into these. The fourth game has her visit "Fairy Tale Land," and the fifth game traps her for almost half the game in the "Mirror World." - The existence of at least one of these (simply called 'the dark dimension') factors into the ongoing plot of the Detectives United series. It's a doomed world with an Alien Sky and "dark doppelgangers" of the three player characters. - Duel Savior Destiny begins when Taiga and his sister are both dragged into the root world by a mysterious red book. It appears to be much smaller and less populous than Earth, but as the core world whatever happens there happens to the outer worlds eventually. - EarthBound Beginnings has \|\|Maria's\|\| Magicant. - Evolve contains multiple dimensions, but only two are relevant. One is the one the game is set in, a futuristic setting where humans have expanded through the universe, and the other is \|\|a dimension without mass or corporeal form inhabited by a hive mind species of Energy Beings. The plot happens when the Reality Warping technology used by humans inadvertently devastates the corresponding areas in the other dimension, causing the energy beings to emerge into the human dimension and develop physical forms in order to eliminate the cause of the disturbance.\|\| - Galaxy Angel begins in EDEN, which consists of a lost civilization and the Transbaal Empire; Galaxy Angel II brings in two more dimensions, ABSOLUTE and NEUE. - The Combine from Half-Life 2 are a cabal of dimension-spanning Planet Looters, and the "nearby" — in 11-dimensional superstring terms, at least — Xen border-world is the neighboring dimension by which we discover on our own. Xen itself is nebula-like with giant floating asteroids above a bottomless void (and copious amounts of Scenery Porn). At the end of Half-Life 2 we also get a glimpse of the Combine Overworld which looks like a hellish realm dotted with multiple Citadels. - Xen is also used a a strong plot point since it's a necessary component for Earth-made teleporters. As Mossman explains in HL2, the Resistance "figured out how to use Xen as an unexpressed axis, effectively a "dimensional slingshot" so that we can swing around the border-world and come back into local space without having to pass through". At the end of Half-Life, the dimensional breach left by the resonance cascade was relatively tiny but enough for the Combine who forcibly tore it open and invaded (with the side effects being destructive portal storms and copious amounts of Xen fauna). It was still open in Episode Two when the Combine tried to call in reinforcements but the rebels screwed up their plans and used Black Mesa's old satellite array to seal it permanently. - It's worth noting that Xen isn't a "proper" universe; it's described as a "dimensional travel bottleneck", and is so small, in fact, that its atmosphere is dense enough to be breathable. Add to that the various chunks of planet and the xenofauna from a hundred different worlds, and the impression is that of a "bubble" of spacetime that someone happened to inflate and fill up with just enough material to allow habitability. It's not as unlikely as it sounds, given that we know the Nihilanth fled there to escape The Combine. - The Kirby series has a reoccurring location, the very literally named Another Dimension, debuting in Kirby's Return to Dream Land in the form of various pockets of space Kirby can travel to, before going to the full dimension in the final stage. It has since reappeared in Kirby Star Allies and various spin-offs. Its appearance varies by game but it is consistently an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield, and it is home to the Sphere Doomers, bird-like creatures who feast on energy. - In The Legend of Zelda game Hyrule Warriors, the Wind Waker world is explicitly referred to as a different dimension, whereas the other eras are treated as part of the setting's history. This is in keeping with the official timeline, as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are on separate branches. - April Ryan of The Longest Journey jumps between "our" world (Stark) and the mystic Arcadia repeatedly throughout the game. Interestingly, the game's backstory (explained after the first jump) describes a single world, where magic and science existed together. However, it was foreseen that utilizing both of these would result in the destruction of the world, so, with the help of the Draic Kin, the world was split into two main realities and several smaller "pockets" (either intentional or just leftovers). Stark became a world of science and logic, while Arcadia became a world of magic and chaos. Naturally, only humans beings can live in Stark, who have advanced to 20 Minutes in the Future, while Arcadia is populated by all manner of fantasy creatures but is stuck in Medieval Stasis. The barrier between the worlds must be constantly maintained, though, as it is clearly unnatural. At some point in the future, the worlds will be re-joined. The major plot point of the game is the fact that, without a Guardian to maintain the Balance, the barrier is starting to break down, with magic seeping into Stark and science seeping into Arcadia. The sequel reveals that, after a new Guardian is installed and repairs the barrier, most of the advanced tech in Stark ceases to function, implying that it's only been functioning thanks to magic (e.g. Artificial Gravity, FTL Travel). At the same time, Arcadia reverts to typical Medieval tech (with all the new "toys" spread by the Vanguard no longer working thanks to the laws of nature being in flux), except for Azadi Magitek, which uses magic to allow certain primitive pieces of technology to function. - Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times has the spirit world, which crosses over with the real world during Mystery Time. During Mystery Time, new bugs and fish appear (including VAMPIRE SQUID), characters from the spirit world appear in the town and require your help, and Mr. Graves (the sleeping skeleton in the room with the organ and locker) wakes up to teach extracurricular classes. Oh yeah, did I mention that the sky turns an otherworldly shade of red? - The Matrix: Path of Neo has one in the Merovingian's chateau, it has its own Bizarrchitecture floating maze inside it. - Dark Aether of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a Death Dimension that literally sucks the life from anything that enters it. It is home to the Ing, spiderlike Legions of Hell that possess creatures of the "Light World" so that they can enter it, as our dimension is just as lethal to them. - Minecraft has three different dimensions that can be visited by the player: the Overworld, the "ordinary" world in which the game begins; the Nether, a textbook Fire and Brimstone Hell; and the End, a spooky series of islands suspended in an endless void. - The Mortal Kombat series is set in a universe which has many realms, Earth being one of them. The main conflict of the series comes from evil warlords and gods who want to subjugate every realm, including our own, and enslave the very souls of their people. - The Myst games visit 'Ages' such as Stoneship (inhabited ship, embedded in an island), Mechanical (a clockwork fortress on the surface of the ocean), Riven (water on the five islands shies away from heat sources), Spire (flying, wind-carved ruinous mountains floating above a star), and Ahnonay (cleverly designed to appear to travel through time, to the uninitiated). - Every Plane of Existence in Nexus Clash is a piece of reality pulled from the 'real' world \|\|which player characters, being trapped in the Cycle, never see\|\| to act as part of the battlefield to shape the next world. Elysium and Stygia in particular are Alternate World Maps to each other, separated only by how they are perceived. - This was used in Puyo Puyo Fever to give a Hand Wave for how Arle appears in Primp Town, the retooled setting introduced by Sega in that game, despite Amitie being meant as her Primp Town equivalent. In the story mode, Arle explains to Amitie that she got sent way off the map during a routine round of Puyo Puyo, and Amitie thinks doing it again will send her back to where she was. In later Puyo Puyo games, dimension-hopping becomes a common plot point. - In Runescape, there exists a series of gates to the Fairy dimension Zanaris, which itself has a central 'hub' to travel to other, decidedly more hostile dimensions, such as the Abyssal Zone, Dimension X, which is host to horned kangaroos, and even a forest. A forest dimension. - Used in the SNES Shin Megami Tensei games a lot. Majin Tensei II had 2 alternate dimensions. \|\|Amnesia and Paranoia. Amnesia is the realm of the Angels and Paranoia is Lucifer's domain.\|\| - Many Silent Hill fans agree that the games take place in a place which is like reality but in some crucial ways different, and the term 'alternate dimension' is a convenient term to describe this, though there are many interpretations of just what that actually means and whether 'dimension' should be replaced with some other, more accurate, term. - Sonic the Hedgehog: - Sonic Rivals 2 is about Eggman Nega plotting to free a demon that was trapped in Another Dimension. - There's also the Twilight Cage from Sonic Chronicles, which seems to collect powerful civilizations from several dimensions. - Two of the alien races from Star Control II come from Another Dimension: the Arilou come from Quasi Space, while the Orz come from a dimension that they refer to only as below (thanks to the trouble the Translator Microbes have with their language). The Arilou and the Orz might come from the same dimension, as the Orz say both of the two races are from outside and the Arilou are from above ("It is the same, but not"). It depends on the meaning of outside, though. - In the original SNES Star Fox, there is a secret level titled "Out Of This Dimension" that has to be seen to be believed. - Two alternate dimensions appear in Super Mario RPG, the Factory where the Smithy Gang came from, and Vanda, where Final Fantasy-inspired Optional Boss Culex originates from. Mario and his friends (and Bowser) only visit the Factory, the battle against Culex takes place in a rift between Vanda and the Mushroom World. - The Super Mario World ROM Hack series The Second Reality Project features the titular Second Reality. The remake of the first game introduces Thirdspace into the plot. - There's a very literal example in Super Paper Mario where Mario's special move is to "warp" the otherwise flat world, revealing its third dimension. There's also Bestovius, Dimentio and Merloo, who all have dimension-flipping powers! It's quite popular in this game. - Super Robot Wars NEO treats Earth Tear from Lord of Lords Ryu Knight this way. - The Surface game series by Elephant Games are built on this trope. The premise of the games features the protagonist getting transported to another dimension, usually by supernatural means, and figuring out how to get home. Each game has its own spin on the alternate dimension and stand alone in the series. - Tiny Heist has \|\|the Error Dimension (it doesn't have a official name), which is a glitchy version of the place where the game usually takes place in.\|\| - Total Distortion has alien teleporters that allow anyone to travel to countless alternate dimensions, with the added factor that every dimension embodies parts of Earth pop culture, theorized to have been created by simultaneous dreams. It becomes a cheap, efficient way to send data and freight around the world, and you spend your inheritance of millions of dollars to travel to dimension 1400556, also known as the Distortion Dimension, in order to get fresh new material for your music videos. - Wolfenstein (2009) involves a Dark World-like dimension called "The Veil". It is our world, just viewed from an inch or so down the fourth spatial axis. But that's not the Axis you should be worried about. There's also the Black Sun Dimension, a small, unstable universe being held together by the Black Sun at its center. - The plot of X-COM: Apocalypse revolves around aliens from Another Dimension invading through spinning geometric portals. Initially it is impossible to make the jump to their dimension without being torn to pieces, requiring that the Project reverse-engineering the alien Living Ship technology. Travelling through reveals the alien home to be a scorched, barren wasteland, the alien base a series of gigantic organic structures that must be methodically torn down to put a stop to the attacks. - ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: - The eponymous Zanzarah is a land of magic where fairies, elves, dwarves, goblins, and other magical beings have escaped to from the witch hunts on Earth. - Astral plane is a pocket dimension where fairy duels take place. These arenas have various structures with increasingly bizarre architecture floating in the void, and falling into the Bottomless Pits below leads to the instant death of your fairy. - While Animated Inanimate Battle mostly takes place within the Blank Slate, whch is a white-and-yellow almost-empty void, there have been other dimensions that have been seen. A notable one would be the Doodleverse which Oodle created for the eliminated players. - Dreamscape has several. So far, there's the Possessor Ghosts realm, the Unworld, the Underworld, the Sky Dimension, Melinda's dimension, and even a Mirror Universe! - Killer Monster from DSBT InsaniT resides in one that is essentially Hell. Psycho Man comes from some sort of evil dimension too. - In Alice and the Nightmare, the Wonderland exists alongside Earth and there's some cultural exchange between the two, although it seems that Earth people don't know about Wonderland. - Among the Chosen features planets with multiple layers of 3D space, so a planet like Earth has alternates in 4D space. Or something. - This is the premise of Between Two Worlds. - Blindsprings has the forest otherworld in which Tamaura lives at the start of the story. - El Goonish Shive has a sub-plot involving alternate dimensions — however it's really just used as another name for Alternate Universes. Andrea the gryphon magic-scientist insists that her dimension and ours are the same universe, and its inaccurate to say otherwise, but nobody else really understands why. - This is the main plot of the comic Emergency Exit. - Enemy Quest's The Visitors opened a portal from their dimension to earth and started invading. They have their own world back in their dimension: a planet mostly covered in water with a single supercontinent à la Pangaea. - Girl Genius: Both the home of the Geisterdamen and Zeetha's home Skifander just might be in one, while more difinitively, there are higher realms occupied by monstrous Things, one of which is slowly extending itself into the time-stopped Mechanicsburg. - As of Act 6, Homestuck has \|\|three\|\| currently known parallel universes, \|\|two of which have an Alternate Universe apiece.\|\| Each universe also has an Incipisphere attached to it. The Incipispheres are separate from each other, but all of them are in the Furthest Ring outside normal reality. And there's also "the real world", which is inhabited by the author. - Jenny Everywhere, the open-source subject of many webcomics, exists in all possible dimensions and can shift between them. - Looking for Group: Richard once got banished to the Plane of Suck. - In Planes of Eldlor, demons from another dimension are trying to break into the world. - In RetroBlade there is a 4th Dimension where the Universal Guardian resides, and where Magnus \|\|first obtains the 4D Sword\|\|. - Sluggy Freelance introduced the Dimensional Flux Agitator, a device that opens portals to other dimensions at random, in its second chapter. The device has been brought back many times since then, to the point where a full fledged multiverse has developed. - Unicorn Jelly and its spinoffs are set in other-dimensional realms with their own unique physics. - In string theory, which is the highly speculative Hot New Thing in theoretical physics for the last few years, our visible cosmos is located in a ten- or eleven-dimensional hyperspace, which may contain an arbitrary number of other continua, with varying kinds of matter, forces, and numbers of dimensions. - Similar to the above the "broader" multiverse theory posits that the multiverse can contain anything, including what to our universe would be impossible or illogical due to not having to abide by our particular natural laws. Said arrangement, if infinite, would produce countless dimensions of, well, everything.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OtherDimension
Cosplay Otaku Girl - TV Tropes Nearly all characters in anime who are otaku are guys, although occasionally a female fan is included. This could be seen as an attempt at fair balance, but it's noticeable that this will inevitably be a specific kind of fan: the Cosplay fan. While this reflects a very real trend in fandom popular with ladies, it can come off like an excuse to put the resident cute girl of a cast in a variety of fetish outfits for the audience's benefit if done badly. Especially since the second most stereotypical interest of fangirls tends not to appeal to a male audience much. ## Examples: - The probable Trope Codifier for manga and anime: Yuri Satou from Otaku no Video. The OP of the OAV's, i.e., have her cosplaying as Lum Invader. - Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says has Oshigiri, who creates costumes for Tanaka and Toda to wear at Comiket to promote their doujinshi. - Implied in the case of Moe "Suzu" Suzuya in Asteroid in Love. Early on during the School Festival arc, upon learning the Earth Sciences club is planning on a Cosplay Café for the School Festival, there is a certainly level of glee in her face, and she immediately whips out a costume catalog and give out recommendations as if she's more interested in that than the club members. - Tomoyo Daidoji from Cardcaptor Sakura may qualify. Though she's not interested in dressing up herself, but instead making distinctive cosplay-ish battle outfits for Sakura. - Akechi from A Centaur's Life. She seems to be fond of looking for excuses for dressing other people up as well. - Naturally, Cosplay Complex is filled to the brim with cosplaying girls. - Plucky Comic Relief Kiko in Darker than Black. Also a Yaoi Fangirl. - Megu of the Detective School Q Live-Action Adaptation appears to be a Cosplay Otaku. Within the first two episodes we see her in two different school uniforms, a Meido-outfit and in a Yukata. - Averted in Doujin Work, whose female cast is far too busy with the title industry, with the exception of one's job at a Cosplay Café. - The Excel♡Saga manga gives us Umi Rengaya, Professor Shioji's assistant. When first introduced it seems she wears the outfits explicitly to be fanservice-y in hopes of attracting the Professor's attention, but only succeeds in disturbing him since he is very much not fond of her, er, assets. Later however, it's learned that she is a full-fledged Cosplay Otaku Girl; hanging out with other such girls, inviting her new friend Teriha into their circle, and having worked at a Maid Cafe. Her first appearance in a bonus story gives her a cameo as a zombie nurse shambling around in the background and moaning " ...cosplay...." - Lucy and Erza from Fairy Tail both qualify. In Lucy's case it is usually unintentional, but Erza... well, she keeps several cosplay outfits in her Hyperspace Arsenal. - Ohno from Genshiken. Interestingly, she does like the second most stereotypical interest of fangirls. Also interestingly, the only other female member, at first, is Saki, very much the antithesis of this trope. Her reaction to cosplay is revulsion; if the matter is forced, she ~~can~~ will get violent. she eventually gives in and even admits to enjoying cosplay. - The Wife carries on Saki's legacy in Spotted Flower, another work by the same author, and possibly set in the same universe as Genshiken as well. - Secondary character Tamamin from Girl Friends (2006), when she doesn't have her nose buried in no less than four different manga titles, takes any chance she can to dress herself (and others!) as various anime characters to the nines. Her biography page lists her fondest wish as obtaining a plugsuit. - A very young example — Hiiragi in Hanamaru Kindergarten. - Hanaukyō Maid Team La Verite. In episode 8 Konoe wants to borrow some clothes from Yashima, and we all know how Yashima reacts to Konoe. - Nagi of Hayate the Combat Butler has a thing for making Hayate cosplay and cross-dress. A lot. Then again, she actually is otaku and hikki all-around, not just when it comes to forcing her butler to cosplay. - Addressed in He Is My Master, when the lead girl's little sister visits the home of a rich pervert, but is only delighted by his collection of "cute dolls and clothes". - Yoshinoya-sensei in Hidamari Sketch, who uses her cosplay tendencies for everything from modeling for her art class to making personalized New Years' cards. She dislikes calling it "cosplay" though, yet what she doesn't realize is that she's practically cosplaying as herself all the time. - Akari Kouda in High School Girls appears to be one of these, mostly in the anime version. Her costumes are usually in the range of tacky and absurd. - Mion of Higurashi: When They Cry probably qualifies, as the loser of whatever game is going on tends to end up dressed in some Moe outfit or another. Or maybe she's just a sadist... - Miria from Jewelpet Twinkle☆ is almost never seen without her totally frivolous cat ears and tail. Her various magical girl outfits also seem tailored for this trope, unlike her fellow mages. - Sawako-sensei from K-On! enjoys putting Mio and the rest of the band in variously absurd outfits, which Mio is less than okey-dokey with. It's moe moe kyun, though. - Yayoi from The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. She's rather embarrassed about the whole thing, and only ever dresses up in her apartment when no one's around, but \|\|Anima\|\| has a tendency of teleporting her to meetings when she's right in the middle of cosplaying. Of course, no one else even cares. - In Lucky Star Konata happily works in a Cosplay Café, but refuses to call cosplay as a hobby because "it feels too much like work." note : Despite providing the page image, the image in question is actually just heavily edited official art and she doesn't really cosplay outside her job. Her friend/co-worker Patti is a straight example, though. Their mutual friend Hiyori is a more down-to-earth fangirl who's not really into cosplay at all. - Hayate from Lyrical Nanoha personally designs the outfits of all of her servants, even the one that is 3 inches tall. Heck, she even makes a bedroom out of a lunch box she carries with her, and a miniature desk with a miniature swivel chair. Naturally, fans have exaggerated this into an obsession to dress up everyone, also shared by Shamal. - Misaki from Maid-Sama! works part time after school at a Maid Cafe where she dresses up in a frilly maid outfit although she goes out of her way to hide her job from any of the students at her school. - All the female cast (and many of the guys) end up in either Gekiganger or some more obscure cosplay at some point in Martian Successor Nadesico. Otaku Surrogate Hikaru's probably the only one who does it more than once, though. - In a very odd male version of this trope, the \|\|Jovian\|\|'s regular uniforms are also pretty much Gekiganger cosplay, because they're just that obsessed. - During the first "doll shop" episode of Midori Days, Midori gets to try on a wide variety of cosplay-like outfits in the guise of doll clothes. - Miia from Monster Musume is always quick to dress up. - My Dress-Up Darling: Marin Kitagawa is a young part-time model who dreams of doing cosplay of her favorite characters from anime, manga and video games. Unfortunately, she lacks the skills in costume-making, which is where her friend/love interest Gojo comes in, as he's the one who makes them for her due to his experience with sewing clothes for Hina dolls. - Negima! Magister Negi Magi: - Chisame seems to be enjoying her magical disguise a bit too much. Also, the first time she's a focus character, she was dressing up in various costumes for her website. - Evangeline also manages to contain her vast boredom by dressing up her few remaining classmates as goth girls. - Hifumi of New Game! spends money on costumes to wear, and at one point even goes to a video game trade show in a soldier getup. It's also one of the situations when her Situational Sociability sets in; she can actually act like a jerkass when she's cosplaying. - Komugi from Nurse Witch Komugi makes a living as a cosplay idol. In The SoulTaker (her original series) she was a mutant nurse whose schtick was shapeshifting into various cosplay outfits. - Renge from Ouran High School Host Club, herself a deliberate parody of fangirls. - Several characters from Otaku no Video, including the infamous Misty May. - Pani Poni Dash!. Serizawa Akane. That is all. - Sakura "Penguin" Nankyoku in Penguin Musume Heart. She's wearing a costume the first time we see her. Her Student Council President campaign was to make the official school uniform meido and butler outfits. When she cosplays, she gets the power of whatever she's wearing. Finding out she would be able to play dress up with Kujira was enough to trigger her Heroic Resolve. She is insane. - In Reborn! (2004) Haru frequently dresses up in her weird costumes although they tend to get the opposite reaction then she is hopeing for. - Ruby from Rosario + Vampire loves trying on various outfits. - Megumi Chihaya from Servant × Service often takes leaves to spend time cosplaying characters from her favourite series Magical Flowers. In fact her job choice has to do with this trope; she's legally a temp so she needs not to have fixed hours. - Except for one chapter, Hibari of Shinozaki-san Ki wo Ota Shika ni! ("Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san!") is always seen with haire dyed green and dressed up as an Elegant Gothic Lolita. - Sonobe from Three Leaves, Three Colors show shades of this, keeping her Meido uniform for "personal interest" and faking the main trio's high school uniforms to pass as one. Episode 5's basically an excuse for her to dress up most of the cast as meido. - Celtic Midori of Vandread wears her costumes constantly, complete with head gear, even while on bridge duty. It's later revealed that she does this to keep the men from touching her. - Amasawa from The Weatherman Is My Lover is a male example, and actually calls himself a "nutcase who's obsessed with cosplay." - Hanako Koyanagi of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku mostly displays her otaku side through cosplaying male characters. Her boyfriend is occasionally irritated she's more handsome than he is. - Kyouko from YuruYuri draws her own fan manga and cosplays as her favorite character, Mirakurun. - Redaction of the Golden Witch's Cass is totally into the various clothes and costumes associated with the Rokkenjima Incident. When she first meets the 1996!Protagonist, she's wearing a replica of Beatrice's gown that she made herself, and when she first arrives for their fateful trip to the island, she's wearing a 'more adult version' of Maria's Iconic Outfit. - Miho, the host of Slashers, is one; at least in the persona she adopts for hosting the show. The opening credits show her in a range of different costumes, implying she has a different one for every episode to match the theme of that episode. For the all-American special, she is dressed as the Statue of Liberty. - Baccano!'s Isaac and Miria are so involved in cosplaying that they manage to go about it fifty-four years before the term even existed. - Lucretia from Bystander does this to some extent. She doesn't cosplay specific characters, but her bedroom, instead of having sleeping space, has a few shelves of books and a multitude of stacked plastic totes holding various dresses, their accompanying accessories, instructions on appropriate hair style and region of origin for the dresses, written in the native language of that region or culture. Each dress is long sleeved, high necked and low enough to cover her feet while also being tight fitting enough to make the all-covering aspect somewhat pointless. Throughout the course of the book she wears a kimono, a Victorian styled dress, a sexy librarian outfit, a 1950s poodle skirt and sweater combination, a prison-themed outfit and makes mention of a Chinese dress and an Arabian dress. - These are the dresses she wears if she isn't at work or planning to do anything that might damage them or force her to burn them later. - Haruhi Suzumiya: - Haruhi takes considerable delight in stuffing Mikuru into various cosplay outfits, much to the latter's distress. She also cosplays herself once in a while, most memorably during the School Festival in which she performs with ENOZ while in a Playboy Bunny outfit. - In Haruhi-chan, Yuki gets into the act herself. Later, Mikuru and Yuki get into a cosplay contest. However, Mikuru cannot hope to beat Yuki in a cosplay-off. She is simply the best there is. - Closet otaku Haruka Nogizaka in Haruka Nogizaka's Secret dresses up as Shana from Shakugan no Shana at one point and gleefully recites the character's Catchphrase. Though otherwise she isn't prone to cosplay because she hides her love of anime from her peers. - Pina from Ladies versus Butlers!. She particularly enjoys dressing up as the lead character from Magical Diva. - In Strawberry Panic!, Chikaru runs the costume club and enjoys putting her "favourite" girls in alluring, lolita-style costumes. - Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger features two. Kozkoz Mita dresses as a different Super Sentai heroine every episode, and Yumeria Moegi is most often seen in a catgirl outfit, but has other costumes as well. - The Leetstreet Boys song "Cosplay Girlfriend" revolves around this.. I got a new cosplay girlfriend She's fun and she's better than you Feels like my whole lifes a whirlwind Every time I see her She's always somebody new - In Doubt Academy, both Roxy and Natsumi can be considered this, with Roxy being born from a pair of them and Natsumi constantly cosplaying as her OC Rainbow Rose. - Flonne in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (she proved to be an otaku in the first one, but cosplaying came later). She also serves as a subversion in that, unless you have a fetish for Godzilla, Flonne's cosplay isn't exactly what you would call fanservice. - This was also her special attack as a Secret Character in Makai Kingdom. - The costume in said attack actually originated from one of Etna's Next Episodes as Flonne's One-Winged Angel form. - The manga gives her some good moments, though. Specifically, in the first volume of the Disgaea 2 manga, after Etna leaves, Flonne tries to return Laharl to his old self...by pretending to be Etna, complete with costume. And then three volumes later...◊ - BeyondX, a minor character in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, is often assumed to be this by other characters. This is due to her shapeshifting ability, although she denies it. - Devil Survivor has Midori "Dolly" Komaki, a fifteen-year-old camgirl who likes attending various conventions in costume. In fact, she spends the duration of the game wearing a pink, ribbon-festooned outfit due to the fact she was caught in the lockdown without any other clothes. (She isn't particularly concerned about this, claiming that her attire just looks like "extra-cool everyday clothes".) - Litchi Faye Ling in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. At one point, she dresses Noel up in various costumes. One is the costume of resident Cat Girl Taokaka, the other two are from Guilty Gear (by her own admission, she dresses up other girls because she wouldn't fit into the costumes). - Noire from the Neptunia is one, though it's something that she doesn't want other people to know about. The anime even has a scene where \|\|Anonydeath shows off her cosplay pics to the CPUs after hacking the network, to Noire's obvious horror\|\|. - Ibuki's summer outfit◊ from Street Fighter IV. - A rare 35 year old male example of this would His Imperial Majesty Peony IX The Emperor in Tales of the Abyss. He gives the party several costumes, some of which are based on his favorite Sentai play others or of his own original design. Jade even comments that he can tell his best friend's handiwork and it is implied that he had him model outfits for him before. - Reiko Haga in the Comic Party video games, manga, and anime. - Speaking of Reiko, she makes a Crossover Cameo appearance in The Queen of Heart '99, in Mizuki's stage, along with other Comic Party characters; there you can spot Reiko at the left side, dressed as Kyo Kusanagi; later, she returns as a playable character in Party's Breaker - The Queen Of Heart 2001: Reiko not only dresses as Kyo, her fighting style is a reference to him (His 96 version onwards), as she can mimick his moves, and even his fire powers. She even has a special '94 version, which mimicks Kyo's moves from KOF 94 and 95. - Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire introduces a non-human example, a special event Pikachu that can wear different outfits and gets a special attack depending on which costume she's wearing. (Yes, Cosplay Pikachu will always be female.) Two of the five outfits are the male and female trainer's contest outfits. - In Eternal Fighter Zero, Mio Kouduki is actually able to use several suits and outfits as weapons, and use the powers of those she cosplays as; examples include Kyo Kusanagi, Akari Ichijo, Indiana Jones, Ciel from Tsukihime, among many others. - In Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, Kirino Kousaka has this as her fighting style: Like Mio above, she can change outfits in quick succession and give some style to her attacks. - Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony gives us Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer. As part of her talent, she's also an excellent seamstress. However, Tsumugi doesn't exactly like having people look at her, and as such prefers having people model in her costumes rather than wearing them herself. Even so, she would rather they wear the costumes as a tribute to the characters they are dressing as than as a ploy to stand out. Apart from this, Tsumugi is also an Otaku who gets excited whenever anime is brought up, and often brings up references the others don't seem to understand. \|\|Also a rare villainous example as shes the Big Bad. In the final trial she manages to perfectly cosplay from the past two games, complete with a perfect voice impersonation.\|\| every single character - One of the possible dates in Amorous is an anthropomorphic fox named Skye who likes to dye her fur to look like Renamon and Lucario. You dont get to see what she looks like without the dye until the third date. \|\|It turns out she has grey fur and is ashamed of it because she thinks it looks boring.\|\| - Sophia, from the unofficial expansion mod Stardew Valley Expanded, she is a fan of anime and manga, loves to cosplay, and even dyed her hair pink to match her favourite anime character. Her Best Friend, Scarlett, is also revealed to love to cosplay as well. - Tink in The Guild. In season 5, which takes place at a Fan Convention (MegaGameORama-Con), she wears a variety of cosplay outfits she created herself.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OtakuCosplayGirl
Our Demons Are Different - TV Tropes "We are called demons precisely because we do bad things." Demons. Devils. Fiends. They're all over the place in storyland, but no two authors portray them in exactly the same way. Demons in western fiction tend, by default, to be of a vaguely Abrahamic nature, most often red or black with horns, hooves, and maybe a tail. They're generally found torturing the souls of those that wind up in Hell, making deals with mortals in order to claim their souls for the pit, and are usually on the side of Evil, often opposing Angels. Demonic names are quite a bit looser than those for Angels, though in the west, they often take inspiration from Hebrew, biblical or mythological sources, as well as the Ars Goetia. The prospective demon has many options available for customization: - What are demons, exactly? - The most generic definition would be any evil or injurious spirit or supernatural being. Vampires and werewolves are often lumped in with this definition, as are The Fair Folk at their worst and even Dragons. Yomi-dwelling Oni, Mazoku and Youkai from Japanese folklore, as well as some Djinn from Arabic/Islamic folklore, are also prime candidates. - Monsters or other beings native to Hell or some other Underworld, as opposed to the souls of the dead who wind up there. - Fallen Angels (Christianity) or evil Jinn (Islam) that rebelled against Heaven and were cast down to Hell, or the creations of these same beings, created to help lead humanity astray and/or torment them. - The disembodied spirits of formerly-living Nephilim (meaning Fallen Ones or Marvelous Ones), Half-Human Hybrids of angels and humans. - The creations of a malevolent god, if not an outright God of Evil. - Eldritch Abominations that come from some other plane of existence entirely. - Are they physical or spiritual? Physical demons are quite common in any work that features The Legions of Hell invading the mortal realm, and make it quite easier for a prospective Demon Slayer to either slay them or send them back to Hell or their native realm. It is also quite common in Paranormal Romance and in any work where people make a Deal with the Devil. Spiritual demons, on the other hand, lend themselves more toward works of a supernatural or horror bent, engaging in Demonic Possession. - How does Demonic Possession work? If you decide to go the possession route, you also have to determine how this possession manifests: - Do they just take over the bodies of their hosts, or do they make a few changes to said body along the way? - What kinds of creatures can be possessed? Humans are the most popular victims, but some demons can also possess other living creatures such as animals. - What makes a human or other creature vulnerable to possession, and how can someone be protected against this? Many demons, particularly those of an Abrahamic religious bent, may be able to possess those who sin, or commit a particular sin related to the demon's aspect. - Can possession be resisted given a sufficiently strong will, or is there No Saving Throw? Lesser demons are more apt to be resistable, while greater demons may be able to take anyone over no matter how powerful they are. - Can a demon possess dead creatures or inanimate objects, and if so, what happens to them? - Is a demon limited to just one body at a time, or can it possess more than one? - Can a demon stay in someone's body indefinitely, or is there a tendency to burn out the bodies they use? - Can a demon Body Surf or otherwise voluntarily leave the body of its host, or does something have to happen before they can leave? - Do possessed people have no memory of what happened when the demon was in control, or can they see and hear everything? - Can a demon be exorcised from its host, or is death the only way to get the demon out? Is it possible to beat the curse out of them, or will trying to do this just end up with the host hurt or worse? - What do they look like? - What is the difference between demons and devils? - What are your demons' common powers? - What are your demons' common weaknesses? - Miscellaneous There's no doubt about it. No matter what you choose, Your Demons Are Different. - If the source is Japanese, and the demons are really different, the reason may be simply that, in translation, the word "demon" is being substituted for a completely different word, youkai, which really doesn't have a correlating concept in English. "Faerie creature" is probably closer when it comes to traditional function in folklore (in fact, on the occasions where "fae," etc. is translated into Japanese, the term will probably contain the same " you" as " youkai"), but "demon" sounds more likely to kick ass, despite faeries being pretty damn scary. - And even if they don't use youkai, Japan still has a lot of words that get translated as "demon", most of them having ma (魔), which means "demon", somewhere in them: Mazoku, Mamono, Majin, Youma, Akuma... Specific Types: Individual Demons of Note: Series which have protagonists up to Demon Slaying especially rely on this trope, as the various ways a demon can be different can often determine how a demon hunter actually operates. ## Example Subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other Examples: - "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs": Although he is supposed to be explicitly Satan, the Devil behaves more like the kind of giant seen in tales like "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (living in a house, being looked after and bossed around by a female relative, having an appetite for humans...). Being called a snake is the only classic devil trait he has. - In Between Dreams and Memories Universe, Dreamons from the Dream SMP are elaborated on, and the concept behind them seems to deviate from canon: Dreamons can only be seen by their Hosts, fellow Dreamons, \|\|and the few people they have a close bond with\|\|, and while the Dreamon is dependent on their Host for survival, the Host is also able to survive the unsurvivable (e.g. \|\|being shot in the heart\|\|) due to their connection with the Dreamon. \|\|Dreamons can also become bound to a different Host through an elaborate ritual.\|\| - Demon Spawns Series: In this series of Grojband fanfics, siblings Corey and Trina Riffin are revealed to be demons. They can alter their appearances and have their own different Elemental Powers. However, they lose all of their demon powers for the day if they come in contact with holy water. They're also the children of Satan. - Both siblings are half-human. While Trina takes after her father, Corey is more like his human mother Amethyst. - Lupine Tree has Lumber Jack, a human soul note : Which isn't native to Equestria fused with a timberwolf tree's soul. This fusion fits within Equestria's broad definition of a demon. Once Celestia learns of this, she orders him to be observed by the Paladin Order. - In The Night Unfurls, there is no specific "demon" race, but some beings are referred to as "demon". - The term "demons" is sometimes used to refer to any "barbaric" Standard Fantasy Races within The Horde, like orcs (the word "orc" derives from an old word for "demon"), goblins, or mutants (which may overlap with the former two). - Kyril isn't a demon, but the guy is so inhumanly strong and fast that he is rumoured to be a demon wearing a man's skin. \|\|He's actually a great one, but no one knows this\|\|. - The remastered version introduces The Rat, an entity that draws power from the souls of the survivors, the desperate, and the ambitious. He has made deals with mortals before to gain such souls, and now he seeks to accompany Kyril as a means to gain more souls. He compares himself with "the Gods", but he is later revealed to be one of the many "lesser known entities" whose influence faded away due to the presence of Laurendau and Garan, the two prominent goddesses. On a humorous note, he seems to be a bit perturbed when someone calls him a demon. Claudia: Demon! You dare make your presence known to the Goddess Reborn ? The Rat: Demon? Oh... you small-minded little things are so unimaginative. - In 1000 tearz or deth (a Harry Potter fanfic) there's a patron demon of emoness, a talking tree that sprouts legs when four emos stand in a forest. - In the Pony POV Series, \|\|General-Admiral Makarov/The Shadow of Chernobull\|\| is commonly called an "Imagination Demon", though Mother Deer implied it wasn't the case but "close enough". The Shining Armor crew also apparently had a run in with a "fear demon" somewhere in Zebrafrica, but this was a largely Noodle Incident. The creatures sealed in Tartarus are quite demonic in nature, but are actually entities from a destroyed universe. It turns out that Demons in this universe are Fallen Draconequi, making Discord one of them. - Demon Penguins, from the Club Penguin Fanon have a weakness to silver, are created through a cloning machine, and have their heads explode when they die. They can also be resurrected through cheese and have retractable horns. They are usually red, and carry pitchforks which allow them to teleport. - In Read the Fine Print (Evangelion), Bwynvienne, the agent sent by the Infernal Administration, wears a pitch-black business suit and low-heeled shoes, and looks like a woman normal except for her literally flaming hair cascading down her shoulders like a cloak. She can appear and disappear silently at will and detect lies. - In Thousand Shinji: - \|\|The Keeper of Secrets\|\| is a daemon of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, created by one of the Chaos Gods and unable to survive out of its home dimension. - \|\|The new Chaos Gods\|\| create new lesser daemons called Black Pharaohs, Valkyries and Reiglings. They're "fragments of their masters' wills, creatures sent out to do their bidding, mirrors of their thoughts and emotions." They're not nice but they're not necessarily evil. - In The Mansionverse, emons are similar to ghosts, but were never alive in the first place, being purely ectoplasmic spirits. They take a wide variety of forms (and, indeed, are skilled shapeshifters), and are very magically powerful. Not all demons are evil, although a vast majority of them are (most of those live in the Underworld and can be summoned). - There's an abundance of fic made by Buzz Feed Unsolved fans in which Shane is a demon. There are literally hundreds of takes on this concept. Most of the time he's explicitly not evil, just mischievous and more often than not, protective. - The Story Shuffle series: Demons appear in both series: - Story Shuffle: From "In the Details", a title that references the phrase, "The Devil's in the details", and deals with Laplace's Demon. - Story Shuffle 2: Double Masters: From "Doom Inevitable": the demon spread his wings. He was an immense and muscular figure, bipedal, though with arms that stretched past his knees. His batlike wings stretched in the night air, flapping a few times as they shook off the last bits of pitch. Four horns gleamed in the starlight, and four eyes glowed red as he took in his surroundings. He grinned, revealing a set of teeth somewhere between a shark and a paper shredder. - The Amazing Adventures of the Living Corpse: These are normal beings who just happen to look like everything humans fear. While they're made of things like darkness and decay, they're not Always Chaotic Evil, with even their king being kind and helpful. They take many forms, such as a Winged Humanoid, a green imp, or a ball of red light. - In the Spanish dub of Dumbo, the Pink Elephants are implied to be this. They are referred to in the lyrics as " las ánimas del terror" ("the spirits of fear") and speculated to be " parientes de Satanás" ("relatives of Satan"). - Though not stated as such in the film itself, the title monster of The Babadook is this sort of creature. - Bedeviled: These are humanoid creatures from Another Dimension that can interact with ours via digital signals. They can also create constructs from thin air. - Belzebuth: These are fallen angels who seek nothing short of the destruction of the Messiah. They can only interact with the human world by possessing people or objects, but possess complete control over such barring an exorcism. If they're sufficiently powerful, they can destroy the soul of their host, but any human who manages to overcome them is forever immune to demonic influence. - Bird Box: Charlie's theory in regards to the creatures' posits them as being demons or something like it, showing people their dead relatives or worst fears and causing irresistible suicidal urges as a result. While his theory on their origin is never confirmed, it is shown that the victims are drawn to visions of past regrets, such as the woman who tried to save Malorie on the street. - Black Butler: These appear human, but are completely immune to harm by Earthly objects, can throw a butter knife with the strength to make it cut through bone, and can move faster than the naked eye. They can be bound to contracts to serve humans, but are simply waiting until it's met to eat their souls. - Bloody Mallory: There's two varieties: Common demons, a nearly Always Chaotic Evil group of humanoid beings, and super demons, fallen angels who are immensely powerful and have enslaved the common demons. - Ciaran the Demon Hunter: These are incorporeal beings who possess people to cause chaos. They resemble blue light and humans they've possessed have yellow eyes. - Dark Angel: The Ascent: Demons look pretty similar to humans, but have horns and bat wings. They marry and reproduce, running Hell on God's behalf while piously worshiping Him (yet oddly enough still can't touch any holy objects without harm). - Dead Before Dawn: These are dark spirits that can cause suicides and raise the dead. - Dead Birds: If demons is even the right term for them. Theyre brought into our world by means of gruesome Human Sacrifice, and whoever is possessed receives a Nightmare Face, with a mouthful of sharp teeth and a lack of eyes. - Demon Hunter (2005): These come in many levels, from fallen angels at the top to pathetic wretches made of the darkness on the bottom. They are humanoid, but can sometimes be red and have tails, horns and wings. They can possess people, which is only sometimes curable, and breed with humans. - Demon Hunter (2016): These are gray, sharp-toothed humanoids who used to be human until Black Magic made them into what they are today. They have Super Strength and arm-blades, and can shapeshift to blend in with humanity. They can only be killed by decapitation and burial on holy ground, but will come back the second their head is removed from the grave. - The Demonologist: These are green-skinned horned humanoid who can manifest as a black smoke to possess humans. While they are in human vessels, they can keep them young by bathing in blood. Their blood can grant Age Without Youth. - Die You Zombie Bastards!: These are small, wrinkled monstrosities that love to torment people with food products. - Don't Kill It: These are incorporeal beings that only exist to destroy humans' lives. They can only interact with the world via possessing people, which traps the souls in utter agony, but each one has its own way of doing so. Their form when not possessing people resembles an orange, glowing orb. - Dust Devil: While the term "demon" is never used, the Dust Devils certainly seem demonic. Theyre vicious wind spirits of human origin that have to reside in human bodies, but wish to escape into the spirit realm through use of black magic. - The Kandarian Demon from The Evil Dead borders on Sentient Cosmic Force of evil. It doesn't have a physical form of its own \|\|(until Ash gives it one at the end of the second movie, to better kill it)\|\|, appearing as a disembodied Impending Doom P.O.V.. It can, however, inhabit numerous dead bodies at once, turning them into horrific Deadites. - Flesh for the Beast: These are incorporeal succubi who have their souls bound to human bodies via Human Sacrifice. - \|\|Ferriman\|\| in Ghost Ship is a wicked former human who became a servant of Hell because of his sins. He collects souls for his infernal masters, calling himself a "salvager". He doesn't make deals, and instead tries to tempt people into committing crimes out of the sin of Greed to damn their own souls, which he can then take "home" when he fills his quotum. He can shapeshift, recover from gunshot wounds, \|\|and mark ghosts to become his servants in death\|\|. - Hellbenders: These are incorporeal beings that interact with the world by possessing morally compromised humans. When they transfer bodies, they resemble a swarm of flies. They are weak to holy things, and are sent back to Hell when their host body is killed. - Hellbinders: These are beings who don't belong in the realm of the living, and have to possess something that does to enter. They resemble balls of light when not possessing somebody, and hop bodies as soon as their host is killed. - Hereditary: These are beings from Hell who seek to enter the Earth. They are incorporeal most of the time, but can take the forms of people's loved ones to torment them further, and seek to possess vulnerable people. - Jack-O: These are pumpkin-headed beings who act as automatons for powerful sorcerers. - Jennifer's Body: These possess non-virgins sacrificed in Satanic rituals, and give their hosts superhuman abilities in exchange for feeding roughly once a month. If that feeding isn't met, they fade away and cause their hosts to wither. They can be killed via a blade to the heart, and those who survive their bites can inherit their abilities. - Legend of the Red Reaper: These are white-skinned humanoids with ridged eyebrows and long hair. Their blood grants immortality at the cost of addiction, they can breed with humans, and they can only be killed by decapitation. - Little Evil: These are giant, flaming, skeletal monsters who are trapped in hell and can only escape via sacrificing half-demon children. - Nekrotronic: These are evil spirits summoned by Blood Magic, eat souls and have recently figured out how to travel through the Internet. Their true forms resemble glowing green humanoids or black smoke clouds, but they can only interact with the material world by fatally possessing a human. - Never Cry Werewolf: In this film, demons are Hell Hounds who can take on the forms of regular dogs. They are also weak to silver just like werewolves. - The Dream Demons in A Nightmare on Elm Street. They are ancient and serpentine in appearance, and hold lordship over all nightmares. They find the most evil human imaginable, who they will grant the power to turn dreams into reality. They chose Freddy Krueger, and made him immortal too. - Paranormal Activity: - Toby, the central demon that serves as the Big Bad of the series, is an invisible being who mostly acts like a poltergeist. It starts out doing harmless things at first, such as moving objects here and there or flipping the switch on and off, but devolves into more malevolent acts. Although it can act on its own, it seems that the demon becomes more powerful by possessing people. In the second film, it is revealed that the demon began to haunt Katie and Kristi because their family made a deal with it to gain wealth in exchange for sacrificing their firstborn son's soul. - The Big Bad of Next of Kin is Asmodeus. Like Toby, it is an invisible being who can possess humans. Unlike Toby, who exists in this world because it was summoned, Asmodeus deliberately targets humans because it wants to. It once inflicted a terrible calamity to a Norwegian village, which only stopped when someone managed to trap it in the body of a woman. Since then, it has been passed through the female descendants of said woman. - Satan's Slave: These are humanoid beings capable of Black Magic, who go after those whose faith in Islam lapses to torment, kill and enslave them. Their bodies can be destroyed by prayer, which sets them on fire, but they can return to Earth in new forms. - The Seventh Curse: These are vicious creatures that eat human flesh and only speak in growls. They're blue, skeletal and have pure white eyes int heir base form, but have a super form that resembles a Xenomorph with bat wings. - The Slaughter: These are terrifying Humanoid Abominations from prehistoric times, who have magical powers and can control the dead. - Stitches (2001): These are manipulative fiends who wear perfect disguises made of human skin and trap souls in horrible fates via deals. - Tales of Halloween: These are Horned Humanoid monsters who can take more human forms and love murder. However, despite that descriptor, they aren't Always Chaotic Evil. Some are vigilantes who bring Karmic Death on the wicked. - Truth or Dare (2018): Demons can possess places and even ideas here. - The genie race in the Wishmaster series are largely merged with much of the folklore about demons. The Djinn are one of three entities made by God (the others are Angels and Humans) while demons are not stated to exist as separate beings, the wish-granting is identical to a Deal with the Devil since the Djinn's prize is the wisher's soul, and their home dimension is almost identical to Fire and Brimstone Hell, where the souls he collects are gathered to suffer eternal torture. - The VVitch: These are servants of Satan who take animal forms and empower witches. They can speak, and spin lies to corrupt their victims. - Clamavi de Profundis: Demons are typically depicted as ancient, powerful and unspeakably evil beings, often found deep underground. - While described as water monsters in cryptozoological circles and pop culture, the term "Bunyip" is traditionally taken to mean "dark spirit" in Gamilaraay culture and adjacent cultures like the Wiradjuri (this may in part explain why accounts of these things are so over the place; if its a generic dark spirit, everything goes). Notably they are etymologically connected to "Bunjil", the Top God of the Kulin Nation and ancestor of the people of the eagle moeity, giving some Fallen Angel vibes. - The Bible: In the Old Testament, demons like Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, were the gods of other tribes in the near East. Beelzebub was a corrupted form of Ba'alzebul, or translated from Phoenician, "Lord of the Temple". Zebub means "flies" in Hebrew, so it was a kind of a Take That! to old Baal. Didn't help that at least one Baal (there were a bunch of them; not surprising since the word just means "lord" in most of the languages of the region) had a habit of divination by watching flies (hey, the Romans did it with birds...). - Greek Mythology: "Daemon" referred to spirits in a general sense, without inherent moral connotations. Malevolent spirits were referred to as kakodaimons. Many of them were personifications of things that were bad or unpleasant, such as disease, famine, murder, rage, war, broken pottery, etcetera. They seemed to largely issue from Tartarus and many were either children of Nyx and Erebus, goddess of Night and god of darkness respectively, or were the sons and daughters of Eris, goddess of discord. While they were often seen as enemies of the gods (for example, Apollo would often kill/drive away plague demons with his arrows), they would also sometimes be contracted out by the gods when exacting divine punishment on a mortal or mortals for their crimes. Ares is also often described with kakodaimons of war as servants, either riding out to battle with them or having them guard his fortress-palace in Thrace. The benevolent counterparts of kakodaimons were referred to as agathodaemons or eudaemons. - Japanese Mythology: What are colloqiually referred to as "demons", usually but not always called "悪魔 (Akuma)", are a hodgepodge of folklore yokai, Buddhist ashuras and the occasional malignant kami, which is pretty different from the Christian interpretation of them as fallen angels. - Buddhism has the maras. The term "mara" can refer to three things, three psychological phenomenons, the Mara (as a particular very powerful semi-deva) and the race of demons ruled by Mara itself. The ten hell realms are also often portrayed as ruled by sadistic maras who torture the denizens, however should be notice that as everything in Buddhism, the maras are also living beings who eventually die and be reborn in something else. - Batista was billed in OVW as "The Demon of the Deep" Leviathan. He was summoned from somewhere underwater by the Disciples of Synn and was Bald of Evil with Cute Little Fangs. - The Undertaker, "The Demon of Death Valley". One would be remiss to mention the Undertaker without also bringing up his brother Kane, a.k.a. The Devil's Favorite Demon (among other nicknames) - Finn Bálor is a curious case, since his WWE "Demon King" persona is inspired by two unrelated figures from Celtic Mythology: folk hero Fionn MacCumhail, and Balor, King of the Fomorians (the Irish equivalent of the jötnar) - Rosemary, the demon-possessed version of the former Courtney Rush. - CHIKARA had Obariyon and Kodama of The Batiri. They were billed from Bled Island, Slovenia, wore green-and-black facepaint, teamed with a masked goblin named Kobald, and, until Deucalion destroyed Kobald at the return show You Only Live Twice on May 25, 2014, never spoke on camera. When UltraMantis Black brought Kobald, in the storyline, Back from the Dead, he noticed Obariyon and Kodama talking and asked when did they start talking, and they said, "A lot's changed." - Gavin Loudspeaker announced Toshie Uematsu as "the dark demon of Joshi" over all three nights of CHIKARA JoshiMania and, on Night III, she teamed with The Batiri in an eight-person mixed-tag match, even wearing Obariyon and Kodama-styled face paint. - In The Second Reproduction, the demons are a powerful race with pointy ears and magical powers. All of them also have red eyes and really long lifespans. - SHUFFLE! has a demon race, and a god race. It basically means they're capable of magic, and they have long ears. Demons have longer ears than gods. - Trapped with Jester: Jester is the Demon of Betrayal and Nightmares. Besides the red eyes and sharp teeth, he appears as a conventional jester, but has powers to bring people back to life and restore their memories. - Burakku Channel features the titular Burakku, a demon YouTuber. He mostly resembles a high-school-boy in a black and red Gyakuran uniform, with yellow-tinted skin, pointy ears, beady eyes, a constant grin and bangs swept over the left side of his face. There is a red play button where his left eye would be on the bangs which mysteriously functions just like a normal eye. He also has the ability to levitate, sprout leathery orange and black wings from his back and summon paperwork contracts for people to sign at a moments notice, as well as having a special smartphone that appears to be magic and is friends with a small being with a camera for a head named Camera-chan. He, however, still eats, sleeps, bathes and relieves himself like any other human. - Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are set primarily in Hell, so a good majority of the characters are demons. In this setting, there is a rigid demon hierarchy: At the bottom are Imps and Hellhounds, Hellborn demons that serve as Hell's lower class. One step up are other Hellborn demons, whom can take all sorts of shapes and appearances and hold a variety of occupations throughout the Seven Rings. Above them are Sinners, humans that underwent demonic apotheosis upon their deaths, their new forms a reflection of their past life somehow. Sinners are among the most common denizens of Hell, because of all the people who die and find themselves there. Ruling over them are the Overlords, a combination of Hellborn and Sinner demons who have eked out a dominion for themselves and have increased their influentiality and power as a result, gaining new magical abilities and acting as Hell's aristocracy. The 1% of Hell is dominated by the Goetia family, a unique brood of avian demons with special duties and delegations assigned to them, as outlined in the Ars Goetia. Above them are seven demons who each rule over a Ring of Hell and represent a Deadly Sin, such as Asmodeus, Mammon and Belphegor. Finally, the Apex of Hell is ruled by the royal family, consisting of Lucifer Morningstar note : who is not Satan, but a separate entity. Satan himself has yet to make any appearance in either show, his wife Lilith, and their daughter Charlotte, the protagonist of Hazbin Hotel. - The demons of Hells Belles certainly look the part, particularly the horns, but are actually good. After all, their purpose is to punish evil people. They're big on consent (they were the first ones to say "no" to G-d), and they are all himbos. - The Antithesis: Demons only differ from angels by their phenotypes of black wings and dark hair. They live in the same world, but exist on lower layers of a planet that encapsulates Heaven and Hell, called "The Atrium". They do not possess the evil characteristics of the Judeo-Christian religion, but are actually a population of humanoid-looking beings, and their society contains moralistic values, political hierarchies (the highest being Lucifer, their leader/Military Commander/President, the second highest being the Archdemons) that formulate their Parliament, known as the "Obsidian Court". They are characterized with eccentric personalities, and their culture is embellished in art, literature, and theater. - Codex Inversus: The Devils are the inhabitants of the Holy Infernal Empire and one of the dominant species in the setting; in appearance, they resemble horned, red-skinned humans. In ancient times, they oversaw the Hells and administered cosmic justice. In the wake of the Collapse and the end of immortality, they formed a theocratic nation founded on the principles of meritocracy and a form of social survival of the fittest, and are known for their byzantine bureaucracies and regulations and for their passion for opera, blood sports, and extremely spicy food. Demons and Dæmons are splinter groups that tried to seize power, failed, and were exiled. - Demonic Symphony: The demons are the embodiments of emotional energy projected on the world. In theory, this means that there should be demons for other strong emotions such as love, but this isn't really touched on in the book. - Dreamscape: - Dream SMP: - BadBoyHalo is a Demon, whose Demonic blood grants him semi-immortality, as his life force is tied to Skeppy (who serves as his Soul Jar) and he only loses a canon life when Skeppy does. He is also incredibly tall, standing at 9 feet and 6 inches (289.56cm) — not that you'd be able to tell by looking at his character in-game. - Dreamons are a completely different type of entity than Demons. They are able to take on Hosts to do their bidding, but have a variety of weaknesses, which the Dreamon Hunters use for exorcisms and preventing detection by them. Transmuted Dreamons are a rare variation where the Host and the Dreamon constantly and rapidly shift between each other. - DSBT InsaniT: Psycho Man calls himself a 'demon lord' and a 'master of the forces of darkness'. - Fire Emblem On Forums: - Fire Emblem On Forums Wonderful Blessing: In addition to the nebulously-defined demons emerging from Hellrealm, a good portion of the races are designated as Demon Races, not created by the Goddesses, such as goblins, beastkin and gargoyles. Otherwise, they are portrayed as no different from other races. - Fire Emblem On Forums Demon Soul Saga: There are three types of demons in the setting: - Inner Demons, mental entities that lay dormant in a person's psyche until awoken with the use of an Akuma Seed. These feed on negative emotions such as stress to get stronger, until they get strong enough to engage their hosts in a Deal with the Devil. - Akuma, monsters that are the results of Inner Demons overcoming their hosts in the Deal with the Devil. They create their own Pocket Dimension called Domains and are obsessed with the wish that drove them to make the deal. They are also Mook Makers, creating lesser creatures called Onibi that are hostile to anything that isn't their Akuma. They can only be defeated by a Kaijin. - Kaijin, superpowered individuals that are the result of the host overcoming their Inner Demon. They have complete control over their abilities, transforming between their demonic and human forms at will, and are tougher than a normal human even untransformed. - How to Hero recommends setting traps with peanut butter if you're looking to catch a demon. - In the online novel John Dies at the End, the demons turn out to be \|\|extradimensional genetically engineered bioweapons created by an insane organic supercomputer from an Alternate History\|\|. Somehow, they are still affected by crosses, prayers and the Bible. - Limyaael has a checklist of what to consider when creating demons. - Word of God says that the Mortasheen equivalent to demons are The Devilbirds, birds that have been psychically charged with certain emotions and must eat said emotions for sustenance, tending to do it in the most horrifying ways possible. - Object Destruction has a blob for a demon (also holy water easily just RIDS of said demon) - In Pact, demons are Always Chaotic Evil beings of entropy. Each one appears to be a unique entity, and they are divided into seven choirs based on their abilities. The most powerful of these choirs, the Choir of Dark, are straight-up Eldritch Abominations that simply erase things, sometimes even from memory. - In The Questport Chronicles, many of the demons are said to be demon transformers who can take on any appearance they wish. - The Grimm from RWBY are monstrous Living Shadow creatures who are stated to have no souls and are attracted to the negative emotions of humans. They seek to kill any humans they come across, not for food or territory, but simply because they can. They are described as personifications of destruction, originally created by \|\|the God of Darkness to rival his brother's creation of living creatures. How exactly they are born is as yet unknown, except that they seem to emerge from black, tar-like "pools of destruction" located in the place the God of Darkness used to inhabit before he and his brother left Remnant millenia ago\|\|. - The Salvation War has several different variants of demon. They are fallen angels, distorted by their environment. They invade 21th century Earth as part of the apocalypse. It doesn't work. That said, even the angels and, by extension, \|\|God/Yahweh and his brother, Satan\|\| are more akin to Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, with all their magic explained through various levels of EM field telepathy and generating of massive bursts of electricity, not to mention "body not built for flying" able to do so through internal sacs of gas that give enough buoyancy for their wings to lift... But tend to catch on fire or explode when damaged too much. - On the online Spec Evo project A Scientific Fantasy, demons are a family of giant lemurs. - In Soon, I Will Rule The World! this trope is invoked here and parodied here involving our world's demons taken from the Ars Goetia. - In Tales of MU demons need to feed from humans to survive, and they have a craving for human flesh well beyond said need... and most of the rest is hearsay. They do have a strong association with fire, and have been shown to possess humans and tempt them. The story also has another class of creatures called "yokai" who in Fanon sometimes fall prey to the translation problem mention above. - In Void Domain, demons are eternal beings from Hell, also known as the Void. On a surface glance, the Void is anything but. Domains provide anything a demon could ever want. It creates the opposite problem. There's nothing to work for. Nothing to live for. And yet, dying leads to something much worse. \|\|A demon's death sends them to a place that lives up to the name until they can claw their way back to their domain.\|\| - Whateley Universe: There are several types of Angels, Devils and Squid, and the extent to which Infernal demons (of which both Christian and Buddhist forms appears) and Mythos Beings differ isn't entirely clear; there is some indication that they all started out the same, but over time some became more adapted to this universe and began to take forms and behaviors similar to the native inhabitants. Even being 'evil' isn't universal; Mythos Beings are shown as either being Above Good and Evil and/or having a Blue-and-Orange Morality which has nothing in common with human morality - indeed, some demons (e.g., Carmilla, Thulia, and to a lesser degree, Gothmog) are notably nicer people than many of the mortals in the series, and even Nyarlathotep is shown as more put-upon than malevolent. - The one place they do get specific is in the difference between 'demons' and 'devils': a demon is from a Hell, and their form on Earth is only a projection into our universe; a devil is a spiritual predator from this reality, and exists wholly in the here and now. In practical terms, this means you can banish a demon, but you can't kill it (on Earth, at least), whereas you can't banish a devil (it has nowhere else to go) but you can destroy it permanently.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDemonsAreDifferent
Otokonoko Genre - TV Tropes "Otokonoko", also known as "Otoko no Musume", is a Japanese genre of romantic and/or erotic stories for men, focusing on Attractive Bent-Gender male Crossdressers. The name is a pun. Details : The word "otokonoko" normally means "boy" (literally "male child"), but swapping the "ko" meaning "child" for a different "ko" meaning "girl" gives a compound that Japanese sites like to translate as "male maiden". It is sometimes called '"josou" ("women's clothes"), a more generic term for male crossdressers. Western fandom uses the terms "trap" note : This word is offensive when directed at transgender people., "femboy", and — less often — "tomgirl" (as the opposite of Tomboy). Otokonoko features both girl-on-crossdresser and guy-on-crossdresser stories (it's one of the few places where you will find m/f stories and m/m stories side-by-side in the same magazine). The target audience is men who crossdress (or are interested), and men who have a fetish for crossdressers, and the art styles and tropes are typically those of male-oriented romance / ecchi / hentai material. There is also a significant Periphery Demographic of female readers. (Although guy-on-guy otokonoko is often mistaken for Boys' Love Genre, and some Shoujo, Josei, boys love works, and otome games do include characters that identify as otokonoko, anything targeted to women is not the otokonoko genre.) Although cute crossdressers in romantic situations have been an occasional theme in Shōnen and seinen since the '80s, otokonoko did not start as an identified genre until about 2004. Most works created before this are not usually considered part of the genre, although some have been grandfathered in. An otokonoko character must be anatomically male (no Hermaphrodites or Gender Benders) but look convincingly like an attractive girl. Most identify as male, but even when the character identifies as female, few works try to deal with actual Transgender issues in anything like a realistic way. Since otokonoko is mainly an otaku thing, otokonoko are quite likely to wear Sailor Fuku, Meido, Miko, Cat Girl or Naughty Nurse Outfits as well as "ordinary" female clothes. Some non-fiction magazines exist to provide advice and help with crossdressing for men who identify as otokonoko in Real Life and who crossdress to achieve the look (or want to). Most otokonoko is technically seinen, although some is shounen. Works aimed at a female audience are never this, so don't list Shoujo, josei or boys' love. If you are looking for people who are otokonoko, you may be looking for Dude Looks Like a Lady. # Examples: The following works either technically aren't Otokonoko or precede the establishment of Otokonoko as a genre, but have been influential in its development: - MariaHolic - The inspiration for dozens of "boy crossdresses to infiltrate an all-girl's school, gets involved in pseudo-lesbian sexual hijinks" stories, although it's not the first to do this. It's not quite an example of the genre (in ways, it's almost a parody of it, actually). - The iDOLM@STER - It has two iconic otokonoko characters, Ryo Akizuki and Saki Mizushima, the latter whom is voiced by an actual otokonoko. However, they are but two characters in a huge franchise; SideM is mainly aimed at women (though Saki is very popular with men), and Ryo stopped crossdressing in the True Ending of Dearly Stars and his subsequent appearances in SideM. The two are total opposites when it comes to why they came to do it: Ryo was forced into it at first but came to love the people he knew while on the job, and Saki adores the practice, but was inspired to start crossdressing in the open after Ryo confessed the truth to his fans. - Happiness! - Jun is pretty much the type-model for the "guy meets cute girl, finds out girl isn't a girl, decides he doesn't care" plot. Doesn't quite fit into the genre, as Jun is only one of a number of possible Love Interests in the game and is mostly a side-character in the anime adaptations. On the other hand, Jun is also heavily implied to be transgender and can be romanced as a boy or, via magic, a girl. - No Bra - Like Happiness!, a model for the "guy meets cute girl, finds out girl isn't a girl, decides he doesn't care" storyline. Predates the genre, sometimes grandfathered in as it otherwise fits quite well (though it's implied that Yuki is transgender). - Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts - Hideyoshi is an icon for the subculture. Doesn't quite fit into the genre, as it doesn't focus on Hideyoshi's love life (he's only a side character). - If you were to explain otokonoko to someone, Bridget from Guilty Gear would probably be the first character to come to mind for many, but he's not the focus of the series and the series predates the genre by a few years. And when Bridget appears in Guilty Gear -STRIVE- after a long absence, she's decided to identify as a girl outright. - Wandering Son - The three "crossdressers" are all transgender, but the series is often mistaken for at Otokonoko series. Waai did run some articles and ads for the anime adaptation. - Stop!! Hibari-kun! - Hibari is well-known as a classic in the genre, but predates it by at least twenty years, being from The '80s. From a modern perspective, the protagonist also seems much more like a transgender girl than a crossdressing boy, though the author has referred to Hibari as a boy (and an otokonoko specifically). - Princess Jellyfish - Kuranosuke is an icon, well known for being both incredibly fashionable and a rare adult crossdresser, and the series does focus on the Sibling Triangle. But it doesn't quite fit the genre, being a manga josei (aimed at young adult women). - W Juliet - It is about a boy pretending to be a girl at school so his father will let him become an actor. However, his female Love Interest is the lead, and the manga is Shoujo. - Usotsuki Lily - A parody on the genre aimed at the Shoujo crowd. - Love Me For Who I Am - The series is about male assigned at birth people working in dresses at a cafe, and the characters do call themselves "otokonoko" sometimes, but the protagonist is explicitly non-binary and at least two other characters are trans girls. <!—index—> - There are a couple of magazines that focus specifically on otokonoko manga: - WAaI! boys in skirts (more clean) (suspended indefinitely as of early 2014) - WAaI! Mahalo - A spinoff magazine focusing on manga. Cancelled after about 6 issues. - Oto★Nyan (more raunchy) (on a most likely permanent hiatus as of summer 2013) - Otoko no Ko Comic Anthology (filthy) - Otokonoko HEAVEN (even more filthy) - Amahara-kun +: A sociopathic tomgirl tries to convert other boys into tomgirls by whatever means necessary, and often ends up helping them in some way. - Boku to Boku: A girl who looks like a boy befriends a crossdresser. - Bokura no Hentai is light on the Fanservice, but it's seinen and therefore fits the "targeted towards men" part. Notably, one of the three main characters is explicitly transgender, while the other two are boys who are crossdressing for personal reasons. The series comes off as a Genre Deconstruction as with its cute art style and "Middle school crossdressers" premise it seems to be normal game, but the cast has a serious case of Dysfunction Junction and the series handles its topics seriously. - Brocken Blood: a borderline example, started off as a gag comedy with a crossdressed Magical Boy but has increased the crossdressing-fanservice levels to appeal to otokonoko fans. - Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk is a romcom about two crossdressing boys, a gloomy otaku and a delinquent, who hate each other's male identities, but are attracted to the other's fem alter ego, without knowing they're not a girl. Hilarity ensues. - Excuse Me Dentist, It's Touching Me! follows a yakuza member who falls for his attractive female dentist, not realizing that she's actually a crossdresser and a member of a rival yakuza group. - Handsome Girl and Crossdressing Boy is about a Wholesome Crossdresser guy who starts going out with an assertive Bifauxnen. - Hikaru to Hikari: A young boy is made to crossdress by his childhood friend for a singing contest, and discovers that he is far more confident in himself as his new alter-ego. - Himegoto by Norio Tsukudani, a rare 4-koma work (at least the first few chapters). The first in the genre to get an anime, though it was badly received. - Himegoto Plus: A spinoff focusing on the main character's little brother. - I'm a Royal Tutor in My Sister's Dress revolves around a boy impersonating his older sister in order for the both of them to avoid execution. - I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl: A guy's childhood friend lets him practice makeup on him, and discovers that he likes presenting femininely. The guy finds himself attracted to his friend's new feminine appearance. - Josou Shounen, An ongoing (as of 2014) manga anthology featuring cross-dressing boys. The majority of the stories have romantic elements to them. Some more notable recurring series include the following- - Hatsu Kokuhaku: A boy is roped into cross-dressing in order to get closer to a classmate he likes... initially, anyway. - Zenryoku Otome: A cross-dressing boy becomes infatuated with the person who saved him from a perverted train passenger. - Haruno To Natsukawa: A student's male friend takes his entrance into high school as an opportunity to make his cross-dressing debut. Hijinks ensue as the friend attempts to get closer to the student. - Mayo Elle Otokonoko: would be yet another "boy crossdresses to infiltrate an all-girl's school, gets involved in pseudo-lesbian sexual hijinks" story, except that most of the "girls" aren't... - My Cute Crossdresser: a guy who likes doing makeup convinces a classmate to crossdress so he can use him for practice, gets turned on by the result. One of the first in the genre to be officially published in English. - Onnanoko Tokidoki Otokonoko: yet another "guy meets cute girl, finds out girl isn't a girl, decides he doesn't care" story. - Ookami Shounen Wa Kyou Mo Uso O Kasaneru is about a Nice Guy with the Face of a Thug. Being rejected by the girl he loves he runs to his Cool Big Sis for help. She drugs his coffee and makes him look like a girl. Now he saves the girl he loves from some real thugs and Love Interest reveals she has a crippling fear of boys. After a while he finds out that he actually likes being dressed like that more as he can be himself without people fearing him. - Past Future: A boy starts crossdressing to try and bond with his disapproving and distant sister. - Porte Tricolore: A short-lived Slice of Life series set in a magical world where only tomgirls can use magic. Notable for implying that most of the cast is actually intersex in some way. - Prunus Girl: yet another "guy meets cute girl, finds out girl isn't a girl, decides he doesn't care" story. - Reversible!: An all boys school that at first glance seems to be coed due to the eccentric dress code, and the relationships that develop there. - Sazanami Cherry: A boy confesses his attraction to a girl but it turns out the girl is a crossdressing boy. In this case, Ren has an Ambiguous Gender Identity and is implied that he's actually a trans girl who hasn't began identifying as so yet. - The Secret Devil-chan: Guy wishes for a Hot as Hell devil to take his virginity, gets a cutie, freaks when he realizes he forgot to specify female cutie. - Sensei Anone: A hapless male high-school teacher gets pursued by an also male student who wears girls' clothes. <!—/index—> - Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me: Possibly the original "boy crossdresses to infiltrate an all-girl's school, gets involved in pseudo-lesbian sexual hijinks" story; released at a point where the genre didn't have a name and consequently advertised as "Girls' Love" even though the main character is male.<!—/index—> - Josou Jinja is a fairly generic otokonoko gay Hentai Kinetic Novel which is mainly notable for being the first one in the genre to be not only released in English but also given a widespread release on Steam (under the name Trap Shrine). <!—index—> - Otome Domain* features an otokonoko protagonist who is admitted to an all-girls' school by a rich young lady, who also offers him a place to stay. The only caveat: He must pose as a girl.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Otokonoko
Our Archons Are Different - TV Tropes Gnosticism has influenced western media for hundreds of years, and as such its cosmology has occasionally served as the inspiration of fantasy or sci-fi settings. As such, the main mythological agents of gnostic mythology, the otherworldly, oppressive beings collectively referred to as archons, often make an appearance in numerous works. Derived from the Greek Archon ("ruler" or "lord"), "archon" has been adopted by Gnostic religion to refer to the supernatural ruling powers of the world. Considered either demonic or angelic (largely because of the Demiurge), archons are syncretised with both, and not without reason, being hostile note : being associated with order and oppression, they're Always Lawful Evil (or else ignorant) powers associated with order and bureaucracy. Described as animalistic monstrosities that control the physical world, they're strongly associated with planetary bodies and stars, twisting the then common Greek pagan belief that Stars Are Souls, as they devour human souls after we die. Nonetheless, in spite of this Lovecraftian setup, they're often considered weaker than enlightened humans, and following the gnostic instruction manual will guarantee your escape from their clutches. note : Maybe. Some sects were awfully pessimistic about your capability to escape. Being associated with oppression and bureaucracy, many works have adopted archons as agents of The Conspiracy or evil world orders, keeping the masses as complacent cattle and turning on the protagonists once they discover the truth. In most cases, their Lovecraftian attributes are replaced by more mundane sci-fi gimmicks like being aliens (favourably reptilian ones). Other times their association with order and angelic traits are enhanced upon, and they become extremists trying to impose order on the world. Regardless of their portrayal, it's exceptionally rare to see "classical" archons in media, but as long as themes of Order Versus Chaos remain, so will archons, In Name Only or not. They may be led by the literal Demiurge himself or by a Demiurge Archetype. Worth noting that despite the coolness of the name to English speakers, in Byzantium and latter-day Greece archon, while still literally meaning ruler or lord, is often treated as leader or administrator (of a club or department), or the equivalent of a provincial governor in the Byzantine Empire. It was also the title of many leaders in Greek city-states, Athens being one (some were elected, others not). The name is also used in Orthodox Christianity as an honorary title for lay members who have performed some significant service to the church, not unlike being knighted. ## Examples - Magic: The Gathering: Archons are one of White's iconic races, usually showing up whenever angels can't, like in the Greek-inspired Theros block. Usually taking the form of mysterious humanoid figures riding winged steeds, most often either winged lions or winged stags, they represent White's more malevolent traits, such as vicious justice and oppression. Indeed, in the aforementioned Theros they are the last remnants of a tyrannical empire that spanned the entire plane. Archons are never seen without their mounts, and in at least some planes the two are one and the same creature. - In Doom Patrol, Cultists of the Unwritten Book can become archons. This version is somewhat true to Gnosticism, being agents of an evil god, but they stick around in a throne doing nothing. - Hellboy borrows from Gnostic mythology, though the Archons are instead called Watchers. The Watchers were the first beings created by God, then they were sent to the newborn Earth to watch and protect it. One of them, Anum, stole some vril (the secret fire of creation) from God, but his creation wound up being the Ogdru Jahad, the Big Bad of the entire series. Horrified at this creation, the Watchers sealed away the Ogdru Jahad, then turned against Anum and slayed him. At this point, God punished the rest of the Watchers by banishing them all - some of them to Hell, where they became known as demons, and others to Earth, where they became the gods of various mythologies and gave birth to monsters. Meanwhile, Anum's severed right hand was preserved and passed down among many generations of humans, \|\|and eventually wound up as Hellboy's right hand\|\|. - In The Invisibles, Archons are explicitly demonic powers (even though they're referred as "The Outer Church") who wish to control the world out of sheer pettiness, and have thus constructed a vast network of politicians, clergy, policemen and other people in positions of power in order to build a vast and intricate world order. Suffice to say, they're not in good terms with the protagonists. - Marvel Comics: - Fantastic Four: Abraxas is the antithesis of the multiverse and will kill all life everywhere if he has his way. Somehow he was bound to has to Galactus devour sentient civilizations to keep him that way (which seems to be defeating the purpose but whatever). This is an especially odd use, since the Marvel Demiurge is decidedly platonic and created Elder Gods instead of archons. - The Archons as a species were a race of giant humanoid constructs created by the Watchers, in order to guard and look over the Eldritch Abomination Abyss. By the modern era all but one named Archon have been wiped out. - In The Secret History, the Archons are a group of four immortal, supernatural siblings that influenced politics and world history with their schemes. - The Matrix: While not explicitly identified as such, the Machines are not only essentially a sci-fi rendition of the Gnostic concept but draw heavily upon the mythological Archons. They feed on people's life energy, are led by egotistical male demiurges note : The Architect, who even looks the part, and the Deus Ex Machina in opposition to a wise divine woman and are naturally ugly as sin. \|\|They are also at the mercy of a fully enlightened Neo.\|\| - Dungeons & Dragons: - Prior to 4th Edition, Archons are the race of celestials native to the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia, who correspond to the Lawful Good alignment. Among celestials they're known for their ability to teleport, as well as their "Aura of Menace" (which lowers the stats of nearby creatures who are hostile towards the archon, until they manage to hit the archon with an attack). From weakest to strongest, they consist of: - Lantern Archons: Floating orbs of light that shoot short-range energy beams. - Hound Archons: Muscular red-skinned humanoids with dog heads, who can transform into canine animals. Often become paladins who ride dragons as mounts. - Justice Archons: Humanoids with golden wings who guard Celestia. Their signature ability "Justice Strike" lets them use the damage and special properties of their opponent's attacks in place of their own. - Warden Archons: Armored humanoid polar bears who fight with their teeth and claws. Have extremely powerful sensory abilities, including Scent, mind-reading, scrying and True Sight, as well as an ability to read Character Alignment which cannot be blocked or deceived. - Word Archons: Humanoids surrounded by clouds of parchment in the shape of wings, who travel far and wide to make uplifting speeches and preserve the purity of Truename Magic. - Hammer Archons: Towering humanoids of craggy stone, who often work alongside dwarves to root out evils that lurk beneath the earth. Can move through earth like water, and fling stone "celestial spears" that deal great damage to the wicked. - Sibyllic Guardians: Tall women with glowing eyes and a corona of runic symbols, who wield Psychic Powers. - Owl Archons: Giant owls with Eye Beams that can turn living creatures to stone or return them to normal. - Sword Archons: Giant Winged Humanoids who can transform their arms into Flaming Swords, and are capable of a One-Hit Kill attack which binds the target's soul to a prison in Celestia. - Trumpet Archons: Bald, green-skinned women with angelic wings and cleric-based spellcasting abilities. Each carries a magic horn that stuns all non-archons within a massive range when sounded, and which can transform into a greatsword. - Throne Archons: Giant golden humanoids with glowing eyes that function similar to Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, and many other magical abilities. - The Celestial Hebdomand, a group of unique archons who rule the seven layers of Celestia, consisting of Barachiel, Domiel, Erathaol, Pistis Sophia, Raziel, Sealtiel and Zaphkiel. In earlier editions this group instead consisted of seven hawk-men known as the Tome Archons. - In 4th Edition, archons are Chaotic Evil Monster Knight Elemental Embodiments created by the Primordials to battle the gods' angelic warriors in the Dawn War but now serve other evil elemental beings since the Primordials were defeated. Other than the standard fire, water, earth, and air archons, there are archons of ice, storm, mud, iron, crystal, and more. Due to cries of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! from some parts of the fandom in regards to name usage though, they were renamed Elemental Myrmidons in 5th edition. - KULT: The Archons are the ten servants and lieutenants of the Demiurge, tasked with maintaining the Illusion and keeping mankind enslaved. Each is associated with one of the Principles used to create the illusion of the material world and is served by a distinct choir of angels: they are Kether, upholder of Hierarchy and served by the Chayot Ha Kodesh; Chokmah, upholder of Submission and served by Ophanim; Binah, upholder of Community and served by the Eralim; Chesed, upholder of Hierarchy and served by the Hashmallim; Gheburah, upholder of Law and served by the Seraphim; Tipharet, upholder of Allure and served by the Malakhim; Netzach, upholder of Victory and served by the Elohim; Hod, upholder of Honor and served by the BeneiHa'Elohim; Yesod, upholder of Avarice and served by the Cherubim; and Malkuth, upholder of Conformity and served by the Ishim. Each also has a shadow and opposite in the form of one of the Death Angels who serve Astaroth. The Demiurge's disappearance threw them into chaos and internal conflict; Hod and Chesed were destroyed by the other Archons, Yesod narrowly avoided this fate and fled, and Malkuth is in open rebellion. - Pathfinder uses the pre-4th Edition celestial archons of D&D, serving as the main race of outsiders native to Heaven and embodying the concepts of virtue, nobility, just rulership and order; however, they are also more prone to dogmatism and inflexibility than other celestials are. As with D&D, they come in several distinct types; their intensely Lawful natures mean that each serves a very specific role in the hierarchy of Heaven, often with highly martial bents, although their appearance is surprisingly varied — archons are usually humanoid, but many lower-ranking archons have animal heads; others closely resemble angels instead. Many archons are also associated with and named after some type of object, and the weakest archons are often just that object given life. - Lantern and harbinger archons, respectively floating balls of light surrounded by metal fretwork and flying orreries, are the least and weakest and the most likely to serve mortal masters — harbinger archons are common Familiars among Lawful Good spell casters. - Spyglass archons, resembling shrouded and masked humanoids with black angel's wings, specialize in missions of stealth and espionage. - Hound archons, resembling humanoids with canine heads, serve Heaven as soldiers, scouts and agents in the field. - Stag archons, aka horned archons, are elk-headed humanoids who serve the god Erastil instead of being strictly part of the main chain of command, but nonetheless serve their brethren as well as their god's faithful as skilled scouts and trackers. - Codex archons resemble living, winged books and act as living repositories of information. - Legion archons, which resemble humans with metallic wings growing directly from their armor, make up the rank and file of most Heavenly armies. - The raven-headed preceptor archons act as guides and counselors to mortals struggling with inner doubt or life-changing decisions — plots like those of It's a Wonderful Life are fairly typical in their job. - Shield archons manifest as humanoids encased in golden armor and bearing enormous shields, and serve Heaven and its allies in a variety of defensive roles. - The mouthless, fire-winged exscinder archons serve as Heaven's censors, hunting down and either destroying or secreting away the setting's wide array of Tomes of Eldritch Lore before they can fall into the hands of mortals who don't know what they're doing or fiends who know exactly what they're doing. - Trumpet archons, angel-like beings distinguished by their bald heads and magic trumpets, act as messengers for both powerful celestial beings and Heaven's gods when these wish to communicate with other planar beings or with mortals. - Mote archons are tiny, floating specks of light formed as a side effect of other archons ascending to higher forms. They move in large swarms controlled by a single gestalt mind — individual motes are all but mindless and powerless — and serve chiefly as medics and caregivers. - Gate archons, seemingly carved out of living rock, watch over planar gates to ensure that agents of evil cannot gains access to them. - Hammer archons are the champions of Heaven's armies, often directly elevated from hound and legion archons. As their name implies, they carry massive warhammers. - The towering star archons are the pinnacle of typical archon progression, and direct the armies of Heaven as generals and tacticians of immense skill and foresight. - Bastion archons, four-armed giants made out of the rough-hewn stone of the mountain of Heaven itself, are the rarest and most powerful archons in existence and born in the very rare occurrence where a shield archon and a group of lantern archons fuse during a teleportation mishap. Immensely strong and almost literally immovable, bastion archons live to stand watch over the holy places where they were born, and several guard the depths of Heaven's mountain against demonic intrusion. - Finally there are the archon empyral lords, archons who grown in power to point of having become minor deities in their own right. It should be noted that all of the main celestial races — archons, angels, agathions and azatas — have this as their highest rank, and their empyral lords are distinguished from one another by little beyond their alignment and home plane. - In Warhammer 40,000, Archons are the leaders of the Dark Eldar, being more experienced in war, politics and cruelty than their underlings (though sometimes said underling gets lucky). Their psychic powers are stunted compared to the regular Eldar's (the only Archon with some measure of psychic ability is Aurelia Malys, and it's more of an Anti-Magic field and limited precognition). - The French translation gives Craftworld Eldar Warlock a Dub Name Change to "Archonte", in turn renaming the Dark Eldar Archons to Voivodes (a term meaning "warlord" in Slavic languages). - Darksiders II: - The Archon Lucien is a powerful archangel who employs Death to stop an unknown corruption. Visually, he has two pairs of feathered wings and his his head glows with a golden holy light under his hood. He's a Holier Than Thou Jerkass, \|\|and turns out to have fallen to The Corruption himself, becoming covered in the sludge of corruption, his glowing head turning a sickly shade upon revealing his deception, and growing a pair of bony Corruption-covered wings after Death chops off a pair during the fight.\|\| - The Archon Hestus is briefly mentioned by Uriel as having been one of the Hellguard's leaders and presumably an archangel himself in the fight against the demons on Earth and wielder of the Rod of Arafel, a weapon of immense holy power, before his death in battle. - The Wizard's Archon skill in Diablo III is a kind of Super Mode, transforming the user temporarily into an Energy Being with a different set of powers. - The Final Fantasy Legend: The archons pop up in Ashura and his minions, who spread evil amongst the world For the Evulz. \|\|They are servants of God, the real Big Bad\|\|. - The Archons in Genshin Impact are a group of seven Physical Gods, each of whom command one of the elements of the world and rule over one of the nations of Teyvat. Finding the Seven forms the basis of the main questline of the game. While generally benevolent, the Archons originally worked for Celestia, a group of even more powerful gods living on a Floating Continent with shady motives, fitting with the "enforcers of an oppressive world order" aspect of Gnostic archons. The Archons have been implied to have done terrible things on Celestia's behalf despite their misgivings, enough that they have drifted from Celestia to pursue their own agendas by the present day. - Legacy of Kain: According to Word of God, the franchise was heavily inspired by Gnosticism. Large parts of the story center on a mysterious entity called the Elder God, which misleads and manipulates the other various characters for its own nefarious ends. At the conclusion of the final game in the series, Defiance, one of the protagonists realizes that all of the tragedy, hardship and conflict that has befallen the game's fictional universe is because of the influence of the Elder God, and sets out to destroy it. - In Mass Effect: Andromeda the Archons are the leaders of the Kett, an assimilatory alien species. Said Archons possess a fleshy Holy Halo and seem to be the genetic origin for the Kett, a twisted combination of the angelic and fleshy atributes of Gnostic archons. - Archons in Nexus Clash are a Darker and Edgier endgame outcome of archetypically gentle Shepherd angels. They are represented as a hard-hitting, zealous Glass Cannon who dishes out holy retribution on the wicked or insufficiently righteous. - In Starcraft, Archons (and their counterparts, Dark Archons), are psionic Energy Beings created by the fusion of two protoss high templars (or dark templars), which are psionic specialising mystics. They're not very resistant, lacking physical substance as they do, though they can control minds and drain their energy; their usefulness as Deflector Shields also means that they see heavy use as frontline units. Both of which echo characteristics of gnostic archons. - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time portrays the archons as more sympathetic than usual, feeling agonizingly bored and unfulfilled. - Tyranny: Archons begin life as ordinary humans, or at least with comparable minor abilities and differences note : Sirin appears to have had some ability to control people with her voice even before rumours of it spread through her home village, but the implication is nothing like what she has now, or would have without the limiter on her head, but become the source of the setting's Functional Magic seemingly through the power of belief, their powers growing (and their humanity dwindling) as they come to be loved, hated, or feared. Each archon is unique, gaining mastery over a specific element or concept (the four classical elements, gravity, vigor, life, emotion, shadow, and more) and various other powers which border on demigodhood; mages in the setting wield their powers by invoking the sigil associated with that archon, but cannot bring magic forth into the world on their own. History says that archons in the setting have inevitably been forced to bow to the Evil Overlord Kyros, serving as the greatest generals in his world-spanning Evil Empire; only a few, such as Occulted Jade, Archon of the Tides, have claimed the title without entering the Overlord's service... although one conversation with Lantry, the resident sage companion, indicates that this is partly as technically Archon as a title was invented by Kyros, and formally people with Archon-like abilities that haven't been recognised by Kyros as an Archon are called Exarchs (it's just that in recent history the only surviving Exarch Kyros hadn't declared an Archon was Occulted Jade, and she took to calling herself an Archon in deliberate slight of Kyros. \|\|Even the player is recognised as an Archon almost immediately after it becomes clear they have become an Exarch\|\|). - In XCOM 2, Archons are elite soldiers fielded by the ADVENT Administration, and were designed in response to the horrified reaction humans had to the Floaters who fought in the conquest of Earth. So while Floaters were tortured combinations of alien flesh and metal, little more than an upper torso fused to a Jet Pack, Archons have sculpted bodies, a gold and white coloration, and a thruster array that resembles stylized wings, giving them an overall angelic look. However, there's obvious seams in their "chest," suggesting they're the same old Floaters stuffed into a new casing, and despite their more human appearance, Archons are just as Ax-Crazy as their predecessors, and go into a Battle Frenzy upon taking damage. When they aren't berserk, Archons like to fight with their "Blazing Pinions" attack, so they're anything but heavenly. - Nerus is a furry work based primarily on Valentian Gnostic mythology. Archons here are fundamentally faithful to their Gnostic mythological origin, being servants of the Demiurge and instilling the physical material world; they are opposed by shapeshifters vaguely analogous to demons that are aligned with the luminous aeons. By the time of the story's setting +3000 A/D, they have taken a more proactive role in mainting societal order, birthing seven different churches. - Homestuck: While under a different name, the Denizens fit the general idea of the Gnostic Archon; animalistic abominations who rule over a planet and are the main obstacles in a quest for humans to ascend to godlike power. Most of them are named after figures from Classical Mythology, with the exceptions of the Gnostic-named Yaldabaoth and Abraxas. Appropriately enough Yaldabaoth (a name for the Gnostic Demiurge) is the most powerful Denizen, and the Denizen of the main villain's child self. - In The Order of the Stick, archons follow the D&D portrayal for the most part. When Lawful Good people die and go to heaven, they each get a lantern archon (a small, talking, fuzzy ball of light) that follows them around and provides basic exposition about the nature of the afterlife. - In The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere, the Archons of the Redoubt are former time- and dimension-travellers who have retired from individual adventuring, and dwell in a fortress at the End of Time, from which they oversee threats to the stability of the cosmos. Jenny's own mother is one; formerly Captain Amelia Midnight of the hypership Zephyrus, she is now addressed as "Amelia, Archon Midnight". - SCP Foundation: The god of flesh that the Sarkic gods worship, Yaldabaoth, has Archons of its own. They're named after figures in Chinese Mythology known as the Four Perils... and Zhurong. The Seulga case study also seems to imply \|\|one of them is good.\|\|	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurArchonsAreDifferent
Our Angels Are Different - TV Tropes They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel ... Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. — Ezekiel 1:15 Dean: I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos — you know, Michael Landon . Not dicks. Castiel: Read the Bible . Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier. Lots of works include angels, but not always the same kind of angels. Often, a creator will try to put a unique spin on their angels. Angels in fiction tend, by default, to be of a vaguely Abrahamic nature and may or may not have big fluffy feathery wings or Holy Halos. They generally are found doing God's will as part of some sort of grand plan, helping mortals (sometimes incognito), or otherwise staying aligned with Good. Angelic names, by the way, traditionally end in "-el" (meaning "of God"), such as in the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, though this is by no means guaranteed (Lailah, Sandalphon, Metatron). The prospective angel has many options available for customization: - What is their morality? The most common way of varying things. Angels may be always good-aligned, with demons as their Evil Counterpart Race, or they may be divided into good angels and evil angels, often indicated by wing color. If they are portrayed negatively they most often fall into the Knight Templar trope. Given that angels are usually messengers or servants of God (the word "angel" comes from the Greek word for "messenger"), God Is Good / God Is Evil tends to come into full play here; if an angel can ask Have You Seen My God? or is part of a Council of Angels, expect confusion over what is and isn't in His best interests. In a similar tangent; do angels have Free Will? Other than turning Fallen Angel; often Angels have such absolute behavioral fixations that simply considering options is physically painful. Often humans will get angels upset with them with inappropriate questions or observations because the angel can't think that way without going insane. In this way, they can be as alien as The Fair Folk. - Are they Winged Humanoids? Although now standard, this depiction is actually a relatively recent idea. In their earliest appearances in Jewish and Christian art and literature, angels either appear fully human or else they look like some sort of Eldritch Abomination — six wings, four faces, a wheel of fire with eyes lining the rim — you name it. Benevolent or not, these angels were the stuff of nightmares. They didn't traditionally introduce themselves with "Fear not!" for nothing. Those that were winged tended to stay in heaven, or looked... different. - Is there one kind, or many? Many works treat angels as just one type of being, but Biblical scriptures and the writings of later theologians describe several kinds and some works follow suit. Often, these types — often called "choirs" — are organized into a specific hierarchy, with different roles and ranks. The original sources are kind of light on details, but the most common kinds seen in modern fiction are the Seraphim, six-winged and highest-ranking; the Cherubim, which nowadays can range from many-faced warriors to cherubic winged children; and the Ophanim, the ones with the wheels and the eyes and such. Winged humanoid angels also feature in these systems, usually as the lowest-ranking angels and/or as the ones intended to interact with humans directly. - Are they actually supernatural? Sometimes, in a Sci Fi, atheist setting, or a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, angels are not actually supernatural, merely confused for such; whether this is intentional on their part feeds into Morality, above, and whether they are Jerks. - Are they jerks? Regardless of whether they're supernatural or moral, sometimes angels are portrayed as jerks, to keep with a Crapsack World setting. It may occasionally overlap with Light Is Not Good, but often most people take a direct Dark Is Evil approach at describing evil angels. Fallen Angels, if portrayed as good, are always within the Dark Is Not Evil realm. - How 'human' are they? If the author is trying to make a subtle point or wants to go in for a Cosmic Horror Story, they can make the angels, regardless of what they look like, be in some way fundamentally inhuman in their thinking. - Can they fall from grace? And if so, do they become Demons, Fallen Angels, or can they become human? If a central character is an angel, expect an answer to this one; otherwise, tends to be left vague. May be able to fall in love with a mortal and give up their angelic nature. - Can humans become angels? Most religions that believe in angels regard them as an entirely different species from humanity. (A notable exception is Mormonism. note : Which understands the term 'angel' to mean all of God's heavenly servants, including exalted humans (like Elijah and Moroni) and spirits that are destined to become humans.) But it's a very common folk belief that humans become angels when they die, though they might have to earn their wings. - How powerful are they? Winged Humanoids and angels are sometimes weak or at least easily damaged when their supernatural aspect is missing or not played up. More often, however, they are portrayed as divinely powerful badasses. They do go toe to toe with demons, after all, and are canonically more powerful than human beings. When The Gods Must Be Lazy is in play, the rarity of angels can combine with Conservation of Ninjutsu to make them rare but powerful compared to the common and expendable hordes of Hell. Maybe they're downright martially inclined and form The Armies of Heaven. Sub Tropes include: Shinigami ("death angels"), Fallen Angel, Guardian Angel, Celestial Paragons and Archangels (the ones in charge), and Angelic Abomination. Not to be confused with Lovely Angels (which are just adventuresome women), or One-Winged Angel (which is a completely different trope). See also Winged Humanoid. Compare Our Archons Are Different, Our Fairies Are Different and Pegasus. Contrast Our Demons Are Different. For angel feathers or wings used for symbolism, see Feather Motif. ## Example Subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other Examples: - Angel Soft toilet paper angels look like putti in hard hats. - Victoria's Secret had the Victoria's Secret Angels, who wore wings in their ads and on the runways. - Philadelphia cream cheese used to have ads featuring angels in Fluffy Cloud Heaven enjoying bagels with cream cheese. - DevaCurl, a line of hair products specifically for curly hair, has a lightweight styling gel called Arc-Angell, as well as a deep-conditioner called Heaven in Hair. - The Fallen Angel: Alexandre Cabanel's variety of angels is that of young men with feathery, bird-like wings, no halo, and, most often than not, reddish brown hair. If the angel is still divine, he's robed with white, light blue, or light pink clothes. If the angel has fallen, he retains his human-like shape but is naked and his wings start to darken. - Two panels in The Ghent Altarpiece depict music-making, robed angels — one group singing, the other playing instruments. Oddly, especially for the work's early 15th-century date, they appear quite human, with no obvious angelic features — they lack wings and are not idealised in appearance, though they are sexless. They are identified as angels by their position in the composition and by the inscriptions attached to them. - Michelangelo Buonarroti: - Michelangelo's angels tend to be hyper-masculine nudes constantly in Flight. They're seen lifting holy relics like the Cross and victory laurels into Heaven in The Last Judgement and they're also flanking around Jesus like an army in The Conversion of Saul. - In the Basilica of Saint Dominic, Michelangelo has a traditional sculpture of an angel that looks like a young boy except for his fluffy marble-white wings. - The angels from Raphael Sanzio's Disputation of the Holy Sacrament are blonde infants with tiny white/gold wings. Their role appears to be holding up the clouds of the Fluffy Cloud Heaven to keep the saints afloat and hoisting The Four Gospels above the Eucharist at all times. - Angels are different even within the bounds of the Sistine Chapel. While The Temptations of Christ shows us typical Winged Humanoid angels, Michelangelo's The Last Judgement make angels ultra-muscular trumpeters who beat sinners down into Hell. - Many of the "accessory characters" present in Naudline Pierre's work are Winged Humanoids who look like traditional depictions of Harpies, though she herself says that they are unambiguously benevolent. - Angels in the comic book Afterlife Inc are soulless, artificial beings created to ensure the healthy operation of the Empyrean, the afterlife of the title. As a rule, they lack both halos and wings, and can pretty much look like anything. Souls are also clearly overrated, as angels, generally, live full and varied in 'lives' in this new, corporate afterlife - despite some prejudice from humans. - The archangels, the seven former rulers of the afterlife, are a more powerful variant of angel. Following the Calamity, Anahel, ruler of the third heaven, Shehaqim, is the only known surviving archangel. - Black Moon Chronicles: They're giant winged humanoids serving God who, unlike the demons, only rarely intervene in the world, most notably when the Knights of Justice summon Gabriel to ask him to make the Knights of Light see the true way after being led astray by its corrupt leadership. - In the vampire comic book Crimson, angels are invisible but tangible winged humanoids with odd tattoos. People with special goggles can kill them so they can eat them, as angel blood gives a narcotic effect. If an angel disobeys orders, they're demoted into a mortal, but if they live out a good human life they can ascend to being an angel again after death. The archangel Michael thinks he's in charge of them all, but he and the other archangels aside from Satan are total assholes, and God is really pulling all their strings for benevolent reasons. Satan is the only one who realizes this and seems content at the situation. - The Darkness has "The Legion of the Cherub Hostile." Another example of Light Is Not Good in the series, they're a horde of childlike angels who wield little bows and flaming swords. And are intent on purging all life. - There seem to be three kinds of angel in The DCU: - Standard angels. Zauriel from JLA (1997) is one of these (and so, according to the most generally accepted of his four origin stories, was The Phantom Stranger). Wings, flaming sword, humanoid but inhuman looking. Divided into four "hosts": Man, Bull, Eagle, and Lion. Zauriel of the Eagle Host was technically a fallen angel during his time with the League (he was a guardian angel who cared too much about the woman he was guarding), but not as fallen as his arch-enemy Azmodel of the Bull Host, who was working with Neron. - Earth-born angels. Earth-born angels are formed when someone sacrifices themselves to save someone without hope, causing the two to merge together. There are three Earth-born angels; the Angel of Fire, the Angel of Love and the Angel of Light. During the run of the Peter David Supergirl title the Angel of Fire was Supergirl (who manifested flaming wings and enhanced heat vision), the Angel of Love was Comet (who had icy wings and emotion manipulation) and the Angel of Light was Blythe (who had glowing wings and could project light and was working for a demon called the Carnivore). - The Spectre. The personification of God's Wrath is often referred to as an angel, but it's not clear where he fits in. One interpretation (based on Neil Gaiman's original The Books of Magic mini) is that he's one of the original archangels who made a really stupid, not necessarily evil, mistake when the world was young and God wants him to work it off. Current continuity has him as an aspect of God-given independent existence, outside of the standard angelic hierarchy, with his fellow aspects of God (like the Radiant) as peers. - And then there's Azrael. While he's not a real angel, his appearance, for whatever unfathomable reason, immediately just shouts "angel" in the minds of any DCU citizens he comes across. - Hawkman eventually reveals that the original incarnation of Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman goes past Princess Chay-Ara, to an angel named Shhra, who was cursed alongside Ktar Deathbringer (the original incarnation of Hawkman) with the task of saving as many lives as Ktar had ended while a Deathbringer. This is because Shhra intervened and helped Ktar stop the Deathbringers, so God bound them together until the task is done. We don't see Shhra as having any unique powers or job, besides maybe the ability to appear to Ktar and basically haunt him. - Divangelic from Empowered is a pair of Conjoined Twins — her left half, Charity, is an angel, but her right half, Vanity, is a devil. The mind boggles... - Both Cupids and Cubi in Fine Print are races of lesser-gods descended from Eros, their purpose to cultivate certain emotions (love and lust respectively) and use it to grow Eternal Ambrosia, allowing the gods to remain immortal in an era devoid of worship. While there is some Fantastic Racism between them, it's portrayed more as a form of Interservice Rivalry and interracial relationships tend to happen. - Godzilla in Hell features angels flying on the wings of Mothra, who herself is a benevolent entity associated with death and rebirth and symbolized by a shining cross. - Hellboy: Two classes of angel are shown, neither of which really fits the well-known winged humanoid archetype. The Grigori, or Watchers, look more or less like human skeletons on fire. The Seraphim resemble giant grubs with black mask-like faces and wings made from flayed human skin. One scientist goes mad from isolation and opens a portal to what he thinks are angels, who look like nothing seen on Earth. - Johnny the Homicidal Maniac has a few weird ones, ranging from vaguely humanoid things with no ears & goggles built into their heads to angel bunny things that are less beings in their own right & more part of the scenery of Heaven. Also features a Throne that trades the flaming wheel look for that of a spindly technorganic monster... with a recliner on his back. - Marvel Universe: - Angela is an Asgardian (daughter of Odin and Frigga, sister to The Mighty Thor) who is raised by Angels, a deity race who are in war with Asgardians. They're a race of winged humanoids, who are ruthless and ruthlessly effective mercenaries. Their whole culture is materialistic and cut-throat, where fighting for ideals is seen as weakness and only the strong and savvy survive. - Ghost Rider: - Nobel Kale becomes an angel when he's in hell! (On Earth, he's just a spirit who possesses people.) - The Johnny Blaze version of the Ghost Rider later rewrote the evil demon trapped inside Johnny into a misunderstood angel that had basically snuck in when he sold his soul. Also, there are evil angels, particularly, you know, Zadkiel. - When first introduced into the universe, Angels tended to look like energy beings. Dem Bones was the closest they got to looking like people (looking like more advanced/powerful version of Ghost Rider, before the above retcon strangely enough). They've mostly appeared as winged humanoids since the 2000s. - The Mind Screwy Warren Ellis Hellstorm series introduced the Asura, a.k.a. the Assassins of Heaven, typical Winged Humanoid angels who prove that Light Is Not Good by fanatically trying to stamp out free will, believing it to be the source of evil. They later get retconned as a race of bird-people (of which several exist in the Marvel Universe) altered by magic, rather than actual angels, and the "God" they follow as the arch-demon Chthon trying to eliminate the competition or something. Asuras were introduced again as the guardians of heaven's gates. Mainly so Zadkiel would have more targets. - Angel, of X-Men, is explicitly stated from the beginning to be a mutant who just happens to have various flying mutations including big white fluffy wings. Except, of course, \|\|later developments made him a descendant of the Cheyarafim, along with Icarus (Joshua Guthrie), and added healing blood to his powers\|\|. - Preacher: Fitting right in with the comic's views on religion, angels are not shown in a very flattering light. Two variants are shown: The Seraphi, warrior angels who stand at the right side of God (one of which was compelled to have sex with a succubus, creating Genesis), and the Adephi, who stand at the left side of God and are more scientifically minded (they were the ones holding Genesis once it was created). Two Adephi, in particular, are singled out as being ineffectual middle management types and chinless wonders. When one of them tries to dazzle Jesse Custer with the glory of the Heavenly Host, he is immediately told to "cut the shit." - Bill, the Angel of the Lord in Proposition Player, looks less like an angel and more like a freakishly muscled mafia legbreaker, who tries to scare the protagonist into giving up his attempts to get into the soul business and who generally abuses his position as a henchman in the most powerful religion for petty reasons like sex. (He apparently sent a guy to hell just so he could take his girl, and tries to force a minor goddess into having sex with her.) His boss Michael furthers the mafia stereotype; he arranges for the casino to explode and kill many of the people who sold their souls and tortures the protagonist's girlfriend. He even delivers a short lecture on certain aspects of torture at one point. And he wears barbed wire under his clothes. - The angels in The Sandman (1989) (and Lucifer) are mainly warriors. The exception is cherubim which are balls of light that communicate in emotions. To elaborate, Remiel and Duma (angel of silence) are shown as two blonde, half-naked, winged pretty-boys whose feet "never touch the impure ground". They ended up ruling in hell, with... mixed results, to say the least. - Spawn trots out a variety of angels over the years, almost all of them falling into the broad Light Is Not Good category and employing an "Ends justify the means" rationale in the war against Hell. - The Prince of Egypt has The Angel of Death. This is perhaps one of the few Western Animation examples of an angel that is far away from the Winged Humanoid stereotype; it appears as a glowing smoke Eldritch Abomination that descends from the sky from what appears to be a interdimensional hole. This, as well as its job (\|\|to kill every firstborn in Egypt that isn't a Hebrew\|\|), can easily be seen as a reason why the movie sticks to biblical tradition. - In The Secret of the Hunchback, a surprisingly not-bad mockbuster of Disney's Hunchback, we find out \|\|angels resemble disfigured humans, and the young ones, yet to become full-on angels, have large blood-filled sacks on their back where their wings are growing. Yeah. Quasimodo was a teenage angel. Apparently abandoned by his angel parents? Also, healing powers\|\|. "Fear Not" indeed. - Time Masters has angels created by an evil god. The ones seen on screen are formerly human (being astronauts converted and purified by said deity), so they resemble stereotypical humanoid angels with feathered wings, though their faces are blank. Due to the nature of their creation, they can probably also be considered both aliens and zombies, albeit with divine magic. - The angels in The Adjustment Bureau are "more like case officers who live a lot longer than humans." - The angels of Angels in the Outfield and related films fit the standard good-guys-with-wings image, as befits a feel-good kids' movie. They are repelled by foul language, being pure and ethical in all respects except, it seems, for cheating at sports, which is perfectly okay if they're the ones doing it. - In Barbarella, a Winged Humanoid character claims to be an angel and is apparently innocence embodied, yet displays no supernatural powers and doesn't appear to be associated with any religion. - In Casper, \|\|Amelia Harvey became an angel after death, as opposed to having Unfinished Business that would make her a ghost\|\|. Interestingly, said example is dressed in red rather than the traditional white. Also, no wings. - In City of Angels, the angel protagonist falls in love with a human woman and decides to become human to be with her after hearing the story of a former angel who's now a happily married mortal. \|\|Then she dies, and he either commits suicide or becomes an angel again, depending on your interpretation of the ending.\|\| Both in this and the original Der Himmel uber Berlin ( Wings of Desire) angels are trenchcoat-wearing, normal-looking humans with the twist that the protagonists usually can't see them. They are implied to have worn armour in the past though (the main character pawns his to buy warmer clothes when he becomes human). - Constantine (2005) uses the Winged Humanoid variety with the Archangel Gabriel, who turns out to be quite the jerk. However, Gabriel is not an angel in the purest sense; since Angels and Demons of the purest degree are not permitted on Earth, the angels seen in the film are deceased mortals imbued with Divinity as a reward for good works during life. So, the Gabriel in this movie isn't the famous archangel. Just a dead Christian woman, who happened to be named Gabriel. - The urSkeks in The Dark Crystal were luminous beings of light that got cast out of their home and ended up on Thra, where they taught the local races many sciences (much like the Grigori in Apocrypha). In a hasty attempt to get back home by purifying themselves, they instead divided themselves into two types of Fallen Angel: the light Mystics and the dark Skeksis, both mortal and aging. If one of either dies, so does its light/dark counterpart. \|\|They are refused into urSkeks at the end and go back to Heaven\|\|. - In Dogma, If they have their wings cut off, it transforms them into humans (which apparently doesn't work for demons or fallen angels), and they can't drink alcohol (although that was mainly a restriction put on them after one angel had a few too many and insulted The Big Man). Metatron is said to have 36 wings with eyes and mouths all over his body, each mouth said to speak a different language, but in the movie, he only had 2 wings, even though he did first manifest as a torrent of flame. The other two angels of the film, although disgraced, seem to have powers retaining to their old posts, with Bartleby, a Grigori, knowing everyone's personal history by looking at them, and Loki, the angel of death, mentioned to be able to "rain sulfur" (although he doesn't seem to enjoy doing so). When in battle, both are (nearly) invulnerable to our mortal protagonists. - Also, angels are as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll, which appears to be a mistake at first, as according to Genesis angels are very capable of doing the deed and making Half Human Hybrids, but It makes sense in the context of the movie. After all, much of the plot is based on how God can Retcon new rules for angels whenever S/He likes, as with the ban on alcohol after Loki's little tantrum. It would make perfect sense that God would castrate the angels to stop more Nephilim from being born. - Don't Kill It: Beings of light comparable to angels apparently exist here, but they never show up onscreen and all we know is that they can breed with humans. - Hellboy II: The Golden Army: The Angel of Death. Or possibly AN Angel of Death, as she specifically states that she's "Hellboy's Death." To say that this angel is very weird is a massive understatement. Guillermo del Toro apparently based "her" on Mexican angel paintings which depict them as having eyes on the wings (maybe the biblical weird looking angels weren't forgotten after all ). Also doubles as a Dark Is Not Evil example as being at worst neutral and by having the wings colored black. - Here Comes Mr. Jordan and A Matter of Life and Death feature heavenly messengers (angels by another name ) who are really, really, really bad (like Misfile level bad!) at picking souls up from the earth at their time of death. In the former, they are too early and the latter too late. - Ice Angel: They're bureaucrats, shuffling people off to Heaven with as little fuss as possible. - It's a Wonderful Life: Follows the "good humans become angels when they die" pattern. However, said humans have to work their way up through the ranks. Rookie angels don't have wings and must earn them by helping people. When they do, a bell somewhere on Earth rings; the movie originated the whole "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings" concept. Earning their wings seems to grant angels additional powers, including the ability to see into the past and future with concentration. In the most dramatic demonstration of angelic power, we see angels can change the course of history (temporarily) to make a point. The appearance of angels varies: one angel we see on Earth appears perfectly human (the missing wings help), but an earlier scene depicted him and his superiors as celestial bodies, e.g. stars and galaxies. (Though it's possible this is just a visual metaphor.) - In Knowing, it's not clear whether the \|\|"whisperer people"\|\|are angels, aliens or both. \|\|They have spaceships like aliens, and in one scene the wispy light around their bodies looks like wings, like angels. (Also the movie hints the final event is the second coming of Christ.) Whatever they are, they act creepy, mysterious, and threatening. They speak in whispers as their name implies, shoot light out of their mouths and tell of future events.\|\| - Legion has Paul Bettany as a gun-toting, ass-kicking rebel angel trying to keep the rest of the angelic host from exterminating humanity. Most of the angels aside from Gabriel and Michael are different — \|\|they possess humans and basically use them as shock troops in an attempt to kill a baby who's hinted to be Jesus 2.0.\|\| Also, Gabriel slices things up with his wings, which is a pretty neat effect, though getting eviscerated by razor-edged angel-wings would not be the most fun way in the world to go. - One of the protagonists' original complaints about the title character in Michael is that they "thought they were cleaner." Michael, being an archangel (and one of God's Storm Troopers), cheerfully indicates that he's "not that kind of angel." He also smoked heavily and used his angelic powers to seduce women, but did have big fluffy wings (although the feathers fell out as he neared the end of his time on Earth). As the Tagline said, "He's an Angel, not a Saint." - The 1950s had a strange opinion on angels, as fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans are aware, often portrayed as middle management and salesmen. See: Once Upon a Honeymoon (1956), Out of This World (1954), and so on. - A New York Christmas Wedding: They're apparently former humans (or at least some are) and hang out on Earth doing ordinary things some of the time. While they can be affected by physical things, they're also unharmed. They also look just like regular humans, but have an ability to transport anyone instantly across space and time. At least some are also guardian angels watching over specific humans. Granted, this is based on a single example. - In Noah, they all start out as glowy wispy beings literally made of light, but the ones we see were encased in stone as punishment for \|\|helping humanity by teaching them technology and other things they were not ready to know yet and were supposed to discover on their own\|\|. They pretty much became six-armed rock people that look nothing like angels. - Really messed around in substantial ways in the trilogy of films commencing with The Prophecy: - Written/directed by Gregory Widen and starring Christopher Walken as a very disenchanted Archangel Gabriel, it suggests that whilst Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen no less!) rebelled because he didn't like God, another portion of angels rebelled because they didn't like the idea of man being more important than angels and that the war between the loyal angels of God and the rebels has kept heaven's gates closed against even the souls of men getting there. The angels' attitude towards humans are made clear by multiple angels dismissing them as "talking monkeys" and by Gabriel's diatribe to Thomas. Gabriel: I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why. - Angels have Super Strength, agility, and Super Speed that borders on teleportation. They have wings but can hide them under clothes. The only way to kill an angel is to rip out or stake their hearts. Gabriel specifically is shown to be able to make people fall asleep just by telling them to, set things on fire by muttering a few phrases and bring back people who have committed suicide and make them immortal and invulnerable. - In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Anakin asks if Padmé's an angel, having heard that they were beautiful creatures from the moons of Iego. He eventually visits Iego and meets one in Star Wars: The Clone Wars; they're winged and very glowy, and one of the game sourcebooks gives the race's actual name as the Diathim. - The Ten Commandments (1956) depicted the angel of death as a sinister green mist that descends from the sky and then spreads over Egypt. - In Time Bandits, the greedy, clumsy, quarrelsome dwarves are God's servants. However, it's never stated that they are actually angels. - In the Wishmaster movies, they're locked in an eternal war with the demonic Djinn, with the Djinn noting that he's trampled their wings beneath his feet in his conquests. They can manifest themselves by possessing a human, have healing hands, and swords that can kill the otherwise immortal Djinn. Their morality varies, as some like Michael are undeniably good, while others are very much in Knight Templar territory in their quest to defeat the Djinn. - Wristcutters: A Love Story has Kneller, a Cloudcuckoolander Hidden Badass who runs a commune in a purgatory reserved for suicides. He works within the bureaucratic machine to \|\|bring the protagonist back to life at the end.\|\| - The girl in Ed Sheeran's music video for "Give Me Love". She appears to be a human who inexplicably grows a pair of wings, gains a magical bow and arrow and becomes a Cupid. Initially played for tragedy since she makes so many others fall in love it seems she is doomed to remain alone forever. Until she stabs herself with one of her own arrows and shares a moment with a paramedic trying to revive her. - The song The Marching of the Fey by the German gothic metal band Atargatis describes the descending of the angels from Heaven to destroy the Humanity for its sins. - "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler: These female wingless angels wear gold and white in the music video, and they invoke a choir of angelic singing for a cowboy hero to show up. - As a general rule, the Abrahamic religions view angels as supernatural beings created by God as servants, messengers and attendants; while respected, they are very emphatically not to be worshipped. They are understood to serve a number of purposes in Creation, ranging from battling demons to watching over mortals. While holy and pure, they are also understood as not being as important, cosmically speaking, as humanity, since free-willed mortals are the ones about whom the story of the world ultimately centers. Everything else beyond that — appearance, powers, ranks — varies wildly between religions and denominations. - Angelic hierarchies are a recurring subject, and a number have been devised by religious scholars. Orders within them are often, albeit not universally, referred to as choirs. - The most widely known one today, and the one considered canonical by Catholicism, was created by the theologian and neoplatonic philosopher Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite sometime in the 5th or 6th centuries in a book called De Coelesti Hierarchia. Top to bottom, it counts the Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. - The Jewish scholar Maimonides authored one in the 1100s that, highest to lowest, ranked the angels as the Chayot Ha Kodesh, Ophanim, Erelim, Hashmallim, Seraphim, Malakim, Elohim, Bene Elohim, Cherubim, and Ishim. - The Zohar, a Jewish religious text that first emerged around the 1200s, lists the ranks as Malakim, Erelim, Seraphim, Chayot, Ophanim, Hashmallim, Elim, Elohim, Bene Elohim, and Ishim. - Jewish scriptures mainly depict angels as bodiless, spiritual beings who serve God as messengers. On occasion, God will speak directly to mortals; most commonly, however, He sends an angel to deliver a warning, command or promise. Angels are also not considered to have free will; each has some specific task to do, and that's that. In Hebrew, they are usually referred to as some variant of malakim ("messengers") or bene Elohim ("sons of God"). - One scholarly Jew, Maimonides, proposed that the amber light coming from God's fire cloud and shining on the angels Ezekiel described was itself an angel of the hashmallim choir. The Dominions of Christian tradition are watered-down versions of the same concept. - Samael is different enough in Jewish folklore already, his being both evil and good at the same time and being so big it would take five hundred years of traveling before someone covered a distance equal to his height (and being covered in eyes). In some Gnostic sects, Samael was equated with Yaltabaoth, a lion-headed serpent that ruled over at least 365 pseudo-angelic archons. - In Zechariah 5:9, there is a passage mentioning two women with stork-like wings bringing a woman representing Wickedness out of Israel to Babylon. These two are probably the closest thing the Bible has to the common concept of winged humanoids associated with angels. - Christianity views angels in broadly the same light as Judaism — that is, messengers of God, spiritual and non-material, pure but inferior to humanity in God's design. In a notable contrast to Jewish and Muslim views on the matter, angels are considered to have free will — at least, enough so as to rebel against God in the earliest days of creation. There was considerable debate in the early Church over whether they have physical bodies or not, eventually settling on the orthodoxy that no, they do not. They are considered to be far more knowledgeable than humans but not omniscient, and have no knowledge of the future outside of what God sees fit to tell them. - Since angels are spiritual beings, they do not strictly have physical appearances. The image of the winged humanoid in robes emerged during the early Middle Ages as an artistic convention to identify angels when they appeared in religious art. - An important concept in Christian angelology is that of the guardian angel, a being created to watch over a single human soul from life to death and give them guidance and protection. - Mormonism views angels as being the spirits of deceased humans or of ones who are not yet born. Consequently, a number of Biblical figures are believed to have become notable angels. - According to Islam, angels are spirits that can take on a human form and were created as a Servant Race to Allah. In art, they are usually depicted as humans with colorful wings. One heavily contested aspect among Islamic scholars is whether or not angels are capable of sinning. Some point to verses saying that they do not disobey God, others point to ones where He tests them as proof they do have free will, but choose to obey Him due to their insights into God's nature. Some traditions regarding the Battle of Badr, where the Muslims defeated an army three times their number, tell that angels actually fought alongside the Muslims in battle. - Some angels are delegated tasks pertaining to humans. There is Gabriel the messenger, but there are also a pair of angels who sit on humans' shoulders and record their deeds, another pair of angels who question human souls upon their entry to Barzakh, and angels who guard the gates of Heaven and Hell. Yes, Hell is guarded by an angel (although he is a very scary one). - When Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was visited by Angel Gabriel to convey the message of God, he was extremely terrified to the point of trembling and seeking for the comfort of his wife (Khadijah), who wrapped him in his cloak. Later on, he sighted the Angel Gabriel as a massive human eclipsing the horizon, something which scared him even more. Anyone would probably shit their pants if they were tasked with such an enormous task in that situation, so this is justified. - The Archons from gnostic works are heavenly regents created by Yaldabaoth (supposed to be the Judeo-Christian Yahweh but also borrows from the platonic demiurge), and the top ones, the Hebdomad, are basically planetary archangels. However, they are at best oppressive and at worst outright hostile, devouring the souls of the dead. To drive the point home, many are equated with actual Hebrew angels. Though the "real" Hebrew angels are occasionally seen in gnostic traditions and are independent, benevolent beings. It's complicated. - Yazatas served a similar role as Angels in Indo-Persian Zoroastrian mythology, with Amesha Spentas being similar to Archangels. Scripture calls them beings worthy of worship or worthy of veneration. At the time Persians and Hebrews got along very well, which lead to several Yazatas and the Amesha Spentas coming to be viewed as angels. One example is the Yazata Sraosha, which became equated with the Angel Surush. - Dakas (male) and Dakinis (female) are protective benevolent spirits in Buddhism very similar to the Norse Valkiries, however they are created by the minds of the Buddhas and thus not fully individual beings. Some people have equated also the Buddhist concept of the Devas as the equivalent of the Buddhist angels as Devas are seen as beautiful spirits living in heaven-like realms, and some of them are protectors of humans. However this is more of a New Age interpretation as Buddhist scripture see Devas more as just another life form alongside humans and animals. - Angels also play a role in many New Age beliefs, being generally seen as the most common pop cultural representations of benevolent good winged humanoid. Similar to other traits from different spiritualities (like karma, chakras or cristals), this is re-interpreted in a more post-modern way with little to no connection with the original biblical conception of angels (who serve chiefly as God's messengers and agents of judgement). Entire seminars are often offered to teach how to contact angels, get their help, use them in spells, and so on, which orthodox Jewish, Christian or Muslim theologians would find toe-curlingly bizarre at best. - Angels also play a role in Western Esotericism and Occultism. This is kind of complex but most of it comes from the Esoteric concept of Theurgy that might originate in some Gnostic and Platonic magical practices of the Classical Age later Christianized. Theurgy consists in invoking the "powers of heavens" and generally working with heavently beings (originally gods, later angels), the opposite of Goetia which is working with demons. This was also a way to rationalize the practice of magic for many Christian esotericists despite the fact that the Bible forbids it. Their argument is that what the Bible forbids is dealing with demons, not magic per se (and indeed many important Western esotericists and ceremonial magicians were devote Christians like Jhon Dee, Eliphas Levi, Michel de Nostradamus and Paracelso, much to both fundamentalist Christians' and modern neo-Pagans/Occult enthusiasts' surprise today). The use of angels in Esoteric work is common in many systems. One of the most famous is the Enochian System developed by John Dee and Edward Kelly in Elizabethan times, later spread in many circles, most notably the Golden Dawn. Similarly angels are also mentioned as part of the divine hierarchy in Theosophy and use in books of many modern Occult writers including the likes of Ben Woodcroft, Damon Brand and Henry Archer, sometimes alongside Goetic demons. Although the exact definition of their nature is often matter of debate, angels (and demons) are seen as powerful otherwordly spirits that can be summoned for help. - The Wandjina deities of the Western Australian "Wandjina-Wungurr" cultural complex resemble Abrahamic angels in a myriad of ways, being luminous beings of light that dwell in the heavens and even have halos (which, also like the halos of Abrahamic angels, tend to get swept into patchwork Ancient Astronauts narratives by conspiracy theorists eager to attribute everything to alien visitors; in this case, the haloes tend to be seen as "obviously" having been inspired by helmet-wearing figures). Like biblical angels they are also unapologetically weird, being among other things also embodiments of the land, spirit ancestors and unborn souls. Many modern Aborigines equate them with Christian angels for good measure. - In Norse Mythology, Valkyries perform many of the same functions as Abrahamic angels, acting as messengers of Odin and gatherers of dead souls. They aren't winged but their horses are. Oh, and they rode wolves before horses. The war god they served was not viewed as a well-intentioned figure in their earlier tales and even after Odin became popular they were still usually the cause of death for the souls they took away. Similar to angels, they were pretty frightening but became associated with beautiful people and such later. - While having a completely different function, the Anemoi (wind gods) of Greek mythology were depicted as angels are today, being, in fact, the origin of their modern winged humanoid appearance. Somewhat closer in the role and also depicted as winged humanoids were Eros, Thanatos, and Hypnos. - Putti, who were profane in Hellenistic culture, were adopted as Christian symbols of God's omnipresence later in Italy. - Supernatural creatures that were not outright gods or monsters were called daemones. Good ones were Eudaemones and, when Christianity became the official religion in the Roman Empire, the righteous dead (saints) and angels became eudaemones... partly why people erroneously think of them as the same thing. - The word tenshi (lit. servants of heaven) is currently the Japanese word for angel. Originally, it referred to a kind of kami whose actual role and form were lost to time. This may have to do with the influence of Buddhism that gave rise to the concept of tennin, Heavenly People, that serve a similar purpose which may explain why they were used as a loan word for Abrahamic angesl. - Certain types of Dragons in Chinese Mythology serve the same purpose to Abrahamic angels, bearing messages from heaven and back and so forth. - The angels in The Account, a podcast audio drama, haven't shown much of themselves, but they're universally acknowledged as bad news in the Midlands, where the story takes place. Earth, which is separate from the Midlands, seems to be the only place they have very good PR. - The angels of Welcome to Night Vale are... interesting. They're probably humanoid; hard to tell in a radio-show format. They like to hang around Old Woman Josie's house, helping her with everyday tasks, and go bowling. They're all called Erika (with a K) and are mostly nude. They are all roughly ten feet tall, have permanent, unsettling smiles, and glow black. All evidence points to them being forces for good since they occasionally protect the town. However, the Sheriff's Secret Police would like to remind you that angels, in fact, do NOT exist, and neither do their hierarchy which you're not allowed to know anything about. - In the 1940s and 50s, angel gimmicks were common in North American wrestling. These tended to be very muscular short men with an abnormal feature of some kind who could rend er opponents unconscious with a palm strike, a trend started by "The World's Ugliest Man" The French Angel, who had migrated to Boston Massachusetts when France fell to the Nazis. His distinct appearance was the result of acromegaly. - Christopher Daniels' primary Red Baron is "The Fallen Angel." He lacks the halo or wings, but he flies just fine without them. - Manami Toyota's Red Baroness was "The Japanese Flying Angel." - Molly Holly posed as a traditional white-winged version in the 2002 WWE Divas magazine. - Justin Gabriel was known in WWE's developmental program as Justin Angel. The same attributes mentioned for Daniels above also apply to him. - Ángel del Mal and In Memoriam, Los Angeles del Inframundo, before the later lost his mask and became Jocker in CMLL anyway. - Old Harry's Game: - Two angels appear in the first episode of Season 7 as moronic middle-management types who have been assigned to oversee the Earth because God's grown bored with it. They're terribly pleased with their positions (and name badges!) but much to Satan's frustration, don't actually have the authority to decide anything, and won't pass messages on because God asked not to be disturbed. Satan relocates their name badges somewhere they'd be difficult to read. - Later episodes feature Gabriel, slightly higher up the chain-of-command, but just as powerless, and a bit of a crawler. God leaves him in Hell in the final episode. - Previously in Season 3, we met three angels including a different Gabriel (his name was actually Graham, but it got mistranscribed). They were very excited about God's new punishment which was even worse than Hell and looked forward to finding a reason to put Satan there. Graham was also responsible for the Fall, having asked Satan to have a word with God. They abandoned this plan, when Scumspawn said that he would be sure to say at the trial how assiduously they had investigated Hell, spending hours watching the demonic orgies. Angels don't have sex, but apparently, they can wish they did. - I Married an Angel. - Angels in America. - In John Milton's Comus, the secret to Virgin Power. So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream and solemn vision Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; - Sable's Grimoire: Raphael, Amadronia Academy's nurse, claims to be an angel. She certainly looks and acts the part, being a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Winged Humanoid who dresses all in white, but several characters are skeptical of her claims. In Eris's route, Sable learns the truth: \|\|Raphael is a white vulture, a type of demihuman with an innate mastery of spiritual magic and the power to feed on people's negative emotions. White vultures are no more divine than any other demihuman, but they masquerade as biblical angels to make it easier to approach—and feed on—the dying and the bereaved\|\|. - Angels in Death's Curtain episodes 1 and 2 are hive-minded, parasitic abominations that enter human hosts whenever they participate in religious rituals. Their goal is to find the link to the soul that all humans share in order to destroy it. They're capable of possessing their hosts and leaving acts of carnage in their wake For the Evulz, and are apparently at war with the Goetic spirits, who want to protect humanity for reasons unknown. - DSBT InsaniT: Angel isn't divine in any sense, has butterfly wings, and looks more like a Christmas ornament more than anything. She can also bring back the dead. - Chris Kyle from Monster Lab (2021) is referred to as "God's Holiest Angel" (\|\|even by God himself\|\|). He's almost all humanoid, and despite his angelic status, he has many of the qualities of a demon. - Murder Drones: The titular Disassembly Drones are essentially robotic destroyer angels. Resembling the Worker Drones except with wings that have feather-like struts, they've been sent from the heavens by the Worker Drones' displeased makers to enact said makers' judgment upon them in the form of total destruction. - Bobby Sykes from Porkchop 'n Flatscreen! is the one angel seen so far. He lacks the halo and his wings can change shape to shield him in combat. He seems to be trying to hide his nature from most people, a fact that Mai exploits in Episode 2. - Afraid of Monsters (Ozkosar): Angels are albino humanoids with one to three pairs of wings, and a third eye at the end of a tail. They appear to cry blood and have soothing auras around humans. They have powers based on Biblical references like miracles and plagues according to Word of God. - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Angels are the souls of the virtuous gone to heaven (and act like real people, believe me). Heaven accepts souls from every planet in the universe, so angels are mostly aliens united only in ownership of wings and a halo. They can be temporarily banished for committing crimes against Heaven (fallen angels), or leave entirely and become known as devils. There are also cherubim, which are native to heaven, have no souls, and were created by Mikael as Cannon Fodder. - Blip: The Heavenly hosts include white-robed Winged Humanoid chibis, white-robed Winged Humanoid Bishōnen, some Children of the Corn, and at least one former human who's still wearing his street clothes. There's also the Adversary, who may or may not count as an angel, and wears a tuxedo and a White Mask of Doom. Angels serve the will of God and are pretty big assholes. Their asshole qualities are justifiable. In the story, God has a plan for everything in the universe, except for K (the main character). K screws up The Plan. Just the suggestion of anything in the plan is enough to send angels into BSOD mode.) - Catena (see http://catenamanor.com/) by DeBray and Tracy Baily have angels. They're cats. - Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Angels are simply another race of Creatures in Furrae. They have feathered wings and a proficiency with light magic as opposed to the Demons' bat wings and talent for dark magic. Angels aren't a strictly "good" race either; they value power and influence as much as the greediest demon (though there are undoubtedly individual exceptions). \|\|Oh, and they're also slowly dying out for some reason.\|\| - Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell: There's a trio of angels that are, basically, stereotypical stoners, who spend 99% of their time either getting high or trying to figure out how to get high. The other 1% they turn into dead serious, no-nonsense, crazy prophetic guys. - Daughter of the Lilies: When Thistle saves Brent from \|\|the drath, he sees a glowing golden being, with six arms, wings of flame, and halo-like horns studded with eyes, who appears behind her, burns away the drath, and tells him to fear not and that the servants of the One-Who-Is-Three watch over him\|\|. When he asks Thistle about it later, she says that while she's seen a vision of such a being as well she has no idea what they could be beyond hypothesizing them to be enemies of the drath, as she's been unable to find anything said or written about them. - Angelarium by Peter Mohrbacher leans into this trope. Azrael is, for example, depicted with more than a dozen wings, seven arms and tentacles crawling up his throat. He is one of the less weird Angels. - Codex Inversus: The Angels are the inhabitants of the Angelic Unison and one of the dominant species in the setting. In ancient times, they were appointed by the Demiurge to be arbiters of cosmic order; the wake of the Collapse and the end of immortality, they formed into a theocratic nation and remained at odds with the Infernal Empire of the Devils. - In the short story Requiem Aeternam, angels \|\|are hungry\|\|. - Played for humor in It could use a spaceship, said the angel. - In The Antithesis, angels are a species classified as 'Archaeans' (winged, humanoids residing on a planet called The Atrium) and are ruled by Commander Yahweh Telei, who is surprisingly an adolescent prodigy and genetic engineer, suffering from cognitive disorders closely resembling O.C.D. and Asperger's. Angelic society revolves around high science and technology. - In Hitherby Dragons, angels are gods (supernatural beings) that answer emptiness with hope and wear jackets with holes cut out for their wings. They have various powers and are often the result of a person making a promise an ordinary human can't fulfill. Evasive A can grant wishes if the person catches her (but she's uncatchable), Magic A has a non-zero chance of accomplishing anything, Realistic A can provide a pragmatic assessment of the situation and it's best not to think about Forbidden A. - The angels of Kumiko The Demon Girl are fairly standard except that they're explicitly stated to originate from ghosts who performed significant good deeds. Demons have the same origin. - The Lay of Paul Twister: - Paul Twister meets an angel in the first chapter. She looks like a standard Winged Humanoid, but she's able to break iron chains, summon up a flaming sword out of nowhere, and teleport away seemingly at will. Her body shines, how brightly seems to depend on how much she's using her power. She's later described as being a few inches above six feet and incredibly beautiful, although that's apparently rather petite for a Celestial. She's noticeably less snarky than most of the other characters, and she has some unspecified healing powers. She works as a Celestial Paladin, which is apparently more of a cop or agent of some sort than the D&D idea of paladin-as-holy-knight, though she does have a Celestial horse. (Who does not have Pegasus-wings, much to Paul's surprise.) Paul thinks she's the most beautiful woman she's ever met, though he tries hard to keep his lust for her from showing because he knows they really aren't very compatible, personality-wise, what with her being a Lawful Good paladin and him being a magic-breaking thief-for-hire. - Once the ice between them begins to thaw a little, they both begin to talk a bit more freely to each other. She seems to be rather sensitive about her wings, because physics aren't on her side and the local ambient magic isn't strong enough for her to fly without a great deal of difficulty, and they make her feel clumsy and unbalanced. When she complains that they're more of a bother than they're worth at times, Paul responds predictably, followed immediately by a classic Did I Just Say That Out Loud? moment. - Considering that the premise of The Salvation War is essentially a Rage Against the Heavens (and Hell in the first book), angels are the official enemies of humans in that universe. They fit the classic Winged Humanoid model and serve Yahweh, who's shown to be a colossal and self-conceited Jerkass. It's implied that they use the humans in Heaven as power leechers or something similar and that their power is dependent on organized singing in some way. Of particular note is Michael, the military commander who has his own ulterior motives regarding the war against humanity, and Uriel, a powerful angel who has the ability to induce living creatures to simply drop dead (though his effectiveness on humans has diminished noticeably over time). Oh, and angels aren't invulnerable; they can be gunned down or blown up for a veritable shower of white and silver blood. Six-winged Seraphim appear, although they turn out not to be actual Angels. They were one of the many species Yahweh has conquered, kept around essentially as songbirds. - Several possible angels of varying stripes are cataloged by the SCP Foundation. - Dr. Clef's proposal for SCP-001 is a titanic glowing figure with a variable number of wings (ranging from 2 to 108) apparently guarding a gate and will destroy anything that approaches with his sword, including an ICBM; it is clearly meant to be a bona fide Judeo-Christian Angel as they were ORIGINALLY conceptualized. It's somewhat implied that it's specifically the angel which guards the gate back into Eden. According to what might have been a message from the future, it will eventually destroy the world. It actually has a name, too. Courtesy of The Other Wiki, meet Archangel Jophiel. That also makes him one of the Cherubim chiefs. - SCP-469 is a large humanoid figure with countless white-feathered wings sprouting from its back which spends its time curled up in a fetal position on the floor, resembling a huge pile of feathers. Any form of sound causes it to grow more wings and feathers and it agonizingly kills any living creature that touches it to feed off their screaming. Oh, and in a macabre Shout-Out to It's a Wonderful Life, ringing a bell within earshot of it will cause it to wake up and do something unspecified but presumably horrific. - Finally SCP-861 is a large, elastic ball of "pseudorganic matter" capable of manifesting numerous different organs and appendages, ranging from feathered wings to shark fins. Oh, and anyone who comes near it has a chant foretelling the end of the world projected into their head in Biblical Hebrew, driving anyone who understands it insane. - WHAT COLOR ARE YOU?: One appears to the player near the end of their journey during the game segment to try and guide them back to God's path for them, looking like a giant eyeball with four wings. They become enraged when the player refuses to follow them, declaring that they must be lost and deluded to think that they know better. They eventually become so enraged that they explode in a burst of divine light and white feathers, leaving behind only their eye. - The Nostalgia Critic Christmas Special: Orlando the guardian angel is pretty much like the one in It's a Wonderful Life, except that he can feel pain, get hurt and, \|\|apparently, get killed by a gun\|\|. Also \|\|he tries to kill his charge on realizing how much better things would be for everyone including himself if the Critic wasn't around\|\|. - On Adventure Time, Finn is once rescued from danger by a guardian angel...\|\|who then tries to eat him\|\|. Whether this means she was lying about being an angel is unknown. - The CBeebies series Angelmouse is about an angel, who is also a mouse. He has wings and a halo, which he calls his "thingimagig", and is given missions to do good deeds by "You Know Who". If he neglects these missions, his halo wobbles and shrinks. - In Angels of Jarm, the eponymous angels wear normal human clothing as opposed to the usual white robes; the fact that they look exactly like humans is pointed out in the end credits song. They also wear mechanical packs on their backs with retractable wings instead of having wings as part of their bodies. - Played rather bizarrely in the second Futurama movie "Beast With A Billion Backs," where \|\|what appear to be Angels turn out to be mindless birds. That look exactly like Winged Humanoids wearing robes. And live on the back of a sentient planet that inspired Fluffy Cloud Heaven, and pick parasites off its skin\|\|. - Bill Plympton's feature Idiots and Angels is about a Jerkass who grows a pair of wings that forces him to be nice against his will. - In the South Park episode "Best Friends Forever" several angels appear, with some of them having a high resemblance to the characters from The Lord of the Rings movies. - In Todd McFarlane's Spawn, Angels generally appear as badass Amazon-style bounty hunters who come to earth to kick demon ass. While God and Heaven are necessarily remote elements in the story, it seems that Light Is Not Good is the rule in this show since, as one character puts it, Heaven is more interested in winning the war than in playing nice while doing it.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurAngelsAreDifferent
Our Ancestors Are Superheroes - TV Tropes " I fell 8,000 feet and landed on some jagged rocks. Of course, people were a lot tougher in those days. I was jitterbuggin' that very night! " This trope refers to those plots where it is shown that an ancestor, some ancestors of a certain folk or a whole ancient culture possessed superhuman abilities. These abilities may be exaggerated beyond the point of religious belief and break the wall into the superhero genre. If priests are shown to sport not only rare knowledge in martial arts but also pyrokinesis or the ability to fly, if Richard the Lionhearted suddenly sports Wolverine Claws, or if Hammurabi starts smothering the forces of evil with buzzing laserbeams and the help of his water-controlling sidekick, then congratulations: Your ancestors have just become superheroes. There are some varieties to this trope: - The Legend becomes more legendary: A single, famous person like a king, general or folk hero is shown with non-historical, superhuman abilities which may or may not be based on the religion at that time. It is important to notice that these superhuman abilities are not the usual wonders as in The Bible, but show a more personal and anachronistic profile. - Some people beyond our time had superpowers and met in secret societies or similar. However, for some reason, those went extinct or went under the radar, so that today their offspring don't know about their heritage or abilities until they realize they've got superpowers. At this point the often meet Mr. Exposition, who shows them their way of handling the powers inside and explain the goals of their ancestors which the offspring is usually intended to pursue. - The other ancestors Precursors not only sported highly advanced technology but also had superpowers which we didn't inherit only because our own ancestors were too busy killing them off. Somehow. Compare Rock Beats Laser. Superhuman ancestry can be used to justify Heroic Lineages, Royalty Superpowers, and the Divine Right of Kings (literally, if the royal line is a product of Divine Parentage). It is also a potential justification for Ancestral Weapons that Only the Chosen May Wield. Compare with: Precursors and Here There Were Dragons, as well as Beethoven Was an Alien Spy, in which a historical figure is not necessarily a precursor or supernatural. ## Examples: - Naruto: Modern shinobi are descendants of the Otsutsuki, an extended clan of beings from another world. The Otsutsuki were extremely powerful and possessed both physical and learned abilities that made them superhuman compared even to most modern shinobi. This is because after destroying themselves with in-fighting, the remaining Otsutsuki interbred with normal humans, which either diluted their Superpowerful Genetics throughout the generations, caused their powerful jutsus to become restricted to a few specific bloodlines, or both. - One of the core tenants of the Nasuverse — in the beginning of humanity's history, during the age of gods, humans were capable of incredible feats, but over time as the world's mysteries (the source of magic's power) disappeared, so did humanity's power to the point where individual humans are the weakest that they will ever be. However eventually, should humanity survive long enough and not fall into decline, our descendants may become superheroes again, leading to Angel Notes. - The superhumanly powerful Headmasters from Mamoru Nagano's The Five Star Stories are the last remnants of the ancient precursor civilization known as the Farus Di Kanon, or the Super Empire. - In the manga Elfen Lied, the Kakuzawa family assert that they descend from the pure, original diclonii, who lived in the Japanese Middle Ages and inspired the myths of gods and demons due to humans fear of them. Their attempt to help humanity advance went horribly wrong and resulted only in the diclonius-powers diminishing to nothingness due to the dilution of their DNA. Humanity then hunted them to near-extinction. However, Kakuzawa has nothing to back up his claim, and considering that this origin makes very little sense, the other characters believe that the Big Bads ancestors were ordinary humans who just had a genetic mutation which resulted in horns, but no special powers. The elder Kakuzawa did sire a real Diclonius, but this doesnt settle anything due to how he came into being. - YuYu Hakusho: The main protagonist, Yusuke is descended of Raizen, the demon world's most powerful demon and one of the Three Kings. His demon side manifests after being killed in battle by Sensui. - In DC Comics' title The Great Ten, Thundermind is a character that resembles a kind of Bodhisattva, an enlightened Buddhist with superhuman powers (siddhis) like invisibility, bilocation, super strength, super speed, telekinesis and telepathy. He is the powerhouse of the team. However, although it absolutely contrasts with the understanding of an enlightened Buddhist, these powers can be knocked on or off. In reality, Thundermind is a high school teacher who is in love with his colleague Ms. Wu; however, love is something an enlightened Buddhist wouldn't feel, because it's a passion. He also uses a Dixie toilet to change into Thundermind à la Clark Kent by a magical incantation. - Age of Bronze: Two guys on opposite sides of a battle stop fighting because they're both grandsons of Herakles (who was a charismatic warlord rather than an actual demigod in this verse). - Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do: Garrison and Francis are descended from concentration camp inmates who were implanted with mutant genetic material by Nazi experiments. - Superman: - Child of the Storm: - The Grey family are descended from a supposedly defunct Askani bloodline, with weak to moderate powers cropping up a couple of times a century. However, unlike most examples, none of them were even remotely as powerful as Harry, let alone Jean Grey who \|\|(along with her stolen twin, Maddie Pryor)\|\| is the single most powerful human-born psychic of all time. - The Kryptonian traditionally prominent 'High Blood' families formed an oligarchy and are the only ones to have the full Flying Brick power set under a Yellow Sun, with the rest being limited to Golden Age powers. However, they didn't become prominent because they gained these powers, but the other way around — their prominence meant that in the age of exploration, they were the ones to make political marriages with compatible alien nobility, which granted Hybrid Vigour on their descendants by replacing some Restraining Bolt genes. In the case of the House of El, this marriage was to an Asgardian, granting what is implied to be a very, very limited resistance to magic. - The current Asgardian royal family are descended from Frey, the first King of Divine Asgard after the ascension during the last days of the War for the Dawn against Surtur, as the proto-Odinforce latched onto him thanks to him being chosen by the Empathic Weapon that it was connected to. They're all particularly powerful as a result, and more recent generations have Titan/Elder God blood thanks to Bor's marriage to Theia (sister of Rhea, the mother of Zeus, and daughter of Gaia). Harry's also got the psychic package from the Grey family. - Diana is the daughter of Hercules and Hippolyta. - Officer Misako: The Mad Scientist's technology guarantees this after The Reset. - Tales of the Otherverse: The "A New Generation" main character Cora Zir-El, who is a super-intelligent Flying Brick thanks to her Kryptonian, Coluan and Daxamite ancestors. - Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation: The main characters Alan Kent and Katherine de Ka'an are the 25th Century descendants of the original Superman and Supergirl, respectively. Bron Wayn is the original Batman's direct descendant. - The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (2006) shows Tutanchamun sporting golden wings, flighty abilities and some kind of energy powers while fighting against abominable demon-like creatures and a disfigured Seth. - Wanted: Wesley is unknowingly descended from a secret society of assassins dating back centuries with innate superhuman powers. - The Final Sacrifice has the ancient Xiox civilization, which the cultists are descended from (and which Rowsdower is only a halfbreed descendant of.) Before being cursed by their gods, the Xiox had the power to make floating cities and, if Sartorus is any indication, at least some of them had psychic powers as well. - The beginning of 300 has We Spartans are descended from Hercules himself. The rest of the movie is essentially the Spartans living up to that. - In one of the later My Teacher Is an Alien books, the protagonists learn that all humans were once telepaths. People eventually suppressed this ability because of the growing population — contact with so many other minds would have driven them insane otherwise. This is used to explain, in part, why Humans Are Bastards sometimes, as they evolved to coexist using a means of communication and understanding which they no longer possess. - In Vasiliy Golovachov's The Envoy, the protagonist accidentally becomes a new Envoy after witnessing the assassination of the last one. He occasionally gets glimpses of his ancestors via Genetic Memory, who were ancient Russian knights with nigh-superhuman abilities. - Played with in The Chrysalids, given that current Labrador society has only the vaguest idea of technology (they do keep a basic steam engine around just as a sort of museum curiosity, apparently either unaware of or uninterested in how it could be used). It's suggested the 'Old People' had superhuman intelligence, the power to move mountains at a whim, and could even fly. A companion rumor, first mentioned by Uncle Axel, holds that they could also communicate with each other over long distances — just like David & company. - Harry Potter: It's believed being Randomly Gifted comes from having a witch or wizard somewhere in their ancestry, though once the Death Eaters come to power anyone but those who have an immediate wizarding relative are considered to have "stolen" their magic (it's not explained how) and referred to as "Mudbloods". - Voldemort is descended from one of Hogwarts' founders (a Parselmouth, a rare ability that allowed him to speak with snakes) and believes in the purity of blood (despite the fact that most of the pureblood families are heavily inbred, and he himself is half-Muggle), while both he and Harry are descended from a family of wizards who may have created extremely potent magic items or were given them by Death itself. - Fleur Delacour is repeatedly described as extremely beautiful note : her sister Gabrielle has a slightly lesser effect, but she's only eleven and entrancing to men. It turns out her grandmother is a veela, a siren-like magical creature. - In the Gleams of Aeterna, all direct majorat descendants (irrespective of bastardy and legitimacy) of the four original Elemental Lords and of their sixteen Vassals possess elemental and martial superpowers — too bad that almost all knowledge of this magic form has been lost to time, so it can really only manifest every 400 years. The origin of these powers is, in fact, that the first Elemental Lords were the sons of the four creator deities who brought Quertiana (the Constructed World of the novels) into existence in the first place, so the four Lords are functionally descended from literal gods. - Stargate Atlantis not only has Ancient Astronauts, but they also sport non-technological superpowers, like telepathy. - Teyla is revealed to be descended from humans who were experimented on by the Wraith, which gave them (and her, and others like her) the ability to sense the presence of Wraith. This ability also allows her to tap into the Wraith psychic network and even temporarily possess a Wraith. Of course, it works both ways. - Sanctuary pegs Nikola Tesla as a vampire with electric, and later magnetic, powers, Doctor Watson as a super-human genius, and Jack the Ripper as a teleporting bloodthirsty maniac. - Also, humans used to be slaves to an ancient society of vampires before we rebelled and killed them all (Tesla is not a true vampire). - And there is, apparently, an entire advanced civilization living in sprawling cities deep underground. The D'ni, perhaps. - The Bible: - The Book of Genesis depicts the first humans as living for anywhere from 300 to 900 years, even the ones who didn't have god-given superpowers. There is implication that humans were originally created immortal with natural abilities that could be considered superhuman, but greatly diminished after the Fall from God's grace and have been further declining over time, healthcare and technology notwithstanding. - Genesis also mentions the Nephilim breeding with humans, creating what amounts to demigods who became legendary heroes. But they were wiped out in the Flood, so they're not exactly our ancestors. - In Dharmic religions (mainly Hinduism and Buddhism), humanity is steadily declining due to loss of virtues. The most noticeable decline is the decline of lifespan — what started as hundreds of years long will eventually be as short as a couple years. On the other hand, the decline will eventually be reversed, allowing our distant descendants to be superheroes. - Most heroes in epic poetry: Gilgamesh, Achilles, Hercules. The Iliad specifically mentions characters singlehandedly tossing around huge boulders that two men could barely lift "such as men are now." - The Odyssey: Odysseus is actually an aversion; he has no special powers beyond being a really devious and clever man (and knowing how to string a recurve bow; which, again, relies on a trick and not on brute force). - Celtic Mythology: The Milesians/Gaels, the ancestors of the modern Irish, were descendants of Donn the god of death and storms, were said to be such powerful sorcerers and mighty warriors that they not only did they wage war on the gods themselves, but got the gods to sue for peace. - Ryugu Academy: The in-universe explanation as to why 'normal' students have powers is that at some point in their family tree, their ancestors did the squiggle dance with another species, making it so that even those who deem themselves humans aren't exactly 100% human. - The Adeptus Astartes of Warhammer 40,000 are slowly transformed from ordinary if battle-hardened humans to the seven-foot-tall Super Soldiers by regular genetic therapy from the geneseed of the fifteen-foot tall quasi-war god Primarchs, which is why they share some of their personality traits. The Primarchs themselves were created from the genetic material of the Emperor, and a diluted version of the process creates the Grey Knights and the Adeptus Custodes, who are to Astartes what Astartes are to normal humans. - Assassin's Creed: While Desmond Miles knows he grew up in an assassin compound, he is shocked to discover the truth about his ancestors. Both Altair and Ezio, for example, have the Eagle Vision ability, which allows them to distinguish friend from foe and even see things that are hidden. Due to the "bleeding effect" of the Animus, he gains that ability as well. The assassins were also master engineers, as they had technology centuries ahead of the rest of humanity. Not to mention the whole First Civilization plotline, which is pure Ancient Astronauts. - Golden Sun: Dark Dawn makes a recurring plot point out of the ancestral Adepts known as Jenei, whereas earlier games in the series pretty much hand-waved Adept-hood as the result of Psynergy Stones. How this affects the Adepts who emerged from non-Adept communities in said previous games isn't shown. - In Final Fantasy VII there were the Cetra, later called the Ancients. They were gifted with powerful magic and a high affinity toward the planet and the lifesteam allowing them insights such as if someone has died and rejoined the lifesteam. Sephiroth states that humans are decendants of the Cetra who forsook their migratory ways (and lost their magic powers) and hid in fear (thus surviving) when Jenova was busy wiping out the Cetra who tried to protect the planet from her/it. - Hyrule: Total War: Magical power was very common amongst Ancient Hylians, until The Magic Goes Away. - In the Diablo universe, the original humans of Sanctuary were the offspring of angels and demons, and were known as the Nephalem. The Nephalem had great power from both their angelic and demonic ancestry, and such was this power that it was feared that the Nephalem would eclipse both angels and demons alike. So the Worldstone was tuned to weaken the Nephalem's powers with each successive generation until the species became the humans we know today. Following the destruction of the Worldstone at the end of Diablo II, the Nephalem have begun to reappear, capable of doing many things normal humans would believe impossible, including \|\|bringing low both the reincarnation of Tathamet himself and the Archangel of Death\|\|. - In The Elder Scrolls series, this is part of the religious philosophy of the Altmer (High Elves). They believe that the other "lesser" races of Mer are the result of "degeneration" over the ages, with each generation being weaker than the last as they are one more removed from their divine Aedric/Ehlnofey ancestors. The Altmer actively try to breed themselves back into their ideal (including, according to some sources, the culling of undesirable progeny), to maintain a perceived level of "purity". - Warcraft: - All of the Titan-forged races (humans, dwarves, gnomes, and the unplayable troggs, tol'vir and mogu) were created by the Precursor Titans to help form Azeroth. They were originally powerful golems made of stone or metal, and were capable of moving mountains on their own. After the Titans left, the Old Gods afflicted the Titan-forged with the Curse of Flesh, which weakened their bodies and minds to leave them ripe for corruption. - In particular, humans were devolved heavily. They were originally the Vrykul, a colossal race of proud warriors. The Curse of Flesh first transformed them into brutish vikings, but further mutation resulted in their offspring becoming comparatively tiny. - Goblins were once a diminutive race (likely pygmies) who were forced to mine kaja'mite for their troll overlords. The exposure to kaja'mite slowly mutated the goblins, turning them into supergenius-level creatures that rivaled even the mechagnomes. Eventually though, the kaja'mite boost wore off, leaving the goblins still smart but utterly insane (and prone to exploding). - Mortal Kombat: - Bi-Han and Kuai Liang, the first and second Sub-Zeroes, are descended from the Cryomancers, a race of Outworlders (later retconned into Edenians) who had the power to control, shape and manipulate ice. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Kuai Liang meets another Cryomancer descendant named Frost whom he takes on as an apprentice. Unfortunately, she betrays him. - Johnny Cage's bio in Mortal Kombat 9 reveals that he is descended from a race of superhuman warriors who were bred by a cult to serve as champions for the gods. In Mortal Kombat X, Johnny's daughter, Cassie Cage, has inherited the abilities Johnny possesses. Mortal Kombat 11 reveals that Johnny's bloodline got their powers from Fujin. - Kung Lao, Kung Jin and possibly Liu Kang are descendants of the Great Kung Lao, the original Earthrealm Champion of Mortal Kombat. - In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the Edenians' long life spans and supernatural powers are attributed to them being descended from the gods. - The Hayabusa Clan from Ninja Gaiden is descended from a tribe of half-human, half-Fiend warriors who sided with the Heavenly Dragons against the Fiends. This tribe became known as the Dragon Lineage and their battles against the Fiends continues from generation to generation, all the way down to their current descendant Ryu Hayabusa. At one point, Doku uses this connection to try and turn Ryu into a Fiend. - Devil May Cry: - Subverted with Lucia in Devil May Cry 2. She initially believes she is descended from demon-human hybrids as a member of the Protectors Clan, but she is revealed to be \|\|a demon created by the villain Arius\|\|. - Lady from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is a devil hunter with Charles Atlas Superpower and is descended from a priestess who helped Sparda seal a gateway to the demon world two thousand years ago. - Nero is the grandson of the demon Sparda who saved humanity from an invasion from the demon world two thousand years ago. This was hinted at in the fourth game and confirmed in the fifth one. - Fire Emblem: - Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776: The society of Judgral is organized along the "holy" bloodlines of the Twelve Crusaders: twelve warriors who have been granted superpowers by the Divine Dragon Naga to fight off evil dragon invasion centuries ago. The Twelve are revered as demigods in the modern times and their direct descendants form noble houses that have divvied up pretty much the entire lands of Judgral among themselves. In addition to historical prestige, the "holy blood" inherited by their descendants grants them minor superpowers of their own and, more importantly, allows them to wield the insanely powerful Ancestral Weapons of their respective Crusader ancestors. - Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Inspired by Genealogy, the game features a similar setup with all noble houses of Fodlan descended from either the Ten Elites (warriors who defeated the Big Bad Nemesis in the backstory) or the Four Saints (actually five, if you count Saint Seiros). Those descended from these ancient figures may occasionally manifest their "Crests" (blood-borne superpowers) and, in the case of the Ten Elites' descendants, wield their signature Ancestral Weapons, the Relics. It is eventually revealed (specifically in the Verdant Wind route) that \|\|the Saints have actually been the last survivors of the draconic Nabatean species, and their "descendants" were actually humans they gave their dragon blood to. The Ten Elites, meanwhile, were actually bandits who killed most of said species, drank their blood, made Relics out of their bones, but were later rewritten as folk heroes\|\|. Either way, both the Saints and the Elites have clearly been superhuman figures, and so are their descendants. A recurring theme of the game is how the Fodlan nobility's obsession with preserving their magical bloodlines (not-so-subtly encouraged by The Church of Seiros) causes social stagnation and Medieval Stasis of the continent. - He had a pocket full of horses/Fucked the shit out of bears/Threw a knife into heaven/And could kill with a stare/He made love like an eagle/Falling out of the sky/Killed his sensei in a duel/And he never said why!/Oh, Washington! Washington!/Twelve stories high, made of radiation/The present beware, the future beware/He's coming, he's coming, he's coming!	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurAncestorsAreSuperheroes
Our Fairies Are Different - TV Tropes Even in the same game, they're different. Theo: You're pretty hard-boiled, Tinker Bell. Applecore: Call me that name again and you'll be wondering how your bollocks wound up lodged in your windpipe from below. Just because we don't get to your side of things much anymore doesn't mean we don't know anything. 'If you believe in fairies, clap your hands!' If you believe in fairies, kiss my rosy pink arse is more like it. Now are you going to shut your gob or not? Fairies today are thought of as little or human sized Winged Humanoid with butterfly wings, that fly around in a sea of sparkles, and have magical powers (including granting wishes). This is not the original concept; genuine folkloric fairies are alien, dangerous, powerful, and not always winged. Although these vary depending on the story (hence the trope title). Much like Demons, what classifies as "Fairy" is often as varied as "Mammal" or "Alien". Four standard forms stand out, however: - A tiny humanoid, usually with insect wings, between one and twelve inches tall. Variations other than size include skin or hair colors, the type of wings they have, what they wear (if anything), and often whether or not they generate their own light. These are usually called some variation of "fairy", "sprite", or "pixie". - A small, often old-looking or childlike, humanoid between one and three feet tall. Leprechauns are the most common type seen, but other types such as brownies, redcaps or spriggans are often common. Gnomes and even goblins may also fall into this category. - An inhumanly beautiful/graceful human-sized humanoid, often with pointed ears. Usually an elf in all but name with more overt magical nature or ability than your "standard" fantasy elves. Sometimes they are that work's version of elves. Other common variations are water (often called nereids or undines) or tree/forest fey (usually called nymphs or dryads). Others may have animal features, such as a stag's head, goat legs, or a fox's tail, or plant features like wooden skin or vines wrapping around their body (especially nymphs/dryads). These always seem to be near or at the top of the fairy totem pole. They'll usually be called some variation of "fae" or "sidhe" note : pronounced "Shee". - Animal-like beings that often verge on Animalistic Abominations, typically with a taste for human flesh or souls, or, barring that, are harbingers of doom or bringers of disease and hardship. More benign ones may be benevolent (or, at the very least, not actively malevolent), but, like most fae, should be approached with great caution and a good deal of knowledge of what you're getting yourself into. They are often also shapeshifters, though this is not a hard-and-fast rule, while others may be Mix-and-Match Critters or have some anthropomorphic traits. Common examples include pucas, water horses, and barghests/black dogs. - They also may or may not be exclusively female. Regardless of size, many fairies also have wings, usually iridescent or butterfly-like. Whether or not they have wings, and what kind they have, are often another difference between fairy species'. But these are hardly the full extent of what Fairies can be. Just as Dragons can encompass many related creatures, fairies can include other mythological/fantasy creatures such as satyrs, nymphs, merfolk, and even trolls, ogres and giants. They often hang around with animals (especially Unicorns), which might possibly be Fay (or the equivalent) themselves. A common form is a Fairy Godmother, who gives characters help with wishes. Although modern stories will heavily add Be Careful What You Wish For. Borrowing from British mythology, Fairies are often divided into Courts. The most common are the Seelie or Summer Court, and the Unseelie or Winter Court. Summer fairies are usually depicted are being more benevolent (for a given value of benevolent), and tend to include types like Sprites, nymphs, satyrs and high elves. Winter fairies on the other hand are typically seen as wicked, and include types like redcaps, boggarts, trolls, and dark elves. This isn't always a case of Always Chaotic Evil, however, and it's just as possible for a summer fairy to kidnap a child as a winter fairy is to save you from a blizzard. Some works play it straight, while others see it as lighter and darker shades of Blue and Orange. Fairy Tales often involve fairies, at least they do nowadays, but that term comes from Madame d'Aulnoy's Les Contes de Fées. The original folk tales seldom involved them, and even if they did, it was only in Western European folklore. note : The Brothers Grimm expurgated all the Fees in their first edition on the grounds that they were French, not German, folklore. A Super-Trope to: - Alien Fair Folk: Either fairies who look like aliens, or aliens mistaken for fairies. - The Fair Folk: These kind of fairies may very well not be harmless, and this can range from impulsively acting without consequence to outright wickedness. - Fairy Companion: A fairy that hangs around a particular character, most often giving help in various ways. The quality of the help may vary. - Fairy Dragons: Diminutive dragons with fairy wings, often directly linked to fairies in some manner. - Fairy in a Bottle: For when playing high-stakes roulette by trapping a demon or a genie just won't do.... - Fairy Godmother: A fairy patron who grants a limited number of wishes and looks out for a particular character, but doesn't generally stick around to do so. - Fairy Devilmother: Pretty much same as the above, but on Evil. So, even if the effects of any wish isn't technically an outright curse, it's still going to be as dangerous as one. - Fairy Sexy: Smokin' hot fairies; actual fire optional. - Fairy Trickster: This or any of its sister tropes, and The Trickster. - Fauns and Satyrs: Wingless, goat-legged fairies notorious for their appetites. - House Fey: Brownies, hobgoblins (traditional ones), house elves, Christmas elves... all domestically inclined, usually small, often helpful, always protective and not to be taken lightly. Or insulted. - Leprechaun: The most common Irish, as well as male fairy in fiction. - Our Nymphs Are Different: While strictly speaking originating in an entirely different mythical tradition, nymphs of various sorts are often classified as fey in fantasy settings. - Our Pixies Are Different: Wings, size, glow, abilities, clothes, weapons and meanness may vary. - Peeve Goblins: Beings (often but not always fairies) made up to explain life's inconveniences. - Spark Fairy: No need for a phone or a flashlight with these dots of light flying about. Beware possible heightened fire risk or dazzling. - Will-o'-the-Wisp: Also balls of a usually colder brand of ethereal light. Can be used as guides, if you like. Bad, bad, bad idea, though. - Tooth Fairy: Leave a tooth under a pillow as you sleep and gain a coin. And, perhaps, free Nightmare Fuel. - The Wild Hunt: While many cultural variations exist, British Isles variants are almost always made up of fairies. See also Our Elves Are Different, for a type of fictional creatures originally closely tied — or synonymous with — fairies but which in modern fiction has become something else entirely. Compare Our Angels Are Different and Our Mermaids Are Different. Not to be confused with a euphemism for gay men. ## Examples: - Berserk: The Fairy Companions Puck and Ivalera (stated to be of a race of Elves) are revealed to actually be a sort of wind spirit. - In Cardcaptor Sakura, many of the spirit forms of the Clow Cards appear humanoid, with a majority of them resembling elves or fairies. - Digimon: - Digimon Adventure has Palmon's Ultimate Form — Lilymon. She takes the form of a pink flower pixie with the power to shoot energy out of a "Flower Cannon". Her Mega Form — Rosemon — is quite similar though overlaps with Lady of War. - Digimon Frontier has Izumi Orimoto (Zoe in the English dub), whose Human Spirit form is Fairymon (or Kazemon). - Durarara!! focuses heavily on a Dullahan who rides a headless horse disguised as a motorbike around modern day Japan. - The five main characters of Fairy Ranmaru are all fairies who are disguised as humans. As fairies, they don't look much different from humans aside from having wings and Pointy Ears. The fairy world they hail from is ruled by the Fairy Queen and runs on a Hive Caste System, with each of the fairies hailing from one of the five fairy clans. - Hetalia: Axis Powers: A few of the tiny humanoid variety appear. They, along with the other magical creatures of the world, are Invisible to Normals, and they're the close friends of both England and Norway. - Humanity Has Declined takes place in a future where fairies have become Earth's dominant species. They're about 10 centimeters tall, don't have wings, grin stupidly constantly, have undefined supernatural powers, and really like sweets. Oh, and they're apparently evolved from normal humans (who are still around, but dying out). - Modest Heroes: The Kanini & Kanino story briefly shows fairies with dragonfly wings and tails flying above the river the titular characters live in. Given how they find a detached wing underwater and use it to distract a large trout from eating them, it's implied that the fairies also get snatched up by fish on occasion. - In the Pretty Cure franchise, all fairies are different. They don't even look remotely human, being Ridiculously Cute Critters instead, and every series shows another kind of fairies from different worlds. Most fairies can transform into something, e.g. Transformation Trinkets or humans, and some of them have special powers to support the heroines. A few mascots are able to fight, and two of them are even heroines themselves. - The Seven Deadly Sins: King and his sister, Elaine, are long living child-like wingless humanoids capable of levitating themselves and other things. King, though, can transform himself into an older, fatter version of himself as he sees it as a form of respect when dealing with royals and others. - Soul Eater has the fairies that live in the cave where Excalibur resides. Like everyone else they can't stand him. - Sword Art Online: The second story arc introduces an MMO called ALfheim Online, with all players playing as fairies. By the end of the arc, everyone from SAO is playing, with each player using a different race: - Kirito selects a Spriggan, a race that specializes in illusory magic and treasure-finding (making this race fairly unpopular, since neither skill is useful in combat). - Leafa, the second story arc's deuteragonist, is a Sylph, and as such specializes in wind-based magic and high agility. - Asuna plays an Undine. Her race's forte is support and healing magic and underwater combat. She also has an alternate Sylph character. - Lizbeth selects Leprechaun as her race. While having no combat specializations, it's an ideal class for item crafters. - Silica plays a Cait Sith. Aside from being agile, Cait Siths are the only race in the game that can be beast tamers. - Klein rolls a Salamander, specialists in fire-based magic and possessing naturally-enhanced strength. - Agil picks Gnome as his race. Gnomes specialize in earth-based magic and, among the other fairy races, are quite massive. - In Wandaba Style, one of the characters sees invisible fairies that look like small, bald, musclebound, winged men. - Magic: The Gathering: Faeries appear in multiple sets and planes as diminutive insect-winged humanoids. They are typically aligned with Blue, the color of magic, thought and mentalism. - In Ravnica, faeries are mischievous Blue-aligned tricksters who often play pranks on other natives of the plane. - In Lorwyn, they're often particularly insect-like, with insectoid legs and antennas, and are cruel and mean-spirited tricksters. Unlike other depictions, they don't live particularly long, often just a few years, and spend their lives pursuing amusement, often at the expense of others. They're particularly fascinated by the dreams of other races, which they frequently harvest. The faeries and their Queen, Oona, are also \|\|the only creatures not affected by the Great Aurora that periodically turns the idyllic Lorwyn into the dark and haunted Shadowmoor and back\|\|. There's also a variant of faeries named groundlings, which do not have wings. - In Eldraine, faeries vary widely in size and are divided into three types. Meddling fae are aligned with White, human-sized and very morally-minded, wandering around human lands to help or punish people based on their actions. Thieving fae, the most common type, are aligned with Blue, no larger than an apple and delight in stealing objects. Prankster fae, aligned with Black, are the size of human children, have batlike wings and yellow eyes, and are particularly malicious in nature. Regardless of type, they all live in the Wilds and are opposed to the five knightly courts. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: "Fairy" is one of the twenty-odd monster types in the game, and encompasses fairies of all kinds as well as angels (as that was indeed the type's name in Japanese). It's also the go-to categorization for various otherworldly or supernatural creatures, from Lovecraftian alien abominations to crystalline constructs to magical idol singers. - The elves of Hans Christian Andersen's stories are pretty standard winged human-type fairies, except that they're very tiny, being variously the size of a human thumb, to knee-high to a mouse, to literally microscopic. They also have particularly Bizarre Taste in Food, using hemlock juice as salad dressing, for instance. - In "Heart of Ice (Andrew Lang)", fairies are mostly humanoid, have reality-warping powers -can change shape, transform people and objects into animals, cast curses...-, and are prone to meddle with human affairs (whether humans like or not). - In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "The Three Flowers", Katie's brothers find a wood sprite in a cottage in the middle of a vast forest. The unnamed sprite is a tiny and shy humanoid creature who is afraid of humans and tries to stay out of their way. Schönwerth includes a brief description of wood sprites according to German folktales: "Wood sprites, or forest sprites, are tiny creatures that make their homes near hearths. Their clothing is made of spun moss that hangs in ropelike strands from trees. We think of them as enchanted beings hounded by phantom hunters. They live together as married couples and bear children. Their enemies are the phantom hunters, who rage through the lands like wild beasts during autumnal storms. The wood sprites' only protection against them is to take refuge on a tree stump that has three crosses carved into it." - In "Nine Bags Of Gold", house elves are small magical humanoid creatures who live beneath human houses, keeping themselves hidden from adult menfolk (albeit they like befriending and even teaching children). Although clever and benevolent, they are tricksters who are not above of making people ill to further their goals. - In The Blue Blur of Termina, fairies are brightly colored winged humanoids around Sonic's general size, instead of the tiny, winged orbs of light from the original game. - Child of the Storm has the vaguely Tolkienian Light Elves of Alfheim — to the point where Prince Faradei is described as the in-universe inspiration for Legolas — and the Faerie Courts of The Dresden Files, who are a fairly quintessential example of The Fair Folk, with even the 'nicer' Summer Fae being a bit alien. They aren't related — the former were pre-existing before the foundation of Yggdrasil, so over a million years old. The latter, on the other hand, were a prehistoric human population that found its way into the Nevernever and slowly evolved not just to use magic, but to essentially be one with it. - The Crystal Court: Instead of being aliens, the gems are presented as different kinds of fairies, their powers depending on what Court they belong to. - Homecoming, 2026: The fae have Pointy Ears, as the only one that appears does. - In Keepers of the Elements, fairies are magical females that can transform into their own unique fairy forms. The Keepers themselves are this, but with Elemental Powers thrown in as well. - Lily from Resonance Days has all the hallmarks of modern depictions of fairies, being an inhumanly beautiful elf-like woman with gossamer wings. She's even the head of a hidden faction who live in a forest! She's actually a witch, a former Magical Girl (who in this setting function like a Human Subspecies) who lost her memories in death and retains one inhuman trait from her old form, and her witch remnant happens to make her look like a fairy. And like The Fair Folk, \|\|her kindness and beauty is all a front hiding her true nature as a callous slaver and drug dealer who uses her Compelling Voice to turn her victims into lovestruck slaves to her every whim\|\|. - Their Midnight Revels: There are some differences in Miranda and Ariel's interactions with Thomas and Edith that are contrary to typical folklore portrayals. For example, nothing goes wrong when Edith and Thomas eat the food in Faerie, perhaps because they are enchanted already, or because Miranda and Ariel swore that they were under their magical protection, nothing would happen to them. Also Miranda and Ariel make it clear that nothing is being done with Edith or Thomas' free will. They ask them to join the Revels and later ask them to remain in Faerie letting them know all of the consequences beforehand. While O'Brien mentions the possibility that Sybil's child may be a changeling, one look shows that he is not, perhaps because Bobby was not taken by either his own free will or his parents'. Also, Miranda and Ariels characters evolve when they realize that they love Edith and Thomas. - Disney: - Cinderella: The fairy godmother appears as a kindly older woman with no wings and seems to have to sing to get her magic to work (or at least say the magic words "bibidi bobidi boo"). - Peter Pan: Tinker Bell is of the small winged kind, and includes elements such as Clap Your Hands If You Believe. Disney Fairies focuses chiefly on her and others like herself, which are referred to as "pixies" or (when male) "sparrow men". - Pinocchio: The blue fairy appears as a full-sized woman with exceptionally large wings. Naturally she's dressed in blue. - Sleeping Beauty: The fairies are shorter than the average human but larger than dwarves, all take the forms of sugary older women. They have wings but they can make those disappear. It appears they can't do magic without their wands. Word of God claimed that Maleficent is also a fairy — one that takes the form of a green-skinned horned sorceress. - FernGully: The Last Rainforest: Fairies (or "tree spirits," as they call themselves), who serve as the guardians of the rainforest, are reminiscent of Tinker Bell, in terms of design. - In Shrek, fairies are all-female and can be human-sized or tiny. - Strange Magic: The fairies look like attractive humans with butterfly wings. They're very small, except the film operates on their scale. The have knights who can fly despite being fully armored. They live in a kingdom with other sapient races and seem to be the ruling class. - Wizards has human(ish)-sized elves with wings, elves without wings, and tiny winged fairies, too. - In The King's Beard, fairies are a Mage Species of humanoids with pointy ears and small dragonfly wings, who seemingly live openly among humans, being seen as unusual, but not that remarkable. As his name implies, Sophie's father Wizzy is a Wizard Classic, but he's still considered a fairy. As an additional wrinkle, a fairy's wand is an Amulet of Dependency for them, and they die if separated from it for too long even though it is very much possible for an unscrupulous human to steal a fairy's wand and use it for themselves. - The Dark Crystal, all female Gelflings have fairy wings. - FairyTale: A True Story is (loosely) based on the Cottingley Fairies. - Godzilla: The Shobijin, Mothra's twin fairy companions, stand about six inches tall and are able to teleport short distances as well as understand what the monsters are saying... oh, and they can summon Mothra as well to aid them. In the "Return of Mothra" films, they are accompanied by Fairy Mothra, essentially a toy-sized Mothra that acts as a guardian and transport. - Labyrinth: The fairies look like your stereotypical little magical flying sparkly things, but they bite. Sarah thought they were kind and wish-granting and was surprised and horrified to see Hoggle coming after them with an insecticide gun. - Leapin Leprechauns: Fairies appear prominently. In Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns, their queen joins the main cast of Leprechauns in their quest. - Maleficent: "Fairy" is used to identify any magical creature that inhabits the Moors. Fairies range from Winged Humanoids like the title character to small pixies to Plant People, and all manner of water, dew, and stone fae. Like in actual folklore, Cold Iron burns them and is their one true weakness, a fact which is a major plot point. - Pan's Labyrinth: - Fairies that look like flying praying mantises... which can shapeshift into more human-like shape when shown a picture of what they're "supposed" to look like. - The Pale Man, a monstrous, child-devouring fae. - Willow has a scene with a whole swarm of tiny, glowing fairies... and their enormous, hovering queen, Cherlindrea. - In Amagi Brilliant Park, the vast majority of the workers at the titular theme park are fairies. Some of them look like cute, bipedal talking animals (which they cover up by pretending to be people in mascot costumes), while others appear mostly human, and all of them have magical abilities of some kind. Their existence depends on keeping the park open so that the energy from people's happiness can keep them alive. - Angelology: The Anakim, servants of the Nephilim, are short, albeit human-sized, and of delicate build with yellow eyes and insectile wings, as opposed to the avian ones of the Nephilim. - Artemis Fowl: - "Fairy" is a catch-all term for all non-human sapients who refer to themselves as "the People", which includes centaurs and demons, as well as unicorns before their extinction, as well as more obviously fey creatures like elves, pixies, sprites, gnomes, Gremlins, goblins and dwarves. Only sprites have natural wings (batlike ones, notably); other species have built mechanical ones, and they're a metre tall on average, although one character is said to be "barely half a metre" tall, on one occasion they're able to find clothes that fit a 13-year-old human (probably somewhere around 1.5 metres), so there's obviously a decent range, as with humans. - In most People, magic gives healing ability, invisibility, hypnotism, and the ability to speak any language; only a few, called warlocks, can use it for anything more complicated, like playing with the flow of time. They also have very strict rules they must follow to use their magic. They have to perform certain rituals to recharge their magical energies, and forfeit their magical ability when they break certain rules. Each species also has certain unique qualities, such as sprite's wings, demonic metamorphosis, and dwarven Fartillery. The ability to speak any language, while perhaps helped along by a bit of magic, seemingly comes from the fact that the People's Gnomish is the ancestor of all languages (including American Dog). - It's also noted that all of the fairy species evolved from pterosaurs towards the end of the Cretaceous. The presence of bony spurs on their shoulder blades is given as proof of long-vanished wings, although this makes very little sense when considering that pterosaur wings were modified arms, not an additional set of limbs. - Bones of Faerie has faeries that are humanoids with powers. Though not immortal, they have a longer life span, and can be identified by their white hair. - Book of Imaginary Beings: Fairies are beautiful but mischievous beings that appear in legends all over the world. They can be the same size as people, taller or no more than three feet tall. They kidnap people and imprison them underground, and the Italian fata morgana creates mirages with which to confuse sailors and make them run aground. While they may take mortal lovers, they will often kill their partners once this whim passes. They are fond of song, music and the color green. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: The fairies — folletti, in Italian — are diminutive winged humanoids very closely connected to magic and nature, and which make their homes in forests where other races do not go. They're a declining species in the series' time, as the Tyrant has destroyed most of the forests where they live and armies on both sides of the war are in the habit of systematically hunting them to force them to be scouts, jesters or mascots. - Clandestine Daze: The Aellisar are a modernized 21st century society which employs covert agents to influence events in the human world. They have their own countries, technology, and Spy Speak. - Discworld: - Strictly speaking ,the Nac Mac Feegle, being small humanoid beings from Fairyland, probably count as fairies. They prefer "Pictsies". Several other weird beings that are probably fairies appear in The Wee Free Men, mostly based on Richard Dadd's painting "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke". - Discworld mythology also counts any supernatural being who exists to bring something or take it away as a fairy. The Tooth Fairy is the most famous, but Hogfather introduces the Hair Loss Fairy, the Veruca Gnome, and various others. In the same book Ridcully off-handedly mentions "them little buggers that live in flowers, used to collect 'em myself as a lad". The Tooth Fairy, meanwhile, mostly employs humans to collect teeth these days, though their actual species is \|\|boogeyman\|\|. - The actual Fairies, so-called, are portrayed in Lords and Ladies and are very much The Fair Folk; people are afraid of them, they are very dangerous, and they have a Queen and King reminiscent of Titania and Oberon in some ways, and horned gods like Cernunnos in others. - This trope in itself is actually a major plot device in The Science of Discworld II: Fairies, as described above, are horrendous monsters that prey on human imagination from their parasite universe, but their intervention is needed to give the humans of our Earth the spark of creativity that gets civilization started. However, allowing them to keep interfering results in Earth being locked in Medieval Stasis, with reason and the scientific method never catching on. The solution? Make sure that William Shakespeare writes A Midsummer Night's Dream, which permanently changes the human perception of fairies to be comical and harmless, rendering them incapable of influencing us further. - Domina: The fey are insane people who use the toy maker to make monsters. They also apparently actually think they're Celtic fairies, and lapse into Irish when angry. - In The Dresden Files, Faerie is more of a descriptor for certain kinds of creatures from the spirit world, particularly the ones that originate from the region called, well, Faery. The most prominent of the fay races is the incredibly humanoid, achingly beautiful, frighteningly amoral Sidhe (pronounced as "She"). Others run the gamut from tiny, pizza-loving pixies, to hulking trolls, to centaurs and humanoid Billy Goats Gruff, and even possibly Santa Claus. Everything that shows up in the books that's not a mortal, vampire, deity, or demon is likely a kind of Faerie. All of them are burned by iron. Of course, to the Sidhe specifically, being called a "Fairy" is considered to be a slur, similar to calling a human an "ape". - Eccentric Circles: Aelvirum is careful to point out that he's an elf, not a fairy. - In Elfstruck, she makes a ticking noise like a clock and her wings are silver and crystal, with visible gearwork inside. - "Ever After" by Susan Palwick is about a fairy godmother who takes a young woman under her care. The girl is well aware of the Cinderella type myths and is looking forward to finding a prince to marry. The twist comes when we find out that \|\|the "fairy godmother" is actually a vampire who is changing the girl into her vampire daughter\|\|. - In Everworld, fairies are a Proud Merchant Race; Fairyland seems to be the financial hub of Everworld and is one of its ostensibly nicer kingdoms, mainly because the fairies keep things pretty for the tourists. The fairies themselves look like twelve-year-old humans, but also have Super Speed. They seem to favor archery and can be employed as bodyguards. - Fablehaven: Fairies are the standard tiny, winged and female humanoids; although most have the usual dragonfly and insect wings, some have those of beetles, locusts, bats and birds. They also have aa rather alien moral system and are ruled by a Fairy Queen \|\|who is in fact an elder unicorn\|\|. If kept indoors overnight, they will be transformed into hideous, wingless imps; it's revealed in the last book that \|\|there used to be male fairies once, but they were all transformed into the first imps\|\|. - Most fairies in The Faerie Queene are pretty average humans and elves, except they are more beautiful, magical, and private than your average folk. Most of the "faerie's" we see are knights and royals (like the unseen titular queen), and it's not until in Book IV that meet a proper one in Agape, mother of the noble triplets and friend of the Fates. - A Fantasy Attraction has a fairy popping in to steal a cookie, and a pixie causing trouble is also mentioned. - Flower Fairies: The titular fairies are the standard "tiny winged humanoid" but resemble their flower in appearance and personality (for instance, the Buttercup fairy is cheerful and "sunny"). Basically very small dryads. - Forest of Boland Light Railway: There are two types of fairy: the benevolent cowsies and the ugly, malevolent goblins. - Harry Potter: Fairies are non-intelligent creatures that, while humanoid, have lifecycles akin to insects, laying eggs and then metamorphosing from larvae. They have weak magic which can be used to ward off predators and are very vain; wizards often use them as decorations the same way that Muggles might catch fireflies in a jar for light. The good press Muggles give them is a matter of some confusion to wizards. - In The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, faeries are \|\|born from the dreams of humanity and sustained by humans and other fey remembering them\|\|. This leads to you having not just the traditional fey (The Fair Folk) represented by the Summer (Seelie) and Winter (Unseelie) Courts, but the \|\|Iron Fey that named the series. The Iron fey are born from dreams of science and technology, of innovation and industry, and thus are not only immune to iron, but are essentially walking faerie krptonite. They also do not try to capture you in favors as much as the "oldblooded" fey, as they call the older fey species. Ferrum, their first king, was born when mankind first started to forge iron\|\|. - John Golden: Fairies can create pocket dimensions in computer networks. This necessitates humans called "Debuggers" physically entering them in order to slay the fae within. Otherwise they might play havoc with the data around them — or steal the souls of users. - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell takes The Fair Folk and adjusts them to fit the Georgian-era setting. The basic concept, as one of the many easy-to-miss footnotes explains, is that logic and magical ability are diametrically opposed; humans have great powers of logic and very little magical skill, while Faeries have tremendous magical power but most of them would be considered severely mentally ill by human standards. Accordingly, they don't even need wings since they can travel wherever on Earth they want via the King's Roads, and they wear clothes that are made of broken dreams or are "the color of heartbreak" or that sing or scream. They also have tremendous powers that no human can fight while simultaneously having a wide variety of Weaksauce Weaknesses, and are shown to stay out of human affairs less for the standard reasons than because they just don't care — they'd rather be at their all-night balls. In other words, they're a Shadow Archetype of what human British society was like at the time. - J. R. R. Tolkien: - In The Hobbit, the word "fairy" is occasionally used, but seems to be synonymous with elf, much as The Hobbit refers to "goblins" where the same creatures in The Lord of the Rings are called "orcs". - It's possible Tolkien intended for Hobbits themselves to have some traits of faeries — a race of little people living where humans cannot see, with an uncanny knack for going unseen and a close kinship with the earth — are all traits common in older (read "pre-Disney") faeries. Meanwhile the Elves got the depiction of a forest-dwelling, Inhumanly Beautiful Race, which were the other most common traits. He seems to have dropped the child-stealing and Cold Iron bits altogether. - In On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien describes the little and winged conception as the sophisticated and literary creature, not rooted in folklore. - Katabasis: The fae are a species of shapeshifters which use voice mimicry to hunt humans, however they are also sentient and can have relationships with their supposed prey. - The fairies in Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book and its sequels by Terry Jones and Brian Froud are small winged humanoids, ranging from minuture humans to more amphibious or goblin-like creatures. Their most unusual characteristic is that, if you shut a book on them in the same way as pressing a flower, a psychic image is recorded on the paper, while the actual fairy is completely unharmed. (At least, that's what the text claims. Whether the images themselves entirely support this is another matter.) - The Last Dragon Chronicles: The Fain are mistaken for fairies by the toddler Alexa. ("Fainies") It's a bit of a twist, considering that they're thought beings and so they don't have an actual form without a host. - Malediction Trilogy has faerie, who are shapeshifters, meaning they can appear perfectly beautiful or extremely horrifying, depending on their whim. They use powerful magic, are basically immortal and can travel through worlds and dimensions. They can be harmed only by iron and their only weakness is gold. And the pure faerie look at their tainted cousins (trolls trapped in human world) with contempt. - Merry Gentry's fey relations resemble the Fair Folk of the Old World in name, power, appearance and moral ambiguity. But with that special LKH twist. - The Mortal Instruments: The fairies are one of four known races of downworldlers, but they're considered the strangest of them. - They are considered the common descendants of angels and demons. In general, they are as beautiful as angels for that reason, but at the same time as evil as demons. However,m the books also show less beautiful fairies, and only very few of them are really as vicious as demons. - There are generally two groups of fairies. Some of them look very inhuman and have distinct features of animals and plants, almost always humanoid. The other group, the nobles among the fairies, look much more human-like. More like the third type (see above). They resemble typical elves, but often have horns, claws, wings, tails, or other animal features, and sometimes even plant characteristics. In some cases they look just like elves, except that they have unusual hair, skin or eye colors. In addition, they are also considered very pretty. - They organize themselves in royal courts (Seelie and Unseelie), but most fairies move around alone, without belonging to a certain royal court. Etiquette and decency are very important to them. - They are also known for their cruel sense of humor, and for being particularly insidious. Often, they offer a pact and their magic to a person, but later put it in. They cannot lie, but they formulate their words in such a way that there are loopholes. Because they can become hundreds of years old, they gain a lot of wisdom over time, as well as guile. - They are physically very strong, and they also have sharp senses. In addition they have a magic, which is almost unique, and can be very powerful. They often use their magic to pretend to be human, but some humans still recognize they. - They also have several weaknesses. Cold iron, rowan wood and salt weaken they. Likewise, someone can gain power over a fairy when he knows their true name. - Fairies are slow to multiply, and so that their bloodlines do not weaken, they often exchange human children for their own weak children. For unknown reasons, the children receive magical powers in the fairy kingdom, and after a while they turn into fairies. - Fairies can also have common children with humans. If this child grows up among humans, it differs only slightly from other humans, but still has some fairy features, such as pointed ears, or can detect magical illusions. - Unlike full faeries, half-faeries can lie. - As the half-fairy grows among fairies, she develops the same powers as other fairies. At the same time, she is much less affected by the weaknesses. Half-fairies, unlike pure fairies, can also lie. - The child of a shadowhunter and a fairy is also a shadowhunter, albeit with fairy traits. - Officially, most fairies are bisexual. - For creatures with keen senses, such as vampires and werewolves, fairies smell like dead flowers. - My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister has various kinds of fairies, both humanoid and non-humanoid, though the only one to make an appearance so far is the Leanan Sidhe. Leanan Sidhe can designate a human (or multiple humans) as their lover, giving them inspiration but draining their life force in exchange. They are also invisible and intangible to everyone and everything that isn't their lover. - James Herbert's Once depicts folkloric conception of the faerefolkis to have been inspired by race memory. Elemental beings who live on a dimension usually beyond human senses, their nurture of nature enables the planet to support life. While widely varied in form, they come in three ranges of size: tiny; dwarfish, or tall enough to be mistaken for short humans. - Peter Pan: Fairies — especially the complicated character of Tinker Bell, a friend of Peter and a great enemy of Wendy at the same time — are very important. It is said that since they are so small, they can only hold one emotion inside themselves at a time, and hence are totally consumed by it. Like insects, they also \|\|don't live long; Tinker Bell is dead within a year of the Darlings leaving Neverland\|\|. - Peter Pan In Kensington Garden, which was basically Baum's rough draft of the above, has a whole host of fairies living in the titular locale. They're more benevolent, lacking Tinker Bell's emotional issues, and return Peter's flying power when he loses it. They also have a custom of marrying with the bride jumping into the groom's arm. - Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Fairies are at least referable in the imagination of the game's world: - Rainbow Magic: Fairies are depicted as the "tiny human with insect wings" variant; additionally, almost all of them appear as young females. They're led by King Oberon and Queen Titania, and they function as Odd Job Gods, with their magic commanding nearly everything imagineable — from colors to weather to parties to music to the days of the week. - River of Dancing Gods: The fair folk take the place of our world's natural processes. They live eternal, but sadly limited, lives. - Shadowmarch: The Rooftoppers, although they don't have wings. Rather they use birds, bats and rats as transport. - The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries: = Fairies look like beautiful humans except for their pointed ears. Claudine chooses to cover hers with her hair, while her brother Claude had them surgically altered. They are allergic to lemons and iron and Vampires are very attracted to their blood. - Soon I Will Be Invincible: Elphin is a thousand-year-old fairy who looks like a teenage girl with wings, is abnormally strong for her size, skewers people with her magic spear and is vulnerable to cold iron. She can also summon lightning, much to Fatalle's dismay. - A society of fairies appear in the Spellsinger novel The Day of the Dissonance. They look like classic tiny winged humanoids, but they're too heavy to fly, and they occasionally have a craving to eat passing travellers. Tom-Jon quickly realises that the issue is their typical diet (nectar and ambrosia are pure sugar), but since they refuse to change it, he instead teaches them the strange magic of "aerobics". - The Stolen Child: The fairies/hobgoblins are largely in the Fair Folk mold, with the twist being that they were all human originally. They kidnap a human child and, though some mystical process not fully explained, turn him or her into a fairy, while one of their own makes himself into the child's double and replaces him or her. They're functionally immortal until they turn themselves back into humans, and don't age in any normal way (although they're implied to be odd-looking), and are just generally uncivilized and self-interested. - The Stormlight Archive: One of the main characters has a companion windspren named Syl that takes the traditional fairy form and she really is different even from other windspren who mostly just look like streaks of mist and lack self awareness. \|\|This is because she's actually an honorspren.\|\| - Stranger And Stranger: The fae are taller than humans, gifted with a powerful type of magic called a Blessing,rarely have wings, and tend to isolate themselves from humans. For example, the fae of Duircean, where the book is set, live in a forest. The fae also practice something called "snatching", where they cast a spell over a human child to turn them into a changeling faerie (which they actually have legal right to do). - Tough Magic: The races on Emis are fairies, leprechauns, pixies and sprites. However, as they are about human size and without wings, the only distinction between them and regular humans is the unusual colors of their skin, hair and eyes. - The Treachery of Beautiful Things: Even the little, winged Foletti, like Pretty Butterflies, are still nasty. - The Twelfth Enchantment: Fairies actually are \|\|the undead\|\|. - Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: Ted's idea of fairies is influenced by the tales of his Irish grandmother, who grew up in the Victorian Era. So, when a young girl wearing a strange winged costume flies into his room, Ted believes her to be a fairy, and he assumes she is friendly, well-meaning and English-speaking (since he believes fairies must come from Ireland). - The Wandering Inn: Faeries only are seen in the world, when winter comes, as it is their duty to bring it to the world. Citizen of the world can't actually see their real appearances, instead of they only perceive a blue blur, thus don't think of them as actual people, but as a natural phenomenon. - The War of the Flowers, also by Tad Williams, is set in Another Dimension populated by all kinds of fairies. The ruling class, however, seems to resemble standard elves more, including the attitude. - Well World: The Faerie are a species of glowing insect-like beings with humanoid faces, living in colonies consisting of many tiny lesser specimens and a single large queen. They are native to the hex of Ivrom, where the local rules of physics give them abilities that are, for all intents and purposes, powerful magic. They are cruel and manipulative beings, delighting in tormenting and transforming unfortunates who stumble into their clutches, and once threatened to overrun a great deal of the Well World before the Markovians acted to limit them to their hex. Faeries who made their way to Old Earth were responsible for myths of fairies, witches and evil spirits. - Wings Quartet: Fairies are actually highly evolved plants who resemble humans. They don't have wings, though, but they do "blossom". - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: L. Frank Baum wanted to distance his "American fairy tale" from the old fairy tales of Europe, so he went out of his way to make his fairies very different. For instance, none of Baum's fairies fly, with only a couple possible exceptions. Fairies in Baum's universe are on a god-like level, immortals ruling over various aspects of nature (an entire pantheon is given in Tik-Tok of Oz). - The Fey and the Fallen: Most of the fairies we see are the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann, and they are in a war with Fallen Angels. Irish fey are vulnerable to iron, have clans and political infighting among themselves, and are capable of making Half-Human Hybrids. While other kinds of fey exist, they are from countries outside of Ireland and seldom seen in-story. - Moonflowers is a Fantasy Kitchen Sink set in Ireland, where the traditional version of The Fair Folk are Nature Spirits... and The Wild Hunt is a hundred-strong group of warriors terrorizing the rural areas, whose leader the Horned Hunter is the Anthropomorphic Personification of predators. They cursed the Asian-American protagonist and her family to impending death in a ritual hunt called the Fairy Raid, which has pissed off a growing number of deities. - In Arcana Magi, some fairies, so far, work for Avalon Tech Enterprises. One fairy is on the Board of Directors and another fairy is a scientist dealing with chemicals and diseases - Defection: Fairies are any sentient being not currently residing in their dimension of origin, I.E. A dimensional traveler. Strange things happen when you aren't where you are supposed to be. - In Charmed (1998) fairies can only be seen by children, though adults can see them if they believe and a spell can be cast to make them innocent again. Along with trolls, fairies live in "in-betweens" — windows, doorways, shadows — and thus are able to cross over into our world. They are able to do so freely during midnight when the world itself becomes an in-between. After the fairies' debut episode, the sisters apparently created a spell that allows them to see fairies from then on as they appear frequently in the series. They are also notorious for stealing things — which results in a funny moment when (taking Paige's advice too literally) the fairies return everything they ever stole from Henry, including things he lost in high school. - The Magicians (2016): Fairies are all pale and wear light-colored clothing. Aside from that, they look basically like humans, though also grow from mushrooms. They fit many of the folktale cliches, such as making exploitative deals with the humans, or switching others for their children. - Merlin (2008): - There are several episodes with the Sidhe, a fairy race associated with the legends of England and Ireland. They're blue-faced and many carry magic staffs. A Sidhe can entrance a human and can be placed inside a human child to take full control later in life. The two in "The Gates of Avalon" had been banished and were seeking a human prince to sacrifice so the daughter could return to Avalon. Pixies, another race, sometimes work with them. - Queen Mab makes an appearance in the Dark Tower episode. She is a mischievous trickster. - Monty Python's Flying Circus: Episode 13 has a sketch about fairies on the police force. For once in the series, "fairy" is not synonymous with "poofter." - The Other Kingdom: In this universe, fairies tend to resemble humans in terms of height, coloring, and body structure but they have characteristics that reveal their otherworldly and magical nature. A fairy's glowing wings distinguish them from other mystical creatures. They aren't born with their wings but grow their wings at a certain age but the exact age differs from fairy to fairy. Wings may be a sign that a fairy has received her full powers as Peaseblossom seemed to lack any form of fairy magic when she lacked wings. They can change into a tiny orb of light the same hue as their wings. Fairies revert to this form instantly and without consent when they enter the Other Kingdom but a few can maintain their human-sized shape such as the Athenian monarchs. - Once Upon a Time has the tiny, winged vareity who grant wishes, though they are able to assume human size. According to seasons 3 and 4, fairies are not all good wish granters and not always humanoid. The "Black Fairy" is said to be the most evil and most powerful dark fairy, and the giant demon Chernabog (yes, THAT◊ Chernabog) is also heavily implied to also be a fairy. - In Power Rangers Mystic Force a fairy is actually a zord. The Mystic Sprite belongs to the (what else) Pink Ranger. - Shadowhunters: Fairies are known as Seelies. They are among the Downworlder species (species that are part demon) and have the distinction of also being part angel. They cannot tell lies, but are still considered untrustworthy. Meliorn is a Seelie that has an affair with Isabelle and helps Clary and Jace open a portal to another dimension in "The World Inverted." - In the Torchwood episode "Small Worlds", fairies are actually children snatched out of time and turned into creatures humans initially see as light, but who have a true form of a gremlin-like monster. They choke people with rose petals that wrong the children they'd chosen to join them and spontaneously cause severe weather. Side note: their scientific name is "Homo fata vulgaris". - Zapped: An office worker is accidentally zapped into a fantasy universe where the laws of fantasy are enforced by big burly thuggish brutes called fairies who can shapeshift into a more traditionally fairy-like, small and agile form for traveling. - There was a horror-themed show on CITV (name forgotten) that had a segment on a girl wishing she could see a fairy one day and finding some at the bottom of her garden. Unfortunately, instead of being happy, wish-granting creatures they were these horrible little creatures with large teeth that bit her... and after she found them, they started turning up everywhere, causing her to cage them to stop from being attacked, but they just kept on coming... - Clamavi de Profundis: Fairies are present in the world of Hammerdeep, where they're short, insect-winged women who inhabit wild forests. - Many cultures, countries and localities have their own local variation of fairy-like creatures. For example, Greek Mythology has Nymphs, Naiads and Dryads (water and tree spirits respectively), fawns, satyrs, centaurs and other semi-divine races of creatures, usually a One-Gender Race. - German legends have wood or forest sprites. Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's books on Bavarian folklore describe them in this way: "Wood sprites, or forest sprites, are tiny creatures that make their homes near hearths. Their clothing is made of spun moss that hangs in ropelike strands from trees. We think of them as enchanted beings hounded by phantom hunters. They live together as married couples and bear children. Their enemies are the phantom hunters, who rage through the lands like wild beasts during autumnal storms. The wood sprites' only protection against them is to take refuge on a tree stump that has three crosses carved into it." - Slavic Mythology: - In the Slavic-speaking world, there are the vilas, beautiful maidens with supernatural powers that get caught in the affairs of mortals in some way or another. They usually are present in South Slavic tradition, and are often translated as "fairies" in Anglophone works. - A related personage is the samodiva or samovila of Bulgarian folklore, who plays a somewhat similar role to the Slavic vilas. - In modern Greek folklore, the Neraidas (not to be confused with the Ancient Greek "Neraidas", who are water-based nymphs) are said to be beautiul maidens that live in wild nature (mountains, rivers, streams) who, in folktales, get married to hunters and shepherds when mortal men steal their garments. - Farfalla: The butterfly fairy hangs out in flower gardens and entices players with her attractive looks. - Cool Kids Table: In Hogwarts: The New Class, Shannon befriends a dust nymph (also referred to as a dust bunny) and names it Usagi. - Ars Magica: Fairies subconsciously take on roles from human stories and reenact them with (usually) unwitting humans to obtain the vitality they crave. This trait makes faeries difficult to combat (except by apotropaic magics) since in many cases their "death" is part of the story and only provides additional vitality. - The Dark Eye: Fairies are a varied group of creatures that originate from the fairy realm and can cross into Dere when holes open between the two worlds. They sicken and die if they spend too much time away from their home, however, requiring them to periodically return to the fairy lands to rest and recover. - Blossom fairies are the classic tiny, butterfly-winged, forest-dwelling humanoid kind. They're the most common type and the ones most people think of when they think of fairies. They are all female, and wear clothing shaped like flower blossoms. - Nymphs and dryads are larger and resemble beautiful humanoid women, and appoint themselves as protectors of ancient trees and of bodies of water, respectively. - Dungeons & Dragons. - This list contains just some of the canon and fan-made species. - Pixies are noted for being one of the few truly playable high ECL (basically you get racial abilities instead of a higher character level) races, thanks to their strong racial ability scores, invisibility, spell-like abilities and flight. - As of Heroes of the Feywild, Pixies have become an official PC race for 4th Edition. Along with Satyrs and Hamadryad. - In Arcana Evolved, the fairies are made when either "Loresong" or "Quickling" Faen, essentially Elves and Halflings, secrete a sticky substance that becomes a chrysalis, and within 7 days time, the faen permanently metamorphs into a Spryte. - In the Mystara supplement Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, a centaur scholar claims that fairies are, in fact, the Immortals (gods) of a previous iteration of the multiverse. They helped nurture and preserve the Sphere of Life when opposing forces dominated the cosmos, and will do so again when the present Life-dominated reality yields to the Sphere of Death in an ever-repeating cycle. Until then, the fairy folk — pixies, sprites, leprechauns, sidhe, wood imps, drakes, brownies, pookas — retain their immortality but their power is diminished. - Eberron finally nails down what the fey actually are. They have a lot of elemental traits (but that's covered by elementals), they have a lot of nature traits (but that's covered by plants or magical beasts), and even some malific or benevolent traits (covered by fiends or angels). This is because fey are living stories. A treant is a living tree, but a dryad is the idea of a living tree—which is why they are far more humanoid. Many parts of Thelanis (the fey plane) are absurd or completely illogical because they don't actually have to make sense; they are a story, and have no need to exist outside of that specific plot or idea they embody. Of course, problems arise when the fey end up in the mortal realm, where logic and physics are more important than theme and dramatic tension. - Exalted: The Fair Folk are natives of the Wyld, the unshaped ocean of potentiality outside of Creation where things like "physics" and "causality" are foreign concepts. Unlike most other beings, the Fair Folk don't have a Motivation. Rather, they have something they adopt as a passing fancy, a role they enter into because it seems dramatically appropriate at the time. Oh, and they eat souls. Basically, they're role-playing gamers, Creation is their gameworld, and your PCs are just NPCs to them. Unsurprisingly, they have a hard time with concepts like empathy and consequences. - GURPS, being designed as a Universal System, supports all sorts of concepts of fairies, as appropriate to the setting. For example: - Fairies in GURPS Fantasy are living illusions. Their magic can be as easily destroyed by iron as they are. - Fairies in GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque are a category of supernatural being who can take a whole range of weird and wonderful shapes — though manifesting as gigantic monsters tends to burn out their shapechanging powers, leaving them stuck as ogres, dragons, or whatever. - Middle-Earth Role Playing: "Fairy" is a general term used to refer to the lesser Maiar, mostly ones who are tied to nature in some way. Many played some role in shaping the world during the Elder Days, although a few are comparatively more recent spirits. Almost all the ones remaining in the world are tied to guardianship of something, usually a specific place or landform. - Pathfinder: Fey are the natives of the First World, the collected amalgam of the gods' rough drafts and experiments left behind when they created the material world. The fey themselves descend from those experimental beings, including both variant versions of creatures included into finished creation and beings that never left the metaphorical sketch pad, or otherwise embody aspects of the natural world — dryads are embodiments of arboreal plant life, for instance, while gremlins embody entropy and the tendency for complex systems to break down. The First World's status as something the gods left behind also places fey apart from the cycle of life, death and afterlife — fey don't have souls and are usually reincarnated in the First World after death, although ones that perish in the material world risk permanent death. They're consequently unused to thinking in terms of mortality or permanent consequences, giving them a rather alien mindset from the point of view of mortals. - Rifts: Faerie Folk come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be less than six inches or up to three feet tall, cute or horrendous, friendly (for a given value of such) or mean, and have varying powers. And of course, this being Rifts and all, can take almost as much damage as a modern Armored Personnel Carrier. Also, don't eat their food. They seem to have a penchant for Visual Puns involving the name of their food and what Transformations or charm effects it causes. For example, Tarts tend to make women extremely amorous, Burgundy wine turns you that color, and you should stay the hell away from the Frog's Legs, unless that's what you want. - The Small Folk has fairy folk whose ancestors were very traditional, but who've moved with the times to survive in the modern world. - Warhammer: Spites (often corrupted into "Sprites" in peasant folklore) are a kind of diminutive forest spirit found in woodlands throughout the Old World, and especially in the vast enchanted forest of Athel Loren. They're cruel tricksters with extremely nasty tempers, and not to be trifled with lightly. They're adept shapeshifters, and can appear as glowing orbs of light, tiny elves riding beetles or black birds or skeletal horses, diminutive winged humanoids, odd-looking forest animals or anything else they've a mind to. They also tend to gather around the mightier denizens of the forest, and can often be seen nesting among the branches of treemen or clinging to the bodies of forest dragons. - The World of Darkness: Both Changeling gamelines make heavy use of the Fae: - Changeling: The Dreaming splits its changelings up into Kiths; the Kithain, European-style fairies, range from Boggans to Nockers to Pooka to Redcaps to Sidhe to Trolls. And that's just the Kithain — you've got the Nunnehi (Native American fae), the Inanimae (elemental embodiments), the Hsien (Asian "small gods")... - Changeling: The Lost has the True Fae, which are so different from one another as to give you whiplash. Not only that, but every single of them ends up different over the years; what may have been a man-eating giant a century ago could turn into La Belle Dame Sans Merci (or Baba Yaga). There's even a True Fae transforming robot (his alt is a motorcycle). Then you have the changelings, their escaped servants, who are split up into Seemings (general patterns of their durances in Arcadia) and Kiths (specified durances). A Ogre kept in a charnel pit may turn into a Gristlegrinder or an Oni, a Beast kept as a falcon may be a Windwing or a Cleareyes, or a Wizened forced to maintain his Keeper's estate may turn into a Chatelaine or a Drudge, or some combination if you use optional rules. And then you have the hobgoblins... - A Midsummer Night's Dream: Most fairies are of The Fair Folk mold, but Titania's attendants are generally more common portrayed as child-sized winged creatures. - Iolanthe: Phyllis: Whenever I see you kissing a very young lady, I shall know it's an elderly relative. Strephon: You will? Then, Phyllis, I think we shall be very happy! - Peter Pan (1904): Tinker Bell isn't a humanoid figure but just a floating point of light, and her voice is represented by the tinkling of bells. - La Sylphide (or The Sylph): The protagonist falls in love with a beautiful fairy with rainbow wings. He abandons his mortal fiancee to chase after her. Wicked Witch Old Madge tells him she is unable to be with him as she will always fly away. She then presents him with a magic scarf that will prevent her from flying away. \|\|It makes her wings fall off and she dies\|\|. - She Kills Monsters: Farrah is an evil fairy who serves as one of the bosses in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign Tilly Evans created for her sister, Agnes. The character description is as follows: "A little forest faerie. Appears very young. Shes adorable, but shes actually an angry savage in a small package." - Atelier: Fairies are males the size of little boys and dressed in green. The only exceptions are their old village leader, and the hideous muscle-bound "fairy" from Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy. Also, despite the fact that they don't age physically, faeries can age in personality. This becomes a minor plot point in the third Atelier Iris game, in which an npc gets majorly weirded out by a fairy talking like an old man. - Bravely Default has Airy, a crystal fairy \|\|who turns out to be the Big Bad and a despicable liar who serves an Eldritch Abomination.\|\| - Cassette Beasts: Glaistain is loosely based on the glaistig, a kind of elusive fairy from the Scottish highlands. Glaistain's title is "stained glass fairy", and it vaguely resembles a Winged Humainoid with the planes of glass that float behind its back. - Tactics Ogre: The Gameboy Advance installment gives you fairy units, and they are typical foot-tall-winged-girl Squishy Wizards. One hit splatters them but they make for good healers. - Touhou Project: Fairies are depicted as being childlike in both appearance and personality. However, they possess Resurrective Immortality, as when they die they will just respawn elsewhere. Gameplay-wise, this makes them the perfect Mooks for the heroines to mow through. In general, fairies are pranksters, childish, and have limited capabilities to learn from experience. They're also at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to power (with some exceptions, like Clownpiece). Setting-wise, fairies are actually the embodiment of life and nature, and thus have the power to control lifeforce (they're just too stupid to realize that). A lifeless land will become a lush, fertile land when fairies inhabit it. Special mention deserves to go to Cirno, one of the franchise's more popular characters. She calls herself the strongest being in Gensokyo, but is only a Stage 2 boss at best; on the other hand, it has been noted by other characters that she's abnormally strong for a fairy. She also calls herself a genius, which is only true when compared to other fairies, since she's literate and her attention span is slightly longer than average. Since she's immortal like all fairies, her Gaiden Game Fairy Wars doesn't use a Life Meter, but rather a "Motivation Meter", and if it empties she forgets what she was doing and wanders off to do something else. - Trials of Mana, faeries (spelled as such in-game) protect the Mana Tree and require Mana to live. They can harmlessly inhabit the head of a human, allowing them to live away from the Sanctuary of Mana for extended periods of time, but can't inhabit a new human until the chosen human dies. And the one faerie who follows around the heroes \|\|eventually becomes the new Mana Goddess.\|\| - Valley of Unicorns: The spring fairies are horses with fairy wings. They're the second least common species on the site in terms of color variations, and the majority have been released only during events or for real-money purchases. - Wizardry: Faeries are a playable race in later games. Their small size restricts them from most weapons and armor, but they make excellent mages, priests, and (funnily enough) ninjas. - ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: Fairies are small beings with magic powers that can move between astral plane where the duel battles take place and Zanzarah. There are 77 types of fairies that belong to 12 diferent elements. Some look like stereotypical Winged Humanoid with butterfly or bird wings, but others look like polar bears, mushrooms, fish, dragons, demons, undead, and other bizarre creatures. - Arthur, King of Time and Space: In the fairy-tale and space arcs, fairies look like this. (In the contemporary arc the same beings are fictional aliens from Merlin's [and now Arthur's] webcomic.) - At Arm's Length: - Greg is a college-frat type transformed into the winged human-sized variety, and he's none to pleased about it. - Plus Britt and 2Q, who are of the cute winged pixie variety. - Charby the Vampirate: The faeries of Kellwood are split into the Seelie and Unseelie courts and are size shifting humanoids with butterfly like wings and an attraction to power. - City of Trees uses the term "fae" to describe beautiful, humanoid being with pointed ears and strange defining features. In this story, fae stand out as industry titans, having replaced iron in this world with a faerie-friendly material from their wold called "titanium." - Daily Grind: Since all characters are talking animals, the Fae are big glowing spiders. They also claim to have no free will but say that they're animated by the spirit of Lord Cyrios in everything they do. - Drowtales: Any humanoid or animal with an aura is counted as a fae. The drowalath (black drow), drowussu (grey drow) and vanir (light elves) are the dominant kinds. There are also tiny fairies, also known as Locust Queens, who are small humanoid/insect hybrids and are considered vermin by the drow. - El Goonish Shive: - Nanase's Fairy Doll Spell causes her mind to temporarily leaves her body to inhabit a tiny version of herself with wings. Great for communication/scouting, not so great for fighting. - The introvert Dex gains summoning magic through mysterious means. His main summon is a fairy companion, since he's lonely. He acknowledges that she's not a real fairy, and is guided by his own desire for friendship. - \|\|Susan has an item-summoning spell that, when she tries to summon one of Nanase's Fairy Dolls, winds up creating a fairy not unlike Dex's, which independently acts on the emotions and desires Susan herself doesn't want to express.\|\| - Eventually, it's revealed that there are, in fact, real fairies. \|\|They're the "immortals" that have been part of the storyline all along. Why they stopped using that name is unclear, but Heka insists on continuing to use it, on the grounds that there's more than one type of creature with immortality and they need to have distinct names.\|\| - Footloose: The Fey are fairly badass swords-and-sorcery fairies. Smart people don't mess with them. - Gunnerkrigg Court has "Regional Fairies". They have spots on their shoulders showing which "region" they live in. They learn magic and make their own wings, and they don't gain names until they've come of age. City Face shows the regional fairies offering important advice to pigeons and magpies. Their dialogue hints that they don't distinguish between lengths of space and lengths of time — and the twin sisters Ogee and Torus can never be seen at the same time by humans, because they occupy the same space and time, but at different periods along a non-linear time scale. - Homestuck: - Tavros is mildly obsessed with insect-winged, Peter Pan-esque fairies. The narration usually goes out of its way, on occasions when these come up, to point out the fairies' dual attributes of being a) lovely, and b) fake and imaginary. - Trolls who reach the god tiers develop transparent butterfly-like wings tinted with their blood colors; some, such as Tavros' ancestor the Summoner, seemingly grow them naturally. Trolls with such wings are often described as or referred to as fairies. - My Roommate Is an Elf features a pixie named Flint. He's very small and from a distance resembles a glowing shape with wings. Griswold, the elf, rescued him some time before the comic began and is very protective of him, threatening Dearg after Dearg tried to eat him. - No Rest for the Wicked: The innkeeper expects a disguised fairy who reward the kind and generous after testing them in disguise. - Nothing Special: They're split into four classes of Elemental Powers: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Though Hybrids are rare. One of the main character, Declan, turns out to be one of such. Able to wield Earth and Fire. He's also much taller then most, being a Half-Human Hybrid as well. - The Order of the Stick has Celia, an air elemental sylph (originally one of matched set of four). She sometimes forgets the differences between herself and mortal creatures. - Roommates (and it's spin offs like Girls Next Door) has The Fair Folk type and most are human sized and wingless (pointy ears are common but not required) except to date the Green Fairy who is small winged and Fairy Sexy. - Seekers: Giselda is a Wingling, not a Fairy. And she'll be sure to correct you. - So Damn Bright: Flikker and others seem to be basically humans with some unspecified difference and butterfly wings growing from their backs. No magic powers or ability to fly has been shown, and they seem to have sexual relations with humans (a dating site asks if you are looking for "fae" or "anthro", and on another occasion Flikker mentions that one of the other human characters didn't strike her as the sort who might be "faesexual" ). Flikker sheds her lower wings at one stage, this apparently being a mark of ageing or growing up. Fairies seem to shed and regrow their wings from time to time. - The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn: In the past, the Fey once walked alongside mankind when they were still aware of the existence of forces beyond mortal comprehension. At some point, such knowledge was lost to humanity, leaving the Fey to pick up on their work alone. In the present, Sebastian is the last one remaining to shepherd the dead as the rest left the world behind. - Virtual Pet Planet: The wold has a race of Pixies that basically run everything. Some of them even sell curious wares. - The Weave: Called fairies, though technically they are more of The Fair Folk: Human-sized, very beautiful, pointy-eared, don't have wings (in default mode at least), can have unusual eye or hair colors and some non-human features (at least one of them has been seen with antlers), and all of them are capable of doing magic in some way, i. e. transform themselves. They are definitely not the sunny, wish-fulfilling sort of fairies, but more likely the sort of people who'd abduct you and leave you lost in the deep dark woods. - The Wolf at Weston Court: Faeries are all-female human-sized creatures with pointed ears, retractable wings, and a penchant for gun powder. They have no apparent magical advantage over other races, but they pride themselves in their powerful military. At the time of the story, they wear World War I-esque uniforms (with open backs for the wings) and their canon accent is standard American. - Dreamscape: Eleenin's fairies are summoned to help in combat, rather than being a Fairy Companion. Also, they're transparent. - Everything2 has detailed instructions of how to gather pixie dust. - Felarya has size-changing, man-eating fairies. - In The Midgaheim Bestiary, fairies, or The Fair Folk, are a loose and diverse group of beings native to Fairy Land. They are descended from natives of the physical world that remained stranded in Fairyland for whatever reason, eventually becoming mutated and spiritually altered by the omnipresent magic there. Some are still recognizable as members of a specific group of living things, while others have become mutated beyond recognition. Most fairies lose their powers if they spend too much time in the mundane world, and the more magical or mutated kinds aren't very well suited for surviving there at all in the long term. They cannot lie or go back on their word — a fairy that breaks an oath risks being destroyed by magical backlash. They're divided in several types, based off of their origins, role in Fairyland's ecosystems and societies, and general appearance. - Boogeymen are a family of fairies that includes goblins, bugbears, trolls and orcs, and specialize in forming connections between Fairyland and the mortal world or subsuming small portions of mundane reality into the fairy world to maintain some measure of internal stability there. They're generally looked down on in fairy society, despite the importance of their role, and are the type of fairy most attuned to life in the physical world. - Humanoid fairies are the classic tiny winged humanoids. They're descendants of mundane animals and plants that mutated to take on humanoid shapes, and generally form the middle class and lower aristocracy of fairy society. - High elves, or human fairies, descend from humans who became trapped in Fairyland. They're highly magical and often the rulers of Seelie fairy courts, and their difficulty in surviving outside of Fairyland means that they tend to rely on servants and minions to interact with the human world. - Bestial fairies resemble normal or monstrous animals with minimal or no anthropomorphic traits. They otherwise think and behave like normal fairies, and many can shapeshift into regular animals. Kelpies belong to this family. - Monstrous fairies, such as nuckelavees, are the oldest inhabitants of Fairyland, and are so highly mutated that it's effectively impossible to determine their mortal ancestors or their position in taxonomy. They are very powerful, and tend to rule Unseelie fairy courts. - Occult fairies, such as banshees, are closely tied with death and the afterlife and are halfway to being undead themselves. Their link to one of the cardinal truths of mortal life means that they also tend to be more mentally grounded than other fairies. - Mitten Squad: "Blueberries & Fairies", where the movie, The Tooth Fairy, is mentioned. - Avez-vous déjà vu... ? features two. One, "la fée fagot" (the faggot note : In the British sense of "bundle of sticks" fairy), is the "tiny flying humanoid" type and grants wishes, but only to wood (Pinocchio is a frequent recipient/victim). The other, human-sized, is a lazy bum who uses magic to do everything without ever getting up from her couch. - Barbie movies: - Barbie Fairytopia has Barbie and friends as fairies. - Barbie: A Fairy Secret has Barbie and friends as fairies. - Barbie Presents Thumbelina: Thumbelina and her friends are part of a species known as the Twillerbees. Twillerbees are no larger than a grown human's hand, have wings, and have a magical connection with nature. On one hand, they can make plants grow faster, on the other Twillerbabies are born from flowers. - The fairies on Butterbean's Cafe have Pointy Ears and cookie-like wings. However, Butterbean and her friends are the only fairies consistently shown flying. - The Fairly OddParents! is about fairies that have taken up the task of watching over a miserable human child in need. There is, however, a distinction between a fairy and a fairy godparent. Fairies are able to roam free in fairy world, living as they please. By going to the Fairy Academy, a fairy can become a fairy godparent and get assigned to a godchild. Fairy godparents have more power in reality warping than normal fairies, and are trained in happy wishmaking, as shown in "This Is Your Wish". The leader of the fairies is a muscular Arnold Schwarzenegger-inspired character named Jorgen Von Strangle. This is because creator Butch Hartman thought it would be funny to have the fairy leader be someone you'd least expect, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first thing that came to his mind. - In Filly Funtasia, Fairies are actually another race of Filly entirely. One of the main characters, Will, is one of them. - Gargoyles' "Third Race" aka "Oberon's Children" leans more towards The Fair Folk variety: All Myths Are True (though not necessarily "accurate"), and these "fairies" basically include all sorts of legendary creatures, from Norse and Egyptian gods to Shakespearean characters. - Gravity Falls: One episode briefly features an actual fairy, which is accidentally killed by Soos, to the horror of the twins. In another episode, one acts as a mosquito and tries to bite Stan, and it's later shown that fairy dust acts as as unicorn knock-out gas. - A Kind of Magic: Willow is a humanoid fairy. - My Little Pony: - The Owl House: Upon arriving in the Boiling Isles, Luz bumps into a seemingly innocent fairy, who then proceeds to bare a mouthful of giant teeth and screams to have her skin. - Sofia the First: - The Three Good Fairies and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty appear alongside Miss Nettle; Tinker Bell (due to sharing continuity with Peter Pan), which may possibly also include the Pixie Hollow fairies; fliegels (such as Grotta), the small, obnoxious and pesty, prankster kind of fairies; fairies from the Mystic Isles (including the Sugar Plum Fairy), where fairies can age and have children, have to earn their wings by winning the Fairy Cup, and seem to have an attribute system similar to the Pixie Hollow fairies' talents, albeit much more broad (such as being Dream Fairies); fairy godmothers like Cinderella's or Ruby's (Tizzy); and Merryweather mentions having wanted to be a tooth fairy in one episode - Elena of Avalor: Orizaba is a moth fairy. She is resembles a deathly pale woman with giant moth wings, and due to being a nocturnal being who can only survive in the shade (especially during solar eclipses), she is Weakened by the Light. She's also a powerful magic user whose power would otherwise surpass that of the Big Bads and could only be defeated by the ancient Maruvians in the previous solar eclipse by stalling her out until the eclipse ended. - Winx Club fairies are human-sized Magical Girls from different planets all around the Magic Dimension. Though they're not always nice, they usually try to help people and protect the realms from evil. They also only have wings when they're transformed. - The Cottingley Fairies were supposedly photos of actual fairies (small and winged, not the other kind) in 1917. A numbers of celebrities were caught up in the hype, including Arthur Conan Doyle, before the cousins who took the photos confessed they were fake. They still claimed to have seen actual fairies, and one cousin would later insist that one◊ of the pictures (the lowest-quality one, incidentally) was real. Also served as the inspiration for two films in 1997: Photographing Fairies and Fairytale A True Story.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurFairiesAreDifferent
Constrained Writing - TV Tropes (left hand side of keyboard) Ferret sex at great rates MEET SINGLE FERRETS IN YOUR AREA TONIGHT Alt Text: (right hand side of keyboard) Buy my puppy milk, LOL (home row of keyboard) Galahad has a Flash SSD (top row of keyboard) We owe it to you to pepper your puppy This is when an author writes in an atypical pattern. The reasons for this can vary, from Leaning on the Fourth Wall (if it's related to the story in some way), to keeping certain plot points and twists hidden to the very end (e.g. avoiding gender pronouns for a Samus Is a Girl twist; see The All-Concealing "I") to simply being a stylistic choice. Some types of self-imposed challenges include writing in a particular metre, or making each line a letter longer than the one that preceded it; writing in code (e.g. replacing words with ones that appear a few places afterwards in the dictionary); avoiding certain common letters (the correct term for this is a lipogram, by the way; E is the most commonly used because it's the most commonly used vowel in several languages); using words that display some sort of complex pattern (e.g. making large chunks of the story alliterative or in palindromes); drabbles (stories of precisely 100 words) and many more. Remember this applies to any challenge imposed on the author by themselves, so normal deadlines and schedules don't count, though improvising with limited resources or using a particularly strict time limit does (see NaNoWriMo for one example). The alternative name "Oulipo" is from a group of French writers who were dedicated to this style of writing. The Other Wiki also has an article on the concept. Some authors might adopt this as a Signature Style. Unconventional Formatting can be related. When this is used within an otherwise normal piece of writing to show something specific then it is Painting the Medium. Flash Fiction is a subtrope. ## Examples: - Joss Whedon wrote "Hush" in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a rebuke to critics saying that his work was too dependent on his Signature Style of Buffy Speak. - An episode of How I Met Your Mother sees Barney attempt to get a woman's number without using the letter "E". - "Hi. My word for... this guy... (points at self) is Barrrr...nooo. Barno! You... look... not ugly. Your... dial thing (point at his phone) ... is what?" - An episode of Zoey 101 has Chase, Michael, and Logan challenge each other to see who can go the longest without saying any words with the letter "S". - Older Than Feudalism: In the 6th century B.C., Lasos of Hermione wrote a hymn to Demeter without using the letter sigma, of which a fragment still survives. - A Void (and La Disparition, its Gallic original) leaves out the letter E, and also has well received translations in most other European languages. - Gadsby: A Story of Over 50000 Words Without Using the Letter "E" by Ernest Vincent Wright. - Mike Keith: - "Poe, E.: Near a Raven" is a version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven with the limitation that words must have the same number of letters as the corresponding digit of pi. - An an encore, Not A Wake is a 10,000-word book (a collection of poems, short stories and play scripts) with the same constraint. - Le Train De Nulle Part is a French novel with no verbs. - In her first Lythande short story, "The Secret of the Blue Star", written for Thieves' World, Marion Zimmer Bradley carefully tried to \|\|avoid referring to the gender of the magician Lythande to conceal the Twist Ending that Lythande is a woman.\|\| She did slip up at one point, however: Lythande drew from the folds of his robe a small pouch containing a quantity of sweet-smelling herbs, rolled them into a blue-grey leaf, and touched his ring to spark the roll alight. He drew on the smoke, which drifted up sweet and greyish. - David Langford's "A Surprisingly Common Omission" is a drabble written without using the letter E. - Harlan Ellison once sat in a department store window for five hours, with the challenge being that he write a 500+ page novel in that time-frame. And pulled it off. In addition, he's written several short stories in this manner, with other people (including his close friend Robin Williams) providing written prompts just before he starts. One of his better-known storefront stories, "From A to Z in the Chocolate Alphabet", is a series of 26 short, disturbing proto-Creepypasta vignettes (one for every letter of the alphabet) written over the course of eight hours in the front window of a science fiction bookstore. - NaNoWriMo's idea is to write a novel with at least X words in a month. The default value of X is 50,000, but some people go for up to million words. - Similarly, Script Frenzy is a challenge to write 100 pages of script. - On the other end of the spectrum, there's flash fiction, short stories under a certain length, and "drabbles", stories exactly 100 words long. - Dr. Seuss: - He wrote The Cat in the Hat as a challenge to write an interesting story using a very small vocabulary of words which a 6 year-old should know. - Reportedly Green Eggs and Ham was a challenge to create an interesting children's story using no more than 50 different words. - Eunoia, by Christian Bok, is a collection of poetic prose. Each entry only uses words that use a single vowel. (The word "eunoia" itself is the shortest word in English that uses all five vowels). - Isaac Asimov wrote "Insert Knob A in Hole B" live on television (although he admitted he saw the challenge coming and prepared for it). The preparation time was a few minutes before the show started. - Poul Anderson wrote the essay "Uncleftish Beholding" in which he described basic atomic theory and the periodic table in a manner as if English had never adopted any French, Latin, or Greek vocabulary but instead only used its Germanic roots: Some of the higher samesteads are splitly. That is, when a neitherbit strikes the kernel of oneas, for a showdeal, ymirstuff-235it bursts it into lesser kernels and free neitherbits; the latter can then split more ymirstuff-235. When this happens, weight shifts into work. It is not much of the whole, but nevertheless it is awesome. - Alphabetical Africa is a novel in 52 chapters, beginning with only words that start with 'a', and then 'a' and 'b', up to chapter 26, where all the alphabet can be used. From chapter 27 to 52, the letters words can start with recede back to 'a'. - 2002: A Palindrome Story is a story written with exactly 2002 palindromic words. - In The Three Musketeers, Aramis mentions that he has written a poem with each line consisting of only one syllable. - Around 1800 German poets were hotly debating whether or not one should write sonnets in German (it being a form originally created in Italian and according to some better suited to the Italian language). Johann Heinrich Voss, best known for translating The Iliad and The Odyssey into German hexameters, was in the "against German sonnets" camp, but in order to show that he did this as a matter of choice, not because he was unable to write proper sonnets, he wrote the Klingsonate (roughly: "tinkle sonata") in 1808, which consists of three parodistic sonnets. In the first, each line consists of one syllable; in the second there are eight lines of three syllables each and six of two syllables; the third has lines of eleven syllables each and uses a lot of Italian words. - In the Gene Wolfe short story My Book, the narrator is writing a book starting with the last word and working backwards. - The Czech author Jan Werich wrote "a constrained tale using monosyllabic words, or a praise of the Czech language". - As explained in an afterword, The Squares of the City by John Brunner is based on a chess game (specifically the 1892 world championship game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin), with key characters representing various pieces and their interactions representing their positions; when a piece has the potential to take another piece, this is echoed in the story with one character being under threat from another, and when a piece is taken, the corresponding character is "taken out of the game" by death or imprisonment. - The novel Ella Minnow Pea is about a fictional nation where the founder's statue has the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". As a storm keeps damaging the letters, it's taken as a sign that they should be forbidden, and the text accordingly stops using each letter as it's banned. - In-universe, the Ellery Queen novel The Origin of Evil has a threatening note written in bizarre, tortured syntax. This turns out to be because \|\|the typewriter it was written on was, at the time, missing its "E" key\|\|, which is an important clue. - The Dick and Jane series of beginning reader books limited its vocabulary to a word list chosen for each educational level. Especially in earlier volumes, this resulted in very stilted, repetitive prose. Nonetheless, they were popular for a generation of students until they were supplanted by the much more entertaining Dr. Seuss volumes above. - Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe explains a variety of technical topics using only the 1000 commonest words in English. - Italo Calvino had a penchant for it, for example "Il castello dei destini incrociati" was done with a playing card set. - German author Tobias Meissner did a somewhat more modern version of the same in "Paradise of Swords" (a fantasy fight knock-out tournament), done with a role-playing game system to define the outcomes of the fights. Feels a bit like wrestling. - "Oh Cello voll Echo" by Herbert Pfeiffer has, you already spotted it, palindrome poems. And this is much harder to pull of in German. In "Plaudere, du Alp!" he even manages a long rant against fascism. - Eminem: - His Artist Disillusionment song "The Way I Am" is written in anapestic tetrameter, contributing to the claustrophobic feel of the song. (Apart from the hook.) - Encore: - People often remark on Eminem's reduced lyricism on Encore, but this was due in part to him challenging himself to freestyle his work rather than use his usual method of obsessively hashing out his lyrics on paper. (He was jealous of several contemporaries who could do this, in particular Jay-Z and his signee Ca$his. Also, he was struggling to write due to being on a lot of drugs.) - Every line of Em's verse on "Never Enough" ends with the same rhyme couplet - ay- ee (as in crazy). - Relapse: - Eminem's idea behind using a mysterious accent to play Slim Shady on this album was to force him out of his comfort zone when writing rhymes - it prevented him from using go-to rhymes that would work in his own accent, but also allowed him to rhyme things that he normally wouldn't be able to. It also works as a Shifting Voice of Madness for the incarnation of the character. - Eminem also went out of his way to choose the most rhythmically weird beats he was offered, and to try and ride them perfectly with his writing, resulting in some pretty bizarre meters and flows. The weirdness of Rape Leads to Insanity song "Insane" is based on writing exactly to its percussion fills and vamping Scare Chord at the end of every measure. Even the album's comedy single "We Made You" is built on a weird Stop and Go burlesque swing beat which Eminem raps across in a deliberately wonky rhythm, and "Underground" is in Uncommon Time. - The second verse in "Stay Wide Awake", which describes a rape, maintains an identical rhyme scheme and meter for 14 lines in order to reinforce the forced nature of the crime. (e.g. " She's naked, see, no privacy, but I can see she wants me / so patient, see, I try to be, but gee, why does she taunt me?...") - "Legacy" was written as a "nerdy" attempt to make a song which keeps to the same set of rhyming vowels for the entire duration (again, apart from the hook). The sounds used are [aɪ] ("s idewalk"), [ɔː] (" awesome") and [ɪn] ("cry in'"). - In Wonderful Town, Ruth says that the letter "W" fell off her typewriter after she wrote her thesis on Walt Whitman, making herself "the only author who never uses a 'w.'" - Ad Verbum is an Interactive Fiction game built around Constrained Writing, as the protagonist explores a wizard's mansion where each room has some kind of linguistic constraint that is reflected in the description of the room — and in the commands that the game will accept within that room. All the rooms on the initial floor are constrained to be alliterative. Rooms on higher floors have more elaborate constraints, such as that old favorite, "Abandon all fifth orthographic glyphs". As a Shout-Out, one of the rooms is a library whose contents include a readable copy of Robert Pinsky's constrained poem "ABC" and an empty dust-jacket from a disappeared copy of A Void. - xkcd - In Dungeons and Dragons, "Sending" is a spell that lets you send a message of up to 25 words. In The Order of the Stick, every use of Sending is exactly 25 words. - The Simpsons: Multiple In-Universe examples. - In "Guess Who's Coming To Criticize Dinner?", when Homer becomes a food critic, he writes a review without using the letter E. That's because the E key on his typewriter is broken. Somehow, he managed to write "Screw Flanders" over and over (perhaps written as "Scroo Flandurs"). - In "Burns' Heir", Mr Burns tells Lenny that he will be fired unless he is able to explain why he shouldn't be without using the letter E. Lenny : Uh, I'm a... good... work... guy... Burns : You're fired. Lenny : But I didn't say... Burns : You will. [pushes trapdoor button] Lenny [falling] : EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee!	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Oulipo
Our Dwarves Are All the Same - TV Tropes Standard-Issue Dwarf. Celia: He has an accent. Haley: He likes beer. Haley: He worships Thor. Celia: And hates trees! Cleric of Loki: Can you tell me anything about him that differentiates him from every other dwarf? 'Dwarves': you know what they are. Gruff, practical, industrious, stout, gold-loving, blunt-speaking, Scottish-accented, Viking-helmed, booze-swilling, Elf-hating, ax-swinging, long-bearded, stolid and unimaginative, boastful of their battle prowess and their vast echoing underground halls and mainly just the fact that they are dwarves. Ever since J. R. R. Tolkien raided the Norse myths for good stuff, dozens of fantasy worlds have included them as one of the Standard Fantasy Races... and most of them have stuck closely to the original. Tolkien's importance to this can be gauged by the fact that the plural form dwarves, which he used to distinguish his dwarves from other dwarfs, note : It was originally a recurring mistake during the writing of The Hobbit (or rather "a private piece of bad grammar" that sneaked into the text), but it quickly became an Ascended Glitch. is now regarded by many as the standard plural (at least regarding fantasy — "dwarfs" is still the accepted plural for humans with dwarfism). Fantasy writers who use "dwarfs", like Terry Pratchett, are now the unusual ones. note : There is a small group that contends that the proper plural should be "dwarrows" or "dwerrows", reconstructed modern English forms of Old English dweorgas or dweorhas, in turn the plural of dweorg or dweorh, from which dwarf evolved (compare Old Norse dverg and dvergar). Tolkien was the first to suggest this, likening it to "man/men" and "goose/geese", but thought it was too archaic. Within this small group, some also use "dwarrow" or "dwerrow", singular. (Many "Tolkienesque" dwarves, however, are more like the Theme Park Version.) Since The Film of the Book(s), they now even all talk the same. A lot of dwarves are Scottish or have some other accent that reads as "rustic" to American or Southern English speakers — Northern or south-western English, Welsh, note : John Rhys-Davies, who played archetypal dwarf Gimli in the LOTR films, is Welsh. Stephen Briggs, who does the Discworld audiobooks, also gives many of them Welsh accents, as they often come from Llamedos, Discworld Wales. Irish, or Russian accents are common. Oddly, despite the strong Norse influence, dwarves with any sort of Scandinavian accent are extremely rare. An entire race of miners and blacksmiths, with names like Dwarfaxe Dwarfbeard and Grimli Stonesack, who are overly sensitive about any perceived slight, always spoiling for a fight, unable to speak two sentences in a row without calling someone "lad" or "lass," and possessed of a love of gold and jewels that drives them to live in Underground Cities where they dig deep and greedily (often with catastrophic results). In the decades following Tolkien, they will often be depicted as more technologically minded than other fantasy races, verging on (and sometimes overtaking) Steampunk, but this is in keeping with their engineering and crafting skills both from the classic Fantasy depictions and from actual mythology. Their societies tend strongly toward a Reasonable Authority Figure (usually a warrior king) ruling over a socially conservative but rather egalitarian society of soldiers, miners, and craftsmen. In most settings, dwarves and humans have enough in common to treat each other with respect. They are frequently allies against outside threats. The dwarf will often serve as The Big Guy (ironic, considering their stature) of a fantasy Five-Man Band, especially since his weapon of choice tends to be either an axe or a hammer. Ranged combat is not their preference, but if they aren't able to force enemies into close quarters, you can expect guns (Fantasy Gun Control permitting), throwing axes, or crossbows — in about that order. Dwarf rogues are rather uncommon in fiction, as their stocky frames make sneaking around look unconvincing, and their culture values honesty and openness; however dwarfs will usually know a thing or two about brawling and fighting dirty, which overlaps with the rogue archetype and being masters of crafting mechanical devices means they tend to know a thing or two about picking locks and disarming traps. Likewise, dwarven mages are vanishingly rare, except sometimes where religion is concerned. In fact, it's not uncommon for the entire race to be at least somewhat magic-resistant. If a dwarf wants to use magic, he'll infuse it into a sword or an axe so he can physically beat the enemy with it instead. If legends speak of an Ultimate Blacksmith from a bygone age who once forged all manner of powerful enchanted weapons and equipment, then he was probably a dwarf. If you happen to come across any of this legendary equipment and discover that the centuries haven't been very kind to it, then the only guy in the world who can help you get it back into fighting shape is probably a dwarf too. Might even be the same one, depending on how long-lived they are in the setting. Often they get treated as a functional One-Gender Race; one of the only widespread (but not universal) novelties is what the women look like. Even then, the most common ones seem to veer somewhere around "Grandmother from the Old Country"/"adorable" (depending on age) or "you're looking at one now" (with the Girls with Moustaches that implies). And in contrast to elves (which are generally treated as universally androgynous and bisexual), dwarves are almost always portrayed as heterosexual, uninterested in sex with non-dwarves (there's a reason that half-elves are a stock fantasy race and half-dwarves are not), and possibly even uninterested in sex for non-reproductive purposes. Female dwarves might occasionally be portrayed as being Butch Lesbian, and the few homosexual male dwarves in fiction are typically Manly Gay. An exception to this rule is the fantasy setting's Cutesy Dwarf, who is often based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; this variety shares traits with our kind of Dwarves, but will be less of a tough guy and more of a charming man-child, and will scrap the ale-drinking and ax-wielding to focus on craft and mining. For another fantasy race derived from subterranean fairy spirits and often associated with underground places and metalwork, see Our Kobolds Are Different. Not to be confused with Little People Are Surreal or Depraved Dwarf — once again, dwar s are fantasy creatures; dwar ve s are short humans (except in f Discworld and Warhammer), and nowadays the polite term for the latter is "little people". Also see Dwarfism in Media. ## These Dwarves are Rather Dwarivative - In Black Clover dwarves are a race from long ago that had special powers like elves, and were short miners who wielded axes. \|\|Charmy is revealed to be half-dwarf. While this could explain her short stature, when her dwarf abilities activate Charmy oddly gets much taller.\|\| - It's heavily implied that dwarves in Delicious in Dungeon largely fit the usual stereotype (smithing, fighting, mining, straightforward). Senshi, the main dwarf of the series, is considered a very atypical dwarf, being a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, Nature Hero, and Supreme Chef, who can handle himself in a fight but prefers peace first, and admits to not knowing the first thing about ores. He inherited a pair of priceless, heirloom adamantine shields from his companions — and reforged them into a wok with a matching lid. He has a mithril cooking knife. Nonetheless, he still has a few traditional dwarven elements in him, such as a distrust of magic and favoring an axe. - After being transformed into a dwarf by changeling mushroom spores, Laios discovers that dwarves do have one point of divergence from the standard mold: despite being very strong, they have very low stamina. Every dwarf seen so far wears only light armor when they need to fight and has to rest frequently. - The Dwarves in Nectar of Dharani Zig-zag this. On one hand they're smiths, very strong, prideful, stubborn and distrustful of elves. But on the other hand they can grow the size of a human, and females prefer to act from the shadows. - Kiryu's Infernity Dwarf in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is, other than the fact that he's a DARK Monster, pretty much a dwarf. (The burning axe was added for the card game version later.) - The dwarves in Tales of Wedding Rings seem to have been typical fantasy dwarves before they went extinct: short, muscular, hirsute people who dwelled underground and were expert miners and craftsmen. They were also pioneers of Magitek, creating robots, perpetual motion machines, and other devices which modern peoples cannot replicate. - Black Moon Chronicles: Stout, short and bearded? Check. Live inside mountains (and active volcanoes)? Check. Master engineers, miners and smiths? Check. Greedy? Check. Love alcohol? Check. Hate orcs? Check. Fight equipped with massive war machines, heavy armor, axes and hammers? Check, check and check. - Crystar Crystal Warrior: The wizard Ogeode's wife, the warrior woman Shen, is quite attractive despite her short stature, but she is a hot-blooded warrior who will cut anybody down to size who she perceives to be threatening her husband. He's rather embarrassed about her tendency to jump to his defense at the slightest insult (especially anyone calling him "old"), but he loves her dearly. - Played with in DC's Dungeons & Dragons. Khal is what you would expect a Gimli Expy to be, except he was actually kicked out of his dwarven home because he actively spoke against the rigid clannishness of his culture through love poems. - The Great Power of Chninkel: The kolds are a small, bearded, industrious people who produce metal weapons for the three warring armies in Daar. - Dwarves in Polish comedy-fantasy comic book series Lil i Put (Lil and Put) are exaggerated for comical effect — barbaric, loud, violent, self-righteous brutes who display fantastic levels of Fantastic Racism against elves. They do enjoy a good sing-a-long... and their songs tend to be about beating elves up. - Violet in Rat Queens is a dwarven hipster: she consciously rejects dwarven stereotypes unless it becomes popular to do so, in which case she enjoys them ironically. Female dwarves normally grow beards, so she shaved hers until facial shaving became "in" among young dwarves, at which point she grew it back (though as that happened during part of an Audience-Alienating Era that was hitting the series, it ended up being one of the elements that was dropped without comment and she's gone back to being beardless again). She also loves drinking as much as the next dwarf, but prefers wine to beer or ale. And she fights with a sword rather than an axe or hammer. - Brokk and Eitri from Valhalla, being based on one of the mythical originators of the trope, play it extremely straight as bearded, short, fond of money and extremely skilled craftsdwarfs. The sons of Ivaldi show up in Loki's Wager and look slightly more like gnomes than stereotypical dwarfs. - Marvel Comics' use of the Norse Mythos (via The Mighty Thor) has Dwarves that look like the modern model but otherwise are more like their ancient inspiration. In effect, they are cave-dwelling magical gadgeteers. - The subterranean Dawn People, or Thuatha, from Prince Valiant. They're more mysterious and mystical than militaristic, but you seriously do not want to mess with them. - Dungeon Keeper Ami presents us with three Dwarven Kingdoms. The dwarves here play all the tropes straight, but presents them in a very positive light, contrary to the game world where the story takes place. The dwarfs are honorable, resilient people whose obduracy against Keeper Mercury is justified, since the worst civil war in their history was backed and orchestrated by a Keeper. - Hoggle from Labyrinth is a fairly standard gruff Jerk with a Heart of Gold dwarf, apart from not having a long beard. No other dwarves are mentioned in this movie and he works for Jareth the Goblin King before his HeelFace Turn. - Eitri's depiction in Avengers: Infinity War is a bit of Shown Their Work, as nothing in the original myths stated that the dwarves were actually, physically short. It has been implied that their 'shorter stature' simply meant 'lesser in power to the gods', and that the image of them being shorter and stouter than a human was brought about later. - Dwarves from the Fighting Fantasy series of books follow the stereotypical depictions of dwarves: bushy beards, short in stature, having love of gold and so on. Most of their dwarves comes from two areas, the town of Stonebridge (where the dwarves are friendly, and led by their lawful chief, King Gillibran) and the town of Mirewater (whose dwarves are greedy, hostile and wouldn't hesitate to attack outsiders). - Lone Wolf: Although Magnamund lacks most classical fantasy races (elves, gnomes, halflings...), the dwarves from the mountain kingdom of Bor are pretty much standard fare. They're even known for their mechanical prowess and invented guns. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: - Prince Durin is designed around the archetypal Dwarf presented by the cinematic trilogies: a stout, truculent, bombastic redhead sporting a large nose and an impressive, braided beard. - Like his son, king Durin III is an archetypal Dwarf, albeit more aged, sporting a massive grey beard, a huge nose, and is gruff and he's no-nonsense in personality. - Clamavi de Profundis: The dwarves of Hammerdeep and Irna are fairly typical fantasy dwarves — they're short, stout folk with a preference for flowing beards, a great love of wealth and craftsmanship and rowdy natures prone to conflict. They also have a tendency to be brought to grief by their excessive greed. - Gloryhammer: In the second album Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards, we are introduced to the Astral Dwarves of Aberdeen whose king wields a "Crystal Laser Battle Axe." - Norse Mythology — here's where it all started. - Though they were somewhat varied, the basics of common lore go back to this mythology. The long beards, the skill in metallurgy, the living in caves, etc. They also turned to stone (sometimes temporarily, sometimes not) when exposed to sunlight. There was also discrepancy concerning how long they lived. Some myths had them be an adult at three years old and an old man by nine, some myths had them always looking old but being immortal. They had coal-black hair, extremely pale skin, were actually a type of elf and were human-sized at first, but Memetic Mutation changed them a lot even during the Viking era. By the late Middle Ages, they were much closer to the dwarves we'd recognize today. - In one version, they first appeared as maggots in the corpse of Ymir, whose body was then made to form the Earth itself. In this light, the stated origin for the dwarves seems an appropriate metaphor, what with their penchant for tunneling and living beneath the surface of the Earth. - They usually appeared as cave-dwellers forging weapons and jewelry. Sometimes with remarkable results. It was cave-dwelling dwarves who made Þór's hammer (always hits, destroys its target, returns to the user), Óðinn's spear (always hits its target), Freyja's necklace (shining like the sun), and the nine golden rings (give birth to new rings). Thus the legend of the stunted master forgers in the mountains was born. - Experts in Germanic mythology actually believe dwarves began as chthonic death related spirits, which makes the maggot origins and synonimity with the dark elves all the more evident. - Burning Wheel not only plays straight dwarf stereotypes but even builds upon the tale of Moria from The Lord of the Rings by working an attribute called "Greed" into the rule system: all dwarves are covetous. The higher a dwarf's Greed, the more likely they are to betray others, or even go Ax-Crazy, in the pursuit of possessing objects of high value and/or craftsmanship. They get bonuses to rolls made in the pursuit of wealth. However, if the Greed attribute reaches its maximum through indulgence of the vice, the dwarf hides himself away with his hoard of goods in paranoid seclusion, never to be seen again. - Changeling: The Lost has the Wizened, humans who were made to work as the Gentry's craftsmen and servants. Like dwarves, there's usually something "diminished" about them (sometimes size, sometimes muscle, sometimes social presence), they tend to be cranky (see "diminished social presence"), and they're very, very good with crafts. - The Chronicles of Aeres has two subraces of dwarves, with Gray Dwarves being fairly standard D&D-esque dwarves and Frostgraevyr Dwarves being an offshoot culture of dwarven mystics and mages with a particular knack for Frost Elementalism. - Dragon Dice plays it straight with standard, Tolkien inspired dwarves — not surprising for a game from TSR that was significantly inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. They are composed of the elements of earth and fire, have beards, are expert craftsmen and miners, live in the mountains, wield axes, and wear horned helms... Oh, and their cavalry ride on giant lizards and mammoths, just for a change of pace. - Dungeons & Dragons — not surprising, given how much it was originally based on Tolkien. There's other differences as well. - One widely used D&D addition is the idea that Dwarves are inherently more resistant to magic, being that they're all stolid and stony like the earth and all. Yet in the original myths, dwarves produced all manner of magical artifacts for the Aesir. Even Tolkien's dwarves managed to make mithril, the local Unobtainium. That said, they were resistant to The Corruption, seemingly because they love gold and cunning more than they love power. Didn't stop them from making and using magical weapons and armor either. Just made them resistant to wizard spells. - Interestingly, the Races of Stone Supplement for 3.5 provides a special Prestige Class that allows the casting of spells in armor, providing a description that's best summed up as "Nobody thinks there's any Dwarven Wizards because they wear Armor like the rest of the Dwarves." Of course, this is still entirely fitting with this trope. - D&D has shown an interesting evolution in the question of Dwarven females — namely, the lore about whether or not they sport beards. Throughout the 80s, the question on whether or not this was true raged in the pages of Dragon — especially when issue #58 introduced the first iteration of the Morndinsamman, the dwarven racial pantheon, complete with a bearded mother-goddess in Berronar Truesilver. However, its actual canonicity in the first editions of D&D are... questionable. Both the Dungeon Master's Guide for AD&D 1st edition and the Player's Handbook for the 1983 "Red Box" of BECMI Revised mention bearded dwarf women in passing, which are the earliest known such references. However, the AD&D Player's Handbook and Monster Manual made no such references, and the lore was removed from the subsequent 2ed Dungeon Master's Guide and the Rules Compendium for BECMI. In the late 2nd edition sourcebook "The Complete Book of Dwarves", it's mentioned in a single line that dwarf women can grow beards, but only the Deep Dwarf women tend to not shave them off. In 3rd edition, the idea was just quietly dropped and never referenced. In the sourcebook "Wizards Presents: Races & Classes", a design teaser for 4th edition, Wizards of the Coast stated emphatically that bearded dwarf women would not be a thing in that edition. Then in 5th edition, a sidebar in the Player's Handbook would mentioned bearded dwarf women as a possible "non-binary gender expression", alongside androgynous or truly gender-fluid elves... unlike the latter, though, bearded dwarf women have made no appearances in canon. - The Forgotten Realms were the first D&D setting to make the idea of D&D dwarf women having beards be mainstream. The sourcebook "Dwarves Deep" would establish that Faerunian dwarf women are capable of growing beards, but most prefer to shave. This would be reinforced by the sourcebook "Demihuman Deities", which would explicitly state that all dwarf goddesses are bearded and show at least one bearded goddess. Novels set in the setting that released in the 80s through 90s also mention bearded dwarf women in passing. In post-2nd edition versions of the setting, this lore was quietly dropped. - In Mystara, apart from the aforementioned "Red Box", no mention of dwarf women being bearded ever appears. Indeed, the Mystara dwarf sourcebook, "The Dwarves of Rockhome", almost pointedly goes out of its way to not mention the idea, with all of its female dwarf art depicting them as clean-shaven. - In Dragonlance, dwarf women do not grow beards, apart from the degenerate Aghar, or gully dwarves. And even then, women do not grow beards so much as "hairy cheeks", which are implied to be basically overgrown sideburns. - In the Nentir Vale, because it was built to be integrated into 4th edition, dwarf women lack beards and never had beards. In fact, a subrace of elementally tainted dwarves, called the Forgeborn, are naturally hairless. - In Dark Sun, all dwarves are completely hairless, so not only are dwarf women in that setting non-bearded, they're actually bald. - Dwarves are noted as being good with Divine magic, and they're one of the go-to races for Clerics. (see: Durkon from The Order of the Stick for an example). Players and Game Masters, of course, can play with or subvert the definition all they wish. - Even Eberron — the setting that brought you good undead, necromancer elves, intelligent giants (granted that's ancient history), removed alignment restrictions, among other things — cannot escape this. Its dwarves are the same, with the exception of House Kundarak who are bankers instead of smiths or miners. Though if this article by Keith Baker himself is to be believed, the Neogi (who look like a cross between a wolf spider and a moray eel) were actually formerly dwarves altered by the Daelkyr. That being said, subsequent releases and further Word of God have tweaked them somewhat: fifth edition Eberron dwarves are notably more friendly and outgoing than the standard, with traditions of storytelling and gift-giving, but they're dealing with questions about daelkyr symbionts and other weird stuff found in the corrupted corridors of the Realm Below; some holds have enthusiastically embraced things like living breastplates and tentacle whips. - Forgotten Realms with its dazzling level of diversity and details subverts this trope a few times with sub-races like the wild dwarves and arctic dwarves, plus Gray Dwarves (duergar). Shield dwarves and gold dwarves are closer to the stereotype, as a beard-combing grimly determined Proud Warrior Race Guy is never too far. Gold dwarves tend to be tradition-bound, suspicious, greedy, obscenely rich and almost as haughty as elves, though trade with humans and other folk a lot. Shield dwarves are split. Some are "The Hidden", isolationist clans. Most are "The Wanderers" who got a clue from all those empty clanholds that dwarves aren't too far from extinction, and see interacting with the world proactively as their duty. These are borderline Boisterous Bruiser sorts, allying with anyone up to elves and half-orcs if necessary, adventuring, working as smiths in non-dwarven cities. They are fairly traditional, but marry whoever they like including humans, gnomes or halflings instead of checking exact age, social status and opinions of all elders in both clans before starting a family. - Dragonlance played with the trope a bit. They had the Hylar, Niedhar, and Daewar clans of dwarves, all of which were in the general neighborhood of Lawful Good, and the Daergar, who were Lawful Evil. - Mystara uses this trope 100% straight with its Rockhome dwarves, then subverts it with their Kogolor predecessors, who lived above ground and mostly raised goats for a living. - The classic supplement The Dwarves of Rockhome goes out of its way to justify the trope by explaining the modern dwarves' backstory, which they themselves don't generally know: after the Blackmoor civilization accidentally wiped itself out in a quasi-nuclear cataclysm that tilted the very axis of the planet, the Immortal Kagyar — not so coincidentally the patron of craftsmen — took some of the few surviving Kogolors and turned them into a new race highly resistant to poison and radiation (and incidentally magic as well) and a predilection for living underground, so that even if a similar disaster should strike the world again, dwarven culture and its achievements would be able to survive in spite of it. Thus, dwarven underground cities essentially serve double duty as potential fallout shelters for their inhabitants. - It also plays with the idea that dwarves are always craftsmen by including a clan of dwarf farmers, descended from criminals who'd been sentenced to the "humiliating" task of growing food. The Wyrwarfs, tired of being treated like riffraff, voiced their discontent by threatening to withhold food from the other clans: if the clans refused to acknowledge farmers as equal to miners and artisans, they could huddle down deep with their trinkets and eat rocks. - The largely forgotten Chainmail D&D Miniatures game (the early 2000s relaunch, not the classic '60s version that inspired D&D) ended up using pretty standard D&D dwarves, but oh What Could Have Been. The original design specs called for a dwarf faction that had deposed their king, abandoned faith in their god, and become communist factory workers and miners. The Dwarves would have dressed like something out of a '30s era Soviet propaganda poster and built mecha golems. - Just like elves, dwarves in D&D have a subterranean Evil Counterpart: the Duergar, or Gray Dwarves, who are built on the folktales of dwarves as nasty schemers with supernatural powers. The Duergar have limited Psychic Powers and have a grim, humorless society based around slave labor and constant toil. - Fifth Edition hammers the trope a little harder by giving dwarven characters automatic proficiency with hammers, axes, and the player's choice of metalsmithing, stonemason, or brewing tools. So Monks or Rogue are likely to be the only classes that see a dwarf not running around with such weapons since the class features don't really use either very well. On top of that, the Mountain Dwarf subrace also gives automatic proficiency with light and medium armors, so in the event that you want to play a Mountain Dwarf Wizard, you'll still be wearing a breastplate and holding a battle axe. - Dark Sun Athas's Dwarves play this straight, except for few noticeable differences. They're completely hairless, and they have a tradition of working toward short- and long-term goals that only they know of. - The Uvandir of Wicked Fantasy basically turn the typical dwarf stereotypes up a notch or three and play it for some mild Black Comedy. They seem to be a One-Gender Race, but the truth is that they're actually genderless Artificial Humanoids psionically shaped from stone — this incidentally makes them a Dying Race because the free Uvandir don't know how to make new ones. They're inherently able to communicate with each other non-verbally, so they hate talking to excess and see it as the mark of a fool, which is why they don't get on so well with other races. They're rude and gruff because they're actually very emotionally sensitive, and are prone to attacks of melancholy so intense they can end up permanently reverting to stone if they get too depressed, and so they try to avoid forming attachments with the shorter-lived races. - Eon: Zigzagged. There are four Dwarven clans; Ghor, Roghan, Drezin and Zolod, each with their own culture putting them somewhere on the Straight-to-Subverted spectrum. - Clan Ghor play this trope completely straight, being the most traditional clan who've changed the least since the Dwarven race broke through the surface and entered the world above, to the extent that the clan still mostly live underground and in the mountains. Being the largest clan, the Ghor Dwarves are also responsible for establishing this trope as the in-universe stereotype of what a Dwarf is like. - Clan Roghan play this tope mostly straight and is the clan with the worst relationship to the Elves, though unlike Ghor they have split more with the traditions of old and have integrated more freely with other races. - Clan Drezin is where things start veering into stranger territories as while their way of living is almost as traditional as clan Ghor's, they are also a clan far more devoted to arcane studies than your average Dwarf and are also subject to great stigmatization from the other clans... not because of the magic, mind you, the Dwarves of Eon generally hold great respect for those who can use such awe-inspiring and unpredictable power without blowing themselves up, but rather because the Drezin clan sided with the Tiraks in the last great war, an act which got them branded as traitors by the other Dwarves. On top of that, Dwarves of clan Drezin also often shave or trim their beards in order to differentiate themselves from the other clans of their kin, instead favoring the mustache. - Finally we've got clan Zolod, who are generally mocked by the other Dwarven clans for how untraditional and un-Dwarf-like they are, having almost completely integrated into human society. - As a generic system, GURPS can potentially handle any sort of dwarf — but its writers have mostly stuck to the established standard. - Dwarves in GURPS Banestorm, the main official GURPS fantasy setting, are a race of natural artificers and merchants. Most adults have at least one point worth of personal "signature gear". - GURPS Fantasy offers another variant of the same type. - In the GURPS predecessor The Fantasy Trip, dwarves were straight out of the Tolkienian mold. However, some details (mostly concerning dwarf women) were left unspecified, meaning that players could form their own conclusions. - The Dwarfs of Kings of War come in two forms the Dwarfs who are very much Tolkien Dwarves with cannons and badger cavalry. Unlike most Dwarf civilizations who are either declining or staying underground, these Dwarfs take an expansionist path. Then there's their evil counterparts the Abyssal Dwarfs, who have thralls and dwarf mutants in their armies. - The now-defunct Mage Knight miniatures game had standard Tolkien-y dwarves. All male, all bearded, all craftsmen and miners (some not by choice), and their craftiness led to literal Steampunk tech such as Steam (mecha)Golems and steam-powered mounts. There are some differences from the standard model here. They are actually shorter-lived than humans, an elderly dwarf being about 30, and they play up the resistance to magic. They were actually forced by The Empire of Atlantis into slavery, mining for magic Phlebotinum because they were immune to the deadly radiation. They joined the Black Powder Rebels in order to free their comrades from this slavery. - The Jotun of New Horizon were once compared to dwarves, except being huge wafans instead of short humans. Subsequently a group of dwarves raided the forum, decapitated the person who made the claim, and told everybody never to compare them to war machines again. - Rifts: Dwarves come in a couple different varieties, each of which comes from a different dimension. Regular dwarves come out of the Palladium Fantasy dimension, and exhibit all the classic characteristics, including a deep-seated cultural aversion to magic. Pantheons of the Megaverse has dwarves that represent the dwarves from Norse Mythology, right down to being the creators of Mjölnir. There's also races like the Dwarf Forgemasters from the Three Galaxies setting and the technologically adept and rune magic-using Nuhr Dwarves, but they're all basically variations on a theme. A list that circulates around message boards and other sites called "You Know You've Been Playing Rifts for Too Long When..." has an item in it that reads "You've ever made a Dwarf character whose name did not have 'axe' or 'beard' in it." - Warhammer Fantasy: Played about as straight as it comes, though Warhammer Dwarfs are most definitely Dwarfs and not Dwarves. Dwarfs (called Dawi in their own language) are honourable, solid, humourless, conservative beyond imagining and treat everything as Serious Business: a Warhammer dwarf either gives 100% to whatever he's doing, or he's dead. Female Dwarfs in Warhammer are not bearded, despite in-universe rumors to the contrary, but tend to look like plump, braid-haired viking maidens straight out of a Wagner opera; they also make up less than five percent of the Dwarven population, as most Dwarf births are boys. That said, they do have some eccentricities: - Dwarfs don't tend to speak with a Scottish accent, but with a thick Yorkshire accent — the ubiquitous English stereotype of Yorkshiremen being that they are gruff, grumpy mining folk with a strong disdain for soft southerners and their airy-fairy ways (and it is no accident that Warhammer's Elves speak just like those refined and aristocratic upper-class southerners). The Gotrek & Felix novels play with the accent, introducing a Dwarf character whose speech is a comically exaggerated version of a real Scottish brogue. Even the other Dwarfs can't understand him half the time. - They take immense pride in their beards, which they grow throughout their lives and never cut unless in penance for some great shame or failure. They are often elaborately braided and decorated, and a Dwarf's social status as he ages is determined by the length of his beard — mature adults are called "Fullbeards", while elders are "Longbeards". Forcibly shaving a Dwarf is one of the greatest insults imaginable. The women, being beardless, instead grow out long, pleated braids that serve the same social function as their brothers' facial hair. - Their technological superiority is also notable. These Dwarfs have guns. (No Fantasy Gun Control here!) And cannons. And helicopters. And Ironclad submarines. This is in spite of them being so utterly conservative that any widely-used design had to have went through decades of testing and refinement to be considered acceptable (the aforementioned guns still has plenty of Dwarfs grumbling about the troubles with these "new"fanged curios compared to the old reliable crossbows). They also have the "love for alcohol" base covered. They have ale that is so filled with nutrients that they can literally survive on it alone. Bonus points to the fact that they distill their helicopter fuel from it! - There's also their most defining trait: Their hat is Revenge Before Reason. Dwarfs nurse a grudge like a human would nurse a family heirloom — in fact, many dwarf Grudges are family heirlooms, passed down through generations. All dwarfholds keep a big book called the Book of Grudges, and if you ever wrong a dwarf from that hold, they write that wrong down in the book and remember it. Forever. Grudges all have set standards for fulfillment, usually disproportionately high, and Dwarfs will never stop until it is repaid. Ever. Classic example: a White Dwarf Dwarf vs. Empire battle report that resulted in heavy casualties for both sides was justified by a backstory that explained why the Dwarfs were attacking: Six years ago, an Empire lord underpaid the Dwarf workers who built the castle by two and a half pennies — as far as the lord (and sane real-life human beings) are concerned, it's simply a matter of a few missing coins, but to the Dwarfs, you have cheated them out of money, and for that, you must . Common consensus of Dwarf society (only aired by elves and humans when safely out of dwarf earshot) is that they're driving themselves to extinction pursuing centuries-old wrongs. die - Dwarf tendencies towards Serious Business and honour also leads to the quirk of the Slayer. What does a Dwarf do if he or she is shamed or dishonoured (such as failing to uphold a grudge, failing to not treat something as seriously as it should be treated, or producing shoddy work that injures or fails another Dwarf)? They become shamed in the eyes of Dwarf society and become Slayers, walking out into the wilderness with nothing on but a pair of pants and a mohawk to find the biggest, meanest beasties and hopefully die trying to kill them. Some of the most (or least) successful Slayers are veteran warriors who have killed everything from demonic personifications of primal rage to dragons the length of football pitches. And they do all this because honor demands it. The only alternative to being a Slayer is being a submarine crewman: Dwarfs hate and fear water with unrivaled fervor. The majority choose to become Slayers. Yeah. - Interestingly, while the individual Dwarf in Warhammer is fairly slow (it's the little legs), Dwarf infantry is effectively among the fastest in the game. This is because the game mechanics say that you can't march (read: move at double your normal speed) when there are enemies within 8". Dwarfs, by virtue of being Determinators, can ignore that rule, and effectively always march. Apart from when they charge. The result is that army of short bearded guys is going to tactically outmaneuver you by landing their gyrocopters 7" behind your lines and so suddenly everyone but your cavalry is being outpaced. - In a way this is not the case in-universe. To the humans of the Empire, Dwarfs have an extremely conservative and homogeneous culture, but in truth, each Karak has its own unique cultural quirks. The Dwarfs of Barak Varr for instance are actually quite progressive and friendly because their Karak is built into a cliff on the coast as opposed to an isolated mountain, and Barak Varr is a major maritime and trade hub so the dwarfs here interact with other races often; the now-extinct "Norse Dwarfs" of Kraka Drak on the other hand were isolated in Norsca away from the main Dwarf centres in the Old World for thousands of years, and as such not only were they lagging behind technologically but their language and culture were practically unrecognisable to any Dwarf from an Old World Karak, and they were much more grim and warlike because of their constant battles with the forces of Chaos. - Finally, there's the Warhammer take on Evil Counterpart dwarfs. The Chaos Dwarfs ( Dawi-Zharr), a subfaction whose aesthetics were based on ancient Mesopotamia: Diabolical, slave-driving fascists worshipping a Chaos God in the form of a bull, led by evil warlocks addicted to Black Magic, which gradually turned their bodies to stone. While they've been always been part of the lore, their army list and models were dropped by Games Workshop after 5th edition due to a lack of sales. Chaos Dwarfs still appeared as warmachine crew for Chaos armies in later editions, but sadly missing their traditional magnificent hats. Do not mention their existence to the normal Dwarfs. - The Forge Fathers in Warpath are space dwarves through and through. A race of miners and industrialists with very advanced technology that decks their soldiers in Power Armor and builds stompy Mini-Mecha. Not much is known about them, though, mostly because they are very secretive and determined. - Winterweir's Bathas are evil sociopathic slavers but still live underground and have an interest in wealth. They also invent things. - Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, epic predecessor and undoubted inspiration to Tolkien (the clue's in the title). His Nibelung dwarves are, true to their Norse roots, subterranean miners and metalcrafters. His dwarven brothers Alberich and Mime inspired the thieving dwarf Mîm who appears in The Silmarillion. Oddly enough they are sometimes referred to as black elves. These legends of course all predate Wagner by a fair few centuries. Tolkien was quite adamant his works were not based of Wagner's Operas. The Nibelung are possibly an allegory of Jews. Considering Wagner was quite anti-Semitic this is probably right. - Played mostly straight in the RPG Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, including what may be one of the earliest examples of the now-standard Scottish accent as spoken by NPC Magnus. Females are never seen, so all dwarves are the same; bearded stocky men. Asking about dwarf women is a surefire way to send a male into a homicidal rage. The "mostly" comes in because it's the Steampunk 1880s, some dwarves exchange their armor for tailcoats, and dwarves are the most technologically-apt of all the races. Even so, however, this mostly manifests in dwarves being master smiths with an advanced understanding of materials science; traditional dwarves would never use a steam engine to replace the power of their muscles, and therein lies a large part of the game's plot. - Battle for Wesnoth's dwarf faction are pretty standard-issue, apart from the fact they're fanatical about history and record-keeping: Their "cleric" equivalent in the roster is called the Lorekeeper. They also field the distinctly Ancient Grome-flavoured "Dwarven legionary" (a Stone Wall type that gets stat bonuses from having other similar units in an adjacent hex) alongside some much more Norse-inspired units, including a literal Berserker. - In Ghost Ship Games's Deep Rock Galactic, the dwarven protagonists are short, have beards reaching their knees, love beer, are really good at engineering and will dive anywhere for valuable ores, including hostile alien planets no one else wants. So even in outer space and carrying miniguns, a dwarf is the same everywhere. Small exception is that the dwarven accent is Danish. - Delve Deeper. It's played mostly for laughs, but they're about as generic as it gets. - The Mountain and Hill Dwarves in Dungeon Crawl were standard issue. This led to them being Demoted to Extra; they were too Boring Yet Practical and didn't offer any interesting options. Deep Dwarves, described below, are another story altogether. - In Gems of War, the dwarven troops fit the typical image of fantasy dwarves exactly bearded, grumpy, interested in subterranean wealth acquisition, technologically inclined. - Golden Sun's dwarves, in the Loho mining camp from The Lost Age, probably don't have Scottish accents, since Funetik Aksent is used for the two humans with Scottish accents but not the dwarves. Additionally, some are historians, which is why the dwarves are in Loho, excavating the ruins there. However, they all have awesome facial hair and a love for digging — "If you live in Loho and don't dig, you just don't belong" — and the only visible female in town is the human innkeeper, so they otherwise fit this trope perfectly. - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Two "Dwarven Swordsmiths" can upgrade the Master Sword into the stronger Tempered Sword. They are the only dwarves to appear in the entire series, and nothing is made of their presence in a village otherwise made up entirely of Hylians. - Lusternia: Lampshaded. The dwarven people were originally called the Clangoru (having descended from the Elder God Clangorum); when the humans arrived in Lusternia from a different dimension, they puzzled everyone by calling the Clangoru dwarves. They did this because the Clangoru — alone of every other mortal race — were recognisable to the humans, being indistinguishable from the dwarves of their native dimension. - In Mace: The Dark Age, a Soul Edge style weapons-based 3D fighter for the Nintendo 64, the dwarves are represented by hidden character Gar Gudrunnson. His people are mountain-dwellers enslaved by despotic Lord Deimos (think Nightmare with his own kingdom) to build his weapons of war. Gar is among a handful of rebels, and his weapon is an enormous steam-powered Warmech, ironically making him the largest character in the game and one of the few who are original. He's rather overpowered though, and is more on par with sub-boss Grendal due to his enormous strength and the fact that he can't be thrown or Executed. \|\|The mace enslaves him and the other dwarves and it motivates them to wage war on mankind\|\|. - Majesty has dwarves as one of your recruitable classes. They fall on the smith/engineer side of the scale; their fortresses can only be built once you have a Level 2 Blacksmith in your kingdom. They have horny viking helmets and are hammer-wielding Mighty Glaciers whose voice lines emphasize how much they love hard work and building things. They're also mutually exclusive with Elves, although they won't come to a kingdom with gnomes either. - Master of Magic has a fairly stereotypical dwarves: tough, hard-working, good at mining and climbing mountains, but not fond of ships. They also make golems and steam cannons. - Myth: Dwarves there are short, construct underground cities, are good with gadgets, greedy, and have chemistry far beyond that of the other races leading to them becoming explosive and demolition experts. However, instead of sounding Scottish, they are voiced to sound more like crabby old men. - Neverwinter Nights: In both games, this is both played straight and averted. When it's played straight, it's hilarious. - Averted: Neverwinter Nights features the possible henchman \|\|and later a boss in an expansion\|\| Grimgnaw. He's a Monk of the Order of the Long Death, which as you can guess from the name, isn't exactly a nice group. He's the only henchman with an Evil alignment, and has a fascination with death that is damn creepy. He isn't loud and boisterous, is bald and has no beard, and doesn't need a giant hammer or axe to kick some serious ass. He loves to send people to the Silent Lord, often in the most violent way possible. - Neverwinter Nights 2, on the other hand, features Khelgar Ironfist, who is a stereotypical dwarf to the extreme, drinking lots of ale without paying, being very loud and fantastically racist, and is easily provoked and will start a fight with a group of drunk sailors just because one of them agreed with him. Ironically enough, Khelgar also can become a monk, just like his polar opposite Grimgnaw, a possible reference to NWN1. As with most dwarves, he's not a good fit at all for the class without a lot of nudging, he just knows he likes being able to beat things up with his fists. - Overlord deliberately exaggerates all dwarf stereotypes for comedic effect. Drinking, mining gold, hoarding gold, doing something altogether unsanitary to gold, sporting gigantic beards, wielding enormous axes, and harassing elves is basically their entire function. They have even less personality than the elves, which is impressive considering that the elves spend all their lives bewailing their lot and talking about how awesome they used to be. In fact, the only sound you get from a dwarf is a grunt. Followed by axe swing/flamethrower. - Barik from Paladins is very much a typical dwarf. Scottish accent, short and muscular, extravagant beard, and a master engineer. The only thing he doesn't do is fight with an axe, preferring to use a blunderbuss. - Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords: Khrona doesn't hide her most obvious gender identifiers, but still sports a nice, long beard. The Warlords universe in general plays around with this, in the form of regular dwarves, and Dark Dwarves, playing a somewhat similar role to dark elves. Both are industrious and warlike, but the two are quite different : Regular dwarves are affable, somewhat jolly, love partying enough that they have zero problem going to war drunk, and prefer fighting personally, decking themselves out in heavy armor and carrying magnificent melee weaponry. Dark Dwarves are grim, science-obsessed, disregard nature in the face of progress to the point of resembling Captain Planet villains, and prefer to fight in a more advanced manner than their good cousins, with extremely powerful and advanced siege weaponry and tremendously strong metallic golems. - In RuneScape, the dwarfs are an Industrial Era society in an otherwise medieval world, and are ruled by a consortium of major mining companies. Economic inequality between the working class and wealthier dwarfs is a theme in their storyline. Aside from this, they play the trope fairly straight. - Shining Series: Dwarves are a recurring race, at least in the older games. They follow the Tolkien/ D&D model fairly closely — most dwarves are axe-wielding warriors. They are not slowed down by hill terrain, which makes them surprisingly mobile. - In the Suikoden, the Falenan Dwarves all fall into this mold. They live underground, are renowned for their mining and digging skills as well as for being the best blacksmiths in the region. They're are also rather secretive and usually keep to themselves, not over Xenophobic concerns but as a result of a general indifference towards the affairs of the other races in the setting. - Two dwarves appear in Tales of Symphonia, with one of them being the foster father of the hero, Lloyd Irving. In Tales of Phantasia, which takes place about 4,000 years after Symphonia, dwarves are extinct, though their ruins are intact. A skit mentioned that the majority of the dwarves are hidden by Cruxis somewhere in Derris Kharlan as they use them for maintaining machinery, so they may have still be living on the comet. - Vambrace: Cold Soul: Short and beardy? Check. Scottish accent? Check. More industrial than the other races? Check. They also usually have generically Scandinavian names, despite the Scottish accent. - The World of Mana series has always included dwarves that fit this mold. - In Final Fantasy Adventure, you eventually meet a colony of dwarves, but they don't do much besides point you in the direction of a product you have to buy to save one of their dwarf friends. Once you do buy it and go on a quest to save him, you will find out that his only "companion" ability is to sell you basic items that you might need to break him out of the dungeon. Once you do get him out and back to the dwarf cave, he thanks you the only way dwarves know how...by selling back to you the items he made out of the silver you risked your life to get him. - Secret of Mana has Watts, which continues this. He is a dwarf who basically knows that your party is out to save the world, and so he only continues to forge your weapons in exchange for increasingly massive amounts of money. He's probably saving up to buy the entire Gold City, and with his smithing skill, he probably could. - In Trials of Mana, the Dwarves look like a cross between a Wookie and a teddy bear with glowing eyes, wear Viking-style helmets, and speak like Old West prospectors. - ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: Local dwarves are short, stocky humanoids who reside mainly in the underground village of Monagham. Their language slightly resembles German, and their currency is crystals, rather than coins that the rest of Zanzarah uses. They also dislike magic, preferring to use technology and Magitek, and the dwarf that sells magic spells for your fairies is a blacksmith. - Alfdis & Gunnora has an all-dwarf cast, of the bearded woman variety. - Beaches and Basilisks has a dwarf claim that everything about dwarves can be summarized as "beards, booze, and battle." - Dominic Deegan' includes Dwarves in its array of races, and from their first appearance, we have bearded females, and a long-standing rivalry with Halflings. Mostly over beer nowadays. - The Dreamland Chronicles: Just look at them. - The Order of the Stick: Roy: reading over a letter Durkon is sending back to his homeland You know, you don't have to transcribe your accent. Durkon: Transcribe my what now? Roy: Never mind. - Pieces Of Eights: It turns out that the Island Dwarves used to be \|\|astronomers, not miners\|\|. This came about as a result of the last big war and shake up in the world. - Twice Blessed has Vadim as a main character, who meets most dwarf stereotypes, but comes from a Russian-type culture and has a matching accent, drinks Vodka, uses the word "brother" in place of "laddie", and never seems to feel the need to point out that he is a dwarf. - Diggy Diggy Hole from the Yogscast is a catchy music video for this trope, and neatly illustrates how the song could be about any author's dwarves. The dwarves mine, drink, sing, and fight goblins in their vast underground fortress. Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone Raised in the dark, the safety of our mountain home Skin made of iron, steel in our bones To dig and dig makes us free, come on brothers sing with me - Dorf Quest's Beardbeard, and every other dorf we've seen, has been this trope taken to psychotic extremes — every problem can be solved with a Drinking Contest, violence, or a violent drinking contest. - The Fantasy Novelists Exam warns against the use of this trope. Is any character in your novel best described as a "dour dwarf?" - In The Salvation War, Belial's Elaborate Underground Base of Palelabor is staffed by a horde of very squat, heavyset demons with long gray beards, who are, for all intents and purposes, dwarves. - Tales From My D&D Campaign's dwarves are typical in that they are greedy, stocky, bearded miners, craftsman and merchants, who worship Moradin, like axes and drinking, compete fiercely against each other yet band together all the more fiercely against any external threat, discovered Adamantine (and possibly Mithril), and used to live in mountain dwarfholds. They may slightly diverge as they were driven from the dwarfholds centuries ago, the survivors resettling in more traditional towns all down the Diamond Coast, and they are even know to crew sailing ships (though most don't swim, and their hulls are metal-plated, as you would expect from Dwarf-boats). ## These Dwarves are More Dwarvergent - In ElfQuest even thought they're called trolls, the trolls are identical in every way (except being green) to stereotypical Dwarves. However Two-Edge, a half-troll half-elf looks identical to a typical dwarf but is bat-shit insane. - In Castle Waiting, Hammerlings are short, hairy miners and engineers with much fewer women than men. However, they're considered to be notoriously sneaky and devious, and are widely accused of War for Fun and Profit to create a market for their magic weapons. This is because Castle Waiting is more influenced by The Brothers Grimm than Tolkien. - Gold Digger Dwarves have optional beards on both sexes, no specific accents, aren't all short tempered and have plenty of non-miners, but otherwise fit the mold. A female Dwarf villain, G'nolga, insists that the beauty of dwarf women is legendary. While she and other dwarf females definitely don't look bad (her bespectacled sister Merigold is downright adorable), one does wonder how much of this comes from G'nolga being acknowledged as one of the ten strongest fighters on the planet. - The film version of The Hobbit took pains to avert this trope. The dwarves are all short, hairy, and crusty, but they have great variety in their faces, beards, clothing, body types, personalities and weaponry. Particularly notable are Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli, who all benefit from varying degrees of Adaptational Attractiveness, with Kíli's Perma-Stubble practically making him a Bishōnen by dwarf standards. They also have accents that range throughout Britain, from Scotland to Ireland and Wales. Glóin, the most stereotypical of the dwarves, is the father of Gimli, who is arguably the modern day codifier of the trope. - In Van Helsing, a bunch of wicked, sharp-toothed dwarf-like creatures called "dwergi" reassemble Dr. Frankenstein's equipment for Dracula. - Adventurers Wanted features dwarves that mostly fit the standard. Even the women are bearded, A mix of Scottish and Germanic accents, a hard drinking, poison resistant, etc. The one thing that is added is that these dwarves are seafarers. Dwarven raiding parties terrorize the coasts in their long ships as dwarves with dane axes and spectacle helms go I-Viking. - The Acts of Caine: They are called Stonebenders ("Dwarves" is a racial slur used by humans) and do all of their stone- and metalwork with their bare hands. - While otherwise played straight, a notable subversion in the web novel 'The Beginning After The End' is that Dwarves don't live underground because they want to; it's because the inhospitable climate of their homeland makes it impossible for them to build permanent settlements on the surface. They actually really resent having to live there and envy the more hospitable lands inhabited by elves and humans, because spending their entire lives in dark caves and halls isn't easy or comfortable. This resentment plays a major role in the story and results in their betrayal of the other races when an enemy from another continent promises them better lands and easier lives. - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have tried to avert this. The Death Gate Cycle was basically about what happens to Tolkienesque races' cultures when put in completely different worlds, and The Sovereign Stone trilogy recast them as Mongol-style nomads (the Elves were Japanese). Didn't really work, because the dwarves always got the least characterization, but they tried. - R. A. Salvatore's Demon Wars saga has dwarves who are also called powries. They've got a lot of the typical dwarf traits — short, stocky, tough, and bearded. However, they're also an incredibly aggressive Proud Warrior Race who mostly interact with humans only when raiding them, live on an archipelago and are famous for their "barrelboats" (low-slung ships that the powries, with their superhuman endurance, paddle fast enough to catch most human ships), and maintain their physical prowess with Blood Magic note : Powries always wear red caps, which they dye with the blood of dead enemies; the magic in the caps allows this to strengthen the powrie wearer, and works just as well for any non-powrie who gets a hold of one. They're all around nasty pieces of work, and while not quite Always Chaotic Evil (they demonstrate loyalty to each other and extend respect towards non-powries who they consider sufficiently badass, at least) most humans hate and fear them — a reputation the powries themselves are happy to encourage. - The urZrethi of The Dragon Crown War initially appear to be bog-standard dwarves, but are gradually revealed to be quite different. They are a race of short, stocky expert smiths and miners who live in elaborate subterranean mountain fortresses and have a lifespan measured in centuries. However, they're also a matriarchy, have limited Voluntary Shapeshifting powers, were created by overthrown elder gods to dig them out of the prisons the dragons stuck them in (a cause most urZrethi ended up abandoning after a disastrous war with the dragons), and \|\|the fem!Sauron-esque Big Bad is actually a half-urZrethi (and half-dragon) who uses her shapeshifting abilities to look sort-of-elven. Turns out that they're not actually restricted to the "short, stocky humanoid" model, they just find it fairly utilitarian\|\|. - Flint Fireforge, from the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, was originally going to be a well-dressed fop. Eventually, though, they decided against this, and just made him the standard dwarf. The well-dressed fop concept later became the preferred mortal guise of Reorx, god of the forge. - In Jenna Rhodes Elven Ways series, the dwarf-like Dwellers are a stand-in for both Tolkien's dwarves and hobbits. They are the first race of the particular world and while they have some affinity for underground, their earthly link is more towards forests and fields. They have a Dwarf's usual inhuman toughness, but they have the Hobbits love for home, comfort and good food. - The First Dwarf King plays with the standard dwarf model. On one hand, men have wicked-looking beards, dwarves can fight with the best of them, and they wield axes and warhammers in battle. On the other hand, dwarven women lack facial hair (and are cute but tough), the entire race is not so much a nation as a loosely-connected country of hunters and farmers, and most (though not all) of the population live above ground, going underground only in times of great need. - Averted comedically in Grailblazers by Tom Holt. Toenail the dwarf (brother Hangnail, cousin Chillblain) is about 3 feet tall, clean-shaven, and decidedly not a warrior. He goes and hides in baskets or under tables when trouble threatens. Dwarves in general are servants to the knightly class; they're the ones who clean the floor and polish the armor. They are also extremely clever at solving puzzles, riddles, and crosswords; since they're too short to reach the pool table and too weak to throw darts, that's all they have to do at the pub on their nights off. note : This is a reference to Mallory's Arthurian lore, where knights were often attended by dwarfs (though it's unclear if Mallory meant people with a genetic condition or actual mythical creatures) - The Valerians of the Lensman: The Valerians are a strong, tough, axe-wielding Proud Warrior Race, but they're really human Heavyworlders, not fantasy dwarves. Also, the shortest Valerian described stands at above 7ft tall in his stockinged feet. - The dwarves in The Lost Years of Merlin are pretty standard, but contrary to the "masculine" and "magic-hating" tropes, they're ruled by a queen, Urnalda, who is also one of the most powerful magic-users in Fincayra. - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard keeps the bit about being skilled smiths (with the exception of the main character's friend, Blitz) but retain some odd tidbits from Norse Mythology: they evolved from maggots and come from a world of pure darkness, with sunlight gradually turning them to stone. Also, in this setting the "Svartalfar" (usually translated as "dark elves") are actually a subrace of dwarves with Divine Parentage, making them taller and more attractive (by self-proclamation). - Possible example: Gregory Maguire's Mirror, Mirror, in which the eight (yep) dwarves are, at least initially, shapeshifters. They're also far more, well, mineral than your typical humanoid character. - Humboldt in No More Heroes is a sensitive, snack-serving Dwarf who is part of a clan cursed to maintain the traps and monsters within the Crypts of Ramen, and who seems genuinely sad knowing that everyone who comes though the Crypts will almost certainly die. His greatest passion is reading love poetry and he's reduced to a mess of tears when our heroes tell him a modern love story from Earth: \|\|Titanic\|\|. - Oracle of Tao: The dwarves are basically played to very Germanic archetypes. Male dwarves meaning a classic size of about three feet, built like a barrel and loaded with muscles (to the point where they apparently can't run). The women wear dirndls, are almost two feet taller and lean yet buxom, with no muscle mass to speak of. They are just as capable of punching a hole in a rock wall however. Dwarves are apparently very shy, only meeting each other at drinking festivals or when tunnels overlap. Also, those not around humans much (Phim seems to ignore this) talk like Scottish miners or something, using words like "lass" and "derned". They have skin so tough as to be runeproof (though indirect effects like earthquakes or hot ground can still harm them, a fireball would just singe their clothes). - A Practical Guide to Evil: The dwarves, (nearly five feet tall, very tough, leathery skin, big, owl-like eyes, very longliving and as strong as orks) rather than a dwindling remnant, are depicted at the height of their power with an empire that spans the entire continent of Calernia beneath the surface. All of their traditional negative traits are amplified — they believe that no one but a dwarf can actually own property and so dwarves travelling the surface customarily steal everything that isn't nailed down. Surface dwellers are generally too fearful of the power of the Kingdom Under to object, due to their habit destroying entire surface cities when vexed. They also lay claim to all the mineral wealth on the continent below a certain depth, regardless of whether or not they are actually mining it at the time. - Rogues of the Republic: A calm, industrious race known for clever machines and a near-utopian society where everyone tries to help everyone else. Also, they don't live underground, though they do mine as much as any other industrial race would have to. - In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series Beetle-kinden are essentially clean shaven dwarves in a Clock Punk/Steampunk setting. Short, stocky, technological and capitalistic with the Collegium beetles emphasizing the tech side and the Helleron Beetles emphasizing the capitalist side. - The Shannara series has dwarves mutated from human stock (like most of the races of the books) but with the added caveat that, due to their ancestors' millennia of hiding in shelters, they are claustrophobic and dislike going underground. They actually appropriate the typical elven skill in that they are skilled woodsmen, and their crafts are mostly carved from wood rather than stone, and are famous for their gardens and dams. - Dwarves in The Spiderwick Chronicles resemble much like most depictions, but draw more from their depictions in European fairy lore. They are entirely subterranean (they can't stand bright light), reproduce by carving others of their kind from stone, and are miners and craftsmen. However, their centuries-long lifespans means they greatly pity the shorter-lived beings and try to improve on nature with mechanical replicas or preserving living beings in glass coffins for immortal slumber. They serve as the antagonists of the 4th book in the original series, under Mulgarath's orders. - In Trash of the Count's Family, there are several tribes of dwarves, and while they aren't described in detail, none seem to fit the standard dwarf model. Most tribes are known for their proficiency in inventing and making magic tools. The Dwarves of the Flame Dwarf Tribe are unable to use magic, and therefore can't create magic tools, but their inventions are of much higher quality. Cale recruits a half-dwarf, half-Mouse Beastman to design and build things for him. - The dreth in A Chorus of Dragons are also called dwarves, and hit most of the expected points - they're physically hardy, mostly live underground, and have a reputation for being exceptional miners and craftsmen. However, while they're stereotyped as being shorter than humans (hence the nickname 'dwarves') it's noted that this isn't really true. It's also not specified if they have beards. \|\|Thurvishar, one of the books' main characters, is half dreth; in most ways he's indistinguishable from a pure-blooded human, but is noted to be more resistant to drugs and poisons\|\|. - In The World of Lightness, drawing on Northumberland folklore, the hill-dwelling Duergar enjoy malicious pranks on unwary humans. The book reveals their spiritual subjugation by Queen Olga, whose banishment of their Muses erased their capacity for affection and inspiration - while they remain skilled builders and sculptors, their emotional range has been reduced to anger and malicious glee. - Physically the Liberata of Defiance fit the trope perfectly and Word of God says that they used to be a Proud Merchant Race before being conquered by the Castithans and joining the Votan. Now they are a Proud Servant Race. They also breathe nitrogen and their hair and beards (found on both sexes) are stark white. - Dwarves in Ik Mik Loreland may be small and occupy their time mostly with masonry and stoneworking, but they are more akin to a Rock Monster in some aspects. - Star Trek: - The Tellarites, one of the founding members of the Federation. They had a fierce rivalry with the Vulcans, are stubborn, undiplomatic, and generally have the competence to back up their boasts, all dwarven hallmarks. They are also short and often show up in mining contexts — again, all dwarven hallmarks. Customized by also being pig men. - The Klingons are also a Proud Warrior Race who frequent dimly-lit great halls, drink a lot, and have an ongoing feud with the Romulans. - Classical Mythology: - The Cabeiri of Greek mythology in many ways resemble standard fantasy dwarves yet have many traits all their own. They're short craftsmen who work under Hephaestus (who is said to be the father of at least two of them). They're marginally chthonic, meaning subterranean, beings, and if a fragment from an ancient Greek play is to be believed, they enjoy a good drink and some rowdy partying now and again. However, they also have a strong association with fire, sometimes even said to have fiery eyes. They're also tied to the sea as their mother was said to be a sea nymph, and they are said to protect sailors. - There are also the Dactyls, who in addition to being smiths like their cabeiri counterparts, are also magicians and healers. They came into being when a Titaness, either Rhea queen of the Titans or Ankhiale the Titaness of fire, dug her fingers into the dirt of the cave she was giving birth in, and the first ten dactyls sprang up from the soil. - Castle Falkenstein has dwarves based more on the ancient Germanic myth model — supernaturally strong and resistant to fire, with chicken feet (which they hide by wearing big boots), and no females at all. When they marry, they marry Faerie women — the male children are more Dwarves, the girls are Faeries like mom. They do have the whole mining and beer obsession, but are more likely to fight with big wrenches than axes as they are the master technologists of their world. The Dwarves started out as more typical Faerie, but gave up most of the classic traits thereof in exchange for the ability to handle iron with impunity. Young Falkenstein dwarves are also raised and named by their mothers. Their main drive toward industrialism and workmanship is so they can make or discover something impressive enough to make a name for themselves with, so they don't have to introduce themselves as "Buttercup" or "Morningblossom". - Chronopia has dwarves follow the physical tropes - short, bearded, strong and enduring plus they're also slightly more advanced technology than the other races of the world. The divergence is how dwarven clans base their individual traditions and culture on their animal totems and therefore their gods (who in a moment of Heroic Sacrifice, saved dwarf-kind from magical annihilation but suffered a Forced Transformation into Animalistic Abomination) including equipment used (for example the Blood Bones clans are known for using Wolverine Claws). The clans have Blood Totems (caretakers of their fallen gods who have been contaminated by their divine charges's blood), who can now transform into bestial demigods. Also, while honor is important to most clans - the Vulture Clan is rather disdainful and pride themselves instead on a mercenary tradition and outlook, while the Jackal Clan utterly despise the idea of honor and have since joined a Religion of Evil. Additionally in the history of Chronopia, the Dwarves were the Token Good Teammate in the Triad with the cruel Elven Houses and the bloodthirsty Blackbloods which overthrew the human Firstborn and reduced them to slavedom. - The Dark Eye: The dwarves, which name themselves Angroshim, are one of the main playable races. They're a short, bearded people who usually live between 300 and 400 years. Legend says that they were created to guard to treasures of the earth and originally lived in a single empire, but have since fragmented into numerous peoples. - The forge dwarves live in an eponymous mountain range and embody the stereotype of bearded mountaineers who live in great underground halls and only interrupt their forge-work for adventures and mighty battles. They also view forging as a religious vocation. - The ore dwarves are unyieldingly conservative, obsessed with mathematics, and still live the original dwarven homelands. They distrust the open air and rarely leave their richly decorated underground holds, and scorn the other dwarves for abandoning their old traditions and for their love of excitement and celebration. - The hill dwarves are a hobbit-like race who lives in low hills alongside humans, and abandoned their old traditions of warfare and hardship in favor of agriculture and indulgence. - The diamond dwarves are former refugees who have created a new culture that places great value on art, beauty and cultured society. Ore dwarves think of diamond dwarves as happy-go-lucky dandies who have lost the fire of dwarven heritage. The diamond dwarves reply that at least they don't waste their lives sitting in the dark and brooding over long-gone glories and outdated traditions and grudges. - Dungeons & Dragons has produced a few dwarven subraces that break the mold. - The wild dwarves from Forgotten Realms are barbarians who live above ground in jungles and hunt with poisoned blades. Still very gruff and loyal, though. The same setting also has arctic dwarves, or Innugaakalikurit, who are white-haired, have no affinity for metalwork or living underground, are expert hunters and trackers, are immune to the cold but love to sunbathe until their skin burns, and favor spears and harpoons over axes. They're also short and squat even by dwarfish standards. - The derro are a race of insane sorcerers with traces of dwarven ancestry. They have scrawny builds, bluish skin, pale hair, and huge, pupil-less eyes, and many go beardless. They were inspired by an alien race of the same name in the works of science-fiction author/conspiracy theorist Richard Sharpe Shaver. - Several dwarven subraces in Dragonlance. Clan Daergar resemble common dwarves in appearance and culture, but are ruthlessly evil — or may be straight-up expies of the Duergar. Clans Theiwar and Klar are an Expy of the derro, but split into two halves; the Theiwar keep the magic and generally evil attitude, the Klar keep the appearance and the rampant insanity (racially Chaotic Neutral, but prone to being manipulated by their fellow Deep Dwarves the Daergar and Thiewar). Clan Zakhar are hairless, diseased outcasts. Finally, Clan Aghar, more commonly known as gully dwarves, are diminutive, weak, cowardly idiots who inhabit the fringes and unwanted places (garbage heaps, gullies, ruins, etc) and serve as Plucky Comic Relief (or The Scrappy). - 3.5 presented several environmental variants with only minor differences from the standard hill dwarf. Desert dwarves are gruff miners who are good at finding water. Glacier dwarves are gruff miners who are good at surviving in the arctic. Seacliff dwarves are gruff miners who are good at swimming. And so on. - Duergar, essentially the dwarf equivalent of drow, have shown up in a few settings. They tend to be grim, regimented, joyless workaholics and slave-traders. - Dwarves in Dark Sun are completely hairless, have absolutely no knack for metalwork at all (as metal is almost extinct on their world), are completely illiterate, have superhuman stamina, and are workaholics to such an extent that the setting's equivalent of a Banshee is created from the soul of a dwarf who died before his or her current focus-task was complete. - The Kogolors of Mystara play around with this trope quite heavily. They look like typical dwarves, but they prefer to build houses atop mountains rather than to live in deep underground lairs (though they do enjoy making suitable caves more livable). They aren't particularly more artistically talented than humans, save in the field of brewing liquor, in which they are masters. They also hold no particularly great reverence for builders/miners/sculptors and if anything are more appreciative of hunters and farmers, as they make most of their living as farmers, loggers, trappers, furriers, goat-herds, brewers and woodworkers. Finally, in place of the traditional dwarven grumpiness and stubbornness, Kogolors are friendly, cheerful, gregarious, and welcoming, eager to make friends with anybody who seems nice enough. Further twisting the mold, in Mystara back-lore, Kogolors are the original model of dwarves; the more iconic dwarves are an off-shoot species created by a somewhat paranoid Immortal from the heartiest Kogolors, after they began to die out in the wake of the radioactive Blackmoor disaster. The only Kogolors alive today are those preserved in the Hollow World, with the other extinct races and cultures. For icing on the cake, Kogolors have a very heavy-handed Swiss motif, complete with wearing lederhosen and those triangular hats, and having a racial proficiency in yodelling. If these dwarves remind you a little of gnomes, there's a good reason for that: they're also the progenitor race of gnomes, who were created by a Kogolor turned Immortal, Garal Glitterlode, to preserve his people "more accurately" than Kagyar's dwarves did, and encouraged to spread from their mountainous homes to live elsewhere and just be more adaptable. - In addition to the mold-twisting dwarven subraces, the gnomes of Dungeons & Dragons fall under this as well. Whilst D&D dwarves derive quite heavily from Tolkien's depiction of the dwarves, and are thus dour, heavily armored, non-magical warriors who can produce incredibly fine and even enchanted smithcraft, D&D gnomes are thus humble forest & burrow-dwelling little people with an innate affinity for magic, especially illusion, and enigmatic connections to The Fair Folk. This means they draw more heavily upon many mythological depictions of dwarves and dwarf-like fae from throughout Europe, such as Germany, Russia, Sweden and Scotland. - The Korobokoru in Kara-tur are inspired by the Korpokkur, little people in Ainu mythology, but are isolationist Asian dwarves. They live closer to nature than Faerun ("Western") dwarves, and this differing culture is reflected in their lack of metalwork and wild appearance. - Third-poarty setting Arkadia, which puts a Classical Mythology spin on D&D, is home to two dwarven subraces; the Volcano Dwarves and the Field Dwarves. Volcano Dwarves are closest to the traditional mold, except they are as famous for their glassblowing and jewel-working skills as their metalwork (which is largely based on bronze and copper rather than iron or steel). Field Dwarves split away from their volcano-dwelling kinsfolk to inhabit the gentle lowlands and worship the wilderness deity Phaedrus; they are largely a race of farmers (especially vintners), potters, masons and stoneworkers, and are renowned for their friendly natures and love of partying, making them functionally the Hobbits of Arkadia. Volcano Dwarves are teetotalers, whilst Field Dwarves love to drink — but they drink wine, not the beers, ales and other grain-based liquors traditionally associated with dwarfkind. - In Earthdawn dwarfs are not only known for mining and axe-swinging, they're known as builders, and not just of physical things, but civilizations as well. As a result they're the dominant race in Barsaive instead of the usual humans, especially after they built the underground "Kaers" where the Namegiver races hid out the Scourge. - Exalted: The Mountain Folk are a race of great craftsmen and engineers who live deep beneath Creation's surface in a rigidly ordered society within a number of underground cities. They worship Autochthon, their creator and the Primordial of machinery and invention, and seek to emulate him through acts of craftmanship and creation. They're also a diminishing people, their past glories and power shaken by many cataclysms and now beset on all sides by enemies. How closely they fit this trope varies between their castes. Workers reach between three and four feet in height and serve as their society's miners, builders and minor technicians, while Warriors grow to five feet and are stoic, steadfast and disciplined warriors. Both tend to be stocky, muscular and heavily built and are often depicted as bearded, and Workers are often shown carrying mining picks. The Craftsmen who rule Mountain Folk society are more slender and as tall as humans, and resemble elves more than anything else. All castes have pointed ears. - In La Notte Eterna, the dwarves went into self-isolation centuries before the coming of the Eternal Darkness, and consequently, most other inhabitants of Neir think they're just legends. Their place in the hierarchy of fantasy races has been taken by the Karevi, a race of short, skinny thieving bastards who live in underground cities and excel at lying, assassinations, and mercantilism. - Pathfinder has a somewhat complex relationship with this trope. - Generally, dwarves are divided into three broad groups who fit this trope to different degrees: - The Grondaksen, or underground dwarves, are a reclusive folk live their lives in massive cavern cities, are excellent smiths, grow full beards in both sexes and have little contact with surface-dwellers. They still have their own divergent cultures, like the Kulenett of Geb who live nomadically in a country-spanning tunnel system to avoid the notice of the undead who rule the surface. - Holtaksen, or mountain dwarves, are dwarves as warriors fond of battle, song, and gold, who live in beautifully decorated fortresses amidst the peaks. They've been in fairly steady decline since the fall of their old empire, and are generally the setting's default dwarves. - The Ergaksen, or surface dwarves, live scattered across the world and do not form, or think of themselves as, a homogenous group, and can be mildly to wildly divergent from the usual dwarven mold. They include the dour, monastic Pahmet of Osirion, who live on the outskirts of civilization and can control sand; the dark-skinned Mbe'ke and Taralu of the Mwangi jungles, who worship their ancestors, elemental spirits and dragons; the mercantile Paraheen of Qadira, who worship the sun goddess Sarenrae in aspect tied to forge fires; and the monastic, devoutly atheist Vahird of the Eternal Oasis of Rahadoum. - The dwarven iconic characters — premade characters used to illustrate and exemplify player classes — tend to be wildly divergent from the mold and follow classes rather outside of dwarves' traditional fighter/cleric/paladin archetypes. - Harsk, the iconic ranger, fights with a crossbow, dislikes being indoors, spends most of his time wandering around the woods and dislikes alcohol — it dulls his senses, which in his profession is a very bad thing — and guzzles tea instead. - Shardra, the iconic shaman, is a trans woman more interested in history than anything else who has been Walking the Earth since her self-imposed exile from her home. - Nhalmika, the 2nd iconic Gunslinger, indeed honors her family's traditions, but is also an Action Mom packing a large scattergun who left to become an adventurer after her husband's passing. - The duergar also appear as their grim, unpleasant and slave-driving selves, but are actually the corrupted descendants of the original dwarves, tracing their lineage to those dwarves that didn't burrow up from the heart of the world at the start of the race's history and made a dark pact with Droskar, the dwarven god of toil and slavery, to survive. - Perhaps surprisingly, F.A.T.A.L. partially averted this. There are 3 types of dwarves in the game, and while "white dwaves" are pretty standard issue, "black dwarves" are based off the more evil variants of The Fair Folk, and "brown dwarves" are based on the more recent faerie tales and particularly modeled off brownies. - In Fellowship, the one thing all types of Dwarf have in common is being tough and determined; they have a unique core stat, Iron, which they can use to outlast opponents while trying to Finish Them or to "Clear the Path" for themselves and their allies. The variants available for Dwarfs include Deepdelve (who can see in the dark and can glean extra information using "the secrets that can only be found deep underground"), Firebeard (fierce warriors who can take damage to their Blood stat to get a chance to finish an enemy), Ironblast (Mad Scientist dwarves who come equipped with powerful but dangerous explosives), and Stoneborn (naturally-tough dwarves who can render themselves immovable as long as they're standing on solid ground). - Iron Kingdoms dwarves are short, squat and master mechanics, often being creators or users of guns and Magitek robots, but are typically beardless. - Magic: The Gathering: Dwarves appear somewhat uncommonly, having originally featured in several early sets before being dropped from the game. They live in the mountains and like to fight so they belong to the Red color/philosophy, but the stoic and orderly culture of traditional fantasy dwarves is more White. Furthermore, goblins are the primary race used for person-sized Red creatures, making dwarves fairly redundant. They reappear in a number of later sets, where they occasionally replace goblins where dwarves are more thematically appropriate; more commonly, however, they're cast as a faction aligned with both Red and White magic — modern Magic is much more comfortable with hybrid-color groups than early Magic was, and this helps dwarves fit a more unique niche while maintaining their Red traits (such as love of battle, boisterousness and mountain homes) and their White ones (orderly societies, strong sense of honor and stoicism) alike. - An early take on mono-Red dwarves appears in Odyssey block, where they're portrayed as passionate artisans and warriors with a strong affinity for fire magic. This was done as a part of the block's attempt not to use the usual set of fantasy races — White humans, Blue merfolk, Black zombies, Red goblins and Green elves — most other sets employ and shake up character and card lineups a little. - The later kithkin of Lorwyn are portrayed as sort of a cross between hobbits (which is what they were originally intended to be called) and dwarves, combining the Little Folk's general smallness and pastoral living with the Stout Folk's tenacity and well-organized communal defense; the kithkin become even more dwarflike in Shadowmoor, where they have abandoned their country villages for heavily fortified castles and become rabidly xenophobic. The Eventide expansion to the Shadowmoor block adds actual dwarves known as duergar, with affinities for both white and red, and modified the design of dwarves to axe the hair and make them up more pasty. These creepy dwarves are based on the folklore of Britain. - Kaladesh, a plane where artisans and craftsmen are the norm rather than the exception, sees the first debut of modern Red/White dwarves. In addition to being good at making and repairing things, these dwarves also have an affinity for piloting vehicles. They also make up a decent portion of the security forces and police of the plane. - The fairytale-inspired plane of Eldraine has them as fairly typical miners. They are essentially a walking reference to Snow White, though they do rule over the knightly court of Embereth. - On Kaldheim, the Norse Mythology plane, the dwarves live in the realm of Axgard, where they built a beautiful city beneath their realm's mountains, and enjoy very long lives — they only become adult at a hundred years of age. They're a passionate and driven people whole live for only two things: crafting beautiful things (all dwarves spend their youth creating a weapon they'll carry their whole lives, and which they become named after) and legends of epic deeds (dwarves rely on skalds for lore-keeping, as they don't use written language, and most dwarves dream of passing into myth themselves). - Res Arcana portrays dwarves as miners who love gold; there's an artifact called the Dwarven Pickaxe (which lets you spend Elan to "mine" gold) and a Place of Power called the Dwarven Mines (which generates gold, and has abilities that let it put gold on itself). Also, the Cursed Dwarven King is a heavily gold-based card whose illustration features the king with a pile of gold, mesmerized by a coin. - RuneQuest: Gloranthan dwarfs are immortal as long as they do their assigned tasks, regard themselves as servants of the World Machine, and are the only users of firearms in the world. They also invented iron. Not "discovered", invented. They are essentially a Robot Republic of Golems made by Mostal the Maker and taught how to build themselves (hence why female dwarves are so rare — they're actually products of a minor glitch in the process) before he was broken in the Chaos War. Flesh (Clay) dwarves are actually an invention to make up for lack of resources and time to build more dwarves (and a deeply resented one since they're softer and have less raw intelligence than "pure" Mostali). They're also something of an antagonist to everyone else, being deeply xenophobic Well Intentioned Extremists (literally the only thing that matters to them is Mostal's repair) with a severe case of Blue-and-Orange Morality (what everyone else calls greed, the dwarves call keeping track of their projects and resources, down to the last coin — actual trade is regarded as something of an oddball heresy). They live in a complex social system divided in mineral-based castes, with a further division between regular dwarves and true Mostali (the ones handmade by Mostal, who have been steadily dying out because Mostal's not around to make more), and only eat artificial food refined from minerals (they find organic food repulsive). - Shadowrun: Dwarves are one of the major metatypes and first appeared in the 2000s with the birth of 'spike babies' shortly before the start of the Sixth World. They're essentially a global, tens-of-millions-strong demographic of regular, everyday people with dwarfism and pointy ears, though not without a few quirks: - There are three common stereotypes for dwarves; they're all good with machinery, they hoard gold and they all have major Napoleon complexes. The average dwarf has a tendency to get loud and belligerent when any of these stereotypes is applied to them. This does not change the fact, however, that the dwarf willpower bonus is so useful to certain professions that almost every rigger you'll find is a dwarf. Of course, that just fits the stereotype all the more: Riggers are the nearest thing you will find to a blacksmith or miner in the setting. Gameplay-wise Dwarves also make really good magic-users (mages, shamans or adepts) due to their willpower bonus, and have enough physical bonuses to make decent Street Samurai as well. - Dwarves in the setting typically grow beards because they get sick of being treated like children (which a lot of people think they resemble as adults due to their height) without them, which may explain why the stereotype of the "hot headed halfer" came about (as one dwarf tells you in Third Edition in the Dwarf racial description, " you spend a day getting patted and pinched and see how calm you are."). The same essay voices the opinion that dwarves seem to prefer living underground because basement apartments tend to be cheaper, and low ceilings aren't a problem for them. - Of the main non-human metatypes, dwarves are the only ones who never established their own separate nations or subcultures. This is in part because they're the metatype that's best managed to integrate with baseline humanity, and in part because they maintain a strong sense of cultural unity regardless of political and corporate ties. Almost all dwarves share a common set of values, typically focused on honoring one's word, stoicism and community. Their skill with technology also helps here, as dwarves are usually comfortable enough with the Matrix that they can easily keep in contract with large numbers of other dwarves across the world. - As with all other metahuman strains, a number of divergent metavariants have emerged among dwarf populations. These are gnomes, European dwarves with no facial hair and even shorter statures than normal; hanuman, Indian dwarves with extensive body hair, longer limbs and prehensile tails, who were originally thought to be Awakened monkeys; koborokurus, Japanese dwarves with thick body hair and large noses; menehunes, amphibious Hawaiian dwarves with even thicker hair, nictitating membranes and webbed toes, and claimed by myth to descend from Mu or Atlantis; and querx, blue-skinned German dwarves. - Symbaroum: Dwarves are still short, beardy humanoids with an intense focus on wealth and family honor, but taken some interesting places. Dwarves in Symbaroum are greedy, yes, but they are primarily incredibly clan-focused, to the point that they don't consider non-clan members to be worthy of moral consideration. These traits have, in turn, led to dwarves becoming (not unreasonably) stereotyped as criminals and savages, and forced them to move constantly... basically turning them into what the 19th century believed Romani were. - In Talislanta, the Yassan and Vajra races are both short, stocky artificer/miner types resembling the classic fantasy dwarf. However, this being Talislanta, the Vajra are scaly, ovoviviparous, and have a berserker rage ability (which can usually be used exactly once), and the Yassan are silver-gray, six-fingered, and flat-faced. Additionally, both races are hairless and closer to the short end of average human height. - Despite originally being a Recycled IN SPACE! version of Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000 has surprisingly strayed away from including traditional dwarves for a long time, only tackling the concept in somewhat unorthodox means. - The earliest editions had the Squats, which, naturally, were Dwarfs IN SPACE, albeit in the context of the setting, they are a Heavyworlder Human Subspecies that are mostly independent of the Imperium of Man. However, the designers couldn't quite decide on their overall theme. Some models were straight Dwarfs, while others were more like really short biker dudes IN SPACE, so they got removed from future editions — i.e., they Dropped a Hive Fleet on Them. However, the "space Dwarfs" concept, if not the models, seem to be returning in the form of the Demiurg (Greek for "craftsman"), a mercenary alien race that has worked for both the Imperium and the Tau in the past, and a few Squat models would be introduced in the Spin-Off game Necromunda. However... - The Squats as a faction would not be properly reintroduced until 2022 with the Leagues of Votann, along with the added reveal that the species refers to themselves as Kin and the terms "Squat" and "Deimurg" being appellations used by the Imperium and T'au, respectively (the former being a pejorative term). While their reintroduction still has them appear to be straight-up Dwarfs IN SPACE, albeit with several elements from their previous iterations undergoing a case of Reimagining the Artifact, they have several unique traits that diverge from the standard model. While still a Human Subspecies (which makes them one of the younger species in the setting barring the T'au), the Kin are Designer Babies generated through mass cloning for specific roles, having altered their DNA through genetic engineering. While still mostly dim-souled and resistant to the Warp, they do have the occasional psykers known as Grimnyrs, who act as the priest caste in their culture. Their culture revolves around their access to better preserved technology from the Dark Age of Technology that the modern Imperium (especially the Mechanicus) would find heretical, in particular the eponymous sentient supercomputers from which they derive their name, and A.I.s and robots are prevalent in their culture. Several pieces of their characterization are borrowed from the below-mentioned Kharadron Overlords, such as being progressive and innovative regarding their technology and their plutocratic governments. Much like The Hobbit Trilogy, there is a far greater variety in their faces and beards and in stark contrast to the absence of female dwarves in most media, Gender Is No Object among the Kin with most of their units being mixed gender. While the Elves Versus Dwarves conflict is averted in their new lore, they still act as sort of a Foil to the Aeldari. While the Aeldari are a race of Space Elves that predate humanity and only resemble them through convergent evolution, the Kin are a Human Subspecies that have altered themselves through millennia of genetic engineering and cloning. In fact, the Kin have diverged genetically, politically, and technologically from humanity so much that they are effectively considered a Xenos faction rather than an Imperium faction. - The T'au themselves seem to fulfill some of the functions of dwarves in the 40K Verse. They are shorter and stouter than humans (given that they resemble The Greys but with hooves), they have a weak presence in the Warp (meaning they're not very magical), they have a highly ordered and stratified society, and a strong warrior culture... At least when it comes to the Fire Caste. And only when compared to other T'au, who are largely peace-loving and lack any aggressiveness. Their technology is also far beyond the Imperium's in many cases, with sleek Mini-Mecha and hover tanks that can run circles around their more traditional Imperial counterparts and standard issue guns that can reach further and hit twice as hard as a bolter. What they do lack compared to "traditional" dwarves is physical strength - the T'au have a reputation for being the faction with the worst melee capabilities as T'au infantry are even frailer than Guardsmen and will die quickly in the face of meaningful assault - and longevity, as not only are the T'au the youngest species in the setting, but they are among the shortest-lived ones with individuals usually not living past their 40s (save the Ethereal Caste who live for much longer). - Whilst dwarves in Warhammer Fantasy are basically standard dwarves with the stereotypes exaggerated and given a Grimdark tweak, their successors in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar are more unusual. - It should be noted that they were renamed to a original name of Duardin. Although that was mostly changed so Games Workshop has a copyright-enforceable name, some other races recieved similar treatment. - The Fyreslayers are a race of religiously motivated mercenaries, who will take up arms for and against anybody to recover the magical substances "ur-gold", which contains the essence of their fallen patron god. Whilst they highly value honor, they also only honor the very letter of the word, which has given them a reputation as, ironically, untrustworthy and fickle. They shun the typical dwarven reliance on heavy armor, instead fighting almost naked, trusting to fate and the protection of enchanted rune "tattoos" made of ur-gold that they literally weld into their bare flesh. They have a limited affinity for fire magic, in contrast to the traditionally unmagical nature of Warhammer dwarves, and make use of Magmadroths as steeds and war-beasts. - The Kharadron Overlords double-down on the "dwarves as engineers" angle, with an entire civilization built around steampunk-flavored magitek. They express the common dwarven aversion to magic and preference for science, but are noted as being hypocrites for doing so, as their "science" is actually just sorcery given a technological veneer. Most of the Kharadron are actually highly progressive and innovative, in stark contrast to their Warhammer Fantasy counterparts, who were so conservative and traditional-minded that it was called out as one of their greatest weaknesses; this includes abandoning the New Technology Is Evil and Revenge Before Reason traits that defined the Warhammer dwarves. They're also an overtly meritocratic plutocracy, in contrast to the traditional "Scottish Feudal" array of clan-lords, thanes and high kings. But the biggest difference is that, whilst the Kharadron are still miners, they're a race associated with the sky rather than the earth: they live on artificial Floating Islands and their society revolves around hunting for "aether-gold", a magical mineral that normally exists as a gas until artificially condensed into a solid. - It should also be mentioned that another Duardin faction, the Dispossessed, essentially continue the original Dwarfs faction normally but it is mentioned that they now live in Sigmar's cities after losing their Holds during the Age of Chaos, having just set off to reclaim them in the present Age of Sigmar. - Age of Mythology goes back to the roots of Norse myths, making Dwarves simply good craftsmen and gold-diggers. They don't use axes, except for gathering wood or when transformed into Heroes of Ragnarok by the Ragnarok godpower. - Eitri uses an axe to fight in the campaign, though he can use it to cut wood. His brother Brokk has a hammer instead. - Mountain Giants have a special attack against them... which is to kick them a certain distance, often making the dwarves into a projectile weapon. - The Dvar from Age of Wonders: Planetfall are descendants of human miners and engineers left behind on an uninhabitable mining world when the Star Union fell. They're small because they're Heavyworlders, trapped inside their pressurized survivor suits because they've spent so long in hostile environs that they can't survive outside them, and are naturally inclined to strip-mine everything in sight because they've spent their recorded history fighting the environment on their homeworld and seek to master their environment at every turn. Stereotyped as stubborn, materialistic and conservative, the Dvar fulfill most dwarven stereotypes except that their names and accents are Russian, not Scottish, and a lot of their buildings, units and technology have a definite 'Soviet industrial' aesthetic to it. They don't have beards (that we can see) but several of their encounter suits have oxygen piping shaped like stereotypical dwarven beards. - The Durin from Arknights are child-sized, and their race is named after a dwarf from Norse mythology. However, they don't have any particular association with mining or the earth beyond living underground, and all male Durin playable or seen in event cutscenes so far are clean-shaven. Their rarely seen appearances on the surface had Rhodes Island assume that they were all like Operator Durin who was lazy and sleepy but the other Durins they employ very much push against that with their own unique quirks, one of whom even complains that she's creating a bad name for everyone else. - In Battle Fantasia, Donvalve is the biggest character in the game and he's dressed in very Steampunk-ish armor. - Chrono Cross has dwarves that pilot tanks, wield worker tools in battle, and are short and stocky like normal. They also live in a swamp and seem to hate the fairies, enough to capture them to feed their protector Hydra and murder them for living space. - The Darksiders games have the Makers, who are similar to your stereotype dwarf in every way except one: instead of being short, they are about four times as tall as your average human. They're also presented as a cosmic level race, being known as "The Makers" because they use their magical crafting abilities to forge planets, and preserve the souls of their dead by imbuing them into massive stone golems, which actually mesh with the dwarven archetype pretty well, but still aren't really standard depictions for them. - Dark Souls 2 introduces the Gyrm. They have many dwarvish traits: very strong, stockily built, bearded, enjoy drinking heavily from tankards, live underground, wield hammers and axes... however, while they're stocky, they are also just as tall as a human, so they are in general much larger than an average human. They aren't very good at engineering, as the game describes most of their handiwork as "crude" (albeit very tough). Further, they don't live underground by choice (they were driven there by humans motivated by Fantastic Racism), nor are they particularly interested in mining. Given the aforementioned getting driven underground, they despise humanity. Only one Gyrm in the game will even speak to you (and he's not that linguistically proficient), while the rest will attack on sight. - Deep Rock Galactic noticeably plays with this. While all the player characters are beer-loving, pickaxe wielding miners who hate elves and dedicate themselves to mining (and killing bugs by the hundreds with their guns), only two of them have beards by default, the other two are clean shaven. On top of that, they all have Danish accents instead of the typical Scottish ones. Mission Control is ambiguous on whether or not he's a dwarf too, as while he's got the build, there's no indication as to who else works at DRG, and he's got a smooth British voice. There's also no indication if DRG has other mining teams of different species or if dwarves are the only miners they hire. Humorously, if you turn off all hair and helmet options on the dwarves, you'll find they all look exactly the same - they have the same face and head model underneath! They even all have the same voice actor, just pitch shifted to fit the different classes. - Dragon Age: - Dwarves speak with North American accents (except Bodahn, who may be trying to affect the accent of humans), and while beards among men are fashionable, many others go with mustaches or even clean-shaven, and the women can be very feminine and beautiful. Also, their society practices a rigid caste system and the capital city Orzammar is a Decadent Court. Beyond these things though, they heavily overlap with other traits commonly associated with dwarves: great underground halls; skill at mining and smithcraft; axes, hammers, and crossbows as their preferred (though not only) weapons, and heavy plate as their favored armor; squarish, angular motifs in their equipment and architecture; a fondness for ale; and so on and so forth. While they love ale, Dwarven beer is brewed from lichen, mushrooms, dead rats and other stuff that can be found underground, and tastes exactly the way you would expect fermented lichen-and-rat to taste. So the typical Dwarven quality of being master brewers is subverted. Oghren cites the quality of beer on the surface as a contributing reason to the large emigration of Dwarves from Orzammar. - Varric from Dragon Age II seems to be a deliberate aversion of this trope; he's a clean-shaven, sophisticated, charismatic urbanite who loves the surface, hates the underground, and is a crossbow-wielding rogue. His brother Bartrand, on the other hand, is as traditional as can be, having been born and raised in Orzammar before their noble family was exiled for fixing Proving matches. Varric : You know what Orzammar is? It's cramped tunnels filled with nug-shit and body odour, and every person there thinks he's better than you because his great-great-great-grandfather made a water clock or something. - Surface Dwarves seem to intentionally avert this. After the entire Merchant caste left Orzammar for the surface to get better trading deals, Orzammar declared them "Lost to the Stone" and decreed that all Surfacers were to be considered Casteless from that point onwards. The Surfacers responded by simply abandoning the caste system altogether and many other Dwarven traditions, with many going completely native. Varric is a prime example of the cross-cultural mixing, invoking both the traditional Paragons and Ancestors venerated by Dwarven religion, as well as the Maker and Andraste worshipped by the Human Chantry. - Among the playable races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, and later Qunari), the Dwarves are unique in one way: they cannot be mages. For whatever reason (believed to be \|\|their severed connection to the Titans, though this is unconfirmed\|\|), they lack a connection to the Fade, and thus cannot draw on it to use in spells like the other races can. They also are incapable of dreaming, as in this setting one visits the Fade when they dream. The only Dwarves who are anywhere near averting this restriction are Dagna, a scholar who learned how to enchant things through sheer optimistic determination, and a Dwarven Inquisitor, who was given the ability to open and close Rifts between Thedas and the Fade by \|\|ancient Elven technology\|\| and being either insanely (un)lucky or being guided by the hand of the Maker (in whom most Dwarves don't believe, because of the aforementioned Fade insensitivity). In the DLC expansion The Descent, Temporary Party Member Valta seems to become the first Dwarven mage through a rather convoluted series of events. Oddly enough, Dwarf-descended Darkspawn that can use magic are fairly common. - Another manner that Dragon Age Dwarves stand out is the Carta, a Dwarven crime syndicate modelled after Latin American cartels. They freely move between the surface and underground and are best known for selling lyrium on the black market, though they engage in all manner of criminal activity. In Origins and Inquisition, a Casteless Dwarf player character is a former member. - The "Dwarf" character of Dragon's Crown is a stocky, heavy-set brawler, wielding hammers (and occasionally axes) and possessing strength enough to pick up and toss most foes. \|\|The Dwarf's ending reveals the Ancient Dragon had chased the Dwarfs out of their subterranean homes, forcing them to become nomads and driving them to the brink of extinction. The player character's Dwarf becomes a hero and leader among his people, helping them prosper.\|\| He does have some traits that make him distinct from dwarves in other games. Where typical dwarves are heavily armoured or wearing workman's clothes, this guy wears little more than a cape and a loincloth. He's also friendly with the Elf of the team if various Vanillaware art pieces are canon. - The first Dungeon Keeper has two classes of dwarves, the Tunnelers; who dig the tunnels for Heroes to reach the Keeper's dungeons, and the Mountain Dwarves who specialize in fighting rather than mining. They're rather weak and frail compared to all other humans and even elves, while also being one of the fastest creatures in the game. They're attracted to gold and will go straight for the Keeper's Treasure Rooms, and they're so skilled at digging they can even do it using axes instead of pickaxes. - The sequel gets rid of Mountain Dwarves entirely, turning Dwarves into the weakest type of Heroes available, but a must to tunnel through the maps. Converted Dwarves act as slower Imps, less useful for gathering gold and claiming land, but able to dig through even enemy walls with amazing efficiency. A keeper with even one dwarf can attack an enemy dungeon from any direction with almost no warning. Unlike their DK 1 counterparts, Dwarves don't need lairs, food, or money either. - Deep Dwarves in Dungeon Crawl are a variant. Unlike the now-background Mountain Dwarves (who are typical), they never left their underground homes. They are highly resistant to damage, but lack the Healing Factor all other species have, relying on a Heal Wounds ability. They're decent with the typical dwarvern weapons, axes and crossbows, but prefer stealth, divine magic, and certain kinds of arcane magic: necromancy, translocations and especially earth magic. - Dwarf Fortress actually creates a fairly complex dwarven society. They have elected officials and a rudimentary police force and bureaucracy, as well as a larger-than-usual range of professions; you have dwarven tailors, cooks, millers and even beekeepers as well as the usual blacksmiths and miners. But at the end of they day, they're also manic-depressives that require alcohol to get through the day, even from birth. And the creator has even said explicitly that he's keeping Dwarves relatively close to the norm — while he's been designing complicated algorithms to generate deep and varied cultures for other races, he intends to leave dwarves more or less identical so they'll be easy for players to step into as a playable race. - Dwarves are commented on as being rather out of place in the world of Elona, populated by the likes of kitsune, samurai, and mecha. They only seem more so when the setting is revealed to be a full scale quasi-urban fantasy as of the later patches of Elona+, glaringly being rather technologically simplistic compared to most of the human factions (using plate mail and tonfas when everyone else has for the most part moved onto machine guns and fighter jets), in spite of possessing the trademark dwarven craftsmanship. - The Elder Scrolls plays with it when it comes to the extinct Dwemer, also known as the Dwarves. To note: - Playing the trope straight, the Dwemer did build technologically advanced cities, typically deep into the ground, complete with gold/bronze architecture and Eternal Engines. They warred with just about every other race they came into contact with, particularly other races of Mer. They were known to have glorious beards and were master craftsmen, with their equipment still being among the best and most sought after in Tamriel even thousands of years after their mysterious disappearance, in some way related to them digging too deep beneath Red Mountain and discovering (and then attempting to tap into) the Heart of Lorkhan, the dead creator god of the mortal plane. - On the "aversion" side, the Dwemer are a sub-race of Mer (Elves), with their name meaning the "Deep Elves" or "Deep Ones," referring to their philosophical depth. They were of average size compared to the other races of Tamriel and the term "dwarf" is an archeological misnomer. They were the first "normal sized" race to encounter the Giants of the Velothi Mountains, who referred to them as "dwarves" in size comparison to themselves. Later, the Nords (and through them, the other races of Men) picked up the term and it stuck. They weren't known to have any stereotypical "Dwarvish" accents, with the only Dwemer spoken to in the series to date having a nasally, nerdy voice of all things. While the Dwemer did create all manner of extremely advanced technology, much of it was magically derived in one form or another, with it being said that they were also master enchanters. They created numerous forms of Mecha-Mooks and even Humongous Mecha programmed with some sort of rudimentary (and often dangerous) AI. They were Naytheists in a world where gods of all sorts exist, though the Dwemer did not believe these "gods" were truly divine. They'd summon Daedra just to test their divinity. Finally, they followed a very Blue-and-Orange Morality. Former series developer Michael Kirkbride puts it best: "That's why the Dwemer are the weirdest race in Tamriel and, frankly, also the scariest. They look(ed) like us, they sometimes act(ed) like us, but when you really put them under the magnifying glass you see nothing but vessels that house an intelligence and value system that is by all accounts Beyond Human Comprehension. (...) There isn't even a word to describe the Dwarven view on divinity. They were atheists on a world where gods exist." - Endless Legend's Delvers are relatively standard-issue dwarves in appearance, but they are actually the descendants of human miners that were trapped underground in a cataclysm that swept across Auriga. They swing warhammers in a Spin Attack and have vast beards adorned with skulls (probably from their fellow Delvers that died). The Vaulters are human, but their heavy armor, beards, and overall high level of technology make them look like dwarves. The Vaulters remember their origins in space, and utilize Lost Technology salvaged from their vaults and augmented or repaired with magic. Prior to the start of the game, they lived almost completely underground. - In Fall from Heaven, the Khazad are pretty standard; short and stout master miners and engineers who live underground, use axes (but most everyone uses axes in this setting), are terrible at using magic, have the finest cannons and trebuchets in the setting, and gain benefits from a full gold vault. However, the Luchuirp dwarves are very different, resembling gnomes in a lot of respects. They live above ground (though they're still connected to Earth magic) and are one of the most magically-adept factions. In fact, they are second to none as magical artificers and enchanters, which allows them to rely on golems for labor and warfare. Neither group has a particular problem with Elves, though Elves in this setting are The Fair Folk and really do not like other races in general. - In Fallout and Fallout 2, like the Super Mutant orc stand-ins dwarves are simply mutated humans but are still subjected to Fantastic Racism at times, forcing them to act as servants for baseline humans. In the developed societies of New California they eventually found their niche as a Proud Merchant Race. - They have appeared sporadically in the more High Fantasy installments of the Final Fantasy series. Their main distinctions from other fantasy dwarves are their catchphrase of "Laliho!" and the fact that they are almost completely faceless with only glowing yellow eyes (and a beard) visible beneath their helmets. - Final Fantasy's dwarves live in Mt. Duergar, which is the old Norse word for Dwarf, and are skilled miners; their tunnels are filled with rails for spoil. - Final Fantasy IV plays it straight, and heck, so do most dwarves in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. However, Luca is clean-shaven and doesn't have much love for dwarven fashion. The one thing she gets right is a love of technology, with two custom-built clockwork dolls at her command, but she'd rather study under the human Cid than other dwarves. - Dwarves in Final Fantasy V strongly resemble their counterparts in IV, and like them live in an "underworld" (this time an undersea trench rather than just above the earth's mantle) and love to tunnel, although their great kingdom is less populated than most villages and not relevant to the plot. - The Dwarves of Final Fantasy IX are perhaps the least dwarf-like Dwarves in the series. They spend their time above ground, albeit on a mountain, and the sun is a big part of their society and religion. - Moogles in Final Fantasy XII are also fairly dwarf-like: short, mechanically inclined humanoids. - Final Fantasy XIV's dwarves play around a bit. A beast-tribe from the alternate world of The First, on the outside they appear to be the classic Final Fantasy dwarf, never seen without their face obscuring helmets and beards. But the beards turn out to be elaborate scarves, and taking off the "beard" and helmet reveal them to be \|\|the First's versions of Lalafells, a cute, gnome-like race. Cue Lalafell/Laliho jokes\|\|. - The Lilties of Crystal Chronicles also fit the archetype fairly well, but in appearance resemble childlike humanoids with plant features (besides Crystal Bearers, in which a wide variety of Lilty types appear). A big difference is, before they began weapon smithing, they were primarily alchemists. And while they've always been mediocre at using them, they were experts at creating the Green Rocks required for spells. - Brok and Sindri from God of War (PS4) and God of War Ragnarök are the dwarf brothers responsible for forging Thor's hammer Mjölnir, but they deviate from the stereotypes prominently. They're short, bearded men and gifted craftsmen, but Stout Strength doesn't apply to them: Sindri is considerably thinner than his brother. They also are naturally magical, and use that as an inherent attribute of their work, both forging weapons and selling them. They both have American accents, not Scottish, and they don't hate Elves (in fact, Brok got in trouble for having sex with Elves in the past). Neither of them are fighters or warriors, and they don't drink, but they do seem to trade in silver. Brok is foul-mouthed, Sindri is a germophobe and Neat Freak, and both have the natural ability to go into the "realm between realms" to instantly travel through long distances and between different realms, which they use to help Kratos and Atreus throughout their journeys, although not all dwarves know how to do it and it doesn't work on dragons. Also, Sindri has grey skin, and Brok has blue skin. There are two differing accounts on how this happened. One account says that his skin went blue from overexposure to silver, another states that his skin turned blue after he accidentally beheaded himself and Sindri brought him back to life. - Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe. He's apparently competitive enough to test his mettle at tennis and kart racing. - Guild Wars mostly follows the standard, although the dwarves come off a bit more Scandinavian than Scottish. This trope is partly averted by the Stone Summit clan, a bunch of xenophobic slavedriving hatemongers, then it gets taken to its conclusion at \|\|the end of the Eye of the North expansion pack. The dwarves seek to awaken the Great Dwarf to battle the destroyers pouring out from beneath the earth. What happens is that they become the Great Dwarf, their bodies turning to solid stone and their hearts consumed with an eternal thirst for battle, so they can fight the destroyers for eternity\|\|. - Even Kingdom of Loathing doesn't stray from the path too far. Yes, their dwarves are 7-Feet Tall, but other than that they act exactly the same as here. - In The Legend of Zelda series, the Goron race derives heavily from the stock Tolkienian dwarf. They're physically strong, have a mining culture, and (in later games) have great battle prowess. Hyrule Warriors even gives them a rivalry with the token elf-like race the Zoras. However, they're physically larger than the mundane Hylians, and they don't mine because they're obsessed with gold and precious stones, but because they eat rocks. - Partially subverted in the Lineage MMORPGs: The male dwarves are about what you expect, but the female dwarves resemble cute elves, only half the size. - In Lost Technology, while Apotikara is a society run by blacksmiths sporting an army of dwarves with axes, the dwarves of Mount Arsia are a rebellious faction of coal miners, and the dwarves in Cerberus Hills are a fairly peaceful agrarian society. Plus, dwarves have a sophisticated grasp of earth magic. - In Magical Starsign, dwarves are basically tiny balls of fluff who consist mainly of a beard with hands, feet, and beady little eyes. Not much is made of their physical prowess, but they're the best starship engineers in the galaxy. - The Dwarves of the old Might and Magic verse customized their dwarves by removing one of the traditional details: rather than hating elves, they were allies (up until Heroes IV). Well, except for Might and Magic VIII, but the Dark Dwarves of that game customized the model by being xenophobes to the point that no one is really sure if they are allies or servants of the Earth Elementals instead. - Even though he's 100% human, Torbjorn from Overwatch follows every dwarven trope to a T, although with a Swedish accent. - Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Harrim is an interesting example. From the get-go he seems to diverge from the dwarven stereotype: While a heavily armoured warrior-priest who's decent at combat, he's also a perpetually downcast Death Seeker and Straw Nihilist who worships Groetus, a deity that personifies the inevitable decay of everything. The more you talk to Harrim it's also made clear that he'd like nothing better than to be a stereotypical dwarf, but his complete inability to craft anything from metal or stone (\|\|which is implied to be a divine gift/curse\|\|) is a cause of great bitterness and shame to him and turned him into his current self. As a result, his pride in being a dwarf is conflicted at best and he has a Berserk Button concerning the dwarf chief god Torag, which he refers to as the "traitor god". - Rift's dwarves seem to be rather more inclined towards magic use than the usual, and don't always have beards. Also, the women are ridiculously cute. - Rune Factory 3 introduces two dwarves. One is a craftsman and blacksmith — downright obsessive and extremely talented — but is incredibly friendly and laid-back, to the point that he considers his job as a blacksmith to simply be a hobby. The other is your typical belligerent warrior dwarf. Both are human-sized and beardless, with pointed ears — the warrior complains that the whole "short, bearded man" thing is simply a racist stereotype. - Rune Factory 4 Takes this a little further. While Gaius and Zaid from the previous game were at least among the shorter characters, Bado, the laid back and downright lazy dwarf blacksmith in the next installment is quite possibly the tallest humanoid character in the series. Doug, the other dwarf in Rune Factory 4, is also rotten at crafting. (Dwarfs being good at making weapons is the one trait associated with dwarfs that the series makes a point of telling you still holds true.) - Rune Factory 5 introduces Darroch, who fits the dwarven stereotype for the most part, being a stoic, hard-working blacksmith and the strongest of the initial cast. He even has a beard. On the other hand, like Bado he towers over most of the other characters. Lastly, he was a Shrinking Violet as a kid, which the older women in town love to tease him about. - Despite this, there is one character who fits the common dwarf mold perfectly, having a short stature, long messy beard, talking in a gruff accent, etc. Leo, from the first Rune Factory game claims he picked up these traits while training under a dwarf, but he himself is human. The most dwarf-like character in Rune Factory is a human. - Smite actually touches some particular traits about how dwarves were in the Norse Mythology with Fafnir. He's a dwarf that excels in mining and creating jewelries and armed with a hammer. And just like the rest of his kin, he's a selfish, easily-jealous, greedy jerk, as opposed to the normally 'honor-bound' dwarves in other medias. Just for this game, he also lacks the usual Scottish accent and love for wine (it is replaced with his love for gold). - Suikoden: Unlike their Falenan counterparts, Toran dwarves live above ground in the Great Forest, have mastered the art of Alchemy that allowed to developed electricity and artificial light and are one of the most technologically-advanced races in the setting. Aside from that, they really hate elves (and the feeling is mutual) and consider Human skill to be inferior to their own. - One dwarf appears in Stardew Valley in a secret area of the mine. He seems to be modeled after the Final Fantasy IV dwarves in that you never see his face directly although he appears to lack the beard. In true dwarf fashion, he sells items related to mining, and can be befriended by giving him gemstones but you have to learn dwarvish before you can do so. Interestingly, the dwarves are apparently Ancient Astronauts from another planet, The horns on the dwarven helmets you can find may actually be protrusions for antennae. I kid you not, our dwarves are aliens from space. - In Tales of Maj'Eyal. - Dwarves are pretty standard. A race who live in the mountains, are strong, tough and not too good with magic, mine for gold and are empowered by it, and the second starting area for a Dwarf PC involves a mining expedition. However, they're unique among races in that they use both natural power and magic (though they're not very good at the latter) in a setting where the two are generally politically opposed, and the one class that combines the two is the Dwarven Stone-Warden; as they say, "gold doesn't take sides." - However, deeper in the setting's lore is another quirk. \|\|Dwarves are descended from a spacefaring race who crash-landed on Eyal and initially came from a batch of clones. The spaceship's cloning machine has malfunctioned, and is now creating Drem, who are a race of highly mutated dwarves who border on being Dwarven Abominations. They have no faces and stony, spiked skin, as well as a connection to devouring eldritch magic.\|\| - Warcraft - Warcraft is an interesting case. When dwarves were introduced in Warcraft II, they were primarily represented through the aerial gryphon riders. When World of Warcraft hit, however, the playable dwarves were mountain-dwelling, ale-drinking, blacksmiths and miners, with the gryphon riders relegated to a minor NPC faction. - However, this was explained by there being three major kinds of dwarves: - The main playable race are called Ironforge dwarves, they live in the city of Ironforge and were originally the most stereotypical of the dwarfs. Subverted when the revelation of their titan origins led to a surge in interest in science and knowledge in dwarven society. Their king Magni Bronzebeard even ordered that the main dwarven industry be switched from mining to archeology. Now you'll find just as many explorers, scientists, archaeologists and scholars among the dwarves as you will miners and blacksmiths. Another unique aspect of Ironforge dwarves is the ability to temporarily turn into stone which lets them remove status ailments and increase their defense for 8 seconds. - The next is the Wildhammer dwarves who live above ground, live at peace with nature, and ride gryphons as a major part of their culture. They were the representatives when dwarves were first added to the franchise in Warcraft II. - The third are the Dark Iron Dwarves, who have grey skin and red eyes and were until recently enslaved by a massive fire elemental (that they summoned in a failed attempt to destroy the other two clans). They're pyromaniacs with strong magical abilities and were written as Always Chaotic Evil until their leader joined the Alliance in Cataclysm, live deeper underground than their Ironforge cousins, are much more educated in magic, and stealth. After they joined the Alliance, playable Ironforge Dwarves gained the option to become Mages and Warlocks suggesting an intermixing of culture between the two. The fact that the king of the Ironforge's daughter married the Dark Iron emperor, and her son, and future king, is half Ironforge-and-half Dark Iron, has caused much consternation among the dwarves. As of Battle For Azeroth, Dark Iron Dwarves have become a playable race for the Alliance. - Beyond this you have various proto-dwarves. There are the Earthen, which are stone-flesh creations of the titans that the dwarves evolved from. The frost dwarves, who are the frozen counterparts to the Wildhammers. They are descended more directly from the Earthen as indicated by their proximity to the Titan Architecture found around their homeland. And the iron dwarves, which artificial dwarves that serve as Mecha-Mooks for an Eldritch Abomination. - Female Dwarves are actually quite common in dwarf settlements and for the most part look like short, stout women of average attractiveness. However, among the player base they are quite rare (perhaps in part due to the fact they are just plain looking compared to other races). Lore mentions bearded women that are considered quite beautiful among dwarves, however, none are shown in game. - Additionally, the technology aspect of the dwarves exists but is typically overshadowed by the gnomes. The technology basically breaks down into two categories: anything that can be made reliable, cost-effective, and useful on the battlefield will be adopted by the dwarves, i.e. tanks, guns, gyrocopters. The gnomes manage the overly-expensive, unreliable and quirky technology, as per their Mad Scientist hat. If it's cheap, unreliable, and dangerous, that's goblin territory. - Prior to Cataclysm, Ironforge dwarves mostly fit into the typical melee archetype, with their only available classes being physical damage dealers and tanks, with the exception of Priests and Paladins. But after the expansion, dwarves gained the ability to be Mages, Warlocks, and Shamans (explained in lore by the Wildhammer and Dark Iron clans joining Ironforge, with the Wildhammer teaching Shamanism and the Dark Iron bringing arcane and dark magic), making them the most versatile Alliance race (they can be any class but Druids), and make perfectly viable casters in addition to brawny melee and hunters (though their passive racial bonuses still favor melee more than magic). - They can also be any job, so dwarven leatherworkers, herbalists, and fishermen aren't unheard of. They are not limited to mining and blacksmithing like the stereotypical fantasy dwarf. - Another major difference from your archetypal dwarf is Azeroth's dwarves have historically had pretty good relations with elves. The Wildhammer Clan were close allies with the High Elves, and the remaining High Elves in the Alliance are still reasonably good allies with the Ironforge Dwarves over a shared love of history and scholarship. The War of the Ancients novels implied that dwarven ancestors helped the Night Elves prior to the Sundering. Whatever enmity dwarves may have with Blood Elves and the Nightborne has more to do with them being Horde, rather than being elves. - Another major difference is relation. Unlike other fiction which tends to put humans and elves as kin, revelations some humans and gnomes were capable of the same "turn your skin into metal or stone" trick dwarves could and further elaboration about each races' histories as the descendants of titan creations showed humans, dwarves, and gnomes had common ancestry. When a human time traveled to before elves knew of humanity, he was mistaken for an extra tall dwarf. - From Whale Rock Games's We Are The Dwarves, gun-toting Forcer and axe-wielding Smashfist are your standard dwarves — albeit they're dwarven astronauts on an alien world. It's the third dwarf, Shadow that breaks with convention. Shadow is a dark-skinned ninja dwarf with a longbow, who relies on stealth and sniping foes with his longbow in contrast to the direct force used by his comrades. - In Baskets of Guts dwarves look like the ones of the standart flavor, but their personalities are as variable as of any other race. Many of them do sport long beards, but it's probably because dwarves are physiologically inclined to have them, since they grow even on females. - Although we have not actually met any dwarves in Digger, they seem to go at least a little off model — they apparently use large amounts of magic in the construction of their underground cities. Digger the wombat does not approve, as that magic tends to wear off after a while if not carefully maintained, leaving abandoned dwarf cities as veritable deathtraps. Come to think of it, the wombats seem to fit the traditional dwarf mold pretty well, themselves. - Flintlocke, of Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth plays around with this one. While he adheres to several Dwarf stereotypes, including a love of combat, boisterous loudness, a strange sort of Scottish accent, a few demonstrated instances of marked greed, and some impressive facial hair, he also happens to be something of a cross between a Gadgeteer Genius and a Mad Bomber, and where most of the other Dwarves are shown as sensible individuals, Flintlocke is about as dumb as a pile of hammers. On more than a few occasions he's managed to outwit himself. It gets to the point that the Spirit Healer had to get a word in. Spirit Healer: Dumbass. - Goblin Hollow features a girl who revolts at her dwarf character's having a beard. - The Gods of Arr-Kelaan featured a group of dwarves who worshiped the Mesoamerican sun god Inti, shaved, and moved above ground. Up until Inti decided it was time to leave Arr-Kelaan and destroyed their temple, then most of them moved back to the mines. - Guilded Age: At first, seemingly played straight by Gravedust. Something-hammer last name? Check. Big beard? Check. The Comically Serious? Check. Standard dwarf. However, later we learn that dwarves are desert nomads who have been driven from their mountains. Furthermore, their women are lustful, their children don't respect authority, and, most atypical of all, some of them DON'T HAVE BEARDS! Gravedust Deserthammer isn't your typical armored hammer/axe warrior either. He's a shaman archer who can speak with the dead and ask them to lend their strength to his arrows. He is among the most level-headed in the group, as well as being mannerly and polite. He's never been seen to drink, ever. His name is the only thing truly dwarfish about him. - The dwarves of Hitmen for Destiny were bred for their stature, grooming and attitude to be just the same as Tolkien-ian dwarves. Thing is, when you breed for one quality, another might tag along, so they also ended up completely Ax-Crazy as well (yes, even more so than the usual dwarf). - Most of the Dwarves in Looking for Group are evil, black leather-wearing, pierced punks. And Pella is quite shapely and fan-servicey, not fat and dumpy like dwarven females are so often depicted as. However, they are exceptionally skilled architects, blacksmiths, and sappers. - Oglaf has the "fukken" Dwarves, a group of vertically challenged, utterly deranged pests who make disturbing, useless and lethal inventions. They seem more like a parody of the tinker gnome stereotype. - The Pigs Ear: Angus is a retired adventurer who now works as a pub chef, but otherwise fits the trope straight. So straight that the Scottish creator of the comic gave Angus (and Angus alone) a Scottish Funetik Aksent. - Rice Boy: The Horned fit the stereotypical archetype nicely. Short but honest, most of the Horned are obsessed with war. They also live on and/or underneath a ridiculous-looking mountain structure. In times of peace, they're miners \|\|and woodsmen.\|\| Furthermore, the prequel "Vattu" implies that \|\|the Fluters are a variant of\|\| halflings/gnomes and \|\|Vattu will mutate/evolve in her story to become the first Horned.\|\| - Twice Blessed has Vadim as a main character, who meets most dwarf stereotypes, but comes from a Russian-type culture and has a matching accent, drinks Vodka, uses the word "brother" in place of "laddie", and never seems to feel the need to point out that he is a dwarf. - Unforgotten Realms averts this about as far as is possible. Any character which isn't obviously another species is invariably a Dwarf. Probably the only character who even has a beard is Sir Schmoopy of Awesometon, one of the two main player characters. - In Vanadys: Tales Of A Fallen Goddess, dwarfs (note the plural spelling) are the second most numerous race in the world next to humans, and live and work close to humans. The stereotypical dwarf is a keen businessman with a great talent for making money, and many human businesses employ a dwarf, or several, to handle their finances. Berrok, the main dwarf character in the comic, is a trenchcoat-clad Deadpan Snarker with a shady past. - Dwarves in Aegeroth: A Checkered History use the Germanic name, dwergaz. Little else is known about them, save having chalky skin and statue like features. - The dwarves in Arcana Magi are techno savvy. One dwarf is on the Board of Directors for Avalon Tech Enterprises as head of the metal works division. One dwarf works there in the technology department. - Krayn's character Grunlek in Aventures has the technology side, using a mechanical arm for diverse purposes. However he doesn't have racism against elves (the game master said the rivalry doesn't exist in his world), is closer to nature and doesn't have a drinking habit. A live adventure showed that his brethren are more cyborgs than dwarf and even for them Grunlek is different. - Cracked offer some suggestions on how to deviate from this trope. - Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Limyaael suggests that customizing the model is a really good idea. - Dwarves in Shagahol, the latest creation of Rapscallion Games are the remnant of the previous world from before the gods got bored and dropped a new world on top of it. They had already been living underground and their forging and architecture skills meant their civilization survived the cataclysmic event. They retain their industrious ways due to the stories of their ancestors, but those that come to the surface are those looking for a more adventurous life. They are short and stocky but unlike most stories, they have lost their melanin as a result of living underground for so long, giving them white hair and pale skin. Female dwarves also grow beards, ranging from mutton chops that can be hidden by their long hair to full beards depending on family genetics. All of them grow hair so quickly it can grow inches in a day and a clean-shaven face is a sign of immense wealth for being able to afford so much time and service. They also do not use magic, being surprised that the surface world "still uses it". Finally, they have taken most of the iron in the world due to living underground and using it long before anyone else can discover it, leading to the surface world staying in the bronze age. - Dwarves in Tales of MU mostly follow the model, with a few additions. Their names have a Germanic flavor, they count in base seven, and while they seem like a One-Gender Race, it's been explained that male and female dwarves just don't get along. The one full-blooded female dwarf who appeared was not described with a beard. MU dwarves have a strong disposition for secrecy and privacy, though the college-going ones are willing to make exceptions for attractive women of other races. One recurring minor character, Gebhard, shows a somewhat fussy and fastidious nature. ## These Dwarves are Too Bizarre to Have a Suitable Pun - In One Piece, dwarves are extremely small, have animal tails and pointy noses, and are extremely fast and strong. They do not seem to take up mining but rather have a connection with plant and animal life. In general, they are extremely gullible. Beards are also not very prominent. - Matt Cavotta, art director for Magic: The Gathering, wrote a column about the lack of dwarves in Magic. He starts with the stereotypical dwarf, somewhat unfitting for the Red philosophy and aesthetic, and changes it step by step into a more logical interpretation of "digging Red-aligned creature." Results are ... interesting. - In the 2000 AD comic Sláine, dwarves are almost completely the opposite of their Tolkien counterparts. Sláine's dwarves are a race of utter cowards whose cowardice is only matched by their lust for human women and the propensity to steal anything not nailed down. Often clean-shaven, they have pointy ears and are rather weak but quite agile because of their skinny physique. The butt monkeys of the comic, Sláine gives his dwarven sidekick Ukko daily beatings to keep him at least somewhat honest and it's implied that this is a common fate for dwarves. The only thing shared between Sláine's dwarves and Tolkien's is the lack of height. - In Sylvain Runberg's Konungar, the Dvergar are dwarves that are red-skinned, very agile and have pointed ears. They live in the forest and pose a great threat to travelers as they eat horses and other livestock, as well as attack humans for their eyes. The Dvergar are an accursed race that Odin and the other gods did not bless with eyes, so they try to gouge them out of humans in the hopes that they can put them in their empty eye-sockets. - Loki: Agent of Asgard: Andravi the Dwarf is both an aversion and not. He is a dwarf who loves his gold, and has taken to guarding it twenty-four seven... in the form of a giant, magic-proof Pike. Unfortunately for Andravi, he's not bazooka-proof. As he's dying, he's seen to be a regular dwarf in his normal form, complete with beard. - In Doug Moench's '70s-'80s story Weirdworld -- Warriors of the Shadow Realm, dwarves are the main inhabitants of the world (at least until Weirdworld gets retconned). They are a non-militaristic somewhat cowardly folk who live above ground — whether it's in a forest village or a the City of Seven Dark Delights doing all varieties of occupations except fighting (this would lead to countless dwarves getting mulched in the series) and have a degree of Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism. Male dwarves are Gonk, they have huge ears and huge noses plus even males who are otherwise thin have a noticeable potbelly. Female dwarves are much better looking with the most beautiful dwarven girls looking exactly like a round-eared elf girl (elves in this world are short). - In Avengers: Infinity War the dwarves were actually giants, though with Peter Dinklage's proportions (or at least his character King Eitri does). They also forged Thor's hammer in the fires of a neutron star captured in a Dyson Sphere, \|\|and the Infinity Gauntlet, after which Thanos killed all of them but Eitri.\|\| - 7 Zwerge: The dwarves are simply seven men who had traumatizing experiences with women, so they decide to live in the woods alone. They are all clean-shaven and only wear a beard when working in the mine. They are also relatively average in size, with the exception of Bubi, who is relatively small, and Ralfie, who is two heads taller and two times wider than anyone else in the films (and also is a Gentle Giant). A running gag is that a character remarks that they thought that dwarves were supposed to be small, to which one of them responds that this is just an old prejudice. - Alviss from American Gods is king of the dwarves because he's the tallest at 5'9". - And about as averted as you can get in Artemis Fowl where Dwarves are human/mole/earthworm hybrids with prehensile beards that burrow through the dirt by eating it and then crapping it out as fast as they do. Also, they can suck in water through their skin (a dehydrated dwarf can use this to Wall Crawl!), and their saliva is a fast-hardening, glow-in-the-dark anaesthetic. - Also, far from being traditional, they tend to have a healthy disregard for the law. They also tend to eat anything regardless of whether it is alive or sentient. Plus, rather than fighting elves, they have a long standing rivalry with goblins, who are able to shoot fire, which dwarves are incredibly vulnerable to and afraid of. The main dwarf character, Mulch, lampshades how ridiculous it is to form a cultural conflict with the only beings on Earth capable of conjuring your major weakness. - In many ways, it's more of an elaborate Justified Trope than a direct aversion. They live underground and collect gold and jewels because they're evolved to live underground, and hoarding valuables is only natural when you find yourself in a society that values those shiny rocks you come across on a regular basis. They hate elves because a lot of them are criminals, and most of the police are elves. They have long beards because their beard hairs are ultra-sensitive whiskers for probing around in dark tunnels, and can be used to pick locks. - In Discworld (where it is spelled "Dwarfs", just like Tolkien noted in the preface to later editions of The Hobbit). Policeman Vimes' experience with them points to countryside dwarfs usually being quiet industrious types who don't cause trouble, and putting on airs of being rowdy and violent seems to be a trait only annoyingly common in his city. This is probably because, unlike their home mines, the city won't cave in on their heads if they're noisy, and there's more beer available. Also they are German and Welsh as well as Scottish. Interestingly, given the Semitic roots of Tolkien's dwarvish language, there are theories that Pratchett's dwarfs are Jewish-ish (quiet, hard-working, thrifty, very respectful of ancient traditions that they don't feel they necessarily follow as closely as they're supposed to. - The above description also fits many other ethnic and/or immigrant groups besides Jewish-ish. - The "Dwarfs as Jews" groupthink probably came from that one Watch book that had multiple jokes about Dwarfs being in love with gold. "What? No, we only say that to get it into bed." - One should note, however, that somewhat similarly to Judaism, where it is forbidden to destroy a text that mentions the name of God, for the dwarves, it is forbidden to destroy any text at all. - The love of gold, of course, is very probably from the miner/craftsman aspect (especially since it is often compared to their love of iron) making things seem very recursive. The Dwarfs seem to have the tendency of being put in the place of any immigrant ethnic group whether black (in Soul Music they come up with "Rap" or "Rat" music) or Muslim ( Thud) or yes, Jewish. Trolls on the other hand, seem to be just sentient rocks. - Trolls and Dwarfs do share a tradition of "Hole Music". - Dwarf women are also often seen — however, they are physically indistinguishable from male Dwarfs. This has had an effect on their culture somewhat, in that many Dwarfs do not use female pronouns, courtship is largely devoted to very carefully finding out what sex, under all that leather and chainmail, the other Dwarf is, and a Dwarf identifying herself as female is treated akin to coming out as gay in a conservative society. Exemplified by Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom of the Ankh-Morpork Watch, who "comes out" as a female, wearing boiled leather skirts, high-heeled boots, and makeup, much to the chagrin of other dwarfs, but is never without her iron helmet, battleaxe, and beard. Upon suggestion of shaving, she's outright horrified of the mere idea of losing her beard. She may be willing to come out as female, but she's still a dwarf. - Being a dwarf also seems to be more a matter of culture than a biological thing, as Captain Carrot is considered a dwarf (by adoption) despite also being a nearly seven-foot-tall human. - Carrot's making a nature/nurture point — culturally he's a dwarf. He was raised as a dwarf, by dwarven parents and went through all the normal processes of growing up as a dwarf. He may not be as hardline dwarfish as the Deep Uberwald dwarves — mainly due to coming from a surface dwarf community near Lancre — but is still more dwarfish than many an Ankh-Morpork city dwarf. He questions the relevance of being (genetically) human in the light of all this. - It's pointed out several times that according to dwarf law and custom, Carrot actually is a dwarf. This tends to disturb other dwarfs meeting him for the first time, because they know something's not right but can't quite put their finger on specifically what it is, since their definition of "dwarf" doesn't actually say anything about height. In the dwarf creation myth, the original dwarf and original human were created identical, and only physically diverged thanks to adopting different lifestyles. - Unseen Academicals gives us two dwarfs who between them sum up the whole thing. Pepe is a human that converted as an adult, although unlike Carrot he's short enough that this is not obvious, and explicitly a gay man. He is in a long-term romantic and sexual relationship with Madame Sharn, a dwarf that identifies as female but explains it to the protagonist in a way that leaves her biological sex ambiguous and may just be an elaborate "queen" pun. This brings up all sorts of questions as to whether Discworld dwarfs consider gender identity and anatomical equipment at all linked, and for that matter whether a culture that traditionally only has one gender has a concept of sexual orientation at all. - All of this plays into the above: in addition to ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, the dwarfs often serve to represent sexual minorities, be it gays or just particularly feminist women. - On a more parodic note, the image for dwarfs in the "Art of Discworld" book is essentially the page image, but with a loaf of bread in place of the axe (dwarf pastries are renowned for being more useful as primary weapons than emergency rations). - The later books subvert this with the grags, an extremist faction that becomes the Discworld version of Islamic terrorists (bearded, live in caves, have very specific views on women and what they're allowed to do and use violence against those they deem deviants...). Thankfully, these don't last long. - In the Dragaera novels written by Steven Brust, Easterners, who are identical to real-world humans, are sometimes called "dwarfs" by the tall, elf-like Dragaerans. Easterner society is based on medieval Eastern Europe rather than anything resembling Celtic or Nordic. The Serioli come a bit closer, living underground and forging powerful magical weapons, but are otherwise completely different. - Niven and Barnes were probably playing homage to this trope with Mary-Martha "Mary-Em" Corbett, an eccentric live-action Gamer from the Dream Park novels. Though human, she's 4'1" tall, is built like a muscular fire hydrant, wields a halberd (~battleaxe), is The Big Guy of her adventuring party, guzzles beer like a pro, calls a spade a spade, and sings repetitively while she's marching. Although her songs tend to be a hell of a lot raunchier than this trope usually allows. - In Lyn Abbey's Jerlayne, dwarves are a servitor race to their elven parents. A dwarf is born when an elf mates with an elf (an elf mating with an elf will result in a random variety of fantasy beings such as rusalkas). They have bronze-coloured skin and are all homosexual. Finally unlike the standard dwarf, these dwarves do the farming and household grunt work — they don't mine. In fact, they can't use metal items that haven't been processed by a female elf (only female elves can manipulate and detoxify metal items, and they get their metal by having male elves come to our world to scavenge our junk and bag it). - The Soddit, being a parody of The Hobbit, starts by exaggerating the traditional portrayal of dwarves, although with ludicrously exaggerated Welsh accents, rather than Scottish ones (well, what would you expect a race of miners to sound like, look you, bach?). It's revealed early on, however, that dwarves hate having beards, it's just that they're allergic to shaving soap. Later, when Bingo Grabbins questions how they could have possibly carved the great caverns of the Mines of Black Maria with hand-axes (or, as the dwarves themselves claim, trowels), they're forced to admit that they didn't. All the mountains in Upper-Middle Earth are naturally hollow. And at the end of the book it turns out that \|\|dwarves are the larval form of dragons.\|\| - The Drin of Tales from the Flat Earth are the 3rd caste of demons from the Underearth after the Vazdru nobility and the mute Eshva dancers. Unlike the previous castes who are all astonishingly beautiful, the Drin are ugly stunted dwarves though they have lustrous black hair. They are universally skilled in magical engineering and crafting beautiful objects, so they're often in service to other demons (including their king, the Lord of Darkness Azharn) and human magicians. The Drin are all male, so barring a rare sex for items/services trade with an Eshva girl or female human, the Drin are relegated to copulating with reptiles and large insects which they do with relish. Within the Drin, there's a subclass called the Drinendra that are even worse off - the Drin are at least sentient and occasionally valued, the Drinendra are demonic animals that are usually treated as a mangy cur. - Trapped on Draconica: Inverted. Lucia is slender, skilled with magic, avoids fighting, and holds little interest in gold or industry. Thus, he's closer to an elf than a traditional dwarf. Whether all dwarves are like this is unknown because he's the only one in the setting. - Sontarans from Doctor Who are like typical dwarves in that they're a short, stocky, all-male Proud Warrior Race, but that's about where the similarities end. For starters, they're an alien clone race with muddy skin, potato-like faces, and virtually no hair. Also, unlike most other dwarves, Sontarans are usually villains, and they're a ridiculous exaggeration of the Proud Warrior Race Guy trope in that they view everything as part of the war effect and thus take everything with military seriousness. - In Once Upon a Time, dwarves are always "male", are asexual, and are hatched in groups of 8, fully grown (and fully clothed) from eggs. Their names are magically given to them by their pick-axes based on their personality, and it's their job as a species to crush diamonds into fairy dust. - Armageddon (MUD) has a race of dwarves that is completely hairless, used to be enslaved, are immensely determined to their personal task to the point where every one of them is a Determinator. They are no more fond of mountain homes, alcohol, forging and axes than people of any other race are. - The Ura of Bastion live underground and use crossbows. In all other senses, they're a civilization of Wutai humans. - The Tiny Tina DLC of Borderlands 2 parodies this trope. Not only do all dwarves fit the classic stereotype, they all look like Salvador. - In Class of Heroes, dwarves have the same typical culture of other dwarves, but they look more like beastmen. Or furries. - In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, dwarves are largely absent (replaced by gnomes) until the "Legend of Dead Kel" DLC Referred to as "Dverga", they look like the classical fantasy dwarf, although a) they have women, and b) their women are visibly female, complete with lacking beards. The weird thing about them is that they are associated with the sea, not mountains; they're a race of sailors, renowned for their skill, but also hated by most other races because they are pirates, conquerors and slavers; their obsession is with colonising the islands of the Frostbreak Sea, and so they raid other races and carry people off into slavery to give them the labor pool they need to found settlements so quickly. Whilst they do create underground bunkers beneath their settlements known as "fastings" to retreat to if beseiged, these are built out of mud and wood, and otherwise they live on the surface. In fact, the tradition of dverga is to erect the first structures of a new settlement from the repurposed ships that brought them to that island. - Kingdom of Loathing, where dwarves are 7-foot tall miners. They are all the same, but not like dwarves in other fantasy fiction. - Knights of Pen and Paper 2: They're sturdier than humans and elves and even their women have beards. - While no actual dwarves, or any other conventional race, appear in the series, the Godom of Paladin's Quest certainly invoke this archetype. They're a subterranean race who excel in weaponsmithing and explosives, but are generally bad at magic. Their appearance, on the other hand, is anything but. They actually resemble large bipedal dinosaur, insect, ram... things. - Pillars of Eternity has two types of dwarves. - Mountain Dwarves are largely widespread across the world and aside from appearances don't really have any traits of the classic archetypes. They're typically found as members of multi-racial cultures, and blend in there. Those found in the Vailian Republics , where mountain dwarves are most common, inherit the Vailians' colorful Renaissance fashion sense, passionate tempers, and sort-of Italian accents. Dwarves found in the Dyrwood are often cynical, stubborn, and terse, but the same can be said of Dyrwoodan humans. And Glanfathan dwarves make their homes in mountains rather than forests but otherwise display the same Iroquois-meets-Celtic culture as other Glanfathan. - Boreal dwarves seem to be what you get if you cross a dwarf with an Inuit or Tlingit (or an Icewind Dale barbarian): tundra-inhabiting surface dwarves that coexist peacefully with caravan elves. - The dwarven recruitable companion, Sagani, is a female note : and yes, completely beardless boreal dwarf ranger who carries a bow. Her outfit also combines a tastefully restrained amount of bare midriff and legs while making no attempt at armor and both concept artworks of her revealed so far show Tribal Facepaint (along with paint or tattoos on said exposed midriff in one -it wasn't visible in the other-). Finally, it has already been established that in her people's homeland of Naasitaq the boreal dwarves coexist peacefully with caravan elves who roam along the coasts. - A Primer On The Capture And Identification Of The Little Folk Of Myth And Legend: The entry on Dwarf-s has a confrontation of stereotypes, being defined as "About the size of a child", "Looks human", "Not mischevious", "Has Round Ears", instead of Pointy Ears, and hair-free feet: Ah, well then your specimen simply must be a DWARF. You're probably wondering why it doesn't have a beard, carry an axe, mine for gold or drink copiously. There's not another breed of little folk that's quite so steeped in stereotype as the dwarf. Really they're simple, peaceable creatures, who would never dream of hurting another living thing. Their teeth are quite valuable though, so pop it in the mouth and gather up a handful of white gold before sending it on its way. - The Rune Factory series has some very non-dwarfy dwarves. They're all of average or above-average height, live above ground like anyone else, may or may not have any forging skill, and often have no beard at all (those who do have a beard only have a small one, and it's only the older dwarves who do; the younger dwarven men are Bishounen like the rest of the young male cast). They also have pointy ears, though usually not quite as long as the elves' ears, and don't take any issue with elves or outsiders. - Shadow Hearts: Covenant features a monster called Duergar note : Duergar is the Norse name for dwarves that was once a stereotypical Dwarf but his hatred of humankind warped him into a creature resembling a bug-eyed alien of some sorts. - Valhalla Knights have Dwarves who are tall and have somewhat dark skin; they also have a lot of Markings/Tattoos and the males don't seem to have anything more then a goatee if even that. According to the manual, although the Males are still stereotypical Bruisers, Females have increased intelligence and resistance, which leads one to believe they can be fairly good spell casters, although they are still great front liners (which when you think about it, means they'd probably be the least 'Squishy' Spellcaster). They also don't appear to have any issues with Elves. - Loren: The Amazon Princess gives the character of Ramas, who plays the trope straight with a few twists (he's a merchant and doesn't live underground), but massively averts the trope with Dora. She's a Genki Girl, a Lovable Rogue, lives above ground with the humans, and has no problem with elves or anyone in the party. - Merle from The Adventure Zone averts most, if not all, dwarven cliches. He's a cleric who worships Pan (a nature god) who is frequently associated with plant life. Before the events of the campaign, he lived not in a mountain or a mine, but on a beach. He also has an American accent, but very briefly fakes a Scottish accent when disguising himself in the Murder on the Rockport Limited arc. - Speaking more broadly, one unusual trait of dwarves in The Adventure Zone is that they all have absurdly large families: Merle being Gundren Rockseeker's cousin means basically nothing because there's so many of them (although it does help him open Wave Echo Cave), and when the Voidfish attempts to remove \|\|Boyland\|\| from the memories of his family after his funeral, the fish nearly dies from the effort of wiping so many minds at once. - This motivational poster, depicting a Lineage dwarf. - It may be difficult to find these days, but an old Gamespy comedy feature article were two writers comparing various things (like sorcerers versus warriors) and once, Elves vs. Dwarves came up. They pointed out that there are many different depictions of elves, but dwarves tend to all be the same. - In Yogscast Minecraft Series, dwarves are mostly the standard model, but in Hole Diggers Duncan Jones jokes that male dwarves can be impregnated as well, while Simon Lane jokes that dwarves lay eggs that need to be fertilised before any offspring are born.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame
Our Centaurs Are Different - TV Tropes Centaurs are a specific kind of Mix-and-Match Critters originating in mythology, possessing the upper body (head, torso and arms) of a man and the lower body (everything below the waist) of a horse (though other animals are common). In the original myths they tend to be a savage and brutal species: most Greek depictions show them living only to drink, to capture women for unsavory purposes, or to attack travelers with their arrows. One possible explanation for the original myth is of a non-horse-using culture seeing horse riders for the first time and misinterpreting what they saw. Some modern depictions will have centaurs as wise scholars; this version is inspired by the mythological centaur Chiron, who mentored several of the Greek heroes. He was very much atypical, though. note : Justified to a degree: standard centaurs have the ancestors Ixion/Nephele, only Chiron has Kronos/Palmyra. The other common modern depiction is to make them into Proud Warrior Race Guys, which at least agrees with the myths that centaurs are violent, even if the whole "code of honor" thing seems to clash with the Classical centaurs' frequent depiction as drunken, dimwitted thugs. Regardless of type, fantasy centaurs tend to live apart from two-legged civilization, and are typically encountered out in the wilds. It's also common to depict them as skilled archers, which was a common trait in the myths as well. Physically, a few other things can vary. For one, traditional centaurs do not bother with clothing. Also, modern depictions (possibly to make them look more distinctive) sometimes have their human parts look slightly equine, which was never mentioned in the original myths. Centaurs are often depicted as a One-Gender Race composed entirely of males (which often explains why they sexually prey on human women), but in fact, female centaurs ( kentaurides) are also mentioned in some ancient Greek and Roman myths, albeit infrequently. According to Ovid, they were quite comely. A few works of fiction include winged centaurs, sometimes as the result of a cross between a centaur and a Pegasus or a Hippogriff. Other fictions include centaurs with black skin and African features, often combining them with the body of a zebra. Centaurs with the lower bodies of non-equine animals show up from time to time, with the most common variants being based on other ungulates — deer-like "cervitaurs" are particularly common, often as forest dwellers with thematic ties to elves or nature spirits. Centaur-like beings based on large cats and sometimes draconic reptiles are also fairly common, and tend to be depicted primarily as roaming hunters and warriors. Sub-Trope of Vertebrate with Extra Limbs. See also Fauns and Satyrs who are half-man half-horned animal, Mermaids and Sea People who are fish from the waist down, Snake People who are snake from the waist down, Spider People who are spider from the waist down, Scorpion People who are scorpion from the waist down. Tank-Tread Mecha could be considered the mechanical equivalent, being humanoid robots which are tanks from the waist down. Nuckelavee are similar, but have the torso on the middle of the horse's back instead of replacing the head. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - Old Spice advertised their new moisturizing bodywash with commercials and print ads featuring a centaur, to go with the theme of "It's two things." The ads were soon discontinued, because the male centaur's human girlfriend led to Unfortunate Implications. - Progressive Insurance also used a centaur to emphasize the two-in-one aspect of their bundled insurance in "The Bundler" commercial. Later commercials introduce the Motour, the motorbike version of a centaur. - The 2011 Preakness horse race ran the "Kegasus" ad campaign, featuring what the Baltimore Sun described as "a centaur with a nipple ring, body hair and ample beer gut," "half-man, half-horse and altogether drunk" and "a 'party manimal'" clearly going more for the frat-boy version of the myth. Kegasus returned for the 2012 running. - A '90s self-promotion commercial for TVE, the public television of Spain, had a man with a newspaper on his hands complaining about its programs and television schedule... until the camera zoomed out and turned out he was a centaur. - In the Golden Yarn side story of The Ancient Magus' Bride, its revealed that while you have the four-legged Centaurs as per usual, in some cases they are born with two legs like a human. As a result they take far longer to learn to walk and have weaker hearts, resulting in shorter lifespans and being frail, but they can use their hands easier. They're seen as something of a disgrace because they can't keep up with the herd, so they're sent to be raised with humans or other two-legged centaurs as babies, with it being noted that in the past they were outright killed instead. Hazel, one of the four-legged centaurs, hates that his aunt was left to live by herself because of this. - Locus in Berserk in his Apostle form is a faceless metallic centaur. All the demon cavalry's transformations are like this, except a giant mutated version of their mount's head appears at the waist. - There are also more typical-looking centaurs among the elves and other magical creatures in the Fantasia arc. - Bleach: Nel is based on antelope and goat-antelope themes to such an extent that when she enters resurrection, her form takes on a centauroid shape. The animal part of her body is based on the gemsbok rather than a horse. - Pegasus Saber from The Brave Fighter of Legend Da-Garn is a Combining Mecha in the shape of a winged centaur. - A Centaur's Life stars Himeno, a Japanese kentauride teenager and chronicles her daily life in High School. She's a classic centaur, though with horse ears on the top of her head, and considered just as human as angels, mermaids, and long ears. Probably the biggest thing setting these centaurs apart from other kinds is their insistence on wearing clothing on their lower bodies. The centaur equivalent of a bikini is a three-piece, with an item of clothing at the base of every pair of limbs. - The setting of the series also features weretigers, who have human torsos on top of 4-legged tiger bodies. They went extinct before the rise of civilization (kind of like Neanderthal man) but appear in flashback stories \|\|and the Antarcticans are secretly cloning them back from extinction and controlling them for mysterious and apparently nefarious purposes\|\|. - In Claymore, \|\|Isley's\|\| awakened form is a gigantic, bizarrely shaped centaur. And it looks awesome!◊ - Digimon: - Centaurmon from Digimon Adventure, Digimon Frontier and Digimon Fusion is an odd looking variety since their "human" features are hidden, are covered in odd purple pustule looking things, and are partially cybernetic with a built in arm canon despite still being considered a "nature spirit" type. - Gulfmon from the first Digimon Tamers movie has definitely nothing to do with a horse. - Also from Tamers, Vajramon and Pajiramon are the Ox and Sheep Devas respectively and both have centaur-like body plans. Vajramon has the lower body of a bull with a minotaur-ish upper body. Pajiramon's design is the same idea, except that both halves resemble sheep and the anthropomorphic upper half has Creepily Long Arms that reach to her knees. - Sagittarimon, which appeared as a Filler Villain in Digimon Frontier, is a Lizard Folk centaur with both Flamedramon (a biped) and Raidramon (a quadruped) based features due to its species being an armor digivolution of Veemon like both of those are. In the broader lore of the franchise, the species is also a Super Mode of Centaurmon. - A royal knight from Digimon Data Squad, Sleipmon or Kentaurosmon, is a 6 legged centaur with a more horse-like head on its humanoid upper body, thus having 8 limbs in total (though they also have two fake "legs" acting as a belt just in case the last two being arms "didn't count") just like the horse they are originally named after. Their weapons of choice are a shield and crossbow instead of a traditional bow though and unlike many other examples is covered head to hoof in armor. Also, Miki and Megumi's partner Digimon digivolve to KnightChessmon, chess-themed mechanical centaurs decked out in medieval-styled armor of opposite colors. - Digimon Fusion has two fully mechanical examples of this trope in the form of Shoutmon X4B and X5B, centaur-like upgrades to the more humanoid Shoutmon X4 and X5 respectively created by adding Beelzemon onto each. Beelzemon's legs become the centaur forms' forelegs and are on backwards, making his boots more closely resemble hooves while his guns become hip-mounted cannons and a central Wave-Motion Gun that takes up most of the quadrupedal lower body. There's also GrandGeneramon, a mindless humanoid mashup of six of the Seven Death Generals fused at the waist to the snout of Splashmon's quadrupedal Water Tiger form. - In Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, Tagiru DigiXrosses Arresterdramon with another hunter's Dobermon when fighting Ganemon. The end result is Arresterdramon body from the waist up fused to Dobermon's quadrupedal body in the style of a centaur. Their combined form also has Arresterdramon's extendable tail and is much faster and more flexible than either of the component parts despite the seemingly ungainly body plan. - Digimon Universe: App Monsters has Hadesmon, a dragon-centaur that serves as \|\|Hackmon's\|\| final form. He's a massive dragon-centaur decked out in white and gold armor and able to alter both data and matter at will in addition to more ordinary attacks. - The Applimonsters manga has Gossipmon, a mechanical centaur dressed up like a freelance reporter, appear as a Monster of the Week alongside Gomimon in Astra's debut chapter. Gossipmon is a Consummate Liar that can make anything seem true in writing and gets caught making fake reviews of Astra's videos. - Digimon Ghost Game has Gyukimon, who has a lower body resembling a spider and the upper body of a purple minotaur with an Arm Cannon. The spider half has a mouth of its own, giving Gyukimon a similar body plan to GrandGeneramon. This mouth's teeth inject a mutagenic venom from the tubes on its back to turn others into more Gyukimon. - Future Card Buddyfight has a few dragon-centaurs. The most notable one is the second form of Genma's buddy monster Duel Sieger. The form is actually intermediate between his quadrupedal first form and anthropomorphic third form. - Jagaaaaaan: Medetaurus, a bride with a horse's body replacing her lower half, her right arm converted into a lance and her left into a organic crossbow, all crowned with the mother of all slasher smiles on her face. - Kotetsu Jeeg. The mechanical horse Panzeroid (known in Italy as Antares) allows Jeeg to become a powerful centaur armed with a drilling lance. The module is launched by Big Shooter, once launched the horse retracts its head to allow it to connect directly to Jeeg. The module can act independently and is able to fly in the air. - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999): When Link confronts Dark Link on horseback, the latter shapeshifts his lower body into a horse. - Mazinger Z: Mechanical Beast Kentol Γ7 was a blue, armored mechanical centaur. It was armed with a spear and a spiked shield, was capable of flying, and its helmet's horns shot beams that could control other machines. - Centorea Shianus from Monster Musume is a very attractive centaur knight. Male centaurs are shown once. They're so Gonkish (and generally unpleasant) that not even female centaurs find them attractive \|\|and in fact Centorea is a Half-Human Hybrid whose mother fell in love and slept with her human "teaser" instead of her husband\|\|. - In the anime Nessa no Haou Gandalla, the Big Bad has Lost Technology \|\|that is controlled by music, so he kidnaps promising musicians,\|\| transforming his victims into winged-centaurs (or Giger-esque monsters if they rebel). It Makes Just as Much Sense in Context. - One Piece: - In the beginning of the Thriller Bark arc , three of the characters are escorted to a mansion in a carriage. One of the horses drawing the carriage is a zombie centaur. - Not to mention \|\|the actual centaurs from Punk Hazard. There's giraffe centaurs, leopard centaurs, alligator centaurs... However, none of them seen to be natural centaurs, as one of them was originally introduced as a human\|\|. - Panzer World Galient has the entire Panzer Trampler mech line, which are naturally shaped like centaurs. - In Stardust Memories, Hoshino Yukinobu took an interesting take on the centaur concept in one of his series of short stories, "The Centaur of Sagittarius" in his science fiction anthology "Stardust Memories". Said centaur was an alien on a distant planet called Sagittarius Alpha that looked like a thick-tailed, headless ungulate with a circular maw filled with rows of sharp teeth. Lacking most of its brain, nervous system, and digestive organs, the creature survived by preying on the nearby amphibian-like aliens, eating everything beneath their abdomens and merging with the rest to make it appear as a hideous-looking centauroid creature. In the story, an elderly Corrupt Corporate Executive of a gigantic corporation funds an expedition to the planet Sagittarius so he can capture Chiron (the name of the alien) in hopes of using its body to give his dying body immortality and eternally rule over his vast empire. After incurring many casualties, the man is betrayed by his female assistant (whose family was one of the many victims he crushed on his bid to the top) by poisoning his pills and leaving him to die. While trying to escape on her aircraft the assistant is killed by Chiron, who discards its used-up host and gallops towards the old man, mouth wide open. The story ends with the old man becoming Chiron's new host, having finally attained his immortality at the cost of suffering excruciating pain forever. - Toriko has Elg, a member of the Gourmet Corp., who fused with a baby legendary horse called a Heraku, which along with the typical centaur also granted him an astonishing Healing Factor which essentially made him immortal and stopped him from aging. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: - Early on, the centaur "Mystical Horseman" was introduced as part of Kaiba's deck. It was immediately fused with "Battle Ox", a minotaur, and they become "Rabid Horseman", a centaur-minotaur hybrid, and its Japanese name is actually "Minocentaurus". - Another centaur used by Kaiba is "Chiron the Mage." - The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau): Taking after Classical Mythology, these ones have the body of a horse and the torso of a man. They are also able to keep themselves afloat in the middle of the ocean with no trouble. Finally, they know how to play conch shells to accompany the Cherubic Choir. - One of Michelangelo's first works was the Battle of the Centaurs, based on an incident from Classical Mythology. The centaurs are so clustered together it is difficult to tell them from the humans, with the only clear indicator being that the centaurs are all above bodies that have been trampled to the floor. - Magic: The Gathering: Centaurs are a recurring creature type, usually aligned with Green, the color of nature, tradition and the wilderness. - They're mostly fairly standard fantasy centaurs, but there are some unusual variations. Centaurs from the Gruul Clans of Ravnica, for instance, have large antlers, as did some Dominarian centaurs from the Ice Age, while other Dominarian centaurs have the heads and lower bodies of antelopes. Bear-centaurs also exist, but only one has appeared in-game thus far. - Given the plane's roots in Classical Mythology, centaurs are naturally also a major race in Theros. There, theyre divided between the civilized Lagonna Band (representing the traditionally wild but generally benevolent Magic centaurs) and the savage, aggressive Pheres Band (representing the dangerous and barbaric centaurs of Greek myth). Iroas, the god of victory, honor and war, also takes the form of a centaur with the lower body of a bull. - Fantasia: The Pastoral Symphony segment features centaurs and centaurettes. Most of them are the standard human/horse version, but there was also a dark-skinned one with the lower half of a donkey, named "Sunflower", who was shown as a servant to the others. She has since been removed from more recent releases of the film due to her racist implications. There were also two centaurettes whose equine halves were that of zebras. - The Fearless Four has a mechanical cyborg centaur that sings a Villain Song. In what appears to be a setting that is anything but fantasy or futuristic. - In Disney's Hercules, the title character battles one named Nessus when first meeting Meg. He's a rather odd-looking centaur, though, with blue skin, fangs, and a large protruding chin. More traditional centaurs also appear in certain episodes of the animated series. - One of the Thirteen Monsters in TMNT was a centaur-cyclops creature with a muscular humanoid upper torso, and a stocky, hippo-like lower body. It was shown emerging from the portal during the prologue and later was seen being captured by the Foot Clan in a warehouse. - Animorphs: The Andalites are best described as mouth-less blue centaurs with a scorpion tail and two extra stalk eyes. One book even has a TV show with a few seconds of a Andalite on film as a centaur. It's sometimes noted, however, that the "horse" portion is about the size of a deer. - In Artemis Fowl, the LEP's Insufferable Genius and Techno Wizard Foaly is a centaur. Centaurs are polygamous, so one can, if one squints, perhaps see where a reputation for kidnapping women might have came from. They're also an endangered species because they tend to be paranoid, even of each other. Foaly muses at one point that he should start dating because there are only about forty left. - Bas-Lag Cycle: - Perdido Street Station includes a Remade man who's been turned into a centaur for his crimes. Unusually cruel in that the biomancer responsible attached his human torso to the equine neck backwards, meaning he can only see where he was going if he forces his horse body to back up, which horses aren't built for. - Iron Council: Rahul is a lizard-bodied centaur Remade. - Some non-equine centaurlike beings turn up in other books, such as an aquatic lobster-bodied race in The Scar and the ravening, caterpillar-like inchmen from Iron Council. - Book of Imaginary Beings: - Borges describes most of the main Greek myths concerning centaurs, in addition to an incident where a herdsman brought an infant centaur birthed by one of his mare to the ruler of Corinth (which the ruler's court sage implied was born from... less than wholesome practices on the herdsman's part) and Lucretius' claim in De rerum natura that centaurs are impossible due to the different growth cycles of men and horses — a three-year-old centaur would be part adult horse and part babbling child, and the horse half would die fifty years before the human one. - Ichtyocentaurs, discussed separately, originate after the period when most myth-making took place but are very common in Greek and Roman art. They have the tail of a dolphin and the forelegs of a horse or lion, and live among the gods and sea horses in the ocean. - Changewinds has the ba'ahdon, who look more like a cross between a chalicothere and a pygmy elephant from the waist down. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The centaurs are completely opposed to the classic Greek ones, as they are brave fighters in Aslan's army. The individual centaurs Glenstorm ( Prince Caspian) and Roonwit ( The Last Battle) are Chiron-like scholars. - In an interesting detail, in the movies the centaurs have pointed, horselike ears that stick out almost horizontally from their heads as well as more horselike noses. - The books note that they are expensive guests because they have both a human and a horse stomach "and naturally both want breakfast." note : Considering that you're essentially feeding most of a horse and half a person at the same time, of course a centaur would be hungry, no matter how many stomachs.... - In The Clocktaur Wars duology by T. Kingfisher, clocktaurs (a.k.a Clockwork Boys) are centauroid golems the colour of old ivory and made of slabs of clockwork gears set in impossible ways. They're 8-10 feet tall and have 4 or 6 legs. Each one is a mighty siege engine and in only 6 months since their appearance, they've reduced the Dowager Queen's borders by half. - In James White's short story "Custom Fitting", which is part of the Sector General universe, we have His Excellency the Lord Scrennagle of Dutha. He is described as basically shaped like a centaur, but has two thumbs on each hand and his face is described as "dominated by two large, soft, brown eyes that somehow made the slits, protuberances, and fleshy petals which comprised the other features visually acceptable." Greg and Tim Hildebrant's depiction◊ for the cover of the second issue of Science Fiction magazine "Stellar" makes him look much more like a traditional centaur. - In The Darksword Trilogy, Centaurs are warchanged, humans who were turned into savage berserkers to take part in a war, with the intention of turning them back mentally and physically once the war was won. The war proved far bloodier than expected and mages capable of restoring them became quite rare. As a result the centaurs went feral and interbred with "men and beasts", becoming a new species similar in disposition to their mythological counterparts. Notably, actual horses are thought to be extinct on Thimhallan, due to most of them being as raw materials for creating centaurs. - Deep Secret: Centaurs turn out to be very central to the plot, after they first appear roughly halfway through. They're standoffish and proud with a distinctive set of cultural norms, and they, like other magical creatures, can no longer live in this world for long since it's less magical than it used to be. Their human halves are the same color as their horse parts, and their culture is clannish and matrilineal. Also, female centaurs can interbreed with humans, though it's noted that a human woman could not carry a male centaur's child. - While they never get as much focus as other fantasy races like Dwarves and Trolls, Centaurs are mentioned a few times in the Discworld series. The Science of Discworld implies that they're the descendants of people and horses who were fused together on a molecular-genetic level by a Magitek nuclear reactor meltdown that wiped out the ancient Loko civilization. - Dragaera has cat-centaurs, who live near the Paths of the Dead. Vlad and Morollan share a "Not So Different" Remark moment with them in Taltos. - The Dresden Files briefly includes a blacksmith centaur in the fourth book, depicted as being a breed of Fairy. While centaurs are Summer-aligned, he's not really what you'd call friendly, and seems to have some of the rage tendencies of more traditional centaurs. - In The Echorium Sequence, centaurs are one of the four races of "half-creature". They use herdstones to bend light so as to render themselves invisible to humans; obtaining one's herdstone serves as a rite of passage into adulthood. - The centaurs in Crawford Killian's After the End novel Eyas have a more-or-less equine lower body (albeit with a tail more like that of a mule or donkey than a horse) with a slightly outsized and blunt-featured humanoid upper body. Additionally: the closest analogues to horses, deer, cattle, goats, and sheep that exist in the setting are in fact non-sapient six-limbed centaur-kin animals (sixfoots, woodsrunners, browsers, splithoofs, and longfurs, respectively). \|\|All of them were genetically engineered, likely from ungulates of some sort; an A.I. that manifests its holographic interface in the shape of a pony is conceptualized by comparison to centaurs.\|\| The men are all Proud Warrior Race Guys \|\|(albeit kind of bad at it at first, as they initially have no real sense of teamwork in combat and are all out for individual glory; they become far more effective after the title character convinces them to adopt one)\|\|, are culturally discouraged from having many interests beyond that, tend towards bay or black coloring, and tend to have nouns or Noun Verbs such as "Boulder" or "Foehewer" for names; the women are Proud Artisan Race Gals, are mostly chestnut, and tend to have verbs suffixed by their craft for names, such as "Standaway Blacksmith" or "Dance Gaily Potter." - Fablehaven: Centaurs are a typical Proud Warrior Race, skilled and powerful fighters, but they're also arrogant jerks who think they should naturally be in charge and are uninterested in helping anyone but themselves, even when the fate of the world is on the line. Every character who has expressed an opinion has said they dislike dealing with them. Additionally, an alcetaur (human above and moose below) appears in book 4 as one of the inhabitants of Wyrmroost. - Fighting Fantasy: The centaurs in the gamebooks are (mostly) intelligent and honorable, if unfriendly and avoiding contact with humans. They believe themselves to be horses who were cursed with a human appearance for angering Hunnynhan the Stallion God. - Garrett, P.I.: Centaurs are somewhat smaller than usual (donkey-sized), and are natives of the war-torn Cantard region. Their tribes served as mercenary scouts for both sides of the war until they deserted to support Glory Mooncalled's renegade republic, which makes them even less popular with TunFaire's human majority than most non-humans in the war's aftermath. - Harry Potter's centaurs are a fiercely independent society of forest-dwelling stargazers, who tend to be distrustful of humans and dangerous with a bow. However, a few help out when Harry gets lost in the forest, as well as terrifying Umbridge in a most satisfying way. Despite only having males appear in the main books it is pointed out that female centaurs do exist according to the W.O.M.B.A.T test since "There are no female centaurs" was a false statement that appeared there (The seemingly true statement being "Hags eat small children" instead), and are explicitly not a hybrid species which rules out Centaur/Human breeding being a common event. - In Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert's Hellhole series the alien Xayans have a humanoid top half and caterpillar-like bottom half. - The Divine Comedy: Centaurs are found in the Inferno. They are armed with bows and arrows and ensure that the sinners stay in Phlegethon, a river filled with boiling blood. They share they area of Hell with the Minotaur, which while possessing the usual taurine head also has the body of a bull instead of human legs.. - Journey to Chaos: When Eric meets one of these in A Mage's Power, the narration takes care to make a distinction. This is not a creature with the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a human, but a horse with a human head. It also has a snake for a tail. He thinks Eric is the weirdo. - David Gemmell's has centaurs as human riders who can mindlink with their horses and ultimately merge with them into a composite creature, the classical centaur in his "Lion of Macedon" cycle. - Centaurs appear in some books by Lord Dunsany, including, obviously, The Bride of the Man-Horse, where they're rather warlike — said to have defeated some human cities and tried to play a Trojan Siege with the city of gods. Also, briefly met in The Long Porter's Tale. - Mercedes Lackey's The Obsidian Trilogy portrays centaurs as somewhat rustic but very intelligent farming people who are creatures of the Light along with unicorns, brownies, elves and others. - Ology Series: Monsterology describes classical centaurs, which are found in Greece and the lower Balkan Peninsula. They do not use tools as complex as those of even iron age humans, but sometimes craft rudimentary bows. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians has Chiron, the wise trainer to heroes. He's pretty much just like the original myths, except he can hide his horse self in a magical wheelchair. His relatives, though? The "Party Ponies" could be best described as four-legged frat boys (a young adult-acceptable version of their original portrayal in Greek mythology). In the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus, Percy discovers another tribe of horned centaurs that are bad guys and part of Gaea's army, terribly confusing him. - Poul Anderson's "Polysotechnic League" stories mention centaurs being common, but they rarely appear and the ones that do are quite non-human. - Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Cookies and Campers mentions centaurs in the prologue, as a kind of "beast-folk". - Robert A. Heinlein's Starman Jones had centaur-like aliens. They appeared to be stupid, but the humans who landed on their planet discovered that they were highly intelligent and had other alien creatures on the planet under their control. - In This Immortal, centaurs are only mentioned in passing, but are said to live in the mountains of Greece and to be the product of genetic mutation caused by nuclear pollution. - John Varley's Titanides are different on several levels. For one thing their colors vary wildly, from normal horsey hues to patterns like checkers or plaid. For another, each one is a multiple Hermaphrodite, with both types of equipment on the horse half plus a third set on the human half. The third set determines the individual's pronoun gender (while all Titanides can give birth, those who can do so by parthenogenesis are considered female), but even the males have prominent breasts, causing most humans to mistake them for an all-female race. - Centaurs in the Tortall Universe look standard, but they're Immortals — creatures that live forever unless killed, never aging beyond maturity. "Killer centaurs" are just clawed monsters, but the standard variety is variable, with individual alignments. They refuse to be shod, hate crossbows, and like using Immortal feathers in their fletching. In Squire, it's shown that they keep horses, call them "slaves", and mount them. Female centaurs attack males if not given gifts, they call killing their own people "culling", and one attempts to purchase Keladry of Mindelan, believing she's stocky enough to "breed well, maybe even bear sons of my kind". Kel doesn't like them. - Jorkas from The Traveller in Black, is a unique variant: instead of a human upper body in place of a horse's neck and head, he consists of a complete (and purple) horse body with a young man fused thigh-deep in its back. A byproduct of Chaos, Jorkas's human and horse bodies share a single mind and reaction in concert, such that his equine portion shies when he'd insulted to his human face, and his horse portion trots and bobs its head in time as his human portion sings and plays music. - Harry Turtledove's short story Vilcabamba has the Krolp alien invaders with a vaguely centauroid body plan, though dark gray with tiger stripes and jack-o-lantern shaped heads, as seen in the illustration at the link. - Well World: - Dillians and Rhone \|\|(which are basically the same race on two different planets; long story)\|\| as more-or-less the classic model (albeit with horse ears, and only about the size of big ponies) in the original series. The Lillian's lead a primarily pastoral and communal existence in a low-tech hex, where they live in small villages scattered among fields and forests. Dillians who made their way to the Mediterranean area of Old Earth were responsible for myths of centaurs. Dillians also appear in the Watchers at the Well series; there, they're stated to have become a smoother synthesis of hominid and equine than the classic centaur. - The Gekir are matriarchal felitaurs; the women are rowdy tailless tigertaurs, while the men are white-furrd liontaurs who have slightly twee personalities and gravitate towards the position of sex worker. - A Wrinkle in Time: Winged centaur-like creatures lived on the planet Uriel. Mrs. Whatsit transformed into one in order to help show Charles Wallace, Meg, and Calvin the nature of what they were fighting against. - Xanadu (Storyverse): Wynd, who is initially turned into a Pegasus by the Change, is eventually transformed into a winged centaur — the closest to her original human form that the magic of the Change will permit. - Xanth: Centaurs series are a race of scholars and researchers who consider magic (which is pervasive in Xanth) to be obscenity when used by centaurs, although they generally don't have a problem with Puny Humans resorting to its use. That said, it's mostly the ones from Centaur Isle that have a problem with it. Centaurs living in Xanth proper tend to be more open-minded about one of their own practicing magic. They tend to have a superiority complex like — although not as severe as — elves, and are excellent archers. - They are said to have originated when a couple of human men and their female horses unwittingly drank from a love spring. But only man/mare pairings seem to produce centaurs. Woman/stallion pairings instead produce a werehorse. - Winged centaurs develop as an additional subspecies of centaurs. Regular centaurs tend to consider them to be dirty half breeds, which is ironic give the origin of centaurs. - The Vedrans of Andromeda have four legs and a humanoid torso and arms. Only one is depicted in the series, but their quadrupedal nature is frequently alluded to, their family units are called "herds" and the bridges of Glorious Heritage ships are clearly designed to accommodate them. Seamus Harper: Watch your step here; the ramps can be a little tricky, but we think of it as part of the original Vedran charm. - The 1990s television version of Beastmaster featured an episode titled "Centaurs." The titular centaurs Sagitto and Radia were unique in that they could split into separate beings, two humans and two horses, and merge together to become the combined creature. If separated for too long, both beings would die. - Dobbin the Pantomime Horse in Rentaghost was occasionally turned into a Chiron-like centaur. On one occasion he became a two-headed centaur (one at either end). - In Wizards of Waverly Place Justin briefly dated a female centaur. - Centaurs often appeared in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess and were the most common non-human race. Episodes featuring them usually dealt with Fantastic Racism. - Centaurs were all male, and bred with human females. In one instance a young woman fell in love with and married a centaur, and gave birth to a (naturally male) centaur child (the human portion appeared to be equivalent in development to a 6-month-old child, to functionally complement the abilities of a newborn foal). - Hercules also had the Golden Hind, an all-female race in contrast to the all-male centaurs (but the two are not shown to be related). Golden Hinds have the lower body of deer, golden hooves, and golden horns on their heads. They have a healing ability and their blood can kill a god. - In Mahou Sentai Magiranger, Wolzard can form WolKentauros with his giant steed Dark Magic Horse Barikion. This is a seen as a giant Centaur Mecha formation that he uses to fight the Rangers. In Power Rangers Mystic Force, this formation is called the Centaur Megazord. - An episode of Saturday Night Live had Chris Parnell as a centaur interviewing for a typical office job. He was quite polite and well-mannered, but the boss, played by Christopher Walken, could not get past the fact that he was, indeed, a centaur; asking such questions like, "Does centaur pornography exist?" and, "If I watch centaur porn with the bottom half blocked out by a sheet of paper, would I be aroused?" Centaur: Are there going to be any questions regarding my aptitude or employment history? Walken: All the remaining questions... will be centaur related. - The eponymous "Witch of the Westmereland" in the song by Archie Fisher (later covered by Stan Rogers) is described as having "one half the form of a maiden fair with a jet-black mare's body." Given that she later transforms into a fully human woman with a blue gown, she's likely actually a kelpie, a shapeshifting water spirit common in Scottish folklore. - Classical Mythology: - Centaurs were something of a Barbarian Tribe in Greek myth, with the only exceptions being Chiron (who raised the hero Achilles) and Pholus. - According to legend, the centaurs were descended from Ixion (and not from Zeus having sex in the form of a horse as some believe). Ixion being a grade-A jackass who attempted to hit on Zeus' wife Hera in his own home, he was tricked into sleeping with a cloud nymph named Nephele who looked like Hera, their son Centaurus having sex with wild horses to produce the centaurs. - A straighter example is Nessus, who before being killed by Heracles' poisoned arrows, told his (Heracles') wife to dip her philandering husband's tunic in the centaur's blood, as this would make him faithful. However, this ended up killing Heracles as the poison ate him alive. - The Centauromachy is another well-known story: having been invited to a wedding and getting drunk, proceed to kidnap the women at the wedding, including the bride. This does not go well with the groom, and violence ensues. - Some early Greek vase paintings depict a bizarre variant of the centaur: a complete human body, with the rear end of a horse attached to the butt. There's no explanation for how these could walk, let alone run. One vase even depicts what's clearly supposed to be Medusa as a female one of these, with a Skull for a Head, and somehow wearing a dress. - There were at least two other sympathetic centaurs depicted in Ovid's The Metamorphoses, the husband and wife Cyllarus and Hylonome. They were attending the wedding feast depicted in the Centauromachy when they got swept up in the ensuing battle. No word if they were taking part in the drunken revelry with the rest of the centaurs, but Cyllarus was killed by a spear during the ensuing brawl, and heartbroken, Hylonome took her own life rather then go on without her husband. - Female centaurs such as Hylonome are not especially common in myth, but appear fairly often in art. They are properly referred to as centaurides. - Sirens, though commonly remembered as mermaids, were also depicted as bird-centaurs — they had the torsos of women (usually with exposed breasts) and the bodies of birds from the waist down. Which is also the physical description of the East-Asian Kinnara; with the exception of conflicting Indian literature of demigods with the same name, like the Mahabharata which describes the Kinnaras as horse-centaurs. - There are also the Ipotanes, humans with the legs and tails of horses, considered the original centaurs. - Ichthyocentaurs can be thought of as the mermaid version of a centaur, having the lower body of a hippocampus (a half-horse, half-fish creature) instead. Some depictions also gave them lobster claws on their heads. They do not appear in myths, and seem to have been strictly artistic motif instead. - Onocentaurs are creatures from medieval bestiaries depicted as centaurs with the lower bodies of donkeys. - The constellation of Sagittarius is traditionally depicted as a centaur wielding a bow and arrow, and bow-wielding centaurs in European heraldry are likewise referred to as sagittarii. - There is also the bucentaur, kind of an inverted minotaur: The Other Wiki says, "The term bucintoro [referring to the state galley of the Doges of Venice] was Latinized in the Middle Ages as bucentaurus on the analogy of an alleged Greek word boukentauros meaning "ox-centaur" (from bous, "ox", and kentauros, "centaur"). The common supposition was that the name derived from a creature of a man with the head of an ox, a figure of which served as the galley's figurehead. This derivation is, however, fanciful; the word boukentauros is unknown in Greek mythology..." - Notably, while the Minotaur was classically depicted as a man with the head of a bull, an alternative interpretation was popular during Roman and medieval times that swapped which part belonged to which species, depicting it as having a human torso, arms and head mounted on a bull's body. This was in large part because, after the fall of Rome, Greek texts largely became unavailable until surviving examples were uncovered or obtained from Arab libraries much later, and the most widely available version of the myth were Ovid's — which did not specify which part was bull and which was human — and the Aeneid's — which explicitly noted the Minotaur to have the lower body of a beast and the upper of a man. - Christian legend has the enigmatic legend of St. Anthony Abbot and the Centaur, which may represent the desire of early pagan converts to have some of the more poetic elements of their beliefs adopted by the new religion. - Mesopotamian Mythology: - In ancient Persian and Mesopotamian sculpture, Always Male guardian statues called shedu and lamassu have the forms of bulls and lions, with human heads and eagle wings. The leonine ones are basically male sphinxes. Unlike centaurs, they don't have arms. - Much closer Mesopotamian analogs to the centaurs are the urmahlullu, which have a human torso on a lion's body. - The aqrabuamelu or girtablilu are essentially centaur scorpions, with some depictions adding wings as well. - Celtic Mythology: Some depictions of Cernunnos, the Celtic god of fertility, are like this; with a deer's body, a man's torso and arms, and a stag head and horns. - The Nuckelavee, a creature from Scottish folklore, appears as a skinless man fused onto the back of a similarly flayed horse. - The besta-fera or "bestial beast" from Brazilian and Portuguese folklore is a demonic centaur armed with a whip which terrorizes villages at nighttime until it finds a tomb where it disappears. - The antagonist of Bally's Centaur, who has a human/horse face, a human torso, a motorcycle lower half, a horse's tail, and some sort of clawed feline hindleg. - Arcanum RPG, The Lexicon (Atlas of the Lost World of Atlantis): - The Dreaming Wood had the arcitenus (two headed centaurs) and malataurs (half human, half ram). The Bestiary says that malataurs are specifically a combination of human and mountain goat. - In the Mediterranean Sea, the islands of Delphos and Tenedos have centaurs that are skilled painters, musicians and artisans. - Arduin: Chaeronyx are centaurs with the upper bodies of Medusas, with rocky skin, a nest of vipers for hair and a petrifying gaze. - Centaurs in Ars Magica are faerie creatures concerned with exploring the boundaries of civilization/barbarism and humanity/beastliness. As with other faerie beings, rules for playing them can be found in "Realms of Power: Faerie". - Call of Cthulhu. The T.O.M.E. (Theatre Of the Mind Enterprises) supplement Pursuit to Kadath has the Dragon Warriors, a set of monsters created by the Cthulhu Mythos deity Yig. One of them is Choara, a giant black scorpion with the torso, arms and head of a human. - Chaosium's supplement All the Worlds' Monsters: - Volume I. The humbaba is half human, half giant scorpion with a tail 6-9 feet long. - Volume III. The Jushkaparick is a half man, half ass (donkey) with a jaw made of brass. It will attack any centaurs it meets on sight. - Dungeons & Dragons has quite a few. Many of these have actually been playable in various editions, from the classic centaur to odder species like the wemic, dracon, pegataur and bariaur. - GURPS offers various variations on the theme in different supplements: - Yrth, the world of GURPS Banestorm, has fairly conventional (human/horse-like) centaurs. They're actually immigrants from Loren'dil, a world without humans or horses; the mere existence of horses (initially seen as deformed or maimed centaurs) may confuse or horrify them, and they dislike the paraphernalia of human horse-riding. They live in small nomadic herds across the plains of al-Wazif, al-Haz, Cardiel, and the Orclands. Most are brash, impetuous, footloose party animals, and not especially bright, but a few are highly intelligent and scholarly — thus reflecting both the Greek idea of thuggish centaurs (in toned-down form) and the intellectual Chiron. - GURPS Fantasy Folk has Onocentaurs: half human, half donkey. - GURPS Technomancer has two relevant chimeras: a spider centaur (Homo Sapiens Arachne) and a serpent centaur (Homo Sapiens Serpens). - Hc Svnt Dracones has "taur" Vectors which are based on a variety of species. - Kings of War has Abyssal Dwarf half breeds which are half-dwarf and half-demon. - Munchkin has the girl Centaur Warrior card, and that same character is featured on a few other cards including Crushinate!, DING!! and The Banhammer. - Mutants & Masterminds: In the earth-Prime setting, Doctor Chiron, a greek superhero, built a cybernetic horse body to replace his legs. He's essentially a cyber-centaur. - In Nightbane, centauroids are just one of the shape variations available for Nightbane with an animal-based Morphus. These are typically described as the body of the animal in question attached to a furred/scaled humanoid torso with the animal's head on top. - Pathfinder: - Classic centaurs are a reclusive, often semi-nomadic forest-dwelling race. They are very widespread in the modern day, but are thought to have first originated in the islands of Iblydos (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Greece) as a nod to their origin in Classical Mythology. The Exalted Wood of the River Kingdoms is also home to a strange race of centaurs with horselike heads. - Svathurims are gigantic centaur-like beings with the upper bodies of horned frost giants and the lower bodies of massive eight-legged horses. - More exotic taurine creature include several variations of lamia with upper bodies of women mounted on lioness torsos (specifically common lamias, lamia harridans and hungerers), ichthyocentaurs (who have the upper bodies of merfolk and lower bodies of hippocampi) and the girtablillu (scorpion-centaurs inspired by Mesopotamian myth). The Legacy of Fire adventure path has buraq (winged mules with human faces). - Cervinals are agathions — Neutral Good outsiders whose various kinds are all based on various sorts of animals — resembling elk-based centaurs with large antlers growing from their heads. They are the warriors of agathion society, thundering onto enemy forces with powerful charging attacks. - Pathfinder ported Driders over from Dungeons and Dragons and added a dash of Sexy Dimorphism. Female Driders are the classic spider-centaurs, but males are based on tarantulas and have tarantula heads. - Rifts: - Centaurs visited the Earth during the ancient age of magic, entering Europe through Atlantis and hence coming to feature in later legends. In modern times they returned to Earth after the Coming of the Rifts and mostly settled the prairies and forests of North America, where they live as nomadic hunter-gatherers. - There are also the high-tech Cyber-horsemen from Ixion, who hail from an eponymous city rumored to be somewhere within the wildernesses of British Columbia. They're a proud and honorable people who believe that they were brought to Earth to spread knowledge and enlightenment, and are best known for their extensive use of cybernetic enhancements — all have at least a bionic limb or two, they often replace their horse bodies entirely by middle age and elderly members are often full-conversion Brain in a Jar borgs. They're allied with regular centaurs and on generally good terms with humans, but don't much trust other species. - Serving the Mesopotamian Gods are also the Scorpion People, who given this trope are Exactly What It Says on the Tin. - Rolemaster Shadow World setting supplement Star Crown Empire and the Sea of Fates. Centaurs are not wild creatures living in the wilderness: they are full citizens of the Empire, live in buildings and practice farming and shepherding. - RuneQuest: Centaurs, the most common and important Beast Men, are horses with the upper body of a human in place of the horse's neck and head. They were long extinct when Time began, but were artificially resurrected by the Empire of the Wyrms Friends in an effort to reform extinct species that were believed to be necessary to populate the mythic era they sought. - Scion has modern-day centaurs that are half-man and half-motorcycle. - Shadowrun: First introduced in Paranormal Animals of Europe supplement, centaurs of the Sixth World are an awakened (magical and sapient) type of horse, and 4th edition's Runner's Companion and 5th edition's Run Faster make them playable. Physically they're distinct from most centaurs in that they only have three fingers and a thumb, and standard centaurs have horse-like faces with shorter snouts, though a fraction of the population includes "lesser" centaurs with human faces that face discrimination from their common brethren. Centaurs were originally thought of as primitive and barely sapient, but in truth just prefer a less technological lifestyle and are every bit as intelligent as humans; some outliers among their kind have become well known mercenaries or started rock bands. - Splicers: This is also one of the options for Host Armor, as shown here. The pilot's legs fold up inside the lower body. - Traveller: - One of the Major Races is the K'kree (alien centaurs), which live in the Two Thousand Worlds. - Marc Miller's Traveller supplement Aliens Archive. The Graytch look like six-legged spider centaurs (and were in fact nicknamed "spidertaurs"). - Villains & Vigilantes adventure Devil's Domain. The Abomination demons had a lower half like a bent over gorilla (with four legs like a gorilla's) and an upper half like a gorilla's trunk, with four arms. They had four glowing red eyes and a malevolent face on their chest. - Generic RPG supplement Booty and the Beasts. The Masjenada is a 12 foot long lobster with the torso of a human female sticking out of it. They are powerful magicians and are fairly civilized, not normally attacking strangers. - Warhammer: - Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Centauroid creatures, like most chimeras, are typically associated with Chaos. - Dragon Ogres resemble giant (some can look over city walls, and the oldest one is often mistaken for a mountain) horned humanoids from the waist up and wingless dragons from the waist down. - The Beastmen have centigors, a sub-breed of beastmen resembling goat-bodied centaurs with horns and clawed feet instead of hooves. The are raging alcoholics, and will randomly receive bonuses according to their level of intoxication. The unnatural fusion of humanoid and ungulate bodies is explicitly something that makes life difficult for them, and combined with their lack of fine motor skills makes them unable to efficiently manufacture anything; they consequently depend on the Beastmen for even the crudest shelters and weapons, and deeply resent creatures whose minds and bodies are better matched. 3rd Edition originally had fairly straightforward, fully horse-bodied centaurs, which share all of the centigors' characterization and which were later updated into the modern incarnation to make them fit the larger Beastman faction's themes more closely. - The Chaos Dwarfs have Bull Centaurs, created by the Chaos Dwarves' sorcerers by mutating their people's own infants into the image of their evil bull-god Hashut. Their earliest incarnations in 3rd Edition notably had the bodies of boars instead of bulls. - Centaurs (not merely centauriod creatures) were part of the Chaos forces in the '80s supplement The Lost and the Damned. Similar to the Greek myths, they are foul-tempered and prone to drunkeness. They were also known to defecate in public at Beastmen gatherings. Still, the Beastmen tolerate Centaur behaviour as they recruit them as shock troopers as Centaurs are stronger and better fighters than most Beastmen. They have since been replaced by Centigors. - Zoats are centaur-shaped reptilian creatures who, in Fantasy, have inhabited the world longer than any other mortal race and now live deep within ancient forests. In Warhammer 40,000, they are instead used as vanguard troops by the Tyranids in their early attacks upon the galaxy. Between wars against the Imperium, the Tyranids not needing them after the invasions' start and a failed rebellion on the Zoats' part, they are almost entirely extinct by the setting's present. - World of Synnibarr has Cattars, who have the lower body of a tiger and a humanoid upper body. - World Tree (RPG): The cyarr are a form of hyena-centaurs, with the lower body of a giant hyena and the torso, head and arms of a humanoid one. - Abyss Odyssey: Pudutaurs are basically Deer-Centauresses. They wield poleaxes and can bring the hurt due to their agility and attack range. As a mook, pudutaurs need support to back them up or they get "jumpy". When playing as one, use area attacks to push back the melee attackers. - The Centaurions of AdventureQuest were originally created by magic, but since then became a conquering race. - Bayonetta 2 combines this with Our Angels Are Different with a dash of Eldritch Abomination, introducing new angelic species such as the Acceptance, the Accolade, and the Allegiance, who are all depicted as bulky, headless centaurs with angelic wings and armor, and a giant marble face on their abdomens. And that's not even getting into what they look like once they start taking damage. - Castlevania: - Darkest Dungeon has pig centaurs as enemies. They're heavy damage dealers and tanks, but they lose combat effectiveness if you force them to stay in the front row of combat, preventing them from using their knight spear. - Defense of the Ancients/ DOTA 2 has several: - Aiushtha, the Enchantress, a Nature Spirit that appears in the form of a perky, cute red-haired elf atop a doe (female deer). - Bradwarden, the Centaur Warrunner, is a fairly normal Blood Knight centaur, save the bull-like horns and tusks. - Atropos, the Bane is a centauric Eldritch Abomination with Dream Weaver powers. - Harbinger, the Outworld Devourer is a winged centaur-like alien possessing Super Intelligence. - Leshrac, the Tormented Soul is a ghost centaur, an insane embodiment of Gaia's Vengeance. - Magnus, the Magnoceroes is some cross between a Centaur, a Mammoth, and a Rhino, with powers derived Tectonic and Volcanic energies that somehow result in magnetic effects. - Vrogros, the Underlord is a demonic centaur-like being originating from deep underneath the earth. - There's also a generic Centaurs as neutral creeps, although the bigger one's blue and the smaller one's white. - Dragon Quest: - Dwarf Fortress: Centaurs are one of a small number of creatures that exist as in-game myths: they have a bare minimum of game data and show up in engravings, but they do not exist as actual creatures you can encounter. Despite this, dwarves can still express a liking for their strength. A female centaur is called a centauress. - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall has centaurs as an enemy, and also the player character can learn their language as a skill. This has been their only appearance in the series to date. - The Land Dreugh in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. - In Fallout, centaurs are freakish mutant creatures with whiplike tongues, and are what you get when you dip multiple people and animals in a vat of FEV for awhile. As one can imagine, they are also epitomes of Body Horror. - Fantasy General: Centaurs appear as several types of heavy cavalry units (not horse archers). In addition to "normal" Centaurs, there are also Ogre Centaurs, who have the upper body of ogres instead of humans, and Centaur Knights, armoured Centaurs who know a spell that can bring their dead companions back to life — unsurprisingly, they're one of the most powerful units in the game. Unlike their typical mythological counterparts, Centaurs in this game are not evil, but neutral, and will serve any champion with the Beast Master trait. - Final Fantasy: - In keeping with the "savage monsters" interpretation of the creature type, various Final Fantasy games have centaurs and centaur-like creatures as Mooks. If it has armor, it has a roughly 90% chance of being given a name like "Centaurion." Some Centaurions, such as the ones from Final Fantasy XIII, are fully mechanical instead of armored. - The Easy Type version of Final Fantasy IV changes Zeromus's appearance to resemble a crustacean-like centaur that wields a huge sword and has an elven-looking woman fused into its humanoid torso. This sprite would reappear in later versions of the game as Zeromus EG. - The Ultimate Weapon in Final Fantasy VII is a mechanical dragon-centaur. Many later games' incarnations of the Ultima Weapon would also have variations on this design, including the ones from Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIV, and World of Final Fantasy. - Seiryu in Final Fantasy XIV is humanoid from the torso up and has a four-legged serpentine lower body resembling a Chinese dragon with two snakes grafted onto the forelegs. - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: the Tarvos and Maeldiun monsters who wield giant axes and bows. - In Gems of War, there's a kingdom inhabited mostly by centaurs. True to common form, they're avid hunters (although most of them aren't depicted using bows. Unlike some depictions, there are female centaurs, and no mention of abducting women. - The first God of War, as well as the third, has you kill a number of these. They match the Greek tradition, and are about a rung below miniboss. - Despite Norse Mythology not featuring any centaurs, God of War Ragnarök introduces Stalkers, an enemy unit that are centaur-like creatures with antlers who worship the jötunn Skaði. - Dora, the centaur girl from Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder. When mounting other creatures, she turns her lower body into that of a human woman. - Grimms Notes has Machina Prince, Shadow Dinah and Chaos Archteller. - Guild Wars has several "prides" of centaurs. Prides from Tyria generally like furry humans on a horse body, and are all hostile, and prides from Elona have a more bestial, catlike head and horns, and ally with you. You even get one as a party member. - Also present in Guild Wars 2. The centaurs, who can be male or female, live in tribes, and all the ones from Tyria are hostile and engaged in war with the humans. The only exception is Ventari, a wise healer who created (and is venerated by) the Sylvari, who is likely based on Chiron. The centaurs of Elona are all dead, due to genocide on the part of Palawa Joko. - The Heroes of Might and Magic series has centaurs in various forms. Centaurs in I and II are Warlock (evil) aligned archers. Centaurs in III are Rampart (good) aligned wood dwelling spear wielders. In IV, they're Might-aligned spear throwers who hate magic a la Xanth's centaurs, and in V and VI they're Half Human Hybrids created by magical experiments, allied with the orcs. - Kingdom Hearts II: Assault Riders are spear-wielding centaur Heartless that can move surprisingly quickly despite their exaggeratedly top-heavy horse and humanoid sections. Their strength causes their attacks to deal both heavy damage and serious knockback. Outside of tournaments, Assault Riders only appear in the Land of Dragons and wear armor that resembles that of the local army. - League of Legends: Hecarim, the Shadow of War, a champion, is certainly not your normal centaur — he's a spectral undead monstrosity that seems to be a centaurlike Animated Armor filled with baleful fire. Not a friendly chap by any means. He also wasn't a centaur when he was alive: he was a human who, after falling victim to the Black Mist, was fused with his steed to turn him into the monster he is today. Lillia, the Bashful Bloom is almost an exact Foil to Hecarim, being an adorable, sweet-natured and, as her name suggests, painfully shy and timid fawn-centaur with a slim, delicate body, as good and gentle as Hecarim is evil and brutal. She's also not actually part of any centaur race, being a nature spirit born from the dream of a magic tree. - Legend of Keepers from Goblinz Studio, has the gigantic centaur Maug the Slaveholder Centaur and newly hired manager of dungeons. Maug is said to be unrivalled in his strength among mortals and he's about twice as tall and several times as long as the human enemies that somehow manage to fight past his/your minions. Maug carries a BFS of an axe but he never fights with it except to wave in the air as an intimidation. Instead he uses his slaver's whip and against enemies that are bleeding, he take a bit of it in to restore some health. Maug also has a magic trick of turning his whip into a flaming lash spell to attack a frontal enemy in specific rooms. Uniquely of the 3 Masters you may choose from, Maug gets Interns who will work for him once he gets a promotion. It shows how powerful Maug is when one of these interns is Chalcodon the Colossal Hydra and it has less than half the health that Maug has. - The Legend of Zelda series has an enemy known as the Lynel, which usually manifests as a lion-human centaur, always with a leonine head; their original appearance gives them equine bodies, while later 2D games make them more fully feline. Despite appearing commonly in the first game, they've only appeared in a few games since. Which is a good thing because they are extremely difficult to deal with and get progressively harder every time they appear, especially in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where the Silver and Gold variants are even tougher to beat than the Final Boss. In Breath of the Wild they're also horned and much larger there than in previous games, reaching about the size of an elephant, and are skilled and deadly archers. During combat, Link can also mount them like horses to strike at their backs. - Mega Man 6 introduces Centaur Man, a mechanical centaur who is one of Dr. Wily's first quadripedal Robot Masters. The extra legs give him superior mobility when compared to most of his bipedal counterparts (except for Quick Man), but they make him unable to jump. - Mortal Kombat: The Centaurians, of which Motaro is a member, have whiplike scorpionish tails and a set of nasty-looking horns in conjunction with tauric, reptilian-looking forms. They are the natural enemies of the Multi-Armed and Dangerous Shokan race. - NOISZ has Stella, a Noise Beast who resembles this when purified. Otherwise, she resembles a Pegasus. - Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath features the steef, a race of centaur-like creatures with gorilla-like forearms, antlers, and leonine heads. Being the setting's equivalent to the Bison, they have been hunted down to near-extinction. - Overwatch: Orisa is a centaur-shaped Omnic. - Quest for Glory: - The first game has classic centaurs, who are perfectly civilized, but also has cheetaurs, which have a panther's head on a human torso on a panther's body and are always hostile. - The second game introduces Rakeesh, a liontaur who becomes the hero's mentor. Liontaurs are similar to cheetaurs but have leonine features and are also civilized. The third game in the series has the player spend most of the game in their capital city, and meet his wife, Kreesha. Rakeesh also joins the hero in the fifth game. - Shadow Bane has them as a civilized playable race. - The Shining Series series featured Centaurs as a major player race. They act as Knights in both the player's force and enemy armies, being fast and heavy-hitting troops, and a few on both sides also use bows or other ranged weapons. Most party members are friendly, and the personalities are varied, though they have a reputation for arrogance among the common folk. The enemy armies also use Pegasus Centaurs(the second game features one who makes a MookFace Turn), as well as demonic ones with no heads. - Shin Megami Tensei IV's centaurs looks nothing like those you are familiar with. They are bipedal blue creatures with hoofed hands and feet, a horse's tail, no head, and Winged Unicorns on its shoulders. - The final boss of Sin and Punishment: Star Successor turns into a huge robot centaur with a lance for the final battle. - Smite: Chiron, as in the original mythology. A couple of his optional skins turn him into unusual variants on this trope, such as a centaur with the lower body of a demonic Hellish Horse, or one with the lower body and the head of either a moose or a reindeer. - Soul Sacrifice: The centaur is an utterly grotesque mix of man, horse and wagon. It was originally a man whose limitless indolence led him to a quest to do the less as possible as he considered that even the minimal effort was an insurmountable task. While starving to death inside his wagon, even eating and drinking was too much of a bothersome thing to do for him, he saw a white chalice floating in front of him and heard a voice that told him: "An offering shall be rewarded with a wish befitting the sacrifice." The man then sacrificed his body in exchange for a body that would make his life easier. Thus this revolting aberration was born. - \|\|Belius\|\| from Tales of Vesperia is a giant fox-like monster with arms and four legs. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: - Centigors, centaurs with horned heads and claws instead of hooves, are present as a cavalry analogue in the Beastmen army. They're violent and barbaric even by Beastman standards, and spend a large portion of their lives drunk out of their tiny minds. - The Warriors of Chaos have access to Dragon Ogres, monstrous scaled centauroids with an affinity for lightning. They also have even bigger ones in the form of Shaggoths as well as the Legendary Lord Kholek Suneater, who has recruitment bonuses for his kind. - Total War: Warhammer II adds a few unorthodox examples such as the Necrosphinx, a centauroid sphinx, and the Zoats, more benevolent reptilian centauroids who align themselves with the Wood Elves. - Total War: Warhammer III: The Chaos Dwarfs have access to Bull Centaurs, mutant Dwarfs with the bodies and horns of monstrous bulls. Gameplay-wise, they act as powerful heavy cavalry. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Centaurs, a unit recruitable in Arcadia and Anatolia, have two distinct portrayals in two of the game's modes: - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, Centaurs are present as bronze-armored, bareback horse riders hailing from barbarian tribes found north of Greece — the only cavalry units in the game. As part of the mode's focus on portraying the truth behind the classical Greek myths, these centaurs represent the first horse-riders whom the Myceneans interpreted as a horse-bodied people. - In Mythos mode, centaurs are patterned directly on the mythical beings, and while not cavalry in the literal sense fulfill broadly the same purpose on the battlefield. - Warcraft: - The centaurs follow the brutal and savage description to a T, with a society based on Mongol hordes (their leaders are called Khans and use axes and bows). They're said to be the cursed offspring of Cenarius, a night elf/stag god who takes the form of a stag centaur with antlers on his head. Cenarius's non-cursed centauroid children are the Dryads (night elf/doe) and the Sons of Cenarius, also night elf/stag (with a wooden claw replacing one hand). - There are also Magnataurs, a much larger polar creature that are a mix of human and mammoth. - Dragonspawn are draconian versions, following the same body layout as a centaur. They used to be human, but gradually evolved after centuries of serving dragons and taking in the energies they gave off. - Nerubians are sometimes presented as spider versions, although there's some inconsistency about whether they're a humanoid torso stuck on top of a spider-like creature or a more coherent and not particularly centaur-like form. Artwork has shown them as clearly resembling driders and holding weapons, something no Nerubian in the actual games does. - And then there's the Pit Lords, humongous demonic mixes of god-knows-what, with thick reptilian hides and tails, bat wings, and spider eyes. - The Tol'vir, introduced in Cataclysm, are feline (feline lower body and Cat Folk upper body) centaurs created by the Titans to guard the (Egypt-inspired) land of Uldum. The Tol'vir used to have stone-like bodies, but most of them lost them. The Ramkahen have normal flesh bodies, while the Neferset have regained their stone forms. - Bosun's Journal: The doubletaurs are a descendant group of the riderfolk and mountpeople who have become true, physically joined symbiotes. The rider attaches themselves to the neck of the mount, providing four grasping limbs while the mount provides mobility, and they share blood and food through organic ports in their necks. - Tumblr artist Jay Eaton: - Disliking the seemingly impractical body design of the "traditional" centaur, he came up with a more realistic and biologically plausible version depicting them as sapient, six-limbed ungulates that evolved their front limbs to fuction as hands, and the humanoid "upper torso" effectively being a modified extension of the neck. While commonly walking on four limbs, keeping the frontmost pair folded out of the way, they are also capable of using all six limbs for locomotion, running with a bounding gait that keeps the legs from colliding with each other at high speeds. - The same artist has also designed an alien race for a webcomic called Runaway to the Stars, also known as "centaurs", though looking more like a cross between a praying mantis, a gazelle, and an elephant. - DeviantArt: - The Valley of Siyyon is a shared world populated entirely by centaurs. The twist is that the nonhuman half can be "any species of your choosing" and everyone must choose a unique species. This results in the population of Siyyon including a Kangaroo-taur, an Armadillo-taur, Poison Dart Frog-taur, Cassowary-taur, Sea Slug-taur. Ah, DeviantArt... - The Mantidae, drawn by IRIRIV, have only a superficial resemblance to mythical centaurs. In his description, they are actually a type of sentient bug that evolved from an era where birds didn't exist and insects became bigger and stronger until they changed into the first neovertebrates. - Member Doodle Buggy, drew many [1] pages devoted to mermaids based on the myriad marine animals of the sea beyond simple nondescript fish. Also counts as Our Mermaids Are Different. - Artist Frederik K T Andersson takes a different direction with his "Carcass Centaur"◊. An undead horse mutated by a demonic spirit, its fleshless skull and neck split vertically into bony hooks which it uses to grab living humanoid hosts that it has chased down. The lower waist of the victim is then pulled into the creature's neck-maw, while the head up the upper waist is encased in its split skull. After taking control of the still-living body, the monster sustains itself by feeding on the host's life force while appearing as an undead centaur. Similar to the alien Chiron centaur above. - Chakats of Chakona Space. Female humanoid cat from the waist up, giant hermaphroditic cat from the waist down. The same universe also includes Skunktaurs and Stellaur Foxtaurs, which, other then the obvious species change, use the exact sort of physical arrangement. - A very NSFW web-game called Corruption of Champions has a Jerkass male centaur character named Kelt, who is incredibly abusive towards the player character, and a female centaur character named Edryn, a literal Hooker with a Heart of Gold who is friendly and affable whether she's working as a city guard or using her off-duty hours to prostitute herself for extra funds and her own pleasure. - RWBY: One of the many variants of the Creatures of Grimm is known as the Nuckelavee, a large horse-like creature with a horned humanoid fused to its back. One particular Nuckelavee was responsible for \|\|destroying Ren's hometown of Kuroyuri, only for him to finally kill it during the later part of Volume 4\|\|. - SCP Foundation, SCP-2869 ("Fuckworms"). SCP-2869 are approximately 3.5 meters long. Their lower half is a long muscular tail like that of a caterpillar, with four claw-like legs and two long gripping limbs in front. The upper half is a humanoid torso (with arms and head) at one end of the tail. - A Very Potter Sequel features Firenze as a parody of the "wise and noble" type of centaur. (The costume is half of a horse plushie sewn to the back of the actor's pants.) It also goes to explain that a plague caused all the female centaurs to go extinct, explaining why they are so rare. Firenze also states that centaurs have attempted to find suitable human mates, but all the women they have tried have been killed by accident during mating. \|\|Until they met Umbridge.\|\| - Whateley Universe: At least three of the students in the 2006-07 school year: Jacko, Mezzo, and Ponygirl. Notably, both Jaina (Mezzo) and Sted (Ponygirl) have other forms which they can hold for brief periods, while Jacko is a werewolf/centaur combination (wolf-man from the waist up). None of them have been major characters in the canon series, though Sted (being a Canon Immigrant) had a fanfic series of her own. - Centaurworld: Centaurs are the natives of Centaurworld, a parallel dimension, and have the bodies of multiple kinds of animals; the first ones introduced have the bodies of various ungulates, but other centaurs have the bodies of every animal in existence, including bird centaurs (which fly by flapping their arms), insect centaurs, and even non-animal centaurs. In general, no normal wildlife actually exists — all animals are replaced by taur versions of themselves. Their humanoid bodies typically include parts of their associated animals, such as zebra ears or giraffe necks. On top of that, they know magic and can use it for silly means. Mermaids are also just those centaurs whose animal halves are those of aquatic creatures. There are also "taurnadoes", tornadoes with funnels arranged like four legs, a body and a neck. - Chaotic: Stalluk is a centaur that's mostly horse, having an equine head. He's not a natural-born creature, being a creation of the Mad Scientist Mommark. - Futurama: - Leela becomes one in the movie Bender's Game, as well as a Hermaphrodite Hermes who leads a pacifist army of them. - Centaurs also appear in New New York. In "The Luck of the Fryish" they can be found at the race tracks where they serve as both the jockey and the horse (they even whip themselves to go faster). Also a female centaur appears on the cover of a tabloid magazine◊ in "The Thief of Baghead". - Katrina, the girl's gym coach in Galaxy High was a centaur, who frequently pawed the ground when she was annoyed. - A centaurette is one of the students in Gravedale High, considered beautiful by monster standards. - Gravity Falls: - The Mighty Hercules: Hercules has his sidekick Newton (and, in one episode, a new more-competent centaur named Notwen). - Mike Tyson from Mike Tyson Mysteries assumes that Cormac McCarthy is one because he's a famed recluse. \|\|Not only did this turn out to be true, but he had wings too.\|\| - My Little Pony: - The New Adventures of He-Man had the heroic Saggitar, a member of a race of sort-of-centaurs who have hands on their forelegs. They can walk on their hind legs and use their forelegs as an extra set of arms. - The Simpsons : - One "Treehouse of Horror" episode involves Ned Flanders turning into a cow-centaur (with an udder!). - Another "Treehouse" episode involved Lisa first becoming a satyr, and later on a centaur. - Tigtone: Centaurs are horned, with 99 women to one fertile male, who can seemingly conceive with any sexually reproductive species, even males of those species. They reproduce by dissolving themselves in a lake from where the next generation soon emerges. At the end they do this with a horse and end up looking like horses with human faces and tiny arms on the end of their muzzles. - Wishfart has a centaur named Howie as a recurring character. He's the local mailman. - As was humorously pointed out in Tumblr, praying mantises are basically a real life version of a centaur body-plan. - One theory of the origin of the centaur myth is that they were an embellished interpretation of mounted cavalry, which the proto-Greeks (or whoever the Greeks heard the story from) had never seen before. - In the early stages of the conquest of South America by the Spanish, horsemen were given orders to live, eat and sleep on their horses, so as to reinforce their "divine" appearance and reputation. note : See the short story Vilcabamba above, which is an explicit allegory for the colonization of South America - Speaking of horsemen, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa was given the moniker "El Centauro del Norte" (The Centaur of the North, in English) for his impressive horse-riding skills. - The constellation Sagittarius, that contains the center of our galaxy, is a centaur archer. According to some interpretations, he used to be Chiron before being made into a constellation after death. - There's another centaur in the sky: the southern constellation of Centaurus, especially conspicuous as the nearest star to the Sun is there. Other interpretations consider it represents the aforementioned Chiron. - The traditional arms of King Stephen show either one or three "Sagittaries", which are usually, for some reason, depicted as being bow-bearing men to the waist conjoined to lion bodies. - The Centauro is a model of Italian tank destroyers, so named because it combines the main battery turret of a tank onto a swift moving wheeled chassis. This isn't that unusual for modern tank destroyers, but Centauro is unusually capable on uneven terrain or a wheeled vehicle, which helps along the analogy. - The French museum La Halle de la Machine has a huge mechanical bull-headed centaur which people can ride on.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurCentaursAreDifferent
Our Banshees Are Louder - TV Tropes Many have heard the beginning of its low, sustained shriek but few the end. "The banshee wails her horrible song! The bone-charring sounds rip your heart apart! You die..." Here we have the ghostly women who originate from Celtic Mythology. They are usually noted for their voices, which are either hauntingly hypnotic wails, or blood-curdling screams. Traditionally, hearing a banshee wail is a Portent of Doom, though this is often Sadly Mythtaken for the wail itself being a sonic attack or Brown Note that causes death, which to be honest is a lot cooler and a lot scarier, and makes for a more active antagonist. They are also prominent in Irish legends, where many of the more well-known banshee stories come from, as being a type of fairy typically connected to a single family. Believe it or not, their crying was actually due to mourning for members of the family who were already about to die, which often served to warn others of their loved one's death; if she's screaming at all, she's screaming in grief rather than as a threat and she herself means no harm, as it's only her job to warn the family. It was actually a privilege for a family to have a Banshee. There have been stories of banshees haunting families even as late as the 19th Century. And, as often in the original folklore, the fairy woman might be explicitly described as a ghost; The Fair Folk were a little unclear about the edges. In modern fiction, along with the above-mentioned sonic attack, they are usually depicted as purely a type of undead or ghost, without a hint of The Fair Folk. A clue to their origin can be found in their name; bean sídhe can be translated as "fairy woman". ## Examples: - The Ancient Magus' Bride: Silver Lady was originally a banshee who's entire clan died and thus herself was on the verge of death until Spriggan took her to Elias' house when it was under the care of another who followed the old ways and transformed into a silky. - Magic: The Gathering has several banshee cards. They are typically Black creatures with abilities that weaken other creatures or injure players without discrimination. - Corto Maltese: In one story, Corto meets an Irish girl named Banshee and asks her why she was given such an inauspicious name. She dodges the question, but she isn't, as far as the story goes, a supernatural creature. - The DCU has Jeanette, of the Secret Six, and Superman's foe the Silver Banshee. The banshee of the DCU are typically mystical in origin, receiving immortality, superstrength, and a hideous scream that can kill those who hear it. - Superman: - Villainess Siobhan McDougal, a.k.a. Silver Banshee. In order to affect you, Silver Banshee has to know your True Name. Her power doesn't work on Superman because she doesn't know his birth name is neither Superman nor Clark Kent, but Kal-El — or, at least, it won't kill him, but it will cause intense pain. An absurdly loud sound, at close ranges, being heard by someone whose ears are sensitive enough to pick up a whisper from across the city? Not fun. However, if she does know your true name, her scream is less "standard sonic attack" and more "Brown Note as you're forced to relive her botched beheading". - Death & the Family reveals that Siobhan was transformed into an ageless banshee by her clan as part of a leadership test. When facing Silver Banshee, Supergirl touches her clan's heirlooms, is possessed by the spirits of the McDougals and turned into another banshee. - In Supergirl (2011), Silver Banshee gets reimagined, this time a girl named Siobhan Smythe who inherited a family curse, and became a friend of Supergirl. She retains the hideous scream, which now lays waste to anything around, but also gets the power to speak any language, even alien or animal, after hearing only a few words. Her father, who she inherited the curse from, became one of the undead, feeding on others' souls. - Death Vigil: Banshees' screams are enough to blow Sam halfway across a graveyard and paralyze him until Bernie intervenes. - Dylan Dog: In one story, Dylan meets a girl named Banshee, who brings death and bad luck to all those who are close to her. Of course, our hero tries to seduce her and break the nefarious curse by surviving himself. - X-Men: Banshee was a male mutant with a supersonic scream and bizarre flight powers. His daughter, incidentally, was originally called Siryn. Having accepted her father's death, Siryn has taken on his name — including a Lampshade Hanging that she was never quite sure why he named himself after a female spirit in the first place. Writer Roy Thomas had actually meant for Banshee to be a woman, but Stan Lee decided that a male character would be better. When Siryn was created, Thomas' reaction was "that was what Banshee was supposed to look like all along!" So, with Siryn's taking on the name, the Banshee he'd created has finally arrived... and it only took thirty years. But hey, Legacy Characters can take a while. - Child of the Storm has the traditional Marvel male Banshee, Sean Cassidy, who's Irish-American by background (though he moved to Ireland a long time ago), like in the First Class film, which probably explains why he picked it for a name: he heard about the banshee, connected it to his powers, but didn't realise that they're all women. A friendly experienced super-hero and Old Soldier who looks several decades younger than he is, he's nevertheless extremely dangerous. For starters, unlike his comics counterpart, he has absolutely no compunction about killing with his Make Me Wanna Shout powers if he deems it necessary, and having spent decades refining his powers, knows a number of horrifying methods of doing so (and that's before you get on to whatever he did with his Compelling Voice during a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when his wife was killed by an IRA cell that ended up giving Nick Fury nightmares). All in all, he's not someone you want to cross. - Harbinger (Finmonster): Ember McLain (from Danny Phantom) is a banshee instead of a ghost. According to her, they're people chosen by the Fates, neither ghosts nor fairies. Ember appears to have Magic Music, channeled through the literal Strings of Fate on her guitar, and she leeks creepy black tears when she detects evil forces nearby. And since she's from Ireland, she has a Funetik Aksent. - Son of the Western Sea has a banshee appear as a white haired woman with bloodshot eyes, whose wail induces grief and mourning for people the listener knows that have died. Most of them retreated under the hills ever since the Olympians influence spread to Ireland and they do not like demigod children of the Olympians. - The Discworld of A.A. Pessimal has Brigid O'Hooligan, a girl from the remote nation of Hergen, who is a Banshee. In her case, she is a shapeshifter who can Change from human to banshee form and back again. As she is also capable of flying without artificial or magical aid, and is generally a pleasantly-disposed law-abiding young girl, she has been snapped up by the City Air Watch as a Fledgeling. (Air Cadet). - In Irish and Scottish folklore, the banshee (or bean-sidhe) is a fairy-woman and often guardian spirit of the old Gaelic families who can foretell death in "her" family. She wails and cries through the night to warn the family that one of them will soon die; if the family hears her crying three nights in a row, they know that they should begin planning a funeral. As she can foretell death in the family that she protects, the banshee is also grieving with the family as well as warning them of impending death. When multiple mná-sídhe (plural of bean-sidhe) are heard wailing at once, it foretells the death of an important political or religious figure. She is heard more often than seen, and most often the banshee is depicted as old and menacing, but she can also appear as a strikingly beautiful woman of any age that suits her. - Another variation from Scottish folklore is the bean-nighe, a ghostly woman who is seen sitting by a stream and washing the clothes of those who are soon to die. - In Brazilian Folklore, it is said that the singing or presence of the american barn owl or common potoo indicates someone is going to die. More similar to the Banshee, the Bradador ("screamer"), a lost spirit who has to pay for his sins, and the Corpo-Seco ("dry body"), a wicked man cursed to wander as a shriveled corpse after his soul was denied an after life and Earth rejected his grave, give unbearable screams in agony at night. - Much of Latin America believes in the legend of La Llorona, the spirit of a woman who died after she drowned her children and cannot enter Heaven until she has found them; she is heard crying "¡Ay, mis hijos!" ("Oh, my children!") as she searches for them. Those who hear her crying supposedly are doomed to die soon. - The langsuir of Malaysian Mythology is the flying ghost of a woman who died in childbirth with long fingernails and the ability to turn into an owl. They eat fish and can be Brought Down to Normal by plugging the whole in the nape of their neck. - One of the last monsters encountered in Caverns of the Snow Witch is a Banshee inhabiting a cavern that you must cross, in order to complete a ritual to lift the Death Curse inflicted upon you. While the Banshee herself won't attack you, her scream is loud enough to drive you insane into trying to attack her (unless you drank a potion made from a dragon's egg), leading to a difficult battle against a SKILL 12 boss when your STAMINA is likely very low at this point. - The Banshee's Warning, a short story written in 1867 by Charlotte Riddell, concerns a doctor who is seemingly haunted by a banshee despite leaving his family behind in Ireland to make his fortune in London. This banshee resembles as a shoeless old woman dressed in rags, able to appear and disappear at will. Only the doctor is able to see or hear her (though his dog seems to sense and cringe away from the banshee's wails), an he fears that the banshee's sudden appearance portends demise either for a member of his family or for one of his patients. The banshee wakes the doctor in the middle of the night with a warning to get to his hospital, where he meets \|\|the young son of the woman his parents refused to allow him to marry — his own son, from their pre-marital dalliance — who has suffered a mortal injury. The young boy can see the banshee as well; the doctor correctly guesses this to mean that his son-and-patient won't survive the night.\|\| - Book of Imaginary Beings: As no one has ever actually laid eyes on one, banshees don't seem to be tangible creatures so much as a dismoded keening that comes to houses in the Scottish Highlands to foretell the imminent death of a resident. - David And The Phoenix: The protagonists meet a Banshee... who declares that she's sick of being a Banshee and not getting paid for her work, and she takes up witchcraft instead. She can still whip up a mean Banshee's Wail, however, which \|\|the protagonists use as a sonic weapon against the scientist stalking the Phoenix\|\|. - Discworld gives us two different varieties of Banshee. It's not clear that they are really related; they appear in different books, and behave very differently. Terry Pratchett may just have used the same word twice, years apart, for two different ideas, or in-setting, the word may just have been used for two different entities with terrifying cries and an association with death that were understandably confused by people. - There's "civilized" type, which as per the myth typically wails when someone is about to die — though the one we meet has a some kind of shyness problem or speech impediment, so he just slips a note under their door. This type seems to have a supernatural sense for when someone is doomed, and is probably an actual supernatural creature. The one depicted hung out with the local undead support group; it's never really established if he was undead himself or just spending time with the other supernatural outcasts, but the term is rather broad in that universe in any case (including werewolves and bogeymen for example), with the definition seemingly being "it often comes from Uberwald and it's really, really hard to kill". - The "feral" variety seems to be a natural creature — the only sentient species on the Disc that has evolved natural flight. They also wail when someone is about to die, but in this case it's generally because they're cutting out the middleman and hunting you down themselves. Basically, they're efficient predators with a cry that can be used to terrify prey. The one we meet works as a hired killer, and is good at its job. - Dragonlance: Banshees are the typical D&D kind, as that's the setting of the novels. The most noteworthy banshees in that setting are the three former elven clerics who sabotaged Lord Soth's quest to stop the Cataclysm, since they were part of the elf supremacist conspiracy that led to it, in the belief that they could force the Gods of Good to empower them to wipe out all evil races. Because of that, they are cursed to constantly tell the story of how their own blind arrogance led to the destruction of the old world and their own damnation. - The Florentine Codex: Some believe that La Llorana has her roots in one of eight supposed bad omens described in the book. For several nights, inhabitants of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan heard a haunting, mournful female voice crying out My children, it is already too late, and My children, where can I take you? This was retroactively seen as a warning of the imminent Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. - In The Gypsies in the Wood, an in-universe series of twee English children's stories features a stereotypical leprechaun with a housemaid named Brenda Banshee. The Every Episode Ending of these stories is Brenda howling with distress after being punished for misbehaving. - In Harry Potter, a Boggart turns into one when it's Seamus' turn; she's described as 'a woman with floor-length black hair and a skeletal, green-tinged face'. Seamus uses the Riddikulus spell to make her lose her voice. - The Icewind Dale Trilogy: In The Halfling's Gem, Drizzt do'Urden and Wulfgar have to fight a classic D&D-style banshee. \|\|Both sides survive, because the local village actually relies on the fact that a banshee lairs nearby for tourism, and Drizzt and Wulfgar promised not to destroy her.\|\| This is a plot point because her lair holds the enchanted mask that lets Drizzt pass as a plain old elf to avoid the obvious problems of being recognized as a dark elf on the surface and that eventually \|\|falls into the hands of Artemis Entreri\|\|. - SERRAted Edge, by Mercedes Lackey, has a male Banshee as an enemy of the elves, with a painful false etymology (mixing Gaelic with Old English) that banshees are the bane of the Sidhe. - Shadowfae, by Erica Hayes, features banshees with siren-like abilities. These banshees seem to be a type of fae with a magical affinity for sound rather than death, although they can kill with a song or scream if they want to. They can also cast a variety of spells through song, manipulate humans, and secrete venom from beneath their tongues that they can use as an additional weapon besides their voices. Their magical affinity for sound gives them preternatural hearing but also gives them the ability to filter sounds so they don't get overwhelmed by auditory stimuli, as well as enhancements to their inner ear that give them extraordinary balance and agility. They all look like attractive human women, but with unusually colored hair and eyes, and usually their eyes and hair are of different but unnaturally bright neon or metallic colors. They are known for being violent, lustful, and usually just a little psychotic, and in one book, a banshee is employed as an enforcer and bodyguard for a supernatural version of the mob. They are born with innately magical voices, but their magic can be taken from them by some other kinds of supernatural beings who use the banshee's voice magic for themselves. - In Shaman of the Undead, banshees are people who can predict somebody's death and, more often that not, they're also the ones to deliver it. Oddly, wailing not included. - Soul Screamers has Kaylee, who carries on the banshee wail whenever someone is near-death. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Banshees are detailed in the series' field guide. They are described as ghost-like beings that appear around homes when an occupant is about to die, wailing without end. A single individual can appear by the same home for generations. - In Too Many Curses, Bethany the banshee haunts Margle's castle, immaterial and imperceptible except when foretelling disaster. As she's a sociable sort, eager for any excuse to chat with the castle's other residents, she shamelessly stretches the definition of "disaster" to include such grave tragedies as over-salted soup or a bruised shin. - In Charmed (1998), banshees are spirits attracted to heartbroken humans; they use their high-pitched screams to kill them. If they use their screams on a witch \|\|the witch turns into a new banshee\|\|. - The Imperfects: Tilda is a banshee who also has Super Hearing. \|\|In Episode 7, she learns to use her powers through a phone call\|\|. - In Lost Girl, banshees are a type of Fae who get involuntary premonitions of death. They don't consciously know who, how, or when, only that it's someone around them, that it has to be a member of one of the ten Noble Families (five human, five Fae) and that it will be soon. They do keep the details subconsciously, however, and it can be forced out of them using iron, to which they're highly allergic. In the relevant episode they used a liver shake. - In The Quest a banshee haunts the bog that the players have to cross in one episode and must be placated with an offering. - So Weird: Fi fears that a banshee has come for her Irish grandfather. - In Teen Wolf, \|\|Lydia\|\| is eventually revealed to be one. This comes with the ability to sense death and a piercing scream. In this universe, banshees scream to drown out noises that might distract them from listening on a psychic wavelength only they can hear. They can also use their scream to purposefully hurt other supernaturals, as fellow banshee Meredith demonstrates later on. - Henry Cowell's "The Banshee" utilizes a technique of plucking and scraping against the strings of a piano in order to mimic a banshee's wail. The piece is also reminiscent of a certain other horror music trope. - The folk song "The Banshee's Cry" by The Irish Rovers is about a banshee haunting the Kavanagh family. In line with Irish folklore, this Banshee wails when a Kavanagh is due to die soon and is explictly described as a "member of the fairy folk". By the end of the song, the narrator, Frankie Kavanagh, is the last member of the family left alive. - Siouxsie and the Banshees are named for them, of course. - The bean-chaointe ("keening woman") is the human equivalent of the banshee. The Gaels of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man have a currently defunct keening tradition, the practice of ritualized singing and wailing for the dead. "Keening" is derived from the Gaelic verb caoin, meaning "to weep, to mourn/lament" and the verb caoineadh ("weeping") also refers to a musical style, a lament for the dead. A keening-woman would be hired by the family of the deceased to lead the community through their grief, with the keening occurring at the graveyard and the keening-woman (or bean-chaointe in Gaelic) would sing and wail a semi-improvised lament with the rest of the mourners joining at least during the chorus, the whole performance often punctuated with sobs. It was a way of helping the family and the community through their grief as well as a means of ensuring that the soul of the departed with reach Heaven, The Otherworld, or wherever spirits seek to go. The wealthier the family of the deceased, the more keening-women that they would hire. The caoineadh usually consisted of stock elements (the illustrious ancestry of the deceased, their good qualities, and the heavy hearts of their surviving family and friends) and was often half-improvised, complete with beating your hands and tearing at your hair. - Lore mentions banshees, most notably in episode 112. - Betrayal at House on the Hill: One of the possible hauntings is a banshee of the ghostly type. - Dungeons & Dragons: Banshees have shown up throughout the game's history, although older editions refer them as "Groaning Spirits". They're pretty nasty because they're essentially ghostly undead of usually elvish origin whose wail (at least at full power; in at least some editions it has limited uses per day) forces anyone in range to save or die on the spot. The Wail of the Banshee spell allows a high-level wizard (or sorcerer in 3rd edition) who knows it to mimic this, although each casting is only good for one such attack. - Games Workshop games: - In Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar Aspect Warriors of the Howling Banshee shrines take on the image of the banshees of Eldar myth who were said to be the heralds of death an ill-fortune. The Howling Banshees go to war wearing masks that contain psychosonic amplifiers that magnify their battle cries into piercing screams that can destroy the minds of their foes. - In Warhammer, the Vampire Counts army, banshees are ethereal undead whose screams can stop the hearts of weak willed enemies. Depending on the edition of the game, banshees either act on their own or lead units of wraiths. - In Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Tomb Banshees are a part of the Nighthaunt hosts, swarms of ethereal undead that plague the mortal realms. The Tomb Banshees themselves are the souls of women who have been slighted and betrayed who have returned to the Mortal Realms to take revenge on the living. Their piercing scream is enough to freeze the life of any they encounter. - Orpheus: Banshees are a Shade of ghost/projector. In keeping with the name, their major talents are the ability to see the future and a wail that can either control emotions or shatter your eardrums. - Scion: The original Celtic breed show up in Scion Companion, under their original name of bean sidhe ("sidhe" is pronounced "shee"). Since White Wolf has Shown Their Work, they're fixated on death but aren't particularly big on screaming. - Shadowrun: - Banshees are elven vampires (well, elven victims of the HMHVV virus). They aren't really much for screaming, but they do feed by using their Emotion Eater powers to induce fear and drive people to exhaustion. - Bean sidhe are entirely different things, being spiritual beings closely tied to certain Scottish and Irish families. They wail to announce the imminent deaths of these families' members, and are apparently in good standing among Europe's spiritual entities — summoned spirits and elementals simply refuse to oppose them. Some bean sidhe, however, go mad and use their wails to spread death indiscriminately, and these other spirits have no qualms about fighting. - Archon features the Banshee as a Dark unit, the equivalent to Light's Phoenix in mechanics while being the strategic opposite of the Valkyrie. Both are fast moving units with an area of effect attack to damage foes- represented as the Banshee's wail with an accompanying single pitch note. While not as powerful as the Phoenix's immolation burst, it compensates by letting the Banshee move during the attack. - Blood has ghosts which screamed. You got used to AAAAAH! AAAAH! AAAAH! as you had to fight these things. Their screaming didn't do any damage but holy hell, it was loud. - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has the Cyhyraeth, who is for all intents and purposes a Welsh banshee. It's a notorious Beef Gate with incredibly powerful attacks, the ability to inflict the Curse status, and a slew of resistances that cover most available early-game weaponry and Shards. - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: One of the enemies in the English version is called the Banshee (in Japan, it was an onryo). One quest requires you to record its scream on a phonograph. - In City of Heroes, Cabal bosses with sonic attacks are called "Bane Sidhe," and their description makes the intended folk etymology explicit. - In Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, Riona has sullen dark eyes, pale purple skin, and stringy blue hair, and her wails are believed to curse people with bad luck. Her screams get worse and her hair frizzes up when she gets angry, and she causes a blackout at the café in one particular fit. As a semi-spiritual being, she disappears when she dies. - Daily Life With Monster Girl Online, now defunct, had Nia the banshee. As the name of the game implies, Nia is a Cute Monster Girl almost indistinguishable from a human besides her Mystical White Hair and red eyes. Personality-wise she's entirely benevolent: she's described as a total woobie prone to crying jags when she randomly remembers an unfortunate event, and she enjoys animes with happy endings. Whether she has a sonic scream or anything of the sort is unclear, but unlikely. - Elvira II: Jaws of Cerberus: Two banshees, depicted as withered ugly women, are chained to the walls at the entrance to the dungeon level. Their wails damage you, so you need to kill them both quickly. - Fable: - Fable has Screamers, which fit the appearance, being floating female ghost-like creatures whose mouth outstretches as they scream while rush towards their prey, and their attacks drain life directly, ignoring both armor and Physical Shield. - Fable II: Banshees are enemies that tend to be accompanied by Undead Children. - The Final Fantasy series has a few Mooks called banshees, generally either sprite or pixie-like creatures or undead of various stripes. The Final Fantasy XII incarnation (which is a zombie) is distinguished by having as its signature move the strongest of the game's many sonic attacks. - Halo: Averted with the Covenant Banshee flyer, which is actually rather quiet. - In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers turn humanoid species into cyborg-zombies. When it's done to the Always Female race of Blue Skinned Space Babes with Psychic Powers, the result is called a Banshee for good reasons. In addition to a psionic scream that targets any nearby creatures, they can also cross large distances in a fraction of a second and make turns around corners, making it very hard to stay away from them. Joker: Mutating people to turn them into living weapons is one thing, but the yelling? Why make them yell?! That's totally uncalled for! - Miitopia: Banshees appear as enemies, but their gimmick is crying instead of shouting. Their Crocodile Tears can inflict the Crying status on the playable Miis. There is another variant, the Basheevil, who instead turn Miis evil. - Mortal Kombat's Sindel fits the criteria thanks to her Banshee Scream attack and ghostly appearance. She even returned from beyond the grave in her debut. - Mystery Case Files: The "Frozen Lady" in Dire Grove is identified as a banshee. She doesn't have a scream attack, but when you can freeze a good chunk of England solid while still mystically bound, do you need one? - Nancy Drew: Nancy investigates banshee sightings in The Haunting Of Castle Malloy. \|\|Turns out it's a weird old hermit woman who'd been spotted flying around with a jetpack.\|\| - Nexus War: The Doom Howler in Nexus Clash is louder to the tune of up to three different screaming-related attacks. The most basic one merely demoralizes the enemy, but the worst can kill huge numbers of people if left uninterrupted. - Pokémon: Misdreavus and its evolution Mismagius are a relatively lighthearted take on banshee, as they use their cries to scare others for fun as often as they use them to battle. Perish Song, which causes both combatants to faint if they listen to it for three rounds, appears to be their Signature Move, though other Pokemon can use it. They're portrayed as ghosts/witches rather than fairies, and can be male. - Quake IV: Played With with the Strogg Iron Maidens. They hover and teleport like ghosts, scream like banshees, and emerge from a coffin-like enclosure that's inspired by the Iron Maiden execution device. - Shadowgate: A banshee makes a brief appearance in the form of a Jump Scare. - Smite: The first Assassin to ever grace the Celtic Pantheon is the original Banshee from the myth herself, Cliodhna. She also comes with the ability to phase through walls just in case of causing a Jump Scare followed by the signature banshee scream. - Starcraft II: Referenced with the Banshee, a ground-attack chopper with Screamer missiles and cloaking capabilities. The pilot has a few lines on its namesake. Holler back. Screamin' fury. In space, everyone can hear me scream... 'cuz I'm the banshee, get it? - The Force Unleashed has the character of Shaak Ti as one of the bosses on the planet Felucia who has a sonic scream attack which can summon native Felucians to attack the player during the contest and sounds uncannily like a Banshee wail. - Warcraft banshees are Undead units who attack with their high-pitched screeches. They function as spellcasters, making enemies miss, rendering units invulnerable to magic, or possessing enemies. They were once High Elves whose bodies and souls were defiled by the Scourge, forcing them to exist as bitter, spiteful ghosts. - The most notable Banshee is Sylvanas Windrunner. Originally forced into a ghostly state as a final cruelty by Arthas, she was the first Banshee and became the "Banshee Queen". As a reward for her service to Arthas, she eventually received her original (now undead) body to possess. - They also show up in World of Warcraft, unsurprisingly. Part of them keep their long-range wail attacks while others melee the player, most still use curses that reduce stats or make the target miss. At least one (a boss) can temporarily possess players. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The Blood and Wine expansion has banshees as enemies. Appearance-wise and in functionality they are a specter enemy similar to higher wraiths like the noon and night variant, but with a sonic scream that can stun Geralt and the ability to summon skeletons to harass him. Lorewise they are closer to the original folklore: they are drawn to death and misfortune and weep over it, but despite not being particularly malicious they are still considered a bad omen. - Arthur: A banshee appears during an Imagine Spot in one episode. Binky slams the door on her. - Big Mouth represented menopause as a banshee with sharp teeth. However, she is nice and friendly (if a bit wild and frightening, much like the kids' hormone monsters), and she advises Barbara that this next chapter of life is hers to live. (And that she can now enjoy sex without having to worry about getting pregnant again.) She helps Barbara to stand up for herself, and to escape from a sinkhole that ended up destroying half of Florida. - Casper the Friendly Ghost: Casper's teacher Ms. Banshee, who had a particularly powerful scream. - Catscratch: A banshee appears in an episode when Gordon seeks to confirm whether or not he's really Scottish. - Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers had an Oireland episode with a banshee in it. - DuckTales (1987): In "Luck o' the Ducks", Far Daric sends a banshee to scare Scrooge and company away, so the leprechauns won't have to grant Scrooge's wish for the leprechaun king's gold. - The Extreme Ghostbusters fought Banshee sisters; one was the stereotype, the other could use her voice to hypnotize people. It was a trap: the Siren was the carrot, the Banshee the stick. In the episode, the banshee and siren could stay young if they stole the youth of humans. So, they would use the siren to lure young people in, and the banshee would then steal the youth. - Filmation's Ghostbusters had a banshee, but its screams created storms, and only a leprechaun's magic could stop it. It's inaccurate, but then again, the show seems to treat banshees as a type of ghost with different variations. - Gargoyles features the villainous Banshee, who is one of Oberon's Children, when the characters visit Ireland as part of the Avalon World Tour arc. She has a small cameo in a later episode when she refuses to answer Oberon's summons; as punishment, she's dragged back by the Weird Sisters and gagged indefinitely. - In The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, the villain was a banshee named Mag the Hag, who was capable of causing storms and cataclysms, but unless she received gold willingly by Christmas Day, she would transform into tear drops and be washed away forever. \|\|This happens to her at the end\|\|. - The Real Ghostbusters: - In the episode "Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?", the group had to stop an Irish rock star who actually was a banshee and was scheming to use her powers to destroy the entire United States through a broadcast concert. - Kenner's toyline has a monstrous "Banshee Bomber" in its ghostly ranks. It's a large, red, dragon-like creature that drips "Ecto-Plazm" [ sic] from its mouth. - In Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends Banshees are an all female race of aliens with the ability to fly and shoot energy blasts. They also have the ability to tell when a person is in danger of being killed. - Ruby Gloom: Misery is often suspected of being a banshee due to her wailing screeching singing voice, along with her all-female family, although it's not official. She also serves as a herald of misfortune, but mainly to herself. - In Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo, Scooby and the gang face a number of threats, including a banshee that was imported to America because the castle it had been associated with in Ireland had been brought, brick by brick, to the U.S. Shockingly, in the Scooby-Doo tradition, it turned out to be a fake. - In X-Men: The Animated Series, Banshee makes an appearance, and he flies by screaming. So, naturally, at one point he has to give Wolverine a ride. Logan is not happy about this. - The Irish and Scottish tradition of keening (singing a lament combined with wailing) over the body during the funeral procession and at the burial site is strikingly similar to the death wail of the Banshee - "Keen" comes from the Gaelic verb "caoin", meaning "to cry/weep, to mourn" and its active article "caoineadh" ("weeping", "crying", "wailing") can also be translated as "elegy/lament". The caoineadh itself was often composed and performed in an improvised way, with at least one keening woman (bean chaointe) hired to lead the rest of the mourners, who generally joined with the chorus. The caoineadh generally consisted of stock poetic elements (the genealogy of the deceased, praise for the deceased, emphasis on the sorrow of those left behind etc.) set to vocal lament. The tradition of keening-women is described here, plus a few surviving recordings. - Another potential source of inspiration for the Banshee's blood curdling screams comes in the form of the screeches and screams of the barn owl, one of the most common owls and most widespread birds on Earth. Since barn owls have a thick layer of feathers that help them hunt and fly in almost complete silence, someone walking in the dark would likely have no idea they were in the company of a barn owl and his or her mate or offspring until they heard its screams. Considering that these calls can be quite prolonged, especially if the owl is agitated, it's quite easy to imagine that wanderer being scared out of their skin by the sudden noise. Here's a healthy adult female barn owl giving her best scream. Now imagine that sound coming out of nowhere in the dead of night. Sweet dreams.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurBansheesAreDifferent
Our Alebrijes Are Different - TV Tropes "The Alebrijes of this world take many forms. They are mysterious as they are powerful." The Alebrije is one of the most iconic forms of modern Mexican art. It is a form of cartonería or papier-mâché craft. Famous for their vibrant colors and imaginative designs, alebrijes are celebrated in shops, museums and even parades. The inventor of the alebrije is Pedro Linares Lopez, a papier-mâché artist who came up with the idea when he had a fever-dream in 1936 of a fantastical jungle biome full of wild animals, all of them shouting the word "alebrijes". When he was back to full health, Lopez began depicting the creatures from his dreams. His sculptures took off and became national treasures, being awarded the 1990 National Prize for Arts and Sciences ( Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes) in the Popular Arts and Traditions category, the highest decoration to artisans granted by the Mexican government, two years before his death in 1992. Since the first alebrijes were made in the late 1930s, the use of alebrijes as a magical beast is fairly new and their nature has no set rules or behavior. Usually in Mexican Media or media with overt themes relating to Mexican culture, alebrijes are portrayed as living creatures, ranging from friendly to predatory. One common trait is that their outlandish designs and (alleged) dream-related origins often lead to them being tied to some kind of Magical Land, either a Dream Land or some form of culturally appropriate afterlife. It seems particularly common for them to be Psychopomps or guides for the dead, or at least to be associated with Calacas. They usually fall under Cartoon Creatures and Mix-and-Match Critters, as alebrijes are often mishmashes and pastiches of different animals. Compare Our Gargoyles Rock for another creature with art origins. ## Examples: - Duelo, a 2019 commercial for Mezcal El Silencio, features alebrijes being used in Beastly Bloodsports. - In Coco, alebrije are a type of fauna that exists in the Land of the Dead, appearing as bright and colorful animals similar to the works of art that they are based on. They seem to act as companions and spirit guides for humans both living and dead, being used as pets and beasts of burden to the Calacas and \|\|appear as mundane animals in the living world\|\|. Examples include: \|\|Dante (who appears as a Xoloitzcuintle in the Land of the Living and is Miguel's spirit guide)\|\|, Pepita (a winged tiger that serves the Rivera family), Frida Kahlo's spider-monkey and various chihuahuas in De la Cruz's estate. - The Guardians of the Lost Code: The brijes are based on alebrijes, but encompass beings from other cultures too. They used to be in contact with humans, amongst others through their dreams, and each human was paired with a brije they could combine with into a Warrior Form. The contact eventually fizzled out and in the present it's up to a group of Chosen Ones to restore the old alliance. - The Road to El Dorado: Many of the animals, like the fish, birds and reptiles, are very alebrije-esque, many of them coming and various shapes, sizes and bright colors. - El Alebrije is a Masked Luchador who worked under the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) under the ring name Kraneo. To fit the name, his costume is notable for being wildly animal-like and covered in bright colors, ranging from bright pink to Red and Black and Evil All Over. - Mije is a Masked Luchador who started his career as Cuije, the mascotas of El Alebrije. His costume during this time was a miniature version of El Alebrije's: wildly animal-like and covered in bright colors. - Pathfinder: Alebrijes are magical beasts created when a particularly vivid dream inspired by a real or imagined living creature generates a new being within the Dimension of Dreams, or more rarely when a preexisting animal becomes altered by the Ethereal Plane's influences. They resemble multicolored animals, usually patterned with complex stripes, spots or spirals and sometimes with additional traits — wings of some sort are fairly common. They can move between the Material Plane, the Ethereal Plane and individual mind-scapes at will, and may form strong bonds with individual mortals, especially if they were created from a dream of an animal with whom the mortal had a close link. In these cases, the alebrije may seek out the mortal after death to protect their soul and escort it to the afterlife. - Disney Magic Kingdoms: Rabbit alebrijes ran amuck during the Coco-themed "A Show to Remember" Event in 2019. Players needed to catch them using Comfy Baskets and Sweet Treats to earn Vinyl Records and the Concert Event Poster. - Dragon City: The Alebrije Dragon is categorized as a Light Dragon. Its description reads that as a dreamwalker, the alebrije dragon's appearance is subject to whatever the dream dictates it to be. - Dragonvale: The Alebrije Dragon of Dragonvale World is categorized as a Spirit Dragon and its description is a fantastical take on the real-life origin of alebrijes. It states that an artist by the name of Pedro created such lifelike alebrije pieces that a real-life alebrije dragon snuck into his workshop thinking it had found others of its kind. Pedro subsequently adopted the dragon. - In Grim Fandango, the Land of the Dead is home to giant felines that certainly appear to be alebrijes. People use them as racehorses. - Guacamelee!: An alebrije appears as the pet of the villain Carlos Calaca, a living skeleton, and is fought as a boss. It resembles a giant, monstrous beast with bright red and purple fur, striped horns, yellow claws, insect-like wings, and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth. - Super Animal Royale: The alebrije breed was added in Halloween 2019. The four animals that can have this legendary-classed breed are the tiger, the blue jay, the monkey, and the otter. - Elena of Avalor: The realm of Vallestrella is home to all kinds of alebrije species. Of note are the Jaquins, jaguar/macaw hybrids. Three of these — Migs, Luna, and Skylar — are companions of Princess Elena. Then there's also Flo, an unusual alebrije in that she's a parade float model of an alpacamundi that was brought to life by magic. - El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: One of the villains is the Alebrije Monster. It's a huge creature with four eyes, horns, tentacle arms, and three legs. It has a girlfriend who looks exactly like him except she has eyelashes. - Las Leyendas: There are two alebrijes. The first is named Alebrije, who acts as the Only Sane Man to the rather senile and kind of dumb Don Andres (a Captain Ersatz of Don Quixote). The second one is Evaristo, who is a hippie and absent-minded specimen. The same applies to Soft Reboot Legend Quest, but Evaristo is Demoted to Extra (only appearing in a couple of episodes of Season 2) and Alebeije's personality is now Camp Straight. - Super Monsters: In Super Monsters: Dia de los Monsters, the gang goes to Mexico and meets with various alebrijes: Pepita the winged donkey, Nacho the bear-lion, Fuego the thunderbird, and Jackie the jackalope. - In Victor and Valentino, alebrijes are used to trap evil spirits, like the Aztec god of mischief Huehuecoyotl (whom the main characters accidentally free in the first regular episode). To trap them again, one has to make another alebrije and say "Estas atrapado!" ("You are trapped!") three times.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurAlebrijesAreDifferent
Our Genies Are Different - TV Tropes "I beg you, my son," she said, "by the milk with which I suckled you, throw away the lamp and the ring! They can only cause us a great deal of terror, and I couldn't bear to look at that jinnee a second time. Moreover, it is unlawful to have relations with them." In Middle Eastern folklore and Islam, genies ( jinn, Arabic for "hidden") were the first beings with free will, created out of "smokeless fire" by God before he created the First Man out of clay. They are (usually) invisible beings that are actually more like humans than we realize — they are born, grow up, marry, have children and eventually die. They are said to be made of "smokeless fire", perhaps something along the lines of Energy Beings. They are also extremely long-lived and highly skilled in magic. However, they can be killed by mundane means, if the Arabian Nights is any indication. (At least a couple of genies there being done in by a rock to the head.) They were sometimes trapped in bottles. They might grant you a wish if you free them, or they might have been bound to something like a ring or a lamp and forced to obey the orders of anyone who summoned them. Genies are creatures of free will; they can be good or evil and may even be religious (there are Muslim genies, Christian genies, Jewish genies, etc...), and when there are enough of them around, they can form a Wainscot Society, sometimes living invisibly alongside humans. There are even various types of djinn, not unlike how The Fair Folk comprises many different creatures. Belief in genies is still common in the Middle East today. In Islamic theology, God told the Djinn that they should bow to man's superiority, but their leader, Iblis, refused to do so; thus, a good chunk of them ended up imprisoned by Suleiman and other holy men in lamps and such and forced to grant wishes. Genies in Islam can also possess humans for a variety of reasons — they might have a crush on the human, or they might just be a jerkwad. During exorcisms, the genie is given the option to convert to Islam, leave the body of the human or die. Iblis, by the way, never repented, and in fact swore that he would corrupt mankind... in other words, he's their version of Satan (and in fact is sometimes called Shayṭān or Shaitan). note : On a related note, linguists have proposed that that the word Iblis is etymologically derived from the Ancient Greek word Diabolos. That is, the Devil. In popular Western media, genies are immortal beings almost invariably trapped inside a lamp or a bottle, often materializing through a puff of smoke. (Originally, at least part of those items only acted as a means to summon the genie and didn't actually contain it). They must grant you Three Wishes ("And ix-nay on the Wishing for More Wishes!"), which they may or may not screw up horribly. (In the Arabian Nights, this number ranged from one to infinity). Their precise spelling varies, but "djinn", "jinn" and "genie" are the most common; generally, depictions based more closely on the original folklore are called djinni or jinni, while the more modern three-wishes kind are more likely to be called genies. Also, Genies are extremely likely to be an Amazing Technicolor Population and to have Fog Feet. Female genies in modern media typically wear Bedlah Babe outfits. A few specific types of genies also tend to crop up. The most common are efreet (also spelled ifrit, afrit, and afreet). In Arabic folklore, these are generally understood as a particularly dangerous and chthonic, but not necessarily inherently evil, type of spirits; they usually have some link to "regular" jinni, and may be seen as a specific kind of the broader group, but this is somewhat vague and not always constant. In modern fiction, efreet/ifrits are usually a specific type of genie, and are often depicted as closely linked to fire; they are usually either evil or simply more powerful and less predictable than other or true genies. The correct Arabic grammar is "one djinni", "two djinn" (also spelled jinn(i)). The English word "genie", used to translate "djinni", derives from the Roman "genius", which is the spirit inherent to any person or object, such as in the term genius loci. The same concept in Hebrew is called a shed ("one shed", "two shedim") and shida in Aramaic. See also Genie in a Bottle, Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie. Not to mention Our Ghouls Are Creepier; ghouls have their origins as a class of djinn, although modern Western works rarely depict them as such. And there's always a chance that The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson. ## Examples: - In the English dub of Nana Moon, the lunarians are referred to as "moon genies" despite having absolutely nothing in common with stereotypical depictions of the mythical beings. In the Chinese original, they're called "moon elves" instead. - Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, being a Crossover with the Arabian Nights-verse, have a few odd genies. - One of the new characters introduced in the episode is Mikujin, a ditzy robot-genie from the future hired by Doraemon as a tour guide. He looks like a cat crossed over with a genie, but is a robot underneath, with his name lampshading it (" miku" - a variant of " mirai", or future. So he's a "future"-djinn, get it?) - Doraemon and gang are rescued by Sinbad halfway through and gets to explore Sinbad's castle of enchanted goods, one of them being a Genie in a Bottle - when the bottle is sealed, the genie sleeps inside at a Sleep-Mode Size. It then grows into a kaiju-sized behemoth once the stopper is removed, and carries out every bidding given by it's owner. Unfortunately said bottle gets stolen by the villains late in the story. - Dragon Ball: - Majin Buu, or Djinn-Boo in the Viz manga, is quite genie-like both in appearance (most notably his Arabic clothing), and in the fact that he first manifests as smoke after being unsealed from a container. Other genie-like attributes include his magical powers (such as shapeshifting and being able to transmute other objects/beings), effective immortality, and debut appearance which featuring him being summoned by an evil sorcerer who tries to order him around. As noted earlier, he was called Djinn-Boo in the manga, as one could make a case for translating it either way. Though due to the "M" symbols on Buu himself, and other Buu-related things, "Majin" is generally preferred over Djinn. note : Good luck finding a consensus on Boo vs. Buu, though In a 2007 interview, Toriyama stated that he came up with Buu's design because he saw The Arabian Nights as a kid, and "had this set image of what a Majin, or genie, should look like", confirming that he thinks of Buu as a kind of genie (or at least modelled him on one). - The dragons themselves combine this trope with Our Dragons Are Different. Shenlong (or "Shenron") is the first such creature introduced, and appeared to be an all-powerful, Eastern-style dragon with no limitations regarding whatever wish is asked of him. Later, it not only turns out he's entirely mortal (when he's killed directly by King Piccolo), but that he is only capable of granting wishes that don't exceed the power-based limitations of his creator (an alien that confirmed he designed the balls as Plot Coupons as a test of character to whomever decided to collect them). If the creator dies, the dragon goes with him. Note that while their powers may be different, every dragon depicted in the series is generally presented with the same setup: they're sealed inside a magical object, an incantation must be recited to awaken them, and then they'll grant one, two, or even three wishes. They're not jerks, and are kind enough to admit when their restrictions will not work in the wisher's favor, even suggesting different wishes as an alternative. Then, they take their leave, waiting for the Dragon Balls to be gathered again to do the same shtick all over again. - In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, djinn are more like Olympus Mons, Bond Creatures, and Guardian Entities. - \|\|And former humans who absorbed soul power after one of their former allies lost her mind (she watched her god get murdered by Solomon) and ritually sacrificed 99% of life on the face of the planet\|\|. - In One Piece, one of "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin's sons, Daifuku, has a Devil Fruit power that doesn't turn him into a genie, or grant him a lamp, but instead makes Daifuku himself a lamp, able to summon a halberd-wielding genie from his own body by rubbing himself, to fight his enemies. - Turbain use a genie as his guardian ghost in Shaman King. - Magic: The Gathering features both djinn and efreet as creature types. They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost, but often have some drawback or ability reflecting their general fickleness, like dealing damage to their controller, making enemy creatures stronger or harder to block, or only attacking or blocking when they feel like it according to a coin flip. They're also two of the few creature types that have cards specifically intended to neutralize them — King Suleiman and his legacy, respectively; the former can destroy any one djinn or efreet when activated, while the latter destroys all djinn and efreets on the field when played. - Djinn are usually tied to Blue mana; they are usually associated with either air or water, more commonly the former. They often have powerful abilities, such as Djinn of Infinite Deceits, which gives you control of one of your opponents' creatures while giving them control of one of yours, and Djinn of Wishes, which lets you play up to three cards of your choice for free. In older sets they're more monstrous and hostile, and have a weaker link to Blue mana; more recent djinn are more clearly Blue-focused and consequently tend to be more contemplative and peaceful. Older djinn usually have Fog Feet; modern ones resemble blue-skinned, pointy-eared humans instead. The ones from the plane of Tarkir also have horns. - Efreets were not particularly distinct from djinn in older sets, and consequently don't appear there much. Modern efreets are closely tied to Red mana and to the element of fire, and have a clearer Blue Oni, Red Oni relationship with djinn — while djinn are passive and thoughtful, efreets are wild, emotional and impulsive. Efreets from Tarkir are tall, spindly humanoids with red-and-black skin, three backwards-pointing horns and short barbels around their mouths, while those of Arcavios resemble red-skinned humans. - One of the main characters of G. Willow Wilson's Cairo is a three-piece suit-wearing genie inhabiting a water-pipe who grants wishes by manipulating probability. - The DC Comics character Johnny Thunder was a clueless young man who inherited a genie-like being called The Thunderbolt (who seemed to be a living bolt of lightning) that obeyed his commands- if he said the magic words "Cei-U" first (pronounced "say you!"- as you can imagine from that, hilarity often ensued.) It was later revealed that there's a whole dimension of creatures like The Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt later passed to a young African-American boy named Jakeem, and merged with another "genie" to create a new being summoned by the magic words "So Cul" (pronounced "so cool"). - Djinn: Rather than wish-granting spirits with foggy feet, they are Middle-Eastern Succubi and Incubi with the ability to enthrall virtually any human with their beauty, but they are devoid of compassion, love and feelings. Jade, the main protagonist's grandmother, was one such creature and was the Ottoman Sultan's favorite concubine in his royal harem. - Eight Billion Genies: Earth, a short time from now, gets a visit from eight billion genies, one for every person on Earth. The genies are small, translucent blue creatures from another dimension, they offer one wish each, and there's one of them assigned to every human being on Earth. Madness ensues very quickly.◊ They're not bound by a lamp or any other restriction: they grant wishes because they see it as an art. As a result, they refuse to grant wishes that would cancel out too many other people's (a zombie apocalypse, world peace, any one country taking over the whole world), and break out in applause when they get to grant a completely selfless wish. - Fables plays with the idea that a djinn's lamp is actually a very elaborate prison for a very powerful, very destructive being of chaos. As such, it is very important that your third wish be for the djinn to return to his imprisonment in the lamp. - Gold Digger reveals genies to be basically a highly evolved version of artificial magitech lifeforms made as companion-pets who'd 'aid and protect' the children they were with as one of their functions. This directive leading to them, as they grew in stature and intelligence, developing further powers they could only unlock in the service of others- or, 'wishes.' Reflecting the two designs of the original companions, the genies have two physical variants, one with four arms, and the other with their eyes on their stomachs rather than their faces. - The latter configuration causes trouble for one woman who went on a date with a coworker who happened to be a Genie. At the end of the date, she convinces him to show her his real eyes, and she spends some time staring into them, face-to-abdomen. Problem was, they were sitting in a car, and a photographer waiting for them came to entirely the wrong conclusion... - According to a story in Legion Of Super Heroes, the Djinn were a technological race who attempted to invade the wrong planet: Oa. The Guardians promptly sealed each one in a bottle until he or she granted someone three wishes. The Legionnaires find one 40 light-years from Earth. - Baraka from Soulsearchers and Company is a Arabic fire demon (also known as a djinn) who dwells in a bottle. However, he is also a slob and whenever his bottle gets too dirty, he moves into a new one. - A genie who manages to combine Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie shows up in one Xxxenophile story. He's in love with the heroine, and, when an evil general captures her for the expected reason, he interprets one of the general's commands as creating a new legal identity for the heroine, thus allowing him to grant her three new wishes, which she uses to defeat the general. He's also bound to his lamp until someone makes a wish that he wants to grant but isn't able to. This being Xxxenophile, that wish is for another round of wild sex right after he's exhausted himself. - The genie of one weird sci-fi tale was actually a super-advanced alien whose ship was freed from the ice it was imprisoned in by an Arctic explorer. When he mentioned the tale of the wish-granting genie the alien offered to use his vast psionic powers to grant his rescuer three wishes. He promptly screws up and after accidentally wishing himself with his third wish into being transformed into a copy of the alien inadvertently uses the powers he had to prevent himself from ever making the bargain in the first place (although the alien has to explain to him that he'd granted the fourth wish himself). - Avenger Goddess: Djinn are reality-warping beings who were created in the Primordial Chaos of another dimension, and can be bound to any object with the proper seal. - Gaz Dreams of Genie has a genie named Azie whom Gaz gets Three Wishes from after intentionally breaking her bottle to annoy Dib (which counts as opening it). Azie is noted as looking like the typical image of a genie, being a woman in a belly dancer outfit whose lower body tapers into a smoke tail, and has certain limits to her powers, such as no wishing for more wishes. \|\|One key thing, however, is the curse that comes from breaking the bottle — if Gaz doesn't make a single Selfless Wish (which she doesn't), she's doomed to switch lives with Azie and take her place in the restored bottle, complete with being aged up and stuck in the same outfit (according to Azie, it comes with the job).\|\| - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The camels of Naqah, back over a thousand years ago, created djinns, camel-shaped living weapons who tend to use one of the four elements. No wish-granting here, unless that wish involves covering something with large amounts of fire (not that this stops people who know about their existence asking them to grant wishes anyway). They're also bound to an amulet, and anyone who holds it can command them. - Vow of Nudity: Most flashbacks involve Haara growing up a slave in the Genasi Empire. In D&D canon, Genasi are the rare offspring of mortal-genie unions. Here, they're a full-fledged civilization with their own empire, four distinct subcultures catering to each elemental variant, and they reproduce through biological families like any other race. There's even a fifth variant, the Void Genasi, who serve as the royal family. - Aladdin: - Genie is a giant blue humanoid with Fog Feet, lives inside a lamp, has to grant three and only three wishes to anyone who rubs his home, and is a really nice jinni who doesn't go for the literal or jackass route even when he's saddled with an evil master. The wishes have three limitations: genies can't kill anyone, make people fall in love, or bring people Back from the Dead. (Well, Genie elaborates that he can do the third one, it's just "not a pretty picture". He's probably just joking.) He is doomed eternal servitude to an endless series of masters unless someone wishes for him to be freed. - Freed genies seem to be much less powerful than genies of the lamp, as Jafar (now a genie himself) utterly trounces the newly-freed Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (and Genie himself describes his former "phenomenal cosmic powers" as "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic"). They also have subtle references to traditional beliefs about genies. Genie is blue, which is a reference to the marid, which were believed to be blue djinn who were mostly goodish. Jafar on the other hand is red, which is a reference to the ifrits who were associated with the color red and were Always Chaotic Evil. - Wish Dragon has Long, who resides in a jade teapot, can revert wishes if he misinterprets them, can shapeshift into a human form, he's a dragon, and so forth. And much like Genie from Aladdin, he also can only grant 3 wishes and has 3 limitations; he can't kill, can't make people fall in love, and can't Time Travel. But perhaps the most notorious unique traits of Long are that \|\|he Was Once a Man and granting wishes to 10 masters is Heaven's intended way of making him atone for his cruelty during his life as a human emperor\|\|. - The remake of Clash of the Titans has Djinn, even though they are from the Arabian lore rather than from the Greek mythology. Here, they appear as black-colored humanoid creatures with bright blue eyes that use blue fire magic that seems organic based (they tame scorpions, heal the hero and are claimed to rebuild themselves of wood). And they also can suicide bomb themselves. - In The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Richard tells Thomas they were attacked by a djinn and that the djinn can possess inanimate objects. The rest of his explanation is straight out of classical Arabian mythology. - In the Arabic-English Tobe Hooper movie Djinn, the Djinn are pretty much The Fair Folk, including the use of Glamour and replacing babies with non-human ones. They're intelligent beings who live in haunted places and kill any human intruders, though one man manages to make a bargain by offering the life of his friend. They don't offer any wishes though. Also, it turns out that \|\|the male lead\|\| is a Djinn, which he didn't know about. - The Field Guide to Evil: In "Haunted by Al Karisi, the Childbirth Djinn", the eponymous djinn manifests as a goat and passes judgement on a pregnant teenager, later possessing the girl's invalid mother-in-law wreak vengence on her. - Kazaam: A genie's bottle falls into a stereo and produces a rapping genie. Also, the main character says that all genies are naturally slaves, and "djinn" — or free spirits — are nothing more than fairy tales. We find out that Kazaam became a genie as a punishment long ago when he was human. Also, a genie can only create or manipulate objects, which is a lot of power but far less than the feats of reality-warping seen in some other genie stories, and not much use to someone whose true desire is something non-shiny. "Make or summon some thing for the holder of the radio, three times," is what a genie can do, period — and this means even a nice holder can't say "I wish you were free." ("I wish for more wishes" wouldn't work either, probably.) - My Darling Genie is a Shaw Brothers fantasy-comedy film where the titular genie - played by the gorgeous Cherie Chung - lives in an umbrella. She was released when the down-on-his-luck protagonist (played by Derek Yee) accidentally opens her parasol and tags along with him, but trouble occurs when news of her "magic umbrella" makes her target of loan sharks. - In the Italian 1986 film Superfantagenio (or its version of Aladdin to U.S. audiences), Bud Spencer stars as the genie. His wishes are his master's command as long as the latter addresses one as "I want _____." Also, his powers don't work at night. This genie is also very much a Benevolent Genie as he defends Al Haddin, his master and his family (within his limitations) and refuses to grant a wish to a villain that's captured him and Al (via the bad guy telling Al to make that wish) to eliminate all the world's armed forces except his own personal army. - According to Detective Ringwald, the villain in When Evil Calls is a dark djinn who grants one wish that works perfectly so long as the wisher passes the text message on to others. Thus the wishes are propagated through the phone network, and the djinn horribly twists the wishes of every subsequent wisher. The djinn can only be defeated by the original wisher wishing their original wish to be undone. For some reason, the djinn manifests as a Monster Clown. - The djinn in the Wishmaster series are some kind of byproduct of God's creation of the universe and are all inherently evil and as such were banished to some Hell dimension. The main one is trapped in a red jewel on Earth and if he successfully grants his summoner's three wishes he can free his brethren and get rid of whatever it is that's restricting his powers so that they only activate for wishes. He also collects souls and has a very loose definition of what exactly constitutes as a wish. - One joke concerns a bartender who used up his three wishes and afterwards kept the genie's lamp on the shelf behind his bar as a curiosity. A customer entered the bar, looking with curiosity at a nine-inch-tall man playing the piano in the corner, and then noticed the lamp and asked about it. The bartender offered to lend it to the man, it being of no further use to him. The man summoned the genie and wished for a thousand gold bars. The genie made him look outside, and when the man did, he saw a thousand old cars lining either side of the street. The man re-entered the bar and complained that the genie was a little hard of hearing. The bartender replied, "Well, yeah. Do you seriously think I wished for a nine-inch pianist?" rim shot - A Master of Djinn has djinn returning to the world. They coexist peacefully among humans and even have children with them. Their appearances are very diverse and rarely give their true names but go with geographical regions or titles. When in a bottle, they aren't necessarily trapped than sleeping. The first chapter with the main character has two teenagers opening a bottle to get their wished granted. They woke up a very annoyed and anti-human marid, who chose to grant them one wish. "Very well. I will grant you only wish. You must choose. Choose how you will die." - American Gods has a very odd side-story about a gay genie who was stuck as a cab driver after immigrating to America, passing his status as a mystic creature on to a man he engaged in a one-night-stand with. The only indications that he wasn't human were flaming eyes and, er... flaming something else showcased in a sex scene. He does not grant wishes, however. Though he did kind of grant the wish of the guy he had a one-night-stand with by liberating him from his dead-end life, and giving him a chance to start over as a New York cabbie. - There were several genies in the Arabian Nights. Here's a sampling... - One was trapped in a jar. Apparently, being stuck in a jar made him so cantankerous that his idea of showing gratitude was to let his rescuer choose how he would die. Which wasn't his original plan — when first sealed into the jar, he pledged that the one who freed him would be granted three wishes. After a thousand years, he pledged to reveal to his rescuer all the treasures of the Earth. After a thousand more, he pledges to grant his rescuer the choice of how he'll die. - Another took a fancy to a handsome young man. After whisking him away to show him to another genie, she dropped him in Damascus, far away from his own home. - A woman rescued a female genie from an amorous male genie — by throwing a rock at his head and killing him. The grateful female genie offered to help the woman in the future if she needed it. - The genies in the Aladdin story are bound to a lamp and to a ring. The genie attached to each item must obey whoever holds it at the time. - A particularly Literal Genie granted a man's wish for a bigger manhood... by making it gigantic. Like fallen tree gigantic. - A man throws a date pit away and accidentally kills a genie's son with it, causing the genie to swear revenge. Until three men tell stories that impress the genie so much he doesn't kill the man. Even evil genies have a tendency to be Lawful Evil and allow you a way out of your predicament. Which Arabian Nights characters almost always find. - Prince Ahmed gets married to a genie after a failed attempt at gaining a princess (Long story). - The Bartimaeus Trilogy has a whole pantheon of spirits (afrits, jinn, etc.) who magicians use spells to bind to their will. Typically, their actual appearance is that of an Eldritch Abomination, and they use shapeshifting and glamour to take other forms. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The Jinn were created from smokeless fire by Allah like angels were created from light and men from earth. They are normally invisible but can take many forms, and live in wells, crossroads and abandoned houses. They can be good or evil and pious or impious, and due to being able to access the lower heavens and listen to the conversations of the angels they can provide soothsayers with knowledge of the future. - Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Bottle Imp does something like The Lord of the Rings with its One Ring — taking a traditional fairy-tale MacGuffin and turning it into an Artifact of Doom. The imp is a demon and buying the bottle is like making a Deal with the Devil; the only way to escape hell is to sell the bottle for less than you purchased it. Unfortunately, if you are ever dissatisfied after selling the bottle, the imp will make something nasty happen to you to pressure you into buying it back. \|\|The story did have a Happy Ending, more or less. The hero was more or less trapped, having bought the thing for only three French centimes (a centime is worth one tenth of an American cent), meaning that finding someone he could convince to take it would be almost impossible; but a drunken sailor who had deserted his ship figured his soul was damned anyway, and did so.\|\| - The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia is half Jinn and half Giant. - Or at least, that's the origin Mr. Beaver gives in the first book; specifically, he says she's descended from Lilith, Adam's first wife. The prequel book reveals she's from neither our world nor Narnia's, so that story is thrown into question. - The Daevabad Trilogy has a highly complex society of djinn (originally called daeva, their own word for themselves) mostly hidden from human sight. There are several tribes with different cultures, magical powers, and languages. Outside of djinn society are ifrit, dangerous and Unfettered beings who refused to submit to Suleiman's judgement. The "wish-granting genie in a bauble" that humans usually encounter are slaves; they are often imprisoned by ifrit who deliberately let them be found by humans who will cause the most chaos and destruction (inevitably, it ends with the slave killing their master). Djinn society is ruled from the city of Daevabad in Central Asia, where all the tribes intermingle. Finally there are the shafit, part-humans who are treated as second-class citizens (if they're lucky) and confined to the city, supposedly so they don't wreak havoc in human society. - Declare by Tim Powers has British and Soviet intelligence agencies vying for control of the djinn who live on Mount Ararat. The djinn here are beings of pure thought, often taking the form of storms, flocks of birds, or the movement of a mob, and view things from a completely, utterly inhuman perspective. Bargains or deals struck with a djinni can grant immortality \|\|(which works just as well for nations as individual humans)\|\| and other supernatural powers, but the price is often a Deal with the Devil. - The Discworld novel Sourcery has a yuppie genie who apparently isn't bound to his lamp; he has several lamps, including "a small but well-appointed lamp where he lived during the week, another rather unique lamp in the country, a carefully restored peasant rushlight in an unspoilt wine-growing district near Quirm, and just recently a set of derelict lamps in the docks area of Ankh-Morpork that had great potential, once the smart crowd got there, to become the occult equivalent of a suite of offices and a wine bar." He's rather overcommitted on lamps, in fact, and is thinking of diversifying into rings. He grants wishes, if he approves of them, but insists that nobody says "Your wish is my command!" any more. - Harlan Ellison's story "Djinn, No Chaser" features a very angry genie trapped in a lamp. He proceeds to make life hell for a couple on their honeymoon and gets the husband temporarily institutionalized \|\|until the wife decides to just bust open the lamp with a can opener, releasing the genie and earning his gratitude\|\|. - In Tom Holt's Djinn Rummy, the genies are transdimensional beings (which is how they can fit into those bottles), and like to hang out together in their spare time and get drunk. On milk. - Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The same idea as in the first Arabian Nights example is used in Dealing with Dragons. When a genie is accidentally let out of the bottle, he explains to Cimorene and Therandril the terms of reward with years of imprisonment, and then insists that their only choice now was their manner of death, which Cimorene responds to by choosing "old age". \|\|Also in keeping with the theme of the story, the genie actually had only been in the bottle long enough that he'd be forced to grant them three wishes for his release instead of killing them. Because no genie was ever released before the "kill-the-releaser" period, he felt that granting the wishes and not killing anyone would make him a laughingstock. He decides to follow Cimorene's advice and return to the bottle for another three hundred and eighty-one years, when the two of them would certainly be dead of old age and he could go home without granting wishes or breaking his oath.\|\| - Fancy Apartments features Tisa, who usually looks like a short girl, but can change form into an eight-foot jinn. - Somer, a guardian genie who has the form of a cat-dog, is the first arrival in A Fantasy Attraction. He name is pronounced so-mer, not summer. - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: - In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Genies are allowed to grant wishes, but not wishes about wishes, which are known as meta-wishes. Meta-Genies (who come from Meta-Lamps) are allowed to grant meta-wishes, but not wishes about meta-wishes, which are within the authority of Meta-Meta-Genies. The word "Djinn" is generically used to designate Genies, Meta-Genies, Meta-Meta-Genies, and all others in GOD (which stands for "GOD Over Djinn"). - In the chapter "Typographical Number Theory," "djinn" is an undefined term used in place of "natural number" in setting out the five Peano postulates, with "genie" taking the place of zero. - The Portuguese translation of His Dark Materials literally translates "daemon" as "genie" ("génio"). In this case, "daemon" is derived from a Greek term defining any lesser supernatural entity, and it was under that definition that jinns originally fell; in other words, those are essentially the Greek and Islamic analogues of The Fair Folk. In the context of the books, daemons/genies are your soul walking around as a sentient, talking animal, whose species reflects your personality. - Djins in the Myth Adventures series come from the dimension of Djinger, a place so strapped for funds that they've resorted to hiring out their citizens to work in magic lamps, rings, bottles and so on. Don't believe the hype about what they're capable of; after all, they're only a few inches tall. \|\|Usually. They underplay their power very heavily.\|\| - In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, the genie is sealed in a bottle (with Solomon's Seal no less) but does not have to grant wishes. Virginia must use psychological tricks on it. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, djinni are among the beings Prospero Inc. must keep from causing natural disasters. - Piers Anthony took a sci-fi twist in the book, Prostho Plus. An Earth dentist repairs the "tooth" of a powerful robotic being. The being declares that he had waited so long he had sworn an oath he would kill his rescuer, but a previous oath bound him to grant him a wish before his death. \|\|The dentist wishes for a delay of 50 years.\|\| For the rest of the book, he has a faithful Deus Ex Machine who protects him from all harm, declaring "None but I shall do him die!", and even goes to the point of helping him get together with his lady-love because married humans tend to live longer. - Jinn in Septimus Heap sport both heavily armed Warrior Jinn and the more peaceful "actual" Jinn. The former are antagonists in the final phases of Syren. - In her 500 Kingdoms novel Fortune's Fool, Mercedes Lackey used an ifrit as the villain. \|\|At the end, he is sealed into his bottle "until you repent of your evil ways, and are ready to join your lawful kin in the City of Brass." Djinn do have free will, so it's a valid condition.\|\| - Sandy Frances Duncan's The Toothpaste Genie is about an unskilled young genie bound to a tube of toothpaste. He explains to the protagonist that the more successful and esteemed a genie is, the better the container they're assigned to by their superiors. Toothpaste tubes and boxes of laundry detergent are apparently the bottom of the totem pole, with fancy bottles being near the top. - Malik ibn Ibrahim, the main character of the anthology Wandering Djinn pretty much Walking the Earth, has the ability to disguise himself in a myriad of human forms, knows a lot of different folklore creatures because he's met a lot of them, and has the creepy appearance of skin that's so dark blue it borders on black, golden cat eyes, and instead of hair a scalp covered with flame. If he wasn't such a goofball, he might be frightening. - The jinn in the TV adaptation of American Gods has a larger role than in the original book, particularly in the second season, where we learn that he's working for Mr. Wednesday because the latter freed him from an amulet, and that he originally refused to follow Allah when given the chance. He still does not grant wishes. - Charmed's Phoebe got turned into one in the Season Six episode "I Dream of Phoebe". French Stewart also played one in the Season Two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For", as the archetypal trickster character. - Creepshow's segment "The Man in the Suitcase" features a Middle-Eastern man contorted to fit into a medium-sized suitcase, and will spit gold coins if he experiences pain. The Reveal is that \|\|he's actually a Djinn subjecting people to a Secret Test of Character - those that try to help him out of the suitcase even if it means forgoing wealth pass, while those that torture him fail, and get stuffed into their own suitcase\|\|. - The Genie from Down Under deals with the adventures of the very Australian genie Bruce and his son Baz who live in an opal pendant and are forced to obey the commands of whoever holds the opal. - Four words, I Dream of Jeannie. Jeannie is an atypical Happiness in Slavery version. One episode featured the "Blue Genie" (the one who initially planned on rewarding whoever freed him, but eventually decided to kill that unlucky individual). - Imagin, the Monster of the Week race from Kamen Rider Den-O, are an odd variation of genie: they claim to grant wishes, typically twisting them horribly, and once the contract is complete they use their contractor's memories to create a portal to the past so they can alter history for their benefit. Of course, while there is an overall leader, every Imagin has its own personality and can choose whether or not it wants to obey him. The protagonists include several Imagin that decided there were other things they wanted to do (like chase skirt or become the strongest karateka) and partnered up with the kind-hearted protagonist to protect people from their malevolent brethren. - In Legacies A genie (It's Jinni) shows up at the school. She's able to choose who to show herself to and only grants wishes that she wants to grant. Her tactics are to twist people's wishes in the traditional "Be careful what you wish for" sense and until the only way to get what they want is to wish for what she wants in the first place. - In The Magicians Eliot and Margo try to brew some Magical Gin but it turns out the spell was to summon a Magical Djinn. The Djinn grants even wishes that are only thought. Margo, not knowing this and frustrated at the attention Eliot is showing his new boyfriend Mike accidentally sets the Djinn on Mike by simply thinking: "I wish Mike would go back where he came from and suck on some other knob." The Djinn takes this literally and takes Mike to the library the group first met him at and enchanted him to lick and suck on a doorknob. - In the Enchanted Forest in Once Upon a Time there is the Genie of Agrabah who becomes Regina's \|\|Unwitting Pawn in her plot to kill her husband, King Leopold, and is transformed into her Magic Mirror.\|\| - In Once Upon a Time in Wonderland the genie Cyrus is both the main character's love interest and the show's Living MacGuffin. He also has two brothers, but they don't get much screen time. Later in the series, it is revealed that those who cross Nyx, guardian of the Well of Wonders, are punished for their desire to change fate by being turned into genies, \|\|which is what happened to Cyrus and his brothers.\|\| - In Special Unit 2 Djinn are gaseous beings that can assume human form and can only grant wishes someone with such abilities would be capable of doing and even then only to further their own goals (a wish for a celebrity leads to said celebrity becoming a kidnap victim). They can hide themselves in containers they can make airtight by lining the insides with their molecules. - In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", the Winchester brothers track down a djinni that appears to grant whatever its victim wishes for, altering the world around them. But Dean learns first hand that the djinni just puts his victims in an acid-trip-like state, hooks them up to an IV, and drinks their blood for a few days until they die (but it feels like years in the djinni-induced-acid-trip). The victims do occasionally get flashes of reality, though, which is what helps Dean figure it out and get out of Wishland. - Super Sentai / Power Rangers - Smokey from Mahou Sentai Magiranger (adapted as Jenji in Power Rangers Mystic Force) is a comical cat-headed genie who was sealed in a lamp for his troublemaking and can't stay outside the lamp for more than three hours. He can grant wishes, but chooses to only grant one to his masters because he can't be bothered to do more, and only if he receives some kind of payment for it. He also doesn't get any kind of Reality Warper powers or anything that would be Required Secondary Powers for a traditional genie, so "making a wish" basically just amounts to "working to fulfill a request to the best of his ability". This being a Merchandise-Driven series, while he's in the lamp it doubles as the main weapon of MagiShine, a magical Ray Gun that's reloaded by rubbing (and at full power can shoot Smokey himself as a projectile). - One episode of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Season 1) featured an Anubis-like genie as the Monster of the Week, whom the villains are trying to gain control over so they can wish for him to destroy the Rangers. In Zyuranger, he was a pretty nice guy when not being bossed around, but would lose all his magic powers if his lamp was destroyed. In Power Rangers, he's completely evil, while his life is connected to his lamp. - The Crystalians and the Yodonheim from Mashin Sentai Kiramager are genies that do not come from lamps, nor do they grant wishes. Instead, they came from another planet. - The Twilight Zone (1959): In "I Dream of Genie", the genie is an obnoxious loudmouth who smokes a cigar and dresses in contemporary clothes with the exception of "velveteen mukluks." He also offers George P. Hanley only one wish instead of the usual three. - Ultraman 80: One of the last episodes of the show has the appearance of Marjin, a genie-like alien who lives in a vase, uncovered by a bunch of children who then use the wishes granted by Marjin to help make the city a better place, such as cleaning up the trash. But when the vase falls into the hands of a bunch of bullies, the lead bully decides to ask for a "cool monster toy as big as the real deal"... which ends up accidentally resurrecting the kaiju Red King. - An episode of Wizards of Waverly Place featured a Jackass Genie. In their lamps they have a Reset Button for all their granted wishes. - The Genie that Becky finds in Big Wolf on Campus has a bit of a nasty caveat to his wishes... once the third wish has been properly fulfilled, the Genie is set free... and the owner of the bottle becomes the new Genie. - Satu Jinn, who appeared to be a giant genie bear before he renounced facial hair and becoming an "angel face wearing" jinn. With that said, even before shaving he began dressing more like a majin than a djinn as part of his quest to beat Goku. Winning title belts in The National Federation Of Wrestling apparently was part of this training. - Dungeons & Dragons - Genies are elemental spirits from the elemental planes. They have several different types, each tied to a particular element. Efreet are Lawful Evil genies from the Plane of Fire. Djinn are Chaotic Good genies from the Plane of Air. Jann are made of all of the elements, can be of any alignment, and spend most of their time on the Material Plane. Later supplements added Neutral Evil Dao (Earth) and Chaotic Neutral Marids (Water), which aren't usually remembered very often since they overlap a lot with Efreet and Djinn on a conceptual basis. They all have various magical abilities, but whether they can grant wishes varies between them. Efreet can grant wishes, but since they hate servitude, they tend to be Literal Genies, if not outright Jackass Genies. Only "noble" djinn (about 1% of them) can grant wishes. In 5th edition, very few genies are capable of granting wishes, but wish-granting genies are represented among all types (except the jann, who are not present in 5th edition). - The Al-Qadim setting clarifies this. Genies are more or less widespread there, but treated as powerful, whimsical and extremely dangerous, albeit honorable, beings. Most people avoid any contact closer than hearing tales about them. All genies can grant wishes in proper circumstances, but usually bend any request toward their own desires; when pressed into service they are just as inventive with vengeance later, and while individual genies can be trapped or killed, this tends to upset their pals and rulers. There's also Jann ("composite" genies living in mortal worlds) and Great Ghuls (undead genies). Servitor Genies are specialized sub-breeds that have literally been bred to hold specific roles, such as miner, courier or even wine-maker. Gen are minor genie-kin implied to be kids of the main elemental types and contracted out as servants to sha'ir wizards. Again, gen may serve faithfully, but people unwise enough to mistreat one are in for a big surprise. - In 4th edition, Efreeti (Fire Element Genies) are all slave-trading bastards who consider plans a fun way to spend their spare time. While they can grant wishes, they don't do it by supernatural means (well, beyond their affinity for high level magic, that is); they instead use their connections within their Mafia-like societies to get things done, and always for a high price. On the other hand, Djinni (Air Element Genies) are magical craftsmen and engineers, most of whom have been sealed away. Their primary goal is reclaiming the lost creations of their "golden age" and freeing their allies and family while ensuring their enemies remain imprisoned forever. Dao and Marids also exist, having been added in a late issue of Dungeon, but are basically just their Great Wheel counterparts transported into the World Axis cosmology. - 5th edition eventually introduced noble genies as one of the patrons for the Warlock, which zig zags around the modern archetype. For starters Genie Warlocks get several elemental powers (depending on which of the above kinds of genies they get as a patron). As for more stereotypical genie powers, these warlocks get a special lamp, ring, or other trinket that behaves as a pocket dimension where they can hide, store things and take shelter (apparently these genies find ironic pleasure in having people stuff themselves in lamps). They can also fly (no magic carpet needed) and can eventually make wishes to their patrons, in the form of the very powerful Wish spell (which warlocks dont usually get), and a weaker version that replicates any spell of 6th level (as opposed to the normal maximum 9th spell level) or lower without any of the usual class or cost restrictions; they do however only get one such wish every few days. - Exalted: Ifrit are humanoid fire elementals of fairly considerable power, and generally given much more respect by the gods than elementals usually are. - GURPS: One of the Infinite Worlds is Caliph, a scientifically advanced Arab-dominant timeline where references to djinn in the Qu'ran are believed to be prophecies of A.I., and actual A.I. are called "djinn". - Legend of the Five Rings: In the spin-off Legend of the Burning Sands, Jinn are the original creations of the Sun and Moon, or of the Ashalan, depending on who you believe. They are usually malevolent, but can be bargained with for service. - Mage: The Awakening: One option for the fabled Sixth Watchtower is the realm of the Djinn, where Spirit and Forces hold sway. - In Nomine: The Djinn are a type of demon, the fallen counterparts to the Cherubim. They are sullen, moody and cynical, and prone to developing possessive, stalkerish obsessions with mortals. Their humanoid vessels tend to be short and stocky; their celestial forms are monstrous, surreal beasts. - Old World of Darkness: - In the fan forum Shadow n Essence, a member once proposed a fanwork called Djinn: Of Smokeless Fire that imagined them as Middle Eastern fae. An interesting idea, but nothing really came of it. - "Lost Paths", the Mage: The Ascension supplement which spotlights the Ahl-i-Batin and Taftani factions, features a great deal of detail on the Djinn, supernatural beings created by Allah from "smokeless fire given spirit and form and life" that normally reside within an Umbral Realm called the City of Brass. In general, they envy and hate humans with considerable intensity, most especially since Solomon compelled one of their number to reveal the elaborate facets of djinn behavior and culture, which he codified into the Solomonic Code and used to force the djinn into doing the bidding of anyone following its strictures (and imprisoning them within bottles, rings, gems, etc. inscribed with the Seals of Solomon). The djinn have subraces as varied as those of humanity, and range in personality from Jackass Genie to Literal Genie to almost every variation in between except Benevolent Genie. Again, about the only thing the djinn have in common other than their basic composition and access to unimaginable power is their desire for vengeance upon the arrogant human insects that dare command them — so any mage dealing with them must have varying amounts of foolishness, intelligence, boldness and charisma. - Pathfinder Genies are naturally like their D&D counterparts, originally being from the same source. PF Earth Genies are called Shaitans, however. And yes, it's possible to be a Djinn/Efreet/Jann/Marid/Shaitan Sorcerer, not to mention the Half-Elemental Sylph/Ifrit/Suli-Jann/Undine/Oread, who often have Genie heritage. Genies are also a big focus of the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, which deals with the aftermath of a Genie War (you can imagine how crazy that got), and takes you to the Efreeti-run capital of the Elemental Plane of Fire known as the City of Brass. - In Rifts, Jinn are elemental demons that, if captured, can be compelled to grant a wish. However, they aren't nearly all-powerful, so if you were to wish for a million dollars from one, for example, it can't just make it appear out of mid-air, but will have to go and get it... and won't be particularly picky about where it comes from, or what he does in the process. Ever seen a Jinni rob a bank? You're about to. - Shadow of the Demon Lord from Schwalb Entertainment, has genies being the first creatures made by the Demiurge after God had created the universe and the Demiurge and then went off to rest. The genies stole much of God's power and persona and they killed the Demiurge. All that was left of God was his wrath and this coalesced to become the Demon Lord which tried to destroy the universe for happened. The Genies were horrorified and many sacrificed themselves to be a barrier to lock away the Demon Lord and they could do it because of the remainders of God's power they had stolen. The surviving genies migrated to the world that the rpg is set in and would become the fey race. - Warhammer: Djinn are occasionally mentioned in association with Araby, a culture that's largely medieval Arabia with the serial numbers filed off. They come in multiple different kinds — "djinn" is less a species name as a catchall category used by Arabyans to refer to powerful, non-Daemonic spiritual beings — but are all powerful elemental spirits, often toweringly tall, that are often bound to the service of Arabyan wizards. Efreets, one of the more commonly referenced kinds, are spirits of fire, and are a particularly aggressive and volatile type of djinn, and best suited for combat purposes. A character in Dreadfleet, the Golden Magus, captains a ship called the Scimitar that's powered by two colossal bound djinn — a wind spirit to inflate the sails and a fire spirit to power the engines. - AdventureQuest Worlds: The Sandsea saga has our hero having to battle a powerful Djinn that has become chaorrupted. Djinn are immensely powerful beings that much like the djinn of folklore can grant wishes. They cannot be destroyed, only defeated, contained or bound to the physical world through means of lamps, rings or other objects. Three kinds of djinn generally exist: the Marid, who are Benevolent Genies like Saahir; the Ghul, who are evil genies like Tibicenas (the Big Bad of the arc) once was; and the Efreet, the ruler of all djinn. When a djinn is defeated \|\|such as Saahir at the hands of Tibicenas\|\|, it usually takes him several millennia to regain enough power to return. - Age of Wonders: Djinn appear as tier 3 units for the distinctly Arab-themed Azrac race, serving as flying scouts and ranged support units. They reappear in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, filling a similar role for the nomads. - Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse features a number of genies, and being set in the Forgotten Realms, it applies that system. The elemental division is clearly made an efreet (fire) is different from a djinn (air) is different from a dao (earth) is different from a marid (water). The "three wishes" thing doesn't really come up, although the broader subject of controlling genies is highly relevant. - In Ape Escape 3, the Genie Dancer Morph allows Kei and Yumi to summon a genie to distract enemies via dancing. - Arcana had the hero Rooks coming into ownership of four genie-like spirits: Sylph, Efrite, Marid and Dao, representing wind, fire, water and earth, respectively. Their levels are tied to Rooks' and are mostly there to supplement the party's attacks with magical support. - Barbarian (Titus): Djinn are portrayed as feral, demonic beings capable of magical abilities originating from an alternate dimension. As for appearance, they are Horned Humanoids that have charcoal dark gray skin and claws and pronounced canines. - Born Under the Rain: An Efreet is part of the group of enemies that's blocking the way after the chest with the Serpentius Priest Hat. - Cuphead: One of the bosses is Djimmi the Great, an orange-skinned genie with an impressive Evil Laugh who fights with a variety of Egyptian/Arabian-themed attacks. - Destiny has the Ahamkara, shape-shifting, reality-bending Starfish Aliens that prefer draconic forms but can assume any shape that would suit their needs. In a twist on the trope, they tend to specialize in unvoiced wishes — any stray desire that becomes conscious thought is fair game for them to fulfill. - Digimon has Lampmon, a Demon Man digimon that looks like a stereotypical green genie. His description states that he will grant wishes to anyone frees him from his lamp. However, he has a distorted personality and will instead attack his benefactor. - Dragon's Crown: When you arrive at the final boss of the Ghost Ship Cove Route A, you have to deal with dozens of pirates, one of them carries a lamp that can summon a genie. You can even steal that lamp and use the genie against them. - EXTRAPOWER: Magma-O the fire genie lives in Magarda Volcano. A giant being who has been watching the Earth for millennia, he is sometimes sought out for his wisdom though may not always be impressed to give an answer. In Giant Fist, hitting certain parts of the environment will reveal the Lucky Lamp, summoning a genie that grants you the ability to cast all your special attacks without cost and perform transcendental attacks without being at low health for a limited time. - Golden Sun has Djinn as Waddling Head-like creatures aligned with one of the four elements, used to power-up your characters (like Familiars, sort of). Some are hostile and have to be defeated or tricked (or both) to gain their services. Surprisingly consistent with Arabic mythology, except that they're not trapped in rings, bottles, or lamps. - Guild Wars Nightfall: Djinn appear in a number of locations, some as allies and some as creatures to fight. - King's Quest: - In King's Quest VI a genie by the name of Shamir Shamazzle causes trouble for the protagonist. Working for the Big Bad, Shamir shapeshifts into various people and animals, but is always identifiable by his glinting gold eyes, and seems unable to do the hero direct physical harm (instead coercing him into dangerous situations if he is foolish enough to listen to him). Whoever had possession of the lamp had control over — not just the Shamir's servitude — but his very nature. When Alexander \|\|takes possession of the lamp, Shamir celebrates the switch in master, glad that he no longer has to be evil.\|\| - In King's Quest II, Graham acquires a lamp, out of which a genie appears to grant him a flying carpet, a sword and a bridle before disappearing. - In King's Quest V, Graham gets a brass bottle that also contains a genie. However, if he opens it \|\|the genie simply traps him in his place and disappears, thereby ending the game.\|\| - Might and Magic - Genies in the original setting were fairly standard, apart from being the complete opposite and sworn enemy to the Efreet, an Inferno creature. Their magic in both the old world and Ashan tends to produce random effects and they seem to have a touch of Literal Genie as well. - The second case is the most evident in Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East. Zehir asks them to create a flying city, which they do, but unfortunately they didn't tell him the price of moving it beforehand: a large amount of experience, justifying the Bag of Spilling effect of the expansions in this particular case. - Monster Girl Quest features an avoidable battle with a genie that tricks people into making a selfish wish and then devours them. The game's flavor text mentions that only a strong-minded person with absolutely no selfish desires whatsoever behind their wish will actually have it granted. - The Bajarls from Monster Rancher 2 resembled genies. - Pokémon - Pokémon Black and White has a trio of Legendary Genie Pokémon, incredibly fitting for a series that already lets you trap God. They aren't typical genies as they have no wish granting powers and are more likely to terrorize the countryside by whipping up severe thunderstorms. They're more based on Oni, specifically Raijin and Fuijin. Landorous is more benevolent and is more of a fertility god. Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces the fourth member named Enamourus. As the only female of the group, it bears a resemblance to female genies, especially to Jeannie. - Gen VI introduces a an event Legendary that is a more typical genie. Hoopa's main motif is its rings, which it uses to teleport and store anything it desires, up to an including entire islands. \|\|With an item called a Prison Bottle, it can unleash its true power and become a gigantic and terrifying being of immense size and avarice.\|\| - Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire has two varieties. The Sealed Evil in a Can Iblis and a wishgranting variety in a ring akin to Aladdin. In the backstory, another Djinni turned Julanar into a tree while she was attempting to escape from a band of brigands. - The strategy game Rise of Legends featured genies prominently among the Alin race, which takes virtually all of its cues from Arabian Nights and Arabic folklore, with genies coming in fire, sand, and glass varieties. Some are simple units, but the three Alin hero units are particularly powerful genies, each representing one of the Alin elements. - The Secret World features the Jinn, a powerful race of elemental spirits that can be found in both Egypt and the upper echelons of Hell. They don't inhabit lamps, they don't grant wishes, and they really don't like humans. Later investigation reveals that, like the original Djinn of Islamic theology, they were among the first beings brought into existence and initially served Gaia and the Host without question; however, when humanity was created, they were outraged and hurt by the fact that they would be "rejected" in favour of such a puny species, and were eventually banished to the Hell dimensions for their rebellion. Most are eager to wipe out humanity regardless of the cost, but a few remember their love of Gaia and reluctantly agree to help humanity for her sake — even if it means killing their former comrades. - However, in a subversion of standard fare, players eventually run into a Jinn that actually does grant wishes: over the course of your meeting, he offers you choices between eternal life and eternal love, wealth or power, knowledge and music. In true Jerkass Genie fashion, each choice bites you in the ass. However, it's not until the very end that the Jinn is revealed to be none other than \|\|Mephistopheles, currently serving as the CEO of Faust Capital, a division of the Orochi Group.\|\| - Later still, players also run into the standard Genie-In-The-Lamp... and it turns out to be arguably the most dangerous being in the entire setting with the notable exception of the Dreamers. - Shantae: The title character is a half-genie girl who acts as her home city's Guardian Genie. As well as using her hair as a weapon in combat, she can also transform into different animals by performing dances. - The Genies from the The Sims are the standard "genie in the lamp" wish granters, but are not very competent. When you wish for money, you could either get free cash or a pile of bills. Wishing for "water" could give you a hot tub, or flood the house. Wishing for fire could heat up your social life... or burn your house down. They're more competent in the sequels, and are even playable in the third game. How do you make them playable? \|\|Wish them free, of course.\|\| - Sonic and the Secret Rings is based on the Arabian Nights. There's Erazor, the Genie of the Lamp who is a colossal asshole who was imprisoned for his crimes and went right back to being a criminal as soon as he was freed. Sharah, the Genie of the Ring who seems to be more of the American "Good willing but bound to grant wishes". And numerous Genie Mooks that Sonic has to fight along the way — most of which don't look very humanoid and more like animated flying statues, including a cyborg Ifrit and a giant jellyfish Marid. Also, one mission states that Genies reproduce via laying eggs.... - Terraria: The Desert Spirit seems inspired by the malicious examples of Djinn. Only appearing in Hardmode deserts which have fallen victim to the Corruption or the Crimson, they have the stereotypical shape as portrayed nowadays (a muscular, shirtless man, without legs, with a ponytail). As of the 1.3.3 update, they can drop an oil lamp as well as a pants item that gives you the legless effect when equipped. If used as armor, it prevents falling damage. - The Djinn in Tibia are divided in two races of Green and Blue Djinn, that don't get along well. They are powerful magicians and work as buyers for more expensive loot. - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has djinn as Elite Mooks in the lost city of Iram of the Pillars. They initially appear as ordinary human soldiers, but when killed, they revive with their heads on fire and Glowing Eyes of Doom. In this state, they can throw fire, release a burst of fire if Nate gets too close, and teleport via flames. When killed again, their torsos light up and their fire throwing becomes more powerful. It's necessary to kill them a third time to keep them down. According to in-universe legend, they used to serve King Solomon but rebelled against him. Solomon imprisoned them in a brass vessel, but the spirits of the djinn drove the populace mad and caused the destruction of the city. However, it turns out that \|\|the djinn Nate encounters are merely hallucinations, caused by drinking hallucinogen-tainted water. The hallucinogens leaked from the brass vessel into the city's water supply, implying that this is the source of the djinn legend.\|\| - World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion introduced Djinn into the game as powerful air elementals serving under Al'Akir the Windlord, a servant of the evil Deathwing. Most of them appear in Uldum (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Egypt) and the Skywall (the Elemental Plane of Air), and they fittingly have a very Middle Eastern motif. They don't grant wishes, and are quite hostile to the player characters (being loyal servants of the Old Gods). - Razi Nassar in Havenfall Is for Lovers, owner/manager of the bowling alley where the player character works and one of her possible love interests, is secretly a djinn (he objects to the word "genie"). His magic specializes in illusions and transfiguring things — or people — into other things, though he's also capable of throwing around waves of force and creating defensive shields. His power is also specifically linked to his home territory, in this case the bowling alley: not only is he at his most powerful on its grounds, using his magic away from the bowling alley is physically painful. Razi likens it to an electrical current, which within the bowling alley is grounded so that he can safely channel it, while away from that ground there's nothing to bear the brunt of the power except his own body. - In Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, three of the inmates in Gold Cords underground prison look like stereotypical genies. Gargouille punches them all out before they can do much of anything. Theres also a fourth inmate who claims to be a genie, but is clearly a skeleton. - The Genie With a Dirty Mind, a Spin-Off of The Lazer Collection, in which a genie accompanies a boy in the bedroom at shop class and lunch and... does nothing except laugh when the boy says or does something that could be interpreted as innuendo. - RWBY has the Spirits of the Relics, magical beings sealed inside the divine objects. - Jinn is the first Spirit encountered, dwelling in the Lamp of Knowledge. When her name is called by a Summoner, she will appear to them and offer to answer a specific number of Questions. Every century, Jinn may answer a total of Three Questions before her power is sealed and she must wait for the next era. While she cannot reveal the Future, she has access to all the knowledge of her creator, the God of Light. When asked a question, her response may be as simple as a verbal answer ("You cannot.") or as elaborate as an illusion that draws the summoner(s) into a story narrated by Jinn. - Ambrosius is the second Spirit encountered, dwelling inside the Staff of Creation. \|\|When summoned, he will create whatever is requested from him with the caveat that his creations have No Ontological Inertia. For decades, his power was used to hold up the floating city of Atlas. He is openly dismissive of that Task, viewing it as "pedestrian" and a poor usage of his artistry. However, Ambrosius is a Literal Genie that will create exactly what is requested, requiring that his Summoner be extremely thorough to avoid unforeseen issues. Ozpin advises the heroes to bring blueprints and other real world examples, treating Ambrosius as a Craftman being commissioned\|\|. - In El Goonish Shive, during the "Goonmanji 2" storyline, one of the cards from the eponymous magical card game transforms the player into a genie form capable of tranforming others into forms from the game including the genie form itself. - In Dan Standing's Held Within both genies are former college students who were turned into genies thanks to unknowingly making wishes on a magic amulet. No "natural born" genies have been seen. Unlike other genies, these do not have a three wish limit, and are specifically tied to their specific mistresses. Instead of lamps they have a very private connection to the women they are bound to. - In I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle, a guy gets transformed into a (female) Genie. A spoof of I Dream of Jeannie and parodying the tropes used there. - Last Res0rt's Djinn and Djinni-Si are so far off the myth they're practically In Name Only. Magical? sure. Long-lived? Well, they're undead, so we'll count it. Freaky colored skin? Yup. Wish-granting? No. Live in bottles/lamps? Well, Efreet CAN, but not the rest. Evil? Mebbe. Oh, and this is without including the detail that the term "Djinni-Si" encompasses ALL undead creatures, including Vampires (dubbed "Life Djinn") and Zombies. Efreet (one of the most powerful variants of Djinn) have recently been revealed to be capable of living in small glass balls. - This strip of The Non-Adventures of Wonderella parodies the disconnect between the original djinni myths and the American pop-culture genie. - In Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War, Jinn are presented as etheric entities of great magic power, which can only be used against someone at close range, and are bound to serve whomever holds the container they're tied to. Several Muslim nations start searching for and collecting these in order to use Jinn as weapons, while the French recover some from Algeria for the same purposes. - The Djinn in New York Magician, who works for Cthulhu and is forced to wander around New York, body to body until such a time as undisclosed. - Aladdin: The Series, beyond Aladdin's blue Genie, also introduces Eden, a green-skinned female genie. She gets romantically attached to the Genie, and is going to be set free with her master's third wish, until her master (who is a lonely little girl) accidentally says: "I just wish you could be with me forever." The couple is parted... but they realize that because they're immortal they can just meet up in a hundred years or so. But they can still date each other in the mean time. - Danny Phantom had Desiree, an evil "ghost genie" who grew in power when she granted wishes. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't stop herself from granting wishes, and that led to her defeat in both of her solo appearances. - The Fairly Oddparents has Norm (voiced by Norm Macdonald), a Jackass Genie (in fact, most genies are like that according to Wanda) who was trapped inside a lava lamp and is weak against things made of "smoof". He follows the typical three wishes rule (although that's a bluff to avoid hard work. Masters can just wish for additional three wishes as much as they can), which are rule-free, unlike fairy wishes. He also wants to be a fairy in order to avoid being stuck in a lamp. \|\|He eventually becomes one, but it backfires on him thanks to a Chekhov's Gag.\|\| - Genius Genie's title character is an anthropomorphic blue elephant in a World of Funny Animals who is summoned by simply saying the word "problem". Rather than granting wishes, he uses his magic to try and help solve people's problems, and while he means well, he usually tends to give silly or impractical solutions to mundane issues. - Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: "Wishful Thinking" has a cat genie, but other than be a cat is the typical genie in everything else. - Miraculous Ladybug: - Kwamis may seem fairy-like at first glance, but they're actually repressed gods bound to jewelry and forced to serve whoever holds their Miraculous. Only the Ladybug and Black Cat used in tandem can grant a wish, \|\|but any wish they grant has to destroy the existing universe to create a new universe where the wielder's desires are realized\|\|. - Season 4 introduces Wishmaker, a black-and-white supervillain with the power to force people to live out their childhood dreams. Anyone hit by his stardust attacks will happily, but mindlessly, act out their dreams while transformed. (Ex. A toymaker turning into Santa Claus and delivering toys, Jagged Stone becoming an actual crocodile). - My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "Through the Door", Aladdin's genie resembles a large, heavyset human with pointed ears and small fangs, lives in a lamp, and can conjure up anything as long as someone wishes for it. - In Pixel Pinkie, Pinkie is a digital genie trapped in a really old mobile phone. She has to grant unlimited wishes to whomever owns the phone. She is generally well-meaning, but often falls into Literal Genie territory. - The Real Ghostbusters: "Janine's Genie" has a genie of the Jerkass Genie variety. The genie is evil and uses Janine's wishes to open a portal from the spirit world to Earth. - In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Scrubbin' Down Under," Rocko uses a jackhammer in a misguided attempt to remove spinach from between his teeth. Obviously, he ends up landing himself in the hospital. While he's laid up in traction, sleeping, he dreams of a hygiene-obsessed monkey genie attempting to re-educate him about hygiene. The monkey genie is actually the doctor who's treating him in the "real" world. - Shazzan: The eponymous character is a giant genie summoned by magic rings. - Shimmer and Shine: They live in another dimension, their bottles are just a way to travel between their world and Earth and they don't have to return right after granting the third wish. Shimmer and Shine usually stay around to fix their mistakes and only then go back home. - In The Smurfs we have Gourdy, Farmer Smurf's genie who only made three appearances in Season 6. - Yogi's Gang: The Greedy Genie is free to roam the world with a flying lamp and is free to offer his wishes to anyone he wants. In his case, it means people who agree to never share anything he gives them.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDjinnAreDifferent
Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious - TV Tropes The biological equivalent of UFO sightings, cryptids are legendary beings and mythical creatures which are rumored to exist in Real Life, in isolation or in hiding, yet remain unrecognized by mainstream science due to the absence of physical evidence that could verify their existence. Some may be relict survivors of species believed to be extinct, or known organisms displaced into inappropriate habitats; others are unlike any known species, with characteristics that border upon the supernatural. Folk legends tied to specific cultural traditions (Algonquian wendigos, Navajo skinwalkers, Japanese youkai, Irish aes sídhe, etc.) aren't usually considered cryptids, nor are other overtly supernatural entities like ghosts. Aliens usually aren't either, unless they've been on Earth long enough to "go native" and be sighted in the wilderness. Those cryptids that haven't received heavy media attention, so cannot be classified under the sub-tropes listed below, may have works of fiction in which they're featured listed here on this page. Works that feature a wide variety of cryptid types, or follow cryptozoologists' attempts to investigate them, also fall under this trope. Series that only have a Cryptid Episode usually leave their existence open to question, whereas cryptid-themed works generally do reveal their creatures to the audience (if not the characters), sooner or later. Subtrope of All Theories Are True. Compare Our Monsters Are Weird, which is for creatures that are too bizarre for even cryptozoology (the study of cryptids) to claim they're for real. Also see Fearsome Critters of American Folklore. ## Specific cryptids with their own pages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Examples in fiction: - Engaged to the Unidentified has cryptids \|\|as part of its main cast (Hakuya, Mashiro, their mother Shirayuki and a few more), though while they are called many names, including "demons", "Youkai" and the like, they look and mostly behave like ordinary humans.\|\| Mashiro is also a fan of cryptids and collects figurines; one of the show's Running Gags is that she somehow always ends up with lots of Nessies, but not much else. - Kagewani has this trope as the main theme of the show. Each episode centers on Banba investigating claims of a cryptid attack on civilians from his and the victim's perspective. - Kemono Friends features a Tsuchinoko Friend. How exactly she came to be isn't stated, since Friends are created when a living animal or their remains come in contact with Sandstar and to date no physical evidence of the Tsuchinoko has ever been discovered. - Angus Og had Kelpies, Mermaids, and various other cryptids, all exist in Scotland's Western Isles. Thanks to water purification, the Kelpies even turned up in the River Clyde running through the middle of Glasgow. - Kaijumax: One of the major prison gangs is the Cryps, Kaiju-scaled versions of classic cryptids. - The Perhapanauts follows the exploits of a team of cryptids and other otherworldlies within a super-secret intergovernmental agency known as BEDLAM investigating other cryptids and other otherworldlies. - One Encyclopedia Brown mystery involved Encyclopedia investigating a "Skunk Ape", the Idaville version of an abominable snowman. Of course, it's only Bugs Meany again. - Harry Potter: Many cryptids in the series are acknowledged to be magical creatures, including the Yeti (a troll-like monster) and Nessie (a shapeshifting kelpie disguising itself as a sea serpent). Funnily enough, the wizarding universe has its own cryptids, such as the Nargles and the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, in which nobody believes except for Luna Lovegood. - In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes investigates the Baskerville family curse — a "gigantic hound" that has, according to the family doctor, recently accounted for the life of Sir Charles Baskerville. \|\|It's actually a very big dog painted with phosphorous to make it glow in the dark.\|\| - InCryptid by Seanan McGuire is all about a family of cryptozoologists who look after cryptids who exist but are still thought to be rumor by the world at large. - Jackie and Craig utilizes an entire armada of cryptids as the worshipers of the incomprehensible Eldritch Abomination Jykunne. - Monster: The title character is a freelance Cryptobiological Containment and Rescue Services worker, i.e. a dogcatcher for cryptids. - Simon R. Green stories: - Secret Histories: In The Spy Who Haunted Me, the rival spies are tasked to investigate several well-known tabloid-style mysteries, including the Loch Ness Monster and an Arkansas Bigfoot-sighting. \|\|And subverts them all, by attributing them to unnatural forces indigenous to Green's Verse, rather than whatever cryptozoologists assume them to be.\|\| - Cryptids in general tend to crop up in Green's Urban Fantasy series, from pet chupacabra being taken for walkies in the Nightside to Mongolian death worms trying to gobble down Secret Histories agents. - Vampirocracy: The main character and his friend took a cryptozoology course in college as a prerequisite for mythozoology. - One episode of Drop the Dead Donkey saw Damien going down to Cornwall in order to try and fake a sighting of the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Truth in Television, as a number of big cat sightings in Britain at the time were exaggerated (and in some cases quite possibly faked) by the media (see "Real Life" below for more details). - Face/Off: Season six has a cryptid-themed challenge. - Lost Tapes features plenty of cryptids in its stories. - Monster Quest and Destination Truth are cryptozoology-themed programs in the style of ghost-hunter shows. - Fortean Times is devoted to the investigation of anomalous phenomena. It absolutely loves this one. - d20 Modern: - The system includes a variety of cryptids from around the world on its "Menace Manual" book, including the Mongolian Death Worm and the Montauk Monster (a trans-dimensional hostile Energy Being race that was attracted to Earth by the Philadelphia Experiment). - Cryptids make up a large part of the DarkMatter setting, and several have their origin with the alien races that populate the settings. - Demon: The Descent uses cryptid as a catch-all term for animals exposed to the energies of the God-Machine, used as agents by both the angels of the God-Machine and the demons that rebel against it. Example cryptids include mothmen (who are harmless squirrel eaters who cannot predict disasters) and Reptoids (who are shy, timid creatures who cannot shapeshift and have no plans for world domination). - Dungeons & Dragons has an in-universe example in the form of the "forgotten" chromatic dragon family. Everyone knows about the five main breeds of evil dragons: the white, black, green, blue and red dragons, creations of the five-headed dragon goddess Tiamat. But some scholars and witnesses claim that there are three more color-based dragon breeds, the yellow/salt, orange/sodium, and purple/energy dragons. They're thought to be related to the "main" chromatic dragons through color theory (purple dragons, for example, are conjectured to be a True-Breeding Hybrid resulting from red and blue dragons interbreeding), or are perhaps the creations of a rival dragon deity whom Tiamat subsequently killed. While most scholars scoff at such talk and dismiss any sightings of these creatures as a witness misidentifying an established dragon while under the influence of its frightful presence, fringe theorists are known to fund expeditions into the wilderness in hopes that an adventuring party can bring back conclusive evidence of such cryptozoological dragons. As such, the "forgotten" dragons' stat blocks in Dragon come with the disclaimer "If these wyrms do indeed exist, this is the best estimate of their true capabilities." - Pathfinder makes use of a variety of cryptids. One sourcebook, Mystery Monsters Revisited, is dedicated to discussing eight such species — bunyips, chupacabras, death worms, mokele-mbembes, mothmen, the Sandpoint Devil, sasquatches, sea serpents, water orms and yetis — and goes into some detail about their habits, possible origins, and ability to remain elusive and mysterious even in a world of dragons, wizards and gods. - Sentinels of the Multiverse: Chrono-Ranger was bounced from the Wild West to a future where cryptids had destroyed the human race, leading to him being sent back again to go and kill cryptids. Monsters in that future, the Final Wasteland region, include skunk-apes, chupacabras, abominable snowmen and the Mongolian death worm. - Shadowrun: The Awakening brought many cryptids out of the closet. Some are paranormal animals developed from normal ones (e.g. mermaids as Awakened seals), while others as previously shy beings that didn't feel the need to hide any longer (sasquatches). - Yu-Gi-Oh! has the Danger! archetype, which is made of several cryptids that share the effect where the player reveals them, then the opponent chooses a random card for the player to discard. If the discarded card was not a copy of the revealed monster, then the player gets to special summon it and draw a card. All the monsters in the archetype also have effects that trigger upon being discarded. - BIONICLE: Keetongu is a legendary, fully sentient and sapient humanoid beast whose existence became a legend after his kind had been exterminated. Part of the 2005 story is about the search for Keetongu, with some characters doubting he exists. He was originally intended to be a nod to King Kong, being far larger than the rest of the cast and even climbing atop a tower only to get shot down (though Keetongu's tough enough to survive), but his height was decreased when LEGO decided that they'd only sell one figure of him rather than two: his to-scale model from the "Tower of Toa" playset was removed and replaced with another giant beast, so Keetongu was only released as a standard-sized Titan figure. - Barrow Hill: Bracken Tor will evidently involve cryptid sightings of mysterious predatory beasts in Cornwall. (That is, if it actually does get out of Development Hell...) The game's promotional website displays comments allegedly posted by people who've encountered these creatures. - Bigface Marsh Madness is an indie horror game featuring a monster that is a parody of Bigfoot who can only be warded off by recording him. - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow includes several cryptid monsters that the player will encounter and must defeat during the game. - Disco Elysium features Lena and Morell, an elderly couple of "Cryptozoologists" (as well as their assistant Gary, the "Cryptofascist") who are in town searching for the Insulidian Phasmid, a giant psychic stick-bug-like creature. You can ask Lena about various other cryptids, much to your partner Kim's consternation. - Metal Gear Solid 3: The members of Mission Control are all really into "UMAs" (Unidentified Mysterious Animals, the Japanese term for "cryptid", which is therefore apparently the normal term in English in the Metal Gear universe as well) and frequently talk about them to Snake. There is also a Tsuchinoko in the game which you can capture (or eat), and bringing it back alive unlocks the Infinity Face Paint on a New Game Plus. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker also has a cryptid Otaku used to justify the Crossover with Monster Hunter. - Seaman: Seaman is said to be an ancient creature from Egypt discovered by French biologist/archaeologist named Dr. Jean Paul Gassé in the 1930s. Taking a sample of a seaman's eggs back to France with him, he started conducting research on the creature's evolution; the player is tasked with following his work in the present day, raising a seaman through all of its evolutionary stages. - Shadow Hearts: From The New World: Natan's personal sidequest involves hunting down and capturing different cryptids inside a special pot. Said pot is then taken to a shaman who uses the power held by the captured creatures to grant/power up Natans's skills. - The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has dragons (intelligent technology users), Bigfeet (subterranean with a stone age culture), unicorns (animal intelligence, used as steeds by the Bigfeet because unicorns leave no tracks), and the Loch Ness Monster. Jean has spoken of exploiting Bob's verified Weirdness Magnet power to search for others like yetis and chupacabras and such. - Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel): One episode covers the legend of The Mothman, which terrorized residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia from 1966 to 1967. - Strong Bad Email: In "myths & legends", Strong Bad does a Mockumentary that claims the cardboard cut-out of the Bear Holding a Shark is based on a real creature of mysterious myth (or possibly legendary legend) that lurks in the woods of Free Country USA. - Cryptopia is a website dedicated to telling the stories of the rarest and most obscure cryptids, and the weirdest. Many of them, like the Octo-Squatch and the Bremerton Monstrosity, have been seen only once in history, or by only a single person traumatized beyond measure by what they say they saw. Others are considered local legends seen by a handful of people over the years, who described encounters with similar—if not the same—entities. - Ben 10 features an alien called Big Chill whose appearance is based off The Mothman, and another alien named Shocksquatch who's based on sasquatches. - Detentionaire features a creature known as the Tatzelwurm (sometimes spelled "Tazelwurm" or "Tazelworm"), based on the cryptid of the same name. They come in a variety of colours, with the red one being the rarest, one of which, nicknamed Taz, wears a sweater and is A. Nigma High's official school mascot. In one episode, Lee jokingly refers to it as "the Loch Ness Monster's first cousin". - Gravity Falls occasionally features investigations of cryptids and other alleged creatures in various episodes, including a lake monster, the hidebehind and a crashed UFO. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: A number of cryptids and similar beings have appeared over the show's run: - Pinkie encounters a quadrupedal yeti while traveling to Yakyakistan in "Party Pooped", while a tri-horned bunyip appears in "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)". - The Great Sprout in "Going to Seed" plays the role of an in-universe cryptid, ticking off most of the category's boxes — mysterious nature, highly elusive and difficult to catch or observe, ambiguously real and prone to causing divisive opinions regarding whether it actually exists or not. - The IDW comics feature several other such beasts, including a highly feline Chupacabra and a humanoid squash monster referred to as a "sass squash". - The Real Ghostbusters: Some of the creatures that the Ghostbuster and their successors Extreme Ghostbusters face are cryptids, although most of the time are paranormal entities like ghosts and demons. Some examples of cryptids in the series are Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil and a Lake Monster. - Scooby-Doo: While most monsters have been made up from scratch for the franchise, the various series and movies have featured the likes of the Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, and chupacabra. - The Secret Saturdays: The whole premise of the show finding and dealing with cryptids. Creator Jay Stephens deliberately refused to use any of the more commonly-known creatures in the show, with the more popular cryptids only ever referenced as being past encounters at best. \|\|The only exception to this rule is the Yeti, which is the true identity of series villain V. V. Argost\|\|. - Globsters: These are unidentified organic masses of skin and organs that wash up on beaches from time to time. Globsters such as the "St. Augustine Monster" are often assumed to be cryptids, although necropsies may prove them to be known animal carcasses rendered hard to recognize by decomposition. - The United Kingdom has a history of mysterious big cats of various sorts (officially known as "ABCs" note : Anomalous, or Alien, Big Cats), for example the Beast of Bodmin Moor, the Beast of Exmoor, the Cotswolds Big Cat and the Galloway Puma. - Some of the stories are centuries-old and may derive from phantom dog legends, such as the Yeth Hound of Dartmoor (which inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles) and the Black Shuck of Suffolk (which inspired a song by The Darkness). - A lot of the more recent (ie. late twentieth century onwards) ones are usually attributed to pet big cats being released in the 1970s after the laws were changed to stop people owning big cats, or animals that had been held illegally which escaped or were released when they became too difficult to manage. Some sightings might possibly be explained as domestic cats (or, in Scotland, wildcat-domestic cat hybrids) that were seen near to a viewer being misinterpreted as larger animals seen further away. - Big cat stories got a fair bit of media coverage in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the tabloids which exaggerated the stories and may have even made some of them up. In 1995, for example, a large cat skull was found in Cornwall shortly after a government report had disproved the existence of the Beast of Bodmin Moor. It was sent to London to be examined by the Natural History Museum, which determined that it was the skull of a leopard that had been dead for several decades and had likely come to Britain as part of a leopard-skin rug — leading to the conclusion that it had likely been planted in order to keep the "Beast" story going following the government report. - Although there have been less of these stories in the last few years, they do occasionally still crop up. - The Salawa was a dog-like cryptid blamed for dozens of attacks on humans in Egypt in the late 1990s. Authorities at the time didn't consider it much of a mystery - police killed one of the animals which they identified as a hyena, and suggested other attacks were likely feral dogs or fennec foxes note : Notably, an American television crew which investigated the killings followed an animal which matched descriptions of the Salawa, only to discover it was a particularly large fennec - but the Salawa received a lot of press coverage painting it either as an unknown monster or even an incarnation of the Egyptian God Set. - Brazilian Folklore has a number of creatures that are relatively recent legends, and are mix-and-match of real animals, like the Capelobo and the Mapinguari. - Europeans once thought a number of Real Life animals were this trope until they had hard proof of their existence. For example: - Komodo Dragon: \|\|Very large lizard.\|\| How its existence was deemed a myth is beyond us. - Mountain Gorilla: \|\|Great ape, cousin of the lowland gorilla\|\| Believed to be a native superstition until a German hunter killed two of them. - Okapi: \|\|What looks like a cross between a giraffe, a deer, and a zebra.\|\| Yeah, we wouldn't believe you, either. Even the people actively searching for it assumed it was an unidentified species of antelope, \|\|not a second extant giraffid\|\|. - Platypus: \|\|Like a beaver with a duck bill, except it also lays eggs and the males have venomous feet.\|\| Initially (and some would say reasonably) assumed to be the work of a rogue taxidermist.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurCryptidsAreDifferent
Our Dragons Are Different - TV Tropes "Gronckle, Zippleback, the Skrill... Boneknapper... Whispering Death... burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside-out... extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous... kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight..." Nearly every culture has myths about something called a "dragon", despite the fact none of them can agree on exactly what dragons are. How big are they? What do they look like? How many heads do they have? Do they breathe fire? Or ice? Do they fly (and if so, with or without wings)? How many legs do they have? Are they dumb as planks, or superintelligent? Are they low scaly pests, or ultra-rare Uber-serpents ancient and powerful as the Earth itself? Are they benevolent? Malevolent or even outright demonic? Are they divine entities or spirits, or just really cool animals? They could even be aliens in some works of fiction. The answers to these questions generally fall within two traditions, "Western" and "Eastern". Even then, in addition to cultural differences, dragons fall into a very wide range of types even in one local mythology. Eastern dragons, such as in the Eastern Zodiac, come from different traditions and as such aren't technically the same monster as their Western counterparts; Westerners who encountered stories and images of Chinese lóng and Japanese tatsu/ ryuu sprung on the similarities to the European dragon and couldn't think of anything better to call them. Western dragons or European dragons are derived from Greek and Roman mythology (the word "dragon" itself is rooted in the Greek word drákōn) and may have been influenced by the cultures of the Ancient Near East; though there are older myths with serpentine entities which would be called dragons by later generations. Eastern dragons or more specifically Chinese dragons, derive from ancient Chinese mythology dating back 7000 years ago and these depictions spread throughout Eastern Asia. The reason for Chinese dragon worship is likely because the region of Northern China where Chinese civilization first began was filled with dinosaur fossils which led to the development of dragon myths. Northern China is still considered a huge "dinosaur hot spot" in palaeontology today. There are many other dragons in the East such as Makara deriving from Indian mythology but the Chinese dragon and its variants spreading from Japan to Bhutan is by far the most well-known. Even within these traditions, however, there is much variability. This has increased in modern times, as Western and Eastern authors have blurred the traditions by mixing and matching attributes from both (benign Western dragons are quite popular these days, for instance). Some authors invent completely new attributes to set their dragons apart from the crowd or just to make them cooler. And some authors put dragons in their stories just for the sole reason of making a story look cool. Western Dragons Eastern Dragons \|Are scaly and reptilian (outwardly, anyway), and usually serpentine.\|\|Are Mix-and-Match Critters, though the exact components vary (generally, they can best be described as either "lion-snakes" or "wolf-snakes"). They sometimes evolve out of Seahorses or Legendary Carp.\| \|Generally depicted with pointed and unbranched horns, or otherwise entirely hornless. Frills and fins are also common in modern depictions.\|\|Generally possess short, deer-like antlers.\| \|Normally associated with fire, which they often breathe as an attack. In Greco-Roman, Germanic and Medieval stories, they lack breath attacks but may be highly venomous.\|\|Normally associated with water (and the sky, which was considered an ocean in classical Chinese thought), and are often considered bringers of rain. Furthermore, the Azure Dragon and the Yellow Dragon are associated with Wood and Earth, respectively. In some works, some Chinese dragons can breathe fire. In some legends, they are capable of this after being punished.\| \|Usually live in mountains and caverns. Older examples often lurk in swamps or wells.\|\|Usually live in rivers or in the sea.\| \|Are around the same size range as houses if not larger, at least when fully grown.\|\|Can be as small as a grasshopper or large enough to fill the space between heaven and earth.\| \|Are usually antagonistic towards humans, if not outright Satanic Archetypes in older works. More intelligent versions are often manipulative, or, at the very least, love to screw with people; less intelligent versions are beasts and act the part. Due to the influence of works like \|Dragonriders of Pern, good dragons have become more popular in western media. \|Are benign, but capable of destructive force when provoked. They may be rivals with tigers, and/or a male counterpart to the female fenghuang. In Japanese folklore, dragons are sometimes portrayed as evil, such as the infamous eight headed Orochi.\| \|Kidnap damsels (preferably princesses) and/or hoard treasure. Often greedy and/or insatiable, especially in the latter regard.\|\|Instead of hoarding magical treasures, they \|make them. The other thing they hoard is wisdom, which they rarely share with mortals. \|Have a variable number of heads and legs, although one head and six limbs (four legs, and a pair of wings) and a tail is the most common configuration; medieval and older dragons were often just very big serpents. More divergent types (no legs, multiple heads, etc) seem more likely to be brainless bestial monsters than the "basic" form.\|\|Most often have one head and four legs. The longer a dragon, the more pairs of legs he has.\| \|Either fly with bat-like wings, or they lack wings and don't fly. Some modern examples have bird-like wings, but this is rare.\|\|Can fly via magic even if they lack wings, which they usually do. When they do have wings, they are often birdlike.\| \|Have varying levels of intelligence. Prior to Tolkien, they were typically ravening monsters and rarely spoke. After Tolkien, they are often portrayed as at least as clever as humans, and frequently (much) more. More traditionally bestial examples still usually have a predatory cunning.\|\|Not only are they intelligent, they are usually a Mentor Archetype.\| \|Their scales (and armor made thereof) may be impervious to magic. In addition, they often have some form of innate magic if intelligent. Sometimes they may even disguise themselves as humanoid beings of much smaller size and interbreed with said species, creating half-dragons. \|\|In addition to assuming human form, they also often have the ability to transform into other animals.\| \|Live for a very long time, if not actually immortal, but typically may be killed.\|\|Semi-Divine, if not an outright god.\| \|Are incredibly strong and hard to kill but usually have one or two fatal weak spots. This is traditionally under the chin, but post-Tolkien, it's more likely to be on the chest or belly, and the eye is popular too.\|\|In relation to the above, pretty much invincible... not that people actively seek them out to kill them anyway. Have a single "reversed scale" under the chin, and go into a blind rage if it is touched/rubbed the wrong way.\| \|Sometimes have poisonous blood, breath, saliva, or some such. Often, this will kill you after you kill it. If their blood isn't poisonous, it grants special powers such as invincibility.\|\|Since they live and breathe essence of life itself, they are the exact opposite of being poisonous.\| Draco referred to pythons and other large snakes, while wyvere referred to vipers. Long, the original name, is used to describe saltwater crocodiles. (Smaller crocs have different names.) This explains their affinity to water. \|Originated from proto-Indo-European legends of sky gods or heroes battling serpents or sea monsters representing chaos, which eventually developed into the early hero-versus-dragon myths.\|\|Amulets and devotional images of serpentine begins go back as far as Neolithic China, and appear to have already been objects of worship and reverence at that point.\| It is interesting to note that the conflation of these two types of beings under a single term is in large part a Western trend. Eastern languages tend to refer to them using different names (Japanese, for instance, refers to Western dragons as doragon and to Eastern ones as ryu or tatsu) and they are generally less interchangeable. The western dragon has a number of variants◊. Some appear in mythology and folklore, others are a more recent invention. Naturally, all of these may be in play, making "Dragon" more of a higher Taxonomic rank like "Order" or "Class" than Species or Genus. By this reckoning, other reptilian or avian mixed mythological creatures, particularly the - The most popular variation has been the wyvern, which resembles a bat, with clawed wings as forelimbs and two legs for hind limbs, this configuration generally being considered more "realistic" as something that could actually exist in a world similar to ours. note : Despite appearances, wings are a type of arm. Therefore a dragon with four legs and two wings has six limbs, and six-limbed reptiles do not exist in the real world. (Nor does any type of land vertebrates, the few six-finned fish that existed having gone extinct over 350 million years ago). While a six-limbed vertebrate is biologically possible, it would be far removed from any existing animal and certainly would not just be a large winged reptile. Given that additional limbs expend more energy, a hypothetical six-limbed "dragon" would almost certainly be small. It would also likely not be intelligent, since controlling six limbs requires a greater expenditure of the animal's brain power to be devoted to locomotion. On the other hand, magic. It's also easier to animate with most methods. note : Partially this is because, as mentioned before, there are living animals with roughly this sort of body type to use as a reference. The other advantage is that wing arms tend to be longer (to allow flight) than dedicated front legs/arms which can make for easier and more interesting articulation. In some settings, this is the only type and will simply be called "dragons". In other settings, wyverns are not considered "true" dragons, but are a related and usually less powerful or intelligent species. Wyverns are less likely to breathe fire, and more likely to be venomous (even when dragons in the same setting are not venomous.) The term "wyvern" is less likely to be used if the creature in question breathes fire and walks quadrupedally (using the wings as forelimbs, like a bat or a pterosaur), such as Smaug from The Hobbit, Vermithrax Pejorative from Dragonslayer and the dragons from Reign of Fire or Game of Thrones. - Rivaling the wyvern is the Hydra from Greek Mythology, which is often depicted as a flightless dragon-like water or swamp beast with one or more heads; for each head you cut off, two rapidly grow to replace it. note : alternately, if it has a fixed number of heads, it's usually seven or nine. If they have a Breath Weapon, it's often a different one for each head. The original sprayed poison and had poison for blood. - As an alternative to hydra, the Zmey of Slavic mythology is catching on. They are similar creatures right down to the poison blood but there are a few salient differences. Zmey always have some limbs, almost always have wings and can fly, and more often than not have a bulky lizard-like body instead of the traditional hydra's snake-like body. The most major difference is that, while some modern hydras have a fixed number of heads, the zmey always does (and it's usually fixed at three). It can regenerate its fixed number of heads if they are removed without fire and their bodies are said to be either invulnerable or have a potent healing factor. On top of all that, they traditionally have fire breath and poison breath of western dragons. While nearly all named Zmeys are antagonist in the works they appear, many traditions point out they can be good. note : This is because they are often thought to be metaphors for Mongolian/Turkic peoples who have tried/succeeded to invade the region. Obviously you want to portray them on the whole negatively given the whole invasion thing, but don't want them all bad because some of them colored your gene pool. It's telling that all heroic Zmey sired families who would go on to be nobles and royals. These have obviously always been popular in Slavic cultures, but the Cold War has stunted their spread to west until recently. - A drake is usually a creature related to dragons but smaller and less intelligent, equivalent to the relationship between humans and chimpanzees. More likely than dragons to come in multiple varieties adapted to different environments (e.g. the drakes that live around volcanos may be the only ones able to breathe fire). In terms of appearance, they are most commonly depicted as largely similar to "common" dragons but with small or nonexistent wings; on other occasions, they may have two wings and two legs in the same manner as wyverns. Sometimes they're simply young or adolescent dragons rather than a separate species. In other cases "drake" is interchangeable with "dragon", or is a term for male dragons in particular. - Very old (Greco-Roman, and a few medieval cultures such as Germanic-Nordic) dragons are presented as more serpentine than the more recent ones — if winged, the wings are usually their only limbs; and some were totally limbless, just enormous serpents. This type of dragon may be referred to as a wyrm (pronounced "worm"). Sometimes, however, "wyrm" will simply be a synonym for dragons in general. - Occasionally, winged but legless dragons may be referred to as amphipteres instead, a name derived from a kind of winged serpents traditionally used in French heraldry. - The drakons of Ancient Greece were a similar variant that had the body of a snake, the head of a dog (sometimes), and were absolutely gigantic. - Another variant from heraldry is the lindworm, a two-legged dragon with no other limbs. Variants include dragons that are Armless Bipeds or basically snakes with arms. Sea Serpent, Basilisk, Cockatrice and Quetzalcoatl, may be considered types of dragons or similar creatures in some works. Some works opt to include several of these variants at the same time in Dragon Variety Pack, defining them as distinct in-universe species or breeds in order to explain their differences. Further, it's also become fairly common for dragons to come in different flavors of Elemental Powers, especially in settings where Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors are enforced. This may simply manifest in their Breath Weapon, or it may affect all properties of the dragon. Elemental rainbows of dragons are most common in video games and tabletop games where diversity of creatures and gameplay balance are considerations. While fire remains the most common breath weapon among fictional dragons, ice or freezing air is a common alternate — ice dragons tend to show up as one-off variants, often in contrast to "regular" fire dragons, even when other types of elemental dragons do not. When multiple types of breath weapons are possible, poison, acid and lightning are common choices. Undead dragons are also not unheard of, usually breathing ice or poison. As mentioned above, a recent trend has been to try and make dragons that could actually exist in the real world. Naturally, these tend to either use Science Fiction concepts or be very different from traditional dragons. Also common in later works is a tendency for dragons to form a life-long bond with any human or humanoid who is present when they hatch (probably inspired by the 'imprinting' which occurs with most birds in Real Life, which is why birds raised in captivity with the intent to be released must be cared for by puppets). This gives writers a way to give dragons unique psychology without having to come up with unique motivations for them. It also explains why humanoid Dragon Riders can boss them around. Yet another trend appearing here and there is for dragons to be depicted as looking similar to dinosaurs, usually the bigger theropods (like Tyrannosaurus rex), but occasionally sauropods (such as Brachiosaurus) as well. The two are often outright confused with each other. Another common trend in modern fantasy is the miniature pet dragon, suitable for perching on one's shoulder. Compare Giant Flyer, Kirin and other Dragon Tropes. Supertrope to Catlike Dragons, Delightful Dragon, Dracolich, Draconic Abomination, Draconic Humanoid, Dragon Ancestry, Dinosaurs Are Dragons, Dragons Are Demonic, Dragons Are Divine, Fairy Dragons, Feathered Dragons, Lazy Dragon, Seahorses Are Dragons, Shoulder-Sized Dragon and Weredragon. Not to be confused with The Dragon, a position only sometimes held by a real dragon (while dragons themselves can just as easily be Big Bads). Given that dragons are by definition fictional, No Real Life Examples, Please! # Examples <!—index—> <!—/index—> - Two oil paintings (1470◊, c. 1460◊) of St. George's fight with the Dragon by the Italian painter Paolo Uccello (1397—1475) depict a dragon with two legs and wings with eye spots, as are found on the wings of butterflies in real life. - The Flower Queen's Daughter: The dragons have a stable and horses that the hero is set to watch. They also stage a dance. Which the hero and the captive princess attend. - "The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples": The dragon holds the heroine captive and rides a horse. - How the Dragon Was Tricked: The dragon has a house, a stable, and a dragoness wife, and goes to church. He still commands his wife to murder the protagonist so they can eat him, however (and to prepare the meal while the dragon himself is at church, by the way). - "Prince Lindworm": The Lindworm is a giant talking serpent that was born from a human mother that botched a fertility cure and sheds its skin like a snake. In the end, the heroine tricks into shedding so many skins that the draconic body is shed entirely to reveal a human body beneath it. - German "The Swan Maiden" variant "The Three Swans" features three dragons which can transform into giant snakes or fire-breathing turtles. - An archetypal monster in many fairy tales from southern Italy (especially Sicily) is the so called "Babbo Drago" (Papa Dragon) and its female counterpart, the "Mamma Draga" (Mama Dragon): they tend to behave more or less like the classical Fairy Tale Ogre (eat people, own treasures and possess some limited magic), with one Mamma Draga in particular pretending to be an ill lady in need of a manservant while hiding a long, black, hair-covered tail under her bed. Adventure Time - Half Past Adventure: The disturbances in the forest are revealed to be due to the Grass Dragon, a creature resembling a large clump of vegetation in draconic shape and possessing an acid Breath Weapon capable of destroying plants. Ah! My Goddess - Ah! Archfall!: Two dragons appear, and both seem to be some sort of Draconic Abomination. - Lind's true form (at least the visible bits) resembles a huge, white, thousand-headed dragon covered in eyes and spines. - Gandamak is vaguely based a Western dragon but is nearly 100 foot long, has four 50 foot wings, ten legs, tusks and a single eye on the end of a stalk. Further, if you chop off one head two will grow from the stump. The Black Cauldron - Hope for the Heartless: According to the Horned King, despite resembling them, gwythaints such as the two he kept aren't dragons. He did once encounter a true dragon, which was built like a gwythaint but had four legs and bronze-colored scales, and was as large as two peasant houses put together. It didn't breathe fire (but he has heard tales from people who have actually seen firebreathers), but spat lava instead, something some dragon types can do by eating rocks and digesting them into a lava-like substance. Crossovers - The Bridge: Several varieties from two worlds show up: - Equestrian dragons are as they appear in the show. They can mature naturally as well as experience rapid growth caused by excessive greed, at the cost of becoming rabid. Greed-growth isn't reliant on just material greed and can be caused by craving anything from prey to revenge. Most aside from Spike are a bunch of jerks. - Grand King Ghidorah, Des Ghidorah and Kaizer Ghidorah are alien lifeforms that just happen to resemble dragons. They are some of the most powerful kaiju, and all have three heads, two tails, and two wings. Des Ghidorah and Kaizer Ghidorah are six-limbed quadrupeds whereas Grand King Ghidorah has only four limbs. Each can travel through space and manipulate gravity, in addition to having various unique powers. - While unseen, dragons are mentioned as having existed on Terra in the past, being animalistic versions of The Fair Folk. When magic largely was extinguished across the planet, they reverted into normal crocodiles and snakes. - Child of the Storm has three different kinds of dragon: - The canonical dragons from Harry Potter, which are very large, fire-breathing magical creatures, but basically just animals. They're mentioned as being mere shadows of the Elder Wyrms discussed below — which, as it happens, is a very, very good thing. - The Great Dragons of Avalon which are mentioned in passing as being classic Western Dragons, intelligent, magically powerful, neither inherently good or evil. They either remain in Avalon or are practically extinct. It isn't explained whether or not they're related to either of the other two varieties. - The Elder Wyrms, which were created by Surtur as shock troops for his campaign a million years ago, ranking only below Surtur's Great Captains and Surtur himself. They're very Tolkienian in both description and personality, being a) between "colossal" and "Kaiju" size-wise (as in, a large example 'could eat Godzilla like a bar-snack'), b) a mixture of winged and wingless, c) extremely intelligent Draconic Abominations, and d) exceptionally magically powerful, being capable of controlling armies of spirits while still technically asleep, and providing a challenging fight for Greater Gods, let alone mortal heroes. - A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings: In-universe, there's a world of difference between the Tamrielic dragons (divine and sapient, capable of speech, huge but reasonably so) and the Valyrian dragons (animals incapable of speech, which never stop growing). - Dungeon Keeper Ami: Dragons are scaled, winged, sapient creatures that, even when very young, are still larger than a human, and breathe fire. - For the Love of the Gods: Dragons are ancient, magical creatures, having existed for as long as fairies and gods, and are some of the few things capable of harming a god. Because of this, gods generally avoid them. - Kindred: Discussed when Bella compares Mulan's Eastern interpretation of dragons to her own Western versions. - Mines of Dragon Mountain: Dragons are intelligent and magical reptiles who consume jewels like candy and don't seem to have a very close-knit society. 500,000 years ago they where godlike beings (or at least perceived like this by other creatures) who fought against Tirac to save the world, which culminated in Calcipher, the dragon god, \|\|sacrificing his life to seal Tirac's soul in his body\|\|. - The Night Unfurls: Subverted. The word "dragon" is mentioned twice in the original version of the story — a quote from Beasley saying how he "could have spent less on a blasted dragon" rather than some guards to kill the Hunter, and Grace's narration on how Kyril isn't a fairy tale hero who "slays the evil dragon". In addition, dragons are a common ingredient in a Standard Fantasy Setting, like the Kuroinu 'verse in this fanfic. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect dragons or any Dragon Tropes to appear, and yet, they don't. - Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash: The sheep-girl Bahija's true form is that of a giant Western-style dragon. She is described as being as tall as a sports stadium and as long as an entire town, capable of spitting volleys of magic missiles at targets with pinpoint accuracy, is layered with transformative magic, and self-identifies as an ex-warlord. While in that form, she is also capable of assuming a human-like appearance—albeit one with massive clawed feet, tremendous physical power, and an array of fur, feathers and scales—whenever she wants to walk the streets of Muffinville. Four years before the story's events, those seemingly limited defenses allowed her to survive a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that culminated in a blast from a planet-destroying Kill Sat, if barely. Godzilla - Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): - Monster X is a two-headed Artificial Hybrid Titan (human and Ghidorah) with leathery skin and bony protrusions, created by San transforming and essentially merging with Vivienne Graham. Viv and San have no wings and are mainly quadrupedal like eastern dragons. They have Ghidorah's bio-electricity, but their specific powers differ somewhat and they generate orange-tinted lightning. They're also essentially the "offspring" of a Satanic Archetype Draconic Abomination, but they're highly benevolent and highly fierce. - Manda is the last survivor of an ancient, draconic Titan species which lived around Yonaguni and resemble eastern dragons quite closely in appearance and behavior. Manda (and his kind) have a very snake-like body shape with green or blue scales, crystalline-looking spines, horns and antlers, and cerata appendages vaguely resembling wings. The Legend of Spyro - Dragons Unite: There's a couple hundred million of them living in the alternate Earth the story's set in, who are as intelligent as people, have opposable thumbs, stand about two meters tall and four long, live for hundreds of years, have wings (except for the Asian variety) and magical elements (again, except for the Asian variety), a varying amount of non-elemental magic, and make up the bulk of the character count in the average story. Minecraft - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Dragons of the two-legged and two-winged kind are among the most powerful of all monsters. Relatively small juveniles, which are still bigger than most other creatures, can be found roaming around on the surface, while huge adults brood in underground caverns filled with chests of loot and blocks of rare ores. They are very much endgame content, as each of their attacks can one-short an unprepared player — surface dragons are best tackled with diamond or netherite gear, and underground dragons with stuff made from the juveniles' own drops, as items made from dragon bones and scales are the strongest in the mod. They come in three kinds: fire dragons found in regular temperate biomes, ice dragons in frozen ones, and lightning dragons in jungles, savannahs, and badlands, each with an appropriate breath weapon. Adults drop eggs on dying, which if surrounded with their associated element (i.e., burning blocks, ice, or a rainstorm) will hatch into tamed dragons that can be ridden when old enough. Unlike other mobs, they have distinct males and females. A special dragon forge structure can be built, with one kind per dragon type, and used a crafting block by having a dragon stand next to it and breath fire, ice or lightning into it; this allows for the creation of ludicrously powerful dragonsteel gear, which includes the most efficient mining tools in the game and which will either set enemies on fire, freeze them solid, or call lightning on their heads. My Little Pony - The Ambassador's Son: Dragons are ancient, long-lived, magical reptilian sapients. They're omnivores that eat both meat and minerals, and will happily consume things that would kill other beings — one drink is described as "a nice healthy mix of sulfur and arsenic". Their society is divided into a number of clans, and their ethical system often veers into Blue-and-Orange Morality — they're far more accustomed to violence than other societies, for instance, and a long-running issue between them and Equestria is that the highly dominance-focused draconic society still practices slavery. - Approaching Disaster: Draco is a living constellation in the shape of a dragon, resembling a colossal Chinese serpent larger than any flesh-and-blood dragon, composed of a translucent red mass of stars, with two red giants for eyes and flying without any need for wings. Because constellations are essentially living stories and are compelled to act according to their narrative roles when they physically manifest, he is also the living embodiment of the narrative concept of dragonhood, and performs the traditional behaviors of dragons in stories — hoarding treasure, razing towns, kidnapping princesses — because that's his role in the story of the world. "I am not merely a dragon, I am Dragon, trope and archetype. I terrorize villages because that's what dragons do. I hoard treasure because that's what dragons do." - Austraeoh: The dragons are rare, powerful and supremely unfriendly creatures, and are ruled by dragon matriarchs \|\|older than the alicorns\|\|. - Earth and Sky: Due to dragons being magic creatures, their physical forms change based on their desires. For instance, a dragon that lived by himself in the middle of nowhere grew a second head just so he'd have someone to talk to. This is also apparently why Spike has wings now when he didn't during his greed-induced growth spurt; he didn't want them back then, but has since learned to enjoy the concept of personal flight. - It Doesn't Work That Way: Dragon reproduction is rather odd. Once mature, they lay eggs automatically every few months, which are essentially just rocks; they only become viable eggs if they're fertilized by another dragon "quickening" them by infusing them with magic by breathing fire over them. All dragons can lay eggs, but most need another dragon to fertilize them — girl dragons, which are few, are the only ones able to fertilize their own eggs. Because Spike's egg was fertilized and hatched by Twilight's magic surge, he's technically half-dragon and half-pony. - It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door: - Dragons come from the nation of Carcosa and have their own language, Draketongue, a tonal tongue (meaning that tone and pitch are as important as, if not more important than, the actual sound of words in conveying meaning) noted to be highly melodic and sung more than spoken. - The komagas, large reptilian creatures that rampage across Gildedale for a month every year, destroying anything in their way (they only do this in one direction and return the next year from the same way as before; no one knows where they go the rest of the time), were, according to Gildedale tradition, dragons who long ago committed some unknown sin and were punished by their gods with the loss of their wings and fire and being cursed to eternally roam the earth, and who over the aeons have degraded into mindless beasts. - Longs are also mentioned, and apparently live in the nation of Salamar. They are not true dragons, however, and apparently dislike being mistaken for such. - In addition, Besides the Will of Evil also introduces various dragon-like creatures among the monsters created by Reiziger during the Deer War, which become part of his forces again when he returns: - Wyverns resemble cobras with dragon wings and blue fire burning in their mouths, eyes, and a slit along their backs. - Fell beasts are bigger, almost the size of a small dragon. They have only four limbs — wings and taloned legs — and their long necks and tails give them an almost wormlike appearance. Their shrieks cause supernatural terror. - The Last Draconequus: According to Discord's inner monologue, eastern dragons exist alongside the western kind: - Eastern dragons are capable of interbreeding with ponies to create a chimeric species called the long-ma. The draconequi were long-ma who migrated west. The original long-ma followed a different evolutionary path and are still around today, and deny being draconequui at all, but Discord still considers them basically the same species. - Western dragons are an inherently chaotic species and as such, like the draconequi, can produce an Avatar of Chaos. - My Little Mages: The Nightmare's Return: Unlike canon, Spike looks hardly any different from an ordinary iguana, save for his coloring (which annoys him). He's too young to speak yet, and can only communicate with Twilight telepathically. - The Palaververse: - The dragons used to rule most of the world in the past, but their power began to slip as civilization grew, and was lost in a series of disastrous wars against the Diamond Dogs, the Capric Empire and Equestria, forcing most of them out of Ungula and to the archipelago of the Burning Mountains. They also have their own unique but poorly understood form of magic, hoard treasure as both a way to store food and as a mating display of sorts, and though mostly loners they have a loose society, ruled by the Fire Queen through Dragon Lords acting as intermediaries and viceroys. - Although most dragons dismiss religion as something for more mortal beings to bother with, particularly old and powerful dragons almost invariably develop beliefs centering on the size of ones hoard determining the value and "brightness" of one's soul, and of a "Last Dark" to be met with as bright a soul as possible, refusing to elaborate on this even to their younger kin. - The caverns of the underworld are known to be home to blind, flightless dragons that breathe mind-clouding fumes and poison instead of fire. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The dragons are the same as in the base canon (i.e., they're of the Western type, have nigh-invulnerable scaly hides, fire breath and six limbs (counting the wings), eat gemstones, and collect a Dragon Hoard because they grow larger the more stuff they possess). However, this is heavily Deconstructed. Because dragons are so individually powerful, and can find their food so easily, they never developed a civilization beyond the crudest level of "might makes right". Very few dragons can even read and write, and the handful of more civilized dragons have to learn other languages just because Draconic lacks the vocabulary to express many of the things they want to say. In addition, since the greatest threat to a mature dragon is another dragon, they never work together, and though they may spawn whelps, they would never take them into their own lairs, for they might steal something. As a result, there are only a few thousand dragons on the planet. As one abnormally wise dragon puts it: "We are dragons. We are mighty. We are the strongest of the mortal races. We have no equals. And because of that... we are dying." - Past Sins: Dragons eat gems for food, and as said in "A Secret Between Friends", their eyes look similar to beings usually antagonistic to ponies, such as "the changeling queen, and well, Nightmare Moon". Spike atleast, also has "magical dragon fire" to send letters with, as used in the final chapter. - Under the Northern Lights: Nidhoggs, whose name means "ill-that-gnaws" in Poatsi, are draconic beings, but not true dragons, resembling immense serpents that breathe icy wind and eat only frozen wood, preferring the worked timber of buildings over wild trees. They are spawned yearly from Karhu-Akka, a godlike being whose slumbering shape forms the great Everfrost Glacier, as part of the yearly onset of winter; most perish battling the reindeer, but some survive and grow stronger and larger with each passing year. Negima! Magister Negi Magi - Still Waters Series: Dragons are separated into two main types: Common Dragons and True Dragons. Common Dragons (further subdivided into Greater and Lesser Dragons) are the sort found everywhere in Mundus Magicus and are not sapient, while True Dragons are extremely rare, highly intelligent, and capable of great magic. The ancient dragon riders are thought to have ridden True Dragons, although the modern ones ride purpose-bred dragons that are a pale imitation of the real things. One Piece - and we can watch the stars on the water: The dragons in Flights of Fancy aren't quite gone into detail, but they're happy to have bonded humans fly on their backs, they've apparently got enough of a language that they can use sarcasm (even if they can't speak human languages), and can \|\|interbreed with humans\|\|. Person of Interest - Catalyst Verse: Dragons are stand-ins for the artificial superintelligences of canon translated into the story's fantasy world. They are few in number but ancient and powerful; even their ashes can be used to fuel magic. Pokémon - Pokémon Uranium has its own assortment of peculiar Dragon-types. - Terlard is a Ground/Dragon burrowing serpent with two heads and a forked tail. - Dunsparce's evolution, Dunseraph, is a Flying/Dragon Tsuchinoko with feathered wings and whisker-like barbels. - Barand, the only pure Dragon-type, resembles a draconic snake with a clawed hand on its tail. - Chicoalt's final evolution, Coatlith, is a Grass/Dragon Mesoamerican Feathered Serpent. - Tracton is a Steel/Dragon living excavator. - Fafurr and Fafninter are shaggy, leopard-spotted and antlered mammalian beings named after the legendary dragon Fafnir. - Lavent is a fire-breathing eel that lives in underwater geothermal vents. - Yatagaryu is a very avian Feathered Dragon based on the three-legged crow of Chinese myth. - Realistic Pokémon: Charizard is portrayed as a winged lizard, Dragonite as a giant salamander (since Dragonair and Dratini look like tadpoles), Reshiram as a feathered dinosaur, and Garchomp as an unholy shark/dragon hybrid. RWBY - SAPR: As in canon, the Wyvern makes an appearance during the Vytal Festival. Unlike in canon, this gigantic Grimm is never called by its name and is just called a dragon, and \|\|can shoot a powerful energy beam from its mouth along with producing a fear response whenever it roars\|\|. A Song of Ice and Fire - Let the Galaxy Burn: Dragons can fly through space, and are colossal — Balerion the Black Dread is said to have been bigger than a ship of the line, making it several kilometers in length. An ice dragon is also encountered. Tolkien's Legendarium - In the Dragon's Den: Dragons are actually shape-shifters that resemble Men or Elves — the reason people think they're large, scaly beasts is because that's the form they take on when they're in public. Warhammer - The Roboutian Heresy: The Salamanders are themed after dragons, being proud, loot-obsessed conquerors who pillage and dominate largely to prove that they can. Their Daemon Primarch, Vulkan, has taken the form of a great black dragon after his ascension, and the Dragon Warriors take similar forms. - The protagonist of the "Dragonland Chronicles" album trilogy of the Swedish Heavy Metal band Dragonland is said to descend from dragons. In addition to that to cite an example "Dragondawn", the first song of their first album, is accompanied (it's instrumental) by these verses: As the dragons of the dawn spread their wings And in the first blazing rays of the flowing morning light Set flight over oceans of radiant azure blissful tides Over majestic mountains of old, mountains of gold (...) - Gloryhammer: The song "Magic Dragon" from the first album, Tales From The Kingdom of Fife is about a magic dragon who becomes Angus McFife's ally after a magic spell is cast. Demon attacked me, but then it was slain The dragon appeared and a battle was fought. [sic] I spoke from the words of a powerful scroll And magical dragon became now allied. - Tears for Fears: There's a small Asian-style dragon flying towards the band on the left side of The Seeds of Love cover art,◊ possibly alluding to the Eastern Zodiac verse in "Rhythm of Life (Demo)" ("Lucy's sign is the Chinese dragon, oh") even though that song wasn't included in the group's discography until the 2020 super deluxe edition. This dragon has no legs and its wings are fan-like. - The song "Welcome to Dying" from Blind Guardian is about a dragon fighting its desires to burn down a town, even if it being a dragon and not a pyromaniac is somewhat ambiguous for most of it \|\|it ends with such creature spreading out its wings and flying away\|\|. - While conventional Western Dragons have been summoned in Destroy the Godmodder, the main three dragons in the series are closer to Physical Gods than conventional dragons: - The Secret of the Void is a primordial being from the dawn of time who played a major role in creating reality as we know it. He is a major ally of the Narrative and serves as a Big Good for the series until \|\|his death at the hands of the Conflict.\|\| - \|\|The Red Dragon is the brother of the Secret of the Void and is a bona-fide Eldrich Abomination the size of an entire planet. He was imprisoned by Notch and the Secret of the Void in a dimension that became the Nether, but shards of him occasionally escape, and exist as powerful bosses in their own right. In addition, Herobrine himself was merely the champion of the Red Dragon, whose real name is "Brine."\|\| - The Ender Dragon initially appears to be a conventional dragon, albeit a particularly tyrannical one, until the players find out that \|\|she is actually a "shadow" created when the Red Dragon was imprisoned, and seeks to free her brother from the confines of the Nether.\|\| - The Journey into Imagination attraction at EPCOT features Figment, a cheerful purple dragon who acts as the park's mascot. He doesn't seem to have any fire-breathing powers, and he's (for a dragon) not particularly big. He does have some powers, though — in the third incarnation (and the current one) of the attraction, he manages to literally turn his house upside-down. - La Tanière du Dragon (The Dragon's Lair), an attraction at Disneyland Paris, features an animatronic dragon in a cave. It does not speak or demonstrate any breath weapon, but it otherwise follows the traditional Western template—huge, four-legged, winged, rugged, and ferocious. - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland includes a dragon in the Hell section that closes out the ride. All we see of it is its head, with fins in the place of ears and a single unicorn-like horn, and its foreclaws grasping two stalagmites. It breathes "fire" in the form of fog backlit by an orange lightbulb, accompanied by a sound not unlike a smoker's cough, and may be a Call-Back to the Green Dragon Inn seen earlier in the ride. - Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley area incorporates a large model dragon, posed on the roof of the Gringotts Bank. It periodically breathes fire. - Throughout the years, The LEGO Group has produced a number of dragons: - In the 1990s, the Castle theme introduced 'big-fig' dragons figures built with only a handful of bricks; bright green bodies, frills, a head-piece shared with alligators, a separate wing pieces. The 2013 revival featured a significantly larger big-fig dragon. - In the Ninjago theme, the ninjas occasionally use dragons as transport and to assist in combat. They have wildly varying appearances, wyverns, quadrupedal dragons and drakes, and Chinese Lung dragons. Unlike Castle, the dragons are fully brick-built (like a vehicle), and are very posable thanks to ball-and-socket joints. In The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Llyod Garmadon uses a bright green dragon mech based on the Chinese lung dragons. - In the Elves theme derived from the girl-centered Friends, the elves ride magical winged two or four-legged dragons in all sorts of flashy colors that behave like giant overgrown dogs. As with Ninjago, they are brick-built, albeit with custom head pieces allowing for more expression. - The Creator theme has had a number of dragons that are 100% brick built and like Ninjago encompass all sorts of body types.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDragonsAreDifferent
Our Dark Matter Is Mysterious - TV Tropes "Dark matter and dark energy are two things we measure in the universe that are making things happen, and we have no idea what the cause is." In real life, dark matter is a kind of hypothetical matter that constitutes most of the matter of our universe. Its existence is only ever detected via its gravitational and radiation effects, and so far, no one is certain what a "dark matter" actually looks like. Perhaps owing to its hypothetical nature, in fiction, dark matter is interpreted in various ways. As a phlebotinum mainly, dark matter may be a Power Source, Toxic Phlebotinum, something behind Minovsky Physics, etc. A common assumption in visual media is that it's literally dark; in reality, of course, if dark matter comprised clouds of blackness floating through the universe, we'd be able to see it. Scientists only call it "Dark" because they're in the dark about it. Note that simply naming a character or a device "dark matter", especially as a proper or brand name, isn't sufficient: dark matter must be portrayed as a substance of some kind. May be related to Casting a Shadow when used as a superpower, or Gravity Master in slightly more realistic depictions. Compare Technobabble, when writers throw together scientific terminology without regard for the words' actual definitions, and Photoprotoneutron Torpedo, which similarly makes something science fictiony by appending the name of a real or fictional subatomic particle. No relation to the Dark Matter (2015) TV series or Offscreen Villain Dark Matter. For hypothetical characters whose existence can only be inferred, see Unknown Character. ## Examples - A Twelfth Doctor story in Doctor Who (Titan) has sentient dark matter that can possess people and is plotting to blot out the sun. Yeah, it's pretty silly. - Dark Nights: Metal introduces the Dark Multiverse to the DCU, a realm of dark matter and dark energy inhabited by nightmarish versions of various heroes. - In the Marvel Universe, people with Casting a Shadow powers sometimes refer to the weird shady stuff they summon as "dark matter". It seems to drain all light and heat from the immediate vicinity, and can vary in consistency between "syrupy" and "hits like a bullet from a compressed air gun". - Thor: The Dark World has the Aether◊, one of the six Infinity Gems. Which, despite the name, is more of a wibbly-wobbly ebby-flowy fluid capable of converting regular matter into dark matter. Also despite the name, it's visible to the naked eye with a sinister red glow, and is if not sapient, intelligent enough to want to protect itself. - In Transformers: Age of Extinction, dark matter is used to power Lockdown's ship. - Aeon 14: Faster-Than-Light Travel is accomplished by transitioning to an alternate layer of spacetime called the dark layer where dark matter has physical form. Dark matter is depicted as pure unadulterated mass that drifts like icebergs according to gravity patterns and tends to be denser inside star systems. It's also fed on by Eldritch Abominations that live in the dark layer and have been known to eat ships as well. As such, it's very dangerous to transit into the dark layer inside a star system. - The climax of Destiny Lost uses this to justify an Unrealistic Black Hole. \|\|The Bollam's World Federation is using graviton generators, which work by pulling gravitons from the dark layer, to artificially expand a brown dwarf so that it doesn't ignite normally and therefore acts as a helium-3 factory. Ships from the Hegemony of Worlds blow up the generators, which causes the planet to collapse all at once, setting off a titanic fusion explosion that compresses the lower layers below the black hole threshold. The explosion also provides energy to keep the generators' portals to the dark layer open, and the black hole begins to consume dark matter, resulting in a "dark matter black hole" that is much larger and more powerful than the object it originally formed from.\|\| - Alexis Carew: Darkspace is an alternate layer of spacetime where dark matter and dark energy have physical form. This is used mainly to make darkspace an ocean: dark matter forms "shoals" and "reefs" around star systems that can enmesh and destroy ships, and ships sail through darkspace by harnessing the "winds" of dark energy, which behave differently close and far from star systems and sometimes whips up into storms that can destroy a ship. Privateer in particular takes place in a region of space called the Barbary where dark matter formations are much denser. Space Pirates have set up a base inside a system that is all but blockaded by dark matter except for small difficult-to-navigate passages, and Alexis makes two attempts at penetrating it. - In And Another Thing..., Wowbagger's (stolen) starship is made of dark matter, making it into a Shadow Walker that phases into a "dark dimension" for FTL travel unlike any other method used in the setting. Looking out the window while traveling this way is as disquieting as ten near-death experiences, and causes you to confront all your deep-seated emotional baggage (rather handily for character development purposes). - A Certain Magical Index: The Number 2 Level 5, Kakine Teitoku, has the esper power called Dark Matter, and it's the ability to generate material that has its own laws of physics. However, Kakine's "Dark Matter" is explicitly not like the real dark matter. Kakine: The Dark Matter that I produce is a substance that does not exist in this world. I don't mean it hasn't been discovered, but that it should theoretically exist; I mean, it actually does not exist. Matter that doesn't exist operates under laws which don't exist. Like say, turning the light from the sun into rays that can kill a man. - In His Dark Materials, dark matter (introduced as Dust in Lyra's world) is a central part of the trilogy, and is the substance that angels are made up of. In addition, some creatures (like the mulefa) can see it and use it to identify intelligent beings, as it gathers around them in large quantities. - In Lucifer's Star, the universe has a second dimension called Jumpspace. It is a mysterious dimension which underlines everything else. It is full of bizarre alien entities, sanity blasting visuals, and weird gravitonic anomalies. - Parodied in one of the Discworld books, where, after discussing the notion of a mysterious form of matter that makes up most of the universe, the narrator concludes that it must be the paperwork. - The Flash (2014) uses dark matter as its go-to Applied Phlebotinum for Super Empowering. If there's a metahuman then chances are they were hit by dark matter at some point. Most notably the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator explosion was a Mass Super-Empowering Event that released dark matter all over Central City. - Star Trek: Typically used as part of technobabble, often in the form of dark matter nebulae. - Star Trek: Enterprise: In "First Flight" Vulcan scientists are said to have excited dark matter in experiments, causing it to give off light, by bombarding it with metreon particles. The Enterprise crew do the same to a dark matter nebula encountered in the episode. - Star Trek: Discovery: In "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", Harry Mudd uses capsules of dark matter as weapons against the Discovery crew. They're shown as little purple-glowing balls that disintegrate people they hit. - Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "In Theory" features the Enterprise exploring a dark matter nebula which caused bits of the ship to randomly vanish. This caused activity from Spot (Data's cat) exiting Data's room without using the doors to a crew member falling through the floor after it vanishes and then getting killed when it comes back. - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Rocks and Shoals", Sisko et al. attempt to evade Jem'Hadar pursuit by flying into a dark matter nebula, but suffer damage and crash on a planet inside it. - Star Trek: Voyager: - "Cathexis": Chakotay and Tuvok pass a dark matter nebula in a shuttle and are attacked by energy beings living inside it, which becomes a Body Surfing/Demonic Possession plot. - "Threshold": Neelix says he once lost a warp nacelle traveling through a dark matter nebula, which gives Paris and Kim inspiration on how to finish building their transwarp drive. - "One Small Step..." featured a dark matter asteroid, which looked like the shape of an asteroid but was see-through. - "Good Shepherd": Voyager encounters a species of dark matter lifeforms that again take over a Red Shirt's body and try to communicate. The guest star panics and kills one of them, and the aliens attack the ship. - The Outer Limits (1995): In the episode "Dark Matters", the commercial transport ship Nestor is thrown out of hyperspace into a starless void. In this void, they find a huge quantity of dark matter and two ships, the UNS Slayton and an alien ship. Everyone on both of those ships is dead. An apparition of Captain John Owens of the Slayton appears to the crew of the Nestor and tells them that their "souls" are trapped in the pocket of space created by the dark matter. As such, they cannot move on to whatever comes next, whether that be Heaven, Hell or oblivion. The same fate has befallen the aliens. - The X-Files: The episode "Soft Light" has a scientist exposed to dark matter in the lab; afterwards, his shadow causes anyone who touches it to melt into a puddle. - In the DarkMatter campaign setting, the Earth passes through a high concentration of dark matter. The total amount of magical and psionic energy increases and gates to other dimensions open up, allowing weird monsters to come through. - In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Akano, the second Quantum Mask that Crash and Coco meet, has the power of dark matter. Having him equipped imbues the bandicoots' Spin Attacks with added density, allowing them to spin indefinitely, break reinforced crates that they can usually only destroy through their Ground Pound attack, glide through the air, and deflect certain attacks. - In Crying Suns, the Dark Matter Cannon covers a targeted area with spheres resembling small black holes. These dark matter spheres act like a wall, forming a temporary obstacle that squadrons cannot pass through. - The Destiny games hint at the mysterious, civilization-killing Darkness being linked to dark matter, as it and entities associated with it tend to emit phaetons, axions, and sterile neutrinos (all theoretical particles potentially linked to dark matter) when their Reality Warping properties come into play. Intriguingly, Destiny 2 revealed that dark matter is \|\|the "flesh" of the equally enigmatic Nine: nine galaxy-spanning loops of (physically accurate: undetectable and only interacting with gravity) dark matter centered on nine bodies of the Solar System, with their consciousness "seeded" by the minuscule gravitational fluctuations of living things moving around on them propagating across each loop.\|\| The connection between them, if any, is currently unclear. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy V: In the hands of a Chemist, Dark Matter in combination with another consumable item will usually do the opposite of what the item does in regular gameplay. Maiden's Kiss transforms the target into a toad, Eyedrop causes Darkness, Phoenix Down kills the target, Ether drops the enemy's MP to 1/4... High-end combinations with Dragon Fang or itself result in high-level magic like Dark Breath and Shadowflare. - Final Fantasy XIV: - Dark Matter is a "catalyst" item used to repair gear, coming in various grades of purity that allow it to be used on higher and higher levels. Repairing your own gear with Dark Matter lets you increase its durability above 100%, which you can't get from NPC Menders. - In Endwalker, a rather important plot point is \|\|a form of energy called Dynamis, which makes up 68.3% of all energy in the universe, and is responsible for things on a large scale, but invisible on small scales where aether overrides it.\|\| If one is even passingly familiar with the real-world science on dark matter, it's obvious that this is a reference to it. - Golden Sun: Dark Matter is a forgeable item, dropped by firebirds. The gear crafted from it is among the best there is, but it's all cursed (can't be unequipped without a priest, and occasionally stuns the wielder without a specific one-of-a-kind item). - In Half-Life 2, dark matter is a power source used by the Combine. - Recurring villain Dark Matter in the Kirby series is a living blob of darkness that flies through space, finding planets to be corrupted/consumed. There are multiple Dark Matters in the universe, all of them coming from their master/"core", Zero (another Cosmic Entity). - In League of Legends, "Dark Matter" is the name of one of Veigar's spells, which causes a meteor to fall. - In the LittleBigPlanet games, dark matter is a material that cannot be moved by force or gravity. It's used to suspend other materials for easier level design. - In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus's Dark Beam fires blasts of dark matter. - The Dark Matter Gun from Quake IV. It fires Unrealistic Black Holes. - Dark matter is featured in the MMO Ogame as the in-game currency. It can be bought with real money and is often found when you send ships in expedition missions. - In Spiral Knights, dark matter is one of five forms of minerals used to level Battle Sprites. - In Stellaris, dark matter is a rare strategic resource found near black holes. It can be used to craft the final tier of spaceship components, but you must first reverse-engineer them by defeating a Fallen Empire ship in battle. - In Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, dark matter exists as a form of Grimy Water that causes Mario and Luigi to instantly disintegrate upon falling into it. It's also capable of warping reality, creating holes in space that will cause you to fall off platforms moving through the stuff if you don't jump over them. - From SCP Foundation: - Parodied in SCP-1212-J where it's pointlessly included in the object just because it's cool. - Played straight in SCP-2460 where the Black Knight satellite is an agglomeration of thousands of normal matter objects that were anomalously converted into dark matter and since they only interact via gravity, phase through each other constantly. - In Exosquad, dark matter is used as spaceship coating for Stealth in Space. It also makes humans who come in contact with it extra irritable and aggressive. - In Futurama, dark matter exists as an oil-like substance and in an extremely dense solid form (1 pound of it weighs over 10,000 pounds, according to Professor Farnsworth) defecated by Nibblonians, typically employed as starship fuel. The episode "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" revealed that the liquid form could induce hyperfertility in animals, in this case, penguins, and even induce egg-laying in males, which led to a potential Overpopulation Crisis. - An evil clone of Jimmy Neutron once duplicated the entire planet and everyone on it, but used a "dark matter chip" to turn the whole dupe-Earth into a world of Card Carrying Villains. After he snapped the chip in frustration, it unleashed a huge black billowy cloud that began to swallow everything around it. - In League of Super Evil, the most powerful dark matter in the universe is found in the shape of black licorice, of all things. Red Menace is the only character shown who enjoys the stuff. - In Ninjago, dark matter is a Psycho Serum found on the Island of Darkness that the Overlord describes as being able to "turn a man's heart as black as night". After using one of the heroes as a guinea pig, he uses bombs filled with the stuff to attack Ninjago City and turn the citizens into berserk thralls. - The Persistence gives no clue as to how dark matter can let you apparate from place to place or see heat signatures, but it sounds mysterious enough for it to maintain your Willing Suspension of Disbelief. - In Rick and Morty, Rick was kidnapped by Zygerions who made a convoluted scheme to obtain the recipe for concentrated dark matter from him. Rick developed it as a highly potent starship fuel that makes his ship faster than any in the universe. The episode ends with Rick giving them a fake recipe that blew up their ship when they added bottled water to the concoction.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDarkMatterIsMysterious
Our Dwarves Are All the Same - TV Tropes Standard-Issue Dwarf. Celia: He has an accent. Haley: He likes beer. Haley: He worships Thor. Celia: And hates trees! Cleric of Loki: Can you tell me anything about him that differentiates him from every other dwarf? 'Dwarves': you know what they are. Gruff, practical, industrious, stout, gold-loving, blunt-speaking, Scottish-accented, Viking-helmed, booze-swilling, Elf-hating, ax-swinging, long-bearded, stolid and unimaginative, boastful of their battle prowess and their vast echoing underground halls and mainly just the fact that they are dwarves. Ever since J. R. R. Tolkien raided the Norse myths for good stuff, dozens of fantasy worlds have included them as one of the Standard Fantasy Races... and most of them have stuck closely to the original. Tolkien's importance to this can be gauged by the fact that the plural form dwarves, which he used to distinguish his dwarves from other dwarfs, note : It was originally a recurring mistake during the writing of The Hobbit (or rather "a private piece of bad grammar" that sneaked into the text), but it quickly became an Ascended Glitch. is now regarded by many as the standard plural (at least regarding fantasy — "dwarfs" is still the accepted plural for humans with dwarfism). Fantasy writers who use "dwarfs", like Terry Pratchett, are now the unusual ones. note : There is a small group that contends that the proper plural should be "dwarrows" or "dwerrows", reconstructed modern English forms of Old English dweorgas or dweorhas, in turn the plural of dweorg or dweorh, from which dwarf evolved (compare Old Norse dverg and dvergar). Tolkien was the first to suggest this, likening it to "man/men" and "goose/geese", but thought it was too archaic. Within this small group, some also use "dwarrow" or "dwerrow", singular. (Many "Tolkienesque" dwarves, however, are more like the Theme Park Version.) Since The Film of the Book(s), they now even all talk the same. A lot of dwarves are Scottish or have some other accent that reads as "rustic" to American or Southern English speakers — Northern or south-western English, Welsh, note : John Rhys-Davies, who played archetypal dwarf Gimli in the LOTR films, is Welsh. Stephen Briggs, who does the Discworld audiobooks, also gives many of them Welsh accents, as they often come from Llamedos, Discworld Wales. Irish, or Russian accents are common. Oddly, despite the strong Norse influence, dwarves with any sort of Scandinavian accent are extremely rare. An entire race of miners and blacksmiths, with names like Dwarfaxe Dwarfbeard and Grimli Stonesack, who are overly sensitive about any perceived slight, always spoiling for a fight, unable to speak two sentences in a row without calling someone "lad" or "lass," and possessed of a love of gold and jewels that drives them to live in Underground Cities where they dig deep and greedily (often with catastrophic results). In the decades following Tolkien, they will often be depicted as more technologically minded than other fantasy races, verging on (and sometimes overtaking) Steampunk, but this is in keeping with their engineering and crafting skills both from the classic Fantasy depictions and from actual mythology. Their societies tend strongly toward a Reasonable Authority Figure (usually a warrior king) ruling over a socially conservative but rather egalitarian society of soldiers, miners, and craftsmen. In most settings, dwarves and humans have enough in common to treat each other with respect. They are frequently allies against outside threats. The dwarf will often serve as The Big Guy (ironic, considering their stature) of a fantasy Five-Man Band, especially since his weapon of choice tends to be either an axe or a hammer. Ranged combat is not their preference, but if they aren't able to force enemies into close quarters, you can expect guns (Fantasy Gun Control permitting), throwing axes, or crossbows — in about that order. Dwarf rogues are rather uncommon in fiction, as their stocky frames make sneaking around look unconvincing, and their culture values honesty and openness; however dwarfs will usually know a thing or two about brawling and fighting dirty, which overlaps with the rogue archetype and being masters of crafting mechanical devices means they tend to know a thing or two about picking locks and disarming traps. Likewise, dwarven mages are vanishingly rare, except sometimes where religion is concerned. In fact, it's not uncommon for the entire race to be at least somewhat magic-resistant. If a dwarf wants to use magic, he'll infuse it into a sword or an axe so he can physically beat the enemy with it instead. If legends speak of an Ultimate Blacksmith from a bygone age who once forged all manner of powerful enchanted weapons and equipment, then he was probably a dwarf. If you happen to come across any of this legendary equipment and discover that the centuries haven't been very kind to it, then the only guy in the world who can help you get it back into fighting shape is probably a dwarf too. Might even be the same one, depending on how long-lived they are in the setting. Often they get treated as a functional One-Gender Race; one of the only widespread (but not universal) novelties is what the women look like. Even then, the most common ones seem to veer somewhere around "Grandmother from the Old Country"/"adorable" (depending on age) or "you're looking at one now" (with the Girls with Moustaches that implies). And in contrast to elves (which are generally treated as universally androgynous and bisexual), dwarves are almost always portrayed as heterosexual, uninterested in sex with non-dwarves (there's a reason that half-elves are a stock fantasy race and half-dwarves are not), and possibly even uninterested in sex for non-reproductive purposes. Female dwarves might occasionally be portrayed as being Butch Lesbian, and the few homosexual male dwarves in fiction are typically Manly Gay. An exception to this rule is the fantasy setting's Cutesy Dwarf, who is often based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; this variety shares traits with our kind of Dwarves, but will be less of a tough guy and more of a charming man-child, and will scrap the ale-drinking and ax-wielding to focus on craft and mining. For another fantasy race derived from subterranean fairy spirits and often associated with underground places and metalwork, see Our Kobolds Are Different. Not to be confused with Little People Are Surreal or Depraved Dwarf — once again, dwar s are fantasy creatures; dwar ve s are short humans (except in f Discworld and Warhammer), and nowadays the polite term for the latter is "little people". Also see Dwarfism in Media. ## These Dwarves are Rather Dwarivative - In Black Clover dwarves are a race from long ago that had special powers like elves, and were short miners who wielded axes. \|\|Charmy is revealed to be half-dwarf. While this could explain her short stature, when her dwarf abilities activate Charmy oddly gets much taller.\|\| - It's heavily implied that dwarves in Delicious in Dungeon largely fit the usual stereotype (smithing, fighting, mining, straightforward). Senshi, the main dwarf of the series, is considered a very atypical dwarf, being a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, Nature Hero, and Supreme Chef, who can handle himself in a fight but prefers peace first, and admits to not knowing the first thing about ores. He inherited a pair of priceless, heirloom adamantine shields from his companions — and reforged them into a wok with a matching lid. He has a mithril cooking knife. Nonetheless, he still has a few traditional dwarven elements in him, such as a distrust of magic and favoring an axe. - After being transformed into a dwarf by changeling mushroom spores, Laios discovers that dwarves do have one point of divergence from the standard mold: despite being very strong, they have very low stamina. Every dwarf seen so far wears only light armor when they need to fight and has to rest frequently. - The Dwarves in Nectar of Dharani Zig-zag this. On one hand they're smiths, very strong, prideful, stubborn and distrustful of elves. But on the other hand they can grow the size of a human, and females prefer to act from the shadows. - Kiryu's Infernity Dwarf in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is, other than the fact that he's a DARK Monster, pretty much a dwarf. (The burning axe was added for the card game version later.) - The dwarves in Tales of Wedding Rings seem to have been typical fantasy dwarves before they went extinct: short, muscular, hirsute people who dwelled underground and were expert miners and craftsmen. They were also pioneers of Magitek, creating robots, perpetual motion machines, and other devices which modern peoples cannot replicate. - Black Moon Chronicles: Stout, short and bearded? Check. Live inside mountains (and active volcanoes)? Check. Master engineers, miners and smiths? Check. Greedy? Check. Love alcohol? Check. Hate orcs? Check. Fight equipped with massive war machines, heavy armor, axes and hammers? Check, check and check. - Crystar Crystal Warrior: The wizard Ogeode's wife, the warrior woman Shen, is quite attractive despite her short stature, but she is a hot-blooded warrior who will cut anybody down to size who she perceives to be threatening her husband. He's rather embarrassed about her tendency to jump to his defense at the slightest insult (especially anyone calling him "old"), but he loves her dearly. - Played with in DC's Dungeons & Dragons. Khal is what you would expect a Gimli Expy to be, except he was actually kicked out of his dwarven home because he actively spoke against the rigid clannishness of his culture through love poems. - The Great Power of Chninkel: The kolds are a small, bearded, industrious people who produce metal weapons for the three warring armies in Daar. - Dwarves in Polish comedy-fantasy comic book series Lil i Put (Lil and Put) are exaggerated for comical effect — barbaric, loud, violent, self-righteous brutes who display fantastic levels of Fantastic Racism against elves. They do enjoy a good sing-a-long... and their songs tend to be about beating elves up. - Violet in Rat Queens is a dwarven hipster: she consciously rejects dwarven stereotypes unless it becomes popular to do so, in which case she enjoys them ironically. Female dwarves normally grow beards, so she shaved hers until facial shaving became "in" among young dwarves, at which point she grew it back (though as that happened during part of an Audience-Alienating Era that was hitting the series, it ended up being one of the elements that was dropped without comment and she's gone back to being beardless again). She also loves drinking as much as the next dwarf, but prefers wine to beer or ale. And she fights with a sword rather than an axe or hammer. - Brokk and Eitri from Valhalla, being based on one of the mythical originators of the trope, play it extremely straight as bearded, short, fond of money and extremely skilled craftsdwarfs. The sons of Ivaldi show up in Loki's Wager and look slightly more like gnomes than stereotypical dwarfs. - Marvel Comics' use of the Norse Mythos (via The Mighty Thor) has Dwarves that look like the modern model but otherwise are more like their ancient inspiration. In effect, they are cave-dwelling magical gadgeteers. - The subterranean Dawn People, or Thuatha, from Prince Valiant. They're more mysterious and mystical than militaristic, but you seriously do not want to mess with them. - Dungeon Keeper Ami presents us with three Dwarven Kingdoms. The dwarves here play all the tropes straight, but presents them in a very positive light, contrary to the game world where the story takes place. The dwarfs are honorable, resilient people whose obduracy against Keeper Mercury is justified, since the worst civil war in their history was backed and orchestrated by a Keeper. - Hoggle from Labyrinth is a fairly standard gruff Jerk with a Heart of Gold dwarf, apart from not having a long beard. No other dwarves are mentioned in this movie and he works for Jareth the Goblin King before his HeelFace Turn. - Eitri's depiction in Avengers: Infinity War is a bit of Shown Their Work, as nothing in the original myths stated that the dwarves were actually, physically short. It has been implied that their 'shorter stature' simply meant 'lesser in power to the gods', and that the image of them being shorter and stouter than a human was brought about later. - Dwarves from the Fighting Fantasy series of books follow the stereotypical depictions of dwarves: bushy beards, short in stature, having love of gold and so on. Most of their dwarves comes from two areas, the town of Stonebridge (where the dwarves are friendly, and led by their lawful chief, King Gillibran) and the town of Mirewater (whose dwarves are greedy, hostile and wouldn't hesitate to attack outsiders). - Lone Wolf: Although Magnamund lacks most classical fantasy races (elves, gnomes, halflings...), the dwarves from the mountain kingdom of Bor are pretty much standard fare. They're even known for their mechanical prowess and invented guns. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: - Prince Durin is designed around the archetypal Dwarf presented by the cinematic trilogies: a stout, truculent, bombastic redhead sporting a large nose and an impressive, braided beard. - Like his son, king Durin III is an archetypal Dwarf, albeit more aged, sporting a massive grey beard, a huge nose, and is gruff and he's no-nonsense in personality. - Clamavi de Profundis: The dwarves of Hammerdeep and Irna are fairly typical fantasy dwarves — they're short, stout folk with a preference for flowing beards, a great love of wealth and craftsmanship and rowdy natures prone to conflict. They also have a tendency to be brought to grief by their excessive greed. - Gloryhammer: In the second album Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards, we are introduced to the Astral Dwarves of Aberdeen whose king wields a "Crystal Laser Battle Axe." - Norse Mythology — here's where it all started. - Though they were somewhat varied, the basics of common lore go back to this mythology. The long beards, the skill in metallurgy, the living in caves, etc. They also turned to stone (sometimes temporarily, sometimes not) when exposed to sunlight. There was also discrepancy concerning how long they lived. Some myths had them be an adult at three years old and an old man by nine, some myths had them always looking old but being immortal. They had coal-black hair, extremely pale skin, were actually a type of elf and were human-sized at first, but Memetic Mutation changed them a lot even during the Viking era. By the late Middle Ages, they were much closer to the dwarves we'd recognize today. - In one version, they first appeared as maggots in the corpse of Ymir, whose body was then made to form the Earth itself. In this light, the stated origin for the dwarves seems an appropriate metaphor, what with their penchant for tunneling and living beneath the surface of the Earth. - They usually appeared as cave-dwellers forging weapons and jewelry. Sometimes with remarkable results. It was cave-dwelling dwarves who made Þór's hammer (always hits, destroys its target, returns to the user), Óðinn's spear (always hits its target), Freyja's necklace (shining like the sun), and the nine golden rings (give birth to new rings). Thus the legend of the stunted master forgers in the mountains was born. - Experts in Germanic mythology actually believe dwarves began as chthonic death related spirits, which makes the maggot origins and synonimity with the dark elves all the more evident. - Burning Wheel not only plays straight dwarf stereotypes but even builds upon the tale of Moria from The Lord of the Rings by working an attribute called "Greed" into the rule system: all dwarves are covetous. The higher a dwarf's Greed, the more likely they are to betray others, or even go Ax-Crazy, in the pursuit of possessing objects of high value and/or craftsmanship. They get bonuses to rolls made in the pursuit of wealth. However, if the Greed attribute reaches its maximum through indulgence of the vice, the dwarf hides himself away with his hoard of goods in paranoid seclusion, never to be seen again. - Changeling: The Lost has the Wizened, humans who were made to work as the Gentry's craftsmen and servants. Like dwarves, there's usually something "diminished" about them (sometimes size, sometimes muscle, sometimes social presence), they tend to be cranky (see "diminished social presence"), and they're very, very good with crafts. - The Chronicles of Aeres has two subraces of dwarves, with Gray Dwarves being fairly standard D&D-esque dwarves and Frostgraevyr Dwarves being an offshoot culture of dwarven mystics and mages with a particular knack for Frost Elementalism. - Dragon Dice plays it straight with standard, Tolkien inspired dwarves — not surprising for a game from TSR that was significantly inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. They are composed of the elements of earth and fire, have beards, are expert craftsmen and miners, live in the mountains, wield axes, and wear horned helms... Oh, and their cavalry ride on giant lizards and mammoths, just for a change of pace. - Dungeons & Dragons — not surprising, given how much it was originally based on Tolkien. There's other differences as well. - One widely used D&D addition is the idea that Dwarves are inherently more resistant to magic, being that they're all stolid and stony like the earth and all. Yet in the original myths, dwarves produced all manner of magical artifacts for the Aesir. Even Tolkien's dwarves managed to make mithril, the local Unobtainium. That said, they were resistant to The Corruption, seemingly because they love gold and cunning more than they love power. Didn't stop them from making and using magical weapons and armor either. Just made them resistant to wizard spells. - Interestingly, the Races of Stone Supplement for 3.5 provides a special Prestige Class that allows the casting of spells in armor, providing a description that's best summed up as "Nobody thinks there's any Dwarven Wizards because they wear Armor like the rest of the Dwarves." Of course, this is still entirely fitting with this trope. - D&D has shown an interesting evolution in the question of Dwarven females — namely, the lore about whether or not they sport beards. Throughout the 80s, the question on whether or not this was true raged in the pages of Dragon — especially when issue #58 introduced the first iteration of the Morndinsamman, the dwarven racial pantheon, complete with a bearded mother-goddess in Berronar Truesilver. However, its actual canonicity in the first editions of D&D are... questionable. Both the Dungeon Master's Guide for AD&D 1st edition and the Player's Handbook for the 1983 "Red Box" of BECMI Revised mention bearded dwarf women in passing, which are the earliest known such references. However, the AD&D Player's Handbook and Monster Manual made no such references, and the lore was removed from the subsequent 2ed Dungeon Master's Guide and the Rules Compendium for BECMI. In the late 2nd edition sourcebook "The Complete Book of Dwarves", it's mentioned in a single line that dwarf women can grow beards, but only the Deep Dwarf women tend to not shave them off. In 3rd edition, the idea was just quietly dropped and never referenced. In the sourcebook "Wizards Presents: Races & Classes", a design teaser for 4th edition, Wizards of the Coast stated emphatically that bearded dwarf women would not be a thing in that edition. Then in 5th edition, a sidebar in the Player's Handbook would mentioned bearded dwarf women as a possible "non-binary gender expression", alongside androgynous or truly gender-fluid elves... unlike the latter, though, bearded dwarf women have made no appearances in canon. - The Forgotten Realms were the first D&D setting to make the idea of D&D dwarf women having beards be mainstream. The sourcebook "Dwarves Deep" would establish that Faerunian dwarf women are capable of growing beards, but most prefer to shave. This would be reinforced by the sourcebook "Demihuman Deities", which would explicitly state that all dwarf goddesses are bearded and show at least one bearded goddess. Novels set in the setting that released in the 80s through 90s also mention bearded dwarf women in passing. In post-2nd edition versions of the setting, this lore was quietly dropped. - In Mystara, apart from the aforementioned "Red Box", no mention of dwarf women being bearded ever appears. Indeed, the Mystara dwarf sourcebook, "The Dwarves of Rockhome", almost pointedly goes out of its way to not mention the idea, with all of its female dwarf art depicting them as clean-shaven. - In Dragonlance, dwarf women do not grow beards, apart from the degenerate Aghar, or gully dwarves. And even then, women do not grow beards so much as "hairy cheeks", which are implied to be basically overgrown sideburns. - In the Nentir Vale, because it was built to be integrated into 4th edition, dwarf women lack beards and never had beards. In fact, a subrace of elementally tainted dwarves, called the Forgeborn, are naturally hairless. - In Dark Sun, all dwarves are completely hairless, so not only are dwarf women in that setting non-bearded, they're actually bald. - Dwarves are noted as being good with Divine magic, and they're one of the go-to races for Clerics. (see: Durkon from The Order of the Stick for an example). Players and Game Masters, of course, can play with or subvert the definition all they wish. - Even Eberron — the setting that brought you good undead, necromancer elves, intelligent giants (granted that's ancient history), removed alignment restrictions, among other things — cannot escape this. Its dwarves are the same, with the exception of House Kundarak who are bankers instead of smiths or miners. Though if this article by Keith Baker himself is to be believed, the Neogi (who look like a cross between a wolf spider and a moray eel) were actually formerly dwarves altered by the Daelkyr. That being said, subsequent releases and further Word of God have tweaked them somewhat: fifth edition Eberron dwarves are notably more friendly and outgoing than the standard, with traditions of storytelling and gift-giving, but they're dealing with questions about daelkyr symbionts and other weird stuff found in the corrupted corridors of the Realm Below; some holds have enthusiastically embraced things like living breastplates and tentacle whips. - Forgotten Realms with its dazzling level of diversity and details subverts this trope a few times with sub-races like the wild dwarves and arctic dwarves, plus Gray Dwarves (duergar). Shield dwarves and gold dwarves are closer to the stereotype, as a beard-combing grimly determined Proud Warrior Race Guy is never too far. Gold dwarves tend to be tradition-bound, suspicious, greedy, obscenely rich and almost as haughty as elves, though trade with humans and other folk a lot. Shield dwarves are split. Some are "The Hidden", isolationist clans. Most are "The Wanderers" who got a clue from all those empty clanholds that dwarves aren't too far from extinction, and see interacting with the world proactively as their duty. These are borderline Boisterous Bruiser sorts, allying with anyone up to elves and half-orcs if necessary, adventuring, working as smiths in non-dwarven cities. They are fairly traditional, but marry whoever they like including humans, gnomes or halflings instead of checking exact age, social status and opinions of all elders in both clans before starting a family. - Dragonlance played with the trope a bit. They had the Hylar, Niedhar, and Daewar clans of dwarves, all of which were in the general neighborhood of Lawful Good, and the Daergar, who were Lawful Evil. - Mystara uses this trope 100% straight with its Rockhome dwarves, then subverts it with their Kogolor predecessors, who lived above ground and mostly raised goats for a living. - The classic supplement The Dwarves of Rockhome goes out of its way to justify the trope by explaining the modern dwarves' backstory, which they themselves don't generally know: after the Blackmoor civilization accidentally wiped itself out in a quasi-nuclear cataclysm that tilted the very axis of the planet, the Immortal Kagyar — not so coincidentally the patron of craftsmen — took some of the few surviving Kogolors and turned them into a new race highly resistant to poison and radiation (and incidentally magic as well) and a predilection for living underground, so that even if a similar disaster should strike the world again, dwarven culture and its achievements would be able to survive in spite of it. Thus, dwarven underground cities essentially serve double duty as potential fallout shelters for their inhabitants. - It also plays with the idea that dwarves are always craftsmen by including a clan of dwarf farmers, descended from criminals who'd been sentenced to the "humiliating" task of growing food. The Wyrwarfs, tired of being treated like riffraff, voiced their discontent by threatening to withhold food from the other clans: if the clans refused to acknowledge farmers as equal to miners and artisans, they could huddle down deep with their trinkets and eat rocks. - The largely forgotten Chainmail D&D Miniatures game (the early 2000s relaunch, not the classic '60s version that inspired D&D) ended up using pretty standard D&D dwarves, but oh What Could Have Been. The original design specs called for a dwarf faction that had deposed their king, abandoned faith in their god, and become communist factory workers and miners. The Dwarves would have dressed like something out of a '30s era Soviet propaganda poster and built mecha golems. - Just like elves, dwarves in D&D have a subterranean Evil Counterpart: the Duergar, or Gray Dwarves, who are built on the folktales of dwarves as nasty schemers with supernatural powers. The Duergar have limited Psychic Powers and have a grim, humorless society based around slave labor and constant toil. - Fifth Edition hammers the trope a little harder by giving dwarven characters automatic proficiency with hammers, axes, and the player's choice of metalsmithing, stonemason, or brewing tools. So Monks or Rogue are likely to be the only classes that see a dwarf not running around with such weapons since the class features don't really use either very well. On top of that, the Mountain Dwarf subrace also gives automatic proficiency with light and medium armors, so in the event that you want to play a Mountain Dwarf Wizard, you'll still be wearing a breastplate and holding a battle axe. - Dark Sun Athas's Dwarves play this straight, except for few noticeable differences. They're completely hairless, and they have a tradition of working toward short- and long-term goals that only they know of. - The Uvandir of Wicked Fantasy basically turn the typical dwarf stereotypes up a notch or three and play it for some mild Black Comedy. They seem to be a One-Gender Race, but the truth is that they're actually genderless Artificial Humanoids psionically shaped from stone — this incidentally makes them a Dying Race because the free Uvandir don't know how to make new ones. They're inherently able to communicate with each other non-verbally, so they hate talking to excess and see it as the mark of a fool, which is why they don't get on so well with other races. They're rude and gruff because they're actually very emotionally sensitive, and are prone to attacks of melancholy so intense they can end up permanently reverting to stone if they get too depressed, and so they try to avoid forming attachments with the shorter-lived races. - Eon: Zigzagged. There are four Dwarven clans; Ghor, Roghan, Drezin and Zolod, each with their own culture putting them somewhere on the Straight-to-Subverted spectrum. - Clan Ghor play this trope completely straight, being the most traditional clan who've changed the least since the Dwarven race broke through the surface and entered the world above, to the extent that the clan still mostly live underground and in the mountains. Being the largest clan, the Ghor Dwarves are also responsible for establishing this trope as the in-universe stereotype of what a Dwarf is like. - Clan Roghan play this tope mostly straight and is the clan with the worst relationship to the Elves, though unlike Ghor they have split more with the traditions of old and have integrated more freely with other races. - Clan Drezin is where things start veering into stranger territories as while their way of living is almost as traditional as clan Ghor's, they are also a clan far more devoted to arcane studies than your average Dwarf and are also subject to great stigmatization from the other clans... not because of the magic, mind you, the Dwarves of Eon generally hold great respect for those who can use such awe-inspiring and unpredictable power without blowing themselves up, but rather because the Drezin clan sided with the Tiraks in the last great war, an act which got them branded as traitors by the other Dwarves. On top of that, Dwarves of clan Drezin also often shave or trim their beards in order to differentiate themselves from the other clans of their kin, instead favoring the mustache. - Finally we've got clan Zolod, who are generally mocked by the other Dwarven clans for how untraditional and un-Dwarf-like they are, having almost completely integrated into human society. - As a generic system, GURPS can potentially handle any sort of dwarf — but its writers have mostly stuck to the established standard. - Dwarves in GURPS Banestorm, the main official GURPS fantasy setting, are a race of natural artificers and merchants. Most adults have at least one point worth of personal "signature gear". - GURPS Fantasy offers another variant of the same type. - In the GURPS predecessor The Fantasy Trip, dwarves were straight out of the Tolkienian mold. However, some details (mostly concerning dwarf women) were left unspecified, meaning that players could form their own conclusions. - The Dwarfs of Kings of War come in two forms the Dwarfs who are very much Tolkien Dwarves with cannons and badger cavalry. Unlike most Dwarf civilizations who are either declining or staying underground, these Dwarfs take an expansionist path. Then there's their evil counterparts the Abyssal Dwarfs, who have thralls and dwarf mutants in their armies. - The now-defunct Mage Knight miniatures game had standard Tolkien-y dwarves. All male, all bearded, all craftsmen and miners (some not by choice), and their craftiness led to literal Steampunk tech such as Steam (mecha)Golems and steam-powered mounts. There are some differences from the standard model here. They are actually shorter-lived than humans, an elderly dwarf being about 30, and they play up the resistance to magic. They were actually forced by The Empire of Atlantis into slavery, mining for magic Phlebotinum because they were immune to the deadly radiation. They joined the Black Powder Rebels in order to free their comrades from this slavery. - The Jotun of New Horizon were once compared to dwarves, except being huge wafans instead of short humans. Subsequently a group of dwarves raided the forum, decapitated the person who made the claim, and told everybody never to compare them to war machines again. - Rifts: Dwarves come in a couple different varieties, each of which comes from a different dimension. Regular dwarves come out of the Palladium Fantasy dimension, and exhibit all the classic characteristics, including a deep-seated cultural aversion to magic. Pantheons of the Megaverse has dwarves that represent the dwarves from Norse Mythology, right down to being the creators of Mjölnir. There's also races like the Dwarf Forgemasters from the Three Galaxies setting and the technologically adept and rune magic-using Nuhr Dwarves, but they're all basically variations on a theme. A list that circulates around message boards and other sites called "You Know You've Been Playing Rifts for Too Long When..." has an item in it that reads "You've ever made a Dwarf character whose name did not have 'axe' or 'beard' in it." - Warhammer Fantasy: Played about as straight as it comes, though Warhammer Dwarfs are most definitely Dwarfs and not Dwarves. Dwarfs (called Dawi in their own language) are honourable, solid, humourless, conservative beyond imagining and treat everything as Serious Business: a Warhammer dwarf either gives 100% to whatever he's doing, or he's dead. Female Dwarfs in Warhammer are not bearded, despite in-universe rumors to the contrary, but tend to look like plump, braid-haired viking maidens straight out of a Wagner opera; they also make up less than five percent of the Dwarven population, as most Dwarf births are boys. That said, they do have some eccentricities: - Dwarfs don't tend to speak with a Scottish accent, but with a thick Yorkshire accent — the ubiquitous English stereotype of Yorkshiremen being that they are gruff, grumpy mining folk with a strong disdain for soft southerners and their airy-fairy ways (and it is no accident that Warhammer's Elves speak just like those refined and aristocratic upper-class southerners). The Gotrek & Felix novels play with the accent, introducing a Dwarf character whose speech is a comically exaggerated version of a real Scottish brogue. Even the other Dwarfs can't understand him half the time. - They take immense pride in their beards, which they grow throughout their lives and never cut unless in penance for some great shame or failure. They are often elaborately braided and decorated, and a Dwarf's social status as he ages is determined by the length of his beard — mature adults are called "Fullbeards", while elders are "Longbeards". Forcibly shaving a Dwarf is one of the greatest insults imaginable. The women, being beardless, instead grow out long, pleated braids that serve the same social function as their brothers' facial hair. - Their technological superiority is also notable. These Dwarfs have guns. (No Fantasy Gun Control here!) And cannons. And helicopters. And Ironclad submarines. This is in spite of them being so utterly conservative that any widely-used design had to have went through decades of testing and refinement to be considered acceptable (the aforementioned guns still has plenty of Dwarfs grumbling about the troubles with these "new"fanged curios compared to the old reliable crossbows). They also have the "love for alcohol" base covered. They have ale that is so filled with nutrients that they can literally survive on it alone. Bonus points to the fact that they distill their helicopter fuel from it! - There's also their most defining trait: Their hat is Revenge Before Reason. Dwarfs nurse a grudge like a human would nurse a family heirloom — in fact, many dwarf Grudges are family heirlooms, passed down through generations. All dwarfholds keep a big book called the Book of Grudges, and if you ever wrong a dwarf from that hold, they write that wrong down in the book and remember it. Forever. Grudges all have set standards for fulfillment, usually disproportionately high, and Dwarfs will never stop until it is repaid. Ever. Classic example: a White Dwarf Dwarf vs. Empire battle report that resulted in heavy casualties for both sides was justified by a backstory that explained why the Dwarfs were attacking: Six years ago, an Empire lord underpaid the Dwarf workers who built the castle by two and a half pennies — as far as the lord (and sane real-life human beings) are concerned, it's simply a matter of a few missing coins, but to the Dwarfs, you have cheated them out of money, and for that, you must . Common consensus of Dwarf society (only aired by elves and humans when safely out of dwarf earshot) is that they're driving themselves to extinction pursuing centuries-old wrongs. die - Dwarf tendencies towards Serious Business and honour also leads to the quirk of the Slayer. What does a Dwarf do if he or she is shamed or dishonoured (such as failing to uphold a grudge, failing to not treat something as seriously as it should be treated, or producing shoddy work that injures or fails another Dwarf)? They become shamed in the eyes of Dwarf society and become Slayers, walking out into the wilderness with nothing on but a pair of pants and a mohawk to find the biggest, meanest beasties and hopefully die trying to kill them. Some of the most (or least) successful Slayers are veteran warriors who have killed everything from demonic personifications of primal rage to dragons the length of football pitches. And they do all this because honor demands it. The only alternative to being a Slayer is being a submarine crewman: Dwarfs hate and fear water with unrivaled fervor. The majority choose to become Slayers. Yeah. - Interestingly, while the individual Dwarf in Warhammer is fairly slow (it's the little legs), Dwarf infantry is effectively among the fastest in the game. This is because the game mechanics say that you can't march (read: move at double your normal speed) when there are enemies within 8". Dwarfs, by virtue of being Determinators, can ignore that rule, and effectively always march. Apart from when they charge. The result is that army of short bearded guys is going to tactically outmaneuver you by landing their gyrocopters 7" behind your lines and so suddenly everyone but your cavalry is being outpaced. - In a way this is not the case in-universe. To the humans of the Empire, Dwarfs have an extremely conservative and homogeneous culture, but in truth, each Karak has its own unique cultural quirks. The Dwarfs of Barak Varr for instance are actually quite progressive and friendly because their Karak is built into a cliff on the coast as opposed to an isolated mountain, and Barak Varr is a major maritime and trade hub so the dwarfs here interact with other races often; the now-extinct "Norse Dwarfs" of Kraka Drak on the other hand were isolated in Norsca away from the main Dwarf centres in the Old World for thousands of years, and as such not only were they lagging behind technologically but their language and culture were practically unrecognisable to any Dwarf from an Old World Karak, and they were much more grim and warlike because of their constant battles with the forces of Chaos. - Finally, there's the Warhammer take on Evil Counterpart dwarfs. The Chaos Dwarfs ( Dawi-Zharr), a subfaction whose aesthetics were based on ancient Mesopotamia: Diabolical, slave-driving fascists worshipping a Chaos God in the form of a bull, led by evil warlocks addicted to Black Magic, which gradually turned their bodies to stone. While they've been always been part of the lore, their army list and models were dropped by Games Workshop after 5th edition due to a lack of sales. Chaos Dwarfs still appeared as warmachine crew for Chaos armies in later editions, but sadly missing their traditional magnificent hats. Do not mention their existence to the normal Dwarfs. - The Forge Fathers in Warpath are space dwarves through and through. A race of miners and industrialists with very advanced technology that decks their soldiers in Power Armor and builds stompy Mini-Mecha. Not much is known about them, though, mostly because they are very secretive and determined. - Winterweir's Bathas are evil sociopathic slavers but still live underground and have an interest in wealth. They also invent things. - Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, epic predecessor and undoubted inspiration to Tolkien (the clue's in the title). His Nibelung dwarves are, true to their Norse roots, subterranean miners and metalcrafters. His dwarven brothers Alberich and Mime inspired the thieving dwarf Mîm who appears in The Silmarillion. Oddly enough they are sometimes referred to as black elves. These legends of course all predate Wagner by a fair few centuries. Tolkien was quite adamant his works were not based of Wagner's Operas. The Nibelung are possibly an allegory of Jews. Considering Wagner was quite anti-Semitic this is probably right. - Played mostly straight in the RPG Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, including what may be one of the earliest examples of the now-standard Scottish accent as spoken by NPC Magnus. Females are never seen, so all dwarves are the same; bearded stocky men. Asking about dwarf women is a surefire way to send a male into a homicidal rage. The "mostly" comes in because it's the Steampunk 1880s, some dwarves exchange their armor for tailcoats, and dwarves are the most technologically-apt of all the races. Even so, however, this mostly manifests in dwarves being master smiths with an advanced understanding of materials science; traditional dwarves would never use a steam engine to replace the power of their muscles, and therein lies a large part of the game's plot. - Battle for Wesnoth's dwarf faction are pretty standard-issue, apart from the fact they're fanatical about history and record-keeping: Their "cleric" equivalent in the roster is called the Lorekeeper. They also field the distinctly Ancient Grome-flavoured "Dwarven legionary" (a Stone Wall type that gets stat bonuses from having other similar units in an adjacent hex) alongside some much more Norse-inspired units, including a literal Berserker. - In Ghost Ship Games's Deep Rock Galactic, the dwarven protagonists are short, have beards reaching their knees, love beer, are really good at engineering and will dive anywhere for valuable ores, including hostile alien planets no one else wants. So even in outer space and carrying miniguns, a dwarf is the same everywhere. Small exception is that the dwarven accent is Danish. - Delve Deeper. It's played mostly for laughs, but they're about as generic as it gets. - The Mountain and Hill Dwarves in Dungeon Crawl were standard issue. This led to them being Demoted to Extra; they were too Boring Yet Practical and didn't offer any interesting options. Deep Dwarves, described below, are another story altogether. - In Gems of War, the dwarven troops fit the typical image of fantasy dwarves exactly bearded, grumpy, interested in subterranean wealth acquisition, technologically inclined. - Golden Sun's dwarves, in the Loho mining camp from The Lost Age, probably don't have Scottish accents, since Funetik Aksent is used for the two humans with Scottish accents but not the dwarves. Additionally, some are historians, which is why the dwarves are in Loho, excavating the ruins there. However, they all have awesome facial hair and a love for digging — "If you live in Loho and don't dig, you just don't belong" — and the only visible female in town is the human innkeeper, so they otherwise fit this trope perfectly. - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Two "Dwarven Swordsmiths" can upgrade the Master Sword into the stronger Tempered Sword. They are the only dwarves to appear in the entire series, and nothing is made of their presence in a village otherwise made up entirely of Hylians. - Lusternia: Lampshaded. The dwarven people were originally called the Clangoru (having descended from the Elder God Clangorum); when the humans arrived in Lusternia from a different dimension, they puzzled everyone by calling the Clangoru dwarves. They did this because the Clangoru — alone of every other mortal race — were recognisable to the humans, being indistinguishable from the dwarves of their native dimension. - In Mace: The Dark Age, a Soul Edge style weapons-based 3D fighter for the Nintendo 64, the dwarves are represented by hidden character Gar Gudrunnson. His people are mountain-dwellers enslaved by despotic Lord Deimos (think Nightmare with his own kingdom) to build his weapons of war. Gar is among a handful of rebels, and his weapon is an enormous steam-powered Warmech, ironically making him the largest character in the game and one of the few who are original. He's rather overpowered though, and is more on par with sub-boss Grendal due to his enormous strength and the fact that he can't be thrown or Executed. \|\|The mace enslaves him and the other dwarves and it motivates them to wage war on mankind\|\|. - Majesty has dwarves as one of your recruitable classes. They fall on the smith/engineer side of the scale; their fortresses can only be built once you have a Level 2 Blacksmith in your kingdom. They have horny viking helmets and are hammer-wielding Mighty Glaciers whose voice lines emphasize how much they love hard work and building things. They're also mutually exclusive with Elves, although they won't come to a kingdom with gnomes either. - Master of Magic has a fairly stereotypical dwarves: tough, hard-working, good at mining and climbing mountains, but not fond of ships. They also make golems and steam cannons. - Myth: Dwarves there are short, construct underground cities, are good with gadgets, greedy, and have chemistry far beyond that of the other races leading to them becoming explosive and demolition experts. However, instead of sounding Scottish, they are voiced to sound more like crabby old men. - Neverwinter Nights: In both games, this is both played straight and averted. When it's played straight, it's hilarious. - Averted: Neverwinter Nights features the possible henchman \|\|and later a boss in an expansion\|\| Grimgnaw. He's a Monk of the Order of the Long Death, which as you can guess from the name, isn't exactly a nice group. He's the only henchman with an Evil alignment, and has a fascination with death that is damn creepy. He isn't loud and boisterous, is bald and has no beard, and doesn't need a giant hammer or axe to kick some serious ass. He loves to send people to the Silent Lord, often in the most violent way possible. - Neverwinter Nights 2, on the other hand, features Khelgar Ironfist, who is a stereotypical dwarf to the extreme, drinking lots of ale without paying, being very loud and fantastically racist, and is easily provoked and will start a fight with a group of drunk sailors just because one of them agreed with him. Ironically enough, Khelgar also can become a monk, just like his polar opposite Grimgnaw, a possible reference to NWN1. As with most dwarves, he's not a good fit at all for the class without a lot of nudging, he just knows he likes being able to beat things up with his fists. - Overlord deliberately exaggerates all dwarf stereotypes for comedic effect. Drinking, mining gold, hoarding gold, doing something altogether unsanitary to gold, sporting gigantic beards, wielding enormous axes, and harassing elves is basically their entire function. They have even less personality than the elves, which is impressive considering that the elves spend all their lives bewailing their lot and talking about how awesome they used to be. In fact, the only sound you get from a dwarf is a grunt. Followed by axe swing/flamethrower. - Barik from Paladins is very much a typical dwarf. Scottish accent, short and muscular, extravagant beard, and a master engineer. The only thing he doesn't do is fight with an axe, preferring to use a blunderbuss. - Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords: Khrona doesn't hide her most obvious gender identifiers, but still sports a nice, long beard. The Warlords universe in general plays around with this, in the form of regular dwarves, and Dark Dwarves, playing a somewhat similar role to dark elves. Both are industrious and warlike, but the two are quite different : Regular dwarves are affable, somewhat jolly, love partying enough that they have zero problem going to war drunk, and prefer fighting personally, decking themselves out in heavy armor and carrying magnificent melee weaponry. Dark Dwarves are grim, science-obsessed, disregard nature in the face of progress to the point of resembling Captain Planet villains, and prefer to fight in a more advanced manner than their good cousins, with extremely powerful and advanced siege weaponry and tremendously strong metallic golems. - In RuneScape, the dwarfs are an Industrial Era society in an otherwise medieval world, and are ruled by a consortium of major mining companies. Economic inequality between the working class and wealthier dwarfs is a theme in their storyline. Aside from this, they play the trope fairly straight. - Shining Series: Dwarves are a recurring race, at least in the older games. They follow the Tolkien/ D&D model fairly closely — most dwarves are axe-wielding warriors. They are not slowed down by hill terrain, which makes them surprisingly mobile. - In the Suikoden, the Falenan Dwarves all fall into this mold. They live underground, are renowned for their mining and digging skills as well as for being the best blacksmiths in the region. They're are also rather secretive and usually keep to themselves, not over Xenophobic concerns but as a result of a general indifference towards the affairs of the other races in the setting. - Two dwarves appear in Tales of Symphonia, with one of them being the foster father of the hero, Lloyd Irving. In Tales of Phantasia, which takes place about 4,000 years after Symphonia, dwarves are extinct, though their ruins are intact. A skit mentioned that the majority of the dwarves are hidden by Cruxis somewhere in Derris Kharlan as they use them for maintaining machinery, so they may have still be living on the comet. - Vambrace: Cold Soul: Short and beardy? Check. Scottish accent? Check. More industrial than the other races? Check. They also usually have generically Scandinavian names, despite the Scottish accent. - The World of Mana series has always included dwarves that fit this mold. - In Final Fantasy Adventure, you eventually meet a colony of dwarves, but they don't do much besides point you in the direction of a product you have to buy to save one of their dwarf friends. Once you do buy it and go on a quest to save him, you will find out that his only "companion" ability is to sell you basic items that you might need to break him out of the dungeon. Once you do get him out and back to the dwarf cave, he thanks you the only way dwarves know how...by selling back to you the items he made out of the silver you risked your life to get him. - Secret of Mana has Watts, which continues this. He is a dwarf who basically knows that your party is out to save the world, and so he only continues to forge your weapons in exchange for increasingly massive amounts of money. He's probably saving up to buy the entire Gold City, and with his smithing skill, he probably could. - In Trials of Mana, the Dwarves look like a cross between a Wookie and a teddy bear with glowing eyes, wear Viking-style helmets, and speak like Old West prospectors. - ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: Local dwarves are short, stocky humanoids who reside mainly in the underground village of Monagham. Their language slightly resembles German, and their currency is crystals, rather than coins that the rest of Zanzarah uses. They also dislike magic, preferring to use technology and Magitek, and the dwarf that sells magic spells for your fairies is a blacksmith. - Alfdis & Gunnora has an all-dwarf cast, of the bearded woman variety. - Beaches and Basilisks has a dwarf claim that everything about dwarves can be summarized as "beards, booze, and battle." - Dominic Deegan' includes Dwarves in its array of races, and from their first appearance, we have bearded females, and a long-standing rivalry with Halflings. Mostly over beer nowadays. - The Dreamland Chronicles: Just look at them. - The Order of the Stick: Roy: reading over a letter Durkon is sending back to his homeland You know, you don't have to transcribe your accent. Durkon: Transcribe my what now? Roy: Never mind. - Pieces Of Eights: It turns out that the Island Dwarves used to be \|\|astronomers, not miners\|\|. This came about as a result of the last big war and shake up in the world. - Twice Blessed has Vadim as a main character, who meets most dwarf stereotypes, but comes from a Russian-type culture and has a matching accent, drinks Vodka, uses the word "brother" in place of "laddie", and never seems to feel the need to point out that he is a dwarf. - Diggy Diggy Hole from the Yogscast is a catchy music video for this trope, and neatly illustrates how the song could be about any author's dwarves. The dwarves mine, drink, sing, and fight goblins in their vast underground fortress. Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone Raised in the dark, the safety of our mountain home Skin made of iron, steel in our bones To dig and dig makes us free, come on brothers sing with me - Dorf Quest's Beardbeard, and every other dorf we've seen, has been this trope taken to psychotic extremes — every problem can be solved with a Drinking Contest, violence, or a violent drinking contest. - The Fantasy Novelists Exam warns against the use of this trope. Is any character in your novel best described as a "dour dwarf?" - In The Salvation War, Belial's Elaborate Underground Base of Palelabor is staffed by a horde of very squat, heavyset demons with long gray beards, who are, for all intents and purposes, dwarves. - Tales From My D&D Campaign's dwarves are typical in that they are greedy, stocky, bearded miners, craftsman and merchants, who worship Moradin, like axes and drinking, compete fiercely against each other yet band together all the more fiercely against any external threat, discovered Adamantine (and possibly Mithril), and used to live in mountain dwarfholds. They may slightly diverge as they were driven from the dwarfholds centuries ago, the survivors resettling in more traditional towns all down the Diamond Coast, and they are even know to crew sailing ships (though most don't swim, and their hulls are metal-plated, as you would expect from Dwarf-boats). ## These Dwarves are More Dwarvergent - In ElfQuest even thought they're called trolls, the trolls are identical in every way (except being green) to stereotypical Dwarves. However Two-Edge, a half-troll half-elf looks identical to a typical dwarf but is bat-shit insane. - In Castle Waiting, Hammerlings are short, hairy miners and engineers with much fewer women than men. However, they're considered to be notoriously sneaky and devious, and are widely accused of War for Fun and Profit to create a market for their magic weapons. This is because Castle Waiting is more influenced by The Brothers Grimm than Tolkien. - Gold Digger Dwarves have optional beards on both sexes, no specific accents, aren't all short tempered and have plenty of non-miners, but otherwise fit the mold. A female Dwarf villain, G'nolga, insists that the beauty of dwarf women is legendary. While she and other dwarf females definitely don't look bad (her bespectacled sister Merigold is downright adorable), one does wonder how much of this comes from G'nolga being acknowledged as one of the ten strongest fighters on the planet. - The film version of The Hobbit took pains to avert this trope. The dwarves are all short, hairy, and crusty, but they have great variety in their faces, beards, clothing, body types, personalities and weaponry. Particularly notable are Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli, who all benefit from varying degrees of Adaptational Attractiveness, with Kíli's Perma-Stubble practically making him a Bishōnen by dwarf standards. They also have accents that range throughout Britain, from Scotland to Ireland and Wales. Glóin, the most stereotypical of the dwarves, is the father of Gimli, who is arguably the modern day codifier of the trope. - In Van Helsing, a bunch of wicked, sharp-toothed dwarf-like creatures called "dwergi" reassemble Dr. Frankenstein's equipment for Dracula. - Adventurers Wanted features dwarves that mostly fit the standard. Even the women are bearded, A mix of Scottish and Germanic accents, a hard drinking, poison resistant, etc. The one thing that is added is that these dwarves are seafarers. Dwarven raiding parties terrorize the coasts in their long ships as dwarves with dane axes and spectacle helms go I-Viking. - The Acts of Caine: They are called Stonebenders ("Dwarves" is a racial slur used by humans) and do all of their stone- and metalwork with their bare hands. - While otherwise played straight, a notable subversion in the web novel 'The Beginning After The End' is that Dwarves don't live underground because they want to; it's because the inhospitable climate of their homeland makes it impossible for them to build permanent settlements on the surface. They actually really resent having to live there and envy the more hospitable lands inhabited by elves and humans, because spending their entire lives in dark caves and halls isn't easy or comfortable. This resentment plays a major role in the story and results in their betrayal of the other races when an enemy from another continent promises them better lands and easier lives. - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have tried to avert this. The Death Gate Cycle was basically about what happens to Tolkienesque races' cultures when put in completely different worlds, and The Sovereign Stone trilogy recast them as Mongol-style nomads (the Elves were Japanese). Didn't really work, because the dwarves always got the least characterization, but they tried. - R. A. Salvatore's Demon Wars saga has dwarves who are also called powries. They've got a lot of the typical dwarf traits — short, stocky, tough, and bearded. However, they're also an incredibly aggressive Proud Warrior Race who mostly interact with humans only when raiding them, live on an archipelago and are famous for their "barrelboats" (low-slung ships that the powries, with their superhuman endurance, paddle fast enough to catch most human ships), and maintain their physical prowess with Blood Magic note : Powries always wear red caps, which they dye with the blood of dead enemies; the magic in the caps allows this to strengthen the powrie wearer, and works just as well for any non-powrie who gets a hold of one. They're all around nasty pieces of work, and while not quite Always Chaotic Evil (they demonstrate loyalty to each other and extend respect towards non-powries who they consider sufficiently badass, at least) most humans hate and fear them — a reputation the powries themselves are happy to encourage. - The urZrethi of The Dragon Crown War initially appear to be bog-standard dwarves, but are gradually revealed to be quite different. They are a race of short, stocky expert smiths and miners who live in elaborate subterranean mountain fortresses and have a lifespan measured in centuries. However, they're also a matriarchy, have limited Voluntary Shapeshifting powers, were created by overthrown elder gods to dig them out of the prisons the dragons stuck them in (a cause most urZrethi ended up abandoning after a disastrous war with the dragons), and \|\|the fem!Sauron-esque Big Bad is actually a half-urZrethi (and half-dragon) who uses her shapeshifting abilities to look sort-of-elven. Turns out that they're not actually restricted to the "short, stocky humanoid" model, they just find it fairly utilitarian\|\|. - Flint Fireforge, from the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, was originally going to be a well-dressed fop. Eventually, though, they decided against this, and just made him the standard dwarf. The well-dressed fop concept later became the preferred mortal guise of Reorx, god of the forge. - In Jenna Rhodes Elven Ways series, the dwarf-like Dwellers are a stand-in for both Tolkien's dwarves and hobbits. They are the first race of the particular world and while they have some affinity for underground, their earthly link is more towards forests and fields. They have a Dwarf's usual inhuman toughness, but they have the Hobbits love for home, comfort and good food. - The First Dwarf King plays with the standard dwarf model. On one hand, men have wicked-looking beards, dwarves can fight with the best of them, and they wield axes and warhammers in battle. On the other hand, dwarven women lack facial hair (and are cute but tough), the entire race is not so much a nation as a loosely-connected country of hunters and farmers, and most (though not all) of the population live above ground, going underground only in times of great need. - Averted comedically in Grailblazers by Tom Holt. Toenail the dwarf (brother Hangnail, cousin Chillblain) is about 3 feet tall, clean-shaven, and decidedly not a warrior. He goes and hides in baskets or under tables when trouble threatens. Dwarves in general are servants to the knightly class; they're the ones who clean the floor and polish the armor. They are also extremely clever at solving puzzles, riddles, and crosswords; since they're too short to reach the pool table and too weak to throw darts, that's all they have to do at the pub on their nights off. note : This is a reference to Mallory's Arthurian lore, where knights were often attended by dwarfs (though it's unclear if Mallory meant people with a genetic condition or actual mythical creatures) - The Valerians of the Lensman: The Valerians are a strong, tough, axe-wielding Proud Warrior Race, but they're really human Heavyworlders, not fantasy dwarves. Also, the shortest Valerian described stands at above 7ft tall in his stockinged feet. - The dwarves in The Lost Years of Merlin are pretty standard, but contrary to the "masculine" and "magic-hating" tropes, they're ruled by a queen, Urnalda, who is also one of the most powerful magic-users in Fincayra. - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard keeps the bit about being skilled smiths (with the exception of the main character's friend, Blitz) but retain some odd tidbits from Norse Mythology: they evolved from maggots and come from a world of pure darkness, with sunlight gradually turning them to stone. Also, in this setting the "Svartalfar" (usually translated as "dark elves") are actually a subrace of dwarves with Divine Parentage, making them taller and more attractive (by self-proclamation). - Possible example: Gregory Maguire's Mirror, Mirror, in which the eight (yep) dwarves are, at least initially, shapeshifters. They're also far more, well, mineral than your typical humanoid character. - Humboldt in No More Heroes is a sensitive, snack-serving Dwarf who is part of a clan cursed to maintain the traps and monsters within the Crypts of Ramen, and who seems genuinely sad knowing that everyone who comes though the Crypts will almost certainly die. His greatest passion is reading love poetry and he's reduced to a mess of tears when our heroes tell him a modern love story from Earth: \|\|Titanic\|\|. - Oracle of Tao: The dwarves are basically played to very Germanic archetypes. Male dwarves meaning a classic size of about three feet, built like a barrel and loaded with muscles (to the point where they apparently can't run). The women wear dirndls, are almost two feet taller and lean yet buxom, with no muscle mass to speak of. They are just as capable of punching a hole in a rock wall however. Dwarves are apparently very shy, only meeting each other at drinking festivals or when tunnels overlap. Also, those not around humans much (Phim seems to ignore this) talk like Scottish miners or something, using words like "lass" and "derned". They have skin so tough as to be runeproof (though indirect effects like earthquakes or hot ground can still harm them, a fireball would just singe their clothes). - A Practical Guide to Evil: The dwarves, (nearly five feet tall, very tough, leathery skin, big, owl-like eyes, very longliving and as strong as orks) rather than a dwindling remnant, are depicted at the height of their power with an empire that spans the entire continent of Calernia beneath the surface. All of their traditional negative traits are amplified — they believe that no one but a dwarf can actually own property and so dwarves travelling the surface customarily steal everything that isn't nailed down. Surface dwellers are generally too fearful of the power of the Kingdom Under to object, due to their habit destroying entire surface cities when vexed. They also lay claim to all the mineral wealth on the continent below a certain depth, regardless of whether or not they are actually mining it at the time. - Rogues of the Republic: A calm, industrious race known for clever machines and a near-utopian society where everyone tries to help everyone else. Also, they don't live underground, though they do mine as much as any other industrial race would have to. - In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series Beetle-kinden are essentially clean shaven dwarves in a Clock Punk/Steampunk setting. Short, stocky, technological and capitalistic with the Collegium beetles emphasizing the tech side and the Helleron Beetles emphasizing the capitalist side. - The Shannara series has dwarves mutated from human stock (like most of the races of the books) but with the added caveat that, due to their ancestors' millennia of hiding in shelters, they are claustrophobic and dislike going underground. They actually appropriate the typical elven skill in that they are skilled woodsmen, and their crafts are mostly carved from wood rather than stone, and are famous for their gardens and dams. - Dwarves in The Spiderwick Chronicles resemble much like most depictions, but draw more from their depictions in European fairy lore. They are entirely subterranean (they can't stand bright light), reproduce by carving others of their kind from stone, and are miners and craftsmen. However, their centuries-long lifespans means they greatly pity the shorter-lived beings and try to improve on nature with mechanical replicas or preserving living beings in glass coffins for immortal slumber. They serve as the antagonists of the 4th book in the original series, under Mulgarath's orders. - In Trash of the Count's Family, there are several tribes of dwarves, and while they aren't described in detail, none seem to fit the standard dwarf model. Most tribes are known for their proficiency in inventing and making magic tools. The Dwarves of the Flame Dwarf Tribe are unable to use magic, and therefore can't create magic tools, but their inventions are of much higher quality. Cale recruits a half-dwarf, half-Mouse Beastman to design and build things for him. - The dreth in A Chorus of Dragons are also called dwarves, and hit most of the expected points - they're physically hardy, mostly live underground, and have a reputation for being exceptional miners and craftsmen. However, while they're stereotyped as being shorter than humans (hence the nickname 'dwarves') it's noted that this isn't really true. It's also not specified if they have beards. \|\|Thurvishar, one of the books' main characters, is half dreth; in most ways he's indistinguishable from a pure-blooded human, but is noted to be more resistant to drugs and poisons\|\|. - In The World of Lightness, drawing on Northumberland folklore, the hill-dwelling Duergar enjoy malicious pranks on unwary humans. The book reveals their spiritual subjugation by Queen Olga, whose banishment of their Muses erased their capacity for affection and inspiration - while they remain skilled builders and sculptors, their emotional range has been reduced to anger and malicious glee. - Physically the Liberata of Defiance fit the trope perfectly and Word of God says that they used to be a Proud Merchant Race before being conquered by the Castithans and joining the Votan. Now they are a Proud Servant Race. They also breathe nitrogen and their hair and beards (found on both sexes) are stark white. - Dwarves in Ik Mik Loreland may be small and occupy their time mostly with masonry and stoneworking, but they are more akin to a Rock Monster in some aspects. - Star Trek: - The Tellarites, one of the founding members of the Federation. They had a fierce rivalry with the Vulcans, are stubborn, undiplomatic, and generally have the competence to back up their boasts, all dwarven hallmarks. They are also short and often show up in mining contexts — again, all dwarven hallmarks. Customized by also being pig men. - The Klingons are also a Proud Warrior Race who frequent dimly-lit great halls, drink a lot, and have an ongoing feud with the Romulans. - Classical Mythology: - The Cabeiri of Greek mythology in many ways resemble standard fantasy dwarves yet have many traits all their own. They're short craftsmen who work under Hephaestus (who is said to be the father of at least two of them). They're marginally chthonic, meaning subterranean, beings, and if a fragment from an ancient Greek play is to be believed, they enjoy a good drink and some rowdy partying now and again. However, they also have a strong association with fire, sometimes even said to have fiery eyes. They're also tied to the sea as their mother was said to be a sea nymph, and they are said to protect sailors. - There are also the Dactyls, who in addition to being smiths like their cabeiri counterparts, are also magicians and healers. They came into being when a Titaness, either Rhea queen of the Titans or Ankhiale the Titaness of fire, dug her fingers into the dirt of the cave she was giving birth in, and the first ten dactyls sprang up from the soil. - Castle Falkenstein has dwarves based more on the ancient Germanic myth model — supernaturally strong and resistant to fire, with chicken feet (which they hide by wearing big boots), and no females at all. When they marry, they marry Faerie women — the male children are more Dwarves, the girls are Faeries like mom. They do have the whole mining and beer obsession, but are more likely to fight with big wrenches than axes as they are the master technologists of their world. The Dwarves started out as more typical Faerie, but gave up most of the classic traits thereof in exchange for the ability to handle iron with impunity. Young Falkenstein dwarves are also raised and named by their mothers. Their main drive toward industrialism and workmanship is so they can make or discover something impressive enough to make a name for themselves with, so they don't have to introduce themselves as "Buttercup" or "Morningblossom". - Chronopia has dwarves follow the physical tropes - short, bearded, strong and enduring plus they're also slightly more advanced technology than the other races of the world. The divergence is how dwarven clans base their individual traditions and culture on their animal totems and therefore their gods (who in a moment of Heroic Sacrifice, saved dwarf-kind from magical annihilation but suffered a Forced Transformation into Animalistic Abomination) including equipment used (for example the Blood Bones clans are known for using Wolverine Claws). The clans have Blood Totems (caretakers of their fallen gods who have been contaminated by their divine charges's blood), who can now transform into bestial demigods. Also, while honor is important to most clans - the Vulture Clan is rather disdainful and pride themselves instead on a mercenary tradition and outlook, while the Jackal Clan utterly despise the idea of honor and have since joined a Religion of Evil. Additionally in the history of Chronopia, the Dwarves were the Token Good Teammate in the Triad with the cruel Elven Houses and the bloodthirsty Blackbloods which overthrew the human Firstborn and reduced them to slavedom. - The Dark Eye: The dwarves, which name themselves Angroshim, are one of the main playable races. They're a short, bearded people who usually live between 300 and 400 years. Legend says that they were created to guard to treasures of the earth and originally lived in a single empire, but have since fragmented into numerous peoples. - The forge dwarves live in an eponymous mountain range and embody the stereotype of bearded mountaineers who live in great underground halls and only interrupt their forge-work for adventures and mighty battles. They also view forging as a religious vocation. - The ore dwarves are unyieldingly conservative, obsessed with mathematics, and still live the original dwarven homelands. They distrust the open air and rarely leave their richly decorated underground holds, and scorn the other dwarves for abandoning their old traditions and for their love of excitement and celebration. - The hill dwarves are a hobbit-like race who lives in low hills alongside humans, and abandoned their old traditions of warfare and hardship in favor of agriculture and indulgence. - The diamond dwarves are former refugees who have created a new culture that places great value on art, beauty and cultured society. Ore dwarves think of diamond dwarves as happy-go-lucky dandies who have lost the fire of dwarven heritage. The diamond dwarves reply that at least they don't waste their lives sitting in the dark and brooding over long-gone glories and outdated traditions and grudges. - Dungeons & Dragons has produced a few dwarven subraces that break the mold. - The wild dwarves from Forgotten Realms are barbarians who live above ground in jungles and hunt with poisoned blades. Still very gruff and loyal, though. The same setting also has arctic dwarves, or Innugaakalikurit, who are white-haired, have no affinity for metalwork or living underground, are expert hunters and trackers, are immune to the cold but love to sunbathe until their skin burns, and favor spears and harpoons over axes. They're also short and squat even by dwarfish standards. - The derro are a race of insane sorcerers with traces of dwarven ancestry. They have scrawny builds, bluish skin, pale hair, and huge, pupil-less eyes, and many go beardless. They were inspired by an alien race of the same name in the works of science-fiction author/conspiracy theorist Richard Sharpe Shaver. - Several dwarven subraces in Dragonlance. Clan Daergar resemble common dwarves in appearance and culture, but are ruthlessly evil — or may be straight-up expies of the Duergar. Clans Theiwar and Klar are an Expy of the derro, but split into two halves; the Theiwar keep the magic and generally evil attitude, the Klar keep the appearance and the rampant insanity (racially Chaotic Neutral, but prone to being manipulated by their fellow Deep Dwarves the Daergar and Thiewar). Clan Zakhar are hairless, diseased outcasts. Finally, Clan Aghar, more commonly known as gully dwarves, are diminutive, weak, cowardly idiots who inhabit the fringes and unwanted places (garbage heaps, gullies, ruins, etc) and serve as Plucky Comic Relief (or The Scrappy). - 3.5 presented several environmental variants with only minor differences from the standard hill dwarf. Desert dwarves are gruff miners who are good at finding water. Glacier dwarves are gruff miners who are good at surviving in the arctic. Seacliff dwarves are gruff miners who are good at swimming. And so on. - Duergar, essentially the dwarf equivalent of drow, have shown up in a few settings. They tend to be grim, regimented, joyless workaholics and slave-traders. - Dwarves in Dark Sun are completely hairless, have absolutely no knack for metalwork at all (as metal is almost extinct on their world), are completely illiterate, have superhuman stamina, and are workaholics to such an extent that the setting's equivalent of a Banshee is created from the soul of a dwarf who died before his or her current focus-task was complete. - The Kogolors of Mystara play around with this trope quite heavily. They look like typical dwarves, but they prefer to build houses atop mountains rather than to live in deep underground lairs (though they do enjoy making suitable caves more livable). They aren't particularly more artistically talented than humans, save in the field of brewing liquor, in which they are masters. They also hold no particularly great reverence for builders/miners/sculptors and if anything are more appreciative of hunters and farmers, as they make most of their living as farmers, loggers, trappers, furriers, goat-herds, brewers and woodworkers. Finally, in place of the traditional dwarven grumpiness and stubbornness, Kogolors are friendly, cheerful, gregarious, and welcoming, eager to make friends with anybody who seems nice enough. Further twisting the mold, in Mystara back-lore, Kogolors are the original model of dwarves; the more iconic dwarves are an off-shoot species created by a somewhat paranoid Immortal from the heartiest Kogolors, after they began to die out in the wake of the radioactive Blackmoor disaster. The only Kogolors alive today are those preserved in the Hollow World, with the other extinct races and cultures. For icing on the cake, Kogolors have a very heavy-handed Swiss motif, complete with wearing lederhosen and those triangular hats, and having a racial proficiency in yodelling. If these dwarves remind you a little of gnomes, there's a good reason for that: they're also the progenitor race of gnomes, who were created by a Kogolor turned Immortal, Garal Glitterlode, to preserve his people "more accurately" than Kagyar's dwarves did, and encouraged to spread from their mountainous homes to live elsewhere and just be more adaptable. - In addition to the mold-twisting dwarven subraces, the gnomes of Dungeons & Dragons fall under this as well. Whilst D&D dwarves derive quite heavily from Tolkien's depiction of the dwarves, and are thus dour, heavily armored, non-magical warriors who can produce incredibly fine and even enchanted smithcraft, D&D gnomes are thus humble forest & burrow-dwelling little people with an innate affinity for magic, especially illusion, and enigmatic connections to The Fair Folk. This means they draw more heavily upon many mythological depictions of dwarves and dwarf-like fae from throughout Europe, such as Germany, Russia, Sweden and Scotland. - The Korobokoru in Kara-tur are inspired by the Korpokkur, little people in Ainu mythology, but are isolationist Asian dwarves. They live closer to nature than Faerun ("Western") dwarves, and this differing culture is reflected in their lack of metalwork and wild appearance. - Third-poarty setting Arkadia, which puts a Classical Mythology spin on D&D, is home to two dwarven subraces; the Volcano Dwarves and the Field Dwarves. Volcano Dwarves are closest to the traditional mold, except they are as famous for their glassblowing and jewel-working skills as their metalwork (which is largely based on bronze and copper rather than iron or steel). Field Dwarves split away from their volcano-dwelling kinsfolk to inhabit the gentle lowlands and worship the wilderness deity Phaedrus; they are largely a race of farmers (especially vintners), potters, masons and stoneworkers, and are renowned for their friendly natures and love of partying, making them functionally the Hobbits of Arkadia. Volcano Dwarves are teetotalers, whilst Field Dwarves love to drink — but they drink wine, not the beers, ales and other grain-based liquors traditionally associated with dwarfkind. - In Earthdawn dwarfs are not only known for mining and axe-swinging, they're known as builders, and not just of physical things, but civilizations as well. As a result they're the dominant race in Barsaive instead of the usual humans, especially after they built the underground "Kaers" where the Namegiver races hid out the Scourge. - Exalted: The Mountain Folk are a race of great craftsmen and engineers who live deep beneath Creation's surface in a rigidly ordered society within a number of underground cities. They worship Autochthon, their creator and the Primordial of machinery and invention, and seek to emulate him through acts of craftmanship and creation. They're also a diminishing people, their past glories and power shaken by many cataclysms and now beset on all sides by enemies. How closely they fit this trope varies between their castes. Workers reach between three and four feet in height and serve as their society's miners, builders and minor technicians, while Warriors grow to five feet and are stoic, steadfast and disciplined warriors. Both tend to be stocky, muscular and heavily built and are often depicted as bearded, and Workers are often shown carrying mining picks. The Craftsmen who rule Mountain Folk society are more slender and as tall as humans, and resemble elves more than anything else. All castes have pointed ears. - In La Notte Eterna, the dwarves went into self-isolation centuries before the coming of the Eternal Darkness, and consequently, most other inhabitants of Neir think they're just legends. Their place in the hierarchy of fantasy races has been taken by the Karevi, a race of short, skinny thieving bastards who live in underground cities and excel at lying, assassinations, and mercantilism. - Pathfinder has a somewhat complex relationship with this trope. - Generally, dwarves are divided into three broad groups who fit this trope to different degrees: - The Grondaksen, or underground dwarves, are a reclusive folk live their lives in massive cavern cities, are excellent smiths, grow full beards in both sexes and have little contact with surface-dwellers. They still have their own divergent cultures, like the Kulenett of Geb who live nomadically in a country-spanning tunnel system to avoid the notice of the undead who rule the surface. - Holtaksen, or mountain dwarves, are dwarves as warriors fond of battle, song, and gold, who live in beautifully decorated fortresses amidst the peaks. They've been in fairly steady decline since the fall of their old empire, and are generally the setting's default dwarves. - The Ergaksen, or surface dwarves, live scattered across the world and do not form, or think of themselves as, a homogenous group, and can be mildly to wildly divergent from the usual dwarven mold. They include the dour, monastic Pahmet of Osirion, who live on the outskirts of civilization and can control sand; the dark-skinned Mbe'ke and Taralu of the Mwangi jungles, who worship their ancestors, elemental spirits and dragons; the mercantile Paraheen of Qadira, who worship the sun goddess Sarenrae in aspect tied to forge fires; and the monastic, devoutly atheist Vahird of the Eternal Oasis of Rahadoum. - The dwarven iconic characters — premade characters used to illustrate and exemplify player classes — tend to be wildly divergent from the mold and follow classes rather outside of dwarves' traditional fighter/cleric/paladin archetypes. - Harsk, the iconic ranger, fights with a crossbow, dislikes being indoors, spends most of his time wandering around the woods and dislikes alcohol — it dulls his senses, which in his profession is a very bad thing — and guzzles tea instead. - Shardra, the iconic shaman, is a trans woman more interested in history than anything else who has been Walking the Earth since her self-imposed exile from her home. - Nhalmika, the 2nd iconic Gunslinger, indeed honors her family's traditions, but is also an Action Mom packing a large scattergun who left to become an adventurer after her husband's passing. - The duergar also appear as their grim, unpleasant and slave-driving selves, but are actually the corrupted descendants of the original dwarves, tracing their lineage to those dwarves that didn't burrow up from the heart of the world at the start of the race's history and made a dark pact with Droskar, the dwarven god of toil and slavery, to survive. - Perhaps surprisingly, F.A.T.A.L. partially averted this. There are 3 types of dwarves in the game, and while "white dwaves" are pretty standard issue, "black dwarves" are based off the more evil variants of The Fair Folk, and "brown dwarves" are based on the more recent faerie tales and particularly modeled off brownies. - In Fellowship, the one thing all types of Dwarf have in common is being tough and determined; they have a unique core stat, Iron, which they can use to outlast opponents while trying to Finish Them or to "Clear the Path" for themselves and their allies. The variants available for Dwarfs include Deepdelve (who can see in the dark and can glean extra information using "the secrets that can only be found deep underground"), Firebeard (fierce warriors who can take damage to their Blood stat to get a chance to finish an enemy), Ironblast (Mad Scientist dwarves who come equipped with powerful but dangerous explosives), and Stoneborn (naturally-tough dwarves who can render themselves immovable as long as they're standing on solid ground). - Iron Kingdoms dwarves are short, squat and master mechanics, often being creators or users of guns and Magitek robots, but are typically beardless. - Magic: The Gathering: Dwarves appear somewhat uncommonly, having originally featured in several early sets before being dropped from the game. They live in the mountains and like to fight so they belong to the Red color/philosophy, but the stoic and orderly culture of traditional fantasy dwarves is more White. Furthermore, goblins are the primary race used for person-sized Red creatures, making dwarves fairly redundant. They reappear in a number of later sets, where they occasionally replace goblins where dwarves are more thematically appropriate; more commonly, however, they're cast as a faction aligned with both Red and White magic — modern Magic is much more comfortable with hybrid-color groups than early Magic was, and this helps dwarves fit a more unique niche while maintaining their Red traits (such as love of battle, boisterousness and mountain homes) and their White ones (orderly societies, strong sense of honor and stoicism) alike. - An early take on mono-Red dwarves appears in Odyssey block, where they're portrayed as passionate artisans and warriors with a strong affinity for fire magic. This was done as a part of the block's attempt not to use the usual set of fantasy races — White humans, Blue merfolk, Black zombies, Red goblins and Green elves — most other sets employ and shake up character and card lineups a little. - The later kithkin of Lorwyn are portrayed as sort of a cross between hobbits (which is what they were originally intended to be called) and dwarves, combining the Little Folk's general smallness and pastoral living with the Stout Folk's tenacity and well-organized communal defense; the kithkin become even more dwarflike in Shadowmoor, where they have abandoned their country villages for heavily fortified castles and become rabidly xenophobic. The Eventide expansion to the Shadowmoor block adds actual dwarves known as duergar, with affinities for both white and red, and modified the design of dwarves to axe the hair and make them up more pasty. These creepy dwarves are based on the folklore of Britain. - Kaladesh, a plane where artisans and craftsmen are the norm rather than the exception, sees the first debut of modern Red/White dwarves. In addition to being good at making and repairing things, these dwarves also have an affinity for piloting vehicles. They also make up a decent portion of the security forces and police of the plane. - The fairytale-inspired plane of Eldraine has them as fairly typical miners. They are essentially a walking reference to Snow White, though they do rule over the knightly court of Embereth. - On Kaldheim, the Norse Mythology plane, the dwarves live in the realm of Axgard, where they built a beautiful city beneath their realm's mountains, and enjoy very long lives — they only become adult at a hundred years of age. They're a passionate and driven people whole live for only two things: crafting beautiful things (all dwarves spend their youth creating a weapon they'll carry their whole lives, and which they become named after) and legends of epic deeds (dwarves rely on skalds for lore-keeping, as they don't use written language, and most dwarves dream of passing into myth themselves). - Res Arcana portrays dwarves as miners who love gold; there's an artifact called the Dwarven Pickaxe (which lets you spend Elan to "mine" gold) and a Place of Power called the Dwarven Mines (which generates gold, and has abilities that let it put gold on itself). Also, the Cursed Dwarven King is a heavily gold-based card whose illustration features the king with a pile of gold, mesmerized by a coin. - RuneQuest: Gloranthan dwarfs are immortal as long as they do their assigned tasks, regard themselves as servants of the World Machine, and are the only users of firearms in the world. They also invented iron. Not "discovered", invented. They are essentially a Robot Republic of Golems made by Mostal the Maker and taught how to build themselves (hence why female dwarves are so rare — they're actually products of a minor glitch in the process) before he was broken in the Chaos War. Flesh (Clay) dwarves are actually an invention to make up for lack of resources and time to build more dwarves (and a deeply resented one since they're softer and have less raw intelligence than "pure" Mostali). They're also something of an antagonist to everyone else, being deeply xenophobic Well Intentioned Extremists (literally the only thing that matters to them is Mostal's repair) with a severe case of Blue-and-Orange Morality (what everyone else calls greed, the dwarves call keeping track of their projects and resources, down to the last coin — actual trade is regarded as something of an oddball heresy). They live in a complex social system divided in mineral-based castes, with a further division between regular dwarves and true Mostali (the ones handmade by Mostal, who have been steadily dying out because Mostal's not around to make more), and only eat artificial food refined from minerals (they find organic food repulsive). - Shadowrun: Dwarves are one of the major metatypes and first appeared in the 2000s with the birth of 'spike babies' shortly before the start of the Sixth World. They're essentially a global, tens-of-millions-strong demographic of regular, everyday people with dwarfism and pointy ears, though not without a few quirks: - There are three common stereotypes for dwarves; they're all good with machinery, they hoard gold and they all have major Napoleon complexes. The average dwarf has a tendency to get loud and belligerent when any of these stereotypes is applied to them. This does not change the fact, however, that the dwarf willpower bonus is so useful to certain professions that almost every rigger you'll find is a dwarf. Of course, that just fits the stereotype all the more: Riggers are the nearest thing you will find to a blacksmith or miner in the setting. Gameplay-wise Dwarves also make really good magic-users (mages, shamans or adepts) due to their willpower bonus, and have enough physical bonuses to make decent Street Samurai as well. - Dwarves in the setting typically grow beards because they get sick of being treated like children (which a lot of people think they resemble as adults due to their height) without them, which may explain why the stereotype of the "hot headed halfer" came about (as one dwarf tells you in Third Edition in the Dwarf racial description, " you spend a day getting patted and pinched and see how calm you are."). The same essay voices the opinion that dwarves seem to prefer living underground because basement apartments tend to be cheaper, and low ceilings aren't a problem for them. - Of the main non-human metatypes, dwarves are the only ones who never established their own separate nations or subcultures. This is in part because they're the metatype that's best managed to integrate with baseline humanity, and in part because they maintain a strong sense of cultural unity regardless of political and corporate ties. Almost all dwarves share a common set of values, typically focused on honoring one's word, stoicism and community. Their skill with technology also helps here, as dwarves are usually comfortable enough with the Matrix that they can easily keep in contract with large numbers of other dwarves across the world. - As with all other metahuman strains, a number of divergent metavariants have emerged among dwarf populations. These are gnomes, European dwarves with no facial hair and even shorter statures than normal; hanuman, Indian dwarves with extensive body hair, longer limbs and prehensile tails, who were originally thought to be Awakened monkeys; koborokurus, Japanese dwarves with thick body hair and large noses; menehunes, amphibious Hawaiian dwarves with even thicker hair, nictitating membranes and webbed toes, and claimed by myth to descend from Mu or Atlantis; and querx, blue-skinned German dwarves. - Symbaroum: Dwarves are still short, beardy humanoids with an intense focus on wealth and family honor, but taken some interesting places. Dwarves in Symbaroum are greedy, yes, but they are primarily incredibly clan-focused, to the point that they don't consider non-clan members to be worthy of moral consideration. These traits have, in turn, led to dwarves becoming (not unreasonably) stereotyped as criminals and savages, and forced them to move constantly... basically turning them into what the 19th century believed Romani were. - In Talislanta, the Yassan and Vajra races are both short, stocky artificer/miner types resembling the classic fantasy dwarf. However, this being Talislanta, the Vajra are scaly, ovoviviparous, and have a berserker rage ability (which can usually be used exactly once), and the Yassan are silver-gray, six-fingered, and flat-faced. Additionally, both races are hairless and closer to the short end of average human height. - Despite originally being a Recycled IN SPACE! version of Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000 has surprisingly strayed away from including traditional dwarves for a long time, only tackling the concept in somewhat unorthodox means. - The earliest editions had the Squats, which, naturally, were Dwarfs IN SPACE, albeit in the context of the setting, they are a Heavyworlder Human Subspecies that are mostly independent of the Imperium of Man. However, the designers couldn't quite decide on their overall theme. Some models were straight Dwarfs, while others were more like really short biker dudes IN SPACE, so they got removed from future editions — i.e., they Dropped a Hive Fleet on Them. However, the "space Dwarfs" concept, if not the models, seem to be returning in the form of the Demiurg (Greek for "craftsman"), a mercenary alien race that has worked for both the Imperium and the Tau in the past, and a few Squat models would be introduced in the Spin-Off game Necromunda. However... - The Squats as a faction would not be properly reintroduced until 2022 with the Leagues of Votann, along with the added reveal that the species refers to themselves as Kin and the terms "Squat" and "Deimurg" being appellations used by the Imperium and T'au, respectively (the former being a pejorative term). While their reintroduction still has them appear to be straight-up Dwarfs IN SPACE, albeit with several elements from their previous iterations undergoing a case of Reimagining the Artifact, they have several unique traits that diverge from the standard model. While still a Human Subspecies (which makes them one of the younger species in the setting barring the T'au), the Kin are Designer Babies generated through mass cloning for specific roles, having altered their DNA through genetic engineering. While still mostly dim-souled and resistant to the Warp, they do have the occasional psykers known as Grimnyrs, who act as the priest caste in their culture. Their culture revolves around their access to better preserved technology from the Dark Age of Technology that the modern Imperium (especially the Mechanicus) would find heretical, in particular the eponymous sentient supercomputers from which they derive their name, and A.I.s and robots are prevalent in their culture. Several pieces of their characterization are borrowed from the below-mentioned Kharadron Overlords, such as being progressive and innovative regarding their technology and their plutocratic governments. Much like The Hobbit Trilogy, there is a far greater variety in their faces and beards and in stark contrast to the absence of female dwarves in most media, Gender Is No Object among the Kin with most of their units being mixed gender. While the Elves Versus Dwarves conflict is averted in their new lore, they still act as sort of a Foil to the Aeldari. While the Aeldari are a race of Space Elves that predate humanity and only resemble them through convergent evolution, the Kin are a Human Subspecies that have altered themselves through millennia of genetic engineering and cloning. In fact, the Kin have diverged genetically, politically, and technologically from humanity so much that they are effectively considered a Xenos faction rather than an Imperium faction. - The T'au themselves seem to fulfill some of the functions of dwarves in the 40K Verse. They are shorter and stouter than humans (given that they resemble The Greys but with hooves), they have a weak presence in the Warp (meaning they're not very magical), they have a highly ordered and stratified society, and a strong warrior culture... At least when it comes to the Fire Caste. And only when compared to other T'au, who are largely peace-loving and lack any aggressiveness. Their technology is also far beyond the Imperium's in many cases, with sleek Mini-Mecha and hover tanks that can run circles around their more traditional Imperial counterparts and standard issue guns that can reach further and hit twice as hard as a bolter. What they do lack compared to "traditional" dwarves is physical strength - the T'au have a reputation for being the faction with the worst melee capabilities as T'au infantry are even frailer than Guardsmen and will die quickly in the face of meaningful assault - and longevity, as not only are the T'au the youngest species in the setting, but they are among the shortest-lived ones with individuals usually not living past their 40s (save the Ethereal Caste who live for much longer). - Whilst dwarves in Warhammer Fantasy are basically standard dwarves with the stereotypes exaggerated and given a Grimdark tweak, their successors in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar are more unusual. - It should be noted that they were renamed to a original name of Duardin. Although that was mostly changed so Games Workshop has a copyright-enforceable name, some other races recieved similar treatment. - The Fyreslayers are a race of religiously motivated mercenaries, who will take up arms for and against anybody to recover the magical substances "ur-gold", which contains the essence of their fallen patron god. Whilst they highly value honor, they also only honor the very letter of the word, which has given them a reputation as, ironically, untrustworthy and fickle. They shun the typical dwarven reliance on heavy armor, instead fighting almost naked, trusting to fate and the protection of enchanted rune "tattoos" made of ur-gold that they literally weld into their bare flesh. They have a limited affinity for fire magic, in contrast to the traditionally unmagical nature of Warhammer dwarves, and make use of Magmadroths as steeds and war-beasts. - The Kharadron Overlords double-down on the "dwarves as engineers" angle, with an entire civilization built around steampunk-flavored magitek. They express the common dwarven aversion to magic and preference for science, but are noted as being hypocrites for doing so, as their "science" is actually just sorcery given a technological veneer. Most of the Kharadron are actually highly progressive and innovative, in stark contrast to their Warhammer Fantasy counterparts, who were so conservative and traditional-minded that it was called out as one of their greatest weaknesses; this includes abandoning the New Technology Is Evil and Revenge Before Reason traits that defined the Warhammer dwarves. They're also an overtly meritocratic plutocracy, in contrast to the traditional "Scottish Feudal" array of clan-lords, thanes and high kings. But the biggest difference is that, whilst the Kharadron are still miners, they're a race associated with the sky rather than the earth: they live on artificial Floating Islands and their society revolves around hunting for "aether-gold", a magical mineral that normally exists as a gas until artificially condensed into a solid. - It should also be mentioned that another Duardin faction, the Dispossessed, essentially continue the original Dwarfs faction normally but it is mentioned that they now live in Sigmar's cities after losing their Holds during the Age of Chaos, having just set off to reclaim them in the present Age of Sigmar. - Age of Mythology goes back to the roots of Norse myths, making Dwarves simply good craftsmen and gold-diggers. They don't use axes, except for gathering wood or when transformed into Heroes of Ragnarok by the Ragnarok godpower. - Eitri uses an axe to fight in the campaign, though he can use it to cut wood. His brother Brokk has a hammer instead. - Mountain Giants have a special attack against them... which is to kick them a certain distance, often making the dwarves into a projectile weapon. - The Dvar from Age of Wonders: Planetfall are descendants of human miners and engineers left behind on an uninhabitable mining world when the Star Union fell. They're small because they're Heavyworlders, trapped inside their pressurized survivor suits because they've spent so long in hostile environs that they can't survive outside them, and are naturally inclined to strip-mine everything in sight because they've spent their recorded history fighting the environment on their homeworld and seek to master their environment at every turn. Stereotyped as stubborn, materialistic and conservative, the Dvar fulfill most dwarven stereotypes except that their names and accents are Russian, not Scottish, and a lot of their buildings, units and technology have a definite 'Soviet industrial' aesthetic to it. They don't have beards (that we can see) but several of their encounter suits have oxygen piping shaped like stereotypical dwarven beards. - The Durin from Arknights are child-sized, and their race is named after a dwarf from Norse mythology. However, they don't have any particular association with mining or the earth beyond living underground, and all male Durin playable or seen in event cutscenes so far are clean-shaven. Their rarely seen appearances on the surface had Rhodes Island assume that they were all like Operator Durin who was lazy and sleepy but the other Durins they employ very much push against that with their own unique quirks, one of whom even complains that she's creating a bad name for everyone else. - In Battle Fantasia, Donvalve is the biggest character in the game and he's dressed in very Steampunk-ish armor. - Chrono Cross has dwarves that pilot tanks, wield worker tools in battle, and are short and stocky like normal. They also live in a swamp and seem to hate the fairies, enough to capture them to feed their protector Hydra and murder them for living space. - The Darksiders games have the Makers, who are similar to your stereotype dwarf in every way except one: instead of being short, they are about four times as tall as your average human. They're also presented as a cosmic level race, being known as "The Makers" because they use their magical crafting abilities to forge planets, and preserve the souls of their dead by imbuing them into massive stone golems, which actually mesh with the dwarven archetype pretty well, but still aren't really standard depictions for them. - Dark Souls 2 introduces the Gyrm. They have many dwarvish traits: very strong, stockily built, bearded, enjoy drinking heavily from tankards, live underground, wield hammers and axes... however, while they're stocky, they are also just as tall as a human, so they are in general much larger than an average human. They aren't very good at engineering, as the game describes most of their handiwork as "crude" (albeit very tough). Further, they don't live underground by choice (they were driven there by humans motivated by Fantastic Racism), nor are they particularly interested in mining. Given the aforementioned getting driven underground, they despise humanity. Only one Gyrm in the game will even speak to you (and he's not that linguistically proficient), while the rest will attack on sight. - Deep Rock Galactic noticeably plays with this. While all the player characters are beer-loving, pickaxe wielding miners who hate elves and dedicate themselves to mining (and killing bugs by the hundreds with their guns), only two of them have beards by default, the other two are clean shaven. On top of that, they all have Danish accents instead of the typical Scottish ones. Mission Control is ambiguous on whether or not he's a dwarf too, as while he's got the build, there's no indication as to who else works at DRG, and he's got a smooth British voice. There's also no indication if DRG has other mining teams of different species or if dwarves are the only miners they hire. Humorously, if you turn off all hair and helmet options on the dwarves, you'll find they all look exactly the same - they have the same face and head model underneath! They even all have the same voice actor, just pitch shifted to fit the different classes. - Dragon Age: - Dwarves speak with North American accents (except Bodahn, who may be trying to affect the accent of humans), and while beards among men are fashionable, many others go with mustaches or even clean-shaven, and the women can be very feminine and beautiful. Also, their society practices a rigid caste system and the capital city Orzammar is a Decadent Court. Beyond these things though, they heavily overlap with other traits commonly associated with dwarves: great underground halls; skill at mining and smithcraft; axes, hammers, and crossbows as their preferred (though not only) weapons, and heavy plate as their favored armor; squarish, angular motifs in their equipment and architecture; a fondness for ale; and so on and so forth. While they love ale, Dwarven beer is brewed from lichen, mushrooms, dead rats and other stuff that can be found underground, and tastes exactly the way you would expect fermented lichen-and-rat to taste. So the typical Dwarven quality of being master brewers is subverted. Oghren cites the quality of beer on the surface as a contributing reason to the large emigration of Dwarves from Orzammar. - Varric from Dragon Age II seems to be a deliberate aversion of this trope; he's a clean-shaven, sophisticated, charismatic urbanite who loves the surface, hates the underground, and is a crossbow-wielding rogue. His brother Bartrand, on the other hand, is as traditional as can be, having been born and raised in Orzammar before their noble family was exiled for fixing Proving matches. Varric : You know what Orzammar is? It's cramped tunnels filled with nug-shit and body odour, and every person there thinks he's better than you because his great-great-great-grandfather made a water clock or something. - Surface Dwarves seem to intentionally avert this. After the entire Merchant caste left Orzammar for the surface to get better trading deals, Orzammar declared them "Lost to the Stone" and decreed that all Surfacers were to be considered Casteless from that point onwards. The Surfacers responded by simply abandoning the caste system altogether and many other Dwarven traditions, with many going completely native. Varric is a prime example of the cross-cultural mixing, invoking both the traditional Paragons and Ancestors venerated by Dwarven religion, as well as the Maker and Andraste worshipped by the Human Chantry. - Among the playable races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, and later Qunari), the Dwarves are unique in one way: they cannot be mages. For whatever reason (believed to be \|\|their severed connection to the Titans, though this is unconfirmed\|\|), they lack a connection to the Fade, and thus cannot draw on it to use in spells like the other races can. They also are incapable of dreaming, as in this setting one visits the Fade when they dream. The only Dwarves who are anywhere near averting this restriction are Dagna, a scholar who learned how to enchant things through sheer optimistic determination, and a Dwarven Inquisitor, who was given the ability to open and close Rifts between Thedas and the Fade by \|\|ancient Elven technology\|\| and being either insanely (un)lucky or being guided by the hand of the Maker (in whom most Dwarves don't believe, because of the aforementioned Fade insensitivity). In the DLC expansion The Descent, Temporary Party Member Valta seems to become the first Dwarven mage through a rather convoluted series of events. Oddly enough, Dwarf-descended Darkspawn that can use magic are fairly common. - Another manner that Dragon Age Dwarves stand out is the Carta, a Dwarven crime syndicate modelled after Latin American cartels. They freely move between the surface and underground and are best known for selling lyrium on the black market, though they engage in all manner of criminal activity. In Origins and Inquisition, a Casteless Dwarf player character is a former member. - The "Dwarf" character of Dragon's Crown is a stocky, heavy-set brawler, wielding hammers (and occasionally axes) and possessing strength enough to pick up and toss most foes. \|\|The Dwarf's ending reveals the Ancient Dragon had chased the Dwarfs out of their subterranean homes, forcing them to become nomads and driving them to the brink of extinction. The player character's Dwarf becomes a hero and leader among his people, helping them prosper.\|\| He does have some traits that make him distinct from dwarves in other games. Where typical dwarves are heavily armoured or wearing workman's clothes, this guy wears little more than a cape and a loincloth. He's also friendly with the Elf of the team if various Vanillaware art pieces are canon. - The first Dungeon Keeper has two classes of dwarves, the Tunnelers; who dig the tunnels for Heroes to reach the Keeper's dungeons, and the Mountain Dwarves who specialize in fighting rather than mining. They're rather weak and frail compared to all other humans and even elves, while also being one of the fastest creatures in the game. They're attracted to gold and will go straight for the Keeper's Treasure Rooms, and they're so skilled at digging they can even do it using axes instead of pickaxes. - The sequel gets rid of Mountain Dwarves entirely, turning Dwarves into the weakest type of Heroes available, but a must to tunnel through the maps. Converted Dwarves act as slower Imps, less useful for gathering gold and claiming land, but able to dig through even enemy walls with amazing efficiency. A keeper with even one dwarf can attack an enemy dungeon from any direction with almost no warning. Unlike their DK 1 counterparts, Dwarves don't need lairs, food, or money either. - Deep Dwarves in Dungeon Crawl are a variant. Unlike the now-background Mountain Dwarves (who are typical), they never left their underground homes. They are highly resistant to damage, but lack the Healing Factor all other species have, relying on a Heal Wounds ability. They're decent with the typical dwarvern weapons, axes and crossbows, but prefer stealth, divine magic, and certain kinds of arcane magic: necromancy, translocations and especially earth magic. - Dwarf Fortress actually creates a fairly complex dwarven society. They have elected officials and a rudimentary police force and bureaucracy, as well as a larger-than-usual range of professions; you have dwarven tailors, cooks, millers and even beekeepers as well as the usual blacksmiths and miners. But at the end of they day, they're also manic-depressives that require alcohol to get through the day, even from birth. And the creator has even said explicitly that he's keeping Dwarves relatively close to the norm — while he's been designing complicated algorithms to generate deep and varied cultures for other races, he intends to leave dwarves more or less identical so they'll be easy for players to step into as a playable race. - Dwarves are commented on as being rather out of place in the world of Elona, populated by the likes of kitsune, samurai, and mecha. They only seem more so when the setting is revealed to be a full scale quasi-urban fantasy as of the later patches of Elona+, glaringly being rather technologically simplistic compared to most of the human factions (using plate mail and tonfas when everyone else has for the most part moved onto machine guns and fighter jets), in spite of possessing the trademark dwarven craftsmanship. - The Elder Scrolls plays with it when it comes to the extinct Dwemer, also known as the Dwarves. To note: - Playing the trope straight, the Dwemer did build technologically advanced cities, typically deep into the ground, complete with gold/bronze architecture and Eternal Engines. They warred with just about every other race they came into contact with, particularly other races of Mer. They were known to have glorious beards and were master craftsmen, with their equipment still being among the best and most sought after in Tamriel even thousands of years after their mysterious disappearance, in some way related to them digging too deep beneath Red Mountain and discovering (and then attempting to tap into) the Heart of Lorkhan, the dead creator god of the mortal plane. - On the "aversion" side, the Dwemer are a sub-race of Mer (Elves), with their name meaning the "Deep Elves" or "Deep Ones," referring to their philosophical depth. They were of average size compared to the other races of Tamriel and the term "dwarf" is an archeological misnomer. They were the first "normal sized" race to encounter the Giants of the Velothi Mountains, who referred to them as "dwarves" in size comparison to themselves. Later, the Nords (and through them, the other races of Men) picked up the term and it stuck. They weren't known to have any stereotypical "Dwarvish" accents, with the only Dwemer spoken to in the series to date having a nasally, nerdy voice of all things. While the Dwemer did create all manner of extremely advanced technology, much of it was magically derived in one form or another, with it being said that they were also master enchanters. They created numerous forms of Mecha-Mooks and even Humongous Mecha programmed with some sort of rudimentary (and often dangerous) AI. They were Naytheists in a world where gods of all sorts exist, though the Dwemer did not believe these "gods" were truly divine. They'd summon Daedra just to test their divinity. Finally, they followed a very Blue-and-Orange Morality. Former series developer Michael Kirkbride puts it best: "That's why the Dwemer are the weirdest race in Tamriel and, frankly, also the scariest. They look(ed) like us, they sometimes act(ed) like us, but when you really put them under the magnifying glass you see nothing but vessels that house an intelligence and value system that is by all accounts Beyond Human Comprehension. (...) There isn't even a word to describe the Dwarven view on divinity. They were atheists on a world where gods exist." - Endless Legend's Delvers are relatively standard-issue dwarves in appearance, but they are actually the descendants of human miners that were trapped underground in a cataclysm that swept across Auriga. They swing warhammers in a Spin Attack and have vast beards adorned with skulls (probably from their fellow Delvers that died). The Vaulters are human, but their heavy armor, beards, and overall high level of technology make them look like dwarves. The Vaulters remember their origins in space, and utilize Lost Technology salvaged from their vaults and augmented or repaired with magic. Prior to the start of the game, they lived almost completely underground. - In Fall from Heaven, the Khazad are pretty standard; short and stout master miners and engineers who live underground, use axes (but most everyone uses axes in this setting), are terrible at using magic, have the finest cannons and trebuchets in the setting, and gain benefits from a full gold vault. However, the Luchuirp dwarves are very different, resembling gnomes in a lot of respects. They live above ground (though they're still connected to Earth magic) and are one of the most magically-adept factions. In fact, they are second to none as magical artificers and enchanters, which allows them to rely on golems for labor and warfare. Neither group has a particular problem with Elves, though Elves in this setting are The Fair Folk and really do not like other races in general. - In Fallout and Fallout 2, like the Super Mutant orc stand-ins dwarves are simply mutated humans but are still subjected to Fantastic Racism at times, forcing them to act as servants for baseline humans. In the developed societies of New California they eventually found their niche as a Proud Merchant Race. - They have appeared sporadically in the more High Fantasy installments of the Final Fantasy series. Their main distinctions from other fantasy dwarves are their catchphrase of "Laliho!" and the fact that they are almost completely faceless with only glowing yellow eyes (and a beard) visible beneath their helmets. - Final Fantasy's dwarves live in Mt. Duergar, which is the old Norse word for Dwarf, and are skilled miners; their tunnels are filled with rails for spoil. - Final Fantasy IV plays it straight, and heck, so do most dwarves in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. However, Luca is clean-shaven and doesn't have much love for dwarven fashion. The one thing she gets right is a love of technology, with two custom-built clockwork dolls at her command, but she'd rather study under the human Cid than other dwarves. - Dwarves in Final Fantasy V strongly resemble their counterparts in IV, and like them live in an "underworld" (this time an undersea trench rather than just above the earth's mantle) and love to tunnel, although their great kingdom is less populated than most villages and not relevant to the plot. - The Dwarves of Final Fantasy IX are perhaps the least dwarf-like Dwarves in the series. They spend their time above ground, albeit on a mountain, and the sun is a big part of their society and religion. - Moogles in Final Fantasy XII are also fairly dwarf-like: short, mechanically inclined humanoids. - Final Fantasy XIV's dwarves play around a bit. A beast-tribe from the alternate world of The First, on the outside they appear to be the classic Final Fantasy dwarf, never seen without their face obscuring helmets and beards. But the beards turn out to be elaborate scarves, and taking off the "beard" and helmet reveal them to be \|\|the First's versions of Lalafells, a cute, gnome-like race. Cue Lalafell/Laliho jokes\|\|. - The Lilties of Crystal Chronicles also fit the archetype fairly well, but in appearance resemble childlike humanoids with plant features (besides Crystal Bearers, in which a wide variety of Lilty types appear). A big difference is, before they began weapon smithing, they were primarily alchemists. And while they've always been mediocre at using them, they were experts at creating the Green Rocks required for spells. - Brok and Sindri from God of War (PS4) and God of War Ragnarök are the dwarf brothers responsible for forging Thor's hammer Mjölnir, but they deviate from the stereotypes prominently. They're short, bearded men and gifted craftsmen, but Stout Strength doesn't apply to them: Sindri is considerably thinner than his brother. They also are naturally magical, and use that as an inherent attribute of their work, both forging weapons and selling them. They both have American accents, not Scottish, and they don't hate Elves (in fact, Brok got in trouble for having sex with Elves in the past). Neither of them are fighters or warriors, and they don't drink, but they do seem to trade in silver. Brok is foul-mouthed, Sindri is a germophobe and Neat Freak, and both have the natural ability to go into the "realm between realms" to instantly travel through long distances and between different realms, which they use to help Kratos and Atreus throughout their journeys, although not all dwarves know how to do it and it doesn't work on dragons. Also, Sindri has grey skin, and Brok has blue skin. There are two differing accounts on how this happened. One account says that his skin went blue from overexposure to silver, another states that his skin turned blue after he accidentally beheaded himself and Sindri brought him back to life. - Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe. He's apparently competitive enough to test his mettle at tennis and kart racing. - Guild Wars mostly follows the standard, although the dwarves come off a bit more Scandinavian than Scottish. This trope is partly averted by the Stone Summit clan, a bunch of xenophobic slavedriving hatemongers, then it gets taken to its conclusion at \|\|the end of the Eye of the North expansion pack. The dwarves seek to awaken the Great Dwarf to battle the destroyers pouring out from beneath the earth. What happens is that they become the Great Dwarf, their bodies turning to solid stone and their hearts consumed with an eternal thirst for battle, so they can fight the destroyers for eternity\|\|. - Even Kingdom of Loathing doesn't stray from the path too far. Yes, their dwarves are 7-Feet Tall, but other than that they act exactly the same as here. - In The Legend of Zelda series, the Goron race derives heavily from the stock Tolkienian dwarf. They're physically strong, have a mining culture, and (in later games) have great battle prowess. Hyrule Warriors even gives them a rivalry with the token elf-like race the Zoras. However, they're physically larger than the mundane Hylians, and they don't mine because they're obsessed with gold and precious stones, but because they eat rocks. - Partially subverted in the Lineage MMORPGs: The male dwarves are about what you expect, but the female dwarves resemble cute elves, only half the size. - In Lost Technology, while Apotikara is a society run by blacksmiths sporting an army of dwarves with axes, the dwarves of Mount Arsia are a rebellious faction of coal miners, and the dwarves in Cerberus Hills are a fairly peaceful agrarian society. Plus, dwarves have a sophisticated grasp of earth magic. - In Magical Starsign, dwarves are basically tiny balls of fluff who consist mainly of a beard with hands, feet, and beady little eyes. Not much is made of their physical prowess, but they're the best starship engineers in the galaxy. - The Dwarves of the old Might and Magic verse customized their dwarves by removing one of the traditional details: rather than hating elves, they were allies (up until Heroes IV). Well, except for Might and Magic VIII, but the Dark Dwarves of that game customized the model by being xenophobes to the point that no one is really sure if they are allies or servants of the Earth Elementals instead. - Even though he's 100% human, Torbjorn from Overwatch follows every dwarven trope to a T, although with a Swedish accent. - Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Harrim is an interesting example. From the get-go he seems to diverge from the dwarven stereotype: While a heavily armoured warrior-priest who's decent at combat, he's also a perpetually downcast Death Seeker and Straw Nihilist who worships Groetus, a deity that personifies the inevitable decay of everything. The more you talk to Harrim it's also made clear that he'd like nothing better than to be a stereotypical dwarf, but his complete inability to craft anything from metal or stone (\|\|which is implied to be a divine gift/curse\|\|) is a cause of great bitterness and shame to him and turned him into his current self. As a result, his pride in being a dwarf is conflicted at best and he has a Berserk Button concerning the dwarf chief god Torag, which he refers to as the "traitor god". - Rift's dwarves seem to be rather more inclined towards magic use than the usual, and don't always have beards. Also, the women are ridiculously cute. - Rune Factory 3 introduces two dwarves. One is a craftsman and blacksmith — downright obsessive and extremely talented — but is incredibly friendly and laid-back, to the point that he considers his job as a blacksmith to simply be a hobby. The other is your typical belligerent warrior dwarf. Both are human-sized and beardless, with pointed ears — the warrior complains that the whole "short, bearded man" thing is simply a racist stereotype. - Rune Factory 4 Takes this a little further. While Gaius and Zaid from the previous game were at least among the shorter characters, Bado, the laid back and downright lazy dwarf blacksmith in the next installment is quite possibly the tallest humanoid character in the series. Doug, the other dwarf in Rune Factory 4, is also rotten at crafting. (Dwarfs being good at making weapons is the one trait associated with dwarfs that the series makes a point of telling you still holds true.) - Rune Factory 5 introduces Darroch, who fits the dwarven stereotype for the most part, being a stoic, hard-working blacksmith and the strongest of the initial cast. He even has a beard. On the other hand, like Bado he towers over most of the other characters. Lastly, he was a Shrinking Violet as a kid, which the older women in town love to tease him about. - Despite this, there is one character who fits the common dwarf mold perfectly, having a short stature, long messy beard, talking in a gruff accent, etc. Leo, from the first Rune Factory game claims he picked up these traits while training under a dwarf, but he himself is human. The most dwarf-like character in Rune Factory is a human. - Smite actually touches some particular traits about how dwarves were in the Norse Mythology with Fafnir. He's a dwarf that excels in mining and creating jewelries and armed with a hammer. And just like the rest of his kin, he's a selfish, easily-jealous, greedy jerk, as opposed to the normally 'honor-bound' dwarves in other medias. Just for this game, he also lacks the usual Scottish accent and love for wine (it is replaced with his love for gold). - Suikoden: Unlike their Falenan counterparts, Toran dwarves live above ground in the Great Forest, have mastered the art of Alchemy that allowed to developed electricity and artificial light and are one of the most technologically-advanced races in the setting. Aside from that, they really hate elves (and the feeling is mutual) and consider Human skill to be inferior to their own. - One dwarf appears in Stardew Valley in a secret area of the mine. He seems to be modeled after the Final Fantasy IV dwarves in that you never see his face directly although he appears to lack the beard. In true dwarf fashion, he sells items related to mining, and can be befriended by giving him gemstones but you have to learn dwarvish before you can do so. Interestingly, the dwarves are apparently Ancient Astronauts from another planet, The horns on the dwarven helmets you can find may actually be protrusions for antennae. I kid you not, our dwarves are aliens from space. - In Tales of Maj'Eyal. - Dwarves are pretty standard. A race who live in the mountains, are strong, tough and not too good with magic, mine for gold and are empowered by it, and the second starting area for a Dwarf PC involves a mining expedition. However, they're unique among races in that they use both natural power and magic (though they're not very good at the latter) in a setting where the two are generally politically opposed, and the one class that combines the two is the Dwarven Stone-Warden; as they say, "gold doesn't take sides." - However, deeper in the setting's lore is another quirk. \|\|Dwarves are descended from a spacefaring race who crash-landed on Eyal and initially came from a batch of clones. The spaceship's cloning machine has malfunctioned, and is now creating Drem, who are a race of highly mutated dwarves who border on being Dwarven Abominations. They have no faces and stony, spiked skin, as well as a connection to devouring eldritch magic.\|\| - Warcraft - Warcraft is an interesting case. When dwarves were introduced in Warcraft II, they were primarily represented through the aerial gryphon riders. When World of Warcraft hit, however, the playable dwarves were mountain-dwelling, ale-drinking, blacksmiths and miners, with the gryphon riders relegated to a minor NPC faction. - However, this was explained by there being three major kinds of dwarves: - The main playable race are called Ironforge dwarves, they live in the city of Ironforge and were originally the most stereotypical of the dwarfs. Subverted when the revelation of their titan origins led to a surge in interest in science and knowledge in dwarven society. Their king Magni Bronzebeard even ordered that the main dwarven industry be switched from mining to archeology. Now you'll find just as many explorers, scientists, archaeologists and scholars among the dwarves as you will miners and blacksmiths. Another unique aspect of Ironforge dwarves is the ability to temporarily turn into stone which lets them remove status ailments and increase their defense for 8 seconds. - The next is the Wildhammer dwarves who live above ground, live at peace with nature, and ride gryphons as a major part of their culture. They were the representatives when dwarves were first added to the franchise in Warcraft II. - The third are the Dark Iron Dwarves, who have grey skin and red eyes and were until recently enslaved by a massive fire elemental (that they summoned in a failed attempt to destroy the other two clans). They're pyromaniacs with strong magical abilities and were written as Always Chaotic Evil until their leader joined the Alliance in Cataclysm, live deeper underground than their Ironforge cousins, are much more educated in magic, and stealth. After they joined the Alliance, playable Ironforge Dwarves gained the option to become Mages and Warlocks suggesting an intermixing of culture between the two. The fact that the king of the Ironforge's daughter married the Dark Iron emperor, and her son, and future king, is half Ironforge-and-half Dark Iron, has caused much consternation among the dwarves. As of Battle For Azeroth, Dark Iron Dwarves have become a playable race for the Alliance. - Beyond this you have various proto-dwarves. There are the Earthen, which are stone-flesh creations of the titans that the dwarves evolved from. The frost dwarves, who are the frozen counterparts to the Wildhammers. They are descended more directly from the Earthen as indicated by their proximity to the Titan Architecture found around their homeland. And the iron dwarves, which artificial dwarves that serve as Mecha-Mooks for an Eldritch Abomination. - Female Dwarves are actually quite common in dwarf settlements and for the most part look like short, stout women of average attractiveness. However, among the player base they are quite rare (perhaps in part due to the fact they are just plain looking compared to other races). Lore mentions bearded women that are considered quite beautiful among dwarves, however, none are shown in game. - Additionally, the technology aspect of the dwarves exists but is typically overshadowed by the gnomes. The technology basically breaks down into two categories: anything that can be made reliable, cost-effective, and useful on the battlefield will be adopted by the dwarves, i.e. tanks, guns, gyrocopters. The gnomes manage the overly-expensive, unreliable and quirky technology, as per their Mad Scientist hat. If it's cheap, unreliable, and dangerous, that's goblin territory. - Prior to Cataclysm, Ironforge dwarves mostly fit into the typical melee archetype, with their only available classes being physical damage dealers and tanks, with the exception of Priests and Paladins. But after the expansion, dwarves gained the ability to be Mages, Warlocks, and Shamans (explained in lore by the Wildhammer and Dark Iron clans joining Ironforge, with the Wildhammer teaching Shamanism and the Dark Iron bringing arcane and dark magic), making them the most versatile Alliance race (they can be any class but Druids), and make perfectly viable casters in addition to brawny melee and hunters (though their passive racial bonuses still favor melee more than magic). - They can also be any job, so dwarven leatherworkers, herbalists, and fishermen aren't unheard of. They are not limited to mining and blacksmithing like the stereotypical fantasy dwarf. - Another major difference from your archetypal dwarf is Azeroth's dwarves have historically had pretty good relations with elves. The Wildhammer Clan were close allies with the High Elves, and the remaining High Elves in the Alliance are still reasonably good allies with the Ironforge Dwarves over a shared love of history and scholarship. The War of the Ancients novels implied that dwarven ancestors helped the Night Elves prior to the Sundering. Whatever enmity dwarves may have with Blood Elves and the Nightborne has more to do with them being Horde, rather than being elves. - Another major difference is relation. Unlike other fiction which tends to put humans and elves as kin, revelations some humans and gnomes were capable of the same "turn your skin into metal or stone" trick dwarves could and further elaboration about each races' histories as the descendants of titan creations showed humans, dwarves, and gnomes had common ancestry. When a human time traveled to before elves knew of humanity, he was mistaken for an extra tall dwarf. - From Whale Rock Games's We Are The Dwarves, gun-toting Forcer and axe-wielding Smashfist are your standard dwarves — albeit they're dwarven astronauts on an alien world. It's the third dwarf, Shadow that breaks with convention. Shadow is a dark-skinned ninja dwarf with a longbow, who relies on stealth and sniping foes with his longbow in contrast to the direct force used by his comrades. - In Baskets of Guts dwarves look like the ones of the standart flavor, but their personalities are as variable as of any other race. Many of them do sport long beards, but it's probably because dwarves are physiologically inclined to have them, since they grow even on females. - Although we have not actually met any dwarves in Digger, they seem to go at least a little off model — they apparently use large amounts of magic in the construction of their underground cities. Digger the wombat does not approve, as that magic tends to wear off after a while if not carefully maintained, leaving abandoned dwarf cities as veritable deathtraps. Come to think of it, the wombats seem to fit the traditional dwarf mold pretty well, themselves. - Flintlocke, of Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth plays around with this one. While he adheres to several Dwarf stereotypes, including a love of combat, boisterous loudness, a strange sort of Scottish accent, a few demonstrated instances of marked greed, and some impressive facial hair, he also happens to be something of a cross between a Gadgeteer Genius and a Mad Bomber, and where most of the other Dwarves are shown as sensible individuals, Flintlocke is about as dumb as a pile of hammers. On more than a few occasions he's managed to outwit himself. It gets to the point that the Spirit Healer had to get a word in. Spirit Healer: Dumbass. - Goblin Hollow features a girl who revolts at her dwarf character's having a beard. - The Gods of Arr-Kelaan featured a group of dwarves who worshiped the Mesoamerican sun god Inti, shaved, and moved above ground. Up until Inti decided it was time to leave Arr-Kelaan and destroyed their temple, then most of them moved back to the mines. - Guilded Age: At first, seemingly played straight by Gravedust. Something-hammer last name? Check. Big beard? Check. The Comically Serious? Check. Standard dwarf. However, later we learn that dwarves are desert nomads who have been driven from their mountains. Furthermore, their women are lustful, their children don't respect authority, and, most atypical of all, some of them DON'T HAVE BEARDS! Gravedust Deserthammer isn't your typical armored hammer/axe warrior either. He's a shaman archer who can speak with the dead and ask them to lend their strength to his arrows. He is among the most level-headed in the group, as well as being mannerly and polite. He's never been seen to drink, ever. His name is the only thing truly dwarfish about him. - The dwarves of Hitmen for Destiny were bred for their stature, grooming and attitude to be just the same as Tolkien-ian dwarves. Thing is, when you breed for one quality, another might tag along, so they also ended up completely Ax-Crazy as well (yes, even more so than the usual dwarf). - Most of the Dwarves in Looking for Group are evil, black leather-wearing, pierced punks. And Pella is quite shapely and fan-servicey, not fat and dumpy like dwarven females are so often depicted as. However, they are exceptionally skilled architects, blacksmiths, and sappers. - Oglaf has the "fukken" Dwarves, a group of vertically challenged, utterly deranged pests who make disturbing, useless and lethal inventions. They seem more like a parody of the tinker gnome stereotype. - The Pigs Ear: Angus is a retired adventurer who now works as a pub chef, but otherwise fits the trope straight. So straight that the Scottish creator of the comic gave Angus (and Angus alone) a Scottish Funetik Aksent. - Rice Boy: The Horned fit the stereotypical archetype nicely. Short but honest, most of the Horned are obsessed with war. They also live on and/or underneath a ridiculous-looking mountain structure. In times of peace, they're miners \|\|and woodsmen.\|\| Furthermore, the prequel "Vattu" implies that \|\|the Fluters are a variant of\|\| halflings/gnomes and \|\|Vattu will mutate/evolve in her story to become the first Horned.\|\| - Twice Blessed has Vadim as a main character, who meets most dwarf stereotypes, but comes from a Russian-type culture and has a matching accent, drinks Vodka, uses the word "brother" in place of "laddie", and never seems to feel the need to point out that he is a dwarf. - Unforgotten Realms averts this about as far as is possible. Any character which isn't obviously another species is invariably a Dwarf. Probably the only character who even has a beard is Sir Schmoopy of Awesometon, one of the two main player characters. - In Vanadys: Tales Of A Fallen Goddess, dwarfs (note the plural spelling) are the second most numerous race in the world next to humans, and live and work close to humans. The stereotypical dwarf is a keen businessman with a great talent for making money, and many human businesses employ a dwarf, or several, to handle their finances. Berrok, the main dwarf character in the comic, is a trenchcoat-clad Deadpan Snarker with a shady past. - Dwarves in Aegeroth: A Checkered History use the Germanic name, dwergaz. Little else is known about them, save having chalky skin and statue like features. - The dwarves in Arcana Magi are techno savvy. One dwarf is on the Board of Directors for Avalon Tech Enterprises as head of the metal works division. One dwarf works there in the technology department. - Krayn's character Grunlek in Aventures has the technology side, using a mechanical arm for diverse purposes. However he doesn't have racism against elves (the game master said the rivalry doesn't exist in his world), is closer to nature and doesn't have a drinking habit. A live adventure showed that his brethren are more cyborgs than dwarf and even for them Grunlek is different. - Cracked offer some suggestions on how to deviate from this trope. - Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Limyaael suggests that customizing the model is a really good idea. - Dwarves in Shagahol, the latest creation of Rapscallion Games are the remnant of the previous world from before the gods got bored and dropped a new world on top of it. They had already been living underground and their forging and architecture skills meant their civilization survived the cataclysmic event. They retain their industrious ways due to the stories of their ancestors, but those that come to the surface are those looking for a more adventurous life. They are short and stocky but unlike most stories, they have lost their melanin as a result of living underground for so long, giving them white hair and pale skin. Female dwarves also grow beards, ranging from mutton chops that can be hidden by their long hair to full beards depending on family genetics. All of them grow hair so quickly it can grow inches in a day and a clean-shaven face is a sign of immense wealth for being able to afford so much time and service. They also do not use magic, being surprised that the surface world "still uses it". Finally, they have taken most of the iron in the world due to living underground and using it long before anyone else can discover it, leading to the surface world staying in the bronze age. - Dwarves in Tales of MU mostly follow the model, with a few additions. Their names have a Germanic flavor, they count in base seven, and while they seem like a One-Gender Race, it's been explained that male and female dwarves just don't get along. The one full-blooded female dwarf who appeared was not described with a beard. MU dwarves have a strong disposition for secrecy and privacy, though the college-going ones are willing to make exceptions for attractive women of other races. One recurring minor character, Gebhard, shows a somewhat fussy and fastidious nature. ## These Dwarves are Too Bizarre to Have a Suitable Pun - In One Piece, dwarves are extremely small, have animal tails and pointy noses, and are extremely fast and strong. They do not seem to take up mining but rather have a connection with plant and animal life. In general, they are extremely gullible. Beards are also not very prominent. - Matt Cavotta, art director for Magic: The Gathering, wrote a column about the lack of dwarves in Magic. He starts with the stereotypical dwarf, somewhat unfitting for the Red philosophy and aesthetic, and changes it step by step into a more logical interpretation of "digging Red-aligned creature." Results are ... interesting. - In the 2000 AD comic Sláine, dwarves are almost completely the opposite of their Tolkien counterparts. Sláine's dwarves are a race of utter cowards whose cowardice is only matched by their lust for human women and the propensity to steal anything not nailed down. Often clean-shaven, they have pointy ears and are rather weak but quite agile because of their skinny physique. The butt monkeys of the comic, Sláine gives his dwarven sidekick Ukko daily beatings to keep him at least somewhat honest and it's implied that this is a common fate for dwarves. The only thing shared between Sláine's dwarves and Tolkien's is the lack of height. - In Sylvain Runberg's Konungar, the Dvergar are dwarves that are red-skinned, very agile and have pointed ears. They live in the forest and pose a great threat to travelers as they eat horses and other livestock, as well as attack humans for their eyes. The Dvergar are an accursed race that Odin and the other gods did not bless with eyes, so they try to gouge them out of humans in the hopes that they can put them in their empty eye-sockets. - Loki: Agent of Asgard: Andravi the Dwarf is both an aversion and not. He is a dwarf who loves his gold, and has taken to guarding it twenty-four seven... in the form of a giant, magic-proof Pike. Unfortunately for Andravi, he's not bazooka-proof. As he's dying, he's seen to be a regular dwarf in his normal form, complete with beard. - In Doug Moench's '70s-'80s story Weirdworld -- Warriors of the Shadow Realm, dwarves are the main inhabitants of the world (at least until Weirdworld gets retconned). They are a non-militaristic somewhat cowardly folk who live above ground — whether it's in a forest village or a the City of Seven Dark Delights doing all varieties of occupations except fighting (this would lead to countless dwarves getting mulched in the series) and have a degree of Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism. Male dwarves are Gonk, they have huge ears and huge noses plus even males who are otherwise thin have a noticeable potbelly. Female dwarves are much better looking with the most beautiful dwarven girls looking exactly like a round-eared elf girl (elves in this world are short). - In Avengers: Infinity War the dwarves were actually giants, though with Peter Dinklage's proportions (or at least his character King Eitri does). They also forged Thor's hammer in the fires of a neutron star captured in a Dyson Sphere, \|\|and the Infinity Gauntlet, after which Thanos killed all of them but Eitri.\|\| - 7 Zwerge: The dwarves are simply seven men who had traumatizing experiences with women, so they decide to live in the woods alone. They are all clean-shaven and only wear a beard when working in the mine. They are also relatively average in size, with the exception of Bubi, who is relatively small, and Ralfie, who is two heads taller and two times wider than anyone else in the films (and also is a Gentle Giant). A running gag is that a character remarks that they thought that dwarves were supposed to be small, to which one of them responds that this is just an old prejudice. - Alviss from American Gods is king of the dwarves because he's the tallest at 5'9". - And about as averted as you can get in Artemis Fowl where Dwarves are human/mole/earthworm hybrids with prehensile beards that burrow through the dirt by eating it and then crapping it out as fast as they do. Also, they can suck in water through their skin (a dehydrated dwarf can use this to Wall Crawl!), and their saliva is a fast-hardening, glow-in-the-dark anaesthetic. - Also, far from being traditional, they tend to have a healthy disregard for the law. They also tend to eat anything regardless of whether it is alive or sentient. Plus, rather than fighting elves, they have a long standing rivalry with goblins, who are able to shoot fire, which dwarves are incredibly vulnerable to and afraid of. The main dwarf character, Mulch, lampshades how ridiculous it is to form a cultural conflict with the only beings on Earth capable of conjuring your major weakness. - In many ways, it's more of an elaborate Justified Trope than a direct aversion. They live underground and collect gold and jewels because they're evolved to live underground, and hoarding valuables is only natural when you find yourself in a society that values those shiny rocks you come across on a regular basis. They hate elves because a lot of them are criminals, and most of the police are elves. They have long beards because their beard hairs are ultra-sensitive whiskers for probing around in dark tunnels, and can be used to pick locks. - In Discworld (where it is spelled "Dwarfs", just like Tolkien noted in the preface to later editions of The Hobbit). Policeman Vimes' experience with them points to countryside dwarfs usually being quiet industrious types who don't cause trouble, and putting on airs of being rowdy and violent seems to be a trait only annoyingly common in his city. This is probably because, unlike their home mines, the city won't cave in on their heads if they're noisy, and there's more beer available. Also they are German and Welsh as well as Scottish. Interestingly, given the Semitic roots of Tolkien's dwarvish language, there are theories that Pratchett's dwarfs are Jewish-ish (quiet, hard-working, thrifty, very respectful of ancient traditions that they don't feel they necessarily follow as closely as they're supposed to. - The above description also fits many other ethnic and/or immigrant groups besides Jewish-ish. - The "Dwarfs as Jews" groupthink probably came from that one Watch book that had multiple jokes about Dwarfs being in love with gold. "What? No, we only say that to get it into bed." - One should note, however, that somewhat similarly to Judaism, where it is forbidden to destroy a text that mentions the name of God, for the dwarves, it is forbidden to destroy any text at all. - The love of gold, of course, is very probably from the miner/craftsman aspect (especially since it is often compared to their love of iron) making things seem very recursive. The Dwarfs seem to have the tendency of being put in the place of any immigrant ethnic group whether black (in Soul Music they come up with "Rap" or "Rat" music) or Muslim ( Thud) or yes, Jewish. Trolls on the other hand, seem to be just sentient rocks. - Trolls and Dwarfs do share a tradition of "Hole Music". - Dwarf women are also often seen — however, they are physically indistinguishable from male Dwarfs. This has had an effect on their culture somewhat, in that many Dwarfs do not use female pronouns, courtship is largely devoted to very carefully finding out what sex, under all that leather and chainmail, the other Dwarf is, and a Dwarf identifying herself as female is treated akin to coming out as gay in a conservative society. Exemplified by Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom of the Ankh-Morpork Watch, who "comes out" as a female, wearing boiled leather skirts, high-heeled boots, and makeup, much to the chagrin of other dwarfs, but is never without her iron helmet, battleaxe, and beard. Upon suggestion of shaving, she's outright horrified of the mere idea of losing her beard. She may be willing to come out as female, but she's still a dwarf. - Being a dwarf also seems to be more a matter of culture than a biological thing, as Captain Carrot is considered a dwarf (by adoption) despite also being a nearly seven-foot-tall human. - Carrot's making a nature/nurture point — culturally he's a dwarf. He was raised as a dwarf, by dwarven parents and went through all the normal processes of growing up as a dwarf. He may not be as hardline dwarfish as the Deep Uberwald dwarves — mainly due to coming from a surface dwarf community near Lancre — but is still more dwarfish than many an Ankh-Morpork city dwarf. He questions the relevance of being (genetically) human in the light of all this. - It's pointed out several times that according to dwarf law and custom, Carrot actually is a dwarf. This tends to disturb other dwarfs meeting him for the first time, because they know something's not right but can't quite put their finger on specifically what it is, since their definition of "dwarf" doesn't actually say anything about height. In the dwarf creation myth, the original dwarf and original human were created identical, and only physically diverged thanks to adopting different lifestyles. - Unseen Academicals gives us two dwarfs who between them sum up the whole thing. Pepe is a human that converted as an adult, although unlike Carrot he's short enough that this is not obvious, and explicitly a gay man. He is in a long-term romantic and sexual relationship with Madame Sharn, a dwarf that identifies as female but explains it to the protagonist in a way that leaves her biological sex ambiguous and may just be an elaborate "queen" pun. This brings up all sorts of questions as to whether Discworld dwarfs consider gender identity and anatomical equipment at all linked, and for that matter whether a culture that traditionally only has one gender has a concept of sexual orientation at all. - All of this plays into the above: in addition to ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, the dwarfs often serve to represent sexual minorities, be it gays or just particularly feminist women. - On a more parodic note, the image for dwarfs in the "Art of Discworld" book is essentially the page image, but with a loaf of bread in place of the axe (dwarf pastries are renowned for being more useful as primary weapons than emergency rations). - The later books subvert this with the grags, an extremist faction that becomes the Discworld version of Islamic terrorists (bearded, live in caves, have very specific views on women and what they're allowed to do and use violence against those they deem deviants...). Thankfully, these don't last long. - In the Dragaera novels written by Steven Brust, Easterners, who are identical to real-world humans, are sometimes called "dwarfs" by the tall, elf-like Dragaerans. Easterner society is based on medieval Eastern Europe rather than anything resembling Celtic or Nordic. The Serioli come a bit closer, living underground and forging powerful magical weapons, but are otherwise completely different. - Niven and Barnes were probably playing homage to this trope with Mary-Martha "Mary-Em" Corbett, an eccentric live-action Gamer from the Dream Park novels. Though human, she's 4'1" tall, is built like a muscular fire hydrant, wields a halberd (~battleaxe), is The Big Guy of her adventuring party, guzzles beer like a pro, calls a spade a spade, and sings repetitively while she's marching. Although her songs tend to be a hell of a lot raunchier than this trope usually allows. - In Lyn Abbey's Jerlayne, dwarves are a servitor race to their elven parents. A dwarf is born when an elf mates with an elf (an elf mating with an elf will result in a random variety of fantasy beings such as rusalkas). They have bronze-coloured skin and are all homosexual. Finally unlike the standard dwarf, these dwarves do the farming and household grunt work — they don't mine. In fact, they can't use metal items that haven't been processed by a female elf (only female elves can manipulate and detoxify metal items, and they get their metal by having male elves come to our world to scavenge our junk and bag it). - The Soddit, being a parody of The Hobbit, starts by exaggerating the traditional portrayal of dwarves, although with ludicrously exaggerated Welsh accents, rather than Scottish ones (well, what would you expect a race of miners to sound like, look you, bach?). It's revealed early on, however, that dwarves hate having beards, it's just that they're allergic to shaving soap. Later, when Bingo Grabbins questions how they could have possibly carved the great caverns of the Mines of Black Maria with hand-axes (or, as the dwarves themselves claim, trowels), they're forced to admit that they didn't. All the mountains in Upper-Middle Earth are naturally hollow. And at the end of the book it turns out that \|\|dwarves are the larval form of dragons.\|\| - The Drin of Tales from the Flat Earth are the 3rd caste of demons from the Underearth after the Vazdru nobility and the mute Eshva dancers. Unlike the previous castes who are all astonishingly beautiful, the Drin are ugly stunted dwarves though they have lustrous black hair. They are universally skilled in magical engineering and crafting beautiful objects, so they're often in service to other demons (including their king, the Lord of Darkness Azharn) and human magicians. The Drin are all male, so barring a rare sex for items/services trade with an Eshva girl or female human, the Drin are relegated to copulating with reptiles and large insects which they do with relish. Within the Drin, there's a subclass called the Drinendra that are even worse off - the Drin are at least sentient and occasionally valued, the Drinendra are demonic animals that are usually treated as a mangy cur. - Trapped on Draconica: Inverted. Lucia is slender, skilled with magic, avoids fighting, and holds little interest in gold or industry. Thus, he's closer to an elf than a traditional dwarf. Whether all dwarves are like this is unknown because he's the only one in the setting. - Sontarans from Doctor Who are like typical dwarves in that they're a short, stocky, all-male Proud Warrior Race, but that's about where the similarities end. For starters, they're an alien clone race with muddy skin, potato-like faces, and virtually no hair. Also, unlike most other dwarves, Sontarans are usually villains, and they're a ridiculous exaggeration of the Proud Warrior Race Guy trope in that they view everything as part of the war effect and thus take everything with military seriousness. - In Once Upon a Time, dwarves are always "male", are asexual, and are hatched in groups of 8, fully grown (and fully clothed) from eggs. Their names are magically given to them by their pick-axes based on their personality, and it's their job as a species to crush diamonds into fairy dust. - Armageddon (MUD) has a race of dwarves that is completely hairless, used to be enslaved, are immensely determined to their personal task to the point where every one of them is a Determinator. They are no more fond of mountain homes, alcohol, forging and axes than people of any other race are. - The Ura of Bastion live underground and use crossbows. In all other senses, they're a civilization of Wutai humans. - The Tiny Tina DLC of Borderlands 2 parodies this trope. Not only do all dwarves fit the classic stereotype, they all look like Salvador. - In Class of Heroes, dwarves have the same typical culture of other dwarves, but they look more like beastmen. Or furries. - In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, dwarves are largely absent (replaced by gnomes) until the "Legend of Dead Kel" DLC Referred to as "Dverga", they look like the classical fantasy dwarf, although a) they have women, and b) their women are visibly female, complete with lacking beards. The weird thing about them is that they are associated with the sea, not mountains; they're a race of sailors, renowned for their skill, but also hated by most other races because they are pirates, conquerors and slavers; their obsession is with colonising the islands of the Frostbreak Sea, and so they raid other races and carry people off into slavery to give them the labor pool they need to found settlements so quickly. Whilst they do create underground bunkers beneath their settlements known as "fastings" to retreat to if beseiged, these are built out of mud and wood, and otherwise they live on the surface. In fact, the tradition of dverga is to erect the first structures of a new settlement from the repurposed ships that brought them to that island. - Kingdom of Loathing, where dwarves are 7-foot tall miners. They are all the same, but not like dwarves in other fantasy fiction. - Knights of Pen and Paper 2: They're sturdier than humans and elves and even their women have beards. - While no actual dwarves, or any other conventional race, appear in the series, the Godom of Paladin's Quest certainly invoke this archetype. They're a subterranean race who excel in weaponsmithing and explosives, but are generally bad at magic. Their appearance, on the other hand, is anything but. They actually resemble large bipedal dinosaur, insect, ram... things. - Pillars of Eternity has two types of dwarves. - Mountain Dwarves are largely widespread across the world and aside from appearances don't really have any traits of the classic archetypes. They're typically found as members of multi-racial cultures, and blend in there. Those found in the Vailian Republics , where mountain dwarves are most common, inherit the Vailians' colorful Renaissance fashion sense, passionate tempers, and sort-of Italian accents. Dwarves found in the Dyrwood are often cynical, stubborn, and terse, but the same can be said of Dyrwoodan humans. And Glanfathan dwarves make their homes in mountains rather than forests but otherwise display the same Iroquois-meets-Celtic culture as other Glanfathan. - Boreal dwarves seem to be what you get if you cross a dwarf with an Inuit or Tlingit (or an Icewind Dale barbarian): tundra-inhabiting surface dwarves that coexist peacefully with caravan elves. - The dwarven recruitable companion, Sagani, is a female note : and yes, completely beardless boreal dwarf ranger who carries a bow. Her outfit also combines a tastefully restrained amount of bare midriff and legs while making no attempt at armor and both concept artworks of her revealed so far show Tribal Facepaint (along with paint or tattoos on said exposed midriff in one -it wasn't visible in the other-). Finally, it has already been established that in her people's homeland of Naasitaq the boreal dwarves coexist peacefully with caravan elves who roam along the coasts. - A Primer On The Capture And Identification Of The Little Folk Of Myth And Legend: The entry on Dwarf-s has a confrontation of stereotypes, being defined as "About the size of a child", "Looks human", "Not mischevious", "Has Round Ears", instead of Pointy Ears, and hair-free feet: Ah, well then your specimen simply must be a DWARF. You're probably wondering why it doesn't have a beard, carry an axe, mine for gold or drink copiously. There's not another breed of little folk that's quite so steeped in stereotype as the dwarf. Really they're simple, peaceable creatures, who would never dream of hurting another living thing. Their teeth are quite valuable though, so pop it in the mouth and gather up a handful of white gold before sending it on its way. - The Rune Factory series has some very non-dwarfy dwarves. They're all of average or above-average height, live above ground like anyone else, may or may not have any forging skill, and often have no beard at all (those who do have a beard only have a small one, and it's only the older dwarves who do; the younger dwarven men are Bishounen like the rest of the young male cast). They also have pointy ears, though usually not quite as long as the elves' ears, and don't take any issue with elves or outsiders. - Shadow Hearts: Covenant features a monster called Duergar note : Duergar is the Norse name for dwarves that was once a stereotypical Dwarf but his hatred of humankind warped him into a creature resembling a bug-eyed alien of some sorts. - Valhalla Knights have Dwarves who are tall and have somewhat dark skin; they also have a lot of Markings/Tattoos and the males don't seem to have anything more then a goatee if even that. According to the manual, although the Males are still stereotypical Bruisers, Females have increased intelligence and resistance, which leads one to believe they can be fairly good spell casters, although they are still great front liners (which when you think about it, means they'd probably be the least 'Squishy' Spellcaster). They also don't appear to have any issues with Elves. - Loren: The Amazon Princess gives the character of Ramas, who plays the trope straight with a few twists (he's a merchant and doesn't live underground), but massively averts the trope with Dora. She's a Genki Girl, a Lovable Rogue, lives above ground with the humans, and has no problem with elves or anyone in the party. - Merle from The Adventure Zone averts most, if not all, dwarven cliches. He's a cleric who worships Pan (a nature god) who is frequently associated with plant life. Before the events of the campaign, he lived not in a mountain or a mine, but on a beach. He also has an American accent, but very briefly fakes a Scottish accent when disguising himself in the Murder on the Rockport Limited arc. - Speaking more broadly, one unusual trait of dwarves in The Adventure Zone is that they all have absurdly large families: Merle being Gundren Rockseeker's cousin means basically nothing because there's so many of them (although it does help him open Wave Echo Cave), and when the Voidfish attempts to remove \|\|Boyland\|\| from the memories of his family after his funeral, the fish nearly dies from the effort of wiping so many minds at once. - This motivational poster, depicting a Lineage dwarf. - It may be difficult to find these days, but an old Gamespy comedy feature article were two writers comparing various things (like sorcerers versus warriors) and once, Elves vs. Dwarves came up. They pointed out that there are many different depictions of elves, but dwarves tend to all be the same. - In Yogscast Minecraft Series, dwarves are mostly the standard model, but in Hole Diggers Duncan Jones jokes that male dwarves can be impregnated as well, while Simon Lane jokes that dwarves lay eggs that need to be fertilised before any offspring are born.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreDifferent
Our Ghouls Are Creepier - TV Tropes They are neither man nor woman They are neither brute nor human They are Ghouls Much like trolls, ghouls are one of the least consistently portrayed creatures in fiction, partly because the phrases "ghoul" and "ghoulish" are poorly defined terms that can refer to anything or anybody interested in the macabre and morbid, giving writers the ability to name almost any cannibalistic, flesh-eating or just creepy monster after them. In general, ghouls tend to be strongly associated with cannibalism and man-eating; they will usually be either ravenous predators of living people, corpse-eaters or both. They are often also treated as degenerate beings, created when something else — typically a living person, sometimes a stronger or more refined undead creature — somehow "decays" into a more primitive or corrupt state. The two things can sometimes be tied together, with an initial act of cannibalism being what causes a person to degenerate into a ghoul. Other times, this corruption can come in the form of an undead infection, a plague or any of a myriad of other causes. Besides being creatures associated with death, cannibalism, and degeneracy, ghouls can come in a plethora of types and subtypes. Some of the more common varieties include; - Zombie Ghouls — Flesh-eating undead, either your standard zombie by another name, or a specific zombie derivative. When the two coexist, the ghouls will generally be the more bestial and savage of the two, and more willing to eat rotten flesh. Perhaps the zombie will be subject to magical control, like the old Voodoo zombies. Garden-variety re-animated corpses may count as these. - Vampiric Ghouls — Either created by vampires as a servant, or just a relative or offshoot of the standard vampire. They vary from immortal (if twisted) humans to mindless zombie minions to beings more powerful than vampires themselves. See especially the Ghouls supplements for Vampire: The Masquerade. - Lovecraftian Ghouls — Ghouls as a living and non-human species, often with distinctive canine muzzle and ears, and with a pale or greenish cast. Other types of ghouls as their own living race do occasionally appear in other media. - Mutant Ghouls — Former humans who have been transformed into a ravenous horde of monsters or a barely sentient Cannibal Clan by The Virus, radiation, being trapped underground, or being touched by some Eldritch Abomination. Compare Mutant and The Morlocks. - Mythic Ghouls — Similar to the Mutant Ghouls, but transformed by magic or divine punishment rather than radiation. Not very common anymore but for a long time one of the most common types. Typically punished for inhuman acts such as greed, murder, or often cannibalism, these former men are still alive, but turned into flesh-eating monsters that typically haunt graveyards. Often growing razor-sharp claws, fangs and/or muzzles, long limbs and a lot of hair. Compare the Wendigo. - Demonic Ghouls — The original ghul of Arabic lore was a demonic child-eating shape-shifting jinn that inhabited graveyards. Only rarely, however, do ghouls get such a degree of supernatural power in modern fiction. Similar to how many plots would end with, or feature prominently, a vampire/werewolf confrontation, a number of stories from various horror comics published in the '50s, '60s, and '70s depict a natural rivalry between humanoid, flesh-eating ghouls and their blood-drinking vampire competitors. As the modern pop culture perception of the "Romero zombie" became commonplace, however, such depictions quickly fell out of vogue. See also: Our Goblins Are Different, Our Zombies Are Different, Our Vampires Are Different, Mutants, The Morlocks, Wendigo. ## Examples: - Blue Exorcist: Ghouls are lesser demons possessing the corpses of human and animals. - The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time: These ghouls are rather particular. Instead of being undead, they're living creatures with Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism (males are huge, muscular and have lion heads, while females are small and very human-like except for their grayish-brown skin tone and golden eyes); while they do eat humans on occasion, they can eat other types of meat as well. - Hellsing: Ghouls are zombie-like creatures that are created when a vampire drains the blood of someone who is not a virgin (unless the vampire is a Freak Chipped vampire from Millennium, which ghoulifies everyone whose blood it drains). If fatally wounded, they instantly crumble to dust. They are under the control of the vampire who bites them, eat human flesh, and are just intelligent enough to use firearms but little else. - Kemono Jihen: Kabane, the protagonist, is a half-ghoul hybrid. While he would normally have an insatiable desire to feed on the flesh of humans, it has been kept in check since his infancy by a special trinket left for him by his parents called a Life Calculus. His lineage grants him superhuman strength and renders him incapable of feeling physical pain. He also completely lacks blood, instead having a sticky white substance in place of it, and can constantly regenerate no matter how many times he's cut apart, being able to regrow his entire body from the neck down after his head was removed. The only thing that has managed to truly slow him down was a bullet through the brain, but he's completely fine after a single night. As a kemono, he also gives off a peculiar, foul-smelling odor that he covers up with a special cologne provided by his caretaker, Kohachi Inugami, a bake-danuki and a kemono himself. \|\|It's later revealed that ghouls don't procreate directly, instead creating more of their kind by sharing the fire that gives them their life energy and regeneration abilities. It would be more accurate to call Kabane a human with a ghouls' flame. Even more unusually, his regeneration is as powerful as a full-blooded ghoul.\|\| - In Rosario + Vampire, shinso vampires can inject humans with their blood to temporarily transform them into a vampire. A single human who receives multiple injections will eventually either die or transform into a ghoul. Ghouls resemble shinso vampires, having silver hair and red eyes, but the bite mark from their injection spreads like a tattoo across their body. They are potentially the most dangerous type of monster as they are almost as powerful as vampires while lacking vampiric weaknesses, but they are also violently insane. \|\|Tsukune is transformed into a ghoul, but the Headmaster is able to suppress the ghoul, allowing Tsukune to retain his sanity\|\|. - Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles: Ghouls are formed when a human ingests a certain kind of magic stone, turning them into winged Humanoid Abominations who are both physically strong and difficult to kill due to their Healing Factor. - Tokyo Ghoul: The ghouls are essentially superhumans with an insatiable need for human flesh. They look exactly like normal humans, but possess heightened senses, superior physical abilities, a Healing Factor, a retractable predatory limb that often resembles tentacles or energy wings, and a Game Face with black sclera and red pupils. Just like humans, they range from monstrous psychopaths to gentle pacifists and everything in between. But since the only thing they can eat is human (or Ghoul) flesh, they are hunted by humans and live in fear of being discovered. The series focuses on an ordinary human transformed into a Half-Human Hybrid as a result of an organ transplant, something once thought impossible. \|\|It turns it was never impossible, and it's even standard procedure for a particular organisation to produce natural Half Human Hybrids through forced impregnation. One major character turns out to be a perfect hybrid because her human mother consumed human flesh during the (consensual) pregnancy, and another is successfully carried to term when her ghoul mother consumes human food\|\|. - Magic: The Gathering: Ghouls were originally a separate creature type, but since the only ghouls for the longest time were the Scavenging Ghoul, which can regenerate damage by symbolically "eating" creatures sent to the graveyard, and Ashen Ghoul, which can return to play from the graveyard after three or more creatures have been placed there as well. Wizards of the Coast eventually decided to go the Zombie Derivative path and lump them under the zombie family — all ghouls after those two had been printed as zombies. Given that the zombie creature type covers everything from mindless dead to liches, it isn't that much of a stretch. However, numerous zombie cards since have still been named "ghouls". - The black-aligned zombies of Innistrad are frequently referred to as ghouls in order to differentiate them from their more Frankensteinoid blue counterparts, which are instead called skaabs, and Innistradi necromancers are typically referred to as "ghoulcallers". - Mercadians to poor to afford a proper funeral just have their bodies chucked into a swamp outside the city, referred to as the Ghoul's Larder after the undead that come there to feed on them. - It's relatively common for zombies to be called ghouls when they somehow relate to eating the dead or sometimes preying upon the living. Examples include Abattoir Ghoul, which rewards you for killing creatures with it; Barrow Ghoul, which requires you remove creatures from your graveyard to sustain it; Creakwood Ghoul and Gutless Ghoul, which reward you for sacrificing creatures; and Sutured Ghoul, which becomes stronger the more cards you remove from the graveyard. - The Butcher Bird: Ghouls are primarily based off the Tokyo Ghoul example given above, but organize themselves into complex hierarchies based off individual strength and have varying degrees of interaction with humans - some ghoul tribes are completely isolated beyond attacking humans, while others act as infiltrators. Unlike in Tokyo Ghoul, half-breed ghouls are fairly commonplace, inheriting weaker powers in exchange for being able to eat normal food. Their society also utilizes Names that can convey the essential knowledge of a given ghoul in a single Red Baron-esque title. \|\|They're also the result of a failed Super Soldier project.\|\| - Fallout: Equestria: Just like the Fallout version, some are mindless and feral while some are intelligent and a couple are allies to the main characters. In this case, they might actually be undead due to the possibility of necromantic magic in the Balefire bombs. There is no doubt about the Canterlot ghouls: save beheading, they always come back after being "killed". - The King Nobody Wanted: Glarus tells Drogo that the Red Waste is home to a species of ghoul-like creatures called the Ifrit. They're thin, no heavier than a child, yet they're cunning, capable of speech, and always trying to lure travelers away from the safe paths in order to kill and eat them. According to Glarus, there are no more than a few thousand left. - The Loud Sim Date: Ghouls are created using a serum, and seem to be based on Tokyo Ghoul. They can get stronger through Monstrous Cannibalism, as when Cristina cannibalizes Leni, \|\|she gains her powers\|\|. - Leni, the first ghoul, can morph her arms into weapons or defensive equipment. She also feels no pain, though it's implied \|\|Cristina did that\|\|. - Lori, the second ghoul, has wings and can shoot sharp feathers. Which explode. - Cristina, the third ghoul, has four tentacles coming from her back that can let her shoot electricity, morph into things to protect her, and be remade from scratch should they be destroyed. This isn't including the ensuing Healing Factor she gets \|\|which can be nullified with Ronnie's tail\|\|. - Ronnie Anne, the fourth and seemingly final ghoul, barely seems to suffer any changes besides gaining a tail that lets her override \|\|Cristina's Healing Factor\|\|. - The Moonstone Cup: Ghuls are a canine species who live deep underground and have a strong affinity for earth magic. They're a Dying Race, as fewer and fewer are born each year and many have descended into savagery, becoming the show's diamond dogs. - Oversaturated World: In Inevitable, Sunset and Twilight argue on whether to call the undead rats they encounter zombies or ghouls. Twilight argues that they should be called ghouls as "they still retain some some self-control". - The Palaververse: Ghūls are bipedal creatures native to the deserts of Saddle Arabia, where they emerge during the night and hunt prey in packs. - Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: Ghasts are pale, bestial undead that arise from the bodies of the unjustly murdered. They are instinctively driven to eat the flesh of the living in a futile quest to resurrect themselves. Light burns them severely enough that concentrated flashlight beams can harm them. - Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness has an in-universe example with Tsukune's ghoul. While most ghouls are little more than mindless beasts, Tsukune's ghoul is mentioned to represent his dark side and thus has its own personality, allowing it to think and plan. At one point, it actually infects Kokoa with a portion of its essence as a contingency plan; the others are completely taken aback that it was even capable of infecting others, as no other ghoul has been able to, or at least had the mental capacity to think of doing so. - Still Waters Series: While magic-based zombies are often called ghouls, another notable ghoul appears in Book 1. Carrick is highly intelligent, ancient, and the servant of an even more ancient vampire, who sent him out to recruit Eva. Stated to be able to regenerate from wounds, he shows no signs of any flesh eating, but rather seems to be going after his victim's life force. When he attacks, he also spreads an infection to the victim through the wound, which causes tremendous pain and can kill within the hour, causing the victim to reanimate as a mindless undead pawn. - Sword and Claw: Ghouls are mentioned in Lilith's backstory as monsters that feed on corpses. - With Strings Attached: Some ghouls and ghasts hang around the ruined city on the Plains of Death. The Hunter tells the four not to let themselves be touched by them, as their touch causes paralysis, so they're right out of the AD&D Monster Manual. Ringo, who beats the crap out of them from a safe distance, says they feel like "squishy rotten meat". - The Babadook is listed as a ghoul on Wikipedia and would be of the demonic ghoul sort, only without the graveyards and it's summoned from a pop-up book. - Blade (1998): Sometimes when a vampire infects someone, it goes wrong and creates a sentient zombie-type ghoul instead. Said ghouls are stated to eat anything, including vampires. - Bloody Mallory: These are human-demon hybrids who are damned by God, eat the flesh of the dead, and can only reproduce via virgins. When their babies are born, they burst from the mother's stomachs while they're still alive. - In Dark Heritage, the Inbred and Evil Dansen clan has devolved into a tribe of ghoul-like beings who eat human flesh, only come out at night during storms, and travel through a series of tunnels that emerge from graves. - In The Ghoul, Professor Morlant is either a man raised from the dead by ancient Egyptian magic to avenge himself against tomb robbers, or a man in a cataleptic trance who was mistakenly entombed alive and who, upon awakening, went insane and believed himself to be a ghoul. Take your pick. - I Am Legend has "Darkseekers", aggressive and light-sensitive humans mutated by a cancer cure, who are essentially mutant ghouls. - Night of the Living Dead (1968): In the original movie, the word "zombie" isn't used; the reanimated corpses are instead called "ghouls". - Vampire in Brooklyn: The eponymous vampire makes a ghoul servant out of a man by making him drink his blood. \|\|The ghoul turns into a vampire by wearing his then-destroyed master's ring\|\|. - Classical Mythology has the Eurynomos, which had bluish-black skin, wore clothing made of vulture feathers, and feasted on the flesh from corpses, stripping them down to the bone. They were said to live/come from the underworld, making them something of the Demonic Ghoul type. - One folklore story about the origins of ghouls goes: the originals were the students of a powerful sage who, envious of the sage's favorite student, murdered the favorite, then cooked and ate the body to hide it. When the students returned, the sage asked the students where the favorite was. When the students lied, the sage caused the favorite to speak, from the stomachs of the students that had eaten him. Angered, the sage cast them out, and cursed them into becoming ghouls, forced forever to be monsters that ate the dead and dwelt in darkness, as well as giving ghouls a weakness: any ghoul who devours a tongue dies a slow, agonizing death. - Less creepy example: - In the folktale of "The Ghul's Daughter", a ghul shows mercy to a human girl whose family have been murdered, and gives her some of his powers. An Older Than Print subversion of Always Chaotic Evil? - Other examples of friendly (or at least, not actively threatening to the tale's protagonist) Ghouls can be found here. - In Arabian legends from which they originate, ghouls typically belong to two different groups: evil djinns that eat human corpses, and mostly ordinary humans who for some reason lust for the flesh of the dead. - Arabian ghouls can be killed with mundane weapons, but they must be killed with a single blow, or it will resurrect. They can shapeshift into any form (or in some versions, the last person they ate), but they always have donkey hooves. Much like Western vampires are scared of garlic, ghouls can be warded off with mustard. Unlike Western vampires however, they can eat rice instead of flesh or blood. - In Persia, ghouls note : Algol, if you want to be specific are supposed to have forked tongues, cat heads, donkey hooves and pallid and limp-looking yet strong limbs. Ghouls from the Sahara are said to have ostrich legs and one eye, but still retain the characteristic hooves of ghouls from the Islamic world. - The Wendigo, aka wetigo, wikigo or windigo, is this trope's icier cousin, being a human turned into a horrific monster for cannibalism. It originates from the folklore of the Alkonkian and Athabaskan peoples of North America. - This is one of the many translations of the Filipino word aswang. Ghoul aswang haunt graveyards, live in trees and have long claws and fingernails. In parts of the Philippenes it's customary to throw a dead chicken on the doorstep if you have a fresh corpse in your house in order to distract the ghouls. The berbalang also functions like one, being a bestial humanoid that robs graves to feast on dead flesh but occasionally goes after the living, though they differ by using astral projection to send their spirit-self to attack the living and devour their viscera, and can be identified when in spirit form by a moan that is exceptionally loud at a distance, but grows weaker as they move closer to an occupied dwelling. - While normally regarded as a werewolf, Lycaon from Greek Mythology has elements of the Mythic Ghoul, being a human transformed into a wolf by Zeus for cannibalism. - Japanese Jikininki are ghosts of materialistic monks condemned to eat corpses. - The Rakshasa from Hindu Mythology are a supernatural race of man-eating monsters, at times described as being able to shapeshift and use magical powers. The traditional legend says they were born from the Creator God Brahma's body, and immediately attempted to devour him before they were banished on Earth. - Fighting Fantasy: Ghouls are rotting Flesh Eating Zombies with the power to paralyse their victims. Fighting Fantasy uses the word "zombie" to refer specifically to Voodoo Zombies. They can paralyze with three strikes but can be killed with holy water. - Chasms of Malice: A "long fanged" Ghoul is one of the encounters, and tries to murder you in your sleep with a dagger. A bunch of ghouls can be disposed off with a spell which summons a monstrous pair of hands to drag them to their doom. - Night Dragon: One dungeon hosts a festering ghoul so rotten that its stench overpowers you, giving you a big malus for that combat. - Give Yourself Goosebumps: In one book, one of the people trapped forever at the Carnival of Horrors claims to be a "ghoul" rather than a "ghost". - In the second Carnival of Horrors book, you can take a picture with one of the carnival's prisoners. When asked if he'll show up in the photo, he replies that he's a ghoul, not a ghost. - Lone Wolf: - The Cauldron of Fear: The Zaaryx ghouls are emaciated flesh-eating undead, although still smart enough to use rusty weapons. One of them, however, is more mutated than the other and has dangerous Psychic Powers, apparently the result of the dead body it was formed with wearing a Psychic Ring. - The Master of Darkness features Helgedad Ghouls, bloated humanoids with wicked claws and eyes sewed shut, the result of some Darklord experiment. Though never human to begin with, they're probably undead too, but it's hard to tell for sure since it's in a part of the book were pulling out the Sommerswerd (an undead slayer) is unsafe. - Agent of Hel: In this setting, ghouls actually fill the brooding vampire niche. They're humans that died but didn't fit either Heaven or Hell, so they were kicked out of the afterlife back into their bodies. They're quasi-immortal in that they're alive but, if they're killed, reality just hiccups and they instantly come back good as new. They also need to feed on emotion to sustain themselves, but if they're not careful about it powerful emotion triggers a feeding frenzy. - Amina is essentially a Lovecraftian Ghoul, even though this story was written over a decade before H. P. Lovecraft wrote the first story of the Cthulhu Mythos proper, and over two decades before Lovecraft wrote "Pickman's Model", the story which first codified Lovecraftian Ghouls. Amina looks mostly human, does not fear daylight and breeds normally, of which the first two are unusual for but within the possibilities of Lovecraft-type ghouls. Both Edward Lucas White and Lovecraft, of course, based their ghouls on Arab mythology. - Anita Blake contains some variety of ghoul. The Other Wiki says they were the result of evil rites being performed in a graveyard, and that they formed animalistic packs. - Arabian Nights: Ghouls features in numerous stories and are usually presented as not supernatural in any way, but just really creepy people who like to eat the dead. - In one tale, a sorceress leaves her house at night and joins a ghoul in the cemetery, where they dig out and eat a corpse together. - In "The Tale of the Prince and the Ogress," a prince encounters a beautiful woman who claims to need help, and accompanies her back to her house, where he discovers she is actually a ghoul planning to feed him to her children. - The Book of Dragons: In "The Long Walk 2020", ghouls are six-limbed, four-eyed creatures that grow from untended corpses, which they fashion into macabre, tree-like shapes. The humans use them as beasts of burden, feeding them on dead bodies. - Caitlin R Kiernan: The ghouls that appear in Threshold and Low Red Moon novels were influenced by Lovecraft. The ghouls are beings with canine-like faces and orange eyes that come from another world through dimensional portals. Capable of interbreeding with humans, they are also experts in sorcery and will kidnap human children to raise as hired agents to do their bidding. - In The Concubine's Tomb, ghouls are a jackal-like humanoid race who are burned by the sun's rays (they bury themselves in the sand during the day) who must eat dead human flesh to avoid becoming more animal-like. - The Count Saint Germain novels by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro depict the titular count as a vampire. His manservant Roger is a ghoul Saint Geramain created in Roman times. Roger is apparently immortal, and stronger than a normal human. His only requirement is that he only eats raw meat. So he buys chickens, cuts it up, and eats it with knife and fork like a civilized person rather than tear at it with his teeth. - In The Crescent Moon Kingdoms ghuls are summoned and come in different varieties, and are usually made from various materials such as bone, sand, or water combined with something symbolic of taint such as maggots. The worst are the legendary skin ghuls which are completely immortal and can only be defeated by killing the summoner. Unlike the others, skin ghuls are created by curses from a decapitated head that has been animated with black magic. - The Crystal has a horde of ghouls attack at the end. \|\|The title Plot Device is used to help get rid of them.\|\| - The Trials of Apollo features a type of ghoul called eurynomoi. They are humanoid monsters with bluish-black skin, milky-white eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and wear loincloths made from vulture feathers. Extremely ravenous, they eat corpses and every corpse they strip down to the bones rises again as an elite skeleton warrior (Hades apparently keeps these skeleton warriors as his palace guards). The claws of a eurynomoi are particularly dangerous because a single scratch can infect victims with a withering disease that, if it kills them, will raise them up as a vrykolakas (more commonly called a zombie). The big bad of book 4 used dozens of eurynomoi as ghoulish sheep dogs to heard his army of the dead. - Discworld has a species of ghouls. They are an intelligent and civilized humanoid race most known for their incredibly refined sense of taste (as in food, not aesthetics). At one point, Carrot was considering getting a ghoul for the Watch forensics department, as long as they promised not to take anything home and eat it. There is a Mrs Drull who is a member of the Fresh Start Club, although she is a cameo character who is barely referenced. Apparently these days she doesn't do the "other stuff" and makes a living catering for childrens' parties. - Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.: Lovecraftian-inspired ghouls are common in the post-Big Uneasy world, although less so than zombies, vampires or werewolves. A trio of ghouls work for the medical examiner, and Dan's building manager and the cook at his usual diner are of this Unnatural type. Although they do crave human flesh, ghouls which have appeared in the series are usually (barring the odd "misplaced" medical specimen) content with human-flavored chicken products marketed for monsters. - The Dresden Files: Ghouls are humanoid creatures that, in their natural form, look like someone mixed a baboon with a hyena. They have minor shapeshifting powers, just enough to pass very effectively as human (as in, even a Wizard won't know until they change back). They eat meat, a LOT of meat, roughly 40 or 50 pounds a day, and it's almost invariably human. And they never feel sated, not truly. They also have a Healing Factor, but can be killed by sufficiently bad injuries, though it takes a lot of punishment - we see ghouls survive being blasted in half, and having an entire side of their body seared into nothingness. They're also intelligent, often serve as mercenaries and thugs, they tend to be pretty cowardly, and Harry Dresden really, really hates them (considering what he saw one do to two teenagers, Warden trainees, this is not surprising). At least some of them are signatories of the Unseely Accords, as Harry's first encounter with one involved an Accord-mediated contest between a ghoul and a goblin. \|\|There is also some sort of primitive, supersized, armor-plated mega-ghoul running around. They can completely regenerate after being reduced to the consistency of chunky salsa, and even then, that may not be enough.\|\| - Dr. Greta Helsing: The ghouls in this series are closest to the Lovecraft type. They're a distinct race, reproducing by normal biological means, and subject to some human diseases. (Greta treats a ghoul child for an ear infection at one point, and prescribes antidepressants for a ghoul chieftain.) - Edgar Allan Poe provides us with the page quote from his poem "The Bells" — specifically its fourth stanza, "Iron Bells". He doesn't give many details about ghouls, beyond that they "dwell up in the steeple", that they "feel a glory in so rolling / On the human heart a stone", and that they have a king. Another of his poems, "Ulalume", makes reference to the "ghoul-haunted woodlands of Weir". - In The Elric Saga, ghouls drain the strength of those they touch, possibly the inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons ghouls. They are, however, summoned from another world, rather than undead. - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: Ghouls are a humanoid race that just so happen to have transparent skin, muscles, and organs, giving them the appearance of animated skeletons... oh, and they just so happen to be cannibals too. Which is because of their own twisted belief that their transparent flesh is a sign of their "enlightened" status and they owe it to the "lesser" races to enlighten them as well by transmuting their flesh through digestion. - In S.A Sidor's Fury from the Tomb, the first book of The Institute for Singular Antiquities duology, one of the recurring antagonists to the heroes are a violent gang of Mexican ghouls. These guys are a mix of Spaghetti Western and pulpy Splatter Horror, foul undead banditos that can regenerate new body parts if they get to eat (the heroes capture one of the ghouls and to keep him captive, they occasionally hack new growth off of him and watch to see he doesn't eat any beetles or earthworms). - Gil's All Fright Diner: Ghouls are green-skinned monstrosities created from normal bodies and aren't entirely solid when in darkness, making them very hard to dispatch. - Ghoul is about an ancient Middle Eastern shapeshifting demon which eats, then assumes the identity of, a notorious Muslim terrorist leader, who is then captured and interrogated by a black ops military unit. It can be summoned by carving its symbol in blood, while it haunts its victims with their past sins before killing them. - Supernatural: Ghouls are of the Arabian demon variety and take the appearance of the last person they have fed upon. Though to give an actual reason for why they have to be killed (saying that they desecrate human remains would be a bit weak when the Winchesters have to have burned a whole cemetery by this point) the ones they encounter have started eating living people. Funnily enough the second set of ghouls they encounter are also perfectly happy to eat the living. What, did a ghoul write an awesome new recipe book for fresh meat in the last few years? - Tales from the Crypt: - A sleazy reporter becomes dinner for the charitable organization known as the Grateful Homeless Outcasts and Unwanted Layaway Society while investigating the murders of the city's homeless population in the episode "Mournin' Mess". - "House of Horror" features some fraternity pledges going into a supposedly haunted house for their final test. The pledgemaster even invited some sorority girls to watch to make potential failure more humiliating. Little did the fraternity realize that they were an all-Ghoul sorority, who eat frat guys as part of their pledging. - Note also that versions of both of these stories appeared in the comic. - Svengoolie features a ghoul named Sven as a Horror Host, who introduces classic horror films with comic wisecracks, silly sketches, and corny puns. - Alice Cooper's Ghouls Gone Wild. - Ghoul, a thrash metal band, is based around this trope. - The Mechanisms: The Saxons are interpreted as tribes of degenerate ghouls that live in Annwn, the outer parts of the ancient space station of Port Galfridian, where exposure to intense radiation has turned them into wasted, bestial and cannibalistic monsters. - They Might Be Giants: "The Darlings of Lumberland" is about ghouls with "cold, dead hand[s]" and "empty hollow sockets [which] freeze the soldiers where they stand." - 13th Age: Ghouls are undead cannibals that hunger for what they used to be and can infect victims to rise as ghouls as well. - All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Beyond the typical confusion between "flesh-eating zombie" and "ghoul", actual stats for Arabic-style ghouls are provided in Atlas of the Walking Dead. - Call of Cthulhu: The portrayal of the Lovecraftian ghouls varies widely, mirroring the source material. Sometimes they are savage corpse eaters with no redeeming virtues, and other times they are intelligent and even show human emotions and attitudes. The Dreamlands supplement introduced ghasts. - The Dark Eye: Ghouls are technically living creatures, but resemble undead in most regards. They're gaunt, long-armed, hairless humanoids ruled by a constant hunger for rotten flesh, and are usually found around graveyards, battlefields, and other areas where corpses are abundant. The sun burns and kills them, and they're consequently nocturnal creatures who spend the day hiding underground. They do not breed naturally, and instead turn intelligent humanoids into ghouls by means of their infectious bites. When they gather in large groups, they also tend to mutate to serve specific roles — common, undifferentiated feeders, quick and agile but fragile scouts who find prey for the pack, strong but slow gatherers of body parts, bloated regurgitators who swallow huge quantities of meat and regurgitate them for the rest to eat, blind diggers with large claws who maintain tunnel systems for the rest to hide in during the day, rare morokun capable of casting spells, and bloated, immobile and telepathic ghoul kings who rule over the rest. - DarkMatter (1999): After a few generations, humans who engage in cannibalism degenerate into Ghouls. Ghouls have unnaturally sharp fingernails and stink of blood and decay, forced to small pockets on the edge of society and slaking their hunger from morgues or the occasional isolated person. - Dragon Dice: Ghouls are a basic undead troop type. They are moderately capable in both casting magic and melee combat. - Dungeons & Dragons has quite a few examples. - Most editions of D&D have ghouls who are feral, scavenging undead who are not disinclined to picking on fresh meat if it looks like it'll be good pickings. Their attacks are both poisonous (generally a paralyzing agent to subdue living prey in a hurry) and prone to spreading disease. Unusually for the usual flesh-eating undead concept, ghouls are fully sapient and can even speak, which makes them capable of planning out ambushes. A ghast is a tougher, more martially inclined ghoul with a few extra tricks, but is largely the same concept. - The CD&D rules omitted ghasts, but added elder ghouls (strong ghouls surrounded by a vitality-draining unholy light) and agarats (hyperkinetic ghouls that drain life energy with their screams) to the roster. - Some sources, including the 2nd ed Al-Qadim, feature ghouls (or ghuls) based on the ghoul of Arabic myth. It's an undead genie with powerful magic and shapeshifting abilities. - The Fiend Folio for third edition also features the maurezhi, a race of demons that eats the corpse as well as the soul of its victims, which makes it stronger and allows it to take the deceased person's form. Along with it is the abyssal ghoul, first introduced in City of the Spider Queen, which is like the undead ghoul, but with demonic powers. - d20 Modern brings it all full circle, in that its zombies are simply the traditional Voodoo type, but its ghouls are straight out of Romero's playbook. - Dungeon Magazine adventure City of Ghouls introduces True Ghouls, intelligent and much deadlier than the original ones. So much in fact almost overrun the Underdark, proving a worthy challenge to all kinds of dangerous creatures living there. They since made few appearances in other Dungeon adventures, 4E module Kingdom of the Ghouls and even rule the Underworld in Empire of the Ghouls campaign for Kobold Press' Midgard setting. - 3rd Edition's Monster Manual II describes famine spirits, also called ravenous ghouls, a type of bloated undead possessed by a burning, all-consuming hunger that can never be sated. Famine spirits consume everything they come across, even being able to unhinge their jaws to swallow large items or victims whole, and will only abstain from devouring undead flesh. As a result, they often gain followings of ghouls and ghasts eager to join in their feasts. - Arthaus's 3rd-party Ravenloft 3.5e supplement, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, broadened D&D's "ghoul" category to include a variety of "Hungry Dead". Its signature example was a grossly-fat undead who would crash dinner parties and frantically gobble down any sort of food, only attacking the living guests if there was nothing else edible within reach. - Exalted: - Han-Tha, the Ghoul King, is a god of cannibalism, necrophagy and scavengers who takes the form of a great eyeless beast with a giant maw filled with sharp fangs. His worship is forbidden, and is only found among depraved cults and degenerate primitives lurking in ruined cities. - The Ghost-Blooded, the half-dead and half-alive children of ghosts and living mortals, are sometimes referred to as ghouls. - The ghul, also known as deiphages, are gods driven insane by the loss of their domains and starved by the loss of Quintessence from mortal prayer. They lurk in the slums and sewers of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan, ambushing other deities and devouring them for their Essence. - Gods of the Fall: After the Delirium descended on the city of Athsayor, its inhabitants were transformed into ghouls and retreated underground. They tear intruders limb from limb and consume them while still alive, while preparing for something they refer to as the Great Dying. - GURPS: Ghouls in GURPS: Fantasy are a complete race who are indistinguishable from normal humans until they try to eat you. The only thing they can eat is human flesh; all other foods are dangerous to them. - kill puppies for satan: Ghouls are depraved people who are addicted to a supernatural charge they get out of eating corpses. They're looked down on by all the other supernatural types; note : And considering this is a game that requires the players to be a Stupid Evil Goldfish Poop Gang of Hollywood Satanists, this is really saying something the narrator describes them as "the desperate needle-sharing ass-peddling heroin addicts of our world". - Night's Black Agents: Ghouls typically act as muscle for a vampire, or as guard dogs for an underground location. They needn't be human; ghouls might be flesh-eating canines, beetles, fish or alien constructs. - Numenera: - Ghasts are degenerate humans who live in the Ghastlov, the ash-scoured wasteland in the heart of Vralk. They wear no clothing, use bone weapons and make no shelters, instead burrowing beneath the ground by day, and will eat anything they can catch — and are cannibals to boot, eating both human travelers and their own young, elders and feeble ones to survive in the waste they call home. - Syzygy ghouls are abhumans who feed upon the dead, and spend almost as much time beneath the ground as corpses. Their bodies are hairless and so porcelain-smooth that their faces are sometimes mistaken for emotionless masks. Syzygy ghouls come to the surface at night to gather humanoid remains or steal those recently interred from their graves, and are said to know what any of their past meals knew. They are later revealed to hail from Dhizrend, a dimension filled only with corpses, and to be ruled by an elite that does not feed on corpses and instead dines on living human captives. - Pathfinder: - Ghouls follow D&D's example and also take inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos, giving them an underground kingdom and a hatred of the more powerful ghasts, even bringing in the minor Mythos race, the gugs, as their natural enemies — the gugs, despite being much bigger and much more powerful than ghouls, are terrified of them and will always attempt to flee when they meet one. They usually worship the demon lord Kabriri, said to have been the first ghoul to ever exist and the eventual progenitor of every modern ghoul. - Ghouls have a complex relationship with elves. Elves are immune to their paralyzing touch, although not to the fever that turns the living into ghouls — the fact that Kabriri was an elf in life is speculated to be the reason for this. Elven parents affected by ghoul fever may give birth to angheuvores, half-undead beings afflicted by a ghoul's ravenous hunger for flesh. - There are also "ghuls", a separate monster formed from the undead husks of a genie, more closely modeled on the Arabic lore. - Leng ghouls were introduced later, are more powerful than even ghasts and were specifically created to be the Old One-worshipping, dog-headed, peculiarly civilized Lovecraftian ghouls. They do not worship Kabriri like other ghouls do, and consider themselves to be part of a distinct undead lineage that predates Kabriri's by a long stretch. - RuneQuest: Ghouls are half-dead creatures that maintain their status by eating the dead. They are formed when malign spirits possess a corpse. The corpse is thereby transfigured and animated, becoming a parody of life that will alsways look as if it has stepped from a week-old grave. - Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos features the Lovecraftian Ghoul as a playable race, inspired by the lore surrounding ghouls from H. P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. - Shadowrun ghouls are metahumans who contracted a virus that 1) blinded them, 2) deformed them (they lack body hair, and have claws and shark-like teeth), 3) shunted them halfway into the astral plane and 4) made metahuman flesh a dietary requirement. Often ends up making the poor character either a monster, evil or (if they are lucky) a tougher shadowrunner. The dietary requirements are a particular issue for them — they need to eat human, elf, dwarf, ork or troll flesh, quite a bit of it, and can't live off of anything else. While individual ghouls can scrape by off of corpses and casualties in shadowruns and firefights, any large concentration inevitably has to resort to things like the black market organ trade, purchasing condemned prisoners from nearby governments and worse. One of the things that the great dragon Dunkelzahn left in his will was an enormous reward for anyone who successfully was able to develop or discover a subsitute food source for ghouls. - Small World: Ghouls are one of the playable races. Their racial power is the ability to keep all their pieces in play and continue expanding their territory when they go into decline, unlike other races. - The Strange: - Ghouls in Halloween are goblins who have developed a taste for the flesh of their fellows. Hungry for flesh (even rotting flesh), they dig up about one in ten fresh graves in the Graveyard. - In Wuxia City, a ghoul is a person who sought the sacrament of the Darkness and willingly became a supernatural entity of endless hunger. Ghouls can see in the dark, are immortal unless killed, and derive pleasure from gnawing on human flesh. - Talislanta: Necrophages are humanoids from the Underworld that feed on the remains of the dead. Ghasts hail from the nether realms, and tend to haunt ancient graveyards, tombs, and battlegrounds. - Unhallowed Metropolis: While technically undead — specifically half-lifers, a type of undead that outright dead like vampires or zombies, but who aren't quite alive, either — and deformed, the strain of The Plague they're infected with leaves them with some of their humanity. Those who can curb their violent impulses are more or less tolerated — meaning they're treated as an inferior minority to be exploited at leisure as long as they don't get uppity. - Urban Jungle: The "Occult Horror" supplement has Lovecraft-like ghouls, they're described as mostly harmless if not directly threatened, after all their enemies will die and become food eventually. - Vampire: The Masquerade and its successor Vampire: The Requiem: - Ghouls are the mortal servants of vampires. Regularly consuming a little bit of the blood of their vampire masters grants them a few supernatural powers, but it also makes them slaves to the vampire's will and particularly prone to mental illness and other gruesome drawbacks. There're even entire ghoul families (which Masquerade calls revenants), who are particularly unwholesome sorts even by ghoul standards. - There's also a bloodline of special black magic vampires in Masquerade, the Nagaraja, who have to eat human flesh in addition to drinking blood. Though not referred to as ghouls, between the magic and the cannibalism they much more closely resemble the ghouls of middle eastern myth. - Additionally there's the szlachta, a type of ghoul created by the Uberwaldic Tzimisce clan using their Body Horror magic they call "fleshcrafting". While their combat prowess is increased, they're also hideously deformed with some of them not even being humanoid anymore by the end of it. - The Wicked Dead sourcebook for Requiem also features the mythic variety of ghul, which feed on corpses (some of which they make themselves) and have the ability to take on the form of their meals. It's disgusting, but they do get quite a few neat powers, and if you really want to live forever, being a ghul is probably a better [sic] option than vampirism. - Warhammer: - Ghouls are the degenerate descendants of humans who were driven to cannibalism, typically during times of war or famine, and often hide in places such as catacombs and crypts. Though not supernatural creatures themselves, they have an innate connection to dark magic that allows vampires to easily dominate them as living minions. - The Strigoi vampire bloodline, often dubbed "Ghoul Kings", are twisted, hunched vampiric scavengers who skulk around graveyards feasting on the blood and flesh of the recently dead and prefer graveyards as their favored haunts. It's common for the Strigoi to form a closer bond with the ghouls than other vampires do, and they often lead large packs and colonies of the cannibalistic beings. - Crypt horrors are gigantic, heavily mutated ghouls that have been fed vampire blood, which functions as a Psycho Serum. Effectively living weapons, crypt horrors are used as shock troops against foes whose magic could otherwise repel true undead, such as the undead-abhorring Cult of Morr. The creation of crypt horrors is frowned upon by most vampires as a bastardization of the Blood Kiss, and so only the most desperate or degenerate of vampires are willing to utilize them. - Mournghouls are horrific beings created when people driven mad by cold and hunger in the far north of the world turn to cannibalism to survive, only to later succumb to the elements and rise as monstrous undead creatures driven by an endless, insatiable hunger that they can never relieve. Notably, this makes them very similar to the mythical Wendigo. - Warhammer 40,000: - Ur-Ghuls are a type of aliens resembling pale, hunched humanoids with large heads and four sensory pits instead of eyes. They're often used by Dark Eldar Archons as bodyguards and enforcers. - Dark Heresy: Hullghasts are feral, bestial humanoids descended from human crews who became stranded on wrecked space vessels, ruined stations, or often enough on remote, rarely-visited decks of the Imperium's immense and centuries-old ships. They're hairless, all but eyeless, and have mouths lined with fangs, and eagerly prey on humans who stray into their realms. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar promotes Warhammer's ghouls to a full faction in the form of the Flesh-Eater Courts, and manages to make its predecessor's already creepy ghouls even creepier. They're not just degenerate humans now, they're also all extraordinarily insane, with a shared, contagious delusion that they are all part of a glorious kingdom of benevolent kings, chivalrous knights, and stalwart men-at-arms fighting terrifying monsters, instead of gibbering club-wielding cannibals slaughtering and devouring monsters, enemy warriors, and civilians alike. - The Flesh-Eater Courts, much like their Warhammer Fantasy predecessors, are ruled by vampiric Ghoul Kings, degenerate vampires who have become little more than bestial, ravening predators, but whose clouded minds still think themselves the noble kings and crusaders they once were. They're responsible for infecting cannibals with the infectious madness of the Courts, and for transforming them into ever more monstrous forms by feeding them their blood in reward for valiant deeds. - The ghouls of the Flesh-Eater Courts come in a much greater variety of types than simply the crypt ghouls and crypt horrors carried over from the original game. Variants include crypt ghasts, powerful creatures who were once heroes and wizards and now lead their lesser kin; crypt haunters, beasts elevated from crypt horrors by the blood of their kings and who see themselves as noble commanders leading scores of knights to battle; and crypt flayers, whose arms grow into batlike wings on drinking their king's blood and who can further transform into crypt infernals. - The Haunted Mansion: The words "ghoul" and "ghoulish" are often used as part of the plethora of synonyms of "ghost" used by the ghosts to describe themselves (which also notably includes "creepy creeps"), implying that "ghoul" is just another name for "The Undead" in general in the Mansionverse. - Alpen Ghoul revolves around your unarmed player character in the wilderness while being stalked by the titular ghoul. Who will keep hunting you down once you're in sight. - Battle Brothers: Nachzehrer are a type of ghoulish creature that likes to eat corpses. They'll often do this when battling your company, eating either their own dead or yours and growing bigger and bigger and more powerful as they do so. At their biggest size they can swallow one of your men whole, and if you fail to kill the creature your comrade will die in its stomach. - Battle for Wesnoth has ghouls of the zombie/mutant variety. Distinct from "Walking Corpses", ghouls are larger, eat their dead opponents instead of zombifying them, and have poisonous claws. Depending on the campaign, they can be created either by cursing live humans or reanimating recently dead. - Boktai: Ghouls, also known as Boks, are fairly close to the traditional zombie. Only they squeak when they see you. - Castlevania ghouls are typically just Palette Swaps of zombies. The exception to this is the portrayal of ghouls in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which are a cannibalistic, underground-dwelling evolutionary offshoots of normal humans, though very much alive, they still share the undead's weakness to holy water. - City of Heroes has Mutant Ghouls in the alternate dimension of Praetoria. They were created by Praetor Berry, who was trying to create a new variety of super-soldier to replace the legions of conscripted superhumans through the use of a genetic serum. However, the serum turns people into super-tough brutes instead, and they look like deformed monsters because the serum causes their altered endocrine systems to accelerate the build-up of stress damage. Because Berry is still curious about how the failures could be used, but the Praetorian leader, Emperor Cole doesn't want the monsters mucking up his perfect world, Praetor Berry dumps the Ghouls into the gigantic network of sewers and maintenance tunnels under the city, with the added benefit of the Ghouls constantly attacking and eating the Resistance group that occupies those same tunnels. - Averted in Daemon Summoner; the ghoul enemies are more akin to generic zombies (at one point you enter a graveyard where dozens of them pushes their coffins open to swarm you), are the first enemies encountered, and are rubbish mooks that dies easily despite appearing in large numbers everytime. - Darkest Dungeon: Ghouls are considerably larger than most other examples, towering over a human. They're also quite fast. They are classed as "unholy" type enemies, and are apparently former humans, but not much information is known about them beyond that. - Dark Souls: The Infested Ghouls are hollows infected by the diseases in Blighttown, they are more aggressive than the hollows at the surface and are cannibalistic. - Dead Space 3: Feeder necromorphs may count, being painfully thin and constantly hungry necromorphs who arose from starving people who ate necromorph meat. - Die2Nite: People who have feasted on a human corpse to become half zombies. They suffer from decaying flesh and must feed on human meat to survive, but are immune to infections and retain all higher brain functions. - Dominions: Ghouls are a Late Age capitol-only unit for Ulm, cursed when they ate their companions during a siege. Their halberds destroy enemy sacred units and they cause instant fear by being seen. - You can create a Ghoul in Doodle God by combining a Corpse and a Zombie (i.e. a zombie that eats corpses), or combining a Corpse and a Necromancer, which creates a Ghoul as well as a Zombie. If you combine a Ghoul with a Priest or a Paladin, the Ghoul will be split into a Corpse and a Ghost. - Doom: In "The Ghoul's Forest" series of Game Mods (and its multiplayer sequel, Ghouls vs. Humans) most ghouls are huge floating skeletal heads which fly around incredibly fast and eat people. Except for the Creeper, who's just a Humanoid Abomination. - Dragon Age: - Ghouls are people who have succumbed to the Darkspawn Taint. The Taint gradually eats away at their mind, body, and soul and allows them to hear the Song of the Old Gods. Most Ghouls spend the remainder of their twisted lives — which aren't very long thanks to the Taint — in slavery to the Darkspawn as manual labor and possibly food. - Some fans have described the Grey Wardens as effectively "high-functioning ghouls" since they've all drunk a mixture of darkspawn blood, Archdemon blood, and lyrium that gives them some minor darkspawn powers including the ability to detect the presence of tainted beings (though they can be detected in turn), and eventually kills them, drives them insane, and/or turns them into full ghouls or darkspawn themselves. - Animals can become ghouls as well; they tend to end up which much more extreme physical deformities then humanoid ghouls along with the usual insanity. Specific examples include Bereskaran and Blight Wolves. - Drakensang: Ghouls are living beings who behave like the ravenous undead version in most respects, being flesh-eating, crypt-dwelling primitives who feed on corpses and possess infectious bites as a result of their diet. - In Dungeon Crawl, they are one of the many playable races, as well as an occasionally encountered monster. As a race, they get all sorts of wonderful immunities and abilities, but they gain experience slowly, and they need to constantly eat meat, preferably rotten. - Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War: Ghouls are animated human corpses. They carry daggers and often have an elemental affinity. Notably, they also occasionally spawn spirit monsters when destroyed. - Dungeons: Ghouls are an advanced version of zombies, being larger, having a Primal Stance and paler skin, tusks and the ability to bullrush enemies. They feed on corpses. - Fallout: Ghouls are "necrotic post-humans" who have been horribly scarred and burned by radiation, so that they resemble walking corpses. On the upside, they are not only Radiation-Immune Mutants, they seem to be sustained by it in some way, so that some ghoul characters in the games can remember the bombs going off 200 years ago. Many ghouls are fully sapient and no better or worse than anyone else in post-apocalyptic America, but so-called "feral ghouls" have lost all sense of self and attack any non-ghoul on sight, acting like typical Hollywood zombies. It's suspected that prolonged radiation exposure accelerates a ghoul's mental degradation, hence why most ghouls found at the bottom of old irradiated bunkers are feral. Non-feral ghouls face discrimination both due to their looks and from the suspicion that they may one day turn feral. Ghoul variants include Glowing Ones, usually-feral creatures which are so irradiated that they glow and can heal or revive their lesser ghoul brethren, and Reavers, which have learned to make Improvised Armor and hurl chunks of radioactive gore with fearsome accuracy. - Raul in Fallout: New Vegas shows that being able to live forever isn't exactly a good thing; his hands and knees have arthritis, his eyes are covered in cataracts, and the loss of his friends and loved ones over the centuries has taken a toll on him. Whether or not this is all in his head is up for the player to decide in his companion quest. - The Fallout: New Vegas — Lonesome Road DLC introduces a unique ghoul variant in the Marked Men, NCR and Legion soldiers who were fighting in the Divide when its buried nukes went off. They were ghoulified by the detonation, flayed by the howling sandstorms, but kept alive by the radiation. Now they fight together, killing and butchering anyone foolish enough to intrude upon the Divide. - Hancock from Fallout 4 became a ghoul through use of an experimental drug he found while on one of his "wild tears" following his departure from Diamond City after his brother, Mayor McDonough, took over and had all the ghouls of the city thrown out. He became the mayor of the town of Goodneighbor after staging a coup against its previous ruler, a nasty piece of work named Vic. - Final Fantasy's Ghouls were the first really nasty undead you encountered in the game, who, like the ghouls of Dungeons & Dragons, had the ability to paralyze you. White Mages with the Harm spell were an absolute must for dealing with them, especially in groups, because if they managed to paralyze your entire party, you could only pray for the paralysis to wear off so you could get the hell away before they killed everyone. God help you if they manage to ambush you... - Guild Wars: Ghouls are semi-bestial undead melee-fighters of the Orrian undead horde. Resembling Warcraft ghouls, they are poisonous and have the annoying habit of spawning by burrowing up out of the ground right underneath you. - Heroes of Might and Magic: - Ghouls in Might and Magic: Heroes VI are the undead type, used as foot-soldiers or slaves by the Necropolis faction. Because becoming a ghoul robs an individual of their free will and sentience, and bars them from the reincarnation cycle that governs the world of Ashan, Necromancers usually create ghouls by transforming their enemies or condemned criminals, as a Fate Worse than Death-style punishment. - The ghoul was later retooled in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic as extremely fast and powerful servants of the necromancer Arantir. These ghouls could climb walls and were near-animalistic in nature. - Knights of the Old Republic: Rakghouls belong to the "mutant ghoul" subtype, being living creatures — intelligent humanoids, as a rule — transformed by the powers of the Muur Talisman into mindless, vicious monsters with no eyes, pronounced muzzles, hoof-like claws and a ravenous appetite for human flesh. They were first created by the Sith Lord Karness Muur as a way to quickly create ferocious, deadly and easily controlled troops, and popped up to plague the galaxy numerous times in the following millennia. - Magicka: Ghouls are Gollum-esque creatures that crawl around on all fours. There are also Lantern Ghouls who can set you on fire with their lanterns and explode upon death. They're also not technically undead, since they take damage from Arcane and are healed by Life like normal enemies. - In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Mordor seems to suffer from a country-wide Ghûl infestation. They are a pestilent species of nocturnal, small, hairless bipedal things with glowing yellow eyes, long, dog-like skulls, and sharp teeth and claws. While weak individually, Ghûls come in large swarms to overwhelm foes, some spitting poison on their unfortunate prey. It's implied in the Appendices that the Ghûls are growing in number due to the dramatic increase in unburied corpses littering Mordor in the wake of Sauron's return and the spread of the Uruk-hai. - Myth: Ghouls are apelike living creatures who resemble H.P Lovecraft Ghouls. They also take on some of the traditional aspects of Orcs, being tribal mountain dwellers who are the ancient enemies of the Dwarves. - Nexus War: Ghouls are a type of minion animated by the Lich class. They are stronger and more vicious than normal zombies, and gain health from successful attacks. - Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi: Ghouls are ugly cowled humanoid creatures who only appear in a few areas. They have less health than regular mooks, but have longer range and deal more damage. The Encyclopedia describes them as being related to Vampires, but weaker and dumber, and they eat flesh instead of drinking blood. - Pillars of Eternity has two variants, darguls and guls. Both are fampyrs become due to a lack of consumed soul essence. Guls are more savage and animalistic, but darguls are more dangerous because they're aware of their own decay. One particularly upsetting sidequest in the first game entails rescuing a young girl from her dargul family members, who are aware enough to beg her to open the door, but decayed enough to want to eat her. - Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced Gimmighoul, a small Ghost-type Pokémon which hides in a treasure chest filled with coins, and can mind-control others to gather coins for it. Unlike most depictions of ghouls, Gimmighoul does not eat people, but instead has similarities with the ghoul's lesser-known traits of luring people astray and stealing coins. Prior to being revealed in Scarlet and Violet, Gimmighoul first appeared in Pokémon GO, running around without a chest in its so-called "Roaming Form". - Quest for Glory II: Ghouls only come out at night and can sap the hero's SP with melee attacks. In the AGD Fan Remake, they can cast spells, and their melee attacks also give them more MP if they connect, making them closer to liches. - The Secret World features ghouls inspired primarily by the Lovecraftian variant, a race of bat-faced near-humanoids with hunched builds, leathery skin and bad hygiene note : to put things in perspective, ghouls make nests out of a highly-toxic mixture of rusted metal debris and their own shit; ravenous carrion-eaters by nature, they can often be found congregating around battlefields, graveyards, rubbish dumps, and powerful magical sites in search of ripening corpses. Though seemingly crude and bestial, lore reveals that ghouls are actually borderline immortal, and those that survive the brutal years of early adulthood eventually grow more intelligent and more powerful: ghoul elders are among the most devious and potent of all their kind, capable of commanding armies into battle, wielding magic and even shapeshifting. How the ghouls came to be is still uncertain: the Dragon suggest that they are the degenerate remains of a highly-advanced civilization, subsisting on rotten meat in a desperate ritualized attempt to reclaim their former glory; on the other hand, the Jinn claim to have created them as a Servant Race in order to clean up the bodies generated by their ongoing feud with humanity. - Shadowrun Returns Hong Kong: Gaichu is a sufferer of the HMHVV III virus, which has robbed him of his eyesight, ability to digest anything other than hominid flesh, and standing as a Red Samurai. However, he was one of the lucky ones, since he was aware of what happened to him and had the focus to get through it with his psyche relatively intact. When you meet him, Gaichu is a Cultured Badass who cuts up mooks by the dozen in spite of being blind, debates philosophy and poetry and makes delicious human ''sashimi''. - Terraria: Ghouls appear in Hardmode underground deserts (a homage to their origins in Arabic myths), with variants for Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow. They have a large mouth and long pointy ears, and they drop the Ancient Cloth when killed, which is used to craft the Ancient vanity set. - Total Annihilation: Kingdoms: Taros' Dark Priest unit can resurrect corpses as ghouls, which will obey you to some extent but also have a tendency to wander randomly. - Total War: Warhammer: Crypt ghouls are a unit in the Vampire Counts roster; unlike the rest of the vampires' undead minions, they're technically living humans who have turned into degenerate, hunched and light-shunning beasts after generations spent living underground and eating the dead. They'll still crumble like undead units instead of routing like living units, however. There are also the crypt horrors, Elite Mooks resembling gigantic, deformed ghouls with complex, bony growths and spikes erupting from their spines. - In Tsukihime, Ghouls are the first stage of a Dead Apostle's unlife, created when a vampire (either a Dead Apostle or a True Ancestor) injects their own blood into a victim while sucking their blood, and said victim possessing both the physical and spiritual fortitude to avoid becoming one of the mindless "living dead" (a zombie, for all intents and purposes). The resulting creature will rise from the grave after a few years as a walking corpse with the mental capacity of a wild animal, and must feed on other corpses to gradually regenerate its decaying flesh, which eventually will end with them becoming a full-fledged vampire. - Ultima Underworld has ghouls that are technically still alive, but they've turned into the standard flesh-eating-monster (and even look the part) as a result of cannibalism. Which makes them somewhat more like Morlocks or Wendigo, but everything else fits the "undead ghoul" description. - Warcraft: Ghouls are a basic type of undead. - They are the basic footsoldiers of the Scourge in Warcraft III (who double as lumberjacks and eat corpses to replenish health) while the basic zombie is a very weak unit unavailable by normal means. In World of Warcraft, they are slightly less common but still one of the most encountered types of undead along with Skeletons and classic zombies. In the second expansion, they were promoted to Deathknight pets with a few distinctive abilities, while their old role as worker/melee seems to have been taken over by Geists (one-eyed, crawling zombies). - It's mentioned in the background that Ghouls are Zombies that have "ascended" (descended?) into "true" undeath. Their bodies have mutated to make them more efficient killers and instead of being lumbering and mindless like Zombies they are aggressive and possess bestial cunning. - Of course, based on the classic definitions of the word, Forsaken characters qualify as ghouls, being undead that can eat corpses to heal. Unlike the ghouls of the series, the forsaken are free-willed, intelligent and can even be civilized, if resentful towards living beings. Making alliance with them means having a Token Evil Teammate. - War for the Overworld: Once you have a Crypt, your Necromancers can raise Ghouls from the fallen's corpses. These work as easily replacable Cannon Fodder that rush straight into combat. - In Warframe Councilor Vay Hek creates a type of Grineer clone called a Ghoul. Every corner is cut in their development in favor of gestation speed. They are grown in the ground in the Plains of Eidolon, and rise from the ground to kill any unsuspecting victim. - The Witcher has quite Lovecraftian ghouls, albeit without culture or language. According to the novel they originate from the "Conjunction of the Spheres" that brought magic into the world, making them an existence outside the natural order, though what exactly this means is unknown beyond the implication that the Witchers could theoretically hunt them to extinction with no adverse effects to the native ecology. - Persian Wars has three factions: Beduins, Amazons and Ghouls. Ghouls are somewhat antropomorphic hyenas who like to throw feasts where human flesh is consumed\|\|, if human guests are present they are expected to become humanitarian (a rejection on consuming human flesh during a feast can make the Ghouls utmost offended)\|\|. They are also very fond to tunnels, graveyard-resembling cities and purple lotuses. - Eldritch (2009): Vampires who don't drink enough blood degenerate into ghouls, eternally decaying immortals that instinctively seek out blood. - In The Fan, a group of characters fight a ghoul in a side story. A later filler strip provides more information of ghouls in the comic's world. - In El Joven Lovecraft, a Spanish webcomic, Glenn the Ghoul is the hero's pet. He looks mostly like a jackal. - Lovely Lovecraft: Pickman is the only ghoul seen up close thus far, but judging by his appearance, ghouls in this webcomic are largely consistent with their portrayal in Lovecraft's original works: greenish or grayish clawed humanoids with dwellings in the Dreamlands. The main differences from Lovecraft's original ghouls are their faces (more humanoid and less doglike than Lovecraft describes) and their habit of wearing loincloths instead of going naked. - Sluggy Freelance: In the "Aylee" storyline, another dimension is overrun by creatures called ghouls, which are basically humans, but with claws, fangs, much lower intelligence, and a tendency to speak entirely in hisses. Oh, and they feed on human flesh, of course. It's unknown at first where they came from, and some initial suggestions are that they're some form of undead, or people mutated by a virus or something. Turns out \|\|they're actually alien/human hybrids, who are the other-dimensional version of Aylee's species\|\|. - Zebra Girl: One of the monster residents of Miscellaneous is Walter, a ghoul Zandra allows to raid the graveyard for food. \|\|He remains loyal to her after Bloofer's coup and uses his tunnels to pass messages and help her friends escape a vampire ambush.\|\| - Less is Morgue: Ghouls like Riley are born, not made, and they're a blend of Lovecraftian and Mythological. They can shapeshift and imitate people's voices, but they're very much mortal. - Rogues: Ghouls are created by vampires considered disgusting and more trouble than they are worth by Isabella — understandably so. They have an obsessive loyalty to their creator, but smell terrible, have disgusting eating habits, and are not the brightest creatures around. - SCP Foundation: SCP-6387 (A Ghoulish Tale) was a tall, translucent-skinned Monstrous Humanoid with hooves and huge clawed hands. It was shot and killed when a graveyard groundskeeper found it frantically digging up a fresh burial plot. \|\|It was later discovered the woman in the plot was Buried Alive.\|\| - In Tales of MU, ghouls are vicious undead predators who arise "when a waterlogged corpse is exposed to the light of the new moon", but unlike skeletons or zombies they can breed and form colonies. Other than that they fit the model of zombie ghouls. - In The Amazing World of Gumball, the word "ghoul" seems to refer to archtypical Halloween monsters, such as slasher villains and monster clowns. - Love, Death & Robots: The creatures referred to as ghouls in "The Secret War" are borderline demonic entities that were summoned in a disastrous attempt to bolster the Red Army's forces. The actual creatures are however fully fleshy and killable beings, and resemble eyeless, hairless and roughly humanoid creatures with elongated arms, quadrupedal gaits and long muzzles filled with fangs. They're highly aggressive carnivores, move in large swarms and live in immense warrens underground. - Slugterra: Ghoul slugs are pure evil (being corrupted by Dr. Blakk), and more powerful versions of their original species. Their vicious appearance inspires Eli to coin the name after seeing one for the first time. - Wakfu: The ghouls are of the "vampiric kind" (in fact, their first creator was a guy named Vampyro): they're created when Shadofang's ring absorbs their shadow, becoming things, black-skinned humanoids with a skull for a head that only do their master's bidding. - The star Algol ("Ghoul's Head") in the Perseus constellation. Bonus points as science has shown it to be two note : Three including a star much farther away stars orbiting so close that the smaller one has drained matter from the formerly more massive becoming the most massive one of the system.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGhoulsAreDifferent
Our Elves Are Better - TV Tropes Our Elves Are Better is a disambiguation to the following tropes: For other tropes about elves as a species, see Elf Tropes. All wicks to this page should be changed to point to whichever trope they refer to.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreBetter
Our Genies Are Different - TV Tropes "I beg you, my son," she said, "by the milk with which I suckled you, throw away the lamp and the ring! They can only cause us a great deal of terror, and I couldn't bear to look at that jinnee a second time. Moreover, it is unlawful to have relations with them." In Middle Eastern folklore and Islam, genies ( jinn, Arabic for "hidden") were the first beings with free will, created out of "smokeless fire" by God before he created the First Man out of clay. They are (usually) invisible beings that are actually more like humans than we realize — they are born, grow up, marry, have children and eventually die. They are said to be made of "smokeless fire", perhaps something along the lines of Energy Beings. They are also extremely long-lived and highly skilled in magic. However, they can be killed by mundane means, if the Arabian Nights is any indication. (At least a couple of genies there being done in by a rock to the head.) They were sometimes trapped in bottles. They might grant you a wish if you free them, or they might have been bound to something like a ring or a lamp and forced to obey the orders of anyone who summoned them. Genies are creatures of free will; they can be good or evil and may even be religious (there are Muslim genies, Christian genies, Jewish genies, etc...), and when there are enough of them around, they can form a Wainscot Society, sometimes living invisibly alongside humans. There are even various types of djinn, not unlike how The Fair Folk comprises many different creatures. Belief in genies is still common in the Middle East today. In Islamic theology, God told the Djinn that they should bow to man's superiority, but their leader, Iblis, refused to do so; thus, a good chunk of them ended up imprisoned by Suleiman and other holy men in lamps and such and forced to grant wishes. Genies in Islam can also possess humans for a variety of reasons — they might have a crush on the human, or they might just be a jerkwad. During exorcisms, the genie is given the option to convert to Islam, leave the body of the human or die. Iblis, by the way, never repented, and in fact swore that he would corrupt mankind... in other words, he's their version of Satan (and in fact is sometimes called Shayṭān or Shaitan). note : On a related note, linguists have proposed that that the word Iblis is etymologically derived from the Ancient Greek word Diabolos. That is, the Devil. In popular Western media, genies are immortal beings almost invariably trapped inside a lamp or a bottle, often materializing through a puff of smoke. (Originally, at least part of those items only acted as a means to summon the genie and didn't actually contain it). They must grant you Three Wishes ("And ix-nay on the Wishing for More Wishes!"), which they may or may not screw up horribly. (In the Arabian Nights, this number ranged from one to infinity). Their precise spelling varies, but "djinn", "jinn" and "genie" are the most common; generally, depictions based more closely on the original folklore are called djinni or jinni, while the more modern three-wishes kind are more likely to be called genies. Also, Genies are extremely likely to be an Amazing Technicolor Population and to have Fog Feet. Female genies in modern media typically wear Bedlah Babe outfits. A few specific types of genies also tend to crop up. The most common are efreet (also spelled ifrit, afrit, and afreet). In Arabic folklore, these are generally understood as a particularly dangerous and chthonic, but not necessarily inherently evil, type of spirits; they usually have some link to "regular" jinni, and may be seen as a specific kind of the broader group, but this is somewhat vague and not always constant. In modern fiction, efreet/ifrits are usually a specific type of genie, and are often depicted as closely linked to fire; they are usually either evil or simply more powerful and less predictable than other or true genies. The correct Arabic grammar is "one djinni", "two djinn" (also spelled jinn(i)). The English word "genie", used to translate "djinni", derives from the Roman "genius", which is the spirit inherent to any person or object, such as in the term genius loci. The same concept in Hebrew is called a shed ("one shed", "two shedim") and shida in Aramaic. See also Genie in a Bottle, Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie. Not to mention Our Ghouls Are Creepier; ghouls have their origins as a class of djinn, although modern Western works rarely depict them as such. And there's always a chance that The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson. ## Examples: - In the English dub of Nana Moon, the lunarians are referred to as "moon genies" despite having absolutely nothing in common with stereotypical depictions of the mythical beings. In the Chinese original, they're called "moon elves" instead. - Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, being a Crossover with the Arabian Nights-verse, have a few odd genies. - One of the new characters introduced in the episode is Mikujin, a ditzy robot-genie from the future hired by Doraemon as a tour guide. He looks like a cat crossed over with a genie, but is a robot underneath, with his name lampshading it (" miku" - a variant of " mirai", or future. So he's a "future"-djinn, get it?) - Doraemon and gang are rescued by Sinbad halfway through and gets to explore Sinbad's castle of enchanted goods, one of them being a Genie in a Bottle - when the bottle is sealed, the genie sleeps inside at a Sleep-Mode Size. It then grows into a kaiju-sized behemoth once the stopper is removed, and carries out every bidding given by it's owner. Unfortunately said bottle gets stolen by the villains late in the story. - Dragon Ball: - Majin Buu, or Djinn-Boo in the Viz manga, is quite genie-like both in appearance (most notably his Arabic clothing), and in the fact that he first manifests as smoke after being unsealed from a container. Other genie-like attributes include his magical powers (such as shapeshifting and being able to transmute other objects/beings), effective immortality, and debut appearance which featuring him being summoned by an evil sorcerer who tries to order him around. As noted earlier, he was called Djinn-Boo in the manga, as one could make a case for translating it either way. Though due to the "M" symbols on Buu himself, and other Buu-related things, "Majin" is generally preferred over Djinn. note : Good luck finding a consensus on Boo vs. Buu, though In a 2007 interview, Toriyama stated that he came up with Buu's design because he saw The Arabian Nights as a kid, and "had this set image of what a Majin, or genie, should look like", confirming that he thinks of Buu as a kind of genie (or at least modelled him on one). - The dragons themselves combine this trope with Our Dragons Are Different. Shenlong (or "Shenron") is the first such creature introduced, and appeared to be an all-powerful, Eastern-style dragon with no limitations regarding whatever wish is asked of him. Later, it not only turns out he's entirely mortal (when he's killed directly by King Piccolo), but that he is only capable of granting wishes that don't exceed the power-based limitations of his creator (an alien that confirmed he designed the balls as Plot Coupons as a test of character to whomever decided to collect them). If the creator dies, the dragon goes with him. Note that while their powers may be different, every dragon depicted in the series is generally presented with the same setup: they're sealed inside a magical object, an incantation must be recited to awaken them, and then they'll grant one, two, or even three wishes. They're not jerks, and are kind enough to admit when their restrictions will not work in the wisher's favor, even suggesting different wishes as an alternative. Then, they take their leave, waiting for the Dragon Balls to be gathered again to do the same shtick all over again. - In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, djinn are more like Olympus Mons, Bond Creatures, and Guardian Entities. - \|\|And former humans who absorbed soul power after one of their former allies lost her mind (she watched her god get murdered by Solomon) and ritually sacrificed 99% of life on the face of the planet\|\|. - In One Piece, one of "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin's sons, Daifuku, has a Devil Fruit power that doesn't turn him into a genie, or grant him a lamp, but instead makes Daifuku himself a lamp, able to summon a halberd-wielding genie from his own body by rubbing himself, to fight his enemies. - Turbain use a genie as his guardian ghost in Shaman King. - Magic: The Gathering features both djinn and efreet as creature types. They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost, but often have some drawback or ability reflecting their general fickleness, like dealing damage to their controller, making enemy creatures stronger or harder to block, or only attacking or blocking when they feel like it according to a coin flip. They're also two of the few creature types that have cards specifically intended to neutralize them — King Suleiman and his legacy, respectively; the former can destroy any one djinn or efreet when activated, while the latter destroys all djinn and efreets on the field when played. - Djinn are usually tied to Blue mana; they are usually associated with either air or water, more commonly the former. They often have powerful abilities, such as Djinn of Infinite Deceits, which gives you control of one of your opponents' creatures while giving them control of one of yours, and Djinn of Wishes, which lets you play up to three cards of your choice for free. In older sets they're more monstrous and hostile, and have a weaker link to Blue mana; more recent djinn are more clearly Blue-focused and consequently tend to be more contemplative and peaceful. Older djinn usually have Fog Feet; modern ones resemble blue-skinned, pointy-eared humans instead. The ones from the plane of Tarkir also have horns. - Efreets were not particularly distinct from djinn in older sets, and consequently don't appear there much. Modern efreets are closely tied to Red mana and to the element of fire, and have a clearer Blue Oni, Red Oni relationship with djinn — while djinn are passive and thoughtful, efreets are wild, emotional and impulsive. Efreets from Tarkir are tall, spindly humanoids with red-and-black skin, three backwards-pointing horns and short barbels around their mouths, while those of Arcavios resemble red-skinned humans. - One of the main characters of G. Willow Wilson's Cairo is a three-piece suit-wearing genie inhabiting a water-pipe who grants wishes by manipulating probability. - The DC Comics character Johnny Thunder was a clueless young man who inherited a genie-like being called The Thunderbolt (who seemed to be a living bolt of lightning) that obeyed his commands- if he said the magic words "Cei-U" first (pronounced "say you!"- as you can imagine from that, hilarity often ensued.) It was later revealed that there's a whole dimension of creatures like The Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt later passed to a young African-American boy named Jakeem, and merged with another "genie" to create a new being summoned by the magic words "So Cul" (pronounced "so cool"). - Djinn: Rather than wish-granting spirits with foggy feet, they are Middle-Eastern Succubi and Incubi with the ability to enthrall virtually any human with their beauty, but they are devoid of compassion, love and feelings. Jade, the main protagonist's grandmother, was one such creature and was the Ottoman Sultan's favorite concubine in his royal harem. - Eight Billion Genies: Earth, a short time from now, gets a visit from eight billion genies, one for every person on Earth. The genies are small, translucent blue creatures from another dimension, they offer one wish each, and there's one of them assigned to every human being on Earth. Madness ensues very quickly.◊ They're not bound by a lamp or any other restriction: they grant wishes because they see it as an art. As a result, they refuse to grant wishes that would cancel out too many other people's (a zombie apocalypse, world peace, any one country taking over the whole world), and break out in applause when they get to grant a completely selfless wish. - Fables plays with the idea that a djinn's lamp is actually a very elaborate prison for a very powerful, very destructive being of chaos. As such, it is very important that your third wish be for the djinn to return to his imprisonment in the lamp. - Gold Digger reveals genies to be basically a highly evolved version of artificial magitech lifeforms made as companion-pets who'd 'aid and protect' the children they were with as one of their functions. This directive leading to them, as they grew in stature and intelligence, developing further powers they could only unlock in the service of others- or, 'wishes.' Reflecting the two designs of the original companions, the genies have two physical variants, one with four arms, and the other with their eyes on their stomachs rather than their faces. - The latter configuration causes trouble for one woman who went on a date with a coworker who happened to be a Genie. At the end of the date, she convinces him to show her his real eyes, and she spends some time staring into them, face-to-abdomen. Problem was, they were sitting in a car, and a photographer waiting for them came to entirely the wrong conclusion... - According to a story in Legion Of Super Heroes, the Djinn were a technological race who attempted to invade the wrong planet: Oa. The Guardians promptly sealed each one in a bottle until he or she granted someone three wishes. The Legionnaires find one 40 light-years from Earth. - Baraka from Soulsearchers and Company is a Arabic fire demon (also known as a djinn) who dwells in a bottle. However, he is also a slob and whenever his bottle gets too dirty, he moves into a new one. - A genie who manages to combine Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie shows up in one Xxxenophile story. He's in love with the heroine, and, when an evil general captures her for the expected reason, he interprets one of the general's commands as creating a new legal identity for the heroine, thus allowing him to grant her three new wishes, which she uses to defeat the general. He's also bound to his lamp until someone makes a wish that he wants to grant but isn't able to. This being Xxxenophile, that wish is for another round of wild sex right after he's exhausted himself. - The genie of one weird sci-fi tale was actually a super-advanced alien whose ship was freed from the ice it was imprisoned in by an Arctic explorer. When he mentioned the tale of the wish-granting genie the alien offered to use his vast psionic powers to grant his rescuer three wishes. He promptly screws up and after accidentally wishing himself with his third wish into being transformed into a copy of the alien inadvertently uses the powers he had to prevent himself from ever making the bargain in the first place (although the alien has to explain to him that he'd granted the fourth wish himself). - Avenger Goddess: Djinn are reality-warping beings who were created in the Primordial Chaos of another dimension, and can be bound to any object with the proper seal. - Gaz Dreams of Genie has a genie named Azie whom Gaz gets Three Wishes from after intentionally breaking her bottle to annoy Dib (which counts as opening it). Azie is noted as looking like the typical image of a genie, being a woman in a belly dancer outfit whose lower body tapers into a smoke tail, and has certain limits to her powers, such as no wishing for more wishes. \|\|One key thing, however, is the curse that comes from breaking the bottle — if Gaz doesn't make a single Selfless Wish (which she doesn't), she's doomed to switch lives with Azie and take her place in the restored bottle, complete with being aged up and stuck in the same outfit (according to Azie, it comes with the job).\|\| - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The camels of Naqah, back over a thousand years ago, created djinns, camel-shaped living weapons who tend to use one of the four elements. No wish-granting here, unless that wish involves covering something with large amounts of fire (not that this stops people who know about their existence asking them to grant wishes anyway). They're also bound to an amulet, and anyone who holds it can command them. - Vow of Nudity: Most flashbacks involve Haara growing up a slave in the Genasi Empire. In D&D canon, Genasi are the rare offspring of mortal-genie unions. Here, they're a full-fledged civilization with their own empire, four distinct subcultures catering to each elemental variant, and they reproduce through biological families like any other race. There's even a fifth variant, the Void Genasi, who serve as the royal family. - Aladdin: - Genie is a giant blue humanoid with Fog Feet, lives inside a lamp, has to grant three and only three wishes to anyone who rubs his home, and is a really nice jinni who doesn't go for the literal or jackass route even when he's saddled with an evil master. The wishes have three limitations: genies can't kill anyone, make people fall in love, or bring people Back from the Dead. (Well, Genie elaborates that he can do the third one, it's just "not a pretty picture". He's probably just joking.) He is doomed eternal servitude to an endless series of masters unless someone wishes for him to be freed. - Freed genies seem to be much less powerful than genies of the lamp, as Jafar (now a genie himself) utterly trounces the newly-freed Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (and Genie himself describes his former "phenomenal cosmic powers" as "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic"). They also have subtle references to traditional beliefs about genies. Genie is blue, which is a reference to the marid, which were believed to be blue djinn who were mostly goodish. Jafar on the other hand is red, which is a reference to the ifrits who were associated with the color red and were Always Chaotic Evil. - Wish Dragon has Long, who resides in a jade teapot, can revert wishes if he misinterprets them, can shapeshift into a human form, he's a dragon, and so forth. And much like Genie from Aladdin, he also can only grant 3 wishes and has 3 limitations; he can't kill, can't make people fall in love, and can't Time Travel. But perhaps the most notorious unique traits of Long are that \|\|he Was Once a Man and granting wishes to 10 masters is Heaven's intended way of making him atone for his cruelty during his life as a human emperor\|\|. - The remake of Clash of the Titans has Djinn, even though they are from the Arabian lore rather than from the Greek mythology. Here, they appear as black-colored humanoid creatures with bright blue eyes that use blue fire magic that seems organic based (they tame scorpions, heal the hero and are claimed to rebuild themselves of wood). And they also can suicide bomb themselves. - In The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Richard tells Thomas they were attacked by a djinn and that the djinn can possess inanimate objects. The rest of his explanation is straight out of classical Arabian mythology. - In the Arabic-English Tobe Hooper movie Djinn, the Djinn are pretty much The Fair Folk, including the use of Glamour and replacing babies with non-human ones. They're intelligent beings who live in haunted places and kill any human intruders, though one man manages to make a bargain by offering the life of his friend. They don't offer any wishes though. Also, it turns out that \|\|the male lead\|\| is a Djinn, which he didn't know about. - The Field Guide to Evil: In "Haunted by Al Karisi, the Childbirth Djinn", the eponymous djinn manifests as a goat and passes judgement on a pregnant teenager, later possessing the girl's invalid mother-in-law wreak vengence on her. - Kazaam: A genie's bottle falls into a stereo and produces a rapping genie. Also, the main character says that all genies are naturally slaves, and "djinn" — or free spirits — are nothing more than fairy tales. We find out that Kazaam became a genie as a punishment long ago when he was human. Also, a genie can only create or manipulate objects, which is a lot of power but far less than the feats of reality-warping seen in some other genie stories, and not much use to someone whose true desire is something non-shiny. "Make or summon some thing for the holder of the radio, three times," is what a genie can do, period — and this means even a nice holder can't say "I wish you were free." ("I wish for more wishes" wouldn't work either, probably.) - My Darling Genie is a Shaw Brothers fantasy-comedy film where the titular genie - played by the gorgeous Cherie Chung - lives in an umbrella. She was released when the down-on-his-luck protagonist (played by Derek Yee) accidentally opens her parasol and tags along with him, but trouble occurs when news of her "magic umbrella" makes her target of loan sharks. - In the Italian 1986 film Superfantagenio (or its version of Aladdin to U.S. audiences), Bud Spencer stars as the genie. His wishes are his master's command as long as the latter addresses one as "I want _____." Also, his powers don't work at night. This genie is also very much a Benevolent Genie as he defends Al Haddin, his master and his family (within his limitations) and refuses to grant a wish to a villain that's captured him and Al (via the bad guy telling Al to make that wish) to eliminate all the world's armed forces except his own personal army. - According to Detective Ringwald, the villain in When Evil Calls is a dark djinn who grants one wish that works perfectly so long as the wisher passes the text message on to others. Thus the wishes are propagated through the phone network, and the djinn horribly twists the wishes of every subsequent wisher. The djinn can only be defeated by the original wisher wishing their original wish to be undone. For some reason, the djinn manifests as a Monster Clown. - The djinn in the Wishmaster series are some kind of byproduct of God's creation of the universe and are all inherently evil and as such were banished to some Hell dimension. The main one is trapped in a red jewel on Earth and if he successfully grants his summoner's three wishes he can free his brethren and get rid of whatever it is that's restricting his powers so that they only activate for wishes. He also collects souls and has a very loose definition of what exactly constitutes as a wish. - One joke concerns a bartender who used up his three wishes and afterwards kept the genie's lamp on the shelf behind his bar as a curiosity. A customer entered the bar, looking with curiosity at a nine-inch-tall man playing the piano in the corner, and then noticed the lamp and asked about it. The bartender offered to lend it to the man, it being of no further use to him. The man summoned the genie and wished for a thousand gold bars. The genie made him look outside, and when the man did, he saw a thousand old cars lining either side of the street. The man re-entered the bar and complained that the genie was a little hard of hearing. The bartender replied, "Well, yeah. Do you seriously think I wished for a nine-inch pianist?" rim shot - A Master of Djinn has djinn returning to the world. They coexist peacefully among humans and even have children with them. Their appearances are very diverse and rarely give their true names but go with geographical regions or titles. When in a bottle, they aren't necessarily trapped than sleeping. The first chapter with the main character has two teenagers opening a bottle to get their wished granted. They woke up a very annoyed and anti-human marid, who chose to grant them one wish. "Very well. I will grant you only wish. You must choose. Choose how you will die." - American Gods has a very odd side-story about a gay genie who was stuck as a cab driver after immigrating to America, passing his status as a mystic creature on to a man he engaged in a one-night-stand with. The only indications that he wasn't human were flaming eyes and, er... flaming something else showcased in a sex scene. He does not grant wishes, however. Though he did kind of grant the wish of the guy he had a one-night-stand with by liberating him from his dead-end life, and giving him a chance to start over as a New York cabbie. - There were several genies in the Arabian Nights. Here's a sampling... - One was trapped in a jar. Apparently, being stuck in a jar made him so cantankerous that his idea of showing gratitude was to let his rescuer choose how he would die. Which wasn't his original plan — when first sealed into the jar, he pledged that the one who freed him would be granted three wishes. After a thousand years, he pledged to reveal to his rescuer all the treasures of the Earth. After a thousand more, he pledges to grant his rescuer the choice of how he'll die. - Another took a fancy to a handsome young man. After whisking him away to show him to another genie, she dropped him in Damascus, far away from his own home. - A woman rescued a female genie from an amorous male genie — by throwing a rock at his head and killing him. The grateful female genie offered to help the woman in the future if she needed it. - The genies in the Aladdin story are bound to a lamp and to a ring. The genie attached to each item must obey whoever holds it at the time. - A particularly Literal Genie granted a man's wish for a bigger manhood... by making it gigantic. Like fallen tree gigantic. - A man throws a date pit away and accidentally kills a genie's son with it, causing the genie to swear revenge. Until three men tell stories that impress the genie so much he doesn't kill the man. Even evil genies have a tendency to be Lawful Evil and allow you a way out of your predicament. Which Arabian Nights characters almost always find. - Prince Ahmed gets married to a genie after a failed attempt at gaining a princess (Long story). - The Bartimaeus Trilogy has a whole pantheon of spirits (afrits, jinn, etc.) who magicians use spells to bind to their will. Typically, their actual appearance is that of an Eldritch Abomination, and they use shapeshifting and glamour to take other forms. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The Jinn were created from smokeless fire by Allah like angels were created from light and men from earth. They are normally invisible but can take many forms, and live in wells, crossroads and abandoned houses. They can be good or evil and pious or impious, and due to being able to access the lower heavens and listen to the conversations of the angels they can provide soothsayers with knowledge of the future. - Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Bottle Imp does something like The Lord of the Rings with its One Ring — taking a traditional fairy-tale MacGuffin and turning it into an Artifact of Doom. The imp is a demon and buying the bottle is like making a Deal with the Devil; the only way to escape hell is to sell the bottle for less than you purchased it. Unfortunately, if you are ever dissatisfied after selling the bottle, the imp will make something nasty happen to you to pressure you into buying it back. \|\|The story did have a Happy Ending, more or less. The hero was more or less trapped, having bought the thing for only three French centimes (a centime is worth one tenth of an American cent), meaning that finding someone he could convince to take it would be almost impossible; but a drunken sailor who had deserted his ship figured his soul was damned anyway, and did so.\|\| - The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia is half Jinn and half Giant. - Or at least, that's the origin Mr. Beaver gives in the first book; specifically, he says she's descended from Lilith, Adam's first wife. The prequel book reveals she's from neither our world nor Narnia's, so that story is thrown into question. - The Daevabad Trilogy has a highly complex society of djinn (originally called daeva, their own word for themselves) mostly hidden from human sight. There are several tribes with different cultures, magical powers, and languages. Outside of djinn society are ifrit, dangerous and Unfettered beings who refused to submit to Suleiman's judgement. The "wish-granting genie in a bauble" that humans usually encounter are slaves; they are often imprisoned by ifrit who deliberately let them be found by humans who will cause the most chaos and destruction (inevitably, it ends with the slave killing their master). Djinn society is ruled from the city of Daevabad in Central Asia, where all the tribes intermingle. Finally there are the shafit, part-humans who are treated as second-class citizens (if they're lucky) and confined to the city, supposedly so they don't wreak havoc in human society. - Declare by Tim Powers has British and Soviet intelligence agencies vying for control of the djinn who live on Mount Ararat. The djinn here are beings of pure thought, often taking the form of storms, flocks of birds, or the movement of a mob, and view things from a completely, utterly inhuman perspective. Bargains or deals struck with a djinni can grant immortality \|\|(which works just as well for nations as individual humans)\|\| and other supernatural powers, but the price is often a Deal with the Devil. - The Discworld novel Sourcery has a yuppie genie who apparently isn't bound to his lamp; he has several lamps, including "a small but well-appointed lamp where he lived during the week, another rather unique lamp in the country, a carefully restored peasant rushlight in an unspoilt wine-growing district near Quirm, and just recently a set of derelict lamps in the docks area of Ankh-Morpork that had great potential, once the smart crowd got there, to become the occult equivalent of a suite of offices and a wine bar." He's rather overcommitted on lamps, in fact, and is thinking of diversifying into rings. He grants wishes, if he approves of them, but insists that nobody says "Your wish is my command!" any more. - Harlan Ellison's story "Djinn, No Chaser" features a very angry genie trapped in a lamp. He proceeds to make life hell for a couple on their honeymoon and gets the husband temporarily institutionalized \|\|until the wife decides to just bust open the lamp with a can opener, releasing the genie and earning his gratitude\|\|. - In Tom Holt's Djinn Rummy, the genies are transdimensional beings (which is how they can fit into those bottles), and like to hang out together in their spare time and get drunk. On milk. - Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The same idea as in the first Arabian Nights example is used in Dealing with Dragons. When a genie is accidentally let out of the bottle, he explains to Cimorene and Therandril the terms of reward with years of imprisonment, and then insists that their only choice now was their manner of death, which Cimorene responds to by choosing "old age". \|\|Also in keeping with the theme of the story, the genie actually had only been in the bottle long enough that he'd be forced to grant them three wishes for his release instead of killing them. Because no genie was ever released before the "kill-the-releaser" period, he felt that granting the wishes and not killing anyone would make him a laughingstock. He decides to follow Cimorene's advice and return to the bottle for another three hundred and eighty-one years, when the two of them would certainly be dead of old age and he could go home without granting wishes or breaking his oath.\|\| - Fancy Apartments features Tisa, who usually looks like a short girl, but can change form into an eight-foot jinn. - Somer, a guardian genie who has the form of a cat-dog, is the first arrival in A Fantasy Attraction. He name is pronounced so-mer, not summer. - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: - In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Genies are allowed to grant wishes, but not wishes about wishes, which are known as meta-wishes. Meta-Genies (who come from Meta-Lamps) are allowed to grant meta-wishes, but not wishes about meta-wishes, which are within the authority of Meta-Meta-Genies. The word "Djinn" is generically used to designate Genies, Meta-Genies, Meta-Meta-Genies, and all others in GOD (which stands for "GOD Over Djinn"). - In the chapter "Typographical Number Theory," "djinn" is an undefined term used in place of "natural number" in setting out the five Peano postulates, with "genie" taking the place of zero. - The Portuguese translation of His Dark Materials literally translates "daemon" as "genie" ("génio"). In this case, "daemon" is derived from a Greek term defining any lesser supernatural entity, and it was under that definition that jinns originally fell; in other words, those are essentially the Greek and Islamic analogues of The Fair Folk. In the context of the books, daemons/genies are your soul walking around as a sentient, talking animal, whose species reflects your personality. - Djins in the Myth Adventures series come from the dimension of Djinger, a place so strapped for funds that they've resorted to hiring out their citizens to work in magic lamps, rings, bottles and so on. Don't believe the hype about what they're capable of; after all, they're only a few inches tall. \|\|Usually. They underplay their power very heavily.\|\| - In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, the genie is sealed in a bottle (with Solomon's Seal no less) but does not have to grant wishes. Virginia must use psychological tricks on it. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, djinni are among the beings Prospero Inc. must keep from causing natural disasters. - Piers Anthony took a sci-fi twist in the book, Prostho Plus. An Earth dentist repairs the "tooth" of a powerful robotic being. The being declares that he had waited so long he had sworn an oath he would kill his rescuer, but a previous oath bound him to grant him a wish before his death. \|\|The dentist wishes for a delay of 50 years.\|\| For the rest of the book, he has a faithful Deus Ex Machine who protects him from all harm, declaring "None but I shall do him die!", and even goes to the point of helping him get together with his lady-love because married humans tend to live longer. - Jinn in Septimus Heap sport both heavily armed Warrior Jinn and the more peaceful "actual" Jinn. The former are antagonists in the final phases of Syren. - In her 500 Kingdoms novel Fortune's Fool, Mercedes Lackey used an ifrit as the villain. \|\|At the end, he is sealed into his bottle "until you repent of your evil ways, and are ready to join your lawful kin in the City of Brass." Djinn do have free will, so it's a valid condition.\|\| - Sandy Frances Duncan's The Toothpaste Genie is about an unskilled young genie bound to a tube of toothpaste. He explains to the protagonist that the more successful and esteemed a genie is, the better the container they're assigned to by their superiors. Toothpaste tubes and boxes of laundry detergent are apparently the bottom of the totem pole, with fancy bottles being near the top. - Malik ibn Ibrahim, the main character of the anthology Wandering Djinn pretty much Walking the Earth, has the ability to disguise himself in a myriad of human forms, knows a lot of different folklore creatures because he's met a lot of them, and has the creepy appearance of skin that's so dark blue it borders on black, golden cat eyes, and instead of hair a scalp covered with flame. If he wasn't such a goofball, he might be frightening. - The jinn in the TV adaptation of American Gods has a larger role than in the original book, particularly in the second season, where we learn that he's working for Mr. Wednesday because the latter freed him from an amulet, and that he originally refused to follow Allah when given the chance. He still does not grant wishes. - Charmed's Phoebe got turned into one in the Season Six episode "I Dream of Phoebe". French Stewart also played one in the Season Two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For", as the archetypal trickster character. - Creepshow's segment "The Man in the Suitcase" features a Middle-Eastern man contorted to fit into a medium-sized suitcase, and will spit gold coins if he experiences pain. The Reveal is that \|\|he's actually a Djinn subjecting people to a Secret Test of Character - those that try to help him out of the suitcase even if it means forgoing wealth pass, while those that torture him fail, and get stuffed into their own suitcase\|\|. - The Genie from Down Under deals with the adventures of the very Australian genie Bruce and his son Baz who live in an opal pendant and are forced to obey the commands of whoever holds the opal. - Four words, I Dream of Jeannie. Jeannie is an atypical Happiness in Slavery version. One episode featured the "Blue Genie" (the one who initially planned on rewarding whoever freed him, but eventually decided to kill that unlucky individual). - Imagin, the Monster of the Week race from Kamen Rider Den-O, are an odd variation of genie: they claim to grant wishes, typically twisting them horribly, and once the contract is complete they use their contractor's memories to create a portal to the past so they can alter history for their benefit. Of course, while there is an overall leader, every Imagin has its own personality and can choose whether or not it wants to obey him. The protagonists include several Imagin that decided there were other things they wanted to do (like chase skirt or become the strongest karateka) and partnered up with the kind-hearted protagonist to protect people from their malevolent brethren. - In Legacies A genie (It's Jinni) shows up at the school. She's able to choose who to show herself to and only grants wishes that she wants to grant. Her tactics are to twist people's wishes in the traditional "Be careful what you wish for" sense and until the only way to get what they want is to wish for what she wants in the first place. - In The Magicians Eliot and Margo try to brew some Magical Gin but it turns out the spell was to summon a Magical Djinn. The Djinn grants even wishes that are only thought. Margo, not knowing this and frustrated at the attention Eliot is showing his new boyfriend Mike accidentally sets the Djinn on Mike by simply thinking: "I wish Mike would go back where he came from and suck on some other knob." The Djinn takes this literally and takes Mike to the library the group first met him at and enchanted him to lick and suck on a doorknob. - In the Enchanted Forest in Once Upon a Time there is the Genie of Agrabah who becomes Regina's \|\|Unwitting Pawn in her plot to kill her husband, King Leopold, and is transformed into her Magic Mirror.\|\| - In Once Upon a Time in Wonderland the genie Cyrus is both the main character's love interest and the show's Living MacGuffin. He also has two brothers, but they don't get much screen time. Later in the series, it is revealed that those who cross Nyx, guardian of the Well of Wonders, are punished for their desire to change fate by being turned into genies, \|\|which is what happened to Cyrus and his brothers.\|\| - In Special Unit 2 Djinn are gaseous beings that can assume human form and can only grant wishes someone with such abilities would be capable of doing and even then only to further their own goals (a wish for a celebrity leads to said celebrity becoming a kidnap victim). They can hide themselves in containers they can make airtight by lining the insides with their molecules. - In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", the Winchester brothers track down a djinni that appears to grant whatever its victim wishes for, altering the world around them. But Dean learns first hand that the djinni just puts his victims in an acid-trip-like state, hooks them up to an IV, and drinks their blood for a few days until they die (but it feels like years in the djinni-induced-acid-trip). The victims do occasionally get flashes of reality, though, which is what helps Dean figure it out and get out of Wishland. - Super Sentai / Power Rangers - Smokey from Mahou Sentai Magiranger (adapted as Jenji in Power Rangers Mystic Force) is a comical cat-headed genie who was sealed in a lamp for his troublemaking and can't stay outside the lamp for more than three hours. He can grant wishes, but chooses to only grant one to his masters because he can't be bothered to do more, and only if he receives some kind of payment for it. He also doesn't get any kind of Reality Warper powers or anything that would be Required Secondary Powers for a traditional genie, so "making a wish" basically just amounts to "working to fulfill a request to the best of his ability". This being a Merchandise-Driven series, while he's in the lamp it doubles as the main weapon of MagiShine, a magical Ray Gun that's reloaded by rubbing (and at full power can shoot Smokey himself as a projectile). - One episode of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Season 1) featured an Anubis-like genie as the Monster of the Week, whom the villains are trying to gain control over so they can wish for him to destroy the Rangers. In Zyuranger, he was a pretty nice guy when not being bossed around, but would lose all his magic powers if his lamp was destroyed. In Power Rangers, he's completely evil, while his life is connected to his lamp. - The Crystalians and the Yodonheim from Mashin Sentai Kiramager are genies that do not come from lamps, nor do they grant wishes. Instead, they came from another planet. - The Twilight Zone (1959): In "I Dream of Genie", the genie is an obnoxious loudmouth who smokes a cigar and dresses in contemporary clothes with the exception of "velveteen mukluks." He also offers George P. Hanley only one wish instead of the usual three. - Ultraman 80: One of the last episodes of the show has the appearance of Marjin, a genie-like alien who lives in a vase, uncovered by a bunch of children who then use the wishes granted by Marjin to help make the city a better place, such as cleaning up the trash. But when the vase falls into the hands of a bunch of bullies, the lead bully decides to ask for a "cool monster toy as big as the real deal"... which ends up accidentally resurrecting the kaiju Red King. - An episode of Wizards of Waverly Place featured a Jackass Genie. In their lamps they have a Reset Button for all their granted wishes. - The Genie that Becky finds in Big Wolf on Campus has a bit of a nasty caveat to his wishes... once the third wish has been properly fulfilled, the Genie is set free... and the owner of the bottle becomes the new Genie. - Satu Jinn, who appeared to be a giant genie bear before he renounced facial hair and becoming an "angel face wearing" jinn. With that said, even before shaving he began dressing more like a majin than a djinn as part of his quest to beat Goku. Winning title belts in The National Federation Of Wrestling apparently was part of this training. - Dungeons & Dragons - Genies are elemental spirits from the elemental planes. They have several different types, each tied to a particular element. Efreet are Lawful Evil genies from the Plane of Fire. Djinn are Chaotic Good genies from the Plane of Air. Jann are made of all of the elements, can be of any alignment, and spend most of their time on the Material Plane. Later supplements added Neutral Evil Dao (Earth) and Chaotic Neutral Marids (Water), which aren't usually remembered very often since they overlap a lot with Efreet and Djinn on a conceptual basis. They all have various magical abilities, but whether they can grant wishes varies between them. Efreet can grant wishes, but since they hate servitude, they tend to be Literal Genies, if not outright Jackass Genies. Only "noble" djinn (about 1% of them) can grant wishes. In 5th edition, very few genies are capable of granting wishes, but wish-granting genies are represented among all types (except the jann, who are not present in 5th edition). - The Al-Qadim setting clarifies this. Genies are more or less widespread there, but treated as powerful, whimsical and extremely dangerous, albeit honorable, beings. Most people avoid any contact closer than hearing tales about them. All genies can grant wishes in proper circumstances, but usually bend any request toward their own desires; when pressed into service they are just as inventive with vengeance later, and while individual genies can be trapped or killed, this tends to upset their pals and rulers. There's also Jann ("composite" genies living in mortal worlds) and Great Ghuls (undead genies). Servitor Genies are specialized sub-breeds that have literally been bred to hold specific roles, such as miner, courier or even wine-maker. Gen are minor genie-kin implied to be kids of the main elemental types and contracted out as servants to sha'ir wizards. Again, gen may serve faithfully, but people unwise enough to mistreat one are in for a big surprise. - In 4th edition, Efreeti (Fire Element Genies) are all slave-trading bastards who consider plans a fun way to spend their spare time. While they can grant wishes, they don't do it by supernatural means (well, beyond their affinity for high level magic, that is); they instead use their connections within their Mafia-like societies to get things done, and always for a high price. On the other hand, Djinni (Air Element Genies) are magical craftsmen and engineers, most of whom have been sealed away. Their primary goal is reclaiming the lost creations of their "golden age" and freeing their allies and family while ensuring their enemies remain imprisoned forever. Dao and Marids also exist, having been added in a late issue of Dungeon, but are basically just their Great Wheel counterparts transported into the World Axis cosmology. - 5th edition eventually introduced noble genies as one of the patrons for the Warlock, which zig zags around the modern archetype. For starters Genie Warlocks get several elemental powers (depending on which of the above kinds of genies they get as a patron). As for more stereotypical genie powers, these warlocks get a special lamp, ring, or other trinket that behaves as a pocket dimension where they can hide, store things and take shelter (apparently these genies find ironic pleasure in having people stuff themselves in lamps). They can also fly (no magic carpet needed) and can eventually make wishes to their patrons, in the form of the very powerful Wish spell (which warlocks dont usually get), and a weaker version that replicates any spell of 6th level (as opposed to the normal maximum 9th spell level) or lower without any of the usual class or cost restrictions; they do however only get one such wish every few days. - Exalted: Ifrit are humanoid fire elementals of fairly considerable power, and generally given much more respect by the gods than elementals usually are. - GURPS: One of the Infinite Worlds is Caliph, a scientifically advanced Arab-dominant timeline where references to djinn in the Qu'ran are believed to be prophecies of A.I., and actual A.I. are called "djinn". - Legend of the Five Rings: In the spin-off Legend of the Burning Sands, Jinn are the original creations of the Sun and Moon, or of the Ashalan, depending on who you believe. They are usually malevolent, but can be bargained with for service. - Mage: The Awakening: One option for the fabled Sixth Watchtower is the realm of the Djinn, where Spirit and Forces hold sway. - In Nomine: The Djinn are a type of demon, the fallen counterparts to the Cherubim. They are sullen, moody and cynical, and prone to developing possessive, stalkerish obsessions with mortals. Their humanoid vessels tend to be short and stocky; their celestial forms are monstrous, surreal beasts. - Old World of Darkness: - In the fan forum Shadow n Essence, a member once proposed a fanwork called Djinn: Of Smokeless Fire that imagined them as Middle Eastern fae. An interesting idea, but nothing really came of it. - "Lost Paths", the Mage: The Ascension supplement which spotlights the Ahl-i-Batin and Taftani factions, features a great deal of detail on the Djinn, supernatural beings created by Allah from "smokeless fire given spirit and form and life" that normally reside within an Umbral Realm called the City of Brass. In general, they envy and hate humans with considerable intensity, most especially since Solomon compelled one of their number to reveal the elaborate facets of djinn behavior and culture, which he codified into the Solomonic Code and used to force the djinn into doing the bidding of anyone following its strictures (and imprisoning them within bottles, rings, gems, etc. inscribed with the Seals of Solomon). The djinn have subraces as varied as those of humanity, and range in personality from Jackass Genie to Literal Genie to almost every variation in between except Benevolent Genie. Again, about the only thing the djinn have in common other than their basic composition and access to unimaginable power is their desire for vengeance upon the arrogant human insects that dare command them — so any mage dealing with them must have varying amounts of foolishness, intelligence, boldness and charisma. - Pathfinder Genies are naturally like their D&D counterparts, originally being from the same source. PF Earth Genies are called Shaitans, however. And yes, it's possible to be a Djinn/Efreet/Jann/Marid/Shaitan Sorcerer, not to mention the Half-Elemental Sylph/Ifrit/Suli-Jann/Undine/Oread, who often have Genie heritage. Genies are also a big focus of the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, which deals with the aftermath of a Genie War (you can imagine how crazy that got), and takes you to the Efreeti-run capital of the Elemental Plane of Fire known as the City of Brass. - In Rifts, Jinn are elemental demons that, if captured, can be compelled to grant a wish. However, they aren't nearly all-powerful, so if you were to wish for a million dollars from one, for example, it can't just make it appear out of mid-air, but will have to go and get it... and won't be particularly picky about where it comes from, or what he does in the process. Ever seen a Jinni rob a bank? You're about to. - Shadow of the Demon Lord from Schwalb Entertainment, has genies being the first creatures made by the Demiurge after God had created the universe and the Demiurge and then went off to rest. The genies stole much of God's power and persona and they killed the Demiurge. All that was left of God was his wrath and this coalesced to become the Demon Lord which tried to destroy the universe for happened. The Genies were horrorified and many sacrificed themselves to be a barrier to lock away the Demon Lord and they could do it because of the remainders of God's power they had stolen. The surviving genies migrated to the world that the rpg is set in and would become the fey race. - Warhammer: Djinn are occasionally mentioned in association with Araby, a culture that's largely medieval Arabia with the serial numbers filed off. They come in multiple different kinds — "djinn" is less a species name as a catchall category used by Arabyans to refer to powerful, non-Daemonic spiritual beings — but are all powerful elemental spirits, often toweringly tall, that are often bound to the service of Arabyan wizards. Efreets, one of the more commonly referenced kinds, are spirits of fire, and are a particularly aggressive and volatile type of djinn, and best suited for combat purposes. A character in Dreadfleet, the Golden Magus, captains a ship called the Scimitar that's powered by two colossal bound djinn — a wind spirit to inflate the sails and a fire spirit to power the engines. - AdventureQuest Worlds: The Sandsea saga has our hero having to battle a powerful Djinn that has become chaorrupted. Djinn are immensely powerful beings that much like the djinn of folklore can grant wishes. They cannot be destroyed, only defeated, contained or bound to the physical world through means of lamps, rings or other objects. Three kinds of djinn generally exist: the Marid, who are Benevolent Genies like Saahir; the Ghul, who are evil genies like Tibicenas (the Big Bad of the arc) once was; and the Efreet, the ruler of all djinn. When a djinn is defeated \|\|such as Saahir at the hands of Tibicenas\|\|, it usually takes him several millennia to regain enough power to return. - Age of Wonders: Djinn appear as tier 3 units for the distinctly Arab-themed Azrac race, serving as flying scouts and ranged support units. They reappear in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, filling a similar role for the nomads. - Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse features a number of genies, and being set in the Forgotten Realms, it applies that system. The elemental division is clearly made an efreet (fire) is different from a djinn (air) is different from a dao (earth) is different from a marid (water). The "three wishes" thing doesn't really come up, although the broader subject of controlling genies is highly relevant. - In Ape Escape 3, the Genie Dancer Morph allows Kei and Yumi to summon a genie to distract enemies via dancing. - Arcana had the hero Rooks coming into ownership of four genie-like spirits: Sylph, Efrite, Marid and Dao, representing wind, fire, water and earth, respectively. Their levels are tied to Rooks' and are mostly there to supplement the party's attacks with magical support. - Barbarian (Titus): Djinn are portrayed as feral, demonic beings capable of magical abilities originating from an alternate dimension. As for appearance, they are Horned Humanoids that have charcoal dark gray skin and claws and pronounced canines. - Born Under the Rain: An Efreet is part of the group of enemies that's blocking the way after the chest with the Serpentius Priest Hat. - Cuphead: One of the bosses is Djimmi the Great, an orange-skinned genie with an impressive Evil Laugh who fights with a variety of Egyptian/Arabian-themed attacks. - Destiny has the Ahamkara, shape-shifting, reality-bending Starfish Aliens that prefer draconic forms but can assume any shape that would suit their needs. In a twist on the trope, they tend to specialize in unvoiced wishes — any stray desire that becomes conscious thought is fair game for them to fulfill. - Digimon has Lampmon, a Demon Man digimon that looks like a stereotypical green genie. His description states that he will grant wishes to anyone frees him from his lamp. However, he has a distorted personality and will instead attack his benefactor. - Dragon's Crown: When you arrive at the final boss of the Ghost Ship Cove Route A, you have to deal with dozens of pirates, one of them carries a lamp that can summon a genie. You can even steal that lamp and use the genie against them. - EXTRAPOWER: Magma-O the fire genie lives in Magarda Volcano. A giant being who has been watching the Earth for millennia, he is sometimes sought out for his wisdom though may not always be impressed to give an answer. In Giant Fist, hitting certain parts of the environment will reveal the Lucky Lamp, summoning a genie that grants you the ability to cast all your special attacks without cost and perform transcendental attacks without being at low health for a limited time. - Golden Sun has Djinn as Waddling Head-like creatures aligned with one of the four elements, used to power-up your characters (like Familiars, sort of). Some are hostile and have to be defeated or tricked (or both) to gain their services. Surprisingly consistent with Arabic mythology, except that they're not trapped in rings, bottles, or lamps. - Guild Wars Nightfall: Djinn appear in a number of locations, some as allies and some as creatures to fight. - King's Quest: - In King's Quest VI a genie by the name of Shamir Shamazzle causes trouble for the protagonist. Working for the Big Bad, Shamir shapeshifts into various people and animals, but is always identifiable by his glinting gold eyes, and seems unable to do the hero direct physical harm (instead coercing him into dangerous situations if he is foolish enough to listen to him). Whoever had possession of the lamp had control over — not just the Shamir's servitude — but his very nature. When Alexander \|\|takes possession of the lamp, Shamir celebrates the switch in master, glad that he no longer has to be evil.\|\| - In King's Quest II, Graham acquires a lamp, out of which a genie appears to grant him a flying carpet, a sword and a bridle before disappearing. - In King's Quest V, Graham gets a brass bottle that also contains a genie. However, if he opens it \|\|the genie simply traps him in his place and disappears, thereby ending the game.\|\| - Might and Magic - Genies in the original setting were fairly standard, apart from being the complete opposite and sworn enemy to the Efreet, an Inferno creature. Their magic in both the old world and Ashan tends to produce random effects and they seem to have a touch of Literal Genie as well. - The second case is the most evident in Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East. Zehir asks them to create a flying city, which they do, but unfortunately they didn't tell him the price of moving it beforehand: a large amount of experience, justifying the Bag of Spilling effect of the expansions in this particular case. - Monster Girl Quest features an avoidable battle with a genie that tricks people into making a selfish wish and then devours them. The game's flavor text mentions that only a strong-minded person with absolutely no selfish desires whatsoever behind their wish will actually have it granted. - The Bajarls from Monster Rancher 2 resembled genies. - Pokémon - Pokémon Black and White has a trio of Legendary Genie Pokémon, incredibly fitting for a series that already lets you trap God. They aren't typical genies as they have no wish granting powers and are more likely to terrorize the countryside by whipping up severe thunderstorms. They're more based on Oni, specifically Raijin and Fuijin. Landorous is more benevolent and is more of a fertility god. Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces the fourth member named Enamourus. As the only female of the group, it bears a resemblance to female genies, especially to Jeannie. - Gen VI introduces a an event Legendary that is a more typical genie. Hoopa's main motif is its rings, which it uses to teleport and store anything it desires, up to an including entire islands. \|\|With an item called a Prison Bottle, it can unleash its true power and become a gigantic and terrifying being of immense size and avarice.\|\| - Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire has two varieties. The Sealed Evil in a Can Iblis and a wishgranting variety in a ring akin to Aladdin. In the backstory, another Djinni turned Julanar into a tree while she was attempting to escape from a band of brigands. - The strategy game Rise of Legends featured genies prominently among the Alin race, which takes virtually all of its cues from Arabian Nights and Arabic folklore, with genies coming in fire, sand, and glass varieties. Some are simple units, but the three Alin hero units are particularly powerful genies, each representing one of the Alin elements. - The Secret World features the Jinn, a powerful race of elemental spirits that can be found in both Egypt and the upper echelons of Hell. They don't inhabit lamps, they don't grant wishes, and they really don't like humans. Later investigation reveals that, like the original Djinn of Islamic theology, they were among the first beings brought into existence and initially served Gaia and the Host without question; however, when humanity was created, they were outraged and hurt by the fact that they would be "rejected" in favour of such a puny species, and were eventually banished to the Hell dimensions for their rebellion. Most are eager to wipe out humanity regardless of the cost, but a few remember their love of Gaia and reluctantly agree to help humanity for her sake — even if it means killing their former comrades. - However, in a subversion of standard fare, players eventually run into a Jinn that actually does grant wishes: over the course of your meeting, he offers you choices between eternal life and eternal love, wealth or power, knowledge and music. In true Jerkass Genie fashion, each choice bites you in the ass. However, it's not until the very end that the Jinn is revealed to be none other than \|\|Mephistopheles, currently serving as the CEO of Faust Capital, a division of the Orochi Group.\|\| - Later still, players also run into the standard Genie-In-The-Lamp... and it turns out to be arguably the most dangerous being in the entire setting with the notable exception of the Dreamers. - Shantae: The title character is a half-genie girl who acts as her home city's Guardian Genie. As well as using her hair as a weapon in combat, she can also transform into different animals by performing dances. - The Genies from the The Sims are the standard "genie in the lamp" wish granters, but are not very competent. When you wish for money, you could either get free cash or a pile of bills. Wishing for "water" could give you a hot tub, or flood the house. Wishing for fire could heat up your social life... or burn your house down. They're more competent in the sequels, and are even playable in the third game. How do you make them playable? \|\|Wish them free, of course.\|\| - Sonic and the Secret Rings is based on the Arabian Nights. There's Erazor, the Genie of the Lamp who is a colossal asshole who was imprisoned for his crimes and went right back to being a criminal as soon as he was freed. Sharah, the Genie of the Ring who seems to be more of the American "Good willing but bound to grant wishes". And numerous Genie Mooks that Sonic has to fight along the way — most of which don't look very humanoid and more like animated flying statues, including a cyborg Ifrit and a giant jellyfish Marid. Also, one mission states that Genies reproduce via laying eggs.... - Terraria: The Desert Spirit seems inspired by the malicious examples of Djinn. Only appearing in Hardmode deserts which have fallen victim to the Corruption or the Crimson, they have the stereotypical shape as portrayed nowadays (a muscular, shirtless man, without legs, with a ponytail). As of the 1.3.3 update, they can drop an oil lamp as well as a pants item that gives you the legless effect when equipped. If used as armor, it prevents falling damage. - The Djinn in Tibia are divided in two races of Green and Blue Djinn, that don't get along well. They are powerful magicians and work as buyers for more expensive loot. - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has djinn as Elite Mooks in the lost city of Iram of the Pillars. They initially appear as ordinary human soldiers, but when killed, they revive with their heads on fire and Glowing Eyes of Doom. In this state, they can throw fire, release a burst of fire if Nate gets too close, and teleport via flames. When killed again, their torsos light up and their fire throwing becomes more powerful. It's necessary to kill them a third time to keep them down. According to in-universe legend, they used to serve King Solomon but rebelled against him. Solomon imprisoned them in a brass vessel, but the spirits of the djinn drove the populace mad and caused the destruction of the city. However, it turns out that \|\|the djinn Nate encounters are merely hallucinations, caused by drinking hallucinogen-tainted water. The hallucinogens leaked from the brass vessel into the city's water supply, implying that this is the source of the djinn legend.\|\| - World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion introduced Djinn into the game as powerful air elementals serving under Al'Akir the Windlord, a servant of the evil Deathwing. Most of them appear in Uldum (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Egypt) and the Skywall (the Elemental Plane of Air), and they fittingly have a very Middle Eastern motif. They don't grant wishes, and are quite hostile to the player characters (being loyal servants of the Old Gods). - Razi Nassar in Havenfall Is for Lovers, owner/manager of the bowling alley where the player character works and one of her possible love interests, is secretly a djinn (he objects to the word "genie"). His magic specializes in illusions and transfiguring things — or people — into other things, though he's also capable of throwing around waves of force and creating defensive shields. His power is also specifically linked to his home territory, in this case the bowling alley: not only is he at his most powerful on its grounds, using his magic away from the bowling alley is physically painful. Razi likens it to an electrical current, which within the bowling alley is grounded so that he can safely channel it, while away from that ground there's nothing to bear the brunt of the power except his own body. - In Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, three of the inmates in Gold Cords underground prison look like stereotypical genies. Gargouille punches them all out before they can do much of anything. Theres also a fourth inmate who claims to be a genie, but is clearly a skeleton. - The Genie With a Dirty Mind, a Spin-Off of The Lazer Collection, in which a genie accompanies a boy in the bedroom at shop class and lunch and... does nothing except laugh when the boy says or does something that could be interpreted as innuendo. - RWBY has the Spirits of the Relics, magical beings sealed inside the divine objects. - Jinn is the first Spirit encountered, dwelling in the Lamp of Knowledge. When her name is called by a Summoner, she will appear to them and offer to answer a specific number of Questions. Every century, Jinn may answer a total of Three Questions before her power is sealed and she must wait for the next era. While she cannot reveal the Future, she has access to all the knowledge of her creator, the God of Light. When asked a question, her response may be as simple as a verbal answer ("You cannot.") or as elaborate as an illusion that draws the summoner(s) into a story narrated by Jinn. - Ambrosius is the second Spirit encountered, dwelling inside the Staff of Creation. \|\|When summoned, he will create whatever is requested from him with the caveat that his creations have No Ontological Inertia. For decades, his power was used to hold up the floating city of Atlas. He is openly dismissive of that Task, viewing it as "pedestrian" and a poor usage of his artistry. However, Ambrosius is a Literal Genie that will create exactly what is requested, requiring that his Summoner be extremely thorough to avoid unforeseen issues. Ozpin advises the heroes to bring blueprints and other real world examples, treating Ambrosius as a Craftman being commissioned\|\|. - In El Goonish Shive, during the "Goonmanji 2" storyline, one of the cards from the eponymous magical card game transforms the player into a genie form capable of tranforming others into forms from the game including the genie form itself. - In Dan Standing's Held Within both genies are former college students who were turned into genies thanks to unknowingly making wishes on a magic amulet. No "natural born" genies have been seen. Unlike other genies, these do not have a three wish limit, and are specifically tied to their specific mistresses. Instead of lamps they have a very private connection to the women they are bound to. - In I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle, a guy gets transformed into a (female) Genie. A spoof of I Dream of Jeannie and parodying the tropes used there. - Last Res0rt's Djinn and Djinni-Si are so far off the myth they're practically In Name Only. Magical? sure. Long-lived? Well, they're undead, so we'll count it. Freaky colored skin? Yup. Wish-granting? No. Live in bottles/lamps? Well, Efreet CAN, but not the rest. Evil? Mebbe. Oh, and this is without including the detail that the term "Djinni-Si" encompasses ALL undead creatures, including Vampires (dubbed "Life Djinn") and Zombies. Efreet (one of the most powerful variants of Djinn) have recently been revealed to be capable of living in small glass balls. - This strip of The Non-Adventures of Wonderella parodies the disconnect between the original djinni myths and the American pop-culture genie. - In Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War, Jinn are presented as etheric entities of great magic power, which can only be used against someone at close range, and are bound to serve whomever holds the container they're tied to. Several Muslim nations start searching for and collecting these in order to use Jinn as weapons, while the French recover some from Algeria for the same purposes. - The Djinn in New York Magician, who works for Cthulhu and is forced to wander around New York, body to body until such a time as undisclosed. - Aladdin: The Series, beyond Aladdin's blue Genie, also introduces Eden, a green-skinned female genie. She gets romantically attached to the Genie, and is going to be set free with her master's third wish, until her master (who is a lonely little girl) accidentally says: "I just wish you could be with me forever." The couple is parted... but they realize that because they're immortal they can just meet up in a hundred years or so. But they can still date each other in the mean time. - Danny Phantom had Desiree, an evil "ghost genie" who grew in power when she granted wishes. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't stop herself from granting wishes, and that led to her defeat in both of her solo appearances. - The Fairly Oddparents has Norm (voiced by Norm Macdonald), a Jackass Genie (in fact, most genies are like that according to Wanda) who was trapped inside a lava lamp and is weak against things made of "smoof". He follows the typical three wishes rule (although that's a bluff to avoid hard work. Masters can just wish for additional three wishes as much as they can), which are rule-free, unlike fairy wishes. He also wants to be a fairy in order to avoid being stuck in a lamp. \|\|He eventually becomes one, but it backfires on him thanks to a Chekhov's Gag.\|\| - Genius Genie's title character is an anthropomorphic blue elephant in a World of Funny Animals who is summoned by simply saying the word "problem". Rather than granting wishes, he uses his magic to try and help solve people's problems, and while he means well, he usually tends to give silly or impractical solutions to mundane issues. - Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: "Wishful Thinking" has a cat genie, but other than be a cat is the typical genie in everything else. - Miraculous Ladybug: - Kwamis may seem fairy-like at first glance, but they're actually repressed gods bound to jewelry and forced to serve whoever holds their Miraculous. Only the Ladybug and Black Cat used in tandem can grant a wish, \|\|but any wish they grant has to destroy the existing universe to create a new universe where the wielder's desires are realized\|\|. - Season 4 introduces Wishmaker, a black-and-white supervillain with the power to force people to live out their childhood dreams. Anyone hit by his stardust attacks will happily, but mindlessly, act out their dreams while transformed. (Ex. A toymaker turning into Santa Claus and delivering toys, Jagged Stone becoming an actual crocodile). - My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "Through the Door", Aladdin's genie resembles a large, heavyset human with pointed ears and small fangs, lives in a lamp, and can conjure up anything as long as someone wishes for it. - In Pixel Pinkie, Pinkie is a digital genie trapped in a really old mobile phone. She has to grant unlimited wishes to whomever owns the phone. She is generally well-meaning, but often falls into Literal Genie territory. - The Real Ghostbusters: "Janine's Genie" has a genie of the Jerkass Genie variety. The genie is evil and uses Janine's wishes to open a portal from the spirit world to Earth. - In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Scrubbin' Down Under," Rocko uses a jackhammer in a misguided attempt to remove spinach from between his teeth. Obviously, he ends up landing himself in the hospital. While he's laid up in traction, sleeping, he dreams of a hygiene-obsessed monkey genie attempting to re-educate him about hygiene. The monkey genie is actually the doctor who's treating him in the "real" world. - Shazzan: The eponymous character is a giant genie summoned by magic rings. - Shimmer and Shine: They live in another dimension, their bottles are just a way to travel between their world and Earth and they don't have to return right after granting the third wish. Shimmer and Shine usually stay around to fix their mistakes and only then go back home. - In The Smurfs we have Gourdy, Farmer Smurf's genie who only made three appearances in Season 6. - Yogi's Gang: The Greedy Genie is free to roam the world with a flying lamp and is free to offer his wishes to anyone he wants. In his case, it means people who agree to never share anything he gives them.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGeniesAreDifferent
Our Gods Are Different - TV Tropes L — R: Ful (constancy and fire), Jas (sand, air and progression), and Bik (alteration and earth). "And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Gods. What is meant by that word? In fiction? It could mean anything. There really aren't many similarities between gods. Lots of tropes go with gods and religion. A god might be the classical God of ethical monotheism: omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely good. That's on one end of the scale. On the other end, she might be an easily embarrassed teenage girl. Or he might be a Superhero that, despite his godhood, gets beaten up by people empowered by radioactive slime. A general minimum requirement for a character to be considered divine, though, is that regardless of their power level and number and conviction of their followers (if any) the narrative should acknowledge them as an actual god at some point. Without that, "mere" sufficiently advanced aliens, eldritch abominations, angels in many cases, and of course mortal pretenders to the title do not usually qualify. Another trait almost universally associated with gods is having a divine portfolio or sphere of influence — that is, the thing(s) they are the gods of. (The main exception would be in the case of a monotheist capital-G God, who can go without an explicit job description by virtue of lacking competition and generally already being the "god of everything" anyway.) In some settings, gods are omnipotent, strange, or scary; in others, they are basically just people, and sometimes not even particularly powerful ones. In some, just thinking about them can drive you mad. Basically, gods can be distinguished based on several criteria: Power How powerful is the god? What can they achieve? This ranges from ... - Omnipotence: Can do anything, though many theologians would usually put in the limit "anything that it is possible to do" (e.g. they're incapable of making something contradictory, like a square circle, or a stone that they themselves cannot lift). - Omnipotence, but with some kind of rules in place; might even be self-imposed, but the point is that the god won't break them. - Scarily powerful but still capable of being outwitted or even defeated using some kind of magical artifact. - Above the power-level of "normal" people in whatever universe, but still capable of being defeated in mundane ways (generally the way of Physical Gods). - Very powerful on home ground (either a specific region or anywhere they have worshipers) but weak outside it. - Just an ordinary guy of the setting, who happens to be a god. - Powers are useless or so very restricted that they are functionally useless: Many Odd Job Gods are like this. Immortality Gods are almost always immortal. However, the meaning of "immortal" changes from context to context. - Absolute Immortality with Agelessness and instant healing/invulnerability: can never die, is not affected by age, and either recovers instantly from anything, or is invincible. A character would have about as much luck trying to kill the Author as one of these. - Advanced Immortality: cannot die of old age. However, can be killed under certain circumstances. Such as beheading them with a sacred sword during a certain cosmic event might kill them, but not fire, bullets, or being stabbed. - As below, this is often coupled with the idea that killing a god does not destroy its powers and responsibilities, instead causing them to pass to another. - Simple Immortality: don't die of old age, but can be killed by anyone with enough strength to bypass their defenses. - Near Immortality: not truly immortal, but capable of living for millions of years or longer. May be combined with Eternal Recurrence, where the birth and death of gods is tied to that of universes. - Dependence: immortality requires something to be sustained, perhaps a special food or drink, or prayers from mortal worshipers. Needs Gods have been known to need or not need certain things. Anthropomorphism How "human" is the god? This deals more with emotion and personality rather than power. An omnipotent god can remain scarily human (such as Haruhi Suzumiya). A few possible variations: - Overarching Cosmic Principle: Does not have a "mind" or "personality" as such, but is still somehow responsible for operating things. Might need A Form You Are Comfortable With (or some kind of lesser god) to communicate with people. - Ineffable: God has a mind or personality but it is simply impossible for human beings to grasp or comprehend. - Disembodied Mind or Energy Beings: They have a mind and a personality, but not a body. They are just spirits powerful spirits. - Physical God: Human, but bigger in size, perhaps somewhat smarter, with great powers. Or with a greater knowledge of the universe. Have personality traits, anyway. - More than human: God is mostly human but still possesses some traits that are distinctly inhuman. (As far as personality and not power, etc. goes, that is.) Usually this god is an avatar of some kind of principle and has a personality that matches. - Just a guy: A god that is essentially a human being doing a job. - Subhuman God: The god is more like an animal than a human being. May be a mindless force of nature or an Almighty Idiot. Morality Gods can be moral or immoral or neither. Numbers How many gods are there? - Monotheism: There is one definite discrete God entity. And only one. He/She/They/It may or may not have agents around, who may or may not qualify for godhood in any other setting, but the god is definitely the only god. - Dualism: There are two completely equal divine forces, usually one Good and the other Evil, but they can be defined along on one or more other theming axises as well, such as Life Versus Death, Order Versus Chaos, Male Versus Female, Red Oni Versus Blue Oni, etc. Other systems might also exist (tritheism?). Regardless of number, even the relationship these gods have to each other can vary. The might fight, they might operate as a sort of "Cosmic Tag Team," or it might be more complicated than that. - Henotheism: There are multiple gods, and any of them can be worshiped. However, we in particular only worship one. - Monolatry: There are many gods, but only one should be worshiped. In many cases this is the creator deity, a superior being to the rest. Or perhaps the others are deemed lesser aspects of the one. - Polytheism: There are multiple gods, usually arranged in some kind of pantheon. There might be rankings between them, and one is usually considered the head of the pantheon, but they are only different in status and not in nature and might be overthrown. - Animism: There are zillions of gods. Indeed, everything probably has a god, including individual blades of grass. The more gods there are the less powerful each individual god seems to be, for some reason. - Pantheism: Overlaps with and occasionally reverts back to monotheism. God is singular and totally pervasive. All that exists is God, God is all that exists. - Panentheism: Everything is inside of God (e.g. as ideas in his mind). Place in the Universe Where do gods come from and what do they do? This is a catch-all category for what gods do. Questions that can be raised are: Etc, etc, etc. For related tropes, see God Tropes and Tropes of the Divine. ## Examples: - In Bleach, there are certain characters who are referred to as "Transcendent Beings". Transcendent Beings are entities that evolved beyond the limits of their races, and have become Gods. \|\|Sosuke Aizen sought to become one, and managed to become an immortal Transcendent Being by implanting the Hogyoku into his chest. Ichigo Kurosaki is revealed to be a hybrid of all four races (Human, Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy) and after fulfilling his true potential, became a Transcendent Being himself. The most powerful being in the setting however, is the Soul King, which sustains all of existence. Without its presence, all the worlds would collapse on each other. Even parts of the Soul King's body could be considered Transcendent Beings: Gerard Valkryie is the heart of the Soul King and possesses nigh-immeasurable power; Pernida Parkgjas is the right arm of the Soul King and governs evolution; Mimihagi is the left arm of the Soul King and governs stagnation. Yhwach, the son of the Soul King, eventually killed his father and absorbed his power, becoming an almost eldritch-like being capable of altering reality, and creating and destroying dimensions at will. Other characters who could be considered Transcendent Beings include: Gremmy Thoumeaux, who can make anything he imagines into reality; and Lille Barro, the first Quincy gifted with power by Yhwach, who at his most powerful, can only be destroyed by a weapon that is said to disperse the power of divine entities.\|\| - In A Certain Magical Index, there are many examples of characters and creatures with abilities, whether magical, scientific, or divine, that can allow them to be perceived as gods, as the result of All Myths Are True. The most egregious example would be the Perfect Majins/Magic Gods: \|\|Human Archmages who had stepped into the boundaries of God after reaching the apex of magic, and achieve reality-bending omnipotence.\|\| - In Code Geass the being referred to as "God" is left extremely nebulous and complicated, but it is clear that this God is an anthropocentric concept. It is actually known as the "collective human unconsciousness" and represents the collective mind, spirit and soul of humanity. It is not supreme or omnipotent, as \|\|Charles zi Britannia wants to destroy it to unite all of humanity into one collective soul, and Lelouch uses his Compelling Voice on it to kill Charles.\|\| Its most common physical manifestation is a Jupiter-like planet with a strange tower connected to it. - The Digimon multiverse has a number of gods and how powerful they are beyond combat vary; as all Digimon are data in our computer networks and play by the same rules, none of them are completely untouchable. Adventure and Tamers have Digimon versions of The Four Gods. Frontier has Susanoomon, the fusion of all twenty spirits. Savers has the Olympus XII. Multiple unrelated continuities have Yggdrasil/King Drasil, who isn't a Digimon but the computer that runs the digital world. Or rather, it's the persona taken on by the computer that runs the Digital World. So, within one franchise, the power level and nature of the characters treated as gods by others can vary. - In Dragon Ball, there are many different types of gods, consisting of a henotheistic system. Almost all of them are Long-Lived, but at one point will have to retire, and are very powerful individuals that don't need any sort of prayer. At least some of them possess a secondary reserve of Ki called "divine ki", which is superior to the normal variety and cannot be detected by mortals without special training. While they are not completely explored, the pantheon works like this: - First there are the guardians, referred to simply as kami (gods), who each serve a single planet and are recruited from pure-hearted mortals by the planet's previous guardian. Guardians have an extended lifespan, somewhat enhanced senses (including the ability to sense divine ki), and are capable of travelling between the worlds of the living and the dead, but otherwise do not seem to be any stronger than mortals - rather, the position tends to go to people who already have mystical powers that help in their role. - Then there are the Shinjin ("pith people"), a race born from magical "world trees" on planet Kaishin, who are appointed to the more important roles. Most of them are not fighters, but unlike mortals their ki (both regular and godly) usually does not glow, remaining invisible to the naked eye. They are skilled at moving objects telekinetically, and have the abilities to create objects from thin air and sometimes to heal others. - The Kaio ("world kings") or Kais. There are four, each ruling over a quadrant of the universe, and they have a boss in the form of the Dai-Kaio/Grand Kai. They have the ability to sense events going on in their sector with greater precision than mortals, and can communicate telepathically at unlimited range. - Then, there are the Kaioshin ("world king gods") or Supreme Kai, the gods of creation. Their job is to create new planets and watch over mortals and guide them, but never intervene directly. They are normally a subspecies of Shinjin born from a rare golden fruit, with only one in existence at a time (sometimes with an inactive apprentice), though a normal Shinjin can also be appointed to the position if they show sufficient talent. At one point in Universe 7's past, five active Supreme Kai existed at once, with their leader holding the title of "Grand Supreme Kai". Supreme Kais are capable of teleporting anywhere in the universe instantly, and are the only beings capable of fully utilising the Time Rings (to travel through time) and the Potara Earrings (to fuse with another being permanently). Dragon Ball Xenoverse introduces another special position in the form of the Supreme Kai of Time, who monitors distortions in the timeline. - The Supreme Kais' counterparts are the Gods of Destruction, whose job is to destroy planets to make room for new ones. Appointed from mortal stock like the guardians, their power far exceeds that of other gods, usually making them the most powerful being in their universe. They lack most of the Kais' more utilitarian powers, but can generate "the energy of destruction" in order to erase things from existence utterly. Also unlike other gods, they have very few restrictions on their behaviour, to the point where they are free to kill mortals on a whim. The life of a universe's God of Destruction is directly tied to that of its Supreme Kais, meaning that if every Supreme Kai in a universe is killed its God of Destruction will also die. - Above the gods of destruction are the angels, whose origins are unclear. Their job is to guide and train the gods of destruction but, like the Supreme Kai, they must remain neutral. If their god of destruction is killed off, they will become inactive until a new god of destruction is appointed to them. While they do not possess the Supreme Kais' teleportation abilities, they can fly at extremely high speeds, have a limited ability to "undo" events, and at least some are actually stronger than the Gods of Destruction they support. Their boss is the Grand Priest, who is the father of most of them. - Finally, there is the god above all of them, the Zen-O (Omni-King). He is a child-like entity who rules the entire multiverse and can destroy it in an instant if he pleases. The Grand Priest serves as his guardian. - The Truth in Fullmetal Alchemist. It bears the knowledge of everything and imitates the voice and a bit of the appearance of the person it speaks to. - In Naruto, the Ten-Tails is a primordial being that, according to Kurama, is the beginning of all Chakra and the progenitor of everything that exists in the Shinobi World, in the ancient past it was once known as the God Tree, until a woman named Kaguya ate the Chakra Fruit from it, as a result it transformed into the Ten-Tails, its powerful enough to create natural disasters and destroy entire continents, Kaguyas son the Sage of Six Paths sealed it inside himself and later split its chakra into nine Tailed Beasts. - In Noragami, gods are numerous and born from the wishes of humans. They exist to fulfill these wishes. The more followers they have, the more their godly status is cemented and they will be reincarnated if they die. However, if a god dies while no human recognizes them anymore, they will disappear forever. - In Princess Mononoke, gods are natural, seemingly physical beings that do not seem to be in any shape or form concerned with human worship (in fact, by the time the story rolls by most would rather prefer human beings to leave), down to being mortal and easily killed if you have guns. Most are animal-shaped, making them essentially giant talking animals, though a few are more abstract beings. All are liable to turn into demonic dark spirits if sunk into fear or hatred. - Re:Zero: Deconstructed with the Witches of Sin. They are never referred to as "gods" in the setting, but they nonetheless hold great power that they might as well be seen as gods. They are the reason why the Mabeasts exist, the reason why non-humans have emotions, and the reason why the world is the way it is. While most of the original seven are dead, they all continue to persist as souls long after their flesh has rotted away. - Black Moon Chronicles: There are said to be many different gods, although they're almost never seen. God and his angels occasionally help out the holy orders of knights who serve the empire but prefer to keep their distance from mortal affairs. The Oracle is another god, whose true form is a multi-headed Eldritch Abomination \|\|but is in fact a female Hot God.\|\| - Clive Barker's Next Testament has Wick\|\|, Christ the Reconciler, and his Holy Spirit\|\| who have an Amazing Technicolor Population thing going for them. - In The DCU gods tend to range from being incredibly powerful superhuman individuals more akin to physical gods (Most of the New Gods, Onimar Syn, the classical gods, Lobo, etc.) to nigh omnipotent but still human minded individuals (Anansi and several classical gods, etc.) to basically omnipotent cosmic forces (The Endless, Lucifer, The Spectre, Michael, etc.) right up to a single Omnipotent God who may or may not be split into several aspects (The Presence, The Source, etc.). Those who fall in the second category are incredibly difficult to kill by mortal hands as they just return a bit weakened unless they are already so faded their death unavoidable, which is why Wonder Woman has never balked at killing them. Then of course you have entities who are essentially Omnipotent for all purposes but are at best physical gods since they aren't really religious or worshipped individuals (Mr. Mxyzptlk and other denizens of the 5th dimension). Jack Kirby's New Gods started as fairly similar to the Marvel gods (no surprise since he helped create most of them), but retcon has suggested that the aspects of them that mere mortals can see and interact with are only the tip of a vast metaphysical iceberg. Darkseid, in particular, is so powerful he is Top God in comparison to all the other New Gods he either rules or seeks to enslave or destroy. He achieved this power through various methods, including slaughtering the pantheons of other worlds and stealing the power of those gods for himself- he basically has the power of a hundred or so gods within himself. - Marvel and DC tend to take the Henotheistic route, with one supreme God occasionally referred too (and, more rarely, seen) with a number of gods, demons and entities fulfilling various roles beneath him. - Gods in the Marvel Universe tend to be fairly powerful, and may or may not be powered by belief Depending on the Writer. - Asgardians, Olympians, Heliopolitans and others are extra-dimensional superhumans who exist as the gods of various Earth pantheons (Norse, Greek, Egyptian etc.). The average god is immortal (with subtle differences in mechanics depending on the pantheon), far stronger, faster and more durable than humans, and possesses greater magical potential. The more notable ones like Thor and Hercules are incredibly strong even by their races standards, while gods like Loki (who is actually a very small Frost Giant) and Set (the Egyptian one, different from the Elder God, see below) gain power through other means like magic and stealing power from other gods. Death Gods are members of each pantheon who have made a pact with the abstract cosmic entity Death that gives them the rights to claim souls according to certain conditions (eg. they worship a god/gods of the given pantheon, or died in the pantheons realm); the Death God rules a portion of the Splinter Realms (a shattered netherworld that used to be Hell) that represents their pantheon; the more souls a Death God rules, the stronger they become. Above all are the Skyfathers, the chieftains like Zeus and Odin, who wield nigh-omnipotent power that goes with their station, Odin being the strongest of them all with his Odinforce. - Things are made even more complicated by the Abrahamic God, who tends to appear mainly in Ghost Rider, though it's implied he coordinates with the Skyfathers as well as being more powerful than them, including Odin. - Some writers occasionally show a more metaphysical side to Earth's gods. Different stories have implied they were formed by mankind's beliefs, that as long as humans belief in them they can come back from death (though they don't need it to exist), to having some sort of link with Earth or the civilizations that worshiped them. Other writers treat them as just superpowered beings from another dimension (this tends to be the canon, and the former contradicts a few details, like some gods being around before humanity even existed). - Current (at least 2010-) Loki stories paint a very meta picture: That gods are trope based lifeforms, literal living myth and metaphor. So they are immortal because ideas don't really die (worst case scenario: they remember themselves, but many have libraries for a reason). Also they are defined by their stories, and are literally rewritable/tellable if someone can find the right texts and tools (the manuscript of their authorized biography, or a legendary prophecy counts more than fanfic on the internet etc.). Take this Fiction Identity Postulate and MST3K Mantra and go in piece! - The Elder Gods are magical entities born on Earth who, with two heroic exceptions, degenerated into demons as they began cannibalizing each other. They are extraordinarily powerful creatures and Earth has numerous magical spells and barriers set up to prevent them returning, though they still exert influence where they can. The Elder Gods, along with various other demons like Dormammu and Shuma-Gorath, are all nigh-omnipotent, especially in their own dimensions, and are themselves worshipped as gods in their own right, as are magical entities like Cyttorak. Other demons like Mephisto who rule the other portions of the Splinter Realms are called Hell Lords; they likewise have a pact with Death, and all gain more power the more souls are in their death realm. - Most are still lower on the totem-pole than the various entities that govern the universe- Galactus, Eternity, Death, Infinity, Oblivion, etc.- who are abstract beings that represent fundamental aspects of existence, e.g. Eternity personifies Time, Infinity personifies Space etc, and they are all aspects of beings that personify them across the multiverse, with each verse having it's counterpart for them note : Eternity has claimed that Chthon is a threat to him; Dormammu's power fluctuates and on a good day he can at least give any these guys a serious fight; and Shuma-Gorath may be stronger than everyone listed so-far as he rules more than a hundred universes. Galactus's power also tends to fluctuate (depending on how well-fed he is) and he has sometimes been so weak he can be defeated by teams of human heroes, and both gods and mortals can increase their power to the level of an Abstract or beyond with the use of certain Amplifier Artifacts, such as the Infinity Gauntlet / Gems, the Heart of the Universe and others, or in the case of certain beings might actually have particular superpowers on-par with these entities, or even beyond.. The Phoenix Force, which is also worshiped in some places, guards the M'Krann Crystal and hence the Multiverse, and is stronger than Galactus, whose existence is necessary to keep imprisoning Omnicidal Maniac Abraxas, a nigh-omnipotent being that threatens the multiverse. Celestials and the Watchers are Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that wield godlike power, the former so much that even supposed omnipotents feel beneath them. Random all-powerful beings like the Beyonder and the Stranger pop up from time to time. And of course, the Living Tribunal. The One Above All, however, is essentially analogous to God and is above and in charge of everyone and everything else else. Appropriately enough, he looks like Jack Kirby, and hints that he has a writing partner presumed to be Stan Lee. - This trope was put to a more literal test during Secret Invasion, when a strike team of Earth gods went to kill the Skrull gods. - Also Nick Fury's God has a hammer. - Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing featured a story arc (first appearance of Howard the Duck, incidentally) featuring a big epic struggle to protect the gods (later confirmed to be specifically "the gods of Therea") from a demonic invasion force, with several characters wondering why the gods can't just intervene and protect themselves. After the invasion force is finally defeated, the heroes go to the Realm of Therea and meet the gods, who are revealed to be... German Shepherds living in quiet contentment on a farm tended by kindly old folks. - In the world of the The Motherless Oven, household appliances, such as egg timers, are viewed as Gods. All the Gods are alive in some capacity and sing strange, nonsensical songs that some characters believe possess a deeper meaning. However, although the Gods are seen as special possessions, they are not worshipped. - In Watchmen, God exists, and he's American. For those who haven't read the book, it's Dr. Manhattan. - Codex Equus: In the Codexverse, deities are created by, and defined by, a system in which magic holds a heavy influence in their development in various ways. - Most deities are born from various elemental/abstract phenomena as simple lifeforms that gradually develop sapience and intelligence until they Ascend to godhood. Other deities, however, are the result of mortals Ascending to godhood, hence the Ascendant category. While generally composed of magic, deities can assume physical forms and are capable of biological reproduction, even spawning racial divine hybrids in some cases, and unlike mortals, they generally do not suffer any consequences from incestual relationships. Also, unlike mortals, deities only become more powerful and eldritch as they get older, with the oldest of them being feared and incomprehensible. However, due to the fluid nature of divinity in general, it is possible for deities to take this further by having their 'age' accelerated or even re-Ascending into a completely different being under the right circumstances. - Deities also come in three categories: Elementals, Ethereals, and Ascendants. Elemental deities spawn from elemental phenomena such as storms, volcanic eruptions, and oceanic currents. Ethereal deities spawn when abstract ideas, emotions, and thoughts come to life and gain sapience. Ascendant Deities are sapient mortals which, whether in life or upon death, had acquired enough power or achieved such impressive deeds that they were judged worthy of Ascension by higher powers. Many mortal factions/individuals like the Alicorn Ascendancy have tried creating more Ascendant deities by 'shortcutting' their way to godhood, but because the complex nature of Ascension and divinity in general ensure that many of said attempts fail disastrously. - However, because the nature of deities is fluid, it is possible for them to have their ages accelerated far past their natural age or 're-Ascend' into completely different beings under the right circumstances. Princess Arcus, Queen Aoide Mousikós, and \|\|Diamond Tiara/Queen Elpis\|\| are a few examples of the former, while Moon Ray Vaughoof/Prince Canticum Lunae Cahaya is an example of the latter. - As shown with a few entries, divine reincarnations are also possible. Unlike traditional Reincarnations, a divine reincarnation is essentially someone fusing with the essence of a dead deity. While their souls do merge as one, the two individuals are able to co-exist and channel their full being under certain circumstances. Examples of this include Tranquil Harbor/Omega (who becomes Promes' reincarnation), \|\|Princess Amicitia/Twilight (who becomes Mana Equus' reincarnation), and Diamond Tiara/Queen Elpis (who becomes Diamond Glow's reincarnation). In Amicitia/Twilight's case, her status as Mana Equus' reincarnation is kept secret by the Church of the Stars so she'll be protected from those who will come to resent her for supposedly being more privileged than others\|\|. - Enlightenments: The viewpoint character, Dormin, is a god of life and death with a secondary domain over light that makes their land experience eternal day, and their influence causes horns to grow on mortal men which glow or shine to divine sight. A high enough dose of their soul in a mortal causes regenerative, ageless immortality, as well. In the fic's interpretation of canon, the Colossi were created by nearby gods who have the developer nicknames for the Colossi, but we don't hear much about them beyond things like the tenth Colossus being referred to as "Dirge's Colossus". - The Mansionverse: Presumed to be similar to, but more powerful than, the setting's demons, Gods (at least, but probably not limited to, those of Ancient Greek and Egyptian mythologies) did once exist, although they all appear to have disappeared at some point... leaving some of their minions like the One-Eyed Black Cat to roam free. - The Night Unfurls: - The main setting has multiple gods that can be worshiped by anyone, even the unsavoury folk note : e.g., the goblins using a Human Sacrifice for their dark gods (Chapter 6, original ver.), the Malys clan dabbling with less sympathetic gods (Chapter 22, original ver.), the orcs ululating to their dark gods around a cooking pit (Chapter 9, remastered ver.), etc.. However, only two are regarded as the most prominent: gentle Laurendau, who reincarnates in her descendants to hold her power for generations; and haughty Garan, Laurendau's polar opposite (though her "cruelty" is merely an Informed Attribute). Celestine Lucross is the current inheritor of the former's power, while Olga Discordia is the current inheritor of the latter. Both have engaged in warfare for centuries. - Examples exclusive in the remastered version: - During a conversation between Kyril and Prim, Kyril mentions that he has seen gods far above mortal, indicating that \|\|he equates the great ones with gods\|\|. - The Rat notes that The Old Gods are waking, and they may have need of Kyril during some future war. Though this merely falls under Vagueness Is Coming rather than meaningful lore. - There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: - According to Word of God, the Asgardians and the Olympians differ from each other outside of being physical gods. While they both are so powerful and comparable that it would be impossible to tell the difference at a glance, the individual Olympians are the Anthropomorphic Personification of aspects of nature or concepts and have Complete Immortality barring their sphere of influence falling out of favor with mankind. Asgardians, meanwhile, are more akin to Sufficiently Advanced Aliens with power on an identical scale to gods, and while killing them is certainly a feat in of itself, they can be felled in battle and they do age, so they are not immortal like their Olympian counterparts. - This also applies to the Kwamis and how they differ from the Asgardians and Olympians. Word of God states that they're more like the Egyptian gods from The Kane Chronicles in that with few exceptions (Plagg and Tikki), the only method they have in terms of interacting with the mortal world is through a Miraculous Holder, which has many limits on the Kwamis' power so as not to cause untold destruction and harm to the world. They were also all originally one being, which supplemental materials reveal to be a Celestial, and another reason for the Miraculouses being made was to try and counter the pull they feel to reunite again. - Vilgax notes that whatever Ben thinks a "god" is, it pales in comparison to what a Celestial truly is. Apparently they created everything — matter, energy, magic, even the Multiverse as a whole. They spend their time in the Forge of Creation creating entire dimensions with a thought. And one is powering the Omnitrix. - The Diamonds are specifically compared to gods more than once with how much more power they have compared to "regular" Gems. Word of God is that nothing short of a Celestial could shatter their Gemstones in this universe. - In Turning Red, Sun Yee is said to have prayed to the gods for help who then granted her prayer by giving her and all her female descendants the ability to transform into a giant red panda. - The entire point of American Gods. All gods are fueled and in-part defined-by belief in them and sacrifices made in their name. It's basically the new gods (of Media, the Internet, Cars, etc. all the things modern people put their faith in and "worship") and the old Gods (from Asian, European, Native American, and African pantheons), or rather, American versions of them created by the belief of settlers and immigrants. Odin appears as does, Anansi, Kali, Czernobog, Jesus (mentioned in passing, though not appearing in the book itself), Anubis, Thoth and a whole lot of others. Oh yes and \|\|Loki. Who is, along with Odin, the Big Bad planning on getting all the old and new gods killed in their names in order to reap the power of a massive divine sacrifice\|\|. There are also indications of someone (relatively benign and unthreatening) who is much much older than any of the gods still remembered today. It seems unconcerned with the conflict(s) of the book, viewing even the old gods as mayflies. - The high spirits in Adam R. Brown's fantasy series, Astral Dawn, are powerful beings who served as the gods of the various pantheons throughout human history. - The high spirits implanted the idea of themselves in the minds of a few people who later spread it to many others, creating polytheism. - Using the psychic energy generated by worship, the high spirits who participated in the God Age became even more powerful. - Simon and others developed a means of staying linked to a specific period of space-time. This allowed the gods and legends to retain their psychic connection and the power it brought them no matter where (or when) they were in space or time. - The Aash Ra are also considered god-like beings. Even the spirits think of them as the original angels and demons. - The gods in The Belgariad are powerful immortal beings, they are however still bound by the Purpose of the Universe and cannot directly go against it. (It is usually handwaved as two gods confronting each other directly would annihilate the planet.) - The Book of All Hours - the Unkin. \|\|humans that experienced a unique event in their life that allowed them to touch the Vellum underneath reality.\|\| In the multiverse inscribed on the surface of the Vellum, these meta-humans have long since taken up different roles, presenting themselves to mortal humans in different ways in pursuit of power. - In El Conquistador every civilization in the novel thinks this of their own gods. Note that there are many similarities noted by Quetza between the gods that he despises in his own culture, and the gods in the other continent. - Gods of Dora Wilk Series vary greatly. On one end of the scale you have fellows like Anubis who is "simply" immortal being with animal head and some powers, and on the other you've got God and Goddess, who can warp the reality, invade your dreams and don't have a material forms at all. Somewhere in the middle there are Badb and Loki, who look disturbingly inhuman and has some great superpowers, but are nowhere close to God's level of awesome. As a matter of fact, multiple, multiple gods of this series has powers and abilities that are reflection of how humans perceived them through the history. - Discworld: - Generally, gods run the gamut. However, it's shown as gods need (and are shaped by) belief: The more belief, the stronger the god. If you only have one believer, well you might be able to summon a minor thunderstorm over one person's head. The other end is Death, whom everything believes in. One god seems to get by believing in his own work. There are other cosmic forces at work, like the Auditors, but they are not the subject of worship and have no need for it. - There are eight entities that inverts the usual relationship, as the universe exists because they believe in it. One of them appeared, the multiversal Death, of which the Death of the Discworld is merely an aspect. It's clock tells time what time is, and it's so awesome its "YES" fills a whole page. - The Dragonlance universe has a fairly large pantheon with ~~eighteen~~ sixteen gods divided evenly between Light, Dark, and Neutral. Formerly, there was a tribunal of chief gods, Paladine, Takhisis, and Gilean, but then Paladine and Takhisis were made mortal \|\|and Takhisis died.\|\| Now it's a power struggle for who gets to rule the gods, as Gilean just sits with his nose in a book all day. There are also two beings as high above gods as the gods are above mortals, the High God and Chaos. These two are usually at war. However, the High God manipulated events such that Chaos would be taken out of the picture. - The Dresden Files : Harry Dresden lives in a Fantasy Kitchen Sink world, and he states at one point that many if not all gods and godlike beings from myth are all out there as well. Faith has a sort of magical power and Harry has met pagan gods like Odin, the Faerie Queens, and the godlike Erlking. It's theoretically possible to ascend to nigh-godlike power, but that might have never actually happened. Because of their strong magic, gods (and beings powerful enough to pose as gods, such as the Red King and the "Lords of Outer Night") are also defined by an "aura" or "willpower" that can force mortals to their knees in pain with a thought. However, the capital-g Judeo-Christian God (also called "the White God" or the "Almighty") also exists and is so powerful that the knights who worship him can ignore the will of other gods and slaughter them. He's so beyond the other gods that Harry believes that one of his archangels, Uriel, could "probably take apart all the planets. Like, all of them. Everywhere." According to Volume 2 of the guidebook to the tabletop game, The Almighty is at the highest tiers of power, with his arch-angels equaling the strongest pagan gods (like Odin) and the Faerie Mothers. - The gods of The Elenium have wildly varied personalities, but they all appear to Need Prayer Badly. Aphriel assures herself a steady diet by always appearing as a cute child, so that she always gets love. The Elene God is much more stodgy and refuses to give out even his name, but is respected by other gods for his Popularity Power (which he never uses). Like The Belgariad, the Gods of this universe were created by, and can be bound by, even higher powers. - In Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East and Book of Swords trilogies, there are several different levels of beings who are worshiped at various points: - ARDNEH, who is initially worshiped by the West and is later worshiped as a god of justice, healing, mercy, and redemption throughout the world, although he was actually \|\|a very advanced and powerful artificial intelligence and denied that he was a god or should be worshiped, and died at the end of\|\| Empire. - Orcus, King of all Demons, who founded The Empire of the East, and was ARDNEH's archenemy. In reality, \|\|he was just the most powerful demon, and like all demons was really a nuclear bomb that had been altered by ARDNEH.\|\| - Draffut, who was eventually worshiped as a god of healing, even though he denied being a god, and was actually a \|\|highly evolved dog\|\|, although his healing powers were quite real. He was powerful enough to face Mars, god of war, in single combat, twice, and win once. - The gods, who made the Swords and played the Game. They were very powerful, and could defeat demons with ease. They were, however \|\|not really gods, but actually the product of the dreams of men, and could be killed by the Swords they had made. They all eventually died when men stopped believing in them.\|\| - The Emperor, a mysterious man who is believed by many to be a myth, and by others to be a simple clown or wandering jester, or perhaps a con-man or mountebank. A few know him to be a very powerful wizard. In reality \|\|he is the real God\|\|. - Factory of the Gods: Gods are the result of normal mortals finding and touching Godcores. Becomes extra unusual when a phone touches one of those cores and the Godcore bonds with it since it has a processor it interprets as a mind. - Geoph Essex's Jackrabbit Messiah appears to run on this trope: the few gods we get to see in action appear just as desperate and fallible as the humans. Several characters discuss the possibility that the gods are actually less powerful, in certain ways, than mortals. - The "gods" of the H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos come in several varieties. - The Great Old Ones - Cthulhu, Hastur, Tsathoggua, Ghatanothoa, etc, are more or less Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. They are usually immortal, of monstrous size and appearance, capable of producing swarms of spawn, and are powerfully psychic, but their influence is usually limited to a single planet and they are often consigned to hibernate through cosmic cycles for thousands or millions of years. - The Outer Gods, of which Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep and Azathoth are chief, are more literal gods, who seem to rarely have any concern for human affairs. They are immensely powerful, though occasionally limited by the barriers between universes (Yog-Sothoth, though a four-dimensional being who lives beyond time, is still usually locked out of the mundane universe). Azathoth, for example, is a mindless demiurge responsible for creation of all of cosmos (which is far greater than our known universe). While Yog-Sothoth is locked out of the universe, it's also coterminous with all points of space and time, being the Living Multiverse. - In no way anthropomorphic, often with frightening bizarre alien anatomy; amorphous swarming tentacles, animate slime, and glossy inter-dimensional bubbles of energy. They are often viewed as cosmic organisms, rather than traditional gods in any respect. A few Outer Gods may adopt quasi-human avatars to interact with us, or use mutated followers to the same effect. - Both varieties are completely amoral, often animalistic forces of nature, though sometimes with very vaguely defined personalities. Some, like Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, seem willing to reward followers who help them towards their inscrutable goals, while others, like Nyarlathotep, seem to exhibit deliberate malice for all civilized races. For the most part, however, humanity and earth has no real relevance to them. - The Outer Gods seem to have always been, and often even have their own universes that they created and dwell in, while others were the creation of even greater outer gods. The Great Old ones are hinted to have evolved naturally, each on his own or with the help of a precursor species, though some writers have them reproducing like a single unified family. Some Great Old Ones (especially those with a family tree) can have an Outer God or two among their forebears, though whether such claims are factual or the delusions of crazed cultists is ambiguous. - The Elder Gods, usually considered August Derleth's discontinuous insertion, have sometimes been Retcon'ed as a second group of Outer Gods who oppose the originals, but a less immediate threat to humanity. - The Lovecraft story "The Cats of Ulthar" seems to hint at the existence of entities resembling the gods of ancient Egypt... in the Dreamlands where Ulthar is located according to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, anyway. - A number of stories also feature the "mild gods of Earth," suggested to be old standbys such as Zeus or Isis, but seldom referenced individually. They are also dangerous and unknowable, albeit slightly less so. - The Malazan Book of the Fallen is filled with gods of varying levels of power and influence. There are two main categories of them: - The Elder Gods embody primal forces of nature and vastly predate most everything else in the setting. Some are said to be responsible for the creation of various races. As of the time of the main series, most of the Elder Gods are no longer active owing to their worship having been forgotten, but a few are still around. - The second group is composed of deities who were once mortal; mortals can become Ascendants (superhuman immortals) through a process that is poorly-understood in-universe but typically involves proving oneself truly exceptional in some way, and Ascendants can in turn become gods by being worshipped and/or taking over a divine position that was vacant at the time. And there are at least a couple of Ascendants, like Anomander Rake, who are worshipped but voluntarily choose not to claim full godhood. The majority of the modern pantheon are Ascendants. - Then there's the Crippled God, an interloper from another world who doesn't follow the usual rules and makes quite a lot of trouble as a result. - In the Nightside, an entire street is devoted to beings that can be worshiped, and worship is a path to power. That said, worship isn't the only way to gain power — Razor Eddie tolerates no worshipers of John Taylor, but the latter could end the world. God in an Abrahamic sense (and specifically Christian) also exists akin to the Dresden Files — sympathetically portrayed, but relatively indirect in acting (His angels are a different story). - No Gods for Drowning: Deities come in various forms in this book: - The Dawn Gods are a group of extraterrestrial higher beings who journyed to this world and uplifted humanity to help them fight the monsters that were preying on them called Glories. These Gods have an etherial and otherworldly appearance. - The major gods that are worshipped by humanity are actually either former human lovers or descendants of Dawn Gods. These gods can vary in looks and descriptions and feature the nine headed Logoi. They can also reproduce with humanity and give them children regardless of the gender of the god in question. It's possible to become a god by taking a god or goddess as a lover and producing a divine child. - In Ravelling Wrath, the gods perceive the world much more slowly than humans, they have titles like "The Blood God" instead of names, and they are referred to as "it". - The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses has Deities, the highest rank of Spirits. There are 21 in all, and they include the eponymous twelve goddesses and the Demon King Hadar. Deities possess extreme power, enough to fight an army of thousands, and some form of Resurrective Immortality. Humans can form contracts with them just as with lesser Spirits, becoming the rare and renowned Deity Knights, but this is obviously extremely difficult. - Brandon Sanderson has admitted up front that the idea of godhood fascinates him. As such, all of his major works feature some sort of gods. - The Elantrians from Elantris are mortal wizards who are so powerful they are revered as divine in their home nation. - The Lord Ruler from Mistborn: The Original Trilogy is an immortal, seemingly invincible Evil Overlord worshipped in The Empire. - The Returned from Warbreaker are humans who died in some significant manner and are returned to life with superhuman magical abilities. It's worth noting that Returned only have a few powers not available to mere mortal magic-users with enough power, they can heal a person at the cost of their lives, they can \|\|shapeshift, though the majority of them aren't aware of it\|\|, and as hinted in the story, and confirmed by Word of God, they get glimpses of the future. - And then there's the Stormfather, in The Stormlight Archive: has the unforgiving mood of the Old Testament God, his physical form is a vast face in the clouds, he's responsible for the weather, spirits who help people do his bidding, and he sends visions of the future to a Chosen One. Sounds exactly like God, right? \|\|He denies being God when asked, and he is the biggest and oldest of those spirits and maybe their father but not actually a creator-figure for anyone else. As for the visions, the actual God required him to send them to the Chosen One when the circumstances were right.\|\| - But none of these are the real gods. Long ago, a single god-like entity/force/power known as Adonalsium was "shattered." Its fragments, called Shards, are universal principles that form the bedrock of the books' magic systems. The Shards were taken up by the people responsible for the Shattering, becoming the first Vessels; the Vessel functions as the personification of their Shard. Confirmed Shards are Ruin and Preservation from Mistborn, the being who creates Warbreaker's Returned (named in Word of God as Endowment), and Cultivation, Honor, and Odium from The Stormlight Archive. Word of God identifies a few more: Devotion and Dominion, held by Aona and Skai, were once the gods of the world of Elantris; Autonomy, held by Bavadin, primarily rules over the world of White Sand, though she has avatars on many other worlds as well; and Ambition, held by Uli Da, who has some connection to the world of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Needless to say, all of these works are part of the same universe. Other Shards have been named but not yet elaborated on: Invention, Mercy, Valor, and Whimsy, and there are two more that have not yet been named. - The Gods in the Suggsverse are all absolutely omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and everything else related to absolute omnipotence. - The Sky-Dogs from Survivor Dogs are gods in all-but-name. They're a group of sibling dogs that live in the sky. They sleep, play, and act much like ordinary dogs. Dogs worship them but dogs also worship Anthropomorphic Personifications of nature, such as the Earth-Dog (who is both Mother Nature and The Grim Reaper). The Sky-Dogs don't tend to interact with mortals but they can cause earthly trouble, including thunderstorms when they "play fight" with Lightning and the Earth-Dog, and they're known to get mad at normal dogs. - Till We Have Faces presents the theologies of Greece and Glome before hinting at the truth about the gods: - In the Greeklands, the people recognize a single, abstract Divine Nature who controls providence and exists outside of physical reality. This makes the Divine Nature impersonal, so the Greek known as Fox scoffs at intercessory prayer and idol worship as baseless superstitions. Some of Glome's priests come around to Fox's views, but non-intellectuals have no need for such a safe and uninvolved god. - In Glome, the people worship and fear an obsidian rock that they call Ungit, a Love Goddess and mother of the divine Shadowbrute. The gods are associated darkness, the rotting smell of their sacrificial lambs, and the plagues they send to punish blasphemous mortals they known as the Accursed. This person is devoured and/or married to the Brute in a ritual like a Human Sacrifice. Bardia and most of the characters find these gods real as air, far more than any type of "Divine Nature." - If she isn't an Unreliable Narrator, Orual has a personal encounter with the god of the Grey Mountain. As a pagan of Glome would know, the god is violent enough to flatten a forest and so radically present as to make everything else in reality seem like a dream. Yet, he (or maybe He) may be the God known to Greek philosophy, as the god is benevolent enough to love Psyche more than her foster mother, metaphysical enough that Orual cannot see if he has a shape, and omnipotent enough to change the past at will. - There are several levels of divine powers in Tolkien's Legendarium, implied in Lord of the Rings and elaborated on in The Silmarillion. There is one single, all-powerful creator god: Eru Ilúvatar. He created other divine incorporeal spirits, the Ainur, which could be classified as angels or minor gods. The Ainur who entered the world are split into two categories: 1) the 14 Valar (a term that literally means "Powers" but can also be translated as little-g gods or archangels) and the (not-included in the counting) Vala Melkor Morgoth; and 2) the Maiar (approx. lesser angels or gods), whose ranks include such notables as Sauron, the five wizards, the Balrogs, and those who steer the ships of the Sun and Moon. The scope of a Ainu's power reflects their part in the great song that created the world. Manwe (whose aspect is air) and Ulmo (whose aspect is water) are particularly powerful because of how pervasive their domains are throughout the whole of creation. Lesser Ainur might represent clouds, or surf... powerful beings, but vastly less so than the greatest Valar. Melkor has his hand in just about everything, which is why he is so powerful and capable on his own. - The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: Generally, there's a pantheon. Otherwise, just three, or one. All of them are dependent on getting prayer and worship to exist. Because of this, they'll make a point to appear regularly so that people don't stop believing in them. Despite this, no Tourist will ever worship Gods. - In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series there are two godlike creatures. The Creator and The Dark One respectively. They both seem to exist outside of known reality and it is implied that they might be incarnations of Order and Chaos. However it is shown that in this universe human beings are capable of reaching this level of power as well through the proper tools. - In the Young Wizards series the One made the Powers That Be and tasked them with creating reality. While most of them got busy with their task, one stood aloof, wishing to come up with a contribution that none of the others could have thought of. After all of the others had finished, It made Its unique contribution: Entropy and Death. It was cast out of Heaven for this, and came to be known as The Lone Power. - The One is assumed to be all-powerful, but rarely does anything directly, possibly because acting directly would destroy reality (His name alone is so powerful that, if it were whole rather than kept in pieces, it would destroy universes). The Powers aren't all-powerful since, when acting inside of a physical universe, they are constrained by that universe's laws, which includes entropy, which means that the amount of energy they have available to expend is finite. However, the amount of power that they do have is still unimaginable by mere humans. - Not much is known about the mind of the One, other than that He has a tacky sense of humor. The most powerful of the Powers exist mainly outside of time, inserting multiple fragments of themselves into the timestream, so the totality of their minds can't be comprehended by mere mortals; however, the inside-of-time fragments that the mortal characters interact with give the appearance of having human-like minds. The Powers which are small enough to fit inside of a single universe appear to have human like minds. - The One is entirely good. Among the Powers all but the Lone Power are good (as the "Lone" in Its name suggests), though not all of the Bright Powers are still "active status" do-gooders: some of them became so attached to the things that they created that they retired so they could dwell amongst their work. There are morally ambiguous Powers as well; the Morrigan is mentioned as one in A Wizard Abroad. - Angel featured the nebulous "Powers That Be", who were never seen, but who used various means to pass information to Team Angel, most notably painful visions. They were apparently on the side of good, but were often referred to as the "Powers That Screw You". - One exception to the "unseen" rule was the rogue Power Jasmine. Jasmine herself is never referred to as a god, but her former role suggests that status, and she mind-controls anyone she encounters into worshipping her. She's also super-strong, but has to eat people to survive. - In the last half of season 5 we were introduced to Illyria, an Old One in human form, who frequently refers to her/itself as a god (and once, "God to a god"). Initially she could manipulate the flow of time and was Nigh Invulnerable as well as super-strong, and could talk to plants, but her powers nearly killed her and had to be greatly reduced. It was never made clear precisely what relationship the various "gods", "Powers", and "Old Ones" had to each other, although Glorificus was explicitly said not to be a demon. - Then there's Wolfram & Hart's "Senior Partners", otherwise known as "the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart", who were bit players on the cosmic scene in Illyria's day, until humanity came around and they learned to feed off of our darker emotions, which fuel them. - In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glorificus ("Glory" for short), was one of three gods who ruled a hell dimension, but was cast out by the other two when it appeared she'd become more powerful than them both. On Earth, she was trapped in the body of a human male, and had to exist in human form even when she was manifested; she also had to periodically drain people's sanity to keep from going more nuts. Her main superhuman attributes were immense strength and Nigh-Invulnerability, though she once demonstrated advanced spellcasting ability. We also heard vaguely about "Higher Powers" and "Spirit Guides", who may be the same as Angel's Powers That Be. - Supernatural seems to be based on Henotheism — there are multiple pagan gods (who are scarily powerful but can still be defeated and killed), with the Judeo-Christian Creator God as the one that is actually omnipotent but inaccessible. Appropriately enough "Word of God" confirms American Gods, mentioned above, was a major influence on Supernatural, so it likely works on similar rules. Therefore, Kali and Ganesh were simply versions of the gods brought over by settlers. In America, a largely Christian country, an Judeo-Christian angel is more powerful. Had the fight taken place in India, it would have been a different result. - And then Season 11 comes along and introduces the Darkness, an Anti-God who has existed as long as God has \|\|and is His sister\|\|. - Season 15 provides a significant retcon regarding the various gods: \|\|God/Chuck is the original deity, who created all the others for humanity to worship... and to blame when things went wrong, so that He could then eventually swoop in and get people to worship Him instead.\|\| - Transformers has two canonically existing deities. Primus is the god of the Transformers, and embodies goodness and order; his body is the planet Cybertron. Unicron is his Evil Counterpart, a Planet Eater who embodies evil, chaos, and destruction. The two previously existed as The One, who made up the "sentient core of the universe". Other gods are present, but rarely mentioned; one of the known ones is the Chronarchitect, who exists outside of time and occasionally intervenes in order to steer events toward a Grand Plan. - Also, each retelling of the Primus and Unicron story downplays the idea of others like them a bit more; Primus goes from one of a pantheon to the last of his pantheon, to him and Unicron being all there is. What "The One" is and how it relates to Primus and Unicron varies with the retelling (it did create at least one of them, though.) The Chronarchitect is one of Primus and Unicron's kin... if they have kin. Confused yet? - The various entities of Aboriginal Australian Myths (variously translated as spirits or gods) have a multifaceted and at times extremely complex nature. For instance the Wandjina of the cultures of Western Australia are simultaneously Genius Loci, lightning flashes, ancestor spirits and unborn souls. Broadly speaking most gods exist outside of time and space and can die but not really, though further specifics vary widely from culture to culture. Conversely, despiste their complicated nature they can be surprisingly down to earth; for example the Gunwinggu God of Thunder Mamaragan dwells in puddles, not exactly Olympus or Asgard here (though most do dwell in the sky. - Aztec Mythology didn't consider the "gods" the same way as the Europeans did. Their word for it was "teotl", which indicated a powerful force of nature that did not necessarily have an Anthropomorphic Personification. However, due to the similar nature and the fact that "teotl" sounds like "teolog" (close enough to "teologia", the Spanish word for "theology"), the word became "god". - Classical Mythology has three levels of gods. The Protogenoi are the consciousnesses of substances and abstract concepts, such as sky (Oranos), light (Aether), earth (Gaia), and destiny (Aithir). From the Protogenoi were born the Titans, who in turn were overthrown by their own offspring, the Olympians. It should be noted that there are other different families of gods too, Daimones embody concepts like justice or happiness, while a whole host of rustic spirits, Satyrs and Nymphs of all types, Harpies, Gorgons, Erinyes, and the Old Sea Deities (Thaumas, Nereus, Cetus) count as particular families of deities. On the other hand, many of these families have no more than three gods. - Native American Mythology had most tribes believing in the monotheistic "Great Spirit/Great Mystery/Wakan Tanka/Manitou/Gitche Manitou". However, it's not in the same manner as the European's view of the Christan God of The Bible, instead, the "Great Spirit" is often conceptualized to be many things that vary amongst different indigenous tribes; being more than one entity, a force of nature, a life force, the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, etc. - Norse Mythology is rather vague on what the difference between a god and a giant is. The main rule of thumb appears to have been that gods were associated with the Aesir or Vanir familial groups, while non-god giants note : There were at least two cases where giants became gods through the simple expedients of getting adopted as a brother and marriage, respectively weren't. It gets better: some sources list the elves and even the dwarves as families of the same sort of beings as the Aesir, Vanir, and Jötnar (giants). One triptych goes: the Aesir have power, the Álfar (elves) have skills, and the Vanir have knowledge. - Japanese Mythology is animism. Since everything houses a spirit, anything can be a god. The gods are collectively known as the Yaoyorozu, the eight million gods, a poetic way of saying that there is an undefined but large number of gods rather than putting a specific number on them. Broadly, there are three categories of gods: Amatsukami, the celestial gods, the big-wigs of the Shinto pantheon who created and are the world. Notable names among them are Amenominakanushi, the supreme god that is all of creation including all other gods, Izanagi, god of creation and life, Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, Tsukuyomi, god of the moon, and Susanoo, god of storms. The second category is the Kunitsukami or terrestrial gods, who are the most numerous group. These include native and local deities as well as distinguished humans and ancestors. Youkai and vengeful spirits, which is what happens when the spirit within someone or something gets pissed off, can also be sorted into this category. The third category is the Yomotsukami, the gods of the dead. Aside from Izanami, the goddess of death, they're not discussed. - YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah of The Bible, who spends a large chunk of the Door Stopper trying to convince everyone and their mother that not only is he greater than all other gods, but that almost all of the "gods" he competes for worship with are false idols. "You are my witnesses," is the utterance of Jehovah, "even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and have faith in me, and that you may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none. II am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior." — Isaiah 43:10-11 - Technically speaking Judaism and Christianity have traditionally believed that other gods exist, just that they aren't gods. For example in Psalm 82, God sits in the divine council among the other gods and begins to enact judgements on them. "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince" (Psalm 82:6-7). The reason why Judaism and Christianity are said to only believe in one god is that the definition of "God" has changed over the centuries, once it meant simply any spiritual being that was worshiped, but later on it meant specifically an ontologically distinct being. Definitions like "monotheism" and "polytheism" are actually fairly recent concepts, in fact the early Christians had argued that the gods of the pagans were lesser spirits ("daimones") rather than that they weren't real. - There has been much confusion created by the concept of The Holy Trinity in the Bible, the idea of one Godhead in three persons. It is an infamously confusing concept that has kept biblical scholars from getting sleep for literal millennia. The Trinity holds that God appears in three persons, The Father (Jehovah/Yahweh/I Am), The Son (Jesus Christ), and The Holy Spirit. Scholars disagree if these figures are different manifestations of one deity or are three individual deities themselves connected by a similar substance. These ideas have challenged Christianitys place as a monotheistic religion, and other Abrahamic faiths have come to label Christian beliefs as polytheistic. Catholic priests often teach Jesus is the direct manifestation of the God who created the Earth in seven days and the are not actually separate, independent, beings. However the concept of direct incarnation have had some doubt thrown on them and have been challenged with scripture from the Bible itself. Quotes such as Matthew 27:46, when Jesus cries Oh Father, why have you forsaken me while being crucified shows signs of Jesus and God having separate intentions and independent minds. However, most church goers surprisingly never put much thought into the concept of the Trinity and dismiss it as something humans are unable to understand. - In Zoroastrianism gods (yazatas) are "sparks" from Ahura Mazda. There are good gods (ahuras) and evil ones (daevas). Ahura Mazda is himself God of Good, as opposed to God of Evil Ahriman. If that sounds familiar, that's because theres evidence of some cross-pollination with Judeo-Christian theology, with these being similar to angels or demons. The major difference is that Zoroastrians believe that Ahura Mazda is not omnipotent yet, though after his final showdown with Ahriman he will be victorious and will become omnipotent through absorbing his dead rival. Modern practitioners will sometimes confusingly refer to Ahura Mazda as "God", and this has also been done by some translators and writers. Strictly speaking though, Ahura Mazda is not the God described in the Bible. Zoroastrians have their own holy texts. - Hinduism has a last collection of gods and other divine entities to deal with. The Devas map most closely onto the gods of pre-Christian Europe: not omnipotent, not morally perfect, still subject to various forces of fate and destiny (and karma), but they have great power and live in a heavenly realm and you can sing praises to them if you like. Besides them, there's the Trimurti, who personify creation, preservation, and destruction, respectively. In a twist, enlightened human beings are usually treated as wiser and freer than any gods and far more worthy of emulation, particularly in the spin-off religion of Buddhism. There are apparently 330 million of them. Buddhism on the other hand traditionally says there is no creator deity, only the devas, whom they view as having to be enlightened too (some stories have Buddhas teaching them). Some enlightened devas and human beings however have been worshiped (Buddhist practices vary). - Mormonism, in contrast to most other branches of Christianity and other Abrahamic religions, falls somewhere between henotheism and monolateralism. It teaches that this world and its God are both just one of many in the universe, but that people can and should focus their attention on just the God of this world. - Anima: Beyond Fantasy has on the top C'iel and Gaira, the goddess of light and the god of darkness respectively and below them fourteen entities, seven of them spirits of light (Beryls), who serve C'iel, and the other seven spirits of darkness (Shajads), who serve Gaira. Word of God, however, states that all of them are above what is a god there, existing minor, god-like, powers in the setting note : Chased by the Powers in the Shadows and being unclear what's a god in Anima. - Dungeons & Dragons: - In general, the status of gods varies depending on world: most of them Need Prayer Badly in some fashion or another, although not all do. Gods are powerful but killable, either by MacGuffin or by the sufficiently powerful (still no easy task though). In some campaign settings like the Forgotten Realms, there is also an Overgod who oversees the pantheon, and appoints people to the various divine positions when necessary. - The Classic D&D game, conversely, avoided the terms "god" or "deity" to placate Moral Guardians and set it apart from AD&D. Its "Immortals" were nearly all former mortals who'd managed to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, and senior Immortals who didn't admit to such a past were so mind-bogglingly ancient that it was implied they just couldn't remember their mortal days. Once Immortal, they didn't technically need to be worshipped, but having devoted followers increased their influence over the world and status among their own kind, and some needed believers to become Immortal in the first place. Notably, the CD&D rules allowed for player character Immortals, so their powers and limitations were laid out explicitly by experience level. - An even higher rank of beings was implied to exist, and to be as far beyond Immortals as the Immortals are beyond mortals. Their existence was never confirmed in-universe, only speculated about by Immortals who wondered why some of the greatest among their own number had gone away. - The final scenario of the Wrath of the Immortals campaign featured one of those beings actually showing up very briefly. But there were never any game rules for them; there was theoretically a process for becoming one and thereby effectively "winning the game" after all (by going all the way from first-level mortal to highest-possible Immortal level twice with the same character), but the playing time requirements for actually doing so would have been prohibitive and the chance of success fairly low due to the obvious risk involved. Not to forget that as far as the Immortals know in-universe the only two of them who ever managed that feat anyway were promptly annihilated by blackballs... - In Exalted, the gods were a slave race created by the even more powerful and ancient Primordials to keep Creation running while they played games. The gods were extremely unhappy with this arrangement, but were unable to attack the Primordials, so they granted power to mortals (the titular "Exalted") to fight them instead. The most powerful of gods, the Incarnae, represent celestial bodies — the Unconquered Sun, Luna, and the Five Maidens (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). But there are gods for everything, including individual grains of rice, and a lot of them are low-level bureaucrats trying to gather enough worship to live. - Fate System: In Gods and Monsters, the gods are the remnants of the primordial mind that arose from chaos, thought everything into existence, then stopped for a moment to consider itself and promptly shattered into a million pieces. (The setting correspondingly aims for a world that is still very young and in which all the myths people will one day tell each other are still in the making.) They don't need prayer badly as such, but they do need anchors to the world in the form of holy places and communities of worshippers in order to safely manage their power without their every whim potentially warping either themselves (gods grow actively more powerful by playing to their strengths and going to extremes, but this also exaggerates their corresponding weaknesses and if they cross a certain threshold they irrevocably lose their identity and become the monsters the title also alludes to) or else the world around them without their necessarily meaning to. Oh, and the player characters are among them, of course. - Humblewood: The Amaranthine each represents one of the ten races, with the exception of Tyton and Ardea, the gods of life and death, and of night and day. While the five Birdfolk Amaranthine have concrete creation myths involving a contest to give the best gift to Ardea, the five Humblefolk Amaranthine are more varied and mysterious. - Magic: The Gathering: For most of the game's history, deities were primarily part of the background lore and had no presence in the actual cards; in many cases, it was left ambiguous as to whether any gods existed at all. This changed with the Theros block, which introduced god creature cards, as it was felt that you cannot do Greek mythology without its gods. Deities have remained a part of the game since, and are always typed as "god" regardless of gender ("deity" was originally preferred, but it didn't fit in the Theros gods' creature descriptions due to their lengthy list of other creature types). - Before the introduction of true deities, there were a handful of beings mentioned as being "gods", such as Karona and the Eldrazi, as well as avatars from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor and occasionally angels, chiefly due to their immense power. - Yawgmoth, known as the Ineffable by his followers, was also known as the God of Phyrexia. - Old planeswalkers were nothing short of Physical Gods themselves. Some, such as Serra, were worshiped by their followers as such. - The Greek Mythology-inspired Theros expansion features a pantheon of fifteen gods; one major god for each color overseeing a broad field of power — such Erebos, God of the Dead and Thassa, God of the Sea — and one minor god for each color pair, overseeing something more specialized — such as Keranos, God of Storms and Karametra, God of Harvests. They are noted for featuring Gods Need Prayer Badly as a game mechanic: they are enchantment creatures, meaning they are effectively living, sapient spells. If your devotion to their color (the number of mana symbols on your permanent cards) drops below a certain level, they stop being creatures and become enchantments only. - The Amonkhet expansion, inspired by Egyptian Mythology, has gods that are somewhat different from the Theros gods: besides each having an animal head, they are simply creatures instead of enchantment creatures, and live among and mingle freely with mortals in the city of Naktamun, unlike the distant gods of Theros. There is also the planes walker Nicol Bolas, worshipped in Amonkhet as the God-Pharaoh, who is believed to have created the plane. - Kaldheim has deities based on Norse myth, which are fundamentally superpowered humans who derive their immortality from drinking a special mead and can still be laid low by sufficient damage. - The Gruul Clans of Ravnica believe in a deity called Illharg, the Raze-Boar, who they believe will come one day to lead them in a plane-wide rampage against civilization. As it turns out, he's very much real as well. - The merfolk of the ancient Dominarian nation of Vodalia worshipped Svyelun, the goddess of the Pearl Moon, as a distant and stern goddess who held herself apart from her followers like the moon lies unreachably far above the sea. She remained a part of the background lore for decades, but received a card in the 2021 Modern Horizons set. - Maro-Sorcerers, each the embodiment of a forest in Dominaria, are frequently worshipped as deities (Titania of Argoth being an early example), although they are subservient to Gaea, the world soul of Dominaria, who would be more fitting were she present. - Nobilis: You play as a god. There are also several classes and categories of things that might be considered gods. - Imperators (which come in a variety of classes, be it Angels, The Fallen, Aaron's Serpents or some other extremely powerful being), are powerful entities which carry different aspects of Creation with them. Their nature makes them the embodiment of parts of the universe that they have "domains" or control over. - Nobles, who are ordinary mortals who have had a shard of an Imperator's soul imbued into their own. They have more limited control over certain domains, but that's still enough to let them reshape the world. The PCs will generally play as these. - In Nomine: - The pagan gods are beings of the Marches, the world of dreams; they were created when early humanity first attempted to anthropomorphize the cosmos around them, and as human culture began to form consistent myths and archetypes that coalesced within the dream world. As they're entities of manifested thought and belief, they depend on human worship to regenerate Essence. They used to be very powerful and influential, but Uriel's Purity Crusade destroyed many of them and forced the survivors to either flee into the Far Marches or seek the protection of Hell. - The Abrahamic God is an entirely different type of being. He generated the cosmos and humanity rather than the other way around, and does not seem to depend on anything for sustenance. The pagan gods believe that He began as one of their own, the tribal deity of the Hebrews who in time gained enough power to rewrite reality in His favor; the angels consider this to be insulting heresy. - Pathfinder has three tiers of deity (defined as "a being capable of granting spells to their worshippers"). - The lowest level is "quasi-deity". This includes nascent demon lords, qlippoth lords, various powerful monsters and potentially even characters who have the appropriate mythic ability. They have stats and their Challenge Rating (basically level) is usually 21-25, making them tough but winnable encounters for powerful characters without mythic ranks. - The next level up is "demigod". This is a large category, including true demon lords, archdevils, Great Old Ones like Cthulhu and many beings of similar power. They have stats, and their Challenge Rating is at the top of the scale, ranging around 26-30. This makes them boss-level encounters for high-level characters with many mythic ranks. - The top tier is full deities. They are explicitly beyond the concept of rules or stat blocks, and cannot be fought or slain by even the highest-level characters; in background lore, however, they have sometimes been harmed by demigods. Their powers are essentially unlimited. Luckily for the players, true deities are extremely reluctant to intervene directly in mortal affairs, because doing so would invite other opposed deities to do the same, with catastrophic consequences for the mortals caught in the middle. They rely on their worshippers to work their will in the world. - RuneQuest: In the setting of Glorantha, the gods are/were powerful beings who arose before Time. After a massive war which created Death, killed many gods, let Chaos loose, and nearly destroyed the world, the Great Compromise created Time, which sealed away the gods and allowed mortal races to flourish. Mortals can gain magic from the gods, and even ritually "hero quest" through the acts of the gods prior to the Dawn of Time. Unless you're a monotheist from the west, in which case the Kingdom of Logic fell apart under the onslaught of Chaos, and the Prophet Malkion unified with the Creator to create Time and restore the universe. Unfortunately, Malkion's followers ended up in the same world as the pagans and their false gods. Or unless you're a dwarf, in which case Mostal the World Machine was destroyed... you get the idea. Glorantha's that sort of place. - In the White Wolf game line of Scion the parents of the PCs (and eventually the PCs themselves) are literally gods of various pantheons. They have removed themselves from the world of mortals and placed heavy rules regarding their involvement with it, for the sole reason that the more they spent time doing crazy shit that broke the rules of reality, the more they were bound into specific roles and personalities; the more power they used, the more people thought of them a certain way, the more they became that certain way. Also, those gods are now under siege by the Titans, vast incomprehensible realms of sheer conceptual power (such as Light, or Water, or Chaos) that are so immensely powerful and alien, they must manifest themselves in significantly less powerful (but still capable of laying siege to multiple pantheons of gods) avatars, just to have some kind of mind that could understand things like "winning" or "goals" or "death." (As a side note, killing an avatar of a titan is a BAD idea. When Odin killed Ymir, the titan of winter, the Ice Age ended instantly and most of the earth got flooded.). - In the Brazilian setting Tormenta, there are essentially 3 kinds of "gods": the first ones, Nothingness and Hollowness, which aren't considered gods, but created the world and possess great power. Below them is The Pantheon, composed by 20 deities considered the "true" gods. Each of them has a private plane in which they are invincible, but they can also create an avatar in other planes. Bellow them are "minor deities", who can be anyone with enough power (level 20+) and enough worshippers (there is actually a minor NPC who aims to become one by creating his own church). Both True and Minor gods need prayer to maintain they powers, and after a genocidal war the Elven Goddess ended up falling to minor deity status. - Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 - Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch, the Great Gods of Chaos are nearly omnipotent in their own plane of existence (the Winds of Magic in Warhammer and the Warp in 40k), their power kept in check only by each other; but their influence on the mortal realm is somewhat more limited. Partly because the rules say they can't get involved directly, and partly because they are in fact so powerful that they cannot manifest themselves in the mortal realms. Despite this, they are still capable of leaving their mark on the world of men and are perhaps the most powerful beings in both settings to be given the divine moniker. In 40K, their description varies from enormous sentient vortices of Warp energy to actual (meta)physical beings who live in their realms in the Warp, sit on their thrones and generally act either like up-scaled humans or beings whose schemes and actions are inscrutable to mortals. It's mentioned that since it's impossible for mortals to truly perceive the Warp or the Winds of Magic (what they see is an analogy created by their mind and different from person to person), both and neither of these descriptions are true. - While those are the big four, the existence of other, lesser Chaos Gods have been hinted at, especially in 40k. There was Malal/Malice, a lesser, renegade Chaos god of Anarchy, born from Chaos's tendency to fight against itself, who was Exiled from Continuity due to confusion about who owned the IP. To round out to eight (Chaos is generally represented by a star of 8 arrows pointing in different directions) in Fantasy, there was Belakor (who had originally been a god demoted to Demon Prince, but has been updated to always have been one), as well as: Hashut, god of Chaos Dwarves; Necoho, god of atheism; and Zuvassin, the Great Undoer. In 40k, there was the in-name-only Ans'l, Mo'rcck, and Phraz-Etar, who had been mentioned once in 1999, and never brought up again. - In both settings, the Greenskins' twin gods of Gork and Mork are present, though don't really contribute much beyond flavor. One is the God of brutal cunning, the other god of cunning brutality (one hits you when you aren't looking, the other hits you really hard when you are). Arguably, the cunning one is apparently the patron of any Orc/Ork who might take up a trade or show a degree of shrewdness, the other is patron of any who simply prioritizes brute strength. Though the consensus is in the order of description, they're essentially identical, and confusing them is just another reason for the greenskins to fight amongst themselves. - In Fantasy, the two Elven pantheons exist, one for the Overworld gods and one for the Underworld. In 40k, there's one Eldar almost identical to Fantasy's Overworld pantheon with a few gods from the Elven Underworld inserted in and one unique analogue of another Elven god inserted in. The 40k Pantheon is essentially dead, most gods killed or eaten by Slaanesh when the Eldar brought It into existence. The three still alive are Khaine, who escaped into the realspace by breaking into pieces; Isha, the Matron, who was taken as a trophy and then "liberated" by Nurgle; and Cegorach, who literally fled into the Webway. - It may be possible for mortals to become lesser gods: large groups of people with similar mindsets may commit mass suicide and have their souls fuse together in the Warp to create a small-scale version of whatever the Chaos Gods are. It's hinted that the Emperor of Mankind was born this way, by many powerful psykers committing mass suicide and having their souls transferred into a human body. Likewise, the souls of dead Eldar stored in the Infinity Circuits of the Craftworlds are thought by their race (well, hoped, anyway) to be slowly coalescing into Ynnead, the prophesied Eldar God of Death who will destroy Slaanesh and avenge the Eldar race. - Similarly, there are gods who seem to represent the psychic projections in the Warp of races as a whole, rather than emotions in general, and who are on the whole rather weaker than the big four. An example would be the rest of the Eldar pantheon, each god supposedly representing a different aspect of their people. Another would be the Ork gods Gork and Mork. Each seems to represnt the race as a whole fairly well by himself, but an Ork's hardly an Ork without someone to have a good fight with. - Warhammer also has the Chaos God of Atheism, who gets weaker the more believers he has. - There's also the gods of law/order; their victory is about as undesirable as that of the forces of chaos. Perhaps luckily, their obsession with order and stasis means they rarely do much of anything. Other deities also exist, generally siding against chaos. - In 40k, acting originally as rough analogues for the Gods of Order but having developed down their own path since, there are the C'tan Star-Gods, beings literally as old as the universe itself and far older than the Chaos Gods, not having required the appearance of emotive beings to come into existence. Originally diffuse Energy Beings the size of solar systems who were given bodies of living metal by a mortal race they later enslaved and turned into the Necrons, they used to eat stars but later switched to mortal souls, and whole worlds were fed to their hunger. They aren't gods in the same sense as the Chaos Gods — their existence is completely divorced from mortal emotions and belief, to begin with — but they're obscenely powerful beings, were actively worshiped by at least one species, are effectively unkillable (the best the Necrons could do when they rebelled was shatter them into pieces), and used to serve as a sort of foil to the Chaos Gods — where the Chaos Gods were beings entirely of the Immaterium who could not project directly in the physical world, the C'tan were entirely of the Materium and had no power over the Warp. - At least one C'tan, the Nightbringer, is implied to figure into the religious systems of nearly every species around as Death, after it Mind Raped life to fear death so as to feed on their despair. Another, the Void Dragon, is heavily implied to actually be the Machine-God the Mechanicus worships. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Two types of gods are described: Ascended Gods and Elemental Gods: - An Ascended God is a Deity of Human Origin, and includes most members of the former Pantheon Of Order, made up as it was of the former champions of the World-That-Was, as well as the Ancestor Gods of the Dwarves, the drogukh warrior Kragnos, and \|\|Morathi\|\|. How one becomes an Ascended god varies, but it generally involves absorbing a lot of powerful, raw magic, or consuming many, many souls of very powerful beings. They're generally what you expect from a Physical God, and are even known to take the battlefield alongside their followers. - Elemental Gods are more complicated, and best described as an Anthropomorphic Personification of some phenomena or emotion; the Chaos gods fall under this category, and so does Gorkamorka, the god of the Orruks, Ogors, Grots, and giants. Elemental deities aren't necessarily more powerful that Ascended deities, but they aren't constrained to one physical form, or even the rules of space and time; Gorkamorka is described by his champion Gordrakk as being omnipresent, existing everywhere wild and untamed, and the Chaos Gods likewise can influence massive areas of the Mortal Realms without physically present. The Ascended deities, by contrast, have to physically be somewhere to get most of their work done, but can match an Elemental deity in a straight fight, as shown when Sigmar and Gorkamorka fought each other to a stalemate. - World Tree (RPG): The gods, referred to collectively as the seven-plus-twelve, are divided into two categories: - The seven verb gods, known as the creator gods, which each had a hand in the creation of the world itself and a prime species (or two), and each manage a magical Art related to how a things are affected; a Verb. Among them are creation, destruction, knowing, changing, sustaining, healing, and controlling. They generally sit in the sky and watch, rarely intervening in mortal affairs; two of them are known to visit on a frequent basis, but say and do nothing of consequence. - The twelve noun gods, who live on the tree itself and manage an element, a magical Noun. These gods are much more active in the affairs of mortals. The twelve nouns are fire, water, air, stone/metal, plant matter, animal matter, time, space, mind, spirit, sensation, and magic itself. - The science-fiction rpg FAITH, every sentient species encountered so far has the same five Gods. While the details vary by species, all the gods are essentially psychic embodiments of basic philosophies on how sentient life should be organized. Ranging from communalism to chaotic individualism. They can't effect the physical world directly but those people who align themselves with a specific god's ideals can be granted reality warping powers, known as Soulbound. ## Games with their own pages <!—index—> <!—/index—> - The Age of Decadence: There exists creatures behind an unknowable void that, centuries after their war caused After the End for everyone on Earth, are considered to be gods. What, if anything, created Earth is never brought up. - In the Civilization IV mod Fall from Heaven II, there is only one God responsible for the creation of Erebus (the world). However, he is absent for the most part, letting his angels run around, call themselves gods, and generally screw up he lives of mortals in their endless wars with one another. There are, however, other religions which worship, for example, octopi. Oh, and The Devil is a former angel. - Dark Souls: - According to the games backstory, the gods came about when the First Flame came into being and introduced disparity into world such as dark and light, heat and cold, life and death, and presumably, gods and mortals. The Top Gods of the setting were beings that retrieved the powerful Lord Souls when the First Flame appeared. Notably, these gods arent as powerful or immortal as theyd like you to believe, as their power is linked to the First Flame, which by the time the first game starts has long since started to fade, and with it the gods power. - A distinction is also made between gods and the divine race: all of the Lords, such as Gwyn and his family, the Witch of Izalith and Nito, are all very explicitly gods, while there are other, often massive humanoids who either explicitly or implicitly aren't human, and are implied to have some sort of divine heritage, but aren't worshipped as gods: Gwyn's Four Knights and some of the enemies in Anor Londo being prominent examples. - In the Diablo universe (though not becoming relevant until Diablo III), different cultures worship different gods, and their existence is confirmed in-game what with \|\|Covetous Shen\|\| being a Trickster God. But in the grand scheme of things, it seems the gods are actually lower ranked than either Angels or Demons. details : The Creation Myth said there used to be only Anu, who purged all evil out of himself which became Tathamet, and their titanic battle ending with a Mutual Kill resulted in the birth of Creation, along with The High Heavens and The Burning Hells. Therefore, Angels and Demons are the third beings to come into existence, after the former two. - In the Disciples series, each major race has their own deity. For humans, it's a little more complex, as they were created by Bethrezen, the favored angel of Highfather. However, after the fall of Bethrezen (he was set up by other angels), Highfather took over as the deity of humans. He is more often referred to as the Celestial Lord in Disciples III. The dwarves were created by and worship Wotan, who gets pissed off at the drop of a horned helmet and teaches his "children" Steampunk-level technology and runic magic. The elves were created by Gallean, and they used to worship him and his girlfriend Solonielle, who also created the merfolk. That is, until Wotan killed Gallean, and Solonielle's attempts to save her lover resulted in her becoming the goddess of the undead. Bethrezen, driven mad by the hate and imprisonment, created demons and sent them to destroy the world. Other lesser gods are mentioned, such as the creator of the greenskins. - Dragon Age: Origins has The Maker, the supreme deity that married the mortal Andraste, and allegedly "cast down the false gods". Other deities are also present, mainly the Old Gods, dragon gods that were worshiped by the Tevinter Imperium, trapped in the Deep Roads, but are currently zombified and leading the Darkspawn Horde. - Notably, the game's theology is quite ambiguous. The Church of Andraste doesn't have any more genuine evidence for the existence of their deity than the religions of Real Life, leaving room for religious faith rather than any sort of certainty. The Old Gods are definitely real, but their true nature is unknown, and it's unclear whether they really deserve the title of gods or not. The same goes for the Dalish pantheon that may or may not somehow relate to the Old Gods, which seem to parallel the Dalish Forgotten Ones. Dragon Age: Inquisition reveals that the Dalish gods \|\|were "merely" incredibly powerful elven mages. Solas explains that they went from being respected as powerful leaders to being revered as gods, and the truth was forgotten after elven civilization collapsed and elves lost their immortality.\|\| - The DLC for Dragon Age II reveals that the Golden City was real - and the powerful Tevinter Magisters were probably tricked into entering it by their Dragon god pals. Whether or not the Maker is real is up for debate, but SOMETHING imprisoned those intelligent blood magic using dragons. However the same DLC says that the "Golden City" was the Black City before the Magisters got there, which contradicts the standard mythology as much as it confirms and casts serious doubt on the normal interpretation of the Maker. In short, religion in the Dragon Age world is scary as hell. The few concrete facts about the remaining deific forces in the world are wildly contradictory, even if they're independently confirm-able, and the only Creator forces in the world any protagonist has ever seen is the \|\|Titan in the undercroft of the Deep Roads that may have created the Dwarves. Absolutely nobody left in the world knows the exact relation between the Titans, Lyrium, Dwarves, Darkspawn, and the Old Gods, and more disturbingly, why the entire Dwarven empire seems to have, slowly but inexorably, migrated surfacewards over the course of the last few thousand years.\|\| - The concept of divinity in Elden Ring can be...confusing, to say the least: - The only God recognized by the Golden Order, the primary civilization/religion/philosophy/structure of the laws of nature itself, is Marika the Eternal, vessel of the Elden Ring, a Cosmic Keystone that gives her power over the order of the world and even command the firmament (though it's not omnipotent, as she still needed armies to expand her territory). The Elden Lord and the children of Marika are considered demigods and gain great physical and magical prowess as of result, along with full immortality (at least, untill the Rune of Death was stolen and Godwyn was murdered.) but aren't worshipped as gods and are moreso royalty. - Other divine entities are recognized or revered by the Golden Order, but are never referred to as gods. The Greater Will is an abstract, seemingly formless entity that chose Marika and granted the world the Elden Ring in the first place, and has connections with the very concept of life, laws and gold, but is never referred to as a god or worshipped as such. The Two Fingers, giant finger-like creatures are considered 'vassals' of the Greater Will and act as their messangers, and they are worshipped, but more like prophets or angels than proper minor gods. The powerful Ancient Dragons, being associated with lightning and thus "imbued with gold", are allied with the Golden Order and have their own official sub-religion dedicated to worshipping them (the capital's Dragon Cult), but are not considered gods. - Then come the Outer Gods, mysterious unseen entities of massive power that seek to spread their influence in the world through proxies and servants. The three entities explicitly stated to be Outer Gods are different flavours of malicious: The Scarlet Rot is an Alien Kudzu that spreads across the land like a living plague, infecting every living being in it (even creatures of great power like ancient dragons or demigods) and either drives them into mindless creatures or turns them into blood-filled funguses that fuse with the land itself, the Frenzied Flame is an ancient god of chaos that seeks to burn all life and fuse it as one and burrows its way into the eyes and minds of the desperate and nihilistic, and the Formless Mother is a goddess of blood and 'love' who seeks to be wounded, and for her worshippers to wound others in turn. Each have a Religion of Evil that are particularly prevalent as enemies across the game. - The Dark Moon is in a similiar state as the Greater Will in that, while considered very powerful and 'divine', is not explicily called a god, outer or otherwise, anywhere in the text. It's an entity associated with the stars, the night, chaos (but a much more benevolent one than the Frenzied Flame, the chaos of freedom rather than nihilism and insanity) and magic, and is implied to be an actual living moon. It was once worshipped by the Carians, but the only worshipper that seemingly yet remains is Lunar Princess Ranni. Unlike other divine entities, it does not attempt to expand its influence or show any particular interest in the Lands Between. This turns out to be important in one of the endings, as \|\|its neutral nature allows Ranni to ascend to divinity like Marika with the Dark Moon as her patron...and then promptly leave the world so that there will be no divine order binding the land and its people.\|\| - There are also various mystical creatures (usually resembling giant animals) that possess roughly demigod-level power and are never called gods, but are still worshipped complete with their own temples, and have magic sourced from them. The most prominent would be the God-Devouring Serpent that Rykard fused with, note : Implied to be named Eiglay, as its shedded skin is at the worship altar at a location called "Temple of Eiglay. the unnamed patron of Stormveil and its winds, note : Implied to be a giant hawk, as that's the crest◊ that shows up whenever you use certain Storm Art spells like Storm Blade. and the Ancestor Spirits worshipped by the Ancestral Followers. - Empyreans are particularly confusing: Empyreans are demigods, children of Marika, who were for reasons unknown chosen by the Two Fingers as potential Gods that could replace Marika as vessels of the Elden Ring - the thing is, they don't need to have the Greater Will as their Patron, they can be chosen by Outer Gods or other similiarly powerful divine beings. Malenia is a particularly stark example: she was afflicted with the Scarlet Rot since birth that rotted her limbs and eyes, and the fact she's an Empyrean makes her an (unwilling) champion/avatar of the Scarlet Rot. \|\|She's shown to be able to ascend to divinity even without the Elden Ring, as the 2nd phase of her boss fight has her 'bloom' into the Goddess of Rot herself.\|\| - The One-Eyed God, also referred to as the 'fell god' is the god of the Fire Giants whom Marika and her still nascent empire warred with for dominance of the Lands Between. It's said to be an evil god that resides within the Fire Giants, and seems to be as formless as the Outer Gods despite never being referred to as such. After defeating and nearly exterminating its servants, its essence was sealed away by Marika inside a giant forge so that its flames couldn't threaten the Erdtree. It's implied that its moniker as the 'One-Eyed God' comes from \|\|the one-eyed face on the torso of all Fire Giants, which awakens and begins aiding the last Fire Giant in the 2nd half of the fight.\|\| - Destined Death, also referred to as the Rune of Death, is perhaps the most confusing: its introduction as the Rune of Death and it was 'plucked' from the Golden Order implies that it was the very concept of death that was removed from the Elden Ring, but later reveals imply that it's an entirely separate, possibly sentient entity that represents death and Un-Death. Destined Death takes several forms in the game itself. Most prominently, it is the power source of all Death-related magic: the Black Flame used by the Godskin, the empowered daggers of the Black Knife Assassins and the Necromantic Death Sorceries are all distinct applications of its power, meaning that Destined Death has both the power to act as an Immortal Breaker and give death to the deathless, and create 'life' from death through generation of Those Who Live in Death. - There's also an unnamed but mentioned Outer God who sent the 'Twinbirds' as envoys, and is both connected with Deathbirds as well as Ghostflame, another magic type associated with death; but if said Outer God is Destined Death, the being who created it, or a completely separate god who also represents death in some form is never specified or clear. - The Elder Scrolls: The series has several varieties of "divine" entities. While every race and religion has their own Creation Myths and names/personalities/powers for these entities, there are enough similarities to paint a general picture. For the sake of quick summaries (using their most commonly recognized names): - In the beginning, there were Anu and Padomay, the anthropomorphized primordial forces of "stasis/order/light" and "change/chaos/darkness", respectively. Their interplay in the great "void" of pre-creation led to creation itself. Creation, sometimes anthropomorphized as the female entity "Nir", favored Anu, which angered Padomay. Padomay killed Nir and shattered the twelve worlds she gave birth to. Anu wounded Padomay, presuming him dead. Anu salvaged the pieces of the twelve world to create one world: Nirn. Padomay returned and wounded Anu, seeking to destroy Nirn. Anu then pulled Padomay and himself outside of time, ending Padomay's threat to creation "forever". From the intermingling of their spilled blood came the "et'Ada", or "original spirits", who would go on to become either the Magna-Ge, the Aedra, or the Daedra depending on their actions during the creation of Mundus, the mortal plane. (Some myths state that the Magna-Ge come from the blood of Anu, the Daedra the blood of Padomay, and the Aedra from the mixed blood of both). - One of these spirits, said to have been "begat" by Padomay, was Lorkhan. Depending on the version of the myth, he convinced/tricked some of the other et'Ada into helping him create the mortal plane, known as Mundus. (The races of Mer, or Elves, generally believe this was a cruel trick that robbed their ancestors of their pre-creation divinity while the races of Men believe it was a good thing.) Those et'Ada who sacrificed large parts of their being to create Mundus became known as the Aedra, while those that did not participate became the Daedra. For his treachery, the Aedra "killed" Lorkhan and tore out his "divine center" (heart), which they cast down into the mortal world he helped to create. His spirit then wandered Mundus, occasionally taking physical mortal forms, known as "Shezarrines" after Lorkhan's Imperial name, Shezarr. Nirn's two moons are said to be his sundered "flesh divinity" and he also may have re-ascended to godhood as part of the deity Talos (see below). - The Aedra, meaning "Our Ancestors" in the old Aldmeri language, sacrificed a large portion of their divine power in order to create the mortal world. They were originally many in number, but only 8 survived the creation of Mundus. (And depending on the story, even they did not truly "survive," but they are dead and "dreaming the are alive.") These 8 are known as the "Divines" and would become the primary deities worshiped by the Church of the Divines. Their sacrifice has left them weak, and thus they prefer a lighter touch in dealing with the mortal world, at most typically acting through mortal agents. Any instances of direct Divine Intervention are typically reserved for dire circumstances, such as averting The End of the World as We Know It. As such, the primary view of the Divines to most mortals is as impersonal, generally benevolent spirits, worthy of worship and reverence but without any strong direct relationship. - Some of the lesser et'Ada who aided in the creation of Mundus would become the Ehlnofey. They chose to remain on Mundus and populate it, becoming the progenitors of the modern mortal races. Others would sacrifice themselves further to become the "Earth Bones," the laws of nature and physics required to make the world function. - Other lesser Aedric beings have been known throughout history. The most famous is perhaps Morihaus, a "winged man-bull", said to be the demi-god son of Kynareth, one of the Divines. The dragons, servants/fragments of Akatosh, the draconic god of time and chief deity of the Divines pantheon, are another. These beings are typically considered by many in-universe to be the equivalent of angelic beings. - The Daedra, meaning "Not Our Ancestors," did not sacrifice any of their power during the creation of Mundus and remain truly immortal. The 16 (17 following the events of The Shivering Isles) of the most powerful Daedra are known as the Daedric Princes. Each governs a particular "sphere" of influence, and rules from their own plane of Oblivion, the infinite void between worlds. Unlike the Aedra, they are much more active in directly influencing the mortal world, with several have made attempts to take it over at different points in history. Most of the Daedric Princes are seen as evil or demonic, but in-universe scholars are quick to point out that they are really beings Above Good and Evil who operate on their own scale of Blue-and-Orange Morality, where how "good" or "evil" they seem is dictated by how benevolent or malevolent their actions toward mortals are. Additional details on the Daedra can be found on the series' Daedra sub-page. - There are many other Daedric spirits below the Princes, collectively referred to as "Lesser Daedra". Like the Princes, they are technically immortal and cannot be truly "killed". If their mortal form is slain on Mundus, their spirit returns to Oblivion to reform. The lesser Daedra are often found in service to one of the Princes and are also favored summons of mortal conjurers. They are typically considered by many in-universe to be the equivalent of demonic beings. - Talos, the ascended divine form of Emperor Tiber Septim, became the Ninth Divine after his death in the early 3rd era. There are many theories explaining how he accomplished this feat, but it is most commonly accepted that he in some way "mantled" Lorkhan, and the fused being ascended (or reascended in Lorkhan's case) to his station amongst the Aedra. - Magnus was one of the et'Ada who originally aided Lorkhan in creating Mundus, serving as the chief architect. However, as the architect of Mundus, he eventually realized that in order to create it, the Aedra would become forever bound to the world he was designing and abandoned the project. He and his followers, the Magna-Ge, fled Mundus for Aetherius, the realm of magic. In the process, they punched holes in between the realms that would become the sun and stars, and through which light and magic flows into Mundus from Aetherius. - For thousands of years, the Dunmer (Dark Elves) worshiped the Tribunal, a trio of Physical God Deities of Mortal Origin. The three of them (Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil), along with their former ally turned rival, Voryn Dagoth, tapped into the power of the aformentioned Heart of Lorkhan to obtain their divine power. As a result of the events of Morrowind, \|\|they are cut off from their source of power and all but Vivec are killed\|\|. The Dunmer people later revert to their traditional ancestor veneration and worship of the "good" Daedra. - While some more-Imperialized Argonians may recognize the Aedra and Daedra, their race primarily worships the Hist — a race of sentient, ancient note : "ancient" as in "they have existed on the planet before linear time was conceived of", and possibly Omniscient spore-reproducing trees. They can communicate with each other via deep, interconnected root systems and can communicate with the Argonians via visions transmitted in their sap, which the Argonians drink to learn and grow. - While the Khajiit worship some of the Aedra and Daedra, no deity is more revered than Masser and Secunda, the two moons of Nirn who are elevated to god status by the Khajiit since the many different forms a Khajiit can take depends on the phases of the moons. - Genshin Impact: - The Seven Archons are gods who each have a connection to one of the seven elements and one of the seven nations of Teyvat. Their power is determined by how much control they have in their nation, so the God-Emperor Tsarista is much more powerful than Barbatos, who refuses to rule since that would violate his principles as the God of Freedom. The mysterious entity who attacks the Traveller in the opening cutscene is known as "The Unknown God" but what connection, if any, she has to the Archons is unclear. - Seemingly even higher on the divine ladder than the Seven Archons are the Celestial Gods, divine entities that remain unseen but present in Teyvat and literally look down on the world from the Floating Continent of Celestia. Their motivations and what they actually are is kept tight-lipped, but most of the Archons are implied to not want to mess with them. - God of War - The Greek Gods are not quite immortal, as Kratos is quite willing to prove. In a way this is consistent with Classical Mythology, in which the god's immortality was dependent on who was telling the story. Regardless, they're phenomenally powerful and intrinsically tied to whatever their sphere of influence is, and should any of them perish the element or concept they rule over would go catastrophically out of control. - The Norse Gods are shown to be somewhat different in their own right: while strong, they don't reach quite the point of majesty that the Olympians did, coming across more like your standard comic book superhuman, and killing them isn't quite as world-shaking \|\|as the deaths of Magni, Modi and Baldur showed\|\|. Though Mimir does mention that every god is unique, so maybe that also applies to pantheons. - Hyperdimension Neptunia has its residents from the four worlds worship their goddesses fervently. The catch? Three of the goddesses are caricatures of the three consoles and the fourth one is a Sega console that never got released (Sega Neptune). - Legacy of Kain: The Elder God is a traditional Eldritch Abomination with near-omnipotence and power over the afterlife (\|\| It consumes the souls of all those who have passed\|\|). \|\|But as later games in the series reveal, he is much less of an actual God and more of a cosmic parasite.\|\| - In The Legend of Zelda series, many gods have been introduced of varying levels of importance. At the very top are the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, the creators of the world and the Triforce. Just below them, introduced in Skyward Sword, is Hyrule's patron deity Hylia, who was entrusted with the protection of the Triforce and the land of Hyrule. Below her, many powerful beings take up minor divine roles, such as the Deku Tree, the gods of wind Zephos and Cyclos, and the spirits of light. - In the Mardekverse, there are several classes of god (their names are always written in all caps, by the way). They are nonphysical entities who keep the balance and make sure the universe works out. They tend to take A Form You Are Comfortable With. - Higher Creator Deities, such as YALORT, who create planets and invent lifeforms. YALORT note : the Omnidragon is the creator of Belfan and Anshar, among others. - Midlevel Elemental Deities, who each control one of the eight elements: KROGHMM note : the Stalwart Titan for earth, CRYSOOSUNA note : the Graceful Mermaid for water, HWOUK note : the Zephyr of Change for air, VOLKOS note : the Everburning Flame for fire, ONEIROS note : the Dreamweaver for aether, an unknown one for fig note : As in figment, figurative, figure etc., AREINDEEN for light and SHUMBRA note : the Caliginous Warlock for dark. They forge the Elemental Crystals that a Higher Creator requires to form a planet. - The Lesser Archetype Deities represent the acme of a profession, skill, or facet of personality. They include AACIUPHI note : the Darling Heartsaint, goddess of love, friendship and joy, LUTINUET note : the Bard of Stars, the deity of music, and PLOMHARG note : the Friendly Wheatherd, the farmers' god. - Overseer Deities such as GALARIS note : the Evereaper, who is the god of death and who runs the Antilife note : the black void where guilt-laden souls stay and repent until they come to terms with themselves, or SOLAK, the god of suns and stars. - To create a world, a Higher Creation Deity must get the cooperation of SOLAK (for the star) and all of the Elemental Deities (for the Great Crystals; however, the Moral and Spiritual Element Crystals are unnecessary for non-life-bearing planets). - There are no penalties for not worshipping any god, but the gods do appreciate prayer, and reward sincere followers with good fortune, natural skill and even magical abilities. - Extra magical abilities. - One amusing reference: ABOMONOTOROS note : the Unconditional Abhorrer, goddess of hatred and dislike, is used as an interjection of extreme dislike, as in "May ABOMONOTOROS glare at you!" - The nine Elder Powers from Nexus War games got their divinity by getting control of the Source of Creation and shaping worlds in the image of the ideas or beliefs they represent. Whenever the cracks in the latest winner's ideology cause their world to fall apart (and it inevitably will) the player characters pick sides and fight it out to to determine who controls the Source next. - Ōkami's gods are a pantheon, with protagonist Amaterasu as the chief goddess of the sun. They don't age, and if they are killed, they can be still reincarnated a hundred years after if a wood sprite offers their power or a divine weapon (judging from the introduction, it could be either). They take the form of the twelve animals from the Chinese Zodiac plus a cat, all of them white with red markings. Their power is tied directly to prayer, and Amaterasu can use some of the abilities of any of the other gods. As of the DS Sequel Ōkamiden, the replacement/reincarnation is changed into all of the gods having children. Chibiterasu, the protagonist who is stated to be the kid of Amaterasu is much weaker and smaller (even lacking freedom like swimming and wall jumping) than his mother despite Amaterasu not being any smaller than Shiranui "at birth". - OneShot is a version of pantheism where \|\|the world is a simulation created when it was discovered help would arrive too late for the original and everything is managed by a sort of sentient operating system known as "the world machine".\|\| Oddly enough, the player is actually referred to as a monotheistic god despite having little of the actual power associated with that title. - The pantheon of Perihelion are hyperintelligent beings who exist as immense pools of living energies set amongst the abyss of time and space and their thought processes being described in terms of emotions. Their existence is known to and felt by all in Perihelion, making faith in them both unnecessary and inapplicable. The exception to this is the Unborn God, a Primordial Force, whose presence was only warned of by a psionic-in-training's prophetic vision 100 years before the events of the game. Its current form is physical, though it seeks to become living energy like the other gods. - In Pillars of Eternity the same gods are worshipped by everybody in the setting and are definably real. Each of them represents a set of related ideals and natural aspects (for example, Magran is the goddess of Fire, War, Consumption, Purification and Trials) and can appear in many forms with different names. They can grant their followers priestly powers and can cause children to be born as godlikes with strange appearances and powers. \|\|The fact that they're demonstrably real and worshipped by everyone is discussed, instead of being just a fantasy thing. They're artificial, being extremely powerful self aware magical constructs created by the ancient Engwithians to provide kith with answers to the questions of existence.\|\| - Sinnoh's pantheon in Pokémon fits the description for henotheism to a T; Arceus is said to have created the universe and shaped everything in it, by creating the aspects and embodiments of Time (Dialga), Space (Palkia), Antimatter (Giratina), Willpower (Azelf), Emotion (Mesprit), and Knowledge/Memory (Uxie). - Not just Sinnoh, but every region's legendary Pokemon. You have the creators of the land, oceans, and sky (Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza), the guardians of the sea and sky (Lugia and Ho-Oh), the gods of the seasons (Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres), the new moon/dreams and the full moon/nightmare (Darkrai and Cresselia), volcanos (Heatran), victory (Victini), wind, storms, and fertility (Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus), balance (Reshiram representing Yang, Zekrom representing Yin, and Kyurem representing Wuji) Life, Death, and Order (Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde), the Sun & Moon (Solgaleo and Lunala), Light (Necrozma), and guardian spirits of Alolas islands (Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini). - Puzzle & Dragons: Some of the mons are literally gods, which you may defeat and capture. Because of how the game works, though, you don't get much backstory on them besides 'they are gods'. Mons in the God category tend to be powerful but hard to level and maintain, and it's advised that when you get a God monster that you treat it with a 'grind now, profit later' mindset. Many of the god monsters in this game are named and modeled after actual classical gods, from the Roman, Egyptian, and Hindu pantheons, among others. - In the Taiwanese video game franchise Richman, which is similar to Monopoly,there are gods that stay on the road until someone stop at their spots. After that theyll possess the players and give them buffs such as paying less to no rents or debuffs such as unable to purchase any properties. - Shin Megami Tensei: Like Discworld and American Gods, all supernatural beings seem to exist on and draw power from the principals of Clap Your Hands If You Believe and Gods Need Prayer Badly. That said, most if not all can be taken down with a good old-fashioned ass-beating, though the belief of their followers can still bring them back. Certain evidence likewise implies that YHVH and Lucifer are the paragons of Law and Chaos insofar as they don't need worship explicitly to exist - neither can truly die as long as there are people who yearn for salvation or freedom. - Master Hand and Crazy Hand from the Super Smash Bros. series are said to be the personifications of humanity's creativity (Master Hand) and destructiveness (Crazy Hand). Though any fighter in the roster can beat them in combat if the player is good enough. There's also Master Core, apparently the true form of one or both of the Hands, and Tabuu, who is some kind of god of another dimension who defeated and imprisoned Master Hand. The fourth game escalates this by including Palutena and Rosalina, though they are not stronger than any other character. - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introduces Galeem, a personification (though less anthropomorphic than the Hands) of order and light, who commands an army of Master Hands and turns the fighters into soulless soldiers to fight for him. \|\|Later, we're introduced to Dharkon, Galeem's chaotic and dark counterpart commanding an army of Crazy Hands. Sephiroth can be considered one, since during his reveal trailer he was able to slice down Galeem in half and curb stomp the other fighters with little effort.\|\| - Tears to Tiara 2: Expanded on from the first game. Powerful lineages of the precursor races are worshiped as gods by humans. The people of Hispania mainly, tho not exclusively, worship the gods of Ba'al, of which Ashtarte is one. They appear on earth to teach and guide the people. They need prayer to be powerful. Watos is still missing. - In Touhou the word "God" (well, OK, "Goddess") doesn't carry too much weight. Thanks to the fact that monsters and even humans are practically Physical Gods, anyway, the Odd Job Gods are little more than Butt Monkeys of the game universe. Even the truly powerful goddesses can merely go toe-to-toe with some of the more powerful youkai, and Reimu canonically kicks in the door of The Rival Moriya Shrine, defeats its Shrine Maiden, and its Live-in Goddesses. You'd think that would hurt the ol' donation drive, to have your deity publicly beaten in her own temple by a rival deity's priestess? That said, this seems to mostly apply to the "lower gods"; the ones that inhabit the Earth and are part of the Myriad Gods. Yorihime is such an overpowered character because she's capable of summoning gods of far greater power than previously shown, which allowed her to effortlessly defeat every single character that went against her (including Reimu). Also, one must bear in mind that the Spell Card rules that everyone follows specifically limits how much power the characters can use in a fight, and it's always non-lethal. - The gods in World of Warcraft are hugely variable, and there plenty of contenders for the role of actual gods. - The Wild Gods, which are colossal animals of immense power. Almost all of the Beast Man races in the game are decended from their respective wild god, and it's been proven that tampering with a wild god's power can create new races even in relatively modern times (this is how the Worgen and their infectious curse came to be). You can kill a wild god, but there are ways to bring them back. Though it is actually possible to kill them off for real as well, by killing their manifestation in either the Emerald Dream or the Ardenweald realm in the Shadowlands. Under normal circumstances though, neither of those is possible. - Loa, the troll gods, tend to be primal forces of nature made manifest. Some loa are just wild gods worshipped by the trolls under a different name, although other loa are both more numerous and more varied. Their power can be channeled by a mortal, and they can be permanently killed. Some, like Bwonsamdi, take the form of a troll rather than an animal. - The Titans fit the bill most classically, as cosmic humanoid beings that are the creators of much of the life across the universe. In fact, most planets are actually their eggs (or World-Souls) where they incubate for millennia. Their former champion Sargeras is an obvious Satanic Archetype, giving them a solid good vs. evil motif. They have a heavy Norse or Egyptian theme. They however are not almighty beings - at the end of Legion \|\|you kill a Titan. Granted, it was a newborn Titan and you had the help of the entire Pantheon, but they're still just as mortal as the other races.\|\| - The Old Gods are, funnily enough, the worst contender for being actual gods. They're Eldritch Abominations which are literally parasites. They infect planets to corrupt the Titans within. While you can kill them, it's a very bad idea. They essentially wrap themselves into a planet's lifestream, and ripping them out has disastrous effects. At best, you can beat them back and lock them away. Worshipping Old Gods is reserved only for the insane, since they really do not care about mortal life at all. - Night Elves believe in a moon goddess named Elune. She, or something to her effect, does exist. The most obvious impact she's had on the world was mothering the demi-god Cenarius (with the wild god Malorne no less), who is an important lore character that you can interact with. The High/Blood Elves instead worship a sun god, likely named Belore although it's rarely brought up. The tauren believe that Elune and the sun are simply the eyes of their goddess, the Earthmother. Either way, that collective pantheon is by far the least defined out of Warcraft's roster, with no solid origin or exploration. - The non-canon RPG has Elune as by far the most powerful character in the setting, with a challenge rating set over 80. Since specifics about Elune are unknown, it's a mystery whether she has influence in any other part of the universe. - More recently, the Light and the Void were presented as the ultimate cosmic forces. The universe was created when the two opposite energies collided. The Light is the source of all Holy abilities, while the Void is the source of all Shadow abilities. It's ultimately downplayed however - neither force is a sentient being (at least not in a way we understand), more being laws of nature. - In volume 4 of RWBY, Qrow recounts the supposedly true Creation Myth of Remnant, involving two brother gods, Light and Dark. Light embodied creation and created life, while Dark embodied destruction, creating the creatures of grimm. Sick of their endless conflict, Light proposed that they should create something together, resulting in humanity, and giving four gifts; Knowledge, Choice, Creation and Destruction. \|\|Volume 6 reveals that this story is more or less true, but also leaves out a great deal; Light and Dark once dwelled on Remnant, and their mere presence was apparently enough to empower humanity with great magic (originally given to them by Dark). They appear either as dragons or as humanoid figures with horns. When humanity, manipulated by the girl Salem whom they had cursed with immortality, defied them, the gods wiped out humanity entirely, and left the world behind. While humanity eventually reappeared, the absence of the gods means that there is very little actual magic remaining in Remnant\|\|. Volume 9 further expands this, \|\|by revealing the gods themselves are creations of the World Tree in the dimension known as the Ever After; the brothers were created by the Tree to fill the Ever After with life, first by destroying the chaotic tangle that filled it, and then by creating sapient beings — the Afterans — to populate the now cleared world. The Brothers got restless, however, when that job was done, and quarrled over what to do now, so the Tree gave them a new world — Remnant — to create whatever they please\|\|. - Aurora (2019): There are two very distinct classes of divine beings in the setting. - True gods are described in an official lore page as "nothing more than vast, self-sustaining lattices of soul energy", and tend to form as embodiments of a specific concept or of a place such as a city, a mountain or a forest. The bodies they use to interact with the world are temporary constructs that hold a small part of the god's essence, and no matter what happens to them the actual entity will survive. A god's actual consciousness is spread throughout their domain; it's speculated that in this state they have a much more diffuse mental state, as some gods imply that taking corporeal form helps them to think and perceive things in a clearer manner. - The six Primordials are immense entities that existed long before the gods or anything else, and each represents one of the six in-setting elements. They died in the distant past, their bodies forming the physical world, but their souls still linger and can be induced to inhabit small portions of their bodies again, forming the basis of elemental magic. - Beaches and Basilisks: Several gods have been mentioned, ranging from Drooch, god of alcohol to Krysavi the dragon-god who created the islands in which the story takes place and who \|\|is revealed to be a giant robot\|\|. - Cthulhu Slippers: The Old Gods are vastly powerful and have taken over the world despite being terrible morons. They are actively worshipped as gods by their employees at Cthulhu Corp. - DHS Comix: The LaRaGa is ruled first by the "creation triad" of Luna, Sola, and Gaea, whose interactions with mortals are mostly limited to the forms their names suggest, but the former two have lines of empowered mortals fighting an eternal war, and the third's own magic persists in a number of forms separate from the magic gods. After them come the nine/eight magic gods, creations of Gaea: the three elemental gods, Phoenix (fire), Ceraph (wind), and Leviathan (water); the three movement gods, Emelia (time), Clyde (change), and Altair (travel and death); and the three perception gods, Marie (truth), Jude (knowledge), and Jake (lies). The lattermost is anathema to all the others, and his worship is a capital offense in most of the mortal world. Beneath them are a number of lesser gods, most prominently the twin Fels (luck), and the deities, a distinct category of being from gods, who serve the gods. - In El Goonish Shive, Arthur refers to the "Will of Magic" as a god, Heka refers to himself as holding the mantle of the god of magic and Voltaire refers to the former role of Immortals as demigods. - Homestuck: - Successful players of Sburb eventually reach the "God Tiers," the highest character levels available. These fully realize a player's strength and Elemental Powers while also granting them Resurrective Immortality so long as they don't die heroically or justly. The condition for ascension is steep though: \|\|the player must first die on their Quest Bed.\|\| - The Gods of the Furthest Rings are stereotypical monsters of the H. P. Lovecraft variety, residing in the dark abyss between universes where time, space, and all other aspects of existence fail to act consistently. Its impossible to place their morality, but their mortality is made explicit once the Greater-Scope Villain gets to them. - The Order of the Stick: The world was created by four pantheons of equal power but wildly different viewpoints, the Aesir in the North, the Babylonian Pantheon in the West, the Olympians in the East and the Twelve Earthly Branches in the South. When they couldn't agree on the various ways that their monsters would be different, their divine powers accidentally created the Snarl, a being of pure divine anger (which wiped out the Eastern gods). Afterwards, the three remaining groups set up strict rules on what parts of the world they could each directly affect. Additional gods have ascended or been created since then, generally by joining a preexisting pantheon. - All gods have a quality referred to as "quiddity", represented as the color of their aura, which all members of a pantheon share. As the Snarl was created from four combined quiddities, but the Eastern one is now entirely gone, it's beyond the combined power of the gods to overwhelm — it's essentially more real than anything they can make. However, \|\|the Dark One, the god of the goblins, ascended entirely on his own and consequently developed an entirely new quiddity\|\|. - Gods gain power proportionate to their believers, and can fade away entirely if starved of mortal worship for long periods. Elan's puppet god Banjo gains enough power from his one believer to create a small thundercloud and harmless lightning bolt. - In Sluggy Freelance, the most prominent are the gods of the Mokhadunese, ancestors of the Egyptians, who after a Götterdämmerung that Gwynn witness in a time travel arc, reinvent themselves into various figures previously seen in the present day, not least of them \|\|Bun-bun, the name under which the audience had known the now freelance Sluggy\|\|. There's also a reference in the backstory of an Artifact of Doom to Zeus reigning in Greek times. Finally, the Dimension of Pain has a Goddess of Goodness, a Physical God powered by the amount of goodness in the world she's in. Too bad she lives in a world populated entirely by incredibly sadistic demons. - Vanadys: Tales Of A Fallen Goddess has a fallen goddess as its titular caracter. While she is immortal, older than the world itself, and has great power, her status as a "fallen" means she's not as great or powerful as the other gods, some of whom she has a rather antagonistic relationship with. Apart from the outcast Vanadys, the gods have a distinct hierachy: The humanoid gods, who each have their area of responsibility (God of the Sun, Goddess of the Sea, Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge, and so on) are all subject to the two highest gods, the Dragon and the Serpent. They themselves are subject to the being called "the Light", who is the creator of the gods and whom nobody knows much about. - Wildlife: The gods are determined to destroy or seal away the Eldritch Abomination A'zi, who just happens to be the protagonist of the story. - How to Hero's version of Zeus steadfastly refuses to learn any language other than Ancient Greek. Because of this the guide advises against getting into a car with Zeus, since he can't read any of the signs. - In Amphibia, \|\|the Calamity Guardian/Three Stones Deity is a god of the omnipotent-but-unseen variety. It created the Calamity Stones that caused most of the plot, for better or worse, but only appears in the final episode, saving Anne after her Heroic Sacrifice and offering her to take over its job, which it has grown bored of. It somehow strikes a balance between benevolent and childish, throwing a tantrum when Anne turns it down but still respecting her decision. It also returns her to life in the hopes that she will reconsider its offer once she reaches the end of her natural life. It can also be debated if Anne herself qualifies as a god when wielding the power of the three calamity gems, though the strain swiftly kills her\|\|. - In Avatar: The Last Airbender the concept of a god is deliberately left unclear and complicated. Spirits and their own realm do exist in this universe, but they are also essentially just another mortal species that only have a little bit more power than humans. They can also be killed by humans and tend to stay out of human affairs. The Avatar, and by proxy, the spirit Raava, could be considered godly to an extent, as they are consistently reincarnated as forces of balance and good and are seen being worshipped in some temples and shrines. However, they are both susceptbile to being destroyed as evidenced at several points in the story. Ultimately, the closest thing to a god is likely the universe itself, which would also connect with the heavy Buddhist and Taoist influence on the show. - In Gargoyles it seems All Myths Are True. The most powerful of The Fair Folk are absolute rulers of the others with Reality Warper abilities but aren't quite worshipped, and a lot of mythological creatures who are unrelated in Real Life mythology are "Oberon's Children" in this show. However, once, a man figured out how to summon Anubis in hopes of getting his dead son back. We avert Everybody Hates Hades here; Anubis is a neutral Psychopomp figure. He's also everyone's lord of the dead; apparently, the Egyptians just happened to be the only people to get his name and look right. Word of God reveals that the Aesir of Norse Mythology are actually a group composed partially of Children of Oberon, partially of powerful mortal magicians and other such beings. - Koala Man: The Gods of Dapto look like ordinary people but they're taller than regular people, and the God of Fire is the only one you would believe is a god because she has Flaming Hair. The Gods of Dapto includes the God of Fire, the God of Good Health, the God of Popping Down the Shops, the God of Always Has a Guitar at a Party, the God of Fancy Seeing You Here, the God of Just Fuckin' Do It, and the God of Realizing Your Potential. In the past, they created the Sick Sunnies (sunglasses) of Dapto to give the town Dapto good luck for hundreds of years, but someone accidentally sat on it and Dapto was cursed ever since. It's later revealed they made a ton of Sick Sunnies for a New Year's party and never gave any of it to Dapto and put the leftover sunglasses in a box that's left on a pile of trash. - In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the two seemingly-immortal Winged Unicorn princesses who raise the sun by day and the moon by night, respectively, and have ruled Equestria since time out of mind, are treated as gods and as royalty at various times by the other ponies; they have chariots and royal guards and a castle... and we get phrases like "Thank Celestia!" or "For Celestia's sake!" It gets better: Tartarus exists, and when Cerberus went missing once, Princess Celestia sent lost dog flyers. However, there was definitely a time before their rule, they're not all-knowing or all-powerful, and season premiere/finale villains are always more than they can dispose of with a wave of their horn, even if they're who put them in the can thousands of years ago.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGodsAreDifferent
Our Founder - TV Tropes "The plaque for Burbank was filed in May first, 1887, by Dave Burbank, a dentist from the East Coast who got a wild hare up his ass one day and said, 'I'm gonna go west and form a town', and indeed he did! End of story! That's it, that's all that happened... Burbank was all like, 'Hey do you mind if I, uh, form a town here?' 'Sure, go ahead!' The end!" A universal trope, spotted as often in reality as it is in fiction. Our Founder is a statue or other work of art of the founder of something, possibly a Founder of the Kingdom, be they a brave pioneer who established a colony in the New World, a missionary traveling the land building communities for his faith, a conqueror on his way to fame and riches, or a big-shot mogul who struck Big Business and got a nice-size stone replica of himself for his efforts. These are often to be spotted at crossroads, communal plazas downtown, or at parks, with some nice benches with old ladies feeding pigeons on them. A favorite of megalomaniacal despots with imperial aspirations and a very common decorative feature in places with villains that put their face on everything. ## Examples: - Since the marketing campaign that reintroduced "Jack", the Jack in the Box clown, as "CEO" of Jack in the Box, all Jack in the Box locations have prominently displayed a ornately framed portrait of Jack, with the inscription, "Our Founder" at the bottom. - Wendy's reached a high in cultural awareness with its 1984 "Where's the Beef?" campaign, but several company business decisions soon took a significant toll. This led the company's president to approach founder Dave Thomas to take a more active role. He started regularly visiting franchises, and more significantly became the company's TV spokesman in 1989. It took a few years, but Wendy's regained its past cachet and then some. Thomas went on to appear in over 800 Wendy's commercials, including every one that aired in the 1990s, only stopping shortly before his death from cancer in 2002. - Papa John's Pizza followed in Wendy's footsteps, using founder John Schnatter as its main corporate spokesman for most of the 2010s. That ended when a 2017 dispute between Schnatter and the company's board led to Schnatter's departure as CEO, and turned into an Old Shame in 2018 when a racial comment Schnatter made to the company's advertising agency became public, soon leading to his departure from the mostly ceremonial role as chairman of the board. The discovery process in a lawsuit brought by Schnatter later revealed that in context, he was using said racial comment to criticize racism. The revelation came too late to do much for his public image. - Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum have a statue of Dr. Hartmann, founder of the titular museum, at it's front entrance. - Kamina gets a statue at the heart of Kamina City at the halfway point of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. \|\|He didn't live long enough to found the city himself, but he was the inspiration to its actual founders.\|\| After it is learned that his actions incurred the wrath of Scary Dogmatic Aliens, the Antispiral, the statue is toppled by panicking citizens as a sign of refutation. - Naruto: - The Hokage, including Konoha's founder, are honored in this manner; the cliff overlooking their village depicts the faces of all the Hokages/village leaders thus far. Also subverted as the other village founder \|\|Uchiha Madara\|\| is remembered as a villain and does not have a statue in Konoha. - Similarly, Suna's Kazekage's are honoured with life-sized statues. It's unclear whether the other major ninja villages have something similar. - Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Arle Heinessen, founder of the Free Planets Alliance has a huge statue of himself towering over the capital, bearing a close resemblance to Rio de Janeiro's "Christ the Redeemer". - Little Witch Academia (2017): Luna Nova has nine in the form of the Nine Olde Witches, the greatest witches of their time, who were also responsible for creating the Grand Triskelion. Two are seen; Woodward, who was something of a mentor to Chariot, and Beatrix, the ancestor of the Cavendish family. - Parodied in the Ranma ½ anime. Principal Kunō is extremely fond of statues of himself, including a big one he'd set up at the entrance of Fūrinkan Highschool "for students to prostrate before". It is promptly destroyed by Ranma, who isn't even paying attention. - Spy X Family: Eden Academy has a statue of its founder in the courtyard. To make a good impression for enrollment, Loid, Yor, and Anya, pay their respects to boost their chances. - Mayonaka ni Kiss: A variation. Instead of a statue of Ichijou Group's founder, the Ichijous have a painting of the founder's wife. \|\|When their main hotel in Tokyo is facing difficult times, the painting is sent there from their mansion upon Nono's suggestion.\|\| - At the end of Valvrave the Liberator, \|\|Shouko shows the aliens a pantheon of sculptures representing the kamitsuki whose Heroic Sacrifice made the founding of the Empire possible, with pride of place given to Haruto.\|\| - The main setting of Lapis Re:LiGHTs, Flora Girls' Academy, has a statue of its eponymous founder at its entrance. - Cornelius Coot, the founder of Duckburg, Donald Duck and entourage's duck-inhabited home town, in the Carl Barks-penned issues of Walt Disney Comics. The story "Statuesque Spendthrifts" had Uncle Scrooge McDuck and a foreign Raj competing to build the biggest statue of Coot; it got to the point where you couldn't see the statues in their entirety from within the town borders. - There's a statue of Civil War-era trader Ezra Small outside Smallville city hall in some Superman continuities. - Judge Dredd: At the entrance of Deadworld's Hall of (In)Justice stands a statue of Judge Death to mark the spot where he killed the last living human, a founding monument for the new kingdom of the dead. - Cars: Radiator Springs has a statue of Stanley Steamer. - At the end of Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons, a statue of the late Henry Dalton is seen next to the orphanage that was built thanks to his money. More specifically, it's a statue of Henry Dalton on a horse and about to be hanged. - Metegol: The new town has a statue that honors the full team, with Amadeo taking point. The old town had a statue to honor its founder before El Grosso destroyed it. - In Osmosis Jones, the "founder" of Frank is (what else?) a sperm cell. - Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe shows a statue of John P. Tri-State, the founder of the Tri-State Area. - In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, there is a statue of Helm Hammerhand in Helm's Deep, though it is not named in the dialogue. It may be mentioned in the director's commentary, though. They don't directly name the statue, but his horn is explicitly named at least once. Theoden: The Horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep, one last time! - There's a statue of the founder of the college in Animal House, complete with super-bland quote/motto "Knowledge Is Good". - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. There's a statue of Bill and Ted in The Future! In this case, they're not the actual founders of the future community. It was just totally enlightened by their radical "Be excellent to each other / Party on, dudes" philosophy. - The first Fantastic Four (2005) movie begins with Reed and Ben visiting Victor Von Doom to get funding for Reed's experiment; the two pause to watch as a gigantic statue of Doom is being erected outside his offices. - Not the founder of Gotham, but \|\|the Goddamn Batman\|\| gets a statue erected in remembrance of his heroic deeds at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. - In Star Trek: First Contact, Geordi mentions to Zephram Cochrane that the spot where he's standing is the future location of a statue of himself in the 24th century. He tries to Refuse the Call after hearing this, and has to be stunned by Riker. Riker: You told him about the statue? - Planet of the Apes: - Battle for the Planet of the Apes has a statue of Caesar, the ape civilization's founder. - The Planet of the Apes (2001) remake ends when \|\|Leo walks up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial and sees the statue of General Thade, who went back in time farther than Leo and started an ape rebellion\|\|. - High School High has a Running Gag in which the students regularly desecrate the statue of the school's founder. - In Jurassic World, the late John Hammond has a statue erected of him outside the Hammond Creation Lab, complete with a hue-accurate replica of his famous amber-topped walking stick. - In Loose Screws, Principal Arsenault has the honor of presenting a statue of Cockswell Academy's founder at a school assembly. The four main characters of the film rig it to emit an aphrodisiac gas that makes the school faculty all horny. It even grunts and pants when it sees the foreign language teacher Mona Lott do a striptease. - The film adaptation of Li'l Abner features Dogpatch's statue of Confederate general Jubilation T. Cornpone. It plays a role in the plot when it turns out it contains a proclamation from Abraham Lincoln declaring Dogpatch a national monument, to honor Cornpone's unintentional help in the Union winning the Civil War. - Isaac Asimov's "In a Good Cause": The story opens by describing the statue raised to commemorate the ideals of Altmayer, and the Twist Ending reveals how completely irrelevant he was to realizing it. - The novel Who Plugged Roger Rabbit? has the "Toontown Telltale" headquarters, where a popular checkout-line tabloid is printed. The columns at the door are carved to resemble the paper's four Toon founders: Sleazy, Slimey, Dreck, and Profane. Let that be an indication of the contents of the paper. - Subverted in Diana Wynne Jones's Year of the Griffin, the statue of the wizard Policant actually turns out to \|\|be Policant, who apparently turned himself into a statue as part of a prophecy, to be revived in the titular Year of the Griffin.\|\| - Discworld: - Alberto Malich, founder of Unseen University. When Malich returns from Death's country in Mort and destroys his statue, they believe the statue has come to life. When Malich goes back, the wizards recommend that the replacement statue be constructed in a very secure dungeon. - In Interesting Times, Rincewind finds a statue of One Sun Mirror, founder of the Agatean Empire, on a pedestal of gold in a lake of quicksilver beneath a huge artificial hill built by the Forbidden City. He notes the inscription on it, which simply says "One Sun Mirror". The implication being that no-one standing there could fail to know who that was. - There's a statue of Khuft, the founder of Djelibeybi, in Pyramids. It shows a noble figure with a patriarchal face, an outstretched hand and a chin you could crack rocks on. When Teppic has a vision of a toothless and rather shifty old man in a grubby loincloth, it takes him a while to make the connection. - The statue at the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which is replaced by a Nightmare Fuel inducing new statue in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. - The Edgar & Ellen book series features the town of Nod's Limbs. An incident regarding the statue erected to the town's founder is the reason the town (originally called Nod's Lands) bears its current name. - In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Ancestor Cell, there are statues of the six founders of Time Lord society (Omega, Rassillon, the Other, Pandak, Aperion and Eutenoyar) in the six corners of the Panopticon. Until people start screwing around with time, so there are four statues (one of which is the Doctor) and eventually just one. - Craig Shaw Gardner's Novelization of Tim Burton's Batman (1989) has a scene, cut from the film at the script stage, in which the mayor unveils a statue he expects to be of John T. Gotham, but which is actually of the Joker - A Mage's Power: A statue of the Mother Dragon stands on top of her guild, the Dragon's Lair. Basilard "introduces" Eric to it when the latter joins as a novice. There are also statues of the first five captains in the courtyard. - Safehold: The main dome of the Temple is decorated with an enormous statue of Church's founder, Eric Langhorne. - You're Stepping on my Cloak and Dagger by Roger Hall. In the final days of the O.S.S, America's spy agency during World War II, Hall keeps a picture of Wild Bill Donovan behind his desk, with a sign attached saying OUR FOUNDER. Unfortunately Donovan is persona non grata now that the war is over, so the sign is replaced by one saying WANTED. When a member of the top brass sees the picture he walks out in a huff, Hall's office gets shut down the next day and he's returned to civilian life. - Whateley Universe: Whateley Academy has a statue of its founder, Noah Whateley. It seems to have come with the property, as for most of the school's history it was an unremarkable private boarding school until it ran into some sort of financial trouble and was bought out and turned into a... rather unusual specialist school, and the current administration are more interested in honouring famous alumni. - In The Space Merchants, Mitchell Courtenay, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stands reverently for a few minutes in front of a bust of G. Washington Hill, patron saint of the advertising profession and apostle of the Advert-Overloaded Future. - Several appear in Wax and Wayne, mostly of the main characters of the previous trilogy. The most prominent one is of Vin and Elend, and is located at the park in the middle of the city. - Another important one appears in The Bands of Mourning in front of a Temple of Doom. It depicts the Sovereign, who saved his people from the Ice Death centuries ago. Wayne wonders what's the point of having a statue in the middle of nowhere if nobody's around to look at it, but concedes that it's much less likely to be covered in pigeon poop like the ones in Elendel. \|\|There is a good reason for it: the titular "Bands" are hidden on the statue, not inside the temple\|\|. - Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin keeps a bust of Yodar Kritch, the estemeed founder of Madison High School, upon a pedestal in his office. It stands prominently beside the door through the first season. Yodar Kritch, whenever he's mentioned at Madison High School, is refererred to in an almost reverential air. - In a similar spirit, the statue of Jayne Cobb in Jaynestown on Firefly. Mal himself takes a very dim view on this trope, believing that anyone who's ever had a statue built of themselves was probably a sumbitch of some sorts. - Sougo Tokiwa / Kamen Rider Zi-O has a statue in the wastelands of 2068. It's a tribute to the start of his journey to become Ohma Zi-O, the overlord of time, who rules the future with an iron fist. - Legends of Tomorrow: The Legends visit the future and wind up at a tech company with a bust of their founder that Ray recognizes as himself, leading him to believe that he had unknowingly left behind a pregnant girlfriend in the present whose child built on his technology. When he confronts the current head of the company with this revelation, she reveals that their founder is Sidney Palmer, Ray's brother, who just happens to share a family resemblence. - The offices of Leverage Consulting & Associates have an oil painting of "Harland Leverage III" (actually an aged-up Nathan Ford, painted by Hardison). It also \|\|has a stash of emergency cash hidden in it\|\|. - In the second episode of Person of Interest, the very last shot is a pan over to a bust of Nathan Ingram's head - revealing both that he was the founder of IFT, and his status as a Posthumous Character. - Utopia Falls: Gaia is often invoked as the founded of New Babyl, with reverence ritually given to her such that she's basically worshiped, even invoked like God is. - In S 3 E 01 of The Mandalorian, Din returns to Navarro to see a statue of IG-11, the Assassin Droid that sacrificed itself to help fight off the Imperial Remnant in Season one. Some of it is actually made from its remaining parts. - The Boys: Stan Edgar has a portrait of "Frederick Vought, our esteemed founder" in his office. He references it directly as he contrasts the "the real story" of Vought International's history with "the self-serving bullshit that we peddle to the shareholders." - A lot of Greek heroes were said to found famous cities. - Cadmus (the guy who "created" the Golden Fleece) supposedly founded Thebes, home of Oedipus' family, being Phoenician originally. - Perseus, Hercules, and Theseus were all said to pass by certain famous locations during their adventures, supposedly explaining their significance. - The Iliad: Aeneas's descendants went on to settle/found Britain, Rome, and Alba Longa, according to much later authors. - Telegonus, Odysseus' son by Circe, is said to have founded the Italian city of Tusculum. - The Franks, a Germanic tribe who conquered Gaul and renamed it France, were supposedly founded by "Francus", who by one account was the son of Hector, the hero of Troy. - Romulus is said to be the founder of the city of Rome (he's said to be descended from Aeneas above; since he was Raised by Wolves, one wonders how the genealogists figured this out). - The original myth claims that Romulus killed his brother Remus, but an alternate account is that Remus survived and went on to found the city of Reims in France. Fittingly, Reims was home to a tribe of the Belgae, who notoriously gave Rome a lot of trouble during their conquests. - In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), the 15-mile-high statue of Arthur Dent on the planet Brontitall. (He didn't found the society there, but he inadvertently inspired them to alter their entire way of life.) - GURPS IOU has a statue in the middle of the "Pent" marked "Our Founder". Said statue is humanoid-shaped, but worn down with age, and has hints of tentacles on the face. Oh, and testing showed it to be older than the universe. - A well-known example is "Partners", the statue found in most Disneyland-style Disney Theme Parks of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. - A different statue of Walt and Mickey, called "Storytellers", was created for Disney California Adventure and depicts him as he first arrived in Los Angeles during The Roaring '20s. Oddly enough, the statue also appears at Tokyo DisneySea and Shanghai Disneyland. - Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom has an additional statue, "Sharing the Magic", showing Roy O. Disney (who spearheaded the park's construction after Walt's death) and Minnie Mouse sitting on a bench. - Similar to Disney, Hersheypark in Pennsylvania boasts a bronze statue of chocolate mogul Milton Hershey. - And over at Universal Studios Florida, the New York area of the park has a statue of Lew Wasserman, a long-time MCA/Universal executive who not only helped build the park, but also helped spearhead many of Universal's '70s/'80s blockbusters and essentially made the studio what it is today. - The Lego Town set 1592, Town Square Castle Scene, includes a statue commemorating a prominent citizen from the previous century — who was apparently one of the pre-1978 minifigures without movable arms or legs. - Girl Genius: In the chapter "Jägermonsters to the Rescue", it turns out that \|\|in Agatha's two-year absence, Gil has topped Mechanicsburg's city walls\|\| with towering statues of Agatha. While not its founder, Agatha is the Heterodyne, and therefore the rightful ruler. Dimo describes them as being over 150 meters tall (for the non-metrically inclined, that's 500 feet). Agatha is... less than pleased. Agatha: I... I am going to kill him. - The Order of the Stick: - Redcloak has his statue in Azure City-slash-Gobbotopia City. It says "Our Leader" since he didn't found the city, just conquered it. - General Tarquin also has a statue of him lording over a beheaded enemy in Bleedingham. - Schlock Mercenary: After Kaff Tagon \|\|performs a Heroic Sacrifice and is then resurrected\|\|, he finds that his friends and family built a shrine, complete with statue, while he was gone. Kaff Tagon: My statue is holding a bomb, and doesn't have his helmet up. Karl Tagon: All I did was sign the invoice. - Sleepless Domain: Within the City, the mysterious Founder is a mythical figure believed to be the one who grants magical girls their powers. There's a statue of her overlooking the magical girl graveyard, and what appears to be another atop the golden dome-shaped building at the center of the City. Interestingly enough, however, her very existence appears to be protected by a Perception Filter to all but a few select individuals — even those who worship the Founder seem to believe that these statues simply represent a generic magical girl. - Amphibia: Wartwood has a statue of its founder in the center of town. - The Simpsons: - Jebediah Obadiah Zachariah Jedidiah Springfield (Hans Sprungfeld), whose statue embiggens Springfield's main square. - Shelbyville also has a statue of their founder, Shelbyville Manhattan, along with two women, possibly his cousins. - One episode has a hospital erect a bronze statue of Homer after he gave them a gigantic donation. What they didn't realize is that it was Mr. Burns making the donation through Homer. - "Bart Vs. Australia" has an Australian museum with a giant statue of a Snake lookalike with the caption "Our First Prime Minister" (a reference to Australia having been used as a penal colony). - Avatar: The Last Airbender - The town from the episode "Avatar Day" has a statue of Chin the Great/the Conquerer, although that also doubles as a memorial, as it's on the spot he died. \|\|Well, almost on the spot. He plummeted off a cliff, and you can't put a statue in thin air.\|\| - Avatar Kyoshi also had one in her hometown, interestingly... as she was the one who killed the aforementioned Chin, creating Kyoshi Island in the process. - The Legend of Korra: - Republic City's harbor has a giant statue of Aang, the Avatar from the previous series, who founded United Republic alongside \|\|Zuko\|\|. - The city's police headquarters has a life-sized statue of Toph, who played a part in the force's organization and training. She has another statue in the metal city of Zaofu. Interestingly enough, Toph herself didn't directly participate in the creation of Zaofu, but she did invent metalbending when she was only a child, a feat that made the city's creation possible. - Zuko also got a statue of himself in front of Central Station, complete with real fire streaming from his outstretched hand. - Cabbage Merchant gets a statue outside of Cabbage Corp. - Sokka has a statue on top of a tiered fountain in front of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center. It features him holding aloft his trusty boomerang. - By the time of Book Four, Asami has built a statue of Korra herself in the middle of Republic City's central park (now named "Avatar Korra Park"), as part of the revamp of the city's infrastructure. \|\|The fact that Asami and Korra end up as a couple by the end of the series puts that particular action in an interesting light\|\|. - Monster Buster Club: Addison Single, founder of Single Town. But that's no statue... \|\|It's Addison Single himself, who is in truth an alien Blob Monster, turned into stone.\|\| - The city wherein Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is set has Elwood P. Dowd, in a subtle and clever nod to the premise of the show. Of course, Foster's Home itself has a bust of Madam Foster, which Bloo promptly... busts. - Whenever Mad Mod shows up in an episode of the Teen Titans animated series, you can be sure his likeness will soon get plastered over almost everything: busts, portraits, statues, posters, et cetera. He himself often (inexplicably) metamorphoses into strange alternate (and usually British pop culture-themed) designs, such as the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine and God from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This counts as Our Founder because one time he used a grand-scale hypnotic trick to reclaim America in the name of Jolly Old England, proclaiming himself its first King. - Similar to the Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure example, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi has an episode in which the girls are whisked away to the year 3000 and discover that all of society is now founded on their music. There is a skyscraper-sized statue of them in the futuristic city, featuring both of them back-to-back in a signature pose. - The sentient worms who infested Fry's bowel in the Futurama episode "Parasites Lost" have a statue of Fry in their city. Instead of "Our Founder", the pedestal read "The Known Universe". - In one episode of Aladdin: The Series, there is a celebration devoted to the founder of Agrabah, but no actual statue. It would have been a mistake if there was one, of course, but that's hardly new for Aladdin, so we'll put it down as coincidental accuracy. - ¡Mucha Lucha!: At first, when the Headmistress spoke of the school's foundation, it seemed there was a painting of the founder but instead there was the man in person, always with a frame ahead of him and his name is "El Fundador". His signature move is founding. In fact, he made the school appear from his pocket to finish an adversary who intended to turn masked wrestling into a fad. - Phineas and Ferb: The Fireside Girls (at least the troop led by Isabella) seem to have a painting of their founder but she was just sitting in front of a framed window. - In Barbie and the Secret Door, Malucia has a golden statue of herself, and puts a foam hand on it to cheer about her inevitable triumph. - Steven Universe: In "Buddy's Book", Captain Dewey has a bronze statue erected in his honor. - Gravity Falls: Nathaniel Northwest founded the eponymous town, and Northwest family are celebrated by the town into the present day. \|\|It turns out he never founded the town. He was given the title of founder by the US government to cover up the existence of Quentin Trembley\|\|. - In the final episode \|\|Soos has made one of Stan for the Mystery Shack. Because it's so poorly made, kids run away screaming the second it's unveiled.\|\| - In Codename: Kids Next Door, when the moonbase is rebuilt at the end of Operation: Z.E.R.O., it includes an impressive statue of Numbuh Zero. - In the first episode of House of Mouse, Donald makes a few changes to the House while Mickey is away temporarily. At one point, he removes a framed picture of Mickey labeled "Our Founder" and replaces it with a giant gold statue of himself reading "Our Leader". - In Castlevania (2017), it was Leon Belmont who traveled from France to Wallachia to continue his hunt against Dracula and other creatures of the night. Leon's portrait hangs proudly in the stairwell leading to the Belmont Hold, the armory, library, and headquarters of the Belmont family. - Transformers: Robots in Disguise: A statue of Optimus Prime, who made it possible for Cybertronians to continue as a society, was constructed in his honor. - Arthur: "Elwood City Turns 100" features a rare instance of the statue's subject directly reacting to it: Elwood's founder Jacob Katzenellenbogan hates the thing for misspelling his name and making him look too fat (possibly deliberate touches, as the statue was donated by his "friends" Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan). - Many universities in Real Life have Our Founder statues. - Harvard famously has the Statue of Three Lies which reads: "John Harvard, Founder, 1638". (The statue is attributed to Harvard, but as there was no physical record of what he looked like, it was instead based on a student, Sherman Hoar. Also, while Harvard certainly contributed heavily to the school with a large bequest and four hundred some odd books, it was actually founded two years beforehand, so if anything he's more like a founder than the founder.) - Averted with Texas A&M University. The statue that receives all the attention is Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the man attributed with saving the university. - Averted with the University of Maryland. The best-known statue on campus (apart from that of the mascot) is of one of the school's most famous alumni. - Cornell University has one that is across a quad from a statue of the first president. A local legend says that if a virgin walks between them, the two statues will stand up, walk across the quad, and shake hands to congratulate each other on the university's chastity. They have yet to get out of their seats. That's a joke variant on the traditional story, which is that they shake at midnight on the anniversary of the university's founding (or sometimes some other significant date). Footprints are painted on the sidewalk between them. - The founder of University College London, Jeremy Bentham, had his body mummified and donated to the school so they could save on the expense of a statue to commemorate him. The head is a waxwork as the mummification job left the original looking rather ghoulish and because drunk students kept 'kidnapping' it. There used to be a tradition of wheeling it into faculty meetings and making a note on the minutes that Bentham attended but didn't vote on any motions. - Many countries do this for national heroes; Dublin's O'Connell Street has statues of Daniel O'Connell and Charles Stewart Parnell at each end. - Apparently, every town and city in Britain was founded by either Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, or both. - Queen Victoria is a popular for statues in Canada. Similiarly, so is Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald. - William Penn looks down on Philadelphia from an impressive statue atop City Hall, at the center of the city's skyline. A several-year run of failure for Philadelphia's sports teams was blamed on One Liberty Plaza surpassing it in height in 1987 (there had previously been a gentlemen's agreement that no building in the city would be taller than City Hall); perhaps it's a coincidence that when a small figurine of Penn was put on top of Comcast Center when it opened in 2007, the new tallest building in the city, the Phillies won the World Series about a year later. - McDonald's for years had brass plaques at the entrances with "Our Founder, Ray Kroc"; the McDonald brothers themselves getting short, if any mention. Wendy's does something similar with a photograph of their founder, Dave Thomas, in some promotional materials, as well as in framed posters all over any given Wendy's location. - Speaking of Dave Thomas, he first started appearing in commercials for the chain in 1981, but he didn't become the company's main commercial spokesperson until 1989. He went on to appear in more than 800 Wendy's commercials, including every single one that aired in the 1990s, filming his last commercial shortly before his death in 2002. - Papa John's Pizza followed suit, using the company's founder John Schnatter as its main commercial spokesperson for most of the 2010s until he was forced out in 2018 after racial comments he had made were revealed. - Somewhere in Apple, Inc. headquarters is a framed Apple I motherboard with the caption "OUR FOUNDER". - Possibly the most infamous example, the statue of Saddam Hussein that was pushed over. - These are everywhere in North Korea. What's more, they got so good at it they have a minor industry based around exporting such patriotic statues (Senegal took them up on one). - Atatürk is all over Turkey, apparently not just the founder of the country but of just about every local establishment and tradition. He did change many things in Turkey mightily, among them constructing a modern, staunchly secular and Western-Oriented republic out of a recessive and staunchly Muslim Vestigial Empire, as well as introducing tea to a previously coffee-crazy nation that had just lost its Arab possessions. One of the things that make current leader Erdogan controversial is his breaking with some traditions claimed to be based on Atatürk, such as blurring the line between Islam and national politics. - Mahatma Gandhi's face is the only Indian leader that adorns India's currency and notes, his birthday is also a National Holiday in India. - George Washington provides the name of D.C.'s capital and has a military rank of permanent superiority that can never be surpassed. - The Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania has one of Milton Hershey in its rotunda. - One can hardly go anywhere in Kingston, Ontario without being reminded that Sir John A. Macdonald (Canada's first Prime Minister) grew up there and got his political start there. Among other things, there's a Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, a restaurant called Sir John's Public House, Sir John A Macdonald Public School, a Sir John A Macdonald Hall at Queen's University, and a life-size statue of him in City Park. - The largest statue of Otto von Bismarck is located near the Port of Hamburg. During the German Kaiserreich (18711918), which Bismarck helped found, Bismarck was very close to everywhere, especially after his death in 1898. Every major city has a street or square named for him and there are statues of him in many places as well. Even herring has been named for him, because he supposedly once said he liked its taste and German fishers were so grateful, they named one type of preparing it after him. - Nicaragua was governed between 1979 and 1990 by a party called the "Sandinistas" named after nationalist revolutionary Augusto C. Sandino, who fought against a US occupation of his country in the 1930s and died at the hands of the dictator whose son the Sandinistas toppled four decades later. While in power, the Sandinistas put Sandino on currency, their campaign material, and countless Che-style T-shirts. When they were voted out in 1990, they put a silhouette of him on top of one of the highest mountains in the capital, Managua, incidentally the site of the former presidential palace and not too far from where Sandino was assassinated. When the Sandinistas returned to power in 2006, the Sandino imagery came back, though much less pronounced. Only one banknote (and none of the coins) today has any relation to him, and it doesn't bear his image but rather a picture of the hut he was born in. Students still have to learn the details of his life and he remains the Nicaraguan national hero. - Much like Atatürk, Lenin used to be everywhere not just as the icon of Soviet Union, but also an icon of the socialist revolution worldwide. The Soviet collapse caused a significant amount of these statues to be taken out as part of the Decommunization process in former Eastern Bloc countries; however, many still remain in Russia and Belarus where even some new ones have been erected. note : While no longer remotely Communist, those nations tend to have fonder memories of the Soviet Union than most other former Soviet republics, as a result of nostalgia for being one of the two superpowers of the world. Until 2015, Ukraine also had thousands of Lenin statues, but only two remain after stricter decommunization laws were passed. Both in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Though not all the statues were destroyed, some were instead altered to depict other subjects. - Statues of Sun Yat-sen are, oddly enough, found in both the People's Republic of China and the Taiwan (Republic of China). Despite the vast ideological and geopolitical divergence between the two governments that claim to be the legitimate rulers of China, both consider Sun to be their founder on account of having led the rebellion that ended the Qing dynasty. In mainland China he's known as "Forerunner of the Revolution" and in Taiwan he's "Father of the Nation". Naturally, the PRC also has has statues everywhere of its founder Mao Zedong and the Taiwan has lots of statues of ROC president Chiang Kai-shek. Both claimed to be the rightful successor to Sun Yat-sen and to be creating the version of "China" he intended. - The Roman Colosseum was named for the 98-foot bronze statue Nero made of himself, and which later emperors converted into a statue of the god Sol and moved next to their new stadium. - Oslo has two statues of its "founder", Christian IV "Quarter" (the area was already a population center, but Christian planned and rebuilt it properly across the river and renamed the city Christiania after a fire). The first is in Stortorvet, depicting Christian pointing at the ground where he intends to rebuild the city, and the second is in Christian's Torv, depicting just his hand pointing at the ground where he supposedly declared it.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurFounder
Our Elves Are Different - TV Tropes Elves originated in Germanic mythology as a common type of fairy folk, the term sometimes being simply synonymous with "fairy". In the British isles, Anglo-Saxon elf myths eventually mingled with those Celtic supernatural beings. Later on, elves and fairies (largely synonymous by this point) were sanitized into diminutive woodland humanoids prone to tricks and teasing but ultimately benevolent. This image is where the modern-day concept of tiny, helpful elves in green clothes and/or pointy hats, such as Santa's helpers, ultimately comes from. In short, the definition and characteristics of elves considerably varied across space and time. From left to right: a drow (dark elf) , a wild elf , a sun elf, a wood elf, and a moon elf. note : Not pictured: a sea elf, an eladrin, a shadar-kai, and many other elves. Then, in 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings. The work based its Elves on both Germanic light elves and a vision of a humanity that did not fall from Eden. The resultant Elves were very human-like in physical appearance, but immortal, magical, and much more closely connected to the supernatural world, in addition to possessing a tendency to inhabit isolated villages and ancient forests. The Lord of the Rings greatly influenced later fantasy fiction, and in this manner also served as the maker of the modern interpretation of elves as one of the Standard Fantasy Races. Modern-day fantasy elves tend to be very human-like, but distinguished by their pointed ears, much longer lives and closer connection to magic and nature. They however tend to be much more "grounded" than either folkloric or Tolkienian elves. In settings where both fairies and elves exist they are typically distinct creatures, with elves being typically more similar to humans than to fairies. In some cases, however, they may have a closer link to fairies and their world than other humanoids do, or be outright descended from them. Most elves usually share the following traits: - Human-sized, or about that size. They may be on average bigger or smaller than humans, depending on the work, but the degree of variance is almost always within regular human size ranges. Most often this variance is primarily vertical - elves are generally depicted as slimmer than humans, regardless of if they're taller or shorter. - Better than you, me, and even other elves. Especially other elves, and they won't let you forget it, nor will they accept any arguments to the contrary. The flavor of this betterness will vary across stories and authors between all-natural, magical, or just plain nasty. - Pointy Ears. The exact pointyness varies. Some favor "humanlike with a point at the tip", while others go with thin, triangular ears a foot long. - Long lifespans. These may range from a century through several to outright agelessness. Methods include outright immortality to reincarnation to simply significantly longer than humans. Even if they're not immortal, they're not likely to suffer the effects of old age. - Magical in one way or another, either from being highly spiritual, innately magical or producers of magitek. Said magic may often be related with light and related concepts, due to its connection with the Norse Ljósalfar (light elves). - Very, very pretty. Very often they are of androgynous appearance, and rarely have facial hair. - In decline — they may be descended from a great civilization that collapsed in the past, be in the middle of cultural decline now, or be an outright Dying Race. In any case, their glories are behind them now. - Will either be exceptionally chaste and only have sex within the bounds of true love, or sexually liberated and probably polyamorous, depending on which the author considers more appropriate for a Superior Species. - Anything they make is likewise beautiful, more durable, more delicious, and just plain better than human wares. However, sometimes they lack a certain creative flair. - A strong warrior tradition, albeit one that is usually more refined than most. On an individual level, Elves tend to wield elegant, graceful weapons (such as scimitars, rapiers, katanas, daggers, spears, and especially longbows) instead of large crushing weapons. On a wider scale, expect an elven fighting force to utilise mobility and stealth over brute force, with lots of magical backup (or simply be a Badass Elite Army — after all if you live for millennia outside of violence or accident, you can get really good at fighting). - And of course, there's usually more than just one type of elf. In modern fantasy fiction, it's exceedingly common for elves to come in multiple breeds. This probably comes from real folklore, where nearly every culture had its own division for fairies. Scottish folklore gave us the Seelie and Unseelie Courts note : "Seelie" is etymologically related to "silly", and in this context means "happy" — "seelie" fairies are generally friendly or at least not hostile, whereas "unseelie" ones bring misfortune and malice (nowadays often associated with summer and winter). W. B. Yeats divided Irish fairies into "Trooping" and "Solitary" fairies. note : "Trooping" fairies are the Aos Sí, the classic "High Elf" type whose leaders actually come from Ireland's pre-Christian pantheon, like the Dagda. The name refers to folktales of people witnessing their courtly procession through the country. "Solitary" fairies covers the small fairies that meddle, play tricks or help around houses, like leprechauns and clurichauns. And Scandinavian fairies were broken into Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar, "dark" and "light" fairies respectively — the former were "blacker than pitch" and lived under the ground, while the latter were "fairer than the sun to look at" and lived in Álfheimr. Scandinavia also gave us Svartálfar, "black" elves, which might be the same as "dark" elves and/or actually be dwarfs. In the modern era, J. R. R. Tolkien re-codified Elves slightly into "High" and "Wood" elves. When Dungeons & Dragons added its underground "dark elves", modelled after the Prose Edda's Svartálfar and a heavy dose of the Black Martians from the John Carter of Mars novels, and renamed "drow" note : Etymologically derived from the same root as "troll", and in folklore records also spelled "trow"., the archetypal trinity was complete. - High Elves: - They'll frequently be part of an ancient civilization/kingdom that has been in Medieval Stasis since before human speech. Unlike their more down-to-earth compatriots, they'll usually live in a Shining City. Thanks largely to their longevity, these elves tend to dedicate a lot of time to perfecting their arts, crafts and skills. So everything from their poetry and cuisine to architecture and armor tends to be highly advanced, meticulously intricate and aesthetically impressive. Usually very proficient with magic and producing magical items and artifacts. They are often The Ageless, too. - Rapiers, bows, and spears are favored weapons for their ground forces, with the option of sleek scimitars in settings where rapiers are too modern, and their warriors typically prioritize technique and skill over raw power. If these guys have any weakness at all, it will usually be that they are slimmer and more delicate physically than both the other types of elves and humans and dwarves, which means that while they're nearly always better magicians than humans, they are not always going to win a physical fight (just as often, however, they'll be stronger than humans on average). - If Can't Argue with Elves is in play in a story, these will be the elves you can't argue with, and they won't hesitate to remind you at every opportunity. Usually the most insufferably arrogant of elves, though they may not necessarily be openly antagonistic; they're often portrayed as looking down on other races, sometimes to the degree of full-blown Fantastic Racism. This may extend to other kinds of elves as well. If they live in a Shining City, it will invariably be cleaner than human cities. They're usually physically superior in "every way that counts", which is to say they don't count others' strengths as worthwhile. - Wood Elves: - In tune with nature and often prone to spiritual contemplation and empathy. Generally they're magical in a druidic rather than wizardly way. - They can be found in a Hidden Elf Village in an Enchanted Forest and/or a Tree Top Town. Wood Elves may be good-natured guardians and/or guides for the forest and for people who travel through them, while darker takes on the Wood Elves may present them as either totally apathetic to anything going on outside the forest borders, or worse, ruthless isolationists who view any non-elf in their forest as a trespasser to be hunted down and "removed". If there's some kind of tree-people, they will probably be friends. - They tend to be associated even more with archery than their High Elf kin, but will also use knives and short swords. Often, their weapons will be depicted as less ornate and more functional than High Elves', too. They may not necessarily be made of metal either — bone, antler and other natural materials are common alternatives. Sometimes they'll resemble a Magical Native American. - Usually the most relatable elves. If High Elves are arrogant and snobbish or just distant and spiritual, Wood Elves will be the ones you can go drinking with. They're usually the ones responsible for half-elves (unless the half-elf has great storytelling significance, in which case they'll probably be a High Elf hybrid), but they may replace Cultural Posturing with lectures on respecting nature. If High Elves are impossibly beautiful or somewhat androgynous, Wood Elves will usually be less so. - They also tend to be close allies with fairies (if they, or elves in general, are not fairies themselves). If the fiction uses the traditional Scottish Seelie/Unseelie division they may be the more mischevous or malicious fair folk. - Dark Elves (often called : Drow) - Dark Elves are usually closer to The Fair Folk, except these guys are organized as cities or civilizations and bent on evil, rather than "just" operating on an alien morality. They typically live Beneath the Earth, or sometimes in a shadowy Mordor. - They typically have dark grey, black or blue-black skin (except in Japanese media, which often gives them brown skin) and bone-white hair, or are extremely gaunt and pale. Despite living in caves, they're still gorgeous. Unlike other Elves, some Dark Elves may have facial hair. - These guys will wear black leather bondage gear when they aren't wearing Spikes of Villainy, speak in the Black Speech, kick dogs and steal cable. In particular, they are often depicted as having labyrinthine, corrupt and lethal internal politics, and as having a tendency to extreme sadism, with anyone unlucky enough to be captured by them doomed to suffer extremely protracted and imaginative Cold-Blooded Torture. - They may also be philosophers like their High Elf brethren, but prefer more Darwinistic or nihilistic views on the world. Other races are seen at best like livestock, and you really don't want to know what it's like at the worst. If they're not into philosophy, they will often be The Engineer (sometimes referencing their Scandinavian folkloric origin as another name for dwarves). If there are dwarves too, they'll be the engineers who make the nasty, evil weapons. If they use blades, they'll be serrated. They may have also devised very elaborate and interesting ways of killing their enemies. Some common varieties beyond those three include: Compare The Fair Folk, Screw You, Elves! (when you don't believe in their betterness), Christmas Elves (for the other kind of elf), Our Fairies Are Different, Mage Species. Contrast Our Dwarves Are All the Same; fantasy dwarves and elves tend to be portrayed (whether it's pointed out or not) as polar opposites, and sometimes as bitter enemies. However, dwarves ultimately originate from the same mythological root as elves — the Norse dark elves were often equated with and effectively the same thing as the - Sea Elves: Generally an aquatic equivalent to Wood Elves. They tend to be physically identical to "normal" elves, sometimes taking an exception for a discreet set of gills, webbing between their toes, or blue or green skin and hair. Sea Elves, when they aren't a more down-to-earth seafaring subset of the High Elves, live in beautiful Underwater Cities built out of coral or natural grottos. They may be able to turn into sea animals (usually dolphins) and even if they can't they'll be friendly with dolphins, sea serpents and similar creatures. - Snow Elves: Elves that live in cold climates, and we don't mean the ones who work for the big red guy. Relatively rare, and more elusive than even the Wood Elves. They also tend to be a little less arrogant, because the polar wastes are too damn cold for that stuff. - Half-Elves: These guys possess traits of both their parents. Precisely how much of this is good or bad depends on the work in question, along with just how many traits they get from their elven side. They are usually outcasts, or if not, they have embraced one of their parentages to the exclusion of the other. - The Fair Folk: Elves of this variety may be portrayed as dangerous and inscrutable creatures of magic — in which case they may overlap and share traits with Precursors, Fairies, gods, or other mythological creatures. Dwarves started out as the Dark Elf version of these. The Fair Folk are the oldest type of elves, from a period when people truly believed in a magical race of supernatural beings living on a separate dimension that would snatch up your children and livestock if not properly appeased with offerings or warded off with Cold Iron. Other cultures associated pygmies with The Fair Folk, as a sort of Mage Species. Compare The Greys (vs. Little Green Men), which fulfill the traditional sci-fi archetype of The Fair Folk vs. Fairies as misremembered Ancient Astronauts. If that is the case, you have: - Space Elves: Space Elves can be a straight up copy or analogue of any aforementioned variants, but In SPACE! They will usually be a Proud Scholar Race to distinguish them from the stout, bearded aliens in the setting. Usually, they are also notable because their technology is either organic, crystalline, or otherwise pretty, renewable/in tune with nature and can blow your ships right out of space before you can see them. Replace a bow with a laser gun (or better yet, laser bows!) and you're in business. - Rock Elves: They play guitars, maybe or maybe not in Heavy Mithril style. dwergar, the mythic dwarves; the two just took very diverging routes in later popular culture. ## Example Subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other Examples: - Dancing Fairies (Älvalek in Swedish) is a Romantic painting by August Malmström depicting a group of elves dancing hand-in-hand over a river at twilight. It portrays them as garland-wearing etheral beings that can be mistaken for a wispy morning mist over the natural landscape. - Bastard!!: "Thunder Empress" Arshes Nei is arguably the Ur-Example of a Dark Elf in Japanese media, though she has more in common with Wood Elves, right down to her status as a half-elf. Her half blood is what led her to get ostracized by her peers before main protagonist Dark Schneider took her in. - Black Clover: The Elf Tribe look like humans with pointy ears. They had immense magic power greater than most humans, able to use magic stones and forbidden magics, and were worshiped as gods. As a result, humans began to fear and desire their power, slaughtering them and stealing their magic power centuries before the story. \|\|Their leader Licht suspended their souls to eventually reincarnate them in human bodies... Which Patry who had Licht's face thought. It was actually the devil named Zagred that caused the reincarnation along the massacre of the elves, as planned when he told Patry this just to have him cross the Despair Event Horizon. Then when Patry's Four-leaf clover Grimoire becomes a Five-Leaf because of crossing it, he becomes a Dark Elf!\|\| - In Delicious in Dungeon, elves have Pointy Ears and round androgynous faces, live longer than humans, and specialize in magic. If Laios is to be believed, humans in general think they're good-looking, especially the long ears. Physically they tend to be one of the weaker races, though. - Elfen Lied: Diclonii have some traits of fantasy elves, being a mysterious, superpowered, beautiful and inhuman race that turns children into their own species. Even their horns are evocative of the traditional pointy elf ears. - In Magical × Miracle, elves are, due to Inconsistent Dub, alternately called Hahaze and Onburu. They have an unusually high resistance to magical spells,\|\|resulting in them being used as bodyguards for important people in the Kingdom of Viegald\|\|. They have long, pointy ears and Cute Little Fangs, and have super speed when they need it. Fern, the resident Hahaze, takes to his Elvish smugness in the form of being the Snarky Non-Human Sidekick. They live in a Hidden Elf Village in the woods where they hunt. They seem to have some Celtic influences. - The Manga Shakespeare version of The Merchant of Venice takes place in an elven version of the titular city, with the characters being depicted as different elf types. - Slayers: The Wood Elf variant appears; in general, Elves live longer and have better magical skills, but they usually hide away and scorn humans. This is emphasized in certain cases because Elves generally align themselves with Ciefeed and his servants, the Dragons — the Dragons can have as much scorn towards humans, if not more. - Sword Art Online: The nine races of Alfheim Online are essentially many flavors of elves (the name even means "Elf Home"). Plays with the superior race thing, since Alfhiem Online IS a VR Game and everyone is, in the end, just a bunch of gamers. However, there is still a lot of racial tension due to the game set up...at least, until the rebooted version after the events of the Fairy Dance arc, which makes it practically disappear since the differences are now just essentially gaming style. See here for a quick breakdown of the different races and links to further info. - Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar has the Dark Elves of Shurifon. Despite their name and appearance, they are more akin to Wood Elves since they live in a huge forest and are at peace with nature. Overall they are physically more capable than anyone else on the planet \|\|barring a short period of time in the day when they are as weak as newborn kittens due to being a transplanted species from another world\|\|. The main character Kenshi is the only one who is stronger \|\|and he isn't exactly a normal human either\|\|. - Voltron: The Drule are Drow in space. Dark skin (purple in Voltron, grey in Voltron Force), white hair, militaristic, Always Chaotic Evil, dark coloured outfits, and in Voltron Force, Lotor has a spider mech. - Amulet: Elves rule The Empire, and they're not particularly good-looking either, since they have a very many sharp teeth and vertically slitted pupils. They're still tall and skinny and with long hair, however. - The Demon Mages: There are various types of Drow elves, which vary in skin color, hair color, and magical resistances. - Dungeons & Dragons: Played with. Varis is much like a stereotypical elf, but is also stated to enjoy cities more than the forests and never hesitates to slip in zingers against other (high) elves that look down their noses at everything else. - Elfes et Nains depicts five races of stereotypical Elves. The High Elves, Blue Elves, and Wood Elves are more moral and wise than Humans because they are closer to the world of Arran, whom they consider a god in itself. However, the Wood Elves are highly xenophobic toward Humans. The Dark Elves are an immoral, murderous kind, with the Big Bad of the series being a Dark Elf herself. Lastly, the Half-Elves take from their human heritage and more or less act like any Human would. - ElfQuest: - The Wolfrider elves are Wood Elves played fairly straight; they're smaller than the (very) primitive humans around them and only slightly more advanced. They do have supernatural powers, such as healing and the ability to shape rock and wood, but most of them only have the power to communicate telepathically (referred to as "sending") and very few are able to heal or do rock and wood-shaping. Oh, and of all the elves only the Wolfriders have facial hair due to \|\|their part-wolf ancestry\|\|. - The Gliders, before they \|\|all died and their spirits went to the Palace of the High Ones\|\|, and Savah, the Sun Folk's Mother of Memory, follow the High Elf archetype more, although several are considerably less haughty than is typical for this type. They're larger than the Wolfriders, due to their greater age — becoming smaller over generations was an adaptation to \|\|the new world\|\|, and the Gliders in particular haven't had any new children in forever when first met. - In a subversion of the typical half-elf, the master trickster Two-Edge is half elf and half troll. The same psychological rules generally apply though, as Two-Edge uses his cunning throughout the series to force the other characters through "games" of his devising, in an attempt to reconcile the two halves of his heritage. Interestingly, his mental and emotional troubles were not caused by prejudice towards his hybrid nature \|\|but by his mother using her psionic powers to drive him mad, in order to hide the crimes she did to his father\|\|. - It's not until late in the series that the reader discovers \|\|all the elves are really the descendants of Space Elves who were trapped on the planet ages ago. Their seemingly magical powers are really Psychic Powers and the Palace where their souls go after death can travel through space.\|\| - In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), there's the Deer of Thicket, ruled by King Aspen. Although Deer were previously depicted as non-sapient, the Deer of Thicket aren't here, and otherwise fit the post-Tolkien mold to a T, being highly magical and holding themselves as superior to the setting's human equivalents. On the whole, they seem to be a combination of High Elves and Wood Elves, being a proud and haughty race who are In Harmony with Nature, and possess command over plants and animals. - Poison Elves subverts most of the prevailing elf tropes. They're haughty and self important, but did avert The End of the World as We Know It... back in pre-history. By the time of the events of the comics, the Elves have become just as urbanized, lazy, indolent, and outright bastards as the humans are. The protagonist doesn't much help anyone's opinion of the elves, but the author never presents any serious evidence to the contrary. Even the elves who live in enclaves are a far cry from the Wood Elf archetype, and only seem to be humans with really pointy ears. - In Lapp tale "The Elf Maiden", collected by Andrew Lang, elves are wise, uncanny-looking humanoid creatures who tend to avoid humans out of fear despite having strange magic powers. - Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "Nine Bags Of Gold": As it could be expected from a pre- The Lord of the Rings story, elves are small, magical humanoid creatures who live beneath human houses, keeping themselves hidden from adult menfolk (albeit they like befriending and even teaching children). Although clever and benevolent, they are tricksters who are not above of making someone sick to further their goals. - Aska: The entire elf race consists of "solicitors, attorneys and the occasional insurance salesman". The elf character Motor-Oil is a bumbling wreck after losing his girlfriend. Also, his name is Motor-Oil. - Child of the Storm has multiple versions: - The Alfar of the Nine Realms are (possibly were in the case of the Svartalves — it's left ambiguous) fairly Tolkien-esque High Elves, and are biologically immortal, naturally very good-looking, slimmer than humans and Asgardians, and excellent marksmen — though Clint Barton is a match for even their best. Like the rest of the Nine Realms, they've also got extremely high-end Magitek, and even more than most: they're a match for Asgard. Unlike most depictions, their morality and egotism runs the spectrum. They are — or were — divided into two tribes that ultimately differed on ideological grounds. - The "Light Elves" of Alfheim are Asgard's most loyal allies. They're particularly Tolkien-esque — In-Universe, their Prince, Faradei, was the inspiration for Legolas. One of them, Algrim (who's purple due to a rather strange skin disorder) is Odin's Chamberlain and one of his best Advisers, who helped raise Thor and Loki and now advises them too. However, they're not all good: Gravemoss, arguably the vilest member of the first book's Big Bad Ensemble, was banished for necromancy and being a Complete Monster. He's functionally a Humanoid Abomination who regards life as being wasted on the living, and dreams of ruling over a universe of the dead. - The "Dark Elves" of Svartalfheim aren't, in fact, classic Dark Elves. Instead, they're a faction of the Alfar as a whole who, under their leader, Malekith the Accursed, weren't content with being second to Asgard. They felt that they should be at the top of Yggdrasil and leading/ruling the Nine Realms, which they intended to rearrange by force. Considering their power (they were more or less on par with Asgard) and that Malekith had the Aether a.k.a. the Reality Stone, they came dangerously close to succeeding, and the only way they could be stopped was by pounding Svartalfheim a.k.a. 'the Dark World' flat, resulting in a ruined Death World from orbit. - At least some survived, with dissidents fleeing Malekith's purges and some of Malekith's surviving supporters both escaping to other realms, primarily Earth. The former have a small but respected nation in the Nevernever (Faerie) and are noted to have evolved to become something much more like the Fae than they were originally. It's uncertain whether any of the latter are still around (or what happened to them), but Word of God has implied that Malekith is both alive and \|\|better known these days as Oberon\|\|. - There are also the Sidhe, the humanoid aristocracy of the Seelie (Summer) and Unseelie (Winter) Courts of Faerie, as well as independent lesser 'Wyldfae' Courts. Classic examples of The Fair Folk, they're not related to the Alfar (except for the Svartalves of Faerie, who emigrated). Instead, they were a subspecies of humanity (hinted to be the Denisovans) that entered Faerie several hundred thousand years ago, and their population is supported by/includes changelings, humans who have a fae parent. Thanks to their uniquely close relationship with magic, they're vulnerable to iron, specialise in glamour and illusions, can't lie but specialise in manipulating, and are very interested in deals based on Equivalent Exchange. They're also extremely dangerous — even the nice ones have a raging case of Blue-and-Orange Morality. - There are also House Elves, though they're a variety of lesser Fae. - The God Empress of Ponykind: In The Warmistress of Equestria, the deer are Expies of the Eldar in many respects, primarily in schemes and haughtiness. - It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door: - The Deer of the Shimmerwood serve as the story's stand-ins for Tolkienian elves. They're aloof guardians of the forest who speak in riddles, come from an ancient civilization, and use powerful magic. Other deer appear in Besides the Will of Evil, the sequel, many of them still having their haughtiness from before the big war with the Big Bad. The deer and ponies occasionally butt heads when the released Big Bad causes strife. - The Pronghorn, whose horns are functionally similar to those of unicorns. The first pronghorn introduced, Niles Nigellus, is a polite, smooth-talking and well-traveled charmer who offers Dash the chance to realize one of her greatest dreams, learning how to master lighting, by guiding her through the Dreaming. - The Night Unfurls: Due to the story's Low Fantasy elements, the depiction of elves is more mundane compared to how they are usually depicted. Putting the Pointy Ears and the immensely long lifespan aside, elves are hardly any different than humans. Notably, the "smugness" factor is absent, and not every elf is depicted as in tune with magic note : e.g., Grace, who becomes an Action Survivor at one point; and Chloe, who uses daggers and archery. Variety-wise, dark elves as a whole are more intertwined with the plot than the other two groups (high elves and half-elves). At first glance, these elves live in Garan, a Mordor located in the Grim Up North. They are also more fluent in the sibilant tongue of Garan, which sounds like "the whisperings of a murderer at the bedside of a dead man" (in other words, a Black Speech -esque language). Closer inspection reveals that dark elves tend to get the short end of the stick. For centuries, they have faced enslavement by human slavers, as well as orc attacks from chieftains (all the more ironic when the dark elves and the orcs are teamed together). The former part serves as the catalyst for the Forever War between the South and the North, with Olga the Dark Elf Queen as a core belligerent. Alas, this only caused the dark elves to be seen more negatively, worsening the Fantastic Racism between dark elves and humanity. Really puts the "contemporary" depiction of dark elves (the grim-dark elements) in a different light. - Power Rangers GPX: Played with, where elves are the antagonists. They're not evil per se, but are very xenophobic and arrogant, and the author compares their society to Imperial Japan. There are, however, genuinely nice elves, some of whom \|\|live among humans\|\|, and others who are more in the gray area. In other words, they're just as varied as Tolkien's elves, albeit more "humanized". Still, they're given something of a Doing In the Wizard treatment, but still have a mystical, if realistic, element about them. However, as the story goes on, and a few rewrites were made, the setup is heavily deconstructed. The elves' sense of their own superiority allows them to be manipulated by elven supremacist Ragnar, who overthrows the government and installs a fascistic military dictatorship bent on exterminating humanity. - Still Waters Series: The elves of Mundus Magicus live for several centuries and tend to have a good grasp of magic, warfare, or anything else they do, simply because they've been doing it for so long. They can be incredibly stubborn and slow to adapt at times, but they aren't stupid; if presented with good evidence against an already decided course of action, they have no problem changing their minds. - With Strings Attached: In general, elves are just another race of humans, not a separate species. The only "elfy" traits they share with elves from other works are that they have fine features and pointy ears. And in Ketafa they're second-class citizens and treated like crap. - Onward: The elves shown have the standard Pointy Ears, but they also have blue hair and skin. - Strange Magic: The elves are only half the size of the fairies, who are themselves small enough to ride squirrels as mounts. They come across as the lower class to the fairies as they live in ramshackle looking homes, dress in dirty working clothes even at festivals, and are ruled by a Fairy King. The elves are dark-skinned and the fairies are light skinned. - Avatar: The Na'vi are blue-skinned, pointy-eared, lithe cat people who live in tune with nature, tame wild beasts, have an innate link with the spirit of their world, and shoot six-foot long arrows to impale helicopter pilots. Despite the science fiction aspects of the film, they're a lot more Wood Elf than Space Elf. - Bright: Elves are superior in every way to other races, have the highest number of Brights among them and are said to manipulate society into their favor, which leads to humans and orcs resenting them as pompous and privileged snobs. In addition, their fighting prowess, superhuman strength, speed and immortality makes them look like horror monsters compared to other species. - The Dark Crystal: Jen and Kira are the sole-surving members of an elf-like race called the Gelfings. They also appear different from each other with Jen having tan skin and black hair with some blue coloration on his forehead, ears, and hair while Kira having pale skin and blonde hair. - Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Prince Nuada and his kin are elves, but play up The Fair Folk angle a lot more, hence the folkloric names. Nuada himself is possessed of semi-psychic abilities and incredible grace and poise, and despite being half his size can run rings around Hellboy himself in combat (when Hellboy is drunk, anyway, as he does a lot better sober). - The Lord of the Rings: The movies adapt Tolkien's Wood Elves into High Elves, instead of the other way around which is more common in pop culture adaptations. Perhaps because, as the director repeatedly said, he wanted to emphasize just how badass the elves were — even the less technologically advanced, more in tune with nature types. The Hobbit shifts away from this somewhat. In it, Thranduil is portrayed more like a proud (or arrogant) High Elf who belittles someone of lesser stock, while in truth, the only High Elf in the region was Galadriel — although the pride of the Royal House of the Sindar would legitimately give Thranduil reason to be proud. But by the time of The Hobbit, the only High Elves left in Middle Earth are Galadriel, Elrond, Glorfindel and the Elves in Rivendell and some in the Grey Havens. The rest in Mirkwood and Lórien are either Sindar, Silvan (the most rustic of Elves) or a combination of the two. - Thor: The Dark World: The Dark Elves are a combination of their namesake and Space Elves. They existed before light came to the universe and have ships and weapons that run on Magitek while maintaining their proud stature and honor. - Underworld (2003): The Nordic Coven is a vampire bloodline with elf-like characteristics. They live in a secluded fortress, strongly resemble elves physically and have straight-up magical powers unlike anything normal vampires possess. They do avert having unnatural beauty (while most members have Mystical White Hair, their leader is a plain-looking Cool Old Guy) and lack elves' arrogance. In fact, they are extremely kind and friendly in contrast to most vampires, but with that said Beware the Nice Ones also happens to be their hat, since while pacifistic, they can kill you in a blink of an eye. - Alliance Elves come in several flavors, though they still vary wildly from chapter to chapter. - Stone Elves who tend to be The Stoic, and have control over emotions, both their own and others. Logical and emotionless, they see reason above all. All white skin with typical elf ears. - Elves, the generic version, differ from chapter to chapter. You have your standard Wild, High and Tribal elves, mixed in with Sand and Willow elves. Different markings, mannerisms and histories separate them. The race as a whole gets the Archery skill at half cost. - Dark Elves are your typical Drow-esque elven race. Always Chaotic Evil and black skin with white hair. - Mystic Wood Elves are more Fae than Elf but still have the Elven ears. Typically more promiscuous and are big fans of parties and revelry. MWE's for short, they also have a pair of horns and are able to resist command spells. - NERO elves come in six varieties: - Quentari, your basic High Elves. - Wood Elves. - Wild Elves who are a more Proud Warrior Race/Noble Savage version of Wild Elves and who have a special relationship with wolves. - Stone Elves who have Chalk white skin, and are usually divided into ones of two class types, Scholar or Fighter. They are also the most likely to fall into the Dark Elf stereotype. - Mystic Wood Elves, a hybrid between elves and satyrs/nymphs who have horns, are a race of EthicalSluts (both reasons why they're often referred to as "the horny elves") and tend to be Trickster types. - Drae/Vornae. Despite looking like D&D Drow they are not Dark Elves but rather have a culture very much like samurai Japan. No one except them are quite sure about the Drae/Vornae divide as they look and generally act exactly alike except that the Vornae seem to be the higher caste. - Age of Fire: The elves are one of the least explored races, but the ones seen mostly fall into the "wood elf" category. The biggest difference between them and other races is that they have plant life that gathers in their hair, which often contains flowers, leaves, thorns or other such things, and their children tend to be stillborn. - Alterien: The Alteriens are similar to elves in appearance. In addition, they have many abilities that could be perceived as magic. They can, for example, fly, teleport, time travel, manipulate energy and see possible futures. - Artemis Fowl: Elves, one of the main families of fairies, are pure Space Elf even though they live underground, as they carry plasma rifles and their wings are nuclear-powered. They're never taller than a human adolescent, but beyond that there are fat ones, sweaty ones, ones with skin problems (on those pointy ears, no less), a lot of foul-mouthed ones and facial hair. They're often used as the "default" species of fairy in the books. - The Arts of Dark and Light: Elves are an Inhumanly Beautiful Race with innate magical abilities, extreme longevity and otherwise fairly typical fantasy traits, though with some exceptions. They live in more or less normal societies, though with social norms closer to 21st-century "Western" standards than anyone else in Selenoth, such as greater equality between the sexes. There are some bits of "uncanny valley" weirdness about them; for example, the sound of their laughter strikes humans as oddly disturbing. Also, magic is a Virgin Power for female elves. - The Banned and the Banished: Elves fit most closely into the High Elf motif, but they live in a flying city supported by the Air-based magic of all the people. They fly to war in similarly supported flying ships. The captains of which must be strongly magically talented to provide the lift. - Bazil Broketail: There are a few sub-races of elves in the series. All of them share some common traits like the standard long hair, pointed ears, willowy bodies and lack of aging, but other than that, they're all quite different. - First, you've got the wood elves, who sometimes appear as allies to Argonath, but are generally rather aloof and emotionally distant towards the humans. Some live in cities with more mundane lives, though they're still largely in forests. Further, they also have features more like dryads in myths, being born from trees, with their blood smelling like apples. Also by reproducing with humans it would produce an imp, a kind of monster used by the bad guys here. - The High Elves are given a mention somewhere in the series, but they do not appear in person and are not depicted in any way, so we may only assume that they conform to the typical image of Eldar in popular culture. - There are also the Golden Elves (contrary to their name, it's only their eyes that are gold), who are the eldest people on Ryetelth and established probably the first civilization, based in the city of Gelderen. Currently, however, they are a Dying Race, scattered across the world. Some of them, like Althis and Sternwal, are still out there, trying to do some good, but a significant part of their population settled in an enclave of Mirchaz, where, in isolation from the world, they degenerated from the noble and righteous people they used to be into the rotten, amoral and needlessly cruel fantastic racists they are now. - Both Waakzaam and Sinni look basically like overgrown elves, indicating they are progenitors of the race. - Book of Imaginary Beings has them as the strictly fairytale kind. Elves, or alps, are tiny, mischievous beings and rarely seen by people, and cause a great deal of mischief. They steal cattle and children, lie on sleepers' breasts to cause troubled dreams, tie hair into knots and shoot tiny iron arrows that vanish into the skin without a trace and cause sudden painful stitches. - Bordertown has a different type of elf — most onscreen are punked-out and rock-music-loving. However, they are all tall, slender, and silver-haired and -eyed, they are unashamedly magical, and as a race they seem to have a permanent case of incredible arrogance. - Bored of the Rings parodies the original Tolkien kind. Wood elves are tacky low-lives who run tourist traps, and high elves are effectively white trash with delusions of grandeur. - Boundary's Fall: Elves are long-lived, inherently magical, incredibly stealthy and excellent archers. The reason for the latter two traits is because the humans and garu'nah, whom they once enslaved, are much stronger than they are, so being sneaky and not getting into melee is the only way the elves can compete. - A Chorus of Dragons: The vané, or vorfelané in full, are essentially elves by another name. They're immortal, highly magical humanoids whose civilizations long predate humanity, and mostly live in forests and jungles. They are divided between the more passive, pale-skinned Kirpis vané of the northern forests, whose homelands have been conquered by the Empire of Quur, and the more warlike and hostile Manol vané of the equatorial jungles, who were the only force capable of halting Quur's expansionistic advance. Notably, their immortality isn't a strictly unique traits — all of the humanoid races were immortal to begin with; the vané happen to be the only one to have retained its immortality. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: - The true elves are nowhere to be seen in the saga itself but ruled the Emerged World in the past, until the humans and gnomes came and took over. The elves left for unknown lands, and have not been seen by the people of the Emerged World since. Little is known about them as a result, but they are commonly believed to have been a perfect people and beloved by the gods, and that they ruled the Emerged World in an era of unity and peace. - The humans and elves, in the time during which they shared the Emerged World, mingled to create a new species, the half-elves. Little is known about them either, as the Tyrant killed nearly all of them, except that they had pointy ears, blue hair and purple eyes, that they were skilled astronomers, and that they ruled the Land of Days before the Tyrant's time. - Chronicles of the Raven: The elves come in several different flavors, but special mention must go to the Tai Gethen, an elite order of religious warriors who protect the jungles of Calaius from intruders (even though most people die within days of entering anyway). They will hunt you down like prey, only to kick your teeth through the back of your head with one foot, crush your throat with the other, and then spin around in mid air and stab you in the eye just for good measure. - Codex Alera: The Marat are graceful, white-haired humanoids who are mildly telepathic and live in harmony with nature — not strictly wood-elves, but they fill the same basic niche. They form lifelong bonds with individual animals at puberty, and before this point have eyes that shimmer in every color — after bonding, their eyes settle into the same shade as their partner creature's. It's worth noting, though, that while they're presented as being morally superior to the human Alerans in some ways (notably, the Alerans keep slaves, which the Marat find abhorrent), in others they can be a remarkably savage people (cannibalism is fairly common). - Confederation of Valor has the Taykans, who at least physically are Space Elves (except for their technicolor hair)... but instead of being magical or building crystal spires, they're a race of EthicalSluts. - Council Wars: The Elves are a race genetically engineered as Super Soldiers in a long-ago war — ageless, superhuman in all physical characteristics, and made to look like hot pointy-eared chicks because, well, they could. They are protected by genetic copyright laws which say that no human can have their powers and appearance, and only Elves are allowed to live in Alfheim. (Ironically, Alfeim has become an overcrowded housing project because all elves crave the honor of living there, and since they don't die, the population just goes up and up. Or so our semi-reliable source says). There are two variants of Elves. Most of the elves were made in North America and are tall, elegant and dignified and basically fill the High Elf role. Bast is quite a bit shorter, has a wicked sense of humor, was a prototype made in Japan and is basically a Wood Elf. Or as she puts it, she's a cheap Japanese knockoff. - The Death Gate Cycle has several variations: - The Tribus elves of Arianus are essentially Dark Elves — a corrupt and decadent empire ruled by cutthroat politics and sinister magic, who rule tyrannically over the dwarves and used to do the same over the humans before the latter rebelled. However, they weren't always like this, and Prince Rees'ahn is an elf who leads a rebellion against the current regime in the hope of restoring the earlier ideals. - The Equilan elves of Pryan are the most human-like, being essentially Victorian English with long lifespans, pointy ears and magic, complete with the condescendingly racist attitudes towards every other culture and nation. - The Elmas elves of Chelestra are more of a benign version of The Fair Folk. They can be very, very odd, and most humans and dwarves have little understanding of (or patience with) their culture, but they are deeply devoted to peace and harmony and are explicitly stated to have found a level of wisdom that their cousins on the other worlds did not. - In an inversion of how this trope is usually played, the elves (whose magic is mostly suited to making Magitek and enchanted objects) are generally less attuned to the natural world than the humans (who instead tend towards elemental and mental magic) are: it's a great irritation for the Tribus elves that they cannot replicate the magic humans use to tame and ride dragons, while the humans of Pryan are better farmers than the Equilan elves, who have yet to master basic crop rotation and are dependent on food imports from human lands. - However, the race that picks up most of the "ancient, magical, arrogant and self-righteous" High Elf stereotypes aren't elves at all; this particular elven niche is filled by the human-derived Sartan, who look down on elves just as much as they do humans and dwarves. - Demonwars: The elves craft weapons of incredible power, make magic items vastly beyond the ken of other races (a healing bandanna of theirs keeps a centaur alive after he's crushed in a cave-in), and appear to be the only Good race to possess souls (this is implied to be false). - Deverry: Back in ancient days, all elves were "high" elves of various carefully controlled and observed ranks, while enslaved humans did all the dirty work. Then the Horsekin happened. - Some elves fled by ships, reaching distant islands and preserving High Elf culture. They're briefly mentioned as still being hung up on rank and class. Those who don't like it \|\|are returning to the homelands by the end of the series\|\|. - Some fled to the plains, becoming the not-always-distant ancestors of the Westfolk, the best-known elves in the Deverry Cycle. They are the plains equivalent of the forest elves, living in relative harmony with nature, divided into several nomadic groups, and while they have swordmen (and women), their best known weapon is the longbow. \|\|Thanks to culture shift, advancement, and changes in the human kingdoms, their way of life is ending and merging with the returning high elves by the end of the series.\|\| - Small groups of survivors fled anyway and where they could, and founded tiny settlements well away from the Horsekin. They're only introduced near the end of the series, and the readers only meet one member. He describes them as living from the sea, but preserving the memories of old. - Discworld: Elves are based on legends of The Fair Folk, making for a race of Always Chaotic Evil fantastical sociopaths. They live in a parallel universe to the Disc called Fairyland and periodically enter the main universe to abduct people and spread mayhem. They're unable to understand basic concepts like love or empathy, and can only relate to other beings by causing them misery and spreading chaos. The euphemisms for elves are used because Speak of the Devil, and they shall appear. "The Fair Folk", "The Lords and Ladies" and "The Gentry". - Dragaera has the Dragaerans. They stand an average of seven feet tall and have lifespans exceeding 1,000 years. They have slender builds and do not grow facial hair. The race was created when the Jenoine combined human stock with various animals to create various strains, which organized into Houses of the Dragaeran Empire. Some of these strains have pointed ears, though not all. Interestingly, they refer to themselves as humans and practice Fantastic Racism towards actual humans, whom they refer to as "Easterners." In some areas, they're called "elfs" and call humans "dwarfs." - Dragonlance gives us Tanis (half-elf, reject), as well as the Qualinesti (High Elves) and extremely stratified, isolationist Silvanesti (Grey Elves), the latter of whom are incredibly arrogant and xenophobic. This comes to hurt them after their refusal to seek help from the other races, and the Qualinesti, causes their country to become magically entrapped in a horrific nightmare-made-real. Later books also introduce the Kagonesti (Wood Elves as Noble Savages). There is also Dalamaar the Dark Elf (which in Dragonlance isn't a race so much as individual elves being exiled from the elven nations), who's just as arrogant and haughty as the other elves, but also evil. Elves generally seem to the collective Butt-Monkey of the Dragonlance setting: Qualinesti was invaded twice inside thirty years, occupied for forty years and then destroyed by a green dragon. Silvanesti was turned into a nightmare realm by a (different) green dragon, was "protected" by a magical shield that turned out to be sucking out the life force of all the Elves and was then invaded and colonized by the minotaurs. Currently, both elven kingdoms are in exile led (in a satisfying bit of irony) by the part human son of the despised Tanis. - Dungeon Crawler Carl: The original elves are high elves, and the many "sub-races" are offshoots who are exiled from the high elves, sometimes for a good reason but usually not. It's implied that there's little to no actual genetic variance between the races. The high elves exile or genocide anyone who strays from their view of "correct" elves, which results in a lot of offshoots. Mordecai: That's what happens when you live forever but don't stop having babies. - Dungeon Engineer: Chapter seven mentions elves, which are at least slightly expansionist: Clifford Graham: Unofficially, its territory denial for the Elven Collective. - Eccentric Circles: Aelvirum is careful to point out that he's an elf, not a fairy. He explains that his current condition stems from J. R. R. Tolkien Rewriting Reality. - Elantris: Elantrians were, before their fall to a mysterious disease, tall, slender, beautiful and literally radiant with a monopoly on magic and lived in a city of Crystal Spires and Togas. This is explicitly because they are regular humans who've been enhanced by some very complex magic. In fact, humans are periodically transformed into new Elantrians, and this is implied to be the main source of Elantris' inhabitants. - The Elric Saga: The Melniboneans are a mix of High Elf, Dark Elf, Decadent Empire on the Wane, and The Fair Folk, although they do bear more obvious similarities to several societies' deities — intentionally. The trope is zigzagged a good deal more with the other sub-series in the Champion Eternal Cycle, with different branches/versions of the Eldren in other dimensions (including the Vadhagh, Corum's people, who are classic High Elves) shown mostly according to this trope, while still having a strong hint of The Fair Folk to them. Additionally, the Melniboneans barely live longer than the standard human (Elric's father Sadric, died of natural causes) - the Melniboneans are seen as a branch of proto-Eldren, they are Chaos-corrupted offshoot of the mainline of elder people that'd become the Long-Lived Eldren. - The Elven Ways series by Jenna Rhodes: The Vaelinar (the elves of the series) are largely of the High Elf variety. The Vaelinar are members of two opposing armies of an alien race that arrived on the world of Kerith, after being hit with a magical weapon known as "The Hammer of War". These alien elves have all the physical characteristics of the High Elf sort (though they appear to be physically stronger than humans) and many possess innate magical talents. The elves have carved a prominent place in the world for several reasons — they have a monopoly on magic when the gods of Kerith removed it from the native races, they were more advanced technologically, and due to the alienness of their nature — the elves can use summon magic to coerce the gods of Kerith (something the gods of their old world were almost immune to). The only reasons they haven't conquered Kerith is their small infertile population and their desire to return their original dimension. Elven superiority goes up a notch in the final 2 books, it turns out that the Elven gods are all previously mortal elves who were powerful enough to achieve apotheosis and are more than a match for any Kerith god. This leads to a race against time to prevent an invasion by the Elves of the original Vaelinar homeworld. - Factory of the Gods: Elves are called Aelifs and, in addition to standard elf traits, have sonar and can leap like grasshoppers. - Long-predating Tolkien, the elfes in The Faerie Queene are established as a powerful race associated with womanly beauty, old magick, and great wisdom owing to their creation and enlightenment by Prometheus. In practice, though, the act just like humans. They wear armor, ride horses, succumb to sin, and partake in bloody duels reminiscent of medieval warfare. - Falling With Folded Wings: Ardeni are blue-skinned humanoids with extremely colorful hair, as well as proficiency in both magic and hunting. They fit the classic "forest elf" stereotype reasonably well. - The Faraway Paladin has mainly wood elves. According to their Creation Myth, the elves were originally fae of wind and earth who became enamored of humans, so Rhea Silvia, goddess of the wildlands, gave them Long-Lived humanoid bodies by request. The elves see themselves as stewards of the forest and can train to become Genius Loci "Lords of the Wood" rather than dying. Furthermore, unlike other versions, they do eat meat and cut trees: keeping a forest healthy means removing sick trees and keeping animal populations in check, and their famed archery skills are a result of their hunting tradition. This makes them excellent defensive guerrilla fighters: Blood once told Will that getting in a fight with an elf in the forest is suicide. Will meets a half-elf hunter and mercenary named Meneldor in volume 2 who becomes his best friend, then in volume 4 he meets the local equivalent of the elves of Mirkwood: a dying village whose forest was turned into a poisonous bog by the miasma of the foul-dragon Valacirca, who conquered the underground dwarf city bordering them during the demon invasion 200 years earlier. - The Forbidden Towers, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book in the Fantasy Forest series, elves can live for hundreds of years, jump really high/far, "disappear" (teleport), and by quickly rubbing their thumb across their other fingers create the "elven spark" — a tiny bolt of electricity which can stun small enemies and start fires. It's not really clear how well they get along with humans, though some creatures do apparently like to eat elves in particular. - Forest of Boland Light Railway: The wood elves are known as Cowsies, and help the gnomes drive the goblins out of the forest. In gratitude the elves get to ride the train for free. - Garrett, P.I.: - Dark elves don't live underground, are nihilists, and dress like they just walked out of the medieval edition of GQ. Morley Dotes, the protagonist's sort-of-friend, fits the half-elf trope minus the low self-esteem, as he's half dark elf and has inherited several levels of badass from his elven side (multiclassing in Chick Magnet). - High elves stick with their image, including being bigoted against their own half-elven offspring. Seldom seen in the novels, they're a bunch of uptight snobs, albeit more middle-class than "noble". - Green Rider has the Elt or Eletians, elves in all but name. They're incredibly arrogant and very conscious of how much innate magic they have compared to humans. On occasion, though, the human characters will call them on it—and on how unhelpful they can be when the fate of the world is at stake. The trope is also subverted when \|\|the villain of the first book is an Eletian gone bad\|\|. - ' The Gods of Mars provides the blueprint for most Dark Elves (most specifically, Dungeons & Dragons' drow elves) with the Black Martians, or "First-Born of Mars", a race of dark-skinned pirates who live in an Underground City at their planet's south pole, where they worship an evil goddess, Issus, who demands mass sacrifice from Mars' other races. One First-Born officer, Xodar, begins to suspect that Issus is a fraud, and teams up with the heroes to bring her down, which means that yes, there have been Drizzt clones before there was a Drizzt. - Harry Potter: The House Elves are ugly, diminutive humanoids who serve a Slave Race to wizards and are perfectly happy with this. They rather more closely fit the description of brownies or some of the earlier legends of kobolds, though; they're called elves, but they're not really elves as this particular trope page describes them. - The Hollows: Elves are a large departure from the usual depiction. They look much like humans (though some crop their ears to blend in) and only live a couple of centuries as opposed to the typical near immortality. They are a little faster and stronger than humans, and while they can use magic, this is not unique to their race nor are they any better at it than any other. However, some practice what is called "wild magic", which comes from gods and is unpredictable but powerful. They pass as 'old money' humans to blend into society and maintain the remnants of feudalism. In fact, they have a lot of human blood thanks to interbreeding to try to stave off extinction due to genetic damage that causes a high infant mortality rate. They lack the connection to nature most other types of elves have, but in an interesting example of Post-Modern Magik, they are heavily invested in illegal genetic engineering technology, as they seek to repair their genome. - Halkara in I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, apart from being a competent businesswoman and ditzy alcoholic, has no combat or magical skills usually associated with Elves. She carries no bow and would probably shoot herself in the foot if she tried to use one, and her only ability that can be said as elven is her ability to recognize plants and make medicine. Halkara is also the curviest, largest-breasted character in the main party, contrary to the usual image of elves as slender and androgynous. Later, when Azusa and her Family of Choice visit the Elven homeland, the Elves are found to live in built-up, almost urban areas with a highly developed mass transit system. Elves work at everyday jobs and seem to have very few threats or reasons to be armed and adventurous. (And Halkara's mom turns out to have even larger breasts). - Inheritance Cycle: The elves are vegetarian, atheist, and possess superhuman physical strength and speed that allows them to best the most well-trained humans. They are every bit as arrogant and elitist as expected, view humans as too corruptible to be trusted with power and the dwarves as misguided zealots who, because they believe in gods, must surely be idiots who ignore all reason and logic. They're also masters of deception, and while they never actually lie, they are known for never revealing the whole truth, or saying something but meaning something different. Eragon briefly adopts their vegetarian lifestyle, but relents on it in the next book, and rejects their notions of atheism altogether. In the third book, a being that may have been one of the dwarf gods appears, implying that the elves may be wrong about that particular belief. They also consider humans primitive and brutish, while they rely on innate (read: primitively instinctual) magic to beat the humans' siege engines, crossbows, and superior forging (the elf weapons are only "better" because they are imbued with spells and such). - Iron Elves: There are the elves of the Long Watch, who bond at birth with trees called Siver Oaks, some to the point where they become functionally insane and eventually lapse into catatonia. Then there are Iron Elves, who are born with black ear tips, cannot bond with trees but, unlike the elves of the Long Watch can use iron. Originally such elves were left exposed to die, where they were scooped up and recruited by the Black Monarch. There are also the Elfkynan who live on the other side of the Cahlaran Empire, look like Long Watch elves and, except for the tree bonding act like them but neither they nor the Long Watch consider them elves. - Janus: The Iftin are both Space Elves — they are (or rather, were) the original native intelligent species of the planet Janus — and Wood Elves. They were wiped out long before the arrival of human colonists, but set traps to create changelings so that their race would continue. Messing with any of the traps causes the person handling it to fall ill with the Green Sick, after which one is physically Iftin — green-skinned, pointy-eared, and bald — and carries some memories of an original Ift person, generally those memories geared toward survival skills, such as recognizing edible plants. The Janus novels play the trope straight — the traps cause the victims to become xenophobic toward their former kind; they theorize that this was at least partly intended to keep them from trying to resume their former lives. - Jerlayne by Lynn Abbey: Elves are mainly Heinz Hybrids of human and goblin (goblins look like a traditional Dark Elf, so it's easy for them to get game). They were deliberately birthed by the goblin queen to be labour (and occasionally livestock). Elves are encouraged by their goblin masters to breed so the local ecosystem can get something to fill a niche (an elf mating with an elf leads to random creatures). Elves go into our world to scavenge junk (only Elves can handle raw iron and only female Elves can render iron inert for safe handling by other races of that dimension), this is more dangerous in the 20th century due to the increased number of muggers. Female elves also come over occasionally to mate with humans (elves can only be consistently born when an elf mates with a human who has some elven ancestry). Elven immortality is only a side-effect of living in another dimension, and a human living there gets the same effect. - The Kingston Cycle: The Amaranthine are ageless, powerfully magical, and so beautiful that their un-Glamoured appearance is a Brown Note to humans. Moreover, they live in the human afterlife and are believed to be the endowed servants of the Makers, so their Grand Duchess holds authority over any earthly monarch. Fortunately for humans, they rarely involve themselves in mortal affairs. - The Laundry Files: The alfär are advanced alternate-universe hominid descendants of gracile australopithecines, who are depicted as a cross between The Fair Folk and modern-fantasy "dark elves". Compared to humans, their evolutionary past is as more solitary hunters, leading them to have a viciously Might Makes Right society in which everybody is bound to their superiors by terrifyingly powerful geasa. They are naturally better at magic than humans, but as a result never developed beyond Middle Ages technology. \|\|They invade Earth after their homeworld suffers a magical apocalypse.\|\| - Light and Dark: The Awakening of the Mage Knight: Downplayed. The elves aren't arrogant and don't look down on others, but if a human asks how they heard something or recovered so fast the elf will be quick to respond that their hearing is better and their bodies respond better to magical healing. - The Long Earth: "Elf" is the designation Lobsang gives to several types of sapient primate apparently evolved from chimpanzees. They're slender and lightly furred, with faces (depending on which subspecies) of varying degrees of mixed features of human and chimp. One is apparently entirely bestial, another of about Neolithic level of technology, and the third has the most human features and a larger braincase. Despite this, the third type is actually the least intelligent subset and is sometimes bred and used by the other elves as cattle. All can travel between the alternate Earths that make up the Long Earth and are the source of stories both of elves and more recently of The Greys. - Loyal Enemies: The elves of Ash Grove are pointy-eared humanoids who can interbreed with humans. They're usually slimmer-built, stronger, more agile and longer-lived than humans and are absolutely convinced of their superiority over other races — a sentiment that said other races don't really share, calling the elves derogatively "the pointy-eared ones". Those living in Ash Grove utilize some kind of nature magic centered around an artefact known as the Staff of Fertility to make their city look like it grew naturally. - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: For the most part, the elves of Alfheim are very unimpressive. They're mortal, not at all graceful or particularly beautiful (some of them are so weird-looking that they're the In-Universe inspiration behind The Greys), aren't in tune with nature at all, and haven't been able to use magic for centuries. They're also every bit as prejudiced and intolerant as humans, if not more so as they can't stand things that aren't "perfect". This has made life hell for Hearthstone, who having been born deaf was seen as imperfect by his parents, which marked him as The Un-Favourite. Despite not being any better than the other races in the series, they still think they're naturally superior to everyone else for some reason, something Magnus, Hearthstone, and pretty much everyone else in the nine worlds thinks is a load of crap. - Majyk By Accident has the Welfies, kind of a cross between elf and fairy. In Welfie society, males are tall and willowy with the long blond hair and the pointy ears but are expert archers and rangers. How they hide in the woods wearing sequin-encrusted pink leotards is anybody's guess. Welfie warriors (a male-only occupation) are the only tribesmen allowed to eat meat besides the elders. Welfie elders communicate only psionically. All Welfies can change their size and do so as a matter of fashion. When they're small, they live in mushrooms and housing shortages are created when tall Welfies are a la mode. Female Welfies are expected to remain subservient and "foot it fleetly upon the merry greensward, ho" whilst gathering flowers and moonbeams and generally being all pretty and stuff. Some of them resent this. - Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Tiste are basically elves minus the pointy ears. As a general rule, they are taller than humans, more slender, more beautiful, long-lived and can look back on an ancient civilization. They are also a massive deconstruction, alien to the realm of the Malazan Empire and perceived as such. Also, neither Tiste people is known for any kind of crafts or archery. There are, however, half-bloods where they have interbred with humans. The particular types are: - Tiste Andii, the Children of Darkness, or Drow Expies. Black-skinned and white-, black- or red-haired, the Andii are a clear case of Dark Is Not Evil. If not for Anomander Rake finding causes for them to fight for, they would also probably all die of ennui, as their long lives have made them apathetic to everything. Ironically, their main group — Anomander Rake's followers — live in a floating castle, Moon's Spawn, while the remnants of Silchas Ruin's followers, the Andii of Bluerose, do live in an Underground City, but have interbred with humans so much there are only a handful of pure Andii left. - The Tiste Edur, the Children of Shadow, or Wood Elves. Ruthless isolationists living in forest villages in a cold northern climate and following a rigid hierarchy, having mostly forgotten their history after the disappearance of their leader, Father Shadow. They think they are better than everyone else, but are seen as barbaric by others and looked down upon by both the Andii and the Liosan. Grey-skinned and brown- or red-haired. - The Tiste Liosan, the Children of Light, or High Elves. That's what they think they are, but anyone who has ever encountered one agrees that Light Is Not Good and one Can't Argue with Elves. They are the most isolationist of the three Tiste peoples, living in their own realm and looking down their noses at everyone else. They are also, despite their posturing, the least effective in combat. White-skinned and silver- or gold-haired. - M.C.A. Hogarth: A couple of series deconstruct elves: - The Blood Ladders: Elves are immortal not only in the sense of never aging, but they also have a Healing Factor that means most Duels to the Death among them involve chopping each other up and burning the pieces. They're also inherently magical but as they get older more and more of their magic gets tied up in maintaining their immortality, with few exceptions such as the King and Prince. And the human kingdoms drove them out centuries ago because they have a habit of enslaving humans and draining magic from them so they all live on one hidden island ruled by a bunch of petty feudal lords who are constantly warring with each other. - Paradox: The Eldritch don't have pointy ears, but they are very tall and thin, can live for over a thousand years, and have Psychic Powers. They're also dying out from a combination of a low birth rate \|\|a side effect of the genetic engineering that caused their longevity, they're really a Lost Colony of humans\|\|, medieval medical technology that kills many of them in childhood, and inbreeding. They are allied with the highly advanced Alliance but most of the noble Houses are too xenophobic to accept their help. - Mercedes Lackey: - The Halfblood Chronicles: The elves aren't native to the series' world, as they fled there through a portal from a magical civil war in their own world against another species. They're much stronger and more magically adept than humans — although they cannot use the Psychic Powers humans can develop — and the first thing these refugees did was to conquer the nearby human kingdoms, set themselves up as all-powerful overlords, and indoctrinate all humans until they believed they'd always been slaves. They're extremely arrogant, and hate each other as much as any other race and fight one another, mostly over power. They're also fading from the world as it's hard for an elven lord to find a bride he approves of, and they're slowly breeding themselves out of existence. Half-Human Hybrids are possible, and have both the magic of the elves' and the humans' telepathy. - The Obsidian Trilogy: The Elves have a lifespan on average of a thousand years, which has allowed them to develop an acute eye for detail and perfect various crafts. It's also allowed them to develop a rigid form of etiquette that humans often find infuriating (a key taboo is asking questions in any form, save in times of war). Lampshaded when the main character begins to get snarky about mentioning their perfection. Also, the elves don't have much magic, since they traded it for "peace and long lives". - SERR Ated Edge features classic versions of High Elves (tall, pointed ears, magical, immortal) who incidentally drive race cars. They must have needed a little extra badass. - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: The Sithi and their cousins the Norns are pretty archetypical elves, despite that term never being used for them. They're virtually immortal (it's said that a Sitha lives until something kills them or they get tired of life — they do seem to eventually reach a point where old age starts getting to them, but it takes millennia, and only the Norn Queen — the oldest of either race by a fair margin — actually shows visible signs of aging), powerfully magical note : though like Tolkien's Elves, they're not very comfortable with that word and not overly fond of mortals note : though in most cases this is less about being snobby and more about the fact that certain mortals tried their hardest — and nearly succeeded — in committing genocide on them. They're also very alien by human standards, which seems like a combination of vast cultural differences, their long lives giving them an eerily long-term perspective, and the fact that most humans are pretty terrible at reading Sithi body language. The Sithi are a mix of High Elf and Wood Elf traits, and are generally benevolent, if isolationist; the Norns are arctic Dark Elves and extremely nasty customers — while the Sithi aren't exactly fond of humanity, the Norns think the only good human is a dead human. - Mick Oberon: The Aes Sidhe are basically High Elves, although in their real forms they're not overly tall, and Mick isn't that good looking. Other than that, though, he's stronger, tougher, longer-lived, more perceptive, more magical, and more pretty much everything else than humans, and never lets you forget it, either. - Monster Hunter International: The elves live in the Enchanted Forest, a backcountry trailer park in rural Mississippi where they stay because the government pays them to not cause any trouble with the humans, and Queen Ilrondelia fits every white trash stereotype to a sickening degree. They do have a strong innate knowledge of magic and they're one of Harbinger's biggest go-tos when dealing with strange otherworldly phenomena, but their personalities tend to grate pretty quickly. On the other hand, later books off-handedly mention that the elves who live in Europe fit the standard High Elf stereotypes more, though it's also mentioned Tolkien might have exaggerated a little about them. They're both still pretty damn high-and-mighty about themselves, however. - My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister has dark elves, which are a blend of the Norse dark elves and the elves from English folklore. The "better" part of this trope is subverted, as they aren't all that different from humans. Aside from a longer lifespan, their only other advantages are some minor supernatural abilities (though these can still be very effective in a fight). They can interbreed with humans to produce part-elven offspring. - Nightrunner has the Aurënfaie. For all practical purposes they are elves in terms of having very long lifespans, innate aptitude for magic and an isolationist homeland. However, other than being a race of Bishōnen, they are indistinguishable from humans unless one is familiar with them. Also, rather than having a single monolithic culture, within their (fairly large) homeland they are divided into clans with very different cultural sub-groups. This is lampshaded by the Aurënfaie protagonist Seregil when another character finally figures out (based on overheard conversations) what Seregil is and is surprised. Seregil: You seemed to think we were all great mages or nectar-sipping fairie folk. - Nine Goblins: Elves are tremendous snobs. Sings To Trees, who's a less glamorous version of a wood elf (he's a friend to all living things, even the ugly ones), doesn't have much truck with the general superior attitude though, finding it hypocritical. - Pale: Elves are mentioned as a point on the spectrum between the "higher" Courts of Faerie and the fairy markets (which are populated by the more diminutive, insectile, and/or butterfly-winged variety). They are generally found in the position of liaison between more human realms and their Fae masters. An additional mention is made of their literature - vast, sprawling epics that would take most humans a majority of their lifetime to read through. - A Practical Guide to Evil: The elves of Golden Bloom are technically aligned with the side of Good to such an absurd degree that they consider basically all non-heroes to be evil scum and are so xenophobic and isolationist that any human who comes close to their kingdom in the Golden Bloom is killed without warning. They are also physically superior to humans, with a small unit of elven troops reportedly able to slaughter battalions of conventional troops with no casualties. The greater whole of the elvish race also goes against the grain of the trope. Rather than being a small, isolated society, they control a massive continent-spanning empire where interbreeding with other races is common. The Elves of the Golden Bloom used to be a part of this empire but they either left or were kicked out for being xenophobic. - Prophecy Approved Companion: Qube, is a half-elf, which means that elves can breed with humans. - Quantum Gravity: Elves' ears reach the tips of their heads—though they do not stick out at any notable angle. They are either immortal, or close enough to it that humans haven't noticed. They can be controlled by their True Names in any realm, and any creature can be controlled by his/her True Name there, though elves are still the most vulnerable. By human standards, everyone is a spy, at least to some extent. The pale hair/skin/eyes holds true \|\|except for shadow elves who are particularly dark at night\|\|. - Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Elves are about the only species of demihumans treated as equals by mages, and sometimes interbreed with them: \|\|Chela\|\| is half-and-half and can take on a fully elven form to increase her spellcasting ability for short periods. Khiirgi "Avarice" Albschuch, a sixth-year aligned to the conservative faction, is the only full-blooded elf character introduced so far, described as extremely pale-skinned as well as an Alpha Bitch (she brags about repeatedly "cucking" another female character during a confrontation in volume 6). - The Relic Guild by Edward Cox: The Aelfir are a bit different than most depictions of elves. They lack many of the usual elven advantages including the longevity and, outside of being typically better at magic and having pointy ears, larger eyes and triangular faces, the Aelfir are much like humans (they have the same lifespan, there are fat and large Aelfir, etc.) What makes the Aelfir superior to humans in the series is that they don't have the usual Elf disadvantages either. In the series' background, there are one million humans but scattered through 100 dimensional kingdoms — there are billions of Aelfir. Barring a few kingdoms that stick to the old ways, Aelfir also don't suffer from Medieval Stasis, and keep advancing their Magitek through laboratories and scientific research — humans actually pay top dollar to steal Aelfir trinkets. To top it off, humanity is stuck being the gate keepers to a giant labyrinth which is both a Land of One City and a Cosmic Keystone, the place has no capacity for agriculture and for the past forty years humanity only survives because of weekly food donations from an unknown Aelfir House. - Realm of the Elderlings: The Elderling combine this with Lizard Folk. They're tall, slender and beautiful and before catastrophe struck lived in a civilization of Crystal Spires and Togas, but they also have scales and claws. This is due to \|\|their having been created from humans as a servant race by dragons.\|\| - The Riftwar Cycle: The elves were originally a single race, kept as slaves by the ancient Dragon Lords. When the Dragon Lords vanished, they split into four groups. The Eledhel descended from the outdoor slaves, and became fairly typical Wood Elves, complete with a Tree Top Town. The house slaves, who worked more closely with their masters, became the Moredhel, surface-dwelling Dark Elves who spend much of their time fighting each other or the other inhabitants of the world. The Eldar, who specialized in skilled or scholarly work, withdrew from the world and became High Elves. A fourth group, the Glamredhel, were driven mad by the disappearance of the Dragon Lords; the final break between the Eledhel and Moredhel came when the latter wage a war of extermination against the Glamredhel. \|\|A small group of surviving Glamredhel are found later on in the story, in a Hidden Elf Village.\|\| - Rogues of the Republic: Nature-loving Magitek cyborgs who might have been human once. They were a servant race of the ancients and helped maintain their machines, but now that the ancients are gone and their technology is not properly maintained, the elves try to stay away from it because the malfunctioning energy has odd effects on the crystals implanted in their bodies. - Second Apocalypse: The Nonmen are the setting's elf-equivalent. They were present in Earwë long before humans arrived. They are impossibly beautiful, but also creepy, with utterly hairless bodies, flawless white skin, faces like porcelain dolls, and teeth that are fused together. They were cursed with immortality and a gendercide, so only adult males are left, and many of them have gone insane due to The Fog of Ages. In spite of or because of all that, individuals can be arrogant, horrific and extraordinarily powerful. - Shannara: The Elves used to be magical and long-lived, but now have human lifespans and are no more likely to have magic or know how to use their ancestors' stuff than anyone else. As a culture they do retain a lifestyle based on respect for the Earth, which makes them the moral center of the Four Lands in some ways, but individuals range from nice to treacherous and from sensible to foolish. - A Song of Ice and Fire: - The Children of the Forest, while certainly quite different in appearance (they're only slightly larger than children, have catlike eyes and skin patterned like deers' coats, and their hands have four fingers tipped with black claws), otherwise fit neatly into the Wood Elf mold, being a reclusive, magical non-human species who once lived throughout the forests of the world but has steadily lost ground to humanity over history, and in the present \|\|endures in a single, highly isolated village\|\|. - Although in the show they're more akin to zombies, in the books the White Walkers are closer to the High Elves; mysterious mystical light-skinned creatures with long white hair. Their females can even seduce men. - Valyrians are counted as humans, but they certainly channel many aspects of high fantasy Elves. No one knows how or why, but they all had silver or platinum-blonde hair, violet or purple eyes and were strikingly beautiful. Their empire, the Valyrian Freehold was an unmatched power in their corner of the world for at least 5,000 years because the people who lived in the area are just naturally gifted at magic, which in this setting is very unusual. The capitol of Valyria was a nexus point of unmatched magical, scientific and metalworking breakthroughs that very few people can even understand let alone imitate. And of course, there was their mastery of dragons including horns that can allegedly bind them to the will of the hornblower. - The Sovereign Stone: As a race, Elves are airy, beautiful, exceptionally polite and gracefully tall. On the other hand, their obsessive dedication to honor, politeness and tradition just serves to hide (and encourage) the incredibly vitriolic relationships between different houses, and between the Divine (spiritual leader of the race) and the Shield of the Divine (military leader) and associated houses, with the end result being that have the entire elven nation is constantly on the verge of an all-out civil war. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: The elves draw much from of their characteristics from Victorian and medieval fairy lore. They are long-lived, capricious, and spend their days idling and partying under their fairy mound homes. In the first series of books, the elves \|\|have Arthur Spiderwick living with them, but his time among them means he has not aged even by a day.\|\| - Spinning Silver: The Staryk are a snow/ice elf variation who live in a snowy other realm connected to-yet-apart from the "sunlit" mortal lands. They function via Exact Words and Blue-and-Orange Morality like most Fair Folk-style elves, but they also cannot leave their kingdom except in winter, and even then only their King and other high nobility can. They also melt when they're injured, have an aversion to heat, and can be healed with magic ice. - Stardust: The inhabitants of Stormhold, who come across as essentially amoral humans with pointed ears — particularly the male rulers, who wear the hat of being a bunch of Evil Princes. - The Sundering: The elves aren't called elves (the name used is Ellylon) but they're this in all but name. It's downplayed in that yes, the Ellyl are ageless, pretty, magical, and the favorite children of the lead Valar-expy. They are so perfect that humans have waged war on them out of envy for their gifts. They are also smug, self-righteous Knight Templars who are perfectly willing to genocide other races if they think it is their creator's will and will never admit to being wrong. - Tinker: The elves are all beautiful — and snobs. Their society is based on a combination of Magitek and Organic Technology. - Tolkien's Legendarium, being the Trope Maker for high-fantasy elves in general, is both the origin of modern fantasy elves and something of an Unbuilt Trope regarding them as well. - Arda's Elves — Quendi, as they name themselves — are immortal and ageless, tall, beautiful, musical, highly skilled, and physically far healthier and enduring than humans. Only two are specifically mentioned to have facial hair (it is mentioned that they are very very old). They even get different afterlives: the spirits of dead elves go the Halls of Mandos, and as they remain tied to the world, they may later reincarnate back to corporeal life if they wish — this is in contrast to Men, whose spirits depart the world entirely for unknown destinations. They can be as stupid, pig-headed or flawed as any human — often even more so — and their past contains a long history of pride, bad decisions, civil wars and petty betrayals. However, these elves are not generally arrogant (though there are a few notable exceptions): but they can definitely make you feel inferior purely by accident. Also, their hesitancy to form close emotional bonds with humans isn't because they think they're better but because they're painfully aware of how short human lives are, and that giving affection to anyone makes you vulnerable. Their general attitude towards humans they don't know anything about, is best described as cautious but genuine hospitality. When they do get to know and like a human though, they'll be just as kind and loyal and generous as to an elven friend. Dwarves though, are another matter entirely...though this somewhat depends on the elf and their personal history with dwarves. - Half-Human Hybrids are extremely rare, but do exist; due to the nature of human and elven afterlives, they are not actual hybrids and must eventually decide to be true humans or true elves. - They consist of multiple distinct nations and cultures, whose differences codified the Wood Elves/High Elves distinction in later media. Although their kind includes Dark Elves, it has nothing to do with being evil; Tolkien's "Elves of Darkness" are simply those who never went to Valinor and are comparatively primitive. The distinctions between the different elven cultures, however, are much less intense than they are in later media — the Silvan Elves, for instance, live in the forest, are skilled trackers and are more isolationist and standoffish than other groups, but these differences are chiefly cultural and often lost on non-Elves, they lack later wood elves' intense investment in ruthlessly protecting nature, and both of their remaining kingdoms are ruled by elves from other groups who have largely adopted their local cultures. - There is a very extensive in-universe genealogy of the various elven peoples, starting with their original creation in the dawn of history. The first split occurred when the godlike Valar called the Elves to journey from their birthplace to Valinor, resulting in a division between the Eldar, who answered the summons and traveled west, and the Avari, who refused and remained in the distant east. The Eldar were further grouped into three tribes, the Vanyar, Noldor and Teleri. A second split happened when the Elves reached Middle-Earth proper and had to cross the Misty Mountains; many Teleri flatly refused to do so and stayed in the Wilderland behind them, where they were eventually joined by some groups of Avari and became the ancestors of the Silvan Elves. The rest crossed the mountains and traveled until they reached the ocean, at which point half of the remaining Teleri balked and stayed behind, becoming the Sindar or Grey Elves, while the Vanyar, Noldor and remaining Teleri (afterwards called the Falmari) crossed the seas and reached Valinor. Collectively, the Avari, Silvan Elves and Sindar are the ones called the Dark Elves, while others are the Light Elves. - This divide remained for the bulk of the First Age, with the Silvan Elves living in eastern Middle-Earth, the Noldori kingdoms in its west and the Light Elves in Valinor. A series of political and cultural schisms there eventually led a number of Noldor to head back across the seas, getting themselves exiled from Valinor in the process, where they established a handful of kingdoms among the Sindar's. Eventually, as the decline of Middle-Earth and the Elves in particular set in in force, most Elves, regardless of kindred, either died out or sailed to Valinor. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, most of what's left is a handful of chiefly Sindarin and Silvan enclaves ruled by the remnants of the Noldor nobility or, in the case of the Elves of Mirkwood, Silvan elves ruled by Sindar kings. - The Tough Guide to Fantasyland discusses this trope alongside other fantasy staples. Elves are, as usual, immortal (and youthful), and wiser, more ethereal, more magical, better-looking and just generally better than humans. They have been in decline since humans turned up, and now most of them are passing West — which here means they have been moving to the American Southwest, where they wear punk clothing and ride motorcycles. - The Traitor Son Cycle: Elves in this setting are known as the Irks. Irks are immortal shapeshifters, capable of switching between beautiful "party face" and more orc-like, horrifying "war-face". Many of them are capable of powerful magic. - Trapped on Draconica: They're called "shadori", and have purple skin but still have the pointed ears. The most prominent example is Taurok, a soldier with greater nobility than most of the human cast and greater sword skill than anyone. Despite all this, his human subordinates think they're better than he and don't want to be lead by him. - Trash of the Count's Family: Elves live in isolated villages that are usually hidden with illusion magic from most of humanity. Elves use magic by bonding with elementals, which are nature spirits. They also keep a branch of the World Tree in each village. They're noted to be extremely beautiful, magical, in tune with nature, and mostly peaceful. However, they're also tend to be incredibly frustrating, haughty, and uncooperative with anyone who isn't an elf. Dark Elves also exist, but because they exist with the darkness attribute and have to consume Dead Mana to stay alive they're ostracized and ended up even more hidden. - Vainqueur The Dragon: The Dragon Hoard shown in the first chapter contained loot from "the retinue of an elven princess". - Villains by Necessity: Mizzamir is a fairly standard High Elf, he literally lives in a Crystal tower. Nathauans are Dark Elves in all but name (one theory In-Universe being they're of elven blood): subterranean, hate sunlight, sadistic and cruel, take surface dwellers as slaves, etc. - Wicked: The local tree elves are incredibly unimaginative and laugh at everything, even one of their friends falling to their death from a tree. Melena is consequently very offended when her nanny asks if her mysteriously green-skinned daughter is the result of a fling with an elf. - Wind and Sparks: Elves combine most listed traits of High Elves and Wood Elves. Arrogant, magical, warlike, in tune with nature, closed to outsiders. Yet "better" part is averted or subverted at every opportunity. - Their kingdom is old, but it cannot be very old, the world was created mere thousands years ago and there are still some creatures that witnessed the process. Yet it's old enough to become a Vestigial Empire with every House plotting against others. Del'be (their king) sees the advantages of peace with humans, but the clans of professional executioners living far from the battle zone wouldn't have it. - Despite centuries of decline (central theme of the cycle) human magic is still superior to elvish magic. Perhaps the decline hits them just as hard. - They consider bows a weapon unbecoming to men. Only women are allowed to use them, which means shorter range and lighter arrows. Crossbows are OK, but their rate of fire is much lower. When humans ally with Winged Humanoids who fling javelins from high above, elves can't do anything. - They seem to be the ones attuned to nature like nobody else. At one point an elf demonstrates a superhuman ability to "listen" to the forest sensing events miles away. Then a Badass Normal human beats him at his own game. - They are being ravaged by human diseases (another Magical Native American trait), but are too arrogant to use human medical knowledge. - They are A Nazi by Any Other Name, but despite their claims aren't even Wicked Cultured. Not anymore at least. The coup attempt we get to see is poorly thought-out and executed. Their talent for inventive torture is an Informed Ability, they seem to only go for quantity. - Their ancient architecture is nice. But they don't seem to build anything new. - It's hinted that their conflict with human-dominated Empire started when a magic war made half the world uninhabitable, and refugees started encroaching on their lands. Since then they've been gradually losing lands. - The elves in the White Trash Warlock series are akin to high elves, though rather than being in a medieval stasis, the ones in the Faerie Court we've seen dress in styles from the 1920s. They are nearly immortal, highly magical, and live in Alfheimr. The higher-ranking, more powerful monarchs among them are akin to minor gods, their elaborate series of courts follow Tarot Motifs, and while they have shades of The Fair Folk, they can lie. - The Witcher: - Elves are long-lived (averaging 300 to 600 years depending on subpopulation), are distinguished from humans by being taller and having moderately long pointy ears, grow no facial hair, constantly belittle humans, and like to be In Tune With Nature, but having been driven by humans to barren highlands (the humans came from across the sea and did to elves what barbarians did to Rome), they had to learn human farming techniques to support their populace. The ones on the Continent are actually a faction of the race called Aen Seidhe ("Hill Folk") — there are also Aen Elle ("Alder Folk"), who slipped into another planet at the time of Conjunction (a cosmic event many many years ago) and retained their sophisticated culture by slaughtering the local humans and (sapient) unicorns. Now they play The Fair Folk and frequently invade and raid other worlds using dimensional travel, most notably by kidnapping humans from the Aen Seidhe's plane to make them their slaves. The Big Bad of the franchise, Eredin Bréacc Glas, has plans to harvest magical blood in order to expand his kingdom's world-hopping portals abilities so he can became a full Multiversal Conqueror (Galactic Conqueror?). - There are also the Black Seidhe, another faction of elves who unified with a group of humans a thousand years before the series takes place. Centuries of interbreeding and development between the two groups results in the Nilfgaardian Empire, the strongest polity on the Continent. Due to humans breeding faster than elves, most Nilfgaardians, even "pure" ones descended from the original two ethnic groups (as opposed to peoples conquered later), are mostly human with only minor blood and features derived from the elves, but their culture remains strongly influenced by their elven ancestors, with their language being mutually intelligible with the Elder Speech that the Aen Seidhe use. While the Aen Seidhe are clear Wood Elves and the Aen Elle clear Dark Elves, the Nilfgaardians' ancestors are the closest thing the setting has to High Elves. - The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: Before the events in the film, there were seven old clans divided among High Elf and Wood Elf analogs. They are "the proud Vapra" who lived in a mountain city, "the fierce Stonewood" who lived in a forest, "the gentle Grottan" who lived in underground caves, the amphibious Drenchen who lived in a swamp, the agricultural Spriton who lived in grasslands, the sea-faring Sifa who lived on a coastline, and the death worshipping Dousan who lived in the Crystal Desert. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: - Elrond is a Half-Human Hybrid. - There are the High Elves of Noldor, living in Eregion. In Lindon, they are led by High-King Gil-galad. Their kingdoms are the most advanced, living in Shining Cities. - Galadriel herself belongs to three different elven races. Her paternal grandfather was Finwë, the High-King of the Noldorin elves in Valinor, her maternal grandfather is Olwë, the High-King of the Telerin elves in Valinor, and her paternal grandmother, Indis, is the kin of Ingwë, not just the High-King of the Vanyarin elves, but the High-King of all elves. - There are also Silvan Elves in Tir-harad, who are skilled trackers and intensely invested in protecting nature. Arondir himself is a Silvan Elf originar from from Beleriand. - One of the "guest segments" on The Sifl and Olly Show, featured Craig Allen the Forest Elf, a jaunty little fellow who sings a whimsical song about how at three inches tall a lima bean's a meal for him...and how he has a persistent cough from sleeping in a hollow log on freezing nights...and bull frogs keep mistaking him for an insect and snatching him into their gullets...and how he's so tiny in a world of darkness and predators. - Celtic Mythology: - According to one older theory, the Precursors of Celts in Britain and Ireland were flanderized as The Fair Folk in Celtic mythology, who lived underground and were stewards of nature. (Something extremely similar happened to aboriginal cultures in Africa and elsewhere and their treatment in folktales after they got invaded, BTW). Celtic ideas eventually cross-pollinated with the Nordic version; it could be that all of them were prehistoric references to earlier Neanderthal, aboriginal, or Basque inhabitants that had been killed off. Some people have other theories about Elves... - The above is less widely regarded than it used to be, however. Celtic faerie traditions match closely with other stories from around the world, so while there may be elements of the supposedly conquered precursors, there is definitely an animist tradition at work, as well. It helps that the Celts weren't the only culture that thought of The Fair Folk as chthonic: compare modern Icelandic beliefs about elves inhabiting rock formations, the Oreads and Lampades of Hellenic belief, and the South American Native tales of underworld spirits, amongst many, many other traditions. - Classical Mythology: The nymphs. Despite being flanderized into benevolent Succubi and Incubi, in actual mythology they were very similar to what we think of as wood elves. - The Finnish word for elf, haltia (used almost exclusively in literature, both indigenous and translated) is cognate to word haltija, meaning "proprietor" or "possessor". The original haltias of Finnish mythology were proprietary or patron spirits or creatures of various places, locations, or occupations. They were considered to be semi-corporeal, very much like what Tolkien's elves would become by "fading" if they stayed in the Middle-earth instead of escaping to the Undying Lands. The ancestor spirit association is also present with haltia. For long it was believed that the first person to set a fire in the stove of a newly built house would become its haltia after death, looking after and protecting its occupants. Later on these spirits became mixed with the Scandinavian tomte, and became invisible, gnome-like servants of the household with no history as deceased humans, similar to the house elfs of Anglo-Saxon lore. - Norse Mythology is where it all started. - They were more magically gifted, long lived/immortal, and very beautiful. The dwarves, in Norse the dvergar, were a subrace of elves, and commonly called svartálfar or dökkálfar (black/dark elves), who aren't believed to have been a separate race from dwarves. They even mated with humans to create Half-Human Hybrids. There were some things which didn't make it into modern times: they could also phase through walls, they lived on their own plane called Álfheimr, and they had facial hair. The Prose Edda says there were two races of elves, although how much of this idea applied to earlier Norse beliefs is uncertain: There are many magnificient dwellings. One is there called Álfheimr. There dwell the folk that are called light-elves; but the dark-elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike the light-elves in appearance, but much more so in deeds. The light-elves are fairer than the sun to look upon, but the dark-elves are blacker than pitch. - In earlier Norse myths, the Dvergar were entirely separate from the Álfar, having sprung from Ymir's flesh as maggots. The idea they were a subset of elves was made fairly recently as far as the myths go, when Christianity was already taking hold in Scandinavia. - The Elves were also minor gods who held power over the lands they inhabited. Humans would hold Álfablót, where they would sacrifice animals, and sometimes slaves to the local elves for the sake of good crops. It was also possible for humans to become elves after death, like King Olaf Geirstad-Elf, and so Elves could be ancestor spirits that look after a people or household. - Interestingly, their early depictions were less negative than usual for The Fair Folk, being seen as largely morally ambivalent. As society Christianized, they were seen in an increasingly negative light, up to the point that they were demons in all but name. - Germanic Mythology has a bit of a different take - While the German tribes occupying present day Germany were arguably Norse, they had their own spin on the elfs (and are probably the originators of the name). The most important part of which was the fact that they had seemingly two types of elfs: the Alben and the Alpe. Both names originated for the Latin albus meaning white but they were quite different being. - The alp was an incubus in the traditional sense (incubo meaning "to lie upon"). While most other Norse tribes had the Mare, an always female incubus that is the source of the words for nightmare in multiple Germanic languages( nigh-mare in English, chauce-mar in French, mar-dröm in Swedish) the Germans had a few more words and creatures that caused nightmares. One of these creatures was the always male, Alp from which the German Alp-traum and of course Alp-zopf originate.(alpzoft meaning alp/elflock) - Beyond the Apl though the Germans also had the Alb. The Alben/Elben were deceivers and more similar to hidden/fae folk around Europe than to the Scandinavian Norse elfs. One thing of note about Alben is their king Alberich. Alberich means king of the elves and in Germany was the king of all fairies. Outside Germany the name changed to Auberon for the Franks, and Oberon when the English borrowed it. Probably the most important and relevant thing to note about him was the fact that he was a dwarf. - While the Scandinavian alfar were minor deities of normal stature whose ranks humans could join after death, the Germanic Alben/Elben seem to be more traditional fairies of a lesser more diminutive stature. Similar to how Alberich became the kings of the fairies by the middle ages, so too the continental Alben probably assimilated with other smaller fairies resulting in two opposing views of what an elf was. One, the tall, god like Norse elfe. The other, the diminutive, dwarf like elf that "birthed" the Christmas elves of the 19th century. - Ebon Light: Gha'alian elves are able to see better in the dark than humans, and are implied to be physically stronger and have more endurance. - Sable's Grimoire: Elves are long-lived, innately magical beings who live in secluded villages deep within the forest and consider themselves superior to humans in most respects. All of them have pale skin, white hair and golden eyes. Dark elves are individuals who were exiled from their home villages and spent so long living outside the forest that they develop a tan. - Sword Daughter: The only elf who appears on-screen is a half-elf, but descriptions of the setting's elves fit neatly into the "high elf" mold. They're innately magical and more in tune with nature than humans, and apparently quite secretive and territorial. - 8-Bit Theater: The Elves are a parody of this trope. They like to think of themselves as superior, but are just as moronic, gullible, xenophobic and destructive as every other race. Possibly worse. In fact, they were responsible for oppressing the world for thousands of years with the help of evil dragons, caused at least one civilization to be incomprehensible because they had cooler stuff (namely Airships), have been exchanging atrocities with the dwarves for a long time for control of the Earth Orb, and have conquered the Giants to pillage their lands and use them as weapons. Even the Dark Elves aren't as bad as the main elves (the one we see is something of an Only Sane Man among the Dark Warriors), though given that the Dark Elves' national anthem included the refrain "We're a race of total bastards!" (before the other elves stole it) and Drizz'l stating that Thief's standing aside while his allies butchered his father while taking credit where politically advantageous practically counts as defending his father, they were simply out-bastarded. - Aurora (2019): Elves are one of the three primary mortal races, alongside humanity and the long-vanished Ancients. They're very closely tied to the elements of wind and lightning, whereas humans are collectively balanced between all six. Physically, they share long, pointed ears and skin in shades of the sky, such as blue, purple, and pale grey; they also live longer than humans on average. They are often weather mages, and possess literally "airy" dispositions and less cultural or emotional stability than usual in humanity. Multiple populations exist, including the main divide between Wind elves (more tied to wind, taller and with lighter skin) and Storm elves (more tied to lightning, shorter, stockier, and with darker skin and smaller ears). Smaller groups include the Dark Elves, who live underground and have skin mottled with star-like spots, and the poorly-known Cloud Elves, an extremely isolationist folk who live in a chain of floating islands with little contact with other folk. Notably, this isolationism is highly atypical in-universe, and most elves have few issues living and working alongside humans. - Barbi The Barbarienne has elves that are a cross between at least the typical High Elves and Wood Elves mentioned above and then some. Half the size of a human, ostensibly built yet admit humans have the raw strength advantage, are all raven-haired, have Punny/Narmy Names like Blinki, Queen Helokiti and Kymchi, but otherwise your standard arrogant, better-than-you Jerkasses with the bonus of psychic abilities. However said arrogance cost them an ancient war to Take Over the World against humanity they thought they had in the bag and ended up banished to a deserted island in the Caribbean or an Expy of it that they're magically confined to by an invisible barrier where they still act like the war's not over and this is just a minor setback despite humanity leaving them in the dust. - Charby the Vampirate: The elves certainly think themselves better than most everything else in Kellwood. They keep to themselves in their kingdom of Eldenlon but it appears to be a mix of Cultural Posturing and Fantastic Racism considering Eldenlon would have fallen to the fairies without the intervention of the Demon King. They also have a fair number of children with dragons, even the royal children are half-elf half-dragon. - Crimson Knights: They're called fairies, and they have slightly larger ears than your usual standard. - Daughter of the Lilies: Two distinct elven types are present: - City elves are urban, civilized, and arrogant; their society is largely based on that of the French Ancien Régime, down to using Francophone names, and they place great value on protocol, elegance and learning. Physically, they resemble humans with long, pointed ears and slimmer frames. They're also known for looking down on others, and have a long-standing feud with the orcs that started when the city elves tried to conquer the orc homelands and failed disastrously. - Cave elves are savages who inhabit caverns and mines, live in a tribal and matriarchal society, and happily prey on and eat other sapient beings. Other races hate and fear them in equal measure and view them as dangerous vermin to be exterminated. However, it's hinted that they may have more going on, as \|\|the main character, Thistle, is a civilized cave elf living in disguise\|\|. - Doodle Diaries: Elves are apparently drunken frat bros. - The Dreamland Chronicles has pleasant enough elves. - Drowtales: The elves are immortal humanoids with magic powers and a culture vaguely reminiscent of a matriarchal version of the ancient Rome. Largely as a result of the aforementioned immortality and being the only widespread species able to use magic, they're arrogant enough to consider humans and orcs dumb animals, enslave them, and use them for food, but the whole thing is as much Deliberate Values Dissonance as arrogance — for instance, food is scarce enough Beneath the Earth that they can't afford to let good meat go to waste. - The original elven subraces were the dark elves, also called the Dokkalfar, and the light elves, the Vanir note : that the Vanir were a race of gods in Norse mythology should tell you a lot about the light elf worldview. Following a magical apocalypse largely of their own doing that forced them underground, the elves evolved into the Drow, themselves divided into the black-skinned Drowolath, the rarer ash grey-skinned Drowussu \|\|(the difference comes from which of the two elven races they descend from)\|\|, and the degenerate, sightless Xuile'solen, Mole Men equivalents resulting from elves failing to adapt to the underground. - A few unusual traits includes their immortality being conditional on being in a high-mana environment, meaning among a large number of other elves. If alone, they will begin to age and eventually die. Their ears also get more pointed as they age, as keratin is continuously laid down: young elves' ears are simple triangles, while long, sharply pointed ears are the only real sign of age in ancient elves. Also, drow skin colors change slightly depending on where they come from — Chelian drow have chocolate-brown skin, those from Mimaneid are more charcoal-grey, Nuqran drow are lighter grey and so on. - Dubious Company: Elator's people are pretty standard Wood Elves: forest city, bows, bonded animal companions, etc. During a story arc where the characters go on a journey through Alternate Universes, they go to a world ruled by High Elves. - Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts: The elves are in danger of becoming exclusively female, thanks in part to a low birth rate and the fact that many male elves died in a great war long ago. - El Goonish Shive: If you're the child of a human and an immortal, you're an elf. And, to some, an abomination. This means a few things. - Elves are eternally young, skilled in magic, and have pointed ears. They are infertile, like most real hybrid animals. They are bound by a lesser version of the immortal non-interference law: they cannot interfere unless a situation directly involves magic, or to defend against a clear and present danger to themselves or others. \|\|Importantly, elves are not actually infertile, just far less likely to conceive. The infertility was a lie that immortals told their children and themselves so that they wouldn't get attached.\|\| Elves are also able to "taste" magic through their pointy ears. Tedd and Grace are baffled how that even works. - While in theory elves are far weaker than their immortal parents, they have one major advantage: immortals are constantly increasing in power and have to "reset" every couple centuries, wiping their memories in the process, to avoid turning into insane horrors. Elves don't increase in power like that, and thus are truly The Ageless. The only elf we meet is at least four hundred years old and still both young and sane (though he uses an illusion to look older), while his immortal mother (who has refused to reset for as long as her son has been alive) is completely and utterly insane. Even other immortals avoid her like the plague. - \|\|The children of elves and humans are almost entirely indistinguishable from regular humans. The only difference is they'll have a higher aptitude for magic, and anyone descended from an immortal will have an affinity for a certain type of spell independent from the usual Personality Powers. Also, the more directly descended you are, the more elflike abilities you'll have. Diane, who is the daughter of an elf, briefly grows pointy ears when she instinctively resists a spell, and manages to "taste" it. Susan, the distant descendant of the same elf, hasn't show any abilities like that.\|\| - Elf Blood: - The High Elves, or just plain ol' Elves, are not nature loving technophobes but more along the lines of the Holy Roman Empire with Magic. Makes sense when their ancestral home, Alfheim, is supposedly hidden somewhere in central Europe. Though the modern elves lack it, historically they retained the 'aloof' aspect of ordinary elves. - The Dark Elves, while not evil or even particularly bloodthirsty, were shunned for a while by the High Elves and had to work exceptionally hard to gain any respect in Alfen society. Comparisons can be drawn to European Jews at the time of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - The Death Elves, who are essentially Elf Blood's equivalents to dwarves. Except they're seven-foot tall grey-skinned nomad-descended brutes who can't use magic. - Erfworld has the Royal Crown Coalition (get it?) made of the classic "Good Guy" fantasy races. Their elf allies are divided into: Woodsy (tall), Shady (goth), Luckless (die offscreen), Eager (Link), Schlemiel (Jewish), Altruist (nurses), Lofty (aloof), and Superfluous (emo). There's also the Tardy Elves, but we don't get to see them because they move too slowly to get to the battle in time. - The prequel book gives us High Elves, who... are, indeed, high. Then a dragon eats them. - Book 3 gives us the Juggle Elves, a group that has only a few elves popped as members but allows elves of all kinds to join. After the RCC abandoned their alliances with the other Elf clans many of them ended up with the Juggles. - Errant Story goes to great lengths to deconstruct Tolkien-esque elves. Not only do they have the conventional "high/wood/sea/dark" elf distinctions (and then one of them gets huffy when a human points out this out after an elaborate lecture on the different groups), they have precisely the sort of snotty arrogance that typifies this trope, especially after they have spent a few centuries in hiding following the Errant Wars. But it is their treatment of half-elfs ('errants') that is most telling: they made a huge mess of things when they first encountered humans, then after this led to a bloody civil war, refused to do anything to clean up the mess except ruthlessly hunt down and kill their own hybrid descendants. The Errants exist because, for an in-universe reason, it's much easier to conceive Elf-Human hybrids than pure Elf children. The war happened when it turned out that Errants with magical power have a tendency to suddenly go utterly insane. - Guilded Age has Sky elves, Winter elves, Shit elves (which may just be a colloquial name), and Wood elves, so far. Wood Elves are apparently part plant. - Heliothaumic has the Dark Elves described above in the dying country/empire of Ilthmir, which is an oppressive monarchy wrecked by civil war and ruled by a 600-year old queen. It also has these Elves breeding with humans to produce the Half-Elves, the vast majority of which live outside of Ilthmir and embrace their human side more. - Haru-Sari has an interesting twist on elves: They are born from human mothers or genetically engineered, and have the power of magic. They are stuck in prepubescent bodies for their entire life, and they are treated as dangerous second class citizens by the society around them. And they only live for about 30 years before their affinity for magic kills them off. - Ingress Adventuring Company: Toivo is an elf, and his youthful looks despite his old age and affinity with magic may be related to this. - Inverloch: The elves play the haughty aloof part of this trope straight. They live in a forest city like Wood Elves, but in attitude are High Elves. When some of their kind are born without magic or immortality, they are banished, and the more they're shown the more unsavory they are—it becomes clear that they're complacent, arrogant racists who view everyone else as lesser beings, leading the main characters to declare Screw You, Elves!. \|\|And the "mortality" disease is a punishment from the Spirit Realm.\|\| - Linburger: The Cyll. They were once powerful and long lived, but once Gotterdamerung hit, they became short lived as humans, and live in slums. They kept their pointed ears though. - Lotus Cobra Is Evil: From "Favorite Zendikar Card"◊, Nissa Revane, Elf Planeswalker has Pointy Ears. - In MS Paint Adventures, we have a Fair Folk type of elves, who eat babies. - My Roommate Is an Elf features an elf named Griswold interested in human culture, and living with a human in an apartment. Griswold is capable of magic and has a Healing Factor, and apparently a long life, as his roommate, Harold, will likely be long dead by the time Griswold develops his first wrinkle. - The Order of the Stick: - Elves are androgynous (to the point of not even using gendered terms or pronouns; elven children refer to their parents as "parent" and "other parent"), trance instead of sleeping, live in an isolationist woodland kingdom and worship their own set of gods. They have sharper senses than humans do, although as per D&D rules this is a trait shared with halflings and dwarves. - The drow (dark elves) are apparently played straight, albeit without much direct focus, although the abundance of Wangsty no-I'm-the-non-Evil-exception drow in games and game-books is poked fun at. - Outsider features a lone human's contact with the Loroi, who are very literal Space Elves — humanoid, pointy ears, long-lived, Psychic Powers as a stand-in for magic, the works — and happen to be locked in a genocidal war with Insectoid Aliens called the Umiak, and have no problems with glassing planets that get in the way. - Sluggy Freelance: Parodied in this, strip where elves are described as "mythological hotties who wouldn't give humanity the time of day". Mostly averted in the rest of the series, where elves are short, not particularly attractive laborers at cookie companies and Santa's workshop (though they do get some cool black ops equipment). - Tales of the Questor have elves with a very serious problem. In their past, the race had lifespans that were marginally longer than humans and one Elf monarch wanted to stop his people from aging. So, he made a deal with a magic giant salamander for a spell that would ensure Elves never got old, which unfortunately was done by limiting Elf lifespans to 20 years (Half-Elves live a bit longer). The King tried to fix this catastrophic problem by getting a magic goblet that can give immortality to any elf that drinks from it, which worked until it was stolen, destroyed, or otherwise lost (nobody remembers). As a result, Elf society collapsed, with a population unable to get enough maturity and the race degenerated to a bunch of petty thieves and vagrants with nothing to live for. - What's New? with Phil and Dixie: - Mocked in this strip, where Phil stands by describing elves' wonderful traits while an elf stands by berating him for being fat, insecure, ill-mannered and incapable of getting a girlfriend. Dixie gets the last laugh, however. - Also mocked in the infamous "Sex and D&D" strip. \|\|They're apparently all closet fetishists.\|\| - WIGU: Parodied when Wigu and Hugo encounter retarded Hillbilly Elves in the woods, who still believe themselves superior to humans in every way except one. - Wildlife: A'zi set out to create a race based on humans but physically superior. Commenters failed to suggest any other names, so she called them elves. - Arcana Magi features Modern Elves who work for Avalon Tech Enterprises. One Elf is on the Board of Directors. One Elf is a chemist. Another Elf was seen testing a pair of flying boots and Karl the elf invented the manaboard. Fynir Robinson is an Modern Elf Agent of Mystic Intelligence. - Codex Inversus: The Elves were once the people of elemental Fire, now become mortal like everyone else in the wake of the Collapse. They are split into two groups. The Elvish Caliphate was founded by the Efreets, the ancient Lords of Fire, after the Collapse. Its culture is sophisticated and decadent, certain of its superiority; the humans and half-elves living there make up a distinct underclass. It is mostly located in the cold northern tundra, where it sustains itself using magic and thermal springs created by the shards of the former Elemental Plane of Fire. The nomads of the Ash Khanate, which live in the great ashen steppes that formed from the extinction of the Plane of Fire, are a splinter group that emerged from its founders' determination to preserve the souls of the dead after the end of the afterlife. Their language, religion and migrations make up an immense, perpetual ritual intended to draw and sustain the spirits of the dead, and they ruthlessly destroy anything and anyone that could threaten this mission. Both cultures make ubiquitous use of body paint as decoration. - The Dragon Wars Saga: The Haltia (Finnish for "elves") are grouped by affinity powers and this affects their appearance. It's also been implied that while they are very long lived they aren't immortal. - Gaia Online has two type of elves. - Looming Gaia: Elves can naturally communicate with animals, with the exception of red elves, who instead have resistance to fire and iron. Drau (based on drow/dark elves) aren't elves, but monsters created by the divine Titania. - The Questport Chronicles has elven heroes Gawain and Ato among the members of the Fellowship. - Tales of MU plays around with this. - Most obviously by having dark elves who insist they're simply regular elves, and it being the surface-dwelling "faint elves" who are the evil bizarro version. The half-elf Steff also both overestimates her keen elven eyesight and underestimates the nightvision of humans, on separate occasions. - However, one of the reasons that elves used to be discriminated against are that they're awesome, as this professor explains... Professor Hart: Good? Good? Ms. La Belle, elves aren't "good"... they are better. These people can run twice as fast as you can without making a sound. They can see to the farthest horizon on a starless night and they can hear the heartbeat of a mouse. They don't sweat. If they fart, you'll never hear about it. They can go into a human town and fuck everybody's wives, sons, and daughters for fifteen hours straight, they are going to live forever... and can you imagine what would happen if the brand-new emperor had stood before his people and said, "Hey, these are the people who are going to be in charge of you." Do you think the people who had just thrown off one tyrant would have just rolled over and accepted that? - Elves don't even need to breathe, but if they don't engage in mortal behavior, they start losing their connection to the world and become something else entirely. - U Realms Live: - The elves, being one of the oldest races, are essentially the leaders of the Realm, housing seven powerful kingdoms and some of the most powerful warriors and wizards, including Virgo Sunsword of the illustrious Sunsword family. The other races that even attempt to be powerful or influential, like dwarves and gnomes, appear to mimic the elves. - Dwelves, hybrids of dwarves and elves, on the other hand, are regularly hunted by dwarves and tend to reside in elven lands, where they are treated as equals, at least under the law. - Gobolfs, deformed elves with traits similar to goblins, are cowardly, asthmatic creatures that elves disdain but tend to let live. - Played for Laughs by artist Baalbuddy, where his sketches have the Running Gag of sexy Elvin women are desperately horny but can't get laid. One sketch even explains the logic of how they moved from Tolkienesque elves that rarely have sex unless it its their true love, to having lots of sex, to being unble to get laid because they are annoying. - Edward The Less does an extended spoof of this trope with the Round-Stander People, as epitomized by the Noble One. He is tall, handsome, proud, arrogant, loutish, and craven, with an instinctive penchant for selling out his allies in a pinch, extensive knowledge of the shockingly vicious traps with which his people have so nobly strewn their forest, no reservations about using violent coercion, and is full of tales of his many "petty, conniving, yet selfless" deeds: Soapy: "So your shooting me in the leg was actually very brave!" Noble One (gallantly): "And I would gladly do it again!" Granted, he does offer a really nice topical salve to friends he's injured once he gets his way... - Disenchantment: Elves are a race of short, pointy-eared humanoids who spend all day making candy... to earn candy. They sing all day, and have a tendency to freak out when one of them is not happy. They're essentially a combination of Victorian fairytale elves and Christmas elves dropped into a parody of modern High Fantasy and Heroic Fantasy. Season 2 introduces the Trogs as a (pale and hairless) dark elf counterpart, and season 4 the Sea Trogs. With the end of season 4 showing \|\|the Trogs were elves who were transformed by the "sacred goo".\|\| - The Dragon Prince: Elves have short horns and four-fingered hands along with the usual pointy ears and lithe build. They are divided into six tribes, each attuned to one of the six sources of magic — the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth and the ocean. - Moonshadow elves, the first ones seen, have skin in a range of human-like skintones and white hair, and can become invisible and extremely fast and powerful under the light of the full moon. For self-evident reasons, they are known to be fearsome assassins. Some also possess illusion-based magic, as the moon arcanum focuses on manipulating appearances and blurring the line between the real and the illusory. They also tend to have noticeable Scottish accents. - Sunfire elves have dark brown skin and white or russet to black hair. They appear to be a more militant culture than other elves seen. They can make blades that always remain as hot as the day they were forged and can cut through regular ones like butter, and can draw on the destructive power of fire and the sun to enter a state where they become extremely strong and powerful, but also berserk and uncontrolled. They tend to have fairly thick French accents. - Startouch elves have blueish-purple skin dotted with twinkling white spots resembling stars, and horns with multiple points. - Skywing elves have grayish skin and hair in a wide range of colors, including several shades of blue. Their horns are longer and curved, and have secondary, stubbier horns branching off from their bases. About one in ten is born with wings attached to their lower backs — the rest, if they want to fly, need to master a difficult technique that allows them to transform their arms into feathered wings. They have Irish and British accents. - Earthblood elves are the most physically diverse of all elf types, thanks to their varied places of origin, which causes their skin and horns to reflect their "home soil", with green and red being typical hair colors. They also have a greater variety of builds, with some of them not being as lithe as the traditional elf. Their connection to the Earth primal gives them power over animals, plantlife, and mineral substances. They tend have Australian accents. - Hilda: Elves are a race of pointy-eared people around two inches tall, with a culture revolving around paperwork, and are invisible to anyone who hasn't signed the proper papers. - My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "The Golden Horseshoes, Part 2", the main characters comes across the elves of Green Mountain. They're diminutive humanoids about as tall as a child, making them about eye level with Megan, have pointy ears, and live in isolation in a castle on a high mountain peak.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreDifferent
Alien Geometries - TV Tropes Black Mage: You aren't going to draw out ancient and malevolent forces from the Underverse with an upside-down room. Fighter: So how do you do it? Black Mage: Not that I know everything about that... but you start with parallel lines that intersect and you go from there. A staple of Cosmic Horror Story and of Mind Screw artworks. Elder Gods, Old Ones, the Reality Warper, The Omnipotent and other cosmic entities tend to bend the laws of physics to suit them. Why make a triangle where the angles add up to 180 degrees, when you can make one where they add up to 200 degrees in a flat space and get some extra room? Even the very body of a particularly squamous thing may exhibit this, though more often it shows up in architecture as physically-impossible buildings occasionally sentient themselves. Alien Geometries are often depicted as being dangerous to the sanity of normal humans; where you have to read the Tome of Eldritch Lore for it to drive you crazy, just looking at this stuff can have an unpleasant effect on your mental stability. Or at least really give you a headache. More innocuous forms may appear normal. Then you realize that it is physically impossible for something this size to fit in that, or you travel a short distance and find yourself kilometers away, or you turn left and end up to your right. Doubly fun if found in the Mobile Maze. The term "Non-Euclidean" gets used often to describe shapes and structures that don't make logical sense, though it's not always correct. It was used by H. P. Lovecraft to describe the impossible angles and shapes found in alien structures in his works, though not all impossible geometries would be counted as "non-Euclidean"; that term refers to certain geometric forms that don't behave like a "flat" surface but still form a consistent and logical geometry. (It's possible to construct a 2-dimensional geometry on a curved Euclidean surface that is non-Euclidean, but a three-dimensional non-Euclidean geometry requires spacial distortion, such as might be induced by a powerful gravitational field.) Eldritch Locations are a good place to find this. Sometimes it is a single wall or building that is just a little... off. See also Hyperspace Is a Scary Place, an entire alternate universe that just does not make sense. A Minus World in video games might be considered one due to unintentional programming bugs. This might also manifest as an Unnaturally Looping Location. Compare with Bizarrchitecture, Sinister Geometry, and Scooby-Dooby Doors (when done for comedy). ## Examples: <!—index—> <!—/index—> - Ωmega Mart: Several areas in the store have places that are larger than they appear, such as the freezer in the Frozen Drinkables section distorting the further you walk or the T-shirt rack hiding a maze in the pole it's attached to. - The Maze card in Cardcaptor Sakura creates a maze that isn't bound by normal spatial physics. - Several Doraemon's gadgets can bend dimension and create such effect. For example: - The 'Space-Bending Tape' can make those who attempt to enter a house never getting into it, by forming a dimensional loop outside the house, so that when they 'walk into' the house they are actually walk out of it. - One of the features of 'A-maze-ing Maze' is to make windows connect only to the inside of a house while still showing what's outside, making the complicated maze created by the gadget even harder. - 'Fourth Dimensional House Block', if detached from the building it's put, leaves those who are trapped in it staying on the same floor no matter they go upstairs or downstairs. - While it doesn't mess with dimension directly, the 'Hypnotizing Megaphone' can manipulate characteristics of an object so thoroughly that it enables affected object to work in a way that is effectively this trope, such as making the window of the first floor reaching the ground floor, or making a ladder as tall as Tokyo Tower to the climber while still appears normal to anyone else. - These dimension-bending gadgets are often put into Mundane Utility, such as keeping a unwanted person from entering a house/room, making a house Bigger (and Taller) on the Inside, or just for the plain fun of it. Not that they aren't dangerous if used carelessly, in which the user(s) can be trapped in the twisted dimension forever, though such danger is downplayed most of the time and the most serious problem involved will only be Potty Emergency. - The haunted mansion in Ghost Hunt's "The Bloodstained Labyrinth" arc takes the already confusing and vast mansion that has suffered from numerous odd additions and renovations over the years, and adds in the physics-breaking abilities of tortured spirits. - Mononoke in the Zashiki-Warashi arc, where the cast is trapped in infinite, identical copies of the same room. - Neo Human Casshern shows what appears to be a metal bolt of lightning — or a metal construct — striking from the sky and staying in place for several days, inciting a transfer of what we are led to believe is superdimensional energy into our dimension. This energy is visible in the form of sparkling mystical runes hovering in the air facing the observer. It's awesome. - Neon Genesis Evangelion: - The Angel Ramiel in Rebuild of Evangelion manages to pull this off with some aplomb; its internal facets constantly shift as it moves, and the very first time we see it shift shapes from its fairly mundane octahedron to... other things, we see that it is somehow impossibly deep and one piece all at the same time... and then it starts changing shape when firing beams of pure killing. The effect is enhanced by the fact that what it does is almost painfully easy to render in CGI, but to see a physical object actually do it would be skull-crackingly horrifying. - Leliel in the original series appears out of nowhere over the city as a giant, floating sphere with black and white stripped patterns on it. But when the Evas fire at the Angel, the sphere fades out to dodge the shots, then casts a shadow which absorbs everything into it. It's then discovered that the sphere isn't its body: the angel is a 600-meter wide and 3 nanometer thick disc that is connected to a Dirac Sea. The floating object is actually a 3D shadow that appears when the Sea is opened. It gets even more mind numbing when you realize that the "shadow" is NOT intangible: it casts its own shadow and can physically interact with other object. It even bleeds when Unit 01 tears its way out. - Pretty much every Angel in both the television and Rebuild universes seems to exercise this trope. Special points go to the Rebuild version of Zeruel, for being apparently solid and hollow at the same time, and being full of blood while also able to unravel itself into razor-sharp ribbons. - The Reverse World in Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior is an Escher-like place where "up" varies, but apparently only for landbound creatures (see the Pokémon Platinum note in Video Games below). - Witches in Puella Magi Madoka Magica live in sprawling horror-filled labyrinths. Their alien nature is highlighted by Russian- and Czech-inspired animation, whose flat cut-out geometry is in stark contrast to the cutesy Japanese animation in the rest of the show. - The third season of Sailor Moon does this when one of that season's miniboss squad accidentally breaks reality, resulting in the entire house becoming a zone of warped space. - The Eternal Spiral in Uzumaki is a spiral in both the three spatial dimensions and in time. This results in the protagonists \|\|coming back to Kurozu-cho after being gone for a relatively short time, to find that months or years have passed in the town\|\|. The center of the structure is completely frozen in one everlasting moment. - Paintings by H. R. Giger, famous for his design of the Xenomorph in Alien, though his work tends more to towards the horror aspect than the impossible. He also likes to paint landscapes having sex with themselves. Think about that for "scenery porn". - M.C. Escher could be considered to make "lite" versions; notwithstanding that, his style is often used to represent them. Some of his works are geometrically accurate representations of the sorts of triangle-mangling spaces described in the intro (hyperbolic planes in the Circle Limit sketches for example). And yes, his work does have an impact on one's sanity... Some of his works are what have been called lampoons, because they work by violating normal conventions of art (like things that are behind other things being blocked from view by the things they are behind). The effect of violating rules of art that are present to mimic reality is to make the image look strange for reasons that are not always obvious. - The LP sleeves of the first two Blue Öyster Cult records ( Blue Oyster Cult and Tyranny and Mutation) depict strangely alien geometries and structures under strange skies on strange otherworlds. While nothing violates perspective rules, they still look eye-wateringly odd. - William Hogarth's print False Perspective◊ is meant to be a parody of mistakes made by bad artists, but ends up looking very much like a prototype of Escher's style. - The artwork of Ivan Seal often features shapes that seem like normal objects or people...but miscolored, taken from odd perspectives, and having all the details erased until they look like discomforting, amorphous blobs. Works brilliantly when paired with the similarly surreal music of The Caretaker. - A.I.-Generated Artwork can often have this effect. The way in which pieces of different things like faces, buildings, landscapes, or animals are somewhat recognizable but are interspersed within one another and drawn in such a way that they don't look completely recognizable can often lead to an unsettling feeling in the viewer. - Alpha Flight: Shaman's medicine pouch has its own laws of physics, able to hold far more than its volume, as well as responding to its owner's wishes as to what he wants. Anyone inexperienced in Shaman's magic style who looks into the pouch risks going catatonic. Don't turn it inside out. - In Bizarrogirl, Supergirl visits Bizarro World's Metropolis', an odd, unsettling place where buildings bend and twist in ways that completely ignore gravity and other laws of physics. - The Bojeffries' house in The Bojeffries Saga has a trapdoor that ought to lead to the loft but which opens in the back garden. - During the Troll War sequence in ElfQuest Wendy Pini drew one panel with deliberately Escheresque geometry, showing a spiral staircase from the side with the characters at the top appearing much bigger than those at the bottom. - A scene from First Comics' Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate depicts Elric in the captain's cabin, leaning down to look at a model ship. The viewpoint zooms in through the model ship's porthole, revealing Elric and the captain inside. - This is generally how much of Galactus's technology is portrayed in Marvel Comics. An alternate universe version of Reed Richards once spent decades figuring out the technology of a single room in the alien creature's massive home. Galactus's house, the Worldship Taa II, also qualifies; it's a gigantic spaceship that dwarfs nearby planets without altering their gravitational fields. - In the JLA storyline Rock of Ages The Joker nearly drives Superman and the Martian Manhunter mad by trapping them in a maze-like satellite, the structure of which is controlled by his subconscious mind. - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): - The crashed alien spaceship in Miracleman is probably one of the most distinct of Moore's uses of the trope, and is thus very difficult to describe. The people who board the ship all suffer from headaches and dizziness from the sheer disorientation that navigation of the craft causes. - At one point in Superboy and the Ravers Marx moves Event Horizon to a small sub-dimension that looks straight out of an M.C. Escher drawing with partiers dancing on multiple surfaces of the bizarre, disjointed and in most cases lazily spinning architecture with gravity working just fine for them, even if they're standing on opposite sides of the floor/ceiling/wall. - In his Silver-Age Superman wrap-up, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Alan Moore reveals Mr. Mxyzptlk's "true" form, described by Lois Lane as consisting of "height, length, breadth, and a couple of other things... looking at it made my head hurt". Moore likes having characters encounter and be upset by non-Euclidean phenomena; later in the same comic the room containing the Phantom Zone portal is described as eerie and unpleasant. - Swamp Thing: The Demon Etrigan employed Alien Geometries in an incantation to create a path from here back to Earth during Alan Moore's run, when Swamp Thing rescued his beloved Abigail from Hell: "Thou quantum imps and cherubs by whose dance Is substance formed to shape the fields we know Your perfect waltz that conjures form from chance Must pause to free us from these wastes below. By root of minus nine and circle squared Set right and true against dimensions three Let our ill-angled passage be prepared Between the folds of rare geometry". - Alan Moore does this again in Tom Strong's Terrific Tales where Strong and Svetlana X find a Russian space station has become crystal-filled and Bigger on the Inside with multiple centers of gravity. \|\|The whole thing was caused by a chance encounter with a higher-dimensional cosmic particle.\|\| - In Wonder Woman (1987) Olympus was given its iconic Escheresque look. Whatever you're standing on is "down" for you; almost everything is a "floor" if you step onto the surface in question. Just try not to fall out any windows because the whole place is a floating mass of waterfalls, gardens and jutting Greek architecture in a pocket dimension and you'll be falling for centuries if no one catches you (also you land in Tartarus so bad move all around). - Calvin and Hobbes - In one strip, the law of perspective is repealed, meaning that the sizes of objects no longer depend on how far away they are, making it impossible to tell where anything is. This is all happening in Calvin's imagination, of course. - In another sequence, when Calvin was told to look at things from multiple perspectives he took literally and started seeing things as a Cubist painting, and another time when he used supposed lack of depth perception as an excuse for running into furniture. - The tesseract-thingies during the "beyond the infinite" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just look at them, and the way they move. Even more impressive when you consider that they were created in the pre-digital era using 28 precisely-timed exposures. - The Parisian sewer catacombs the protagonists descend into in As Above, So Below. The weirdness starts almost immediately when a tunnel they take leads them somehow back to a tunnel they avoided, then they go through several rooms which look like rooms they had gone through earlier even they are always travelling downward, and it culminates in them \|\|finding a manhole cover at the bottom of a pit; when they remove the cover and climb down through the manhole they somehow pull themselves up onto a street in Paris\|\|. - An indie black-and-white short film of The Call of Cthulhu by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society does a particularly good job of getting this idea across, in a scene (faithfully adapted from H. P. Lovecraft's story) wherein a victim falls into a crevice which an optical illusion has led the audience to believe is a convex crag of rock. - Cube 2: Hypercube is a rare example of this trope being employed in a visual medium. The actual warped geometry shows up only a few times due to the special effects required being rather expensive; the rest of the time it's showcased indirectly (e.g. duplicates of characters showing up). - Grave Encounters plays with this quite a bit a short distance into the movie. \|\|The doors that should lead outside now lead to more hallways, corridors are either entirely blocked off or in wrong locations, and time seems to pass at its own rate inside the demonic hospital which makes it impossible to tell what time it is without a watch or cellphone.\|\| - The Haunting (1963) uses this to emphasize Hill House's surreal and unsettling atmosphere. All the doors are hung just slightly off-center and the rooms are built on strange angles. "There isn't a square corner in the place". - Dream levels in Inception are built like this deliberately by the level's "architects", in order to trap and delay the subconscious projections of the dreamers to keep them from attacking. The strange architecture can even be weaponized, as demonstrated by Arthur at one point, where he flees from a projection shooting down at him from the top of a staircase... only to have Arthur alter the stairs into a Penrose Staircase (looping stairs) and attack the projection from behind. - In the Mouth of Madness: When Linda Styles investigates the interior of Sutter Cane's (who is basically an amalgam of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft) evil church in Hobb's End, she opens a door to find a small unoccupied room with a typewriter. After she turns around and opens the door again, it's now a giant room with Caine typing in the far corner. - In the Tall Grass: The maze inside the tall grass is not bound by the laws of physics and can change constantly. This is visually demonstrated when Becky and Cal try to find each other by jumping up simultaneously. The first time, they're about ten yards apart. The second time, despite not having moved, it's suddenly a hundred yards. - The climactic scene of Labyrinth takes place in an Escher-esque landscape where 'up' varies. The scenery was based on a drawing by M.C. Escher. - Last Year at Marienbad was shot within several castles and edited together to create a lack of continuity in the castle and a strange, disorienting effect. - Marvel Cinematic Universe: - In the climax of Ant-Man when Scott \|\|goes sub-atomic and enters the quantum realm where all concepts of space and time cease to exist\|\|. - Thor: Ragnarok: On Sakaar, Thor is thrown into a circular containment room with the other slave gladiators. When he runs through the room, he immediately loops back around to his starting point, way sooner than he should have. His cellmate Korg explains that the room isn't really a circle, more like a "freaky circle". - The Overlook Hotel in The Shining has some very subtle impossibilities that can only be noticed on repeated viewings and piecing together different scenes shot from different angles, such as hallways that lead into walls, windows that can only be seen from inside, hotel rooms that seem to overlap the same space, and doors located too close together to lead to separate rooms. There's much debate among the fandom about whether these are a subliminal attempt to disorient the audience, or simply accidental inconsistencies in set design. - The Red Matter-generated black holes in the Star Trek (2009) movie. From the front, they look like your average swirling, funnel-shaped Negative Space Wedgie. Approach from the side, and you can see that it's missing its third dimension. - Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory uses a few examples to highlight just how bizarre the factory and its creator are. At the start of the tour, Wonka leads the guests into and out of a small room, but even though they leave through the same door that they used to enter, they find themselves in a completely different hallway from where they started. This hallway then narrows and shrinks until they reach a small door, which then opens up into the chocolate room and reveals a much larger door on the other side. Later in the tour, the Wonkamobile goes through a strange car wash. - If you try to map the Citadel in the The Citadel of Chaos, you'll quickly find its rooms are connected in contradictory ways and sometimes occupy spaces that should be beyond the outer walls. Maybe Jackson just wasn't too strict about the layout, but it is called the Citadel of Chaos... By Author: - Robert A. Heinlein: - The short story And He Built a Crooked House involves an architect who, inspired by higher-dimensional geometry and high real-estate prices, builds a house in the shape of an unfolded hypercube. Then an earthquake makes it fold in on itself into a hypercube, so to the architect's delight it's eight times roomier on the inside than on the outside. Just one small problem: the house's new topology makes it a bit difficult to leave once you're inside. When you do get outside, you may have a whole new problem. - A math-nerd resident of Second Life actually went and reproduced the Crooked House in 3d, and if it's still rezed somewhere public you can actually walk through it. Not a real hypercube of course but some excellent special effects. Here's the story with video. - Another math-nerd made a film adaptation of the story as his final for Geometry. - The short story By His Bootstraps involves a time-travel machine, constructed by aliens, housed in a building which is described in these terms - Glory Road had the hero and companions invading a tower "where the architect used a pretzel for a straight-edge". It's so convoluted that it took hundreds of spies decades to figure out a route to the MacGuffin. - The Number of the Beast, as well: we're only seeing dimensions x, y, z; but there are at least three others which can be rotated around or extended along, and which apparently can be used to travel between universes. This is a conceit to let him run through every literary universe ever, and have a massive Crossover event. The novel culminates in a party, in what is effectively the Crooked House, with every single character he created attending (plus several guests). Special mention goes to the literary critics lounge, which was shaped like a Klein bottle... once you were inside. - Stephen King: - Night Shift — Inverted in the short story "I Am the Doorway". An alien lifeform sees a boy walking with a sieve under his arm: "an abominated creature that moved and respired and carried a device of wood and wire under its arm, a device constructed of geometrically impossible right angles". - In the short story 1408, the titular room's door is crooked to both the left and the right. Or not at all. Maybe it can move? And it gets worse from there. - In the novel From a Buick 8, the titular car is actually an interdimensional portal/device that only looks like a car. It's noted that the human eye perceives it as a car because that's the only image the mind can supply for the actual shape of the device. - Nightmares & Dreamscapes — Played straight within the short story "Crouch End", a Cosmic Horror Story within the Cthulhu Mythos. Within the Dark World alternate London, "She said it was as if she were no longer on earth but on a different planet, a place so alien that the human mind could not even begin to comprehend it. The angles seemed different, she said. The colors seemed different". - C. S. Lewis: - In That Hideous Strength, one character is briefly imprisoned in the "Objectivity Room", where everything is slightly offthe spots on the table are arranged just short of obeying a pattern (even a broken one), the similar specks on the ceiling are almost the mirror-image of the table, and the peak of the arched entryway looks like it might be just a fraction off-center to the left. Or not. Maybe the right? And let's not start on the paintings... Justified Trope: The room was specifically built this way to drive people crazy so they'd be suitable hosts for the demonic powers. - The Last Battle, the final volume of The Chronicles of Narnia, ends in a world that's essentially the opposite of reality, in that the closer you get to the center, the more there is. - He also appeared to use this in Out of the Silent Planet, but the room turns out be normal human geometry, just a very unusual sort. - H. P. Lovecraft loved non-Euclidean geometry: - The sunken city of R'lyeh in The Call of Cthulhu. The gate that seals the Great Old One himself opens, and the sailors can't even be sure whether it's a vertical door or a horizontal hatch — even though one of them climbed or walked up its surface! Shortly afterward, a unfortunate human is swallowed up by an angle of masonry which is acute, but behaves as if it were obtuse. - The Antarctic city in At the Mountains of Madness. - Perhaps most explicit in "The Dreams in the Witch House" where a mathematics student discovers the unearthly topology of his own bedroom serves as an extra-dimensional portal. Well, he was renting it because of its reputation as being haunted. This was a bad idea. By Work: - The children's picture puzzle book "The 9 Tasks of Mistry: An Adventure in the World of Illusion" by Chris McEwan is filled with impossible landscapes, tricks of perspective, and Bizarrchitecture. - The Monoliths in 2001: A Space Odyssey have the dimensions 1 by 4 by 9... \|\|"And how naive to have imagined that the series ended at this point, in only three dimensions!"\|\| - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Alice, in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass set to walk to a hill and always finds herself walking into the doorway of the house. Finally, when she walks away from it, she reaches it. Lampshaded by the Red Queen, when Alice finds herself unable to run quickly. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" The Queen is able to travel much faster, since she is a Queen, and can cross the width and breadth of the chessboard in a single move. - The Belgariad: The Wizard Beldin has a twisted stick with only one end. He uses it to keep children occupied so they don't bother him. - The Starfish structures in Blind Lake have disturbing interior geometry. Robot probes (and people) who go in too far don't come back. The deep interior seems to be entirely exempt from the usual rules of time and space. - In John C. Wright's Chronicles of Chaos, Vanity's secret passages often don't add up, geometrically, with the places they go to and lead from. - In Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing", a creature, judged by ignorant folk to be a mountain lion (from its leavings, since the creature itself is never seen), is a color that the human eye cannot see and makes noises that the human ear cannot hear. This inverts this already inverted trope because the color is natural and it is humanity that has become too alien (or at least insensitive) to comprehend it. - In the Deathstalker series the AIs of Shub constructed a world of their own to live on. Unfortunately for humans who might visit, it exists in more dimensions than they can perceive and so is unhealthy to look at for extended periods of time. The Madness Maze, despite a relatively innocuous appearance, had convoluted, nigh-sentient path designs that would either evolve you into a higher being or tear you apart. - Deep Secret: The Hotel Babylon has halls where you can go around more than four right angles before coming back where you started, thanks to the building being on top of a bunch of ley lines. - Discworld: - Bloody Stupid Johnson, architect, Bungling Inventor, and general anti-genius regularly does this kind of stuff entirely by accident. - He once designed a letter-sorting machine whose central component was a wheel that had π equal to exactly three (he did this because he thought that the usual equation π = 3-and-a-bit was "a bit untidy"). This causes it to sort out letters it hasn't had put in yet, among other oddities. - Empirical Crescent, a row of terraced houses where every door and window leads somewhere other than where you'd expect it to lead. At least it makes it easier to get rid of rubbishjust toss it into the garden. After all, it might not be your garden. The reason for this corruption of dimensions occurs because the row of houses is crescent-shaped on the outside only. Inside, it's supposedly laid out like a straight row. Presumably the two configurations conflict. Occupants had a tendency to leave in the middle of the night, often without stopping to pack... - It's also stated in Thud! that he invented the 13-inch foot and a triangle with three right angles. Note that the Discworld is not a sphere (circles with π = 3 and triangles with three right angles both do in fact appear in non-Eulidean spherical geometry). - The Colour of Magic mentions one of the gods using a 7-sided (but still cube-shaped) die to cheat. The same book also mentions, among the eye-watering creations of the temple of the Ichor God Bel-Shammaroth, that the floor tiles are perfectly tessellating octagons. This is something which, due to maths, is impossible in Euclidian space. - The buildings of the Unseen University, which have been rather strongly influenced by the vast amount of magic that has flowed through its halls over the centuries, have floors and rooms where logic says they simply could not exist. Magic is as much a part of the architecture as cement. It is specifically noted that there are rooms in which gravity changes direction through the day and windows that only exist on one side of their walls. When the senior faculty got their hands on a map from a specialist wizard who assured them it should be accurate for a few hours or so it was compared to an exploding chrysanthemum. - The Library of the Unseen University has so many ancient magical texts that it distorts space-time like an elephant on a trampoline, dimensions and gravity being twisted into the kind of topographical spaghetti that would cause even M.C. Escher to go for a good lie sideways. That's quite apart from the fact that it serves as a gateway into L-Space, and is therefore linked to all libraries everywhere in all points of space, time and reality. Technically, it contains every book that has ever been written, every book that is ever going to be written, and every book that ever could have been written (whether it actually was written or not). Once, the Librarian took a trip deep into the shelves, passed tribes of lost students, and ended up in the same library in the past. In addition, any sufficiently large collection of books (magical or otherwise) can exert the same effect as the Unseen University Library since any high quantity of knowledge can warp space as if it were a huge amount of mass. - In one book, this is rather beautifully summed up as "Knowledge = Power = Energy = Mass. A good bookstore is just a genteel black hole with a smile". - Death's house is bigger on the inside than on the outside, being the size of a cottage on the outside, but the size of a small castle on the inside. This is not so much intentional, but is rather the result of a slight blindness to ordinary architecture on Death's part (he forgot that things were not supposed to be bigger on the inside when he made the place and can't quite manage to make them fit now). Many of the rooms have the peculiar effect of being enormous at the same time as being regularly sized. Death's room in particular is stated to be about a mile wide, but most can be crossed in only a few steps. The real killer is that Death himself is weirded out by this last fact. This is because it's ordinary humans (like Albert) who cross the room in a few steps, even though it's clearly a mile wide. Death's theory is that the human mind refuses to accept the true size of the room, and acts as if it were normal-sized. And for humans, it seems like it's Death that acts weird, by either moving through very solid walls (he cannot even see) or suddenly appearing from thin air when they were in a small, empty room just a second ago (when he moves through that mile wide space and not the short, straight path the humans usually take). Death's realm is weird. - The exterior portion of the Tooth Fairy's domain in Hogfather has Alien Geometries based off the poor understanding of size, proportion and three-dimensional imagery present in a child's drawing. The massive white gap where there ought to be a horizon is particularly unsettling. - The Gnarly Ground in Lancre is a seriously bizarre landscape of crags and valleys "scrunched up" into a small area, overlapping in space; what geographical features you see there and have to deal with depend largely on your mindset. It makes a good hiding place. It is also known that how you perceive features of the Gnarly Ground depends a great deal on your own outlook. What one person sees as a shallow stream at the bottom of a ditch bridged by a large slab of rock can appear to others as a roaring torrent pounding over boulders at the bottom of a deep gorge bridged by a narrow, shaky bridge of balanced rocks. The most disturbing aspect of this is that how one perceives the features controls how one interacts with them, so one person may see you hanging by your fingertips while another sees you standing in the stream. - Unseen University's mad but Good with Numbers Bursar has posited that there is an extra number between three and four, which he calls "umpt" (as in, "umpteen" minus ten). - The Bugarup University (the UU's counterpart in Fourecks) has a tower which is only thirty feet tall at the bottom, but half a mile tall at the top, making it both significantly taller and significantly shorter than the Unseen University's famous (and surprisingly Euclidean) 800-foot tall Tower of Art, depending on where you're standing. - In Pyramids, when a far too large pyramid is under construction its usual buggery with the Fourth dimension of time is so heavy it starts messing with the other three as well. As a result, certain people find their dimensions a little rolled over (resulting in flat shapes that keep moving in a single direction), and close to the climax of the book \|\|the semi-built pyramid flips around, and so does the entire Kingdom of Djelibeybi, disappearing into a single near-invisible unidimensional crack in the ground that needs extremely advanced mathematics to find and enter\|\|. - Due to Rincewind's experiences, his hourglass is noted as resembling something a glass-blower would've made with the hiccups inside a malfunctioning time machine, where the sand even flows backwards in some spots. Death is entirely unaware of when Rincewind is going to die, despite having a pretty good knack for the estimate, because of this. - While The Divine Comedy's Hell and Purgatory have clearly defined geography, that of Paradise is more complicated. The spheres of Heaven correspond to the celestial spheres of a geocentric universe, but can equally well be seen as orbiting around God in the Empyrean, or as all existing in the same space. To enter Paradise or cross between the spheres, one must Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, rather than doing any physical climbing. The structure of Heaven has been interpreted as an early description of the fourth-dimensional hypersphere. - The Dresden Files: When Merlin built the prison on \|\|Demonreach\|\|, he improved security by constructing the wards simultaneously at five separate points in time. Yes, at five different times all at once. Try to wrap your head around that one. - In An Elegy for the Still-living, the main character spends a few minutes walking down a forest path before realising he is seeing the same scenery looping over and over again. Also, this passage: After the man had fallen through every place and every time that ever he had even imagined, he began to fall through the places that his mind could not conceive. He passed into structures that did not follow geometry, saw shapes that had no edges or sides, that extended into themselves and into all directions. He saw triangles with one hundred eighty one degrees. He saw minds that had no reason or morality. He saw colors indescribable to others. He saw the true shapes of his dreams, and the ten dimensions of the earth and sky. He saw what no one saw, felt what no one felt. He heard sounds with his finger tips, and tasted with his ears. He had secrets whispered to him in a language that can't be translated. - Eon, by Greg Bear, features an asteroid hollowed out by people from ..elsewhere, with seven chambers running along its internal axis. The first six contain cities, parks, a spaceport and loading area, and power generators. The seventh chamber \|\|goes on forever, contains objects made from redistributing probability over space, and a mathematical singularity running along its centre\|\|. And then things start to get weird. - In the eighth book of the Everworld series, the main characters are cast into an inverted realm where the ground they stand on is above their heads, and gravity pulls them up, with the colors of everything reversed for good measure. This naturally strongly bothers David, April, Jalil, and Christopher. Senna, however, likes it, and compares the reversed plane to fine art. - The House of the Maker from The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. The protagonists enter about halfway up, walk around a bit inside but never ascend or descend, then exit on the roof. Most of the characters can't wait to get out of the place, even if it does involve crossing the narrow, rail-less, hundred-foot-high bridge. And there's always the possibility of leaving the place before entering it. - In Flatland, the two-dimensional protagonist A. Square struggles to fathom the third dimension when he is introduced to it by a travelling sphere, and it almost drives him insane. In a dream he sees that inhabitants of one-dimensional Lineland are similarly incapable of comprehending the second dimension. And let's not even get into Pointland's issues. Many sequels have been written. Flatterland (Ian Stewart) has even more bizarre geometry, including a hyperbolic world, a fractal world, a grid world, and so on. - In the first The Gatekeepers book (Anthony Horowitz), the main character is prevented from escaping evil witches trying to sacrifice him to let the Old Ones back into the world by some sort of higher-dimensional loop: no matter which direction he sets out in, he always ends up back at his starting point. Of course, it might have been just a mental effect, not actually altering space. - The Laputans from Gulliver's Travels use these for their houses... causing them all to collapse. - The Harry Potter series features this in many places. Hogwarts, especially the stairs, constantly rearranges its layout; in the films this was depicted very mechanically, but in the books it was implied that sometimes a staircase would just lead to a different place without anything ever being seen to move. There are also rooms that change size and shape, the Room of Requirement being a prominent example later in the series whose layout and contents depend entirely on what the person entering it needs. There are also examples outside Hogwarts, such as tents which are not just bigger on the inside, but actually contain an entire multi-storey house including furniture and fully-fitted kitchens and bathrooms. Diagon Alley and the Knight Bus are other examples that change size and shape, both inside and out, depending on what is needed at the time or who is looking. - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: - The cave in Hollow Places. Its layout transforms with every visit. Rooms change in shape and order. Corridors alter directions. Formations appear and disappear. On one occasion, the cave led up to what should be miles in the sky rather than descend into the ground (which, of course, could not be seen from outside). During Austins (the protagonist's) final trip, he encounters paths that loop into each other in impossible ways. The only consistent features are the presence of the inscribed column and the primary anomaly wherein people are teleported to the location of their choosing after walking eighty-one steps past said column. - "The Hounds of Tindalos", by Lovecraft's friend Frank Belknap Long, features ravenous creatures of weird geometry who travel through time and space, and the only way to avoid them once they're on your trail is to completely avoid sharp angles (such as in a completely circular room). - House of Leaves starts with a house that is 3/8ths inch Bigger on the Inside than on the outside. They are only able to measure all the way across because \|\|a closet mysteriously appeared in the house when they left for a week\|\|. They also get slightly different measurements with every method they try until confirming the final number with a very accurate method — you'd normally think this is because of measurement deficiencies, but in retrospect... Also, this discrepancy disappearing is, believe it or not, the cue for things to get worse. - A feature of the bizarre planet in The Inverted World. Within about a dozen miles of the "optimum", everything is pretty much Earth-like. Go any farther than that, however, and things start to distort unpleasantly. Because the optimum is constantly moving, the entire City has to move after it to avoid destruction. Even weirder, \|\|in the novel version, it turns out that the Inverted World is actually EARTH — the inhabitants of the City only perceive it the way they do because their perceptions (and possibly their physical reality) have been altered\|\|. - In Joe Golem and the Drowning City this is a trait of the elder creatures and their artifacts. The Pentajulum of Lecter (essentially an ornate heart), an object with the power to trespass realms is described as having eternally changing features, being sometimes round, sometimes angled, sometimes both at the same time, and having incomprehensible geometries, sometimes appearing to be four-dimensional and things of the sort. - MARZENA makes use of the Gromoviti Znaci, the Thunder Mark of Perun from Slavic Mythology, which doubles up as an optical illusion making you see all matters of shapes and figures. There's also the G-Net, which by not being bound by earthly laws and by being fully accessible via holo wearables, allows its users and denizens to see and do geometrically impossible things. - The classic science fiction short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (inspiration for the movie The Last Mimzy) is about a set of toys from The Future that wind up in the hands of a pair of present-day children, a brother and sister. Adults examining it soon realize that the various beads and parts move in ways that shouldn't be physically possible, and conclude that they are educational toys meant to teach kids geometry. Present-day adults aren't mentally flexible enough to learn it, but the kids can. The father then \|\|walks into the kids' room to discover that they've figured out how to move hyperdimensionally, and he's horrified as they just walk off into nothingness and disappear\|\|. - In Mouse (2017), the Pocket Dimension created by the Antiochus Algorithm has geometry that works like in a video game, where trying to leave one side of the map causes you to reappear at the other, causing a steady rain of groundwater from the sky. - October Daye: Knowes tend to have these. - ALH: Windows look out at different times of day. You can walk down a hall and be three floors higher at the other end than you started. - Shadowed Hills: Windows in the same room can look out at different locations (and seasons). - In the unclaimed areas of the Summerlands, distance isn't always consistent. If you really, really need to get somewhere, then wherever it is you want to go will become closer to you. - Greg Egan's Orthogonal trilogy features a(n oxymoronically) straightforward example: Time is fundamentally the same as space, meaning that there are technically four spatial dimensions and no such thing as time. The trope is even discussed in-universe when Yalda hypothesizes "four-space" and Giorgio points out how batshit insane it sounds. Giorgio: So according to your theory, an object could have a trajectory entirely orthogonal to our own? Yalda: Yes. Giorgio: It could move with infinite velocity ? Yalda: Yes, that's how we'd describe it. But that's no stranger than saying that a vertical pole has an 'infinite slope': unlike a mountain road, it gets where it's going vertically without bothering to go anywhere horizontally. An object that gets where it's going without bothering to move across what we call time isn't doing anything pathological; in reality, there's nothing 'infinite' about it. - Paraiso Street features Ptiamuzcuaro, the Land of the Dead, which contains bridges that turn sideways, leaning skyscrapers that go from concave to convex depending on their mood, and streets that loop back upon themselves. The Breach also counts, being a rip between realities that appears as a gargantuan crystalline tunnel where the laws of physics break down. - In Larry Niven's Protector, the Brennan Monster amuses himself by creating full scale replicas of some of Escher's art, using things like artificial gravity to make them work. - The protagonist of Return from the Stars comes back to Earth after over a hundred years of absence. In the meanwhile, architecture has changed/evolved so much and so confusingly that when he first steps out into a spaceship depot, everything around looks to him like an abstract, shapeless muddle of pathways. - George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire: In A Clash of Kings, Daenerys enters the House of the Undying Ones in Qarth. Once in the antechamber, she makes four consecutive right-hand turns without returning to her starting point. - In the fifth volume of Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series, Jon-Tom encounters a perambulating prime, a creature/artifact/object which embodies mathematical chaos and constant change. It is described as "good-sized" and as "beautiful" but otherwise consists of impossible shape after impossible shape constantly sliding into one another. How much of the perambulator's appearance is "real" and how much is the mind struggling to make sense of something truly alien isn't clear. - In the Spiral Arm series, there is the Ouroboros Circuit, an artifact of a race of Precursors known as the people of sand and iron. At first glance, it looks like a wreath of tangled wires; but if you try and trace the wires with your eyes, and you'll find yourself staring into hyperspace. - Star Trek: - In the Star Trek Shatnerverse novel The Return, The Borg have built a hypercube base inside a subspace tunnel. - In the Star Trek: Voyager novel The Final Fury, Captain Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix arrive aboard a Fury planet wherein the hallways and doors meet at angles that aren't quite "right" — literally and figuratively — and the aliens themselves despise those who follow the "right-angle" or "right-hand path". - Star Wars Legends: A rare franchise example can be found in Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu. In it the titular character finds the titular artifact which seems to exist in several dimensions simultaneously and as such it really hurts just to look at it. Lando then uses it to unlock the passage into the Great Pyramid of Sharu where he is expanded in size several dozen times, while his droid companion is shrunk to the size of a louse. There are even more examples in the book: the aliens who built it were very, very alien indeed by Star Wars standards. - The Stormlight Archive: The intricate geometric designs that Cryptics use instead of heads invoke this trope. And in Words of Radiance, a Cryptic named Pattern manifests in the Physical Realm as a complex geometric pattern, implied to be based in quantum uncertainty. - In Time's Eye, by Arthur C. Clarke, there are spherical alien objects that apparently have a 1-to-3 ratio for their diameters and circumferences, instead of a one-to-pi ratio. - The Third Policeman has several different forms of this. The most prominent example would be the police barracks, which are two-dimensional on the outside and seemingly three-dimensional on the inside. There's also Eternity, which loops, and \|\|the inside of Mather's walls\|\|. - Threshold by Caitlin Kieran contains a fossil in a shape that cannot exist, causing the heroine to black out when she looks at it too long. What is this sinister shape? A regular heptagon. - Thursday Next's Uncle Mycroft, among his other Mad Science projects, developed "Nextian Geometry" with his wife, said to be based on how a cylinder looks like a rectangle from the side, which allows one to use a circular cutter on dough without any left over: it makes circles tesselate. - In Stephen Baxter's short story collection Vacuum Diagrams, the story The Eighth Room deals with something similar to Heinlein's story. However, in this case, the room was not created accidentally... it's more of a logic puzzle. There's also another short story by Baxter called "Shell", set on a planet that is folded in on itself. There is no sky people looking up see the other side of the planet curving over them, as if it's a shell. When one character uses a hot-air balloon to explore the other side, she witnesses the "shell" flatten out and then become curved normally, while the land she just left curves into a shell over the sky. - In the Venus Prime series, the interior of the Amalthean world-ship is described as being made up of nested spiral shells. The diagrams at the back of the last book don't help to make it any easier to comprehend. - This happens a lot in Warhammer 40,000 when the Powers of Chaos are involved. - In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, the city in the Eye of Chaos features this producing a Mobile Maze with it. - In Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn novel Xenos, the saruthi "tetrascapes" include regular octagons that nevertheless tessalate. Eisenhorn rescues some green soldiers from such a tetrascape, and later chooses them over experienced soldiers to go into one. Wise of him: the green soldiers had actually seen a tetrascape before, and the experienced ones hadn't. As a result, the "greens" manage to shoot and kill dozens of enemies, but the elite Deathwatch Space Marine attached to Eisenhower's squad can't hit anything thanks to the effect the twisted geometries have on ballistics. - In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel His Last Command, a Chaos warp gate throws Maggs and Mkoll into a place where stones hang in the sky and the stars are all wrong (both), as well as being bitterly cold. Also, their vox units register as both within ten kilometers and out of range. - In Ben Counter's Horus Heresy novel Galaxy In Flames, Death's Tomb is bigger on the inside than the outside as well as other repulsive features. - In Graham McNeills novel Gods of Mars, the physical form of the Breath of the Godsan alien machine which can revive dying stars and create entire solar systemsis a swarm of metal blades whirling around a core of glowing energy. The machine is not connected to or supported by anything, and the blades occasionally pass through each other as if they were intangible. The sight of it does funny things to the human mind. - The Wheel of Time: The Aelfinn and Eelfinn ("the Finn") inhabit one or more separate dimensions described by the author as having radically different natural laws. Successive windows do not show what one might expect. That the magic system in the series is heavily geometric likely has a great deal to do with why its use is explicitly forbidden there. The doorways into their realm also resemble this in the "real world", and are described as "twisted". Though it's less apparent, the same is true of the Ways, an artificially constructed dimension meant for quick travel. Except in one dream sequence (which, for complicated reasons, probably reflects the reality of the Ways), the realm is extremely dark, but travelers there have noted that by the arc of the bridges they're walking on, the platform they've just arrived at should be directly beneath the last. During the dream sequence, it becomes apparent that the platform-islands extend infinitely downwardand unless you follow the bridges with your eyes, appear to be on the same plane. The doorways seem to be a description of a three-dimensional Möbius strip. - A significant plot device in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time deals with folding space-time through a fourth space-dimension for teleportation. - Doctor Who: - The Expanded Universe speculates that this is the default setting for the interior of a TARDIS, and that the Doctor's TARDIS projects a more easily comprehended interior so as not to freak out the Doctor's human companions. She is just a sweet old thing. Even if the above speculation is incorrect, the Bigger on the Inside dimensions of the TARDIS are occasionally enough to disturb someone, most memorably with Jackson Lake's mild panic-attack in "The Next Doctor". From his reaction, it was giving him claustrophobia and agoraphobia at the same time. - "Castrovalva": The city of Castrovalva itself is built like this, \|\|as part of a trap to destroy the Doctor\|\|. It appears perfectly normal, but if you try to leave the centre of town, no matter what direction you travel, you'll soon end up back there. When the city starts breaking down, it begins to resemble an Escher picture. - "The Lodger": The Doctor uncovers an alien time-distortion device similar to the TARDIS in the upstairs flat of a British apartment building. Amy, poring over the building plans for the address, discovered that the building didn't even have an upstairs, it was a one-story building. Perception filters kept people from noticing anything out of the ordinary. - "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS": while the TARDIS interior looks like a fairly ordinary albeit vast spaceship, the TARDIS is revealed to be capable of tying its internal spatial and temporal dimensions into knots. At one point it threatens to do this to trap some thieves inside forever to stop them stealing some of its technology. This is something the TV show occasionally alluded to in the past with the TARDIS being able to delete and move rooms about and having an "unstable pedestrian infrastructure", and novels, comics, and audios have expanded on this for years, but this episode marks the first time we've actually seen it first hand. - In the Night Garden... is a BBC kids' show (from the people who made Teletubbies) where the various characters often ride around the eponymous garden in the Ninky-Nonk (a train without tracks) or the Pinky-Ponk (an airship). When they're boarding, these vehicles are comfortably large enough to accommodate all of them, yet when they're actually in motion the Ninky-Nonk is small enough to run up trees and over branches, and the Pinky-Ponk is small enough to get knocked off course by a toy ball. - Neverwhere does a very nice demonstration of this in passing. The protagonist is led down into the London Underground, then through a door, and down a stair case. This continues, always going down, until they reach a small door and step out on to the roof of a building. - In Rose Red, the titular mansion is like this. Sometimes. It was built to perfectly normal standards, but after a series of incidents it went from "just" haunted to something more, and may in fact have been sentient. Features include staircases leading into ceilings, dead-end hallways that screw with perspective, rooms that weren't there a minute ago (or were there but aren't any more), and other hilarities. About the only guaranteed stable locations are the entryway, the attic and the arboretum, and even then the things in them often are moved around or fully animate. - In Severance (2022), the offices of Lumon Corporation are just... off. The building already looks unsettling on the outside, with its weirdly angled mirrored parking lots. On the inside it has endless white hallways, dark elevators that only go down, giant (but low-ceilinged) offices with only a few desks in them, and an entire full-scale replica of Kier Eagan's house. - Stargate SG-1: The spacecraft used by the Goa'uld are relatively normal... until you notice the pyramid on top. Naturally, the entire spaceships can fold up so that their central pyramid can land on a planet-bound pyramid. Not to mention how a triangular-pyramid-shaped spacecraft can land on a square-pyramid. - The plot of the (admirably silly) Star Trek: Voyager episode "Twisted" where the ship becomes a maze where no door or hallway leads the same place twice due to a Negative Space Wedgie. - Similarly, in Star Trek: TNG "Where Silence Has Lease", the Enterprise winds up in a Negative Space Wedgie \|\|and Genius Loci\|\| where physics goes right out the window. They drop a beacon and head directly away from it only to find themselves heading directly toward it, they explore another ship where leaving a room results in re-entering the room from a different door, etc. - Threshold involved an alien invasion. The aliens used devices that apparently contained more that four dimensions, and cannot be fully perceived visually. Just seeing or hearing the signals originating from these "beacons" can kill or transform the view into an alien agent, with triple DNA helix where earthlife has only contains double. The aliens themselves are usually seen in dreams; crystal forests where spider-like entities are only partially seen. - In The Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost", a little girl falls through a portal in the wall of her bedroom into an alternate dimension, in which space is twisted, distorted and nonsensical to ordinary human perception. Fortunately, the family dog's superior hearing and sense of smell help get the little girl back into our dimension \|\|before the portal closes forever\|\|. - In Warehouse 13, the personal effects of permanent prisoners of the Warehouse are stored in the Escher Vault, which is basically a three-dimensional M.C. Escher painting. Authorized personnel use special goggles to follow along with the vault's ever-shifting perspective. Unauthorized personnel are never seen again unless they have Super Speed. - In Christian eschatology, the end of the world is accompanied by the sky rolling up like a scroll. If this wasn't Mind Screw enough, it also involves everyone on Earth witnessing the return of Jesus. At once. Even though the earth is a sphere. - A bit of interpolation between these two, and with modern theoretical physics, and we have a possible Mind Screwdriver: The end of the world splits the fabric of space across all of the 3-dimensional universe, revealing Eternity, from which Jesus emerges and destroys the wicked with the brightness of his coming, which may as well mean that their heads a'splode from the Mind Screw of it all. - The angel that guards the Garden of Eden is described as wielding a fiery sword that "turned every way", such that the sword is always between any potential intruders and the Garden regardless of which direction they approach from. - The sleeve designs for the first two LPs by the Blue Öyster Cult revolve around bizarre and unsettlingly alien landscapes and architectures. The cover designs for the first two albums, Blue Öyster Cult (1972) and Tyranny and Mutation, are credited to Bill Gawlik, who was also responsible for the specific design of the hooked cross used as the band logo. Gawlik is said to have been heavily influenced by the monumental architecture of dictatorships, specifically Albert Speer's grandiose ideas for remodelling Nazi Berlin. - Within the Wires: The connections between Grainne's house and the rest of the world take a greater or lesser amount of time to travel, for no readily apparent reason. Driving into town takes 20 minutes; driving back frequently takes several hours. - In the 2300 AD module Bayern, explorers who \|\|penetrate the cluster nodes at the heart of the Pleiades\|\| end up \|\|in the four-dimensional realm of the AGRA Intelligence\|\|. They may \|\|discover that the Pleiades is just one part of a galaxy-spanning megastructure\|\|, go insane, end up dimensionally flipped, or all of the above before they leave. - And, as you'd expect, Call of Cthulhu and CthulhuTech occasionally include this for...well, we all know why. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The Classic Dungeons & Dragons system delved deep into this trope with its boxed set for PC Immortals, redefining game-reality in terms of five spatial dimensions. Mortal creatures exist in three, Immortals in four, and Old Ones in five. Which three a mortal creature occupies can vary: Nightmare-reality creatures share only one spatial dimension with Normal-reality beings such as humans, and "nippers" from the Astral Plane overlap with dimensions of both Nightmare and Normal reality. As for how all this applies to the geometry of the planes themselves, thinking about it could give you migraines. - Planes in D&D 3rd edition: - In the Queen of the Demonweb Pits module, the players ventured into The Abyss to confront Lolth, the demon queen of the spiders. Lolth's domain consisted mainly of long, open passageways hanging in space. Even though these passages pass over and below each other, they never ascend or descend in any way. - Githzerai monasteries on Limbo, which take advantage of the fact that "down" is whichever direction you want it to be, giving us some extremely Escher-esque architecture. - Planescape created Sigil, a city that exists on its own plane, connected to others only by portals in the forms of doors. The city resembles the inside of a tire; it's a tube that wraps around on itself, so you can look up and see buildings in the sky, walk straight for hours and end up in the same place, and open any door and end up somewhere else. Gravity seems to work for whatever ground you're standing on right now and light is just sort of there. To top it all off, it's floating on the top of an infinitely-tall spire in the middle of a plane that is both infinite and finite. The best part, though, is that, since Sigil exists completely separate from any other plane, there is a chance that it has no outer surface. - In F.A.T.A.L. one of the many, many rolls in character creation is Anal Circumference—basically, how big your butthole could stretch safely. In the first edition, it was possible to get a zero or even a negative number in this roll, making it so that at best you have no anus (though knowing FATAL that's a good thing) and at worst you lacked an anus so hard that there were less assholes in the world because of your mere existence. - GURPS Illuminati University describes a campus which teaches human students and everything else capable of paying the exorbitant university fees how to function as Mad Scientists, World-Conquering Dictators, Marketing Specialists, and other strange jobs. The campus is a stereotypical university: the campus has an open area or "Quad" in which students and staff may pause for reflection, study, impromptu lectures and other activities from which adventures may spring. Illuminated University has The Pent, which has five sides for no particular reason; students who happen to have a protractor handy will discover that all five of the corners have 90-degree angles. One of the dorms is stated as having rather similar angles. - Invisible Sun: Due to any laws of reality in the Actuality being arbetrary at best, buildings in the city of Satyrine stretch in impossible directions and streets wrap around themselves like Mobius strips. Structures move, and avenues repeat. Places trail off into seeming nothingness. Until you really know your way around, getting lost in Satyrine is practically a given. - Mage: The Awakening has the Twisting Maze Zone, a localised distortion of reality caused by Abyssal forces. While it looks chaotic, a constantly shifting jumble, this is actually because its directions extend into the fourth one as well. Unlike many examples, mages can use this to their advantage, using their will to walk through hidden parts of it to teleport around-in fact, they must, as the way to banish it is to walk through the areas of the Zone as they normally are-i.e., sans Twisting Maze-thus forcing them to apply to Earth laws. Once that is done, the Zone literally Logic Bombs itself out of existence, causing anybody nearby to gain a brief glimpse into the space-time continuum. Should someone have the force of will to process it, they have an epiphany about how the world works, resulting in an Experience Point gain. If no one does anything about it though, the Zone grows so bad that it ends up rewriting history so that it—and the area it affects—ceases to exist. - Over the Edge: The Terminal. Its Al Amarja's massive airport, nine-storeys high and built like a maze. Navigating it is so difficult, people need to hire guides. Of course, the best part is when you leave the airport and see that it's built like a step-pyramid. An upside-down step-pyramid. - Exalted: - The dimensions of Primordial world bodies are often based on their moods and personalities. For the more focused and stable ones, the worlds are typically consistent and predictable. For others, you get things like spatial relationships that are constantly rearranged, being able to pass from one side of a layer to another with no obvious transition, and having a sun that is inexplicably always right above you while also being at the center of a spherical arrangement. This makes travel around Malfeas... interesting. Once you enter the dimension proper, you must cross Cecelyne, the Endless Desert, for five days to actually get to the Demon City. No, it doesn't matter if you're walking on foot, riding on horseback, or piloting a First Age airship. The trip always takes five days. Then you get to the Demon City, which is layers upon layers stacked on top of one another — but each layer has Ligier, the Green Sun, shining above it, no matter how deep down it is. - Some of the stranger engineering feats in Creation are also able to do this. Cold House, the manse of the Deathlord Eye and Seven Despairs, is somehow situated both in a shadowland in Creation and overlooking the Mouth of the Void down at the depths of the Underworld at the exact same time. - Pathfinder: Found in several locations, such as the Chaotic Evil plane of the Abyss (particularly in its lower, Qlippoth-infested layers), the Land of Faerie known as the First World, and most of the interior layouts of Baba Yaga's hut (which change depending on the hut's current location). - Warhammer Fantasy has the Imperial capital of Altdorf, courtesy of the Ritual Magic performed by the High Elves to make space to build the Colleges of Magic there — not clear space, make space. Although it looks normal, the city is slightly Bigger on the Inside and impossible to map; people have to navigate by landmarks and by instinct. - Warhammer 40,000: - This is the near-universal hallmark of things made in the name of Chaos. For example the Dark Eldar capital Commoragh has spatial anomalies, "wandering shadows that tear apart the unwary" and many other dire things. It lies deep within a nest of extra-dimensional tunnels. - The Webway in general seems to follow alien geometries. In particular, gravity seems to always point towards the tunnel floor/walls. In Path of the Outcast there is a city built into a large spherical chamber in the Webway where buildings cover the entirety of the chamber walls and a person on the streets would see the city curve up and into the "sky". Commorragh is even worse since the place is filled with portals, meaning that walking down the street might actually involve travelling the distance of several lightyears. - Werewolf: The Apocalypse has the Black Spiral Umbral Realm. Being a Spirit World the Umbra is pretty odd at the best of times, but normally follows at least the guidelines of the laws of physics, if only because visitors expect it to. But the Black Spiral... from the outside it looks like just a spiral pattern on the floor in black. Once you start walking it seems longer, twistier and with entirely too many dimensions. In fact it's a path into the mind of the Wyrm. No-one's ever come out the other side sane. - The Transformers already skirt the trope, what with size and mass-changing and the oddness of the scales...but then we come to the Autobot Micromaster Countdown's playset. He's a deep space explorer. He has an interstellar rocket and a command base. The base is used to launch the rocket. But also fits inside the rocket: mgnaaaaa! - A minor example in Danganronpa: The swimming pool occupies a space one story above the floor of a multi-leveled gymnasium. This trope is implied, though it may be due to lack of consideration on the creator's part. - Demonbane, being derived from the Cthulhu Mythos, has this at several points. The characters describe the Deep Ones' artwork as "unpleasant" and headache-inducing, though they cannot say why, exactly. Later, the towers of R'lyeh are described as being "twisted in straight lines", with the protagonist lampshading how that doesn't make any sense. - Later on in The Letter, the Ermengarde Mansion is able to continuously rearrange its rooms. - 8-Bit Theater: - In Adventurers!, when Imposis is just about to leave, Ardam points out that nothing he does seems particularly impossible. Imposis gives him a Penrose triangle and continues on his way, leaving Ardam to hold it in his hands and stare at it until he gets a headache. - Awful Hospital: The Hospital is one of many overlapping "Zones" in the whacked-out Multiverse of the Perception Range — Like Another Dimension, except what you see and how it's structured depends on your ability and willingness to perceive it. To complicate it further, it's shot through with links into other Zones and is heavily implied to be unraveling under attack by Eldritch Abominations. One new feature is the Plank Maze, which consumes random locations within the Hospital and links them with a nonsensical network of passages. - Chainsawsuit: Cthulhu gets caught using non-Euclidean dice during a game of Humans and Habitats. - A few arcs in Fans! (notably the whole of Book 5) centered around a power-object called the 23-Sider, an RPG die with 23 identical sides. When the 23-Sider was formed in Book 5 it warped reality. - Girl Genius: - Gunnerkrigg Court, In Chapter 19, "Power Station", the buildings at \|\|Zimmingham\|\| look pretty normal from nearby, but long-distance shots reveal that they are at crazy angles relative to each other. - In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! the alien Nemesites know how to make buildings that are bigger on the inside. Molly describes such a building as "all tesseracty and Whovian!" This becomes a plot point when that building is destroyed, and all of its chunks of debris expand outward and fly away from each other as they "drop into normal spacetime.'' This saves a character who was trapped inside from being crushed. - The Mineral MacGuffin Borfomite is described as hyperdimensional matter, and firing a particle beam through it will cause the beam to weave in and out of normal spacetime, allowing it to penetrate almost any barrier. - The real interior of the Cone Ship turns out to be this, taken to Acid-Trip Dimension levels. - Freefall manages to imply a subversion. It's not shown what Sam looks like inside his suit, but he feels the need to reassure onlookers that he exists in only three spatial dimensions. - In Homestuck, the evil planet of Derse (and presumably, its good counterpart, Prospit) has inner depths and corridors that twist upon themselves in ways that challenge the rational mind, as shown in this sequence. It is clearly not just a bunch of buildings built around a central point. The core of its moon is hollow, and there it can be seen that the moon is somehow held together by chains that are loose and just float there. - The physical layout of the Crypt in Mountain Time is ever-changing, to the point that characters can go down a flight of stairs and end up climbing up into the next room. Certain areas are more resistant to change, however; these places tend to be full of brunch restaurants. - Problem Sleuth: You cannot descend into the sky because the universe is not upside-down! - According to Questionable Content, dildos can have alien geometries too. - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: The strip for 2014-05-15 has a Russian doll that contains the person holding the doll. - Pip in Sequential Art chose to prove his superiority in Cubeminer by building "Escher's Staircase". The next page shows that with a few tweaks you sometimes can build this in a 3D game. \|\|But there's no guarantee that the physics engine will survive an attempt to process it.\|\| - Synodic Reboot: The mysterious highway Kristan visited in his dream has roads that curve and twist beyond what should exist anywhere in the reality he is used to, also existing in what appears to be an empty, dark void. - From Tales of the Questor, we have the Unseleigh castle... Yet another homage to M.C. Escher's "Relativity". - The polygons in Triangle and Robert tend to have their own style of geometry, leading to strips like this or this. - The Toymania store that serves as the main setting for TRU-Life Adventures is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Subverted, though, in that it's a fluke of how the measurements were taken. - Various Happenings: According to a snippet of lore, placing magically imbued objects near one another can create this effect (be it intentionally or not) as demonstrated in the corresponder's home. - The author of xkcd drew a comic about hyperbondage (see slide 5) for a cartoon-off against Farley Katz. - The Escherian Stairwell, named after the artist M.C. Escher, is an apparently physics-breaking architectural construct that supposedly exists on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology. As showcased in the linked video, the stairs seem to have the uncanny ability to loop back on themselves indefinitely, making for some amusing interactions when showing them to first-time students and guests. In another video posted on the same channel, a student explains how the entire hoax was a social experiment to find how many people could be fooled into thinking something so impossible could exist using nothing but some actors, clever camerawork and editing, and a cheesy, educational show gimmick. - The web-serial Ash & Cinders features a mythological land that restructures itself as it pleases, and with little regard to the life in the immediate area. The main characters even travel through a forest while it's changing into a mountain. - Fine Structure describes universes with more dimensions than ours this way. - The Knight Shift contains an upstairs hallway with doors that only lead out of the door at the end of the hallway. When that door is sealed shut they \|\|lead outside.\|\| - Protectors of the Plot Continuum: - Depending on who's writing any given story, PPC Headquarters is either merely a huge labyrinthine building, or a partially sentient structure that's always shifting around. Either way, it's easy to get lost inside the place, and oftentimes the only way to find the place you're trying to go is to distract yourself and not think about it. The place was built by Plant Aliens, who seem to be able to navigate it just fine. - The Word Worlds are extremely literal when interpreting poorly phrased or illogical prose, resulting in eye-blinding sights or mind-bending shapes. Placing a non-canonical location in the wrong place can do truly gruesome things to the local landscape. - Buildings frequented by the Slender Man often develop these, sometimes reaching full-blown Eldritch Location levels. Don't expect a door to lead to the same room it did two minutes ago. - Marble Hornets: When Jay investigates Brian's abandoned house near the end of season one, he gets bounced around between rooms and eventually finds himself in the disused bathhouse from an earlier entry. \|\|The next entry shows something similar happening in his house.\|\| - Everyman HYBRID: the cast is out on a hiking trip in the middle of a bright, sunny day, exploring an old abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, deep in a wooded area. A door in the basement of the house leads to a sprawling beach in the middle of the night. In a later episode, they find a crawlspace in Jeff's house that leads them to the aforementioned abandoned house miles away. Later still, Vinny finds a house that either warps him to different parts of the cast's homes, or is an equally weird mishmash-ed replica. That last one gets even weirder later on, when Vinny suggests \|\|he and his friends are fictional constructs and their "houses" have always been like that\|\|. - Appears a couple times in Sevenshot Kid. Usually it serves as a prelude to something horrible. - The Hell Hotel in the Halloween Episode of Tribe Twelve. - One Hundred Yard Stare: When Avery, Macy, and Ellie first run from the Slender Man there is a good dosing of this, with them starting in a yard of some sort and ending up, after a jaunt in a building, next to a moving train. - The Metal Glen from Ruby Quest displays aspects from this. First there's the metal shutter in Ruby's room, which sometimes opens to a window and sometimes to a passage. Then half of the Brig turns upside-down, gravity and all. Then it gets weirder. - The Dionaea House. All of them. The one in Boise, for example, has a second floor that is not visible from the outside. It says something that this is not the strangest thing about it. - Carmilla's room in the Whateley Universe. It keeps changing size and shape. Its door moves from building to building. It's possible to walk in and out of it without using any known entrance. There's a reason the staff at Whateley Academy calls it the H. P. Lovecraft Room. - The Fear Mythos has The Empty City, also known as the City of Empty Shadows or DEVOURER. It's a living city which intentionally makes itself into Alien Geometries in order to make sure its victims stay within it until they die. Or worse. - Fredrik K.T. Andersson managed to invert this. - Bravemule, the saga of a Dwarf Fortress, gave the dwarves an utterly bizarre culture with Blue-and-Orange Morality. Among other things, any shape that is not rectangular is "unscrupulous". An accidentally-created octagonal room was thus treated as horrible and incomprehensible, giving dwarves Catapult Nightmares and such. - TV Tropes: The Inverted Trope example on PlayingWith.Mile Long Ship. How exactly do you get a ship whose length is a negative number? You start with a ship with zero length and then you make it shorter. - In Welcome to Night Vale the station management room is, as far as they can tell, too large to fit in the radio station building. - Intern Dana ends up stuck in the forbidden dog park (Do not take your dog to the dog park. Do not go to the dog park. Do not look at the dog park. Do not think about the dog park.), and notes that although it looks like it's the size of a city block when you're standing still, she was able to walk along one of the black walls that surround it for two weeks without reaching a corner. - When Dana gets stuck in the desert other-world, she gets trapped in a geographic loop; no matter how long she walks, or in which direction, she always finds herself heading towards the mountain with a blinking red light. Incidentally, children in Night Vale are taught in school how to deal with geographic loops, using a simple memory device: knife. - Also the House That Doesn't Exist. It seems like it exists, like it's just right there when you look at it, and it's between two other identical houses, so it would make more sense for it to be there than not, but... - Monster Factory hosts use a third-party save editor to do this to Truck Shepard, at one point causing our hero's cheek to clip through a wall. to a Red Shirt scientist in the tutorial level "Look, I can save you! Grab my chin! Grab my lips! Noooo! I can taste you!" - The Unforgotten Realms Live universe is one giant Cube; in the center of this cube is an island with a guy living there. This island? It's where the sun is. The guy on the Island's job is to turn the Sun on and off. And the stars of the Night sky? They are the lights coming from other cities in the Sky. Did I mention that this isn't a Cosmic Horror series, but a Fantasy series? - SCP Foundation has its own subpage here. - In Mortasheen, this is where the Xenogog lives naturally, only coming into ours with a screw up in a time travel experiment. - Buttered Side Down: The protagonist often runs into these, as part of his physics-defying shenanigans. - Retrieving a Frisbee has the unfortunate protagonist suffering from shifting geometries, as the rooftop he just climbed to, no more than a story tall, seems to grow several hundred meters when he's right on top and he wasn't looking, and goes back to normal once he makes it back down the hard way. Then again, it may just be a matter of perception... And earlier, he was throwing a frisbee through one side and catching it from the other, so it might be Real After All. - Cheating Death has the protagonist somehow leaping into his own throat to dislodge a stuck meal he was choking on; he even jumps up and down on it, to no avail. - Eating Something Spicy has the protagonist somehow grabbing the sun with the usual "pinch the sun" perspective trick, and putting the hyperhot marble in his noodles to make them spicier. He is forced to put it back right after with the same trick. - Suicide Mouse: At first glance, the scenery appears to be a standard Wraparound Background of buildings, but during the part where there is disturbing murmuring and screaming in place of the music, the sidewalks start to warp in impossible directions and the buildings become floating rubble. - In the Adventure Time episode "The Real You", Finn uses his magically-granted super intelligence to create a fourth-dimensional bubble. It looks like a cube wire-frame constantly inverting itself (a tesseract) before it collapses into a black hole. - Batman: The Brave and the Bold has a standard-issue Escher magical library in the Batman Cold Open of "The Eyes of Despero". Batman is largely unfazed by the shifting gravity, and actually uses it to good effect. - Final Space: In episode 3, Gary and Avocato are send to the Lazarus Trap; a dimension filled with dozens of stairs, going in all directions. Even impossible ones. And Your Mind Makes It Real is in full effect here. - The Foghorn Leghorn cartoon "Little Boy Boo" plays this for laughs. Foghorn is playing hide and seek with a child genius and hides in the coal bin. The kid performs a few calculations and then digs Foghorn out of the lawn. A very befuddled Foghorn protests that he was in the coal bin, but the kid just shakes his head and holds up the calculations. Foghorn then goes to look inside the coal bin, but decides "No, I'd better not look. I just might be in there". - The titular Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends sometimes exhibits a non-malevolent version of this combined with Bigger on the Inside. In one episode, Mac is attempting to leave for dinner from the house's roof, but they go down a flight of stairs and through a door to end up back on the roof (prompting Mac to confusedly remark "But we went down"). They later fall down a trap door from somewhere in the middle of the house, sending them back to the roof again, and Mac declares "This is downright unnatural". - Hilda: In episode 11, Hilda and the Woodman end up in a magic house that gives them everything they desire, but doesn't want them to leave. When they try to escape anyway, the house starts adopting alien geometries in order to keep its prisoners captive, like forming rooms with stairs going in all directions (and a door in the floor), and an attic door that leads straight back to the living room downstairs. - In the episode "Dziura w całym" of Polish series Przypadki Zwierzo-Jeża the main character digs a shallow hole to bury the leaves he had raked, but falls in and ends up in extensive cave system. His attempts to leave through three different tunnels lead him first to an upside-down world, then into the spout of his teapot and finally right into his own bedroom. - Comic example: the Flanders's rebuilt house in The Simpsons episode "Hurricane Neddy" features many impossible features. - Xiaolin Showdown: When Omi goes back in time to meet Dashi, the original Xiaolin Master, and get a new puzzle box to imprison the escaped Wuya, the challenge that Dashi sets for Omi takes place in a setting that is based on some of M.C. Escher's "alien geometry" drawings. - Studies of the cosmic microwave background radiation suggest that space better fits a Poincaré dodecahedron than a sphere. When you get to an outer face you Wrap Around to the opposite face. Except the faces don't exactly line up, so you also rotate one tenth of a rotation. - Euclidean geometry, mathematically speaking, is a special case: it only applies to forms in a space with zero curvature (for the two-dimensional case, a perfectly flat plane); something that is, strictly speaking, an abstract concept (in light of the fact that time and space are demonstrably curved by gravity.) Consider that you cannot, in Euclidean geometry, draw a triangle with three right angles, but it is perfectly possible on the surface of a sphere. The Poincaré dodecahedron, to make its angles meet without gaps, lives on the hyper-surface of a hyper-sphere. note : Sometimes made worse by the fact that a non-Euclidean two-dimensional geometry is often visualized as embedded within a three-dimensional Euclidean space (the surface of a sphere, or a saddle), which leads some people to mistakenly believe that an n-dimensional non-Euclidean space requires an unseen n+1 dimensional space. (It's not too difficult to imagine a two-dimensional space with positive curvature as the surface of a sphere. Now try to wrap your mind around the idea of a space where the geometry works out the same as it would on the surface of that sphere, but without any third dimension at all.) - Other proposed topologies for the Universe are the doughnut or the Picard's Horn (also known as ''Gabriel's Horn''). Analysis of data from the Planck mission suggest the Universe to be flat with a margin of error of just 0.5%, with other studies of the same data ruling out several proposed geometries for the Universe. However, that may simply mean its curvature is too small to be detectable by Planck as well as the signals left in the CMB by its topology; instead of being flat and infinite, the signals do not exist yet because of the large extent of the Universe and light has not had enough time to make them. - The effects of gravity are described by the curvature of spacetime, which means that in truth, geometry is not Euclidean at all. As a famous test of this, we can see stars which should be hidden behind the Sun during a solar eclipse, due to the light following the shortest path in curved space towards us. Time is also curved, in a sense, as clocks will run slower in places where classically the gravitational potential is lower relative to clocks at greater potential. This effect too, was measured using high precision atomic clocks. Some astronomers who like thinking outside the box suggested that one might put a satellite 550 AU away from the sun. At this point, the aforementioned curvature of the spacetime bends light just right, making it possible to use the sun itself as, essentially, the primary lens of a huge gravitational telescope. This idea is called a solar foci telescope. - Black Holes take the spacetime warping of massive objects to the extreme. Due to the singularity being both infinitely dense and infinitesimally small, the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite as well. Any spacetime trajectory running from inside the event horizon to the outside universe ends up going backwards in time. Our understanding of physics completely breaks down when the extreme conditions of black holes are involved, and as there is literally no way to actually observe what happens beyond the event horizon, their inner workings are completely shrouded in mystery. In other words, black holes are so weird that it's impossible to determine how weird they are! - Spherical geometry isn't just something for universe-scale models. The surface of the earth is represented as a two-dimensional non-Euclidean space every time you look at a map. As mentioned previously, a sphere can have a triangle with three right angles on it, and the earth is (approximately) a sphere. - An example: Start at the North Pole. Go to the equator. Turn right 90 degrees. Continue along the equator. Turn right 90 degrees. You will reach your starting point. Nifty, huh?◊ - Many implementations of Conway's Game of Life wrap the edges of the grid, so the cells technically live on the surface of a torus. Or in the case of a 3D implementation, a hypertorus. Some starfield simulators do this, too. Stars that vanish off one edge of the volume of space appear at the opposite one, resulting in the stars being positioned on the 3D surface of a 4D torus. These wraparound connections are used in the communications paths for processes or threads in some concurrent programs. - There are multiple projections used on pictures, most commonly the gnomonic projection. The fisheye projection is also well-known. The reason these are necessary is that people see in elliptic geometry. As a simple example, imagine that you are standing on a railroad track, facing along the track. If you look straight down, the rails will look parallel, but if you look straight forward, they will intersect. If you look halfway between, you should be able to see where they're parallel and where they intersect, despite being perfectly straight. - General relativity predicts that objects in a gravitational field shrink relative to those outside of the field. Essentially, when looking from the outside in, massive objects like stars or planets are actually Bigger on the Inside. This is due to the fact that what we experience as gravity is actually the mass of planets causing space to shrink in its presence. This means that straight lines, like those of laser light, become bent in the presence of mass. This is why planets orbit other planets, and light gets bent in a gravitational field: they are following the curved lines of space around the planet. The best analogy of this is placing a mass on a rubber sheet, and watching it deform the rubber around it. Letting a ball spin around the mass is rather similar to planets orbiting one another, as the balls just follow the curved paths of the rubber sheet. - Gaze upon the optical effects of special relativity. Drugs wish they could do this. - That's not even taking into account the metric signature of space. In essence, time as a dimension is counted as the 'opposite' of space, leading to (among other strange results) the fact that two points along the path of a photon in spacetime are always considered to have zero distance between them. The reason why this is important is it means that the weird, seemingly inconsistent results produced by special relativity can be explained by looking at the situation from different angles. - The Mandelbrot Set is a two-dimensional slice of a four-dimensional object that represents the eventual fate of iterating the map z → z + c, where z and c are complex numbers (two dimensions each). Start with z=0 and try different values of c, and you get the usual two-dimensional view of the Mandelbrot set (which is, properly, only the boundary of the usually-black region representing points that do not escape to infinity). Fix a value for c and try different starting points for z, and you get a Julia set. The complete four-dimensional object stacks all the two-dimensional Julia sets along a complex dimension for a total of four real-valued dimensions. - A tesseract is a "four dimensional cube". Just as a square is only one face of a cube, a cube is only one "face" of a tesseract. Think about that for a second. The vertex of the tesseract is adjacent to four edges, the vertex figure of the tesseract is a regular tetrahedron. The dual polytope of the tesseract is called the hexadecachoron and... oh no I've gone cross-eyed. - Scarier still, people have built computer models Rubix Hypercubes which people have successfully solved. For your headache-inducing pleasure. A 5D version has also been made. And then a guy got to seven... - If you want a quick view of just how confusing tesseracts can be, see here. Lovecraft would be proud. (Or actually he'd probably be nihilistically horrified at the alien, inhuman cosmos revealed by science, but whatever.) - Tesseracts are really just the start of a really long and dark journey. Even a Hilbert cube is a really simple example when compared to some of the other stuff. It is also a cuboid of countably infinite dimension. Studying maths at uni sort of gets you used to this stuff... - Try solving a 4D maze. Just 3333 takes about half an hour, and that's if you've gotten used to moving around in 4D. - Most people think of M.C. Escher when asked about impossible shapes, such as the impossible triangle and impossible cube. This is actually a misconception. Oscar Reutersvärd was an artist from the 1940s was hailed as "The Father of Impossible Figures". Seriously, just Google image search his name and everything that comes up is a total Mind Screw. - Try wrapping your head around the Moebius Loop, something that can be made in seconds with just a piece of paper. It's a loop with a half-twist with only one side and one edge. Similarly, the Klein bottle, which is a closed surface and only has one side, rather than having an inside and an outside. (3-D models have one part intersecting another; a proper Klein bottle would go back and forth through the fourth dimension at that spot.) - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's downtown area is called the "Golden Triangle" and is indeed triangular. To the uninitiated, though, some of the turns feel* like 90 degrees as you're trying to navigate. Making three "turns" and ending up back where you started has flummoxed more than one out-of-town driver (and more than its share of locals, too). - One Pittsburgh native suggests that in order to truly understand the city's geometry, eleven-dimensional string theory may be necessary. - Though Pittsburgh's geography pales in comparison to the tangled skein of one-way and weirdly contorted roads across The Pond that are known as London. Indeed, The Knowledge is widely agreed to be the most demanding test of mental prowess ever devised, anywhere. - "Mystery spot" attractions use tricks of architecture to simulate this trope. Gravity hills do the same thing, but with natural tricks of topography. - How to turn a sphere inside out. - Both Google Earth and Apple Maps provide a 3D representation of the Earth's surface, made up of a combination of 2D aerial photos and 3D topography information. Sometimes disagreements between this data result in images of melting trees, spaghetti-like roads, bizarrely deformed buildings and more. See: Postcards From Google Earth, Glitches in Apple Maps. - Gabriel's Horn is a geometric figure that has a finite volume, but infinite surface area. - In ultrametric geometry, all triangles have two sides of the same length, repeatedly moving a short distance doesn't result in moving a longer distance (no matter which direction you move), and every point inside a ball is its center. - Anecdotal accounts of dreams suggests that the parts of our brain in charge of three dimensional space and short-term memory don't work all that well when we're asleep, resulting in passages to nowhere, doors that weren't there before (or the "there was a hole here, it's gone now" effect), or sudden jumps in physical location. - Curved Spaces is a program that shows off quotient spaces of manifolds of constant curvature. One of the simpler ones is a dodecahedron where each of the pentagons is made entirely of right angles. - Though there isn't anything impossible or mind-boggling about the actual shapes, trypophobia is somewhat similar to this concept in the sense that it's the shapes themselves that cause a negative reaction. In trypophobia, holes, circles, and other small shapes that are clustered together illicit a reaction of disgust and sometimes even fear in the viewer. It doesn't matter what they actually are, whether it be the cells of a beehive or the bumps on a person's skin, as it is the shapes and their density themselves that cause the reaction. In that sense, they are somewhat conceptually similar. - String theory (or hypothesis) predicts the existence of over 10 spatial dimensions; most of them, however, would be curved into themselves in an extremely small scale (think a millionth of a proton) so we cannot perceive them. One way to imagine them would be like drawing a line on a piece of paper; it looks like it only has one dimension, but if you zoom in really close, the drawn line would also have a width and a height. - "Alien geometries" that are "unpleasant" to watch, much like in described in the trope page, are possible with virtual reality headsets. For example, if something (like for example text) that should be on the front is instead too far back, farther than the geometry that ought to be behind it, this breaks the stereoscopic effect and causes a bad visual dissonance that may be physically unpleasant to watch with both eyes (with one eye it's ok because there is no stereoscopic effect then).	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurAnglesAreDifferent
Our Ghosts Are Different - TV Tropes "What is a ghost? A tragedy doomed to repeat itself?" Ghosts in fiction are usually people who have died, but their spirits are still lingering around. Some are friendly, some are neutral, and some are scary and vengeful. It all depends on what kind of story is being told. Reasons include: - Avenge me! The ghost was killed through foul play, knows it, and wants the murder avenged. Sometimes, this also comes with a Clear My Name sidebar. This one can also lead to ghosts becoming violent and angry if not avenged. They may explicitly say that they cannot rest easy in the graves until they are avenged. - Unfinished Business: Something that was significant or important to the person they used to be when alive remains undone. The ghost hangs around until this is done, and may or may not move on afterward. - The ghost hasn't yet figured out they're dead, or are so attached to what they did in life they are still doing it out of habit and/or affection. This can lead to a Tomato in the Mirror shock or a Spirit Advisor. - They're aware they're dead and angry at living people because they are still alive. - That's just how the Afterlife works in this universe. No alternate dimension, Higher Plane of Existence or anything — you just become a ghost when you die. - The ghost suffered so much in life that the spirit was drawn to the place where the worst torment took place. - Resounding psychic echo. The ghost isn't even the person's soul, but just a spectral imprint left behind by the person's death that's gained a form of sentience. In paranormal fields, these are usually called residual hauntings. - The Power of Love. They feel someone they love can't make it without them, or needs protection. - No funeral, no grave — they cannot rest without proper memorialization — or perhaps their graves have been moved or desecrated. - Or maybe someone is mourning them too much, and as a consequence, they are bound to this world. - The person who arranged for their burial was a beneficent stranger, and they must make return for this good deed. This type is the original "grateful dead". - They were very, very naughty in life and fear crossing over to the Afterlife and facing possible cosmic retribution. - They were very, very naughty in life and ghosthood is their cosmic retribution. If it's of a purgatorial type, sometimes humans can help out. - They're a spirit form of some sorcerer, and actively made preparations to ensure themselves eternal life after their bodies gave up, or just ended up that way because of their power. - They were magically prevented from going to, or were magically drawn back from, the Afterlife. - The boundaries between the realms of the living and dead have been weakened; this tends to bring about lots of ghosts. This can be a regular, normally annual, occurrence, in which case you just want to propitiate them, or indicate serious problems as a one-time thing. - They can move on any time they want; they just don't want to because they're having too much fun. - There's also the odd rare case of a ghost that was never a living human being. It may have spawned from something. It may be part of a broader species that's made of the same kind of "matter" as human ghosts. It may be an animal, or a Genius Loci. It may be a synthetic ghost made by alchemy. In cartoon setting, a ghost child can be considered to be the son (or, in rarer cases, daughter) of a couple of "normal" ghosts, born after the two normal ghosts's death (this is mainly to have a young ghost spectators can identify to, without addressing the issue of a child's death). Or it may be some sort of... thing pretending to be a ghost to suit its purposes. - There is an afterlife, the soul splits in parts: One to decide whether or not they ascend, one for reincarnation, and one stays in the afterlife. The ghost is the last part. Powers include: - Brown Note: Some ghosts have strong psychological or even physical effects on the living. These may result from being in the presence of, seeing or hearing, or (generally the worst effects) touching the ghost. These effects may range from temporary to permanent, and may include: - Brain Fever: Common in 19th century works. Sometimes fatal, sometimes survivable. - Death Touch: Has its own entry under "powers"on this page. - Insanity, of varying duration and severity. - Tangible physical injuries, of varying severity, often caused by a touch. Sometimes all or part of these injuries become a Wound That Will Not Heal, ranging in severity. - Death Touch: This is a very common ability for ghosts in stories written before the 20th century; it can still sometimes be seen in later works. The death may occur instantly, or the victims may linger for a time (rarely more than a matter of days), the better to gibber madly about the unutterable horror of what they saw (and in the process provide story significant clues). Variants include curses, life drains, and visual or acoustic ranged effects. Especially in 19th century works, death may come by Brain Fever, or extreme fear. - Demonic Possession: Some ghosts can take over the body of a living person and operate it like a puppet. For some ghosts, this is the next best thing to being alive again. For others, it's simply an expedient because they can't experience what their host is experiencing. - Dream Walker: Some ghosts can inject themselves into a living person's dreams. Usually this person is someone psi-gifted, though. - Elemental powers are not uncommon. - Equipment the ghost used in life may become an ectoplasmic version of same that can hurt other ghosts. - Fear: One of the most common ghostly powers, and one almost universal for ghosts in stories written before the mid 20th century. As literal spirits of the dead, and metaphorical personifications of death itself, ghosts often induce unreasonable fear in anyone in their presence, above and beyond any reasonable fear they may induce. This often results in cowering, psychological paralysis, terror or even madness. - Flight/Levitation: Not necessarily limited to the ghost itself. - Game Face: When ghosts do not look the same as when they were alive, they can often disguise themselves as such. However posing as a human will usually result in slight flaws in their facade, like lacking a pulse or cold skin. - Intangibility or Phasing: The default state of ghosts tends to be intangible. They can touch and interact with physical objects if they concentrate on doing do (except in works which play up the toll on their sanity), but they usually cannot pass on their intangibility to anything they are holding - typically, if they pass through solid matter while holding something, the solid matter remains behind after the ghost has passed through. If they can't affect objects, the lack of touch is often used as a symbol of their loneliness and misery, as in Tragic Intangibility. This is most common in modern works; ghosts in older stories are more likely to be solid, and some can even pass for living humans. - Invisibility: Some ghosts can choose whether they want to be visible to anybody. Others are visible only to the spiritually sensitive, or to people with close personal ties to the ghost. Sometimes this is dependent on the ghost's power, with strong ghosts being easier to see than weak ones. - Psychic Powers: Usually telekinesis for moving and throwing things around in a ghost tantrum/poltergeist fit. - Other times, they can project Scary Visions into the mind of a victim. - Voluntary Shapeshifting: Ghosts can sometimes morph into morbidly, gruesomely horrific, grotesque (or amusing) shapes to terrify their haunts. If their emotions flare, this effect may happen involuntarily. - Weather Manipulation: Some ghosts can create rain, thunder, lightning, high winds, even sleet or snow. In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Mrs. Muir reveals that the Ghost can never fool her about his emotional state because the weather barometer always reveals his genuine mood. Limitations include: Interaction with the living - Avenge Me! Ghosts can often appear to their closest friends or family. Like, you know, Hamlet. - Attention-seeking. A lot of paranormal investigators who subscribe to the view that ghosts are spirits believe that this is the major reason for most hauntings. - Mediums can see and/or hear ghosts. - Magitek - Ghosts can become a literal ghost in the machine, and operate phones, computers, etc. without actual tangible hands. (See psychic powers above) - Artifacts - there are magical gewgaws and doodads, holy relics, and that sort of thing lying around The 'Verse that will allow one to contact ghosts. Or are possessed by ghosts. - Ectoplasm - "He slimed me. I feel so funky." - Containment - Some heroes have enough Mad Scientist mojo to have come up with a way to contain ghosts, or protect themselves and others. - Electromagnetic Ghosts - Interferes with electronics with just their presence. - Ghostly Chill - Their presence, vicinity or interaction cause the temperature to drop off visibly. The only source for cold spots. - Haunting - They will torment the living, annoy, or bedevil the living, or seek to drive the living into confessing if they've done wrong. - Angst and Wangst are often involved with ghostly hauntings, particularly when love is involved. - Often (particularly in media intended for children) only a select few can see/hear them. - Popping in and disappearing just as fast, leaving those who saw them claiming It Was Here, I Swear!. - Silly Spook — Ghosts who do funny things and/or behave playfully. Expect them to incorporate the aforementioned powers into their antics. - Spirit Advisor or Fairy Godmother — who can often conceal being a ghost until The Reveal at the end. Usually when the ghost has a Protectorate, such as a child, or the person who arranged for burial. - Ghostly Wail — Ghosts somehow let out ghostly wails or moans to scare the living. Possible appearance: - As they looked when they were alive, possibly being either a Cute Ghost Girl or Guy. Some variations have them appear to be in the prime of life even if they were quite elderly when they died. - Jacob Marley Apparel: As they wear the clothes they died in. - Bedsheet Ghost: Covered in a white shroud. This white sheet may be the only part of them that's visible. - Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: A Japanese variant. Wears a kimono/robe with long stringy black hair covering her face. - Hitodama Light: Another Japanese variant, where a coloured flame (usually purple) is attached to the ghost or showing a person possessed by a ghost. People wearing candles on their head are invoking this appearance. - As they look now - rotted, filthy, partially skeletal and covered in worms or maggots, wearing the clothes they were buried in. - If they died violently, they may be covered with their own blood, with visible deadly wounds like in The Sixth Sense. - Fog Feet: Most ghosts have these genie-like tails instead of having two legs. - Monochrome Apparition: Ghosts can not only be any tint or shade of color, but also glow color of vapors such as mostly blue, light blue, gray and white. - Missing Reflection and Casts No Shadow: Ghosts don't need a reflection nor a shadow. - Any of the above can also be combined with transparency or the ability to become invisible. - Good ghosts may be even more beautiful than they were in life, either as a reflection of their true self or as a reward. - Multiple forms: Changing appearance depending on their mood, e.g. looking almost alive while minding their own business and rotted-looking when attacking someone. The ghost equivalent of Game Face. - Ghostly Animals: They may take on the appearance of animals. Weaknesses - A ghost can be put to rest once their bones are salted and burned. - Destroying an object the ghost is haunting can also make it go away. - Ghosts can be susceptible to purified or "holy" objects, such as pure iron or salt. - Sometimes you can simply trap them by creating a barrier of salt around them. - A ghost can be blasted with a proton pack and sent to a ghost trap. - Other times, you can simply help the ghost with their Unfinished Business, giving them reason to move on. Some good ghosts get to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence (either literally heaven, or something else) once they've sorted out their issues or unfinished business. note : In some fictional universes, the only ghosts are people who ascended to a higher plane of existence, but who still choose to interact with us mere mortals. Bad ones can get the express elevator all the way down. Some of them have problems with Ghost Amnesia. Every ghost has different Ghostly Goals, again depending on what they want. Shows and movies will usually address these baseline rules, whether or not they're enforced. See also Our Souls Are Different. Compare Living Memory. Despite the name, The Ghost is not usually an example. Compare The Disembodied, for when they lost their corporeal form without being "dead". The Ghost King is a sub-trope. Needless to say that as ghosts are the dead, and resolving their issues often reveals details about their death: SPOILER WARNING. Please proceed at your own risk! ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> # Other Examples: - In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the Slayer of a Thousand Goats is technically a ghost, due to Wolffy using a portal to pull him into the present. He isn't solid once transported to the present day, but can still move and possess solid objects \|\|until Wolffy and the goats send him back into the past\|\|. - B.P.R.D.: Johann Kraus is a ghost, except technically he's still alive. He's a medium whose body was destroyed while his ectoplasm was outside. Lobster Johnson's ghost is a more straightforward example with Unfinished Business. - Brody's Ghost, naturally enough, has several types of ghosts. - Regular ghosts, like title character Talia, are invisible and intangible, but can interact with the world in one specific way thats different for every ghost. Talia, for example, can break glass with her mind. - Site specters, are the same as regular ghosts, except that they attach themselves to specific locations. - Demighosts, which are ghosts controlled by other ghosts, and who can actually touch things. - The DCU: Phantom Girl/Apparition is a subversion. It's just a codename; she's from an alien world where everybody can phase. Except for the period during the post- Zero Hour run of the Legion of Super-Heroes during which Apparition really was a ghost, having been killed by a member of the White Triangle, and was intangible all the time. She got better. - Sgt Spook: The titular character is the ghost of a police officer who is able to interact with his medium — an orphan boy, of course — and solve crimes. These crimes vary from bank robbers and gangsters to supernatural romps. - Spook: James Calley and Mr. Nobody are soldiers and spies who have been transformed into ghosts by technological means after their deaths, explaining many classic ghostly acts as psychological side-effects of prolonged isolation. - A common trope in fairy tales is the hero, after having paid off a dead man's debts so he can be buried, acquiring a companion who aids him. In the end, the companion tells him that he was the dead man. This is known as the "grateful dead man". - Fairy Tale stepchildren are often aided against the Wicked Stepmother by their dead mother, as in "Aschenputtel" and Andrew Lang's "The Wonderful Birch". - In "Brother and Sister", the sister returns as a ghost. When her husband seizes her, she comes back to life. - The Brothers Grimm: - One story features the ghost of a little girl. Someone eventually realizes that she looks like she's trying to pull up a board in the floor. They look and find a coin her mother had given her to give to a beggar, but which she had kept for herself. They give it to the next beggar they find and she stops walking. - "The Shroud" has a little boy returning because his mother was mourning too strongly: her tears had soaked his shroud so he could not sleep. - Child Ballads: Many ballads have ghosts coming back to drive their killers crazy ("The Cruel Mother", Child #20), or just to say goodbye ("Sweet William's Ghost", Child #77; "The Wife of Usher's Well", Child #79). - The Famous Flower of Serving Men: In some variants, the heroine's love appears to the king as a bird to explain how he was murdered and the heroine had to disguise herself as a man and go to work for the king. - "The Three Little Men in the Wood": The murdered queen's spirit haunts the castle, taking the shape of a duck while she swims up the gutters where she was thrown in, and reverting to her human shape when she visits her baby. - In "The Unquiet Grave", the dead love begins to speak after A Year and a Day to complain that the lover's laments will not let her rest. - Autumn's Children has Ubo \|\|somehow chained to Kurapika after she kills him. He latter "passes on" in a Villianous Sacrifice\|\|. - The Anatomy of a Fall has ghost!Frank interact with living characters with varying degrees of difficulty. - Being Dead Ain't Easy: Joey exhibits intangibility, invisibility, very limited flight, and the ability to affect the living world if he really, really concentrates. - Demented Verse explicitly states that wizard ghosts ( Harry Potter) aren't automatically dangerous, unlike muggle ghosts ( Supernatural), although Sam and Dean still take precautions when going around Hogwarts. Malfoy also observes that it is impossible for wizard ghosts to be death echoes, which affirms that something unconventional is going on when the death echo of Charity Burbage appears in Malfoy Manor. - Ghost Ghost I Know You Live Within Me has Ghost!Shepard who can move things around, but it exhausts her even if done just for a few minutes. On her own, she never feels tired or hungry. If she goes too far with her actions, she will disappear for days. Meanwhile, Garrus is the only one who can interact with her, although he can't really change her appearance when they interact. - Harmless: There are three main types of ghosts that are described in the first chapter: those that spontaneously form, those that are formed by the deaths of people with strong emotions or will power at the time of their demise, and those that are formed by belief. And of course, there are also the halfas like Danny and Danielle, who are incredibly rare and the result of an accident (or genetic manipulation)... - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Ghosts are glowing, skeletal figures that float around graveyards at night and fade away by day. They can only be harmed with silver weapons and by the phantasmal blade's Sword Beams. - The Night Unfurls: The remastered version has ghost-like beings named wraiths, described by the narrative as "the essence of the restless dead who resented the living". Cloaked in white, they are intangible beings somehow able to rend living beings with their claws. Wraiths are vulnerable to Olga's magic field that dispels their inherent intangibility, as well as Kyril's melee weapon (which is practically effective against anything). - Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): Leon Belmont is a unique case among ghosts as a whole, which thoroughly confused both him and all the other characters. He is ridiculously "long-lived", having lasted around 1000 years since his death, is perfectly sane and has all his memories, having suffered no degration in his soul, and he emits Holy magic as opposed to being weak by it. This last bit in particular baffles everyone. He also has some limited poltergeist-type powers (being able to interact with objects), but he's not even remotely close to a typical poltergeist. It's suspected that the reason behind all these oddities is a ritual he did while he was alive to bond part of his soul to the Vampire Killer (which in turn is powered by the soul of his late fiancee). - The Price Of Magic takes place after Harry's death, and stars him in a romance with Snape. - The Red Web of Fate: Yuriko is still around after more than 340 years to try and right what killed her in the first place. She shares a body with \|\|Nikkari\|\| and can telepathically communicate with him; she is also capable of interacting with other humans for a while in a semi-invisible form if given permission. - Say It Thrice: A lot of effort has gone into explaining how the residents of the Netherworld and the Ghost Zone play by different rules - the former are dead souls who aren't made of ectoplasm, are mainly limited to haunts, and are governed by a tightly obstructive Celestial Bureaucracy, whereas the latter may be dead people or different supernatural manifestations, are free-roaming and routinely intrude on the living world, and lack any real authority - even King Pariah ruled only by virtue of sheer power. The Netherworld consider the Ghost Zone a dump for things that doesn't belong anywhere else (and actively pretend it doesn't exist, because it's annoying) while the residents of the Ghost Zone either don't know or don't care about the Netherworld. - Tears Of Epoch: There are the Chromas, the successor to the Shades from the original game. They, unlike the Shades, are formed using sunlight instead of darkness, but are also formed out of nightmares and ill omens. It is said that the only way to take down a Chroma and even defend a Chroma attack, is to believe in dreams that are actually beautiful and happy, as opposed to ill and dark. It is even witnessed by Ernaut that if a victim is attacked by a Chroma, they eventually become infected and mutate into one. - "The Power of Three (Plus Two)" is a Supernatural/ Charmed (1998) crossover where Dean and Sam are Prue, Piper and Phoebe's half-brothers, but have prior experience of ghosts on hunts before they gain powers after Phoebe casts the spell. When they encounter the ghost of Mark Chao, Dean is particularly puzzled at how they can see him when he's been so freshly killed, but Sam speculates that this is the result of their witch powers allowing them to see new ghosts. Unwilling to just salt and burn Mark's body to help him pass on as they can't know what that would do to him when he seems stable, they help expose Mark's killers and witness his spirit being taken away by his father at his funeral, Dean expressing relief that they could help a ghost pass on before he became a vengeful spirit. - In There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton, the Ghost Zone ghosts are rather different than the Underworld ghosts Nico is used to. The former are fully tangible if they want to be and capable of powerful feats, showing up in Amity Park on a regular basis, while among the latter few can escape Thanatos and return to the mortal realm without being summoned by a necromancer, and even as a son of Hades Nico couldn't make his sister semi-corporeal enough to touch her, let alone enough to assume some semblance of life. - Valerie later elaborates that as ectoplasm collects and ages, it tends to mutate into ectopuses, which can either be consumed by another ectopus, eat enough other ectopuses to evolve into a native Ghost Zone entity, or merge with a human soul with Unfinished Business binding it to Earth, creating what Amity Park thinks of when they think of a ghost. Danny later clarifies that ghosts don't have organs, bones, or a nervous system, and don't even feel pain the way that humans do; their bodies are basically just globs of ectoplasm modeling themselves around the human soul that they're melded with. You can hurt them, but unless you completely destabilize them they'll bounce back eventually. Half-ghosts, while resistant to damage, still bleed just fine though, and half-ghosts are also apparently guaranteed to become a full ghost on death. - Harry Potter-style ghosts are later introduced and explained to be the result of wizard/witch ghosts being more strongly connected to the mortal plane due to their hodgepodge cultural beliefs meaning they don't quite belong in any of the afterlives. Those who do move on tend to be taken directly by Death itself. - Walking with a Ghost and its sequel Running with a Ghost change the nature of Alex's ghostly status. As Hal drank her blood after her death before she manifested as a ghost, this inadvertently 'anchors' Alex to Hal, with the result that she is essentially 'real' to Hal to the extent that he can have a sexual relationship with her or drink her blood, and Alex can even eat and change clothes so long as she doesn't teleport after prolonged time in Hal's presence. Hal notes that such bonds have occurred in the past, and becoming a vampire elder requires the vampire in question to drink from vampires who have formed such a bond to boost their own power. - In the Supernatural/ NCIS crossover "When Worlds Collide", Dean is visited by the spirit of deceased NCIS agent Paula Cassidy in a dream, who reveals that, contrary to what Zachariah implied, ghosts can come back to Earth from Heaven to just visit their loved ones if they wish (she speculates that Ash was so caught up in doing his own trick that he didn't realise this was an option). According to Paula, ghosts that manifest in this manner are unaffected by iron, although salt is still uncomfortable- they can step over it if they want to, but according to Paula it's "itchy"- and can be seen by psychics in the real world and visit others in dreams. Paula also notes that Dean's dead friends wouldn't do that to him because he wouldn't let them into his mind out of a subconscious fear they'd reject him, whereas Paula got in by "wearing a bustier". - The Palaververse: In Treasures, Daring meets Cervile, a "deer-skeleton-ghost-spectre-whatever". The intangible "ghost" bit being the relevant one for this trope. - The Book of Life: - At the beginning as young Manolo speaks with his father about missing his mother, Carlos explains that while family is remembered with love, we can always feel their presence. Ghostly versions of family members begin appearing all over town near their shrines, showing love to the living. - When Manolo returns to life to fight Chakal, Xibalba, The Candlemaker and La Muerte decide to exercise their leeway. The Sanchez ghosts all appear, and then are briefly restored to life to help Manolo fight. - Monster High has several types of monsters named after several types of ghosts but only one seemed to be an actual ghost, finally in the movie "Haunted" Spectra explains There's another worlda Ghost Worldwhere all the different types of ghosts come from. There are phantoms like Operetta, banshees like Scarah... even faceless ghosts like my old friend Kiyomi Haunterly." all-in-all they have six types of ghosts - Tradional ghosts like Spectra and Johnny Spirit - Noppera-bō such as Kiyomi Haunterly - Banshees such as Scarah, an Irish ghost and Death Omen, and one of the two types of ghost that seem to be "Solid" - Phantoms that are actually based on the Phantom of the Opera and are solid as well, and have fondness for caves - Reapers, the name says it all - And the ghosts of Past, Present and Future, the hall monitors of Haunted High - Then we got legendary ghosts as the Red Lady, or Ghost Pirates as Vandala - They also seem to have poltergeist but the guy just like to screw with the principal - Then there is also Sinçrena who is actually a ghost hybrid, half mermaid and half ghost. - Monster House \|\|is a case of an angry and vengeful spirit who hates children in particular, possessing her own house after her reactions to prankster children caused her accidental death.\|\| - The Nightmare Before Christmas has a ghostly animal: Zero is Jack's ghost dog. - In Turning Red, Sun Yee turns up in the astral realm as a ghost. She looks like her tapestry except ethereal and without legs. - 2010: The Year We Make Contact: Dave Bowman is a ghost of the "resounding psychic echo" variety. - Beetlejuice has: - Ghosts who don't know they're dead. - Ghosts whose method of death shows on the ghost... quite grisly in some cases. - Ghosts who have Voluntary Shapeshifting powers. - Ghosts whose ability to haunt varies in effectiveness. - The exact nature of Betelgeuse is left undiscussed; he says he's a ghost, but there's nothing mentioned of who he was in life. Meanwhile, the star Betelgeuse is home of some of Lovecraft's creations and in this poem by Jean Louis is described as being a hellish dimension of corruption and chaos. - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is a significant subversion. The comedy featured Bill and Ted dying, coming back as ghosts, and then getting exorcised and sent to hell when they tried to communicate about their predicament. At which point they challenged The Grim Reaper to games for their souls, and went to petition Heaven for assistance against the bad guy before returning to earth alive and well. - A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the 2004 musical film is different from most depictions as, rather than being a Grim Reaper-like figure, it's a woman shrouded in shredded bedsheets who somewhat resembles a banshee. - Darby and the Dead: The ghosts of this movie can only be seen by certain individuals, need to finish their unfinished business to move on, and have telekinetic abilities. - Dark Night of the Scarecrow: These are awakened by a thirst for vengeance, and can interact with the living world. Their appearance shifts at will between what they looked like on death and complete invisibility. - The Day Of The Crows: Ghosts do not possess their original faces but rather realistic looking animal faces instead. - The Devil's Backbone: The ghost is caught in an existential loop, doomed to repeat his death until he can get revenge. \|\|The heroes help him out (and vice versa), but he actually kills the bad guy personally.\|\| - Endless: Ghosts are souls still trapped between Earth and the afterlife, "limbo" over some unfinished business. They're capable of teleporting from one place to another. With time they can also affect matter. Normally they can't communicate with the living. Jordan is astonished after Chris is able to speak with Riley, saying he had always heard it was impossible. - The Enchantress has kung-fu fighting spirits. Turns out the ghosts used to be members of a Japanese clan, who's betrayed by their Ming compatriots due to fearing their power, and returned 18 years later for vengeance. The female protagonist is actually the daughter of the ghost's queen, who's slain whilst pregnant with her and she was therefore born as a ghost, and yet she's able to walk around in broad daylight. - Ghosts in Extra Ordinary (2019) are formless and invisible remnants of deceased people. They often try to manipulate inanimate objects, and those with "Talents" are capable of communicating with them directly, either by hearing them speak or acting as a Willing Channeler. When a ghost passes on, the Willing Channeler vomits ectoplasm which can be used a material for rituals. - The Frighteners: Ghosts have: - Unfinished business — one is \|\|a serial killer who's come back to keep killing because his ashes had not been scattered over holy ground... and he'd left his girlfriend behind, who is just as nuts as he was\|\|. - Jacob Marley Apparel — Frank's two friends were stuck in the outfits they'd been wearing in death until \|\|they went to heaven, at which point they got wardrobe updates\|\|. - the Medium: Frank himself, and Lucy, later. - A ghost who'd been in the military in life had spectral, ectoplasmic machine guns that could deal damage to other ghosts. - A ghost who was masquerading as The Grim Reaper had a scythe that could deal damage equally to humans or other ghosts. And when this ghost was defeated, its victims turned out to be very polite, laid-back Avenge Me! types. - Ghost (1990): Sam Wheat is a ghost with Jacob Marley Apparel who believed he'd been mugged but turned out to have been murdered, and so became an Avenge Me! type of ghost. He cannot leave his girl due to The Power of Love, which also lets her hear him. He needs to learn Psychic Powers, and so seeks out a Spirit Advisor in the form of another ghost. After learning them, he uses them to torment his murderer. With effort and training, Sam masters intangibility. He's able to physically lift a penny to prove to Molly he's really there. Oda Mae is a medium whom Sam tormented with bad singing until she agreed to help him. She's also possessed by him, once willingly and once not. He Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence at the end. - The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. In both the series and the film, it is stated that Captain Gregg the Ghost remained more out of stubbornness than anything else: he had intended to renovate the house, and he was not about to let his unplanned death interfere with what he had decreed would occur! As film/series continues, he realizes how foolish it has been for him to haunt the house over petty mulishness, but by then, he had fallen in love with the widow Mrs. Muir. - Ghostbusters and its related media have hit just about every example on the list, although their ghosts have fewer limitations than others, like when Stay Puft steps on the church in the first film. They even tackled the odd demon here and there, up to and including Cthulhu. The expanded universe details the nature of ghosts in much greater depth. Ghosts are classified by nature and power level but to make things confusing the "Class" terminology is used for both. In terms of classification - Class 1 is incomplete manifestations like sounds or lights, Class 2 are partial manifestations like hands or heads, Class 3 are complete humanoid manifestations — but are spirits representing ideas like Christmas such as the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future from A Christmas Carol or greed rather than deceased humans, Class 4 are full-fledged apparitions and the only class that can be determined a traditional ghost of a deceased human, Class 5 (like Slimer) are non-humanoid extradimensional spirits representing emotions or emotionally-charged events (like Gluttony in Slimer's case), Class 6 are the ghosts of animals, and Class 7 are demons and gods. In Power Levels, they're ranked from Class 1 (able to cause minor lights and move small objects) to Class 11 (essentially a god). - Ghost Ship: The ghosts are the trapped souls of dead people on a Ghost Ship. They're intangible and can project \|\|false\|\| visions to living people. They're not all malevolent, as their morality is largely informed by their personalities in life. Some actually try to help the living, while others try to kill them because \|\|they've been marked by one of Hell's accountants\|\|. - Ghost Town (2008): The ghosts reverse the traditional Unfinished Business idea - it is the inability of the living to let their loved ones go that keeps the ghosts around. When a person passes through the ghost, the person will sneeze. - Hallowed Ground: These are freed from their dead bodies by fire and can possess living objects or people to interact with the living, but are most powerful when possessing a newborn and growing up in the new body. However, they are vulnerable to anything that would damage their current vessel. They can also take animal forms. - The Haunting (1999): Nell sees the ghost children that live inside the bedsheets and curtains every night. Well, the children's ghosts are the Avenge Me! type while Hugh Crain's ghost is an "angry-at-the-living" type. - A Haunting at Silver Falls: The ghosts in these films only show up to specific people, such as anyone who finds their rings. They're mostly around for Revenge and Unfinished Business, such as the Dahl twins trying to clear their father's name and find their real killer. In the sequel, Jordan has to give them their rings back in order to get them to help her, as they've regressed to mindless violence without them. They also all share the same ghostly white face, black eyes, and stringy black hair. - Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth: Captain Elliot Spencer's wayward soul, who is stuck in some sort of limbo before the afterlife, and represents Pinhead's noble human side before he became a Cenobite. He contacts Joey to inform her about his past and Pinhead Unbound's creation, and how to defeat him by bringing him back to Spencer's realm. - Idle Hands has examples of Jacob Marley Apparel and possession. After the protagonist's best friends are murdered by his hand they decide not to go to heaven and possess their own dead bodies. The bodies function normally despite the fact that one has a beer bottle in his head and the other was decapitated. They can interact normally with everyone else too. Once they duct tape the head back on they can even go out in public. So I guess they aren't really ghost even though they are dead. You know what, never mind. - I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer: Ben Willis/the Fisherman appears to be the Resounding Psychic Echo type. He's actually lacking in a lot of powers associated with ghosts (apparently only able to appear and vanish at will) and can be physically harmed (even bleeding, though it's evident the only thing that actually hurts and doesn't just annoy him is his original hook). - Jug Face: The Shunned are the ghosts of sacrifices the Pit rejected, doomed to haunt the woods forever. - Kwaidan: These look the same as they did in life, and are stuck among the living due to Unfinished Business. They can shift between corporeal and incorporeal at will, alongside turning invisible. Otherwise their powers vary greatly, with some even having the ability to cast illusions or cause Rapid Aging. - Lake Mungo: Alice's ghost is pretty standard with the exception that \|\|she saw her own ghost before she died.\|\| - Nekrotronic: These are spirits that are Invisible to Normals, but can be seen by nekromancers. Most are barely conscious and don't try to interact with the human world, but ones bound to Earth by nekromancy latch onto their resurrector. They have purple eyes, can teleport through shadows, and have the ability to distort their bodies. - Night of the Scarecrow: These appear to be yellow light in their primary forms, and can possess objects to interact with the outside world. They can impersonate others' voices, teleport, phase in and out of objects, and create seeds to grow plant monsters. If they have magical abilities, they're severely limited, but their souls can be placed back in their bodies. They're can feel pain, but can only be destroyed if their bodies are. - The Others (2001) has the Tomato in the Mirror ending, in which it turns out that \|\|the family who thinks their house is haunted realizes that they've been Dead All Along and they've been haunting the house\|\|. - Poltergeist (1982) has a group of ghosts led by the Beast who are of the "angry at the living" type because their graves had been desecrated. They pull harmless pranks on the family, which they are invisible by stacking chairs, bending utensils, and breaking cups. - The lead ghost, which manifests visibly as a glowing translucent woman-like figure and the orbs who followed her are visible to the cameras as well as the "alone" ghosts, which represent as glowing orbs◊. - The Beast is adept with the haunting: - It turns an already-creepy clown doll into an extremely creepy one. They also manipulate gnarled trees and ectoplasmic tentacles. - It also has the power of illusion to make the hallway to Carol-Ann's room seem five times longer than it really is. - Repo! The Genetic Opera: Dead Marni, who died of a rare blood disease shortly after her daughter was born, is a subversion. She looks and plays the part, and mostly appears to Nathan to guilt trip him, but she's actually a hologram. - The Ring: - Sadako Yamamura seeks vengeance upon all of mankind. Her manifestation is \|\|originally\|\| psychically anchored to the well where she died, whereupon it projects abstract thoughts and images that can be conveniently recorded by electronic equipment. Anyone who experiences this is cursed to die in seven days, and experiences both psychic projections as well as prophetic dreams (whether they're awake or asleep.) Her appearance is similar to the clothes she died in (a white dress.) - Samara Morgan, in addition to Sadako's attributes above, also has full control of her psychic abilities —telekinesis, psychography, possession of electronic equipment— and can also possess humans. Not only does her appearance resemble her condition upon death, but her final manifestation displays the decay and rot of her corpse inside the well. Not a pretty sight. - Scarecrow (2002): These were tormented in life and return to avenge their abusers by possessing inanimate objects. When possessing said objects, they are significantly more acrobatic than in life, and immune to any damage that doesn't completely destroy their vessel. - Scoop had a recently deceased legendary reporter interview a recently deceased secretary who thinks she was poisoned because she found out information that could lead to a notorious serial killer. The reporter escapes back to the land of the living a few times to reveal hints, clues, or whacks with a guilt club to the school newspaper reporter he randomly appeared to the first time appeared. - The Sixth Sense: - Cole is a medium who see the ghosts. - The ghosts tend to be the Avenge Me! types, mostly. - Sledgehammer (1983): These are vengeful byproducts of violent ends, who think everybody they come across is their victimizer(s). They can take multiple forms, including what they looked like when they died, and are corporeal, being able to use weapons and be injured. - Star Wars: Powerful Force users can, under very specific conditions, linger on as Force ghosts — translucent, off-white versions of themselves — to provide guidance for the living, and fade away to the afterlife once their task is completed. Dark-siders cannot become Force ghosts, however, as doing this requires a degree of selflessness largely antithetical to the self-worship of the Dark Side. - Stir of Echoes: - The ghost who haunts the protagonist and his Medium child is of the Avenge Me! variety. She's very passive, though. - The sequel is a lot darker and nastier and is also an Avenge Me! - Thir13en Ghosts had ghosts with the following: - Jacob Marley Apparel, (more a lack thereof in one case). - Containment — a clockpunk house made almost entirely of shatterproof, soundproof glass, the walls of which were covered in spells. This keept the ghosts from moving through them, logically granting said ghosts intangibility. - Wounds — many of the ghosts died horribly, and it shows. - Tigers Are Not Afraid: These are shadowy, raspy-voiced specters trapped on Earth by violent deaths. They can communicate with people who have special abilities and interact with the outside world either by possessing objects or contact with a medium. - Topper features a husband and wife, killed in a car crash, who figure out that they need to do a good deed to get into heaven. They can appear and disappear at will and can interact with their environment even when they're invisible, causing much hilarity. - What Dreams May Come: Although the movie is primarily about the afterlife, its protagonist does hang around in the living world as an invisible, intangible ghost for a bit, unwilling to bear leaving his home or wife. When he tries to touch her, she's immediately overwhelmed by her grief and wails miserably, which convinces him he should move on and spare her from the pain of his unseen, unreachable presence. - Thank You for Taking Care of our Enchanted and Haunted Castle: As the name of the story suggests, ghosts reside in the castle. They are for the most part straightforward, being capable of moaning, chain rattling, and appearing out of tapestry. The "Red Lady" however is also capable of manifesting real blood. - Tim Powers: - Expiration Date: Ghosts are lingering echoes of the dead person's personality, without real sentience or drive. They sometimes coalesce into tangible figures that wander the streets, babbling nonsense and eating rocks for subsistence (it is implied that this phenomenon accounts for a good deal of the homeless people in Los Angeles). Non-tangible ghosts can be captured and bottled, and are bought and sold like drugs by people who are addicted to the power that comes from ingesting them. - Three Days to Never: Ghosts experience time backwards, so if one has the proper apparatus one can talk to ghosts to get hints of the future. There's also the very angry ghost of someone who, rather than dying badly, was never born as a result of his ancestors' lives being altered by Time Travel. - The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: Ghosts are encountered either alone or in large groups. Single ones usually haunt mansions and outdoors, but oddly enough rarely castles or palaces where people could be expected to have died from foul play. This seems to be because they linger as a result of having unfinished business. Groups of them will wait in cemeteries. Single ones will desire vengeance over whatever matter is keeping them around in the world. Regardless, it's best for Tourists to be wary of ghosts generally, because they can still harm the living. Being deceased, living people will also have a hard time killing them. - The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus: Ghosts are mostly just echoes of the people they were when alive with Unfinished Business. The exceptions are "wailers", ghosts so consumed with grief that they become incapacitated, and "poltergeists", ghosts so consumed with rage that they become monsters. - Tales Of Mundane Magic: Ghosts can be human or animals, and Ziggy the ghost dog is a prominent adorable example of the latter. Ghosts can 'move on' if they don't have Unfinished Business, and can't cross salt, which includes saltwater. If they get angry enough they become poltergeists. - Vampire Academy: Ghosts are drawn to the shadow-kissed, hate the Strigoi, and typically can not speak. \|\|Mason Ashford is the only exception, managing to warn Rose about Strigoi coming to the Academy\|\|. - Warrior Cats: Ghosts are typically of the Unfinished Business variety, with a few quirks: they are Invisible to Normals, lack the senses of smell and touch, are capable of "think and you're there" Flash Step-like teleportation, and can seize control of a living body, ejecting the soul that rightfully belongs there. - Women And Ghosts: Ghosts can be projections of people still alive, ex-employers seeking revenge, a strange chest of drawers, a jealous dead lover, an incarnation of Laksmi, fat people who seem to be supernatural apparitions, the ghost of a little girl, or even an Evil Twin. - In American Horror Story: Murder House the ghosts are confined to the house and its grounds (except on Halloween). They can manifest physically to an extent that they are indistinguishable from the living, which can get really confusing. They can also be invisible but can still affect the physical world. Some ghosts (like Nora Montgomery) don't seem to realize they're ghosts, some ghosts (like Chad, Patrick, and Moira) do, and some (like Tate) seem to vary based on the situation. Moira is unique amongst American Horror Story ghosts in that she can drastically alter her appearance; to living heterosexual men she appears young and sexy like she did when she died, to others she is a middle-aged woman (who actually looks older than she probably would have had she not been murdered). - Ghosts in Hotel are similar and expand on the rules. Those who die in places of great evil such as the Murder House or the Hotel Cortez will become a ghost no matter what. Those of great evil will also become ghosts such as the various serial killers in the Hotel. Oh, and they're immune to certain forms of magic which \|\|Queenie\|\| discovered the hard way. - Even if you weren't evil in life, becoming a ghost tends to make one somewhat amoral, with a tendency to scare living people at best and murder then at worst, including people who haven't done anything to deserve it. As Larry from American Horror Story: Murder House puts it, "they've got nothing to live for anymore", and they get bored. - There have been a few examples of living people who are aware of ghosts trying to cause their loved ones to die in a place that generates ghosts (like Constance trying to drag \|\|Addie\|\|'s body onto the Murder House lawn so that she can't pass on, or even people who allow themselves to be killed in such places so they can hang out with their ghost friends after they die (like \|\|Liz Taylor\|\| in the Hotel Cortez). - Beetleborgs has this in the form of Flabber, a phasm who looks like a cross between Jay Leno (host of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno) and Elvis Presley. Flabber's a rather genie-like ghost who lived in a pipe organ until he was accidentally freed by those kids. Plus he's the one that gave them their powers. - Being Human (UK): - Annie can interact and pick things up like a living human, but her visibility rides up and down the scale with her confidence. She can also teleport. - Gilbert. In the episode he's in, it's explained that when a person becomes a ghost they can only pass on to the afterlife once they've solved whatever problem kept them from passing on in the first place (for Gilbert, it was that he never loved anyone which is solved when he falls for Annie. For Annie, \|\|it was her fiance killing her, which is solved when she drives him mad with a secret\|\|). Once they are able to move on, a ghost sees a door appear and walks through it. If a ghost is upset enough, they can become a poltergeist and move or break things mentally. Also, all ghosts can't eat or drink, can randomly teleport, and are stuck in whatever clothes they died in ("It's just as well I didn't die in a Star Trek uniform or a giant squirrel costume..."). Ghosts can also hide the living or undead by wrapping them in their clothes, referred to as "swaddling". - They also apparently date other ghost people and force their friends to babysit their ghost babies (who need to be kept the colder the better and can't be hurt if you drop them). It's not clear if ghost babies age but they don't seem to until they pass on. They can also be calmed down by telling them ghost stories. - The US/Canadian remake has Sally Malik. She is intangible all the time and invisible to normal humans. She cannot interact with physical objects, but seems to be able to sit on objects (the production team made special wooden and concrete cushions for her to sit on, but they do not conform to her body). When upset, she disrupts the electronics and pipes around her. While she is initially not able to leave the house she died in, she is later taught how to leave. Objects close to the ghost, such as Sally's engagement ring, will constantly find their way back to the owner. Salt will create a barrier that ghosts cannot cross, and iron will disperse a ghost's energy, causing it to reform in the location in which it died. A ghost passes on to the other side after resolving unfinished business. As with the British version, Sally's door does not appear until \|\|she forces her fiancé Danny who killed her to admit to his crimes\|\|. However, \|\|she has to pass up her door to save Aidan\|\|. It is after this event that Sally discovers she can pick up and interact with physical objects. This also appears to be an ability that stronger ghosts exhibit, \|\|such as when Danny is able to hold the iron poker that Sally intended to disperse him with\|\|. Ghosts can also possess humans, so long as the human is willing (or inebriated), and destroy each other, defined as "shredding". - Bones had a full-on tangible ghost showing up when Booth was trapped on a ship about to explode. Tangible as in, could pick stuff up, could help Booth open doors, Booth physically picked the guy up and carried him... and then the guy disappeared as the helicopter came to rescue him. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: - In "Halloween", spell turns people's costumes literally real. Willow is wearing a ghost costume, and so she appears to die and become a ghost. In the end, she returns to her body just fine after the spell is broken. - In another episode, a pair of ghosts of the "reliving a traumatic event" variety possess people and reenact a school shooting. Over and over. - Angel: - Spike turns up as a ghost after a Heroic Sacrifice in the Buffy finale. - Dennis, Cordelia's phantom roommate, is a recurring character. He's a surprisingly nice guy, considering \|\|his own mother bricked him up in a wall because she didn't like his fiancée.\|\| - Wesley is brought back in After the Fall by the Senior Partners. This is doubly ironic, as Wesley is bound to a "standard perpetuity clause" in his contract, the same as Holland Manners and Lilah. Furthermore, he now serves as liaison to the Senior Partners, taking over from Hamilton (whom Angel killed in the series finale). - Matthias Pavayne in "Hell Bound" is the ghost of a serial killer who tortures any ghosts in the L.A. of Wolfram & Hart before sending them to Hell and given that W&H is Evil, Inc. full of Bad Bosses \|\|even when the heroes are running it\|\|, he gets a lot of victims, including the aforementioned Spike. - Dead Last was about a band ready to break through until they find the amulet that turns them into a ghost Unfinished Business Resolution Service. - Doctor Who: Ghosts appear all over Earth in the season 2 finale of the new series. Subverted, however, in that they are \|\|actually beings from a parallel Earth that haven't quite broken through the barrier between the worlds yet, making their appearance ethereal and roughly humanoid, although specific characteristics are impossible to make out. Of course, this doesn't stop humans from assuming they are literally their dead loved ones returning, even believing they can smell/see certain traits associated with the real person (for example, Rose's mother believes she can smell her father's cigarettes).\|\| - Eureka: Subverted when Allison thinks she's seeing a ghost, but really it's a hologram programmed into her logic diamond necklace. - The Fades has the titular Fades, spirits unable to move on to the afterlife. They're Invisible to Normals and can't generally interact with anything physical, though they aren't intangible and can't fly. They can, however, regain a physical form by eating human flesh. - The Ghost Busters deals with ghosts who take the forms of classic film and literature monsters (e.g. Count Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster, the Abominable Snowman, etc.) but all with some comical twist. - Ghost Whisperer involves a woman who can see ghosts that are only visible to her and to her coworker's son and helps them finish their business. - Ghosts (UK): Most people who die Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, either immediately or some time later. The titular ghosts are the ones leftover who haven't done this, and it is a source of frustration to them that they don't know why. They are non-corporeal to the living, but solid to each other, and usually Invisible to Normals. Additionally, they can sit/lie down on surfaces and require sleep. - Ghostwriter was a ghost which could read and arrange letters and phrases to communicate with persons he choose, but couldn't see any images or talk. Just who or what he was before is very ambiguous. He also gains New Powers as the Plot Demands, such as traveling over the Internet or Time Travel with enough concentration, though that one takes enough out of him that he wound up having to take The Slow Path back to the present after repeated trips. What non-word-related aspects of the world he can see can vary with the plot as well. - Lost: Played with when Hurley learns of Miles' ability to talk to ghosts. Hurley says that ghosts regularly talk to him and even play chess, but Miles insists that, in his experience, ghosts only represent the last thoughts of dead people and cannot interact with the living. - Medium involves a psychic woman who contacts ghosts in her dreams to help them finish their business. - Misfits: Ghosts are immediately aware of their deaths and can only be seen by people with certain powers. If they have unfinished business, they end up stuck in a sort of limbo state, but can move on once it's resolved. This can be anything from reuniting with a loved one to getting revenge. One character can bring these spirits back, where they essentially become like regular people again; they can eat, drink, do drugs, have sex, and kill living people with ordinary implements, vanishing once their business is complete. Interestingly, while there is an afterlife, there is seemingly no God. - Poltergeist: The Legacy tends to feature the wrathful variety, with the occasional Unfinished Business thrown in. - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased): Marty Hopkirk is of the Avenge Me! stripe. He stayed out of his grave for too long and can't go heaven for another hundred years (in the remake he only has to wait until the person he's haunting, his ex PI Partner Jeff Randall, dies). Ghosts can only wear white. The only people who can see him are Jeff (who he's haunting but in a non-malicious way), animals, and occasional psychics and very young kids. - Reaper is about a kid forced to apprehend souls escaped from Hell. As they're escaped from Hell, they're all of the nasty poltergeist sort. They were murderers and vandals in life, and they have powers that reflect what they got sent to hell for. - The Rising: Neve at first doesn't realize she's dead and a ghost, due to feeling just the same initially. She doesn't feel hungry, thirsty or tired though, and also has marks from her fatal injuries but feels no pain. Neve is even capable of riding her bike too, and changing clothes, along with affecting material things in other ways. However, people are unable to feel her touch. Dogs and birds can sense her, while only a couple humans can. When she gets very emotional, it can affect nearby electronics, such as making the lights flicker. She's unable to sleep as well. It appears she's still around to solve her murder. Neve is also solid and tangible (thus her ability to ride a motorbike), making her dad believe she isn't a ghost in fact but something else. - Round the Twist varies from episode to episode. It was based on short stories mostly out of continuity with each other, but Unfinished Business is a common theme — even for a ghost dog and a ghost seagull. The ghosts often seem bound by different rules — some ghosts are mute, whereas others can talk. Then out of the blue there was a (pretty hilarious) episode about a ghost who needed to complete his 'scare test' to get a better site to haunt. - Supernatural: Ghosts appear regularly. Their appearances are heralded by a Ghostly Chill. They can be repelled with salt and iron. Laying them to rest usually involves destroying their remains with fire, though one was simply persuaded to Go into the Light. Hostile ghosts tend to be pale with stringy hair. Many attack the living through telekinesis, and some are capable of possession. Benign spirits and those who don't know they are dead can be indistinguishable from the living. Eventually all ghosts that haven't ascended to the afterlife end becoming vengeful spirits. In fact there are defined to be at least 3 types of ghosts: - Vengeful Spirits, who target people who wronged them in the past. There's one who becomes electricity and haunts the internet to kill his murders, and one who has flesh and blood since she grinds her own flesh and bone, mixed her blood in a painting. Also an expy of the Mona Lisa. - Specters, who are not so different from vengeful spirits, except they leave black ectoplasm instead of the usual green. They posses those who feel betrayed and carry on their vengance for them, though they must hold something haunted by them. - Poltergeists, another type similar to a vengeful spirit, although unlike vengeful spirits poltergeists do not target people who committed crimes similar to how the spirit died, and are more indiscriminate. - Shojo, a Japanese ghost/spirit, different from others in that it's tangible and alive, however similar to a ghost, it is invisible, and only those who are drunk can perceive them. - Demons can also be considered ghosts since they are former human souls transformed by their stay in hell. Bobby said once they're nothing but ghosts with a an ego. - Topper: It's not really made clear if George and Marion are being forced to try change Cosmo Topper's stodgy ways in order to move on to pay for their own wasted lives, or if they are just doing it for fun and their own concern for the banker. Ether way, Neil's just in it for the booze. - Trilogy of Terror: These are trapped in inanimate objects by magic, but can interact with the world if the gold chain sealing them in is removed. They have fangs, and are capable of possessing the living. - Truth Seekers: The majority of ghosts in the show are living souls transplanted into other objects or creatures at the moment of death, a process which can be achieved voluntarily or involuntarily by occult or scientific means. Ghosts can return to the mortal world from 'the other side' of their own accord, but can seemingly only do so in the vicinity of \|\|a conduit like Elton\|\|. - The Twilight Zone (1959): - In "A Game of Pool", Fats Brown comes down from the afterlife as soon as Jesse inadvertently challenges him to a pool game. \|\|Jesse beats Fats and, after he dies, he has to return to Earth every time that he is challenged, having become trapped in a kind of Ironic Hell.\|\| - In "Showdown with Rance McGrew", Jesse James returns to Earth to tell Rance McGrew that he, his brother Frank, Billy the Kid, Sam Starr and the Dalton brothers, among others, are angry at the inaccurate way in which they are depicted in his show. He eventually assumes the role of McGrew's agent to ensure that the series is more accurate from now on. - In "Young Man's Fancy", \|\|Henrietta Walker's ghost is summoned by her son Alex's strong desire to return to his supposedly idyllic childhood instead of having to face life as a grown man.\|\| - In "The Changing of the Guard", the ghosts of seven of Professor Ellis Fowler's former students, Artie Beechcroft, Bartlett, Dickie Weiss, Thompson, Rice, Hudson and Whiting, appear to him in order to prevent him from committing suicide. They tell him that his teachings inspired them as he taught them about patriotism, courage, loyalty, ethics and honesty. - In "He's Alive", the ghost of Adolf Hitler appears to Peter Vollmer in order to help his small, ineffectual neo-Nazi group to grow and gain influence. - The Twilight Zone (1985): - In "Voices in the Earth", the historian Professor Donald Knowles visits the devastated Earth aboard a survey ship 1,000 years after humanity abandoned it. While exploring the ruins of a library, the ghosts of people who were unable to get off the planet appear to him. The ghosts' leader explains that they are unable to travel through warp space safely as they have no ships and previous efforts have resulted in either their destruction or insanity. They are therefore tied to Earth but plan to leave it by taking control of Knowles' body. However, Knowles is eventually successful in convincing them to use their powers of restore the biosphere even though what is left of their consciousness will most likely be destroyed in the process. Before he leaves the living Earth, Knowles assures the ghosts, who may no longer be able to hear him, that humanity will return to reclaim the planet one day as they had hoped. - In "The Crossing", Father Mark Cassidy is haunted by the apparition of a car containing his long deceased girlfriend Kelly crashing over a cliff. The original accident, which happened more than 20 years earlier, was caused by his careless driving. It is something for which he has been trying to atone ever since. He finally realizes that the car is appearing to him so that he can get into it and die in the crash, thereby gaining peace and salvation. Several days later, Kelly's ghost is seen at his funeral. She places a rose on his casket as it is being carried out of St. Timothy's Church. - In "The Hunters", the ghosts of prehistoric hunters inhabit the paintings found on the walls of a 12,000-year-old cave. Every night, they leave the walls and enter the real world to kill animals belonging to the local farmers such as sheep, cattle and a brood mare. The hunters then go back onto the walls before morning, though their positions often change. After killing Dr. Klein, they are able to take her back with them onto one of the walls as a trophy. The sheriff seemingly destroys them when he washes away all of the paintings. - In "There Was an Old Woman", the ghosts of Brian Harris and about a dozen other kids appear to the children's author Hallie Parker in her home and ask her to read to them. Hallie is deeply moved and agrees to do so, glad that she can once again be useful. - Dickie Lee's song "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)" is about a young man who picks up a girl who needs a ride. When he gets to her destination, the seat beside him is empty, though he never stopped the car. All that remains is her sweater. When he knocks on the door with the sweater to see if she went inside while he wasn't looking, the person who answers is astonished to see the sweater. It belonged to his daughter, who was killed in a car crash at about the spot where the young man picked up the hitcher girl... 25 years earlier. The song was inspired by the urban legend of the Vanishing Hitchhiker. The young man of the song takes Laurie back to her home, leaves, realizes he forgot the sweater he gave her to keep warm with, and goes back for it. The person at the house tells him "She died a year ago today" and that she's buried in the local cemetery. He goes there to look at her grave, and finds the sweater folded up on top of it. So, even truer to the Vanishing Hitchhiker legend. All made especially effective and actually creepy by the disarming early 60's (made in 1965) music that accompanies this telling. Not surprisingly, Dickie Lee was responsible for about three or so of the songs that Don McLean called "dirges in the dark" in American Pie — the song, not the movie series. - This trope applies to two different music videos for the same song, Steinman's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now". In Celine Dion's version, her late lover's ghost manifests first as shadows on the walls, and then in flashbacks within mirrors, his intangible presence only becoming visible near the end. In the Meatloaf/Marion Raven version, Marion's ephemeral ghost is visible to the audience all along, but her widower Meat only becomes aware of the haunting when objects start moving by themselves in his mansion, and doesn't seem to actually see her at all. - Lynn in the music video of "White Noise" by PVRIS. She is basically a ghostly version of Diane Freeling. - Catholics believe that the dead in Purgatory can visit living people to request prayers for purification; the living should never attempt to initiate this contact, and these souls are not the same as demons. By contrast, most Protestant churches believe that all ghosts are demons masquerading as the spirits of the dead. This interestingly mirrors the question in Hamlet over the nature of the apparition claiming to be Hamlet's father. - Ghosts (usually referred to as revenants) from Medieval folklore are usually malevolent and decidedly physical, with there being stories of people wrestling with ghosts or ghosts being restrained until a priest can arrive and perform an exorcism. - In Buddhism, ghosts are called pretas. They are people whose craving of something (be it food, sex, or money) was so strong they could not properly reincarnate, leaving them in a state of And I Must Scream until they could build up enough good karma to reincarnate. - Ghosts are a prominent feature of Malaysian Mythology. They are referred to as hantu, used by shamans and witches as Familiars, frequently kept in jars, have a physical form (usually an animal, but sometimes a human) and usually need to be fed. Some specific examples: - Bajang, vampiric ghosts of stillborns in the form of polecats who eat milk and eggs. Bajang owners are Always Male. - Pelesit, ghosts of stillborns in the form of crickets who eat saffron rice. Owners of them are Always Female. - Hantu Raya, a superhumanly strong doppelganger fed on ancak note : A mix of rice flakes, eggs, chicken and glutinous yellow rice offered to spirits - Polong, a Familiar summoned with Blood Magic. - Pontianak, vampiric ghosts of mothers who died in childbirth with long fingernails who can be turned human by plugging the hole in their neck. - Lang Suir, pontianak banshees who eat fish and can turn into owls. - Toyol, ghosts of dead babies in the form of goblins with a childlike mindset. - In Hong Kong, it was widely believed that a woman who committed suicide in a red dress could return as a ghost to haunt her tormentors. - Less is Morgue: Ghosts in Less is Morgue are invisible without a camera, and can only be seen by fellow undead, the people they're haunting, and mortals who are either on specific drugs or are mentally unstable. Ghosts of murder victims retain their wounds and appear red-tinted, while ghosts of people who died in accidents or of natural causes have a blue-green tint. - Unwell Podcast: Mount Absalom has several ghosts, most of whom can still eat and go about normally despite dying and having a funeral. However, they don't age. Norah Tendulkar is an exception to this; she is bound to the place she died, and can collect sounds made in the building she haunts. - Hello from the Hallowoods: Percy is a ghost bound to a piano. He is not the only ghost bound to an instrument. - The Mexican luchador Fantasma de la Quebrada, the ghost of the broken. He and his successors are best known for their time in CMLL, AAA and AULL. Yes successors, these ghosts can have sons. - Possibly a case of Word Salad Title. UltraMantis Black's Power Stable the Spectral Envoy's name would seem to mean "a ghost sent by a government to represent it in dealing with another government," even though there is nothing about the gimmick that would suggest any connection to ghosts or to governments. - 13th Age: Wraiths are incorporeal undead creatures that recall their former life just enough to scream questions about places they used to know. - Chainsaw Warrior's grimdark future has uncovered the science behind ghosts. They're actually immaterial aliens from another dimension that arrive through "spatial warps". Normally they die quickly when the warp collapses, but if a powerful entity comes through the warp the being can not only sustain the ghosts - it can also increase the size of the warp. Additionally ghosts can possess corpses which is why the Chainsaw Warrior has to fight so many zombies. - Dungeons & Dragons: The game's various incarnations have had so many different types of undead, corporeal or otherwise, that any attempt to tell them apart merely by sight and behavior is probably quite doomed to failure. Is that figure flitting about in the ruins a ghost? A specter? A wraith? Something notionally else altogether? Usually you won't know until it attacks, and sometimes not even then. Just make sure you bring along a cleric. - Allips are spectral remains of people driven to suicide by madness. They crave only revenge and unrelentingly pursue those who tormented them in life and pushed them over the brink. - Typically, ghosts are so terrifying that they cause people who look at them to suffer Rapid Aging and can also possess people. - Wraiths are incorporeal undead born from hatred and darkness, and deeply despise all living things. Their touch can drain the life from their victims, and all creatures they slay rise as new wraiths enslaved to their killer's will. They cannot bear sunlight, however, and must retreat to shelter when the sun rises. - The Sheet Phantom is specifically the bedsheet ghost version. - Ghostwalk: Ghosts, the spirits of the dead, but instead of being monsters, are playable — dead adventurers can take levels in the eidolon and eidoloncer classes to keep advancing despite being dead. This lasts until either they're raised, at which point they can swap out the ghost classes for mortal ones, or their ghost levels outweighed their normal ones, at which point they're subjected to the Calling and disappear into the afterlife. The book specifically recommends not including typical D&D ghosts, since they'd only serve to dilute focus. - Ravenloft has ghosts by the truckload: about the only variants of this trope that aren't present are the bedsheet-wearer and anything played purely for comedy. - Exalted: Ghosts and the afterlife were never supposed to exist. Then the titular Exalted killed a few of the creators of the world, who were too vast and complex to be subject to the cycle of death and rebirth they had ordained for the rest of Creation. The result was the creation of the Void, and the Underworld that formed around it. Now, anyone who dies with a strong attachment to the world will end up as a ghost in the Underworld instead of reincarnating. If they're lucky, they can resolve their attachments and return to the cycle of reincarnation. Otherwise... well, remember the Void in the middle of the Underworld? The ghosts of the slain Primordials are still there, they're bent on destroying everything so they can die for good this time, and they have a nasty habit of overwhelming ghosts with the desire to kill everything that lives and destroy everything that's not alive, consigning all that exists to Oblivion. Or forging the uncooperative ones into soulsteel. - Since humans have two souls, only one of which can be reincarnated, they also leave behind a Hungry Ghost, a generally animalistic entity that guards the corpse of the fallen, and can be given to rampage if they don't receive proper Due to the Dead or the body (or its tomb) is desecrated. This can result in the interesting scenario of an Exalted fighting the ghost of her prior incarnation when they decide to look for artifacts. - Ghosts are corporeal, and can interbreed with the living to create ghost-blooded children who are neither fully dead nor fully alive. - Ironclaw has ghosts and phantoms, which fortunately cannot physically harm the living (unless they were mages in life) but they can attempt to scare someone to death. The downside of their incorporeality is that only magic can harm them, if "killed" they depart from the world of the living. There are also indistinct "spirits of the restless dead" that Necromancers draw their power from but can lose control of them at which point they may try to possess people or fresh corpses. And then there's shades, kind of the "psychic echo" type, which actually don't count as undead and aren't affected by Black or White magic, but Green and Purple mages can communicate with or control them. - Magic: The Gathering has some ghosts within the "Spirit" creature type, a category that also contains things that may or may not have been living people once and things that were definitely never anything else. The rules ghosts operate under also change from world to world, so it's hard to pick out a pattern, but they're often aligned with Blue mana, the kind most associated with knowledge and the mind. - Ghosts are particularly prominent in the Gothic Horror plane of Innistrad, where they're the result of the slumber of the dead being disturbed by unresolved business, strong attachments to the living or the world, disturbance of their graves or evil magical activity. - In Kaldheim, people who don't die glorious deaths in battle, including every animal and monsters, becomes spirits in the foggy underworld of Istfell. These ghosts lack the passion and drive they had in life, and spend their afterlives drifting aimlessly like fog, repeating without purpose the motions of the things they did in life. - In Nomine: - Humans who have either achieved their Destiny or met their Fate in life, and who have some kind of unfinished business or strong attachment to some particular thing, may, instead of ascending to their heavenly reward or descending to Hell, end up lingering on the corporeal plane, bound to some object or place that was significant to them. Unfortunately the process requires giving up part of their being, so some ghosts end up as nothing more than will'o'wisps, with no sapience or ability to interact with the world, others end up as poltergeists, non-sapient but able to interact tangibly with the physical world, or apparitions, with intelligence but not the ability to affect the physical world directly. True ghosts with both intelligence and the ability to interact with the physical world are quite rare, both because it's difficult to become one and because they're the likeliest kind to either deal with their business and move on or to be recognized and exorcized. Of course, all types of ghost can also simply be banished, with a ritual or by destroying their anchor, or destroyed outright. - Dream-shades are similar to ghosts, but technically a distinct type of being. Ghosts are mortal souls who cling to the corporeal plane; dream-shades cling to the ethereal plane — the world of dreams and manifest archetypes — instead. Some are the souls of mortals who died in their sleep and knowingly or instinctively clung to the dream world; others can be anchored there by powerful ethereal spirits. They always retain all of their memories and sense of self, but cannot manifest in the material world. - Talislanta has Disembodied Spirits, which are stereotypical Ghosts, and Reincarntors, which are the spirits of dead Torquaran wizards who possess mortals. - Unknown Armies has two different kinds of ghosts: - Reverants are spirits without ego. They fall into different categories based on how they died and who they were in life, but boil down to repeating actions over and over in a mindless, pathetic way. Mourners show up and crowd around dead bodies, snowfallen show up during snowstorms and sing prophetic warnings, etc. - Then there are demons, human spirits that are entirely ego, who remain active and cognizant entirely through the force of their will and obsession. They are universally awful and dangerous because, even if their obsession is something noble, they will possess and destroy you to accomplish their goals. Add to that the fact that while they still think and feel, they're utterly lacking in the emotional depth that hormones give you, making them incapable of love or even basic empathy, and you have the nastiest creeps in the whole setting. - Warhammer 40,000 brings rather different sorts of ghosts to the field-all of which are armed to the teeth. Eldar Wraith-constructs are the souls of dead Eldar given material form, and the robotic shells of the Necrons house the souls of the long-dead Necrontyr. Necrons Wraiths in particular drive the point home, being able to phase in and out of existence. Space Marine Dreadnoughts aren't technically dead, they're just the head and vertebrae of a 'mostly dead' Space Marine hero. Although since they are inside a tank sized mini-mech you'll call them dead if they wish to be called so. - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has a few ways for the souls of the dead to linger as incorporeal spirits: - The World of Darkness: - Changeling: The Dreaming: Changelings killed by Cold Iron do not reincarnate and can become ghosts. - Wraith: The Oblivion and Orpheus are both about ghosts, dealing with them in different ways. Wraith focuses on spiritual existence and society, while Orpheus deals more with blurring the lines between life and death. - People and places that keep a ghost attached to the world of the living are called fetters. - Wraiths see the world as way darker than the living do — shiny new cars would be dilapidated wrecks, buildings are all run down and in disrepair, etc. - Wraith powers are called Arcanoi (plural of Arcanos), and range from telekinesis to limited substantialness to emotion control to possession of objects and people. Orpheus had similar skills, called Shades, but they were more of a direct reflection of the character's personality. - Wraiths bear remnants of how they were killed, known as "Deathmarks". - New World of Darkness: - Ghosts are somewhat less elaborate than in the Old. Whether or not they are the human soul is deliberately unclear, but magic can bind a person's soul to an anchor and thus make it into a ghost. They have trouble communicating with mortals, and the specifics of their powers (Numina) vary from ghost to ghost. A ghost tied to its Anchors is basically a psychic echo of the actual human, unable to fully comprehend that they're dead and unable to change. Once the ghost is free of its Anchors and descends to the Underworld, however, it regains its sense of self and is able to change. - Geist: The Sin-Eaters: The geists of the title are essentially ghosts who've been boiled down to the bare essence of what defined them in death (e.g., a soldier who died at Ypres in a gas attack becomes the Gasping Colonel, a gaunt figure with wheezy breath and a gas mask that appears to be made of tanned human skin). As a result, their human memories are fragmented, to say the least, but they gain access to the power sources of the Underworld and can make bargains to bring the mystically inclined back from the dead... as long as they get to come along as passengers. - Angels in America has two separate cases: the first is Prior Walter's two ancestors (also named Prior Walter), who return to announce the coming of The Angel; the second is Ethel Rosenberg, the spy Roy Cohn put every bit of influence he had into sending to death row thirty-two years ago, who returns to haunt Roy as he \|\|slowly dies from AIDS\|\|. - Hamlet: Hamlet's dad returns from Purgatory to demand revenge. And boy, does he get it. Hamlet considers the possibility that the ghost is a demon sent to tempt Hamlet as Protestant ideas go against ghosts and this is the first reason that he delays his revenge, in order to make sure that Claudius is guilty which becomes simultaneously known to the audience as well. - Disney Theme Parks offer three different variants. The Haunted Mansion is said to be a retirement home for spirits from all over the world. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, however, states that the ghosts there are trapped within the hotel permanently. Finally, the Phantom Manor contains a malevolent ghost tormenting a bride in old age. In one of the very few cases of ghosts appearing, Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 2010 features two houses involving ghosts: Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate, which is about ghost hunters purposely trying to gather the spirits murdered in a house in Ohio and getting more than they bargained for, and Psychoscarepy: Echos of Shadybrook, which has you traveling through the Shadybrook Asylum of past horror events 15 years after closing and facing the restless spirits of the patients. - Higurashi: When They Cry: \|\|Hanyuu\|\| is a Cute Ghost Girl who died hundreds of years ago \|\|due to being sacrificed for being a Horned Humanoid. The sacrifice ended up making her a god\|\|. She looks like a child \|\|but died as an adult and can transform between the two at will, as well as become physical if she wishes.\|\| \|\|Rika\|\| is normally the only person who can see it however \|\|when people reach a certain level of Hinamizawa Syndrome they can hear her. It usually doesn't help their paranoia when they see thin air repeating "I'm Sorry" constantly\|\|. - Kindred Spirits on the Roof features Sachi and Megumi, two teenage lesbian ghosts who recruit the protagonist to get yuri couples together so they can consummate their relationship. The ghosts, or "kindred spirits," as they prefer to be called cannot leave the school campus, can only go to places they've been while they were alive (Sachi can't go to the rebuilt building except for the roof, while Megumi can't go to the third-years' building due to having died as a first-year). They have a few special powers, as Megumi can leave messages in blood, Sachi can cause objects to shake and both can possess people to feel what they're feeling. - Wicked Lawless Love: Most ghosts in the setting appear as formless mists or echoes of their former selves — spirits stripped down to their essence and devoid of personality. Nathan is an anomaly in that he's retained his mind and appearance as a human and is able to interact with the living world as a solid form. This turns out to be because \|\|of the deal he made with Alcaeus after he died.\|\| - Among the Chosen features Negative Biomagnetic Entities, poltergeists made from negative emotional energy. - Concession: Ghosts are usually after revenge and can bond to a living person (like a relative or lover) and give them enhanced psychic powers. They also seem universally evil and prone to committing Mind Rape. Hidden pages suggest that \|\|the body protects the spirit from a form of radiation, and that the longer a ghost refuses to pass on, the more like an Eldritch Abomination they become — also, Miranda feeds on despair\|\|. - Crazy Ghosts is about bunch of different ghosts living together in one house, including the personification of death, the prototype for all ghosts, the ghost of a succubus and the ghost of a Cat Girl. - This strip from Deliberately Buried contrasts a normal full-bodied ghost with a bedsheet ghost who was a monster while it was alive. - In Doc Rat, the Heartwarming Orphan attributes her problems to ghosts.And is saved by an imaginary superhero. - In Dragon Mango, Cherry asks if Mango is a ghost because there's a memorial sculpture of her. - Erma: Erma and her mom have various ghostly powers, such as shape-shifting, levitation, telekinesis, phasing through walls, using televisions as portals to other places, mind control, and removing their body parts. They also have some physical elements - Erma requires sleep, both eat, and given the baby pictures on her family's walls, Erma was born the same way as an ordinary human child. - Erstwhile: - Ghost Cat: Ghost Cat can become tangible if it wishes, but is at least solid enough to stick a post-it note to. - Gunnerkrigg Court: - Mort is a friendly Bed Sheet Ghost who's has Voluntary Shapeshifting and is a Master of Illusion, haunting the Court because it's his job to give harmless scares. Chapter 46 introduces his employers: \|\|the Realm of the Dead, where people who died before their time use the power of the Ether to make an impression on the world before they pass on\|\|. - A more normal ghost is Martin in Chapter 16, who lingered in the world because he was afraid of the Psychopomps, didn't understand that he had died, and couldn't move on until he chose a psychopomp to lead him into the Ether. He also created illusions, but wasn't lucid enough to know that he was doing so. - Jeanne, the Ghost of the Annan Waters, is a terrifically dangerous spirit caught beyond the reach of the Psychopomps. \|\|The founders of the Court used some singularly nasty Magitek to bind her soul to the Annan and transform her into a spirit of pure rage and hatred, wielding an etheric Soul-Cutting Blade that can threaten even psychopomps and Physical Gods\|\|. - Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name: \|\|Lee\|\| is one with a wide variety of Ghostly Goals: he wants to protect someone, he can't rest because he's \|\|hanging from his neck in an abandoned theater\|\|, he's a bit in denial about being dead, and he's angry at Zombie for getting a second chance at life. - Heroes of Thantopolis Ghosts are the residents of a ghostly city called Thantopolis, who are just there to reflect on their life. - Homestuck: - Aradia lingers as a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl after dying, appearing as a floating version of herself with blank eyes, tattered clothes and an incredibly fatalistic outlook. She can also use her psychic powers to call upon the shades of the deceased, which look like grey, limbless wisps with blank holes for eyes. - Later on, deceased players go to the afterlife of the Dream Bubbles, where they're referred to as ghosts. They look and act exactly like their living selves, just with white eyes. - The game's kernelsprites display more of the properties of traditional ghosts than actual dead people do. All sprites have Fog Feet, and Nannasprite and Jaspersprite have also been shown flying through walls and leaving a trail of ectoplasm behind. All sprites in the comic were created using the remains of the dead, serving as a way to bring deceased characters back to a form of life. - Lapse: Bean's house is populated by quite a few ghosts, the most interesting of which is some spider-demon creature. - Misfile: Kamikaze Kate's sister Angelica was a combination of types 1, 2, 4 and 7. \|\|She was eventually persuaded to move on when Rumisiel showed her just how much her presence had hurt her sister's life.\|\| - The Order of the Stick: - Roy Greenhilt's father Eugene is barred from the Afterlife by an unfulfilled Blood Oath, so he settles for appearing as a spirit when Roy holds their family's Ancestral Weapon. He has no power to influence the mortal world or even be perceived by anyone else, \|\|except when he hijacks a planar summoning spell to manifest properly. When Roy spends some time dead, he's unable to communicate with anybody except an Oracle of Tiamat, since nobody is carrying his sword.\|\| - There's also the positive energy spirits of the Sapphire Guard, sworn to protect the Azure City throne room as a final line of defense. Redcloak muses on the trope here, observing that they're technically not undead at all. - In the afterlife, Roy's mother Sara appears as a young woman even though she lived to old age. She explains that his father Eugene looks like a wrinkled old man because he always was a wrinkled old man on the inside even before he became one on the outside. - Parisa: The Spirasi are genderless, shapeshifting spirits, pretty much ghosts, who bond with the still-alive Parisi through pacts. They're usually named after the places where they were found. - Pumpkin Flower: Ghosts can be seen by everyone and have to sleep. Powers and form seem to depend on the individual, but they're all insane. \|\|Even Dell but no one talks about that.\|\| - The Secret Knots: - In "Dark Pursuits", the ghosts of the original inhabitants of the castle visit the narrator in his dreams and will (according to an old fortune teller) only be put to rest if he paints a portrait of each of them. - In "Quinton Page Eats a Sandwich", Quinton is so dedicated to acting that he contacts the producers of a film via a medium in order to arrange for himself to play a ghost in it, though he's invisible and inaudible- his acting is conveyed entirely by him affecting objects on the stage... and its apparently so good that he wins 'Best Actor' for it. - Sluggy Freelance had a problem with ghosts for a while when they lived in Kesandru House. And Oasis might be a weaponized ghost. - Unsounded: Ghosts start out as clusters of memories cleansed from the souls of the dead by the setting's Background Magic Field, the Khert. Some are intense enough to absorb similar memories and slip from the Khert to the physical world, where they seek out things that resonate with their theme. The most common are smoke eels, when ghosts of pain and suffering form ephemeral bodies of dust or smoke; and haunted pymarics, when ghosts hide inside Magitek and co-opt it for their own use. Sette's Team Pet Boo is an unusually complex and precocious ghost that holed up in a pymaric spider and Timofey was a failed attempt by Bastion at bringing his dead sister back to life by taking as many memories of and by her as possible and binding them together into a single ghost, creating an intangible Artificial Human in the process. - Chaos Fighters: Hollows are materialized souls of dead people and comes in various colors, but they are only having human silhouettes. At higher willpower, they become hullow instead, which are humans made from hollow crystals. At even higher willpower, they become ghoan, which are almost indistinguishable from regular human. In rare cases, they can even made out of material. In Chemical Siege it becomes a plot point when the hollows are made from chemicals, causing environmental damage. - Gaia Online had a Halloween event that started when a by-product from the Omni Drink Corporation's operations was revealed to form a spectral barrier that prevented the spirits inhabiting the graveyard where it was dumped from moving on. Unfortunately, by the time OmniDrink's disinherited heir managed to fix this, the ghosts had all gone a bit Ax-Crazy from being trapped in their graves for decades... - Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Limyaael has a little rant about ghosts in fantasy. - In The Monster Girl Encyclopedia, ghosts are spirits fuse with Succubi's demonic energy, so they are all pervert. At first, they can't interact with the world physically and will possess humans. The victim will get his or her mind filled with obscene imaginary from possessing ghost. The ghost will get spirit energy by absorb it from a male host (or during female host's sex act), until it's enough to manifest herself in physical world, then she will engage in sex act directly. - In The Pentagon War, entering a rogue hyper hole removes you from Real Space and sends you into Parallel Space, where time, matter, and possibly even distance have no meaning. Yet, it's possible for your consciousness to persist, and even perceive light that originates in Real Space. Should this happen, you'll be able to instantly move your vantage point to any location in the universe. It's also possible, under the right circumstances, to \|\|take control of the arm movements of a Centaurian and use them to type out messages\|\|. - Simple Complications has a ghost that appears throughout the first volume. It is a blue humanoid figure, but without any distinctive features beyond that, where you can't even tell which is it's front and back. It causes certain electrical machines to stop working, some temporarily and some permanently. Otherwise it is mostly seen floating around, and doesn't noticeably interact with people. Eventually it \|\|leads some of the characters to a coded document it wrote when it was still a person, Joshua Teleros, a character from Chrono Hustle\|\|. - Avatar: The Last Airbender has Yue, Roku and his three predecessor Avatars turning up as Spirit Advisors. - Beetlejuice has most of the same tropes as the movie, but: - The method of death showing up on the ghost has been removed. It's a kids' show. - The Neitherworld, where Beetlejuice dwelled, was full of nonhuman ghostly entities. - Beetlejuice himself was arguably an In-Universe version, since he displayed all kinds of strange powers most other ghosts didn't seem to have. - Ben 10 has Ghostfreak, a ghost-like alien who becomes a lot scarier when he escapes, and wants Revenge on Ben. We also find out then, that without the protective shell that the Omnitrix generated, sunlight destroys Ghostfreak. - Casper the Friendly Ghost is a complicated case. In The Movie, he was a boy who died of an illness, but in the comic books... it would seem that ghosts in the comicverse are one more Enchanted Forest species, not humans who die. The animated shorts do little to clarify, though one does involve a fox that Casper tried and failed to save becoming a ghost. - As for abilities, "Ghostly Powers" in the comics are kept very consistent and what they are is told often: they can fly, become invisible, or become intangible — all under the ghost's control. Occasionally, Casper encounters a "ghostproofed" wall or prison. What is inconsistent is which objects can be turned invisible or intangible along with the ghost: Spooky's hat never becomes invisible with him and has given him away many times, but Pearl's bow has changed with her sometimes and not others. - The new cartoon Casper's Scare School has Casper and his uncles back to being ghosts that were never "fleshies". - City of Ghosts: The ghosts are friendly and at times mischievous, and eager to share stories of their former lives and their communities. Some take other forms, such as a magpie or mythological creature. - Danny Phantom has a whole bushel of examples: - Overall, there are three main types of ghosts. 1) Ghosts of people/creatures who died, like Poindexter and Cujo. 2) A entity that was never living, but seems to be a unique life-form formed of ectoplasm, who can create races and even reproduce, such as the race of the "Far Frozen". 3) A concept or idea that has taken on conscious form. Clockwork is the ghostly form of Time, Vortex the manifestation of bad weather, etc. Half ghosts (Danny and Vlad) seem to be still-living humans with ectoplasm fused to their DNA in a similar vein as Spider-Man. - Danny himself is a "half-ghost" and technically never died. So is Vlad Plasmius. And because she was created, so is the Distaff Counterpart, Dani Phantom. - Danny has the "Ghostly wail" which is a powerful sonic attack, effective on ghosts. This seems also to be a power particular to half-ghost/half-humans. - Danny has the ghost sense (an Homage to Spider-Man's spider sense), which turns out later to have been the precursor to his freezing power. - Ember McLain got power from the adulation of fans she never got in life. - Desiree was obligated to grant wishes, though not always as the wisher would have preferred. - Sidney Poindexter was bullied in life so much that his spirit haunts a ghostly clone of Casper High circa 1955. Seeing people get bullied turns on his poltergeist rage. He once possessed Danny under the mistaken impression Danny was a bully. - Ghosts in the Danny Phantom 'verse are capable of reproduction. \|\|Box Lunch is the future child of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady\|\|. - Possession is called "overshadowing" instead because it's a kids show. And for some reason, despite at least one common victim stating more than once that he hates being overshadowed, the concept of overshadowing people without their permission for no good reason being an immoral violation not befitting a hero is never, ever touched upon. - Ghost animals: - The ghost puppy who got Danny in touch with Valerie could morph from cute puppy to vicious hound until Danny resolved his issue — he only wanted his squeaky toy. - Vlad Masters has a hunting lodge. Every animal that appears as a trophy on the wall is a ghost animal under Vlad Plasmius' thrall. He also has ghost vultures. - Youngblood has a ghost sidekick which could morph into an animal of its choice to fit whatever costume Youngblood was using at the time (Parrot for pirate, Horse for Cowboy). - Wulf is a ghost werewolf who speaks broken Esperanto. - Every other ghost is made of ectoplasm and doesn't resemble any living or human being. - Nonhuman Ghosts: - Skulker is a weird little ghostly entity who does not appear to have ever been human; he wears a cybernetic suit. - The ghosts who taught Danny to use his freezing power are all appear to be Yeti, or something similar. - There's a ghost who is a plant and who controls them. - Ghost Gear: - There's a metal that harms ghosts or half-ghosts. - Johnny 13 has a ghost motorcycle. - Youngblood has a ghost pirate ship. - Ember's ghost guitar would let her use Mind Control based on what song she was playing. - Skulker has a number of ghost traps, weapons and devices (with the weakness of being hackable by normal earth tech). - Technus could literally be the ghost in the machine (which is not the same as the Ghost in the Machine trope). Danny could as well. - Jack and Maddie Fenton were able to invent and use (with varying degrees of success) devices that protected from ghosts or trapped them. The garage sale episode featured a lot of mundane stuff the family owned getting contaminated with ectoplasm. - Enemy Freakshow has a staff with a gem on it that exerts Mind Control on ghosts. Danny is only partially susceptible. - According to Butch Hartman years after the show ended, all ghosts are in fact inhuman creatures of ectoplasm, with the ones with human appearances and backstories making those up to be more human. This is despite the fact that there's physical evidence that Desiree, Poindexter, and Hotep-Ra once had human lives. Butch becoming a born-again Christian might have something to do with this claim. - In Dude, That's My Ghost!, the ghost of Billy Joe Cobra can twist his form into all kinds of shapes, and his ectoplasm can have bizarre effects on both living people and inanimate objects. He can also only be seen by someone if they are wearing one of his former possessions. - Filmation's Ghostbusters had ghosts that could take tangible form in our dimension; a Dematerializer stripped them of these forms and forced them to escape to the Spirit World. - Futurama: - In "The Honking", an old house is revealed to be haunted by ghosts because some electric wires crossed under a nearby graveyard. Eventually, it's revealed that they're robot ghosts. Except they're actually just holographic projections of the dead robots, which is completely different, of course. Hermes comments that the last ghost died over 200 years ago, to which Bender responds with "the last human ghost." - In "Proposition Infinity", a ghost is seen married to a horse. It's unknown what type of ghost this is. - In "Ghost in the Machines", Bender dies and emerges as a ghost. The Robot Devil explains to him that he's stuck in Limbo — "Your software was exported to the computational cloud. Your disembodied programme is now running on the wireless network shared by all machinery." Bender later discovers that his software can control electronics, and uses this to haunt Fry. - Hanna-Barbera: The Funky Phantom - Mudsy was not interested in haunting, really. He was a confirmed coward who just wanted to be left alone. - In a case of nonhuman ghost, Mudsy's cat [appropriately named Boo] was also a ghost alongside him. - Hit-Monkey: After dying, Bryce finds that his ghost is spiritually tethered to Monkey, meaning the two are unable to be outside a certain distance of each other. Additionally, Bryce can only be seen by other spirits and can be trapped and injured by salt, although salt can also make him temporarily visible and tangible. \|\|He also develops telekinesis in his last scene of season one\|\|. - Jimmy Two-Shoes: One episode has Beezy being haunted by the ghost of his uneaten pizza crusts. - Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: In addition of the Ghost Gang, there are more various types of ghosts present. Some look like the old designs of the original four and even turn blue when frightened. Others however look vastly different such as the red four-eyed black jellyfish-like ones, the Japanese thunder god-like Ghosts and the large cyclops-like brutes. - The Real Ghostbusters: Ghosts usually resemble living monsters more than ghosts; discussions of death were verboten in Saturday morning fare at the time. There are a few notable exceptions to this. "The Old College Spirit" featured ghosts who were deceased frat brothers who had failed to graduate. "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost" had the ghost of a man trying to reconnect with his beloved niece so that he could say goodbye before departing. "The Man Who Never Reached Home" featured Simon Quegg, a spirit forced to wander the Earth for his misdeeds in life, until he confronted his darker self. "Bustman's Holiday" had ghosts that were explicitly from a battle on the Scottish moors. And "The Bird of Kildarby" had a group of Irish ghosts who were haunting a relocated castle. "The Last Train to Oblivion" featured the ghost of Casey Jones. "Ghostfight at the OK Corral" featured Doc Holiday and the Earps. - Scooby-Doo. The series has quite a few actual ghosts alongside the fake ones, ranging from one shot gags (like haunted bones or mice or things from the end of certain episodes), to almost demon like Witch's Ghost in one of the animated movies to (as it says on the tin) The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, all of which have unique powers and abilities. - Teen Titans Go!: In the Halloween special, Scary Figure Dance, the Titans become ghosts after the die \|\|and before trying to scare the HIVE\|\|. They were only white, have no legs, have four fingers instead of five, and lacks a nose. In Real Magic, Laundry Day, Ghostboy, and Hot Garbage, it is shown that the ghosts of the Titans resemble the Titans but in blueish \|\|or greenish\|\| tint. - Thunder Cats and ThunderCats (2011) have Court Mage Jaga as Spirit Advisor. - Transformers has Starscream the ghostly robot. He has a unique reason for his existence: his spark is indestructible and can continue to exist without a body.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGhostsAreDifferent
Our Ghouls Are Creepier - TV Tropes They are neither man nor woman They are neither brute nor human They are Ghouls Much like trolls, ghouls are one of the least consistently portrayed creatures in fiction, partly because the phrases "ghoul" and "ghoulish" are poorly defined terms that can refer to anything or anybody interested in the macabre and morbid, giving writers the ability to name almost any cannibalistic, flesh-eating or just creepy monster after them. In general, ghouls tend to be strongly associated with cannibalism and man-eating; they will usually be either ravenous predators of living people, corpse-eaters or both. They are often also treated as degenerate beings, created when something else — typically a living person, sometimes a stronger or more refined undead creature — somehow "decays" into a more primitive or corrupt state. The two things can sometimes be tied together, with an initial act of cannibalism being what causes a person to degenerate into a ghoul. Other times, this corruption can come in the form of an undead infection, a plague or any of a myriad of other causes. Besides being creatures associated with death, cannibalism, and degeneracy, ghouls can come in a plethora of types and subtypes. Some of the more common varieties include; - Zombie Ghouls — Flesh-eating undead, either your standard zombie by another name, or a specific zombie derivative. When the two coexist, the ghouls will generally be the more bestial and savage of the two, and more willing to eat rotten flesh. Perhaps the zombie will be subject to magical control, like the old Voodoo zombies. Garden-variety re-animated corpses may count as these. - Vampiric Ghouls — Either created by vampires as a servant, or just a relative or offshoot of the standard vampire. They vary from immortal (if twisted) humans to mindless zombie minions to beings more powerful than vampires themselves. See especially the Ghouls supplements for Vampire: The Masquerade. - Lovecraftian Ghouls — Ghouls as a living and non-human species, often with distinctive canine muzzle and ears, and with a pale or greenish cast. Other types of ghouls as their own living race do occasionally appear in other media. - Mutant Ghouls — Former humans who have been transformed into a ravenous horde of monsters or a barely sentient Cannibal Clan by The Virus, radiation, being trapped underground, or being touched by some Eldritch Abomination. Compare Mutant and The Morlocks. - Mythic Ghouls — Similar to the Mutant Ghouls, but transformed by magic or divine punishment rather than radiation. Not very common anymore but for a long time one of the most common types. Typically punished for inhuman acts such as greed, murder, or often cannibalism, these former men are still alive, but turned into flesh-eating monsters that typically haunt graveyards. Often growing razor-sharp claws, fangs and/or muzzles, long limbs and a lot of hair. Compare the Wendigo. - Demonic Ghouls — The original ghul of Arabic lore was a demonic child-eating shape-shifting jinn that inhabited graveyards. Only rarely, however, do ghouls get such a degree of supernatural power in modern fiction. Similar to how many plots would end with, or feature prominently, a vampire/werewolf confrontation, a number of stories from various horror comics published in the '50s, '60s, and '70s depict a natural rivalry between humanoid, flesh-eating ghouls and their blood-drinking vampire competitors. As the modern pop culture perception of the "Romero zombie" became commonplace, however, such depictions quickly fell out of vogue. See also: Our Goblins Are Different, Our Zombies Are Different, Our Vampires Are Different, Mutants, The Morlocks, Wendigo. ## Examples: - Blue Exorcist: Ghouls are lesser demons possessing the corpses of human and animals. - The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time: These ghouls are rather particular. Instead of being undead, they're living creatures with Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism (males are huge, muscular and have lion heads, while females are small and very human-like except for their grayish-brown skin tone and golden eyes); while they do eat humans on occasion, they can eat other types of meat as well. - Hellsing: Ghouls are zombie-like creatures that are created when a vampire drains the blood of someone who is not a virgin (unless the vampire is a Freak Chipped vampire from Millennium, which ghoulifies everyone whose blood it drains). If fatally wounded, they instantly crumble to dust. They are under the control of the vampire who bites them, eat human flesh, and are just intelligent enough to use firearms but little else. - Kemono Jihen: Kabane, the protagonist, is a half-ghoul hybrid. While he would normally have an insatiable desire to feed on the flesh of humans, it has been kept in check since his infancy by a special trinket left for him by his parents called a Life Calculus. His lineage grants him superhuman strength and renders him incapable of feeling physical pain. He also completely lacks blood, instead having a sticky white substance in place of it, and can constantly regenerate no matter how many times he's cut apart, being able to regrow his entire body from the neck down after his head was removed. The only thing that has managed to truly slow him down was a bullet through the brain, but he's completely fine after a single night. As a kemono, he also gives off a peculiar, foul-smelling odor that he covers up with a special cologne provided by his caretaker, Kohachi Inugami, a bake-danuki and a kemono himself. \|\|It's later revealed that ghouls don't procreate directly, instead creating more of their kind by sharing the fire that gives them their life energy and regeneration abilities. It would be more accurate to call Kabane a human with a ghouls' flame. Even more unusually, his regeneration is as powerful as a full-blooded ghoul.\|\| - In Rosario + Vampire, shinso vampires can inject humans with their blood to temporarily transform them into a vampire. A single human who receives multiple injections will eventually either die or transform into a ghoul. Ghouls resemble shinso vampires, having silver hair and red eyes, but the bite mark from their injection spreads like a tattoo across their body. They are potentially the most dangerous type of monster as they are almost as powerful as vampires while lacking vampiric weaknesses, but they are also violently insane. \|\|Tsukune is transformed into a ghoul, but the Headmaster is able to suppress the ghoul, allowing Tsukune to retain his sanity\|\|. - Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles: Ghouls are formed when a human ingests a certain kind of magic stone, turning them into winged Humanoid Abominations who are both physically strong and difficult to kill due to their Healing Factor. - Tokyo Ghoul: The ghouls are essentially superhumans with an insatiable need for human flesh. They look exactly like normal humans, but possess heightened senses, superior physical abilities, a Healing Factor, a retractable predatory limb that often resembles tentacles or energy wings, and a Game Face with black sclera and red pupils. Just like humans, they range from monstrous psychopaths to gentle pacifists and everything in between. But since the only thing they can eat is human (or Ghoul) flesh, they are hunted by humans and live in fear of being discovered. The series focuses on an ordinary human transformed into a Half-Human Hybrid as a result of an organ transplant, something once thought impossible. \|\|It turns it was never impossible, and it's even standard procedure for a particular organisation to produce natural Half Human Hybrids through forced impregnation. One major character turns out to be a perfect hybrid because her human mother consumed human flesh during the (consensual) pregnancy, and another is successfully carried to term when her ghoul mother consumes human food\|\|. - Magic: The Gathering: Ghouls were originally a separate creature type, but since the only ghouls for the longest time were the Scavenging Ghoul, which can regenerate damage by symbolically "eating" creatures sent to the graveyard, and Ashen Ghoul, which can return to play from the graveyard after three or more creatures have been placed there as well. Wizards of the Coast eventually decided to go the Zombie Derivative path and lump them under the zombie family — all ghouls after those two had been printed as zombies. Given that the zombie creature type covers everything from mindless dead to liches, it isn't that much of a stretch. However, numerous zombie cards since have still been named "ghouls". - The black-aligned zombies of Innistrad are frequently referred to as ghouls in order to differentiate them from their more Frankensteinoid blue counterparts, which are instead called skaabs, and Innistradi necromancers are typically referred to as "ghoulcallers". - Mercadians to poor to afford a proper funeral just have their bodies chucked into a swamp outside the city, referred to as the Ghoul's Larder after the undead that come there to feed on them. - It's relatively common for zombies to be called ghouls when they somehow relate to eating the dead or sometimes preying upon the living. Examples include Abattoir Ghoul, which rewards you for killing creatures with it; Barrow Ghoul, which requires you remove creatures from your graveyard to sustain it; Creakwood Ghoul and Gutless Ghoul, which reward you for sacrificing creatures; and Sutured Ghoul, which becomes stronger the more cards you remove from the graveyard. - The Butcher Bird: Ghouls are primarily based off the Tokyo Ghoul example given above, but organize themselves into complex hierarchies based off individual strength and have varying degrees of interaction with humans - some ghoul tribes are completely isolated beyond attacking humans, while others act as infiltrators. Unlike in Tokyo Ghoul, half-breed ghouls are fairly commonplace, inheriting weaker powers in exchange for being able to eat normal food. Their society also utilizes Names that can convey the essential knowledge of a given ghoul in a single Red Baron-esque title. \|\|They're also the result of a failed Super Soldier project.\|\| - Fallout: Equestria: Just like the Fallout version, some are mindless and feral while some are intelligent and a couple are allies to the main characters. In this case, they might actually be undead due to the possibility of necromantic magic in the Balefire bombs. There is no doubt about the Canterlot ghouls: save beheading, they always come back after being "killed". - The King Nobody Wanted: Glarus tells Drogo that the Red Waste is home to a species of ghoul-like creatures called the Ifrit. They're thin, no heavier than a child, yet they're cunning, capable of speech, and always trying to lure travelers away from the safe paths in order to kill and eat them. According to Glarus, there are no more than a few thousand left. - The Loud Sim Date: Ghouls are created using a serum, and seem to be based on Tokyo Ghoul. They can get stronger through Monstrous Cannibalism, as when Cristina cannibalizes Leni, \|\|she gains her powers\|\|. - Leni, the first ghoul, can morph her arms into weapons or defensive equipment. She also feels no pain, though it's implied \|\|Cristina did that\|\|. - Lori, the second ghoul, has wings and can shoot sharp feathers. Which explode. - Cristina, the third ghoul, has four tentacles coming from her back that can let her shoot electricity, morph into things to protect her, and be remade from scratch should they be destroyed. This isn't including the ensuing Healing Factor she gets \|\|which can be nullified with Ronnie's tail\|\|. - Ronnie Anne, the fourth and seemingly final ghoul, barely seems to suffer any changes besides gaining a tail that lets her override \|\|Cristina's Healing Factor\|\|. - The Moonstone Cup: Ghuls are a canine species who live deep underground and have a strong affinity for earth magic. They're a Dying Race, as fewer and fewer are born each year and many have descended into savagery, becoming the show's diamond dogs. - Oversaturated World: In Inevitable, Sunset and Twilight argue on whether to call the undead rats they encounter zombies or ghouls. Twilight argues that they should be called ghouls as "they still retain some some self-control". - The Palaververse: Ghūls are bipedal creatures native to the deserts of Saddle Arabia, where they emerge during the night and hunt prey in packs. - Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: Ghasts are pale, bestial undead that arise from the bodies of the unjustly murdered. They are instinctively driven to eat the flesh of the living in a futile quest to resurrect themselves. Light burns them severely enough that concentrated flashlight beams can harm them. - Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness has an in-universe example with Tsukune's ghoul. While most ghouls are little more than mindless beasts, Tsukune's ghoul is mentioned to represent his dark side and thus has its own personality, allowing it to think and plan. At one point, it actually infects Kokoa with a portion of its essence as a contingency plan; the others are completely taken aback that it was even capable of infecting others, as no other ghoul has been able to, or at least had the mental capacity to think of doing so. - Still Waters Series: While magic-based zombies are often called ghouls, another notable ghoul appears in Book 1. Carrick is highly intelligent, ancient, and the servant of an even more ancient vampire, who sent him out to recruit Eva. Stated to be able to regenerate from wounds, he shows no signs of any flesh eating, but rather seems to be going after his victim's life force. When he attacks, he also spreads an infection to the victim through the wound, which causes tremendous pain and can kill within the hour, causing the victim to reanimate as a mindless undead pawn. - Sword and Claw: Ghouls are mentioned in Lilith's backstory as monsters that feed on corpses. - With Strings Attached: Some ghouls and ghasts hang around the ruined city on the Plains of Death. The Hunter tells the four not to let themselves be touched by them, as their touch causes paralysis, so they're right out of the AD&D Monster Manual. Ringo, who beats the crap out of them from a safe distance, says they feel like "squishy rotten meat". - The Babadook is listed as a ghoul on Wikipedia and would be of the demonic ghoul sort, only without the graveyards and it's summoned from a pop-up book. - Blade (1998): Sometimes when a vampire infects someone, it goes wrong and creates a sentient zombie-type ghoul instead. Said ghouls are stated to eat anything, including vampires. - Bloody Mallory: These are human-demon hybrids who are damned by God, eat the flesh of the dead, and can only reproduce via virgins. When their babies are born, they burst from the mother's stomachs while they're still alive. - In Dark Heritage, the Inbred and Evil Dansen clan has devolved into a tribe of ghoul-like beings who eat human flesh, only come out at night during storms, and travel through a series of tunnels that emerge from graves. - In The Ghoul, Professor Morlant is either a man raised from the dead by ancient Egyptian magic to avenge himself against tomb robbers, or a man in a cataleptic trance who was mistakenly entombed alive and who, upon awakening, went insane and believed himself to be a ghoul. Take your pick. - I Am Legend has "Darkseekers", aggressive and light-sensitive humans mutated by a cancer cure, who are essentially mutant ghouls. - Night of the Living Dead (1968): In the original movie, the word "zombie" isn't used; the reanimated corpses are instead called "ghouls". - Vampire in Brooklyn: The eponymous vampire makes a ghoul servant out of a man by making him drink his blood. \|\|The ghoul turns into a vampire by wearing his then-destroyed master's ring\|\|. - Classical Mythology has the Eurynomos, which had bluish-black skin, wore clothing made of vulture feathers, and feasted on the flesh from corpses, stripping them down to the bone. They were said to live/come from the underworld, making them something of the Demonic Ghoul type. - One folklore story about the origins of ghouls goes: the originals were the students of a powerful sage who, envious of the sage's favorite student, murdered the favorite, then cooked and ate the body to hide it. When the students returned, the sage asked the students where the favorite was. When the students lied, the sage caused the favorite to speak, from the stomachs of the students that had eaten him. Angered, the sage cast them out, and cursed them into becoming ghouls, forced forever to be monsters that ate the dead and dwelt in darkness, as well as giving ghouls a weakness: any ghoul who devours a tongue dies a slow, agonizing death. - Less creepy example: - In the folktale of "The Ghul's Daughter", a ghul shows mercy to a human girl whose family have been murdered, and gives her some of his powers. An Older Than Print subversion of Always Chaotic Evil? - Other examples of friendly (or at least, not actively threatening to the tale's protagonist) Ghouls can be found here. - In Arabian legends from which they originate, ghouls typically belong to two different groups: evil djinns that eat human corpses, and mostly ordinary humans who for some reason lust for the flesh of the dead. - Arabian ghouls can be killed with mundane weapons, but they must be killed with a single blow, or it will resurrect. They can shapeshift into any form (or in some versions, the last person they ate), but they always have donkey hooves. Much like Western vampires are scared of garlic, ghouls can be warded off with mustard. Unlike Western vampires however, they can eat rice instead of flesh or blood. - In Persia, ghouls note : Algol, if you want to be specific are supposed to have forked tongues, cat heads, donkey hooves and pallid and limp-looking yet strong limbs. Ghouls from the Sahara are said to have ostrich legs and one eye, but still retain the characteristic hooves of ghouls from the Islamic world. - The Wendigo, aka wetigo, wikigo or windigo, is this trope's icier cousin, being a human turned into a horrific monster for cannibalism. It originates from the folklore of the Alkonkian and Athabaskan peoples of North America. - This is one of the many translations of the Filipino word aswang. Ghoul aswang haunt graveyards, live in trees and have long claws and fingernails. In parts of the Philippenes it's customary to throw a dead chicken on the doorstep if you have a fresh corpse in your house in order to distract the ghouls. The berbalang also functions like one, being a bestial humanoid that robs graves to feast on dead flesh but occasionally goes after the living, though they differ by using astral projection to send their spirit-self to attack the living and devour their viscera, and can be identified when in spirit form by a moan that is exceptionally loud at a distance, but grows weaker as they move closer to an occupied dwelling. - While normally regarded as a werewolf, Lycaon from Greek Mythology has elements of the Mythic Ghoul, being a human transformed into a wolf by Zeus for cannibalism. - Japanese Jikininki are ghosts of materialistic monks condemned to eat corpses. - The Rakshasa from Hindu Mythology are a supernatural race of man-eating monsters, at times described as being able to shapeshift and use magical powers. The traditional legend says they were born from the Creator God Brahma's body, and immediately attempted to devour him before they were banished on Earth. - Fighting Fantasy: Ghouls are rotting Flesh Eating Zombies with the power to paralyse their victims. Fighting Fantasy uses the word "zombie" to refer specifically to Voodoo Zombies. They can paralyze with three strikes but can be killed with holy water. - Chasms of Malice: A "long fanged" Ghoul is one of the encounters, and tries to murder you in your sleep with a dagger. A bunch of ghouls can be disposed off with a spell which summons a monstrous pair of hands to drag them to their doom. - Night Dragon: One dungeon hosts a festering ghoul so rotten that its stench overpowers you, giving you a big malus for that combat. - Give Yourself Goosebumps: In one book, one of the people trapped forever at the Carnival of Horrors claims to be a "ghoul" rather than a "ghost". - In the second Carnival of Horrors book, you can take a picture with one of the carnival's prisoners. When asked if he'll show up in the photo, he replies that he's a ghoul, not a ghost. - Lone Wolf: - The Cauldron of Fear: The Zaaryx ghouls are emaciated flesh-eating undead, although still smart enough to use rusty weapons. One of them, however, is more mutated than the other and has dangerous Psychic Powers, apparently the result of the dead body it was formed with wearing a Psychic Ring. - The Master of Darkness features Helgedad Ghouls, bloated humanoids with wicked claws and eyes sewed shut, the result of some Darklord experiment. Though never human to begin with, they're probably undead too, but it's hard to tell for sure since it's in a part of the book were pulling out the Sommerswerd (an undead slayer) is unsafe. - Agent of Hel: In this setting, ghouls actually fill the brooding vampire niche. They're humans that died but didn't fit either Heaven or Hell, so they were kicked out of the afterlife back into their bodies. They're quasi-immortal in that they're alive but, if they're killed, reality just hiccups and they instantly come back good as new. They also need to feed on emotion to sustain themselves, but if they're not careful about it powerful emotion triggers a feeding frenzy. - Amina is essentially a Lovecraftian Ghoul, even though this story was written over a decade before H. P. Lovecraft wrote the first story of the Cthulhu Mythos proper, and over two decades before Lovecraft wrote "Pickman's Model", the story which first codified Lovecraftian Ghouls. Amina looks mostly human, does not fear daylight and breeds normally, of which the first two are unusual for but within the possibilities of Lovecraft-type ghouls. Both Edward Lucas White and Lovecraft, of course, based their ghouls on Arab mythology. - Anita Blake contains some variety of ghoul. The Other Wiki says they were the result of evil rites being performed in a graveyard, and that they formed animalistic packs. - Arabian Nights: Ghouls features in numerous stories and are usually presented as not supernatural in any way, but just really creepy people who like to eat the dead. - In one tale, a sorceress leaves her house at night and joins a ghoul in the cemetery, where they dig out and eat a corpse together. - In "The Tale of the Prince and the Ogress," a prince encounters a beautiful woman who claims to need help, and accompanies her back to her house, where he discovers she is actually a ghoul planning to feed him to her children. - The Book of Dragons: In "The Long Walk 2020", ghouls are six-limbed, four-eyed creatures that grow from untended corpses, which they fashion into macabre, tree-like shapes. The humans use them as beasts of burden, feeding them on dead bodies. - Caitlin R Kiernan: The ghouls that appear in Threshold and Low Red Moon novels were influenced by Lovecraft. The ghouls are beings with canine-like faces and orange eyes that come from another world through dimensional portals. Capable of interbreeding with humans, they are also experts in sorcery and will kidnap human children to raise as hired agents to do their bidding. - In The Concubine's Tomb, ghouls are a jackal-like humanoid race who are burned by the sun's rays (they bury themselves in the sand during the day) who must eat dead human flesh to avoid becoming more animal-like. - The Count Saint Germain novels by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro depict the titular count as a vampire. His manservant Roger is a ghoul Saint Geramain created in Roman times. Roger is apparently immortal, and stronger than a normal human. His only requirement is that he only eats raw meat. So he buys chickens, cuts it up, and eats it with knife and fork like a civilized person rather than tear at it with his teeth. - In The Crescent Moon Kingdoms ghuls are summoned and come in different varieties, and are usually made from various materials such as bone, sand, or water combined with something symbolic of taint such as maggots. The worst are the legendary skin ghuls which are completely immortal and can only be defeated by killing the summoner. Unlike the others, skin ghuls are created by curses from a decapitated head that has been animated with black magic. - The Crystal has a horde of ghouls attack at the end. \|\|The title Plot Device is used to help get rid of them.\|\| - The Trials of Apollo features a type of ghoul called eurynomoi. They are humanoid monsters with bluish-black skin, milky-white eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and wear loincloths made from vulture feathers. Extremely ravenous, they eat corpses and every corpse they strip down to the bones rises again as an elite skeleton warrior (Hades apparently keeps these skeleton warriors as his palace guards). The claws of a eurynomoi are particularly dangerous because a single scratch can infect victims with a withering disease that, if it kills them, will raise them up as a vrykolakas (more commonly called a zombie). The big bad of book 4 used dozens of eurynomoi as ghoulish sheep dogs to heard his army of the dead. - Discworld has a species of ghouls. They are an intelligent and civilized humanoid race most known for their incredibly refined sense of taste (as in food, not aesthetics). At one point, Carrot was considering getting a ghoul for the Watch forensics department, as long as they promised not to take anything home and eat it. There is a Mrs Drull who is a member of the Fresh Start Club, although she is a cameo character who is barely referenced. Apparently these days she doesn't do the "other stuff" and makes a living catering for childrens' parties. - Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.: Lovecraftian-inspired ghouls are common in the post-Big Uneasy world, although less so than zombies, vampires or werewolves. A trio of ghouls work for the medical examiner, and Dan's building manager and the cook at his usual diner are of this Unnatural type. Although they do crave human flesh, ghouls which have appeared in the series are usually (barring the odd "misplaced" medical specimen) content with human-flavored chicken products marketed for monsters. - The Dresden Files: Ghouls are humanoid creatures that, in their natural form, look like someone mixed a baboon with a hyena. They have minor shapeshifting powers, just enough to pass very effectively as human (as in, even a Wizard won't know until they change back). They eat meat, a LOT of meat, roughly 40 or 50 pounds a day, and it's almost invariably human. And they never feel sated, not truly. They also have a Healing Factor, but can be killed by sufficiently bad injuries, though it takes a lot of punishment - we see ghouls survive being blasted in half, and having an entire side of their body seared into nothingness. They're also intelligent, often serve as mercenaries and thugs, they tend to be pretty cowardly, and Harry Dresden really, really hates them (considering what he saw one do to two teenagers, Warden trainees, this is not surprising). At least some of them are signatories of the Unseely Accords, as Harry's first encounter with one involved an Accord-mediated contest between a ghoul and a goblin. \|\|There is also some sort of primitive, supersized, armor-plated mega-ghoul running around. They can completely regenerate after being reduced to the consistency of chunky salsa, and even then, that may not be enough.\|\| - Dr. Greta Helsing: The ghouls in this series are closest to the Lovecraft type. They're a distinct race, reproducing by normal biological means, and subject to some human diseases. (Greta treats a ghoul child for an ear infection at one point, and prescribes antidepressants for a ghoul chieftain.) - Edgar Allan Poe provides us with the page quote from his poem "The Bells" — specifically its fourth stanza, "Iron Bells". He doesn't give many details about ghouls, beyond that they "dwell up in the steeple", that they "feel a glory in so rolling / On the human heart a stone", and that they have a king. Another of his poems, "Ulalume", makes reference to the "ghoul-haunted woodlands of Weir". - In The Elric Saga, ghouls drain the strength of those they touch, possibly the inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons ghouls. They are, however, summoned from another world, rather than undead. - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: Ghouls are a humanoid race that just so happen to have transparent skin, muscles, and organs, giving them the appearance of animated skeletons... oh, and they just so happen to be cannibals too. Which is because of their own twisted belief that their transparent flesh is a sign of their "enlightened" status and they owe it to the "lesser" races to enlighten them as well by transmuting their flesh through digestion. - In S.A Sidor's Fury from the Tomb, the first book of The Institute for Singular Antiquities duology, one of the recurring antagonists to the heroes are a violent gang of Mexican ghouls. These guys are a mix of Spaghetti Western and pulpy Splatter Horror, foul undead banditos that can regenerate new body parts if they get to eat (the heroes capture one of the ghouls and to keep him captive, they occasionally hack new growth off of him and watch to see he doesn't eat any beetles or earthworms). - Gil's All Fright Diner: Ghouls are green-skinned monstrosities created from normal bodies and aren't entirely solid when in darkness, making them very hard to dispatch. - Ghoul is about an ancient Middle Eastern shapeshifting demon which eats, then assumes the identity of, a notorious Muslim terrorist leader, who is then captured and interrogated by a black ops military unit. It can be summoned by carving its symbol in blood, while it haunts its victims with their past sins before killing them. - Supernatural: Ghouls are of the Arabian demon variety and take the appearance of the last person they have fed upon. Though to give an actual reason for why they have to be killed (saying that they desecrate human remains would be a bit weak when the Winchesters have to have burned a whole cemetery by this point) the ones they encounter have started eating living people. Funnily enough the second set of ghouls they encounter are also perfectly happy to eat the living. What, did a ghoul write an awesome new recipe book for fresh meat in the last few years? - Tales from the Crypt: - A sleazy reporter becomes dinner for the charitable organization known as the Grateful Homeless Outcasts and Unwanted Layaway Society while investigating the murders of the city's homeless population in the episode "Mournin' Mess". - "House of Horror" features some fraternity pledges going into a supposedly haunted house for their final test. The pledgemaster even invited some sorority girls to watch to make potential failure more humiliating. Little did the fraternity realize that they were an all-Ghoul sorority, who eat frat guys as part of their pledging. - Note also that versions of both of these stories appeared in the comic. - Svengoolie features a ghoul named Sven as a Horror Host, who introduces classic horror films with comic wisecracks, silly sketches, and corny puns. - Alice Cooper's Ghouls Gone Wild. - Ghoul, a thrash metal band, is based around this trope. - The Mechanisms: The Saxons are interpreted as tribes of degenerate ghouls that live in Annwn, the outer parts of the ancient space station of Port Galfridian, where exposure to intense radiation has turned them into wasted, bestial and cannibalistic monsters. - They Might Be Giants: "The Darlings of Lumberland" is about ghouls with "cold, dead hand[s]" and "empty hollow sockets [which] freeze the soldiers where they stand." - 13th Age: Ghouls are undead cannibals that hunger for what they used to be and can infect victims to rise as ghouls as well. - All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Beyond the typical confusion between "flesh-eating zombie" and "ghoul", actual stats for Arabic-style ghouls are provided in Atlas of the Walking Dead. - Call of Cthulhu: The portrayal of the Lovecraftian ghouls varies widely, mirroring the source material. Sometimes they are savage corpse eaters with no redeeming virtues, and other times they are intelligent and even show human emotions and attitudes. The Dreamlands supplement introduced ghasts. - The Dark Eye: Ghouls are technically living creatures, but resemble undead in most regards. They're gaunt, long-armed, hairless humanoids ruled by a constant hunger for rotten flesh, and are usually found around graveyards, battlefields, and other areas where corpses are abundant. The sun burns and kills them, and they're consequently nocturnal creatures who spend the day hiding underground. They do not breed naturally, and instead turn intelligent humanoids into ghouls by means of their infectious bites. When they gather in large groups, they also tend to mutate to serve specific roles — common, undifferentiated feeders, quick and agile but fragile scouts who find prey for the pack, strong but slow gatherers of body parts, bloated regurgitators who swallow huge quantities of meat and regurgitate them for the rest to eat, blind diggers with large claws who maintain tunnel systems for the rest to hide in during the day, rare morokun capable of casting spells, and bloated, immobile and telepathic ghoul kings who rule over the rest. - DarkMatter (1999): After a few generations, humans who engage in cannibalism degenerate into Ghouls. Ghouls have unnaturally sharp fingernails and stink of blood and decay, forced to small pockets on the edge of society and slaking their hunger from morgues or the occasional isolated person. - Dragon Dice: Ghouls are a basic undead troop type. They are moderately capable in both casting magic and melee combat. - Dungeons & Dragons has quite a few examples. - Most editions of D&D have ghouls who are feral, scavenging undead who are not disinclined to picking on fresh meat if it looks like it'll be good pickings. Their attacks are both poisonous (generally a paralyzing agent to subdue living prey in a hurry) and prone to spreading disease. Unusually for the usual flesh-eating undead concept, ghouls are fully sapient and can even speak, which makes them capable of planning out ambushes. A ghast is a tougher, more martially inclined ghoul with a few extra tricks, but is largely the same concept. - The CD&D rules omitted ghasts, but added elder ghouls (strong ghouls surrounded by a vitality-draining unholy light) and agarats (hyperkinetic ghouls that drain life energy with their screams) to the roster. - Some sources, including the 2nd ed Al-Qadim, feature ghouls (or ghuls) based on the ghoul of Arabic myth. It's an undead genie with powerful magic and shapeshifting abilities. - The Fiend Folio for third edition also features the maurezhi, a race of demons that eats the corpse as well as the soul of its victims, which makes it stronger and allows it to take the deceased person's form. Along with it is the abyssal ghoul, first introduced in City of the Spider Queen, which is like the undead ghoul, but with demonic powers. - d20 Modern brings it all full circle, in that its zombies are simply the traditional Voodoo type, but its ghouls are straight out of Romero's playbook. - Dungeon Magazine adventure City of Ghouls introduces True Ghouls, intelligent and much deadlier than the original ones. So much in fact almost overrun the Underdark, proving a worthy challenge to all kinds of dangerous creatures living there. They since made few appearances in other Dungeon adventures, 4E module Kingdom of the Ghouls and even rule the Underworld in Empire of the Ghouls campaign for Kobold Press' Midgard setting. - 3rd Edition's Monster Manual II describes famine spirits, also called ravenous ghouls, a type of bloated undead possessed by a burning, all-consuming hunger that can never be sated. Famine spirits consume everything they come across, even being able to unhinge their jaws to swallow large items or victims whole, and will only abstain from devouring undead flesh. As a result, they often gain followings of ghouls and ghasts eager to join in their feasts. - Arthaus's 3rd-party Ravenloft 3.5e supplement, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, broadened D&D's "ghoul" category to include a variety of "Hungry Dead". Its signature example was a grossly-fat undead who would crash dinner parties and frantically gobble down any sort of food, only attacking the living guests if there was nothing else edible within reach. - Exalted: - Han-Tha, the Ghoul King, is a god of cannibalism, necrophagy and scavengers who takes the form of a great eyeless beast with a giant maw filled with sharp fangs. His worship is forbidden, and is only found among depraved cults and degenerate primitives lurking in ruined cities. - The Ghost-Blooded, the half-dead and half-alive children of ghosts and living mortals, are sometimes referred to as ghouls. - The ghul, also known as deiphages, are gods driven insane by the loss of their domains and starved by the loss of Quintessence from mortal prayer. They lurk in the slums and sewers of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan, ambushing other deities and devouring them for their Essence. - Gods of the Fall: After the Delirium descended on the city of Athsayor, its inhabitants were transformed into ghouls and retreated underground. They tear intruders limb from limb and consume them while still alive, while preparing for something they refer to as the Great Dying. - GURPS: Ghouls in GURPS: Fantasy are a complete race who are indistinguishable from normal humans until they try to eat you. The only thing they can eat is human flesh; all other foods are dangerous to them. - kill puppies for satan: Ghouls are depraved people who are addicted to a supernatural charge they get out of eating corpses. They're looked down on by all the other supernatural types; note : And considering this is a game that requires the players to be a Stupid Evil Goldfish Poop Gang of Hollywood Satanists, this is really saying something the narrator describes them as "the desperate needle-sharing ass-peddling heroin addicts of our world". - Night's Black Agents: Ghouls typically act as muscle for a vampire, or as guard dogs for an underground location. They needn't be human; ghouls might be flesh-eating canines, beetles, fish or alien constructs. - Numenera: - Ghasts are degenerate humans who live in the Ghastlov, the ash-scoured wasteland in the heart of Vralk. They wear no clothing, use bone weapons and make no shelters, instead burrowing beneath the ground by day, and will eat anything they can catch — and are cannibals to boot, eating both human travelers and their own young, elders and feeble ones to survive in the waste they call home. - Syzygy ghouls are abhumans who feed upon the dead, and spend almost as much time beneath the ground as corpses. Their bodies are hairless and so porcelain-smooth that their faces are sometimes mistaken for emotionless masks. Syzygy ghouls come to the surface at night to gather humanoid remains or steal those recently interred from their graves, and are said to know what any of their past meals knew. They are later revealed to hail from Dhizrend, a dimension filled only with corpses, and to be ruled by an elite that does not feed on corpses and instead dines on living human captives. - Pathfinder: - Ghouls follow D&D's example and also take inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos, giving them an underground kingdom and a hatred of the more powerful ghasts, even bringing in the minor Mythos race, the gugs, as their natural enemies — the gugs, despite being much bigger and much more powerful than ghouls, are terrified of them and will always attempt to flee when they meet one. They usually worship the demon lord Kabriri, said to have been the first ghoul to ever exist and the eventual progenitor of every modern ghoul. - Ghouls have a complex relationship with elves. Elves are immune to their paralyzing touch, although not to the fever that turns the living into ghouls — the fact that Kabriri was an elf in life is speculated to be the reason for this. Elven parents affected by ghoul fever may give birth to angheuvores, half-undead beings afflicted by a ghoul's ravenous hunger for flesh. - There are also "ghuls", a separate monster formed from the undead husks of a genie, more closely modeled on the Arabic lore. - Leng ghouls were introduced later, are more powerful than even ghasts and were specifically created to be the Old One-worshipping, dog-headed, peculiarly civilized Lovecraftian ghouls. They do not worship Kabriri like other ghouls do, and consider themselves to be part of a distinct undead lineage that predates Kabriri's by a long stretch. - RuneQuest: Ghouls are half-dead creatures that maintain their status by eating the dead. They are formed when malign spirits possess a corpse. The corpse is thereby transfigured and animated, becoming a parody of life that will alsways look as if it has stepped from a week-old grave. - Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos features the Lovecraftian Ghoul as a playable race, inspired by the lore surrounding ghouls from H. P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. - Shadowrun ghouls are metahumans who contracted a virus that 1) blinded them, 2) deformed them (they lack body hair, and have claws and shark-like teeth), 3) shunted them halfway into the astral plane and 4) made metahuman flesh a dietary requirement. Often ends up making the poor character either a monster, evil or (if they are lucky) a tougher shadowrunner. The dietary requirements are a particular issue for them — they need to eat human, elf, dwarf, ork or troll flesh, quite a bit of it, and can't live off of anything else. While individual ghouls can scrape by off of corpses and casualties in shadowruns and firefights, any large concentration inevitably has to resort to things like the black market organ trade, purchasing condemned prisoners from nearby governments and worse. One of the things that the great dragon Dunkelzahn left in his will was an enormous reward for anyone who successfully was able to develop or discover a subsitute food source for ghouls. - Small World: Ghouls are one of the playable races. Their racial power is the ability to keep all their pieces in play and continue expanding their territory when they go into decline, unlike other races. - The Strange: - Ghouls in Halloween are goblins who have developed a taste for the flesh of their fellows. Hungry for flesh (even rotting flesh), they dig up about one in ten fresh graves in the Graveyard. - In Wuxia City, a ghoul is a person who sought the sacrament of the Darkness and willingly became a supernatural entity of endless hunger. Ghouls can see in the dark, are immortal unless killed, and derive pleasure from gnawing on human flesh. - Talislanta: Necrophages are humanoids from the Underworld that feed on the remains of the dead. Ghasts hail from the nether realms, and tend to haunt ancient graveyards, tombs, and battlegrounds. - Unhallowed Metropolis: While technically undead — specifically half-lifers, a type of undead that outright dead like vampires or zombies, but who aren't quite alive, either — and deformed, the strain of The Plague they're infected with leaves them with some of their humanity. Those who can curb their violent impulses are more or less tolerated — meaning they're treated as an inferior minority to be exploited at leisure as long as they don't get uppity. - Urban Jungle: The "Occult Horror" supplement has Lovecraft-like ghouls, they're described as mostly harmless if not directly threatened, after all their enemies will die and become food eventually. - Vampire: The Masquerade and its successor Vampire: The Requiem: - Ghouls are the mortal servants of vampires. Regularly consuming a little bit of the blood of their vampire masters grants them a few supernatural powers, but it also makes them slaves to the vampire's will and particularly prone to mental illness and other gruesome drawbacks. There're even entire ghoul families (which Masquerade calls revenants), who are particularly unwholesome sorts even by ghoul standards. - There's also a bloodline of special black magic vampires in Masquerade, the Nagaraja, who have to eat human flesh in addition to drinking blood. Though not referred to as ghouls, between the magic and the cannibalism they much more closely resemble the ghouls of middle eastern myth. - Additionally there's the szlachta, a type of ghoul created by the Uberwaldic Tzimisce clan using their Body Horror magic they call "fleshcrafting". While their combat prowess is increased, they're also hideously deformed with some of them not even being humanoid anymore by the end of it. - The Wicked Dead sourcebook for Requiem also features the mythic variety of ghul, which feed on corpses (some of which they make themselves) and have the ability to take on the form of their meals. It's disgusting, but they do get quite a few neat powers, and if you really want to live forever, being a ghul is probably a better [sic] option than vampirism. - Warhammer: - Ghouls are the degenerate descendants of humans who were driven to cannibalism, typically during times of war or famine, and often hide in places such as catacombs and crypts. Though not supernatural creatures themselves, they have an innate connection to dark magic that allows vampires to easily dominate them as living minions. - The Strigoi vampire bloodline, often dubbed "Ghoul Kings", are twisted, hunched vampiric scavengers who skulk around graveyards feasting on the blood and flesh of the recently dead and prefer graveyards as their favored haunts. It's common for the Strigoi to form a closer bond with the ghouls than other vampires do, and they often lead large packs and colonies of the cannibalistic beings. - Crypt horrors are gigantic, heavily mutated ghouls that have been fed vampire blood, which functions as a Psycho Serum. Effectively living weapons, crypt horrors are used as shock troops against foes whose magic could otherwise repel true undead, such as the undead-abhorring Cult of Morr. The creation of crypt horrors is frowned upon by most vampires as a bastardization of the Blood Kiss, and so only the most desperate or degenerate of vampires are willing to utilize them. - Mournghouls are horrific beings created when people driven mad by cold and hunger in the far north of the world turn to cannibalism to survive, only to later succumb to the elements and rise as monstrous undead creatures driven by an endless, insatiable hunger that they can never relieve. Notably, this makes them very similar to the mythical Wendigo. - Warhammer 40,000: - Ur-Ghuls are a type of aliens resembling pale, hunched humanoids with large heads and four sensory pits instead of eyes. They're often used by Dark Eldar Archons as bodyguards and enforcers. - Dark Heresy: Hullghasts are feral, bestial humanoids descended from human crews who became stranded on wrecked space vessels, ruined stations, or often enough on remote, rarely-visited decks of the Imperium's immense and centuries-old ships. They're hairless, all but eyeless, and have mouths lined with fangs, and eagerly prey on humans who stray into their realms. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar promotes Warhammer's ghouls to a full faction in the form of the Flesh-Eater Courts, and manages to make its predecessor's already creepy ghouls even creepier. They're not just degenerate humans now, they're also all extraordinarily insane, with a shared, contagious delusion that they are all part of a glorious kingdom of benevolent kings, chivalrous knights, and stalwart men-at-arms fighting terrifying monsters, instead of gibbering club-wielding cannibals slaughtering and devouring monsters, enemy warriors, and civilians alike. - The Flesh-Eater Courts, much like their Warhammer Fantasy predecessors, are ruled by vampiric Ghoul Kings, degenerate vampires who have become little more than bestial, ravening predators, but whose clouded minds still think themselves the noble kings and crusaders they once were. They're responsible for infecting cannibals with the infectious madness of the Courts, and for transforming them into ever more monstrous forms by feeding them their blood in reward for valiant deeds. - The ghouls of the Flesh-Eater Courts come in a much greater variety of types than simply the crypt ghouls and crypt horrors carried over from the original game. Variants include crypt ghasts, powerful creatures who were once heroes and wizards and now lead their lesser kin; crypt haunters, beasts elevated from crypt horrors by the blood of their kings and who see themselves as noble commanders leading scores of knights to battle; and crypt flayers, whose arms grow into batlike wings on drinking their king's blood and who can further transform into crypt infernals. - The Haunted Mansion: The words "ghoul" and "ghoulish" are often used as part of the plethora of synonyms of "ghost" used by the ghosts to describe themselves (which also notably includes "creepy creeps"), implying that "ghoul" is just another name for "The Undead" in general in the Mansionverse. - Alpen Ghoul revolves around your unarmed player character in the wilderness while being stalked by the titular ghoul. Who will keep hunting you down once you're in sight. - Battle Brothers: Nachzehrer are a type of ghoulish creature that likes to eat corpses. They'll often do this when battling your company, eating either their own dead or yours and growing bigger and bigger and more powerful as they do so. At their biggest size they can swallow one of your men whole, and if you fail to kill the creature your comrade will die in its stomach. - Battle for Wesnoth has ghouls of the zombie/mutant variety. Distinct from "Walking Corpses", ghouls are larger, eat their dead opponents instead of zombifying them, and have poisonous claws. Depending on the campaign, they can be created either by cursing live humans or reanimating recently dead. - Boktai: Ghouls, also known as Boks, are fairly close to the traditional zombie. Only they squeak when they see you. - Castlevania ghouls are typically just Palette Swaps of zombies. The exception to this is the portrayal of ghouls in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which are a cannibalistic, underground-dwelling evolutionary offshoots of normal humans, though very much alive, they still share the undead's weakness to holy water. - City of Heroes has Mutant Ghouls in the alternate dimension of Praetoria. They were created by Praetor Berry, who was trying to create a new variety of super-soldier to replace the legions of conscripted superhumans through the use of a genetic serum. However, the serum turns people into super-tough brutes instead, and they look like deformed monsters because the serum causes their altered endocrine systems to accelerate the build-up of stress damage. Because Berry is still curious about how the failures could be used, but the Praetorian leader, Emperor Cole doesn't want the monsters mucking up his perfect world, Praetor Berry dumps the Ghouls into the gigantic network of sewers and maintenance tunnels under the city, with the added benefit of the Ghouls constantly attacking and eating the Resistance group that occupies those same tunnels. - Averted in Daemon Summoner; the ghoul enemies are more akin to generic zombies (at one point you enter a graveyard where dozens of them pushes their coffins open to swarm you), are the first enemies encountered, and are rubbish mooks that dies easily despite appearing in large numbers everytime. - Darkest Dungeon: Ghouls are considerably larger than most other examples, towering over a human. They're also quite fast. They are classed as "unholy" type enemies, and are apparently former humans, but not much information is known about them beyond that. - Dark Souls: The Infested Ghouls are hollows infected by the diseases in Blighttown, they are more aggressive than the hollows at the surface and are cannibalistic. - Dead Space 3: Feeder necromorphs may count, being painfully thin and constantly hungry necromorphs who arose from starving people who ate necromorph meat. - Die2Nite: People who have feasted on a human corpse to become half zombies. They suffer from decaying flesh and must feed on human meat to survive, but are immune to infections and retain all higher brain functions. - Dominions: Ghouls are a Late Age capitol-only unit for Ulm, cursed when they ate their companions during a siege. Their halberds destroy enemy sacred units and they cause instant fear by being seen. - You can create a Ghoul in Doodle God by combining a Corpse and a Zombie (i.e. a zombie that eats corpses), or combining a Corpse and a Necromancer, which creates a Ghoul as well as a Zombie. If you combine a Ghoul with a Priest or a Paladin, the Ghoul will be split into a Corpse and a Ghost. - Doom: In "The Ghoul's Forest" series of Game Mods (and its multiplayer sequel, Ghouls vs. Humans) most ghouls are huge floating skeletal heads which fly around incredibly fast and eat people. Except for the Creeper, who's just a Humanoid Abomination. - Dragon Age: - Ghouls are people who have succumbed to the Darkspawn Taint. The Taint gradually eats away at their mind, body, and soul and allows them to hear the Song of the Old Gods. Most Ghouls spend the remainder of their twisted lives — which aren't very long thanks to the Taint — in slavery to the Darkspawn as manual labor and possibly food. - Some fans have described the Grey Wardens as effectively "high-functioning ghouls" since they've all drunk a mixture of darkspawn blood, Archdemon blood, and lyrium that gives them some minor darkspawn powers including the ability to detect the presence of tainted beings (though they can be detected in turn), and eventually kills them, drives them insane, and/or turns them into full ghouls or darkspawn themselves. - Animals can become ghouls as well; they tend to end up which much more extreme physical deformities then humanoid ghouls along with the usual insanity. Specific examples include Bereskaran and Blight Wolves. - Drakensang: Ghouls are living beings who behave like the ravenous undead version in most respects, being flesh-eating, crypt-dwelling primitives who feed on corpses and possess infectious bites as a result of their diet. - In Dungeon Crawl, they are one of the many playable races, as well as an occasionally encountered monster. As a race, they get all sorts of wonderful immunities and abilities, but they gain experience slowly, and they need to constantly eat meat, preferably rotten. - Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War: Ghouls are animated human corpses. They carry daggers and often have an elemental affinity. Notably, they also occasionally spawn spirit monsters when destroyed. - Dungeons: Ghouls are an advanced version of zombies, being larger, having a Primal Stance and paler skin, tusks and the ability to bullrush enemies. They feed on corpses. - Fallout: Ghouls are "necrotic post-humans" who have been horribly scarred and burned by radiation, so that they resemble walking corpses. On the upside, they are not only Radiation-Immune Mutants, they seem to be sustained by it in some way, so that some ghoul characters in the games can remember the bombs going off 200 years ago. Many ghouls are fully sapient and no better or worse than anyone else in post-apocalyptic America, but so-called "feral ghouls" have lost all sense of self and attack any non-ghoul on sight, acting like typical Hollywood zombies. It's suspected that prolonged radiation exposure accelerates a ghoul's mental degradation, hence why most ghouls found at the bottom of old irradiated bunkers are feral. Non-feral ghouls face discrimination both due to their looks and from the suspicion that they may one day turn feral. Ghoul variants include Glowing Ones, usually-feral creatures which are so irradiated that they glow and can heal or revive their lesser ghoul brethren, and Reavers, which have learned to make Improvised Armor and hurl chunks of radioactive gore with fearsome accuracy. - Raul in Fallout: New Vegas shows that being able to live forever isn't exactly a good thing; his hands and knees have arthritis, his eyes are covered in cataracts, and the loss of his friends and loved ones over the centuries has taken a toll on him. Whether or not this is all in his head is up for the player to decide in his companion quest. - The Fallout: New Vegas — Lonesome Road DLC introduces a unique ghoul variant in the Marked Men, NCR and Legion soldiers who were fighting in the Divide when its buried nukes went off. They were ghoulified by the detonation, flayed by the howling sandstorms, but kept alive by the radiation. Now they fight together, killing and butchering anyone foolish enough to intrude upon the Divide. - Hancock from Fallout 4 became a ghoul through use of an experimental drug he found while on one of his "wild tears" following his departure from Diamond City after his brother, Mayor McDonough, took over and had all the ghouls of the city thrown out. He became the mayor of the town of Goodneighbor after staging a coup against its previous ruler, a nasty piece of work named Vic. - Final Fantasy's Ghouls were the first really nasty undead you encountered in the game, who, like the ghouls of Dungeons & Dragons, had the ability to paralyze you. White Mages with the Harm spell were an absolute must for dealing with them, especially in groups, because if they managed to paralyze your entire party, you could only pray for the paralysis to wear off so you could get the hell away before they killed everyone. God help you if they manage to ambush you... - Guild Wars: Ghouls are semi-bestial undead melee-fighters of the Orrian undead horde. Resembling Warcraft ghouls, they are poisonous and have the annoying habit of spawning by burrowing up out of the ground right underneath you. - Heroes of Might and Magic: - Ghouls in Might and Magic: Heroes VI are the undead type, used as foot-soldiers or slaves by the Necropolis faction. Because becoming a ghoul robs an individual of their free will and sentience, and bars them from the reincarnation cycle that governs the world of Ashan, Necromancers usually create ghouls by transforming their enemies or condemned criminals, as a Fate Worse than Death-style punishment. - The ghoul was later retooled in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic as extremely fast and powerful servants of the necromancer Arantir. These ghouls could climb walls and were near-animalistic in nature. - Knights of the Old Republic: Rakghouls belong to the "mutant ghoul" subtype, being living creatures — intelligent humanoids, as a rule — transformed by the powers of the Muur Talisman into mindless, vicious monsters with no eyes, pronounced muzzles, hoof-like claws and a ravenous appetite for human flesh. They were first created by the Sith Lord Karness Muur as a way to quickly create ferocious, deadly and easily controlled troops, and popped up to plague the galaxy numerous times in the following millennia. - Magicka: Ghouls are Gollum-esque creatures that crawl around on all fours. There are also Lantern Ghouls who can set you on fire with their lanterns and explode upon death. They're also not technically undead, since they take damage from Arcane and are healed by Life like normal enemies. - In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Mordor seems to suffer from a country-wide Ghûl infestation. They are a pestilent species of nocturnal, small, hairless bipedal things with glowing yellow eyes, long, dog-like skulls, and sharp teeth and claws. While weak individually, Ghûls come in large swarms to overwhelm foes, some spitting poison on their unfortunate prey. It's implied in the Appendices that the Ghûls are growing in number due to the dramatic increase in unburied corpses littering Mordor in the wake of Sauron's return and the spread of the Uruk-hai. - Myth: Ghouls are apelike living creatures who resemble H.P Lovecraft Ghouls. They also take on some of the traditional aspects of Orcs, being tribal mountain dwellers who are the ancient enemies of the Dwarves. - Nexus War: Ghouls are a type of minion animated by the Lich class. They are stronger and more vicious than normal zombies, and gain health from successful attacks. - Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi: Ghouls are ugly cowled humanoid creatures who only appear in a few areas. They have less health than regular mooks, but have longer range and deal more damage. The Encyclopedia describes them as being related to Vampires, but weaker and dumber, and they eat flesh instead of drinking blood. - Pillars of Eternity has two variants, darguls and guls. Both are fampyrs become due to a lack of consumed soul essence. Guls are more savage and animalistic, but darguls are more dangerous because they're aware of their own decay. One particularly upsetting sidequest in the first game entails rescuing a young girl from her dargul family members, who are aware enough to beg her to open the door, but decayed enough to want to eat her. - Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced Gimmighoul, a small Ghost-type Pokémon which hides in a treasure chest filled with coins, and can mind-control others to gather coins for it. Unlike most depictions of ghouls, Gimmighoul does not eat people, but instead has similarities with the ghoul's lesser-known traits of luring people astray and stealing coins. Prior to being revealed in Scarlet and Violet, Gimmighoul first appeared in Pokémon GO, running around without a chest in its so-called "Roaming Form". - Quest for Glory II: Ghouls only come out at night and can sap the hero's SP with melee attacks. In the AGD Fan Remake, they can cast spells, and their melee attacks also give them more MP if they connect, making them closer to liches. - The Secret World features ghouls inspired primarily by the Lovecraftian variant, a race of bat-faced near-humanoids with hunched builds, leathery skin and bad hygiene note : to put things in perspective, ghouls make nests out of a highly-toxic mixture of rusted metal debris and their own shit; ravenous carrion-eaters by nature, they can often be found congregating around battlefields, graveyards, rubbish dumps, and powerful magical sites in search of ripening corpses. Though seemingly crude and bestial, lore reveals that ghouls are actually borderline immortal, and those that survive the brutal years of early adulthood eventually grow more intelligent and more powerful: ghoul elders are among the most devious and potent of all their kind, capable of commanding armies into battle, wielding magic and even shapeshifting. How the ghouls came to be is still uncertain: the Dragon suggest that they are the degenerate remains of a highly-advanced civilization, subsisting on rotten meat in a desperate ritualized attempt to reclaim their former glory; on the other hand, the Jinn claim to have created them as a Servant Race in order to clean up the bodies generated by their ongoing feud with humanity. - Shadowrun Returns Hong Kong: Gaichu is a sufferer of the HMHVV III virus, which has robbed him of his eyesight, ability to digest anything other than hominid flesh, and standing as a Red Samurai. However, he was one of the lucky ones, since he was aware of what happened to him and had the focus to get through it with his psyche relatively intact. When you meet him, Gaichu is a Cultured Badass who cuts up mooks by the dozen in spite of being blind, debates philosophy and poetry and makes delicious human ''sashimi''. - Terraria: Ghouls appear in Hardmode underground deserts (a homage to their origins in Arabic myths), with variants for Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow. They have a large mouth and long pointy ears, and they drop the Ancient Cloth when killed, which is used to craft the Ancient vanity set. - Total Annihilation: Kingdoms: Taros' Dark Priest unit can resurrect corpses as ghouls, which will obey you to some extent but also have a tendency to wander randomly. - Total War: Warhammer: Crypt ghouls are a unit in the Vampire Counts roster; unlike the rest of the vampires' undead minions, they're technically living humans who have turned into degenerate, hunched and light-shunning beasts after generations spent living underground and eating the dead. They'll still crumble like undead units instead of routing like living units, however. There are also the crypt horrors, Elite Mooks resembling gigantic, deformed ghouls with complex, bony growths and spikes erupting from their spines. - In Tsukihime, Ghouls are the first stage of a Dead Apostle's unlife, created when a vampire (either a Dead Apostle or a True Ancestor) injects their own blood into a victim while sucking their blood, and said victim possessing both the physical and spiritual fortitude to avoid becoming one of the mindless "living dead" (a zombie, for all intents and purposes). The resulting creature will rise from the grave after a few years as a walking corpse with the mental capacity of a wild animal, and must feed on other corpses to gradually regenerate its decaying flesh, which eventually will end with them becoming a full-fledged vampire. - Ultima Underworld has ghouls that are technically still alive, but they've turned into the standard flesh-eating-monster (and even look the part) as a result of cannibalism. Which makes them somewhat more like Morlocks or Wendigo, but everything else fits the "undead ghoul" description. - Warcraft: Ghouls are a basic type of undead. - They are the basic footsoldiers of the Scourge in Warcraft III (who double as lumberjacks and eat corpses to replenish health) while the basic zombie is a very weak unit unavailable by normal means. In World of Warcraft, they are slightly less common but still one of the most encountered types of undead along with Skeletons and classic zombies. In the second expansion, they were promoted to Deathknight pets with a few distinctive abilities, while their old role as worker/melee seems to have been taken over by Geists (one-eyed, crawling zombies). - It's mentioned in the background that Ghouls are Zombies that have "ascended" (descended?) into "true" undeath. Their bodies have mutated to make them more efficient killers and instead of being lumbering and mindless like Zombies they are aggressive and possess bestial cunning. - Of course, based on the classic definitions of the word, Forsaken characters qualify as ghouls, being undead that can eat corpses to heal. Unlike the ghouls of the series, the forsaken are free-willed, intelligent and can even be civilized, if resentful towards living beings. Making alliance with them means having a Token Evil Teammate. - War for the Overworld: Once you have a Crypt, your Necromancers can raise Ghouls from the fallen's corpses. These work as easily replacable Cannon Fodder that rush straight into combat. - In Warframe Councilor Vay Hek creates a type of Grineer clone called a Ghoul. Every corner is cut in their development in favor of gestation speed. They are grown in the ground in the Plains of Eidolon, and rise from the ground to kill any unsuspecting victim. - The Witcher has quite Lovecraftian ghouls, albeit without culture or language. According to the novel they originate from the "Conjunction of the Spheres" that brought magic into the world, making them an existence outside the natural order, though what exactly this means is unknown beyond the implication that the Witchers could theoretically hunt them to extinction with no adverse effects to the native ecology. - Persian Wars has three factions: Beduins, Amazons and Ghouls. Ghouls are somewhat antropomorphic hyenas who like to throw feasts where human flesh is consumed\|\|, if human guests are present they are expected to become humanitarian (a rejection on consuming human flesh during a feast can make the Ghouls utmost offended)\|\|. They are also very fond to tunnels, graveyard-resembling cities and purple lotuses. - Eldritch (2009): Vampires who don't drink enough blood degenerate into ghouls, eternally decaying immortals that instinctively seek out blood. - In The Fan, a group of characters fight a ghoul in a side story. A later filler strip provides more information of ghouls in the comic's world. - In El Joven Lovecraft, a Spanish webcomic, Glenn the Ghoul is the hero's pet. He looks mostly like a jackal. - Lovely Lovecraft: Pickman is the only ghoul seen up close thus far, but judging by his appearance, ghouls in this webcomic are largely consistent with their portrayal in Lovecraft's original works: greenish or grayish clawed humanoids with dwellings in the Dreamlands. The main differences from Lovecraft's original ghouls are their faces (more humanoid and less doglike than Lovecraft describes) and their habit of wearing loincloths instead of going naked. - Sluggy Freelance: In the "Aylee" storyline, another dimension is overrun by creatures called ghouls, which are basically humans, but with claws, fangs, much lower intelligence, and a tendency to speak entirely in hisses. Oh, and they feed on human flesh, of course. It's unknown at first where they came from, and some initial suggestions are that they're some form of undead, or people mutated by a virus or something. Turns out \|\|they're actually alien/human hybrids, who are the other-dimensional version of Aylee's species\|\|. - Zebra Girl: One of the monster residents of Miscellaneous is Walter, a ghoul Zandra allows to raid the graveyard for food. \|\|He remains loyal to her after Bloofer's coup and uses his tunnels to pass messages and help her friends escape a vampire ambush.\|\| - Less is Morgue: Ghouls like Riley are born, not made, and they're a blend of Lovecraftian and Mythological. They can shapeshift and imitate people's voices, but they're very much mortal. - Rogues: Ghouls are created by vampires considered disgusting and more trouble than they are worth by Isabella — understandably so. They have an obsessive loyalty to their creator, but smell terrible, have disgusting eating habits, and are not the brightest creatures around. - SCP Foundation: SCP-6387 (A Ghoulish Tale) was a tall, translucent-skinned Monstrous Humanoid with hooves and huge clawed hands. It was shot and killed when a graveyard groundskeeper found it frantically digging up a fresh burial plot. \|\|It was later discovered the woman in the plot was Buried Alive.\|\| - In Tales of MU, ghouls are vicious undead predators who arise "when a waterlogged corpse is exposed to the light of the new moon", but unlike skeletons or zombies they can breed and form colonies. Other than that they fit the model of zombie ghouls. - In The Amazing World of Gumball, the word "ghoul" seems to refer to archtypical Halloween monsters, such as slasher villains and monster clowns. - Love, Death & Robots: The creatures referred to as ghouls in "The Secret War" are borderline demonic entities that were summoned in a disastrous attempt to bolster the Red Army's forces. The actual creatures are however fully fleshy and killable beings, and resemble eyeless, hairless and roughly humanoid creatures with elongated arms, quadrupedal gaits and long muzzles filled with fangs. They're highly aggressive carnivores, move in large swarms and live in immense warrens underground. - Slugterra: Ghoul slugs are pure evil (being corrupted by Dr. Blakk), and more powerful versions of their original species. Their vicious appearance inspires Eli to coin the name after seeing one for the first time. - Wakfu: The ghouls are of the "vampiric kind" (in fact, their first creator was a guy named Vampyro): they're created when Shadofang's ring absorbs their shadow, becoming things, black-skinned humanoids with a skull for a head that only do their master's bidding. - The star Algol ("Ghoul's Head") in the Perseus constellation. Bonus points as science has shown it to be two note : Three including a star much farther away stars orbiting so close that the smaller one has drained matter from the formerly more massive becoming the most massive one of the system.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGhoulsAreCreepier
Our Giants Are Bigger - TV Tropes The guys on the right aren't regular-sized humans; the tiny speck on the bottom is. "A giant's the worst! A giant has a brain. Hard to outwit a giant. A giant's just like us, only bigger. Much, MUCH bigger! SOOO big that we are just an expendable... bug beneath its feet." BOOM. Crunnch. Legendary creatures that resemble human beings, but super-sized and often incredibly strong. Giants have been around since the times of ancient mythology, and are still around as one of the Standard Fantasy Races. These creatures may range in size from around 7 feet (the average size of the tallest Real Life humans), to truly colossal proportions. In various mythologies, including Classical, Norse and Celtic myth, alongside Biblical scripture, gigantic peoples often feature as primeval creatures associated with chaos and the wild, and frequently in conflict with the gods. They also tend to appear as apocalyptic beings, who will arise at the end of days to bring about the world's downfall. Less ominously, giants often feature in legend and folklore as hugely powerful and dangerous but often dim-witted beings whom wily heroes have to trick and outwit. Their prodigious strength is also a commonly emphasized trait, and it wasn't uncommon for cultures to describe the imposing ruins of older civilizations as having been built by bygone giants — surely no one else would have been strong enough and large enough to shift such huge blocks of stone in place? The stereotypical giant is a big, dumb brute who grinds people's bones to make his bread and may serve as the Dumb Muscle for a more intelligent Evil Overlord. However, literal Gentle Giants are also featured in both legends and modern stories, and some giants, both good and evil, may be smarter than they are initially perceived. In Real Life, the profusion of Giants in mythology is usually attributed to memories of childhood (when adults tower over you), to the rivalry between young men and old men, and to medical conditions like gigantism that cause unusually tall stature. It may also be partially related to people finding the bones of massive animals (especially elephants or extinct animals like sauropod dinosaurs and giant ground sloths) and mistaking them for the bones of giant humanoids. Giants don't usually have a lot variation besides their actual size, which can go from just unusual but theoretically achievable statures to absurdly exaggerated heights. However, works taking inspiration from Norse sources may include distinct fire and frost giants of varying levels of elemental affinity. Other types include the one-eyed, monstrous cyclopes and the two-headed ettin; occasionally, trolls and ogres are also linked to giants in some manner. This is Older Than Feudalism. Not to be confused with The Giant, who may be a big wrestler, but isn't nearly that big. See also Smash Mook, Giant Mook, Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever, Giant Woman (where the giant is specifically a giantess), Our Titans Are Different, and Kaiju. Really huge giants, in any real-world context, would fall victim to the Square-Cube Law in short order, but the vast majority of such beings tend to exist in fantasy universes that cheerfully disregard such things as the laws of physics in favor of creating a good story. ## Examples: - Attack on Titan: The Titans are giants of varying size. Some are small at around 3-5 meters, most are around 7 meters, the usual biggest are around 15 meters. Then we have the Colossal Titan at about 60 meters. Also nearly all Titans are horrible monsters, they are VERY fast, and a few people, \|\|like Eren, can transform into Titans.\|\| There is also the Beast Titan which is 18 meters tall and is highly intelligent and courteous. - Then you have the millions of \|\|60-meter tall Colossal Titans that live in the Walls, waiting to be called upon so that they can flatten everything in their path and destroy the Earth...\|\| - Eventually, \|\|the characters encounter a Titan so large, it is more than twice as tall as the sixty-metre Colossal Titan even when it's sitting down (its limbs were disproportionately small, so it couldn't stand upright).\|\| - Then we get to \|\|Eren's final form as the Founding Titan. It's so large that the surrounding army of Colossal Titans don't even reach it's pelvis, and normal Titans can have fights on its vertebrae\|\|. Much like the previous largest Titan, it's so huge that it can't physically stand up right. So instead it \|\|WALKS ON ITS MILE LONG RIB-CAGE LIKE A GIANT CENTIPEDE\|\|. Really, it's as horrifying as it sounds. - In Bleach, Sajin Komamura's Bankai takes the form of an enormous samurai with a titanic sword for its weapon. It has an amazing appearance, but a critical weakness: it's designed to defeat the opponent in a single hit, and if such is not done, vulnerable to defeat — and any damage it takes is simultaneously inflicted on Komamura. \|\|This weakness has its advantages, though... Komamura is so closely linked to his bankai that when he heals, it heals, too. Recent chapters have shown that this is very important.\|\| - The Queen of Light from Futari wa Pretty Cure, Mugen Silhouette from HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Royale Queen from Smile Pretty Cure!. Mugen Silhouette is the strongest Pretty Cure and she's as big as our planet. - The defining trait of the Zentraedi from Macross is that they are about three to four stories tall. They were engineered that way so they would be physically tougher and better suited for battle. When they begin integrating with human society, most of them shrink themselves to a regular human size, but there are some communities that prefer to remain giants (which results in some interesting mixed-size accommodations in the later series). - Mazinger: In New Mazinger (an one-shot alternate Mazinger Z story published in The '80s), an explosion transports Kouji Kabuto to an alternate dimension inhabited by giant beings. The human beings were sixty-foot-tall and just as big as Mazinger-Z (in fact, when Kouji saved one princess, she thought Mazinger-Z was an armored knight, and she asked him to remove his helmet so she could see his face). They were mostly good-natured and intelligent, although their technology was at a Middle Ages level, and they were in war against a race of monsters. - One Piece: - Giants vary greatly in size, from Jaguar D. Saul being 19.5 meters or so tall to the likes of Oars and his descendant Oars Jr., who are about 60 meters. Apparently, there are entirely different types of giants and Saul considers it something of an insult to be considered one of the other kind. So far the ratio is 5 good giants to 1 evil giant, who also happened to be a zombie. And, apart from Oars, they do not seem particularly stupid or intelligent. - Then there are plenty of characters who are not actually giants, but are still ridiculously huge compared to other humans for no apparent reason, such as Whitebeard, Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, and Magellan. Word of God is that this is simply how height naturally varies among humans in the One Piece world, the same with how much the size of giants varies. - To simplify things, in the One Piece World, you have, from smallest to largest: normal humans as we know them that are around the 1.5- 2.5 meter height (Luffy, Zoro, Robin, Franky, and pretty much the average people seen around the world; this category is the most common), big/tall humans around the 2.5 meter to 5 meter area (Crocodile, Brook, Kuzan, Doflamingo, Katakuri, etc. ), really big humans around the 6 to 8 meter area (Gecko Moria, Pound, Bartholomew Kuma, Whitebeard, Big Mom, etc.), Non-Elbaf giants around 19.5 meters or so tall (Jaguar D. Saul), Morley, Elbaf giants around 12-23 or so meters tall (Oimo and Kashii, as seen above), big demon-like giants that are around 67 meters tall (Oars, also seen above, and Little Oars Jr., his descendant), and lastly extremely big demon-like giants who may very well be over 180 meters tall (San Juan Wolf, though it has since been revealed that his ridiculous size is because of a Devil Fruit that he ate). There are also Fishmen/merfolk that are big due to their fish-race (or sometimes in spite of it) that vary between all categories; the mermaid princess Shirahoshi is about as big as an Elbaf Giant at 17 meters, dwarfing both her giant-sized father and her human-sized mother, whereas the Fishman Wadatsumi is about as big as Oars (slightly bigger in fact at 80 meters tall). - At the beginning of the Skypiea arc, the crew run into fog-shrouded figures that seems so tall they reach up into the sky. \|\|Turns out those aren't super-giants, just the shadows of people living on a Floating Continent.\|\| - The Punk Hazard also introduced the concept of artificial giants. Dr. Vegapunk was trying to find ways to make ordinary humans grow to giant size, but failed in doing so. His Number Two, Caesar Clown, somewhat succeeded, but only because he stooped to the lows Vegapunk refused to resort to: experimenting on children. Caesar kidnapped a group of children and experimented on them; this made them huge, but drastically shortened their lifespan to the point that had they not been saved, they would have died in five years. - One ironic example is the anime-only Lily Enstomach; her true size is about 50 meters tall, but due to her Mini Mini no Mi Devil Fruit power, she can shrink to a minimum of about five centimeters tall. Because her physical strength does not change and she can shrink and enlarge any item she wears or holds (going so far as to use a dinner fork like a trident) it's a rather useful power to have. There's also her father, who is so big he cooks food with a volcano. - Charlotte Linlin, aka Big Mom, seems to be some kind of freak, since she was the size of a normal giant child when she was five-years-old, despite having normal-sized parents. As an adult, she is seemingly taller than a house, but is significantly smaller than actual giants (still around half the height of one at 8.8 meters tall). - Evil Is Bigger is in full force here, as the most powerful villains in the series are usually at least a couple of meters taller than our normal-sized main character Luffy. Kaido, one of the series' biggest villains, was designed to be "four Luffys tall". - The Numbers who serve under Kaido were the WG's attempt to produce artificial ancient giants like Oars. For some reason the WG deemed them failures. Despite this, the Numbers are indeed as big as Oars was, though they also display more animalistic traits than Oars. - In The Seven Deadly Sins, the Giant clan is capable of Dishing Out Dirt, Extra-ore-dinary, and capable of shapeshifting into metal. - Shintaro Kago's Super-Conductive Brains Parataxis features a race of colossal humanoids cloned from fossils and known as Surdlers. To be used as Humongous Mecha for civilian and military purposes, they are extensively modified — their organic brains are swapped out for computers, their faces and genitals replaced by cybernetic implants, and occasionally, additional limbs or extra torsos are grafted on to suit the tasks they are built for. \|\|It's later revealed that the clones are in fact ordinary humans and the advanced civilization enslaving them consists of Lilliputians produced by miniaturization technology.\|\| - In The Titan's Bride, the giants of Tildant look exactly like humans, only much bigger. They're a society based around the concept of prosperity: they farm, build, create art and encourage open love and, if possible, multiplying. The future ruler of Tildant, Caius Lao Vistaille, summoned Ordinary Highschool Student Koichi Mizuki into his world to become his bride, and he's very much a Gentle Giant who loves him dearly. - Giants exist in Trigun with no explanation, and offer a quite considerable variety of sizes. Most notable is the Nebraska Family, whose members range from normal, to big but not implausible, to basically Kaiju. The parents of the family are at opposite ends of the scale, implying Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action. - Magic: The Gathering: Giants are an ubiquitous creature type, often aligned with Red mana. In the main setting of Dominaria, they're just generically big, tough bruisers, though other settings go into their culture a bit more. - In Ravnica, giants are mostly soldiers for the Boros Legion, though some outcasts find a life as grunts in the Gruul Clans. - Giants in the fairy-tale world of Lorwyn are ancient and mystical, yet still can be clumsy and whimsically dim-witted. Giants sleep for years or decades at a time, dreaming deep dreams, and when they awake they take on new names and purposes in life based on what they dream. Some ride absurdly large goats with wings. - In Lorwyn's Dark World, Shadowmoor, giants sleep even longer, to the extent that trees and turf start to grow on their bodies and they become part of the landscape. They're pretty cranky when they wake up, rampaging throughout the countryside and smashing and devouring everything and everyone they come across. - The largest giant of all is by definition the Hamletback Goliath, which is large enough to have a hamlet on its back to start with (duh) and magically grows to stay bigger than everything it encounters. - Zendikar is home to two types of giant. One type, the more traditional one, lives in tribal societies in the plane's many trackless wildernesses. The second kind, the bestial hurda, is kept by other intelligent societies as enormous, somewhat humanoid pack animals. - The Greek mythology-inspired plane of Theros has giants of every color of mana, which are living manifestations of the land itself. They include varieties from Greek myth like Hundred-Handed Ones and Titans. - The Norse Mythology-inspired plane of Kaldheim has giants as the natives of Surtland, a realm of climatic extremes where everything is bigger than you'd expect it to be, which are divided into two elemental kindreds. Frost giants are solitary, contemplative beings who live in fortresses on the realm's high peaks, studying magic and hoarding secrets. Fire giants are a barbaric folk who live in larger groups in the volcanic lowlands, eagerly raid other realms when the chance presents itself and lack the scholarship of the frost giant mages, although they can control fire and lava to a degree. The two groups detest one another, and fire giant tribes often attack frost giant holdfasts. Another kind of giants once inhabited Gnottvold, the realm now claimed by the trolls, but they vanished long ago, leaving only overgrown ruins scattered in the wilderness. - Black Moon Chronicles: They grow really big here, often easily over 50 feet tall. They're also pretty much brutish savages who will happily join the Army of the Black Moon in their war against the empire. - The DCU: - Green Lantern foe Relic is a survivor of the previous universe \|\|which ended due to the Emotion Spectrum being drained away by that universe's version of the Corps the Lightsmiths\|\| who dwarfs most humanoids in the current universe. This is explained by the previous universe's life being larger in general — Relic is a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, with the "pond" being the universe. - Legion of Super-Heroes: Every version of Colossal Boy is a Sizeshifter but the 2004 version isn't normal sized human with the power to grow but a member of a race of giants who has the power to shrink (thus allowing him to, unlike the rest of his race, interact with humans on a regular basis — which he thinks of as having adventures in a world of Lilliputians). He actually prefers to be called "Micro-Lad" since it's a better fit for him from his perspective. - In The Condemned Legionnaires, Supergirl and the Legion visit a strange and faraway world called Puppet Planetoid because it is used as a playground for the children of a race of humanoid, blue-skinned giants. Whereas their puppets are as large as multi-storey buildings, the kids tower over the clouds. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman (1942): The main Silver Age writer, Robert Kanigher, who had a twenty-two year run on the comic, seemed to like stories about giants. Wondy encounters and fights an awful lot of different types of giants during this period. - Wonder Woman (1987): The White Magician creates a squad of truly enormous stone giants, all of which share the consciousness of one large stone man of unknown origin who only reaches the new giants' knees at most. These giants are temporary constructs which turn back to stone and dust when the magic tying them to their creator and mind is severed. - Gold Digger had an arc where Gina and Brianna's boyfriends were studying a tribe where exposure to mysterious energies caused a shift in size and strength that affected their women much more dramatically than the men. Generations later, while the males barely cleared eight feet, the women of the tribe were more like Zentraedi. Fortunately, their reproductive systems remained compatible with their men, but it also left them with an attraction to the pheromones given off by a frightened or nervous male. This caused problems for Brianna's Jungle Boy boyfriend Zan, who was pursued by one particularly insistent giantess until the chief pointed out that Brianna's pregnancy meant she had already claimed him. - Marvel Universe: - Ant-Man: Hank Pym can utilize Pym particles to grow to giant size, at which point he takes the name Giant Man or Goliath. At first, he was only able to go up to ten feet, but he's managed to go bigger. Modern portrayals show his normal giant size being somewhere around 25 to 30 feet. In the Ultimate-verse, his maximum height was designated at 59 feet, 11 inches; any bigger and his body would collapse under its own weight. - The Mighty Thor: Thor usually finds himself squaring off Frost Giants (the "Jotun") or sub-races like Storm Giants and Mountain Giants. Interestingly, in the older books, Giants looked like 25 feet Gonk-ish, brutish humans but nowadays are more like huge Orcs. Loki is an exception, being a runt among the Frost Giants who bears a stronger resemblance to the Asgardians than he does to his own kin. The Golden Age ice-powered hero Jack Frost was retconned into being an undersized Frost Giant as well. - The Ogre Gods: a Franco-belgian comic that essentially acts as a treatise on man-eating fairytale giants and how they might operate with the added caveat that they're dealing with declining general size due to inbreeding that's a main focus of the story. Given that Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action is thoroughly averted inbreeding the only way they can have more children unless you're the Founder. The Founder himself was a giant of mysterious origin who was only slightly larger than most humans, but the children he had with human women all grew huge, with each subsequent generation growing larger than the last until they peaked in size with the Kaiju sized God-King, after which each generation grew smaller until the birth of the protagonist Petit, likewise human-sized. Queen Emione hopes for Petit to breed with humans to produce a new generation of healthy giants and break the cycle of inbreeding causing their decline. Physically, the giants resemble outsized humans in terms of appearance and intelligence, and while the youngest generations are mostly grotesque and stupid, this is due to their status as a bunch of inbred aristocrats rather than any intrinsic quality. - Rulah, Jungle Goddess: In "Land of Giants" in #18, Rulah battles a race of giants who shoot arrows the size of spears and ride elephants as if they were ponies. - Tomahawk: In issue #40, Tomahawk and Dan Hunter encounter a tribe of 10 ft. tall Indians dwelling in an isolated valley. Tomahawk speculates that their height is the result of the strange plants in waterholes he observed in the valley. - Mandrake the Magician: One story had Mandrake help Qork, an alien giant who is so big he is the size of a country while Mandrake is the size of a micro-organism compared to him. He communicates with him using telepathy. - In Calvin and Hobbes, a series of strips has Calvin growing continually. Towering over skyscrapers as he looks for his dad, he says, "Well, maybe Dad can find ME"[1]◊. Later he becomes so big that the Earth is the size of a ball, then the size of a pebble which he trips on[2]◊—and eventually goes through a wormhole back to his previous size. - In "The Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen", the thief recounts a tale of how he faced a giant, and an Old Retainer tells how it was true, because she was the woman in it. - In "The Brown Bear of the Green Glen", John runs into three giants who want to crush him or fight him. However, all of them decide to help John when he reveals he was sent by the titular bear. - In Asbjørnsen and Moe's "The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body", the giant, besides the heart, turns people to stone and back. - "Jack and the Beanstalk" is a classic tale featuring a giant as the main antagonist. - Another Jack, "Jack the Giant Killer" who seems to have met a truly amazing number of giants throughout the British Isles. Some had multiple heads. - In The Brothers Grimm's "The Drummer", -a variant of "The Swan Maiden" folktale-, the giants inhabiting the wood surrounding the glass mountain are man-eaters, but fortunately they are not too bright. - In "Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard", they run ferries, are terrifying in appearance, and demand your hand, or your foot, or your head, as toll. - "Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun": As running away from her murderous sister, Prince Ivan runs into Vertodub the Tree-Extractor and Vertogor the Mountain-Leveller (two Russian folklore giants known in Germany as Baumdreher/Holzkrummacher and Steinzerreiber/Felsenkripperer, respectively). He asks each of them for asylum, but both giants kindly reply they cannot take care of him, sadly, because they will die as soon as their current forest-uprooting and mountain-levelling tasks are done. - In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "King Goldenlocks", the titular character is helped carry his goals out by a peaceful, kind giant whom he broke free from his imprisonment. - Codex Equus: Prominently mentioned, with the Codex going into extensive detail in explaining their various behaviors and cultures, revealing they have considerable Hidden Depths than most small races assume they have other than just being violent, domineering, over-sized brutes. - Cyclops in the Codexverse are complete opposites of what they are depicted both in-universe and in real-life, being a highly civilized race of artisans, scholars and Badass Pacifist individuals who prefer not to use violence to solve problems unlike most other Giants. They're very disappointed that the actions of their exiles had tainted outsiders' perception of them to be nothing more than pony-eating savages. - Nature Giants, among some of the biggest Giants on Equus, are an Equine race of druids attuned to nature ruled over by a theocratic matriarchal monarchy. They used to be more friendly to Tinies, but a terrible experience with Grogar and Tambelon's desecration of their domains in the First Age irrevocably ruined their relationship with Tinies outsiders and promptly lead to their continued isolationism to this day. As a result of their isolationism, they became highly self-righteous and xenophobic, seeing themselves as the rightful caretakers of nature and permanently exiling anyone who might threaten the status quo regardless of innocence. - The Grand Griffons are a demigod race of giant Griffons who are directly or indirectly descended from the gods of Griffonkind, specifically Boreas and Astra of the Northern Griffon Pantheon. Honorable and noble, they go out of their way to protect innocent Tinies and serve as allies, guides and teachers of many great heroes of the Tauren Peninsula where they are primarily based, next to Griffonnia. - Queen Colossos' Empire is a Giant civilization of nomadic warriors who conquered much of the continent of Terra Equus at its height which eventually went to war against the Crystal Empire after a disastrous First Contact. - The Gigantes of the Taurus Peninsula Giant Lands are mentioned as one of the most prominent on Equus, with a warrior culture based around honour. Their chief deity is Terraton, the god of earth, battle and honour. - The Giants of Light are this among the 'Visitors', with a culture which sees it a duty for them to battle evil monsters and threats and be benevolent defenders of Tinies and other races. Due to their small numbers, this makes evil individuals among them extremely rare. They have also sired hybrid giant demigods such as Lysets Far and Legate Anela, who would become heroes in their own right. - Equestria: Across the Multiverse: - The Ponies and Giants Arc features these. The ones the Mane Six meet are friendly, and have formed an adventuring party on a quest in the lands of "tinies". - The Mane Six later find themselves in a world with giant ponies who are partnered with tiny ponies (tiny even by the Mane Six's size) in a symbiotic relationship. - In another world, the Mane Six themselves are the giants, being big enough for Rainbow to flatten an acre of forest just by sitting down. - The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: George turns into a cloud giant straight out of AD&D to fight off the Tax Monster. - The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf sneeringly dismisses Westerosi giants as plant-eating midgets compared to those of his world (despite only coming up to Wun Wun's waist). - Star Wars: Galactic Folklore and Mythology: The planet Orto has a legendary race of bloodthirsty giants who were banished to a distant mountain by an ancient hero. The smallest of these giants, who developed amnesia after being throw off the mountain by his father, can blow away entire blizzards and storms with his breath, uses trees as toothpicks, and made the moon's craters by spitting fruit seeds at it. He later married the Lilliputian Tiny Tovya, who lives in her husband's navel and knits clothes from his lint. - Willie the Giant in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Disney's Fun and Fancy Free is the villain in this Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation. He's several stories tall, looks quite human, and lives in his castle high in the clouds. He's also a giant magician, being a consummate shapeshifter. He keeps a magical animate harp imprisoned, whom Mickey, Goofy, and Donald need to save. - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens with Puss facing off against a massive stone giant with an eyepatch and antlers. \|\|As part of the final battle, he and his friends also face off against a giant Jack Horner\|\|. - Wendell & Wild has Bufflao Belzar, a demon large enough to house his two normal-sized sons in his nose and hold an entire amusement park on his belly. - In Gods of Egypt, the gods are roughly twice as tall as a normal person, with Ra being the biggest of them all. By and large, they treat humans in contempt. - Hilariously subverted in Italian Z-grade sword-and-sandals clunker Ercole contro il gigante Golia (Hercules against Goliath). Throughout the movie, the few shots of Goliath use camera tricks to make him look enormous... But come the final battle when he dukes it out with Hercules, he's obviously just a really big guy wearing platform boots. Granted, that makes him head and shoulders taller than The Hero... but it's a far cry from the 10-meter/30-foot behemoth he was "shown" as earlier. - In Hellboy (2019), the giants are about 30-40 feet tall at a rough estimate. And they wield giant swords, axes and clubs. And they have crude metal prosthetics that make them look like medieval steampunk cyborgs. Oh, and there's three of them. At once. - MirrorMask: The giants look like bizarre statues, and they levitate above the ground, orbiting each other. They also SPEAK... VERY... SLOWLY. When one of them is pulled to Earth by shadows, it melts into the ground, and the other floats away. - In David Anthony Durhams Acacia trilogy the Auldek are between seven and eight feet tall and a race of Blood Knights whose civilization has fallen into decadence. They are also Nigh-Invulnerable and immortal due to containing multiple souls. - The Giant from The Behemoth is an Eldritch Abomination that references the Rage Against the Heavens traits that are found in the mythological roots of giant stories. - Where would we be without The BFG? That is, the Big Friendly Giant of Roald Dahl fame. All of the other giants in the story are VERY nasty however, being wicked child-eating monsters. Also, despite the name, the titular giant is child sized compared to the others. "I is the titchy one. I is the runt. Twenty-four feet is puddlenuts in Giant Country." - In Clive Barker's "Books of Blood," the story "In the Hills, The Cities" deals with a traditional battle between two unorthodox giants which are beings composed of thousands of human beings from the rival cities of Popolac and Podujevo, all citizens working together to form a single, massive being which then fights the "giant" of the other city. Unfortunately, one year the harvest for Podujevo is less than anticipated, and as a result one flank of the giant is weakened and the city-giant collapses, killing all constituent participants and causing the city-giant of Popolac to go collectively insane with grief. - In Brokedown Palace, one of the four royal brothers is a human giant. It's mentioned that the family produces them every few generations, suggesting a genetic proclivity towards gigantism. - In The Challenges Of Zona giants are actually mutant humans who both grow at an accelerated rate and never stop growing their entire lives. The two met so far are also Gentle Giants. - Most giants in The Chronicles of Narnia are fairly genial and usually on the side of the good guys, although there are some 'evil' wild giants who eat other sentient creatures. - The Gentle Giants featured in the fourth book eventually turn out to be less-than-gentle (though smarter than most of the other dim-witted giants). - The White Witch is rumored to be Giant and half Jinn. \|\|She's a sufficiently advanced alien of unknown genealogy but every member of the civilization was huge.\|\| - The giants in the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series are a friendly and advanced species standing about twice as tall as humans. They have an affinity for stone and are excellent sailors. They cannot be burned, but they still feel the pain of intense heat. They are generally a very sedate and even-tempered people, but can sometimes be provoked into a state of Unstoppable Rage. - Dark Shores: Killian's friend Bercola is a foot taller than most people, has white hair, white eyebrows and colorless eyes. She talks loudly and when she pushes Killian to get him moving, she almost topples him. From what we learn in Dark Skies, giants live on the Island of Eoten, worship Gespurn, god of elements, and like fighting. - Between the The Divine Comedy's circles of deception and betrayal, Hell is littered with giants who were so arrogant in their strength that they rose against the Heavens. This includes the Greek giants who fought to overthrow Zeus and Nimrod, the mighty warrior from Genesis who organized the Tower of Babel. Dante at first mistakes them for towers, which only tells you how huge the Devil is when Dante observes that he "matches better with a giant's breadth than giants match the measure of his arms." They are held except for Antaeus, who died before the Giant rebellion and so isn't chained. Virgil convinces him to put him and Dante in the Last Circle, which Antaeus does by picking them up from the top of the wall and putting them down at its bottom. - In Everworld, the protagonists meet a Fomorian when they get to the Everworld version of Ireland. Unlike in Celtic Mythology, he's a dumb but kindly Gentle Giant. Not that he doesn't try to eat them at first, but that's to be expected. \|\|Then the poor giant gets machine-gunned to death by Keith\|\|. - The Faerie Queene: - In Book I, the giant here is only twelve-feet tall, intelligent enough to speak, and civilized enough to have his own castle not too far from human civilization. - Book II establishes that giants have existed since the time of Adonis and that two of them were strong enough to kill an elven-king. Spenser also notes that each had a different number of heads, just to make things weirder. - The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells is about the discovery of a food supplement which, when ingested by newborn creatures (including humans), causes them to grow very large. - Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais has giant protagonists. Their size is wildly inconsistent, becoming whatever is best for the story. For example, young Gargantua was able to ride common-sized horses and even visited a human brothel. However, usually he rides a horse which is the size of six elephants (making him 10-20 meters high). In another scene, cannonballs are tangled in his hair, and he he mistakes them for fleas (making him 50+ m high). His son Pantagruel is able to argue law in a courtroom, making him probably 10 m high at the most. However, he fights with a ship's mast, making his height closer to 50 meters. And later it turns out that there's a human city inside his mouth, which means he must be hundreds of kilometers tall! - The Brobdingnagians in Gulliver's Travels are as tall as church steeples and have a moral superiority in proportion to their physical size. When Gulliver describes European society, the Brobdingnagian king is disgusted. In contrast, the Lilliputians see Gulliver as a giant, and their own society is a parody of the worst aspects of European society. But just because they're morally superior doesn't mean they're above tormenting Gulliver for kicks, such as the bratty boy who tossed a rock at him, the court's dwarf, and the noblewomen. - Harry Potter also features giants. Most of them are the typical nasty brutes, but a few (including the half-giant Hagrid, one of the major characters) are friendly. - While Hagrid is more civilized than full blooded giants, he has an overt fascination with very violent and deadly magical creatures, and has a tendency to bring students too close to harm. For example, he sees no problem with keeping the giant spider, Aragog, despite the fact that it would love nothing more than to devour the occupants of the castle, and only spares Hagrid because he raised it. - Another giant character is eventually introduced: Hagrid's full-giant half-brother Grawp who, at first, is violent and uncontrollable (even towards Hagrid) but over the course of a few years, becomes "civilized" enough to wear a suit and sit at a funeral and is no longer mindlessly violent. By giant standards Grawp is quite small, being only 16 foot. - House of Suns: Curators of the Vigilance are one-time humans who found a way to live forever at the cost of never-ending growth. Curators live in zero-gravity, so square-cube law is not a problem for them. The only Curator we meet is about 700 meters tall, and has lived inside his spacesuit for 100,000 years, after outgrowing many previous ones. He speaks and does everything else v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Oldest Curators are some ten times his size, and ten times slower still. - Robert E. Howard works: - In Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, part of the in-universe Dwarven mythology note : likely referencing real-world Norse mythology, which has similar elements is the creation of the world eight thousand years ago by gods from the bones of slain giants. Also, at one point, while drunk, the dwarf Orik claims that all non-Dwarf races are actually giants. Orik: If a fearsome giant were to meet you on the garden path, what might he call you, if not dinner? Eragon: Eragon, I would presume. Orik: No! He'd call you a dwarf, for a dwarf you'd be to him! - In Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, the giants are so big that they don't fit on stage, and when one of them steps on a human character all the lights go out... Doom, gloom, BOOM, cruunnnch... - In the Kane Series giants are an elder race, described as generally proudly aloof, taciturn and scornful of human civilisation. Dwassllir, the last king of giants, whom we meet in "Two Suns Setting", is about fifteen feet tall, his hands are bigger than spades, and his speaking voice as loud as a man's shout. He turns out to be quite friendly. - In The Laundry Files, the Alternate Universe / Bad Future threatening the world in the first book was created when the Nazis of that world used the people killed in the Holocaust as a makeshift Human Sacrifice to summon a frost giant from Norse Mythology. Unfortunately for them (and the rest of that universe), the "giant" turned out to be more of an Eldritch Abomination and embodiment of cold that proceeded to drain all heat, freezing Earth and eventually the entire universe. - In Magnus, the giant Tsavo is described "the last progeny of the second preternatural race of supermen spawned by fallen angels." - Malazan Book of the Fallen: - The various races collectively known as the Tartheno Thelomen Toblakai and their derivatives, the Teblor, the Tarthenal and the Trell, stand over seven feet tall or more and are both wide and muscular, even the women. They are perceived as slow, not particularly smart and most of them, especially the Tarthenal on Lether, only reinforce that perception, though certain individuals greatly defy it. They are all descended from the Thel Akai, although they have acquired a flesh and blood physique somewhere on the way, instead of the stone of the Thel Akai. Also, most of the Tartheno Thelomen Toblakai races have bodies adapted to their size by having multiple organs, such as two hearts and four lungs. They are also mostly longer-lived than humans. - Karsa Orlong is a Teblor. He fills a muscular frame and is well over seven feet tall, which contrasts with most characters he meets. His people have once, in the past, been decimated so badly that they had to hide away in the mountains on Genebackis and take on a set of social rules designed to increase their numbers again. However, since most of those still alive were relatives and they continue to live in a remote location, even thousands of years later many children are born deformed. The Teblor live by the Asskicking Leads to Leadership rule, and Steven Erikson uses Karsa Orlong to deconstruct the Barbarian Hero trope. - In The Oddmire, it's mentioned that giants have been driven to extinction by humans due to a cultural misunderstanding—that whole "grind your bones to make my bread" thing was a compliment, not a threat. Spriggans, though small, are related to giants and can even turn gigantic temporarily. \|\|This turns out to be the cause of the second book's conflict: they're trying to protect the giants' burial ground, which the antagonist wants when he learns that the bone-dust in the soul can give people Super Strength\|\|. - Ology Series: Monsterology describes both cyclopes and true giants. - Cyclopes are colossal, hulking one-eyed humanoids that, despite having had a hand in building the structures of the Minoan civilization of Crete, are only barely sapient brutes nowadays. - Giants are only mentioned in passing, being sapient beings and thus not really a subject for a zoology work, but the one shown resembles a well-dressed British gentleman in every respect other than being over twice the height of a lamppost. Giants are also described as aggressive, but easily outwitted. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Regained, they are nephilim, the offspring of angels and men. - Stan Lee's Riftworld series has a race of giants from Another Dimension — they're basically scaled-up humans supported by telekinesis, genetically engineered by an alien AI. And nearly every one a Jerkass. - Ringworld: The Grass Giants are a very large (although within a comparatively sedate range, as they top out at about three meters) and herbivorous race of hominids that have adapted to fill the niche of big grazers like buffalo. - Riordanverse: - A member of a prehistoric race of giants, as yet undiscovered by paleontologists, appears in the Riverworld series. - Second Apocalypse: the Nonmen, in their flawless, alien beauty, already tower over most humans. A certain number of them, simply called the Tall, tower over normal Nonmen. It's not clear how or why they came to be Tall, or exactly how tall they are, but they are big enough to make a normal Nonman look like a "statuette" and have skulls as large as a man's torso. - A Song of Ice and Fire: Giants are a species of shaggy, ape-like people living in the frigid north of Westeros. They stand around fourteen feet tall, are strictly herbivorous, wield crude clubs in battle, and ride woolly mammoths. It's noted that their legs and hips are much larger, proportionally, than a human's, in order to hold up their massive weight. A dwindling species, giants are little more than a legend to the majority of the continent, despite once having been widespread throughout Westeros and Essos. - The Wildlings believe that particularly large humans (for instance Hodor at more than seven feet tall, Gregor Clegane at eight feet) have some giant blood, and the Mazemakers — an ancient civilization of very large people who inhabited the island of Lorath in the distant past — are also believed to have descended from human-giant unions. Despite this, it's not clear whether humans and giants can actually interbreed in the series' actual canon. - The far east of Essos was once home to the Jhogwin, a race of massive giants twice as tall as those from Westeros, inhabiting the northern end of the Bone Mountains. They were driven to extinction a thousand years before the start of the series by wars against neighboring peoples, although their massive bones can still be found among the mountains. - Giants from The Spiderwick Chronicles are hill-sized brutes probably best described as resembling a hunched bipedal mix of a trunkless and earless elephant with some kind of dinosaur, with six fingers on each hand. They can slumber for centuries on end and often eat salamanders or baby dragons to gain fire-breathing abilities. They play a significant role in the second series, as their awakening and search for food drives dragons into a frenzy and disturbs water fey. - In Andre Norton's Storm Over Warlock, Thorvald dubs a location Utgard, after a folkloric home of giants from his home planet. - Tolkien's Legendarium: - The Hobbit briefly features giants throwing rocks around in the Misty Mountains. An odd case, since they are mentioned only once The Lord of the Rings note : Very early in The Fellowship of the Ring in a bar scene in the Shire, a giant is mentioned as being spotted. and never in the The Silmarillion, and there's no explanation of what they are or where they came from. Even in the Hobbit they have zero influence on the plot; the company is vaguely concerned they might get hit by an errant rock, but the huge storm raging at the same time is their main problem. The most common interpretation is that Bilbo just made them up when he was writing the book. In the film adaptation, however, they're absolutely real, colossal creatures of living stone, and the centerpiece of an extensive action scene where their battle nearly wipes out the entire party. - The Lord of the Rings: The Ents resemble fairytale giants as much as the Treants that they would inspire in later fantasy fiction. The text leans towards depicting them as huge, rough humanoids, with wrinkled, bark-like skin, hispid hair, large facial features, and variable numbers of fingers and toes; descriptions in other materials alternate between their being trees animated by spirits and giant-sized humanoids who happen to convergently resemble trees. Notably, trolls were created as ugly mockeries of Ents, and their name is simply an Old English word for "giant" and etymologically related to "ettin" and "jotunn", as well as to "etten", a term sometimes used in the books when talking about trolls. - The Traitor Son Cycle: The Rukh are smaller than most examples of this trope, but still towering over humans. They're humanoid in appearance (all too humanoid...), but animalistic in behaviour, and any powerful magic user can easily control them. - In Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight duology we first meet the Angrborn in the first book, The Knight, as massive men taller than trees and very destructive. It isn't until the second book, The Wizard, that it is properly explained that these are only half-breeds, and the real Angrborn are far larger. They in turn are dwarfed by their ancestors, the Giants of Winter and Old Night, who still dwell in Skai. There's also the Ogre Org, who isn't as big as the Angrborn, but is still massive. And invisible. - The giants of the Xanth series vary in size (but are always colossal). Some of them are invisible; they became that way by becoming so big that they became too diffuse to see, like a balloon inflated to the point of transparency. An important mountain pass was created by one of the biggest tripping over the range, at least according to in-universe folklore. - Whom Gods Would Destroy features multiple legends of giants, including Gogmagog, the nephilim, the Greek titans and gigantes, the Giants of Ath, and alleged findings of giant bones across America during the turn of the century. \|\|It eventually turns out that the primary characters of the novels, the Nine, are nephilim\|\|. - Unlike in the source material, where the giants were club-wielding sasquatchs, the giants in Game of Thrones resemble about 4 meters (13 feet) tall humans with massive foreheads and noses, unrivaled strength and oversized thick legs to make them Square-Cube Law compliant. They weave clothes for the cold climate, (this combined with their unique bodily appearance actually makes them rather neanderthalic and caveman-esque) and have advanced weapons like giant bows capable of shooting 213 meters (700 feet) up. They still tame and ride mammoths. - Giants are recurrent creatures in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, in one bible-based episode Xena meets Goliath himself (shown to be a good-hearted family man). Hercules fights a giant in the first episode. - El Chapulín Colorado features a giant in episode "¡Pero como has crecido, muchacho!" and its remakes "El gigante" and "El Chapulín no le tiene miedo a los gigantes", always with the All Just a Dream ending. A real giant appears in episode "La costurerita valiente" of the 80s show Chespirito by the same creator, as the episode is a mash of fairy tales. - The Nevers features Primrose Chattoway, a teenage girl who grew to ten feet tall after becoming one of the Touched. - Sliders shows briefly an alternate Earth with giant size humans while looking for a suitable place to live for a doomed Earth. - The Twilight Zone (1959): - In "The Little People", the giant spacemen are as big as mountains. - In "Stopover in a Quiet Town", the girl and her mother are at least 100 times the size of humans. - Subverted in "The Fear": A reclusive woman and a highway patrolman are terrorized by a 500 foot tall alien, \|\|which turns out to be an inflatable dummy designed by the real aliens (who are only a few inches tall) to frighten the humans.\|\| - The Ultras from the Ultra Series are commonly referred to by the In-Series Nickname Giants of Light (or Dark Giants for the extremely rare evil Ultra). Given they're 50 meter tall humanoids with even more strength than that would imply, it's a fitting description. - Older Than Feudalism: Classical Mythology features various giants: - The Gigantes notably had a major conflict against the Olympian gods. The Greeks believed that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were caused by these giants being buried beneath the earth. One fact about these Giants that aren't widely known was that they were born wearing armor and holding a spear and that they had snakes for legs. Not as much as Typhon's snake legs, though. - Typhon himself is a giant so tall that his head could touch the stars. He also had one or more snake tails for legs, and hundred dragon and animal heads. He belches fire and/or lava and has wings that cause storms. - The Hekatonkheires are as huge as giants, and each has a hundred arms and fifty heads. They're apparently immortal, like the gods. - Geryon, a giant from the Twelve Labors of Heracles, was said to have three heads, and in some versions three bodies and six legs. - Cyclopes are giants originating in Greek myth. There were two versions: the immortal smith assistants of Hephaistos; and the brutish, sheep-herding, man-eating fellows such as Polyphemos. - The myth of the Argonauts features the Gegenees, a set of six-armed giants marauding around the south coast of the Black Sea. Heracles brawled with them for a time. - In late antiquity, writers started getting the Titans (originally a group of gods) confused with the Gigantes, adding yet another bunch to the giant menagerie. - The Hadza people of Tanzania have stories of giants so large, they put elephants between their belts and clothes. They also claim that their distant direct ancestors were giants and were the first people to use fire, medicine, and lived in caves, sounding strangely similar to Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. - Giants in Norse Mythology: - Similar to the Greek giants, the Jotun were perennial foes of the gods of Asgard, particularly the frost giants. - The frost giant Ymir was so large that his corpse was used as the construction materials for the entire Earth if not more. When he was killed, his blood drowned all the other giants, except for two that were on a boat. - There's also the mountain giants who are right behind their frost brethren in harassing humans and gods. Then there are fire giants, particularly Surt and the Sons of Muspel, who play a major role at Ragnarok. - Despite the antagonism between the gods and the giants, there were at least three gods who were also giants. Skadi blackmailed her way into the Vanir/Asar, but ended up staying loyal (despite the marriage she'd extorted falling apart — she became an official lover of Odin instead), Loki hung out so much with his Aesir pals that Odin adopted him as a brother, and later went bad. Gerd was goddess of sex and Freyr's wife. - Note, however, that Jotun are not necessarily giant-sized. Indeed, "giant" isn't the best translation; a literal translation would be "devourer", but something like "Titan" would probably be more accurate for a modern audience, as we're talking about divine beings aligned to chaos and other primordial forces; another set of "gods" if you will. - The Bible and biblical lore: - The possibly half-angel note : not clear in all canons; their original parents are "the sons of God" and "daughters of men" Nephilim were described as giants. - A similar example of a giant-as-antagonist: Goliath. Some versions of the story have him as a descendant of the earlier race. It's worth noting that Goliath's height is actually a matter of some dispute. The oldest scripts give it as "four cubits and a span", or about six feet, nine inches— big, but still within the range of possibility for a normal human. - Some more examples would be the people who lived in the Promised Land, but since we only have the word of some very scared scouts, this may be a bit of exaggeration. - The Anakim are another example. Numbers 13:33 in the King James Version describes them thusly "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Which, if taken literally, would make them big enough to qualify as Kaiju. - Manicheanism, which incorporated biblical texts into itself, explains that giants were accidentally created when matter from the light world was forcibly expelled from the bodies of greedy beings from the dark world that stole and consumed it. Thus they are referred to as "abortions" and are treated the same way fallen angels are. - The idea of giants as enemies of the gods and as agents of primordial chaos is a pretty common trope in mythology, particularly the Indo-European kind. Supposedly, it's linked to a cultural memory of the conquest or displacement of palaeolithic peoples by neolithic ones, represented by the civilised gods overthrowing an earlier, primordial race more heavily associated with the elements. The exact "alignment" of the primordials differs from culture to culture, and some, such as the Norse, include primordials ranging from the Lawful Good Vanir, a tribe of nature gods, to the Chaotic Evil Fire Giants. Other examples of this include the Greek Hundred-Handed Ones and Gigantes (the Titans, despite the name, were simply an older generation of gods) and the twisted Fomorians of Irish myth. Outside of Indo-European mythologies, Abrahamic scripture has a similar portrayal of the antediluvian Nephilim ("there were giants in the earth in those days") and of Goliath and his four giant sons. - Giants are extremely common in Native American mythologies, where they are almost universally portrayed as cannibalistic boogeymen (sometimes boogeywomen) who capture misbehaving children who venture too far out into the woods and bring them to their mountain lairs to be eaten. Fortunately, they tend to be outsmarted easily. Interestingly, a few folklorists and Native Americans have identified these creatures with Sasquatches. - The Caucasian Nart Sagas have Arkhon Arkhozh, a scaly giant. In some accounts, he is a humanoid reptilian demon, while in other variants he is depicted as more serpentine. - Daidarabotchi are enormous youkai giants, usually depicted as having pitch black skin or as Rock Monsters. Many folktales across Japan credit them with various geographical features, from lakes being their footprints to mountains being piles of dirt they dug up. - Another youkai giant is the Tearai Oni (no actual relation to traditional oni), described as being vast enough to straddle mountains and usually seen vigorously washing their hands in the ocean. - The various tall tale stories of the United States and Canada include a few giants, such as Joe Magrac, who was a steelsmith in the early 1900s and may be based on a real giant, Stormalong whose ship had to be built on the Sahara, and the famous Paul Bunyan, who had a blue ox that was over 120 ax handles long across the horns, with Paul being so large that according to some stories, his "pillow" was the Rocky Mountains and his feet touched the Atlantic ocean. The ax blade for instance, carved the Grand Canyon, and a large barrel of water that spilled created the Mississippi river. - Baltic Mythology: In Estonian mythology, Kalev (who is also often called a king) and his sons. Many geographical features are explained as their doings. See "Kalevipoeg". - Jack In Irons, a giant covered in chains of Yorkshire folklore]]. He makes an appearance as an enemy in City of Heroes. - On the Shaq Attaq playfield, Shaquille O'Neal is five times larger than the other players. This is nothing compared to the backglass, where he is shown 30 times larger than everyone else, crossing the court in two strides while holding a minuscule basketball between his thumb and forefinger. - Bleak World: Giants are a playable race. They are part of the Jotun, a race of mythical giants who were kicked out of heaven by elves. - Dungeons & Dragons has a wide variety of giants, which cover a wide variety of this trope's archetypes: - The most commonly recurring giant types in the game are hill, stone, fire, frost, cloud, and storm giant. Hill giants are the smallest, being only about the height of a cottage, and represent the concept giants as dim, violent brutes who gorge on stolen livestock and waylaid travelers but who are also easily tricked by humans; they live in small bands in rural hill country and are looked down on by other giants as embarrassing savages. Stone giants are shy and reclusive, craggy in appearance, and native to remote mountainous lands. Fire giants, inspired by Norse fire jötnar, look like gigantic evil dwarves and live in highly regimented, militaristic societies. Frost giants, inspired by frost jötnar, are essentially giant Vikings who constantly war against humanoid settlements and each other. Cloud giants are based on the magical, sky-dwelling giants of fairy tales; most live on remote peaks, although some are said to own flying castles. Around half of them are good; the rest are evil, but just as sophisticated. Storm giants are based on the primordial giants of myth, blending in some traits of gods such as Zeus and Poseidon; they're the tallest, mightiest and most magical of common giant-kind, and usually lead reclusive lives on remote islands or beneath the sea. - These giant types tend to follow a progression from early-game "mighty" giants (such as hill and stone giants), who are big and strong but not much else, to more powerful "magic" giants (such as fire and frost giants), who are more powerful and wield limited elemental magic, to "mythical", late-campaign giants (cloud and storm giants), who are rare to the point of being little more than legends to most people and immense in size, and tend to wield much more powerful magic — storm giants, for instance, are closely tied to weather and lighting-based magic. - There are also the giant-kin, a group of species of "giant-ish" beings who are smaller, less physically imposing and usually less intelligent than true giants, but are related to them and in some settings descend from them. The most famous giant-kin are ogres and trolls; other species include the cyclopes and the hideous fomorians. Different Monster Manuals and other supplements introduce quite a few other races of giants, both "true" and giant-kin, some of which have several subspecies of their own — especially trolls). - The 4th edition of the game even references the Rage Against the Heavens subtrope by having giants as the servants of the Primordials, ancient foes of the gods in a very Norse mythology-esque parallel. It also follows along nicely with Greek/Roman mythology: first the Gods (Olympians) overthrow the Primordials (Titans), then the Primordials try to use the giants (Gigantes) to retake the throne, but fail. This was taken from the vague backstory of Forgotten Realms giants. - Giant society is highly stratified, with a complex social structure known as the ordning determining where each giant stands compared to the others. The various giant species tend to occupy specific places in the ordning: generally, this has storm giants on top, then cloud giants, fire giants, frost giants, stone giants and hill giants, with giant-kin at the bottom. - Giants are different in Monte Cooke's Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved Dungeons & Dragons setting. They are only slightly larger than humans, at least without going through rituals to enlarge themselves, and in the backstory they staged a counter-invasion and destroyed the dramojh tyrants. They're the setting's benign dictators, largely embraced as such, and a standard playable race. - The Space Fantasy setting Spelljammer has the colossus, a giant roughly the size and shape of a small mountain that can navigate through space by jumping off the planet. (His speed is very low, though, unless he gets engines installed somehow.) - Eberron: Ancient giants formed a number of highly advanced civilisations across the continent of Xen'Drik. After a series of major cataclysms the empires lie in ruins. Most giants have regressed to a more primitive state, with some powerful exceptions. - 3.5's Races of Stone and 4th Edition include the Goliath as a player race. They grow up to nearly 8 feet, which isn't large for a giant, but still the largest of any player race alongside half-giants, which are half hill giants. Before you ask, yes, A Wizard Did It (or maybe a sorcerer). What's more, despite their hill giant parentage, not only are they mentally on par with normal humans, they are arguably superior by virtue of their inherent psionic abilities. And, to further complicate things, in 4th edition version of Dark Sun, goliaths are half-giants. - Dark Sun: Apart from half-giants, (in 2nd edition at least) there are three races of actual Giants: Plains, Desert, and Beasthead (three guesses as to their defining characteristic). The first two are resistant to psionics (which is rather useful given their ubiquitous nature in the setting) while the latter actually have psionics themselves instead. - The Tome of Beasts quadrilogy of sourcebooks, 3rd-party Monster Manuals for Dungeons And Dragons5th Edition by Kobold Press, creators of the ''Midgard setting, have a wide variety of new giants in them. - Desert Giants are nomadic wanderers of the wasteland, the last remnants of a long-fallen giant empire. They cover up extensively to hide the fact they tattoo secret lore on their bodies. - Flab Giants are believed to be a devolved strain of hill giant, resulting in a creature that stands 8-10 feet tall and weighs between 2,000 and 2,500 pounds on average. They are dull-witted brutes that spend most of their time either sleeping or shoveling anything vaguely organic within reach down their throats. They're too fat to run, and their primary method of fighting is to try and either slap something to death with their meaty fist (their fingers are too chubby to let them wield weapons), or knock it off its feet so they can either trample it or, better still, just sit on it and let it be smothered and/or crushed to death under the flab giant's sheer bulk. - Jotuns are enormous, highly intelligent and magical giants who war with the Nordic gods for dominion over the world. - Thursir Giants resemble nine-foot-tall dwarves, and share a dwarf-like affinity for metal-work, though they are far more malicious and warlike than dwarves. They are also known for being abusively patriarchal, with a society where all women are relegated to drudges who are fit only to produce children and perform menial labor... though, strangely, women make up the bulk of their priests and spellcasters. - Blood Giants are the damned remains of a giant tribe that swore an oath to guard the sacred places and holy treasures of a now-fallen god, sustained through ingesting a drop of their patron's blood over so many centuries tht their flesh has rotted away, leaving them as enormous self-aware skeletons surrounded in an ever-flowing veil of god-touched blood, which they can manipulate at will. - Cacus Giants are the giantish spawn of a lesser fire god, who originally employed them as his servants and helpers before granting them their freedom for their works. Unfortunately, they are largely a race of dim-witted, arrogant bullies who have since abused their freedom. - Cage Giants are monstrous brutes whose culture revolves around the devouring of sapient beings as a sacred rite. - Haunted Giants are male hill or stone giants who are constantly being goaded on and harrassed by the restless spirits of their ancestors, who try to compel the giant to see to sanctifying their remains, but tend to drive them to destruction more often than not. - Laestrigonian Giants are shipwrecked human sailors warped into a giantish form as a divine curse for engaging in cannibalism. Devoid of any protection against the ailments that come from eating raw humanoid flesh, the only food they can sate their hunger with, they live short, brutal lives. - Mountain Giants are enormous and cruel giants who look like living stone. - Void Giants are former cloud giants kidnapped by void dragons and warped into loyal servitors through exposure to Black Magic. - Abbanith Giants are a small and peaceful race of giants who dwell deep below the earth, sharing a deep religious reverence for the earth and stone. - Phase Giants are a small but malicious strain of giant that has adapted to life on the ethereal plane, and who freely shift between the ethereal and material planes to hunt their food. Their most visually distinguishing trait is their chitinous exoskeleton. - Shadow Giants are a cursed race of giants who resemble enormous elves with long horns, condemned by dark fey magic to be forever trapped simultaneously between the shadow and material planes. - Snow Giants are smaller, weaker, but more benign cousins of the standard frost giant, often bullied and pushed around by their cousins. They have an elemental affinity for stone, giving them a kind of Healing Factor where they can restore injuries by packing them with snow or even replace lost limbs by holding a snow approximation to the stump. - Thin Giants are eerily lanky and slender giants with a knack for squeezing through spaces that should be too small to fit. Malicious and cruel, they favor the taste of giant-flesh above all other meats, and are effectively the boogeyman of most giantish societies. - Firestorm Giants are a race descended from the crossbreeding of fire giants and frost giants, which gives them an affinity for both elements. They are typically found living a nomadic existence in arctic environments, wandering between various areas of geothermal activitiy. - Hellfire Giants descend from stone giants taken as slaves by fiends; their ancestors escaped, and turned the hellish runecraft they used against their former masters, passing these stolen secrets on to their descendants. - Lantern Giants dwell in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, and resemble enormous humanoid angler-fishes with a bioluminescent lure on their foreheads. - Shire Giants are a strain of hill giant that have advanced to the point of developing an agrarian society. Obsessed with having enough food, their vast, sprawling farmsteads house a bewildering variety of creatures and edible plantlife, as well as entire tribes worth of sapients, who are made to labor for the giants' benefit — and who are considered just another form of livestock when it's dinner time. - Aniwyes are therianthropes whose natural form is of a grizzly-sized skunk with a wolverine's fangs and claws, but who can freely assume the form of hill giant or ogre at will. - Palladium Books: - Palladium Fantasy: Giants are about 14-20 feet tall and come in many of the same classic flavors as D&D(though with their own names and a few twists, such as the Algor(Frost) and Nimro(Fire) Giants having Breath Weapons), Cyclops' being able to create lighting bolt weapons(ala Greek Mythology), and the Jotan(their version of Hill Giants) actually being smart and master craftsmen rivalling Dwarves. and also include the noble Titans and the mutant Gigantes. There is even an entire kingdom of giants in the shadow of two volcanoes. - Rifts: Many species of giants from the Palladium Fantasy world made their way to Rifts Earth in various ways. A Titan runs what's left of Houston, Texas, and a mercenary Jotan wears a suit of Power Armor that makes him look like a mech. The Iotnar of Norse mythology are even bigger and have even greater powers. There are also the Pogtal, an unrelated species of giant humanoids with huge jaws and More Teeth than the Osmond Family hailing from a world dominated by giant predatory reptiles, who are ancestral enemies of dragons. - Pathfinder keeps most of the Dungeons and Dragons base races of giant, in addition to adding a great deal of highly specialized varieties of its own and tying them into the setting's core backstory. - The first giants descended from the titans, the original rebellious creations of the gods. While most titans were imprisoned in distant corners of the multiverse for a variety of reasons, their passage across the planes resulted in the generation of the gigas, primordial giants closely tied to whichever plane they came from. The gigas in turn were the ancestors of the first true giants. - In the ancient past, the giants were slaves to the empire of Thassilon, whose rulers used them as workers to create their grand monuments, soldiers and weapons of war, and subjects for their magical experiments. The Thassilonians are also responsible for creating many, if not most, of the modern giant varieties — they originally enslaved the tribal stone and taiga giants, many of whom were warped with magic to become the ancestors of fire, frost, storm and cloud giants, among many others. Fire giants were further bred with other giant varieties to produce more specialized types, such as with stone giants to create slag giants and with taiga giants to create the enormous rune giants, who were slave overseers for Thassilon and still retain the ability to magically enslave other giants. - Much like in D&D, a caste system of sorts exists both in-universe and in terms of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil for gaming purposes. Trolls, ogres and the two-headed ettins are the least of giant-kind, and are usually fought first in adventures. They are then followed by cyclopes, hill giants, stone giants, frost and fire giants, and cloud and taiga giants. Storm giants are usually the strongest, the ones encountered last and the likeliest to lead all of the others... unless rune giants are also present. - Shadowrun: Giants are a regional variant of troll mostly found in Scandinavia, and thus are like all other trolls descended from humans who spontaneously transformed when magic returned into the world. They're the largest metahuman type around, reaching three and a half meters on average, and lack the dermal bone deposits and prominent horns of other trolls. For reasons unknown, about one in four female giant births express as normal baseline humans; this does not occur among males(this may be a reference to The Frost Giants's Daughter). - In Spears of the Dawn, the giants of the Mountains of the Sun are roughly ten feet tall, with jet-black skin, flame-coloured hair and handsome, well-proportioned forms. They do not age, but can also not reproduce other than with humans, and with those their offspring is human with only a few giantish features such as an Implausible Hair Color. They were once the allies of the Nyalans and taught them much of their superior crafts, but they have since then grown hostile to humanity and shut themselves away. - Talislanta: Kharakhan Giants stand 12' tall and weigh upwards of a thousand pounds. There are only a few hundred left of them on the continent, and they're on the verge of Extinction. - Warhammer giants are the barbaric remnants of a once-great civilization devoured by the Ogres. Drunken, inbred and incredibly stupid, the giants roam the Old World fighting for whoever can provide them with enough to sate their enormous appetite for booze and bloodshed, most often the Greenskins and the Warriors of Chaos. - The Storm of Magic supplement introduces the Bonebreaker Giant, which is almost thrice as tall as a normal giant, which itself is already 5-6 times taller than an average human. - The Monstrous Arcanum includes Chaos Siege Giants, which have had armor and massive weapons grafted directly onto their bodies by the Chaos Dwarfs to turn them into living engines of war. - Warhammer 40,000: The genetic and surgical enhancements required to become an Adeptus Astares means ending up around seven feet tall before putting on your armour (which adds on another foot at least). And that's just the basic Space Marine. The Primarchs and God Emperor of Mankind were at least half again larger. Horus, when he killed Sanguinius and crippled the emperor, towered over his foes (mostly due to his [frankly enormous] power armor that makes a Space Marine look like an Imperial Guardsman in comparison). - Weird Adventures, a setting that combines Two-Fisted Tales of the 1930's with fantasy tropes, has Hill-Billy Giants living in the fantasy-counterpart to the Appalachians. The men are 10-feet tall, brutish in appearance and quick to anger. The women are usually just under 9-feet, and often Statuesque Stunner s. - In Age of Mythology, the Norse faction can gain access to three types of giant: Mountain Giants (who resemble large bearded humans wielding clubs) Frost Giants (who resemble white-haired humans with pale blue skin) and Fire Giants (who resemble humanoid lava). The Greek faction can access the Colossus unit, who resemble 50 ft greek soldiers made of metal. - The expansion pack gives each faction their own gigantic Titan units, who are the largest in the game. - Age of Wonders features universally good-aligned giants who are close allies of the dwarves (and speculated to be related to the dwarves). Even larger and more powerful entities called Titans fight for the High Men, being creatures of intense discipline and righteousness. - The Banner Saga has the Varl. They are a Proud Warrior Race standing at least twice as tall as a man, with unknown but finite lifespans lasting centuries, and horns growing from their foreheads. As they were all crafted from clay by a now dead god, they can't breed, and there aren't too many left. - In the second The Battle for Middle-earth game, Mountain Giants are a unit for the "Corrupted Wild"/Goblin side. They are even bigger than Trolls, and due to their attacks of throwing boulders seem to be the same type of Giants listed at the top. - Bloodborne has the Giant Lost Children in the Nightmare Frontier, yeti-like beasts without necks that throw boulders at you. - The Charlemagne Expansion Pack to Crusader Kings II features a chronicle of your dynasty that will randomly generate a significant event in years where no other significant events note : Normal ones include wars, battles, coronations, and upgrading a tribe to feudalism or merchant republic government. occur. Such as a giant appearing and trampling villages. It's left as an exercise for the player whether this actually happened, or if it was just peasants telling tall tales. - In Cuphead, Glumstone the Giant note : first introduced in the tie-in graphic novel Cuphead: Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities is one of the bosses from the Delicious Last Course. Glumstone is the size of a literal mountain, and, going by the shapes of other mountains in the background of his stage, this appears to be typical of giants in this setting. He's large enough that he's able to pick up a bear as though it were a rat, and his body houses an entire community of gnomes. - Dark Souls - The Giants of Anor Londo in Dark Souls are armored behemoths that the gods conscripted into manual labor. While the three in Sen's Fortress don't speak and are hostile to the player, the Giant Blacksmith is a Gentle Giant that is always happy to see the player. Hawkeye Gough, one of Gwyn's Four Knights, the mightiest warriors in Anor Londo, is also a giant, though he's an archer rather than a melee fighter. He's also very friendly and philosophical, and helps the player take down the Black Dragon Kalameet. - Dark Souls II feature an entirely separate race of giants, stone-like beings with gaping holes for faces. The foot soldiers are about twice as tall as the average human, while the Last Giant and the Giant Lord \|\|who are heavily implied to be one and the same\|\| are twice as tall as the average giant. In the recent past, Drangleic had a Great Offscreen War against the Giants. - Dark Souls III features the return of the original giants, mostly as enemies, although there's one in the Undead Settlement who can be befriended fairly easily (he's probably not Hawkeye Gough, because he's nowhere near as erudite, but he did inherit the guy's ring) so that he stops shooting at you and focuses on shooting at enemies around you. It also contains Yhorm the Giant, who looks similar to the Giant Lord from Dark Souls II, with the same hole-for-a-face (though you can make out his eyes and the outline of a skull within it) and a weakness to a giant-slaying weapon that doesn't work on any other giant, suggesting he's of a different race. The Ringed City also introduces the Judicator Giants, the overseers of the Ringed City. The Judicators are some of the oldest beings in the setting, predating the beginning of the Age of Fire. They fight by using the same kind of summoning you use to summon phantoms as allies, but unlike you they are not mere Undead. As a result, they are able to summon a small army of phantoms against you. - In Disciples and its sequels, the giants are related to the dwarves, as both as children of Wotan, and often fight by their side. Vithar is a giant who protects the dwarven capital from their enemies and is Wotan's right-hand man. The titans are just as big but fight for The Empire (i.e. humans). They also appear to be all female. Additionally, there are wild giants who have no allegiance to any power. They aren't too bright, but anything using a tree trunk as a club can't be useless. - Doshin the Giant: The protagonist is an incarnation of the sun who appears every day at dawn, and his two sides grow larger by absorbing the love or hate of humans. The love giant, Doshin, wants to help humans, while the hate giant, Jashin, wants to kill them and make them suffer. He starts off 10m tall, and can reach a maximum height of 301m. - The Qunari of Dragon Age are sometimes called giants by non-Qunari, and not without good reason: they tower over the other races, common specimens being at least seven feet high. The largest yet seen was twice that, and towered over his fellows. Qunari are also born with horns, though some of them have them shorn (the Saarebas Ketojan, for example), and a rare few are born entirely without them (the Sten from the first game). Also unusually for giants in fantasy games, the Qunari have a very ordered society that dictates and cements an individual's place in society based on their talents, a strong urge to spread this philosophy to the rest of the world, a spectacular grasp of gunpowder weaponry in an otherwise Medieval setting, and a caste of mages known as Saarebas who are kept collared and supervised at all times to prevent any form of corruption. In some ways, they represent a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the Ottoman Empire, though their religious philosophy bears more of a resemblance to Confucianism than to Islam. - Meanwhile, the Darkspawn borne from Qunari women-turned-Broodmothers, the Ogres, are the biggest and nastiest breed of darkspawn, outgrowing true Qunari by several metres. Fortunately, there aren't any Ogre Emissaries. - Dragon Age: Inquisition features actual giants: ten meters-tall monstrosities that can hold their own in one-on-one combat against High Dragons. They seem to have some overlap with Cyclops, as well, with their tusk-like fangs likely a nod to the theory that the cyclops myth originated with misidentified elephant skulls. - The Dungeon Keeper games have giants as hero units — defying the normal convention of them being evil (unless they get tortured into aiding the keeper). They are able to walk on lava without getting hurt and cannot be harmed by the Inferno spell, most likely due to their thick skin. - In Dungeon Siege 2, there exist Agallan Giants, a race of Ultimate Blacksmiths who live in seclusion in the mountains and are easily 50 foot tall, and a good deal wide as well. Descended from them are Half-Giants, who are more sensibly sized but still tower over any human. They are the offspring of a group of banished and cursed Agallans who lost their enormous proportions and limitless lifespan. Because the banished group had no female members, they were forced to interbreed with other species, and the result was a One-Gender Race of Half-Giants whose gene pool is doomed to be diluted into nothingness. - Dwarf Fortress: - A number of giants and related creatures appear as semi-megabeasts, rare and powerful creatures that periodically attack fortresses and can destroy buildings but which are more common and less dangerous than true megabeasts like dragons, hydras and Roc Birds. - Giants are the largest of the semi-megabeasts, but their threat is mitigated by their lack of proficiency with weapons. They live in burrows and sally out to plunder fortresses and villages in search of food and treasure. They have rudimentary intelligence yet are able to speak, and typically show up unarmed, though due to a bug they tend to pick up discarded pieces of clothing and beat people to death with them despite their uselessness as actual weapons. - Ettins are smaller, two-headed colossi; according to in-game descriptions, their heads have a tendency to argue. They aren't as big as giants, but need to be decapitated twice to be killed and can use weapons. - The one-eyed cyclopes are the weakest and least intimidating semi-megabeasts. In practice, they're still dangerous monsters easily able to tear their way through ranks of dwarf militia. - Bronze colossi are true megabeasts in the form of brazen giants over thirty feet in height. They feel no emotion, do not tire, are immune to pain and nausea, are extremely difficult to damage and cannot be stunned, making them some of the most dangerous things in the game. - Elden Ring: Before the age of the Golden Order, there was a race known as the Fire Giants, who invented blacksmithing and worshipped a god of fire. Marika and Godfrey drove them to extinction, although their smaller (about 20 ft. tall- true giants stood around 50 ft.) relatives the trolls remain (albeit usually enslaved) and can be encountered as normal enemies. Several powerful fire incantations are explicitly stated to have been invented by the giants and to draw power from their god, and giant corpses can be seen in both Caelid and the Mountaintops of the Giants where they once dwelled. \|\|And one last fire giant remains at the Forge of the Giants, cursed to forever guard the flame that could not be quenched. With him, we can see that the giants had both a normal head and a face that covers their torso, having one eye in the chest, a nose between the pectorals, and a Belly Mouth, plus a beard that covers their pelvis. The giants can invoke the presence of the Fell God by offering a sacrifice, which causes the chest eye to open and enhances their fire magic.\|\| - The Elder Scrolls: - The series, as seen most prominently in Daggerfall and Skyrim, has a race of fairly standard Giants. ES Giants possess moderate intelligence, being capable of fashioning simple tools, clothing, and weapons. They are able to harness fire and are known to herd mammoths. Most Giants are nomadic, living solitary lives (or in small groups at most) as they travel from campsite to campsite, though some groups of giants are known to unite in clans which can number in the hundreds. Female Giants and children are rarely seen by outsiders, leading to the (incorrect) perception that Giants are a One-Gender Race. - There are said to be many different variations of Giants in Tamriel, though some are believed to be extinct. Typical Giants are 11-12 feet tall, but there are reports of Giants who are several times the size of an average man. There are also rare "Frost Giants" in Skyrim and Solstheim who are roughly the same size as a standard Giant, but are covered in white fur, have five eyes, and have two long, curved horns on their heads. Likewise, the Ilyadi were said to be "multi-eyed" Giants native to the forests of the Summerset Isle, but were driven to extinction by the ancient Aldmer when they settled the land. There was also a race of Giants native to Elsweyr, who were said to have built the Halls of Colossus, but who disappeared sometime prior to the 3rd Era. - Tamriel's Giants also have an interesting Multiple-Choice Past, with multiple conflicting theories regarding their origins. One of the most popular, especially among the Nords, is that they share an ancestry with the ancient Atmorans. The Atmorans were known to be tall, strong, and somewhat primitive. According to this theory, after coming to Tamriel from the northern continent of Atmora, the Atmorans split into two groups — one who would interbreed with Tamriel's Nedes (human ancestors) to become the modern Nords — and another who would, through unknown means, become the progenitors of the Giants. Other sources, however, make it clear that Giants existed in Tamriel before the Atmorans crossed the sea. The Dwemer were said to have gotten the nickname "Dwarves" from Giants they encountered in the Velothi Mountains after splitting off from the Aldmer, which occurred well before the Atmoran migration. The Aldmer themselves drove a "multi-eyed" race of Giants known as the Ilyadi to extinction when they first settled the Summerset Isles, which was even earlier. Standard Giants also have pointed, tapered ears like those of the Mer (Elves). In either case, there are known instances of Giants interbreeding and producing offspring with the other races of Tamriel, particularly Nords. This would suggest that, at the very least, Giants have a shared ancestry with the other races dating back to the Ehlnofey, a progenitor race from whom all extant races (save for perhaps the Lizard Folk Argonians) descend. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy XI: The Gigas hail from the frozen far northern continent in the world of Vana'diel. They were employed as mercenaries by the Shadow Lord, but after the Crystal War, all the Gigas in the Middle Lands were trapped, unable to come home. They now reside almost entirely in Qufim Island and Delkfutt's Tower, although some of them are in Tavnazia or the Grim Up North areas in or around Xarcabard, or stuck in Korroloka Tunnel. - In Final Fantasy XIV, the Ancients of Amaurot were towering figures. Even the tallest of the modern races barely come up to an Ancient's knee. They were also highly intelligent, peaceful, and possessed a mastery of magic that modern races simply cannot match. - In Gems of War, the region of Stormheim (which is Norse-themed) features Frost Giants as a general troop. There's also Jarl Firemantle, a fire giant. Both carry large axes. - In Grow Cannon, you can build a giant foot after completing its skeleton, but you don't get to see the rest of its body if it has any. - Giants in Guild Wars are extremely ugly humanoids, often sporting tusks, horns, or spines on their arms. They stand roughly two to three times the height of a human. - Oddly, several races that could be categorized as giants, such as the jotuns, are not; instead they are classified as ogres. - It is noted that the modern-day giants have no relation to "True Giants", a now extinct race of much larger giants. - The Norn (made playable in Guild Wars 2) are a 9 foot race of Horny Vikings who can shapeshift into their totem animal. - There are several giant races in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, although given that they are on average about twice the size of a human, there's a certain overlap with Our Ogres Are Hungrier. They largely fill the role of orcs in Amalur, being strong, brutish and warlike humanoids. - Jottun are the most common giant encountered in Amalur, with rough, leathery, almost stone-like skin and an affinity for ice magic. - Ettins are blue-skinned, two-headed giants with an affinity for storm magic. - Bolgans are red-skinned and the strongest of the three giants, not showing up until players reach the Forsaken Plains and Klurikon regions. They have no magical abilities, but do carry armor, making them impressively adept at blocking damage. - Kollossae, introduced in the Teeth of Naros DLC, are the only non-evil giant race known from the lore. Once a savage race of hill-dwelling giants called the Mairu, they developed advanced magical affinities during the Age of Arcana, which propelled them into being one of Amalur's more civilized race. They're the most human-looking of the giants, and could pass for really tall humans, were it not for glowing eyes and the stony hair and skin-colors that make them look like Living Statues. - La-Mulana: The Giants were the second children of Mother. They were responsible of building the eponymous ruins. Their society fell apart due to a civil war between those who wished to return Mother to the skies and those who wanted her to remain on Earth with them. Eventually, Mother grew tired and birthed a new generation who chased the giants into the cold lands where, overcame with sorrow, they all perished. Sakit, the boss of the Mausoleum of Giants, is said to have belonged to later group hence his role a Guardian of the Mother. - Mabinogi giants are about 9-10 feet tall and are a player race. They are at war with the desert elves. - The prequel, Vindictus, has a currently-unreleased giant character named Karok. He wields a battle pillar, and can use grapple attacks on bosses. - In Odin Sphere, the Berserkers of Ragnanival are a race of men that never stop growing throughout their lives, and Odin, as the eldest amongst them, is massive. It could also have something to do with \|\|Wagner's blood flowing through his veins, after Odin made a pact with the former\|\|. - In Phantasy Star Online 2, the native sentient race of the planet Harukotan (or at least the males) are large, tall humanoids that resemble Japanese oni demons. These giants can be further divided in Shironians and Kuronians: Shironians are slightly shorter than Kuronians and bare more resemblence to humans, while Kuronians are more demonic in appearance. Some Kuronians are even larger: the Shironia field boss Gigur Gunnegam towers over most Kuronians, and the Emergency Quest boss Magatsu is big enough to eat other Kuronians for breakfast. - The peaceful Sapha of Ragnarok Online are called giants, and with good reason - their sprites are actually one to two heads taller than player sprites. They appear to have very large clawed hands and tree branches for hair, have a caste system and grow up in communal areas, and need to subsist on a mineral called bradium or else they will turn to stone. - RuneScape has many type of giants, including ice giants, fire giants, hill giants, moss giants, even a cloud giant. - Shadow of the Colossus, the eponymous colossi. The smallest ones are nearly as big as an adult elephant, while the largest is sometimes mistaken for a great tower the first time players see it. - In Skylanders: Giants, there are eight giant Skylanders, who canonically were also the first and in the game's backstory fought against the Arkeyans. They're twice as tall as the Core Skylanders, both in-game and in toy form, and trade movement speed for Super Strength (or Mind over Matter in Ninjini's case) that lets them perform impressive feats of strength. Outside of Giants, they can also interact with specific objects in SWAP Force. - The Force Unleashed II figures the only way to top the rancor from Return of the Jedi is to throw in a several hundred foot tall monster that is capable of crushing a rancor in its hand. And it still manages to get beaten! - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Giants appear in the rosters of several barbaric factions as immense humanoids, generally as tall as siege towers, including the basic one in the Orc army and horned and mutated ones in the Chaos, Norscan and Beastman rosters, with the Beast Giant outright sporting a large pair of ibex-like horns and thick coat of fur. They're best suited for bludgeoning their way through hordes of infantry and for attacking fortifications, but share a combination of low armor, low speed and a large hitbox that makes them very vulnerable to missile fire. There's also the Tomb Kings' Bone Giant, which strictly speaking is simply an enormous stone construct made to resemble a titanic skeleton and which wields a bow the size of a tree. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Giants are immense, but humanly so, soldiers who can be recruited on certain islands. Their size and heavy armor allows them to serve as living siege engines, as these are otherwise missing in the firmly Bronze Age setting. - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, giant tribes are one of several mythological creatures presented in a mundane manner. They're certainly bigger than normal troops, but look more like people with gigantism than something outright supernatural. The tooltip explains the mythology of giants might be because of the Greeks encountering populations of on-average taller people than themselves. - In Mythos mode, giants are largely similar to their Truth Behind the Myth counterparts, being still oversized humans wielding colossal weapons, but have scaled legs (a reference to the mythical Gigantes, who had serpent tails instead of legs, although they're not otherwise beings on the near-divine level of the actual Gigantes). - Warcraft features many different types of giants and similar beings. - True giants were created by the Titans to help shape the world. The most common types are sea giants (aquatic giants that look like big scale-covered humanoids) and mountain giants (big roughly humanoid things made of rock). Other types include ice giants and molten giants (recolors of the Mountain Giant model), crystal giants of Outland (basically stone giants with a fancier model) and storm giants (who were afflicted by the Curse of Flesh that afflicted many of the Titan-made elemental races, turning into essentially supersized humans rather than the rocky beings other giants are). - Giants in the setting are apparently something along the lines of guardians created by the titans, not unlike the dragons. However, they tend to be more territorial and aggressive. Their second main duty is that they are the titans' craftsmen — for instance, the sea giants sculpted the sea floor and mountain giants made mountains and hills. They're almost all hostile, however, although there is a friendly sea giant god in Azshara and a faction of frost giants in Storm Peaks. - The viking-like vrykul probably count too. While they're much smaller than the actual giants, they're still well over twice the height of humans, and even the few vrykul who aren't serving the Lich King are every bit as aggressive as giants tend to be portrayed. The vrykul are also hinted to be an offshoot of giants affected by the Curse of Flesh. - Humans are basically outright stated to be further corrupted vrykul... so, in WoW, humans are shrunken giants. - The ogres could also count, although they are completely unrelated to the Titans, having originally come from the world of Draenor (the orc homeworld). They are normally dumb, whether they have one head or two, unless they learn magic, at which point they get really smart. Further, the ogres are descended from a long line of increasingly gigantic, cyclopean beings known as the Breakers. - The ogres are directly descend from the cyclopean ogron, who in turn descend from the properly gigantic gronn, who further descend from the colossal magnaron, who are made up of as much lava and rock as of flesh. The magnaron themselves descend from an ancient, extinct species of even larger giants known as the colossals, who were so large that entire settlements have been built in their massive skeletons. The first colossals, in turn, were formed from boulders fallen from the body of Grond, a mountain given life by a Titan to fight a tide of alien flora that threatened to overwhelm early Draenor. - The ogron also gave rise to the orcs as well as the ogres — meaning that WoW's orcs, much like its \|\|humans\|\|, are technically a species of very small giants. - There are also flesh giants, but these are really big homunculi created by the Scourge rather than actual giants. - Warlords Battlecry has them as an Orc subrace, green and relatively dumb just like them. They do, however, tend to occupy important positions among their ranks (Asskicking Leads to Leadership is in full swing with orcs, and giants are about as tall as a tower, and much wider and fatter), and often bear armor of their making. Oh, and on top of being just as belligerent and warlike as regular orcs, they're almost always hungry, and don't have many qualms with eating food that talks back. Who's for dinner? - Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant feature giants, usually in the transition between the early and middle game. Most are of the big bruiser type, but are also resistant to magic. The Elite Mooks and Superpowered Mooks versions add extra abilities, such as vomiting on the player. - The Giants in Xenoblade Chronicles 1 are a race of humanoids that were among the first lifeforms on Bionis, but are extinct in the current era, to the point that Zanza is \|\|possessing Arglas,\|\| the last Giant alive. Several sidequests are dedicated to recovering their ruins, tombs, and treasures, and these sidequests reveal that \|\|the Giants were sworn enemies of spiders, but the spiders hunted them to extinction\|\|. Much later in the game's main story, \|\|Dickson reveals himself as the last Giant alive after Arglas's death and Zanza's awakening.\|\| - Averted in Bruno the Bandit where giants are more like André the Giant than fantasy giants; only a couple of feet taller than humans, just much bulkier. They're also the only race with Four-Fingered Hands. - In The Challenges of Zona giants are human mutants who grow at an accelerated rate and never stop doing so although their growth rate slows when they become adults. This is a more detailed accounting◊ - Erfworld has the Titans, the beings who created Erfworld. They can only be described as omnipotent mile-high Elvis impersonators. - In addition are somewhat more traditional giants, being about 10 or so feet tall, the Western Giants are styled after baseball players... complete with a reference to steroid use. - Parson himself probably counts. He's not as big as the really big units but all the normal sized humans of Erfworld are the size of children compared to him, and he seems to be classified as a "heavy" unit by the game-mechanics/physics of Erfworld. Stanley, his diminutive superior, barely even comes up to Parson's kneecap (Stanley is short even by Erfworld standards, though; most of the other "human" characters appear to range between about 3.5 and 4 feet tall, assuming Parson is 6' or so). Over the course of the story Parson has been gradually getting smaller as well; he's still the tallest guy around but not by anywhere near the margin he started with, generally about a head taller. - In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Molly's second clone, Jolly, is very, very large. - Stars in Nebula, as compared to every other species in the setting. While it's entirely possible that all of the characters (as mixtures of Genii Locorum and Anthropomorphic Personifications of celestial objects) are giants by human standards, stars are easily on a different level. If planets were human-sized, stars would be close to twenty feet tall, with the other main characters barely coming up to Sun's knees. Stars have normal amounts of intelligence, are Wreathed in Flames, and almost always take positions of authority over the people around them. - In The Order of the Stick, the heroes find themselves attacked by a legion of rock-throwing frost giants while flying their airship through a narrow mountain pass. - Ruby Nation stars Ruby, a young woman who stands at 9' 1" thanks to Applied Phlebotinum. - Vápnthjófr saga: The Weapon Thief is a Jotun from Norse Mythology looking like a fifteen-foot-tall white aurochs (undomesticated cow). - Riot Girl from Wootlabs — a former high school bully turned 200-ft hero wannabee. - Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel) features the Kandahar Giant, a massive 12-foot Humanoid Abomination that wiped out an entire platoon of US soldiers in the early 2000s, and was later killed by a US special forces team sent to find the missing soldiers. - Orion's Arm: There are several clades of humans modified for giant size; increasingly large ones were typically derived from older strains as technology became more advanced. - Goliaths are the oldest strain. They were developed a few centuries in the future from the present day, mostly to serve as strongmen, hitmen and bouncers, and are "merely" two to three times the size of a human. - Nephilim are the result of centuries of self-modification and selective breeding by goliaths seeking to further distance themselves from "the smalls". They're between six to twelve meters in height, the highest size that a hominid body plan can physically reach. In order to support their immense heights, they're very thin and slender, with flat, elephant-like feet, and some have a third leg derived from the vestigial remnants of the human tail. They also lead very passive lifestyles, as any kind of strenuous physical activity would risk injuring their delicate bodies and, at their height, falls are almost always fatal. - Gigantes are a further modification of nephilim who sought to be able to participate in physical activities like smaller beings, and who consequently incorporated extensive mechanical modifications into themselves to make their bodies more robust. Baseline gigantes have much more human-like bodies than the attenuated nephilim, and tend to grow a lot taller as well; many have additional modifications to support their sizes, such as cooling fins on their backs to radiate away the waste heat generated by their implants, or air- or gas-filled bladders in their bodies to decrease their weight. Some are also adapted to live in the sea, using water to support their immense weights. - Tales of MU: Giants are a mixture of the Dungeons & Dragons version and various mythological influences, as most MU races are. They're apparently primordial beings who warred with the forces of chaos, the gods, and the dragons in some combination before leaving the world for another plane, possibly by climbing a stalk or a trunk. Only one of them has been seen in the main story, a badly undersized storm giant named Pala (Icelandic for "small") who "commutes" to Magisterius University. - Trials & Trebuchets features a unique twist on the Dungeons & Dragons giants: fire, stone, frost, and cloud giants exist in a cycle of reincarnation, where as the last of one type of giants dies, giants of the next type in the cycle are reborn into the world. \|\|The cycle of four is rarely interrupted by the birth of storm giants, who are an omen of times of great hardship, and even more rarely by the birth of hill giants, who are an omen of times of great peace.\|\| - A giant appears in episode "Let Sleeping Giants Lie" of the Adventures of the Gummi Bears. - Hector Jotunheim from The Amazing World of Gumball, one of the title character's classmates. He resembles a Godzilla-sized Sasquatch, but most of the time only his feet are visible since they're the only part of him that fit into most shots. He's a very Gentle Giant, to the point of dullness to others, as his mother (who is a diminutive witch for some reason) shelters him heavily as his emotions are every bit as enormous as he is. - American Dragon: Jake Long had an episode where a giant kid named Hobie ran away from home to become a professional wrestler. Bertha, a female giant with comically smelly feet, appeared in a few episodes in both seasons. - Babar has two giants; a King Kong expy giant gorilla in "Conga the Terrible" and a furry bear-like giant in "Adventures on Big Island". - Hilda: There are multiple kinds of giants in this shows' universe. In episode 1 and 2 we meet the midnight giant Jorgen and his girlfriend, both of which are tall as mountains (in fact, the female giant actually resembled a mountain while she was sleeping). They are the last two of their kind on Earth. Later, in episode 11, we meet the forest giant, which is hardly taller than a large tree. - Molly of Denali: In "Home Made Heroes," Tooey makes his own superhero named Keele Gedese, a giant boy with super strength. - A gigantic pirate appears in the animated Puff the Magic Dragon, evidently in direct response to Jackie Draper a.k.a. Paper's fear of pirates. \|\|He's actually a giant cook.\|\| - The Ren & Stimpy Show: In "The Littlest Giant", Stimpy cooks up a fairy tale about a giant who gets teased by all the other giants for being smaller than them, but befriends a farmer when his tears of loneliness save the farmer's lands from drought. - Giants are also part of the Smurfs universe, they are gentle in general if well treated. One shows prominently in episode "Gargamel's Giant" been manipulated by Gargamel but showing to be gentle at the end. In "The Littlest Giant" is shown that giants may be perfectly well adjusted and civilized, whilst in "The Magic Fountain" a brutish giant tries to kill and eat Johan a Peewit. Bigmouth, the most recurrent character, is technically an Ogre, although he just looks like a oversized human. - Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! had an episode with a similar plot to the New Mazinger example listed above, where the team and their titular super robot were stuck on a medieval planet of giants, and the robot was mistaken for a knight errant. - Disney's Tall Tales features the story of Paul Bunyan. This version has him as being as tall as tall pine trees and small mountains, and is a Gentle Giant. - Persons with gigantism, a pituitary-related health condition leading to extreme height, were commonly featured in old-time sideshows. Promoters of such entertainments often boasted of (and shamelessly exaggerated) the extraordinary tallness of their performers. (To medically qualify as a giant, one must be 7 feet and up.) - 18th and 19th century anatomists often collected unusual human skeletons, and those of human giants — the taller, the better — were among the most sought-after. Charles Byrne, an 8'2" Irishman who died in 1783, was so afraid of being skeletonized that he asked for his lead coffin to be sunken in the Thames. \|\|It was, but it was empty: Byrnes' body had already been stolen.\|\| - Gigantopithecus, an extinct primate that our human ancestor Homo erectus may very well have encountered. From The Other Wiki: "Based on the fossil evidence, it is believed that adult male Gigantopithecus blacki stood about 3 m (9'10") tall and weighed as much as 540 kg (1,200 lb)". Zoinks. (Note that while Gigantopithecus has at times been portrayed as a hominid, it was in fact more like a giant orangutan.) - A more typical giant would be Meganthropus, an actual hominin close to Homo erectus but that had twice the bone density of a gorilla, and is thought to stand 8-9ft. tall. We say "would be" because the latest analyses of the fossils show that they were identical to Homo erectus, and not as large as previously thought. - Similarly, some fossil belonging to Homo heidelbergensis, aka Archaic Homo sapiens, show them to be giants on their own right, standing tall at around 7 feet tall. That said, remains of other heidelbergensis are shown to be smaller, aroiund the size of regular humans or even Neanderthals, which hints at a great diversity amongst them, akin to our species. - Purported giant remains have been the subject of many an archaeological hoax, such as the Cardiff Giant. - While unconfirmed, the Castlenau Giant of the late Stone Age or Early Bronze Age might have stood at a massive 11.5 feet tall. As seen here.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGiantsAreBigger
Our Humans Are Different - TV Tropes It might not look like a human or talk like a human, but it's still a human, at least by name. Even if they have Pointy Ears, a rubber forehead, or Psychic Powers — so what? So do all the other humans they know. Basically, this is what you get when you call a smeerp a human. So maybe you have an idea for a novel and want it to be original. Maybe you have seen too many stories with Our Elves Are Different or Our Monsters Are Different plots and want to make things interesting. Maybe you want to create a fantastical race but you don't want to just recycle the same ones that everyone else has already used. The problem with making up an entirely new race is that it can be hard, especially since so many things have already been done before. This is probably why so many writers recycle the old races in the first place. Recycling old races also has the bonus of saving the writer the trouble of explaining things as much. Saying a creature is an elf, for instance, prepares the reader for the fantasy genre without the writer having to mention said genre, as well as drawing on preestablished conventions to allow the reader to quickly grasp what elves are like without having to devote quite as much page space to fleshing things out. So what if you want the benefits of using a recycled race in a fantasy story but don't want to use elves or dwarves? What if you think that having a bunch of humanoid races who are called something not-so-human strains the Willing Suspension of Disbelief? Well, you could just make up a fantastical race anyway and call them humans. This trope is for when you want enough fantasy elements to make your story pop in your selected genre, but you don't want to make it as crazy as, say, Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe Middle-Earth is a little too racially divided, and you want your story to have a different feel. It is important to note here that humans are the most common race used in fiction (probably because, well, Most Writers Are Human). Humans are usually considered to be the most mundane of all the other races, because to us, well, they are. In this sense, "mundane" is less about what is magical or not and more about what is "normal" or not. Indeed, it might also be that a writer is tired of humans' hat always being that they're an average and unremarkable middle point between other fantasy races, or always like real-life humans even in fantastic fictional worlds, and wants to give them some special traits of their own. It is also important to clarify what is meant by the word "human". Does the creature even have to look humanoid at all or does the writer have the right to call it human anyway, no matter what it looks like? This is made especially complicated by the fact that humans seem to be able to procreate with anything (Half-Human Hybrids, anyone?). Ways to show that your humans are different: - By making humans have superpowers. This is the most obvious one, but it can be harder than it sounds. It is not the same as "my human character found a fountain of youth and now lives forever." In order to qualify, the character has to have powers because they are human, not because they chanced upon a Mass Super-Empowering Event. - By making humans have a different origin story/evolutionary path. So instead of saying that humans are primates you could say that they are crustaceans (or that their ancestors were). Notice that giving humans a different backstory as a species counts; but if it is events, rather than the humans themselves, that have changed, then it is just an Alternate Universe and not this trope. Also note that examples of this trope can lead to an Alternate Universe, but they are not exclusive to it. - By giving humans a bizarre ability or weakness that they don't normally have in real life, such as an allergy to movies. - Give humans a different way of thinking. You could make them Actual Pacifists or a Proud Warrior Race, to contrast with humans in real life, who do both. Or you could alter their brains to give them different abilities such as better memory. - Give them unusual physical traits, such as cat ears or weird hair colors note : Though take care not to go past rubber forehead territory here, since doing something like slapping some tentacles and eyes on a tree and calling it a "human" would, unless they're supposed to be our distant evolutionary descendants, be an insult to your audience's sanity. You could also give them some kind of ability that has to be cultivated, such as Training the Gift of Magic or Supernatural Martial Arts. Please note that this trope relies on the humans themselves, not any events surrounding them. Creating an Alternate Universe with Crystal Spires and Togas, for instance, does not make your humans different unless it is explained in-story that humans are Perfect Pacifist People who like to build utopian societies on a genetic level. The opposite of Humans by Any Other Name. Contrast Human Aliens (aliens which appear indistinguishable from humans but are explicitly not) and Ambiguously Human (which is for when whether a character is human or not is not always explicitly mentioned in-universe). See the Not Quite Human index for a list of common traits that might make your humans different. Also see Humans Are Indexed for tropes about humans in general. Compare and contrast Human Subspecies (which may or may not look like standard humans but are genetically related), Mage Species (which may be either of the above but are primarily distinguished by their ability to do magic where other people can't), and Bizarre Human Biology (which is about individual humans with strange biologies). See also Superpowerful Genetics, Randomly Gifted, The Gift, and Our Mages Are Different, although not all wizards (or Jedi, psychics, mutants, etc.) are necessarily human in the first place. Whether or not Original Man, human-descended Mutants, Differently Powered Individuals, and Transhuman Cyborgs qualify or not tends to vary depending on the setting and specific example. While it can be difficult to draw a hard line, generally this trope is only in play when a significant proportion of greater humanity is different, not just a few special individuals — The Chosen One or even The Chosen Many are not examples of this trope (although The Chosen People could be). ## Examples: - A Centaur's Life: All humans are a Little Bit Beastly or are Cute Monster Girls. This ranges from people with cat ears and tails, to centaurs, to merfolk who appear similar to real life humans until their legs merge at the knees. The explanation given was that in this version of Earth's past, six-limbed creatures became dominant instead of those with four limbs, giving humans diversity based on how that extra pair of limbs developed (whether that be extra legs for centaurs or wings for angelfolk). Highlighting the distinction, there are also anthropomorphic frog people, snake-like Antarcticans, and Starfish Aliens, but they are all explicitly not human. - My Hero Academia: Prior to the beginning of the series, humanity began to develop "Quirks", natural superpowers that range from glowing to shooting fire to growing wings. Quite a few Quirks result in people having monstrous forms or animalistic traits. This radically changed the definition of what it meant to be "human", leading to a period of unrest and strife as people struggled to figure out what to do about Quirks. By the present day, 80% of humanity has a Quirk, while 20%, like protagonist Izuku Midoriya, are born Quirkless. - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Humans, like the Angels and EVAs, naturally generate AT Fields. They aren't strong enough to use as physical Deflector Shields, but are important because \|\|they're what keep humans' minds and bodies separate from each other. The Human Instrumentality Project is all about forcibly nullifying them all, causing humanity to merge together.\|\| In fact, the EVAs' ability to create AT Fields came from imitating and magnifying that of humans, hence why \|\|they turn out to be giant Artificial Humans themselves\|\|. - Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary: Humans undergo very dramatic, seemingly random changes during puberty; in the title character's case she went from two eyes to a single huge eye, there's also things like sprouting wings on one's back, gaining effective immortality, gradual shrinking, and many others. This makes the North American title something of a misnomer, which the author points out in one of the volume afterwards. - One Piece humans have some potential bizarre traits even unrelated to Devil Fruit powers: - Typical humans are of realistic height, but there are some around two and half to five meters high (Crocodile, Brook, Kuzan, Doflamingo, Katakuri, etc.), and some really big folk six to eight meters from head to toe, and often quite broad as well (Gecko Moria, Kuma, Whitebeard). These are distinct from giants, which are a distinct species in-universe — Word of God is that this is simply how height naturally varies in this world. - The author's also stated it's common for humans to live to be 140 — or in Kureha's case, reach 139 without even slowing down. - We've seen explicitly human characters who have simian facial features and even grow horns, apparently totally naturally. This may relate to how various "nonhuman" races like Giants and Fishmen are referred to as "tribes" and can interbreed with humans, implying they're very closely related. - Besides their capability for Charles Atlas Superpower, willpower and just general power can seemingly affect biology in strange ways: Ace's mom held her pregnancy in for years through sheer willpower to protect him from people seeking to end his bloodline. One of the post-timeskip Admirals states he hasn't eaten in three years because it's too big a hassle, but he's apparently no worse for the wear. - The Constructed World of Simoun is populated by humans who are anatomically and psychologically indistinguishable from Homo sapiens, except that everyone is born biologically female and sterile and has to undergo a permanent sex-assignment procedure at the age of 17, after which one's body gradually morphs into its final shape capable of sexual reproduction. - Beast Fables: All humans in Urvara are born with "The Gift", which gives them the power to turn into an anthropomorphic land animal. Because of this, they're also known as werebeasts. - Marvel Universe: Humans are very different from Real Life humans thanks to the Celestials' experiments on their ancestors. All humans possess the potential to manifest superpowers if the right conditions are met. Different subspecies have different triggers: - Eternals and Deviants are born with their powers: Eternals get immortality and the ability to manipulate cosmic energy (at the cost of constantly needing to vent off heat), and the Deviants get Lovecraftian Superpowers. - The Inhumans were further messed up by Kree experiments, and now manifest random powers and mutations through exposure to Terrigen Mist in a process called terrigenesis. People descended from Inhumans who mated with baseline humans also have a chance of undergoing terrigenesis or dying. - Mutants usually manifest their mutations at puberty, though a rare few manifest their mutations at birth. This is apparently due to an extra gene dubbed the X-gene. Certain outside conditions seem to be able to cause the X-gene to manifest more often in the human population — the detonation of the atomic bombs during World War II triggered a rise in mutant birthrates. It's also implied that every mutant is actually a Reality Warper who unconsciously alters reality in a different way. - Baseline humans usually never manifest powers on their own, but exposure to certain (usually life-threatening) conditions can cause them to appear. There are subgroups among these, such as the fact that excess gamma radiation usually makes humans sick but causes a select few to become monsters like The Incredible Hulk. - Some humans can attain psychic powers, such as Moon Dragon, or functional magic, such as Jennifer Kale through nothing but training and study that surpass even "naturally" gifted mutants in raw power, though not in versatility. Doctor Strange got both, although most people who try to get one just go crazy and even he has made several deals with various non humans due to get around that lack of versatility. - Dæmorphing is an Animorphs AU where humans all have daemons like in His Dark Materials, manifestations of their souls that take the form of animals, and it's brought up many times that daemons are a fundamental part of being human. - Diary Of A Store Clerk: Humans are, in almost all regards, exactly the same as in real life, with one caveat — for somewhat unclear reasons, living in Equestria causes them to hibernate through the winter and gives them an instinctive urge to hide food around the house in preparation for this. - Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: - The humans from the Star Wars galaxy (referred to as baseline humans) all share a connection to the Force, which supposedly flows through every living thing. Those who possess a strong enough connection to this Force are able to wield Psychic Powers. - The humans on Remnant, termed "Remnantians", lack any sort of connection to the Force, yet the Force still surrounds their bodies in a personal forcefield called Aura. They also possess a strange power called Semblance, which manifests as a unique superpower in each individual. Nihilus notes that while the people of Remnant may resemble baseline humans, their lack of a connection with the Force makes them so different that they might as well be an entirely separate species. - In Strange Frame, humans have colonized the Jovian moons, resulting in many humans becoming genetically engineered to survive in the differing environments of the moons. Thus, there are now humans with furrier bodies or even extra limbs who are still considered humans. - Star Wars: - Humans, as well as all other living species in The 'Verse, possess "midi-chlorians", mysterious organelles which have some intricate connection to the Force. Or something like that — the old expanded universe has gone back and forth over what the role of midi-chlorians actually are, though the new Expanded Universe's current stance is that midi-chlorians act as a go-between for the Living Force and the Cosmic Force. - The Legends continuity includes further details about humanity's nature and evolutionary history, which differs quite a bit from real life's, as would be expected for a setting that takes place in another galaxy and in the distant distant distant distant past: - According to some material, humans evolved from a species known as the Kumungah that was native to Tatooine when it was still a lush and fertile world. Most of the Kumungah were killed off when the Rakata devastated Tatooine with an orbital bombardment as punishment for the Kumungah rebelling against their rule, but those who were off-planet at the time — mostly as Rakata slaves — survived and eventually evolved into the human species. Other Kumungah survived on Tatooine by hiding underground and eventually evolved into the Tusken Raiders and the Jawas, making the two species very close evolutionary cousins of humanity. - Much later on, humans were among the first wave of sapient species to colonize the Galaxy after the old precursor empires collapsed. As such, due to the time it took for faster-than-light travel to be reinvented and for the disparate colony worlds to contact one another again, a truly impressive number of Human Subspecies of varying levels of divergence sprang up (other species had similar radiations, but the humans easily had the most). Star Wars aliens who look more than passingly humanoid are almost certainly Transhuman Aliens. - Anathem: While it's not clear exactly what physical features distinguish the "humans" of Arbre from the "humans" \|\|of Earth\|\| — there's a mention of cheekbones — it's enough that both can tell the difference at a glance. - Berserker: In this series, due to the terrible conflicts against the A.I. Berserkers, "human" is a blanket term for sentient life. In one book, a station full of Earth-descended Homo Sapiens celebrate because they encounter new "humans" — a species of giant energy clouds flying around space. - The Culture: "Human" is an umbrella term referring to all the species of bipedal, hairless apes (or non-primate ape analogues) that have evolved independently across the galaxy. While it's frequently glossed over and agents of the utopian Culture were able to move about on Earth with only minor modifications, detailed descriptions note that there can be enough differences in the height, proportion, skin color, and reproductive processes to qualify as Rubber-Forehead Aliens. Others have drastically altered their physical forms to the point where they're only considered human for the sake of legal and oral convenience, and some Culture expatriates have even gone on to join other species. - The Dark Profit Saga: Humans appear to be the "default" form of the Races of Man — they first arose when the original four races, the dwarves, elves, gnomes and sten, started to interbreed, as any interracial mixing results in a human, as will any human/human pairing. - The Death Gate Cycle: Humans have a natural affinity for mental and elemental magic, in contrast to the elves' affinity for Magitek and the creation of enchanted objects and the Sartan and Patryn's powerful probability-based magic. In something of a twist, this makes the humans, as a species, considerably more closely tied to natural life than the elves are — their mental magic, for instance, allows the humans of Arianus to tame dragons, which the elves cannot, while the humans of Pryan are better farmers than the local elves, who have not even mastered basic crop rotation. - Dragaera has two species that call themselves human; one can use sorcery and lives up to 3500 years, while the other uses witchcraft and has a lifespan more towards 100 years. \|\|Both have been modified from the same source to have their psychic and magical abilities; unmodified "easterners" came first.\|\| - The Fifth Season: Humans have "sessapinae" in their brains that let them sense vibrations and seismic phenomena, a survival trait in the Death World they inhabit. Those born with the Functional Magic of orogeny can "sess" the exact composition of the earth for miles around, drain energy from their surroundings, and control seismic activity in the region. - Hainish: The Human Aliens on various planets that originated from visits by ancient Hainish starships and that are in the process of reuniting with one another have widely diverged. The variations range from minor — Cetians have far more hair than other humans, and people from Chiffewar are all bald — to major — current Hanish have complete voluntary control over fertility, and one of the five separate human species on Rocannon's World has wings — to literal magic in the form of telepathy. - The Halfblood Chronicles: Humans are naturally suited for mentally-focused magic, such as illusions and telepathy, but have little in the way of magic pertaining to control of physical matter. This in contrast to the elves, who have considerable power insofar as physical magic and the creation of magical artifacts goes but cannot manage anything in the way of mental magic without the aid of artifacts. On those rare occasions where elves and humans produce half-elves, these possess the magic of both their parent species, making for potentially very powerful mages. - Hothouse: - The far-future humans are short — about a fifth as much as a modern human — and green-skinned, live very close to the bottom of the world-jungle's food chain, and rely much more on instinct than on their own stunted cognition. - As is revealed through the morel's plumbing of human Genetic Memory, modern-day humans \|\|were actually ape-fungus symbiotes, having bonded with a form of sapient fungi in the Oligocene to bond the animal's strength and senses with the fungus' cognition. The fungi eventually adapted to live entirely within the proto-humans' skulls, merging with their brains to become a single compound being, and allowed humanity to rise to full sapience. This lasted until the Sun began to swell and brighten in its old age, at which point the excess radiation killed off the symbiotic fungi and cause humanity to revert to a savage, primitive state.\|\| - Katabasis: All humans have animal heads, called "aspects". One's aspect can be a bird, (non-human) mammal, reptile, or amphibian. - King Creature Come: The ruling aliens refer to themselves as "Persons" or "humans" and to the conquered Earth humans as "Creatures". The Creatures also see Persons as a separate race and believe them to be unemotional, though one character describes them as "almost human". The main actual differences are that Persons are taller, less fecund and more technologically advanced than Creatures, and all have blonde Afros. \|\|The two races were eventually proven capable of interbreeding.\|\| - Known Space: What modern science knows as Homo habilis is in fact the reproductive stage of the Pak, an ancient alien species that, on consuming a specific root and the symbiotic microorganism within it, transforms into a sterile but immensely strong, agile and intelligent being called a protector, which is thereafter driven only by the unquestioned and single-minded urge to protect its genetic descendants at all costs. Earth was one of several worlds populated by Pak seeking to establish their bloodlines away from the endless warfare of their homeworld, but the lack of a chemical necessary for the microorganism to live caused the protectors to die off and allowed the breeders to speciate and evolve; modern human aging is the result of our bodies trying to undergo the protector transformation without the additional information given by the microorganism. Humans who eat healthy tree-of-life still transform into protectors, albeit with a high mortality rate; the physiological and mental differences between Homo habilis and Homo sapiens mean that human protectors are weaker and less agile than Pak protectors due to the transformation being imperfect, but are also more intelligent, mentally flexible and introspective, and also less dogmatically xenophobic. - Last and First Men covers the history of humanity from the dawn of civilisation through a few billion years to the end of humanity when the Sun is destroyed (no Casual Interstellar Travel here). Given the length of time involved, multiple near-extinctions followed by hundreds of millions of years of evolution of non-sentient remnants, extensive genetic modification, and ultimately several wholesale migrations to different planets along with the modifications required to survive, the final race of "men" bears about as much relation to real humans as we do to grass. - Lilith's Brood: By Adulthood Rites, the human race is Long-Lived on the order of centuries, resistant to disease, and sterile, thanks to genetic manipulation by the alien Oankali who rescued them After the End. All children that are born are human-Oankali hybrids. - "The Monsters": What little we hear of the protagonists' anatomy tells us they have structures like bladed tails or one eye, but they refer to themselves as "humans". Later on, the aliens also say that they are "humans". - Nineteen Eighty-Four: After years of indoctrination, overworking and purging all of the conflicting and disloyal elements of society, the people of Oceania border on this. They are almost completely devoid of love or empathy for others, numb to the sight of suffering and graphic violence, and capable of Bizarre Alien Psychology like Doublethink without coercion. They go beyond Humans Are Bastards and are closer to humanity if they were Always Chaotic Evil. - The Prince Has No Pants: The elves routinely throw entire species into the System; once someone ( anyone) agrees to entering the System, the entire species is uploaded, leaving behind their world and resources for the elves to steal. Except when they throw humanity in, things get... weird. Nearly every single thing on the planet, from humans to plants to animals to air and water and rocks is scraped up, leaving nothing but the molten core of the Earth behind. As it turns out, humanity is in fact a memetic virus upon the face of the universe, with the upright two-legged version merely being the highest caste. Everything else about the biosphere is also "human," which is why humanity has survived hundreds of extinction events and intentional genocides—even if every living "human" is killed, the biosphere itself will eventually re-evolve them. Humans therefore find themselves trapped in a massive gameworld with sharks, ants, and every other animal of their planet now intelligent and perfectly willing to help progress. - The Salvagers: In the 29th century, humans have an organ called a cardiodoid which gives the individual one magical talent. Those few humans who lack the cardiodoid and its resulting power are derogatively known as "dull-fingered" and have issues using certain Magitek items like prosthetic limbs. - The Silmarillion: Humans and elves were similar races, created by Illuvatar and referred to as his children. At that time, humans were like elves in strength and stature, but this changed later as the world aged. The most crucial difference between elves and men was that men were mortal, and elves were immortal, as well as the destinations of their souls — elves linger in the physical world as spirits if killed, while human souls depart it entirely for Illuvatar's Halls. - The Sun Eater: Because of the misguided "Mericanii" A.I., all of Earth's people and most of the colonies have been turned into immortal blobs of cancer that are kept in Lotus-Eater Machine. The only standard humans left are from the furthest non-American colonies. - Tailchaser's Song: Humans are felines instead of apes. Or at least they are according to the "Just So" Story (which is confirmed to be true in many other respects). Long ago, a cocky prince named Ninebirds was deformed by Lord Firefoot. His tail was cut off, his fur was torn off, and his body was lengthened. Firefoot cursed Ninebirds' descendants to serve cats for all eternity. - The Wayfarer Redemption: The humans living in Tencendor are actually \|\|descendants of the last human from Earth, 'Noah', and Urbeth, a primordial bear-sorceress.\|\| These humans seem to be the only species unable to do magic, \|\|but in reality have the potential for very powerful magic sealed within themselves.\|\| This is because \|\|Urbeth's First son, the progenitor of humans, hated magic and rejected his power, leading Urbeth to cast him out so she wouldn't eat him out of rage.\|\| The Charonites look like humans, but possess shapeshifting abilities and are specifically non-human, while the Icarii also once looked human but have since grown bird wings and are also explicitly non-human and, while not immortal, are very long-lived. - Babylon 5: Human history is relatively the same in this series as it is in real life, except one crucial difference: \|\|human history was actually tampered with by aliens (the Vorlons and the Shadows, to be precise). The Shadows were to blame for much of humanity's warlike nature, because they taught them to fight and kill in the name of progress as a species. Meanwhile, the Vorlons tampered with human genetics, trying to create human telepaths to fight the Shadows with\|\|. Sadly, \|\|humans became little more to either side than weapons to be used against each other\|\|. - Stargate SG-1: After humanity discovers the Stargate, they learn that \|\|Earth was originally colonized by the Ancients, who later left the cosmos when they ascended. "Humans" as we know them are descended from the remnants of those who did not ascend\|\|. After a timeskip, it is discovered that \|\|humans eventually regain the old technology that the Ancients used, and end up with a similar society, although it is not clear whether they choose to ascend this time\|\|. - AT-43: The U.N.A and the Red Blok appear to be human, but they are actually the descendants of populations artificially engineered to resemble mankind on ancient Earth. The real Earth-born humans are the Therians, immensely powerful, transcendent beings who reached The Singularity long ago and created the ancestors of the other factions in the distant past. - Exalted: "Human" is defined more along metaphysical than biological lines — broadly speaking, if someone has a soul composed of two distinct parts (a "lower" or animal soul and a "high" or rational soul) and can become Exalted, they're human insofar as the setting's divine powers and metaphysics are concerned. In addition to the Beastmen, which resemble humanoid animals of various sorts, Creation's humans include the pelagothropes, the diminutive, hairless and panda-colored Djala and several other races, many tracing their lineages back to experiments done by the Solars during the First Age. Additionally, it's common for even "baseline" humans to have very peculiarly colored hair — blue, indigo and purple are common hair colors among the Western islanders, for instance, as are green in the Imperial Isle and fiery scarlet in the South. - Shadowrun: Humanity, now collectively referred to as Metahumanity, experienced a massive change as a result of The Awakening. Starting in 2011, children across the world began being born as Dwarves and Elves, a phenomenon that was initially referred to as Unexplained Genetic Expression or UGE. Ten years later, roughly 10% of humanity experienced "goblinization", spontaneously mutating into Orcs and Trolls. These four groups represent different gene sequences that are mana-sensitive, only expressing in the presence of high background magic count, and which also come with different sub-variants called metatypes, many of which are localized to specific parts of the globe. Despite the physiological differences, metahumanity are all collectively one species and can produce fertile offspring with one-another, although hybridization doesn't take place. There are also Changelings, who appeared during the arrival of Halley's Comet in 2061, who possess additional traits such as animal features, oddly-colored skin or mixtures of multiple phenotypes. - Aurora (2019): Humans are one of the three primary mortal races, alongside elves and the long-vanished Ancients. They're generally defined by adaptability, by being attuned to all six elements, and through that by possessing a degree of stability that the wind- and lightning-aligned elves lack. They're the most widespread species in the world and have adapted to life in multiple environments, although in the process have split into a considerable number of Human Subspecies that can vary significantly from the human baseline, such as the horned Stonekin with rocky plates in their skin, the metal-skinned Ironhill people, and the bioluminescent, ocean-dwelling Sekrai. - Earthsong: The titular planet is a temporary home to humanoid species from across the galaxy; humans themselves are vanishingly rare and have strong Psychic Powers, including Telepathy and mind control. - Genocide Man is set in a future world that was ravaged by way of Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke and that now bans any form of "genetic deviancy". The Reveal that the One World Order genetically engineered the entire human race to be more peaceful and complacent via \|\|a Synthetic Plague that killed 1.5 billion people as a side effect\|\| doesn't go over well. - Hero Oh Hero: Humans are able to use magic and can also randomly have strange hair colours (the latter typically being from being born in high magic areas regardless of if the person in question has any powers). The setting's elves are a race (in the non-fantasy sense) of humans with green hair, skin and Green Thumb powers who're called "elves" as a slur by The Empire. - Leaving the Cradle has a linguistical version of that: each species call themselves and each other by unique names, but those names are taken from the species' native languages, and all these words essentially have one translation: "a human". One of the species, raharrs, goes so far as to automatically refer to any other sapient species as also being raharrs. - Outsider: Humans have only recently become spacefaring and, consequently, lag far enough the other space empires in technology, numbers and infrastructure to be essentially non-entities except for two notable traits. Firstly, they very closely resemble the Loroi, blue-skinned Space Elves who are one of the setting's dominant species, which most non-human characters find suspicious to alarming. Secondly, they're the only known species in existence to be completely immune to the Loroi's Psychic Powers — some species have limited resistance, but humans are immune to the point that Loroi are unable to even psychically sense a human standing right in front of them. - Skin Deep: Humans have an unusual level of physical malleability when confronted with magic when compared with any other species — it's extremely easy, when in contact with magic, for a human to develop a sudden and potentially dramatic physical mutation, something which almost never happens to other species. Tim (a human who himself sports a pair of ram horns as a result of a magical incident) speculates that this is likely why so many magical species look like humans with additional or unusual features, as he believes that many likely descend from humans who accidentally gained traits such as animal legs or bird wings in this manner. - TwoKinds: Humans hail from a forgotten continent far over the eastern sea, have technicolor hair, and are treated the way more orthodox fantasy epics treat elves. Besides living much longer than the other sapient species, humans passively absorb mana from the environment and store it within themselves, allowing them to cast, basically, until they've sucked all the magic from the immediate vicinity (a spell exists to supercharge this and it's something of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique — once all the mana's gone, it starts guzzling up Life Energy, and having more than your fair share of that is the basis of the setting's Black Magic). Keidrans can only cast as many spells as they have mana stones, and basitins can't cast at all unless they're irradiated with a large ammount of mana (which slowly erodes their mental faculties). This affinity for magic is what led mankind to becoming Mekan's dominant sapient species. - Unsounded: - Humans are unique in that they demonstrably possess a soul, which lets them access the Background Magic Field of the Khert and delivers their memories to the Khert upon death. Other sapient beings, such as the ancient Senet Beasts and the "Two-Toe" Lizard Folk, see this with some envy or consternation, not least because the dominant religion takes this as proof that Humanity Is Superior. - One handy quirk of Kasslyne humans is that as their soul/mind is strung along khert lines even if their physical ears are damaged they can always hear through the khert. For Kasslyne humans there's no such thing as going deaf. - Alterations to the Background Magic Field in the country of Alderode affect anyone conceived within its borders, causing them to be born into a People of Hair Colour caste system that determines their appearance, magical potential, and lifespan. - SCP Foundation invokes Humans Are the Real Monsters in the most literal sense possible. - SCP-5000 reveals humans \|\|don't naturally feel emotions, empathy and pain, and the only reason we do is because something is living in our brains and forcing us to. So you can either undergo the procedure to have the entity removed and become an Empty Shell, or you can be possessed for the rest of your life. Great. It's also implied this is why 682 is so desperate to kill us all.\|\| - SCP-6969 is human reproduction. \|\|It's revealed that every time a human male ejaculates, they become trapped in a two-second mental "Groundhog Day" Loop that can last anywhere between two weeks to quintillions of years only to lose all memory of it immediately afterward. All attempts to interfere with the process with Sufficiently Analyzed Magic result in the subject expiring instantly, with the exception of one who was enchanted to retain the memory of the process and became catatonic. It's revealed that this phenomenon is the inverse of 5000, in that the original assumption was it being the work of an Eldritch Abomination, but turned out to have naturally evolved within us. As the loop proceeds, the genetic makeup of the semen is altered to increase viability, and without it our species' genome would degrade over time to the point of being unable to continue entirely.\|\| - Vilous: The setting is inhabited by three races that all call themselves and each other humans even though none of them look human at all and are so different from each other that they can't even interbreed. Sergals look like bipedal sharks with fur, Agudners look like fauns, and Nevreans are Bird People. They are all descended from an ancestral race that either were humans or at least Human Aliens that somehow diverged into three different species after the planet was affected by an ecological disaster. Other intelligent beings in the setting, which are all much more alien, can also be declared legally human and thus be granted human rights. - Ben 10: Humanity might seem weak compared to some other species in the series, but they have some unique qualities to them. One is that they're one of the few species able to use mana and magic, although a few others are capable of it as well. Their other, more unique trait is that they can interbreed with any other intelligent species. Any. This includes things like Pyronites, who are literally lava people who live on a freaking sun. Nobody knows how or why they're capable of this, but a good chunk of humanity has at least some alien ancestry. However, it turned out that \|\|the supposed child of a human and a Pyronite encountered in the show was actually a full human who had some experiments done on him to infuse him with Pyronite DNA, then given Fake Memories of his parentage to cover up the existence of the group who experimented on him. So while a human and Pyronite offspring may be possible in theory, it probably isn't in practice\|\|.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurHumansAreDifferent
Our Gnomes Are Weirder - TV Tropes "Gnomes are not at all like garden gnomes, which are actually dwarves, a mistake that began in early fairy tales." Let's talk about gnomes, shall we? Just what is a gnome? A short humanoid...how short? How humanoid? They're almost as diverse as trolls and nearly as widespread in fiction and myth. In the greater modern pop consciousness, gnomes are pretty well-defined. Specifically, garden gnomes: tiny (anywhere from two or three inches to a yard high), long white beard, jolly demeanor, and a big pointy (or maybe floppy) red hat. The problem becomes greater in Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, where they share conceptual space with at least two other "short" races, dwarves and halflings. As a result, gnomes tended to go unnoticed and forgotten in D&D settings; in fact, they were explicitly referred to as "the Forgotten People" in Forgotten Realms. That began to change with the Dragonlance setting and the tinker gnomes of Mount Nevermind: descendants of humans cursed by the god of the forge for being petty and small-minded, the minoi shunned magic in favor of the sciences, particularly engineering...and were completely incapable of approaching these rationally, compelled to make everything they built as complicated and Goldbergian as possible, and valuing failure above success because you couldn't learn anything new once you'd got it right. Tinker gnomes were played for pure comedy, and proved fairly popular. Since then, engineering prowess has become a recurring trait for gnomes in various universes. Some of them are as inept as the original tinker gnomes, but other versions are actually much more competent. Since then, the general trend has been to make gnomes distinctive by making them strange, standing out from their setting because they don't quite fit into it. Note that while creatures with Gnome-like characteristics have been around for a very long time, the word Gnome as it's currently understood was originally used by the occultist Paracelsus to refer to Elemental Embodiments of earth. If a fiction includes elemental gnomes, they usually won't have much character depth or interaction, and may or may not follow this trope. Sister Trope of Golem, Our Kobolds Are Different and Our Fairies Are Different. ## Examples: - Travelocity's The Roaming Gnome, played by a gnome statue. He has a nice British accent. - Digimon Frontier has Grumblemon, a weird combination of a gnome and a goblin with Earth based powers, who in the English Dub also has a You No Take Candle speech pattern. - Gnomes are a sentient race in Delicious in Dungeon, rivaled only by elves in terms of their natural magical talent. They're about the size of human elementary schoolers, with big hands and feet and high-set, slightly pointed ears. - In One Piece, \|\|gnomes are the inhabitants of Green Bit to the north of the country of Dressrosa. They are living hidden away from humans, but despite their secrecy, they come off as very trusting. They also seem to possess superhuman strength.\|\| - In Season 8 Episode 30 of Happy Heroes, Smart S. finds a community of gnomes who are quite filthy and obsessed with staying that way, to such an extent that they frown upon taking baths. - The French comic Bill Baroud has gnomes who keep reality running at the subatomic level, which the hero meets while shrunk. Unfortunately, they're communists, which the all-American secret agent will not stand for. He draws his gun, says "I will never allow it to be said that-", gets restored to normal size, and ends up finishing the sentence (and pointing the gun at his boss) "Communism is the only path!" - A Running Gag in Italian-made Disney stories is someone insulting garden gnomes completely out of the blue. Particularly epic a Moby Duck story in which the villains were tricked into investing a large sum of money importing them, only for the citizens to go away from the purpose-built shop in disgust. - In Briar, Gnomes used to resemble traditional depiction and are described as happy and friendly creatures. In present day, they are deformed, violent and swear like there is no tommorow. - In The Keys Stand Alone, the one small humanoid who plays a big role in the book, Theecat Stefnable, is politely insistent that he is "not a hobbit, dwarf, halfling, gnome, or any other kind of smallman the people here seem to think I am. The proper term for me is Irorin." He's superficially like the common stereotype of a gnome, in that he describes himself as a "technological genius and rogue-for-hire" and does indeed have mad tinkering skillz that turn out to be very useful to the four later on. - Gnomes are mentioned throughout Artemis Fowl, but they're given less focus than the other fairy races; all that's really known is that they average about two feet tall, tend to be fat and with large butts, and count a few minor characters among their numbers. Interestingly, the fairies' language is called Gnommish. - Book of Imaginary Beings: Gnomes are Paracelsian spirits of the earth, typically depicted as short, ugly dwarves wearing beards and brown clothing. They guard treasure under the earth, and their name may be derived from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge", due to them knowing precisely where veins of precious metal lie. - The Chronicles of Narnia: the Emerald Witch uses gnomes, who the protagonists at first think are demons but turn out to be a type of earth elemental, as her slaves. Amusingly, they show more variance than all the other examples on this page combined, differing wildly in height, build, color, number of heads, etc. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: They're classic fantasy dwarves, essentially. They resemble short, stout humans, often with beards, and hail from the Land of Fire, where they forge weapons inside their homeland's volcanoes, and the Land of Stone, where they carved whole cities into the mountaintops. As these were some of the lands conquered by the Tyrant before the start of the series, a significant portion of their race has been slaughtered or enslaved by his forces. - In The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, the Secret League of the Oranged-Bearded Gnomes are a recurring background gag, often popping up or being mentioned in unexpected places. Even the Cupids themselves don't understand how they fit into the wider mythos of the series. They are, at any rate, extremely short humanoids, they all wear pointed red hats, and, of course, they all have red beards. They appear to possess interdimensional travel as well as undisclosed magical powers. - Gnomes in the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. Verse are literal lawn gnomes: ceramic mini-golems animated by the Big Uneasy. - In The Dark Profit Saga, Gnomes are one of the original four races of Man. Over the ages, though, the various clans have changed, both mentally and physically, and are now considered subraces, although the general term "Gnome" is the PC way of referring to them. Of note are the Halflings (Clan Haughlin), the Scribkin (Clan Tinkrin), and the Tinderkin (Clan Kaedrin). - The Halflings are short, rotund, and have hairy feet. They don't like to work and only value wealth and comfort. Their homeland is Hollinsher (formerly Haughlin-Shire), full of rolling hills. The most famous Halfling of all is Bolbi Baggs, a successful businessman and co-founder of Goldson Baggs Group, Inc. - The Scribkin are often seen as the quintessential Gnomes due to their appearance, work ethic, and curiosity, and they won't argue the point. They are hard workers (although they prefer intellectual labors to physical ones), and their natural curiosity drives them to advance the science of the world of Arth. They are the only ones to use flying machines for transportation. After being driven from their home of Essenpi by the Kobolds during the War of Betrayal, they have managed to retake Essenpi, but much of the ancestral knowledge was lost, and they are only scratching at the surface of their forebears' advances. - The Tinderkin are the tallest of the Gnomes, only about a head shorter than an average human. They have Elf-like features and their nomadic culture is reminiscent of Gypsies (in fact, on the world of Arth, it's human Gypsies who are often called Tinderchildren). Being the physically strongest Gnomes, they often work as professional heroes and mercenaries. They are quick on their feet and prefer the outdoors. - Additionally, in the ancient past, several Gnomish clans allied themselves with Mannon, who corrupted them into three Shadowkin races as part of his army, including Gnolls (Clan Galden), Gremlins (Clan Remlon), and Naga (Clan Nagata). - In The Deed of Paksenarrion, gnomes are absolute Lawful Neutral with No Sense of Humor, believing that only they know and follow the true laws laid down at creation by the High Lord. - In the Deverry novels, gnomes are earth elementals, resembling small, wart-covered humanoids. Like all the Wildfolk, they're Invisible to Normals. - The Dragonlance novels describe gnomes the same way as the tabletop games. But their qualities tend to differ Depending on the Writer. In the Weis/Hickman novels, Gnomes tend to have absurdly long names beginning with "Gn" and are obsessed with inventing things, though their inventions invariably never work. However, the Preludes novel Darkness and Light by Paul Thompson and Tonya Carter depicts gnomes as brilliant and effective, if a bit scatterbrained. The gnomes (who have names referring to their professions such as Woodcut and Roperig and Rainspot) manage to successfully build a device to fly them to the red moon, so they're clearly much more competent than the typical Dragonlance gnome. - A Fantasy Attraction has Stanley, a gnome selling a lava maker, tornado creator, and storm caller. He should send his catalogue out to the evil overlords. - The appropriately named Gnomesaga is all about getting into the oddball culture of a Steampunk fantasy version of them. - Forest of Boland Light Railway is about a community of gnomes who built a steam railway. This early Main/Steampunk novel can be described as The Hobbit meets Thomas the Tank Engine. - In The Forsaken Children, gnomes are one of the many elementals in the setting (more specifically, earth elementals). Overall, they resemble short, squat people with prehensile hair, and a preference for red hats. - Garrett, P.I.: Subverted, of all things. Gnomes are just short people, about kneecap-height on a human. A history of Fantastic Racism makes them touchy about short jokes. - The things some of them yell at Garrett for disturbing them suggest they have some connection with finance: a possible Stealth Pun about the "gnomes" of Zurich. - The book Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, and its Animated Adaptation The World of David The Gnome details the society and history of, well, garden gnomes. - The book actually concentrates on a type/culture of gnomes known as "Woodland gnomes". Other types of gnomes, including Garden gnomes, Farm gnomes, House gnomes and some others, are only briefly introduced. - They also published a gnome-sized-version of the book, entitled Little Gnome Facts. - In A Gnomewrench in the Dwarfworks and its sequel, A Gnomewrench in the Peopleworks, gnomes are sadistic Lawful Evil shapeshifters, of a certain type — they're always recognizably gnomes, but they can lengthen or shorten their limbs, turn their arms into swords, etc. - Gnomes in Teresa Edgerton's Goblin Moon and The Gnome's Engine are similar to D&D gnomes in stature and in their fondness for gadgetry (which they're quite good at); they also love brain-teasers and geometric puzzles. Their strangeness comes from their anatomy, as these gnomes have curled horns like a sheep's, and huge feet with mole-like digging nails. So they go barefoot, and wear hats with gaps in the brim for their horns. - Goosebumps: - Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes: They are garden gnomes that come to life and vandalize gardens, and they are frozen by the sound of dog whistles. - Planet of the Lawn Gnomes: \|\|The story turns out to be set on a planet populated by the gnomes. Because they are frozen during the day, they built humanoid robots to take care of the planet.\|\| - Harry Potter: Gnomes are barely-intelligent garden pests with potato-shaped heads. "De-gnoming" a garden consists of bodily chucking them over the wall, though they inevitably wander back after a while. - In the Franny K. Stein book The Invisible Fran, Franny tries to find something of hers to bring to school for Hobby Day. Her dog Igor reminds her of a time when she brought a garden gnome to life and her family had to lock themselves in the bathroom until the police came. Franny turns the suggestion of bringing a gnome to school down. - Land of Oz: The Nomes of Oz are downright evil underground dwellers with dreams of conquest and an extremely Weaksauce Weakness — eggs. Return to Oz expands on this: in the film, the Nomes are also earth elementals that dwell in rock and stone, crafting the bodies they require out of those materials. - In Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc. gnomes are earth elementals, though the one a witch summons to fix what he did to the protagonist's shop looks like a little bearded man with a pointed hat. - In the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, we are introduced to Go Home Gnomes, a race of short (around 3 feet tall) greedy, shortsighted (their eyes work, it's their plans that don't), and stupid creatures. Unlike most gnomes, they appear to be something like humanoid shrews or ferrets more than simply small humans. - The gnomes of Dave Duncan's A Man Of His Word and A Handful Of Men are (like all the races of the setting) not a species but a distinct subrace of humanity — in their case, short, sharp-toothed, and with a cultural and physiological preference for living in dark and filthy environments such as sewers. They're actually fairly intelligent and reasonable people if you get to know them, but very few members of the other races are willing to make the effort. - Chester in Monster probably takes the cake: he's a being from Another Dimension, and his body (made especially for him during his stay in our dimension) is made of paper. As he's able to change his shape by folding himself, he's occasionally called "an origami gnome." - Incidentally, the villain of the story has a fairly traditional army of gnomes patrolling her garden. - The gnomes in Monster Hunter Vendetta live in the projects of Birmingham, Alabama, where they have adopted the gangster lifestyle and they'll bust a cap in yo' ass if you call them lawn gnomes. - In The Mote in God's Eye the watchmakers are somewhat like alien crazy tinker gnomes: small, technically competent, but nonsentient and likely to create weird and dangerous gadgets. The Moties consider them marginally useful vermin who require regular extermination, and to the humans who witness their \|\|takeover and resulting destruction of the Macarthur\|\| they're horrifying. Well, at first the humans think they're cute (they even think they may be Motie young), it's only later that they become horrifying. - The Gnomics note : "Gnomic" is a word for a cryptic aphorism derived from the same Greek word as "gnostic" and probably unrelated to "gnome"; it's likely that this is not the only example of gnomes as scholars which plays off this pun. Engywook and Urgl are minor characters in The NeverEnding Story, who are important to Atryu's quest to cure the Childlike Empress. Engywook is a Grumpy Old Man who loves science and is dedicated to studying the mysterious Oracle; his wife, Urgl, is just as grumpy, but is more interested in medicine. In the Animated Adaptation, the Magic Versus Technology aspect of the relationship is played up more, but, though they bicker and quarrel, the gnomes are a loving couple. They also both offer their skills to Bastian when he needs them; Engywook's airplane comes in handy when Falkor is unavailable. - Ology Series: Gnomes are depicted in Monsterology as short, but only around as short as extremely short humans, and physically human-like in other respects. They're nocturnal by nature, and keep bats and moths as pets. - The alchemist Paracelsus, describing elemental creatures, called earth elementals "gnomes". This seems to be the origin of the word, in fact. - Little is known of the gnomes of A Practical Guide to Evil, however their general Bungling Inventor hat has been replaced with an overwhelming technological advantage over all other civilizations. Generally the only time Calernia hears about the gnomes is when they send cryptic threats to any nation dabbling in technology they deem forbidden. Any nation ignoring their first two warnings is eradicated without a trace. - Terry Pratchett: - Discworld gnomes are six inches high, and seem to vary considerably beyond this. - Some of them manage to have both the strength and the leverage of six- foot-tall humans and have the same belligerence as a human, only compressed. Gnome Watchman Buggy Swires catches birds and rides them. Their Elfland-refugee cousins the Nac mac Feegle share these qualities in addition to being Violent Glaswegian Smurfs. Apart from Swires, however, the only gnome to have displayed these characteristics, Wee Mad Arthur, later turned out to be a Feegle anyway. - Other gnomes are presented as being more diffident; another gnome named Swires appears in The Light Fantastic and his response to most threats is what you'd expect from someone six inches tall. The gnomes in "Theatre of Cruelty" and Raising Steam are similar, avoiding humanity when possible and often being exploited when they can't, although the ones in Raising Steam are happy to be helpful if asked nicely. It might be that only the other kind dare to move to Ankh-Morpork voluntarily. They are also skilled shoemakers, apparently. - Their very first appearance was for the sake of a pun, what Twoflower calls "reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits" when trying to explain the concept of insurance and other financial matters (echo-gnomics). - The Nomes Trilogy stars the "nomes", a \|\|stranded alien\|\| race of tiny humanoids who move, think, and age at ten times human speed. They also have a tendency to create very literal religions, such as the ones who live in a department store, and believe that the store's founder is the creator of their world, and garden gnomes are somewhere between grave markers and passed-on spirits of dead nomes. They don't appear aware that humans actually create them — they just see them appear periodically in the garden section. - George MacDonald's Phantastes mentions them in passing, in amongst a gathering of Plant Person fairies: From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. - The gnomes of the Four Lands in Shannara are steppe-dwelling nomads, more like orcs or a Barbarian Tribe in their general nastiness. They're described as short but not tiny, with jaundiced-looking skin and wiry bodies. Some gnomes, such as a tracker named Slanter, distinguish themselves, but for the most part they're cannon fodder. - In addition, there are also the spider gnomes — freakish, barely-sentient mutants with unnaturally long limbs and skittering gaits that other gnomes hate and fear. - On the side of good (or Hipocratic Oath neutral) are the healer gnomes of Storlock. - Like most races in Shannara, gnomes are actually mutated humans, descendants of survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. In the first book, a barely concealed Lord of the Rings knockoff, gnomes played the part of orcs and received very little characterisation. Later books gave them more variation and actual named characters. - Tolkien's Legendarium: - In the early drafts of Middle-earth's history, posthumously published as The Book of Lost Tales, J. R. R. Tolkien used "gnomes" as an alternative name for the Noldor elves. note : Although at that stage that was "Noldoli". Imagine Fëanor and Fingolfin from The Silmarillion or Galadriel and Glorfindel from The Lord of the Rings referred to as "gnomes". He liked the word's assumed (but actually uncertain) connection with *gno-, the Greek element meaning "knowledge" (cf. gnostic, gnosis, etc), and the association of the gnome with the earth (the Noldor were the only elves that practiced mining). By the time Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings he had scrapped the idea, as he felt the word "gnome" was too tied up in the connotations of small, ugly woodland creatures. - The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin feature the Petty-Dwarves who, from what little is known about them, seem rather gnomelike: closely related to dwarves but smaller, more slightly built and stealthier, and more unsociable. The Petty-Dwarves did not survive the First Age, in part because they had been hunted for sport by the Elves. - The Ordinary Princess: Mentioned when referring to the hair of princesses, which should be: as yellow as the gold that is mined by the little gnomes in the mountains of the north. - Paige of the Charmed ones had to investigate a death of a gnome in a Magic School library. The gnome is one of the teachers. - Studio 100 gives use Kabouter Plop: The gnomes in this Belgian children's TV series always say their own name mid sentence and their hats are able to move on their own, accompanied by a musical sound usually when they are surprised or shocked. - Legends of Tomorrow has a gnome that looks so much like a traditional garden gnome, it's possible it really is a garden gnome brought to life by magic. - Gnomes of Merlin are human-sized, magical, somewhat elf-like creatures, although rather uglier (while its elves are more like fairies). We only see one, Frik (Martin Short), perhaps because "the old ways" are fading. Frik is subservient yet snarky to the Fey Goddess Mab. Frik claims Gnomes come in all shapes and sizes, he just happens to be a tall one. - In Once Upon a Time, Rumplestiltskin is referred to as a gnome, though this is probably more pejorative than taxonomical, considering he's shown to be a former human possessed by the power of... something. - Power Rangers: - One of the more wacky monsters of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was the Gnarly Gnome, whose arsenal included a mesmerizing accordion and a rake. In the original Zyuranger footage however, he was a goblin. - In a reversal of the scenario above, a later Monster of the Week named Mr. Ticklesneezer was a gnome in the Zyuranger footage, but a troll in Power Rangers. He carried magic bottles that could shrink and capture anything from an airplane to the Tokyo Tower. - Seriously Weird: In "Gnome Sweet Gnome", just as Harris decides to run for chair of his high school class's social committee, he encounters a bunch of lawn gnomes who've come to life and want to install him as their ruler. - Gnomes in The Shannara Chronicles resemble human mutants, presumably radiation victims who survived a nuclear apocalypse. - Special Unit 2: Carl the gnome, he's a petty criminal with diamond-hard skin who acts as an informant. - The one gnome in The Adventure Zone: Balance is Lucretia's assistant Davenport, a short man who can only say his name, Davenport. In particular, he's able to resist the thrall of the Grand Relics, extremely powerful magical items that attempt to coerce people into using them. \|\|The reason for both is due to the fact that he was actually the captain of an interplanar scientific vessel escaping an all consuming force called The Hunger. When Lucretia erased all knowledge of their mission in order to protect the other members of the crew, Davenport went mad - being the captain, his life was so entangled with the mission that when she took that away, all that was left was his name. As for the Grand Relics, he was able to resist them because he was one of the seven who made the damn things. When he gets his memory back,\|\| he's basically functionally identical to a halfling. Although Leon the Artificer is a gnome as well. - In Dungeons And Dragon Wagon, Season 1, the Gnomes are introduced as a great threat to the land. They form bonds with powerful yetis and dabble in necromancy. Though small, they are powerful, industrious, wise, and capable of great evil. - In Urban Arcana, gnomes could pretty accurately be described as mildly mad scientists. A bunch of gnomes designed the self-winding pasta, automatic hat tipper, and a fully functional orbiting laser cannon platform. And the Gnomes of Zurich are literal gnomes who discovered that no-one actually wanted instant mildew, but their talent for finance and accounting was in high demand in their new world. - In Dungeons & Dragons: - Gnomes as a species are almost always good or neutral (though evil individuals crop up occasionally). Generic gnomes (called rock gnomes to distinguish them from other subraces) are pranksters, illusionists, and craftsmen; they have the power to talk to small burrowing mammals. - There are also svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, who are just about the only deep-cavern-dwelling humanoid race who haven't gone evil; they spend too much time keeping out of the way of everything else to have developed much else in the way of a racial identity. - Finally, the forest gnomes are small even compared to the others, live in hollow trees, and are generally woodsy hippie-types. Gnomes of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms both conform to these stereotypes. - In Dragonlance, as stated, minoi (or tinker gnomes) are more or less the Trope Maker. Of note are the "original" gnomoi (or thinker gnomes) to be found on the continent of Taladas, sane tinker gnomes who regard the minoi as slightly retarded cousins to be cared for and kept from hurting themselves (conversely, the minoi think the gnomoi are insane for not being manic inventors and call them "mad gnomes"). - The tinker gnomes are, disturbingly enough, the default gnome subrace in Spelljammer. It turns out that a group of minoi from the Dragonlance world found their way into outer space and, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Flow, multiplied. These spacebound gnomes are responsible for creating the famed Giant Space Hamsters, used to power their starships (yes, exactly how you're picturing it), as well as their better known cousins the Miniature Giant Space Hamsters. - The gnomes of Eberron are merchants, newshounds, crafters of elemental-powered vehicles, and just happen to have the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. Oh, and they're believed to have evolved from rodents. - In the Nentir Vale, default setting of Fourth Edition D&D, gnomes are sneaky fey creatures rather than normal humanoids. They can turn invisible now, but otherwise haven't changed much... unless one counts the new racial story of being slaves to the hideously deformed giant Formorians in the Feywild, which has driven them into often-paranoid hidden villages and lifestyles. They're treated as monsters in the first release of the game, but become a core race in Player's Handbook 2. - The gnomes of Mystara are split between the generic variety (earth gnomes) and competent tinker gnomes (properly known as skygnomes). How competent? They built a Magitek flying city and invented World War I biplanes with magic engines and machine guns to protect it. - Gnomes in Ravenloft, like all demihumans, are rare, but their size makes them not very threatening to superstitious humans, so they're less persecuted than any other nonhumans except halflings. They tend to be well-educated, and have had a hand (along with human Lamordians and Dementlieuse) in turning the northwestern Core into a proto-Clockpunk setting. - In Forgotten Realms, as noted above, the gnomes conform to the standard D&D archetype. They're a race in diaspora, with no homeland or recorded place of origin, though a very large number of gnomes are concentrated on the island kingdom of Lantan, where they coexist with humans. Since even human Lantanians tend to be a bit like tinker gnomes (their patron deity is Gond the Wonderbringer, god of smiths and craftwork) the gnomes naturally follow suit. - A few core D&D supplements have introduced some new and different subraces. The whisper gnomes from Races of Stone are incredibly stealthy rogues with subdued, suspicious personalities that clash with other gnomes and find easy employment as spies. Chaos gnomes or imago, from the same book, are cheerful nomads who possess uncanny luck and exaggerate the other gnomes' flamboyance. An issue of Dragon introduced the arcane gnomes and river gnomes — pompous spellcasters and simple fisher-folk (with webbed fingers) respectively. note : Along with a suggestion that, as gnome subraces are adapted to their natural environment, the city-dwelling arcanes were what you got when that didn't happen. Frostburn introduced the arctic ice gnomes, who have an affinity for ice magic, while Stormwrack gave us the island-dwelling and seafaring wavecrest gnomes. - One of the more unusual traits of D&D gnomes as a whole is that they are also a zigzagging of Our Dwarves Are All the Same; D&D dwarves are dwarves by way of J. R. R. Tolkien, whilst D&D gnomes are dwarves by way of European mythology. - Funnily enough, the same issue of Dragon states that gnomes do in fact wear the pointy red hats associated with garden gnomes. The taller the hat, the higher the gnome's status. - GURPS: Gnomes in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy look similar to thin dwarves and are expert craftsmen. Their entry also notes the possible existence of Hell Gnomes, which is more fitting with this trope. - La Notte Eterna has the Nuno, a race of gnomes who have a symbiotic relationship with insects that gives them various bug-related abillities. - Legend System: "Hallow Gnomes" have low-level mind control and emotion-reading abilities, and like to be ruled by non-gnome monarchs (with the idea being that a ruler without mind control powers, when surrounded all day by creatures with mind control powers, will inevitably be on his or her best behavior). Furthermore, some of their weirdness is in the form of Obfuscating Stupidity - gnomes will often disguise their best inventions as ridiculous luxury novelties, such as garish sets of decorative rainbow armor (that gain active camouflage abilities when one more piece is added) and high-quality opera glasses (that happen to make excellent sniping scopes). - Pathfinder: Gnomes used to be a type of fey, but came to the Material Plane during the Age of Darkness and are no longer properly connected to the First World of the fair folk. In terms of physical appearance they're short, slender humanoids with slightly pointed ears and hair in a rainbow of unnatural colors. - Modern gnomes suffer from "the Bleaching", a loss of color and life that they stave off through a lifelong search for new knowledge and experiences. Otherwise, they can literally be bored to death — a gnome who stops experiencing new things gradually becomes more and more colorless and listless and eventually dies. - Starfinder spins on this to splinter gnomes into two groups — feychild gnomes are as described, while bleachling gnomes differ by surviving the Bleaching and consequently find themselves more even-tempered and better able to sate their curiosity with purely intellectual pursuits. No-one is quite sure where this immunity came from, but whatever the cause it appears to breed true, so bleachlings are an increasingly common minority in gnome communities. - Red November is a board game about drunk communist gnomes in a submarine. - RuneQuest calls its earth elementals "gnomes". - Shadowrun: Gnomes are a sub-race of dwarf that are even smaller than the common dwarves — they rarely reach a full meter — and don't grow much body hair, causing them to be mistaken for children most often. They also have slightly pointed ears. They're mostly found in Europe and Asia Minor, prefer to live away from urban areas and are deeply distrustful of technology. - Talislanta has the Gnomekin, who stand just over three feet tall, with wide-eyed, childlike features and a crest of hair that runs from their forehead down to the small of the back. They live underground, worship the earth goddess Terra, and a generally friendly. They are expert crystal-growers, and their spellcasters, known as Crystalomancers, use crystals extensively in their spellcasting. - Mr. Welch has gnomes that defy description. 3. There is no Gnomish god of heavy artillery. 39. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "can lick their eyebrows" 40. Gnomes do not have the racial ability to hold their breath for 10 minutes. 41. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "impromptu kickstand" 128. Polka Gnomes exist only in my mind. 148. There is no Gnomish Deathgrip, and even if there was, it wouldn't involve tongs. 260. Gnomes do not have a racial bonus in bobsled. 553. No matter how well I make my disguise check, my gnome cannot convincingly pass for any member of Rush. 559. Even if the Ranger offers his sword, the elf his bow and the dwarf his axe, my gnome can't offer his accordion. - Warhammer: There were gnomes in the earliest incarnation of the Warhammer world — they were given stats in the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and appeared in the first three editions of the original wargame as part of the Dwarfs' army list. They were pretty bland, though, being basically short dwarves without the warrior vibe. As of the release of the 4th edition in 1992 there have been no gnomes in Warhammer at all, with Dwarfs and Halflings providing all the short-folk action deemed necessary. - Amazingly, the Gnomes returned to the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay iteration of the setting in its 4th edition, debuting in the adventure sourcebook "Rough Nights & Hard Days". In this new iteration, they are described as resembling a crossbreed between halflings and dwarves; small, slenderly built humanoids with large noses and ears, skinnier than halflings and, whilst able to grow beards, completely unattached to them. They have a racial affinity for Ulgu, the magical wind of shadows, illusions, and deceit, and can only learn to cast spells from it, Necromancy or Dhar. Even non-wizard gnomes have some innate magical abilities based on this affinity, and because of this they have been viciously persecuted by Imperial witch hunters and mobs for generations. Already clannish, stubborn and surly to begin with, they have gone into seclusion, and usually disguise themselves as halflings when they interact with humans. - The World of Darkness: - Changeling: The Dreaming: "Nockers" (named for mine spirits from Eastern European folklore) from are very much like tinker gnomes... though usually taller. - Changeling: The Lost: The Wizened also have many aspects of this, generally being people who were "diminished" (whether in height, mass, "presence" or whatever else) while gaining skill in crafting and making things. - New World of Darkness: In the God-Machine Chronicle, Gnomes of Zurich are mystically-skilled humans who work for an immortal Babylonian hero (in the Ancient Greek, amoral badass sense) named Zur. The term was just a bad joke that they've since adopted. - The Chronicles of Aeres: The gnomes, or "Draemyr" to give them their proper name, were an attempt by the trickster god Brena to create its own personal race, taking inspiration from the Silverleaf elves and redesigning them with a personality more in line with Brena's own. Draemyrs resemble small elves with random minor bestial traits, such as animalistic ears, horns or a tail, and vibrantly colorful hair. During the last war, the evil Vulgraks manipulated many Draemyrs into following them, and although they turned on their former allies once they realized what was going on, their exposure to the Vulgraks' Black Magic corrupted them, giving them green skin and more feral appearances, as well as the ability to turn into living obsidian for brief periods of time. These corrupted gnomes are known as "Drauglirs". - In Arcanum, Gnomes have a knack for money and trade and thus are used in the same role as Jews generally were in Victorian fiction. \|\|They have also engineered the serial rape of human women by ogres to breed half-ogres to use as body guards\|\|. - City of Heroes has the Red Caps, which are terrifyingly dangerous for their level. Also, Red Cap bosses are larger than most heroes. - In the DLC campaign of Cuphead, the stage "Gnome Way Out" shows that Glumstone the Giant has an entire community of gnomes that live around, on, and within him. The stage opens with them attempting to mine his mouth for gold; presumably as an allusion to the seven dwarfs. Throughout the battle, the gnomes serve as flunkies to Glumstone, attacking Cuphead and his friends, by a variety of means including hammers, fumes from a cauldron, riding on flying geese, using their conical hats as spikes on the ground, and somersaulting into them. - DragonFable features Popsproket, a gnomish city run entirely by gnome steampunk technology. They have a long-standing grudge against Dr. Voltabolt because he took up dentistry. - Dwarf Fortress features two species of gnome, though they universally act like primitive, savage dwarves: Mountain gnomes live in enchanted mountains and steal your alcohol, while their more dangerous cousins, the dark gnomes live in haunted mountains. They kill you, and then steal your alcohol. The popular Masterwork Dwarf Fortress mod adds gnomes as a playable civilization. These gnomes are a weird mix of Nature Hero and Gadgeteer Genius; they can tame and train any wild animal AND build automatic machines or high-tech weapons. They can also make powered animal armor and robotic animals. - EverQuest gnomes are also pretty much tinker gnomes. Aside from having technology, they get a race-exclusive tradeskill, tinkering. - In Fable III, a man brings a bunch of garden gnomes to life... Things don't go well. - Gaia Online: zOMG! has, in its first area, Animated lawn gnomes. They've learned how to plan and prepare for war by observing humans. They even have mushroom cannons and employ lawn flamingos as beasts of war. - Garden Gnome Carnage: Actually has Christmas Elves. - Guild Wars: While stranger-looking than most, the Asura are basically similar to WoW gnomes. They're good with magic, technology, and combinations of the two. They also build giant (relative to players and even more so to themselves) magical Golems. They're even playable in Guild Wars 2. - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Gnomes are the typical tinkerers; one of them even created the Well of Souls that brought The Fateless One back from the dead. Their society also borrows quite a bit from Ancient Rome. - Kingdom of Loathing: Gnomes are drawn as circles with arms and legs, rather than traditional stick figures like everybody else. They are desert dwellers living in a Mad Max-inspired Scavenger World, although for the most part it's nowhere near as crapsacky. They're technologically a bit advanced, but their main hat is that they use "gn" in place of "n" in all their words. Gnorm the Gnome teaches the skill "Torso Awaregness", for example. There are also the Sk8 Gnomes, who sk8board. - For most gamers, they interact with the a group of desert gnome nomads (or rather "gnomads") led by Gnasir, who assist the character in trekking through the desert, namely by fetch quests (getting them a certain item can get you an exploration pamphlet while getting the pages for their manual will net you hooks that with a drum machine will let you ride a sandworm to boost more exploration.) - For those who ascend under the Wombat, Blender, or Packrat moon signs though, they get to see said Mad-Max inspired gnomes, in the sign-exclusive Gnomish Gnomad Camp. Contains a large quest involving the exchange of many items along with the availability of permable skilles and "Supertinkering" allowing for the creation of clockwork-like devices (which the parts can be fetched from the Thugnderdome.) - In King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, there are five rhyming Sense Gnomes in one of the islands that can kill any human who sets foot on the island. And their naming features are based on the five senses (with their names in parentheses): The Gnome with the Jumbo Nose (Smell; Old Tom Trow), the Gnome with the Monumental Ears (Hearing; Hark Grovernor), the Gnome with the Gigantic Mouth (Taste; Grump-Frump), the Gnome with the Huge Hands (Touch; Trilly-Dilly), and the Gnome with the Enormous Eyes (Sight; Old Billy Batter). - Larry and the Gnomes: the eponymous creatures actually vary wildly in size, going from ridiculously small to almost human-sized. Many of them look like small ugly humans, others are similar to dwarves. Gnomes are stated to have once been peaceful creatures until a mysterious influence turned them vicious, mean-spirited, murderous and overall very, very naughty. - League of Legends: Yordles fill the role of gnomes but combine this trope with Ridiculously Cute Critter for great effect. - Majesty: Gnomes are tiny, live in junkheaps, and invite their buddies rather quickly if allowed to move into your kingdom. They also speed up construction of new buildings and repair of damaged ones. Unfortunately, elves and dwarves are no fonder of gnomes than they are of each other. - Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent: The "Hidden People" look like garden gnomes with red skin and white beards. They're a rather unsettling bunch with a tendency to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. And according to the sequel, \|\|they're apparently moon spirits who are being kept from their home on the Moon by a government mind-control ray, and their attempts to communicate with the people of Scoggins have driven many of the locals to become obsessed with puzzles.\|\| - Neverwinter Nights 2 takes the "Weirder" part to an extreme with Grobnar Gnomehands. He's a bard, omniglot, and mechanical genius. He's also an unabashed Cloud Cuckoo Lander that most players (and most of the party) find unbelievably annoying. - Overlord: Gnomes are more or less tiny beards with legs and funny hats and glowing eyes that can only say "eep", also some can explode by humping your legs and \|\|are planing to kill you in the end\|\|. They declare war early on against the Evil Overlord and you're given a sidequest to kill 1000 of the little buggers, which is reasonable since their only gameplay purpose is to be farmed for Lifeforce (your reward for doing so earns you an Achievement/Trophy and a hat for your minions). They're also an Good Counterpart to your minions — both are numerous, individually weak creatures that come in color-coded elemental varieties. And by "declare war" we mean one bumped into you. - Oxygen Not Included: Duplicants are gnomes IN SPAAACE! They are 0.61 meters (2 feet) tall and weigh in at 1 kilogram. They have an odd combination of hypercompetent and pants-on-head stupidity. They're capable of building sprawling space stations and setting up systems to recycle their wastes back into resources, but at the same time have no qualms about, for example, shitting in the town reservoir or breaking the life support during a tantrum. Of course, ONI is a combination of Lemmings, Dwarf Fortress, and Space Station 13. - In Pillars of Eternity, Orlans are a blend of D&D-style gnomes and halflings according to Word of God. They're short humanoids with two-toned skin and large, hairy ears. They've been victimized repeatedly by other cultures they've come in contact with and have either retreated progressively deeper into the wilds or resorted to guerrilla warfare. They come in two varieties: Hearth Orlans, which are the more common variety and Wild Orlans, who are covered in fur and look more animalistic. - Pilot Kids have a living ceramic gnome as a boss, whose weapon is a flower pot that sprouts a gatling gun. If you defeat him, he'll leave behind his pet Man-Eating Plant to continue the battle. - Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 portrays garden gnomes (who are seemingly living ceramic, not flesh-and-blood) as mysterious technologically advanced beings who reside in another dimension. They appear to be Abusive Precursors, with their ancient portal technology left behind in our world and used by Plants and Zombie sides and are hostile to both factions. - Runescape, Gnomes are masters of treepunk or Bamboo Technology rather than steampunk; Dwarfs are the steampunk masters. - Tales Series: Gnome is the spirit of earth, which fits the Elemental Embodiment part. There are small creatures that are presumably also Gnomes in the first installment, Tales of Phantasia. He takes the form of a mole with a propeller on his head in Tales of Symphonia. The dungeon where he lives is also occupied by a horde of Gnomelettes, six-inch-tall lumps of childish belligerence in pointy hats. They usually want something from you, and they won't let you pass until you give it to them-even if it means you have to backtrack out of the dungeon to fetch it. - The Gnome in Terraria is an uncommon enemy found underground inside of Living Tree systems. They're really fast and can cause a lot of trouble early game, but if you can lure it out to the sunlight they will petrify and become mere garden gnomes for your base decor. - The Gnomes in Trails Series are an ancient tribe with great technological capabilities and who utilized the Sept-Terrion of Earth. There's also nothing that indicates Gnomes looked any different from regular humans. - Wizardry: Gnomes are playable race, characterized as the intellectual, studious race. Oddly enough, they also excel as priests — Piety, the stat representing the ability to study intensively for long periods of time (among other things) is the priest's main attribute, and the gnomes have the highest base Piety in the game. - In the spinoff Class of Heroes gnomes are disembodied earth spirits that need to possess a physical shell to interact with the material world — they also get along fairly well with all the other races in a setting rife enough with racial tensions that it's an aspect of the game mechanics. This was so weird that the Atlus translation renamed them Erdgeists. (Rather unimaginatively, German for "Earth Spirit.") - In the World of Mana games, Gnome is the elemental spirit of earth, although he looks like a garden gnome. - World of Warcraft: The gnomes of Gnomeregan are heavily based on Dragonlance tinker gnomes; they have advanced technology all the way up to nuclear reactors in a world where most other races are still fiddling with steam engines (not that it really matters that much, 'cause Rock Beats Laser whenever needed). - Unlike the Dragonlance gnomes, Warcraft gnomes are actually pretty professional when it comes to engineering, and tend to meticulously plan and test their inventions (unlike goblins, who tend to throw something together on a whim, and then either promptly forget about it or make it explode). Doesn't stop them from deciding to build completely crazy inventions just to see if they would work, though. Also unlike Dragonlance gnomes they are fairly competent magic users. Of course they still think its a good idea to NUKE their capital city when it gets invaded from a nasty case of digging too deep and end up causing more trouble then the invaders themselves could have caused (they irradiated a good chunk of their population and you know what's worse then invaders from below? RADIOACTIVE, NUCLEAR ENERGY SHOOTING invaders from below). Granted, this was stated to have been caused by an evil advisor, but STILL you think one of the higher ups would have thought it was a BAD idea to nuke their own city. - One short story explains that unlike most of the setting's occupants, the Gnomes have no history of fighting among themselves, having had to stick together and focus on escaping to survive in a world filled with people thrice their size, so the leader in charge couldn't even fathom said treacherous advisor would deliberately risk or actively end the city's population. Another interesting unique cultural trait they're given is that they barely keep record of the past, focusing more on innovation, which contrast them with the more proud-warrior-ish, archaeologically inclined Dwarves despite their many similarities. - Gnomes also have a friendly but fierce racial rivalry with their fellow pint-size technophiles, the goblins, as the two races approach engineering from opposite ends. Goblins are function before form, where gnomes are form before function. This translates into more concrete forms with the engineering player profession: a gnomish engineering specialist gains access to unique schematics for a wide array of wacky gadgets with disturbing tendencies to backfire, where goblin engineering specialists gain access to an assortment of practical explosives (which backfire too). Goblin tech generally has a higher chance of either not functioning or backfiring. It's exemplified by the short Mecha duels between goblin Trade Prince Gallywix and gnome High Tinker Mekkatorque in Battle for Azeroth. Mekkatorque easily wins with his bigger, better conceived and more armored mech. - The reason why the gnomes have such an affinity for technology is revealed in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, where it is found that the gnomes, much like the dwarfs were originally created by the Titans to help them shape the world. While the dwarfs were created as labourers and craftsmen, the gnomes were created to build and maintain the titan machinery. - Not to mention that they were originally robots, until the Old Gods gave them the "Curse of Flesh", similar to how the dwarves were originally made of stone until their millennia-long slumber, which caused them to grow skin and lose their rock-manipulating abilities. - Related to the above, the mechagnomes of the isle of Mechagon once sought to reverse the Curse of Flesh by becoming cyborgs. One mad king who wanted to force Unwilling Roboticisation on the whole world of Azeroth and an ensuing Civil War later, they reunited with the flesh gnomes (and became playable too) to form one single gnome nation. - A species of gnome that appears in All Saints Street, the Roachgnome, is a mutation of regular gnomes that are treated like household pests. They multiply in abundance, eat any material they can get their hands on, and none of them speak. Roachgnomes in Southern China are this, but also burly, muscular human-sized terrors and can fly. - In 20-Quid Amusements, gnomes look like garden gnomes, but tangle controller wires for some reason. - In Dragon Mango, gnomes are a race of short humanoids with slightly pointy ears. They have a natural talent for engineering and innovation. For an intelligent species, they have a remarkably short lifespan of only nine months. As a result, other sapient races find it difficult to relate to them and treat them like wildlife. Humans mostly see them as pests due to the fact that they tend to build colonies near human settlements and mess with their plumbing. But some have taken notice of their ingenuity and observe them, copying the results of their successful experiments. - In Hooves of Death, the gnomes resemble the stereotypical lawn decorations, but have a fondness for subterranean travel and ironically steal from humans gardens instead of guarding them. \|\|Unfortunately, they arent immune to the zombie virus like Unicorns are, and an infected colony quickly tunnels to the nearest mass of prey: the Yellowstone Camp right above them\|\|. - The gnomes in Looking for Group are depicted as being subterranean inventors who were locked in ongoing combat with the warlike trolls. - Nodwick had a series where it was revealed that all three of the "short races" were the same species and had been running a centuries-long scam, the gnomes were just halflings with fake beards and evening classes, and dwarves had fake beards and steroids. (In a later strip a gnome invented an instant messaging service. When Nodwick tried to point out that this didn't fit with the previous story, he was told to be quiet.) - Gnomes in Our Little Adventure are small, have bright yellow skin and bones, and have long pointy tails. - In Tales of the Questor, gnomes, also known as brownies, are small bald humanoids, barely six inches tall, with an apparently primitive tribal culture and fantastic, magically enhanced leaping ability. They live in the walls of larger creature's homes and hunt rats and mice and other vermin as part of their tribal tradition. They also apparently do NOT get along well with hobgoblins, another diminutive race... - In Weregeek's Shadowrun campaign Abbie plays a gnome rigger with a habit of making bombs out of stuff she finds. - Gnome Ann in xkcd is an incredibly powerful gnome: she was born wise, she can control time and tides, she pursues the wicked and can negate marriages, she travels ahead of the starship Enterprise and she killed the Witch-King of Angmar. (It's all a Fun with Homophones reworking of "no man".) - Codex Inversus: The Gnomes live in thirteen sheikdoms on the coast of the southern continent, on the edge of a desert of dust. Like the Dwarves, they are greatly skilled at creating artificial constructus; however, while the Dwarves favor large, powerful golems, the Gnomes prefer to create small, precise homunculi. - Looming Gaia: Gnomes are five to eight inches tall and known for their ability to enchant animals. As a fae species, they are weak to iron and cannot tell lies. Typically only males wear the iconic cone hats. - Rich Burlew created his own spin on gnomes in his essays on world-building, turning them into a shadow conspiracy group which doles out arcane secrets in the trappings of religion to keep the humans in line. - In A Practical Guide to Evil gnomes are a terrifyingly advanced race that send what is called in-universe "Red Letters" to nations that come close to developing technology that will take the world out of the Medieval Stasis it is currently in. Nations only get 3 warnings. After that, they utterly destroy the nation that did not heed their warnings. - In Tales of MU, gnomes are the same as halflings in older Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien's Hobbits, but with typical MU-twists. The natural stealth associated with halflings and gnomes works like a combined Perception Filter and Weirdness Censor, and it gets stronger the more of them are in one place. A gnomish professor has to remind her class she's there and is completely ignored by the administration. In a setting where Word of God is that technology doesn't work, they get away with clocks and pianos, but nobody notices. The gnomes themselves don't appear to have noticed they have this power. - Wikipedia has WikiGnomes, who mainly do low-visibility maintenance work like fixing typos. - In The Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M. episode "Bitter Gnomes and Gardens", the gnomes are of the garden gnome variety, with the peculiar weakness that they can only move if not seen, similar to the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who (Lampshaded in a Shout-Out). - Tales From My D&D Campaign: - Angel Bloodright is a gnome, but doesn't play very much like any of the gnome stereotypes: She's a bloodthirsty and greedy assassin \|\|who works for The Organization, a secret society devoted to harassing the evil Kua-Toa occupation forces, which more recently has branched out into assassination and bounty-hunting.\|\| - The setting also features the Ytarrans, a gnomish society which is based off the Tinker Gnome archetype, but are ridiculously capable artificers, legendary for creating the race of sentient golems known as Warforged and for generally producing artificing an order of magnitude greater than anything invented before or since. Unfortunately, their efforts to produce a Portal Network to get around this setting's limits on teleportation backfired, infecting them with the mysterious Astral Plague, which wiped out every Ytarran within a single generation. - The Crumpets: In "The Mix-Up", "Sneezy" is an axe-holding, eerie-staring garden gnome owned and fiercely protected by Ms. McBrisk. Concerned with her mother's obsession, Cassandra hides and delivers it to her neighbor Caprice Crumpet for it to remain hidden. Unfortunately, it causes McBrisk to think that the Crumpets' dog T-Bone stole "Sneezy" and led to a "Freaky Friday" Flip between the two with the Crumpets' Electronic Telepathy machine. The gnome gets used for an art project, guitar strumming and orange juicing before deliberately damaged by Caprice. Cassandra brings McBrisk and T-Bone to the machine to reverse the body swap, and \|\|"Sneezy" also gets hit by the machine's electricity. McBrisk returns to normal, but it's later revealed that the dog and the gnome swapped their bodies. T-Bone in the gnome's "body" hunts birds and scares McBrisk, and "Sneezy" in the dog's body speaks from his once-secret evil mind to Caprice.\|\| - We've got a couple of odd-looking gnomes in Dragon Tales. There's Norm the Number Gnome, for instance. - The pilot episode of Frankelda's Book of Spooks has gnomes as four-eyed goblin-like creatures lurking under unsatisfied children's beds offering to do their chores in exchange for their name, allowing them to steal their identity and turn the victim into a new gnome. - Freakazoid! had a one-shot Gargoyles parody where the protagonists were Lawn Gnomes. In this version, Gnomes were the scourge of Norwegian forests because of their annoying habit of pulling pranks and mugging people, until they picked on the wrong wizard's viking brother and were thus cursed to turn stone by day until they changed their wicked ways. - In Gravity Falls, gnomes seem to be all-male; in their first appearance, they try to kidnap Mabel so that she can marry their whole colony. They are capable of piling on top of each other and work in unison to function as a much larger creatures — like a "giant gnome", so to speak. They also puke rainbows and possibly snort fairy dust. They're antagonists of their first appearance but afterwards seem fairly friendly with the main characters. - Kim Possible: Ron Stoppable was scarred as a young child by a lawn gnome, thinking something was not right about it. However, he might be onto something as not even a Big Eater Blob Monster would touch it. - Jimmy Two-Shoes has the Gnomans: ant-sized humanoids with four arms, large noses, and clothing reminiscent of ancient European warriors. They are defined by their immense strength with their introductory episode "Meet the Gnomans" showing them lifting Beezy. They also determine their leaders based on their strength and smelliness. - An actual gnome appeared in "Jimmy Don't Be A Hero" where Lucius attempts to repay Jimmy by giving him a gold-encased garden gnome "made with real gnome" ("Get me out of here!"). - Engywook and Urgl from The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux, two Miniature Senior Citizens about the size of a Tiny with large noses. Engywook is a Mad Scientist and Gadgeteer Genius whose contraptions have a mixed record of reliability, whilst Urgl is a sorceress whose magic is far more reliable. - Garden Gnomes have a very... strange place in the Phineas and Ferb universe. Everyone in Drusilstein literally seems to believe they protect the gardens from evil spirits, and failure to have one is Serious Business. How serious? Well, when Doctor Doof's family's one got repossessed as a child, he was forced to stand for hours in the cold dressed like one. - In Pop Pixie, gnomes are a race of capitalistic astriocrats. Most likely based on the use of the word "gnome" referring to those having a sinister influence in financial matters. - The Underpants Gnomes of South Park are... let's just say obsessed and leave it at that. - Gnomes from Trollhunters are shown to have the traditional design (small physiology, white beard, red, pointy hat) but they are portrayed more as vermin. They do not speak English (outside the occasional muttered word that isn't interpreted as English by the cast) and possess all-spiked teeth that can eat through most matter like a shredder, and a sharp horn that their pointy caps conceal. They, however, do seem to possess some level of sapience, as primarily displayed by Gnome Chompsky. - The World of David the Gnome; see Literature above. - Averted in The Legend of Vox Machina where gnomes are more like halflings; no big ears or bulbous noses here, they're just little people with Pointed Ears. There's only one halfling in the series...and she looks more like a dwarf. This page still isn't working? Add another gear.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGnomesAreDifferent
Our Gnomes Are Weirder - TV Tropes "Gnomes are not at all like garden gnomes, which are actually dwarves, a mistake that began in early fairy tales." Let's talk about gnomes, shall we? Just what is a gnome? A short humanoid...how short? How humanoid? They're almost as diverse as trolls and nearly as widespread in fiction and myth. In the greater modern pop consciousness, gnomes are pretty well-defined. Specifically, garden gnomes: tiny (anywhere from two or three inches to a yard high), long white beard, jolly demeanor, and a big pointy (or maybe floppy) red hat. The problem becomes greater in Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, where they share conceptual space with at least two other "short" races, dwarves and halflings. As a result, gnomes tended to go unnoticed and forgotten in D&D settings; in fact, they were explicitly referred to as "the Forgotten People" in Forgotten Realms. That began to change with the Dragonlance setting and the tinker gnomes of Mount Nevermind: descendants of humans cursed by the god of the forge for being petty and small-minded, the minoi shunned magic in favor of the sciences, particularly engineering...and were completely incapable of approaching these rationally, compelled to make everything they built as complicated and Goldbergian as possible, and valuing failure above success because you couldn't learn anything new once you'd got it right. Tinker gnomes were played for pure comedy, and proved fairly popular. Since then, engineering prowess has become a recurring trait for gnomes in various universes. Some of them are as inept as the original tinker gnomes, but other versions are actually much more competent. Since then, the general trend has been to make gnomes distinctive by making them strange, standing out from their setting because they don't quite fit into it. Note that while creatures with Gnome-like characteristics have been around for a very long time, the word Gnome as it's currently understood was originally used by the occultist Paracelsus to refer to Elemental Embodiments of earth. If a fiction includes elemental gnomes, they usually won't have much character depth or interaction, and may or may not follow this trope. Sister Trope of Golem, Our Kobolds Are Different and Our Fairies Are Different. ## Examples: - Travelocity's The Roaming Gnome, played by a gnome statue. He has a nice British accent. - Digimon Frontier has Grumblemon, a weird combination of a gnome and a goblin with Earth based powers, who in the English Dub also has a You No Take Candle speech pattern. - Gnomes are a sentient race in Delicious in Dungeon, rivaled only by elves in terms of their natural magical talent. They're about the size of human elementary schoolers, with big hands and feet and high-set, slightly pointed ears. - In One Piece, \|\|gnomes are the inhabitants of Green Bit to the north of the country of Dressrosa. They are living hidden away from humans, but despite their secrecy, they come off as very trusting. They also seem to possess superhuman strength.\|\| - In Season 8 Episode 30 of Happy Heroes, Smart S. finds a community of gnomes who are quite filthy and obsessed with staying that way, to such an extent that they frown upon taking baths. - The French comic Bill Baroud has gnomes who keep reality running at the subatomic level, which the hero meets while shrunk. Unfortunately, they're communists, which the all-American secret agent will not stand for. He draws his gun, says "I will never allow it to be said that-", gets restored to normal size, and ends up finishing the sentence (and pointing the gun at his boss) "Communism is the only path!" - A Running Gag in Italian-made Disney stories is someone insulting garden gnomes completely out of the blue. Particularly epic a Moby Duck story in which the villains were tricked into investing a large sum of money importing them, only for the citizens to go away from the purpose-built shop in disgust. - In Briar, Gnomes used to resemble traditional depiction and are described as happy and friendly creatures. In present day, they are deformed, violent and swear like there is no tommorow. - In The Keys Stand Alone, the one small humanoid who plays a big role in the book, Theecat Stefnable, is politely insistent that he is "not a hobbit, dwarf, halfling, gnome, or any other kind of smallman the people here seem to think I am. The proper term for me is Irorin." He's superficially like the common stereotype of a gnome, in that he describes himself as a "technological genius and rogue-for-hire" and does indeed have mad tinkering skillz that turn out to be very useful to the four later on. - Gnomes are mentioned throughout Artemis Fowl, but they're given less focus than the other fairy races; all that's really known is that they average about two feet tall, tend to be fat and with large butts, and count a few minor characters among their numbers. Interestingly, the fairies' language is called Gnommish. - Book of Imaginary Beings: Gnomes are Paracelsian spirits of the earth, typically depicted as short, ugly dwarves wearing beards and brown clothing. They guard treasure under the earth, and their name may be derived from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge", due to them knowing precisely where veins of precious metal lie. - The Chronicles of Narnia: the Emerald Witch uses gnomes, who the protagonists at first think are demons but turn out to be a type of earth elemental, as her slaves. Amusingly, they show more variance than all the other examples on this page combined, differing wildly in height, build, color, number of heads, etc. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: They're classic fantasy dwarves, essentially. They resemble short, stout humans, often with beards, and hail from the Land of Fire, where they forge weapons inside their homeland's volcanoes, and the Land of Stone, where they carved whole cities into the mountaintops. As these were some of the lands conquered by the Tyrant before the start of the series, a significant portion of their race has been slaughtered or enslaved by his forces. - In The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, the Secret League of the Oranged-Bearded Gnomes are a recurring background gag, often popping up or being mentioned in unexpected places. Even the Cupids themselves don't understand how they fit into the wider mythos of the series. They are, at any rate, extremely short humanoids, they all wear pointed red hats, and, of course, they all have red beards. They appear to possess interdimensional travel as well as undisclosed magical powers. - Gnomes in the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. Verse are literal lawn gnomes: ceramic mini-golems animated by the Big Uneasy. - In The Dark Profit Saga, Gnomes are one of the original four races of Man. Over the ages, though, the various clans have changed, both mentally and physically, and are now considered subraces, although the general term "Gnome" is the PC way of referring to them. Of note are the Halflings (Clan Haughlin), the Scribkin (Clan Tinkrin), and the Tinderkin (Clan Kaedrin). - The Halflings are short, rotund, and have hairy feet. They don't like to work and only value wealth and comfort. Their homeland is Hollinsher (formerly Haughlin-Shire), full of rolling hills. The most famous Halfling of all is Bolbi Baggs, a successful businessman and co-founder of Goldson Baggs Group, Inc. - The Scribkin are often seen as the quintessential Gnomes due to their appearance, work ethic, and curiosity, and they won't argue the point. They are hard workers (although they prefer intellectual labors to physical ones), and their natural curiosity drives them to advance the science of the world of Arth. They are the only ones to use flying machines for transportation. After being driven from their home of Essenpi by the Kobolds during the War of Betrayal, they have managed to retake Essenpi, but much of the ancestral knowledge was lost, and they are only scratching at the surface of their forebears' advances. - The Tinderkin are the tallest of the Gnomes, only about a head shorter than an average human. They have Elf-like features and their nomadic culture is reminiscent of Gypsies (in fact, on the world of Arth, it's human Gypsies who are often called Tinderchildren). Being the physically strongest Gnomes, they often work as professional heroes and mercenaries. They are quick on their feet and prefer the outdoors. - Additionally, in the ancient past, several Gnomish clans allied themselves with Mannon, who corrupted them into three Shadowkin races as part of his army, including Gnolls (Clan Galden), Gremlins (Clan Remlon), and Naga (Clan Nagata). - In The Deed of Paksenarrion, gnomes are absolute Lawful Neutral with No Sense of Humor, believing that only they know and follow the true laws laid down at creation by the High Lord. - In the Deverry novels, gnomes are earth elementals, resembling small, wart-covered humanoids. Like all the Wildfolk, they're Invisible to Normals. - The Dragonlance novels describe gnomes the same way as the tabletop games. But their qualities tend to differ Depending on the Writer. In the Weis/Hickman novels, Gnomes tend to have absurdly long names beginning with "Gn" and are obsessed with inventing things, though their inventions invariably never work. However, the Preludes novel Darkness and Light by Paul Thompson and Tonya Carter depicts gnomes as brilliant and effective, if a bit scatterbrained. The gnomes (who have names referring to their professions such as Woodcut and Roperig and Rainspot) manage to successfully build a device to fly them to the red moon, so they're clearly much more competent than the typical Dragonlance gnome. - A Fantasy Attraction has Stanley, a gnome selling a lava maker, tornado creator, and storm caller. He should send his catalogue out to the evil overlords. - The appropriately named Gnomesaga is all about getting into the oddball culture of a Steampunk fantasy version of them. - Forest of Boland Light Railway is about a community of gnomes who built a steam railway. This early Main/Steampunk novel can be described as The Hobbit meets Thomas the Tank Engine. - In The Forsaken Children, gnomes are one of the many elementals in the setting (more specifically, earth elementals). Overall, they resemble short, squat people with prehensile hair, and a preference for red hats. - Garrett, P.I.: Subverted, of all things. Gnomes are just short people, about kneecap-height on a human. A history of Fantastic Racism makes them touchy about short jokes. - The things some of them yell at Garrett for disturbing them suggest they have some connection with finance: a possible Stealth Pun about the "gnomes" of Zurich. - The book Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, and its Animated Adaptation The World of David The Gnome details the society and history of, well, garden gnomes. - The book actually concentrates on a type/culture of gnomes known as "Woodland gnomes". Other types of gnomes, including Garden gnomes, Farm gnomes, House gnomes and some others, are only briefly introduced. - They also published a gnome-sized-version of the book, entitled Little Gnome Facts. - In A Gnomewrench in the Dwarfworks and its sequel, A Gnomewrench in the Peopleworks, gnomes are sadistic Lawful Evil shapeshifters, of a certain type — they're always recognizably gnomes, but they can lengthen or shorten their limbs, turn their arms into swords, etc. - Gnomes in Teresa Edgerton's Goblin Moon and The Gnome's Engine are similar to D&D gnomes in stature and in their fondness for gadgetry (which they're quite good at); they also love brain-teasers and geometric puzzles. Their strangeness comes from their anatomy, as these gnomes have curled horns like a sheep's, and huge feet with mole-like digging nails. So they go barefoot, and wear hats with gaps in the brim for their horns. - Goosebumps: - Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes: They are garden gnomes that come to life and vandalize gardens, and they are frozen by the sound of dog whistles. - Planet of the Lawn Gnomes: \|\|The story turns out to be set on a planet populated by the gnomes. Because they are frozen during the day, they built humanoid robots to take care of the planet.\|\| - Harry Potter: Gnomes are barely-intelligent garden pests with potato-shaped heads. "De-gnoming" a garden consists of bodily chucking them over the wall, though they inevitably wander back after a while. - In the Franny K. Stein book The Invisible Fran, Franny tries to find something of hers to bring to school for Hobby Day. Her dog Igor reminds her of a time when she brought a garden gnome to life and her family had to lock themselves in the bathroom until the police came. Franny turns the suggestion of bringing a gnome to school down. - Land of Oz: The Nomes of Oz are downright evil underground dwellers with dreams of conquest and an extremely Weaksauce Weakness — eggs. Return to Oz expands on this: in the film, the Nomes are also earth elementals that dwell in rock and stone, crafting the bodies they require out of those materials. - In Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc. gnomes are earth elementals, though the one a witch summons to fix what he did to the protagonist's shop looks like a little bearded man with a pointed hat. - In the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, we are introduced to Go Home Gnomes, a race of short (around 3 feet tall) greedy, shortsighted (their eyes work, it's their plans that don't), and stupid creatures. Unlike most gnomes, they appear to be something like humanoid shrews or ferrets more than simply small humans. - The gnomes of Dave Duncan's A Man Of His Word and A Handful Of Men are (like all the races of the setting) not a species but a distinct subrace of humanity — in their case, short, sharp-toothed, and with a cultural and physiological preference for living in dark and filthy environments such as sewers. They're actually fairly intelligent and reasonable people if you get to know them, but very few members of the other races are willing to make the effort. - Chester in Monster probably takes the cake: he's a being from Another Dimension, and his body (made especially for him during his stay in our dimension) is made of paper. As he's able to change his shape by folding himself, he's occasionally called "an origami gnome." - Incidentally, the villain of the story has a fairly traditional army of gnomes patrolling her garden. - The gnomes in Monster Hunter Vendetta live in the projects of Birmingham, Alabama, where they have adopted the gangster lifestyle and they'll bust a cap in yo' ass if you call them lawn gnomes. - In The Mote in God's Eye the watchmakers are somewhat like alien crazy tinker gnomes: small, technically competent, but nonsentient and likely to create weird and dangerous gadgets. The Moties consider them marginally useful vermin who require regular extermination, and to the humans who witness their \|\|takeover and resulting destruction of the Macarthur\|\| they're horrifying. Well, at first the humans think they're cute (they even think they may be Motie young), it's only later that they become horrifying. - The Gnomics note : "Gnomic" is a word for a cryptic aphorism derived from the same Greek word as "gnostic" and probably unrelated to "gnome"; it's likely that this is not the only example of gnomes as scholars which plays off this pun. Engywook and Urgl are minor characters in The NeverEnding Story, who are important to Atryu's quest to cure the Childlike Empress. Engywook is a Grumpy Old Man who loves science and is dedicated to studying the mysterious Oracle; his wife, Urgl, is just as grumpy, but is more interested in medicine. In the Animated Adaptation, the Magic Versus Technology aspect of the relationship is played up more, but, though they bicker and quarrel, the gnomes are a loving couple. They also both offer their skills to Bastian when he needs them; Engywook's airplane comes in handy when Falkor is unavailable. - Ology Series: Gnomes are depicted in Monsterology as short, but only around as short as extremely short humans, and physically human-like in other respects. They're nocturnal by nature, and keep bats and moths as pets. - The alchemist Paracelsus, describing elemental creatures, called earth elementals "gnomes". This seems to be the origin of the word, in fact. - Little is known of the gnomes of A Practical Guide to Evil, however their general Bungling Inventor hat has been replaced with an overwhelming technological advantage over all other civilizations. Generally the only time Calernia hears about the gnomes is when they send cryptic threats to any nation dabbling in technology they deem forbidden. Any nation ignoring their first two warnings is eradicated without a trace. - Terry Pratchett: - Discworld gnomes are six inches high, and seem to vary considerably beyond this. - Some of them manage to have both the strength and the leverage of six- foot-tall humans and have the same belligerence as a human, only compressed. Gnome Watchman Buggy Swires catches birds and rides them. Their Elfland-refugee cousins the Nac mac Feegle share these qualities in addition to being Violent Glaswegian Smurfs. Apart from Swires, however, the only gnome to have displayed these characteristics, Wee Mad Arthur, later turned out to be a Feegle anyway. - Other gnomes are presented as being more diffident; another gnome named Swires appears in The Light Fantastic and his response to most threats is what you'd expect from someone six inches tall. The gnomes in "Theatre of Cruelty" and Raising Steam are similar, avoiding humanity when possible and often being exploited when they can't, although the ones in Raising Steam are happy to be helpful if asked nicely. It might be that only the other kind dare to move to Ankh-Morpork voluntarily. They are also skilled shoemakers, apparently. - Their very first appearance was for the sake of a pun, what Twoflower calls "reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits" when trying to explain the concept of insurance and other financial matters (echo-gnomics). - The Nomes Trilogy stars the "nomes", a \|\|stranded alien\|\| race of tiny humanoids who move, think, and age at ten times human speed. They also have a tendency to create very literal religions, such as the ones who live in a department store, and believe that the store's founder is the creator of their world, and garden gnomes are somewhere between grave markers and passed-on spirits of dead nomes. They don't appear aware that humans actually create them — they just see them appear periodically in the garden section. - George MacDonald's Phantastes mentions them in passing, in amongst a gathering of Plant Person fairies: From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. - The gnomes of the Four Lands in Shannara are steppe-dwelling nomads, more like orcs or a Barbarian Tribe in their general nastiness. They're described as short but not tiny, with jaundiced-looking skin and wiry bodies. Some gnomes, such as a tracker named Slanter, distinguish themselves, but for the most part they're cannon fodder. - In addition, there are also the spider gnomes — freakish, barely-sentient mutants with unnaturally long limbs and skittering gaits that other gnomes hate and fear. - On the side of good (or Hipocratic Oath neutral) are the healer gnomes of Storlock. - Like most races in Shannara, gnomes are actually mutated humans, descendants of survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. In the first book, a barely concealed Lord of the Rings knockoff, gnomes played the part of orcs and received very little characterisation. Later books gave them more variation and actual named characters. - Tolkien's Legendarium: - In the early drafts of Middle-earth's history, posthumously published as The Book of Lost Tales, J. R. R. Tolkien used "gnomes" as an alternative name for the Noldor elves. note : Although at that stage that was "Noldoli". Imagine Fëanor and Fingolfin from The Silmarillion or Galadriel and Glorfindel from The Lord of the Rings referred to as "gnomes". He liked the word's assumed (but actually uncertain) connection with *gno-, the Greek element meaning "knowledge" (cf. gnostic, gnosis, etc), and the association of the gnome with the earth (the Noldor were the only elves that practiced mining). By the time Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings he had scrapped the idea, as he felt the word "gnome" was too tied up in the connotations of small, ugly woodland creatures. - The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin feature the Petty-Dwarves who, from what little is known about them, seem rather gnomelike: closely related to dwarves but smaller, more slightly built and stealthier, and more unsociable. The Petty-Dwarves did not survive the First Age, in part because they had been hunted for sport by the Elves. - The Ordinary Princess: Mentioned when referring to the hair of princesses, which should be: as yellow as the gold that is mined by the little gnomes in the mountains of the north. - Paige of the Charmed ones had to investigate a death of a gnome in a Magic School library. The gnome is one of the teachers. - Studio 100 gives use Kabouter Plop: The gnomes in this Belgian children's TV series always say their own name mid sentence and their hats are able to move on their own, accompanied by a musical sound usually when they are surprised or shocked. - Legends of Tomorrow has a gnome that looks so much like a traditional garden gnome, it's possible it really is a garden gnome brought to life by magic. - Gnomes of Merlin are human-sized, magical, somewhat elf-like creatures, although rather uglier (while its elves are more like fairies). We only see one, Frik (Martin Short), perhaps because "the old ways" are fading. Frik is subservient yet snarky to the Fey Goddess Mab. Frik claims Gnomes come in all shapes and sizes, he just happens to be a tall one. - In Once Upon a Time, Rumplestiltskin is referred to as a gnome, though this is probably more pejorative than taxonomical, considering he's shown to be a former human possessed by the power of... something. - Power Rangers: - One of the more wacky monsters of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was the Gnarly Gnome, whose arsenal included a mesmerizing accordion and a rake. In the original Zyuranger footage however, he was a goblin. - In a reversal of the scenario above, a later Monster of the Week named Mr. Ticklesneezer was a gnome in the Zyuranger footage, but a troll in Power Rangers. He carried magic bottles that could shrink and capture anything from an airplane to the Tokyo Tower. - Seriously Weird: In "Gnome Sweet Gnome", just as Harris decides to run for chair of his high school class's social committee, he encounters a bunch of lawn gnomes who've come to life and want to install him as their ruler. - Gnomes in The Shannara Chronicles resemble human mutants, presumably radiation victims who survived a nuclear apocalypse. - Special Unit 2: Carl the gnome, he's a petty criminal with diamond-hard skin who acts as an informant. - The one gnome in The Adventure Zone: Balance is Lucretia's assistant Davenport, a short man who can only say his name, Davenport. In particular, he's able to resist the thrall of the Grand Relics, extremely powerful magical items that attempt to coerce people into using them. \|\|The reason for both is due to the fact that he was actually the captain of an interplanar scientific vessel escaping an all consuming force called The Hunger. When Lucretia erased all knowledge of their mission in order to protect the other members of the crew, Davenport went mad - being the captain, his life was so entangled with the mission that when she took that away, all that was left was his name. As for the Grand Relics, he was able to resist them because he was one of the seven who made the damn things. When he gets his memory back,\|\| he's basically functionally identical to a halfling. Although Leon the Artificer is a gnome as well. - In Dungeons And Dragon Wagon, Season 1, the Gnomes are introduced as a great threat to the land. They form bonds with powerful yetis and dabble in necromancy. Though small, they are powerful, industrious, wise, and capable of great evil. - In Urban Arcana, gnomes could pretty accurately be described as mildly mad scientists. A bunch of gnomes designed the self-winding pasta, automatic hat tipper, and a fully functional orbiting laser cannon platform. And the Gnomes of Zurich are literal gnomes who discovered that no-one actually wanted instant mildew, but their talent for finance and accounting was in high demand in their new world. - In Dungeons & Dragons: - Gnomes as a species are almost always good or neutral (though evil individuals crop up occasionally). Generic gnomes (called rock gnomes to distinguish them from other subraces) are pranksters, illusionists, and craftsmen; they have the power to talk to small burrowing mammals. - There are also svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, who are just about the only deep-cavern-dwelling humanoid race who haven't gone evil; they spend too much time keeping out of the way of everything else to have developed much else in the way of a racial identity. - Finally, the forest gnomes are small even compared to the others, live in hollow trees, and are generally woodsy hippie-types. Gnomes of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms both conform to these stereotypes. - In Dragonlance, as stated, minoi (or tinker gnomes) are more or less the Trope Maker. Of note are the "original" gnomoi (or thinker gnomes) to be found on the continent of Taladas, sane tinker gnomes who regard the minoi as slightly retarded cousins to be cared for and kept from hurting themselves (conversely, the minoi think the gnomoi are insane for not being manic inventors and call them "mad gnomes"). - The tinker gnomes are, disturbingly enough, the default gnome subrace in Spelljammer. It turns out that a group of minoi from the Dragonlance world found their way into outer space and, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Flow, multiplied. These spacebound gnomes are responsible for creating the famed Giant Space Hamsters, used to power their starships (yes, exactly how you're picturing it), as well as their better known cousins the Miniature Giant Space Hamsters. - The gnomes of Eberron are merchants, newshounds, crafters of elemental-powered vehicles, and just happen to have the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. Oh, and they're believed to have evolved from rodents. - In the Nentir Vale, default setting of Fourth Edition D&D, gnomes are sneaky fey creatures rather than normal humanoids. They can turn invisible now, but otherwise haven't changed much... unless one counts the new racial story of being slaves to the hideously deformed giant Formorians in the Feywild, which has driven them into often-paranoid hidden villages and lifestyles. They're treated as monsters in the first release of the game, but become a core race in Player's Handbook 2. - The gnomes of Mystara are split between the generic variety (earth gnomes) and competent tinker gnomes (properly known as skygnomes). How competent? They built a Magitek flying city and invented World War I biplanes with magic engines and machine guns to protect it. - Gnomes in Ravenloft, like all demihumans, are rare, but their size makes them not very threatening to superstitious humans, so they're less persecuted than any other nonhumans except halflings. They tend to be well-educated, and have had a hand (along with human Lamordians and Dementlieuse) in turning the northwestern Core into a proto-Clockpunk setting. - In Forgotten Realms, as noted above, the gnomes conform to the standard D&D archetype. They're a race in diaspora, with no homeland or recorded place of origin, though a very large number of gnomes are concentrated on the island kingdom of Lantan, where they coexist with humans. Since even human Lantanians tend to be a bit like tinker gnomes (their patron deity is Gond the Wonderbringer, god of smiths and craftwork) the gnomes naturally follow suit. - A few core D&D supplements have introduced some new and different subraces. The whisper gnomes from Races of Stone are incredibly stealthy rogues with subdued, suspicious personalities that clash with other gnomes and find easy employment as spies. Chaos gnomes or imago, from the same book, are cheerful nomads who possess uncanny luck and exaggerate the other gnomes' flamboyance. An issue of Dragon introduced the arcane gnomes and river gnomes — pompous spellcasters and simple fisher-folk (with webbed fingers) respectively. note : Along with a suggestion that, as gnome subraces are adapted to their natural environment, the city-dwelling arcanes were what you got when that didn't happen. Frostburn introduced the arctic ice gnomes, who have an affinity for ice magic, while Stormwrack gave us the island-dwelling and seafaring wavecrest gnomes. - One of the more unusual traits of D&D gnomes as a whole is that they are also a zigzagging of Our Dwarves Are All the Same; D&D dwarves are dwarves by way of J. R. R. Tolkien, whilst D&D gnomes are dwarves by way of European mythology. - Funnily enough, the same issue of Dragon states that gnomes do in fact wear the pointy red hats associated with garden gnomes. The taller the hat, the higher the gnome's status. - GURPS: Gnomes in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy look similar to thin dwarves and are expert craftsmen. Their entry also notes the possible existence of Hell Gnomes, which is more fitting with this trope. - La Notte Eterna has the Nuno, a race of gnomes who have a symbiotic relationship with insects that gives them various bug-related abillities. - Legend System: "Hallow Gnomes" have low-level mind control and emotion-reading abilities, and like to be ruled by non-gnome monarchs (with the idea being that a ruler without mind control powers, when surrounded all day by creatures with mind control powers, will inevitably be on his or her best behavior). Furthermore, some of their weirdness is in the form of Obfuscating Stupidity - gnomes will often disguise their best inventions as ridiculous luxury novelties, such as garish sets of decorative rainbow armor (that gain active camouflage abilities when one more piece is added) and high-quality opera glasses (that happen to make excellent sniping scopes). - Pathfinder: Gnomes used to be a type of fey, but came to the Material Plane during the Age of Darkness and are no longer properly connected to the First World of the fair folk. In terms of physical appearance they're short, slender humanoids with slightly pointed ears and hair in a rainbow of unnatural colors. - Modern gnomes suffer from "the Bleaching", a loss of color and life that they stave off through a lifelong search for new knowledge and experiences. Otherwise, they can literally be bored to death — a gnome who stops experiencing new things gradually becomes more and more colorless and listless and eventually dies. - Starfinder spins on this to splinter gnomes into two groups — feychild gnomes are as described, while bleachling gnomes differ by surviving the Bleaching and consequently find themselves more even-tempered and better able to sate their curiosity with purely intellectual pursuits. No-one is quite sure where this immunity came from, but whatever the cause it appears to breed true, so bleachlings are an increasingly common minority in gnome communities. - Red November is a board game about drunk communist gnomes in a submarine. - RuneQuest calls its earth elementals "gnomes". - Shadowrun: Gnomes are a sub-race of dwarf that are even smaller than the common dwarves — they rarely reach a full meter — and don't grow much body hair, causing them to be mistaken for children most often. They also have slightly pointed ears. They're mostly found in Europe and Asia Minor, prefer to live away from urban areas and are deeply distrustful of technology. - Talislanta has the Gnomekin, who stand just over three feet tall, with wide-eyed, childlike features and a crest of hair that runs from their forehead down to the small of the back. They live underground, worship the earth goddess Terra, and a generally friendly. They are expert crystal-growers, and their spellcasters, known as Crystalomancers, use crystals extensively in their spellcasting. - Mr. Welch has gnomes that defy description. 3. There is no Gnomish god of heavy artillery. 39. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "can lick their eyebrows" 40. Gnomes do not have the racial ability to hold their breath for 10 minutes. 41. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "impromptu kickstand" 128. Polka Gnomes exist only in my mind. 148. There is no Gnomish Deathgrip, and even if there was, it wouldn't involve tongs. 260. Gnomes do not have a racial bonus in bobsled. 553. No matter how well I make my disguise check, my gnome cannot convincingly pass for any member of Rush. 559. Even if the Ranger offers his sword, the elf his bow and the dwarf his axe, my gnome can't offer his accordion. - Warhammer: There were gnomes in the earliest incarnation of the Warhammer world — they were given stats in the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and appeared in the first three editions of the original wargame as part of the Dwarfs' army list. They were pretty bland, though, being basically short dwarves without the warrior vibe. As of the release of the 4th edition in 1992 there have been no gnomes in Warhammer at all, with Dwarfs and Halflings providing all the short-folk action deemed necessary. - Amazingly, the Gnomes returned to the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay iteration of the setting in its 4th edition, debuting in the adventure sourcebook "Rough Nights & Hard Days". In this new iteration, they are described as resembling a crossbreed between halflings and dwarves; small, slenderly built humanoids with large noses and ears, skinnier than halflings and, whilst able to grow beards, completely unattached to them. They have a racial affinity for Ulgu, the magical wind of shadows, illusions, and deceit, and can only learn to cast spells from it, Necromancy or Dhar. Even non-wizard gnomes have some innate magical abilities based on this affinity, and because of this they have been viciously persecuted by Imperial witch hunters and mobs for generations. Already clannish, stubborn and surly to begin with, they have gone into seclusion, and usually disguise themselves as halflings when they interact with humans. - The World of Darkness: - Changeling: The Dreaming: "Nockers" (named for mine spirits from Eastern European folklore) from are very much like tinker gnomes... though usually taller. - Changeling: The Lost: The Wizened also have many aspects of this, generally being people who were "diminished" (whether in height, mass, "presence" or whatever else) while gaining skill in crafting and making things. - New World of Darkness: In the God-Machine Chronicle, Gnomes of Zurich are mystically-skilled humans who work for an immortal Babylonian hero (in the Ancient Greek, amoral badass sense) named Zur. The term was just a bad joke that they've since adopted. - The Chronicles of Aeres: The gnomes, or "Draemyr" to give them their proper name, were an attempt by the trickster god Brena to create its own personal race, taking inspiration from the Silverleaf elves and redesigning them with a personality more in line with Brena's own. Draemyrs resemble small elves with random minor bestial traits, such as animalistic ears, horns or a tail, and vibrantly colorful hair. During the last war, the evil Vulgraks manipulated many Draemyrs into following them, and although they turned on their former allies once they realized what was going on, their exposure to the Vulgraks' Black Magic corrupted them, giving them green skin and more feral appearances, as well as the ability to turn into living obsidian for brief periods of time. These corrupted gnomes are known as "Drauglirs". - In Arcanum, Gnomes have a knack for money and trade and thus are used in the same role as Jews generally were in Victorian fiction. \|\|They have also engineered the serial rape of human women by ogres to breed half-ogres to use as body guards\|\|. - City of Heroes has the Red Caps, which are terrifyingly dangerous for their level. Also, Red Cap bosses are larger than most heroes. - In the DLC campaign of Cuphead, the stage "Gnome Way Out" shows that Glumstone the Giant has an entire community of gnomes that live around, on, and within him. The stage opens with them attempting to mine his mouth for gold; presumably as an allusion to the seven dwarfs. Throughout the battle, the gnomes serve as flunkies to Glumstone, attacking Cuphead and his friends, by a variety of means including hammers, fumes from a cauldron, riding on flying geese, using their conical hats as spikes on the ground, and somersaulting into them. - DragonFable features Popsproket, a gnomish city run entirely by gnome steampunk technology. They have a long-standing grudge against Dr. Voltabolt because he took up dentistry. - Dwarf Fortress features two species of gnome, though they universally act like primitive, savage dwarves: Mountain gnomes live in enchanted mountains and steal your alcohol, while their more dangerous cousins, the dark gnomes live in haunted mountains. They kill you, and then steal your alcohol. The popular Masterwork Dwarf Fortress mod adds gnomes as a playable civilization. These gnomes are a weird mix of Nature Hero and Gadgeteer Genius; they can tame and train any wild animal AND build automatic machines or high-tech weapons. They can also make powered animal armor and robotic animals. - EverQuest gnomes are also pretty much tinker gnomes. Aside from having technology, they get a race-exclusive tradeskill, tinkering. - In Fable III, a man brings a bunch of garden gnomes to life... Things don't go well. - Gaia Online: zOMG! has, in its first area, Animated lawn gnomes. They've learned how to plan and prepare for war by observing humans. They even have mushroom cannons and employ lawn flamingos as beasts of war. - Garden Gnome Carnage: Actually has Christmas Elves. - Guild Wars: While stranger-looking than most, the Asura are basically similar to WoW gnomes. They're good with magic, technology, and combinations of the two. They also build giant (relative to players and even more so to themselves) magical Golems. They're even playable in Guild Wars 2. - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Gnomes are the typical tinkerers; one of them even created the Well of Souls that brought The Fateless One back from the dead. Their society also borrows quite a bit from Ancient Rome. - Kingdom of Loathing: Gnomes are drawn as circles with arms and legs, rather than traditional stick figures like everybody else. They are desert dwellers living in a Mad Max-inspired Scavenger World, although for the most part it's nowhere near as crapsacky. They're technologically a bit advanced, but their main hat is that they use "gn" in place of "n" in all their words. Gnorm the Gnome teaches the skill "Torso Awaregness", for example. There are also the Sk8 Gnomes, who sk8board. - For most gamers, they interact with the a group of desert gnome nomads (or rather "gnomads") led by Gnasir, who assist the character in trekking through the desert, namely by fetch quests (getting them a certain item can get you an exploration pamphlet while getting the pages for their manual will net you hooks that with a drum machine will let you ride a sandworm to boost more exploration.) - For those who ascend under the Wombat, Blender, or Packrat moon signs though, they get to see said Mad-Max inspired gnomes, in the sign-exclusive Gnomish Gnomad Camp. Contains a large quest involving the exchange of many items along with the availability of permable skilles and "Supertinkering" allowing for the creation of clockwork-like devices (which the parts can be fetched from the Thugnderdome.) - In King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, there are five rhyming Sense Gnomes in one of the islands that can kill any human who sets foot on the island. And their naming features are based on the five senses (with their names in parentheses): The Gnome with the Jumbo Nose (Smell; Old Tom Trow), the Gnome with the Monumental Ears (Hearing; Hark Grovernor), the Gnome with the Gigantic Mouth (Taste; Grump-Frump), the Gnome with the Huge Hands (Touch; Trilly-Dilly), and the Gnome with the Enormous Eyes (Sight; Old Billy Batter). - Larry and the Gnomes: the eponymous creatures actually vary wildly in size, going from ridiculously small to almost human-sized. Many of them look like small ugly humans, others are similar to dwarves. Gnomes are stated to have once been peaceful creatures until a mysterious influence turned them vicious, mean-spirited, murderous and overall very, very naughty. - League of Legends: Yordles fill the role of gnomes but combine this trope with Ridiculously Cute Critter for great effect. - Majesty: Gnomes are tiny, live in junkheaps, and invite their buddies rather quickly if allowed to move into your kingdom. They also speed up construction of new buildings and repair of damaged ones. Unfortunately, elves and dwarves are no fonder of gnomes than they are of each other. - Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent: The "Hidden People" look like garden gnomes with red skin and white beards. They're a rather unsettling bunch with a tendency to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. And according to the sequel, \|\|they're apparently moon spirits who are being kept from their home on the Moon by a government mind-control ray, and their attempts to communicate with the people of Scoggins have driven many of the locals to become obsessed with puzzles.\|\| - Neverwinter Nights 2 takes the "Weirder" part to an extreme with Grobnar Gnomehands. He's a bard, omniglot, and mechanical genius. He's also an unabashed Cloud Cuckoo Lander that most players (and most of the party) find unbelievably annoying. - Overlord: Gnomes are more or less tiny beards with legs and funny hats and glowing eyes that can only say "eep", also some can explode by humping your legs and \|\|are planing to kill you in the end\|\|. They declare war early on against the Evil Overlord and you're given a sidequest to kill 1000 of the little buggers, which is reasonable since their only gameplay purpose is to be farmed for Lifeforce (your reward for doing so earns you an Achievement/Trophy and a hat for your minions). They're also an Good Counterpart to your minions — both are numerous, individually weak creatures that come in color-coded elemental varieties. And by "declare war" we mean one bumped into you. - Oxygen Not Included: Duplicants are gnomes IN SPAAACE! They are 0.61 meters (2 feet) tall and weigh in at 1 kilogram. They have an odd combination of hypercompetent and pants-on-head stupidity. They're capable of building sprawling space stations and setting up systems to recycle their wastes back into resources, but at the same time have no qualms about, for example, shitting in the town reservoir or breaking the life support during a tantrum. Of course, ONI is a combination of Lemmings, Dwarf Fortress, and Space Station 13. - In Pillars of Eternity, Orlans are a blend of D&D-style gnomes and halflings according to Word of God. They're short humanoids with two-toned skin and large, hairy ears. They've been victimized repeatedly by other cultures they've come in contact with and have either retreated progressively deeper into the wilds or resorted to guerrilla warfare. They come in two varieties: Hearth Orlans, which are the more common variety and Wild Orlans, who are covered in fur and look more animalistic. - Pilot Kids have a living ceramic gnome as a boss, whose weapon is a flower pot that sprouts a gatling gun. If you defeat him, he'll leave behind his pet Man-Eating Plant to continue the battle. - Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 portrays garden gnomes (who are seemingly living ceramic, not flesh-and-blood) as mysterious technologically advanced beings who reside in another dimension. They appear to be Abusive Precursors, with their ancient portal technology left behind in our world and used by Plants and Zombie sides and are hostile to both factions. - Runescape, Gnomes are masters of treepunk or Bamboo Technology rather than steampunk; Dwarfs are the steampunk masters. - Tales Series: Gnome is the spirit of earth, which fits the Elemental Embodiment part. There are small creatures that are presumably also Gnomes in the first installment, Tales of Phantasia. He takes the form of a mole with a propeller on his head in Tales of Symphonia. The dungeon where he lives is also occupied by a horde of Gnomelettes, six-inch-tall lumps of childish belligerence in pointy hats. They usually want something from you, and they won't let you pass until you give it to them-even if it means you have to backtrack out of the dungeon to fetch it. - The Gnome in Terraria is an uncommon enemy found underground inside of Living Tree systems. They're really fast and can cause a lot of trouble early game, but if you can lure it out to the sunlight they will petrify and become mere garden gnomes for your base decor. - The Gnomes in Trails Series are an ancient tribe with great technological capabilities and who utilized the Sept-Terrion of Earth. There's also nothing that indicates Gnomes looked any different from regular humans. - Wizardry: Gnomes are playable race, characterized as the intellectual, studious race. Oddly enough, they also excel as priests — Piety, the stat representing the ability to study intensively for long periods of time (among other things) is the priest's main attribute, and the gnomes have the highest base Piety in the game. - In the spinoff Class of Heroes gnomes are disembodied earth spirits that need to possess a physical shell to interact with the material world — they also get along fairly well with all the other races in a setting rife enough with racial tensions that it's an aspect of the game mechanics. This was so weird that the Atlus translation renamed them Erdgeists. (Rather unimaginatively, German for "Earth Spirit.") - In the World of Mana games, Gnome is the elemental spirit of earth, although he looks like a garden gnome. - World of Warcraft: The gnomes of Gnomeregan are heavily based on Dragonlance tinker gnomes; they have advanced technology all the way up to nuclear reactors in a world where most other races are still fiddling with steam engines (not that it really matters that much, 'cause Rock Beats Laser whenever needed). - Unlike the Dragonlance gnomes, Warcraft gnomes are actually pretty professional when it comes to engineering, and tend to meticulously plan and test their inventions (unlike goblins, who tend to throw something together on a whim, and then either promptly forget about it or make it explode). Doesn't stop them from deciding to build completely crazy inventions just to see if they would work, though. Also unlike Dragonlance gnomes they are fairly competent magic users. Of course they still think its a good idea to NUKE their capital city when it gets invaded from a nasty case of digging too deep and end up causing more trouble then the invaders themselves could have caused (they irradiated a good chunk of their population and you know what's worse then invaders from below? RADIOACTIVE, NUCLEAR ENERGY SHOOTING invaders from below). Granted, this was stated to have been caused by an evil advisor, but STILL you think one of the higher ups would have thought it was a BAD idea to nuke their own city. - One short story explains that unlike most of the setting's occupants, the Gnomes have no history of fighting among themselves, having had to stick together and focus on escaping to survive in a world filled with people thrice their size, so the leader in charge couldn't even fathom said treacherous advisor would deliberately risk or actively end the city's population. Another interesting unique cultural trait they're given is that they barely keep record of the past, focusing more on innovation, which contrast them with the more proud-warrior-ish, archaeologically inclined Dwarves despite their many similarities. - Gnomes also have a friendly but fierce racial rivalry with their fellow pint-size technophiles, the goblins, as the two races approach engineering from opposite ends. Goblins are function before form, where gnomes are form before function. This translates into more concrete forms with the engineering player profession: a gnomish engineering specialist gains access to unique schematics for a wide array of wacky gadgets with disturbing tendencies to backfire, where goblin engineering specialists gain access to an assortment of practical explosives (which backfire too). Goblin tech generally has a higher chance of either not functioning or backfiring. It's exemplified by the short Mecha duels between goblin Trade Prince Gallywix and gnome High Tinker Mekkatorque in Battle for Azeroth. Mekkatorque easily wins with his bigger, better conceived and more armored mech. - The reason why the gnomes have such an affinity for technology is revealed in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, where it is found that the gnomes, much like the dwarfs were originally created by the Titans to help them shape the world. While the dwarfs were created as labourers and craftsmen, the gnomes were created to build and maintain the titan machinery. - Not to mention that they were originally robots, until the Old Gods gave them the "Curse of Flesh", similar to how the dwarves were originally made of stone until their millennia-long slumber, which caused them to grow skin and lose their rock-manipulating abilities. - Related to the above, the mechagnomes of the isle of Mechagon once sought to reverse the Curse of Flesh by becoming cyborgs. One mad king who wanted to force Unwilling Roboticisation on the whole world of Azeroth and an ensuing Civil War later, they reunited with the flesh gnomes (and became playable too) to form one single gnome nation. - A species of gnome that appears in All Saints Street, the Roachgnome, is a mutation of regular gnomes that are treated like household pests. They multiply in abundance, eat any material they can get their hands on, and none of them speak. Roachgnomes in Southern China are this, but also burly, muscular human-sized terrors and can fly. - In 20-Quid Amusements, gnomes look like garden gnomes, but tangle controller wires for some reason. - In Dragon Mango, gnomes are a race of short humanoids with slightly pointy ears. They have a natural talent for engineering and innovation. For an intelligent species, they have a remarkably short lifespan of only nine months. As a result, other sapient races find it difficult to relate to them and treat them like wildlife. Humans mostly see them as pests due to the fact that they tend to build colonies near human settlements and mess with their plumbing. But some have taken notice of their ingenuity and observe them, copying the results of their successful experiments. - In Hooves of Death, the gnomes resemble the stereotypical lawn decorations, but have a fondness for subterranean travel and ironically steal from humans gardens instead of guarding them. \|\|Unfortunately, they arent immune to the zombie virus like Unicorns are, and an infected colony quickly tunnels to the nearest mass of prey: the Yellowstone Camp right above them\|\|. - The gnomes in Looking for Group are depicted as being subterranean inventors who were locked in ongoing combat with the warlike trolls. - Nodwick had a series where it was revealed that all three of the "short races" were the same species and had been running a centuries-long scam, the gnomes were just halflings with fake beards and evening classes, and dwarves had fake beards and steroids. (In a later strip a gnome invented an instant messaging service. When Nodwick tried to point out that this didn't fit with the previous story, he was told to be quiet.) - Gnomes in Our Little Adventure are small, have bright yellow skin and bones, and have long pointy tails. - In Tales of the Questor, gnomes, also known as brownies, are small bald humanoids, barely six inches tall, with an apparently primitive tribal culture and fantastic, magically enhanced leaping ability. They live in the walls of larger creature's homes and hunt rats and mice and other vermin as part of their tribal tradition. They also apparently do NOT get along well with hobgoblins, another diminutive race... - In Weregeek's Shadowrun campaign Abbie plays a gnome rigger with a habit of making bombs out of stuff she finds. - Gnome Ann in xkcd is an incredibly powerful gnome: she was born wise, she can control time and tides, she pursues the wicked and can negate marriages, she travels ahead of the starship Enterprise and she killed the Witch-King of Angmar. (It's all a Fun with Homophones reworking of "no man".) - Codex Inversus: The Gnomes live in thirteen sheikdoms on the coast of the southern continent, on the edge of a desert of dust. Like the Dwarves, they are greatly skilled at creating artificial constructus; however, while the Dwarves favor large, powerful golems, the Gnomes prefer to create small, precise homunculi. - Looming Gaia: Gnomes are five to eight inches tall and known for their ability to enchant animals. As a fae species, they are weak to iron and cannot tell lies. Typically only males wear the iconic cone hats. - Rich Burlew created his own spin on gnomes in his essays on world-building, turning them into a shadow conspiracy group which doles out arcane secrets in the trappings of religion to keep the humans in line. - In A Practical Guide to Evil gnomes are a terrifyingly advanced race that send what is called in-universe "Red Letters" to nations that come close to developing technology that will take the world out of the Medieval Stasis it is currently in. Nations only get 3 warnings. After that, they utterly destroy the nation that did not heed their warnings. - In Tales of MU, gnomes are the same as halflings in older Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien's Hobbits, but with typical MU-twists. The natural stealth associated with halflings and gnomes works like a combined Perception Filter and Weirdness Censor, and it gets stronger the more of them are in one place. A gnomish professor has to remind her class she's there and is completely ignored by the administration. In a setting where Word of God is that technology doesn't work, they get away with clocks and pianos, but nobody notices. The gnomes themselves don't appear to have noticed they have this power. - Wikipedia has WikiGnomes, who mainly do low-visibility maintenance work like fixing typos. - In The Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M. episode "Bitter Gnomes and Gardens", the gnomes are of the garden gnome variety, with the peculiar weakness that they can only move if not seen, similar to the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who (Lampshaded in a Shout-Out). - Tales From My D&D Campaign: - Angel Bloodright is a gnome, but doesn't play very much like any of the gnome stereotypes: She's a bloodthirsty and greedy assassin \|\|who works for The Organization, a secret society devoted to harassing the evil Kua-Toa occupation forces, which more recently has branched out into assassination and bounty-hunting.\|\| - The setting also features the Ytarrans, a gnomish society which is based off the Tinker Gnome archetype, but are ridiculously capable artificers, legendary for creating the race of sentient golems known as Warforged and for generally producing artificing an order of magnitude greater than anything invented before or since. Unfortunately, their efforts to produce a Portal Network to get around this setting's limits on teleportation backfired, infecting them with the mysterious Astral Plague, which wiped out every Ytarran within a single generation. - The Crumpets: In "The Mix-Up", "Sneezy" is an axe-holding, eerie-staring garden gnome owned and fiercely protected by Ms. McBrisk. Concerned with her mother's obsession, Cassandra hides and delivers it to her neighbor Caprice Crumpet for it to remain hidden. Unfortunately, it causes McBrisk to think that the Crumpets' dog T-Bone stole "Sneezy" and led to a "Freaky Friday" Flip between the two with the Crumpets' Electronic Telepathy machine. The gnome gets used for an art project, guitar strumming and orange juicing before deliberately damaged by Caprice. Cassandra brings McBrisk and T-Bone to the machine to reverse the body swap, and \|\|"Sneezy" also gets hit by the machine's electricity. McBrisk returns to normal, but it's later revealed that the dog and the gnome swapped their bodies. T-Bone in the gnome's "body" hunts birds and scares McBrisk, and "Sneezy" in the dog's body speaks from his once-secret evil mind to Caprice.\|\| - We've got a couple of odd-looking gnomes in Dragon Tales. There's Norm the Number Gnome, for instance. - The pilot episode of Frankelda's Book of Spooks has gnomes as four-eyed goblin-like creatures lurking under unsatisfied children's beds offering to do their chores in exchange for their name, allowing them to steal their identity and turn the victim into a new gnome. - Freakazoid! had a one-shot Gargoyles parody where the protagonists were Lawn Gnomes. In this version, Gnomes were the scourge of Norwegian forests because of their annoying habit of pulling pranks and mugging people, until they picked on the wrong wizard's viking brother and were thus cursed to turn stone by day until they changed their wicked ways. - In Gravity Falls, gnomes seem to be all-male; in their first appearance, they try to kidnap Mabel so that she can marry their whole colony. They are capable of piling on top of each other and work in unison to function as a much larger creatures — like a "giant gnome", so to speak. They also puke rainbows and possibly snort fairy dust. They're antagonists of their first appearance but afterwards seem fairly friendly with the main characters. - Kim Possible: Ron Stoppable was scarred as a young child by a lawn gnome, thinking something was not right about it. However, he might be onto something as not even a Big Eater Blob Monster would touch it. - Jimmy Two-Shoes has the Gnomans: ant-sized humanoids with four arms, large noses, and clothing reminiscent of ancient European warriors. They are defined by their immense strength with their introductory episode "Meet the Gnomans" showing them lifting Beezy. They also determine their leaders based on their strength and smelliness. - An actual gnome appeared in "Jimmy Don't Be A Hero" where Lucius attempts to repay Jimmy by giving him a gold-encased garden gnome "made with real gnome" ("Get me out of here!"). - Engywook and Urgl from The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux, two Miniature Senior Citizens about the size of a Tiny with large noses. Engywook is a Mad Scientist and Gadgeteer Genius whose contraptions have a mixed record of reliability, whilst Urgl is a sorceress whose magic is far more reliable. - Garden Gnomes have a very... strange place in the Phineas and Ferb universe. Everyone in Drusilstein literally seems to believe they protect the gardens from evil spirits, and failure to have one is Serious Business. How serious? Well, when Doctor Doof's family's one got repossessed as a child, he was forced to stand for hours in the cold dressed like one. - In Pop Pixie, gnomes are a race of capitalistic astriocrats. Most likely based on the use of the word "gnome" referring to those having a sinister influence in financial matters. - The Underpants Gnomes of South Park are... let's just say obsessed and leave it at that. - Gnomes from Trollhunters are shown to have the traditional design (small physiology, white beard, red, pointy hat) but they are portrayed more as vermin. They do not speak English (outside the occasional muttered word that isn't interpreted as English by the cast) and possess all-spiked teeth that can eat through most matter like a shredder, and a sharp horn that their pointy caps conceal. They, however, do seem to possess some level of sapience, as primarily displayed by Gnome Chompsky. - The World of David the Gnome; see Literature above. - Averted in The Legend of Vox Machina where gnomes are more like halflings; no big ears or bulbous noses here, they're just little people with Pointed Ears. There's only one halfling in the series...and she looks more like a dwarf. This page still isn't working? Add another gear.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGnomesAreGnarlier
Our Goblins Are Different - TV Tropes "Goblins don't need to justify their cruel acts. They're evil creatures." Goblins in fiction are usually small, ugly creatures which tend to be evil, crabby, and/or mischievous. While they're smaller and weaker than orcs (when the word doesn't refer to the same creature) and trolls (most of the time), goblins may make up for this by being dangerous in other ways. They may manufacture clever traps to trip up the unwary foe, or overwhelm him through sheer numbers. But goblins in folklore and fantasy fiction can differ almost as much as trolls do. In folklore, goblins were diminutive household pests, or at best wild creatures, and were typically conflated with whatever trolls and/or faeries fit the trope. A stronger form of goblin may be known as a hobgoblin, though the term originally denoted the friendlier variety of goblin (the word "hob" being derived either from the shelf at the back of a fireplace and thus indicating "hearth and home" or from a Middle English nickname for "Robert"). English Puritans later started using the word "hobgoblin", originally meaning a friendlier variety of goblin, to mean "demon", which probably is why Tolkien used the word "hobgoblin" to mean "a bigger goblin". Both goblins and hobgoblins, if they were viewed at all as a mythical race, instead of just monsters or diminutive faeries of the nasty sort, would be generally considered the "dark" version of elves or dwarves in that culture. In fantasy, goblins have gained a distinct purpose: their lack of size and strength makes any evil act they may commit seem comical by default, and thus they tend to serve as the lowest rung of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, and are usually the first kind of Mook a budding adventurer will fight, essentially making them The Goomba of RPGs. "Hobgoblin" has become the denomination for a stronger variety of goblins (which may or may not be conflated with the orc), typically closer to humans in size. This usage of the word was propagated by Dungeons & Dragons. Generally if you have both hobgoblins and orcs, hobgoblins will be a more "civilised" regimented evil while orcs will be dim, marauding barbarians — though, aesthetically, goblins will be the ones who grab their stuff from the scrap yard while the orcs will buy their equipment (or kill you and take it from your corpse). Two trends in modern (approx. 2000s) fantasy is to make goblins have a slightly more fleshed out role by: - Turning them into a Proud Merchant Race with a unique gift for managing your money, or separating you from it. - Making goblins masters of technology, often shunned by other races in the setting (with gnomes, dwarves, and humans being possible exceptions). In accordance with the less-than-serious overall image of goblins, their inventions tend to be rickety and unstable, hilariously violent, or they simply explode spectacularly at the slightest provocation. See also Our Orcs Are Different, for another fantasy species goblins are often linked to, and Our Kobolds Are Different, for another species with similar folkloric origins and use in modern fantasy, as well as Standard Fantasy Races. ## Examples: - The Haunted House: The Secret of the Ghost Ball: going off of Shinbi as an example, goblins are small, green magical creatures who feed off the energy generated by human dwelling places. They're more mischievous than evil, and are cute rather than grotesque. - The Hétszűnyű Kapanyányimonyók or Kapanyelű Facika from Son of the White Horse, based on Hungarian folklore, is a small, mischievous, and insanely powerful entity, seemingly made of clouds and lightning — and, in a twist not taken from folklore, is actually \|\|God in disguise\|\|. While alternatively called "Seven Winged Skull-Size Gnome" or "Seven Hearted Lobahobgoblin" in English, its archaic name actually means something like "Seven Cubit Beard and Skull-Sized Egg/Testicle", with his alternative name meaning "Hoe-Handle Sized Dick". The film mercifully focuses only on the size of his beard. - In Goblin Is Very Strong goblins, especially female goblins, are the hapless prey of low level adventurers. With the exception of the protagonist who has managed to reach the level cap. - Goblin Slayer, surprisingly, subverts this. Goblins in the setting are, in many ways, surprisingly generic, with many of the characteristics common in fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons-type settings. They're as small as a human child, with the strength to match, and while dangerous in large numbers, an experienced adventurer can usually make short work of them. Chapters one and two of the manga show, in horrific detail, what goblins do to inexperienced and woefully under-prepared adventurers who foolishly try and raid their lairs, intent on exterminating them and rescuing the maidens that the goblins had kidnapped for breeding purposes. If there's one thing that's different about the goblins in this setting, it is the fact that there is absolutely nothing funny about them: They are absolutely terrifying. - Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Goblins in the series are intelligent creatures that have a bit of a social order, with upper-class ones taking wives and banishing those that lose to them in battle to the Old Town. The exiled ones are the ones most often seen, staking a claim to the surrounding area. They also come in different types. Mud goblins are the lowest kind, while proper goblins have pouches they use to carry valuables. Hobgoblins are roughly human-sized, but are dumb and used as servants. - In The Legend of Snow White (which gives the story of Snow White massive Adaptation Expansion), goblins are fire spirits, short in stature and humanoid but with distinctive triangular noses. Their ruler is Prince Gobby, who starts out as a villain who tries to force Snow White to marry him, but has a HeelFace Turn when he finds true love with a girl goblin named Memole. - Overlord (2012): Goblins are described as being like a cross between humans and apes. Goblins here are the standard vicious little bastards who can only deal damage in great numbers (and accompanied by ogres at that). However, those summoned by YGGDRASSIL's horn (originally a low-level item that summons a small mob of different goblins such as casters, archers, wolf-riders, etc.) are scarily competent, not only an effective guerrilla force in their own right but loyal to their summoner, who end up Training the Peaceful Villagers and helping them build fortifications. We later meet Agu, who belongs to the hobgoblin subspecies. They're Caucasian instead of green, smarter, more articulate and physically better than regular goblins. - Goblins in Re:Monster are similar to the ones in Goblin Slayer. Although females exist, they find it easier to breed with other races so the men often kidnap and rape human women. Being set in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse, they can level up and evolve into hobgoblins which are bigger, stronger and smarter. - Goblins in So I'm a Spider, So What? look like giant mice and spend most of their time trying to level up and become hobgoblins because it's the only way to lengthen their 11-13 year lifespans. - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The goblin tribe Rimuru originally meets are short and weak physically like children, though they are intelligent and skilled enough to quickly erect fortifications as well as use basic weapons like spears or bows, and have a fully functional culture and language. After he names them, they transform into "Hobgoblins" and "Goblinas" for male and female respectively, who essentially resemble green-skinned adult humans with developed canines and pointy ears save for the actual children. Except for Gobta, who still appears the same ("My growth was more of a spiritual type!"). Personality-wise, however, they're practically no different from tribal humans who have no issues with coexisting with former enemies in peace, with a fully thriving civilization easily coming into existence under Rimuru's watchful eyes. - Digimon Frontier has Grumblemon, a weird combination of a gnome and a goblin with Earth based powers, who in the English Dub also has a You No Take Candle speech pattern. - The goblins in So Whats Wrong With Getting Reborn As A Goblin? have some oddities to them. Alongside their blue skin, rather short lifespans (around a week at most), and no need for sleep (due to these short lifespans limiting the time they have to do everything else), these goblins also have the ability to pass on their "birth spells" and inherit traits that are separate from their base status. These inherited traits cannot be transferred to another goblin after they die, only their base stats. The main goblin, Akira, carries the "octogenarian" status, which allows him to live for 80 human years. - Magic: The Gathering: Goblins, most often present as the standard fantasy breed of diminutive, destructive green-skinned and big-eared humanoids, are the characteristic creature — a creature type that shows up multiple times each set as several smaller common creature cards — of Red, the color of chaos, emotions and impulsive behavior. They're not evil, though, just rowdy and destructive, and serve as the game's comic relief race. - Goblins from early sets tend to be portrayed as much more dangerous and malicious than in their later portrayals. The goblins of Terisiare, in particular, waged a long series of wars against the continent's human kingdoms during the period of cooling temperatures and dwindling civilization covered in The Dark. The Terisiarean goblins also include a couple of distinct sub-breeds in the form of Marsh Goblins, bald and floppy-eared goblins with short tails that even other goblins shun "thanks to certain unwholesome customs they practice", and Scarwood Goblins, a larger and more cunning kind only found in certain deep forests. - Most worlds' goblins fit this schema fairly closely, including those of Dominaria, the setting's main universe, as well as those of the City Planet Ravnica and the metallic world of Mirrodin... before it was destroyed by the Phyrexians, anyway. - Many other worlds, however, have rather more unusual goblins: - Rath has Moggs, a genetically engineered strain of goblin which is larger, stronger and has a distinctive ridge on its head. They're still not very intelligent, though. - The Kyren goblins of Mercadian Masques were inversions of the normal stupid headstrong goblin: They are the true rulers of Mercadia. They're actually more evil than most other MtG goblins. - The Akki of the Japanese mythology-influenced plane Kamigawa are based on the kappa of Japanese folklore. In fact, the concept has often been described as "fire kappa". - Lorwyn boggarts are more adventuresome and intelligent than most, but have a total lack of care for life—their own or others'. Shadowmoor boggarts are nearly mindless eating machines. Shadowmoor also has hobgoblins, who are basically angry hobbits with fangs; spriggans, sizeshifters who can turn from weedy runts into towering colossi; murderous redcaps; and stream hoppers, bizarre creatures with a single leg, arm, and eye. All are classified as goblins in the game. - Goblins on the Alaran shard of Jund are ratlike creatures who simply live to be eaten by the dragons that dominate the shard. - Tarkir's goblins are hairy, aggressive and dim little critters who are primarily associated with the Mardu Horde. There's a variant breed with white hair who dwell in the snowy areas that serve as home to the Temur, but the majority of goblins are either Mardu or neutral. - Ixalan's goblins, in keeping with the Age of Sail/New World theme of the set, more greatly resemble monkeys, are covered in fur, and have prehensile tails. They are still mischievous and are mostly pirates. - Eldraine, a plane inspired by Arthurian myths and the tales of the brothers Grimm, is home to redcaps much like Shadowmoor is — in this case, they're vicious, barbaric wilderness-dwellers who were chased out of civilized lands long ago, dye their hats with the blood of their victims and ride giant weasels. - In terms of actual gameplay, most Magic goblins are small, cheap creatures that lend themselves well to Zerg Rush tactics or to use as convenient sacrificial fodder. Some even come with relevant abilities built right in. - Gold Digger: The Gaoblins were once a race that fought with the Dynasty as their willing army. But when their masters ran for quasi-space, they abandoned the Gaoblins to the rest of the universe. In order to hide from the universal lynch-mob from killing them they slaughtered the Eldrich, Trolvic, Atlantian and Krynn. Then disguised themselves genetically as the ones they slaughtered. All except for the ones who resided on the Dynasty's base-station "Oblivion" remained true Gaoblin. - Fairly standard short green ones appear living across the ten worlds of Asgard in Marvel's The Mighty Thor. The fire giant Surtur has a race of children called the Fire Demons that are occasionally called Fire Goblins. Their bodies are constantly on fire and their height varies. - Spider-Man features a number of villains with goblin motifs (mostly Green Goblins and Hobgoblins). They are usually just super powered humans with gadgets. The only exceptions would be Demogoblin who was a demon that was once bonded to one of the many Hobgoblins and the Ultimate Marvel version of Norman Osborn who could turn into a green brute that bore a closer resemblance to a goblin. - Van Von Hunter volume 2 has the "darkness-loving goblins" in that world as "elves" corrupted by demonic magic. Hollow-tree, cookie-baking elves. Who still make great baked goods. They make AMAZING brownies. Which are Comfort Food to the Sidekick, and Really Good to a pack of zombies that snaps them out of a hunger from brains in Volume 2 (the zombies then want the brownies instead). The brownies have made a king reconsider not having them operate in his kingdom (where they could do great business selling their baked goods). - Little Nemo in Slumberland gave us the Boomps. While most goblins in Nightmareland are evil, the Boomps are good goblins who are outcasts in Nightmareland and enemies of the Nightmare King. - The goblins in Phoebe and Her Unicorn are basically civilized, but speak entirely in "blart"s, which Marigold can translate. Their laughter causes apps on phones to crash. - In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, it is posited by Harry that goblins are just humans under a sort of inherited genetic curse and not, lamentably, an incredibly valuable second data point for the origin of intelligent life. (This is, however, never confirmed in the story, leaving Epileptic Trees to grow.) - The Haunted Mansion and the Hatbox Ghost Fan Verse takes a mention of "goblins and ghoulies" in canon, a Marc Davis sketch of a short chicken-footed ghost, and rolls with it. Harking back to the original medieval goblins, these goblins are a type of spirits (though they do have the 'deformed little humanoid' look when visible). They are very mischievous and are a level under demons. - In My Little Warcraft - New Friends after being brought to Equestria and having his hair conditioned, Gai'vahros Dawnbreaker makes an offhand remark about how expensive it is to get a haircut from Goblins. Twilight is initially weirded out by this statement on the grounds that Goblins from Equestria are brutish uncivilized creatures that wouldn't be trusted to open a cupboard for her. - In the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton universe, Tales of Arcadia-style animalistic goblins are the main variety, with Harry Potter ones being a subspecies with a more human-like intelligence. - Hopkoblins from We Can Be Heroes are pale-skinned, wide-eyed goblin aliens loosely based on the Hopkinsville Goblin. The males tend to be built like their inspiration thanks to being hairless, tiny, and having long, thin limbs. The females meanwhile are taller and proportioned closer to humans, have hair, and tend to be more muscular. They hail from a ridiculously bleak planet called Dizmol, and as a whole tend to be grumpy, miserable people with mannerisms based on surly New Yorkers. - In With Strings Attached, the goblins of Goblin Valley are a burnt orange, big-headed, toothy folk, averaging three feet in height. George has to become one, and to his great disgust he discovers that he was weak, his head made him oddly balanced, his tongue was long enough that he could have made Gene Simmons cry, and almost from the moment he became the thing he started craving meat and got a permanent hard-on from wanting to screw everything in sight. He ended up having to ping turn himself into a eunuch and prayed to God he wouldn't get stuck that way. - Goblins as depicted in The Hobbit by Rankin/Bass Productions look very odd compared to most stereotypical depictions of goblins, large (at least to a hobbit), putrid creatures, either hugely muscular or fat. They also had bulbous toad-like heads featuring tusks, lupine ears, canine-like noses, horns, and even two throats. This design is recycled in The Return of the King. Also, they are amazing singers. - The goblins in The Princess and the Goblin have incredibly tough skin, to the point that boulders falling on their head don't bother them and swords bend when they strike. They're incapacitated by even light blows to their feet though, and cheerful singing repels them. - Maleficent's goons from Sleeping Beauty are usually interpreted as being goblins, being small, green, idiotic, animal-like (as in pig-like, bat-like, bird-like and crocodile-like) mooks. - Strange Magic: The goblins in the film are pretty diverse, ranging from (relatively) small ones with bird beaks to frog-like ones to big muscly scaley versions. Their king is both more humanoid and more insect like. - The Field Guide to Evil: In "What Ever Happened to Paganus the Pagan?", goblins are minor demons from Greek Mythology. They dwell in The Underworld and are only allowed to travel to Earth one day a year, Christmas, where they play tricks on drunken humans, like a low-power version of The Krampus. - The Gremlins of the Gremlins films are basically goblins, though with a very odd life cycle (start off as a fuzzy creature, mutate into a green-skinned furless creature if they eat after midnight, reproduce spontaneously if exposed to water...). The Gremlin is a folkloric creature dating back to at least World War II. It jams guns, pokes holes in radiator hoses, tears engine gaskets, and performs other acts of technological sabotage. Gremlins feature in several Bugs Bunny propaganda shorts from the era. - Hiruko The Goblin: The titular goblins are more like Big Creepy-Crawlies that like to attach human heads to their bodies. - In Hobgoblins, they're plush-sized furry space creatures that can make your deepest fantasies manifest. They're also incredibly incompetent for monsters. They only manage to kill one guy in the entire film. They even failed to kill one of the main characters! - Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit adaptations portray the goblins as small orcs that live in the Misty Mountains (though this distinction is nowhere to be found in the original books, which use "orc" and "goblin" interchangeably, and only arguably appears as one line in The Hobbit note : when Bilbo is thinking about how difficult it must be for the "larger Goblins" to fit through some of the smaller tunnels in the Goblin warrens he is in, and the narrator describes how "even the largest goblins, the Orcs of the mountains, could run fully bent over"). As indicated in supplementary material, the filmmakers envisioned the goblins as originating from remnants of Morgoth's orc armies that fled under the mountains after the end of the First Age. - The Goblins of Moria featured in The Fellowship of the Ring are green-skinned with large eyes, wear heavy armor, and are very adept climbers. Word of God is that they have a cult worshiping the Balrog as their god, with their armor and weapons modeled after its appearance. - The Goblin-town Goblins featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are pale, riddled with deformities, and generally more feeble-looking than their Moria counterparts. - Labyrinth features goblins as its villains. Most of them are straight examples of the trope, except the Goblin King, who looks like... well, David Bowie. Probably why fanon almost universally maintains that Jareth is a fairy, that and he fits the profile extraordinarily well. (An alternative fanon explanation is that Jareth is, basically, the previous Toby. This is seemingly confirmed in Labyrinth: Coronation by Simon Spurrier, although Spurrier says the book is non-canon and has an Unreliable Narrator.) - Legend: Darkness' evil minions are goblins. Their chief, Blix, looks the most like a classic goblin, with wrinkled, greenish skin and a giant beak of a nose. Pox however is a furry goblin with a piglike face. - Master Yoda from Star Wars has a similar look to a classic goblin but otherwise he is truly different. He is a wise, benevolent and nimble creature who is only comical when he is Obfuscating Stupidity to test a potential new disciple. - Troll 2, which has nothing to do with Troll and has no trolls in it, is about goblins in a town known as Nilbog. They are evil vegetarians who can disguise themselves as humans, which they like doing to trick people into consuming some kind of creepy green stuff that turns them into piles of spinach, so that the vegetarian goblins can eat them. The goblins are portrayed by little people wearing potato sacks and masks, which come in a total of three different designs, one of which is hilariously bug-eyed. They also fight with fishing spears, even when they're trying to hunt people. - In Fighting Fantasy, goblins are among the races created by evil gods and are innately tainted with Chaos. As chaos creatures, goblins have evolved into various subspecies including Sewer Goblins and the even weaker than normal Lesser Goblin. There are also the more dangerous Mutant Goblins who really got "blessed" by Chaos to becoming monstrous freaks. - In the Savage Realm books, one recurring character is Grazu the Goblin Merchant. This Intrepid Merchant regularly leaves the fantasy setting of the Savage Realm and travels throughout the universe to find wares for his World Famous Emporium (which is a stall that pops out of his small travel bag). Among the items for sale, he has a Halfing battering ram, a ballista and toilet paper. Unfortunately he's sold out for his M5000 Pulse Plasma Rifles. - In NERO, goblins are green, small and have orange mohawks. Depending on the average player level of the franchise the can range from significant threats in large numbers to comedy relief. Hobgoblins are reddish-brown and have more hit-points and are less likely to be used as comedy relief. - In Dagorhir, goblins and orks are a collective ("the greenskins"). Although the orks are the larger and more powerful folks and typically wield more authority and influence, the Big Boss is currently a goblin. Consequently their "cunnin' plans" tend to involve less brute force and more silliness. With the exception of a few, they are predominantly cannon fodder. - Note that the spelling of "ork" with a K is intentional. Also note that here the difference between "goblin" and "ork" is predominantly a question of size, and that they are otherwise functionally identical. - Artemis Fowl goblins are reptilian and have fire powers. To quote the book: "Goblins; evolution's little joke. Take the stupidest creature in existence and give them the ability to conjure fire." Of course this is more Fantastic Racism than anything. Goblins are arguably the lest intelligent type of Fairy, but they can speak, have a culture, and are held individually responsible for breaking Fairy law, unlike some other creatures found below ground (like Trolls) that are basically just animals. They seem to be unbelievably stupid by the standards of other intelligent creatures, but more intelligent than actual animals. "Missed me," said the goblin, waggling his forked tongue. It was a testament to the goblin's stupidity that he could be trapped in a melting vehicle during a lockdown with an LEP officer firing at him, and still think he had the upper hand. - Artemis asks why the LEP assumes the conspiracy has to be headed by non-goblins. Foaly explains that goblins are so stupid that they caught the head of the cartel because he signed his real name when using a fake ID. - Eldon Thompson's Asahiel trilogy played most High Fantasy tropes extremely straight, but was notable for putting fresh spins on several nonhuman races — such as goblins. In this world, rather than being small and weak, goblins are related to elves, human-sized, highly intelligent, and extremely fast. This last in particular makes them one of the most dangerous of the "monster" races in the trilogy, generally ranked by those with experience fighting them only behind giants and dragons. - In Asteroid made of Dragons by G.Derek Adams, goblins look like the typical goblin but they are fully part of civilization (the main character is a goblin astronomer) and goblins have superhuman strength. The main character is a bookish weakling by goblin standard and she can bend iron bars. - The goblins residing in the underground ruins in Below have a thriving civilization, including a religious order, and they're just as capable with magic and spellbinding as humans are. - Bruce Coville: - Goblins in the Castle: The goblins, while definitely weird (no two look exactly alike — some are big, some are small, some have varying-size limbs, some don't have limbs at all, and some have or don't have tails), are mostly snarky and pragmatic, and tend to be a lot more decent than many human characters. They also have a sort of emotional hive-mind; their King's emotions affect all the others. Meaning that when he's happy, they're happy, and when he's in an angry and deranged mood, so are the rest of them. - Coville's book and children's stage play The Dragonslayers features "goons", which are plainly run-of-the-mill dimwitted goblins who serve as henchmen to the witch antagonist. - The Enchanted Files: As explained in Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, Goblins in the Enchanted Realm are about three feet tall, with big noses, big feet and flopping ears. The ones the Carhart siblings and their traveling companions meet are pretty friendly. They're also strong enough to pummel a sea serpent when it attacks their ship. - Crowthistle Chronicles: The goblins are completely different. They've been sealed up in a cave for so long that the folk tales about them have confused them with their diminutive, aggressive and stupid servants (Kobolds, so-called because they're some form of construct made of cobalt). The Goblins turn out to be more like traditional elves — tall, skinny, aristocratic. They're also vegan, but the whole book they appear in turns out to be thinly veiled propaganda for PETA... - Also some fun back-to-front etymology there. The element cobalt is named after the mythical kobolds, because medieval miners blamed them for poisoning the mine when they got sick from either inhaling arsenic-laden cobalt dust, or attempting to smelt the mineral, mistaking it for silver ore. - Discworld: - Unseen Academicals establishes goblins as a distinct—and extremely rare—species, similar in appearance to small and odd-looking humans. The only known literature about them is the anthropological text Five Hours and Sixteen Minutes Among the Goblins of Far Uberwald, which according to the author was five hours too long. Incidentally, orcs are introduced in the same novel, but are something else entirely (despite which, humans tend to confuse them). - They are elaborated further in Snuff where they are presented as an entire race of Woobies, forced on the edges wherever they go, classified as vermin or property by law in most of the world. They are extremely skilled craftsmen in a very narrow field of making delicate, ornate pots, and they also demonstrate an unexpected skill for stunningly beautiful music and, as of Raising Steam, pretty much anything involving fine detail as well becoming a fixture on the clacks and the new trains. \|\|They even build their own underground steam engine, and invent the bicycle.\|\| The pots are extremely important to what is essentially their religion and entire culture all in one, being something made by a magical process out of anything handy that can't be replicated by non-goblins. The religion is founded on the notion that if one's body is a temple then the things that come out of it are holy, and thus the pots are used to store things like snot and nail clippings; this has given them a reputation for being unpleasantly obsessed with all things nasty and unhygienic. - It should be noted that Discworld cover artist Paul Kidby draws Pratchett's goblins to bear a striking resemblance to the Gremlins of the 1984 movie directed by Joe Dante. In a meta sense, gremlins are what the humans of the Discworld imagine the goblins to be like. This might be a deliberate attempt to depict a race of beings whose physical appearance inspires an immediate sense of disgust rather than sympathy, which the reader - along with the human characters- must learn how to overcome. - Goblins in The Dresden Files, at least the ones under the Erlking are not unintelligent cannon fodder — they're professional hunters and warriors, and have abilities that make Harry compare them to "...ninjas. From Krypton". At one point \|\|they get the drop on an entire Red Court vampire commando team and take them down without making a sound\|\|. Of course basically any supernatural entity in the series is a lot stronger and faster than a normal human, Goblins, especially in numbers, do not seem to be something anyone wants to deal with. - Two married goblins appear in Fancy Apartments, Mr. and Mrs. Scruvy. The husband works for a magic item shop, and the wife is a witch. - Falling With Folded Wings: Yeksa are small, barely intelligent humanoids who capture and eat whoever they can. The System doesn't even bother to translate their language, giving the impression they're completely non-sapient. - A Fantasy Attraction has a horde of goblins (Of the typical type: Short, stupid nasty.) intruding into the house. A hobgoblin also appears, shorter than the goblins, but polite and civilized. - The one appearance of goblins in the Garrett, P.I. novels was surprisingly peaceful, in that the goblins in question were bounty hunters Garrett paused to chat with in the street. They were searching for a runaway wife, which was their main line of work: in this world, goblin males outnumber females seven to one, and the gobliness had grown sick and tired of over-macho oafs brawling over possession of her. Note that the goblins rode mangy, red-eyed wolves in the middle of a human city, without rousing any disturbance, thus both adhering to and subverting their usual LotR image. - General Punk duology has goblins as protagonists. They're pragmatic warriors of roughly human size, with inherent magic talent and humanoiditarian reputation. - In The Goblin Emperor, goblins have an advanced civilization and sometimes intermarry with elves, such as the case with the Emperor of the elves and a minor goblin aristocrat. - "Goblin Market" is a long, long, long Narrative Poem by Christina Rossetti where the goblins are merchants who offer lavishly-described fruit to humans. One of the main characters eats some and starts to waste away, human food being no good to her any more. One interpretation is that the goblins represent foreigners, polluting the innocent with their eeeevil trade and cosmopolitanism; another is that the poem is a Coming of Age Story about a girl's sexual awakening. - The trilogy of Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War both plays cliches about goblins straight and subverts them. They are mostly depicted as mean, repulsive, and selfish, but they're not actively malevolent to anyone they don't think has antagonized them first, and the hero of the story is a goblin. - The Goblin Wood takes this trope and runs with this trope to the point you can see the goblin themed gear it wears. - Brian Froud's Goblins paints them as something like mischievous fairies, intent on driving people insane with constant minor pranks like dancing on freshly cleaned floors with dirty feet or removing your ability to lie in social situations. - Charles Dickens wrote a now-obscure Christmas-themed ghost story (which has strong shadows of that other one) called "The Goblins who Stole a Sexton", sometimes retitled "The Gravedigger and the Goblins" or similar such, about a mean-spirited gravedigger who is kidnapped by goblins on Christmas Eve and taught a lesson. Though the creatures are ultimately beneficial, they are also distinctly ghoulish and sinister. Received an even more obscure animated adaptation from Emerald City Films, which is probably more terrifying than the creators intended. - The goblins from Harry Potter are diminutive characters with long hands and long feet who maintain the bank and mint of the British wizard community. They're slightly friendlier than most other goblin examples listed here, and as Professor Flitwick shows are capable of interbreeding with humans. History classes suggest the past was filled with bloody wars between wizards and goblins until the two sides arrived at some sort of lasting accord, which, combined with goblin society having a very different concept of ownership than wizarding society (the right to a manufactured good remains with the manufacturer; any exchange of money for possession of a goblin-made object is therefore a lifetime rental, not a permanent transfer of ownership), has left both wizards and goblins convinced the other are perfidious thieves by nature. This causes problems at a crucial moment of the final book, when some goblins with whom Harry and co. had made a deal decide the terms have been met by the stingiest definition possible and try to forcibly repossess the sword of the centuries-dead Godric Gryffindor. - Eric Kimmel's "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins" has a synagogue haunted by creatures that resemble demons but are still called goblins. Their Goblin King is "too horrible to describe" and thus depicted as a shadowy silhouette with large wings, Horns of Villainy, and a gaunt, skeletal hand. (David Bowie he ain't.) The goblins seem to follow a Sorting Algorithm of Evil, as they first send an imp, followed by a scarier goblin every night until their king shows up. It is not made clear what they do normally, but on Hanukkah they tend to ruin the townspeople's lives For the Evulz and keep them from lighting the candles. - In the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, goblins basically look more or less human with random bestial mutations. Each new goblin king has to kidnap a human wife for himself to bring fresh genes into the gene pool. - The Immortal Empire series by Kate Locke has very different goblins. In most settings goblins are at the bottom of the power scale, not here. In this setting, the Black Plague mutated and one variant allows for the undead vampire who end up sustaining the Victorian Empire with their immortality and high strength (they don't have the normal limiters that most people have). The other variant allows for the werewolves which don't have the immortality or other undead advantages, but have true superhuman strength from their augmented muscles and size increase. Goblins are those rare individuals who have both virus variants and have ALL the benefits of each strain. They'd be at the top of society's pecking order except that their numbers are small and they lack anyone connected to the Victorian aristocracy (or so they thought). - The Iron Teeth's main protagonist is Blacknail the goblin. In this setting goblins are common animals with enough intelligence to develop crude language and be trained. They are sneaky and mischievous and often blamed for stealing things. They aren't big enough to threaten people normally but can be dangerous when in large packs or if their prey is weak or wounded. When goblins eat enough and feel safe they evolve in hobgoblins. Hobgoblins are smart, vicious, and don't play well with others. - In Lynn Abbey's Jerlayne, goblins look like your Dungeons & Dragons Drow and act as protectors to the elves. In return elves provided them with metal goods that have been purged of their toxic effect by female elves. Or so the elves were led to believe... The reality is far more diabolical. Ages ago, the goblins came up with an idea — they wanted a servitor race that'll eventually become livestock. The goblin queen looks like an exceptionally beautiful woman with pale skin and jet-black hair. The goblins knew about the existence of another dimension, one that had the human race. So goblins would enter this other world and capture humans to mate with the goblin queen. The resulting child was an elf. And when an elf mated with another elf, the result was another fantasy being that would occupy a necessary niche in the ecology. When the goblins had enough useful creatures and treated metal goods, they intended to eat the elves that they purposely kept ignorant. - In Kringle, they live underground, have an insatiable desire to steal, and feed off of fear. They also come in various sizes and colors, ranging from green, to red, to black. - Caleb Carr's The Legend of Broken has the Bane who are human but who generations of inbreeding have from people exiled from the title city for falling short of it's religion's standards of beauty has resulted in a diminutive and largely unattractive (although at least one is handsome enough to play The Casanova among Broken's women) race who harbor great hostility towards said city. Unlike most examples of this trope they get a Sympathetic P.O.V.. - In the Menagerie series by Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski, Squire is the goblin of this Supernatural Team and its least powerful member. But he's no little green man in a loincloth. While he's shorter than the average human, he's got Stout Strength from being very stocky. Squire can also teleport himself and materialize medieval weaponry. - Rucks in the Mithgar novels are explicitly described as goblins; they're short, scrawny humanoids with big, bat-like ears that generally get used as cannon-fodder by the Big Bad's forces. They're not really Always Chaotic Evil, as most of them are barely sentient and not really qualified to make moral judgments in the first place. Their same general body type comes in two other sizes as well—Hloks are human-sized and much more intelligent, filling the hobgoblin/orc niche, and Trolls are about twelve feet tall and immensely strong, though just as stupid as their tiny cousins. - In Nine Goblins, the goblins have a cohesive society and by default are fairly good-natured, but have been forced to become more warlike in response to their treatment by the other races, who regard them as savages or vermin and have no qualms about annexing their territory. There are some hints of the modern "technical wiz" take on goblins, especially with Murray, who invents, for instance, a basic refrigerator. - The Noddy series has two greedy and lazy goblins as recurring villains. They basically look like small inbred elves. - In the October Daye series the title character has a pet rose goblin which looks (and generally acts) like a cat only made of thorny vines. - In The Oddmire, goblins are generally pretty nice, though rambunctious; for example, a goblin folk dance involves "more biting and headbutting than you'd expect." Most of them don't have magic, but every once in a while a changeling is hatched, with the whole baby-switching thing being a ritual to keep the horde from losing their power. Two of the main characters are a pair of "twins," one of whom is actually a goblin changeling, though it takes most of the first book to learn which one. - George MacDonald's Phantastes mentions them in passing, in amongst a gathering of Plant Person fairies: From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. - George MacDonald's goblins in The Princess and the Goblin. Thoroughly nasty. \|\|Intending to kidnap the princess and marry her to the goblin prince.\|\| - Rivers of London: Zachary Palmer, a Half-Human Hybrid who's father was a Fae, who is also a Big Eater, a Compulsive Liar and has talents that would mostly put him on the wrong side of the law, is apparently a goblin, although Peter thinks this just shows that the demimonde's terminology is entirely random. - Second Apocalypse has the sranc, a race of small, foul creatures with bodies like hairless dogs and faces like porcelain dolls. They were created by corrupting Nonmen DNA with Organic Technology to create a biological weapon against humans and the Nonmen. They have a literal lust for carnage, can survive on almost anything, and reproduce so quickly that they can carpet nations. - Lisa Shearin's novels (starting with Magic Lost, Trouble Found) feature "goblins" that are basically grey-skinned elves, with fangs, several levels in badass, and a tendency towards BDSM, cannibalism, and general nastiness. They're basically Dark Elves, but believably well-written. - The Hobbit parody The Soddit by A.R.R.R. Roberts has Gobblin's. Which are basically intelligent turkeys. - In The Spiderwick Chronicles, goblins are roving scavengers that resemble devilish toads. They love playing mean-spirited pranks on humans and are born without teeth, thus placing various small sharp items in their gums to act as substitutes. Closely related are the bat-faced hobgoblins, which are similar to goblins in nature except friendlier (if even more mischievous). Goblins serve as the Big Bad's minions while a hobgoblin is the resident Anti-Hero. - In Achten Tan, the world of volume one of Tales From The Year Between, there are tomgoblins and hobgoblins. One's green, one's blue, both are very small. At least one type is capable of forcing their body to eat pretty much anything of pretty much any size. - In the Tenabran Trilogy, goblins have a bad rap among humans because they made up the bulk of the Sorcerous Overlord's armies, but it turns out that they're really not that bad, they just suffer from a species-wide lack of resistance to sorcerous mind control. Left to themselves, they're a peaceful and artistic race—but good luck getting people to believe that, particularly since they're still definitely ugly by human standards. - Tolkien's Legendarium: In Middle-earth, the word "goblin" is just the English translation for "orc" ("orc" being a Hobbit and Rohirric rendering of the Elvish orch), and the two are used interchangeably in The Lord of the Rings. In the Author's Note to The Hobbit, Tolkien specifically says, "Orc is not an English word. It appears one or two times but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds). Orc is the hobbits' form of the name given at that time to these creatures..." (he later ruefully added that he looked up the etymology of "hobgoblin" again and found it in fact implied smaller goblin or other mischievous creature). This can be seen in the early drafts of The Silmarillion ( The Book of Lost Tales), where all the beings referred to in later drafts as "orcs" are still referred to as "goblins". That said, fans tend to use the term "goblin" to refer specifically to the Orcs of the Misty Mountain, since that subrace features most predominately in The Hobbit, which mostly uses the term "goblin" instead of "orc". Tolkien's orcs, in fact, very closely resemble common modern fantasy goblins (far more so than common fantasy orcs) as they're a fast-breeding, wretched, violent race that are individually small, cowardly, and weak (among other things: 4-foot Hobbits can consistently disguise themselves as Orcs, Gimli prefers to fight Orcs instead of Men because the latter have what he deems an unfair size advantage, and "a huge Orc chieftain" is described as "nearly Man-high") but make up for it with overwhelming numbers and a surprising amount of craftiness in both dirty battle tactics and combat engineering. The modern orc most likely took inspiration from the Uruk-hai, who were taller, stronger, braver, and rumored to have some human ancestry. - Touch introduces a goblin race that are actually considered to be humanity's greatest allies among the magical races. They have No Biological Sex, basically look like weirdly androgynous humans, and were originally created when elves (who are The Fair Folk in this series) interbred with something akin to mushrooms. - Vainqueur The Dragon: Dragons use them as servants, as described in the first chapter. - The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams uses goblins as a stand-in for oppressed minorities, fitting with the "modern" Faerie setting. - In Xanth, goblin males are ugly, rude, cruel, and stupid due to a curse by the harpies that made their females prefer goblins of that type and subsequent natural selection. Their females are essentially the opposite. The curse is eventually lifted \|\|and the normal selection pressures result in their breeding back to their ancestors, effectively ceasing to exist as goblins. This is shown as a good thing\|\|. - Goblins are used by witches as Familiars in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. They take the form of animals but when being summoned or killed they look like ugly bald Horned Humanoids with Pointy Ears. - Guardian: The Lonely and Great God: Kim Shin, the title character, is a dokkaebi, the Korean equivalent of a goblin. He's nothing like most Western versions of goblins; he looks like a normal human, but he's immortal and has supernatural powers. - Merlin had a literal goblin in "Goblin's Gold". It was a small, greenish, bald creature that loved gold and playing tricks on people. It made several people fart, made Uther lose his hair and gave Arthur donkey ears. It could take over a person's body and control them, and the only way to get it out was to almost kill the host. - Phineas on Power Rangers Mystic Force was only half-goblin. But being half troll, both halves combined to make a really ugly guy, according to his explanation of his Back Story. - Star Trek: Just as Vulcans and Klingons are basically Space Elves and Orcs respectively, so Ferengi are very much Space Goblins and may have helped inspire the recent interpretation of goblins as a mercantile race. - The Mandalorian: Grogu, being another member of Yoda's species, creates a lot of mischief for his adoptive father Din Djardin. - Gloryhammer: On their second album, Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards, The "Goblin King of the Darkstorm Galaxy" attacks a human-based Imperium with a space battlefleet and a magic crystal that can unleash "evil from the sky.", which he then gives to Evil Sorcerer Zargothrax so he can wreak even more havoc. - Canadian folkpunk band The Dreadnoughts have an instrumental track called "Goblin Humppa". It has a very manic, slightly sinister energy, as befits the title. - Hobgoblin is Hob Goblin, or Robert/Robin Goblin, also known as Robin Goodfellow or Puck. He's a cheerful sprite sometimes associated with the Devil. You call him Hob to avoid speaking his name and Goodfellow to avoid speaking offense. - Greek Mythology had the kobaloi, small mischievous goblinoids that liked to trick, scare, and bite people. In addition to them were the kallikantzaros, which were hairy trouble makers that lived underground, but unlike kobaloi, were sometimes described as large and bestial. - The Redcap of Scottish folklore, a short figure wearing a cap drenched in the blood of travellers clubbed to death by him. He requires the blood to survive and can be warded off by reciting a verse of The Bible or with a crucifix. - The toyol of Malaysian Mythology is a ghost in the form of a baby with fangs, green skin and pointed ears who steals things from humans. They can be stopped by scattering buttons, sweets, coins, toys or marbles on the floor because they will stop and play with them. - The Hopkinsville Goblins, a group of cryptids (generally assumed to be aliens) alleged to have terrorized a family in rural Kentucky. They were described as having glowing yellow eyes, large pointed ears, big heads and spindly limbs in addition to being three feet tall and Immune to Bullets. - The Account, a podcast audio drama, features Nyro Guillome, a modern-day goblin squire who possesses a keen sense for magic and considerable one-on-one fighting finesse. She's also considered traditionally attractive, though the all-audio show makes it difficult to confirm that. - Dice Funk: The Blackhearts are led by a goblin simply called The Fox. While short, he has no problem holding a unicorn over the side of a ship with his strange red hand. Then there's the sword sticking out of his neck.... - In Past Division, the goblins have been severely buffed from their canon Dungeons & Dragons counterparts, and also experience an increase in height. - The Noddy Shop has a family of goblins that are tiny, ugly-cute people. The mother and father are mischievous rather than outright mean, while their son, Boobull, doesn't want to be that way. - Wimzie's House features two goblin children among Wimzie' daycare friends, siblings Jonas and Loulou. They're light green, froglike creatures. Their species has no effect on their personalities, though: they act just like any other kids. - Adylheim has goblins that can only be seen through the corner of the eye, and spend much of their time seemingly moving small objects around randomly. Oh and touching them is very, very bad luck. - Bleak World: Goblins are part of the Jotun race and are generally speaking the most destructive, they believe that the Jotun were kicked out of heaven because they were to weak and seek to prove that this is no longer the case by raiding and killing all across the Earth. - Changeling: The Lost has the hobgoblins, things that live in the dimension between Earth and Faerie. They're not quite as powerful as the True Fae, but they operate by the same fucked-up rules as them. They're also extremely diverse, ranging from Will-o'-the-Wisps to kelpies to cunning merchants to gigantic trapdoor spiders. - While hobgoblins are monsters from the Hedge, it should be noted that "goblin" is a word signifying not the type of creature, but a type of behavior, so to speak. "Goblin" can refer to any fae being who is opportunistic and disloyal (whether a Changeling or a hobgoblin of any sort), or someone who works for a Goblin Market. There are also a lot of Changelings that could be described as "Goblin-like", especially those of the "Wizened" seeming. - In Changeling: The Dreaming, on the other hand, the closest thing to goblins are the Nocker kith, wiry and foul-mouthed individuals with a tendency towards mad science (and Explosive Instrumentation). In folklore "nockers" or "knockers" are more or less the same as kobolds. Goblins later appeared as their own race, one of the Thallain, and part of the Shadow Court. - The Chronicles of Aeres has two kinds of goblin. Standard goblins are an Always Chaotic Evil created by literally wringing every last drop of goodness from the soul of a gnome or halfling, creating a feral, barely-sapient creature motivated purely by hate and spite. If they live long enough, they grow into Orcs. In comparison, Drauglirs are gnomes who were mutated by exposure to Black Magic; they're surly, avaricious and have a very "goblinlike" appearance, with sickly green skin and haggard builds, but they're one of the non-evil races of the setting, and hate the Vulgraks for turning them into their new state. Drauglirs are known as master trap-builders, and can also briefly assume a form of living obsidian. - Chronopia: Most goblins are vassals of the Blackblood Empire serving as nimble scouts and cannonfodder. But from various jungle tribes there are Dual Wielding Swordmasters, the desert-dwelling shock troop Crimson Blades with their two-handed falchions and also the empire has goblins riding Ripper-Beasts, vicious landbound bird-reptile hybrides somewhat reminiscent to the prehistoric Axebeak. - There is one free tribe of goblins who grew powerful enough to become their own faction. The Swamp Goblins are a primitive tribe who are well-versed in herb and insect lore - allowing them to tame the beasts and master the use of poison. The Swamp Goblins are also allies with the Elven House, Yellow Lotus. - The Dark Eye: Goblins are creatures with reddish-brown fur. They still are clever, dangerous in large numbers and often get bullied by larger races like orcs. Instead of wolves, they ride wild boars, which is also how they depict their mother-goddess. In the latest edition of the game, goblins (along with orcs and lizardmen) became a playable race. - In Dragon Dice, goblins are a race that is equivalent in strength to any of the other races. They are composed of the elements of Earth and Death, and find their home in the swamps of the setting. Instead of the usual warg or wolf mounts for their cavalry, they have trained leopards to serve as mounts. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The goblinoids, as they are referred to in-universe, are a broad family of related species and one of the most common and diverse categories of both sapient humanoids and enemy types; while generally similar insofar as they share a humanoid body plan, large and pointed ears, long arms and unpleasant dispositions, they otherwise cover a good deal of this trope's uses and variations: - Goblins proper, being small, cowardly, and sneaky critters, are the most common and most "basic" type of goblinoid and usually fit the bill of first-level adventurer fodder. - Hobgoblins, the second of the three main goblinoid species, are larger and more orc-like, and tend to be militaristic and intelligent. They also despise goblins, seeing them as weak and contemptible runts — when a hobgoblins encounter their weaker cousins, they typically either conscript them as cannon fodder, enslave them or just wipe them out. In Eberron, Hobgoblins used to control most of the main continent. They had an empire that fell due to extraplanar and human invasions. In the current situation, goblinoids range from working-class laborers to scholars or well-to-do merchants. There's also a hobgoblin-ruled country that tries to recreate some of the old empires' splendor. Goblins and bugbears were also an integral part of the empire, though they were not the ruling class. - Bugbears, the third main species, are even bigger, and are brutal, savage thugs who enjoy attacking from ambush. They rarely form their own societies, generally either living alone, joining hobgoblin warbands as hired muscle or taking over goblin tribes by force. - Of course, with Eberron having no such thing as Always Chaotic Evil (except for planar/fiendish creatures), Goblinoids are not always evil. While they do practice slavery, Goblinoids are also more tolerant of other races than humans themselves (they will allow worthy humans, dwarves and even halflings to join their clans with full citizenship if they are badass enough). - Other goblinoid species — generally either rare, setting-specific, obscure or all three — include norkers, note : particularly strong and savage goblin-kin with tough, armored skin nilbogs, note : goblins with a bizarre inversion of reality — swing a sword at them or fireball at them and they heal, but cure them and they die varags, note : feral, bestial goblinoids bred by hobgoblins as war hounds and trackers vril, note : striped, purple-skinned and bat-faced goblinoids with a bone-shattering sonic scream bred by the drow as slaves from goblin stock; dekanters, note : stout goblinoids with rhino horns created by an illithid lich as minions bhukas, note : hardy, benevolent-natured and isolationist desert-dwellers forestkith, note : savage, ape-like arboreal goblins with the ability to shapeshift into small trees and many others. - Besides the goblinoids proper, there's a tremendous number of small humanoid races that could fit the "goblin" profile, and might even be called goblins in other worlds. Among others, there are meazels, note : runty subterranean creatures that prey on other humanoids that share their caves tasloi, note : arboreal green-skinned diminutive humanoids that can be either hostile or friendly towards others xvarts, note : tribal three-foot-tall blue-skinned cave-dwellers that can be described as evil Smurfs phanatons, note : creatures resembling crosses between a tarsier and a flying squirrel, with prehensile tails dark creepers, note : stunted humanoids with goat legs, highly adept at sneaking around their underground homes meenlocks, note : hairy, vaguely arachnoid humanoids who reproduce by turning captives into more of their kind blindheims note : subterranean, froglike bipeds with glowing eyes and many many more. - Kobolds (small lizard-like creatures related to dragons, Retconned from the original scaly but mostly doglike humanoids) serve a similar as goblins insofar as providing cheap adventure fodder for low-level players, but can be somewhat more dangerous to unwary heroes due to their aligning to this trope's affinity for artifice far more than true goblins — especially where Booby Traps are concerned. - Among The Fair Folk, there are mites (small, pathetic goblin-like creatures that live underground and have a strong affinity for arthropods) and redcaps (essentially as they are in fairytales — murderous little imps who enjoy dipping their hats in the blood of their victims). - Ravenloft has "goblyns", humans transformed by a curse or spell into scaly, fanged brutes who unquestioningly obey the evil master who transformed them. Gremishkas, furry snarling pests resembling rabid monkeys, are more animalistic than either goblyns or goblins, but match the fairy-tale "goblin" concept, being small aggressive creatures that enjoy thievery and sabotage. - Exalted: Hobgoblins are the least of The Fair Folk, serving their more elegant kin and creators as footsoldiers, raiders and servants, although the Fair Ones' retreat from Creation after their failed invasion left many hobgoblin bands stranded in pockets of Wyld energies and cut off from the rest of Fair Folk society. They're always monstrous and misshapen in appearance, although beyond this their shapes can vary wildly based on their makers' whims or the dominant elemental influences of the areas where they make their home — hobgoblins in the swamps of the South may take the form of dark, red-eyed stalkers in the fog, while ones from the Northern snows may bear thick coats of white hair and long ivory tusks. - Fiasco: Goblins in the fanmade playset Goblin Uprising are ambitious, reckless, significantly less smart than they think they are, unscrupulous and not overly concerned with morality: in other words, perfect Fiasco characters. They ride spiders, breed rats to eat, form alliances with virtually anything up to and including a brood of goo monsters, create explosives, and practice strange magics such as "kleptomancy" (divination by theft), Torog's Uncontrollable Explosive Flatulence, and the summoning of random planar beings. - Gobblin' focuses entirely on the creatures. They're obnoxious little creatures that are commonly green, but vary in color, size, and shape. They actually have a slow but powerful Healing Factor that lets them reattach or regrow body parts, though the majority of them are unaware of this fact and may flee at the first sign of danger. They were considered annoying and useless (but dangerous) enough to be banished entirely from their universe and dumped into a post-apocalyptic Earth. They happen to love it there and start to rebuild it as their own world. - GURPS, being a generic system, can offer various sorts of goblin. For example: - GURPS Goblins features an entire alternate Earth exactly like ours circa the 1830s, but inhabited only by goblins — a parody of Regency England. These particular goblins are extremely varied, being shaped by the exact forms of mistreatment they suffer in childhood, but are alike in being base, crude, and vulgar, as well as standing up to cartoon levels of interpersonal violence. - GURPS Banestorm features goblins as short, green humanoids, immigrants from the mostly arid desert world of Gabrook. They are intelligent, civilized and naturally curious, and actually fit well enough into human society. Hobgoblins are their larger, dumber cousins; while a few live among goblins as servants, most remain hunter-gatherers living in small bands in the wilderness. - The GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line (with its standalone spin-off The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game) is a GURPS implementation of "standard" tabletop fantasy games, and hence has goblins and hobgoblins in their standard role as the foot-soldiers of evil. However, it is possible to play an exceptional goblin or hobgoblin as a character. - In Ironclaw goblins are really different. Also known as Morrignai and one of the few creatures in the setting that can truly be called monsters, they look like eight-foot-tall wolves with the heads and wings of ravens. With their strength and magic resistance just one can seriously threaten an adventuring party. According to Phelan legends they used to steal children and other horrific things but ages ago the druids went to war with them. Both sides barely survived the conflict and have largely left each other alone since then, but the goblins still foster a deep hatred for the tribes. - Iron Kingdoms: Multiple different breeds of goblin, or goblin-like creature anyway, show up. - Gobbers, the "standard" goblin of the setting, are a widely spread, intelligent and peaceful (for the most part) race that can be found all over Immoren, often becoming traders, alchemists and mekaniks. - Boggers, a larger and more aggressive strain of the Gobber race, are more hostile towards other races, but are territorial rather than outright malevolent. - Pygmy Trolls, or "Pygs", are the Trollkin equivalent of goblins, being small, weak versions of the common Trollkin who are fully aware of their puny physiques and so compensate for it with brains; they form the most adept gunners, scouts and ambushers of the Trollblood forces. - Skorne, the setting's equivalent of hobgoblins, are a distinctly Asiatic-looking race of Lean and Mean human-sized Hordes from the East who shun religion, believe in The Nothing After Death, and have a Proud Warrior Race culture backed up by a unique form of pain-fueled Blood Magic. - Pathfinder: There are goblins and many off-shoots. - Goblins are dangerously stupid pyromaniacs who loathe dogs and horses (the feeling is mutual), are terrified of writing (it can steal your soul!), and sing horrible merry songs about eating babies. They also have a subrace called "monkey goblins" who use their hand-like feet and prehensile, rat-like tails to live an arboreal life. They serve as the franchise's Mascot Mook, and are included among the base playable races of Second Edition alongside the traditional humans, elves, dwarves and half-elves and half-orcs, which operate under the assumption that players are taking the role of one of a small but growing minority of goblins who are attempting to integrate more into civilization. - Hobgoblins are as militaristic as the Dungeons & Dragons norm but are so universally ambitious that they can't hold an army together for long, being an entire race of Starscreams. Despite this, two hobgoblin nations exist, although both are fairly recent. Kaoling, in Tian Xia, was established following the collapse of the empire of Lung Wa a century or so before the setting's present time, and is known for its incredibly treacherous and cutthroat politics; Oprak, in the Mindspin Mountains of the primary setting, is established after the events of the Ironfang Invasion adventure path as a homeland for hobgoblins in particular and monster races in general, and is held together by the iron will of its ruler, General Azaersi. - Bugbears are psychotic Serial Killers who live for the smell of fear and are unnervingly good at hiding in places nothing that huge should be able to fit... like behind your door or under your bed. - The kijimunas of Tien-Ma, which appear in the Jade Regent adventure path, are red-headed, very human-looking goblins who inhabit coasts and rivers. Absent-minded practical jokesters, they love to fish and play pranks and would probably be written off as harmless, if annoying, goofballs were it not for the fact that their tricks can lead to injuries or even death. Fortunately, they don't usually intend to kill people (corpses are boring; you can't play tricks on a corpse), and they actually have a well-earned reputation for supplying food to villages suffering from famine. Like regular goblins, they have an irrational attitude towards a specific race of animals, which in their case manifests as a deep fear of octopuses — though they're not very fond of spiders, either. They're actually based on a real Japanese youkai. - Grindylows, meanwhile, are basically aquatic goblins that mingle a blue-skinned goblin with an octopus, mermaid style, though they're considered aberrations rather than goblinoids. They love octopi, but possess the typical goblin antipathy for a certain animal species-in this case, squids. - Goblins and hobgoblins are both statted as playable races, and balanced against humans. Which means that competent members of their kind make capable adventurers... or enemies that can wreak havoc on a party that underestimates them. - Outside of the true goblinoids, there are a number of fey creatures inspired by folkloric goblins, such as the small, pathetic mites and the murderous redcaps who stain their hats red with the blood of their victims. - Rifts: - Psi-goblins are psychic goblins brought to Rifts Earth as enforcers and soldiers for the Federation of Magic. They are cruel beings who hate anything and anyone beautiful, and are expert and eager torturers. - The demon goblins of Wormwood are ugly, vicious humanoids native to another dimensions, from which they were brought to Wormwood by the sorceress Salome; as Salome also freed them from the rule of a cruel alien intelligence, they are fanatically loyal to her. They are cruel killers and cannibals who feed on their own kin. They may be distant kin to the goblins of Rifts Earth and the Palladium Fantasy world, but are much stronger and more organized than them. - RuneQuest: Goblins are actually a type of elf. Also called Red Elves, they are short, plant-based humanoids who only live for a few months and are born as diminutive adults with full mental faculties in place. - Shadowrun: - "Goblinization" is the term used for the phenomenon of adults turning into orks or trolls when the metatypes first emerged. - Actual goblins are dwarves infected with HMHVV Type I, the virus that turns humans into vampires. Goblins are emaciated, hairless beings with only minimal intelligence, immune to fire and vulnerable to iron. They eat raw meat, often from sapient beings. - Hobgoblins are something else entirely, being a regional variant of ork native to the Middle East and Central Asia. Hobgoblins are wirier and skinnier than other orks, have greenish skin tones (orks usually just have human colorations) and solid black eyes, and have a very strong sense of personal honor that demands that they obtain payback for any slight done against them. - The Small Folk: Goblins are one clique among the titular Small Folk They aren't especially evil, but they are aggressive and angry, with an attitude, and often wear baseball caps (back to front). - The Splinter: The Voormis. They're horrible, yellow, misshapen proto-men who invoke an instinctual feeling of revulsion and horror in other sentient life-forms. They're born as small, rat-like creatures and gradually attain a near-human form as they age. - Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game introduced hobgoblins to Azeroth long before they existed in the video game continuity. Here, they were depicted as goblins subjected to an alchemical "augmentation" that transformed them into hulking brutes favored as bodyguards and soldiers with vastly enhanced strength and toughness, but diminished brainpower. These hobgoblins look like giant purple-skinned goblins with claws who secrete acid from their skin. - Warhammer goblins are small, weak, cowardly and cunning and probably a good deal cleverer than the orcs, having been the ones to come up with catapults and bolt throwers. They are, as mentioned before, extremely weedy, and as such usually spend their lives being bullied by any Orcs in the area, when they're not simply being bullied by a bigger Gobbo (and that's assuming they don't just knock you over the head and eat you). Additionally the typical goblin has a phobia of elves that's acute enough to affect them in battle. - Goblins are very widespread and adaptable, and numerous distinct variants — mostly cultural, but in some cases with clear physical differences as well — exist throughout the world, besides the "common" kind seen alongside Orcs. - The Night Goblins are an underground-dwelling sort mostly found deep beneath mountain ranges. They breed mutant (and carnivorous) mobile fungi and ingest magic mushrooms that turn them into frothing, super strong madmen, and are fond of trickery and ambush. They've dwelt underground so long that they find sunlight painfully bright, and always wear distinctive black robes and pointed hoods when aboveground. - Forest goblins live deep within the Old World's forests and worship spiders, and frequently turn up riding spiders that range from "wolf" to "townhouse" scale. - Hill Goblins, also known as Great Goblins, are unusually large and aggressive Goblins found in hilly areas of the Badlands, and can grow to be almost the size of an Orc. - Very early editions include Red Goblins, a particularly evil kind created by ancient wizards as servants and agents. The Red Goblins still follow their ancient masters' goals, although whether these still live isn't known. - Snotlings are even smaller, weaker and stupider than other goblins. (An' dat's saying somefing!) They have the ability to construct ramshackle steam-powered chariots, and since the average snotling has a vocabulary of five words and has only just figured out that being kicked hurts, nobody has any idea how they do this. - Hobgoblins are a bit like big (human sized) goblins, but are even more deceitful and prone to backstabbing. They have their own civilisation (a Mongol style khanate far to the east of the Old World), but are mostly seen in their role as slave drivers working for the Chaos Dwarfs — which is part of the reason even other greenskins will have nothing to do with them. This is something of a downplay on how they were originally portrayed. In the older hardback book editions, Hobgoblins were not quite as tough as Orcs, but far more disciplined, and not only dressed like Mongols but also rode around on animated stone temple dog guardians of the Chinese style. They were also more humanlike in build and size, and were the only goblinoids in Warhammer to be able to grow hair. Now they're just bigger goblins. - Gnoblars are large-eared and -nosed Goblinoids who get bossed around by the Ogres, as the latter are marginally less likely to eat them than other creatures are and hanging around Ogres provides a modicum of safety from other dangers. They mostly live in the Mountains of Mourn and their foothills, but maps of the Badlands also mention Gnoblar tribes existing there. There are also mentions of Boglars, swamp-dwelling Gnoblars who live in the Marshes of Madness in the southern Badlands. - Warhammer 40,000: Gretchins and Snotlings — collectively called "Grots" — are the setting's version of goblins, being weedier, thinner and shorter relatives of the Orks who are routinely bossed around, kicked, and occasionally used as helpers, ammo caddies, ammo, missile guidance systems, mine-clearing equipment, human... er, Grot shields, practice targets, and emergency food supplies by those same Orks. They are, however, a fair bit more important than that suggests. - Gretchin are societal organisers, making sure everything runs okay behind the scenes; Orks are noted many times as not having much energy for anything other than war. During the sporing process, Grots arrive before the Orks, actually making sure the Orks have a society to inhabit when they show up. They are in most part responsible for the entire Orkoid race's domestic and commercial (non-war related) endeavours. There are even Grot entrepreneurs called "Dodgas" who seem to mostly have the talent for ripping off other Orkoids. Grots are rather understated in most Ork fluff, because their importance is less reflected in matters of warfare, and so is unsurprisingly not particularly well explored in 40k. - Snotlings also have more importance, although most of it is implied. It seems Snotlings have some use in keeping the Squigs in check, and were at one point originally the most dominant and intelligent part of the race, but are now merely childlike. - Of course, there is also the Grot Rebellion... - Arguably the most famous goblin in all fiction is Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow or Hobgoblin (Hob being possibly a nickname of Robin), from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. A version of the aforementioned folklore character, he's a cocky shape-shifting trickster who disdains mortals. He performs a role somewhat reminiscent of Cupid in making people fall in love with each other for his own amusement. - In Age of Wonders, goblins generally have cheap and weak units that make up for their weaknesses using poison. They are a filthy and evil race that prefers the underground, and they love to cause destruction and chaos even if it means they have to blow themselves up while doing it. They also have a twisted sense of aesthetics, as they hate the smell of perfumes, and try to stink up their caverns as much as possible by means such as wearing old socks as long as possible. Also, one goblin hero's profile describes her as a magic user who is skilled in altering her appearances, and she chose a form most hideous and repulsive to other goblins to strike fear into them. She happens to look like a slightly funny-looking little girl. - In the Real-Time Strategy game, Armies of Exigo, Goblins are diminutive, greenskinned hunchbacks, who have a tribal culture, and fight with boomerangs. They form a part of the Beast-Man hordes, alongside the Kobolds, Ogres, Trolls, and Lizard Folk, and can be mounted on the backs of the cow-like Boron for greater effectiveness. - Atlantica Online, going by the original myth, has goblins as a sort of demon that looks much like humans and are extremely strong for their level, completely inverting the usual portrayal. - Battle for Wesnoth: Orcs and goblins are technically the same species; goblins just happen to be born very small. Since orc society believes in Might Makes Right, the smaller and weaker goblins are forced to live under the boot of the bigger and stronger orcs, who rely on goblins to perform most menial tasks when they're not sending them into battle as cannon fodder. - Conker's Bad Fur Day has goblins called goblings as common enemies and NPCs. The first variation is water gobling, a green goblin that is found near water and wears a spiked ball for armor. The second kind are trash talking goblins made out of fire. The next two are a friendly lizard like monk goblin and an allied purple goblin who unknowingly wears a pack of TnT on his back. An unnamed, invincible, flamethrower-using gobling is also present in one level. - Corruption Of Champions: Goblins are a One-Gender Race of short note : They're only 2-4 feet tall. , alcoholic, sex-crazed monster babes who wear nothing but a few Stripperiffic leather straps across their large waists that lets them show off their Impossible Hourglass Figure. While they largely serve as The Goomba of the game, along with imps, Tamani (and especially her children from the player) can put up a strong fight if you're unprepared. The Revamped version of the game introduces goblin Assassins, Warriors, and Shamans to present more challenge for a decently leveled player. The majority goblins are Always Chaotic Evil and lustful due to them being one of the many victims of the demon's abuse of the world; a small few, like Lumi the alchemist, show how the goblins were once great engineers and alchemists in the past. - Diablo III: Treasure Goblins act as Metal Slimes, running away from the player once engaged and escaping through a portal if not killed quickly. Despite the name, they are actually demons and servants of their corpulent queen Greed, one of Azmodans Sin Lieautenants. She could give The Great Goblin a run for his money though. - Goblins in DragonFable and AdventureQuest Worlds are known as Sneevils. They're pretty annoying low-level minions that like to steal things, especially boxes. Sneevils do love their boxes. - Dragon's Crown, Goblins, while small and physically weak, are culturally advanced enough to use magic and create things like weapons, armor, and bombs. They usually serve as the Mooks of the orcs, though the art book mentions that this is just what they want everyone to think. They're also technologically advanced enough to design a massive Cool Airship and continuously rebuild the Gargoyle Gate after your character destroys it. Also, while they're very aggressive, they are more than willing to ally with other species, including humans, when it benefits them. \|\|This was the case with Lima Ray the Witch, who they actually worshiped as a living goddess after she helped them against elf persecution, which led to the glory days of the goblins when they caused mayhem all around with the help of her powerful magic.\|\| - Dragon's Dogma: According to the Official Design Works for the game, goblins are evil tree root spirits. As such they have roots growing out of their heads which become longer and more plentiful as they get older. They're also a One-Gender Race that reproduces asexually by planting a tree deep inside a dungeon and then watering it with human blood until young goblins sprout beneath. - Dragon's Wake: The first intelligent enemies (as opposed to wild animals) that the player is able to fight are goblins that attack a village of friendly lizardfolk. - Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War's goblins are more closely related to the modern portrayal of orcs: big, burly green guys with big clubs. The game's actual orcs are boar people. - Dungeon Siege: - In the Legends of Aranna expansion, goblins aren't found until the end of the game, where they are one of the most powerful enemies around. Whereas in the original Dungeon Siege, goblins inhabit an Elaborate Underground Base containing a variety of spectacularly anachronistic Steampunk machinery, weaponry, and magically-powered battle robots. Contrast the goblin footsoldiers, who are weak, fight with melee weapons and dress in loincloths, all the while fighting beside goblinoids that are wielding flamethrowers, lightning guns and gatling guns. This makes it more likely that the goblin leader—who is bespectacled, has hair, speaks Hulk and can teleport, all unlike his brethren—is responsible for the existence of the facility. - Dungeon Siege III marks the return of the goblins, having been absent entirely from II. After the defeat of the mad leader of the goblins in the original, a more civilized group of goblins took over and gained citizenship in Stonebridge, creating a Steampunk renaissance. Two of them are even on the city's ruling council at the time of III. There are still enemy goblins you have to face, but they're rogues and mercenaries rather than the evil madmen fought in the original. - Dwarf Fortress goblins are vicious brutes that attempt to snatch babies, besiege fortresses, and generally cause mayhem and consternation to an ill-prepared fortress. They are ostensibly the evil race in Dwarf Fortress, although dwarves under the player's control are often even worse. Notable for their Equal-Opportunity Evil; stolen babies are raised as goblins, with no prejudice against them, and it's not unheard of for "goblin" civilizations to have only a handful of "true" goblins alongside a majority of culturally-goblin snatched babies and their descendants. As admirers of power and supernatural ability, they are most often found ruled by demons in all but very young worlds. - The Elder Scrolls: - The series in general has Goblins which are a primitive and violent humanoid race found across Tamriel and Akavir. They have a primitive language and tribal social structure, and worship a god known as "Muluk," who is theorized to be the Daedric Prince Malacath. Depending on the tribe, they may be led by a Warlord (also known as Warchiefs, typically the biggest and strongest Goblin in the tribe) or by a magic-using shaman (who can be male or female). They frequently come into conflict with any other races they cross paths with, though have been known to live peacefully with the Orcs. They are also frequently enslaved by other races to serve as labor. There are numerous varieties of Goblin, with some regional differences. On average, they stand 3-5 feet tall, though historically, a race of giant Goblins native to the Alik'r Desert in Hammerfell stood over 8 feet tall. They typically have green-skin, yellow eyes with slitted pupils, a hunched-over posture which sometimes includes a full blown hunchback, pointed ears, and fangs. Though significantly less intelligent than the Men, Mer, and Beast Races of Tamriel, Goblins do show some signs of intelligence. They are known to farm creatures in a primitive fashion, including Tamriel's Rodents of Unusual Size as a food source and giant spiders as beasts of battle. They re also known to salvage weapons, armor, and other items created by the other races for their own use. Goblins have appeared in almost every game in the series including Arena, Morrowind (only in the Tribunal expansion), Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls Online, and the spin-off Action-Adventure game Redguard. - Skyrim instead has the Falmer in this role, crossing over with Morlocks. The Falmer were once the graceful Snow Elves, close relatives of the Altmer (High Elves). However, an ancient war with the ancestors of the Nords brought down their civilization and nearly drove their race to extinction. In desperation, some turned to their Dwemer cousins for aid. The Dwemer took them in, but on the condition that they eat toxic fungi which blinded and mutated the Falmer into the barely sapient, goblin-like creatures they are today. - The Rieklings of Solstheim are small, Ugly Cute, blue-skinned humanoids somewhat resembling ice goblins. They have their own primitive society (which includes hoarding the detritus of other races which they then apparently worship), are capable of speaking Tamriellic (though mostly in a You No Take Candle fashion), and have tamed wild boars to ride as mounts. The Nords of Solstheim have long believed that the Rieklings are the descendants of the Snow Elves, but other sources make it clear that they are a unique species in their own right. - There is a playable goblin in the game Enclave. That alone made it worth playing. - Hobbs in the Fable series fit the "diminutive, semi-intelligent scavengers" mold. - Many goblins, like those in Final Fantasy XI, are perfectly willing to sell their mother for a nickel. The Moblins of Vana'diel, however, seem more in line with a religious sect than anything else. A Steampunk sect, mind you. - In the early Final Fantasy games, goblins were little ugly humanoids with knives who existed to give Level 1 Adventurers their very first experience points. Something either goblin-like or named a Goblin appears in pretty much every installment in the series. They are known for the "Goblin Punch" attack (usually falling under Blue Magic) which traditionally does weak physical damage with a powerful bonus if the attacker and target are the same level. - In the Final Fantasy XIII games, goblins and their ilk appear to be cyborgs of some sort, with large metal weights for hands, wheels for feet, and a massive hole in the middle of their body. - In Final Fantasy XIV Goblins are portrayed as widespread and somewhat nomadic due to losing their original homeland. They're considered hoarders, but also engineering geniuses; building intricate forges, crafting bombs (which are safer for the user than the more volatile variants made by the Kobolds), being experts in creating and melding Materia, and crafting and various tools and environments which occasionally push the fantasy setting all the way into Steampunk. They are perhaps the most integrated Beastman race with the spoken races (second possibly only to the Moogles). There's also the Illuminati, a sect of goblins obsessed with hoarding technology for themselves and relentlessly hunt down anyone who may try to share any of their findings with the other races, even the culinary sciences. - Flash of the Blade has goblin enemies (they're even named as such in-game!) in a cavern, who looks more like Mole People with glowing yellow eyes and a permanent Cheshire Cat Grin on their faces. - The goblin mage Mozu from Gigantic is the only one of her species seen so far. She's a tiny, purple creature with long ears, a catlike face, a long tail and hands and feet with three digits each. While not exactly malicious, she's definitely mischievous and has a penchant for thievery. - Gobliiins is an Adventure Game series starring "goblins" as the playing characters, but they all look like small pointy-eared humans... except one that is purple and has a pteranodon-like head. - The goblins in Goblin Commander were created by a wizard for the sole purpose of constructing a Great Machine, whose function they do not clearly understand. They come in five subraces, with different jobs: the Stonekrusher clan mines metals for the machine, the Hellfire clan harvests wood for the machine, the Stormbringer clan researches magic and energy for the machine, the Plaguespitter clan grows poisonous herbs to fuel the machine, and the Nighthorde clan's purpose is unclear until late in the game. - Griswold the Goblin: - The titular Griswold is your regular run-of-the-mill green-skinned goblin with pointy ears, a big nose, and an eye for valuables. He's out on adventures to seek valuables, helping many people along the way and running into new adventures and minigames along the way. He also has a habit of occasionally farting and scratching his butt. - There's another goblin named Gavin, also fitting Griswold's description, who kidnaps local store owner Oscar (planning to sell him along with everything else in his store that the former took over) and has quite the soft spot for his elusive chicken, chasing him throughout the series. - The Asura in Guild Wars and its sequel have the general appearance down, with small statures, large floppy ears, and razor-sharp teeth. However, they're a Proud Scholar Race that utilizes Magitek technology into their weapons, architecture, and everyday lives. They're also generally on the side of good, even if most of them are insufferable, and are just as tough as their larger allies. - In Tin Man Games's Gary Chalk's Gun Dogs, the Masker Goblins are a nation of cannibalistic Barbarian Tribes who wear masks to denote their affiliation. They are actually quite dangerous even to the main character. Taking a note from '80s Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Masker Goblins are only a tad weaker and smaller than a human, additionally while most of their technology is crude and primitive - they're masters of swordsmithing, with even a basic goblin sword being better than what early Steampunk humans usually make. Finally they're often mounted on a creature, typically an ostrich-like Stilt Bird, with one exceptionally dangerous Masker Goblin riding an Ogrish creature known as a Dweeb. Luckily for the Empire, there are more peacable if hot-tempered Masker Goblins willing to trade rather than fight. - Goblins are basic troops in a few Heroes of Might and Magic games, usually aligned with the barbarian factions. In Heroes of Might and Magic V they're pretty much a race of Butt Monkeys, prone to cowardice, often used as sacrifices for the orc shamans, and a source of both food and ammunition for the cyclops. - They also show up as a playable race in Might and Magic VII. They're roughly the size of a human, a bit dumb (though not excessively so—most of the goblin NPCs show no sign of being dumber than the average human NPC), and while most of the non-player (both monster mobs and actual characters) goblins are bad guys, or at least vaguely aligned with the bad guys, nothing hinders player goblins from aligning with the other side. - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity has boar-like goblins. - Last Armageddon has an entire playable party of monsters, one of which is a Goblin. - The Legend of Zelda: The various Blins play with this in various ways: - The Legend of Zelda describes Moblins as goblins with bulldog heads (although they have pig heads in the newer games). While most are just generic monsters, a few have defined personalities. Most of the Moblin characters are comical Card Carrying Villains. A friendly Moblin in the first Zelda is known for the phrase "IT'S A SECRET TO EVERYBODY." - Notably as the series continued Moblins began to become more orc or even ogre-like. So the smaller Bokoblins (which first appear in The Wind Waker) were brought in to fill the goblin roll instead. They typically have hunched statures and large, pointed ears, and are usually on the weaker end of enemy progression. - Another branch of the family is introduced in Twilight Princess called the Bulblins. Basically they're the smaller variety of their King Mook, King Bulblin. They don't seem to be too different from the Bokoblins aside from being green, riding pigs and dressing in black. - Miniblins are the smallest members of the Blin species. They're little gremlins with pitchforks who make a weird honking noise often in unison. And infinitely respawn. - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom adds another blin to the family. The Horriblin seems to be an even more goblin like varient. They're subterranean or cave dweling which hints to a tolkienesque aversion to sunlight. And rather than the pig-like snouts of the other blins in this game and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the Horriblin has a far more goblin like face. - In Loop Hero, goblins are lesser sapient species that live in tribes and sustain their living by pillaging from other species. Goblins are incredibly clever and are extremely adept at copying humans if it aids in their survival - one goblin even managed to pass himself off as a cloaked human - but they are incapable of creating new ideas or innovating on old ones. They also need to follow a strict heirarchy behind a leader; if a tribe leader dies, they collectively pick a random goblin and gorge them with food so that they quickly grow into their new leader. - The Lord of the Rings Online: Goblins are listed as orc-kind, but are smaller and craftier than their bigger and more brutish orc brethren. - Mass Effect: The Vorcha are basically goblins IN SPACE! Like the standard fantasy race, they're small, ugly creatures that everyone else in the universe considers a pest. Aria, the leader of a Vorcha heavy area, even explicitly refers to them as goblins. - Miitopia: Goblins are short hunched figures with big heads, Pointy Ears, and a Gag Nose. Comes in many flavors including plain, Mage, Red, Forest, Mecha, and Space. - Neverwinter Nights 2: In addition to standard D&D goblins, Storm of Zehir features jungle goblins called batiri. They play the role of stereotypical primitive tribes: stone tools and weapons, body paint, people-eating. They're also larger and more muscular than the common goblin. - Ōkami has the imps taking on the standard goblin role, including that of being merchants who will sell to Amaterasu despite being her enemy. These weak, mischievous creatures wear a paper mask and fight using musical instruments, they also vary in power level based on their color (green, red, yellow, blue and black). Especially different are the blue and black imps, the blue ones will travel by Kite Riding and the black use the surrounding skulls of earlier victims as laser-firing Attack Drones. - Of Orcs and Men has Styx, as well as other goblins as weaker enemies. Interestingly, Styx is apparently the only one to show any intelligence; other goblins in the game are unintelligent to the point of being viewed as animals. It's later revealed that \|\|Styx is the original goblin and was once an Orc was transformed due to dabbling too much with magic. All others are simply magically-spawned clones\|\|. - The prequels Styx: Master of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness show that \|\|the original Styx, the one who was once an orc, was killed by a perfect clone of himself he constructed to free him from prison. This Styx, is the player character, and the one who goes on to be the Styx seen in Of Orcs and Men\|\|. - Goblins are a recurring enemy in Raging Blades, serving as The Goomba. There's also an upgraded, purple-skinned, two-headed goblin enemy late into the game far more dangerous than their one-headed regular brethren. - Overlord: Though not specifically identified as such, the minions fit the goblin archetype quite well, being an Always Lawful Evil species that gleefully follow the titular Evil Overlord. They are split between four tribes, each having their own skills. Although still ugly, their simple-minded loyalty and eagerness to smash and put things on their heads give them an Ugly Cute quality. - In the first game a member of the Order of the Red Dawn actually refers to them as goblins when explaining to the titular character why he will not be let inside their "establishment". - Notably, despite all of the above evidence indicating the minions to be goblins, Overlord: Fellowship of Evil lists a "Goblin Helm" as a cosmetic item with the description saying that it was taken from a dead goblin. This at least implies that there are a race of goblins separate from the minions (though apparently minions and goblins are enough alike to be able to wear the same equipment). - Paladins: Ruckus is a tiny goblin miner who hails from a gold mine called Splitstone Quarry. While only knee-high to a human, he's a Gadgeteer Genius who repurposed his mining Mini-Mecha into a war machine that he rides into battle. - Piratez: Although the mod mostly avoids the term "goblins", they seem to not only be called this (at least sometimes), but they seem to be pretty widespread around the planet. The most obvious goblin group is the Lokk'Naar tribe, which is the most immediate contact for the pirates. It is unclear if they are related to the Ratmen, or if they are mutants at all (as opposed to being an extraterrestrial race, for example). - Pokémon: - Sableye is a mischievous, cave-dwelling kobold who feeds off of gems. - Impidimp, Morgrem, and Grimmsnarl all have the Pointy Ears, Sinister Schnoz, and general mischievous behavior commonly associated with goblins. - Tinkatink, Tinkatuff, and Tinkaton look like adorable sprites, but are effectively redcaps in every other way, being ultraviolent dwarven humanoids who love to savagely beat and attempt to murder anyone unlucky enough to encounter them with their hammers. - Rogue has Ur-Viles, a type of goblin leader (not sure of the source), represented by a capital U. They show up towards the end of the game, and are very dangerous-being hard to hit, and hitting hard in return. - Runescape: There are two main types of goblins — surface goblins and cave goblins. Green surface goblins are less intelligent than pale green cave goblins. It turns out that surface goblins' lower intelligence is because of their lifestyle, not their natural intelligence which reaches human level. - Surface goblins are considered pests by humans, and if there are humans, goblins are not far away. Goblin bands will usually raid remote dwellings, but shortly before the events of the game they invaded Lumbridge and killed many of its residents. This gave rise to a group, Humans Against Monsters, which seeks to exterminate all goblins. Goblins always work in groups. - Hobgoblins are present too, although in here, they're the result of goblin and ork interbreeding. Hobgoblins are less civilized than goblins. - Goblins were natives of the plane of Yu'biusk, a fey like place. However, during the God Wars, they were pulled off of it, and Yu'buisk was brought to ruin by Bandos, god of war, whom they served (and refer to as "big high war god"). After the wars, the influence of Bandos faded and they began to fight amongst themselves with no stronger ruler. - Terraria: Goblins seem to be a combination of many of their various forms. The majority are seen in invasion events, and come in warrior, mage, archer, peon, thieves (who don't actually steal anything), and if in hardmode, summoners. You can also find the occasional scout on the outer edges of the world at random, and a peaceful NPC goblin tinkerer trapped underground after defeating at least one invasion. According to him, he was abandoned for telling them they weren't actually approaching from the right direction. - Valheim: Fulings are small, goblin-like beings that live in the Plains biome. They are amongst the deadliest creatures in the game (Plains being the current endgame biome) and mistaking them for a standard nuisance-level mook will not end well for you, especially if your world seed puts Plains where a player might encounter it early on. - Vindictus: You first encounter goblins on the quests from Boat 3, which take you to the destroyed town of Ainle, which you usually only reach at around the 20s in level. They're pale monsters roughly the size of humans that used to be part of the Fomors that make up your general enemies, but are now under the control of vampires. They are very slow, but their clubs which have nails through them pack quite a punch. The bosses among them are larger than humans and have such names as Servant of Twilight and Servant of Hell, with the only named one of the bunch being their leader, Information Chief Kalis, a big red goblin warrior who wields a scimitar, and who quickly earns the players' hatred when he \|\|brutally murders poor Ellis just before the boss fight in the fourth quest\|\|. - Warcraft goblins are smaller than orcs, but also have some knowledge of technology, particularly that which explodes. They first showed up in WarCraft II as the inventors of the Horde. They were characterized by their suicidal insanity and seem to be fighting for kicks. In WarCraft III goblins left the Horde, becoming a neutral force (they sell items and utilitarian mercenaries). They also gained a greedy side and more self-preservation tendencies, though some still were completely insane. By World of Warcraft they have been developed into their own culture and society that is concentrated within a dozen or so businesses. They are hedonistic, materialistic, mercenary and commercialized, with a fascination with nice gadgets (until they blow up) and a dog-eat-dog social structure. Kind of like living in Atlantic City under Mob rule, but on steroids. - The lore later established that goblins started out a bit more like goblins of old, dumb as a stump and used for dumb muscle. They were a slave race used by trolls native to Kezan, but the Kaja'mite the trolls had the goblins mine mutated them over time, making them intelligent and allowing them to overthrow their troll lords and become the bastards we know and love. - Hobgoblins made their official debut in the Cataclysm expansion, appearing as large go-fers and worker bees resembling ogres. Goblins themselves usually refer to them as brutes and look unkindly upon them. The other races have taken to calling them Lumbering Oafs and the name has started to stick, even in official ability text. - A new variant of goblins, gilgoblins (also nicknamed "gilblins"), was also introduced in Cataclysm. Gilgoblins are an aquatic subspecies with fins and the ability to breathe underwater. By Battle for Azeroth, they are characterized by being diametrically opposed to the normal goblins, being level-headed, altruistic, and communal, instead of reckless, only out for themselves, and greedy. Sadly, they frequently also suffer as a Slave Race, this time to the Naga. - WildStar: The Chua are tiny, psychopathic, adorable furballs who are also extremely intelligent scientists and mechanical geniuses. - ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: The Goblins in Zanzarah are green-skinned humanoids whose home is the swamp village of Dunmore. They are explorers and adventurers, who are friendly to other species. - Homestar Runner: A goblin appears in every Halloween toon, but most of the time it just "looks around and does a dance" \|\|except for that time he saved Homestar from a zombie sheep\|\|. - Explored by JoCat in his Crap Guide to Goblins, discussing and illustrating several variations. His particular take on them, called Craplins, is the 'low level cannon fodder that happens to be adorable' type, falling squarely into Mascot Mook territory, complete with plushies. - Goblins from the Porn with Plot webcomic Anathema are dark-skinned humanoids with Pointy Ears and Cute Little Fangs, and a More Dakka approach to Anti-Air (their flak cannons are so big they're difficult to maneuver). Gas Mask, Longcoat uniforms. - Subverted in Apple Valley where Gabbie, one of the main characters is a perky, attractive, cloyingly cute goblin girl. As she is frequently the subject of a fair amount of fan-art and one of the only characters to come even close to being drawn naked, there may also be a bit of Author Appeal at work here, too. - Cursed Princess Club: - Princess Gwendolyn is a subversion. Her green hair and skin, pointy ears, Scary Teeth, and overall inhuman appearance strongly evoke a classical goblin. But despite looking so inexplicably different from her siblings (two Princess Classic sisters and a Pretty Boy brother), there's no indication that she's anything but human. Plus, she's a Nice Girl who completely lacks the evil or mischievous attributes of typical goblins. With that said, she does occasionally get mistaken for a goblin by people who don't know her well (whenever they aren't mistaking her for a Witch Classic). - Played straight with the goblin who cursed Saffron. He was a classical green-skinned, pointy eared, diminutive goblin who was also an Evil Sorcerer to boot. He attempted a Grand Theft Me on Saffron, but the spell didn't work as planned and instead gave the prince an Evil Hand (one with a knobby and discolored appearance resembling a goblin hand). - The goblins in Dragon Mango are small, green comic-relief villains who raid nearby farms for chickens and get beaten up by the titular protagonist. They are ruled by Junior, the goblin king who does not look like David Bowie (this is lampshaded at one point) but is considerably bigger, buffer and tougher than his kin. (He uses steroids.) They later pull a HeelFace Turn when they realize that humans are willing to give them chickens and anything else they want in exchange for some of their Worthless Yellow Rocks they have all over their mountain kingdom, and eventually found a powerful bank and get accepted among the civilized people. - In Drowtales, humans and orcs are considered by many elves to be types of goblins. While it hasn't been fully detailed, goblinoid species seem to be a generalized term for humanoids that aren't of elvish origin—perhaps apart from the ferals. - In The Dwarfs, the Spirit and the Sorceress, the Goblins are small green humanoids with a crooked nose and a big treasure room. They worship a dark spirit known as Zoso, who shares their passion for precious gems, and live in a network of caves near the Dwarfs' forest. - The goblins of Far to the North are VERY different. For starters, they're at least seven feet tall, can smell blood, have eyes like hawks, and possibly scales. According to one of the characters they were crafted specifically by dragons to kill Saengorian slavers with their insane archery, so they instantly shoot anything that's male and has dark hair. This becomes a serious problem for the protagonist's half-Saengorian nephew... - Flaky Pastry features Nitrine, a goblin gifted from birth with brains and abilities far beyond those of her fellow goblins, apparently part of their Gadgeteer Genius caste (and royalty). - The Goblin Hollow features goblins that are small, fuzzy, have enormous pointy ears, improbably small functional wings, and are (though it's not obvious in the black and white strip) bright green. They are also capable of turning selectively invisible (though this can be thwarted by either an infrared camera, or blacklight, which makes them glow), and of teleporting (or "poiting" as they call it). Their lifecycle is similar to that of a cuckoo: after the female goblin lays her eggs, they will leave them either where an ideal "goblin parent" will find them or in close proximity to them. The unborn goblin basically reads the mind of whomever is near the egg: first their mother, then their "adoptive parent", absorbing knowledge and adding them to their own goblin race memories so that they are basically born full grown, mentally and physically. They are VERY loyal to their adoptive "parents" and will accompany and protect them throughout life... though their mischief often makes their foster parent wish they weren't QUITE so doting. - The Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes webcomic started out with goblins as being a Villains Out Shopping look at The Dungeons & Dragons world from their point of view. It has since mutated into a full blown Deconstruction of the normal D&D world and Character Alignment system. - Alignment system is played straight in this webcomic: many villains even detect as Evil, and they are, well, evil—very much so. It is just that the main cast of goblins is Good and they are opposed by Evil, but self-righteous, humans. - A few comics showed a glimpse of an alternate universe where goblins are similar to but oh so very different from those in the main universe. - One of Jenny's alternate selves glimpsed in Chapter 2 of Jenny and the Multiverse is a goblin of some kind, with pointy ears, green skin, dark-green hair, and a small pointy nose. Like all other Jennies, she's wearing a scarf and goggles. - Goblins in Kill Six Billion Demons are very different; theyre a (vaguely) batlike race who have no eyes and see through smell and echolocation. They were originally created to clean and maintain Thrones numerous sewers and waterways, but ever since the deaths of the gods, theyve grown into a Proud Merchant Race with their own clan-based society that founded the first guilds. They have three biological sexes, but asking a goblin their gender is considered very offensive for reasons known only to them. Theyre also explicitly not Always Chaotic Evil; the main goblin our heroes interact with, Omun Vash, is a crime boss, but most others are shown living normal lives. They're not really small either, with most being more or less human-sized. The above-mentioned Omun Vash is closer to typical goblin size, but again, hes pretty clearly an outlier and seems to have the goblin equivalent of dwarfism, judging by his proportions. - The "goblin" from NIMONA is a \|\|tall humanoid woman with pointy ears and no hair\|\|. \|\|The Director\|\|: I know an abomination when I see one. Nimona: Yeah, sure. What are you , a goblin? \|\|The Director\|\|: That's none of your business. [Beat] Shut up. - The Order of the Stick has one high-ranking villain, Redcloak, who is actually just a goblin with a lot of character class levels. - Roommates is a Mega Crossover prominently featuring Labyrinth so Jareth is the King of the Goblins, he is also called the King of the Unwanted, which means goblin is a catch all term for all creatures no other supernatural ruler would take (the stupid, the weak, the weird, the slow, etc. up to the dangerously unstable, which is Jareth himself). They are also indestructible as it's part of the very concept they personify. - It's also revealed that this wasn't always the case, because magical rulers are Fisher Kings. Under his predecessor the Goblins were basically The Fair Folk just uglier, and under their first king little more than Always Chaotic Evil monsters. - In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, goblins are not considered truly Evil by most other monsters; they're only just "sorta bad." (It can be argued that they lack the mental capacity.) Gren Razortooth is the principal goblin character, who has been cast out by the rest of her clan after falling in love with Bob the Beholder. - In Grrl Power, the character Prinrin is a stereotypical gorgeous goblin shortstack and advanced tech genius/engineer. While she is the only goblin to make an appearance in the comic, it is presumed that she is typica for goblins In-Universe. - In El Goonish Shive, goblins are not (so far) known to exist. In the RPG from "Who is Ellen?", they were apparently created as a parody of the mortal races, by a god who wanted to "punish their arrogance" by highlighting all their worst traits. They are born with innate abilities in weaponsmithing and, for some reason, cookery (it's speculated that the god meant them to be alchemists). They're also the cannon fodder mooks in the premade scenario Ellen is running, which gives them absolutely no motivation beyond being evil beings who would probably work for a bad guy. (Ellen adjusts this.) - Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel): The "Kentucky Goblins" two-parter detailed the titular creatures of the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter and other strange beings that may in fact be the same. Unlike the traditional goblin, these creatures appear to be aliens. Part 2 suggests they're in fact The Greys and that features such as the giant ears are actually part of a helmet. - Hallowed Worldly hasn't made the nature of its goblins entirely clear yet, but they can definitely pass for human. They belong to a supernatural hierarchy of some sort, which hasn't been depicted on screen. - Mahu: In "Frozen Flame" the citizens of the Goblin Republics are actually a civilized people rather than just groups of mindless barbarians. - Adventure Time: Goblins are small and ugly as usual, but (with a few individual exceptions) they aren't evil at all, and in fact are very easily intimidated and have a ridiculously rule-bound attitude to life. - American Dragon: Jake Long portrays goblins like an underground mafia, but they generally don't get much screen time. Hobgoblins later show up in the second season as your average club-wielding thugs. - Fangbone!: Goblins are small and green with little fangs, hair like that of a troll doll, and slime excreted from their skin that makes them immune to fire and lava. They're not evil, but the inhabitants of Skullbania consider them pests due to their love of filth and habit of infesting homes. They also have a natural predator in the form of a giant anteater-like monster called a Goblin Gobbler. - Franklin: The goblin in the The Quest of the Green Knight story from "Franklin and the Green Knight" is called a goblin but really doesn't look or behave much like a traditional goblin at all, other than being somewhat on the small side. He is rescued from a traditional-looking griffin by the Green Knight, after which he gives him advice on how to find the object of his search: cherry blossoms that can bring spring. Appearance-wise, if anything, he looks like some sort of buck-toothed, long-tailed anthropomorphic rodent. - Gravity Falls features the Gremloblin, which is half-goblin and half-gremlin. - LEGO Elves: Secrets of Elvendale: Goblins are cute little creatures who are normally harmless. When Cronan mind controls them into serving him, they're too incompetent to be a real threat. - Little Bear features particularly benign goblins: little men with long white beards who wear tall, pointy hats, and who aren't evil, ugly or creepy, just mischievous, especially on the Halloween-like holiday of Goblin Night. Basically they're gnomes who just happen to be called "goblins" instead. - In the Legend of the Three Caballeros episode "Stonehenge Your Bets", goblins are green-skinned humanoids, imprisoned in another dimension beneath Stonehenge, who like fighting, building unlikely war-machines, and telenovelas. They look not unlike Creeper from The Black Cauldron, especially the less warlike Worm. - My Little Pony: - My Little Pony 'n Friends: - In "The Magic Coins, Part 2", while crossing the Jewel Desert, Megan and the ponies are ambushed by a group of aggressive goblins. These are depicted as squat, blue-skinned, long-armed and neckless humanoids, and are terrified of bright lights. - "The Golden Horseshoes, Part 2" has some very different goblins. The ones encountered here are large, burly green humanoids who tower over Megan, and tend to be ugly and deformed in various unique ways — one has three short horns and flat-topped head, another has flabby wide lips, and a third has an almost beak-like snout. They live underground and are greedy, hostile and argumentative beings, stealing from others and refusing to ever give anything away. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: They aren't actually called goblins, but the diamond dogs fit the niche to a T. They seem to come in sizes tiny and huge (well, huge compared to a pony) but are all hunched over and fanged, talk with a hissing, Gollum-esque inflection, live underground, wear utilitarian metal armor and carry weapons, mine heavily, and are quick to abduct surface creatures. - The Real Ghostbusters: Goblins are humanoid child-like monsters servants of Samhain. - Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Goblins are the fairly standard diminutive, green skinned, pointy nosed and long eared type, but considering the only evil thing Roy ever did was overprice his Goblin Dogs and pelted the group with food truck merchandise, he's otherwise a fairly decent person. - Trollhunters: Goblins are herd-based, Gremlins-esque trouble makers from the Darklands. Should any of their kind die, even if the "culprit" didn't actually do it, the Goblins swarm them and issue payback on them "ten-fold". Luckily, they're dumb enough to blame the vehicle if one gets run over, and not the driver.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGoblinsAreDifferent
Our Gargoyles Rock - TV Tropes GARGOYLE, n. A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents. In Real Life, gargoyles are sculptures of grotesque humans and animals designed to ward off evil spirits and channel rainwater from rooftops and spit it out, (hence gargling) away from the building to prevent damage from erosion. Most commonly found on large buildings from The Middle Ages and early modern era such as cathedrals. Fiction, however, has decided that they'd make a great fictional species, so they often appear in fantasy settings (Urban or otherwise) as a race of Winged Humanoids that have a penchant for perching on high terrain. Given their origins, they also tend to have an ability to turn to stone, voluntarily or not. Another common feature is that any damage done to them while animated can be repaired while statuefied, but destroying the statue kills them permanently. Some, however, may actually be made of stone rather than flesh and blood. If that's the case, they (or at least the first of their kind) may have actually been statues before being brought to life. Traditionally, in folklore, they were benevolent, despite their appearance, which was framed as being frightful to scare demons away from churches, but meeting their gaze was dangerous. This is less common in modern fiction. Fun fact: the technical term for a gargoyle that doesn't include a rainspout is a grotesque — this means something different on this wiki, although the two can coexist. Compare Animate Inanimate Object and Our Alebrijes Are Different. See also Asian Lion Dogs and Shedu and Lammasu for other kinds of fantastic creatures derived from statuary. ## Examples: - Buster Keel!: One of the secondary villains and agent of the monster guild Ayakashi is Kataiston, a Gargoyle. He appears as a sharp-dressed humanoid with stone-like hide, bat-like wings, small horns and the ability to shoot high-pressure water jets from his mouth. He's always seen alongside the much more emotive and violent Garuda Firebird. Gargoyles are considered Class B Monsters, thus are quite dangerous but not to expert adventurers. - Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Gargoyles are among the basic troops of the Legions of Evil serving under the Demon King Hadler and appear like their videogame counterpart: bird-like humanoids with purple skin, robes, sword and bat-like wings. - Magic: The Gathering has a Gargoyle creature type, which has appeared in several sets. They are depicted as creatures made of animated stone, and often flavored as guardians of some sort. One example is Innistrad's Manor Gargoyle. - Yu-Gi-Oh! has a few gargoyle-themed cards, such as the Ryu-Kishin, which even has a Monster Clown variant. - Batman: Gotham's Gothic/Art Deco architecture is teeming with gargoyles and grotesques of the inanimate kind. "Gargoyles of Gotham" in the anthology series Batman: Black and White actually explains their history, makes note of the difference between the two (Batman prefers gargoyles because grotesques are often added to cornices superficially and make terrible purchases for grappling hooks) and explains that most Grotesques on Bruce Wayne's buildings are secret emergency Bat-Gear caches. Batman likes to blend in with the gargoyles during his nightly vigils. There are actually comparisons to be drawn between Batman and a gargoyle, as both are scary but benevolent guardians. - The new marquis in "Stone Cold Death!" in The Creeps #4 wants nothing to do with the sculptor Montes and his gargoyles and wants them out of his newly-acquired castle. Montes sees no other option than to send one of his gargoyles, which are actually alive, out to kill the marquis. This is witnessed by Francois, a high-ranked member of the marquis' court, who figures that with a few more deaths he could be marquis themselves. He discovers that Montes regularly applies a potion to the gargoyles and upon learning the recipe kills Montes. However, the potion does nothing. Later, Francois learns that the potion doesn't bring the gargoyles to life but rather keeps them as statues. As the gargoyle closes in to attack him, he also learns they only obey their sculptor. - An unnamed Parisian sculptor in "The House of Gargoyles!", published in House of Mystery #175, is being hunted down by two gargoyles he made. They may be his handiwork, but he stole the designs from a colleague he murdered out of jealousy and who cursed the designs with his dying breath. Nonetheless, the gargoyles appear unable to either use violence or enter buildings, so as long as the sculptor stays locked away indoors, he's safe. He's captured anyway when a boy, fascinated by the gargoyles, wants to show his friends they're alive. So he calls out to the sculptor that the gargoyles are gone and when the man cheerfully opens the window, they grab him and fly off with him. As a sidenote, during his time hiding, he created a miniature gargoyle all of his own that ended up left in the care of Cain. - Iron Man villain The Grey Gargoyle is a human alchemist who can turn himself into a Rock Monster and his victims into statues for one hour. - In Paperinik New Adventures, the two Gargoyles note : technically grotesques, since they're only statues on top of Ducklair Tower are revealed to be more than mere decorations, and essentially keep a gateway to a dark world filled with demons closed. One volume revolves around a warlock who tries to destroy them to open up said portal. In The Black Beam, it's revealed that those two Gargoyles assume a humanoid form (as armor-covered winged humanoids) in the Pentadimension to fight back Moldrock's attempts to escape. - Wonder Woman: - Despite not particularly looking like one, Toto, the crow from The Cat Returns, is a gargoyle. Just like the living toy Baron, his state of being alive comes from being a work of love. He's a member of the Baron's Cat Bureau alongside the cat Muta, whom he likes to antagonize. They save the human Haru from a forced marriage into cat royalty. - Chernabog in Fantasia is arguably a titanic gargoyle: he looks quite demonic and turns into stone during the day. Not just any regular stone statue: he turns into the top of friggin' Bald Mountain, the eponymous mountain of the segment. - The gargoyles in the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame come in two varieties: the Plucky Comic Relief trio of legless Winged Humanoids who can summon swarms of pigeons and talk, and the animalistic heads that adorn the roofs (one of which apparently turns alive as Frollo clings to it). Turning into stone is only done when they sleep or show Quasimodo he's disappointed them. Although it's questionable whether they're actually alive, or Quasimodo just has an active imagination (he's strong enough to move them around after all), the fact that one of them comes alive to confuse Esmeralda's pet goat seems to indicate they're real. - Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) features a Gargoyle which perches on the evil warlock's mansion like an ordinary statue. However he can bring it to life and send it out on missions to spy on people or kill his enemies. - Curse of the Talisman (2001) has one (rather small-3ft tall) stone gargoyle revived thanks to a magic talisman which tries to re-awaken the rest of its kin with said talisman. - Gargoyle (2004) featured a larger than average (10ft tall) demonic entity which was trapped in stone centuries ago. It (and its asexually produced offspring) can only be slain by holy weaponry (specifically a crossbow). - Gargoyles 1972 has only one of these green, devilishly featured creatures with wings (the other gargoyles we see look more like Lizard Folk). As Spawn of the Devil, they work to destroy humanity by kidnapping human women, killing anyone who knows about them, or plotting world conquest for Satan. The Gargoyles makeup effects was done by Stan Winston. - Gremlins 2: The New Batch includes a gremlin that drinks an experimental serum giving it bat wings. It gets tossed into wet cement, then flies up and perches onto the side of a church, where it hardens into a passable gargoyle. - I, Frankenstein has gargoyles who are angels in nearly all but name; they were created by Archangel Michael to fight demons. - Rise Of The Gargoyles (2009) has the monsters as Sealed Evil in a Can in their stone forms. - Tales from the Darkside: The Movie has a female gargoyle \|\|which can turn into a human\|\|. - In The Alchemy of Stone gargoyles are a dying race, born of the living rock and once able to shape it by their will, a power they have now lost. \|\|In the end an alchemist, at their request finds a way to make them flesh, mortal and, it's implied capable of reproduction\|\| - In the Allie Beckstrom universe, gargoyles are merely statues animated by elaborate and expensive spells — until Allie accidentally puts her magic into one. "Stone" then becomes a self-powered individual with the intelligence and personality of a dog. - Bone Song by John Meaney is set in Tristopolis, a City Noir inhabited by all sorts of fantastic creatures, including talking gargoyles. - In the Codex Alera series, all normal humans have Elemental Powers. Those with earth-controlling powers can sometimes summon and control animate elementals, or sometimes bind them on (or in) walls and buildings to serve as guardians. The physical shape of earth elemental guardians, like all elementals, varies depending on the individual elemental and/or the human controlling them. - A Deal With A Demon: Gargoyles are, in the series, one of the five races of demons. They have stone skin and the ability to fly. They can also, like all demons, interbreed with humans. - Discworld: Gargoyles are believed to be a subspecies of trolls adapted to urban environments. They're wingless and retain their waterspoutish nature, channeling rain through the ears and out their mouths to filter out anything potentially tasty (especially pigeons). This means that their mouths are always open, giving them a speech impediment, though by The World of Poo the younger generation seems to have evolved past that problem. They're named after where they're located ("Cornice overlooking Broadway", for example) and are frequently used as Watchmen or to man the clacks system—jobs where a tendency to stare at a single location for days on end is a very useful capability. - In Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc. gargoyles appear to be statues to the muggles but magical people see them as moving, talking creatures. They are still made of stone, can fly and can gain power from resting on the roof of a church. - A gargoyle shows up in A Fantasy Attraction, where he...sells insurance. Door-to-door at that. - God Bless The Gargoyles, a children's book by Dav Pilkey of all people, is a melancholy story about how people eventually forgot that gargoyles are supposed to be protectors and became afraid of them. When they come to life at night, however, angels show up to keep them company. - In Harry Potter, both the Staffroom and Headmaster's Office are guarded by gargoyles, which in this setting are just statues brought to life by magic. They're job is to just move aside for anyone who gives the correct password and snarkily deny access to those who don't. The final book shows that they can still speak (again, sarcastically) after being smashed to pieces. - H. P. Lovecraft gives us Night Gaunts, denizens of the Dreamlands and straight out of his childhood nightmares. Humanoid, horned, bat-winged, with slick whale-like skin and no faces at all they often show up in flocks to capture hapless humans and take them to terrible places, tickling them mercilessly the entire way. - Clark Ashton Smith's "The Maker of Gargoyles" has one of the first known examples of gargoyles as living monsters in media. Here, the gargoyles are two architectural gargoyles created by a 12th-century pariah stonemason for a cathedral, only for them to come to life and begin attacking people when their creator's anger against the townspeople for shunning him is unwittingly transferred into his sculptures. The first is the classic horned, bat-winged humanoid gargoyle, but the second instead has a cat's head and bird wings. - Max & the Midknights: Gastley has had a couple of stone gargoyles magically brought to life to act as guards at the castle gate. They serve as the first obstacle the protagonists need to deal with to get inside. - In Monster Hunter International, gargoyles are constructs: stone brought to life by magic. They carry out the orders of whoever created them. The only ones we see are created by the power of an Eldritch Abomination, but it's weakly implied that other powers could create them, too. - The Monster Hunters Survival Guide cribs its Gargoyles mostly from the Disney series, with the Author expressly saying that they're not evil, and can even be allies. - In the Oz books, gargoyles are creatures from the Land of Naught. They are made entirely of wood and stand at less than three feet. They communicate entirely by hand signals and are nocturnal, removing their wings while they sleep. Different indeed. - The Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide details gargoyles as dwarf nocturnal dragons that dwell on city roofs, blending in among their inanimate counterparts. Although wingless, they are agile and can leap great distances, while also being able to grip onto walls with immense strength. However, if they are struck by lightning, they turn to stone and fall to the ground where they shatter. - In The Stoneheart Trilogy gargoyles are a subset of taints, Always Chaotic Evil living non-human statues. They have a weakness that, being rainspouts, whenever it rains they must return to their original location. - The Stormlight Archive has a variant in the thunderclasts, enormous quadrupedal stone monsters shaped something like a dog the size of a small house. - In Laura Ann Gilman's Vineart War series the Guardian combines this with Our Dragons Are Different as it looks like a stone dragon. It also has considerable magic mojo as lon as it is on the territory it was created to protect. - In Void City, Gargoyles are a type of demon which possess stone statues to use as their bodies. Destroying their statue only renders them incorporeal for a time before they move into a new body; it takes an attack on their true spiritual body to actually harm them. - Gargoyles in Charmed are creatures in statue form who come alive to ward off evil, and are so powerful that not even the Source can get by them. - Doctor Who: - The Classic Who story "The Daemons" has Bok, a gargoyle animated by Daemonic powers. - The Weeping Angels also share most characteristics with gargoyles. They don't usually perch on ledges, though. - Reign of the Gargoyles: These are stone statues brought to life by a mad god to kill in his name. They have no will but their master's, but can be destroyed by conventional weaponry. - In Special Unit 2 gargoyles are creatures that evolved from dinosaurs. They appeared in the first episode. - On What We Do in the Shadows (2019), a pair of gargoyles act as informants for the Vampire Council's Guide. When she comes to them for information, they gossip like sitcom housewives and call out to other rooftops' gargoyles with cries that sound like a large truck's brakes engaging. - As Goldberg and future Flock member Scotty Riggs made their way to the ring for their match on the October 13, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro (4-0), the camera noticed Raven and Perry Saturn and the as-yet-unnamed Sick Boy sitting together in the crowd. Announcer Tony Schiavone said that Saturn was "sitting there like a gargoyle." He later introduced a top-rope head-and-arm suplex called the "Gargoyleplex". On the February 21, 1998 WCW Saturday Night, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn the Gargoyle." On the March 12th WCW Thunder, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn: Ultimate Gargoyle." - Groon XXX, an independent circuit luchador who made his way onto the B shows of CMLL and, later, AAA, has a gargoyle gimmick. There is also a Mini Groon XXX. - Li'l Horrors included a pair of grotesques named Garg and Goyle among the cast, mostly as observers of the others actions. - On The Muppet Show episode featuring the cast of Star Wars, the original guest star was the inexplicably Scottish Angus McGonagle the Argyle Gargoyle. His act consists of gargling George Gershwin songs "gorrrgeously". Small wonder that Kermit fires him in favor of the Star Wars cast. - Changeling: The Lost: One possible character type is the lurkglider, explicitly stated to be gargoyle-like. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Gargoyles are wicked ambush predators that lie perfectly still, passing for stone statues. Their origins have varied from edition to edition, being either earth elementals, animated statues, or simply natural monsters. - The Ravenloft setting also has Gargoyle Golems, a variant of Stone Golems shaped to look like grotesques. Unlike living gargoyles they're too heavy to fly, but like to drop from a high place to crush unwary victims under their considerable weight. - Fighting Fantasy: In Citadel Of Chaos, you can encounter a Gargoyle in a sculptor's studio in the upper floors of the castle. Luckily, if you made your way there through the kitchens, you may have come across a potion in one of the cabinets that's specifically brewed for combating creatures of stone. - HeroQuest has a gargoyle — a large winged humanoid resembling a Balrog — that is a Giant Mook and the toughest normal opponent in the game. Kellar's Keep completes its Moria analogy by having an end boss in the form of an especially powerful gargoyle. - Rifts: Gargoyles come in five types: the standard Gargoyle, the wingless G urgoyles, the tiny Gargoylites, and the Gargoyle Lords and Mages, who have the ability to turn to living stone for short periods of time. The largest concentrations are found as Mooks for the Demons of Hades and serving the Splugorth, but a large Empire of them is found in Europe, and is fighting the Human NGR with high-tech weapons and Humongous Mecha of their own. - RuneQuest: Gargoyles are creatures seemingly made of stone. When resting they are like statues, but when active they are very deadly. All gargoyles have hideous faces, rock-hard flesh, and crudely humanoid bodies. All are stupid, and most are winged. Beyond that there is tremendous variety in the shape and form of gargoyles. - Shadowrun: - Paranormal Animals of North America describes gargoyles as humanoid creatures with a single short horn and pointed ears; they normally live on cliffs, but some have adapted to cities. The main kind has males with wings and female with arms, but one subspecies possesses both sets of limbs. Another, also six-limbed variety is described in Paranormal Animals of Europe, with twisting horns and skin marked by numerous complex ridges. Unlike most other paranormal animals, which Awakened from clear mundane ancestors, no one really knows where gargoyles come from. - Neogargoyles, originally mistaken for a variant of gargoyles, are once-normal bats turned blind and flightless by chemical runoff, and whose skin is heavily calcified as a result of the same. They crawl along buildings, tapping, prodding and digging at them to find food, and over a period of five to seven months completely calcify into immobile statues. - Talislanta: Gargoyles are a type of lesser devil that serve as mercenaries, guards, and heavy infantry. - Vampire: The Masquerade has a vampiric bloodline of Gargoyles, created by clan Tremere as bodyguards. They are allegedly created through a ritual that combines the blood of the Gangrel, the Tzimisce, and the Nosferatu, with different concentrations creating different sorts of Gargoyles. They can turn to stone at will, which is particularly useful when avoiding sunlight, as they are invulnerable while in stone form. The Gargoyles can turn other people into Gargoyles, but have little autonomy, and are even said to get confused when left to their own devices. - Vampire: The Requiem has gargoyles as constructs created by blood sorcery, possibly as a Mythology Gag to Masquerade. - Warhammer 40,000 has an example verging on In Name Only. Gargoyles, aka Hellbats, are Tyranid air-attack creatures created by equipping the swarms' basic Mooks with batlike wings. They can't turn into stone, but may have got their name from their tendency to perch atop a larger Tyranid flier called a Harridan. - Monster High has Rochelle Goyle and Garrott DuRoque, an Official Couple of French gargoyles. They're both human-like in appearance, except with stone-hard grey skin, wings, and odd winglike ears, and Rochelle is shown to be immune to Deuce's petrifying gaze since she's already made of stone. Friday Night Frights also introduced the gargoyles Gary and Rocco, who look more muscular and monstrous than Rochelle and Garrott. - Arena.Xlsm: One of the types of enemies that can be fought. - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance: Gargoyles are encountered in both games as mooks inside the Onyx Tower, an otherwordly magical construct tower tied to the Plane of Shadow. Gargoyles in game are actually pretty small, bat-winged creatures that lob fireballs at you. - In Blood, there were the flesh gargoyles (stone statues that turned into fleshy demonoid-things) and the mercifully rare stone gargoyles, who stayed stone even after they animated (and were frigging hard to kill). - In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, gargoyles are flying demons with a large central eye that fires a petrification beam. - Book Of Demons is an affectionate homage to the original Diablo and features similar gargoyles. They are a little tougher, however, since they are invulnerable when in stone form and rapidly heal to full health, meaning they must be killed quickly before they fly off. - Castlevania. Though most of these are Palette Swap Underground Monkey varieties of other monsters, and merely fly and look grey, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has the actual turn from stone variety. One prominent example is Gaibon, who was fortunate enough to receive a recurring role, occasional boss status, a loyal teammate, and a position directly serving Death \|\|and occasionally Soma\|\|. - The Crystal of Kings have gargoyles as the toughest, strongest Airborne Mook variant in the game, capable of launching fireballs from above you while swooping below to jab at you with their spears. They can be hit with some jumping and slashing. - Gargoyles start showing up in higher difficulty Ruins missions in Darkest Dungeon, capable of stunning your party members with tail whacks as well as tearing apart the front two rows with their claws. While they have incredible armor ratings, being made of stone and all, they have low hp pools, meaning Blight can kill them very quickly. - In Darklands, Gargoyles show up as a rare enemy you can encounter in the wilderness. They fly very fast and have a very good armor rating thanks to their stony skin. - Dark Adventure have gargoyles as Airborne Mooks in stages where you attempt crossing a lava river in a volcano. They're stronger than the bat enemies in previous encounters. - Gargoyles are a Recurring Element in the Dark Souls series: - The Bell Gargoyles are an early boss fight in Dark Souls. They're made of patinated bronze instead of stone — appropriate since they're fought in a Gothic church. They come back later in the game as a Degraded Boss. - In Dark Souls II, the Belfry Gargoyles come back as boss fight. This time each gargoyle is easier to beat, but there are also six of them. - They come back again as an Elite Mook in Dark Souls III, this time wielding massive flaming spears and maces. - Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: The Blood-goyles are flying demons made out of blood, but can turn into stone. In "blood" form, they significantly resist melee damage and would split into more Blood-goyles if you strike them anyway. It's possible to kill them by brute-forcing your melee attacks, but it takes a long time. The game recommends you to forcibly turn Blood-goyles into stone using ranged attacks before you can properly smash them with your melee attacks. - Diablo: The first has gargoyles, which are statues until you get too close and turn back to stone if they take enough damage, making them a lot easier to hit (and surprisingly not much harder to kill). - In Disciples 2, Gargoyles are the Legion's archer unit. While most archer units are single slot Fragile Speedsters, Gargoyles take up two slots meaning they have to be on the front line. They make up for this by being about twice as powerful as the average ranged unit and far more durable thanks to higher hitpoints and armor while being just as fast. In battle they are in "statue" form most of the time (explaining their high armor rating) and become animate when attacking. The final stage of the Gargoyle tree, the Onyx Gargoyle, has an armor rating of 65, the highest natural armor rating in the game. - In Dragon's Dogma, the Gargoyles are flying creatures and a variant of Harpy type enemy. Their tails can petrify anything being impaled by it. - Drakensang The River of Time: Gargoyles (represented as small, eroded humanoid statues with beastly heads) infest the Bosparanian Ruins and in several rooms they'll wait for your arrival before descending from their pedestals to attack. - The Elder Scrolls: - In Daggerfall includes gargoyles as generic enemies. They are creatures "made of living stone" and possess an innate resistance to magic. - Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC includes gargoyles as powerful guardians and summons of the Volkihar vampire clan. Most of the time, the gargoyle stands perfectly still as a statue, but when enemies are nearby, it bursts from the statue and attacks. In other words, Skyrim gargoyles behave mostly the same as ones from Blood. And like in that game, there are also some statues that are just statues, stand there, do nothing and invoke paranoia. - There have been gargoyles in every Heroes of Might and Magic game to date. They were controlled by the Warlock (Dungeon) faction in Heroes I and II, briefly by the Necropolis in IV, and adopted by the Academy (Tower/Wizard) in III onwards. - In Eternal Lands, Gargoyles are one of the weaker monsters. - Final Fantasy: Gargoyles are a recurring enemy in the series, resembling demonic Winged Humanoids. In at least one game, using a Soft (which cures petrification) on them will kill them instantly — because they're made of stone! - Gargoyles and Deathgoyles are enemy monsters fought in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. - Gargoyle's Quest a Spinoff of Ghosts 'n Goblins starring everyone's favorite Boss in Mook Clothing, the Red Arremer, known in his own series as Firebrand. - Ghostbusters: The Video Game has haunted Stone Gargoyles. Justified: these gargoyles come from Shandor buildings. - The Golden Sun gargoyles are flying Winged Humanoids with very high physical defense. - Stone Guardian in Guild Wars are found near Kurzick Buildings. They often start as statues that come to life when a player or enemy walks past. Unlike other examples on this page, they are human creations rather than separate species. - Killer Instinct 2 has a final boss named Gargos and styled after a gargoyle. - In Kingdom Hearts, the Gargoyles are vaguely bat-like flying Heartless that will either melee you or spit magic at you. The sequel introduced other types of Gargoyles that were basically the stereotypical animated statues. - Last Armageddon: One of your party members is a Gargoyle. Although he's just a demon-like monster with no stone-based abilities, one scene involves him finding an old gargoyle statue, which leads to him reconsidering his thoughts on humans and his relation to them. - League of Legends has playable character Galio, the Colossus. Originally created as a giant bulwark of an Anti-Magic material, he was merely made to repel mage armies from the kingdom of Demacia, but due to an (unintentional?) anomaly of his design, he ended up absorbing the magic rather than nullifying it, and now he's able to come to life and smash baddies on his own when in the presence of strong magics. In gameplay, he acts as a tanky anti-mage brawler, able to not only dispel incoming magic damage through his colossal bulk, but also protect his allies from oppressive enemy spells by forcefully slamming into the center of attention. - Nightmare Creatures have gargoyles as an enemy in the later stages, where they'll disguise themselves as statues before leaping out to attack the players. - Nitemare 3D features two enemy types that are gargoyles, which is the name they have in the game data. One looks like a humanoid goat and is found among the hedges. The normal statues appear as early as the first episode's second level, while the animate ones show up starting the eight levels. The other can be described as a batlike minotaur and inhabits niches within grey stone walls. Both the unliving and living variants show up starting the sixth level of the first episode. - Pokémon Uranium has Gargryph, a Rock-type Pokémon based on a griffin-like gargoyle. It's genderless, cannot fly despite having wings, and can restore parts of its own HP through it Rebuild ability. - Gargoyles in RuneScape are winged humanoids made of stone, that require a Slayer level to kill. If they're not smashed with a rock hammer once they get below a certain health level, then they're unkillable and regenerate health as fast as one hits them. - In Scooby-Doo! First Frights, some of the gargoyles in Episode 4 come to life and attack the player. - Splatter Master contains two gargoyles on a bridge in the second level, who comes to life and attacks by dropping themselves on you. You don't encounter this enemy for the rest of the game. - Ultima: - Gargoyles — red-skinned, horned, winged humanoids — pop up in the series, initially as rare enemies. Ultima VI reveals more about them: they are \|\|a good race living in other world, who follow their own system of values, similar to the human system of virtues. They were enemies in the earlier games mainly due to cultural misunderstandings.\|\| The winged gargoyles are the leaders are guides of the non-intelligent wingless ones. - The Ultima V installment has a one-time instance of actual stone gargoyles coming to life and attacking you. They are one of the nastiest enemies in the game due to being hard as all hell to kill, and splitting in two when you strike them. - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines had a Gargoyle living in an abandoned theater in Hollywood. Both Isaac (the local Baron) and Maximillian Strauss (his creator) send you to kill him as a boss fight. It's possible to reason with him and get him to side with the Anarchs, but if you're a Tremere or make any mention of Strauss, you hit his Berserk Button and it can only end in violence. - Rufus in A Vampyre Story certainly doesn't rock: he has to sit through all sorts of humiliations. - In the Warcraft universe, gargoyles are bat-like flying undead creatures of the Scourge, who can turn into ground-based statues to regenerate health but cannot attack when they do so. They were introduced in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. - Gargoyles occasionally appear in World of Warcraft as still statues that may or my not attack. *** There is a series of statues lining a path in Halls of Lightning, some of which come to life when you pass them. Of note is a trash mob in old Naxxramas, the Stoneskin Gargoyle, has become infamous as it possessed the ability to turn into stone at low health, regenerating health fully, ad infinitum, if the group failed to burst it down within a set amount of time. A raid group with low damage dealing potential could remain stuck on one forever, unable to beat the cast time of the petrification. - The Shadowlands Expansion Pack introduces the stoneborn of Revendreth, gargoyle-like creatures created by the venthyr. There are three varieties: the standard build ones are tall humanoids used as frontline fighters, then there are stonefiends, small imp-like humanoids used as couriers; and gravewings, hulking beaked flyers used as mounts. - The Stoneskin Gargoyle features in Hearthstone as a relatively weak creature that fully heals at the start of its owner's turn. - Wild Blood has gargoyles as members of Morgana's forces of chaos. Most of the time (including their Mook Debut Cutscene) they appear as motionless statues, before coming to life to attack when you're nearby. - In Bibliography, Gargoyles are Pages of the Petrified Codex. The only one seen so far is William "Sentinel" Adams, an enormous man who can turn his skin to stone, launch stone pillars and enter an enraged mode when hurt. - In Exterminatus Now gargoyles are angels of Mort. - In Goblin Hollow gargoyles are the natural predator of goblins. Unfortunately, this is discovered after someone not in on the Masquerade brings a few statues into a home of several goblins. To prove they are lifeless stone and not the creatures that inspired the stone angels of Doctor Who, one of the main characters plans to take a power drill to their skull. Cue the Lighning. Lights go dark, Lights come on, and... gargoyles have vanished. Cue the Oh Crap. - Adventures of the Gummi Bears: In one episode, Duke Igthorn sends a sinister gargoyle statue (which looks more like a gremlin) to King Gregor to destroy him. After the Gummis save Gregor from the gargoyle by turning it back to stone, they decide to send it back to Igthorn to give him A Taste Of His Own Medicine. - A gargoyle appears as a Monster of the Week in the Fangface episode "The Goofy Gargoyle Goof-up!", emerging from a cave in the Hollywood Hills to kidnap a film star and make her its bride. - Futurama: A flying gargoyle named Pazuzu appears in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", being lambasted by Farnsworth for running away after the Professor put it through college. Apparently it's a biological creature, as it's seen with its offspring at the end. Presumably it was bio-genetically engineered or something. Pazuzu also appeared in the second movie as a Deus ex Machina, where it's revealed that it has the ability to grant wishes. Also it speaks French. - Gargoyles is a series in which 6 gargoyles, originally the guardians of a castle in 10th-century Scotland, are transported to modern-day New York. They fight evil at night, and turn into statues to sleep during the day, when they are also healed of any injury. They possess great strength, and while they cannot fly, they can glide on air currents. They also lay eggs as opposed to live birth. They may absorb solar energy while they sleep, as a scientist states that to maintain their abilities, they would otherwise have to eat the equivalent of two cows a day. - This species of gargoyles had variations from all over the world, usually somewhat resembling the local legendary creatures, and always dedicated to protecting some location or population. As Goliath explains on several occasions, it is a gargoyle's nature to find a place to call home and defend it to the death. When the local humans APPRECIATE this protection, it can work out very well for all parties, as the gargoyles can offer superior strength and resilience to fight off invaders or other threats, while the humans can protect them during their vulnerable daylight hours. When the nearby humans DON'T appreciate their presence... gravel supplies tend to swell... Most gargoyle clans (of those few remaining by the present day) have given up on having anything to do with humans as a result — the Ishimura Clan is one of the very few gargoyle clans that have a good relationship with the local human population. - Word of God states that while most humans treat gargoyles with fear and distrust when they actually meet them, the Real Life use of gargoyle statues to ward off evil shows that humans subconsciously recognize the Gargoyles' true protective nature. - It should also be pointed out that while magic existing in this setting, gargoyles are entirely biological. Their species is explicitly stated to have naturally evolved these features and no part of what they are capable of as a species is any more magical than a human, including the whole Stone by Day thing—except for the fact that their clothes turn to stone with them, which actually is the result of a spell that was cast on the entire species. - In Jonny Quest TOS in the episode "The House of Seven Gargoyles," one of the gargoyles is a disguised acrobat. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Daring Doubt", the temple where the Truth Talisman of Tonatiuh is kept is guarded by "guardiangoyles", magical stone statues resembling bat-winged ponies which come to life at Ahuizotl's command and attempt to take the Talisman back from the other characters and are disoriented and eventually repetrified by bright lights. - In Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, they are large fire breathing three-eyed winged demon-like creatures. - In the Space Ghost episode "The Gargoyloids", the title monsters are gargoyles — IN SPACE! - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Son can turn into a gargoyle, in contrast to the Daughter's radiant griffin form. - SWAT Kats: - The unfinished SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron episode "Succubus!" would've included gargoyles, of a sort. Katrina Moorkroft's male Mooks would've been capable of transforming into hideous living gargoyles at night in order to abduct victims for their employer. - In the episodes that were finished, the Pastmaster brought a gargoyle on a bridge to life briefly in the episode "A Bright and Shiny Future," which grabbed the Turbokat and dragged it through one of the villain's time portals. It was basically just a demonic head with a bitey mouth at the end of a long stretchy neck, though. - Wishfart has a gargoyle named G as the security guard of Dez's apartment. Interestingly, he's completely immobile due to the fact that the pedestal base he stands on is actually a part of his body, so he's really more of an animated statue than a living creature.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGargoylesRock
Our Gryphons Are Different - TV Tropes Pinkie Pie: What's a griffon? Rainbow Dash: She's half eagle, half lion. Gilda: And AAAAAALL awesome! Our Monsters Are Different, dealing with bird/mammal hybrids. While not as popular as dragons or unicorns, gryphons, also known as griffins or griffons, with alces and keythongs being archaic alternatives, are still prominent beasts in modern fantasy. The oldest gryphon myths come from the Egyptian Mythology and ancient Sumer. Later, they were picked up by Classical Mythology, and afterward used in Heraldry. They became a symbol of Christianity thanks to being a mixture of two majestic creatures that Christians back then saw as the "kings" of animals, thus making them rulers of both the earth and the heavens. After that, they went into literature, but their popularity would be low until the 1990s. In modern media, gryphons are often wild, powerful predators but are also found as guardians, mostly of treasures, or as winged steeds. When not simple beasts, they're usually noble beings; they sometimes retain their medieval connection with explicitly divine forces, but this isn't very common. They're usually animal-level beings, but a few portrayals depict them as intelligent and capable of speech. If you are really prone to do some research you can see that their love for gold, their negative attitude towards horses (sometimes expanded to other real and fantastic equine beings), and their old conflict with vaguely cyclopean races are in fact drawn from myth, but don't expect them to be very prominent. All in all, gryphons tend to have four main body plans: - The Classical Gryphon, or Griffin, which is portrayed as a Mix and Match critter with the body, back limbs and tail of a lion (modern depictions may add a feather fan at the tip), the wings, head, and front legs from a bird of prey. Some portrayals give them ears that may be either flesh-and-blood feline ears or based on the "ears" of eagle owls. - The Opinicus, a slight variation with has the front legs of a lion, rendering only the wings and head (and sometimes they even don't have the wings) as being bird like; don't expect ears to show up. The tail is usually leonine, but may sometimes be reptilian or a full snake, chimera-like. - The Wingless Gryphon, also called the Minoan Gryphon, Alces, Keythong and Demigryph, depicted as either a regular gryphon without wings or an eagle-headed lion. The exact name used tends to depend on context and the precise anatomy of the creature. "Minoan gryphon" tends to be restricted to gryphons in the artwork of the Minoan civilization of Crete. The alces and keythong originate in medieval heraldry, with the keythong being distinguished by spikes or thorns replacing the wings (in the original heraldry, those "spikes" are in fact sun rays). "Demigryph" is a more recent term and tends to be applied in fantasy fiction to all wingless gryphons, although those depicted with spikes or sun rays sprouting from their shoulders are still typically called keythongs. - The Hippogriff, which resembles a gryphon with the body and back limbs of a horse note : nothing to do with hippopotamuses, hippo is Greek for "horse" and 'hippopotamus' itself means "river horse". And Now You Know instead of a lion. It gained a lot of newfound popularity and attention after one was prominently featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but was otherwise already well established in Renaissance lore due to its use in Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso note : Hippogriffs appear or are mentioned sporadically in works before Orlando, but both their popularity and their nature and appearance in later works are very much due to their appearance in Ariosto's epic. It is the most likely variant of gryphon to appear as a flying steed. It seems to have originally been an extravagant Cue the Flying Pigs-style joke: "breeding gryphons with horses" was a metaphor used by Virgil for an impossible task, since gryphons ate horses (compare "dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria"). Other ungulates might be used instead of horses. In addition to these, variety is sometimes introduced to griffons by means of varying what creatures their designs combine: while the traditional griffons are part eagle and part lion (or part horse, in the hippogriffs' case), fiction sometimes varies this by using different cats and birds of prey, resulting in griffons that are part hawk, part owl, part vulture, part tiger, part leopard and so on. This may be either a purely aesthetic distinction or may impact the griffons' habitat and abilities (such as a peregrine falcon-and-cheetah griffon being very fast, a vulture-hyena griffon being a scavenger, or a snowy owl-and-snow leopard griffon living in cold climates). Raptorial birds are the most common kinds used, but almost all sorts of bird, such as ravens or parrots, are used on occasion. It's very rare for the mammalian parts to be anything other than a feline or an equine, however. May overlap with Giant Flyer should the gryphon have wings. The wingless kind never flies, being seemingly not as magical as eastern dragons. Not to be confused with Call a Pegasus a "Hippogriff", where one type of mythical creature is given the name of another mythical creature, and Hold Your Hippogriffs, where commonplace sayings are modified to include references to fantastic fiction worlds. See also Our Sphinxes Are Different and Our Manticores Are Spinier for more sometimes-winged leonine creatures with non-leonine heads from Mediterranean mythology. See also Our Perytons Are Different, for another bird/mammal hybrid, though its mythical pedigree is a bit less genuine. ## Examples - Aquarion Logos: Aquarion Gai is a robotical, blue-and-white griffon with two horse legs, two lion legs, and the head and wings of a falcon. - Digimon: - Gryphomon is a Mega-level Phantom Beast Digimon with tiger stripes, batlike wings and a face covered by a metallic helmet, who has appeared briefly in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier. He was also a Monster of the Week in Digimon Adventure: (2020). He's the version that has a snake for its tail. - Hippogriffomon is a hippogryph Digimon, with large claws over its hind hooves. All There in the Manual says he's Gryphomon's previous form, but in the Frontier movie, \|\|he was a disguise for a bad guy\|\|. - Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan have Nobita creating mythological critters by mixing various strands of animal DNA, one of them being a purple-furred Gryphon named Gri. - Fate/Apocrypha: Rider of Black can summon a hippogriff that he rides on. - Tweeny Witches: Gryphon fairies look like owls and their feathers are used by the witches to fly on brooms. - Artist Mel Tillery has designed eight species of "trash gryphons", including magpie/skunk, pigeon/rat, and ibis/possum. note : Australian possum, not American. Though there's also a vulture/opossum. - Magic: The Gathering has griffins as a creature type. They're usually white flying creatures, stronger than pegasi and some spirits but weaker than angels. - Scars of Mirrodin has Razor Hippogriff, currently the only true hippogriff in The Multiverse. Hippogriffs also appear in Innistrad, usually as allies to the Church of Avacyn, but they're typed and referred to as griffins alongside the regular kind. In sets set on Innistrad, the hippogriff creature type is instead used for gryffs, which are like hippogriffs, but with four horse legs and the tail, wings and head of a heron. - Griffins are also common in the plane of Theros, based off of Greek mythology, where they were originally created by the gods to catch falling stars. Athreos, the ferryman who brings the dead to the underworld, uses skeletal griffins to fetch the souls who try to avoid the crossing. - While most griffins use the traditional eagle and lion anatomy, exceptions include Teremko Griffin, which has the hindquarters of a leopard; Spotted Griffin, which is part cheetah and part kestrel; Peregrine Griffin, with the forequarters of a peregrine falcon; and Resplendent Griffin, from the Mayincatec plane of Ixalan, with the forequarters of a brightly colored parrot. - While Majestic Myriarch, from Hour of Devastation, is technically typed as a chimera rather than a griffin, its appearance — a lion with the head of a raptorial bird and a pair of translucent energy wings — still gives across the impression of a griffon. With a cobra for a tail. - Unstable Unicorns: The Unicorn Phoenix looks like an orange hippogriff with a horn. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: - While not actually a gryphon, the Winged Dragon of Ra looks more like a griffin with teeth than a typical dragon. He's also light themed. - One of the cards that was printed is Hieracosphinx albeit this one has wings. - Star Wars Adventures: The Argora resembles a bright blue griffin with four eyes, and with four leonine legs instead of two being mammalian and two avian. - Superman: The Krypton Chronicles features Kryptonian hippogriffs called Tanthuo Flez or "the Winged Ones", being winged mammals with four horse legs and the head of a raptor. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Hippogriffs can be found in the mountainous versions of multiple environments and have a different coat and feather pattern for each biome, such as bald eagles in taigas, golden eagles in temperate mountains, kestrels in savannahs, and snowy owls in icy peaks. They are neutral and can be tamed to serve as flying steeds that can be commanded to attack enemies. They love eating rabbits, and can be tamed by feeding them rabbit feet and bred by feeding them rabbit stew; instead of producing a young immediately, they lay an egg that hatches after a while. Their talons can be used to craft powerful swords. - Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: One of Lexi's favorite mythological creatures is the gryphon and he is capable of changing and folding his papers to have the appearance of one. He turns into one at the end of Chapter 6 for Chloe and Atticus to ride on. - My Inner Life: Griffins are a noble but reclusive race who live in the Black Mountains, across the desert from Hyrule. They are intelligent and can speak and even brew beer, and live in a town laid out very much like a human settlement. - As they were one of the earliest intelligent species besides ponies to be introduced in the show, griffons tend to feature quite often in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction. - Equestria Divided: House Stormwing uses both regular gryphons and keythongs, horned and wingless griffons with shoulders and upper backs bristling with long spikes and with a taste for pony meat, as mercenary soldiers. - Heart of Gold, Feathers of Steel: The griffons are a Dying Race whose glory days are long behind them; they're well aware of both their glorious past and dismal future, and it shows. Culturally speaking, they're patterned after the Germanic tribes. They're traditionally a warrior people and on poor terms with ponies; Gilda believes that their insistence on holding onto their old traditions is a large part of why they're declining now. - The Palaververse: - The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Wind Breaker is a classic griffon with the front of a bird of prey (although he's colored more like a falcon than an eagle) and the back of a lion. Griffons are also described as having two different subspecies, mountain griffons and the smaller valley griffons, Wind Breaker being the latter type. - Ponyfinder, a fanmade adaptation of Pathfinder based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, includes griffons and hippogriffs as playable races: - Griffons are divided between several aspects, which affect their avian traits, feline traits, or both. These are the Predator aspect (basic griffons), Cheetah aspect (more ground focused, faster running speed), Cursed aspect (crystaline growths across the body that cause great pain and weakness, but enhance endurance and psionic ability), Prey aspect (less adept in melee, but better spellcasters and more charismatic), Pride aspect (lion feline traits, more socially focused and diplomatic), Scavenger aspect (vulture and raven avian halves, more focused on cunning), Sea aspect (otter back half, sea eagle front half, adept in water as well as land and air) and Snow aspect (usually resembling snow owls and snow leopards, adapted for cold environments). - Hippogriffs are the hybrid children of griffons and ponies. They can belong to any of the griffon aspects and have the associated avian traits, and can have the hindquarters and nature of any kind of pony (regular pony, zebra, crystal pony, etcetera). - The Steep Path Ahead: Considered Brimir's sacred animal, Saito claims that they look like wolves with wings, and both their feathers and feces are valuable reagents. They don't primarily attack humans unless provoked, but they can easily clear out a countryside. - DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: At the end of the movie, the villain Merlock transforms into a gryphon as part of his One-Winged Angel act. - Fantasia 2000: A gryphon can be seen among the various mythical creatures (the others being a dragon and a unicorn) that were mocking the animals as they were boarding Noah's Ark, and presumably drowned in the flood. - Onward has a bizarre example, as griffins are apparently the Fantastic Fauna Counterpart to chickens, with Corey the Manticore's tavern even serving "griffin nuggets". - Quest for Camelot has a particularly weird gryphon. While following the classical griffin design, the black-feathered bird forequarters are proportionally much larger than the lion hindquarters, while the head is not particularly eagle-like — the beak, especially, resembles that of a vulture. He's also very much a Butt-Monkey, being continually beaten by a falcon ten times smaller than him and by his boss, to whom he is loyal though sadly very incompetent at doing his job. He's eventually burned, presumably to death, by the two-headed dragon, and on top of that he is considered The Scrappy by the fans. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The movies features classical gryphons with feline ears, which aren't present in the original books, as part of the heroes' army in the first movie. - Godzilla (1998): An early draft features a rival monster called the Gryphon; however, it's described as an amalgam of mountain lion and bat rather than the traditional lion and eagle. - The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: An opinicus, representing good, fights a centaur cyclops (representing evil). In the ensuing fight it becomes clear the griffin is gaining the upper hand until Prince Koura slashes the griffin's hind leg, weakening it and allowing the cyclopean centaur to throttle it. - Revenge of the Sith: The planet Utapau has creatures called dactillions that basically resemble the gryphon version of a pteranodon. They appear in the prominently in the background of several scenes set on the planet, as the inhabitants use them as aerial mounts. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Like the book series, the compressed adaptation included a griffin but only halfway through the movie; its only purpose is to fly the heroes to the Secret Glade. - Alice in Wonderland has a classical gryphon, which is about as much of a help as the mock turtle. He only appears rarely in the movie versions, being no help to Alice opposite Cary Grant in 1933. In the 2010 movie it's implied he once fought against the Jabberwock, as a picture of him fighting the monster appears in a mural.◊ - Barlowes Guide To Fantasy, by Wayne Barlowe: Griffins are fancifully portrayed as a species of real, albeit extinct, creatures native to Central Asia, which endured until at least the first century AD before dying out for unknown causes. In a nod to (fanciful) speculation that the griffon myth arose from early discovery of Protoceratops fossils, they are portrayed as literally being descended from a mutant strain of the actual dinosaurs, and consequently depicted as Protoceratops with avian wings and long, feather-tipped tails in the illustration◊. Female griffins excavated extensive tunnel systems in which to brood their eggs, often bringing gold to the surface as they did, but only a very brave or very foolish person would have risked delving into a griffin's nest to get it. - Book of Imaginary Beings: - Sir John Mandeville, in his fantastic accounts of his supposed travels, reported that griffons were large enough to carry off two oxen together, while medieval texts and artwork typically used griffons as symbols of Christ. - Hippogriffs are inherently paradoxical things, as griffons' hatred of horses was so well-known that "to breed horses with griffons" was a saying referring to an impossible task. Ludovico Ariosto was inspired by this saying to create a hippogriff for the Orlando Furioso, which is used as a steed by Astolpho until he sets it free late in the poem. - Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel, Year of the Griffin, feature a mixed human and griffin family, the result of a wizard who created intelligent griffins by mixing lion and eagle (and, later, cat) germ plasm with his own and his wife's and raising the hybrid kids alongside his more traditionally-conceived (human) children. There are also naturally occurring griffins in the world, which gave the wizard the idea in the first place. - "Darkness Box", by Ursula K. Le Guin, features gryphons used as war animals, which are apparently immortal (or near to it) and which bond closely to their owners. - David And The Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd, features three different species, each with a slightly different spelling. The reader encounters the lazy, thick-headed griffens and vicious, territorial griffons; the amiable, red-feathered griffins remain off-screen. - The Divide: Brazzles are what griffons are known as in the magical world, but have a number of unusual properties: their claws turn red when dipped in poison, their feathers have mystical properties \|\|related to the treatment of heart conditions\|\|, and they have a culture where male brazzles typically become mathematicians while females are generally historians. - The Divine Comedy: A gold-and-white griffin appears at the top of Purgatory as an allegory for Christ, who is both God and man like the griffin is both eagle and lion. In order to make this work with the doctrine that Christ is 100% divine and 100% human with no compromise, Dante perceives the griffin as both a complete eagle and a complete lion simultaneously, creating a very bizarre image that he struggles to convey. - Dracopedia: Griffins and hippogriffs are described in Dracopedia: The Bestiary. - Griffins are pretty much what you'd expect. They're large predators that dwell in the mountains of Europe hunting fish and game, but went extinct in the Renaissance for unknown reasons. There is also speculation of the existence of an American species due to the prominence of eagle-like deities in American mythologies. - Hippogriffs are described as herbivorous cousins of the griffin, with their equine body being more like a wild mustang in contrast to the more elegant purebred form of the pegasus. - Dragon Rider: In the second book, The Griffin's Feather, griffins have the traditional love of gold and hatred of horses — but, less traditionally, they have a poisonous snake for a tail. Surprisingly, they give live birth while pegasi in this universe lay eggs. The majority of griffins, as they come from the Babylonian desert, have tawny plumage and fur, but one younger griffin who had been born in the Indonesian jungle has bright green feathers, a blue-green snake-tail, and the fur of a marbled cat. Some speculate that he is the son of a "Pelangi bird". - The Dragon Wars Saga: Like all Speakers, gryphons come in various types depending on affinity. Kimi has an ice affinity and is half arctic eagle, half snow leopard. - Fancy Apartments has its own resident gryphon, Gordie; who was raised, more or less, by the building's manager. - A Fantasy Attraction includes Bob and Sally, two recently married griffins, as well as a murderous hippogriff. - The Firebringer Trilogy has gryphons that prey on unicorn colts, probably a reference to the mythical horse-eating gryphons. - Great Ship: Griffons are used as artificial soldiers by the Gaian entity in the short story Aeon's Child. They have claws adapted to be compatible with high-powered laser rifles, and have beaks made of a nearly indestructible compound known as hyperfiber. They are connected through a sapient Hive Mind. - "The Griffin And The Minor Canon", by Frank Stockton, has a Griffin that is, from its description, quite obviously meant to be a dragon. While the front half matches the usual type, the wings have spikes on their joints and it has no hindquarters, having a snakelike tail that ends in a barbed tip that glows red hot when it's angry. It eats only at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and feeds only on the brave and the good. - Griffin Mage Trilogy features griffins who are magical and fully intelligent — even if they mix with humans only very problematically. They are also strongly associated with fire, and live in deserts. - Harry Potter: Hippogryphs are a dangerous but tamable type of magical creature, and can be ridden as flying steeds by wizards who earn their respect — which can be a bit difficult, as they're very proud and intelligent creatures and prone to viciously lashing out when treated badly. More "traditional" griffins also exist in the setting, but are only part of the background lore. - Hell's Gate: Griffins are barely controllable killing machines created by magical genetic engineering. - Heralds of Valdemar: Gryphons are highly intelligent beings who were created by a powerful mage thousands of years before the main timeline; their origins are explored in the Mage Wars prequel trilogy. They are generally noble and brave, but many of the males tend toward the vain and hedonistic, and they depend on having human "assistants" to help with daily tasks such as grooming. Gryphons can neither communicate by Mindspeech nor speak a clear human language; instead, they can speak aloud but are prone to Sssssnaketalk and Trrrilling Rrrs. They are not capable of carrying a rider, but magic-using gryphons (of which there are a few) can enchant a basket to be weightless, and then carry a person (or the equivalent weight of cargo) in it. - Urtho's enemy Ma'ar created a counterpart species, the makaar, who are like Bizarro versions of gryphons: just as large, just as agile in the air, but ugly as sin and distinctly less intelligent; one-on-one, the best makaar is barely a match for an average gryphon. - During the Mage Wars, Urtho experimented with a variant gryphon he called a "gryfalcon". The prototype gryfalcon lacked talons and was less of a warrior than an average gryphon, but she was also more agile on the ground and in the air, and her talonless forepaws made more-than-adequate hands. - Imagine Someday: Griffins are Proud Warrior Race Guys but have no magic powers to speak of. - InCryptid has many species of Lesser Griffins, which have the front half and wings of some sort of bird, the hindquarters of some kind of feline, and feline ears on their bird head. Alex Price has a pet church griffin (crow and large cat) named Crow. Australia has the convergently evolved Garrinna, which has the front half of a galah and the back half of a thylacine. Shelby has one as a pet. - The Lotus War gryphons are known as Thunder Tigers and are half-tiger rather than half-lion. They are descended from the thunder god Raiden and have lightning powers as a result. Certain individuals with supernatural bloodlines known as Stormdancers can bond telepathically with them. - Miras Griffin has four-limbed griffins (the wings fold to become forearms). They are sentient but cannot communicate with humans. Though bigger than humans, they are not large enough to carry one in flight. - Mistress Of Mistresses features hippogriffs as part of an Impossible Task. The author illustrated the book himself, and gave the hippogriffs horse heads, raptor wings and front legs, and lion rear halves. Not quite your classical hippogriff! - The Night Circus: Celia uses them as figures on the carousel. Once Widget and Poppet both wanted to ride one, and Celia had to tell of the Kitsune to get Poppet to ride the nine-tailed fox instead. - Ology Series: Monsterology, a companion book for the Dragonology series, includes griffins and hippogriffs in its chapter about flying creatures. The former are carnivores with a taste for horses, and are especially fond of winged ones. The latter are grain-eaters instead. People seeking to hatch griffins or hippogriffs should keep both horsemeat and grain handy, as their eggs are largely indistinguishable, but keep them out of sight until the chick hatches, as a hippogriff chick will find the sight of horse flesh distressing. - The Orphan's Tales: Griffins are he size of elephants, often vivid in coloration — picture cobalt blue and marbled white. Their preferred diet is horses, their preferred material for their nests is gold, and their enemies are the Arimaspians — gigantic cyclopses. - Protector of the Small: Keladry raises a baby Opinicus-type griffin until his parents are found, getting savaged often in a subversion of Pet Baby Wild Animal. Griffins there are intelligent, if hard to communicate with and not quite on the level of humans and some other immortals. They're also Living Lie Detectors — it's physically impossible to lie when they are near — whose feathers have related properties such as seeing through illusions and making arrows fly truer. Griffins can sense if someone has handled their young, and will kill whoever that is unless, as with Kel, there's a translator there to explain. And there are also hurroks (horse-hawks), which like griffins are magical immortals, but decidedly nastier and more animal. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: There is a gryphon called Byron, whom the children find rescue from a goblin camp and secretly nurse back to health in their barn; he afterwards comes to serve as a flying mount for them. While following the eared variant of the classical griffin design, he's more slender than most depictions and his beak has teeth/tooth-like serrations. Griffins are also quite large — Byron is around the size of a bus — and mortal enemies of horses; because of this, the rare hybrid hippogriffs are considered to be a symbol of undying love. - Star Trek Novel Verse: The Kinshaya race are essentially griffins, being mammals with four legs and a pair of wings sprouting from their back. They are too heavy to fly, though — in modern Kinshaya, the wings are used for display purposes instead. - The Summer King Chronicles is a Xenofiction High Fantasy series about "gryfons". Physically, they range from wolf-sized to lion-sized and give birth to a single "kit" at a time. Most live in "prides" ruled by kings. Males fight while females hunt. There are two races of gryfon: the Aesir and the Vanir. Aesir are larger, powerful, predisposed to battle, eat red meat, and are often impossibly brightly colored. \|\|This turns out to only apply to the population who conquered the Silver Isles, due to a dragon curse. When Shard travels to the Aesir homeland, the gryfons there are much more naturalistically colored.\|\| Vanir are smaller, more agile, eat fish, and have more subdued coloring. Both are sapient and can interbreed. - Thursday Next: The griffin from ''Alice in Wonderland' appears on a number of occasions. - The Traitor Son Cycle: Griffons grow rapidly and not only generate love, but feed off it. They will bond with the first person to demonstrate immense love in front of them and can talk with their bondsmate telepathically, though their intelligence is rather childlike. Appearance-wise, they're your traditional Mix-and-Match Critters, to the point where Gabriel wonders if they weren't artifically created. - The Unicorn Chronicles: Medafil, introduced in book 2, is pretty much a classic gryphon; he even hoards treasure. He's also the most intelligent of his kind, the rest being little more than beasts and barely able to say more than "Gaaah", which is part of why he left their territory and lives on his own. - Xanadu (Storyverse): The first sighting of a winged horse that Hannah and Beth investigate when searching for Wynd turns out to be a hippogriff, which as they point out to the soldier accompanying them is distinguished from a pegasus by its eagle head and predatory habits, which are soon after demonstrated when it dives on and decapitates a cow. - Kamen Rider: - Kamen Rider Wizard: Kamen Rider Beast has a Griffin familiar that seems to be the Classical style. - Kamen Rider Zi-O: The title character's potential future self Ohma Zi-O wears black-and-gold armour with both lion and eagle motifs note : His helmet has detail evoking a lion's mane, and his arrival is said to be heralded by the lion star Regulus. Meanwhile the characters for "RIDER" on his visor have become barbed to resemble Shocker's eagle crest, and he has "wings" on his back in the form of a pair of giant clock hands., representing his nature as an absolute, invincible Evil Overlord. - Merlin (1998): Merlin and Arthur are attacked by creatures that Merlin calls "griffins". They look a little like monkeys with the patagia of a flying squirrel and the heads of hawks, and they act an awful, awful lot like the "raptors" in Jurassic Park. - Merlin (2008): One episode has an opinicus, which acts pretty much as a one-time terror, eventually meeting its demise. - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Goldar is something of an odd example, as his leonine features include a muzzle. This, along with his fur colour and the shape of his forward fangs have lead some to assume he's a gorilla or wolf-man, but he is in fact an anthropomorphic griffin. This is backed up by his Zyuranger self being named Grifforzer. In season two, the Yellow Ranger had a Griffin Zord (as a Western version of its Dairanger counterpart, a Kirin). - According to the Greek historian Herodotus, there were griffins living among the Riphean Mountains (generally thought to mean the Urals or Carpathians) in Hyperborea (meaning "beyond the North Wind", a general term used by the Greeks to refer to the wild north beyond Thrace/modern Bulgaria and Romania). There, they were supposed to jealously hoard gold, something that brought them in constant conflict with the Arimaspi, a race of one-eyed barbarians who lived in the same area. - Recognisable gryphons first appear in Scythian gold artworks, usually as guardians or as eating other animals. Unfortunately we know little of Scythian Mythology, but it is likely the inspiration for Herodotos' claims. - It has been suggested that the myths of the gryphons are connected to the sphinx and the Mesopotamian shedu and lammassu (which also influenced the origins of cherubs, other lion bodied creatures generally depicted with wings). - The heraldic Keythong is a wingless griffin with large spines on its body that is occasionally depicted as having horns on its head. - Some legends about Charlemagne claim that he and his knights rode on hippogriffs. - Magic Girl has a brown-furred gryphon with taloned hands perched in the upper-right corner of the playfield. - Paragon prominently features a lion/eagle/lizard hybrid griffon on both its backglass and playfield. - Cool Kids Table: In the Harry Potter-themed game Hogwarts: The New Class, Jake gets a pygmy gryphon (whom he names Jomps), which has the body of a house cat and the head and wings of a red-tailed falcon. - The Dark Eye: - Griffons are holy creatures, servants on the god Praios and stalwart defenders of truth, justice and order. They are intelligent creatures and can speak multiple languages, and never lie. They exist to serve their god and his cause, and can be found all over the world in crusades against demons and dark magic. - Irrhalks are griffon-like demons with horns, black feathers, and a fiery glow in their chests, serving the demon lord Blakharaz, and are very intelligent and evil. They are either fallen griffins or demons made in mockery of the real thing, it's not entirely clear. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The game has long included the griffon and the hippogriff among its monsters. Generally, griffons are intelligent creatures capable of either speaking human languages or at least understanding them, while hippogriffs are animals. Both are used as mounts, although obviously riders have very different relationships with a sapient griffon steed than with a hippogriff mount. Griffons prey on horses, which often results in enmity between them and intelligent horselike beings such as pegasi and asperi, and in some settings this includes a sense of animosity towards hippogriffs as well. As a result, although pegasi normally reserve their enmity for evil beings, they bear a particularly deep-seated hatred of griffins and hippogriffs. Some further variants exist, such as Rimefire griffins with elemental affinity for both ice and fire. - The Hieracosphinx, mentioned in the page image, has been a semi-regular monster which is here depicted as an Always Chaotic Evil variant of the sphinx that can be mistaken for a griffon quite easily, due to having an eagle's head and wings on a lion's body. It's an Always Male race that reproduces by raping the Always Female gynosphinxes. - The Opinicus also appears by that name in older editions, but instead it is a Chaotic Good creature resembling a winged camel with a lion's tail and mane, a monkey's head and hands, and a love for jokes and playing pranks. - While they've never been linked to griffons, owlbears fit the mould pretty well as hybrid beasts with the bodies of large mammalian predators and the heads of birds of prey. And while owlbears can't fly, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare them to some of the wingless griffon variants. - In the Eberron setting, the griffon is House Jorasco's heraldic magical beast. - Exalted: - Gryphons are Wyld creatures that originated as chance fusions of hawk and lion, but have since stablized into their own species. They're frequently used as steeds by the Fair Folk. - Flame gryphons are a variant found in the Southern Wyld, and possess golden claws and wings made out of flame. They can live fine in creation, but can only reproduce in the Wyld. They're fiercely independent, to the point of tearing themselves apart rather than submit to magical compulsion. They also possess a deep and innate hatred of horses and horse-like creatures, which they kill whenever possible. - Gods of the Fall: Griffons are wild predators with the head, wings, forelimbs and talons of an eagle, and the torso, hind legs (but not feet) and tail of a lion. They are wild animals, but those found as chicks can be trained as mounts. - GURPS Fantasy Bestiary includes gryphons and hippogriffs, both of which fly through the use of Mana stored in their feathers. - Gryphons are fierce predators, and fond of horse meat. They can be tamed if captured young, but will only obey the commands of their original trainer. - Hippogriffs have the hindquarters of horses and the forequarters of gryphons — essentially, a hippogriff has the legs, rump and tail of a horse, the head, talons and wings of an eagle, and the chest of a lion. They're easier to tame than gryphons are, which is thought to be due to their partly equine nature, and their horse legs make them faster runners on the ground. - Palladium Fantasy: Griffons fit the standard fantasy mold in terms of physical appearance, live in high mountains in northern climes and will generally leave humans alone unless threatened or hungry. - Pathfinder includes the griffon, hippogriff (speculated in-universe to have come about as a wizard's weird joke on the griffons' taste for horse meat) and hieracospinx, ultimately based on their D&D incarnations. - Griffons were originally created by Curchanus, a god of beasts and the wilderness, to act as guardians to his faithful. When Curchanus was slain by the demon lord Lamashtu, the formerly intelligent and organized griffons descended into their current bestial state. - While eagle-and-lion griffons are the most common kind, certain environments are home to specific variants: desert-dwelling griffons typically have the heads and wings of hawks and the hindquarters of mountain lions, while jungle-dwellers may blend the bodies of panthers with those of colorful parrots or black-feathered eagles and arctic griffons may resemble lynxes and snowy owls. Griffons whose bird and feline parts are of different kinds from those common in their region (such as a tiger-striped griffon born among lion-based ones) are shunned by their parents and forced to live on their own. - Alces are a rare variant of swift-running griffon born without wings. In 1st Edition they're hatched from eggs brooded by their father, rather than their mother, while in 2nd Edition they're the result of a rare mutation and often treated as the runts of their litters. - Pathfinder's hippogriffs have the added peculiarity of having birdlike talons at the end of all four limbs, and do not coexist very well with true griffons — griffons are sapient, hippogriffs aren't, and the former have a habit of hunting and eating the latter. However, while the two are normally separate species, it's possible for a mythic griffon to produce hippogriffs or mythic hippogriffs by mating with awakened horses, Unicorns, or mythic horses or unicorns. - RuneQuest: - Griffins have the heads, wings and forelegs of eagles, and the bodies and hind legs of lions, and hoard gold and treasure in their lairs. They are an ancient and powerful race, know basic magic and sometimes join their equivalent of Fire/Sky Rune cults. They rarely mix in the affairs of men, and leave others alone unless they try to take the griffin's hoard of gold. - Modern hippogriffs are the descendants of the goddess Hippogriff from before the Great Darkness, and like their ancestress have the bodies of horses with the wings and foreclaws of eagles. - Shadowrun: Classic griffins, resembling the usual mix of lion and eagle with feathered ears, exist as Awakened animals of unclear origin, although they're tentatively classified as birds. They're solitary mountain-dwellers and prey chiefly on large hoofed mammals. A few additional variants are known to exist, generally created by additional magical mutation of the main griffin species. - An Asian species exists that is distinguished by a scaly head and neck and a spiny fin running down its neck and back. - False griffins are largely identical to the normal kind, but lack wings and external ears. - The hieracosphinx resembles a griffin with a falcon-like head and vestigial wings, while the criosphinx resembles a hieracosphinx with lion ears and ram horns. They live only in the Serdarbulak Plateau in the Middle East and are believed to have diverged from regular griffins in the surge of magical transformations that came with the passing of Halley's Comet. - Heliodromus are mutant griffins with fully feline bodies and the wings and heads of vultures. They're opportunistic scavengers, waiting near freeways to glean roadkill, raiding graveyards, lurking around battlefields and sometimes picking through garbage dumps. They are also known to try to scare other creatures into dangerous situations by using their ability to induce supernatural fear, and will attack targets directly if they're especially hungry. - Warhammer: Griffons are highly sought-after steeds among the nobles and generals of the Empire and the High Elves due to their ferocity in battle, their ability to fly and the prestige of having one as a mount. Hippogryphs play a similar role for Bretonnia. Such steeds are very rare, as neither griffons nor hippogryphs will breed in captivity — all tame ones have to be taken as eggs or very young chicks from the high mountains where they nest, something rather complicated by their highly protective parents, and nobles will pay exorbitant prices for an egg or chick of their own. Griffons in Warhammer are also fairly varied in appearance — they've been portrayed with markings like leopards and tigers as well as lions, others have hawk- and falcon-like forequarters, and some have two heads. - Karl Franz, the current Emperor of the Empire, can ride one of the Empire's fiercest gryphons into battle (or a regular horse, or a dragon, depending on what you're willing to put together) that he himself raised from an egg. King Luen Leoncoeur of Bretonnia rides a hippogryph named Beaquis, and in the End Times the imperial wizard Gregor Martak rode a two-headed griffon named Twinshriek. - One Imperial hero, Theodore Bruckner, rides to battle on a wingless breed called a demigryph. Demigryph-riding knights are an Imperial unit choice as well. All four of a demigryph's legs are feline, making them resemble giant tigers with eagle heads. - Hippogryphs and griffons are extremely hostile to each other, usually fighting to the death when they meet in the wild, and have claimed distinct mountain ranges as their territories — griffons chiefly live in the World's Edge Mountains and hippogryphs in the Grey. This has led to their association with the nations neighboring this mountain ranges. Griffons in particular are considered sacred animals in the Empire, and the leader of Sigmar's church wears a jade emblem carved to resemble a griffon. - In early editions of the game, griffons and hippogriffs were instead creatures of Chaos and part of the Chaos army lists. This largely fell by the wayside as the game evolved, but there is still some in-universe speculation that griffins and hippogryphs were originally Chaos mutants created in a similar vein to manticores or chimeras, due to their chimeric body plans. The theory goes that, despite their origins, they have been separated from their unnatural genesis for long enough to stabilize and "go native", and now live and breed like any other animal. Due to the symbolic importance they carry for most major human nations, however, this theory is a very unpopular one. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar brings back griffons and demigryphs as creatures associated with the forces of Order, and particularly with the Free Cities and the Stormcast Eternals. Griffons and demigryphs are native to Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, which is generally associated with birds and aerial creatures. A distinct breed of two-headed griffons, originating as an offshoot of the main Azyrite kind, exists in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, and is known for greater strength and fiercer temper. These are usually ridden by wizards of the Lore of Beasts. In addition, two additional breeds of wingless gryphs are introduced: - Gryph-hounds are essentially demigryphs the size of a large dog and have very keen senses; they're typically used as attack animals, watchdogs and companions. - Gryph-chargers resemble wingless hippogriffs with lion tails, as they have horselike hind legs and avian forelegs instead of a demigryph's four feline legs; some also have two tails. - In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Griffin spirit is the tribal totem of the Red Talons. - Transformers: - There has been some speculation surrounding the Beast Machines toy of Silverbolt◊, which ostensibly turns into a condor... a condor with plainly visible, not-hidden-in-the-least legs in front of its wings. The toy can be reconfigured into a griffin mode by turning these legs downward, and for all world, this makes it actually look like something. However, beyond the fact that this configuration looks a hundred times better than its "condor" mode, and that it's also something of a callback to Silverbolt's original form (a wolf-eagle hybrid), there is nothing official to suggest that this was the original intent of the designers, and the character appears as a condor in the animated series as well — although the cartoon was notorious for often disregarding what the toys looked like, so perhaps releasing the toy as a condor was a (failed) attempt to make it resemble its on-show counterpart. - 2013 brought Grimwing, a Predacon in the Transformers: Prime toyline, who is an ursagryph, which is basically a classical gyphon with the lion swapped out for a bear. He never appeared on the show, but a Palette Swap named Darksteel was in the Predacons Rising finale movie (with his own limited toy release), and Budora is their counterpart in Transformers: Go!. - American McGee's Alice has the Gryphon, who is initially held captive by the Mad Hatter. Alice frees him, and he helps lead her force against the Red Queen's army. \|\|He is killed in an aerial duel with the Jabberwock, and his corpse is pretty much one of the only things that Alice can take cover behind in the ensuing boss fight.\|\| - ARK: Survival Evolved: Griffins are added from the Ragnarok Update onwards, which is a fantasy-themed update. They are difficult to tame and they attack by slashing their claws or dropping from a tall height. - Brigandine has griffins as a base monster with the holy attribute. If you upgrade it, then it becomes a holy griffin and can shoot its feathers at enemies. - Castlevania: - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a Hippogriff as the boss of the Royal Chapel, with the body of a horse and the front claws, head and wings of an eagle. Later, in the Inverted Castle, more Hippogriffs appear as a Degraded Boss. - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Hippogriffs return, although only as a regular enemy, again with the hindquarters of a horse and the claws, wings and head of an eagle. - Darksiders: The Angels ride angelic creatures called Ortho that look like white, armored griffins. - Dragon Age: In the lore, the Grey Wardens of old rode on Griffins. They all eventually died out by the present, though. Warden armor still carries a griffin crest in their honor. Due to the events of Last Flight, \|\|griffons are revealed to just barely avoided extinction, with about thirteen griffon eggs recovered from a magical stasis spell\|\|. - Dragon's Dogma: The griffons are of a rather classical design, except for having the coloration of bald eagles and for generating electricity while flying. - Dwarf Fortress: Griffons are one of a small number of creatures that exist as in-game myths: they have a bare minimum of game data and show up in engravings, but they do not exist as actual creatures you can encounter. Despite this, dwarves can still express a liking for their strength. - The Elder Scrolls Online has gryphons as wild animals, which follow a somewhat more avian version of the classical appearance: they do have cat-like ears, but their bodies are completely feathered and their hindlegs are bird-like claws as well. There are a rare few trained ones, namely by the Welkynar Knights of Cloudrest (which are featured in the Cloudrest 12-player trial). There is also a wingless variety called the quasigriff, which were selectively bred to be used as mounts, and which do have feline hindlegs. - Fire Emblem: Awakening: The Griffin Rider, a Jack of All Stats armed with an axe, is an alternate branch class of the Wyvern Rider sub-group. - Gigantic: Leiran, one of the Guardians, is a five-story tall gryphon that can shoot lasers from its eyes. - God of War II: There's a sequence where you fight people riding griffins. This being God of War, you hop on the griffin's back, cut off its wings, and let it plummet to its death while you hop back on Pegasus. Closer inspection of artwork and scenes suggests the creatures have a hooked blade at the end of their tail similar to a manticore. There are also the dark griffin riders, who ride black griffins wearing bronze masks. - Heroes of Might and Magic: In the first three games, the griffins stand on their hind legs, while in IV and V, they go on all fours. At least in the old setting ( I-IV, and all the Might and Magic RPGs except for X), while the recruitable creature is consistently called griffin across the games, variant spellings do appear when it comes to people actually in the setting referring to them — mainly gryphon (the Gryphonheart family was named that because they got to power by managing to tame Erathia's native griffins). - Krut: The Mythic Wings have a gigantic rainbow-feathered Gryphon Mini-Boss in the Garuda palace. Who flies all over the place during the boss fight, and can fire gusts of wind from it's wings as a ranged attack. - The Last Guardian: Tricos are often called griffins by the English-language fanbase, being mix-and-match critters with an emphasis on feline and avian traits. However, the proportions of cat to bird are different from classical gryphons, other animals such as hyena facial features and ratlike (albeit furred) tails are in the mix, and the species sports blue horns, lightning powers, and a reputation for eating people. - Miitopia: Griffins are modeled after the Opinicus but have ears like the Classical Gryphon. They also have multiple Mii eyes on their wings. - Monster Sanctuary has the Gryphonix. Like the traditional European griffon, it's half-eagle, half-lion, and is said to guard gold, rulers, and tombs, but it's ON FIRE! - Octopath Traveler: The Ogre Eagle has the hindquarters of a lion and the wings, forelegs head of a colorful eagle. Despite this, its English name references the "Tengu" portion of its Japanese name with the term "Ogre", and emphasizes its avian traits by referring to it as an eagle rather than a griffon. - Phantasy Star Online has the Gal Gryphon, a hippogriff-styled gryphon with hooved feet, a bulky body reminiscent of a bull, and two large tusks protruding from the sides of its head that it uses to fire lightning beams. - Pokémon: - It took surprisingly long for the franchise to have a griffon among its creatures. When it finally did, in Pokémon Sun and Moon, it was a pretty weird one. Type: Null and Silvally are essentially cyborg Pokemon made out of parts of other Pokemon, but their basic shape (talons on their front feet, paws on their hind feet, and a beaked head) resembles a Keythong or Minoan Gryphon. - Pokémon Uranium, a fan game, has Gargryph, a griffin made of rock and based on gargoyles. - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within features an enormous griffin, as a boss. Interestingly, it serves as a protector of the castle. - Riviera: The Promised Land: Griffons appear as demons, and in Yggdra Union and Blaze Union as mounts alongside horses and dragons. The latter two games have griffon-riding units as female-only, seeing as all the characters riding anything else happen to be male. In Yggdra Unison, the superior mobility of griffon riders during the daytime makes the only two of them in the game, Kylier and Emilia, Lightning Bruiser-style Game Breakers for as long as the sun is up and Mighty Glaciers at night; the other two Ancardia games give the class the Weaksauce Weakness of lacking terrain bonuses, making them far easier to pummel. - Shovel Knight has two fire-breathing and armored gryphons as minibosses in King Knight's stage. Talking to the castle's previous owner in the village after finishing the stage reveals that they were the king's pets. Good thing they respawn. Palette swapped versions also appear in the final stages. - Skylanders: One of the Skylanders is Sonic Boom, a mother Opinicus. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: - As in the parent tabletop game, Emperor Karl Franz can ride an enormous griffon named Deathclaw that he raised from an egg. Imperial Griffons are also a high-level steed for Imperial generals, and Imperial Amber Wizards, who specialize in the Lore of Beasts, can ride green-feathered jade griffons. Griffons can have the back half of multiple kinds of large cat; while generic griffon mounts have traditional lion bodies, Deathclaw has tiger-striped hindquarters and jade griffons have those of clouded leopards. - A couple or regular Imperial units ride demigryphs, essentially wingless griffons with catlike front limbs. Like the regular kind, they have to be individually tamed by prospective riders, but the reward is the Undying Loyalty of one of the fiercest creatures in the Empire. The main version has white heads and tiger-striped bodies, but their unique Regiment of Renown, the Royal Altdorf Gryphites, ride demigryphs with blue-gray feathers and snow leopard bodies. - The Warden and the Paunch introduces griffins to the High Elf army, including Eltharion's mount Stormwing, who has leopard-spotted hindquarters and an osprey's front; generic griffon mounts for generals with bald eagles heads; and the Knights of Tor Gaval, a unique regiment of three elven knights riding jade griffons. - Hippogriffs appear in the Bretonnian army roster both as mounts for lords, a single hero and a unit of elite air cavalry, the Hippogriff Knights. Unlike the tabletop version, they have lion tails. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Griffins are creatures present in the Mythical mode, where they can be recruited if the Griffin Patriarch is brought over to the player's side. They all have the bodies and ears of lions and heads and wings of vultures, with feathers as strong as bronze; the Patriarch resembles a griffon vulture, while his lesser progeny have the features of lammergeiers. They're also quite big — lesser griffins are the size of elephants, and the Patriarch is around twice their size. They jealously hoard gold and live in a complex, conflict-filled balance with the one-eyed Arimaspoi that share their lands, with whom they constantly compete for treasure. As such, partnering with the Patriarch also allows the recruitment of Arimaspoi units. In battle, griffins serve as extremely fast and mobile flyers capable of dealing devastating damage to most common units. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Griffons are among the many creatures Geralt can hunt. Unlike most examples, it seems more like a rough cross between a vulture, a lion, and a bat. It has only four limbs as well, and uses its wings as forelimbs while it's on the ground. - World of Warcraft has both classic style gryphons and hippogriffs, the latter with antlers due to being raven/stag hybrids. The former are associated with dwarves, in particular the Wildhammer Clan, while the latter are associated with night elves (whether these are meant as a reference to perytons or just a function of the Rule of Cool is unknown). "Standard" (dwarven) gryphons function as the default flying mount for the Alliance. - El Goonish Shive: A griffin appears for a one-panel gag, which becomes far more serious when another shows up, looking for the first. Tara the gryphon is a Magic Knight from an Alternate Dimension, and she and her wife were investigating the unusual magic situation when her wife disappeared, apparently Trapped in Another World (ours). (Although it turned out \|\|Andrea just got a bit lost and couldn't find the spot where she could return from\|\|). Griffins in that dimension have more variety than eagle + lion: Andrea is the classic version, Tara's pantherine-half is a tiger, \|\|Liam Tyrant-Slayer has an owl head with a lion's mane, and Dwight is all white with a cockatoo head\|\|. - Erfworld has Gwiffons and the larger Megalogwiffs, which are giant marshmallow peeps that fulfill the role of griffons as mounts for the good-aligned forces. - Their resemblance to a certain type of candy is important early on. Stanley requests that the perfect warlord be summoned "who eats Marbits and Gwiffons for breakfast". Cue Parson, who literally eats Peeps and Marshmallow Bits for breakfast. - They're also apparently actually quite fearsome, which is understandable when you realize that their entire front opens into a gigantic gummy maw. They eat horn, hooves, and marrow, and get soggy in the rain. - Skin Deep: Both classical griffons and opinici are present as named characters, in addition to some weirder species in the bonus content. As with most of the mythical creatures with multiple subspecies, it's not uncommon for a single family to have multiple variants among its members. They're also known to be among the creatures native to Wonderland. - Classical gryphons are the most common variety, and have tufts of feathers resembling pointed ears that grow in when they hit adulthood. - Some gryphons resemble cats and raptors other than the standard lions and eagles, but they're not common. As an example, Leah Tanno is part red-tailed hawk and part bobcat, and as a result is much smaller than other gryphons. - Opinici, or maned gryphons as they're usually known, have lion forepaws, lion ears and — in the case of males — leonine manes; they are also the only type of griffon to give live birth instead of laying eggs. Most of the central gryphon characters in the comic are opinci. - In contrast to the lion-heavy opinci, feathered gryphons favor their avian side and largely resemble four-legged eagles. The Jubjub Birds of Wonderland are also thought to descend from Wonderlander feathered gryphons, and themselves resemble all-bird griffons with checkered wings and black-and-white banded antennae-like structures on their heads. - Alce, or keythongs, resemble classical gryphons in most respects but do not have any wings; instead, they have pointed horns sprouting from their heads and shoulders. - Inverted gryphons, as their name suggests, have their bird and lion bits in the inverse of the usual order, with leonine heads and forepaws and avian wings, hind legs and tails. - "Pigmy" gryphons are any extremely rare variant that may combine any type of bird and mammal. At least some, such as the diminutive hummingbird-and-mouse gryphons, aren't sapient and are effectively just animals. - Hieracosphinxes — wingless, hawk-headed lions — are considered by other sphinxes to be just a gryphon variant with pretensions. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: When Arnora attempts to summon a gryphon Familiar, the result... isn't quite what she expected. She's the size of a housecat and has a parakeet front half, to begin with. - Codex Inversus: In the World Before, griffins were noble creatures that soared through the skies of Heaven. When the Collapse forced all planes of existence into a single world, they found themselves having to compete for food and space in the mundane food chain and lost much of their heavenly status. Their modern descendants are for the most part just predatory animals. - Birch griffins, part tiger and part snow owl, are among the creatures that inhabit the Infinite Forest, a dimension-warping landscape formed from a shard of a heavenly wilderness. - Psittagryphs are macaw-like gryphons that live in areas where the natural jungles of Uxali border the mechanical jungles created by the Matras. They hunt the living constructs found there, cracking open their artificial casings to drink their animating fluids. - Wolfyrs lost their wings entirely, and have lupine traits instead of feline ones. They live throughout the Angelic Unison as vicious and intelligent pack predators with a taste for horse meat, especially that of magical equines such as pegasi and unicorns. Some believe that the wolfyrs are driven by a hunger for the paradise that they've lost. - Neopets: - The Eyrie originally a dragon-like creature, became an opinicus sort of gryphon, albeit with ears. - Add the rare Maraquan Paintbrush item, and you've got yourself a Marigryph. - Windsonde is a community-based role-playing game at DeviantArt, and nearly all of the player characters are gryphons. The rules for character design are pretty strict... except for Tookie Island, where any bird/mammal combination goes. There, the gryphons are really different. - Aladdin: The Series: A few episodes involve griffins. One episode has Aladdin and his friends try to return an egg stolen by Abis Mal to a rampaging mother griffin, another has the group encounter one of a bunch of mechanical monsters piloted by a grumpy insect, among them a mechanical griffin, and another has a clumsy thief transform himself into a griffin from the Stone of Transformation given to him by Mozenrath. This was an appalling move on his part, since the toenail of a griffin was needed to transform Jasmine's father back to normal after magic powder turned him into a golden statue, but somewhat mitigated by the fact that the transformed griffin had Projectile Spells. - Gargoyles: Griff is a British gargoyle that looks a lot like a humanoid griffin, he has greenish brown skin, a hawk-like beak, feathered wings and a lion's tail, he does not have Griffin ears, he makes him look more like a humanoid hawk than a humanoid griffin and wears a punk style black leather vest and wears black underwear. He is very considerate, courageous and friendly. He's also adventuring with King Arthur himself. - American Dragon: Jake Long: According to Fu-Dog, gryphons lay an egg only once every thousand years. Once the baby hatches, the mother actually swallows the baby, which lives in her digestive tract for a week or two before it's healthy enough for the mother to throw back up and live on its own. Of course, this all grosses out Jake. - Avatar: The Last Airbender: - In keeping with the plethora of Mix-and-Match Critters in the franchise, one episode briefly features a griffin (with what appears to be a griffon vulture's forequarters) that's used as one of the trained animals in a traveling circus. - The Legend of Korra: The Lizard Crow is a scavenger that can be seen scouring the city for scraps, especially around industrial and coastal areas. It has the head and wings of a crow on the body of a lizard, giving it a strong resemblance to a more reptilian take on the classic griffon. - Disenchantment: A single griffon has been seen, nesting on a cliff at the edge of the world. In addition to being hybrid of lion and eagle, they're also part human — they have the hindquarters of lions, the chests, heads and arms of humans (they walk on their knuckles) and the wings of eagles, in addition to very beak-like noses. Further, griffons have no sexual dimorphism; even the females look and sound masculine, despite laying eggs. - Garfield and Friends: One episode has Orson and his friends Separate Scene Storytelling themselves in their own version of Camelot called "Hamelot" where they must bypass a hungry talk show host griffin who's obviously a spoof on Merv Griffin. - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002): Beast Man's control over wild creatures allows him to use whale-sized, twin tailed gryphons as his mounts. - Hercules: The Animated Series has two griffins. One is elderly and has the job of guarding the first diamond. The other is a talk show host and is voiced by... Merv Griffin. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: - Griffons were one of the first non-pony species introduced; they come from another continent and consequently aren't all that common in Equestria itself. Biologically, they're Classical griffons without the "ears" and with more variety than the traditional half-eagle half-lion build, with some resembling tigers or owls instead, and while most stick to natural color schemes several instead have fur and feathers as brightly colored as the ponies'. All their names also start with "G". - "Griffon the Brush-off" has Rainbow Dash's friend from flight school, Gilda the Griffon; she's the first griffon in the show, and has the white head of a bald eagle. It turns out she's a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who has an aversion to all of the ponies except Rainbow Dash for being "uncool". Remember what was said in the introduction, about how griffons were said to be hostile toward horses? - "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" includes Gustave le Grand. He's a baker with a thick French accent who comes off initially as a jerk, but then again so do his baking contest opponents. Strangely, he has a mustache on his beak. - Given how Equestria seems to be set up, the griffons appear to have a city state within Equestria's borders. The episodes "Rainbow Falls" and "Equestria Games" have griffon participants, the latter showing that the griffons are also prone to having a technicolor population — one of them is pink and maroon, another solid purple and third cyan with teal head and wing feathers. - "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" exposits rather abundantly on griffons. Gilda hails from Griffonstone, a griffon kingdom located in a mountainous continent across the sea from Equestria. Said kingdom used to be proud and strong; however, when a one-eyed monster named Arimaspi stole a precious idol that they based their national pride around, the griffons' spirit broke. Griffonstone is little more than a decrepit slum nowadays, and almost all of its inhabitants are greedy, selfish jerks who won't do anything for free even if lives are at stake. Gilda actually turns out to be one of the nicest griffons by virtue of being willing to let her old friendship with Rainbow Dash motivate her into saving her life \|\|even while costing her the chance to recover the lost idol\|\|. The episode's portrayal of griffons is fairly faithful to mythology — the love of gold, less than friendly relations with horses, and rivalries with cyclopean beings are all shown to some extent in this episode. - From Season 8 onwards, a male griffon, Gallus, appears as a supporting character, as he becomes one of five foreign students who study at Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. - The movie introduces hippogriffs, which appear to be a totally separate species. They're referred to as half pony and half eagle and tend towards light body colors and crests of colorful feathers. Their nature as chimeric creatures is less visibly obvious than the griffons' is, as their bird and mammal parts are the same color and don't stand out much against each other; they also possess external ears, and their tails are made of feathers. \|\|They used to live on the island of Mt. Aris in the far south, but when the Storm King rose to power their queen used the power of an enchanted pearl to transform them into seaponies, so that they could hide under the sea where they would be safe.\|\| Hippogriffs make proper appearances in the TV series starting in Season 8, with the Pearl of Transformation having been divided up amongst them so they can change between hippogriff and seapony at will, and Queen Novo's niece Silverstream joins Gallus as a supporting character and student at Twilight's School of Friendship. - The Owl House: - Griffins are referenced in a flashback of the main character's "weird" antics when she makes a taxidermy replica out of the upper body of a pigeon, the lower body of a squirrel, and "anatomically correct" spider-breath — something that gets her in trouble. Upon arriving in the Boiling Isles and escaping guards with Eda, they fly by a much larger, real griffin (with a leonine lower body) that spits up spiders, with Luz even gleefully shouting "I knew it!" - "The First Day" includes a seemingly young (and rather adorable and affectionate) griffin named "Puddles", owned by the troublemaker Viney who also served as her medic assistant before she was put in the Detention Track. Puddles is used by Viney as her part of the defeating the Monster of the Week. - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: - The Daughter, the embodiment of the Light Side of the Force, can turn into a gryphon with white and golden feathers and a light green mane and tail tuft. This is in contrast to the Son, the embodiment of The Dark Side, who can turn into a monstrous creature resembling a mix between a bat and a particularly ugly dragon. - Mastiff phalones are quadrupedal predators native to the world of Maridun with muscular, feline bodies, vulture-like heads and feathered manes. They're pack hunters, and overall resemble typical griffins without wings. - World of Quest: Graer is a brown-furred griffon, depicted as an intelligent if comical companion of Quest and Prince Nestor. However, his front-heavy build, lack of tail, and cartoony proportions (namely, his oversized beak, which is quite deep and broad for a griffon) can make this a bit less than obvious for first-time viewers. In the episode "War of the Griffins", we meet more of Graer's kind, depicted as having all kinds of beak shapes and coming in many colors, although they also share his burly body shape. - The platypus is the closest modern-day thing in the real-world animal kingdom to one, having the face and limbs of a bird (in this case, a duck) and body and tail of a mammal (specifically, a beaver). - The dinosaur Hagryphus. The group that it belongs too, Oviraptorosauria, is in itself quite gryphon like, having bird of prey-like beaks and powerful claws on both front and hind-limbs, and have long tails. - Historian Adrienne Mayor theorizes that the legend of griffons was based on a misinterpretation of Protoceratops fossils (four legged animal, birdlike beak, crest on its head that could be interpreted as a set of wings if broken off at the base, etc.). However, there are arguments against this theory, as articulated here by paleontologist Mark Witton. - Historically, the gryphon has been a common and important heraldic animal in Europe, and is especially common in this role in English and German heraldry. - British heraldry recognizes male griffons as distinct from the neutral kind, and depicts them without wings and with a short horn on their foreheads. - The sea-griffin, also termed the gryphon-marine, is a heraldic variant of the griffin with the head and legs of the basic variant and the hindquarters of a fish or a mermaid. - The logo for Sprecher Brewery of Wisconsin is a fairly standard gryphon, but the more cartoonish version◊ (named Rooty) on their root beer has a huge beak and a vaguely monkey-like body. - Merv Griffin is naturally a very different griffin, being a person with that family name. The emblem for his company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, was a stained glass window of an Opinicus griffin with lion ears (and strangely, a single horse hoof◊). This emblem appeared after the closing credits for each Enterprises television show in the 1980s and 1990s, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. - The Swedish jetfighter SAAB 39 Gripen ("Gryphon"), designed to be able to carry out both interceptor, ground attack and reconnaissance duties. - The source of the name for 1970s Progressive Rock band Gryphon.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGriffinsAreDifferent
Our Gryphons Are Different - TV Tropes Pinkie Pie: What's a griffon? Rainbow Dash: She's half eagle, half lion. Gilda: And AAAAAALL awesome! Our Monsters Are Different, dealing with bird/mammal hybrids. While not as popular as dragons or unicorns, gryphons, also known as griffins or griffons, with alces and keythongs being archaic alternatives, are still prominent beasts in modern fantasy. The oldest gryphon myths come from the Egyptian Mythology and ancient Sumer. Later, they were picked up by Classical Mythology, and afterward used in Heraldry. They became a symbol of Christianity thanks to being a mixture of two majestic creatures that Christians back then saw as the "kings" of animals, thus making them rulers of both the earth and the heavens. After that, they went into literature, but their popularity would be low until the 1990s. In modern media, gryphons are often wild, powerful predators but are also found as guardians, mostly of treasures, or as winged steeds. When not simple beasts, they're usually noble beings; they sometimes retain their medieval connection with explicitly divine forces, but this isn't very common. They're usually animal-level beings, but a few portrayals depict them as intelligent and capable of speech. If you are really prone to do some research you can see that their love for gold, their negative attitude towards horses (sometimes expanded to other real and fantastic equine beings), and their old conflict with vaguely cyclopean races are in fact drawn from myth, but don't expect them to be very prominent. All in all, gryphons tend to have four main body plans: - The Classical Gryphon, or Griffin, which is portrayed as a Mix and Match critter with the body, back limbs and tail of a lion (modern depictions may add a feather fan at the tip), the wings, head, and front legs from a bird of prey. Some portrayals give them ears that may be either flesh-and-blood feline ears or based on the "ears" of eagle owls. - The Opinicus, a slight variation with has the front legs of a lion, rendering only the wings and head (and sometimes they even don't have the wings) as being bird like; don't expect ears to show up. The tail is usually leonine, but may sometimes be reptilian or a full snake, chimera-like. - The Wingless Gryphon, also called the Minoan Gryphon, Alces, Keythong and Demigryph, depicted as either a regular gryphon without wings or an eagle-headed lion. The exact name used tends to depend on context and the precise anatomy of the creature. "Minoan gryphon" tends to be restricted to gryphons in the artwork of the Minoan civilization of Crete. The alces and keythong originate in medieval heraldry, with the keythong being distinguished by spikes or thorns replacing the wings (in the original heraldry, those "spikes" are in fact sun rays). "Demigryph" is a more recent term and tends to be applied in fantasy fiction to all wingless gryphons, although those depicted with spikes or sun rays sprouting from their shoulders are still typically called keythongs. - The Hippogriff, which resembles a gryphon with the body and back limbs of a horse note : nothing to do with hippopotamuses, hippo is Greek for "horse" and 'hippopotamus' itself means "river horse". And Now You Know instead of a lion. It gained a lot of newfound popularity and attention after one was prominently featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but was otherwise already well established in Renaissance lore due to its use in Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso note : Hippogriffs appear or are mentioned sporadically in works before Orlando, but both their popularity and their nature and appearance in later works are very much due to their appearance in Ariosto's epic. It is the most likely variant of gryphon to appear as a flying steed. It seems to have originally been an extravagant Cue the Flying Pigs-style joke: "breeding gryphons with horses" was a metaphor used by Virgil for an impossible task, since gryphons ate horses (compare "dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria"). Other ungulates might be used instead of horses. In addition to these, variety is sometimes introduced to griffons by means of varying what creatures their designs combine: while the traditional griffons are part eagle and part lion (or part horse, in the hippogriffs' case), fiction sometimes varies this by using different cats and birds of prey, resulting in griffons that are part hawk, part owl, part vulture, part tiger, part leopard and so on. This may be either a purely aesthetic distinction or may impact the griffons' habitat and abilities (such as a peregrine falcon-and-cheetah griffon being very fast, a vulture-hyena griffon being a scavenger, or a snowy owl-and-snow leopard griffon living in cold climates). Raptorial birds are the most common kinds used, but almost all sorts of bird, such as ravens or parrots, are used on occasion. It's very rare for the mammalian parts to be anything other than a feline or an equine, however. May overlap with Giant Flyer should the gryphon have wings. The wingless kind never flies, being seemingly not as magical as eastern dragons. Not to be confused with Call a Pegasus a "Hippogriff", where one type of mythical creature is given the name of another mythical creature, and Hold Your Hippogriffs, where commonplace sayings are modified to include references to fantastic fiction worlds. See also Our Sphinxes Are Different and Our Manticores Are Spinier for more sometimes-winged leonine creatures with non-leonine heads from Mediterranean mythology. See also Our Perytons Are Different, for another bird/mammal hybrid, though its mythical pedigree is a bit less genuine. ## Examples - Aquarion Logos: Aquarion Gai is a robotical, blue-and-white griffon with two horse legs, two lion legs, and the head and wings of a falcon. - Digimon: - Gryphomon is a Mega-level Phantom Beast Digimon with tiger stripes, batlike wings and a face covered by a metallic helmet, who has appeared briefly in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier. He was also a Monster of the Week in Digimon Adventure: (2020). He's the version that has a snake for its tail. - Hippogriffomon is a hippogryph Digimon, with large claws over its hind hooves. All There in the Manual says he's Gryphomon's previous form, but in the Frontier movie, \|\|he was a disguise for a bad guy\|\|. - Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan have Nobita creating mythological critters by mixing various strands of animal DNA, one of them being a purple-furred Gryphon named Gri. - Fate/Apocrypha: Rider of Black can summon a hippogriff that he rides on. - Tweeny Witches: Gryphon fairies look like owls and their feathers are used by the witches to fly on brooms. - Artist Mel Tillery has designed eight species of "trash gryphons", including magpie/skunk, pigeon/rat, and ibis/possum. note : Australian possum, not American. Though there's also a vulture/opossum. - Magic: The Gathering has griffins as a creature type. They're usually white flying creatures, stronger than pegasi and some spirits but weaker than angels. - Scars of Mirrodin has Razor Hippogriff, currently the only true hippogriff in The Multiverse. Hippogriffs also appear in Innistrad, usually as allies to the Church of Avacyn, but they're typed and referred to as griffins alongside the regular kind. In sets set on Innistrad, the hippogriff creature type is instead used for gryffs, which are like hippogriffs, but with four horse legs and the tail, wings and head of a heron. - Griffins are also common in the plane of Theros, based off of Greek mythology, where they were originally created by the gods to catch falling stars. Athreos, the ferryman who brings the dead to the underworld, uses skeletal griffins to fetch the souls who try to avoid the crossing. - While most griffins use the traditional eagle and lion anatomy, exceptions include Teremko Griffin, which has the hindquarters of a leopard; Spotted Griffin, which is part cheetah and part kestrel; Peregrine Griffin, with the forequarters of a peregrine falcon; and Resplendent Griffin, from the Mayincatec plane of Ixalan, with the forequarters of a brightly colored parrot. - While Majestic Myriarch, from Hour of Devastation, is technically typed as a chimera rather than a griffin, its appearance — a lion with the head of a raptorial bird and a pair of translucent energy wings — still gives across the impression of a griffon. With a cobra for a tail. - Unstable Unicorns: The Unicorn Phoenix looks like an orange hippogriff with a horn. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: - While not actually a gryphon, the Winged Dragon of Ra looks more like a griffin with teeth than a typical dragon. He's also light themed. - One of the cards that was printed is Hieracosphinx albeit this one has wings. - Star Wars Adventures: The Argora resembles a bright blue griffin with four eyes, and with four leonine legs instead of two being mammalian and two avian. - Superman: The Krypton Chronicles features Kryptonian hippogriffs called Tanthuo Flez or "the Winged Ones", being winged mammals with four horse legs and the head of a raptor. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Hippogriffs can be found in the mountainous versions of multiple environments and have a different coat and feather pattern for each biome, such as bald eagles in taigas, golden eagles in temperate mountains, kestrels in savannahs, and snowy owls in icy peaks. They are neutral and can be tamed to serve as flying steeds that can be commanded to attack enemies. They love eating rabbits, and can be tamed by feeding them rabbit feet and bred by feeding them rabbit stew; instead of producing a young immediately, they lay an egg that hatches after a while. Their talons can be used to craft powerful swords. - Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: One of Lexi's favorite mythological creatures is the gryphon and he is capable of changing and folding his papers to have the appearance of one. He turns into one at the end of Chapter 6 for Chloe and Atticus to ride on. - My Inner Life: Griffins are a noble but reclusive race who live in the Black Mountains, across the desert from Hyrule. They are intelligent and can speak and even brew beer, and live in a town laid out very much like a human settlement. - As they were one of the earliest intelligent species besides ponies to be introduced in the show, griffons tend to feature quite often in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction. - Equestria Divided: House Stormwing uses both regular gryphons and keythongs, horned and wingless griffons with shoulders and upper backs bristling with long spikes and with a taste for pony meat, as mercenary soldiers. - Heart of Gold, Feathers of Steel: The griffons are a Dying Race whose glory days are long behind them; they're well aware of both their glorious past and dismal future, and it shows. Culturally speaking, they're patterned after the Germanic tribes. They're traditionally a warrior people and on poor terms with ponies; Gilda believes that their insistence on holding onto their old traditions is a large part of why they're declining now. - The Palaververse: - The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Wind Breaker is a classic griffon with the front of a bird of prey (although he's colored more like a falcon than an eagle) and the back of a lion. Griffons are also described as having two different subspecies, mountain griffons and the smaller valley griffons, Wind Breaker being the latter type. - Ponyfinder, a fanmade adaptation of Pathfinder based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, includes griffons and hippogriffs as playable races: - Griffons are divided between several aspects, which affect their avian traits, feline traits, or both. These are the Predator aspect (basic griffons), Cheetah aspect (more ground focused, faster running speed), Cursed aspect (crystaline growths across the body that cause great pain and weakness, but enhance endurance and psionic ability), Prey aspect (less adept in melee, but better spellcasters and more charismatic), Pride aspect (lion feline traits, more socially focused and diplomatic), Scavenger aspect (vulture and raven avian halves, more focused on cunning), Sea aspect (otter back half, sea eagle front half, adept in water as well as land and air) and Snow aspect (usually resembling snow owls and snow leopards, adapted for cold environments). - Hippogriffs are the hybrid children of griffons and ponies. They can belong to any of the griffon aspects and have the associated avian traits, and can have the hindquarters and nature of any kind of pony (regular pony, zebra, crystal pony, etcetera). - The Steep Path Ahead: Considered Brimir's sacred animal, Saito claims that they look like wolves with wings, and both their feathers and feces are valuable reagents. They don't primarily attack humans unless provoked, but they can easily clear out a countryside. - DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: At the end of the movie, the villain Merlock transforms into a gryphon as part of his One-Winged Angel act. - Fantasia 2000: A gryphon can be seen among the various mythical creatures (the others being a dragon and a unicorn) that were mocking the animals as they were boarding Noah's Ark, and presumably drowned in the flood. - Onward has a bizarre example, as griffins are apparently the Fantastic Fauna Counterpart to chickens, with Corey the Manticore's tavern even serving "griffin nuggets". - Quest for Camelot has a particularly weird gryphon. While following the classical griffin design, the black-feathered bird forequarters are proportionally much larger than the lion hindquarters, while the head is not particularly eagle-like — the beak, especially, resembles that of a vulture. He's also very much a Butt-Monkey, being continually beaten by a falcon ten times smaller than him and by his boss, to whom he is loyal though sadly very incompetent at doing his job. He's eventually burned, presumably to death, by the two-headed dragon, and on top of that he is considered The Scrappy by the fans. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The movies features classical gryphons with feline ears, which aren't present in the original books, as part of the heroes' army in the first movie. - Godzilla (1998): An early draft features a rival monster called the Gryphon; however, it's described as an amalgam of mountain lion and bat rather than the traditional lion and eagle. - The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: An opinicus, representing good, fights a centaur cyclops (representing evil). In the ensuing fight it becomes clear the griffin is gaining the upper hand until Prince Koura slashes the griffin's hind leg, weakening it and allowing the cyclopean centaur to throttle it. - Revenge of the Sith: The planet Utapau has creatures called dactillions that basically resemble the gryphon version of a pteranodon. They appear in the prominently in the background of several scenes set on the planet, as the inhabitants use them as aerial mounts. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Like the book series, the compressed adaptation included a griffin but only halfway through the movie; its only purpose is to fly the heroes to the Secret Glade. - Alice in Wonderland has a classical gryphon, which is about as much of a help as the mock turtle. He only appears rarely in the movie versions, being no help to Alice opposite Cary Grant in 1933. In the 2010 movie it's implied he once fought against the Jabberwock, as a picture of him fighting the monster appears in a mural.◊ - Barlowes Guide To Fantasy, by Wayne Barlowe: Griffins are fancifully portrayed as a species of real, albeit extinct, creatures native to Central Asia, which endured until at least the first century AD before dying out for unknown causes. In a nod to (fanciful) speculation that the griffon myth arose from early discovery of Protoceratops fossils, they are portrayed as literally being descended from a mutant strain of the actual dinosaurs, and consequently depicted as Protoceratops with avian wings and long, feather-tipped tails in the illustration◊. Female griffins excavated extensive tunnel systems in which to brood their eggs, often bringing gold to the surface as they did, but only a very brave or very foolish person would have risked delving into a griffin's nest to get it. - Book of Imaginary Beings: - Sir John Mandeville, in his fantastic accounts of his supposed travels, reported that griffons were large enough to carry off two oxen together, while medieval texts and artwork typically used griffons as symbols of Christ. - Hippogriffs are inherently paradoxical things, as griffons' hatred of horses was so well-known that "to breed horses with griffons" was a saying referring to an impossible task. Ludovico Ariosto was inspired by this saying to create a hippogriff for the Orlando Furioso, which is used as a steed by Astolpho until he sets it free late in the poem. - Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel, Year of the Griffin, feature a mixed human and griffin family, the result of a wizard who created intelligent griffins by mixing lion and eagle (and, later, cat) germ plasm with his own and his wife's and raising the hybrid kids alongside his more traditionally-conceived (human) children. There are also naturally occurring griffins in the world, which gave the wizard the idea in the first place. - "Darkness Box", by Ursula K. Le Guin, features gryphons used as war animals, which are apparently immortal (or near to it) and which bond closely to their owners. - David And The Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd, features three different species, each with a slightly different spelling. The reader encounters the lazy, thick-headed griffens and vicious, territorial griffons; the amiable, red-feathered griffins remain off-screen. - The Divide: Brazzles are what griffons are known as in the magical world, but have a number of unusual properties: their claws turn red when dipped in poison, their feathers have mystical properties \|\|related to the treatment of heart conditions\|\|, and they have a culture where male brazzles typically become mathematicians while females are generally historians. - The Divine Comedy: A gold-and-white griffin appears at the top of Purgatory as an allegory for Christ, who is both God and man like the griffin is both eagle and lion. In order to make this work with the doctrine that Christ is 100% divine and 100% human with no compromise, Dante perceives the griffin as both a complete eagle and a complete lion simultaneously, creating a very bizarre image that he struggles to convey. - Dracopedia: Griffins and hippogriffs are described in Dracopedia: The Bestiary. - Griffins are pretty much what you'd expect. They're large predators that dwell in the mountains of Europe hunting fish and game, but went extinct in the Renaissance for unknown reasons. There is also speculation of the existence of an American species due to the prominence of eagle-like deities in American mythologies. - Hippogriffs are described as herbivorous cousins of the griffin, with their equine body being more like a wild mustang in contrast to the more elegant purebred form of the pegasus. - Dragon Rider: In the second book, The Griffin's Feather, griffins have the traditional love of gold and hatred of horses — but, less traditionally, they have a poisonous snake for a tail. Surprisingly, they give live birth while pegasi in this universe lay eggs. The majority of griffins, as they come from the Babylonian desert, have tawny plumage and fur, but one younger griffin who had been born in the Indonesian jungle has bright green feathers, a blue-green snake-tail, and the fur of a marbled cat. Some speculate that he is the son of a "Pelangi bird". - The Dragon Wars Saga: Like all Speakers, gryphons come in various types depending on affinity. Kimi has an ice affinity and is half arctic eagle, half snow leopard. - Fancy Apartments has its own resident gryphon, Gordie; who was raised, more or less, by the building's manager. - A Fantasy Attraction includes Bob and Sally, two recently married griffins, as well as a murderous hippogriff. - The Firebringer Trilogy has gryphons that prey on unicorn colts, probably a reference to the mythical horse-eating gryphons. - Great Ship: Griffons are used as artificial soldiers by the Gaian entity in the short story Aeon's Child. They have claws adapted to be compatible with high-powered laser rifles, and have beaks made of a nearly indestructible compound known as hyperfiber. They are connected through a sapient Hive Mind. - "The Griffin And The Minor Canon", by Frank Stockton, has a Griffin that is, from its description, quite obviously meant to be a dragon. While the front half matches the usual type, the wings have spikes on their joints and it has no hindquarters, having a snakelike tail that ends in a barbed tip that glows red hot when it's angry. It eats only at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and feeds only on the brave and the good. - Griffin Mage Trilogy features griffins who are magical and fully intelligent — even if they mix with humans only very problematically. They are also strongly associated with fire, and live in deserts. - Harry Potter: Hippogryphs are a dangerous but tamable type of magical creature, and can be ridden as flying steeds by wizards who earn their respect — which can be a bit difficult, as they're very proud and intelligent creatures and prone to viciously lashing out when treated badly. More "traditional" griffins also exist in the setting, but are only part of the background lore. - Hell's Gate: Griffins are barely controllable killing machines created by magical genetic engineering. - Heralds of Valdemar: Gryphons are highly intelligent beings who were created by a powerful mage thousands of years before the main timeline; their origins are explored in the Mage Wars prequel trilogy. They are generally noble and brave, but many of the males tend toward the vain and hedonistic, and they depend on having human "assistants" to help with daily tasks such as grooming. Gryphons can neither communicate by Mindspeech nor speak a clear human language; instead, they can speak aloud but are prone to Sssssnaketalk and Trrrilling Rrrs. They are not capable of carrying a rider, but magic-using gryphons (of which there are a few) can enchant a basket to be weightless, and then carry a person (or the equivalent weight of cargo) in it. - Urtho's enemy Ma'ar created a counterpart species, the makaar, who are like Bizarro versions of gryphons: just as large, just as agile in the air, but ugly as sin and distinctly less intelligent; one-on-one, the best makaar is barely a match for an average gryphon. - During the Mage Wars, Urtho experimented with a variant gryphon he called a "gryfalcon". The prototype gryfalcon lacked talons and was less of a warrior than an average gryphon, but she was also more agile on the ground and in the air, and her talonless forepaws made more-than-adequate hands. - Imagine Someday: Griffins are Proud Warrior Race Guys but have no magic powers to speak of. - InCryptid has many species of Lesser Griffins, which have the front half and wings of some sort of bird, the hindquarters of some kind of feline, and feline ears on their bird head. Alex Price has a pet church griffin (crow and large cat) named Crow. Australia has the convergently evolved Garrinna, which has the front half of a galah and the back half of a thylacine. Shelby has one as a pet. - The Lotus War gryphons are known as Thunder Tigers and are half-tiger rather than half-lion. They are descended from the thunder god Raiden and have lightning powers as a result. Certain individuals with supernatural bloodlines known as Stormdancers can bond telepathically with them. - Miras Griffin has four-limbed griffins (the wings fold to become forearms). They are sentient but cannot communicate with humans. Though bigger than humans, they are not large enough to carry one in flight. - Mistress Of Mistresses features hippogriffs as part of an Impossible Task. The author illustrated the book himself, and gave the hippogriffs horse heads, raptor wings and front legs, and lion rear halves. Not quite your classical hippogriff! - The Night Circus: Celia uses them as figures on the carousel. Once Widget and Poppet both wanted to ride one, and Celia had to tell of the Kitsune to get Poppet to ride the nine-tailed fox instead. - Ology Series: Monsterology, a companion book for the Dragonology series, includes griffins and hippogriffs in its chapter about flying creatures. The former are carnivores with a taste for horses, and are especially fond of winged ones. The latter are grain-eaters instead. People seeking to hatch griffins or hippogriffs should keep both horsemeat and grain handy, as their eggs are largely indistinguishable, but keep them out of sight until the chick hatches, as a hippogriff chick will find the sight of horse flesh distressing. - The Orphan's Tales: Griffins are he size of elephants, often vivid in coloration — picture cobalt blue and marbled white. Their preferred diet is horses, their preferred material for their nests is gold, and their enemies are the Arimaspians — gigantic cyclopses. - Protector of the Small: Keladry raises a baby Opinicus-type griffin until his parents are found, getting savaged often in a subversion of Pet Baby Wild Animal. Griffins there are intelligent, if hard to communicate with and not quite on the level of humans and some other immortals. They're also Living Lie Detectors — it's physically impossible to lie when they are near — whose feathers have related properties such as seeing through illusions and making arrows fly truer. Griffins can sense if someone has handled their young, and will kill whoever that is unless, as with Kel, there's a translator there to explain. And there are also hurroks (horse-hawks), which like griffins are magical immortals, but decidedly nastier and more animal. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: There is a gryphon called Byron, whom the children find rescue from a goblin camp and secretly nurse back to health in their barn; he afterwards comes to serve as a flying mount for them. While following the eared variant of the classical griffin design, he's more slender than most depictions and his beak has teeth/tooth-like serrations. Griffins are also quite large — Byron is around the size of a bus — and mortal enemies of horses; because of this, the rare hybrid hippogriffs are considered to be a symbol of undying love. - Star Trek Novel Verse: The Kinshaya race are essentially griffins, being mammals with four legs and a pair of wings sprouting from their back. They are too heavy to fly, though — in modern Kinshaya, the wings are used for display purposes instead. - The Summer King Chronicles is a Xenofiction High Fantasy series about "gryfons". Physically, they range from wolf-sized to lion-sized and give birth to a single "kit" at a time. Most live in "prides" ruled by kings. Males fight while females hunt. There are two races of gryfon: the Aesir and the Vanir. Aesir are larger, powerful, predisposed to battle, eat red meat, and are often impossibly brightly colored. \|\|This turns out to only apply to the population who conquered the Silver Isles, due to a dragon curse. When Shard travels to the Aesir homeland, the gryfons there are much more naturalistically colored.\|\| Vanir are smaller, more agile, eat fish, and have more subdued coloring. Both are sapient and can interbreed. - Thursday Next: The griffin from ''Alice in Wonderland' appears on a number of occasions. - The Traitor Son Cycle: Griffons grow rapidly and not only generate love, but feed off it. They will bond with the first person to demonstrate immense love in front of them and can talk with their bondsmate telepathically, though their intelligence is rather childlike. Appearance-wise, they're your traditional Mix-and-Match Critters, to the point where Gabriel wonders if they weren't artifically created. - The Unicorn Chronicles: Medafil, introduced in book 2, is pretty much a classic gryphon; he even hoards treasure. He's also the most intelligent of his kind, the rest being little more than beasts and barely able to say more than "Gaaah", which is part of why he left their territory and lives on his own. - Xanadu (Storyverse): The first sighting of a winged horse that Hannah and Beth investigate when searching for Wynd turns out to be a hippogriff, which as they point out to the soldier accompanying them is distinguished from a pegasus by its eagle head and predatory habits, which are soon after demonstrated when it dives on and decapitates a cow. - Kamen Rider: - Kamen Rider Wizard: Kamen Rider Beast has a Griffin familiar that seems to be the Classical style. - Kamen Rider Zi-O: The title character's potential future self Ohma Zi-O wears black-and-gold armour with both lion and eagle motifs note : His helmet has detail evoking a lion's mane, and his arrival is said to be heralded by the lion star Regulus. Meanwhile the characters for "RIDER" on his visor have become barbed to resemble Shocker's eagle crest, and he has "wings" on his back in the form of a pair of giant clock hands., representing his nature as an absolute, invincible Evil Overlord. - Merlin (1998): Merlin and Arthur are attacked by creatures that Merlin calls "griffins". They look a little like monkeys with the patagia of a flying squirrel and the heads of hawks, and they act an awful, awful lot like the "raptors" in Jurassic Park. - Merlin (2008): One episode has an opinicus, which acts pretty much as a one-time terror, eventually meeting its demise. - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Goldar is something of an odd example, as his leonine features include a muzzle. This, along with his fur colour and the shape of his forward fangs have lead some to assume he's a gorilla or wolf-man, but he is in fact an anthropomorphic griffin. This is backed up by his Zyuranger self being named Grifforzer. In season two, the Yellow Ranger had a Griffin Zord (as a Western version of its Dairanger counterpart, a Kirin). - According to the Greek historian Herodotus, there were griffins living among the Riphean Mountains (generally thought to mean the Urals or Carpathians) in Hyperborea (meaning "beyond the North Wind", a general term used by the Greeks to refer to the wild north beyond Thrace/modern Bulgaria and Romania). There, they were supposed to jealously hoard gold, something that brought them in constant conflict with the Arimaspi, a race of one-eyed barbarians who lived in the same area. - Recognisable gryphons first appear in Scythian gold artworks, usually as guardians or as eating other animals. Unfortunately we know little of Scythian Mythology, but it is likely the inspiration for Herodotos' claims. - It has been suggested that the myths of the gryphons are connected to the sphinx and the Mesopotamian shedu and lammassu (which also influenced the origins of cherubs, other lion bodied creatures generally depicted with wings). - The heraldic Keythong is a wingless griffin with large spines on its body that is occasionally depicted as having horns on its head. - Some legends about Charlemagne claim that he and his knights rode on hippogriffs. - Magic Girl has a brown-furred gryphon with taloned hands perched in the upper-right corner of the playfield. - Paragon prominently features a lion/eagle/lizard hybrid griffon on both its backglass and playfield. - Cool Kids Table: In the Harry Potter-themed game Hogwarts: The New Class, Jake gets a pygmy gryphon (whom he names Jomps), which has the body of a house cat and the head and wings of a red-tailed falcon. - The Dark Eye: - Griffons are holy creatures, servants on the god Praios and stalwart defenders of truth, justice and order. They are intelligent creatures and can speak multiple languages, and never lie. They exist to serve their god and his cause, and can be found all over the world in crusades against demons and dark magic. - Irrhalks are griffon-like demons with horns, black feathers, and a fiery glow in their chests, serving the demon lord Blakharaz, and are very intelligent and evil. They are either fallen griffins or demons made in mockery of the real thing, it's not entirely clear. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The game has long included the griffon and the hippogriff among its monsters. Generally, griffons are intelligent creatures capable of either speaking human languages or at least understanding them, while hippogriffs are animals. Both are used as mounts, although obviously riders have very different relationships with a sapient griffon steed than with a hippogriff mount. Griffons prey on horses, which often results in enmity between them and intelligent horselike beings such as pegasi and asperi, and in some settings this includes a sense of animosity towards hippogriffs as well. As a result, although pegasi normally reserve their enmity for evil beings, they bear a particularly deep-seated hatred of griffins and hippogriffs. Some further variants exist, such as Rimefire griffins with elemental affinity for both ice and fire. - The Hieracosphinx, mentioned in the page image, has been a semi-regular monster which is here depicted as an Always Chaotic Evil variant of the sphinx that can be mistaken for a griffon quite easily, due to having an eagle's head and wings on a lion's body. It's an Always Male race that reproduces by raping the Always Female gynosphinxes. - The Opinicus also appears by that name in older editions, but instead it is a Chaotic Good creature resembling a winged camel with a lion's tail and mane, a monkey's head and hands, and a love for jokes and playing pranks. - While they've never been linked to griffons, owlbears fit the mould pretty well as hybrid beasts with the bodies of large mammalian predators and the heads of birds of prey. And while owlbears can't fly, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare them to some of the wingless griffon variants. - In the Eberron setting, the griffon is House Jorasco's heraldic magical beast. - Exalted: - Gryphons are Wyld creatures that originated as chance fusions of hawk and lion, but have since stablized into their own species. They're frequently used as steeds by the Fair Folk. - Flame gryphons are a variant found in the Southern Wyld, and possess golden claws and wings made out of flame. They can live fine in creation, but can only reproduce in the Wyld. They're fiercely independent, to the point of tearing themselves apart rather than submit to magical compulsion. They also possess a deep and innate hatred of horses and horse-like creatures, which they kill whenever possible. - Gods of the Fall: Griffons are wild predators with the head, wings, forelimbs and talons of an eagle, and the torso, hind legs (but not feet) and tail of a lion. They are wild animals, but those found as chicks can be trained as mounts. - GURPS Fantasy Bestiary includes gryphons and hippogriffs, both of which fly through the use of Mana stored in their feathers. - Gryphons are fierce predators, and fond of horse meat. They can be tamed if captured young, but will only obey the commands of their original trainer. - Hippogriffs have the hindquarters of horses and the forequarters of gryphons — essentially, a hippogriff has the legs, rump and tail of a horse, the head, talons and wings of an eagle, and the chest of a lion. They're easier to tame than gryphons are, which is thought to be due to their partly equine nature, and their horse legs make them faster runners on the ground. - Palladium Fantasy: Griffons fit the standard fantasy mold in terms of physical appearance, live in high mountains in northern climes and will generally leave humans alone unless threatened or hungry. - Pathfinder includes the griffon, hippogriff (speculated in-universe to have come about as a wizard's weird joke on the griffons' taste for horse meat) and hieracospinx, ultimately based on their D&D incarnations. - Griffons were originally created by Curchanus, a god of beasts and the wilderness, to act as guardians to his faithful. When Curchanus was slain by the demon lord Lamashtu, the formerly intelligent and organized griffons descended into their current bestial state. - While eagle-and-lion griffons are the most common kind, certain environments are home to specific variants: desert-dwelling griffons typically have the heads and wings of hawks and the hindquarters of mountain lions, while jungle-dwellers may blend the bodies of panthers with those of colorful parrots or black-feathered eagles and arctic griffons may resemble lynxes and snowy owls. Griffons whose bird and feline parts are of different kinds from those common in their region (such as a tiger-striped griffon born among lion-based ones) are shunned by their parents and forced to live on their own. - Alces are a rare variant of swift-running griffon born without wings. In 1st Edition they're hatched from eggs brooded by their father, rather than their mother, while in 2nd Edition they're the result of a rare mutation and often treated as the runts of their litters. - Pathfinder's hippogriffs have the added peculiarity of having birdlike talons at the end of all four limbs, and do not coexist very well with true griffons — griffons are sapient, hippogriffs aren't, and the former have a habit of hunting and eating the latter. However, while the two are normally separate species, it's possible for a mythic griffon to produce hippogriffs or mythic hippogriffs by mating with awakened horses, Unicorns, or mythic horses or unicorns. - RuneQuest: - Griffins have the heads, wings and forelegs of eagles, and the bodies and hind legs of lions, and hoard gold and treasure in their lairs. They are an ancient and powerful race, know basic magic and sometimes join their equivalent of Fire/Sky Rune cults. They rarely mix in the affairs of men, and leave others alone unless they try to take the griffin's hoard of gold. - Modern hippogriffs are the descendants of the goddess Hippogriff from before the Great Darkness, and like their ancestress have the bodies of horses with the wings and foreclaws of eagles. - Shadowrun: Classic griffins, resembling the usual mix of lion and eagle with feathered ears, exist as Awakened animals of unclear origin, although they're tentatively classified as birds. They're solitary mountain-dwellers and prey chiefly on large hoofed mammals. A few additional variants are known to exist, generally created by additional magical mutation of the main griffin species. - An Asian species exists that is distinguished by a scaly head and neck and a spiny fin running down its neck and back. - False griffins are largely identical to the normal kind, but lack wings and external ears. - The hieracosphinx resembles a griffin with a falcon-like head and vestigial wings, while the criosphinx resembles a hieracosphinx with lion ears and ram horns. They live only in the Serdarbulak Plateau in the Middle East and are believed to have diverged from regular griffins in the surge of magical transformations that came with the passing of Halley's Comet. - Heliodromus are mutant griffins with fully feline bodies and the wings and heads of vultures. They're opportunistic scavengers, waiting near freeways to glean roadkill, raiding graveyards, lurking around battlefields and sometimes picking through garbage dumps. They are also known to try to scare other creatures into dangerous situations by using their ability to induce supernatural fear, and will attack targets directly if they're especially hungry. - Warhammer: Griffons are highly sought-after steeds among the nobles and generals of the Empire and the High Elves due to their ferocity in battle, their ability to fly and the prestige of having one as a mount. Hippogryphs play a similar role for Bretonnia. Such steeds are very rare, as neither griffons nor hippogryphs will breed in captivity — all tame ones have to be taken as eggs or very young chicks from the high mountains where they nest, something rather complicated by their highly protective parents, and nobles will pay exorbitant prices for an egg or chick of their own. Griffons in Warhammer are also fairly varied in appearance — they've been portrayed with markings like leopards and tigers as well as lions, others have hawk- and falcon-like forequarters, and some have two heads. - Karl Franz, the current Emperor of the Empire, can ride one of the Empire's fiercest gryphons into battle (or a regular horse, or a dragon, depending on what you're willing to put together) that he himself raised from an egg. King Luen Leoncoeur of Bretonnia rides a hippogryph named Beaquis, and in the End Times the imperial wizard Gregor Martak rode a two-headed griffon named Twinshriek. - One Imperial hero, Theodore Bruckner, rides to battle on a wingless breed called a demigryph. Demigryph-riding knights are an Imperial unit choice as well. All four of a demigryph's legs are feline, making them resemble giant tigers with eagle heads. - Hippogryphs and griffons are extremely hostile to each other, usually fighting to the death when they meet in the wild, and have claimed distinct mountain ranges as their territories — griffons chiefly live in the World's Edge Mountains and hippogryphs in the Grey. This has led to their association with the nations neighboring this mountain ranges. Griffons in particular are considered sacred animals in the Empire, and the leader of Sigmar's church wears a jade emblem carved to resemble a griffon. - In early editions of the game, griffons and hippogriffs were instead creatures of Chaos and part of the Chaos army lists. This largely fell by the wayside as the game evolved, but there is still some in-universe speculation that griffins and hippogryphs were originally Chaos mutants created in a similar vein to manticores or chimeras, due to their chimeric body plans. The theory goes that, despite their origins, they have been separated from their unnatural genesis for long enough to stabilize and "go native", and now live and breed like any other animal. Due to the symbolic importance they carry for most major human nations, however, this theory is a very unpopular one. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar brings back griffons and demigryphs as creatures associated with the forces of Order, and particularly with the Free Cities and the Stormcast Eternals. Griffons and demigryphs are native to Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, which is generally associated with birds and aerial creatures. A distinct breed of two-headed griffons, originating as an offshoot of the main Azyrite kind, exists in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, and is known for greater strength and fiercer temper. These are usually ridden by wizards of the Lore of Beasts. In addition, two additional breeds of wingless gryphs are introduced: - Gryph-hounds are essentially demigryphs the size of a large dog and have very keen senses; they're typically used as attack animals, watchdogs and companions. - Gryph-chargers resemble wingless hippogriffs with lion tails, as they have horselike hind legs and avian forelegs instead of a demigryph's four feline legs; some also have two tails. - In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Griffin spirit is the tribal totem of the Red Talons. - Transformers: - There has been some speculation surrounding the Beast Machines toy of Silverbolt◊, which ostensibly turns into a condor... a condor with plainly visible, not-hidden-in-the-least legs in front of its wings. The toy can be reconfigured into a griffin mode by turning these legs downward, and for all world, this makes it actually look like something. However, beyond the fact that this configuration looks a hundred times better than its "condor" mode, and that it's also something of a callback to Silverbolt's original form (a wolf-eagle hybrid), there is nothing official to suggest that this was the original intent of the designers, and the character appears as a condor in the animated series as well — although the cartoon was notorious for often disregarding what the toys looked like, so perhaps releasing the toy as a condor was a (failed) attempt to make it resemble its on-show counterpart. - 2013 brought Grimwing, a Predacon in the Transformers: Prime toyline, who is an ursagryph, which is basically a classical gyphon with the lion swapped out for a bear. He never appeared on the show, but a Palette Swap named Darksteel was in the Predacons Rising finale movie (with his own limited toy release), and Budora is their counterpart in Transformers: Go!. - American McGee's Alice has the Gryphon, who is initially held captive by the Mad Hatter. Alice frees him, and he helps lead her force against the Red Queen's army. \|\|He is killed in an aerial duel with the Jabberwock, and his corpse is pretty much one of the only things that Alice can take cover behind in the ensuing boss fight.\|\| - ARK: Survival Evolved: Griffins are added from the Ragnarok Update onwards, which is a fantasy-themed update. They are difficult to tame and they attack by slashing their claws or dropping from a tall height. - Brigandine has griffins as a base monster with the holy attribute. If you upgrade it, then it becomes a holy griffin and can shoot its feathers at enemies. - Castlevania: - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a Hippogriff as the boss of the Royal Chapel, with the body of a horse and the front claws, head and wings of an eagle. Later, in the Inverted Castle, more Hippogriffs appear as a Degraded Boss. - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Hippogriffs return, although only as a regular enemy, again with the hindquarters of a horse and the claws, wings and head of an eagle. - Darksiders: The Angels ride angelic creatures called Ortho that look like white, armored griffins. - Dragon Age: In the lore, the Grey Wardens of old rode on Griffins. They all eventually died out by the present, though. Warden armor still carries a griffin crest in their honor. Due to the events of Last Flight, \|\|griffons are revealed to just barely avoided extinction, with about thirteen griffon eggs recovered from a magical stasis spell\|\|. - Dragon's Dogma: The griffons are of a rather classical design, except for having the coloration of bald eagles and for generating electricity while flying. - Dwarf Fortress: Griffons are one of a small number of creatures that exist as in-game myths: they have a bare minimum of game data and show up in engravings, but they do not exist as actual creatures you can encounter. Despite this, dwarves can still express a liking for their strength. - The Elder Scrolls Online has gryphons as wild animals, which follow a somewhat more avian version of the classical appearance: they do have cat-like ears, but their bodies are completely feathered and their hindlegs are bird-like claws as well. There are a rare few trained ones, namely by the Welkynar Knights of Cloudrest (which are featured in the Cloudrest 12-player trial). There is also a wingless variety called the quasigriff, which were selectively bred to be used as mounts, and which do have feline hindlegs. - Fire Emblem: Awakening: The Griffin Rider, a Jack of All Stats armed with an axe, is an alternate branch class of the Wyvern Rider sub-group. - Gigantic: Leiran, one of the Guardians, is a five-story tall gryphon that can shoot lasers from its eyes. - God of War II: There's a sequence where you fight people riding griffins. This being God of War, you hop on the griffin's back, cut off its wings, and let it plummet to its death while you hop back on Pegasus. Closer inspection of artwork and scenes suggests the creatures have a hooked blade at the end of their tail similar to a manticore. There are also the dark griffin riders, who ride black griffins wearing bronze masks. - Heroes of Might and Magic: In the first three games, the griffins stand on their hind legs, while in IV and V, they go on all fours. At least in the old setting ( I-IV, and all the Might and Magic RPGs except for X), while the recruitable creature is consistently called griffin across the games, variant spellings do appear when it comes to people actually in the setting referring to them — mainly gryphon (the Gryphonheart family was named that because they got to power by managing to tame Erathia's native griffins). - Krut: The Mythic Wings have a gigantic rainbow-feathered Gryphon Mini-Boss in the Garuda palace. Who flies all over the place during the boss fight, and can fire gusts of wind from it's wings as a ranged attack. - The Last Guardian: Tricos are often called griffins by the English-language fanbase, being mix-and-match critters with an emphasis on feline and avian traits. However, the proportions of cat to bird are different from classical gryphons, other animals such as hyena facial features and ratlike (albeit furred) tails are in the mix, and the species sports blue horns, lightning powers, and a reputation for eating people. - Miitopia: Griffins are modeled after the Opinicus but have ears like the Classical Gryphon. They also have multiple Mii eyes on their wings. - Monster Sanctuary has the Gryphonix. Like the traditional European griffon, it's half-eagle, half-lion, and is said to guard gold, rulers, and tombs, but it's ON FIRE! - Octopath Traveler: The Ogre Eagle has the hindquarters of a lion and the wings, forelegs head of a colorful eagle. Despite this, its English name references the "Tengu" portion of its Japanese name with the term "Ogre", and emphasizes its avian traits by referring to it as an eagle rather than a griffon. - Phantasy Star Online has the Gal Gryphon, a hippogriff-styled gryphon with hooved feet, a bulky body reminiscent of a bull, and two large tusks protruding from the sides of its head that it uses to fire lightning beams. - Pokémon: - It took surprisingly long for the franchise to have a griffon among its creatures. When it finally did, in Pokémon Sun and Moon, it was a pretty weird one. Type: Null and Silvally are essentially cyborg Pokemon made out of parts of other Pokemon, but their basic shape (talons on their front feet, paws on their hind feet, and a beaked head) resembles a Keythong or Minoan Gryphon. - Pokémon Uranium, a fan game, has Gargryph, a griffin made of rock and based on gargoyles. - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within features an enormous griffin, as a boss. Interestingly, it serves as a protector of the castle. - Riviera: The Promised Land: Griffons appear as demons, and in Yggdra Union and Blaze Union as mounts alongside horses and dragons. The latter two games have griffon-riding units as female-only, seeing as all the characters riding anything else happen to be male. In Yggdra Unison, the superior mobility of griffon riders during the daytime makes the only two of them in the game, Kylier and Emilia, Lightning Bruiser-style Game Breakers for as long as the sun is up and Mighty Glaciers at night; the other two Ancardia games give the class the Weaksauce Weakness of lacking terrain bonuses, making them far easier to pummel. - Shovel Knight has two fire-breathing and armored gryphons as minibosses in King Knight's stage. Talking to the castle's previous owner in the village after finishing the stage reveals that they were the king's pets. Good thing they respawn. Palette swapped versions also appear in the final stages. - Skylanders: One of the Skylanders is Sonic Boom, a mother Opinicus. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: - As in the parent tabletop game, Emperor Karl Franz can ride an enormous griffon named Deathclaw that he raised from an egg. Imperial Griffons are also a high-level steed for Imperial generals, and Imperial Amber Wizards, who specialize in the Lore of Beasts, can ride green-feathered jade griffons. Griffons can have the back half of multiple kinds of large cat; while generic griffon mounts have traditional lion bodies, Deathclaw has tiger-striped hindquarters and jade griffons have those of clouded leopards. - A couple or regular Imperial units ride demigryphs, essentially wingless griffons with catlike front limbs. Like the regular kind, they have to be individually tamed by prospective riders, but the reward is the Undying Loyalty of one of the fiercest creatures in the Empire. The main version has white heads and tiger-striped bodies, but their unique Regiment of Renown, the Royal Altdorf Gryphites, ride demigryphs with blue-gray feathers and snow leopard bodies. - The Warden and the Paunch introduces griffins to the High Elf army, including Eltharion's mount Stormwing, who has leopard-spotted hindquarters and an osprey's front; generic griffon mounts for generals with bald eagles heads; and the Knights of Tor Gaval, a unique regiment of three elven knights riding jade griffons. - Hippogriffs appear in the Bretonnian army roster both as mounts for lords, a single hero and a unit of elite air cavalry, the Hippogriff Knights. Unlike the tabletop version, they have lion tails. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Griffins are creatures present in the Mythical mode, where they can be recruited if the Griffin Patriarch is brought over to the player's side. They all have the bodies and ears of lions and heads and wings of vultures, with feathers as strong as bronze; the Patriarch resembles a griffon vulture, while his lesser progeny have the features of lammergeiers. They're also quite big — lesser griffins are the size of elephants, and the Patriarch is around twice their size. They jealously hoard gold and live in a complex, conflict-filled balance with the one-eyed Arimaspoi that share their lands, with whom they constantly compete for treasure. As such, partnering with the Patriarch also allows the recruitment of Arimaspoi units. In battle, griffins serve as extremely fast and mobile flyers capable of dealing devastating damage to most common units. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Griffons are among the many creatures Geralt can hunt. Unlike most examples, it seems more like a rough cross between a vulture, a lion, and a bat. It has only four limbs as well, and uses its wings as forelimbs while it's on the ground. - World of Warcraft has both classic style gryphons and hippogriffs, the latter with antlers due to being raven/stag hybrids. The former are associated with dwarves, in particular the Wildhammer Clan, while the latter are associated with night elves (whether these are meant as a reference to perytons or just a function of the Rule of Cool is unknown). "Standard" (dwarven) gryphons function as the default flying mount for the Alliance. - El Goonish Shive: A griffin appears for a one-panel gag, which becomes far more serious when another shows up, looking for the first. Tara the gryphon is a Magic Knight from an Alternate Dimension, and she and her wife were investigating the unusual magic situation when her wife disappeared, apparently Trapped in Another World (ours). (Although it turned out \|\|Andrea just got a bit lost and couldn't find the spot where she could return from\|\|). Griffins in that dimension have more variety than eagle + lion: Andrea is the classic version, Tara's pantherine-half is a tiger, \|\|Liam Tyrant-Slayer has an owl head with a lion's mane, and Dwight is all white with a cockatoo head\|\|. - Erfworld has Gwiffons and the larger Megalogwiffs, which are giant marshmallow peeps that fulfill the role of griffons as mounts for the good-aligned forces. - Their resemblance to a certain type of candy is important early on. Stanley requests that the perfect warlord be summoned "who eats Marbits and Gwiffons for breakfast". Cue Parson, who literally eats Peeps and Marshmallow Bits for breakfast. - They're also apparently actually quite fearsome, which is understandable when you realize that their entire front opens into a gigantic gummy maw. They eat horn, hooves, and marrow, and get soggy in the rain. - Skin Deep: Both classical griffons and opinici are present as named characters, in addition to some weirder species in the bonus content. As with most of the mythical creatures with multiple subspecies, it's not uncommon for a single family to have multiple variants among its members. They're also known to be among the creatures native to Wonderland. - Classical gryphons are the most common variety, and have tufts of feathers resembling pointed ears that grow in when they hit adulthood. - Some gryphons resemble cats and raptors other than the standard lions and eagles, but they're not common. As an example, Leah Tanno is part red-tailed hawk and part bobcat, and as a result is much smaller than other gryphons. - Opinici, or maned gryphons as they're usually known, have lion forepaws, lion ears and — in the case of males — leonine manes; they are also the only type of griffon to give live birth instead of laying eggs. Most of the central gryphon characters in the comic are opinci. - In contrast to the lion-heavy opinci, feathered gryphons favor their avian side and largely resemble four-legged eagles. The Jubjub Birds of Wonderland are also thought to descend from Wonderlander feathered gryphons, and themselves resemble all-bird griffons with checkered wings and black-and-white banded antennae-like structures on their heads. - Alce, or keythongs, resemble classical gryphons in most respects but do not have any wings; instead, they have pointed horns sprouting from their heads and shoulders. - Inverted gryphons, as their name suggests, have their bird and lion bits in the inverse of the usual order, with leonine heads and forepaws and avian wings, hind legs and tails. - "Pigmy" gryphons are any extremely rare variant that may combine any type of bird and mammal. At least some, such as the diminutive hummingbird-and-mouse gryphons, aren't sapient and are effectively just animals. - Hieracosphinxes — wingless, hawk-headed lions — are considered by other sphinxes to be just a gryphon variant with pretensions. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: When Arnora attempts to summon a gryphon Familiar, the result... isn't quite what she expected. She's the size of a housecat and has a parakeet front half, to begin with. - Codex Inversus: In the World Before, griffins were noble creatures that soared through the skies of Heaven. When the Collapse forced all planes of existence into a single world, they found themselves having to compete for food and space in the mundane food chain and lost much of their heavenly status. Their modern descendants are for the most part just predatory animals. - Birch griffins, part tiger and part snow owl, are among the creatures that inhabit the Infinite Forest, a dimension-warping landscape formed from a shard of a heavenly wilderness. - Psittagryphs are macaw-like gryphons that live in areas where the natural jungles of Uxali border the mechanical jungles created by the Matras. They hunt the living constructs found there, cracking open their artificial casings to drink their animating fluids. - Wolfyrs lost their wings entirely, and have lupine traits instead of feline ones. They live throughout the Angelic Unison as vicious and intelligent pack predators with a taste for horse meat, especially that of magical equines such as pegasi and unicorns. Some believe that the wolfyrs are driven by a hunger for the paradise that they've lost. - Neopets: - The Eyrie originally a dragon-like creature, became an opinicus sort of gryphon, albeit with ears. - Add the rare Maraquan Paintbrush item, and you've got yourself a Marigryph. - Windsonde is a community-based role-playing game at DeviantArt, and nearly all of the player characters are gryphons. The rules for character design are pretty strict... except for Tookie Island, where any bird/mammal combination goes. There, the gryphons are really different. - Aladdin: The Series: A few episodes involve griffins. One episode has Aladdin and his friends try to return an egg stolen by Abis Mal to a rampaging mother griffin, another has the group encounter one of a bunch of mechanical monsters piloted by a grumpy insect, among them a mechanical griffin, and another has a clumsy thief transform himself into a griffin from the Stone of Transformation given to him by Mozenrath. This was an appalling move on his part, since the toenail of a griffin was needed to transform Jasmine's father back to normal after magic powder turned him into a golden statue, but somewhat mitigated by the fact that the transformed griffin had Projectile Spells. - Gargoyles: Griff is a British gargoyle that looks a lot like a humanoid griffin, he has greenish brown skin, a hawk-like beak, feathered wings and a lion's tail, he does not have Griffin ears, he makes him look more like a humanoid hawk than a humanoid griffin and wears a punk style black leather vest and wears black underwear. He is very considerate, courageous and friendly. He's also adventuring with King Arthur himself. - American Dragon: Jake Long: According to Fu-Dog, gryphons lay an egg only once every thousand years. Once the baby hatches, the mother actually swallows the baby, which lives in her digestive tract for a week or two before it's healthy enough for the mother to throw back up and live on its own. Of course, this all grosses out Jake. - Avatar: The Last Airbender: - In keeping with the plethora of Mix-and-Match Critters in the franchise, one episode briefly features a griffin (with what appears to be a griffon vulture's forequarters) that's used as one of the trained animals in a traveling circus. - The Legend of Korra: The Lizard Crow is a scavenger that can be seen scouring the city for scraps, especially around industrial and coastal areas. It has the head and wings of a crow on the body of a lizard, giving it a strong resemblance to a more reptilian take on the classic griffon. - Disenchantment: A single griffon has been seen, nesting on a cliff at the edge of the world. In addition to being hybrid of lion and eagle, they're also part human — they have the hindquarters of lions, the chests, heads and arms of humans (they walk on their knuckles) and the wings of eagles, in addition to very beak-like noses. Further, griffons have no sexual dimorphism; even the females look and sound masculine, despite laying eggs. - Garfield and Friends: One episode has Orson and his friends Separate Scene Storytelling themselves in their own version of Camelot called "Hamelot" where they must bypass a hungry talk show host griffin who's obviously a spoof on Merv Griffin. - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002): Beast Man's control over wild creatures allows him to use whale-sized, twin tailed gryphons as his mounts. - Hercules: The Animated Series has two griffins. One is elderly and has the job of guarding the first diamond. The other is a talk show host and is voiced by... Merv Griffin. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: - Griffons were one of the first non-pony species introduced; they come from another continent and consequently aren't all that common in Equestria itself. Biologically, they're Classical griffons without the "ears" and with more variety than the traditional half-eagle half-lion build, with some resembling tigers or owls instead, and while most stick to natural color schemes several instead have fur and feathers as brightly colored as the ponies'. All their names also start with "G". - "Griffon the Brush-off" has Rainbow Dash's friend from flight school, Gilda the Griffon; she's the first griffon in the show, and has the white head of a bald eagle. It turns out she's a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who has an aversion to all of the ponies except Rainbow Dash for being "uncool". Remember what was said in the introduction, about how griffons were said to be hostile toward horses? - "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" includes Gustave le Grand. He's a baker with a thick French accent who comes off initially as a jerk, but then again so do his baking contest opponents. Strangely, he has a mustache on his beak. - Given how Equestria seems to be set up, the griffons appear to have a city state within Equestria's borders. The episodes "Rainbow Falls" and "Equestria Games" have griffon participants, the latter showing that the griffons are also prone to having a technicolor population — one of them is pink and maroon, another solid purple and third cyan with teal head and wing feathers. - "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" exposits rather abundantly on griffons. Gilda hails from Griffonstone, a griffon kingdom located in a mountainous continent across the sea from Equestria. Said kingdom used to be proud and strong; however, when a one-eyed monster named Arimaspi stole a precious idol that they based their national pride around, the griffons' spirit broke. Griffonstone is little more than a decrepit slum nowadays, and almost all of its inhabitants are greedy, selfish jerks who won't do anything for free even if lives are at stake. Gilda actually turns out to be one of the nicest griffons by virtue of being willing to let her old friendship with Rainbow Dash motivate her into saving her life \|\|even while costing her the chance to recover the lost idol\|\|. The episode's portrayal of griffons is fairly faithful to mythology — the love of gold, less than friendly relations with horses, and rivalries with cyclopean beings are all shown to some extent in this episode. - From Season 8 onwards, a male griffon, Gallus, appears as a supporting character, as he becomes one of five foreign students who study at Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. - The movie introduces hippogriffs, which appear to be a totally separate species. They're referred to as half pony and half eagle and tend towards light body colors and crests of colorful feathers. Their nature as chimeric creatures is less visibly obvious than the griffons' is, as their bird and mammal parts are the same color and don't stand out much against each other; they also possess external ears, and their tails are made of feathers. \|\|They used to live on the island of Mt. Aris in the far south, but when the Storm King rose to power their queen used the power of an enchanted pearl to transform them into seaponies, so that they could hide under the sea where they would be safe.\|\| Hippogriffs make proper appearances in the TV series starting in Season 8, with the Pearl of Transformation having been divided up amongst them so they can change between hippogriff and seapony at will, and Queen Novo's niece Silverstream joins Gallus as a supporting character and student at Twilight's School of Friendship. - The Owl House: - Griffins are referenced in a flashback of the main character's "weird" antics when she makes a taxidermy replica out of the upper body of a pigeon, the lower body of a squirrel, and "anatomically correct" spider-breath — something that gets her in trouble. Upon arriving in the Boiling Isles and escaping guards with Eda, they fly by a much larger, real griffin (with a leonine lower body) that spits up spiders, with Luz even gleefully shouting "I knew it!" - "The First Day" includes a seemingly young (and rather adorable and affectionate) griffin named "Puddles", owned by the troublemaker Viney who also served as her medic assistant before she was put in the Detention Track. Puddles is used by Viney as her part of the defeating the Monster of the Week. - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: - The Daughter, the embodiment of the Light Side of the Force, can turn into a gryphon with white and golden feathers and a light green mane and tail tuft. This is in contrast to the Son, the embodiment of The Dark Side, who can turn into a monstrous creature resembling a mix between a bat and a particularly ugly dragon. - Mastiff phalones are quadrupedal predators native to the world of Maridun with muscular, feline bodies, vulture-like heads and feathered manes. They're pack hunters, and overall resemble typical griffins without wings. - World of Quest: Graer is a brown-furred griffon, depicted as an intelligent if comical companion of Quest and Prince Nestor. However, his front-heavy build, lack of tail, and cartoony proportions (namely, his oversized beak, which is quite deep and broad for a griffon) can make this a bit less than obvious for first-time viewers. In the episode "War of the Griffins", we meet more of Graer's kind, depicted as having all kinds of beak shapes and coming in many colors, although they also share his burly body shape. - The platypus is the closest modern-day thing in the real-world animal kingdom to one, having the face and limbs of a bird (in this case, a duck) and body and tail of a mammal (specifically, a beaver). - The dinosaur Hagryphus. The group that it belongs too, Oviraptorosauria, is in itself quite gryphon like, having bird of prey-like beaks and powerful claws on both front and hind-limbs, and have long tails. - Historian Adrienne Mayor theorizes that the legend of griffons was based on a misinterpretation of Protoceratops fossils (four legged animal, birdlike beak, crest on its head that could be interpreted as a set of wings if broken off at the base, etc.). However, there are arguments against this theory, as articulated here by paleontologist Mark Witton. - Historically, the gryphon has been a common and important heraldic animal in Europe, and is especially common in this role in English and German heraldry. - British heraldry recognizes male griffons as distinct from the neutral kind, and depicts them without wings and with a short horn on their foreheads. - The sea-griffin, also termed the gryphon-marine, is a heraldic variant of the griffin with the head and legs of the basic variant and the hindquarters of a fish or a mermaid. - The logo for Sprecher Brewery of Wisconsin is a fairly standard gryphon, but the more cartoonish version◊ (named Rooty) on their root beer has a huge beak and a vaguely monkey-like body. - Merv Griffin is naturally a very different griffin, being a person with that family name. The emblem for his company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, was a stained glass window of an Opinicus griffin with lion ears (and strangely, a single horse hoof◊). This emblem appeared after the closing credits for each Enterprises television show in the 1980s and 1990s, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. - The Swedish jetfighter SAAB 39 Gripen ("Gryphon"), designed to be able to carry out both interceptor, ground attack and reconnaissance duties. - The source of the name for 1970s Progressive Rock band Gryphon.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGryphonsAreDifferent
Medusa - TV Tropes "My garden's full of pretty men, who couldn't stay away..." Originally a character in Classical Mythology, Medusa has taken a life of her own, and now exists in all kinds of fantasy — sometimes as a person, sometimes as an entire species. Medusa's main characteristics are snakes for hair and that people turn to stone just by seeing her face. So don't look at that illustration. note : All bets are off, though, if she is of the Gorgeous Gorgon resp. Cute Monster Girl variety. Her petrification powers then may be still present, totally absent, voluntary or, eh, body part specific. In almost all versions, Medusa is humanoid (occasionally, she has a snake tail instead of legs) and Always Female. In some versions, her hair-snakes are venomous. In others, they are not literal snakes but rather hair that supernaturally behaves as if it were made of living snakes. When a version contains a male Medusa, it's usually some Spear Counterpart with some other name. Medusa's appearance varies depending on what source you're reading. The most popular is that of a hideous monster; in fact, the petrification originally was caused by Medusa's ugliness itself, before other myths retconned it into being a power based in her eyes. Other myths say that Medusa retained her mortal beauty, as a cruel Irony. And then there are some that offer a compromise and state that she was both beautiful and terrible at the same time. The oldest story known to feature Medusa is the adventures of Perseus. In this story she is a powerful monster whom Perseus defeats by decapitating her (and later using her head to petrify enemies) without looking at her — he sticks to looking at her shadow or looking through a mirrored shield, depending on the version. Myths and stories with background for Medusa were added later. There are two different such prequel myths regarding the origins of the original Medusa. When Medusa is used in fiction as a unique being rather than as a species, she is typically given either one of these two origins, or no origin at all. The ancient Greek origin is that she and her fellow Gorgons were simply created/born that way. In this origin, the Gorgons are typically three sisters, the other two being Stheno and Euryale. The Greek word "gorgon" means "horror". Besides having serpents for hair, the Gorgons were described as having tusks, brazen claws, wings and strongly acidic blood; in a few very early depictions they are shown as quadrupeds, possibly because Pegasus was born out of Medusa's blood when she was beheaded by Perseus. Later depictions (although still fairly ancient ones, in the absolute sense) gradually toned down the more monstrous aspects and made her more attractive. Note that the Erinnyes (Furiae) were depicted very similarly as hideous snake-haired women. Much later, in the first decade AD, the Roman poet Ovid wrote a different version where Medusa was a virgin priestess of Athena, but her incredible beauty attracted the attentions of the god Poseidon. Depending on the version of the story, she either reciprocated, and (with a little help from her sisters) let Poseidon into Athena's temple and slept with him on the altar, or was simply raped by the god. In both versions, Athena, pissed that her priestess not only broke her vows but did the nasty in her temple, punished her by turning her into her new hideous form and banished her to a desolate island until Perseus slew her. Medusa's popularity is somewhat Newer Than They Think. She doesn't appear that often in media made before the 80s. Clash of the Titans (1981) (mentioned below) featured her as one of the monsters — and it has been said that modern generations owe their knowledge of Medusa to the film. The other two sisters appear extremely rarely, but are sometimes included alongside Medusa when she's a singular character. The Gorgon sisters as a whole are the Trope Namer to Gorgeous Gorgon. Some of the Gorgons' depictions make them Snake People. ## Examples - Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld have Medusa as one of the demon lord Demaon's most powerful minions, which Demon sends after Nobita and Doraemon after the two of them are the only heroes who escaped from his army. The 2007 remake of the anime gives Medusa the Related in the Adaptation treatment by making her the heroine Miyako's long-lost mother, a former human corrupted into becoming a gorgon after being tained by the powers of darkness. - Medusa from Soul Eater is a witch with a pronounced snake theme (including having magical snakes stored in her body and a snake-like "vector arrow" attack). Even though she still looks "human" she still strongly resembles a snake especially when she gets her Game Face on. - Rosario + Vampire has Hitomi Ishigami, a Mad Artist who turns unsuspecting people to stone for her private collection. Her snake hair bites people and the venom slowly petrifies them. - Saint Seiya: The Silver Saints of Perseus, Algol, has a cloth which includes a shield featuring the head of Madusa (just like in mythology). It can turn people into stone when they look into its eyes. Shiryu tried to defeat Algol with the mirror trick it was believed to have been used against the original Medusa but the Silver Saint, already knowing how she was defeated, didn't fall for it. Shiryu had to pierce his own eyes. - A later book in the Bakemonogatari series is titled "Nadeko Medusa", which focuses on Nadeko imbibing the remnants of a snake oddity and transforming into a Snake Goddess, complete with snakes for hair. - Kagerou Daze: Azami, an immortal being as old as the planet whose long black hair grows as snakes. She can petrify people with eye-contact, but she controls when/if that happens. \|\|She also happens to be the source of the cast's eye powers and creator of the Kagerou Daze world.\|\| She and her descendants (daughter Shion and granddaughter Mary) are called 'medusae' as a species, and regarded as monsters. Shion and Marry also inherited her abilities, but they get weaker as the medusa-blood is diluted (Shion is a Half-Human Hybrid, hence her daughter is only 1/4 medusa) — by Marry's generation, the most she can do is freeze people in place for a few minutes at a time and make her hair wiggle like snakes when highly emotional. - One Piece: Boa Hancock and her two sisters earned the title "Gorgon Sisters" after they allegedly slew a Gorgon, who left them with eyes on their back that will petrify anyone who sees them. Hancock has the ability to intentionally petrify anyone who feels lust toward her, while her sisters can transform into snakes, with one of them being able to transform her hair into snakes. In reality, their powers come from Devil Fruits, and the story about the eyes on their backs is intended to hide their \|\|slave marks\|\|. - Medusa is the main villain in Pygmalio. The protagonist Kurt goes on a journey to defeat her after finding out his mother Galatea was turned to stone along with an entire village. Medusa here is described as the greatest of all demons, second only to the God of Evil, and has an entire army of demons serving her. In addition to the standard snake hair and petrifyint gaze, she's also gigantic in size. Anyone who drinks her black blood will become a demon himself. - One of the first major villains faced by the heroes of Shinzo is Gyasa, a reptile Enterran with snake hair and the complexion and demeanor of the Joker. He turned Yakumo to stone before dropping her off in an acid lake (it's later reversed) and could shed his skin to avoid getting killed, growing stronger each time. - The little known 1978 anime film Metamorphoses, which is based on The Metamorphoses by Ovid, features Medusa as a blonde girl who can change her appearance into a hideous, fanged monster. It is her decapitated head that turns into Pegasus, not her blood as in the myth. Oddly, Pegasus is also depicted as a hybrid between a horse and snake. - In GO-GO Tamagotchi! episode 23b, Mametchi and his gang are searching their school for ghosts to capture and think they have encountered Medusatchi, a Tamagotchi version of Medusa. They all worry as they think they're about to be Taken for Granite... \|\|except it's just Tamagotchi School's nurse Mrs. Houtaiko rather than Medusatchi\|\|. - Dropkick on My Devil: One of the characters is a gorgon devil named Medusa, appropriate enough, though is oddly more decked out in Egyptian wear than Greek related and doesn't have the snake hair. However she can still (temporarily) turn humans to stone if she gazes at them. Why? Because she's too adorable! - Ayakashi Triangle: A medusa is one of the few non-Japanese ayakashi we see, which snuck into a crate full of art shipped from abroad to Lu's house. It's a giant fanged head covered in snakes, mostly seeing through their eyes and only exposing the main eyes to use its petrifying vision. The medusa acts (mostly) feral and territorial, turning ever human around in stone to make a nest. Lu figures they could reflect its power back at it with a mirror, but it simply smashes it before they can try. - Magic: The Gathering The Gorgon creature type, while not a staple one, is far from rare. Most gorgons have some variety of Deathtouch, which destroys any creature that they attack. Physically, some have human legs and some are Snake People — it varies from plane to plane. - One that deserves particular mention is the Xathrid Gorgon which is the only one to actually petrify its enemies. - Gorgons have a particular presence on Theros, a plane directly inspired by Classical Mythology, where they have the lower bodies of enormous snakes where other gorgons would have humanoid legs. One Therosi gorgon, Hythonia the Cruel, is shown in her card's art as reclining on a large throne made entirely of her petrified victims. Pharika, the goddess of poisons and medicine and the progenitor and chief deity of the gorgons, herself takes the form of an enormous member of their kind. - One card, Evolutionary Leap, shows a giant python shedding its skin to become a snake-bodied gorgon. - Special mention also goes to the gorgon planeswalker Vraska, a major character in storylines relating to the City Plane Ravnica. Like other Ravnican gorgons, she has serpent tails, rather than heads, for hair. - The Far Side cartoon captioned "Medusa Starts Her Day" featuring one of his dowdy, bespectacled women showering, wearing a shower-cap through which a snake has poked its head. Another cartoon has Medusa growing up (her snake hair becoming Girlish Pigtails, braids, beehive...). - The Marvel Universe used to feature a supervillain/superhero named Medusa. Her superpower was long hair that could be used as tentacles to grab people. She was in the Fantastic Four for a while. She was eventually Put on a Bus to go and live in space with her fellow Inhumans, and mostly appears in Marvel Cosmic books these days. - Masters of the Universe featured Snake Face, a male medusa-like character with snakes popping out of his eyes rather than hair. The main power, turning people to stone, was the same. - Wonder Woman (1987): - Wonder Woman 600: The Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and Rod Reis collaboration depicts Diana standing above Medusa's decapitated head, her eyes closed and the snakes still snapping at her. - In issue four of The Avengers which featured the Silver Age return of Captain America, Cap encounters an alien who turned the other Avengers to stone with a special ray. The alien had been stranded on Earth for thousands of years living in a cave and Cap surmised that the alien's wild hair, made him look like a woman in the shadows and was the basis for the myth about Medusa. Cap got the alien to change the Avengers back and helped him leave Earth and return home. The alien would turn out to belong to the D'Bari, whose planet was later destroyed when the Dark Phoenix caused their sun to go nova. - The Man-Serpents from Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comics are an unusual variant, having a medusa's head on the body of a giant snake. They can't petrify, but do have a paralytic gaze. - An art piece from Conan Saga #56 features an usual interpretation of Medusa that plays with the trope's tendency to overlap with Cute Monster Girl, Butter Face and Snake People. This medusa looks like a shapely humanoid woman with scaly skin (complete with diamond-patterned markings on her back) and prehensile snake tails for fingers and toes... then you get to her head, which is the head of a giant snake, but still sporting the iconic mane of small snakes. In this particular example, however, Conan has decapitated the creature and is holding its head aloft triumphantly as her body slumps at his feet. - Averted in Long Live Perseus!, a short from the Soviet/Russian animated anthology series Happy Merry-Go-Round. People describe Medusa as an evil flying medusa-like (we mean, jellyfish-like), but in fact it's a UFO. - Bad Hair Day , a Discworld fic by A.A. Pessimal, expands on the throwaway canonical mention of a Medusa as a Watchwoman, explores the particular day-by-day trials of a gorgon policewoman, and expands on the Discworld's Fantasy Counterpart of Greece, Ephebe. - Here Be Monsters: This is what Violet Parr is transfigured into — although referred to as a gorgon, Word of God name-drops Medusa and her origin myth when giving the reasons for this choice of monster form. Violet's gorgon form is based on Clash of the Titans (2010)' take on Medusa, being a Gorgeous Gorgon with her long, dark hair replaced by live snakes and a rattlesnake-like tail instead of legs. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Gorgons, resembling women with snake torsos and snakes for hair, live in the basements of overgrown Grecian temples found on beaches. They can turn all mobs that look at the them to stone, including players; fighting them requires the player to wear a blindfold, which limits their perception to a few blocks around themselves. When slain, they drop their heads, which are a one-use item that can transform any one mob into stone. - Powers of Invisibility has Madusa, an akuma modeled on Medusa, who turns people to stone via Eye Beams. - Clash of the Titans (1981) included Medusa as an obstacle for Perseus to overcome — cutting off her head so he can use it to petrify the sea monster who will eat Andromeda. She's made even more monstrous than usual — with a rattlesnake tail that she uses to scare people when she's off screen. She also becomes an Adaptational Badass who is pretty nifty with a bow and arrow, hunting down Perseus's comrades one by one. As noted above, this portrayal brought Medusa into to pop culture, in no small part thanks to the special effects creator Ray Harryhausen used to bring her to life. - Clash of the Titans (2010) includes Medusa's backstory about being cursed. This time it was Aphrodite rather than Athena note : A deleted subplot would have had Athena and Apollo conspiring to help Perseus behind the other gods' backs; presumably having Athena be the one who cursed her would have put her in Designated Hero territory. — and this version also follows the compromise of Medusa being beautiful and terrible. She's a Gorgeous Gorgon here, but has a Game Face whenever she petrifies people. She also becomes far more sadistic — cackling cruelly whenever she petrifies someone. - Medusa is one of the exhibits in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, played by Tony Randall. (The film is based on the novel The Circus of Doctor Lao.) - The Gorgon: A small village is terrorized by the eponymous beast and its secret is the Driving Question. In this case, the titular Gorgon is a lot like a werewolf, who transforms at night and is human during the day. It was notably made before Medusa's pop culture popularity — as the Gorgon in this version is named as Magaera (who was one of the Furies). - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In the first film, she's played by Uma Thurman. So, not so much hideous. When she discovers that Percy is the son of Poseidon, she snarks "I used to date your daddy." - In Dante's Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil are initially barred from entering Lower Hell at the Gate of Dis in Circle Six. Those at the gate threaten to bring out Medusa to turn Dante to stone; Virgil, not trusting Dante to keep his own eyes closed, covers Dante's eyes with his own hands while they wait for divine aid to come to let them pass through. - Medusa is one of the exhibits in The Circus of Doctor Lao. - Piers Anthony's Xanth book The Source of Magic has a Gorgon with snakes for hair. Any man who looks at her face is turned to stone. She is treated sympathetically since she does not want to do this and is forced to live alone; later she marries the Good Magician Humphrey after he fixes her problem by turning her face invisible. - Thomas Ligotti has a short story called "The Medusa" about an Author Avatar who worships the titular character. Guess what happens. - A gorgon joins the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld book Unseen Academicals. She wears sunglasses to avoid turning people to stone when she shouldn't. (In an earlier book, Vimes is very pissed off about citizens interfering with his job by demanding certain kinds of people not be let into the Watch and he says that at this point he'd hire a gorgon. Guess what.) - Medusa is the Alpha Bitch for Athena in the children book series, Goddess Girls. - Percy faces Medusa (or \|\|Aunty Em, as she's called\|\|) as one of the monsters he battles in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. - Later in The Heroes of Olympus. Percy meets the two other Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale. They can't freeze people though, they're also a little touchy about it so don't bring it up. Apparently they had faded away but were restored by a demigod googling their names. - Percy also confronts the forgotten other son Chrysaor, embittered at being ignored in legend, who honors his heritage as a son of her and Poseidon by becoming a fearsome pirate. He wears a golden mask modeled after her face and trounced Percy in combat, hard. - Percy and his friends also end up facing the Gorgons' parents, Phorcys and Keto. - Ology Series: Gorgons, native to Europe, Africa and the Americas, resemble human women with huge, batlike wings and snakelike hair. Their gaze is hypnotic rather than petrifying, and they use it to keep prey still while they spray it with poison from their "hair". - A Hippie in the House of Mouse: Disney releases a film about Medusa in 1996 roughly taking the place of Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame which diverges heavily from the original myth, starting with giving Medusa a heavy dose of Adaptational Heroism and having a romance with Perseus instead of being slayed by him. - Land of the Lost (1974): In "Medusa", a version of Medusa who calls herself "Meddy", appears as a beautiful young woman at first, before her hideous true form is revealed. Her stone gaze only worked in her true form, but it worked on anything she looked at, even plants. She could control vines around her garden (eventually turning them to stone out of anger for letting the heroes escape). She also had a mirror where her reflection could move on its own and talk to her, but she could only confront it in her pretty form so she would not turn herself to stone. Her reflection constantly scolded her because of her vanity and ego, telling her to just turn Holly to stone right away instead of trying to beautify her or waiting for the others to arrive. Jack defeats her by finding the mirror and showing it to her in her true form. Right before she turned to stone, her reflection commented that she should have listened to her warnings. - Robot Wars once had a robot called Medusa 2000; the design spec called for a flail at the back, to look rather like snake hair. Unfortunately, the weapon idea fell through, so all that was left was the name and the picture on the top of the robot, which never was shown clearly on TV. - Star Trek: The Original Series: The episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" features a race known as the Medusans. Their appearance is a madness-inducing Brown Note for most humanoid races. They're not bad guys. - Swamp Thing: In one episode, Swampy and Dr. Arcane both encounter Medusa in the form of a beautiful woman — that is, she's only beautiful as long as she keeps her sunglasses on. When she takes them off we see glowing eyes and part of a monstrous face. She can't petrify Swamp Thing, as he isn't made of flesh, but she can (somehow) turn him into dry bark. Arcane is a scientist to the core about the whole thing; in one scene she partially petrifies him, and he spends the entire time clinically describing the sensation of his soft tissues being turned to stone. - Legends of the Hidden Temple: One of the later rooms is Medusa's Lair, where contestants have to properly place snakes into Medusa's head. - Tales from the Darkside: "Miss May Dusa" involves an amnesiac woman discovering that she is Medusa. - Atlantis: Medusa is initially a normal young woman with whom Hercules falls in love after the heroes rescue her from the cult of the Maenads. - Big Wolf on Campus: Medusa is the Monster of the Week in an episode. She looks like a regular human, and can turn people or objects to stone by making eye contact. Merton falls victim to her. - Once Upon a Time: Medusa is present in the Enchanted Forest. It turns out that her head can't be cut off, but she also isn't immune to her own gaze. Petrifying herself also seems to restore her other victims back to life. - Blood Ties (2007): In "Stone Cold", Medusa is a club owner who turns men who fall for her beauty into stone. She is a love interest of Mike's, until Vicky saves the day. - Charmed (2018): The first season has an interesting approach to the myth, where Medusa actually turns those who won't look at her to stone. Macy "defeats" her by acknowledging her pain. - And then, there's the 2021 Amazon Prime commercial in which Medusa buys sunglasses, and becomes the life of the party (but doesn't hesitate to petrify someone who is annoying her and her new friends). - "Medusa" by Anthrax is a Thrash Metal song with a very straightforward description of Medusa that's fairly accurate to the original myth. - The song "Medusa" by folk artist Heather Dale (which provides the page quote) describes a Medusa who has chosen to own her identity as a monster in the face of other people's scorn. - Whitney Avalon released a song in late 2020 called "Plaything of the Gods" which tells Medusa's story from her side, lampshading the ancient Greek & Roman tendency for the gods to inflict serious punishment on innocent (or at least non-antagonistic) people as a way of soothing their own egos. "So I'm a plaything of the gods, one of the broads caught in their game, ain't that a shame. One day they'll use my head, but cleave and leave the rest of me behind, which seems...unkind." - Since this is a trope about a mythological creature, see the trope description above for the most common versions of the mythology. - Some interpretations argue that Medusa was a Libyan goddess who was equated with Athena before the Greeks defeated them and demonized her as Athena's enemy and inferior. - Another origin is that Medusa and her sisters were so beautiful that they angered Athena by bragging about being more beautiful than the goddess, in any case, Athena turned them into monsters so hideous men would turn to stone if they looked at them. A slightly different version of this origin is that they were still beautiful, but they couldn't be looked at without the beholder turning to stone, making their beauty pointless. - A slightly different version of the second origin is that Medusa was willingly seduced by Poseidon rather than raped. In some versions, we'll never know if it was consensual. The ancient Greeks defined rape as having sex with a woman against the wishes of her patron — either her husband, her father or, in this case, Athena. The woman's decision is entirely inconsequential. - There are some variations of the myth in which, despite what wad done to her by Athena, Medusa continued to be faithful and committing rituals for Athena in private since she's really Married to the Job as a priestess. This was enough to make Athena regret her decision to turn her into a monster, but since she couldn't undo it, she helped Perseus as a way to Mercy Kill Medusa and when all's done good, she put Medusa's head to her shield, less because she wanted to decorate her shield with something awesome, but to posthumously reward her with what she dedicated her life for. This variation tends to hold ground since Greeks believe that Medusa's head on Athena's shield was meant to symbolize extra protection. - Arduin: Chaeronyx are medusa centaurs, pairing the typical snake hair and petrifying gaze with a horse's body in place of human legs. - Banestorm has a race of Medusas, with the traditional features (including a petrifying gaze weapon just looking at one is okay, which may be just as well given that they tend to be quite good-looking). They are always female; they interbreed with humans, elves, or orcs to produce more Medusas (or occasional male babies with recessive Medusa genes). Unfortunately, the petrifying gaze thing means that they are widely treated as monsters, which may in turn be enough to explain their mostly negative view of other races. One online article describes an island village on this game-world ruled by a noble family whose womenfolk are all, unbeknownst to the outside world, Medusas. - Dungeons & Dragons: Medusas have always been a species, but they have undergone some changes between editions. - In 2nd edition, medusas are a race resembling elven maidens with serpents for hair and the ability to petrify with their gaze, even affecting creatures on the Ethereal or Astral Planes (into which they can see). Approximately 10% of the females are "greater medusae", who have super-toxic blood and a giant snake's body in lieu of humanoid legs. There are also male medusas, called maedar, who appear as bald muscular elven men. Maedar are ridiculously rare; whereas female medusae produce 2-6 medusa daughters by mating with human men, the result of a medusa/maedar coupling is two to six offspring, with 25% being male and the remaining 75% being female. Only 1% of the males are maedar; the rest of them, and all of the females, are pure human. In addition to lacking the hair-snakes, maedar have no petrifying gaze; instead, they are immune to petrification, paralyzation and medusa venom, can walk through stone, and can undo petrification with a touch. Medusa/maedar pairs often use this to keep food fresh — the medusa petrifies victims, they smash the statue, and the maedar turns chunks back to flesh when the pair wants to eat. - In editions 3 and 3.5, medusas are an Always Female species with a humanoid body but scaly skin, glowing red eyes, and gaunt faces with flatted, almost non-existent noses. A petrifying gaze attack as well as poison bites from the hair snakes come with the package. Medusas can procreate with any humanoid species, with the offspring normally being medusae themselves. Petrification is permanent by default, but advanced magic can reverse it. In Savage Species, several intelligent monsters including medusae are made into playable races. If you wanted to play a medusa under the standard rules you have to start at level 10 or higher, but with Savage Species you can start as a level 1 immature medusa who has not yet developed her full potential. The same expansions also introduces a feat that allows medusas to enable and disable their gaze attack at will or to focus it at specific opponents, allowing others to see their faces without being turned to stone unless the medusa wants to do so. Sadly, like most monsters in the book, medusas are Cool, but Inefficient due to losing so many class levels to normal player character races and because their two main powers (petrification and poison) are things that are extremely dangerous to normal PC races but something that many monsters are immune or highly resistant to. - In fourth edition, medusae are a species in the usual sense, with both males and females. The female are the classic medusa, pretty much the same as in the previous edition except that she can now un-petrify her victims by applying a drop of her own blood. The males have different powers, in that they're bald (so no snake-hair attacks) and they can poison with their gaze rather than petrify, rather like certain mythological depictions of the basilisk. Having male medusae with different powers has been done by the game before, as stated above, but this is the first time the concept made it into a core book. Both sexes resemble the scaly humanoid from 3rd edition, though with less haggish features. - In the fifth addition, medusae look like humans with snakes for hair, have males with identical powers and are cursed to turn into medusae on an individual basis. - Eberron: Medusae have a unique culture largely based around avoiding looking someone in the eyes — they're not immune to the petrifying gaze of other medusae, so its kind of the only choice. They were created by the daelkyr, but broke free when the creatures were sealed away. Oh, and there are explicitly males as well — where do you think all the baby medusae come from? - Scarred Lands: Medusae were created by the titan Mormo. In this setting, pretty much everything was created by the Titans, including the gods. Two centuries ago, the gods rose up against them in what came to be known as the Titanswar or the Divine War. The medusae were initially an important force at the titans' side, but they switched side to serve the Gods, particularly the neutral evil goddess Belsameth. - In Nomine: Gorgons are children of humans and ethereal spirits — which can include anything from animate dreams to efreet and valkyries to the surviving pagan gods — who changed to be born as warped, terrifying monsters. In essence, they're the ethereal equivalent of the celestial-born Nephilim. Like the Nephilim, most live in isolation, hunted by angels, demons, and humans, but they're not more inherently evil than any other mortal. - Pathfinder: Medusas are rather tragic, as they are not innately evil, but rather are driven to pursue their dark desires out of spite, scornful of those who shun them for their curse. They can mate with any race capable of reproduction with humans, although their children are always female and always bear their curse. They also have literal hearts of stone that are constantly petrifying and un-petrifying themselves, and the places they live tend to be blighted because their petrifying gaze indiscriminately wipes out the local wildlife (including pollinators such as birds and insects). - Medusas normally have entirely human bodies, snake hair aside, but medusas who mate with powerful humanoids give birth to brazen medusas, who have the lower bodies of giant, bronze-scaled snakes. - First Edition's 6th Bestiary introduces the euryale, an epically powerful medusa variant supposedly representing ancient medusa sages corrupted by the demon goddess Lamashtu. They have the lower bodies of giant serpents with stony plate-like scales, and are enormously powerful — Challenge Rating 20, which is just behind things on the level of Demon Lords and Archdevils! As well as the spellcasting abilities of 18th level Oracles, they have a wide array of extra abilities. For starters, not only can they turn the petrified corpses of their victims into animated statue defenders, but if those corpses shatter, they can "consume some of the victim's essence" and restore health by doing so. Perhaps not coincidentally, they also have several powerful sonic attacks, in the form of spell-like abilities for Greater Shout, sonic analogues of Fireball, and even the "kills you if you hear it" Wail of the Banshee spell, and a special trait that makes it easier for them to shatter petrified creatures with their sonic attacks. Their venom and their serpents are much nastier than those of their little sisters, and they can turn any blunt weapon they wield into a Rod of the Viper — an enchanted item consisting of a live and angry serpent they can use to simultaneously beat someone to death and bite repeatedly with venomous fangs. Oh, except their version can also spit fangs like poisoned darts. - Second Edition's 3rd Bestiary introduces sthenos, a race that emerged about a century before the setting's present day when an euryale named Stheno, resentful of the constant nightmares plaguing her kind thanks to Lamashtu's "blessings", prayed to the goddess Shelyn for help. Lamashtu's jealous rebuke slew Stheno, but Stheno's will and defiance caused each of the one hundred snakes that made up her hair to become a new being; these newborn people took the name of sthenos after their progenitor and went out into the world. Modern sthenos almost completely resemble medusas but lack their petrifying powers; their hair snakes are alive and semi-autonomous, although they share their host's emotions. Sthenos are a scattered and spreading people, without a homeland or a unified culture, and mostly keep their numbers up by mating with humans — the children of human/stheno pairings are always either human or stheno, more or less randomly. - Warhammer: Bloodwrack Medusae are former Dark Elf sorceresses who were twisted into monstrous shapes by the goddess Atharti when she grew jealous of their beauty. Their hair turned into writhing tangles of snakes, their gaze deadly, their teeth into fangs and their legs into serpentine trunks with secondary snake bodies branching off of their lengths. - Warhammer 40,000: Medusae are a type of psychic parasite that can take over mortal hosts, creating a fused being notable for a gaze that can kill those that meet it. - Monster High: One of the characters is a son of Medusa, Deuce Gorgon. He has a snake mohawk and normally wears sunglasses to protect his friends from his petrifying gaze (which wears off after 24 hours). He also has a cousin, Viperine (Stheno's daughter), who has (mostly) normal hair and lacks the ability to petrify people. - Monster in My Pocket: Medusa is part of the toy line and also appears in the Licensed Game. She is the boss of the fifth level with four other copies in a Doppelgänger Spin and returns in the Boss Rush. - The Adventures of Lolo games have a bust of Medusa as an enemy. It paralyzes and kills Lolo if he steps into its line of sight. The only way to get past the busts is to block their line of sight with an egg or Emerald Framer. - Age of Mythology: - Choosing to worship Hera when you advance to the Mythic Age lets you train Medusae at your temple. Yes, Medusae, plural. As expected, their special ability lets them turn one enemy unit into stone (except Siege Weapons and Heroes). Their scientific name is Gorgon chrysaorus (while the genus is obvious, the species derivates from Chrysaor, her son with Poseidon). - Hades players can get Perseus as a hero in the Mythic age. He carries a Medusa head that he similarly uses to petrify enemy units. - In Castle Crashers, Medusa appears as a level boss. Snakes jump from her hair and attack the player, and she has an attack that can turn players to stone. \|\|When she's defeated, Medusa herself is turned to stone.\|\| - Castlevania: - Dark Wizard has the Medusa Head as an item that can be used to petrify enemies. There's also Gorgon's Tails, which are the antidote to petrification. - Day Dreamin' Davey: Medusa is one of the Gorgon Sisters that Davey must defeat in one Ancient Greece stage. - Desktop Dungeons: Medusa is the boss form of the Gorgon enemy. - Dota 2 features Medusa as a hero that can be picked. She is notoriously one of the hardest carries in the game, capable of 1v5ing entire enemy teams if sufficiently decked out with items. Her ultimate ability, appropriately named Stone Gaze, petrifies anyone who looks at her when activated. Her lore, however, is a variation of her myth: Medusa has an unnamed mother and her snake form wasn't because the curse from Athena or Poseidon flirting with her (in fact, the two didn't exist in the Dota-verse despite Zeus existing) but some raiding humans attacked her home island and captured her sisters because they're immortal, and yet she's left behind due to her mortality and she asked her unnamed mother for power to rescue and avenge her sisters, leading to her snake-woman form. - Dragon Unit has Medusa as a boss in the third stage, where she resembles a giant snake-woman with green skin. - Dragon's Crown has Medusa as the boss for Route B of the Ancient Temple Ruins. Here, she has the lower body of a snake, scaly green skin, and monstrous clawed hands in addition to the traditional snakes for hair. In addition to her petrifying gaze, she could also summon snakes and shoot Eye Beams. Completing the Request to defeat her solo reveals her history. \|\|Combining both of the classical Medusa origin stories, this Medusa is the youngest of the three Gorgon sisters who desecrated the resident Athena Expy's temple by meeting with men there, whereupon she was turned into a monster as punishment. She then hid herself away with her sisters, who stayed with her out of pity, until she started showing up again at the temple.\|\| - Dungeons & Dragons games with medusas as monsters include Curse of the Azure Bonds, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Pool of Radiance, Pools of Darkness, Neverwinter Nights, and Secret of the Silver Blades. - In Neverwinter Nights expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide, the Interlude introduces a medusa who inflicts an inescapable case of petrification on the heroes. \|\|The Big Bad of the campaign is the medusa Heurodis, who served as an apprentice to one of the few mages to survive the fall of the ancient empire of Netheril, the lich Belpheron. With Belpheron destroyed by the Harpers, Heurodis now intends to reclaim the empire's power for herself so that she can Take Over the World.\|\| - Final Fantasy: - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones depicts Gorgons as Snake People with snaky hair. They hatch from eggs and use petrification attacks. - Medusa shows up in the first God of War. Her sister Euryale was also a boss in the second game. In both games, Kratos chops off their heads and uses them as weapons to petrify enemies. Other Gorgons appear as Mooks, have the same petrification ability, and won't hesitate to shatter Kratos afterwards. - In Hades, the heads of dead gorgons persist in the Underworld, haunting the Fields of Asphodel where Zagreus may occasionally encounter them as an enemy. They hover over the river Phlegethon, and launch projectiles that petrify Zagreus on hit. Nyx also employs a much friendlier gorgon head, called Dusa, as a maid note : in other words, maid-dusa in the House of Hades, who can be interacted with between runs. It's strongly implied that Dusa is really the severed head of Medusa herself, but her past is unknown and Dusa will only make vague comments about how she's a very different person than she used to be. - Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV had Medusas as minions of the Dungeon faction. II had them as neutral (recruitable) creatures. Several of the Might and Magic games also had medusas. VII even used the same sprite as Heroes III. - Holy Umbrella has a villainess named Donderadusa, who, aside from magically turning people into stone, looks and acts much more like a stereotypical Cat Girl than a classical Gorgon. - Kid Icarus: Medusa is the Goddess of Darkness and in opposition to Big Good, Palutena the Goddess of Light. She serves as the Big Bad in the first game and in Kid Icarus: Uprising — or at least \|\|for the first part of\|\| the latter game. - King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human features a Medusa antagonist in the desert. The hero needs a mirror to defeat her. He also needs to face away from her, or else he's petrified instantly. If he has the mirror and the player types "use mirror" fast enough, the Medusa will see herself and be turned to stone. If he doesn't have it, or doesn't use it quickly enough, she will catch up and force him to look at her. The AGD Fan Remake adds a new wrinkle. She is in a cave instead of the open desert, and there is more than one way to solve the puzzle — the traditional mirror, or a test of character. - League of Legends has a champion named Cassiopeia which is a snake-woman very similar to that in Clash of the Titans. She has snake hair and her ultimate ability is to turn enemies into stone in a cone in front of her. Her name is even tangentially related: Cassiopeia was the mother of the princess that Perseus was out to save. - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: The dungeon boss Medusa Head, fighting Link with petrification powers and damaging Eye Beams. - Majesty: Medusae are a type of enemy, who not only have snakes for hair, but are also serpent from the waist down. The Northern Expansion introduces the stronger Greater Gorgons. - Miitopia: Medusas are regular enemies, appearing as serpentines ladies with a Mii mouth on their faces and a Mii eye on five snakes of her hair. Of course, one of their attack can petrify Miis. - NetHack: Medusa is a boss. - A non-hostile Medusa appears in Planescape: Torment as one of the women in the Brothel for the Slaking of Intellectual Lusts. You never clearly see her as she's hiding in a dark room to avoid harming anyone with her petrifying gaze due to having lost the veil she normally wears over her face. Finding it for her is one of the quests you can complete inside the Brothel. - Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time has the Zombie Medusa from the Ancient Grome set of enemies. She comes in pushing a tough petrified zombie, and is capable of turning any zombies or zomboids facing her into durable stone obstacles, making her an Obvious Rule Patch against the otherwise-overpowered Caulipower (which hypnotizes zombies to fight the horde) and Zoybean Pod (which spawns zomboids). Fortunately, she cannot petrify plants, and in a case of Developer's Foresight, if the Snap Pea eats her and spits out her head, it'll turn any zombies near the impact into stone obstacles. - Pokémon Uranium: Arbok's Mega Evolution evokes this; it has multiple smaller snakes growing around its head, and has the Petrify ability. - Rings of Medusa does not feature any character with any traits of the mythological Medusa. While "Medusa" is the main villain, she never comes into play herself, and she doesn't have any traits beyond being evil, in a strictly Protagonist-Centered Morality sense of the word. - Scribblenauts: Medusas are among the creatures you can summon . True to the myth, they can turn other characters to stone. You can also summon only a Medusa's head, which Maxwell himself can use to petrify others. - Skull & Crossbones features Medusa herself (she's even named as such by the game) as the boss of the caves level. She's seen behind a cauldron in her quarters, full of her skeleton mooks, and after defeating her skeletons she then fights you. - Smite: Medusa is playable and, for once, able to go toe to toe against the ones who caused her misery: Poseidon and especially Athena (ironically, she's also an excellent partner to play with Medusa). She's not a Goddess, but gets the pass for being one of the more famous monsters in mythology (when they have already included monsters like Scylla or Demigods like Hercules). Medusa is portrayed here with a porcelain emotionless mask over her face that hides a more snake-like face underneath it. Like in Clash of the Titans (1981), she makes use of a bow (but can also loose vipers with it). Her snake heads can also spit out acid, and her ultimate is removing her mask to cause her signature effect to enemies, which damages and temporarily stuns all enemies facing her as she does it (doing less damage and slowing enemies facing away). Being killed by her ultimate leaves a statue of the dead god behind — these statues can be broken, interacts with her acid spitting by helping spread it over a larger area when it hits them, and even potentially (though it's very difficult and not very likely) break the line of sight for Medusa's ultimate for players to avoid it in a future situation. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Bloodwrack Medusae, former sorceress turned into monsters by a jealous goddess, are a type of monster unit in the Dark Elf army roster. Their deadly gaze is represented as a powerful magic missile capable of tearing through ranks of infantry. They're fairly typical snake-bodied medusae beyond having additional snakes sprouting from their lower bodies; while most have bright green scales, their unique Regiment of Renown, the Siren of Red Ruin, has coppery red scales instead. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Gorgons are a type of agents available to players who court Athena's favor. In Truth Behind the Myth Mode they're fully human, but cultivate deliberately horrific appearances and focus on sabotaging enemy units and morale, the implication being that tales of these women eventually morphed into the later myth of Medusa through centuries of retellings. In Mythos Mode, they're instead monsters with birdlike wings, a crown of snakes for hair, and reptilian faces with snakelike eyes, a leer full of tusk-like fangs and a long pointed tongue, and a "beard" of spikes. Among other things, they can pretty render a place's garrison to being nearly non-existent. - The Touhou Project fangame The Genius Of Sappheiros has them appear \|\|as the youngest of the Gorgon sisters responsible for the main game's incident, Litos Medousa Gorgon, complete with the ability to petrify with a gaze (and in fact, of all means of inflicting petrification in the game, she has the most powerful infliction effect through one of her Last Spells). Once the Gorgon sisters are defeated by Reimu's party, she and her sisters take on the role of guardian goddesses in Gensokyo. In the Lingering Summer Heat expansion, she is a member of the starting party, working to resolve the incident to avenge her sister, who was one of the victims\|\|. - Town of Salem has the Medusa as a role, aligned with the Coven. At night, she can choose to gaze, which will petrify anyone who visits her, making their roles and wills lost. When she gains the Necronomicon, she can choose to single out a target to petrify. - Xena: Warrior Princess: One of the later levels of the game, appropriately titled The Three Sisters, have Xena battling Medusa and both her sisters one at a time in three consecutive boss battles. Each of the gorgon sisters are progressively harder than the previous one, with Medusa herself being the strongest. - Fate/stay night features the actual Medusa (or, more precisely, her Heroic Spirit, i.e. superpowered ghost) as the Servant Rider, under the backstory of having been born as an incomplete goddess that was mocked and cursed. While her eyes still turn people into stone, her "snake hair" is explained to be a negative exaggeration of her really long and luxurious hair... however, it turns out it would be more accurate to call this Medusa as the one before she became a monster. She also has the ability to summon her son Pegasus as a mount. One summonable version of her, an Avenger, in Fate/Grand Order (specifically summoning her as the Gorgon of legend) does have the snakes for hair (more accurately, "hair feelers" with snake head-shaped ends) and all versions of her can apparently shift to the monster she eventually became at the end of her life at the cost of her sanity, which can only be described as a giant monster made of snakes that can shoot lasers from its single eye. A third summonable version, a Lancer, appears in the form of a child that represents her time as a goddess, wielding Harpe, the weapon that in myth was used by Perseus to decapitate her. A fourth version, a Saber, looks similar to the Rider but wields the golden sword of her son, Chrysaor. - Astoria: Fate's Kiss also features the actual Medusa. She is a Gorgon in the middle of a mob war with her sisters, and is a romance option. She has red hair and can turn people to stone with her red hair. However, she hates how people think of her in mythology. - The title character from Modest Medusa is a friendly medusa child named Modest, and is a member of a race of Medusas. Their gaze does not petrify, the venom of their snake hair does. \|\|It is eventually revealed that Medusas are the larval form of hydras. Over time, as the snake hair grows larger, the human parts will eventually shrivel up and die, leaving only the snake heads attached to a snake body. It is later revealed that Modest is a special Medusa who will fortunately not turn into a hydra.\|\| - Wapsi Square: While Medusa herself has not appeared, her sister Euryale has, and she gives an amusing re-interpretation of the legend. Medusa's form was always that way; it was not a curse or anything, and the petrification was under conscious control. The deal with Poseidon in Athena's temple was consensual, and Athena put a price on Medusa's head as a result. Then, Medusa fell in love with this Perseus guy, so they conspired to fake her death at his hands and lived the rest of their lives selling statues. - The Story of Anima has a little girl in a straight jacket with gigantic snakes for hair appropriately named Medusa, or "Medi", for short. - Marina in Monster Pop! has snakes for hair and needs to wear sunglasses so she doesn't petrify anyone. This doesn't stop her from being completely cute, though. - She's one of the main characters in Nightmarish, portrayed as a stoner with eye obscuring bangs. - Skin Deep: Gorgons are a very rare species of Always Female, extremely long-lived magical creatures resembling human women with snakes for hair, scaly skin, brass claws and great feathered wings, as well as the famous petrifying gaze. The gorgon shopkeeper Madame U, the only gorgon character in the comic, is blind, and as a result does not have her deadly gaze any longer. The eyes and tongues of her snake hair still work fine, though, giving her a limited ability to see, feel and smell the world through them. - Last Res0rt: Kendril are an alien race who probably inspired myths of Gorgons, though unlike many examples their petrification attack isnt projected from their eyes, but their split-mandibled mouth, which is usually covered by a mask or veil in mixed company. - Port Sherry: She is portrayed as a nice woman who just happens to have snakes for hair and petrification powers. - Played with in The Powerpuff Girls (1998). The show had Sedusa; a character with tentacle-like hair (wasn't snakes but definitely had a life of its own) whose specialty was to, yes, seduce men. - Celebrity Deathmatch has Steve Irwin fighting against a Medusa. The fight ends with a Shout-Out to the ending of the original Clash of the Titans. - The episode of The Fairly OddParents! where Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda visit ancient Greece and go to a party at Mt. Olympus features Medusa as a party-crasher. - In Hercules: The Animated Series, Medusa was The Woobie, who makes a deal with Hades to make herself look like a regular girl. - Medusa appears in Justice League Unlimited thanks to Wonder Woman connecting the Greek pantheon to this show. Batman and Zatanna have to be blindfolded in order to meet her as she arrives from her cell in Tartarus. For her good information Lady Justice notes she has shaved off three hundred years from her sentence moving it up to now 4010. Medusa also sounds like she was raised in New York. - All three gorgons appear in American Dragon: Jake Long. Aside from their snake hair, they generally look human, and are both good-looking and vain. In addition to their petrifying gaze (which they must intentionally activate), they're also adept at mind control. - Hurricanes: Stavros Garkos uses the name "Medusa" for some of his business ventures, named his soccer team "Garkos Gorgons" and his big sister once dressed herself as Medusa to trick people into thinking players from a rival team were turned into stone. - Medusa appears in an episode of Rocket Robin Hood (episode: "Young Mr. Ulysses"). - The Gorgon sisters in The Smurfs (1981) episode "The Smurf Odyssey". - One of the students at Gravedale High, called Dusa for short. - Super Friends: In "Battle of the Gods", Wonder Woman is challenged by Zeus to steal Medusa's necklace. She eventually defeats her by showing Medusa her reflection with her bracelets, which turns her to stone and restores the Wonder Twins who had been petrified. - Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures: In "Heroes", Jeremiah Surd makes his Quest World avatar turn into Medusa. In addition to the stone gaze, the snakes could detach and their venom could partially petrify. He manages to petrify Race and Jessie, and his snakes petrify Jonny's hand and foot. Jonny defeats him by making him see his own reflection, which turns him to stone and restores the others. - Tasha plays this role in The Backyardigans episode "Sinbad Sails Alone". - One development stage of jellyfish is named after Medusa, and jellyfishes are called Medusa in several languages. - There exists a genus of horned dinosaur named after Medusa called Medusaceratops due to its horns snaking around. It also carries the species name lokii too, might we add.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGorgonsAreDifferent
Our Gnomes Are Weirder - TV Tropes "Gnomes are not at all like garden gnomes, which are actually dwarves, a mistake that began in early fairy tales." Let's talk about gnomes, shall we? Just what is a gnome? A short humanoid...how short? How humanoid? They're almost as diverse as trolls and nearly as widespread in fiction and myth. In the greater modern pop consciousness, gnomes are pretty well-defined. Specifically, garden gnomes: tiny (anywhere from two or three inches to a yard high), long white beard, jolly demeanor, and a big pointy (or maybe floppy) red hat. The problem becomes greater in Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, where they share conceptual space with at least two other "short" races, dwarves and halflings. As a result, gnomes tended to go unnoticed and forgotten in D&D settings; in fact, they were explicitly referred to as "the Forgotten People" in Forgotten Realms. That began to change with the Dragonlance setting and the tinker gnomes of Mount Nevermind: descendants of humans cursed by the god of the forge for being petty and small-minded, the minoi shunned magic in favor of the sciences, particularly engineering...and were completely incapable of approaching these rationally, compelled to make everything they built as complicated and Goldbergian as possible, and valuing failure above success because you couldn't learn anything new once you'd got it right. Tinker gnomes were played for pure comedy, and proved fairly popular. Since then, engineering prowess has become a recurring trait for gnomes in various universes. Some of them are as inept as the original tinker gnomes, but other versions are actually much more competent. Since then, the general trend has been to make gnomes distinctive by making them strange, standing out from their setting because they don't quite fit into it. Note that while creatures with Gnome-like characteristics have been around for a very long time, the word Gnome as it's currently understood was originally used by the occultist Paracelsus to refer to Elemental Embodiments of earth. If a fiction includes elemental gnomes, they usually won't have much character depth or interaction, and may or may not follow this trope. Sister Trope of Golem, Our Kobolds Are Different and Our Fairies Are Different. ## Examples: - Travelocity's The Roaming Gnome, played by a gnome statue. He has a nice British accent. - Digimon Frontier has Grumblemon, a weird combination of a gnome and a goblin with Earth based powers, who in the English Dub also has a You No Take Candle speech pattern. - Gnomes are a sentient race in Delicious in Dungeon, rivaled only by elves in terms of their natural magical talent. They're about the size of human elementary schoolers, with big hands and feet and high-set, slightly pointed ears. - In One Piece, \|\|gnomes are the inhabitants of Green Bit to the north of the country of Dressrosa. They are living hidden away from humans, but despite their secrecy, they come off as very trusting. They also seem to possess superhuman strength.\|\| - In Season 8 Episode 30 of Happy Heroes, Smart S. finds a community of gnomes who are quite filthy and obsessed with staying that way, to such an extent that they frown upon taking baths. - The French comic Bill Baroud has gnomes who keep reality running at the subatomic level, which the hero meets while shrunk. Unfortunately, they're communists, which the all-American secret agent will not stand for. He draws his gun, says "I will never allow it to be said that-", gets restored to normal size, and ends up finishing the sentence (and pointing the gun at his boss) "Communism is the only path!" - A Running Gag in Italian-made Disney stories is someone insulting garden gnomes completely out of the blue. Particularly epic a Moby Duck story in which the villains were tricked into investing a large sum of money importing them, only for the citizens to go away from the purpose-built shop in disgust. - In Briar, Gnomes used to resemble traditional depiction and are described as happy and friendly creatures. In present day, they are deformed, violent and swear like there is no tommorow. - In The Keys Stand Alone, the one small humanoid who plays a big role in the book, Theecat Stefnable, is politely insistent that he is "not a hobbit, dwarf, halfling, gnome, or any other kind of smallman the people here seem to think I am. The proper term for me is Irorin." He's superficially like the common stereotype of a gnome, in that he describes himself as a "technological genius and rogue-for-hire" and does indeed have mad tinkering skillz that turn out to be very useful to the four later on. - Gnomes are mentioned throughout Artemis Fowl, but they're given less focus than the other fairy races; all that's really known is that they average about two feet tall, tend to be fat and with large butts, and count a few minor characters among their numbers. Interestingly, the fairies' language is called Gnommish. - Book of Imaginary Beings: Gnomes are Paracelsian spirits of the earth, typically depicted as short, ugly dwarves wearing beards and brown clothing. They guard treasure under the earth, and their name may be derived from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge", due to them knowing precisely where veins of precious metal lie. - The Chronicles of Narnia: the Emerald Witch uses gnomes, who the protagonists at first think are demons but turn out to be a type of earth elemental, as her slaves. Amusingly, they show more variance than all the other examples on this page combined, differing wildly in height, build, color, number of heads, etc. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: They're classic fantasy dwarves, essentially. They resemble short, stout humans, often with beards, and hail from the Land of Fire, where they forge weapons inside their homeland's volcanoes, and the Land of Stone, where they carved whole cities into the mountaintops. As these were some of the lands conquered by the Tyrant before the start of the series, a significant portion of their race has been slaughtered or enslaved by his forces. - In The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, the Secret League of the Oranged-Bearded Gnomes are a recurring background gag, often popping up or being mentioned in unexpected places. Even the Cupids themselves don't understand how they fit into the wider mythos of the series. They are, at any rate, extremely short humanoids, they all wear pointed red hats, and, of course, they all have red beards. They appear to possess interdimensional travel as well as undisclosed magical powers. - Gnomes in the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. Verse are literal lawn gnomes: ceramic mini-golems animated by the Big Uneasy. - In The Dark Profit Saga, Gnomes are one of the original four races of Man. Over the ages, though, the various clans have changed, both mentally and physically, and are now considered subraces, although the general term "Gnome" is the PC way of referring to them. Of note are the Halflings (Clan Haughlin), the Scribkin (Clan Tinkrin), and the Tinderkin (Clan Kaedrin). - The Halflings are short, rotund, and have hairy feet. They don't like to work and only value wealth and comfort. Their homeland is Hollinsher (formerly Haughlin-Shire), full of rolling hills. The most famous Halfling of all is Bolbi Baggs, a successful businessman and co-founder of Goldson Baggs Group, Inc. - The Scribkin are often seen as the quintessential Gnomes due to their appearance, work ethic, and curiosity, and they won't argue the point. They are hard workers (although they prefer intellectual labors to physical ones), and their natural curiosity drives them to advance the science of the world of Arth. They are the only ones to use flying machines for transportation. After being driven from their home of Essenpi by the Kobolds during the War of Betrayal, they have managed to retake Essenpi, but much of the ancestral knowledge was lost, and they are only scratching at the surface of their forebears' advances. - The Tinderkin are the tallest of the Gnomes, only about a head shorter than an average human. They have Elf-like features and their nomadic culture is reminiscent of Gypsies (in fact, on the world of Arth, it's human Gypsies who are often called Tinderchildren). Being the physically strongest Gnomes, they often work as professional heroes and mercenaries. They are quick on their feet and prefer the outdoors. - Additionally, in the ancient past, several Gnomish clans allied themselves with Mannon, who corrupted them into three Shadowkin races as part of his army, including Gnolls (Clan Galden), Gremlins (Clan Remlon), and Naga (Clan Nagata). - In The Deed of Paksenarrion, gnomes are absolute Lawful Neutral with No Sense of Humor, believing that only they know and follow the true laws laid down at creation by the High Lord. - In the Deverry novels, gnomes are earth elementals, resembling small, wart-covered humanoids. Like all the Wildfolk, they're Invisible to Normals. - The Dragonlance novels describe gnomes the same way as the tabletop games. But their qualities tend to differ Depending on the Writer. In the Weis/Hickman novels, Gnomes tend to have absurdly long names beginning with "Gn" and are obsessed with inventing things, though their inventions invariably never work. However, the Preludes novel Darkness and Light by Paul Thompson and Tonya Carter depicts gnomes as brilliant and effective, if a bit scatterbrained. The gnomes (who have names referring to their professions such as Woodcut and Roperig and Rainspot) manage to successfully build a device to fly them to the red moon, so they're clearly much more competent than the typical Dragonlance gnome. - A Fantasy Attraction has Stanley, a gnome selling a lava maker, tornado creator, and storm caller. He should send his catalogue out to the evil overlords. - The appropriately named Gnomesaga is all about getting into the oddball culture of a Steampunk fantasy version of them. - Forest of Boland Light Railway is about a community of gnomes who built a steam railway. This early Main/Steampunk novel can be described as The Hobbit meets Thomas the Tank Engine. - In The Forsaken Children, gnomes are one of the many elementals in the setting (more specifically, earth elementals). Overall, they resemble short, squat people with prehensile hair, and a preference for red hats. - Garrett, P.I.: Subverted, of all things. Gnomes are just short people, about kneecap-height on a human. A history of Fantastic Racism makes them touchy about short jokes. - The things some of them yell at Garrett for disturbing them suggest they have some connection with finance: a possible Stealth Pun about the "gnomes" of Zurich. - The book Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, and its Animated Adaptation The World of David The Gnome details the society and history of, well, garden gnomes. - The book actually concentrates on a type/culture of gnomes known as "Woodland gnomes". Other types of gnomes, including Garden gnomes, Farm gnomes, House gnomes and some others, are only briefly introduced. - They also published a gnome-sized-version of the book, entitled Little Gnome Facts. - In A Gnomewrench in the Dwarfworks and its sequel, A Gnomewrench in the Peopleworks, gnomes are sadistic Lawful Evil shapeshifters, of a certain type — they're always recognizably gnomes, but they can lengthen or shorten their limbs, turn their arms into swords, etc. - Gnomes in Teresa Edgerton's Goblin Moon and The Gnome's Engine are similar to D&D gnomes in stature and in their fondness for gadgetry (which they're quite good at); they also love brain-teasers and geometric puzzles. Their strangeness comes from their anatomy, as these gnomes have curled horns like a sheep's, and huge feet with mole-like digging nails. So they go barefoot, and wear hats with gaps in the brim for their horns. - Goosebumps: - Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes: They are garden gnomes that come to life and vandalize gardens, and they are frozen by the sound of dog whistles. - Planet of the Lawn Gnomes: \|\|The story turns out to be set on a planet populated by the gnomes. Because they are frozen during the day, they built humanoid robots to take care of the planet.\|\| - Harry Potter: Gnomes are barely-intelligent garden pests with potato-shaped heads. "De-gnoming" a garden consists of bodily chucking them over the wall, though they inevitably wander back after a while. - In the Franny K. Stein book The Invisible Fran, Franny tries to find something of hers to bring to school for Hobby Day. Her dog Igor reminds her of a time when she brought a garden gnome to life and her family had to lock themselves in the bathroom until the police came. Franny turns the suggestion of bringing a gnome to school down. - Land of Oz: The Nomes of Oz are downright evil underground dwellers with dreams of conquest and an extremely Weaksauce Weakness — eggs. Return to Oz expands on this: in the film, the Nomes are also earth elementals that dwell in rock and stone, crafting the bodies they require out of those materials. - In Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc. gnomes are earth elementals, though the one a witch summons to fix what he did to the protagonist's shop looks like a little bearded man with a pointed hat. - In the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, we are introduced to Go Home Gnomes, a race of short (around 3 feet tall) greedy, shortsighted (their eyes work, it's their plans that don't), and stupid creatures. Unlike most gnomes, they appear to be something like humanoid shrews or ferrets more than simply small humans. - The gnomes of Dave Duncan's A Man Of His Word and A Handful Of Men are (like all the races of the setting) not a species but a distinct subrace of humanity — in their case, short, sharp-toothed, and with a cultural and physiological preference for living in dark and filthy environments such as sewers. They're actually fairly intelligent and reasonable people if you get to know them, but very few members of the other races are willing to make the effort. - Chester in Monster probably takes the cake: he's a being from Another Dimension, and his body (made especially for him during his stay in our dimension) is made of paper. As he's able to change his shape by folding himself, he's occasionally called "an origami gnome." - Incidentally, the villain of the story has a fairly traditional army of gnomes patrolling her garden. - The gnomes in Monster Hunter Vendetta live in the projects of Birmingham, Alabama, where they have adopted the gangster lifestyle and they'll bust a cap in yo' ass if you call them lawn gnomes. - In The Mote in God's Eye the watchmakers are somewhat like alien crazy tinker gnomes: small, technically competent, but nonsentient and likely to create weird and dangerous gadgets. The Moties consider them marginally useful vermin who require regular extermination, and to the humans who witness their \|\|takeover and resulting destruction of the Macarthur\|\| they're horrifying. Well, at first the humans think they're cute (they even think they may be Motie young), it's only later that they become horrifying. - The Gnomics note : "Gnomic" is a word for a cryptic aphorism derived from the same Greek word as "gnostic" and probably unrelated to "gnome"; it's likely that this is not the only example of gnomes as scholars which plays off this pun. Engywook and Urgl are minor characters in The NeverEnding Story, who are important to Atryu's quest to cure the Childlike Empress. Engywook is a Grumpy Old Man who loves science and is dedicated to studying the mysterious Oracle; his wife, Urgl, is just as grumpy, but is more interested in medicine. In the Animated Adaptation, the Magic Versus Technology aspect of the relationship is played up more, but, though they bicker and quarrel, the gnomes are a loving couple. They also both offer their skills to Bastian when he needs them; Engywook's airplane comes in handy when Falkor is unavailable. - Ology Series: Gnomes are depicted in Monsterology as short, but only around as short as extremely short humans, and physically human-like in other respects. They're nocturnal by nature, and keep bats and moths as pets. - The alchemist Paracelsus, describing elemental creatures, called earth elementals "gnomes". This seems to be the origin of the word, in fact. - Little is known of the gnomes of A Practical Guide to Evil, however their general Bungling Inventor hat has been replaced with an overwhelming technological advantage over all other civilizations. Generally the only time Calernia hears about the gnomes is when they send cryptic threats to any nation dabbling in technology they deem forbidden. Any nation ignoring their first two warnings is eradicated without a trace. - Terry Pratchett: - Discworld gnomes are six inches high, and seem to vary considerably beyond this. - Some of them manage to have both the strength and the leverage of six- foot-tall humans and have the same belligerence as a human, only compressed. Gnome Watchman Buggy Swires catches birds and rides them. Their Elfland-refugee cousins the Nac mac Feegle share these qualities in addition to being Violent Glaswegian Smurfs. Apart from Swires, however, the only gnome to have displayed these characteristics, Wee Mad Arthur, later turned out to be a Feegle anyway. - Other gnomes are presented as being more diffident; another gnome named Swires appears in The Light Fantastic and his response to most threats is what you'd expect from someone six inches tall. The gnomes in "Theatre of Cruelty" and Raising Steam are similar, avoiding humanity when possible and often being exploited when they can't, although the ones in Raising Steam are happy to be helpful if asked nicely. It might be that only the other kind dare to move to Ankh-Morpork voluntarily. They are also skilled shoemakers, apparently. - Their very first appearance was for the sake of a pun, what Twoflower calls "reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits" when trying to explain the concept of insurance and other financial matters (echo-gnomics). - The Nomes Trilogy stars the "nomes", a \|\|stranded alien\|\| race of tiny humanoids who move, think, and age at ten times human speed. They also have a tendency to create very literal religions, such as the ones who live in a department store, and believe that the store's founder is the creator of their world, and garden gnomes are somewhere between grave markers and passed-on spirits of dead nomes. They don't appear aware that humans actually create them — they just see them appear periodically in the garden section. - George MacDonald's Phantastes mentions them in passing, in amongst a gathering of Plant Person fairies: From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. - The gnomes of the Four Lands in Shannara are steppe-dwelling nomads, more like orcs or a Barbarian Tribe in their general nastiness. They're described as short but not tiny, with jaundiced-looking skin and wiry bodies. Some gnomes, such as a tracker named Slanter, distinguish themselves, but for the most part they're cannon fodder. - In addition, there are also the spider gnomes — freakish, barely-sentient mutants with unnaturally long limbs and skittering gaits that other gnomes hate and fear. - On the side of good (or Hipocratic Oath neutral) are the healer gnomes of Storlock. - Like most races in Shannara, gnomes are actually mutated humans, descendants of survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. In the first book, a barely concealed Lord of the Rings knockoff, gnomes played the part of orcs and received very little characterisation. Later books gave them more variation and actual named characters. - Tolkien's Legendarium: - In the early drafts of Middle-earth's history, posthumously published as The Book of Lost Tales, J. R. R. Tolkien used "gnomes" as an alternative name for the Noldor elves. note : Although at that stage that was "Noldoli". Imagine Fëanor and Fingolfin from The Silmarillion or Galadriel and Glorfindel from The Lord of the Rings referred to as "gnomes". He liked the word's assumed (but actually uncertain) connection with *gno-, the Greek element meaning "knowledge" (cf. gnostic, gnosis, etc), and the association of the gnome with the earth (the Noldor were the only elves that practiced mining). By the time Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings he had scrapped the idea, as he felt the word "gnome" was too tied up in the connotations of small, ugly woodland creatures. - The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin feature the Petty-Dwarves who, from what little is known about them, seem rather gnomelike: closely related to dwarves but smaller, more slightly built and stealthier, and more unsociable. The Petty-Dwarves did not survive the First Age, in part because they had been hunted for sport by the Elves. - The Ordinary Princess: Mentioned when referring to the hair of princesses, which should be: as yellow as the gold that is mined by the little gnomes in the mountains of the north. - Paige of the Charmed ones had to investigate a death of a gnome in a Magic School library. The gnome is one of the teachers. - Studio 100 gives use Kabouter Plop: The gnomes in this Belgian children's TV series always say their own name mid sentence and their hats are able to move on their own, accompanied by a musical sound usually when they are surprised or shocked. - Legends of Tomorrow has a gnome that looks so much like a traditional garden gnome, it's possible it really is a garden gnome brought to life by magic. - Gnomes of Merlin are human-sized, magical, somewhat elf-like creatures, although rather uglier (while its elves are more like fairies). We only see one, Frik (Martin Short), perhaps because "the old ways" are fading. Frik is subservient yet snarky to the Fey Goddess Mab. Frik claims Gnomes come in all shapes and sizes, he just happens to be a tall one. - In Once Upon a Time, Rumplestiltskin is referred to as a gnome, though this is probably more pejorative than taxonomical, considering he's shown to be a former human possessed by the power of... something. - Power Rangers: - One of the more wacky monsters of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was the Gnarly Gnome, whose arsenal included a mesmerizing accordion and a rake. In the original Zyuranger footage however, he was a goblin. - In a reversal of the scenario above, a later Monster of the Week named Mr. Ticklesneezer was a gnome in the Zyuranger footage, but a troll in Power Rangers. He carried magic bottles that could shrink and capture anything from an airplane to the Tokyo Tower. - Seriously Weird: In "Gnome Sweet Gnome", just as Harris decides to run for chair of his high school class's social committee, he encounters a bunch of lawn gnomes who've come to life and want to install him as their ruler. - Gnomes in The Shannara Chronicles resemble human mutants, presumably radiation victims who survived a nuclear apocalypse. - Special Unit 2: Carl the gnome, he's a petty criminal with diamond-hard skin who acts as an informant. - The one gnome in The Adventure Zone: Balance is Lucretia's assistant Davenport, a short man who can only say his name, Davenport. In particular, he's able to resist the thrall of the Grand Relics, extremely powerful magical items that attempt to coerce people into using them. \|\|The reason for both is due to the fact that he was actually the captain of an interplanar scientific vessel escaping an all consuming force called The Hunger. When Lucretia erased all knowledge of their mission in order to protect the other members of the crew, Davenport went mad - being the captain, his life was so entangled with the mission that when she took that away, all that was left was his name. As for the Grand Relics, he was able to resist them because he was one of the seven who made the damn things. When he gets his memory back,\|\| he's basically functionally identical to a halfling. Although Leon the Artificer is a gnome as well. - In Dungeons And Dragon Wagon, Season 1, the Gnomes are introduced as a great threat to the land. They form bonds with powerful yetis and dabble in necromancy. Though small, they are powerful, industrious, wise, and capable of great evil. - In Urban Arcana, gnomes could pretty accurately be described as mildly mad scientists. A bunch of gnomes designed the self-winding pasta, automatic hat tipper, and a fully functional orbiting laser cannon platform. And the Gnomes of Zurich are literal gnomes who discovered that no-one actually wanted instant mildew, but their talent for finance and accounting was in high demand in their new world. - In Dungeons & Dragons: - Gnomes as a species are almost always good or neutral (though evil individuals crop up occasionally). Generic gnomes (called rock gnomes to distinguish them from other subraces) are pranksters, illusionists, and craftsmen; they have the power to talk to small burrowing mammals. - There are also svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, who are just about the only deep-cavern-dwelling humanoid race who haven't gone evil; they spend too much time keeping out of the way of everything else to have developed much else in the way of a racial identity. - Finally, the forest gnomes are small even compared to the others, live in hollow trees, and are generally woodsy hippie-types. Gnomes of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms both conform to these stereotypes. - In Dragonlance, as stated, minoi (or tinker gnomes) are more or less the Trope Maker. Of note are the "original" gnomoi (or thinker gnomes) to be found on the continent of Taladas, sane tinker gnomes who regard the minoi as slightly retarded cousins to be cared for and kept from hurting themselves (conversely, the minoi think the gnomoi are insane for not being manic inventors and call them "mad gnomes"). - The tinker gnomes are, disturbingly enough, the default gnome subrace in Spelljammer. It turns out that a group of minoi from the Dragonlance world found their way into outer space and, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Flow, multiplied. These spacebound gnomes are responsible for creating the famed Giant Space Hamsters, used to power their starships (yes, exactly how you're picturing it), as well as their better known cousins the Miniature Giant Space Hamsters. - The gnomes of Eberron are merchants, newshounds, crafters of elemental-powered vehicles, and just happen to have the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. Oh, and they're believed to have evolved from rodents. - In the Nentir Vale, default setting of Fourth Edition D&D, gnomes are sneaky fey creatures rather than normal humanoids. They can turn invisible now, but otherwise haven't changed much... unless one counts the new racial story of being slaves to the hideously deformed giant Formorians in the Feywild, which has driven them into often-paranoid hidden villages and lifestyles. They're treated as monsters in the first release of the game, but become a core race in Player's Handbook 2. - The gnomes of Mystara are split between the generic variety (earth gnomes) and competent tinker gnomes (properly known as skygnomes). How competent? They built a Magitek flying city and invented World War I biplanes with magic engines and machine guns to protect it. - Gnomes in Ravenloft, like all demihumans, are rare, but their size makes them not very threatening to superstitious humans, so they're less persecuted than any other nonhumans except halflings. They tend to be well-educated, and have had a hand (along with human Lamordians and Dementlieuse) in turning the northwestern Core into a proto-Clockpunk setting. - In Forgotten Realms, as noted above, the gnomes conform to the standard D&D archetype. They're a race in diaspora, with no homeland or recorded place of origin, though a very large number of gnomes are concentrated on the island kingdom of Lantan, where they coexist with humans. Since even human Lantanians tend to be a bit like tinker gnomes (their patron deity is Gond the Wonderbringer, god of smiths and craftwork) the gnomes naturally follow suit. - A few core D&D supplements have introduced some new and different subraces. The whisper gnomes from Races of Stone are incredibly stealthy rogues with subdued, suspicious personalities that clash with other gnomes and find easy employment as spies. Chaos gnomes or imago, from the same book, are cheerful nomads who possess uncanny luck and exaggerate the other gnomes' flamboyance. An issue of Dragon introduced the arcane gnomes and river gnomes — pompous spellcasters and simple fisher-folk (with webbed fingers) respectively. note : Along with a suggestion that, as gnome subraces are adapted to their natural environment, the city-dwelling arcanes were what you got when that didn't happen. Frostburn introduced the arctic ice gnomes, who have an affinity for ice magic, while Stormwrack gave us the island-dwelling and seafaring wavecrest gnomes. - One of the more unusual traits of D&D gnomes as a whole is that they are also a zigzagging of Our Dwarves Are All the Same; D&D dwarves are dwarves by way of J. R. R. Tolkien, whilst D&D gnomes are dwarves by way of European mythology. - Funnily enough, the same issue of Dragon states that gnomes do in fact wear the pointy red hats associated with garden gnomes. The taller the hat, the higher the gnome's status. - GURPS: Gnomes in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy look similar to thin dwarves and are expert craftsmen. Their entry also notes the possible existence of Hell Gnomes, which is more fitting with this trope. - La Notte Eterna has the Nuno, a race of gnomes who have a symbiotic relationship with insects that gives them various bug-related abillities. - Legend System: "Hallow Gnomes" have low-level mind control and emotion-reading abilities, and like to be ruled by non-gnome monarchs (with the idea being that a ruler without mind control powers, when surrounded all day by creatures with mind control powers, will inevitably be on his or her best behavior). Furthermore, some of their weirdness is in the form of Obfuscating Stupidity - gnomes will often disguise their best inventions as ridiculous luxury novelties, such as garish sets of decorative rainbow armor (that gain active camouflage abilities when one more piece is added) and high-quality opera glasses (that happen to make excellent sniping scopes). - Pathfinder: Gnomes used to be a type of fey, but came to the Material Plane during the Age of Darkness and are no longer properly connected to the First World of the fair folk. In terms of physical appearance they're short, slender humanoids with slightly pointed ears and hair in a rainbow of unnatural colors. - Modern gnomes suffer from "the Bleaching", a loss of color and life that they stave off through a lifelong search for new knowledge and experiences. Otherwise, they can literally be bored to death — a gnome who stops experiencing new things gradually becomes more and more colorless and listless and eventually dies. - Starfinder spins on this to splinter gnomes into two groups — feychild gnomes are as described, while bleachling gnomes differ by surviving the Bleaching and consequently find themselves more even-tempered and better able to sate their curiosity with purely intellectual pursuits. No-one is quite sure where this immunity came from, but whatever the cause it appears to breed true, so bleachlings are an increasingly common minority in gnome communities. - Red November is a board game about drunk communist gnomes in a submarine. - RuneQuest calls its earth elementals "gnomes". - Shadowrun: Gnomes are a sub-race of dwarf that are even smaller than the common dwarves — they rarely reach a full meter — and don't grow much body hair, causing them to be mistaken for children most often. They also have slightly pointed ears. They're mostly found in Europe and Asia Minor, prefer to live away from urban areas and are deeply distrustful of technology. - Talislanta has the Gnomekin, who stand just over three feet tall, with wide-eyed, childlike features and a crest of hair that runs from their forehead down to the small of the back. They live underground, worship the earth goddess Terra, and a generally friendly. They are expert crystal-growers, and their spellcasters, known as Crystalomancers, use crystals extensively in their spellcasting. - Mr. Welch has gnomes that defy description. 3. There is no Gnomish god of heavy artillery. 39. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "can lick their eyebrows" 40. Gnomes do not have the racial ability to hold their breath for 10 minutes. 41. Gnomes do not have the racial ability "impromptu kickstand" 128. Polka Gnomes exist only in my mind. 148. There is no Gnomish Deathgrip, and even if there was, it wouldn't involve tongs. 260. Gnomes do not have a racial bonus in bobsled. 553. No matter how well I make my disguise check, my gnome cannot convincingly pass for any member of Rush. 559. Even if the Ranger offers his sword, the elf his bow and the dwarf his axe, my gnome can't offer his accordion. - Warhammer: There were gnomes in the earliest incarnation of the Warhammer world — they were given stats in the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and appeared in the first three editions of the original wargame as part of the Dwarfs' army list. They were pretty bland, though, being basically short dwarves without the warrior vibe. As of the release of the 4th edition in 1992 there have been no gnomes in Warhammer at all, with Dwarfs and Halflings providing all the short-folk action deemed necessary. - Amazingly, the Gnomes returned to the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay iteration of the setting in its 4th edition, debuting in the adventure sourcebook "Rough Nights & Hard Days". In this new iteration, they are described as resembling a crossbreed between halflings and dwarves; small, slenderly built humanoids with large noses and ears, skinnier than halflings and, whilst able to grow beards, completely unattached to them. They have a racial affinity for Ulgu, the magical wind of shadows, illusions, and deceit, and can only learn to cast spells from it, Necromancy or Dhar. Even non-wizard gnomes have some innate magical abilities based on this affinity, and because of this they have been viciously persecuted by Imperial witch hunters and mobs for generations. Already clannish, stubborn and surly to begin with, they have gone into seclusion, and usually disguise themselves as halflings when they interact with humans. - The World of Darkness: - Changeling: The Dreaming: "Nockers" (named for mine spirits from Eastern European folklore) from are very much like tinker gnomes... though usually taller. - Changeling: The Lost: The Wizened also have many aspects of this, generally being people who were "diminished" (whether in height, mass, "presence" or whatever else) while gaining skill in crafting and making things. - New World of Darkness: In the God-Machine Chronicle, Gnomes of Zurich are mystically-skilled humans who work for an immortal Babylonian hero (in the Ancient Greek, amoral badass sense) named Zur. The term was just a bad joke that they've since adopted. - The Chronicles of Aeres: The gnomes, or "Draemyr" to give them their proper name, were an attempt by the trickster god Brena to create its own personal race, taking inspiration from the Silverleaf elves and redesigning them with a personality more in line with Brena's own. Draemyrs resemble small elves with random minor bestial traits, such as animalistic ears, horns or a tail, and vibrantly colorful hair. During the last war, the evil Vulgraks manipulated many Draemyrs into following them, and although they turned on their former allies once they realized what was going on, their exposure to the Vulgraks' Black Magic corrupted them, giving them green skin and more feral appearances, as well as the ability to turn into living obsidian for brief periods of time. These corrupted gnomes are known as "Drauglirs". - In Arcanum, Gnomes have a knack for money and trade and thus are used in the same role as Jews generally were in Victorian fiction. \|\|They have also engineered the serial rape of human women by ogres to breed half-ogres to use as body guards\|\|. - City of Heroes has the Red Caps, which are terrifyingly dangerous for their level. Also, Red Cap bosses are larger than most heroes. - In the DLC campaign of Cuphead, the stage "Gnome Way Out" shows that Glumstone the Giant has an entire community of gnomes that live around, on, and within him. The stage opens with them attempting to mine his mouth for gold; presumably as an allusion to the seven dwarfs. Throughout the battle, the gnomes serve as flunkies to Glumstone, attacking Cuphead and his friends, by a variety of means including hammers, fumes from a cauldron, riding on flying geese, using their conical hats as spikes on the ground, and somersaulting into them. - DragonFable features Popsproket, a gnomish city run entirely by gnome steampunk technology. They have a long-standing grudge against Dr. Voltabolt because he took up dentistry. - Dwarf Fortress features two species of gnome, though they universally act like primitive, savage dwarves: Mountain gnomes live in enchanted mountains and steal your alcohol, while their more dangerous cousins, the dark gnomes live in haunted mountains. They kill you, and then steal your alcohol. The popular Masterwork Dwarf Fortress mod adds gnomes as a playable civilization. These gnomes are a weird mix of Nature Hero and Gadgeteer Genius; they can tame and train any wild animal AND build automatic machines or high-tech weapons. They can also make powered animal armor and robotic animals. - EverQuest gnomes are also pretty much tinker gnomes. Aside from having technology, they get a race-exclusive tradeskill, tinkering. - In Fable III, a man brings a bunch of garden gnomes to life... Things don't go well. - Gaia Online: zOMG! has, in its first area, Animated lawn gnomes. They've learned how to plan and prepare for war by observing humans. They even have mushroom cannons and employ lawn flamingos as beasts of war. - Garden Gnome Carnage: Actually has Christmas Elves. - Guild Wars: While stranger-looking than most, the Asura are basically similar to WoW gnomes. They're good with magic, technology, and combinations of the two. They also build giant (relative to players and even more so to themselves) magical Golems. They're even playable in Guild Wars 2. - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Gnomes are the typical tinkerers; one of them even created the Well of Souls that brought The Fateless One back from the dead. Their society also borrows quite a bit from Ancient Rome. - Kingdom of Loathing: Gnomes are drawn as circles with arms and legs, rather than traditional stick figures like everybody else. They are desert dwellers living in a Mad Max-inspired Scavenger World, although for the most part it's nowhere near as crapsacky. They're technologically a bit advanced, but their main hat is that they use "gn" in place of "n" in all their words. Gnorm the Gnome teaches the skill "Torso Awaregness", for example. There are also the Sk8 Gnomes, who sk8board. - For most gamers, they interact with the a group of desert gnome nomads (or rather "gnomads") led by Gnasir, who assist the character in trekking through the desert, namely by fetch quests (getting them a certain item can get you an exploration pamphlet while getting the pages for their manual will net you hooks that with a drum machine will let you ride a sandworm to boost more exploration.) - For those who ascend under the Wombat, Blender, or Packrat moon signs though, they get to see said Mad-Max inspired gnomes, in the sign-exclusive Gnomish Gnomad Camp. Contains a large quest involving the exchange of many items along with the availability of permable skilles and "Supertinkering" allowing for the creation of clockwork-like devices (which the parts can be fetched from the Thugnderdome.) - In King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, there are five rhyming Sense Gnomes in one of the islands that can kill any human who sets foot on the island. And their naming features are based on the five senses (with their names in parentheses): The Gnome with the Jumbo Nose (Smell; Old Tom Trow), the Gnome with the Monumental Ears (Hearing; Hark Grovernor), the Gnome with the Gigantic Mouth (Taste; Grump-Frump), the Gnome with the Huge Hands (Touch; Trilly-Dilly), and the Gnome with the Enormous Eyes (Sight; Old Billy Batter). - Larry and the Gnomes: the eponymous creatures actually vary wildly in size, going from ridiculously small to almost human-sized. Many of them look like small ugly humans, others are similar to dwarves. Gnomes are stated to have once been peaceful creatures until a mysterious influence turned them vicious, mean-spirited, murderous and overall very, very naughty. - League of Legends: Yordles fill the role of gnomes but combine this trope with Ridiculously Cute Critter for great effect. - Majesty: Gnomes are tiny, live in junkheaps, and invite their buddies rather quickly if allowed to move into your kingdom. They also speed up construction of new buildings and repair of damaged ones. Unfortunately, elves and dwarves are no fonder of gnomes than they are of each other. - Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent: The "Hidden People" look like garden gnomes with red skin and white beards. They're a rather unsettling bunch with a tendency to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. And according to the sequel, \|\|they're apparently moon spirits who are being kept from their home on the Moon by a government mind-control ray, and their attempts to communicate with the people of Scoggins have driven many of the locals to become obsessed with puzzles.\|\| - Neverwinter Nights 2 takes the "Weirder" part to an extreme with Grobnar Gnomehands. He's a bard, omniglot, and mechanical genius. He's also an unabashed Cloud Cuckoo Lander that most players (and most of the party) find unbelievably annoying. - Overlord: Gnomes are more or less tiny beards with legs and funny hats and glowing eyes that can only say "eep", also some can explode by humping your legs and \|\|are planing to kill you in the end\|\|. They declare war early on against the Evil Overlord and you're given a sidequest to kill 1000 of the little buggers, which is reasonable since their only gameplay purpose is to be farmed for Lifeforce (your reward for doing so earns you an Achievement/Trophy and a hat for your minions). They're also an Good Counterpart to your minions — both are numerous, individually weak creatures that come in color-coded elemental varieties. And by "declare war" we mean one bumped into you. - Oxygen Not Included: Duplicants are gnomes IN SPAAACE! They are 0.61 meters (2 feet) tall and weigh in at 1 kilogram. They have an odd combination of hypercompetent and pants-on-head stupidity. They're capable of building sprawling space stations and setting up systems to recycle their wastes back into resources, but at the same time have no qualms about, for example, shitting in the town reservoir or breaking the life support during a tantrum. Of course, ONI is a combination of Lemmings, Dwarf Fortress, and Space Station 13. - In Pillars of Eternity, Orlans are a blend of D&D-style gnomes and halflings according to Word of God. They're short humanoids with two-toned skin and large, hairy ears. They've been victimized repeatedly by other cultures they've come in contact with and have either retreated progressively deeper into the wilds or resorted to guerrilla warfare. They come in two varieties: Hearth Orlans, which are the more common variety and Wild Orlans, who are covered in fur and look more animalistic. - Pilot Kids have a living ceramic gnome as a boss, whose weapon is a flower pot that sprouts a gatling gun. If you defeat him, he'll leave behind his pet Man-Eating Plant to continue the battle. - Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 portrays garden gnomes (who are seemingly living ceramic, not flesh-and-blood) as mysterious technologically advanced beings who reside in another dimension. They appear to be Abusive Precursors, with their ancient portal technology left behind in our world and used by Plants and Zombie sides and are hostile to both factions. - Runescape, Gnomes are masters of treepunk or Bamboo Technology rather than steampunk; Dwarfs are the steampunk masters. - Tales Series: Gnome is the spirit of earth, which fits the Elemental Embodiment part. There are small creatures that are presumably also Gnomes in the first installment, Tales of Phantasia. He takes the form of a mole with a propeller on his head in Tales of Symphonia. The dungeon where he lives is also occupied by a horde of Gnomelettes, six-inch-tall lumps of childish belligerence in pointy hats. They usually want something from you, and they won't let you pass until you give it to them-even if it means you have to backtrack out of the dungeon to fetch it. - The Gnome in Terraria is an uncommon enemy found underground inside of Living Tree systems. They're really fast and can cause a lot of trouble early game, but if you can lure it out to the sunlight they will petrify and become mere garden gnomes for your base decor. - The Gnomes in Trails Series are an ancient tribe with great technological capabilities and who utilized the Sept-Terrion of Earth. There's also nothing that indicates Gnomes looked any different from regular humans. - Wizardry: Gnomes are playable race, characterized as the intellectual, studious race. Oddly enough, they also excel as priests — Piety, the stat representing the ability to study intensively for long periods of time (among other things) is the priest's main attribute, and the gnomes have the highest base Piety in the game. - In the spinoff Class of Heroes gnomes are disembodied earth spirits that need to possess a physical shell to interact with the material world — they also get along fairly well with all the other races in a setting rife enough with racial tensions that it's an aspect of the game mechanics. This was so weird that the Atlus translation renamed them Erdgeists. (Rather unimaginatively, German for "Earth Spirit.") - In the World of Mana games, Gnome is the elemental spirit of earth, although he looks like a garden gnome. - World of Warcraft: The gnomes of Gnomeregan are heavily based on Dragonlance tinker gnomes; they have advanced technology all the way up to nuclear reactors in a world where most other races are still fiddling with steam engines (not that it really matters that much, 'cause Rock Beats Laser whenever needed). - Unlike the Dragonlance gnomes, Warcraft gnomes are actually pretty professional when it comes to engineering, and tend to meticulously plan and test their inventions (unlike goblins, who tend to throw something together on a whim, and then either promptly forget about it or make it explode). Doesn't stop them from deciding to build completely crazy inventions just to see if they would work, though. Also unlike Dragonlance gnomes they are fairly competent magic users. Of course they still think its a good idea to NUKE their capital city when it gets invaded from a nasty case of digging too deep and end up causing more trouble then the invaders themselves could have caused (they irradiated a good chunk of their population and you know what's worse then invaders from below? RADIOACTIVE, NUCLEAR ENERGY SHOOTING invaders from below). Granted, this was stated to have been caused by an evil advisor, but STILL you think one of the higher ups would have thought it was a BAD idea to nuke their own city. - One short story explains that unlike most of the setting's occupants, the Gnomes have no history of fighting among themselves, having had to stick together and focus on escaping to survive in a world filled with people thrice their size, so the leader in charge couldn't even fathom said treacherous advisor would deliberately risk or actively end the city's population. Another interesting unique cultural trait they're given is that they barely keep record of the past, focusing more on innovation, which contrast them with the more proud-warrior-ish, archaeologically inclined Dwarves despite their many similarities. - Gnomes also have a friendly but fierce racial rivalry with their fellow pint-size technophiles, the goblins, as the two races approach engineering from opposite ends. Goblins are function before form, where gnomes are form before function. This translates into more concrete forms with the engineering player profession: a gnomish engineering specialist gains access to unique schematics for a wide array of wacky gadgets with disturbing tendencies to backfire, where goblin engineering specialists gain access to an assortment of practical explosives (which backfire too). Goblin tech generally has a higher chance of either not functioning or backfiring. It's exemplified by the short Mecha duels between goblin Trade Prince Gallywix and gnome High Tinker Mekkatorque in Battle for Azeroth. Mekkatorque easily wins with his bigger, better conceived and more armored mech. - The reason why the gnomes have such an affinity for technology is revealed in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, where it is found that the gnomes, much like the dwarfs were originally created by the Titans to help them shape the world. While the dwarfs were created as labourers and craftsmen, the gnomes were created to build and maintain the titan machinery. - Not to mention that they were originally robots, until the Old Gods gave them the "Curse of Flesh", similar to how the dwarves were originally made of stone until their millennia-long slumber, which caused them to grow skin and lose their rock-manipulating abilities. - Related to the above, the mechagnomes of the isle of Mechagon once sought to reverse the Curse of Flesh by becoming cyborgs. One mad king who wanted to force Unwilling Roboticisation on the whole world of Azeroth and an ensuing Civil War later, they reunited with the flesh gnomes (and became playable too) to form one single gnome nation. - A species of gnome that appears in All Saints Street, the Roachgnome, is a mutation of regular gnomes that are treated like household pests. They multiply in abundance, eat any material they can get their hands on, and none of them speak. Roachgnomes in Southern China are this, but also burly, muscular human-sized terrors and can fly. - In 20-Quid Amusements, gnomes look like garden gnomes, but tangle controller wires for some reason. - In Dragon Mango, gnomes are a race of short humanoids with slightly pointy ears. They have a natural talent for engineering and innovation. For an intelligent species, they have a remarkably short lifespan of only nine months. As a result, other sapient races find it difficult to relate to them and treat them like wildlife. Humans mostly see them as pests due to the fact that they tend to build colonies near human settlements and mess with their plumbing. But some have taken notice of their ingenuity and observe them, copying the results of their successful experiments. - In Hooves of Death, the gnomes resemble the stereotypical lawn decorations, but have a fondness for subterranean travel and ironically steal from humans gardens instead of guarding them. \|\|Unfortunately, they arent immune to the zombie virus like Unicorns are, and an infected colony quickly tunnels to the nearest mass of prey: the Yellowstone Camp right above them\|\|. - The gnomes in Looking for Group are depicted as being subterranean inventors who were locked in ongoing combat with the warlike trolls. - Nodwick had a series where it was revealed that all three of the "short races" were the same species and had been running a centuries-long scam, the gnomes were just halflings with fake beards and evening classes, and dwarves had fake beards and steroids. (In a later strip a gnome invented an instant messaging service. When Nodwick tried to point out that this didn't fit with the previous story, he was told to be quiet.) - Gnomes in Our Little Adventure are small, have bright yellow skin and bones, and have long pointy tails. - In Tales of the Questor, gnomes, also known as brownies, are small bald humanoids, barely six inches tall, with an apparently primitive tribal culture and fantastic, magically enhanced leaping ability. They live in the walls of larger creature's homes and hunt rats and mice and other vermin as part of their tribal tradition. They also apparently do NOT get along well with hobgoblins, another diminutive race... - In Weregeek's Shadowrun campaign Abbie plays a gnome rigger with a habit of making bombs out of stuff she finds. - Gnome Ann in xkcd is an incredibly powerful gnome: she was born wise, she can control time and tides, she pursues the wicked and can negate marriages, she travels ahead of the starship Enterprise and she killed the Witch-King of Angmar. (It's all a Fun with Homophones reworking of "no man".) - Codex Inversus: The Gnomes live in thirteen sheikdoms on the coast of the southern continent, on the edge of a desert of dust. Like the Dwarves, they are greatly skilled at creating artificial constructus; however, while the Dwarves favor large, powerful golems, the Gnomes prefer to create small, precise homunculi. - Looming Gaia: Gnomes are five to eight inches tall and known for their ability to enchant animals. As a fae species, they are weak to iron and cannot tell lies. Typically only males wear the iconic cone hats. - Rich Burlew created his own spin on gnomes in his essays on world-building, turning them into a shadow conspiracy group which doles out arcane secrets in the trappings of religion to keep the humans in line. - In A Practical Guide to Evil gnomes are a terrifyingly advanced race that send what is called in-universe "Red Letters" to nations that come close to developing technology that will take the world out of the Medieval Stasis it is currently in. Nations only get 3 warnings. After that, they utterly destroy the nation that did not heed their warnings. - In Tales of MU, gnomes are the same as halflings in older Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien's Hobbits, but with typical MU-twists. The natural stealth associated with halflings and gnomes works like a combined Perception Filter and Weirdness Censor, and it gets stronger the more of them are in one place. A gnomish professor has to remind her class she's there and is completely ignored by the administration. In a setting where Word of God is that technology doesn't work, they get away with clocks and pianos, but nobody notices. The gnomes themselves don't appear to have noticed they have this power. - Wikipedia has WikiGnomes, who mainly do low-visibility maintenance work like fixing typos. - In The Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M. episode "Bitter Gnomes and Gardens", the gnomes are of the garden gnome variety, with the peculiar weakness that they can only move if not seen, similar to the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who (Lampshaded in a Shout-Out). - Tales From My D&D Campaign: - Angel Bloodright is a gnome, but doesn't play very much like any of the gnome stereotypes: She's a bloodthirsty and greedy assassin \|\|who works for The Organization, a secret society devoted to harassing the evil Kua-Toa occupation forces, which more recently has branched out into assassination and bounty-hunting.\|\| - The setting also features the Ytarrans, a gnomish society which is based off the Tinker Gnome archetype, but are ridiculously capable artificers, legendary for creating the race of sentient golems known as Warforged and for generally producing artificing an order of magnitude greater than anything invented before or since. Unfortunately, their efforts to produce a Portal Network to get around this setting's limits on teleportation backfired, infecting them with the mysterious Astral Plague, which wiped out every Ytarran within a single generation. - The Crumpets: In "The Mix-Up", "Sneezy" is an axe-holding, eerie-staring garden gnome owned and fiercely protected by Ms. McBrisk. Concerned with her mother's obsession, Cassandra hides and delivers it to her neighbor Caprice Crumpet for it to remain hidden. Unfortunately, it causes McBrisk to think that the Crumpets' dog T-Bone stole "Sneezy" and led to a "Freaky Friday" Flip between the two with the Crumpets' Electronic Telepathy machine. The gnome gets used for an art project, guitar strumming and orange juicing before deliberately damaged by Caprice. Cassandra brings McBrisk and T-Bone to the machine to reverse the body swap, and \|\|"Sneezy" also gets hit by the machine's electricity. McBrisk returns to normal, but it's later revealed that the dog and the gnome swapped their bodies. T-Bone in the gnome's "body" hunts birds and scares McBrisk, and "Sneezy" in the dog's body speaks from his once-secret evil mind to Caprice.\|\| - We've got a couple of odd-looking gnomes in Dragon Tales. There's Norm the Number Gnome, for instance. - The pilot episode of Frankelda's Book of Spooks has gnomes as four-eyed goblin-like creatures lurking under unsatisfied children's beds offering to do their chores in exchange for their name, allowing them to steal their identity and turn the victim into a new gnome. - Freakazoid! had a one-shot Gargoyles parody where the protagonists were Lawn Gnomes. In this version, Gnomes were the scourge of Norwegian forests because of their annoying habit of pulling pranks and mugging people, until they picked on the wrong wizard's viking brother and were thus cursed to turn stone by day until they changed their wicked ways. - In Gravity Falls, gnomes seem to be all-male; in their first appearance, they try to kidnap Mabel so that she can marry their whole colony. They are capable of piling on top of each other and work in unison to function as a much larger creatures — like a "giant gnome", so to speak. They also puke rainbows and possibly snort fairy dust. They're antagonists of their first appearance but afterwards seem fairly friendly with the main characters. - Kim Possible: Ron Stoppable was scarred as a young child by a lawn gnome, thinking something was not right about it. However, he might be onto something as not even a Big Eater Blob Monster would touch it. - Jimmy Two-Shoes has the Gnomans: ant-sized humanoids with four arms, large noses, and clothing reminiscent of ancient European warriors. They are defined by their immense strength with their introductory episode "Meet the Gnomans" showing them lifting Beezy. They also determine their leaders based on their strength and smelliness. - An actual gnome appeared in "Jimmy Don't Be A Hero" where Lucius attempts to repay Jimmy by giving him a gold-encased garden gnome "made with real gnome" ("Get me out of here!"). - Engywook and Urgl from The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux, two Miniature Senior Citizens about the size of a Tiny with large noses. Engywook is a Mad Scientist and Gadgeteer Genius whose contraptions have a mixed record of reliability, whilst Urgl is a sorceress whose magic is far more reliable. - Garden Gnomes have a very... strange place in the Phineas and Ferb universe. Everyone in Drusilstein literally seems to believe they protect the gardens from evil spirits, and failure to have one is Serious Business. How serious? Well, when Doctor Doof's family's one got repossessed as a child, he was forced to stand for hours in the cold dressed like one. - In Pop Pixie, gnomes are a race of capitalistic astriocrats. Most likely based on the use of the word "gnome" referring to those having a sinister influence in financial matters. - The Underpants Gnomes of South Park are... let's just say obsessed and leave it at that. - Gnomes from Trollhunters are shown to have the traditional design (small physiology, white beard, red, pointy hat) but they are portrayed more as vermin. They do not speak English (outside the occasional muttered word that isn't interpreted as English by the cast) and possess all-spiked teeth that can eat through most matter like a shredder, and a sharp horn that their pointy caps conceal. They, however, do seem to possess some level of sapience, as primarily displayed by Gnome Chompsky. - The World of David the Gnome; see Literature above. - Averted in The Legend of Vox Machina where gnomes are more like halflings; no big ears or bulbous noses here, they're just little people with Pointed Ears. There's only one halfling in the series...and she looks more like a dwarf. This page still isn't working? Add another gear.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGnomesAreWeirder
Our Hero Is Dead - TV Tropes "How could this happen?! I'm the star of the show!" So, it's getting near the end of the episode, and the Five-Man Band is in a heated battle against the forces of evil. Sure, it's a tough fight, but you know the team will pull through. Right Makes Might, and because of that, the villain doesn't stand a chance, but then, out of nowhere, The Hero gets hit with a devastating blow and collapses in a pool of his own blood. His faithful companions, thinking "No One Could Survive That!" belt out a collective Big "NO!". Cue the credits! This trope is when an episode ends with the main character appearing to have been killed. This is supposedly a very dramatic event, so writers typically save this one for late in a season. Problem is, while the True Companions and the Big Bad will think Our Hero Is Dead, the audience isn't fooled. Contrary to popular belief, most viewers know that if the hero died, the story would be over. But even knowing the hero isn't as dead as he looks, it can still be shocking, and sure enough, in the next episode, we learn that the hero's Plot Armor saved him. The rest of the band rushes to his side, finds out he still has a pulse, and the team retreats with the fallen hero slung over the shoulder of The Big Guy to get him some desperately needed medical attention. Then all the hero needs is some time to rest up, and they'll be back to fight another day. Except, of course, when the character dies because Real Life Writes the Plot, so that they can be The Nth Doctor'd or replaced by a Suspiciously Similar Substitute. In short, a main character's Disney Death, used as a Cliffhanger. Subtrope of Uncertain Doom. Contrast The Hero Dies, for when the hero really does die, as well as Dead to Begin With, when they're already dead at the start of the story. Also see Fake Kill Scare, where someone's death is faked to frighten a loved one. This is a Death Trope, so beware of spoilers. ## Examples - In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Sonic himself had dealt with this trope more than once in the early issues. #125 was the most dramatic, but he survives as well at the very end. \|\|He was catapulted across the galaxy and returned to Mobius. Everyone thought he was dead for a whole year\|\|. - In the Swamp Thing comics, at the beginning of Alan Moore's run, the eponymous character is shot through the head and his body frozen. Moore used this as an opportunity to dissect the character both literally and figuratively, then have him resurrected with the reveal that while you can kill a human by shooting it through the head, the same won't work on a plant that just thought it was human. - The Flash: In the 90s series, Wally West was killed off right before issue 50 and issue 100. Before issue 150, the previous Flash got killed as a change of pace. - Superman: - Starfire's Revenge: At the end of the first issue, Supergirl has lost her powers and got shot. A mook briefly examines her fallen body and declares that she's dead. At the beginning of the next issue, though, Kara comes around. - Demon Spawn: After villain Nightflame steals Supergirl's soul, two of Linda's co-workers examine her motionless body and declare she's dead. Before the end of the issue Supergirl's soul returned to her body. - In Red Daughter of Krypton, the Red Lanterns get this reaction when Supergirl removes her Red Ring (Red Lanterns die if they take their rings off). Two pages after, Kara revives when her enemy foolishly dumps her into the Sun. - In Supergirl (2011) #23, Cyborg Superman steals Supergirl's body to restore his, killing her in the process. Supergirl gets her body back in the next issue. - Bizarrogirl: At the end of an issue, Bizarrogirl turns Supergirl to stone and Jimmy Olsen screams Bizarrogirl has killed off her. The next issue, Kara shows she is alive and well. - Two for the Death of One: The second-to-last issue ends with Clark Kent dead when Syrene exposes his split duplicate to powerful magic energies. The next issue reveals they were "only" almost dead. - The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): The second-to-last issue ends with Darkseid blasting Supergirl to ashes. The next issue reveals Kara was swiftly teleported away and replaced with a pile of ashes as part of a plan to fool Darkseid into believing her dead. - The Leper from Krypton: Superman is dying from an incurable and very contagious illness, so he builds a rocket and sets course for a distant star, expecting to be burned down together with his deadly germs. The third issue ends with Superman's rocket plunging into the star and being engulfed in searing flames. The fourth and final issue opens with Supergirl crying for her cousin's death, and two pages later it is revealed Superman survived and was cured. - Aquaman: Peter David was planning to keep the titular character dead for a while, but had to settle for one issue since he was leaving the title. - Fantastic Four: - Subverted in an issue in which Ben Grimm is killed... a couple of pages before the cliffhanger. The actual cliffhanger is Reed Richards announcing that he's found a way to bring Ben back to life. - Johnny Storm dies in a Bolivian Army Ending against Annihilus' forces, and he actually stays dead. For a year. - Hellboy's heart is torn out by the Queen of Blood and falls into hell, while his body turns to dust. - In Kraven's Last Hunt, Spider-Man was considered dead for a month, and this was when he had four ongoing titles and none of them actually featured him, and dealt with the concept of his death. - Chapter 6 of Abraxas (Hrodvitnon) ends with the protagonist(s), a merged Vivienne Graham and San, slipping into a Near-Death Experience and losing the will to stay conscious after their powers have overloaded and crippled them. The next chapter reveals that they've more or less fallen into a coma. - At the end of chapter 70 of Child of the Storm, Harry is killed by Daken after succumbing to rage inspired by the death of \|\|Luna Lovegood during a HYDRA attack on Hogwarts\|\| and his combat strategy is reduced to Attack! Attack! Attack!. He returns, however, in chapter 71. The twist is not that he returns, but how: \|\|he's resurrected and possessed by the absolutely enraged Phoenix, before going on a positively biblical rampage\|\|. As for why, it's revealed first that \|\|Lily made a deal with the Phoenix to protect Harry,\|\| and as part of that \|\|merged with Her, becoming the White Phoenix of the Crown\|\|. - In Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons, Blackjack dies after losing her one remaining eye to grenade shrapnel, firing off a powerful gun that dangerously irradiates its user, being tortured and gang-raped for hours (during which she forgave her attackers), having all four legs amputated due to gangrene, and finally succumbing to a heart attack. And then she wakes up three days later with enough cybernetic implants to rival Adam Jensen. - Game Theory ends with Precia and all her allies, including Nanoha, falling into Imaginary Space. \|\|Except that they didn't; Precia actually collapsed the Garden of Time into Imaginary Space to fake their deaths, and had already successfully revived Alicia without traveling to Alhazred.\|\| - The first chapter of the Gearing Up arc in Kyon: Big Damn Hero ends with Kyon being shot. The scene's effect is diminished by having in a previous scene a future instance of him telling Koizumi this is a predetermined event. - The Pony POV Series: - \|\|The G3 timeline ends with Strife killing most of the heroes (Minty and Princess Rarity being the only ones she doesn't kill directly). Though all of them are given Reincarnations in the new timeline in some form, as they weren't on the "delete" list (Strife only did it to give them the chance to make a Last Stand instead of fading away with no chance to even try and save their world).\|\| - \|\|"Angry Cruel Love" ends with Dark World!Twilight having her Element ripped out by Angry Pie, being left to die of Rapid Aging and seemingly dying at Trixie's grave.\|\| - \|\|Ichigo\|\| in Soul Chess. - In one of the most shocking moments in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, George drowns in the Hungry Sea after the boat they're in falls apart and his ring sticks. However, he wakes up at the beginning of the next chapter, which leads to an even more shocking moment. - In Black Panther, King T'Challa is \|\|defeated in ritual combat by the Big Bad, Killmonger, and thrown from a high waterfall, supposedly to his death. Killmonger takes over the throne, as well as the Black Panther powers. However, when his family visits the Mountain Tribe in an act of desperation, their ruler reveals that T'Challa was found by their fishermen, nearly frozen. Giving him the last Heart-Shaped Herb revives him and restores his powers, allowing him to face Killmonger again in a super-powered Final Battle\|\|. - Subverted every which way in Dead Man, in which William Blake (Johnny Depp), whose heroism itself is arguable, is shot early on. \|\|It is indeed fatal, and he spends the rest of the film trying not to get killed while he is, in fact, in the process of dying. It's implied that the film ends with his very last breath.\|\| - In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla is hit by the Oxygen Destroyer and he apparently dies... and then King Ghidorah takes Godzilla's kingship over the other monsters, and he commands them to wake up and destroy the world. \|\|The humans later discover courtesy of Mothra that Godzilla has survived and retreated to the Hollow Earth, but they're running out of time to heal him before the other kaiju destroy the world\|\|. - In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Aragorn is dragged off of a cliff by a warg-its rider even taunts Aragorn's companions about it. But turns out he survived the fall, and his girlfriend (psychically) and horse revive him, and he manages to ride back in time for the final showdown. - The climax of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when the hero (more precisely, captain anti-hero) of the series, Jack Sparrow, gets pulled under along with his ship by the Kraken, thanks to Elizabeth. He DOES die, but the rest of the group finds out that there is more than one way to the afterlife and his is not one-way, if extremely uncomfortable. - In The Princess Bride, the kid who's listening to the story can hardly believe it when Fezzik pronounces Westley dead. He asks his grandfather, "Westley is only faking, right?" but gets no reply. A few minutes later, it's revealed that Westley is Only Mostly Dead. - Deliberately and effectively subverted in Philip K. Dick's novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, where \|\|the main character is killed halfway through and the plot basically falls apart for the rest of the novel\|\|. - When the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was nigh, the biggest question was: Is Harry going to die? Whole news reports were made about the pressing issue, and some people even made protest groups and petitions begging J. K. Rowling not to kill off our favorite lightning-scarred, bespectacled brit. While this may seem like people were taking this too seriously, remember that this is a character who we all grew up with, so his death would feel like the death of a friend or sibling. So, does Harry Potter die? \|\|As it turns out, he was supposed to die from the very start. Harry sees, through Snape's memories in the Pensieve, that Dumbledore has discovered that Voldemort accidentally manifested a piece of his soul in Harry's body once the Killing Curse backfired on him, which is why Harry could speak Parseltongue and share Voldemort's thoughts. So Harry needs to die in order to fully destroy Voldemort. Thus, Harry approaches Voldemort and lets the Dark Lord use the Killing Curse on him. Harry wakes up in a sort of "limbo" between life and death, which takes a form that Harry can understand - in this case, it's a train station. Dumbledore, who has been waiting for Harry there, tells Harry that he has a choice - to take a train, onward, into death, or to return to the living and finish what he and Voldemort started. Harry chooses the latter option and proceeds to destroy Voldemort.\|\| - Retroactively done by the Sherlock Holmes stories; Holmes' Duel to the Death and plunge into the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty was supposed to see him Killed Off for Real — however, Holmes was so popular with the public that Conan Doyle kept being bugged by people to bring him back to life. Conan Doyle eventually got so sick of it that he capitulated and wrote "The Empty House", which revealed that Holmes had faked his death all along. This is especially interesting because the original story made it very easy to bring him back (no one actually saw him die, they Never Found the Body, etc). Even though he was supposed to be Killed Off for Real, modern audiences reading that just know he's coming back. - This ostensibly happens to James Bond at the end of Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love. - In Lois McMaster Bujold's Mirror Dance, \|\|Miles Vorkosigan takes a needle grenade to the chest during a covert operation, killing him. He's later revived thanks to the miracle of cryogenics — but he's dead for several months, which causes major problems for his friends and family\|\|. - The end of The Dresden Files novel Changes sees \|\|Harry Dresden\|\| killed. The title of the next book? Ghost Story. The ghost in question? \|\|Harry.\|\| - Alex Rider is shot in the heart in the final chapter of Scorpia. Anthony Horowitz has claimed that it was never his intention that Alex would actually die, and he believed that readers would assume he would be fine; indeed, the chapter provides two clues as to how he survives. note : The gun the assassin is using is unsuited to assassination attempts but it is the only one he could carry across London unnoticed, and just before the bullet hits Alex takes a step forward — it is explained in the next book that he stepped off the kerb, and the movement meant that the bullet missed his heart by an inch However, many readers very much did not assume that, and the ensuing backlash from upset readers and their furious parents resulted in Horowitz having to appear on live television to confirm that Alex was still alive, and having to start work on the next book sooner than planned. - A previous book in the series, Skeleton Key, plays with this. The penultimate chapter ends with the narration saying that the defeated Big Bad, facing down Alex, "raised the gun and fired a single shot". The final chapter is called "After Alex" and opens with the head and deputy head of MI6 talking about how they've "lost" Alex; it is not clarified for several pages that Alex is alive, the Big Bad shot himself, and they were arguing about how they should not employ Alex again after how badly traumatised this mission has left him. - At the end of The Two Towers \|\|Shelob seems to kill Frodo, and the ring gets to Sam\|\|. - In Brimstone, Aloysius Pendergast is sealed inside a wall to suffocate to death in the final few chapters by \|\|Count Fosco\|\|. In the very last chapter, \|\|His brother Diogenes begins working to break him out\|\|. - In the second book of A Practical Guide to Evil Catherine fights William of Greenbury, the Lone Swordsman (one of her two Nemeses at the time) at Liesse. Due to the narrative laws of the universe, he is due a victory. Naturally, Catherine prepares for the fight in any way she can and gets some good cuts in at the beginning of the fight. Still, in the end, William wins and decapitates Catherine. Cue the next chapter - written from Catherine's point of view. It turns out she anticipated the possibility of her dying and \|\|prepared that a wizard she's friends with raises her as a zombie. Freed from her narrative fetters, she promptly sallies out to even the score with William and get a real resurrection.\|\| - In Pact, \|\|Blake Thorburn gets into a fight with a demon and loses, being made an Unperson in the process\|\|. There's a denouement chapter of various characters reacting to the sudden absence, with his Distaff Counterpart Rose Thorburn becoming his successor as Thorburn Heir, before the narrative abruptly shifts to Goblin hunter Maggie Holt for seven chapters. After that, though \|\|The next chapter takes place from Blake's point of view, revealing that instead of being eaten he's fallen into an Eldritch Location called The Drains, which serves as the Symbolic Hero Rebirth moment for his Hero's Journey\|\|. - Happens to Marian in the second-to-last episode of the first season of the 2006 series of Robin Hood. It happens again in the finale of the second series. \|\|This time she stays dead.\|\| - 24: - Happened to Jack Bauer in season 2, and again in the season finale of season 4. In both instances, Bauer was clinically dead for a few minutes before being revived, which lead to the fun fact "Jack Bauer died for his country and lived to tell the tale. Twice." - There's also a cliffhanger roughly midway through the fifth season where Jack manages to catch the current villain but the time he takes doing so leave them both getting caught up in an explosion. They both survive. - Bones's third season featured an episode where Booth gets shot and the screen blacks out at the end. - This happens twice in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. - Supernatural: Death Is Cheap in the show, so the main characters have a habit of dying and then coming back. - Subverted in the Season 2 episode "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1", in that Sam really does die at the end of the episode. Played straight, however, in that he is brought back the next episode when his brother Dean sells his soul for him. - And subverted again in the Season Three finale where Dean dies and will stay dead. (At least until September 18th, anyway.) - Played straight at the end of the first season which saw the Winchester family getting crashed into by a truck. - Almost played straight in the Season 5 finale until the final moments. Sam became Lucifer's vessel and was able to jump into the cage in Hell, taking Michael with him, and making a grand Heroic Sacrifice. Dean presumes him dead and goes to settle down with his girlfriend and surrogate son. Then, Sam is seen looking at them through the window. A widely circulated story is that had the show not continued on without Eric Kripke, the shot of Sam would not have been included and the story would have ended with Sam dying to save the world. - Castiel, having gone through a HeelFace Revolving Door, sacrifices himself trying to stop the Leviathans. Dean mournfully collects his trenchcoat and continues on believing his friend dead. Turns out he is Not Quite Dead. - The Doctor of Doctor Who is pretty much unkillable being the Trope Namer for The Nth Doctor, but that doesn't stop the writers: - Done in "The Underwater Menace" when the Second Doctor returns to the sinking Atlantis because he's decided he can't leave the villain Professor Zaroff to die. There's a brief scene of Jamie and Polly mourning him and wondering what they can do now before he emerges, revealing he's fine (although failed to save Zaroff). This was before the writers had puzzled out what exactly regeneration was, so his death was quite possible. - In "The Stolen Earth", a Dalek finally gets a shot in. Fans were worried about the actor leaving the show rather than the character dying, in fact since it wouldn't have ended this story the uncertainty probably made this a more effective use of this trope than a potential death. - The Tenth Doctor's regeneration storyline, "The End of Time", seriously exploited the fact that the audience knew the Doctor was not getting out of this one alive thanks to a highly public Doctor recasting. Multiple times in the climax of the story, the Doctor suffers severe injuries, does suicidal stunts and makes many Hubristic decisions, all of which underline the Doctor's desperation to win this one as well as exploit the tension as the audience waits for whatever is going to kill him. Then the 45-minute mark is reached without the Doctor dying, and just when the audience (and the Doctor) are marvelling at how thoroughly he's cheated death, the story quietly presents the Doctor with the obstacle that will kill him, and the episode is extended to allow the Doctor a farewell tour. - In "The Impossible Astronaut" (within the first 15 minutes!) we watch a scene of an astronaut apparently killing a future version of the Doctor. Amy and co. carried on adventuring with a past-Doctor. \|\|As it turns out, the Doctor was a Mobile-Suit Human with a miniaturized Doctor riding inside. It Makes Sense in Context.\|\| - CSI: Miami did this to Horatio for a season cliffhanger. Not only does the show revolve around H's character, but for extra special Like You Would Really Do It bonus points, regular CSI also killed off one of their regulars, and we knew that one would stick thanks to a Role-Ending Misdemeanor, so it seemed suspect that both shows would go through with it. - Happens repeatedly in Farscape. Every main character has "died" at least once, but only \|\|Zhaan's (and arguably D'Argo's)\|\| deaths were permanent. - Played in the Monk two-parter "Mr. Monk Is On The Run", in which Monk has been convicted of a murder he didn't commit. The first part ends with the police cornering Monk on a pier. Monk attempts to escape, but Stottlemeyer shoots him in the chest twice and he falls into the lake. The second part begins with him crawling back to the shore. Turns out he was wearing a bulletproof vest, and he and Stottlemeyer planned the whole thing to get the police off Monk's back while he solved the case. - After being Brought Down to Normal in Smallville, Clark was fatally shot in "Hidden". Jor-El resurrected him because of his destiny but with a need for an Equivalent Exchange, as seen in "Reckoning". - Merlin: - In a season one episode, Merlin 'dies' after drinking from a poisoned goblet to save Arthur. He is still revived, however, by the magic Gaius did moments before. - Subverted in the season one finale "Le Morte De Arthur", where Arthur is dying from the bite of the Questing Beast, but Merlin and Gaius both rush to save him by offering their lives in place of his. Merlin ultimately kills Nimueh, saving both himself and Gaius while still delivering the price required to save Arthur. - Killing Fox Mulder at the end of the season had become somewhat of a staple in The X-Files, but one case stands out: in the end of season four he has a mental breakdown, kills himself, and Scully confirms that he is dead. However, in season five, it is revealed that the two of them have planned it all out to fool the traitor in the FBI. - Arrow's third season winter finale ends with Oliver dueling Ra's al Ghul to the death and losing. - Revenge's third season opened with an In Medias Res scene of Emily being shot and falling off a boat. The winter finale ended with the full scene in context, then Emily's Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress washing ashore without her in it. - Rizzoli & Isles had this happen to Jane Rizzoli at the end of Season 1. She gets shot and collapses to the ground. At the beginning of Season 2, they try to make you believe Jane is dead by showing the 'grief' of her friends. - The Defenders (2017) seemingly ends with Matt Murdock being killed under Midland Circle fighting off his resurrected ex-girlfriend Elektra while Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand escape. They try to paint the picture that Matt is dead by showing Foggy and Karen, plus the other Defenders, grieving, but the audience knows right away Matt survived because Netflix had ordered season 3 of Daredevil (2015) a full 13 months before The Defenders came out, and killing off Matt would be an odd writing choice given how season 2 set up Wilson Fisk looking into Matt's life. Semi-lampshaded by Karen, who ponders to Foggy, "Maybe...maybe he made it out." Sure enough, the last shot is of Matt recovering in a convent, in a scene lifted straight from the Daredevil: Born Again comics. - One episode of The Umbrella Academy has \|\|Vanya\|\| accidentally slit Allison's throat with her powers after the latter tries to use her "rumor" powers on the former. The very first thing Diego, Luther, Five, and Klaus do in the next episode is rush Allison back home, where Grace and Pogo perform surgery on her and save her life, \|\|although not her vocal chords, rendering her mute for the rest of the season\|\|. - Kamen Rider has a tendency to pull off this trope, usually in tandem with giving the hero a power up upon ressurecting. - It starts all the way back with Kamen Rider BLACK, where it follows the traditional "hero dies as a cliffhanger" format, with Kamen Rider Kabuto and Kamen Rider Amazons having a similar "hero dies but comes back next episode" cliffhanger. - Kamen Rider Kuuga begins the format of the hero dying, but then ressurecting with a power up, though it wouldn't take until a few episodes for the actual power up to kick in. - Kamen Rider Double kicks off a similar trend of killing off a supportive secondary character but bringing them back in the finale, though in Phillip's case, he's one half of the titular rider. - Kamen Rider Fourze is when the tradition of "rider dies in one episode but comes back with the final form" happens, something that Kamen Rider Drive repeats. - Kamen Rider Gaim has Kouta dying to a stab from Mitsuzane, but due to slowly becoming a Physical God, his otherwise fatal wound begins to recover next episode. - Kamen Rider Ghost exaggerates this, as the premise is that the protagonist is killed and that's why he's a ghost. However, occasionally, he will end up in a situation where he would die again but be revived. Two of which are, unsurprisingly, when he gets a power up. - Kamen Rider Build plays with this as Sento doesn't necessarily die but the persona that makes up Sento dies as his original self takes over for a bit before Sento convinces him to let him take the wheel once more. - Even Kamen Rider in the west plays with this in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, though a more kid-friendly way as Kit is banished to the Advent Void, only to be brought back with an upgrade to Kamen Rider Onyx. - Antimony falling off the bridge, ending Chapter 7 of Gunnerkrigg Court. This was also the end of the first, self-published, print volume of the comic. - Phobia, at the end of PepsiaPhobia, chapter 6, fell from the top of a tree and was knocked unconscious. And Klepto couldn't wake her up. Then night fell and, according to the Alt Text, she was eaten by wolves. - Roy in The Order of the Stick literally died—thank goodness he lives in a universe where Death Is Cheap, even if it took a few months to get his corpse to a cleric for resurrection. - A chapter of Girl Genius shows Agatha apparently being picked up and fried by a clank. The story then switches to another POV for a while. - This happens in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures. - Sluggy Freelance did this very dramatically with \|\|two main characters\|\| at the end of the chapter "bROKEN"; some people were actually convinced, while others were deep in He's Just Hiding. \|\|The truth was something in between.\|\| A much less serious one was at the end of a single comic (in the middle of the story, but in this case the daily nature of the webcomic was clearly exploited to make it a cliffhanger), where it appeared that Oasis had broken Torg's neck. Two days later it was shown that \|\|the snapping sound was really Bun-bun eating celery\|\|. And in one of Bun-bun's fights with Santa Claus, the rabbit ended up in a warehouse rigged to explode and wasn't heard of again for a while. - At the end of his review of Final Fantasy VIII, the Spoony One was killed by the game's main character, Squall Leonhart, at the bidding of Mad Scientist Doctor Insano. Fortunately, there was enough squishy gray protoplasm left of Spoony to bring him Back from the Dead. - As of his review of It, The Nostalgia Critic has been killed by balloons. - Spoony and the Critic have nothing on their fellow reviewer Phelous, who almost always dies Once per Episode (or is Dead All Along, or is killed at the start and the Phelous from the next episode shows up to do the review, or...); even when he cameos he has a nasty habit of not surviving long. - Chapter 16 of the 2010 Neopets story arc, "The Faeries Ruin", ends with Hanso turned to stone after destroying the artifact. - Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction ends with \|\|the death of the series' protagonist, Church\|\|. Played with, in that \|\|Church really does die and stay dead\|\|, but in the next season \|\|aversion of him comes back in the form of a Living Memory\|\|. - \|\|Agent Washington\|\|, the deuteragonist of Reconstruction, \|\|is shot in the chest and has his fate left ambiguous, but is revealed to be alive (though imprisoned)\|\| in the following season. - Following the climax of Worm, Taylor in shot in the head and apparently killed by Contessa. It turns out to have merely incapacitated her, and Contessa De Powered her and sent her to an alternate reality to give her a chance to start her life over. - Optimus Prime does this a lot. However, he's nice enough to wait a few episodes before coming back. Except in Animated, where he died in the pilot movie and came back in seventy-five seconds. - Played straight in Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Aang gets struck by lightning and killed in the second season finale, only to be brought back to life afterwards. Almost everyone in-universe thinks he's died, which becomes pivotal to the plot. But Azula, the one who blasted Aang with lightning, isn't fooled. - Enzo in ReBoot get this in "Game Over", when the User wins a game he was playing. The audience isn't fooled because we see him change his icon right before losing, but the people in Mainframe believe he dies. Next episode Enzo is back, but timeskipped into a badass adult and nowhere near Mainframe. - Happened in the penultimate episode of Superman: The Animated Series. In it, Superman had been captured and brainwashed by Darkseid into attacking Earth. Eventually, Lois confronted him and was able to get him to regain his memories... about one second before the government blasted him with a kryptonite missile. - This happened to Æon Flux a lot, as in in every single episode during the silent shorts. During the half-hour episodes Æon tended to survive, with some partial exceptions: One episode where a copy of her kills the original (which was planned all along), another where she's trapped in a sea of paralytic fluid at the end (although the fluid could be neutralized), and another where she seems to die multiple times, but nobody knows what the hell was literal in that episode anyway. \|\|Explained somewhat in the video game.\|\|	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurHeroIsDead
Our Jesus Is Different So Screw The Sliding Scale Of True Art Versus Chekhovs - TV Tropes We don't have an article named Main/OurJesusIsDifferentSoScrewTheSlidingScaleOfTrueArtVersusChekhovs. If you want to start this new page, just click the edit button above. Be careful, though, the only things that go in the Main namespace are tropes and should be created through the YKTTW system. Don't put in redirects for shows, books, etc.. Use the right namespace for those.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurJesusIsDifferentSoScrewTheSlidingScaleOfTrueArtVersusChekhovs
Hive Caste System - TV Tropes Oftentimes, when Bee People show up to fight a Bug War against humanity, while the humans use the full panoply of technology, including spaceships, tanks, Powered Armor, and military aircraft, the Bugs are likely to use specialized castes of their own race instead, with a large level of polymorphism between different castes of the same species to adapt them to specialized roles. This system is actually inspired by certain Real Life ants, bees and termites, who indeed come in several of the varieties seen below. - Some will be Workers, who build weapons or just dig tunnels for their Elaborate Underground Base. - Some will be Warriors, who either fight with weapons or just charge forward and try to bite and claw their enemies to death. - Some will be oversized versions of the warrior — tougher to kill and big enough to bite through tanks. - Some will have specialized weaponry as part of their body, spraying acid, flame, or darts. - Some may burrow into the brains and/or spines of their enemies and take them over as puppets. - Some may be psychic or just superintelligent Brain Bugs who tell everyone else what to do. - And, of course, there's usually the Insect Queen, who lays eggs and is probably bigger and badder than the other castes. - And then, sometimes Drones, who pretty much exist to mate with the queen and not much else. Since the Ants and Bees that inspired this trope have all-female worker castes, this often leads to a sort of One-Gender Race. Can overlap with Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism if the castes are based on biological sex. When aliens have a caste system, but the various castes are not physically very different, that's not this trope, that's Fantastic Caste System. Often leads to Crippling Overspecialization for individuals, or is a way to avoid it for the race as a whole. ## Examples: - Chrono Crusade: The manga version mixes this trope with Fantastic Caste System for the demons. Although we're never told the details of the system, demons often talk about the "rank" of themselves and other demons, and the higher the "rank", the less beast-like and more intelligent and powerful the demon seems to be. There also seems to be clearly defined roles for demons — among the ones the audience learns about are Pursuers (which seem to be Demon Cops of some sort), soldiers, Sinners (outcasts), and Pandaemonium, the Hive Queen. - Magic: The Gathering: The Slivers are pretty solidly this. The trope is played with in that their apparent home plane, Rath, is a Death World, and so even the lowest of the low of them are deadly enough to kill and devour a human — there is no real "worker caste", just "specialized breeds that are useful in this particular tactical environment". Each breed also shares their adaptations with everyone else in the hive. Thrulls also fit the bill. There are even some that exist primarily to be worn as armor by other creatures. - DC Universe: The Reach, who primarily appear in Blue Beetle. They're different from most examples as members of the higher castes can earn their way to changing to other high castes over time, but the lower ones like solders and workers are physically different and cannot. - Antz: Even though the ants are Funny Animals, soldier ants are about twice the size of workers and have Heroic Builds. The Queen has an enlarged abdomen and gives birth every ten seconds, although Princess Bala does not yet look any different from a worker. - Disney Fairies: Fairies are all Born as an Adult from a baby's first laugh. At the moment of birth, they are presented with a specific item that represents their in-grown talent. When their talent is revealed (tinker, animal, light, water, etc.) they work with the other fairies of the same talent with their jobs in relegating nature and the seasons for the rest of their eternal lives. They are unable to personally choose their talent and abilities, nor are they able to switch between them \|\|before Zarina figures out how to create pixie dust that can accomplish this\|\|. - Alien: The series features several stages of life for Xenomorphs, from facehuggers through chestbursters to your standard double-jawed Giger nightmare. And then there was the Queen, who laid eggs and was fiercely protective of her offspring. It was implied and then later confirmed in the movies, video games, and books that the xenomorphs take on characteristics from the host they gestate within. That explains why a chestbuster coming from a dog looks doglike and why one from a Predator is bigger than those from humans and has the characteristic mandibles and dreadlocks. Novelizations and Expanded Universe material would feature more castes, such as tiny drones (who serve the Queen) and even a "Pretorian class," which was far tougher than the standard Xenomorph. - Star Trek: First Contact expands on the Borg, and develops the hive mentality of the species by introducing the Borg Queen, who does all the thinking and planning for The Collective. The Borg Cube is shown to be a hive which the workers are continually expanding and eeveloping. - Starship Troopers The Movie and its direct-to-DVD sequels added Plasma Bugs, who shot blue death from their butts clear up to orbit; Tanker Bugs, giant bombardier beetles who spat red death at close range; Chariot Bugs, who carried around the bloated Brain Bugs; Hoppers, which could fly but were otherwise similar to Warriors; and in the later films Control Bugs, who were much smaller and could mind-control people similar to Puppeteer Parasites, and the God-Bug or Brain-Of-Brains Behemecoatyl, a top-level caste with a hyperintelligent and telepathic Bug that overgrows most of a planet. See Literature for the book, where they were quite different. - The Time Machine (2002): The Morlocks have not only evolved to live underground and prey on the surface-dwelling Eloi, but also into at least two different castes, one of them the more muscular drones/warriors, and another one possessing greater cognitive abilities and psychic powers to control the other. - Alien in a Small Town: The Jan have male Workers, the majority of their population; sterile Warriors, with six clawed arms and giant fanged jaws; and breeding Matriarchs, who essentially mature into sessile living mountains and serve as the leaders of Jannite society. - The Book of Dragons: "We Endure", the alien dragons live in an eusocial caste system consisting of a Queen, who is the only member to reproduce; Gatherers, who forage for food and raw resources to bring back to the hive; Warriors, who defend the hive from intrusions and attack rival hives; Nest Tenders, who care for eggs and larvae; and Cleaners, who maintain hygiene in the hive itself and dispose of the bodies of dead dragons. - Books of the Raksura: The Raksura, shapeshifting Draconic Humanoids, are born into one of seven distinct roles as determined by their biology, although in extreme circumstances one might undergo a spontaneous Metamorphosis into a needed role. Among the winged Aeriat, there are fertile female Queens, fertile male Consorts, and sterile Warriors. Among the wingless Arbora, there are Teachers, Hunters, Soldiers, and Mentors. - Codex Alera: The Vord adapt different sub-species to deal with specific situations. Vord Queens, Vord warriors, wax spiders (which fill the "worker" slot) and Takers are the standard castes (though they vary depending on which race the Vord copied for them), but there are many more beyond that which are created during the course of the series, in response to different threats. For example, a flying caste to counter the Alerans' use of Knights Aeris, and burrowers to counter fortifications. - Dark Nest Trilogy: Killiks in general are hiveminded insects, and the people of other species who've been absorbed into the hive mind are called Joiners. There are several species of Killik, all of them sentient, all of them different somehow - mostly, these are minor things like speed, dexterity, priorities like aesthetics, skills, and preferred tactics, but some are particularly specialized, from being only inches long to fifty-meter-long tanks. - The Dreamers: The original workers and warriors are joined by humanoid bugs capable of semi-independent thought. Eventually this causes problems for the species as contrary points of view need to be dealt with for the first time. - Humanx Commonwealth: Mentioned in the ancient history of the Thranx, a species of Insectoid Aliens somewhat like giant praying mantises. They used to have hives of drones, workers, and soldiers ruled by fertile queens, but liberated themselves after evolving true intelligence and universal fertility. Hivemothers and Clanmothers are still honored, but the role is more ceremonial in the modern day. - The Mote in God's Eye: The Moties are divided up into a number of castes, including Mediators, Engineers, Physicians, Warriors and Masters. They have genetically based differences in bodies and mindsets. - Perry Rhodan: If an intelligent alien species is insectoid, it's all but guaranteed to have a hive structure and be run by a highly intelligent queen who's also generally still the overall mother of her people. After that, caste specialization varies with the individual species. - The Saga of Seven Suns has the Ildirans with dozens of different castes, each different enough that some of them don't even appear to be the same species. - Starship Troopers. In the original novel, there were workers, who couldn't fight but were available in huge numbers and useful for diversions; Warriors, who fought with technological weapons equal to those of the Mobile Infantry; Brain Bugs, who psychically controlled most of the rest; and Queens, who laid eggs in huge numbers but did little else. However workers and warriors (which compose 99% of the race) are nearly identical in appearance. This is actually a plot point, when a massive decoy force — composed entirely of non-aggressive workers — is used as a feint. - The Stormlight Archive: The Parshendi have a partial variant of this. Each Parshendi is able to assume one of several different forms using the Mana from the frequent highstorms. At the start of the series, they know five forms, plus a sixth. First is warform, which grants strength and causes them to grow plate armor. Workform has strength comparable to warform, but lacks the armor and has a mental block against violence. Mateform is used for reproduction, while nimbleform is quick and dexterous. There is also dullform, a baseline form with no advantages. Finally, we have slaveform, the near-mindless "absence of form" in which the vast majority of Parshendi exist, and which is used by the humans as a Slave Race. \|\|During the second book, they unlock stormform, which grants Shock and Awe powers but opens the wearer to possession by Odium.\|\| - The Wandering Inn: Every Antinium (a race of humanoid insects) has a specific task to fulfill. The hive queen forms their body, while having in mind how it could help them accomplish their task. For example, a soldier is huge and muscular, while a worker is rather slender. - The Warded Man: The corelings. There are the near-mindless elemental drones (fire, water, rock, sand, wind, etc), the shapeshifting mimics, the psychically gifted mind corelings, and the unseen Queen. - Xeelee Sequence: Olympus Mons becomes a librarian hive — a great Archive full of large-headed Scholars, lean book-finding Runners and spiderlike Maintenance Workers. - Babylon 5: The insectoid Gaim are divided into several castes like queens, warriors, workers and the only humanoids ambassadors. Not that you'll know this from the show itself. There is also fan speculation about a caste system among the Drakh, because of the very different look of the leaders and soldiers. - Extraterrestrial (2005): The stalkers live in large hives compared to those of eusocial insects, and are divided into slender-billed scouts, which search for and mark potential prey; more robust workers, which bring it down and carry the meat back to the nest; and an unseen breeding queen. - Farscape: The Scarrans have at least three castes in their hierarchy, sorted into Low, Middle and Ruling class: the Low-class◊ "Horse-Faced"◊ Scarrans are used as warriors, torturers, and ambassadors; the Middle-Class◊ Scarrans tend to be found acting as bodyguards to the Ruling class; finally, the telepathic Ruling-Class Scarrans are high-ranking politicans and military officers, though some are happy acting as torturers and secret agents. - Stargate Atlantis: The Wraith are divided into Queens at the highest strata (typically just one per Hiveship), followed by male Wraith (functioning in officer and science capacities), and Wraith soldier-drones at the bottom, who are under the constant mental influence of the higher groups. Sometimes there are human Wraith worshippers as well, who are akin to pets/slaves for the Wraith. The queens themselves have a hierarchy with a You Kill It, You Bought It mentality. - Call of Cthulhu: At least one sourcebook divides the Mi-Go into three castes: warriors, workers and scientists. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Devils, as embodiments of Lawful Evil, have a strict caste system with different forms of devil performing different tasks; Bearded Devils are shock troops, Barbed Devils are guards, Bone Devils are police, Chain Devils are torturers, and so on. It's possible to be promoted up the ranks (and indeed, this is the goal of all devils), which changes a devil's form to fit its new duties. - Modrons, the embodiments of Lawful Neutral, have an even more rigid version than the devils. There are 5 'normal' grades of modron and 10 'heirarch' grades (which have a strictly limited number of members). Each type is one grade more intelligent than the grade below it and is only capable of communicating with its own grade and the grades directly above and below it. The base types are Monodrones which are spherical and can only think of one thing at a time, Duodrones, who are rectangular and can think of two tasks at once, Tridrones that are inverted pyramids that can think of three things at a time (allowing them to actually delegate things), Quadrones who are cubical can understand 4 things at a time (allowing them to perform more complex tasks than other modrons), and Pentadrones, which are weird starfish-things who can have up to five functions, allowing them to communicate, operate, monitor, plan, and manage. The Heirarch modrons are Decatons, Nonatons, Octons, Septons, Hextons, Quintons, Quartons, Tertions, and Secundi, with the ultimate modron, Primus, serving as both the motherboard of modrons and their equivalent to a god. - The Formians, an ant-like Outsider race with various specialized subtypes (worker, warrior, elite warrior, winged warrior, giant warrior, observer, taskmaster, and queen). All outsider types are specialized in a similar, although less overtly insectoid, way; Modrons are the most obvious. - Beholder hives have Hive Mothers (magically modified beholders) which rule over normal beholders and specialized abominations they spawned. - Kreen are very social insectoids, but live in networks of small groups, not hives — so there are basic roles, but no "castes". However, some Dark Sun tohr-kreen create lots of Super Soldier scouts, so modified that the term for them translates as "altered near-person" (but scouts don't know this). - Saurials do something like this via social symbiosis of several different species, naturally with different abilities. It's not a strictly binding limitation, but small fragile flier both naturally makes a great scout and courier, and is likely to prefer such an activity over any manual labour. - Abeils (who provide the page image) are literal Bee People with three castes: vassals (average citizens and basic infantry), soldiers (elite warriors), and queens. - The Hivebrood from Basic/Expert/etc. D&D combine this trope with The Virus. - Talislanta: Native insect-folk include the aggressive "sniper bugs" and nomadic "caravan bugs". These Bugs Are Different in that they're the size of ordinary insects, and are included more for exotic flavor than as potential opponents ... although the former are feuding with the pixie-like (and equally small) whisps, and the latter will trade tiny samples of rare plants for minute amounts of food. - Traveller: Droyne have several castes, including Leaders, Warriors (who grow larger than the others), and — unusually — Sports, who have the job description "Go out there and MINGLE!" - Warhammer 40,000: - The Tyranids don't have castes per se, but various different types of Tyranid creatures are bred to do specific jobs, ranging from enormous Hive Ships to not-quite-as-enormous (but still as big as most Humongous Mecha) Biotitans to various Synapse Creatures (that control lesser Tyranid creatures) to tank-sized montrosities and smaller and more numerous warrior organisms, down to bug-sized living ammunition. Non-combat Tyranid creatures include the Norn Queens (that breed other Tyranids inside the Hive Ships), capillary towers (which funnel nutrients from overrun planets to hive ships in orbit) and mycetic spores (organic drop pods). Even their weapons and ammo are Tyranid creatures. - While not bug people, the Tau have a caste system where members of each caste possess different physiologies. The military Fire caste are tall and strong, the pilot Air caste are slender and have better depth-perception and G-force tolerance, and the worker Earth caste are short and stocky. These didn't originate as biological castes in the strict sense; rather, the early Tau split into four subspecies adapted to different environments, which were formalized into castes early in their history and are kept distinct mainly by cultural pressure. - Warhammer Fantasy: The Lizardmen have the small, wiry Skinks (drones), who handle their society's artisan crafts and also serve as priests and wizards; strong, massive Saurus (warriors), who live for nothing but fighting and form the bulk of the Lizardmen's armed forces and guards; the absolutely massive Kroxigor (workers), who perform most heavy construction and repair labor in the temple-cities; and the toadlike Slann as a kind of "Queen Bees", acting as the high priests, societal leaders and archmages. That said, all four of them will fight if called upon, the Skinks acting as scouts, assassins, skirmishers, beast handlers, scribes and overseers; the Kroxigors as shock troops and living tanks; and the Slann leading armies and raining magical destruction 'round the enemies' ears. An interesting note is that the Lizardmen aren't born in the usual sense — they crawl out of special spawning pools in the hearts of their cities (with one kind of pools for Slann that rarely activates, one for Saurus and one for Skinks and Kroxigor alike), being quite literally bred for their roles. - BIONICLE: The Skrall are a gender-segregated version of this. Among the males, there are the nameless "warrior" Skrall, which make up most of the population and serve as Mooks, then the Elite Skrall (Bigger, more powerful Skrall ), and finally the enormous Leader Class who are in charge of the Skrall society. The females live separately to the males, and it's implied that the only interaction between the genders consists of fighting or mating. The females also have Psychic Powers. - LEGO Alien Conquest: The alien invaders are made up of several different-looking subtypes that all serve different roles. The Alien Pilots specialize in piloting vehicles and have average-sized brains, the Alien Troopers are ground forces and are toughest with the smallest brains and the Alien Commander is a unique-looking specimen with tentacles instead of legs and a large translucent brain. - Age of Wonders: - Differences between units of the same species are sometimes obviously biological, at least for Draconians and Shadow Demons. - Age of Wonders: Planetfall: The Kir'Ko field units with wildly varying body types. Frenzied and Hidden have humanoid body types, Barragers and Abyssians are beetle-like and walk on 6 legs, and Transcendent and Harbingers are legless and float using Psychic Powers. - Conquest of Elysium 4: The Dwarves have one female dwarf to a mine, and all the male dwarves are her children. Her eggs hatch into worker dwarves, some of which mature into soldier dwarves; if the workers can supply this outfit with metals and precious gems, it can further specialize dwarves into drones and magical smiths, and lay new queens to start new mines. - Destiny: The Hive are divided into castes (also referred to as morphs, since they involve a lower caste mutating into a higher caste), although all of them are variants on the Warrior because of their Omnicidal Maniac culture. Thrall are immature Hive who swarm in huge numbers and are used as Cannon Fodder; the survivors mature into Acolytes, who serve as basic infantry; surviving Acolytes then morph into Knights, reproductive males and elite heavy infantry, or eat the mother jelly and become Wizards, reproductive egg-laying females capable of flight and specialists in magic. There are a handful of variants on this system: Ogres are Thralls mutated with magic into barely-sentient living war machines, and there was a single king morph who theoretically ruled all the Hive, although in practice his two siblings, the strongest Knight and the strongest Wizard, had equal authority. There is also at least once instance of a female Knight (the aforementioned strongest Knight), and one male who looked a lot like a Wizard (although he didnt seem able to fly). - Dwarf Fortress: Antmen, one of the primitive underground animal people, come in four castes: workers, a third the size of a dwarf; drones, the same size and winged; warriors, as big a dwarf, that will defend the queen at all costs; and the queen, the size of a lion and the only female. - Guilty Gear: All Gears are magically-augmented lifeforms built for warfare, and they come in various forms to suit their battlefield role. Regular Gears form "the backbone", they're built for rugged combat and often feature sharp claws and armoured carapaces, so they resemble ancient mythological monsters. Large Gears are bigger and stronger than Regulars, and often work as Giant Mooks as well as manual labour. Flying Gears often resemble bats, dragons and other monsters, and serve as air support. Toxic Gears are poor fighters but capable of releasing magic-based gases and spores as a form of biological warfare. Megadeth Gears are basically monstrous Kaiju which range between the size of a small building to the size of a large mountain, and are meant for the wholesale destruction of cities. Humanoid Gears are created from converting humans into Gears or are the offspring of Gear and human couples. Command Gears have the unique ability to control other Gears on a massive scale through pheromones, and often possess an affinity for magic as well as excellent combat ability. Prototype Gears, created from the oldest batch of Gears, count as Super Prototypes and possess phenomenal magical and combat prowess and can easily curbstomp even the mighty Megadeth Gears. Justice, Valentine and Dizzy are Command types, Testament and \|\|Sin Kiske\|\| are Humanoid types, and \|\|Sol Badguy\|\| is the only known Prototype class. - Half-Life 2: Antlions are composed of several different castes. These including the standard Antlion, Workers (which tend the Antlion grubs and can spit corrosive acid), and Antlion Myrmidonts (which are huge and serve as miniboss monsters), and the Antlion King. - Halo: The Yanme'e (Drones) are a downplayed version of this; they're divided into Queens, Protectors, Domestics, etc., but most Yanme'e castes are physically fairly similar to each other. Also, they use the same high-tech energy weapons as the rest of the Covenant. - Marathon: The Pfhor are hinted to be like this. In Infinity, Tycho says "bugs are so obedient" in reference to the Pfhor under his command, and they have a clear caste system in which the lower ranking members are considered more expendable than the upper ranking ones. - Mass Effect has the Rachni. Among the types you encounter are Workers (who just explode to kill you), Soldiers (who actually fight you) and Brood Warriors (larger, Biotics-using Soldiers, who according to the codex are also the Rachni males), and the Queen. There additionally seems to be a similar social ordering in the franchise's other quasi-insectoid race, the Collectors, who are mostly made up of drones who (according to Mordin's observations anyway) have close to no individuality—any one of these drones can be possessed by their leader, the 'Collector General' who operates much like the typical queen of this trope and is the only one among them who ever displays language or advanced independent thought. - Metroid: The Space Pirates. Higher ranks are more powerful and specialized, whereas ordinary grunts serve as either arm cannon fodder, unwilling test subjects for the science division, or lunch. Yeah, life as a Space Pirate sucks. - The Sims 2: There is only one playable non-hybrid alien in the original game (though you can get another with the University Expansion Pack), Pollination Tech#9 Smith, and from what can be seen in his family tree, alien society is organized like this. The only two castes seen are drones (called Pollination Techs) and hive queens. Pollination Techs also are the ones that abduct, probe and impregnate male Sims. - SimTunes: The bugs are insects crossed with musical instruments. - Starcraft: The majority of Zerg are warriors of different specializations, with zerglings as the basic warrior. Drones are workers, overlords are sub-command units (subservient to the cerebrates and the Overmind, or Kerrigan and the Brood Mothers in the second game) while hatcheries ("buildings" that are actually metamorphosed drones) produce larvae that become most of the various castes. The diversity is justified as the Zerg assimilate the DNA of other species. - Sword of the Stars: Hivers: - Hivers are organized in clans centered around a princess, who has birthed all members of that clan. Aside from birthing princesses, hivers come in three kinds: Workers (scientists, engineers, artists, etc.), warriors (heavy manual labor, high-risk work, soldiers, etc.) and princes (sexually active and otherwise basically big, intelligent warriors). Each of the castes can apparently be further divided, as the princess is able to modify her eggs to slightly specialize the role of the hiver that hatches from it — she can, for instance, make a clutch of soldiers slightly more radiation-resistant than normal to work in fallout clearance, but she can't make soldiers with wings and acid-spitting. Hivers thus use a panoply of technology (guns, tanks, starships, armour, etc.) roughly equal to those of humans and tarka, and nothing strictly prevents a worker from picking up one of their guns and using it... Apart from the problem that said gun was likely built for a soldier and weighs a bit more than your average worker can handle. - The Hiver system also has a weird form of social mobility: Hiver brains can survive for a few days after the body dies, and princesses can swallow the disembodied brains and recycle them into new bodies. If a worker or soldier impresses the princess enough she might decide they're leadership material and rebirth them as a prince. Do something really impressive and Grandma might decide they're what she's looking for in a new princess. - Reborn Hivers usually keep their original name with the infix "zo" added. For example, the novel Deacon's Tale features a prince named Chezokin, who used to be a worker named Chekin. - There is also the Queen who births all princesses, when she dies her daughters fight amongst one another for the right to consume her ovaries, transforming her into a new Queen. Though a princess who isolates herself for about 200 years might also turn into a Queen, explaining how multiple Hiver factions are possible. - Vega Strike: Rlaan, despite their arthropoda appearance, are far from a hive. But they have "worker" and "defender" subspecies, with "administrator" sterile hybrids that have mental qualities of subspecies balanced. As a bonus, these aren't going to spawn any hereditary aristocracy. - World of Warcraft: - The game has had insectoid races since its first incarnation, beginning with the Silithids and their more advanced cousins the Qiraji, which are differentiated into such castes as worker, flyer, tank, soldier and queen. - Later, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion expanded on the beetle/spider-like Nerubians that had been introduced in Warcraft III, this race includes priests and necromancers among its ranks. - The Mantids of the Mists of Pandaria expansion show by far the most nuanced and advanced differentiation of any arthropoid culture in Azeroth to date (probably because player interact with the Mantid more than any other race). Among the mantids' various caste differentiations all manner of specializations including poisoners, blademasters, preservers, swarmkeepers, philosophers, puppetmasters, and even paladins exist. - Bosun's Journal: The humlings are a eusocial species with a complex caste system inspired by the side-blotched lizards, which have three male and two female morphs in real life. Humlings have three sexes — males, fertile females (called pregnantrices, and much larger than the others) and sterile females — divided between three castes each — workers who dig the colony's underground nests, scout territory, and gather food, nurses who tend to young and pregnantrices, and hunters who track and kill prey and fight off threats. Sterile females perform the basic tasks in the colony, pregnantrices of all three castes produce young, and males live as nomadic, solitary predators who roam around looking for colonies with whose pregnantrices they try to mate — worker males sneak in and cuddle with pregnantrices to get them in the mood to mate, and sometimes spend a longer period with the colony and aid the female workers in their tasks; nurse males try to impress the colony with dances, singing, and offerings of food; hunter males throw themselves against the colony's defenders and fight them until they either fall over from exhaustion or have sufficiently impressed the pregnantrices. Matings between same-caste males and pregnantrices produce a crop of sterile females of that caste; if two of different castes mate, they produce either a male or a pregnantrice of the other caste. As all fertile humlings are born to parents of other castes, this serves as the main method by which the different morphs don't speciate into different breeding populations. - Drowtales: It's suggested that because most driders are sterile, there is a mass-egglaying drider queen, although they do not have many specialized castes otherwise. - Hamster's Paradise: Eusocial insects such as ants, termites and wasps were among the selection of organisms brought to HP-02017, most of them are what you'd expect but there are a few more standout examples. - The orange treeroyal is a species of beetle that independently developed a eusocial lifestyle and what caste they are depends on how much they were fed as larvae with most being small minor workers, larger major workers and soldiers while queens are born seasonally. They also have male drones that leave their birth colony to join others and mate with their queens but unlike ants and bees the males don't die after mating and will instead become the queen's personal harem as well was help cool the colony with their wings. - The hook-jawed pirant is a member of a family of ants that evolved to live in watery areas by using their own bodies as rafts known as raftants, their colonies mostly consist of the standard castes seen on most ant species, but they have one unique to themselves with the rafter caste, these ants have hairs on their feet that allow them to propel their colony across the water's surface similar to a water strider rather than just going where the current takes them like other raftants. - The bombermite is a species of termite that has several different warrior castes as a way of dealing with the armored giraards that feed on their colonies. One called the biter with large pinching mandibles, sprayers that shoot noxious chemicals at their attackers and the bombers which explode in a show of stick, toxic secretions. - Tech Infantry repeats most of the bug castes it borrowed from Starship Troopers, but adds Guardian Bugs and Emperor Bugs, gigantic guards and mates for the queen; Drones, a tougher version of Workers that can fight by trying to bite enemies, and gives the Warrior bugs and larger castes the ability to use magic. - Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles The animated TV series kept all the new bugs from the movie, and added the Transport Bugs, huge bugs that serve as Living Starships; Ripplers, acid-dart-spitting variations on the Hoppers; Firefries, bugs that spit flame, and Ice Bugs, huge bugs that hide as ice-covered asteroids and live in a symbiotic relationship with the Firefries. There are various other insectlike species on several planets, but it's unclear if they're part of the Bugs or just dangerous animals; the Bugs can assimilate other species or absorb traits from them, so variations in appearance don't tell you much. The last two campaigns introduced Bugs based on human DNA, infiltrators that on Klendathu needed to wear MI armor to pass for human but could actually shapeshift in the Earth campaign. - Steven Universe: - Although Gem types fulfill roles more typical of a Fantastic Caste System (corresponding to human occupations like engineers or architects, and even having nobility), they vary greatly in shape, size, physical ability, and various powers even if though they're all humanoid and fully sapient. These differences come from deliberate design instead of evolution, as the whole race (except perhaps their leaders, the Diamond Authority) seems to have been created artificially. In one commonality with bees, they are all female—there's no equivalent to drones because gems are grown from the ground using machines. This origin makes Homeworld denizens completely ignorant of how other sentient species, such as humans, are born and named. On many occasions, Homeworld Gems believe that individually named humans are representative of a type of human, such as when Aquamarine and Topaz are sent by Yellow Diamond to collect \|\|"My Dad, a Connie, a Lars, a Sadie, a Mailman, and an Onion-I-Think" for the Human Zoo, based on something Steven once said to Peridot about humans prior to her HeelFace Turn\|\|. - Peridots are technicians, operating and fixing machinery and managing the Kindergartens. - Quartzes (Rose Quartzes, Amethysts, Jaspers, Carnelians, etc.) are soldiers, who live for fighting. Agates are officers of groups of Quartz-soldiers, responsible for managing their tasks and keeping them in line. - Rubies serve as generic soldiers and bodyguards for upper-class gems, and are almost always put in groups of at least three. - Sapphires are high-class Seers. - Pearls are status symbol servants of high-class gems, and are generally used for "standing around, looking nice, and holding your stuff for you". - Lapis Lazuli are terraformers. - Bismuths are builders. - Topazes and Citrines are elite guards, whether of places or of people. - Zircons are lawyers. - Nephrites are space pilots. - Emeralds are space admirals. - Hessonites, along with other types of Garnet like Demantoid and Pyrope, appear to be high-ranking military officers. - Jades are courtiers of some sort. - Spinels are entertainers. - Pebbles, which are ordinary stones animated by the diamonds instead of being manufactured like other gems, are so low ranked that they don't even seem to be treated as people by most gems. Blue diamond uses a pebble as a living comb, and Pink Diamond has pebbles living in the walls of her room, working to change the shape of the room at the command of those inside it while staying out of sight. - Morganites, Aquamarines, Rutiles, and Pyrite are all featured in some form, but their exact roles in Gem Society is unclear. - The Diamonds are the leaders of gemkind as a whole. There are only four, each one unique, with their own duties under the caste system: Yellow Diamond is the commander of Homeworld's military, Blue Diamond is the leader of Homeworld's court system, Pink Diamond is in charge of entertainment for the other Diamonds, and White Diamond, unquestioned matriarch of the entire empire, created the caste system in the first place. - Off-Colors are Gems who buck the caste system — either they emerged with some unacceptable physical or mental flaw, or they engage in behaviors that violate the boundaries of caste such as committing the crime of fusing with a different kind of gem. Homeworld tries to destroy these Gems as soon as they're detected. There's a little bit of wiggle room, though: an ongoing resource shortage means some Gem types (like Peridots) have to be manufactured imperfectly, using technological augmentation to make up for things like reduced height and missing powers. - Ants and bees, all of order Hymenoptera, and termites, from order Isoptera, almost all of which have specialized Queens, Drones, and Workers. - Some also add nursemaids to take care of the young, up to several sub-castes of soldiers, and Honeypot ants add workers adapted to serve as living storage jars for nectar. Bugs are cool, huh? - Some termite species even have warriors that spray irritating liquids: a genuine example of the Breath Weapon caste option. - There is even a species of ant whose warrior caste takes expendable to new heights. Upon critical injury, it explodes in a shower of harmful chemical agents, doing more damage than it could fighting to the death after such a wound. - In Asian marauder ants, the workers come in a wide range of sizes, and each particular size is assigned a certain specific task through which the different size-castes cooperate, such as when harvesting food, where a mid-sized worker plucks seeds from a stem while smaller workers cart them away. The largest of them, known as supermajors, can grow up to fifty times the size of the smallest workers, and are used for heavy lifting as well as a convenient mode of transport for the smaller workers, who hitch rides on their hulking sisters. - Some species of tiny gall-infesting insects (aphids, thrips) and three species of sponge-parasitic shrimps live in colonies of closely-related or clonal individuals, some of which develop enlarged mandibles/pincers to serve as a "soldier" caste. As breeding isn't restricted to a single female, inbreeding and mutual defense of a "fortress" gall or sponge seem to be the drivers for caste evolution in these instances. - One Australian beetle ( Austroplatypus incompertus) is now known to demonstrate a simple form of eusociality, with a single breeding female producing lots of offspring that excavate tunnels in trees and care for her young. - The naked mole rat, a "mammalian ant", is one of two mammals that have insect-like sociality, with "Queen" and "Workers" (the other is another mole rat). Unlike eusocial insects, they aren't irreversibly born into their castes — all naked mole rats are born as workers, with pheromones in the queen's excrements, which the workers absorb when using the latrine burrows, keeping them that way. When the queen dies, the female workers begin to compete for dominance until one matures into a queen and begins producing the suppressive pheromones again. Also said to be insusceptible to cancer. See the other wiki. - Siphonophores are colonial super-organisms made up of small organisms called zooids, each with its own specialty. Some specialize in catching prey, others digesting it, others locomotion, and still others specialize in reproduction. Some siphonophores can be many times larger than the largest animal, the blue whale; the only reason they don't count as "the largest animal" is because they consist of multiple "animals" all working together. However, unlike most examples of this trope, there is no hierarchy; all the zooids have a job to do, but none of them are "more important" than any other. They're all needed to keep the siphonophore going.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurBugsAreDifferent
Our Giants Are Bigger - TV Tropes The guys on the right aren't regular-sized humans; the tiny speck on the bottom is. "A giant's the worst! A giant has a brain. Hard to outwit a giant. A giant's just like us, only bigger. Much, MUCH bigger! SOOO big that we are just an expendable... bug beneath its feet." BOOM. Crunnch. Legendary creatures that resemble human beings, but super-sized and often incredibly strong. Giants have been around since the times of ancient mythology, and are still around as one of the Standard Fantasy Races. These creatures may range in size from around 7 feet (the average size of the tallest Real Life humans), to truly colossal proportions. In various mythologies, including Classical, Norse and Celtic myth, alongside Biblical scripture, gigantic peoples often feature as primeval creatures associated with chaos and the wild, and frequently in conflict with the gods. They also tend to appear as apocalyptic beings, who will arise at the end of days to bring about the world's downfall. Less ominously, giants often feature in legend and folklore as hugely powerful and dangerous but often dim-witted beings whom wily heroes have to trick and outwit. Their prodigious strength is also a commonly emphasized trait, and it wasn't uncommon for cultures to describe the imposing ruins of older civilizations as having been built by bygone giants — surely no one else would have been strong enough and large enough to shift such huge blocks of stone in place? The stereotypical giant is a big, dumb brute who grinds people's bones to make his bread and may serve as the Dumb Muscle for a more intelligent Evil Overlord. However, literal Gentle Giants are also featured in both legends and modern stories, and some giants, both good and evil, may be smarter than they are initially perceived. In Real Life, the profusion of Giants in mythology is usually attributed to memories of childhood (when adults tower over you), to the rivalry between young men and old men, and to medical conditions like gigantism that cause unusually tall stature. It may also be partially related to people finding the bones of massive animals (especially elephants or extinct animals like sauropod dinosaurs and giant ground sloths) and mistaking them for the bones of giant humanoids. Giants don't usually have a lot variation besides their actual size, which can go from just unusual but theoretically achievable statures to absurdly exaggerated heights. However, works taking inspiration from Norse sources may include distinct fire and frost giants of varying levels of elemental affinity. Other types include the one-eyed, monstrous cyclopes and the two-headed ettin; occasionally, trolls and ogres are also linked to giants in some manner. This is Older Than Feudalism. Not to be confused with The Giant, who may be a big wrestler, but isn't nearly that big. See also Smash Mook, Giant Mook, Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever, Giant Woman (where the giant is specifically a giantess), Our Titans Are Different, and Kaiju. Really huge giants, in any real-world context, would fall victim to the Square-Cube Law in short order, but the vast majority of such beings tend to exist in fantasy universes that cheerfully disregard such things as the laws of physics in favor of creating a good story. ## Examples: - Attack on Titan: The Titans are giants of varying size. Some are small at around 3-5 meters, most are around 7 meters, the usual biggest are around 15 meters. Then we have the Colossal Titan at about 60 meters. Also nearly all Titans are horrible monsters, they are VERY fast, and a few people, \|\|like Eren, can transform into Titans.\|\| There is also the Beast Titan which is 18 meters tall and is highly intelligent and courteous. - Then you have the millions of \|\|60-meter tall Colossal Titans that live in the Walls, waiting to be called upon so that they can flatten everything in their path and destroy the Earth...\|\| - Eventually, \|\|the characters encounter a Titan so large, it is more than twice as tall as the sixty-metre Colossal Titan even when it's sitting down (its limbs were disproportionately small, so it couldn't stand upright).\|\| - Then we get to \|\|Eren's final form as the Founding Titan. It's so large that the surrounding army of Colossal Titans don't even reach it's pelvis, and normal Titans can have fights on its vertebrae\|\|. Much like the previous largest Titan, it's so huge that it can't physically stand up right. So instead it \|\|WALKS ON ITS MILE LONG RIB-CAGE LIKE A GIANT CENTIPEDE\|\|. Really, it's as horrifying as it sounds. - In Bleach, Sajin Komamura's Bankai takes the form of an enormous samurai with a titanic sword for its weapon. It has an amazing appearance, but a critical weakness: it's designed to defeat the opponent in a single hit, and if such is not done, vulnerable to defeat — and any damage it takes is simultaneously inflicted on Komamura. \|\|This weakness has its advantages, though... Komamura is so closely linked to his bankai that when he heals, it heals, too. Recent chapters have shown that this is very important.\|\| - The Queen of Light from Futari wa Pretty Cure, Mugen Silhouette from HeartCatch Pretty Cure! and Royale Queen from Smile Pretty Cure!. Mugen Silhouette is the strongest Pretty Cure and she's as big as our planet. - The defining trait of the Zentraedi from Macross is that they are about three to four stories tall. They were engineered that way so they would be physically tougher and better suited for battle. When they begin integrating with human society, most of them shrink themselves to a regular human size, but there are some communities that prefer to remain giants (which results in some interesting mixed-size accommodations in the later series). - Mazinger: In New Mazinger (an one-shot alternate Mazinger Z story published in The '80s), an explosion transports Kouji Kabuto to an alternate dimension inhabited by giant beings. The human beings were sixty-foot-tall and just as big as Mazinger-Z (in fact, when Kouji saved one princess, she thought Mazinger-Z was an armored knight, and she asked him to remove his helmet so she could see his face). They were mostly good-natured and intelligent, although their technology was at a Middle Ages level, and they were in war against a race of monsters. - One Piece: - Giants vary greatly in size, from Jaguar D. Saul being 19.5 meters or so tall to the likes of Oars and his descendant Oars Jr., who are about 60 meters. Apparently, there are entirely different types of giants and Saul considers it something of an insult to be considered one of the other kind. So far the ratio is 5 good giants to 1 evil giant, who also happened to be a zombie. And, apart from Oars, they do not seem particularly stupid or intelligent. - Then there are plenty of characters who are not actually giants, but are still ridiculously huge compared to other humans for no apparent reason, such as Whitebeard, Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, and Magellan. Word of God is that this is simply how height naturally varies among humans in the One Piece world, the same with how much the size of giants varies. - To simplify things, in the One Piece World, you have, from smallest to largest: normal humans as we know them that are around the 1.5- 2.5 meter height (Luffy, Zoro, Robin, Franky, and pretty much the average people seen around the world; this category is the most common), big/tall humans around the 2.5 meter to 5 meter area (Crocodile, Brook, Kuzan, Doflamingo, Katakuri, etc. ), really big humans around the 6 to 8 meter area (Gecko Moria, Pound, Bartholomew Kuma, Whitebeard, Big Mom, etc.), Non-Elbaf giants around 19.5 meters or so tall (Jaguar D. Saul), Morley, Elbaf giants around 12-23 or so meters tall (Oimo and Kashii, as seen above), big demon-like giants that are around 67 meters tall (Oars, also seen above, and Little Oars Jr., his descendant), and lastly extremely big demon-like giants who may very well be over 180 meters tall (San Juan Wolf, though it has since been revealed that his ridiculous size is because of a Devil Fruit that he ate). There are also Fishmen/merfolk that are big due to their fish-race (or sometimes in spite of it) that vary between all categories; the mermaid princess Shirahoshi is about as big as an Elbaf Giant at 17 meters, dwarfing both her giant-sized father and her human-sized mother, whereas the Fishman Wadatsumi is about as big as Oars (slightly bigger in fact at 80 meters tall). - At the beginning of the Skypiea arc, the crew run into fog-shrouded figures that seems so tall they reach up into the sky. \|\|Turns out those aren't super-giants, just the shadows of people living on a Floating Continent.\|\| - The Punk Hazard also introduced the concept of artificial giants. Dr. Vegapunk was trying to find ways to make ordinary humans grow to giant size, but failed in doing so. His Number Two, Caesar Clown, somewhat succeeded, but only because he stooped to the lows Vegapunk refused to resort to: experimenting on children. Caesar kidnapped a group of children and experimented on them; this made them huge, but drastically shortened their lifespan to the point that had they not been saved, they would have died in five years. - One ironic example is the anime-only Lily Enstomach; her true size is about 50 meters tall, but due to her Mini Mini no Mi Devil Fruit power, she can shrink to a minimum of about five centimeters tall. Because her physical strength does not change and she can shrink and enlarge any item she wears or holds (going so far as to use a dinner fork like a trident) it's a rather useful power to have. There's also her father, who is so big he cooks food with a volcano. - Charlotte Linlin, aka Big Mom, seems to be some kind of freak, since she was the size of a normal giant child when she was five-years-old, despite having normal-sized parents. As an adult, she is seemingly taller than a house, but is significantly smaller than actual giants (still around half the height of one at 8.8 meters tall). - Evil Is Bigger is in full force here, as the most powerful villains in the series are usually at least a couple of meters taller than our normal-sized main character Luffy. Kaido, one of the series' biggest villains, was designed to be "four Luffys tall". - The Numbers who serve under Kaido were the WG's attempt to produce artificial ancient giants like Oars. For some reason the WG deemed them failures. Despite this, the Numbers are indeed as big as Oars was, though they also display more animalistic traits than Oars. - In The Seven Deadly Sins, the Giant clan is capable of Dishing Out Dirt, Extra-ore-dinary, and capable of shapeshifting into metal. - Shintaro Kago's Super-Conductive Brains Parataxis features a race of colossal humanoids cloned from fossils and known as Surdlers. To be used as Humongous Mecha for civilian and military purposes, they are extensively modified — their organic brains are swapped out for computers, their faces and genitals replaced by cybernetic implants, and occasionally, additional limbs or extra torsos are grafted on to suit the tasks they are built for. \|\|It's later revealed that the clones are in fact ordinary humans and the advanced civilization enslaving them consists of Lilliputians produced by miniaturization technology.\|\| - In The Titan's Bride, the giants of Tildant look exactly like humans, only much bigger. They're a society based around the concept of prosperity: they farm, build, create art and encourage open love and, if possible, multiplying. The future ruler of Tildant, Caius Lao Vistaille, summoned Ordinary Highschool Student Koichi Mizuki into his world to become his bride, and he's very much a Gentle Giant who loves him dearly. - Giants exist in Trigun with no explanation, and offer a quite considerable variety of sizes. Most notable is the Nebraska Family, whose members range from normal, to big but not implausible, to basically Kaiju. The parents of the family are at opposite ends of the scale, implying Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action. - Magic: The Gathering: Giants are an ubiquitous creature type, often aligned with Red mana. In the main setting of Dominaria, they're just generically big, tough bruisers, though other settings go into their culture a bit more. - In Ravnica, giants are mostly soldiers for the Boros Legion, though some outcasts find a life as grunts in the Gruul Clans. - Giants in the fairy-tale world of Lorwyn are ancient and mystical, yet still can be clumsy and whimsically dim-witted. Giants sleep for years or decades at a time, dreaming deep dreams, and when they awake they take on new names and purposes in life based on what they dream. Some ride absurdly large goats with wings. - In Lorwyn's Dark World, Shadowmoor, giants sleep even longer, to the extent that trees and turf start to grow on their bodies and they become part of the landscape. They're pretty cranky when they wake up, rampaging throughout the countryside and smashing and devouring everything and everyone they come across. - The largest giant of all is by definition the Hamletback Goliath, which is large enough to have a hamlet on its back to start with (duh) and magically grows to stay bigger than everything it encounters. - Zendikar is home to two types of giant. One type, the more traditional one, lives in tribal societies in the plane's many trackless wildernesses. The second kind, the bestial hurda, is kept by other intelligent societies as enormous, somewhat humanoid pack animals. - The Greek mythology-inspired plane of Theros has giants of every color of mana, which are living manifestations of the land itself. They include varieties from Greek myth like Hundred-Handed Ones and Titans. - The Norse Mythology-inspired plane of Kaldheim has giants as the natives of Surtland, a realm of climatic extremes where everything is bigger than you'd expect it to be, which are divided into two elemental kindreds. Frost giants are solitary, contemplative beings who live in fortresses on the realm's high peaks, studying magic and hoarding secrets. Fire giants are a barbaric folk who live in larger groups in the volcanic lowlands, eagerly raid other realms when the chance presents itself and lack the scholarship of the frost giant mages, although they can control fire and lava to a degree. The two groups detest one another, and fire giant tribes often attack frost giant holdfasts. Another kind of giants once inhabited Gnottvold, the realm now claimed by the trolls, but they vanished long ago, leaving only overgrown ruins scattered in the wilderness. - Black Moon Chronicles: They grow really big here, often easily over 50 feet tall. They're also pretty much brutish savages who will happily join the Army of the Black Moon in their war against the empire. - The DCU: - Green Lantern foe Relic is a survivor of the previous universe \|\|which ended due to the Emotion Spectrum being drained away by that universe's version of the Corps the Lightsmiths\|\| who dwarfs most humanoids in the current universe. This is explained by the previous universe's life being larger in general — Relic is a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, with the "pond" being the universe. - Legion of Super-Heroes: Every version of Colossal Boy is a Sizeshifter but the 2004 version isn't normal sized human with the power to grow but a member of a race of giants who has the power to shrink (thus allowing him to, unlike the rest of his race, interact with humans on a regular basis — which he thinks of as having adventures in a world of Lilliputians). He actually prefers to be called "Micro-Lad" since it's a better fit for him from his perspective. - In The Condemned Legionnaires, Supergirl and the Legion visit a strange and faraway world called Puppet Planetoid because it is used as a playground for the children of a race of humanoid, blue-skinned giants. Whereas their puppets are as large as multi-storey buildings, the kids tower over the clouds. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman (1942): The main Silver Age writer, Robert Kanigher, who had a twenty-two year run on the comic, seemed to like stories about giants. Wondy encounters and fights an awful lot of different types of giants during this period. - Wonder Woman (1987): The White Magician creates a squad of truly enormous stone giants, all of which share the consciousness of one large stone man of unknown origin who only reaches the new giants' knees at most. These giants are temporary constructs which turn back to stone and dust when the magic tying them to their creator and mind is severed. - Gold Digger had an arc where Gina and Brianna's boyfriends were studying a tribe where exposure to mysterious energies caused a shift in size and strength that affected their women much more dramatically than the men. Generations later, while the males barely cleared eight feet, the women of the tribe were more like Zentraedi. Fortunately, their reproductive systems remained compatible with their men, but it also left them with an attraction to the pheromones given off by a frightened or nervous male. This caused problems for Brianna's Jungle Boy boyfriend Zan, who was pursued by one particularly insistent giantess until the chief pointed out that Brianna's pregnancy meant she had already claimed him. - Marvel Universe: - Ant-Man: Hank Pym can utilize Pym particles to grow to giant size, at which point he takes the name Giant Man or Goliath. At first, he was only able to go up to ten feet, but he's managed to go bigger. Modern portrayals show his normal giant size being somewhere around 25 to 30 feet. In the Ultimate-verse, his maximum height was designated at 59 feet, 11 inches; any bigger and his body would collapse under its own weight. - The Mighty Thor: Thor usually finds himself squaring off Frost Giants (the "Jotun") or sub-races like Storm Giants and Mountain Giants. Interestingly, in the older books, Giants looked like 25 feet Gonk-ish, brutish humans but nowadays are more like huge Orcs. Loki is an exception, being a runt among the Frost Giants who bears a stronger resemblance to the Asgardians than he does to his own kin. The Golden Age ice-powered hero Jack Frost was retconned into being an undersized Frost Giant as well. - The Ogre Gods: a Franco-belgian comic that essentially acts as a treatise on man-eating fairytale giants and how they might operate with the added caveat that they're dealing with declining general size due to inbreeding that's a main focus of the story. Given that Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action is thoroughly averted inbreeding the only way they can have more children unless you're the Founder. The Founder himself was a giant of mysterious origin who was only slightly larger than most humans, but the children he had with human women all grew huge, with each subsequent generation growing larger than the last until they peaked in size with the Kaiju sized God-King, after which each generation grew smaller until the birth of the protagonist Petit, likewise human-sized. Queen Emione hopes for Petit to breed with humans to produce a new generation of healthy giants and break the cycle of inbreeding causing their decline. Physically, the giants resemble outsized humans in terms of appearance and intelligence, and while the youngest generations are mostly grotesque and stupid, this is due to their status as a bunch of inbred aristocrats rather than any intrinsic quality. - Rulah, Jungle Goddess: In "Land of Giants" in #18, Rulah battles a race of giants who shoot arrows the size of spears and ride elephants as if they were ponies. - Tomahawk: In issue #40, Tomahawk and Dan Hunter encounter a tribe of 10 ft. tall Indians dwelling in an isolated valley. Tomahawk speculates that their height is the result of the strange plants in waterholes he observed in the valley. - Mandrake the Magician: One story had Mandrake help Qork, an alien giant who is so big he is the size of a country while Mandrake is the size of a micro-organism compared to him. He communicates with him using telepathy. - In Calvin and Hobbes, a series of strips has Calvin growing continually. Towering over skyscrapers as he looks for his dad, he says, "Well, maybe Dad can find ME"[1]◊. Later he becomes so big that the Earth is the size of a ball, then the size of a pebble which he trips on[2]◊—and eventually goes through a wormhole back to his previous size. - In "The Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen", the thief recounts a tale of how he faced a giant, and an Old Retainer tells how it was true, because she was the woman in it. - In "The Brown Bear of the Green Glen", John runs into three giants who want to crush him or fight him. However, all of them decide to help John when he reveals he was sent by the titular bear. - In Asbjørnsen and Moe's "The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body", the giant, besides the heart, turns people to stone and back. - "Jack and the Beanstalk" is a classic tale featuring a giant as the main antagonist. - Another Jack, "Jack the Giant Killer" who seems to have met a truly amazing number of giants throughout the British Isles. Some had multiple heads. - In The Brothers Grimm's "The Drummer", -a variant of "The Swan Maiden" folktale-, the giants inhabiting the wood surrounding the glass mountain are man-eaters, but fortunately they are not too bright. - In "Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard", they run ferries, are terrifying in appearance, and demand your hand, or your foot, or your head, as toll. - "Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun": As running away from her murderous sister, Prince Ivan runs into Vertodub the Tree-Extractor and Vertogor the Mountain-Leveller (two Russian folklore giants known in Germany as Baumdreher/Holzkrummacher and Steinzerreiber/Felsenkripperer, respectively). He asks each of them for asylum, but both giants kindly reply they cannot take care of him, sadly, because they will die as soon as their current forest-uprooting and mountain-levelling tasks are done. - In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "King Goldenlocks", the titular character is helped carry his goals out by a peaceful, kind giant whom he broke free from his imprisonment. - Codex Equus: Prominently mentioned, with the Codex going into extensive detail in explaining their various behaviors and cultures, revealing they have considerable Hidden Depths than most small races assume they have other than just being violent, domineering, over-sized brutes. - Cyclops in the Codexverse are complete opposites of what they are depicted both in-universe and in real-life, being a highly civilized race of artisans, scholars and Badass Pacifist individuals who prefer not to use violence to solve problems unlike most other Giants. They're very disappointed that the actions of their exiles had tainted outsiders' perception of them to be nothing more than pony-eating savages. - Nature Giants, among some of the biggest Giants on Equus, are an Equine race of druids attuned to nature ruled over by a theocratic matriarchal monarchy. They used to be more friendly to Tinies, but a terrible experience with Grogar and Tambelon's desecration of their domains in the First Age irrevocably ruined their relationship with Tinies outsiders and promptly lead to their continued isolationism to this day. As a result of their isolationism, they became highly self-righteous and xenophobic, seeing themselves as the rightful caretakers of nature and permanently exiling anyone who might threaten the status quo regardless of innocence. - The Grand Griffons are a demigod race of giant Griffons who are directly or indirectly descended from the gods of Griffonkind, specifically Boreas and Astra of the Northern Griffon Pantheon. Honorable and noble, they go out of their way to protect innocent Tinies and serve as allies, guides and teachers of many great heroes of the Tauren Peninsula where they are primarily based, next to Griffonnia. - Queen Colossos' Empire is a Giant civilization of nomadic warriors who conquered much of the continent of Terra Equus at its height which eventually went to war against the Crystal Empire after a disastrous First Contact. - The Gigantes of the Taurus Peninsula Giant Lands are mentioned as one of the most prominent on Equus, with a warrior culture based around honour. Their chief deity is Terraton, the god of earth, battle and honour. - The Giants of Light are this among the 'Visitors', with a culture which sees it a duty for them to battle evil monsters and threats and be benevolent defenders of Tinies and other races. Due to their small numbers, this makes evil individuals among them extremely rare. They have also sired hybrid giant demigods such as Lysets Far and Legate Anela, who would become heroes in their own right. - Equestria: Across the Multiverse: - The Ponies and Giants Arc features these. The ones the Mane Six meet are friendly, and have formed an adventuring party on a quest in the lands of "tinies". - The Mane Six later find themselves in a world with giant ponies who are partnered with tiny ponies (tiny even by the Mane Six's size) in a symbiotic relationship. - In another world, the Mane Six themselves are the giants, being big enough for Rainbow to flatten an acre of forest just by sitting down. - The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: George turns into a cloud giant straight out of AD&D to fight off the Tax Monster. - The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf sneeringly dismisses Westerosi giants as plant-eating midgets compared to those of his world (despite only coming up to Wun Wun's waist). - Star Wars: Galactic Folklore and Mythology: The planet Orto has a legendary race of bloodthirsty giants who were banished to a distant mountain by an ancient hero. The smallest of these giants, who developed amnesia after being throw off the mountain by his father, can blow away entire blizzards and storms with his breath, uses trees as toothpicks, and made the moon's craters by spitting fruit seeds at it. He later married the Lilliputian Tiny Tovya, who lives in her husband's navel and knits clothes from his lint. - Willie the Giant in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Disney's Fun and Fancy Free is the villain in this Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation. He's several stories tall, looks quite human, and lives in his castle high in the clouds. He's also a giant magician, being a consummate shapeshifter. He keeps a magical animate harp imprisoned, whom Mickey, Goofy, and Donald need to save. - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens with Puss facing off against a massive stone giant with an eyepatch and antlers. \|\|As part of the final battle, he and his friends also face off against a giant Jack Horner\|\|. - Wendell & Wild has Bufflao Belzar, a demon large enough to house his two normal-sized sons in his nose and hold an entire amusement park on his belly. - In Gods of Egypt, the gods are roughly twice as tall as a normal person, with Ra being the biggest of them all. By and large, they treat humans in contempt. - Hilariously subverted in Italian Z-grade sword-and-sandals clunker Ercole contro il gigante Golia (Hercules against Goliath). Throughout the movie, the few shots of Goliath use camera tricks to make him look enormous... But come the final battle when he dukes it out with Hercules, he's obviously just a really big guy wearing platform boots. Granted, that makes him head and shoulders taller than The Hero... but it's a far cry from the 10-meter/30-foot behemoth he was "shown" as earlier. - In Hellboy (2019), the giants are about 30-40 feet tall at a rough estimate. And they wield giant swords, axes and clubs. And they have crude metal prosthetics that make them look like medieval steampunk cyborgs. Oh, and there's three of them. At once. - MirrorMask: The giants look like bizarre statues, and they levitate above the ground, orbiting each other. They also SPEAK... VERY... SLOWLY. When one of them is pulled to Earth by shadows, it melts into the ground, and the other floats away. - In David Anthony Durhams Acacia trilogy the Auldek are between seven and eight feet tall and a race of Blood Knights whose civilization has fallen into decadence. They are also Nigh-Invulnerable and immortal due to containing multiple souls. - The Giant from The Behemoth is an Eldritch Abomination that references the Rage Against the Heavens traits that are found in the mythological roots of giant stories. - Where would we be without The BFG? That is, the Big Friendly Giant of Roald Dahl fame. All of the other giants in the story are VERY nasty however, being wicked child-eating monsters. Also, despite the name, the titular giant is child sized compared to the others. "I is the titchy one. I is the runt. Twenty-four feet is puddlenuts in Giant Country." - In Clive Barker's "Books of Blood," the story "In the Hills, The Cities" deals with a traditional battle between two unorthodox giants which are beings composed of thousands of human beings from the rival cities of Popolac and Podujevo, all citizens working together to form a single, massive being which then fights the "giant" of the other city. Unfortunately, one year the harvest for Podujevo is less than anticipated, and as a result one flank of the giant is weakened and the city-giant collapses, killing all constituent participants and causing the city-giant of Popolac to go collectively insane with grief. - In Brokedown Palace, one of the four royal brothers is a human giant. It's mentioned that the family produces them every few generations, suggesting a genetic proclivity towards gigantism. - In The Challenges Of Zona giants are actually mutant humans who both grow at an accelerated rate and never stop growing their entire lives. The two met so far are also Gentle Giants. - Most giants in The Chronicles of Narnia are fairly genial and usually on the side of the good guys, although there are some 'evil' wild giants who eat other sentient creatures. - The Gentle Giants featured in the fourth book eventually turn out to be less-than-gentle (though smarter than most of the other dim-witted giants). - The White Witch is rumored to be Giant and half Jinn. \|\|She's a sufficiently advanced alien of unknown genealogy but every member of the civilization was huge.\|\| - The giants in the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series are a friendly and advanced species standing about twice as tall as humans. They have an affinity for stone and are excellent sailors. They cannot be burned, but they still feel the pain of intense heat. They are generally a very sedate and even-tempered people, but can sometimes be provoked into a state of Unstoppable Rage. - Dark Shores: Killian's friend Bercola is a foot taller than most people, has white hair, white eyebrows and colorless eyes. She talks loudly and when she pushes Killian to get him moving, she almost topples him. From what we learn in Dark Skies, giants live on the Island of Eoten, worship Gespurn, god of elements, and like fighting. - Between the The Divine Comedy's circles of deception and betrayal, Hell is littered with giants who were so arrogant in their strength that they rose against the Heavens. This includes the Greek giants who fought to overthrow Zeus and Nimrod, the mighty warrior from Genesis who organized the Tower of Babel. Dante at first mistakes them for towers, which only tells you how huge the Devil is when Dante observes that he "matches better with a giant's breadth than giants match the measure of his arms." They are held except for Antaeus, who died before the Giant rebellion and so isn't chained. Virgil convinces him to put him and Dante in the Last Circle, which Antaeus does by picking them up from the top of the wall and putting them down at its bottom. - In Everworld, the protagonists meet a Fomorian when they get to the Everworld version of Ireland. Unlike in Celtic Mythology, he's a dumb but kindly Gentle Giant. Not that he doesn't try to eat them at first, but that's to be expected. \|\|Then the poor giant gets machine-gunned to death by Keith\|\|. - The Faerie Queene: - In Book I, the giant here is only twelve-feet tall, intelligent enough to speak, and civilized enough to have his own castle not too far from human civilization. - Book II establishes that giants have existed since the time of Adonis and that two of them were strong enough to kill an elven-king. Spenser also notes that each had a different number of heads, just to make things weirder. - The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells is about the discovery of a food supplement which, when ingested by newborn creatures (including humans), causes them to grow very large. - Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais has giant protagonists. Their size is wildly inconsistent, becoming whatever is best for the story. For example, young Gargantua was able to ride common-sized horses and even visited a human brothel. However, usually he rides a horse which is the size of six elephants (making him 10-20 meters high). In another scene, cannonballs are tangled in his hair, and he he mistakes them for fleas (making him 50+ m high). His son Pantagruel is able to argue law in a courtroom, making him probably 10 m high at the most. However, he fights with a ship's mast, making his height closer to 50 meters. And later it turns out that there's a human city inside his mouth, which means he must be hundreds of kilometers tall! - The Brobdingnagians in Gulliver's Travels are as tall as church steeples and have a moral superiority in proportion to their physical size. When Gulliver describes European society, the Brobdingnagian king is disgusted. In contrast, the Lilliputians see Gulliver as a giant, and their own society is a parody of the worst aspects of European society. But just because they're morally superior doesn't mean they're above tormenting Gulliver for kicks, such as the bratty boy who tossed a rock at him, the court's dwarf, and the noblewomen. - Harry Potter also features giants. Most of them are the typical nasty brutes, but a few (including the half-giant Hagrid, one of the major characters) are friendly. - While Hagrid is more civilized than full blooded giants, he has an overt fascination with very violent and deadly magical creatures, and has a tendency to bring students too close to harm. For example, he sees no problem with keeping the giant spider, Aragog, despite the fact that it would love nothing more than to devour the occupants of the castle, and only spares Hagrid because he raised it. - Another giant character is eventually introduced: Hagrid's full-giant half-brother Grawp who, at first, is violent and uncontrollable (even towards Hagrid) but over the course of a few years, becomes "civilized" enough to wear a suit and sit at a funeral and is no longer mindlessly violent. By giant standards Grawp is quite small, being only 16 foot. - House of Suns: Curators of the Vigilance are one-time humans who found a way to live forever at the cost of never-ending growth. Curators live in zero-gravity, so square-cube law is not a problem for them. The only Curator we meet is about 700 meters tall, and has lived inside his spacesuit for 100,000 years, after outgrowing many previous ones. He speaks and does everything else v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Oldest Curators are some ten times his size, and ten times slower still. - Robert E. Howard works: - In Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, part of the in-universe Dwarven mythology note : likely referencing real-world Norse mythology, which has similar elements is the creation of the world eight thousand years ago by gods from the bones of slain giants. Also, at one point, while drunk, the dwarf Orik claims that all non-Dwarf races are actually giants. Orik: If a fearsome giant were to meet you on the garden path, what might he call you, if not dinner? Eragon: Eragon, I would presume. Orik: No! He'd call you a dwarf, for a dwarf you'd be to him! - In Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, the giants are so big that they don't fit on stage, and when one of them steps on a human character all the lights go out... Doom, gloom, BOOM, cruunnnch... - In the Kane Series giants are an elder race, described as generally proudly aloof, taciturn and scornful of human civilisation. Dwassllir, the last king of giants, whom we meet in "Two Suns Setting", is about fifteen feet tall, his hands are bigger than spades, and his speaking voice as loud as a man's shout. He turns out to be quite friendly. - In The Laundry Files, the Alternate Universe / Bad Future threatening the world in the first book was created when the Nazis of that world used the people killed in the Holocaust as a makeshift Human Sacrifice to summon a frost giant from Norse Mythology. Unfortunately for them (and the rest of that universe), the "giant" turned out to be more of an Eldritch Abomination and embodiment of cold that proceeded to drain all heat, freezing Earth and eventually the entire universe. - In Magnus, the giant Tsavo is described "the last progeny of the second preternatural race of supermen spawned by fallen angels." - Malazan Book of the Fallen: - The various races collectively known as the Tartheno Thelomen Toblakai and their derivatives, the Teblor, the Tarthenal and the Trell, stand over seven feet tall or more and are both wide and muscular, even the women. They are perceived as slow, not particularly smart and most of them, especially the Tarthenal on Lether, only reinforce that perception, though certain individuals greatly defy it. They are all descended from the Thel Akai, although they have acquired a flesh and blood physique somewhere on the way, instead of the stone of the Thel Akai. Also, most of the Tartheno Thelomen Toblakai races have bodies adapted to their size by having multiple organs, such as two hearts and four lungs. They are also mostly longer-lived than humans. - Karsa Orlong is a Teblor. He fills a muscular frame and is well over seven feet tall, which contrasts with most characters he meets. His people have once, in the past, been decimated so badly that they had to hide away in the mountains on Genebackis and take on a set of social rules designed to increase their numbers again. However, since most of those still alive were relatives and they continue to live in a remote location, even thousands of years later many children are born deformed. The Teblor live by the Asskicking Leads to Leadership rule, and Steven Erikson uses Karsa Orlong to deconstruct the Barbarian Hero trope. - In The Oddmire, it's mentioned that giants have been driven to extinction by humans due to a cultural misunderstanding—that whole "grind your bones to make my bread" thing was a compliment, not a threat. Spriggans, though small, are related to giants and can even turn gigantic temporarily. \|\|This turns out to be the cause of the second book's conflict: they're trying to protect the giants' burial ground, which the antagonist wants when he learns that the bone-dust in the soul can give people Super Strength\|\|. - Ology Series: Monsterology describes both cyclopes and true giants. - Cyclopes are colossal, hulking one-eyed humanoids that, despite having had a hand in building the structures of the Minoan civilization of Crete, are only barely sapient brutes nowadays. - Giants are only mentioned in passing, being sapient beings and thus not really a subject for a zoology work, but the one shown resembles a well-dressed British gentleman in every respect other than being over twice the height of a lamppost. Giants are also described as aggressive, but easily outwitted. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Regained, they are nephilim, the offspring of angels and men. - Stan Lee's Riftworld series has a race of giants from Another Dimension — they're basically scaled-up humans supported by telekinesis, genetically engineered by an alien AI. And nearly every one a Jerkass. - Ringworld: The Grass Giants are a very large (although within a comparatively sedate range, as they top out at about three meters) and herbivorous race of hominids that have adapted to fill the niche of big grazers like buffalo. - Riordanverse: - A member of a prehistoric race of giants, as yet undiscovered by paleontologists, appears in the Riverworld series. - Second Apocalypse: the Nonmen, in their flawless, alien beauty, already tower over most humans. A certain number of them, simply called the Tall, tower over normal Nonmen. It's not clear how or why they came to be Tall, or exactly how tall they are, but they are big enough to make a normal Nonman look like a "statuette" and have skulls as large as a man's torso. - A Song of Ice and Fire: Giants are a species of shaggy, ape-like people living in the frigid north of Westeros. They stand around fourteen feet tall, are strictly herbivorous, wield crude clubs in battle, and ride woolly mammoths. It's noted that their legs and hips are much larger, proportionally, than a human's, in order to hold up their massive weight. A dwindling species, giants are little more than a legend to the majority of the continent, despite once having been widespread throughout Westeros and Essos. - The Wildlings believe that particularly large humans (for instance Hodor at more than seven feet tall, Gregor Clegane at eight feet) have some giant blood, and the Mazemakers — an ancient civilization of very large people who inhabited the island of Lorath in the distant past — are also believed to have descended from human-giant unions. Despite this, it's not clear whether humans and giants can actually interbreed in the series' actual canon. - The far east of Essos was once home to the Jhogwin, a race of massive giants twice as tall as those from Westeros, inhabiting the northern end of the Bone Mountains. They were driven to extinction a thousand years before the start of the series by wars against neighboring peoples, although their massive bones can still be found among the mountains. - Giants from The Spiderwick Chronicles are hill-sized brutes probably best described as resembling a hunched bipedal mix of a trunkless and earless elephant with some kind of dinosaur, with six fingers on each hand. They can slumber for centuries on end and often eat salamanders or baby dragons to gain fire-breathing abilities. They play a significant role in the second series, as their awakening and search for food drives dragons into a frenzy and disturbs water fey. - In Andre Norton's Storm Over Warlock, Thorvald dubs a location Utgard, after a folkloric home of giants from his home planet. - Tolkien's Legendarium: - The Hobbit briefly features giants throwing rocks around in the Misty Mountains. An odd case, since they are mentioned only once The Lord of the Rings note : Very early in The Fellowship of the Ring in a bar scene in the Shire, a giant is mentioned as being spotted. and never in the The Silmarillion, and there's no explanation of what they are or where they came from. Even in the Hobbit they have zero influence on the plot; the company is vaguely concerned they might get hit by an errant rock, but the huge storm raging at the same time is their main problem. The most common interpretation is that Bilbo just made them up when he was writing the book. In the film adaptation, however, they're absolutely real, colossal creatures of living stone, and the centerpiece of an extensive action scene where their battle nearly wipes out the entire party. - The Lord of the Rings: The Ents resemble fairytale giants as much as the Treants that they would inspire in later fantasy fiction. The text leans towards depicting them as huge, rough humanoids, with wrinkled, bark-like skin, hispid hair, large facial features, and variable numbers of fingers and toes; descriptions in other materials alternate between their being trees animated by spirits and giant-sized humanoids who happen to convergently resemble trees. Notably, trolls were created as ugly mockeries of Ents, and their name is simply an Old English word for "giant" and etymologically related to "ettin" and "jotunn", as well as to "etten", a term sometimes used in the books when talking about trolls. - The Traitor Son Cycle: The Rukh are smaller than most examples of this trope, but still towering over humans. They're humanoid in appearance (all too humanoid...), but animalistic in behaviour, and any powerful magic user can easily control them. - In Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight duology we first meet the Angrborn in the first book, The Knight, as massive men taller than trees and very destructive. It isn't until the second book, The Wizard, that it is properly explained that these are only half-breeds, and the real Angrborn are far larger. They in turn are dwarfed by their ancestors, the Giants of Winter and Old Night, who still dwell in Skai. There's also the Ogre Org, who isn't as big as the Angrborn, but is still massive. And invisible. - The giants of the Xanth series vary in size (but are always colossal). Some of them are invisible; they became that way by becoming so big that they became too diffuse to see, like a balloon inflated to the point of transparency. An important mountain pass was created by one of the biggest tripping over the range, at least according to in-universe folklore. - Whom Gods Would Destroy features multiple legends of giants, including Gogmagog, the nephilim, the Greek titans and gigantes, the Giants of Ath, and alleged findings of giant bones across America during the turn of the century. \|\|It eventually turns out that the primary characters of the novels, the Nine, are nephilim\|\|. - Unlike in the source material, where the giants were club-wielding sasquatchs, the giants in Game of Thrones resemble about 4 meters (13 feet) tall humans with massive foreheads and noses, unrivaled strength and oversized thick legs to make them Square-Cube Law compliant. They weave clothes for the cold climate, (this combined with their unique bodily appearance actually makes them rather neanderthalic and caveman-esque) and have advanced weapons like giant bows capable of shooting 213 meters (700 feet) up. They still tame and ride mammoths. - Giants are recurrent creatures in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, in one bible-based episode Xena meets Goliath himself (shown to be a good-hearted family man). Hercules fights a giant in the first episode. - El Chapulín Colorado features a giant in episode "¡Pero como has crecido, muchacho!" and its remakes "El gigante" and "El Chapulín no le tiene miedo a los gigantes", always with the All Just a Dream ending. A real giant appears in episode "La costurerita valiente" of the 80s show Chespirito by the same creator, as the episode is a mash of fairy tales. - The Nevers features Primrose Chattoway, a teenage girl who grew to ten feet tall after becoming one of the Touched. - Sliders shows briefly an alternate Earth with giant size humans while looking for a suitable place to live for a doomed Earth. - The Twilight Zone (1959): - In "The Little People", the giant spacemen are as big as mountains. - In "Stopover in a Quiet Town", the girl and her mother are at least 100 times the size of humans. - Subverted in "The Fear": A reclusive woman and a highway patrolman are terrorized by a 500 foot tall alien, \|\|which turns out to be an inflatable dummy designed by the real aliens (who are only a few inches tall) to frighten the humans.\|\| - The Ultras from the Ultra Series are commonly referred to by the In-Series Nickname Giants of Light (or Dark Giants for the extremely rare evil Ultra). Given they're 50 meter tall humanoids with even more strength than that would imply, it's a fitting description. - Older Than Feudalism: Classical Mythology features various giants: - The Gigantes notably had a major conflict against the Olympian gods. The Greeks believed that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were caused by these giants being buried beneath the earth. One fact about these Giants that aren't widely known was that they were born wearing armor and holding a spear and that they had snakes for legs. Not as much as Typhon's snake legs, though. - Typhon himself is a giant so tall that his head could touch the stars. He also had one or more snake tails for legs, and hundred dragon and animal heads. He belches fire and/or lava and has wings that cause storms. - The Hekatonkheires are as huge as giants, and each has a hundred arms and fifty heads. They're apparently immortal, like the gods. - Geryon, a giant from the Twelve Labors of Heracles, was said to have three heads, and in some versions three bodies and six legs. - Cyclopes are giants originating in Greek myth. There were two versions: the immortal smith assistants of Hephaistos; and the brutish, sheep-herding, man-eating fellows such as Polyphemos. - The myth of the Argonauts features the Gegenees, a set of six-armed giants marauding around the south coast of the Black Sea. Heracles brawled with them for a time. - In late antiquity, writers started getting the Titans (originally a group of gods) confused with the Gigantes, adding yet another bunch to the giant menagerie. - The Hadza people of Tanzania have stories of giants so large, they put elephants between their belts and clothes. They also claim that their distant direct ancestors were giants and were the first people to use fire, medicine, and lived in caves, sounding strangely similar to Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. - Giants in Norse Mythology: - Similar to the Greek giants, the Jotun were perennial foes of the gods of Asgard, particularly the frost giants. - The frost giant Ymir was so large that his corpse was used as the construction materials for the entire Earth if not more. When he was killed, his blood drowned all the other giants, except for two that were on a boat. - There's also the mountain giants who are right behind their frost brethren in harassing humans and gods. Then there are fire giants, particularly Surt and the Sons of Muspel, who play a major role at Ragnarok. - Despite the antagonism between the gods and the giants, there were at least three gods who were also giants. Skadi blackmailed her way into the Vanir/Asar, but ended up staying loyal (despite the marriage she'd extorted falling apart — she became an official lover of Odin instead), Loki hung out so much with his Aesir pals that Odin adopted him as a brother, and later went bad. Gerd was goddess of sex and Freyr's wife. - Note, however, that Jotun are not necessarily giant-sized. Indeed, "giant" isn't the best translation; a literal translation would be "devourer", but something like "Titan" would probably be more accurate for a modern audience, as we're talking about divine beings aligned to chaos and other primordial forces; another set of "gods" if you will. - The Bible and biblical lore: - The possibly half-angel note : not clear in all canons; their original parents are "the sons of God" and "daughters of men" Nephilim were described as giants. - A similar example of a giant-as-antagonist: Goliath. Some versions of the story have him as a descendant of the earlier race. It's worth noting that Goliath's height is actually a matter of some dispute. The oldest scripts give it as "four cubits and a span", or about six feet, nine inches— big, but still within the range of possibility for a normal human. - Some more examples would be the people who lived in the Promised Land, but since we only have the word of some very scared scouts, this may be a bit of exaggeration. - The Anakim are another example. Numbers 13:33 in the King James Version describes them thusly "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Which, if taken literally, would make them big enough to qualify as Kaiju. - Manicheanism, which incorporated biblical texts into itself, explains that giants were accidentally created when matter from the light world was forcibly expelled from the bodies of greedy beings from the dark world that stole and consumed it. Thus they are referred to as "abortions" and are treated the same way fallen angels are. - The idea of giants as enemies of the gods and as agents of primordial chaos is a pretty common trope in mythology, particularly the Indo-European kind. Supposedly, it's linked to a cultural memory of the conquest or displacement of palaeolithic peoples by neolithic ones, represented by the civilised gods overthrowing an earlier, primordial race more heavily associated with the elements. The exact "alignment" of the primordials differs from culture to culture, and some, such as the Norse, include primordials ranging from the Lawful Good Vanir, a tribe of nature gods, to the Chaotic Evil Fire Giants. Other examples of this include the Greek Hundred-Handed Ones and Gigantes (the Titans, despite the name, were simply an older generation of gods) and the twisted Fomorians of Irish myth. Outside of Indo-European mythologies, Abrahamic scripture has a similar portrayal of the antediluvian Nephilim ("there were giants in the earth in those days") and of Goliath and his four giant sons. - Giants are extremely common in Native American mythologies, where they are almost universally portrayed as cannibalistic boogeymen (sometimes boogeywomen) who capture misbehaving children who venture too far out into the woods and bring them to their mountain lairs to be eaten. Fortunately, they tend to be outsmarted easily. Interestingly, a few folklorists and Native Americans have identified these creatures with Sasquatches. - The Caucasian Nart Sagas have Arkhon Arkhozh, a scaly giant. In some accounts, he is a humanoid reptilian demon, while in other variants he is depicted as more serpentine. - Daidarabotchi are enormous youkai giants, usually depicted as having pitch black skin or as Rock Monsters. Many folktales across Japan credit them with various geographical features, from lakes being their footprints to mountains being piles of dirt they dug up. - Another youkai giant is the Tearai Oni (no actual relation to traditional oni), described as being vast enough to straddle mountains and usually seen vigorously washing their hands in the ocean. - The various tall tale stories of the United States and Canada include a few giants, such as Joe Magrac, who was a steelsmith in the early 1900s and may be based on a real giant, Stormalong whose ship had to be built on the Sahara, and the famous Paul Bunyan, who had a blue ox that was over 120 ax handles long across the horns, with Paul being so large that according to some stories, his "pillow" was the Rocky Mountains and his feet touched the Atlantic ocean. The ax blade for instance, carved the Grand Canyon, and a large barrel of water that spilled created the Mississippi river. - Baltic Mythology: In Estonian mythology, Kalev (who is also often called a king) and his sons. Many geographical features are explained as their doings. See "Kalevipoeg". - Jack In Irons, a giant covered in chains of Yorkshire folklore]]. He makes an appearance as an enemy in City of Heroes. - On the Shaq Attaq playfield, Shaquille O'Neal is five times larger than the other players. This is nothing compared to the backglass, where he is shown 30 times larger than everyone else, crossing the court in two strides while holding a minuscule basketball between his thumb and forefinger. - Bleak World: Giants are a playable race. They are part of the Jotun, a race of mythical giants who were kicked out of heaven by elves. - Dungeons & Dragons has a wide variety of giants, which cover a wide variety of this trope's archetypes: - The most commonly recurring giant types in the game are hill, stone, fire, frost, cloud, and storm giant. Hill giants are the smallest, being only about the height of a cottage, and represent the concept giants as dim, violent brutes who gorge on stolen livestock and waylaid travelers but who are also easily tricked by humans; they live in small bands in rural hill country and are looked down on by other giants as embarrassing savages. Stone giants are shy and reclusive, craggy in appearance, and native to remote mountainous lands. Fire giants, inspired by Norse fire jötnar, look like gigantic evil dwarves and live in highly regimented, militaristic societies. Frost giants, inspired by frost jötnar, are essentially giant Vikings who constantly war against humanoid settlements and each other. Cloud giants are based on the magical, sky-dwelling giants of fairy tales; most live on remote peaks, although some are said to own flying castles. Around half of them are good; the rest are evil, but just as sophisticated. Storm giants are based on the primordial giants of myth, blending in some traits of gods such as Zeus and Poseidon; they're the tallest, mightiest and most magical of common giant-kind, and usually lead reclusive lives on remote islands or beneath the sea. - These giant types tend to follow a progression from early-game "mighty" giants (such as hill and stone giants), who are big and strong but not much else, to more powerful "magic" giants (such as fire and frost giants), who are more powerful and wield limited elemental magic, to "mythical", late-campaign giants (cloud and storm giants), who are rare to the point of being little more than legends to most people and immense in size, and tend to wield much more powerful magic — storm giants, for instance, are closely tied to weather and lighting-based magic. - There are also the giant-kin, a group of species of "giant-ish" beings who are smaller, less physically imposing and usually less intelligent than true giants, but are related to them and in some settings descend from them. The most famous giant-kin are ogres and trolls; other species include the cyclopes and the hideous fomorians. Different Monster Manuals and other supplements introduce quite a few other races of giants, both "true" and giant-kin, some of which have several subspecies of their own — especially trolls). - The 4th edition of the game even references the Rage Against the Heavens subtrope by having giants as the servants of the Primordials, ancient foes of the gods in a very Norse mythology-esque parallel. It also follows along nicely with Greek/Roman mythology: first the Gods (Olympians) overthrow the Primordials (Titans), then the Primordials try to use the giants (Gigantes) to retake the throne, but fail. This was taken from the vague backstory of Forgotten Realms giants. - Giant society is highly stratified, with a complex social structure known as the ordning determining where each giant stands compared to the others. The various giant species tend to occupy specific places in the ordning: generally, this has storm giants on top, then cloud giants, fire giants, frost giants, stone giants and hill giants, with giant-kin at the bottom. - Giants are different in Monte Cooke's Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved Dungeons & Dragons setting. They are only slightly larger than humans, at least without going through rituals to enlarge themselves, and in the backstory they staged a counter-invasion and destroyed the dramojh tyrants. They're the setting's benign dictators, largely embraced as such, and a standard playable race. - The Space Fantasy setting Spelljammer has the colossus, a giant roughly the size and shape of a small mountain that can navigate through space by jumping off the planet. (His speed is very low, though, unless he gets engines installed somehow.) - Eberron: Ancient giants formed a number of highly advanced civilisations across the continent of Xen'Drik. After a series of major cataclysms the empires lie in ruins. Most giants have regressed to a more primitive state, with some powerful exceptions. - 3.5's Races of Stone and 4th Edition include the Goliath as a player race. They grow up to nearly 8 feet, which isn't large for a giant, but still the largest of any player race alongside half-giants, which are half hill giants. Before you ask, yes, A Wizard Did It (or maybe a sorcerer). What's more, despite their hill giant parentage, not only are they mentally on par with normal humans, they are arguably superior by virtue of their inherent psionic abilities. And, to further complicate things, in 4th edition version of Dark Sun, goliaths are half-giants. - Dark Sun: Apart from half-giants, (in 2nd edition at least) there are three races of actual Giants: Plains, Desert, and Beasthead (three guesses as to their defining characteristic). The first two are resistant to psionics (which is rather useful given their ubiquitous nature in the setting) while the latter actually have psionics themselves instead. - The Tome of Beasts quadrilogy of sourcebooks, 3rd-party Monster Manuals for Dungeons And Dragons5th Edition by Kobold Press, creators of the ''Midgard setting, have a wide variety of new giants in them. - Desert Giants are nomadic wanderers of the wasteland, the last remnants of a long-fallen giant empire. They cover up extensively to hide the fact they tattoo secret lore on their bodies. - Flab Giants are believed to be a devolved strain of hill giant, resulting in a creature that stands 8-10 feet tall and weighs between 2,000 and 2,500 pounds on average. They are dull-witted brutes that spend most of their time either sleeping or shoveling anything vaguely organic within reach down their throats. They're too fat to run, and their primary method of fighting is to try and either slap something to death with their meaty fist (their fingers are too chubby to let them wield weapons), or knock it off its feet so they can either trample it or, better still, just sit on it and let it be smothered and/or crushed to death under the flab giant's sheer bulk. - Jotuns are enormous, highly intelligent and magical giants who war with the Nordic gods for dominion over the world. - Thursir Giants resemble nine-foot-tall dwarves, and share a dwarf-like affinity for metal-work, though they are far more malicious and warlike than dwarves. They are also known for being abusively patriarchal, with a society where all women are relegated to drudges who are fit only to produce children and perform menial labor... though, strangely, women make up the bulk of their priests and spellcasters. - Blood Giants are the damned remains of a giant tribe that swore an oath to guard the sacred places and holy treasures of a now-fallen god, sustained through ingesting a drop of their patron's blood over so many centuries tht their flesh has rotted away, leaving them as enormous self-aware skeletons surrounded in an ever-flowing veil of god-touched blood, which they can manipulate at will. - Cacus Giants are the giantish spawn of a lesser fire god, who originally employed them as his servants and helpers before granting them their freedom for their works. Unfortunately, they are largely a race of dim-witted, arrogant bullies who have since abused their freedom. - Cage Giants are monstrous brutes whose culture revolves around the devouring of sapient beings as a sacred rite. - Haunted Giants are male hill or stone giants who are constantly being goaded on and harrassed by the restless spirits of their ancestors, who try to compel the giant to see to sanctifying their remains, but tend to drive them to destruction more often than not. - Laestrigonian Giants are shipwrecked human sailors warped into a giantish form as a divine curse for engaging in cannibalism. Devoid of any protection against the ailments that come from eating raw humanoid flesh, the only food they can sate their hunger with, they live short, brutal lives. - Mountain Giants are enormous and cruel giants who look like living stone. - Void Giants are former cloud giants kidnapped by void dragons and warped into loyal servitors through exposure to Black Magic. - Abbanith Giants are a small and peaceful race of giants who dwell deep below the earth, sharing a deep religious reverence for the earth and stone. - Phase Giants are a small but malicious strain of giant that has adapted to life on the ethereal plane, and who freely shift between the ethereal and material planes to hunt their food. Their most visually distinguishing trait is their chitinous exoskeleton. - Shadow Giants are a cursed race of giants who resemble enormous elves with long horns, condemned by dark fey magic to be forever trapped simultaneously between the shadow and material planes. - Snow Giants are smaller, weaker, but more benign cousins of the standard frost giant, often bullied and pushed around by their cousins. They have an elemental affinity for stone, giving them a kind of Healing Factor where they can restore injuries by packing them with snow or even replace lost limbs by holding a snow approximation to the stump. - Thin Giants are eerily lanky and slender giants with a knack for squeezing through spaces that should be too small to fit. Malicious and cruel, they favor the taste of giant-flesh above all other meats, and are effectively the boogeyman of most giantish societies. - Firestorm Giants are a race descended from the crossbreeding of fire giants and frost giants, which gives them an affinity for both elements. They are typically found living a nomadic existence in arctic environments, wandering between various areas of geothermal activitiy. - Hellfire Giants descend from stone giants taken as slaves by fiends; their ancestors escaped, and turned the hellish runecraft they used against their former masters, passing these stolen secrets on to their descendants. - Lantern Giants dwell in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, and resemble enormous humanoid angler-fishes with a bioluminescent lure on their foreheads. - Shire Giants are a strain of hill giant that have advanced to the point of developing an agrarian society. Obsessed with having enough food, their vast, sprawling farmsteads house a bewildering variety of creatures and edible plantlife, as well as entire tribes worth of sapients, who are made to labor for the giants' benefit — and who are considered just another form of livestock when it's dinner time. - Aniwyes are therianthropes whose natural form is of a grizzly-sized skunk with a wolverine's fangs and claws, but who can freely assume the form of hill giant or ogre at will. - Palladium Books: - Palladium Fantasy: Giants are about 14-20 feet tall and come in many of the same classic flavors as D&D(though with their own names and a few twists, such as the Algor(Frost) and Nimro(Fire) Giants having Breath Weapons), Cyclops' being able to create lighting bolt weapons(ala Greek Mythology), and the Jotan(their version of Hill Giants) actually being smart and master craftsmen rivalling Dwarves. and also include the noble Titans and the mutant Gigantes. There is even an entire kingdom of giants in the shadow of two volcanoes. - Rifts: Many species of giants from the Palladium Fantasy world made their way to Rifts Earth in various ways. A Titan runs what's left of Houston, Texas, and a mercenary Jotan wears a suit of Power Armor that makes him look like a mech. The Iotnar of Norse mythology are even bigger and have even greater powers. There are also the Pogtal, an unrelated species of giant humanoids with huge jaws and More Teeth than the Osmond Family hailing from a world dominated by giant predatory reptiles, who are ancestral enemies of dragons. - Pathfinder keeps most of the Dungeons and Dragons base races of giant, in addition to adding a great deal of highly specialized varieties of its own and tying them into the setting's core backstory. - The first giants descended from the titans, the original rebellious creations of the gods. While most titans were imprisoned in distant corners of the multiverse for a variety of reasons, their passage across the planes resulted in the generation of the gigas, primordial giants closely tied to whichever plane they came from. The gigas in turn were the ancestors of the first true giants. - In the ancient past, the giants were slaves to the empire of Thassilon, whose rulers used them as workers to create their grand monuments, soldiers and weapons of war, and subjects for their magical experiments. The Thassilonians are also responsible for creating many, if not most, of the modern giant varieties — they originally enslaved the tribal stone and taiga giants, many of whom were warped with magic to become the ancestors of fire, frost, storm and cloud giants, among many others. Fire giants were further bred with other giant varieties to produce more specialized types, such as with stone giants to create slag giants and with taiga giants to create the enormous rune giants, who were slave overseers for Thassilon and still retain the ability to magically enslave other giants. - Much like in D&D, a caste system of sorts exists both in-universe and in terms of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil for gaming purposes. Trolls, ogres and the two-headed ettins are the least of giant-kind, and are usually fought first in adventures. They are then followed by cyclopes, hill giants, stone giants, frost and fire giants, and cloud and taiga giants. Storm giants are usually the strongest, the ones encountered last and the likeliest to lead all of the others... unless rune giants are also present. - Shadowrun: Giants are a regional variant of troll mostly found in Scandinavia, and thus are like all other trolls descended from humans who spontaneously transformed when magic returned into the world. They're the largest metahuman type around, reaching three and a half meters on average, and lack the dermal bone deposits and prominent horns of other trolls. For reasons unknown, about one in four female giant births express as normal baseline humans; this does not occur among males(this may be a reference to The Frost Giants's Daughter). - In Spears of the Dawn, the giants of the Mountains of the Sun are roughly ten feet tall, with jet-black skin, flame-coloured hair and handsome, well-proportioned forms. They do not age, but can also not reproduce other than with humans, and with those their offspring is human with only a few giantish features such as an Implausible Hair Color. They were once the allies of the Nyalans and taught them much of their superior crafts, but they have since then grown hostile to humanity and shut themselves away. - Talislanta: Kharakhan Giants stand 12' tall and weigh upwards of a thousand pounds. There are only a few hundred left of them on the continent, and they're on the verge of Extinction. - Warhammer giants are the barbaric remnants of a once-great civilization devoured by the Ogres. Drunken, inbred and incredibly stupid, the giants roam the Old World fighting for whoever can provide them with enough to sate their enormous appetite for booze and bloodshed, most often the Greenskins and the Warriors of Chaos. - The Storm of Magic supplement introduces the Bonebreaker Giant, which is almost thrice as tall as a normal giant, which itself is already 5-6 times taller than an average human. - The Monstrous Arcanum includes Chaos Siege Giants, which have had armor and massive weapons grafted directly onto their bodies by the Chaos Dwarfs to turn them into living engines of war. - Warhammer 40,000: The genetic and surgical enhancements required to become an Adeptus Astares means ending up around seven feet tall before putting on your armour (which adds on another foot at least). And that's just the basic Space Marine. The Primarchs and God Emperor of Mankind were at least half again larger. Horus, when he killed Sanguinius and crippled the emperor, towered over his foes (mostly due to his [frankly enormous] power armor that makes a Space Marine look like an Imperial Guardsman in comparison). - Weird Adventures, a setting that combines Two-Fisted Tales of the 1930's with fantasy tropes, has Hill-Billy Giants living in the fantasy-counterpart to the Appalachians. The men are 10-feet tall, brutish in appearance and quick to anger. The women are usually just under 9-feet, and often Statuesque Stunner s. - In Age of Mythology, the Norse faction can gain access to three types of giant: Mountain Giants (who resemble large bearded humans wielding clubs) Frost Giants (who resemble white-haired humans with pale blue skin) and Fire Giants (who resemble humanoid lava). The Greek faction can access the Colossus unit, who resemble 50 ft greek soldiers made of metal. - The expansion pack gives each faction their own gigantic Titan units, who are the largest in the game. - Age of Wonders features universally good-aligned giants who are close allies of the dwarves (and speculated to be related to the dwarves). Even larger and more powerful entities called Titans fight for the High Men, being creatures of intense discipline and righteousness. - The Banner Saga has the Varl. They are a Proud Warrior Race standing at least twice as tall as a man, with unknown but finite lifespans lasting centuries, and horns growing from their foreheads. As they were all crafted from clay by a now dead god, they can't breed, and there aren't too many left. - In the second The Battle for Middle-earth game, Mountain Giants are a unit for the "Corrupted Wild"/Goblin side. They are even bigger than Trolls, and due to their attacks of throwing boulders seem to be the same type of Giants listed at the top. - Bloodborne has the Giant Lost Children in the Nightmare Frontier, yeti-like beasts without necks that throw boulders at you. - The Charlemagne Expansion Pack to Crusader Kings II features a chronicle of your dynasty that will randomly generate a significant event in years where no other significant events note : Normal ones include wars, battles, coronations, and upgrading a tribe to feudalism or merchant republic government. occur. Such as a giant appearing and trampling villages. It's left as an exercise for the player whether this actually happened, or if it was just peasants telling tall tales. - In Cuphead, Glumstone the Giant note : first introduced in the tie-in graphic novel Cuphead: Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities is one of the bosses from the Delicious Last Course. Glumstone is the size of a literal mountain, and, going by the shapes of other mountains in the background of his stage, this appears to be typical of giants in this setting. He's large enough that he's able to pick up a bear as though it were a rat, and his body houses an entire community of gnomes. - Dark Souls - The Giants of Anor Londo in Dark Souls are armored behemoths that the gods conscripted into manual labor. While the three in Sen's Fortress don't speak and are hostile to the player, the Giant Blacksmith is a Gentle Giant that is always happy to see the player. Hawkeye Gough, one of Gwyn's Four Knights, the mightiest warriors in Anor Londo, is also a giant, though he's an archer rather than a melee fighter. He's also very friendly and philosophical, and helps the player take down the Black Dragon Kalameet. - Dark Souls II feature an entirely separate race of giants, stone-like beings with gaping holes for faces. The foot soldiers are about twice as tall as the average human, while the Last Giant and the Giant Lord \|\|who are heavily implied to be one and the same\|\| are twice as tall as the average giant. In the recent past, Drangleic had a Great Offscreen War against the Giants. - Dark Souls III features the return of the original giants, mostly as enemies, although there's one in the Undead Settlement who can be befriended fairly easily (he's probably not Hawkeye Gough, because he's nowhere near as erudite, but he did inherit the guy's ring) so that he stops shooting at you and focuses on shooting at enemies around you. It also contains Yhorm the Giant, who looks similar to the Giant Lord from Dark Souls II, with the same hole-for-a-face (though you can make out his eyes and the outline of a skull within it) and a weakness to a giant-slaying weapon that doesn't work on any other giant, suggesting he's of a different race. The Ringed City also introduces the Judicator Giants, the overseers of the Ringed City. The Judicators are some of the oldest beings in the setting, predating the beginning of the Age of Fire. They fight by using the same kind of summoning you use to summon phantoms as allies, but unlike you they are not mere Undead. As a result, they are able to summon a small army of phantoms against you. - In Disciples and its sequels, the giants are related to the dwarves, as both as children of Wotan, and often fight by their side. Vithar is a giant who protects the dwarven capital from their enemies and is Wotan's right-hand man. The titans are just as big but fight for The Empire (i.e. humans). They also appear to be all female. Additionally, there are wild giants who have no allegiance to any power. They aren't too bright, but anything using a tree trunk as a club can't be useless. - Doshin the Giant: The protagonist is an incarnation of the sun who appears every day at dawn, and his two sides grow larger by absorbing the love or hate of humans. The love giant, Doshin, wants to help humans, while the hate giant, Jashin, wants to kill them and make them suffer. He starts off 10m tall, and can reach a maximum height of 301m. - The Qunari of Dragon Age are sometimes called giants by non-Qunari, and not without good reason: they tower over the other races, common specimens being at least seven feet high. The largest yet seen was twice that, and towered over his fellows. Qunari are also born with horns, though some of them have them shorn (the Saarebas Ketojan, for example), and a rare few are born entirely without them (the Sten from the first game). Also unusually for giants in fantasy games, the Qunari have a very ordered society that dictates and cements an individual's place in society based on their talents, a strong urge to spread this philosophy to the rest of the world, a spectacular grasp of gunpowder weaponry in an otherwise Medieval setting, and a caste of mages known as Saarebas who are kept collared and supervised at all times to prevent any form of corruption. In some ways, they represent a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the Ottoman Empire, though their religious philosophy bears more of a resemblance to Confucianism than to Islam. - Meanwhile, the Darkspawn borne from Qunari women-turned-Broodmothers, the Ogres, are the biggest and nastiest breed of darkspawn, outgrowing true Qunari by several metres. Fortunately, there aren't any Ogre Emissaries. - Dragon Age: Inquisition features actual giants: ten meters-tall monstrosities that can hold their own in one-on-one combat against High Dragons. They seem to have some overlap with Cyclops, as well, with their tusk-like fangs likely a nod to the theory that the cyclops myth originated with misidentified elephant skulls. - The Dungeon Keeper games have giants as hero units — defying the normal convention of them being evil (unless they get tortured into aiding the keeper). They are able to walk on lava without getting hurt and cannot be harmed by the Inferno spell, most likely due to their thick skin. - In Dungeon Siege 2, there exist Agallan Giants, a race of Ultimate Blacksmiths who live in seclusion in the mountains and are easily 50 foot tall, and a good deal wide as well. Descended from them are Half-Giants, who are more sensibly sized but still tower over any human. They are the offspring of a group of banished and cursed Agallans who lost their enormous proportions and limitless lifespan. Because the banished group had no female members, they were forced to interbreed with other species, and the result was a One-Gender Race of Half-Giants whose gene pool is doomed to be diluted into nothingness. - Dwarf Fortress: - A number of giants and related creatures appear as semi-megabeasts, rare and powerful creatures that periodically attack fortresses and can destroy buildings but which are more common and less dangerous than true megabeasts like dragons, hydras and Roc Birds. - Giants are the largest of the semi-megabeasts, but their threat is mitigated by their lack of proficiency with weapons. They live in burrows and sally out to plunder fortresses and villages in search of food and treasure. They have rudimentary intelligence yet are able to speak, and typically show up unarmed, though due to a bug they tend to pick up discarded pieces of clothing and beat people to death with them despite their uselessness as actual weapons. - Ettins are smaller, two-headed colossi; according to in-game descriptions, their heads have a tendency to argue. They aren't as big as giants, but need to be decapitated twice to be killed and can use weapons. - The one-eyed cyclopes are the weakest and least intimidating semi-megabeasts. In practice, they're still dangerous monsters easily able to tear their way through ranks of dwarf militia. - Bronze colossi are true megabeasts in the form of brazen giants over thirty feet in height. They feel no emotion, do not tire, are immune to pain and nausea, are extremely difficult to damage and cannot be stunned, making them some of the most dangerous things in the game. - Elden Ring: Before the age of the Golden Order, there was a race known as the Fire Giants, who invented blacksmithing and worshipped a god of fire. Marika and Godfrey drove them to extinction, although their smaller (about 20 ft. tall- true giants stood around 50 ft.) relatives the trolls remain (albeit usually enslaved) and can be encountered as normal enemies. Several powerful fire incantations are explicitly stated to have been invented by the giants and to draw power from their god, and giant corpses can be seen in both Caelid and the Mountaintops of the Giants where they once dwelled. \|\|And one last fire giant remains at the Forge of the Giants, cursed to forever guard the flame that could not be quenched. With him, we can see that the giants had both a normal head and a face that covers their torso, having one eye in the chest, a nose between the pectorals, and a Belly Mouth, plus a beard that covers their pelvis. The giants can invoke the presence of the Fell God by offering a sacrifice, which causes the chest eye to open and enhances their fire magic.\|\| - The Elder Scrolls: - The series, as seen most prominently in Daggerfall and Skyrim, has a race of fairly standard Giants. ES Giants possess moderate intelligence, being capable of fashioning simple tools, clothing, and weapons. They are able to harness fire and are known to herd mammoths. Most Giants are nomadic, living solitary lives (or in small groups at most) as they travel from campsite to campsite, though some groups of giants are known to unite in clans which can number in the hundreds. Female Giants and children are rarely seen by outsiders, leading to the (incorrect) perception that Giants are a One-Gender Race. - There are said to be many different variations of Giants in Tamriel, though some are believed to be extinct. Typical Giants are 11-12 feet tall, but there are reports of Giants who are several times the size of an average man. There are also rare "Frost Giants" in Skyrim and Solstheim who are roughly the same size as a standard Giant, but are covered in white fur, have five eyes, and have two long, curved horns on their heads. Likewise, the Ilyadi were said to be "multi-eyed" Giants native to the forests of the Summerset Isle, but were driven to extinction by the ancient Aldmer when they settled the land. There was also a race of Giants native to Elsweyr, who were said to have built the Halls of Colossus, but who disappeared sometime prior to the 3rd Era. - Tamriel's Giants also have an interesting Multiple-Choice Past, with multiple conflicting theories regarding their origins. One of the most popular, especially among the Nords, is that they share an ancestry with the ancient Atmorans. The Atmorans were known to be tall, strong, and somewhat primitive. According to this theory, after coming to Tamriel from the northern continent of Atmora, the Atmorans split into two groups — one who would interbreed with Tamriel's Nedes (human ancestors) to become the modern Nords — and another who would, through unknown means, become the progenitors of the Giants. Other sources, however, make it clear that Giants existed in Tamriel before the Atmorans crossed the sea. The Dwemer were said to have gotten the nickname "Dwarves" from Giants they encountered in the Velothi Mountains after splitting off from the Aldmer, which occurred well before the Atmoran migration. The Aldmer themselves drove a "multi-eyed" race of Giants known as the Ilyadi to extinction when they first settled the Summerset Isles, which was even earlier. Standard Giants also have pointed, tapered ears like those of the Mer (Elves). In either case, there are known instances of Giants interbreeding and producing offspring with the other races of Tamriel, particularly Nords. This would suggest that, at the very least, Giants have a shared ancestry with the other races dating back to the Ehlnofey, a progenitor race from whom all extant races (save for perhaps the Lizard Folk Argonians) descend. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy XI: The Gigas hail from the frozen far northern continent in the world of Vana'diel. They were employed as mercenaries by the Shadow Lord, but after the Crystal War, all the Gigas in the Middle Lands were trapped, unable to come home. They now reside almost entirely in Qufim Island and Delkfutt's Tower, although some of them are in Tavnazia or the Grim Up North areas in or around Xarcabard, or stuck in Korroloka Tunnel. - In Final Fantasy XIV, the Ancients of Amaurot were towering figures. Even the tallest of the modern races barely come up to an Ancient's knee. They were also highly intelligent, peaceful, and possessed a mastery of magic that modern races simply cannot match. - In Gems of War, the region of Stormheim (which is Norse-themed) features Frost Giants as a general troop. There's also Jarl Firemantle, a fire giant. Both carry large axes. - In Grow Cannon, you can build a giant foot after completing its skeleton, but you don't get to see the rest of its body if it has any. - Giants in Guild Wars are extremely ugly humanoids, often sporting tusks, horns, or spines on their arms. They stand roughly two to three times the height of a human. - Oddly, several races that could be categorized as giants, such as the jotuns, are not; instead they are classified as ogres. - It is noted that the modern-day giants have no relation to "True Giants", a now extinct race of much larger giants. - The Norn (made playable in Guild Wars 2) are a 9 foot race of Horny Vikings who can shapeshift into their totem animal. - There are several giant races in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, although given that they are on average about twice the size of a human, there's a certain overlap with Our Ogres Are Hungrier. They largely fill the role of orcs in Amalur, being strong, brutish and warlike humanoids. - Jottun are the most common giant encountered in Amalur, with rough, leathery, almost stone-like skin and an affinity for ice magic. - Ettins are blue-skinned, two-headed giants with an affinity for storm magic. - Bolgans are red-skinned and the strongest of the three giants, not showing up until players reach the Forsaken Plains and Klurikon regions. They have no magical abilities, but do carry armor, making them impressively adept at blocking damage. - Kollossae, introduced in the Teeth of Naros DLC, are the only non-evil giant race known from the lore. Once a savage race of hill-dwelling giants called the Mairu, they developed advanced magical affinities during the Age of Arcana, which propelled them into being one of Amalur's more civilized race. They're the most human-looking of the giants, and could pass for really tall humans, were it not for glowing eyes and the stony hair and skin-colors that make them look like Living Statues. - La-Mulana: The Giants were the second children of Mother. They were responsible of building the eponymous ruins. Their society fell apart due to a civil war between those who wished to return Mother to the skies and those who wanted her to remain on Earth with them. Eventually, Mother grew tired and birthed a new generation who chased the giants into the cold lands where, overcame with sorrow, they all perished. Sakit, the boss of the Mausoleum of Giants, is said to have belonged to later group hence his role a Guardian of the Mother. - Mabinogi giants are about 9-10 feet tall and are a player race. They are at war with the desert elves. - The prequel, Vindictus, has a currently-unreleased giant character named Karok. He wields a battle pillar, and can use grapple attacks on bosses. - In Odin Sphere, the Berserkers of Ragnanival are a race of men that never stop growing throughout their lives, and Odin, as the eldest amongst them, is massive. It could also have something to do with \|\|Wagner's blood flowing through his veins, after Odin made a pact with the former\|\|. - In Phantasy Star Online 2, the native sentient race of the planet Harukotan (or at least the males) are large, tall humanoids that resemble Japanese oni demons. These giants can be further divided in Shironians and Kuronians: Shironians are slightly shorter than Kuronians and bare more resemblence to humans, while Kuronians are more demonic in appearance. Some Kuronians are even larger: the Shironia field boss Gigur Gunnegam towers over most Kuronians, and the Emergency Quest boss Magatsu is big enough to eat other Kuronians for breakfast. - The peaceful Sapha of Ragnarok Online are called giants, and with good reason - their sprites are actually one to two heads taller than player sprites. They appear to have very large clawed hands and tree branches for hair, have a caste system and grow up in communal areas, and need to subsist on a mineral called bradium or else they will turn to stone. - RuneScape has many type of giants, including ice giants, fire giants, hill giants, moss giants, even a cloud giant. - Shadow of the Colossus, the eponymous colossi. The smallest ones are nearly as big as an adult elephant, while the largest is sometimes mistaken for a great tower the first time players see it. - In Skylanders: Giants, there are eight giant Skylanders, who canonically were also the first and in the game's backstory fought against the Arkeyans. They're twice as tall as the Core Skylanders, both in-game and in toy form, and trade movement speed for Super Strength (or Mind over Matter in Ninjini's case) that lets them perform impressive feats of strength. Outside of Giants, they can also interact with specific objects in SWAP Force. - The Force Unleashed II figures the only way to top the rancor from Return of the Jedi is to throw in a several hundred foot tall monster that is capable of crushing a rancor in its hand. And it still manages to get beaten! - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Giants appear in the rosters of several barbaric factions as immense humanoids, generally as tall as siege towers, including the basic one in the Orc army and horned and mutated ones in the Chaos, Norscan and Beastman rosters, with the Beast Giant outright sporting a large pair of ibex-like horns and thick coat of fur. They're best suited for bludgeoning their way through hordes of infantry and for attacking fortifications, but share a combination of low armor, low speed and a large hitbox that makes them very vulnerable to missile fire. There's also the Tomb Kings' Bone Giant, which strictly speaking is simply an enormous stone construct made to resemble a titanic skeleton and which wields a bow the size of a tree. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Giants are immense, but humanly so, soldiers who can be recruited on certain islands. Their size and heavy armor allows them to serve as living siege engines, as these are otherwise missing in the firmly Bronze Age setting. - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, giant tribes are one of several mythological creatures presented in a mundane manner. They're certainly bigger than normal troops, but look more like people with gigantism than something outright supernatural. The tooltip explains the mythology of giants might be because of the Greeks encountering populations of on-average taller people than themselves. - In Mythos mode, giants are largely similar to their Truth Behind the Myth counterparts, being still oversized humans wielding colossal weapons, but have scaled legs (a reference to the mythical Gigantes, who had serpent tails instead of legs, although they're not otherwise beings on the near-divine level of the actual Gigantes). - Warcraft features many different types of giants and similar beings. - True giants were created by the Titans to help shape the world. The most common types are sea giants (aquatic giants that look like big scale-covered humanoids) and mountain giants (big roughly humanoid things made of rock). Other types include ice giants and molten giants (recolors of the Mountain Giant model), crystal giants of Outland (basically stone giants with a fancier model) and storm giants (who were afflicted by the Curse of Flesh that afflicted many of the Titan-made elemental races, turning into essentially supersized humans rather than the rocky beings other giants are). - Giants in the setting are apparently something along the lines of guardians created by the titans, not unlike the dragons. However, they tend to be more territorial and aggressive. Their second main duty is that they are the titans' craftsmen — for instance, the sea giants sculpted the sea floor and mountain giants made mountains and hills. They're almost all hostile, however, although there is a friendly sea giant god in Azshara and a faction of frost giants in Storm Peaks. - The viking-like vrykul probably count too. While they're much smaller than the actual giants, they're still well over twice the height of humans, and even the few vrykul who aren't serving the Lich King are every bit as aggressive as giants tend to be portrayed. The vrykul are also hinted to be an offshoot of giants affected by the Curse of Flesh. - Humans are basically outright stated to be further corrupted vrykul... so, in WoW, humans are shrunken giants. - The ogres could also count, although they are completely unrelated to the Titans, having originally come from the world of Draenor (the orc homeworld). They are normally dumb, whether they have one head or two, unless they learn magic, at which point they get really smart. Further, the ogres are descended from a long line of increasingly gigantic, cyclopean beings known as the Breakers. - The ogres are directly descend from the cyclopean ogron, who in turn descend from the properly gigantic gronn, who further descend from the colossal magnaron, who are made up of as much lava and rock as of flesh. The magnaron themselves descend from an ancient, extinct species of even larger giants known as the colossals, who were so large that entire settlements have been built in their massive skeletons. The first colossals, in turn, were formed from boulders fallen from the body of Grond, a mountain given life by a Titan to fight a tide of alien flora that threatened to overwhelm early Draenor. - The ogron also gave rise to the orcs as well as the ogres — meaning that WoW's orcs, much like its \|\|humans\|\|, are technically a species of very small giants. - There are also flesh giants, but these are really big homunculi created by the Scourge rather than actual giants. - Warlords Battlecry has them as an Orc subrace, green and relatively dumb just like them. They do, however, tend to occupy important positions among their ranks (Asskicking Leads to Leadership is in full swing with orcs, and giants are about as tall as a tower, and much wider and fatter), and often bear armor of their making. Oh, and on top of being just as belligerent and warlike as regular orcs, they're almost always hungry, and don't have many qualms with eating food that talks back. Who's for dinner? - Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant feature giants, usually in the transition between the early and middle game. Most are of the big bruiser type, but are also resistant to magic. The Elite Mooks and Superpowered Mooks versions add extra abilities, such as vomiting on the player. - The Giants in Xenoblade Chronicles 1 are a race of humanoids that were among the first lifeforms on Bionis, but are extinct in the current era, to the point that Zanza is \|\|possessing Arglas,\|\| the last Giant alive. Several sidequests are dedicated to recovering their ruins, tombs, and treasures, and these sidequests reveal that \|\|the Giants were sworn enemies of spiders, but the spiders hunted them to extinction\|\|. Much later in the game's main story, \|\|Dickson reveals himself as the last Giant alive after Arglas's death and Zanza's awakening.\|\| - Averted in Bruno the Bandit where giants are more like André the Giant than fantasy giants; only a couple of feet taller than humans, just much bulkier. They're also the only race with Four-Fingered Hands. - In The Challenges of Zona giants are human mutants who grow at an accelerated rate and never stop doing so although their growth rate slows when they become adults. This is a more detailed accounting◊ - Erfworld has the Titans, the beings who created Erfworld. They can only be described as omnipotent mile-high Elvis impersonators. - In addition are somewhat more traditional giants, being about 10 or so feet tall, the Western Giants are styled after baseball players... complete with a reference to steroid use. - Parson himself probably counts. He's not as big as the really big units but all the normal sized humans of Erfworld are the size of children compared to him, and he seems to be classified as a "heavy" unit by the game-mechanics/physics of Erfworld. Stanley, his diminutive superior, barely even comes up to Parson's kneecap (Stanley is short even by Erfworld standards, though; most of the other "human" characters appear to range between about 3.5 and 4 feet tall, assuming Parson is 6' or so). Over the course of the story Parson has been gradually getting smaller as well; he's still the tallest guy around but not by anywhere near the margin he started with, generally about a head taller. - In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Molly's second clone, Jolly, is very, very large. - Stars in Nebula, as compared to every other species in the setting. While it's entirely possible that all of the characters (as mixtures of Genii Locorum and Anthropomorphic Personifications of celestial objects) are giants by human standards, stars are easily on a different level. If planets were human-sized, stars would be close to twenty feet tall, with the other main characters barely coming up to Sun's knees. Stars have normal amounts of intelligence, are Wreathed in Flames, and almost always take positions of authority over the people around them. - In The Order of the Stick, the heroes find themselves attacked by a legion of rock-throwing frost giants while flying their airship through a narrow mountain pass. - Ruby Nation stars Ruby, a young woman who stands at 9' 1" thanks to Applied Phlebotinum. - Vápnthjófr saga: The Weapon Thief is a Jotun from Norse Mythology looking like a fifteen-foot-tall white aurochs (undomesticated cow). - Riot Girl from Wootlabs — a former high school bully turned 200-ft hero wannabee. - Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel) features the Kandahar Giant, a massive 12-foot Humanoid Abomination that wiped out an entire platoon of US soldiers in the early 2000s, and was later killed by a US special forces team sent to find the missing soldiers. - Orion's Arm: There are several clades of humans modified for giant size; increasingly large ones were typically derived from older strains as technology became more advanced. - Goliaths are the oldest strain. They were developed a few centuries in the future from the present day, mostly to serve as strongmen, hitmen and bouncers, and are "merely" two to three times the size of a human. - Nephilim are the result of centuries of self-modification and selective breeding by goliaths seeking to further distance themselves from "the smalls". They're between six to twelve meters in height, the highest size that a hominid body plan can physically reach. In order to support their immense heights, they're very thin and slender, with flat, elephant-like feet, and some have a third leg derived from the vestigial remnants of the human tail. They also lead very passive lifestyles, as any kind of strenuous physical activity would risk injuring their delicate bodies and, at their height, falls are almost always fatal. - Gigantes are a further modification of nephilim who sought to be able to participate in physical activities like smaller beings, and who consequently incorporated extensive mechanical modifications into themselves to make their bodies more robust. Baseline gigantes have much more human-like bodies than the attenuated nephilim, and tend to grow a lot taller as well; many have additional modifications to support their sizes, such as cooling fins on their backs to radiate away the waste heat generated by their implants, or air- or gas-filled bladders in their bodies to decrease their weight. Some are also adapted to live in the sea, using water to support their immense weights. - Tales of MU: Giants are a mixture of the Dungeons & Dragons version and various mythological influences, as most MU races are. They're apparently primordial beings who warred with the forces of chaos, the gods, and the dragons in some combination before leaving the world for another plane, possibly by climbing a stalk or a trunk. Only one of them has been seen in the main story, a badly undersized storm giant named Pala (Icelandic for "small") who "commutes" to Magisterius University. - Trials & Trebuchets features a unique twist on the Dungeons & Dragons giants: fire, stone, frost, and cloud giants exist in a cycle of reincarnation, where as the last of one type of giants dies, giants of the next type in the cycle are reborn into the world. \|\|The cycle of four is rarely interrupted by the birth of storm giants, who are an omen of times of great hardship, and even more rarely by the birth of hill giants, who are an omen of times of great peace.\|\| - A giant appears in episode "Let Sleeping Giants Lie" of the Adventures of the Gummi Bears. - Hector Jotunheim from The Amazing World of Gumball, one of the title character's classmates. He resembles a Godzilla-sized Sasquatch, but most of the time only his feet are visible since they're the only part of him that fit into most shots. He's a very Gentle Giant, to the point of dullness to others, as his mother (who is a diminutive witch for some reason) shelters him heavily as his emotions are every bit as enormous as he is. - American Dragon: Jake Long had an episode where a giant kid named Hobie ran away from home to become a professional wrestler. Bertha, a female giant with comically smelly feet, appeared in a few episodes in both seasons. - Babar has two giants; a King Kong expy giant gorilla in "Conga the Terrible" and a furry bear-like giant in "Adventures on Big Island". - Hilda: There are multiple kinds of giants in this shows' universe. In episode 1 and 2 we meet the midnight giant Jorgen and his girlfriend, both of which are tall as mountains (in fact, the female giant actually resembled a mountain while she was sleeping). They are the last two of their kind on Earth. Later, in episode 11, we meet the forest giant, which is hardly taller than a large tree. - Molly of Denali: In "Home Made Heroes," Tooey makes his own superhero named Keele Gedese, a giant boy with super strength. - A gigantic pirate appears in the animated Puff the Magic Dragon, evidently in direct response to Jackie Draper a.k.a. Paper's fear of pirates. \|\|He's actually a giant cook.\|\| - The Ren & Stimpy Show: In "The Littlest Giant", Stimpy cooks up a fairy tale about a giant who gets teased by all the other giants for being smaller than them, but befriends a farmer when his tears of loneliness save the farmer's lands from drought. - Giants are also part of the Smurfs universe, they are gentle in general if well treated. One shows prominently in episode "Gargamel's Giant" been manipulated by Gargamel but showing to be gentle at the end. In "The Littlest Giant" is shown that giants may be perfectly well adjusted and civilized, whilst in "The Magic Fountain" a brutish giant tries to kill and eat Johan a Peewit. Bigmouth, the most recurrent character, is technically an Ogre, although he just looks like a oversized human. - Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! had an episode with a similar plot to the New Mazinger example listed above, where the team and their titular super robot were stuck on a medieval planet of giants, and the robot was mistaken for a knight errant. - Disney's Tall Tales features the story of Paul Bunyan. This version has him as being as tall as tall pine trees and small mountains, and is a Gentle Giant. - Persons with gigantism, a pituitary-related health condition leading to extreme height, were commonly featured in old-time sideshows. Promoters of such entertainments often boasted of (and shamelessly exaggerated) the extraordinary tallness of their performers. (To medically qualify as a giant, one must be 7 feet and up.) - 18th and 19th century anatomists often collected unusual human skeletons, and those of human giants — the taller, the better — were among the most sought-after. Charles Byrne, an 8'2" Irishman who died in 1783, was so afraid of being skeletonized that he asked for his lead coffin to be sunken in the Thames. \|\|It was, but it was empty: Byrnes' body had already been stolen.\|\| - Gigantopithecus, an extinct primate that our human ancestor Homo erectus may very well have encountered. From The Other Wiki: "Based on the fossil evidence, it is believed that adult male Gigantopithecus blacki stood about 3 m (9'10") tall and weighed as much as 540 kg (1,200 lb)". Zoinks. (Note that while Gigantopithecus has at times been portrayed as a hominid, it was in fact more like a giant orangutan.) - A more typical giant would be Meganthropus, an actual hominin close to Homo erectus but that had twice the bone density of a gorilla, and is thought to stand 8-9ft. tall. We say "would be" because the latest analyses of the fossils show that they were identical to Homo erectus, and not as large as previously thought. - Similarly, some fossil belonging to Homo heidelbergensis, aka Archaic Homo sapiens, show them to be giants on their own right, standing tall at around 7 feet tall. That said, remains of other heidelbergensis are shown to be smaller, aroiund the size of regular humans or even Neanderthals, which hints at a great diversity amongst them, akin to our species. - Purported giant remains have been the subject of many an archaeological hoax, such as the Cardiff Giant. - While unconfirmed, the Castlenau Giant of the late Stone Age or Early Bronze Age might have stood at a massive 11.5 feet tall. As seen here.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGiantsAreDifferent
Our Homunculi Are Different - TV Tropes Enoch: They're homunculi. Sometimes I put doll heads on 'em, but this time I was in a hurry and didn't bother. Jacob: What's a homunculi? Enoch: More than one homunculus. Some people think it's homunculuses, but I think that sounds daft, don't you? Jacob: Definitely. Homunculi are a type of Artificial Human connected to alchemy. Their traditional depiction is as tiny people grown in jars, but they tend to differ a lot in presentation. The singular is "homunculus". Homunculus (masculine, Latin for "little human", plural: "homunculi"; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully-formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism. Currently, in scientific fields, a homunculus may refer to any scale model of the human body that, in some way, illustrates physiological, psychological, or other abstract human characteristics or functions. Often they are Born of Magic. A non-living vessel is magically imbued with life and consciousness. Depictions vary whether the homunculus requires magic to continue functioning after being made. Within the fantasy setting, a homunculus generally acts as a magician's assistant (a.k.a Familiar), spy, messenger, or even assassin. They are sometimes, but not always, capable of speech. If created correctly, they are loyal to a fault when it comes to their master. The term can also refer to tiny people who live inside us controlling or operating our minds and bodies. Whether they have even littler people inside them is a matter of much head-scratching. "Homonculus" also refers to the neurological visualization of mapping out touch-sensory and motor control regions of the human brain. See also: Artificial Human, Frankenstein's Monster, Golem, Creating Life. Homunculi often appear in settings where Alchemy Is Magic. ## Examples: - Buso Renkin: Homunculi are the result of alchemical research into immortality. There are two broad types of homunculi in the series, non-humaniod homunculi made from a combination of human and non-human material (animal or plant) that can switch between a human form and a hybrid form that has powers related to their non-human material, and humanoid homunculi who retain their human mind and appearance. Both types of have an insatiable desire for human flesh and can only be killed by the power of alchemy (such as the weapons known as buso renkin or other homunculi damaging the sigil on their bodies. - Fullmetal Alchemist has these as the main villains, each named after the Seven Deadly Sins. They are artificial humans created by the Big Bad, Father, except for Wrath and the second Greed, both of whom were humans who ingested philosopher's stones. Father himself started out looking like the traditional version, a shadow in a jar, but uses Philosopher's Stones to create itself a human body \|\|identical to Hohenheim\|\|'s. - The \|\|"cyclops army"\|\|, which appear late in the series, \|\|are artificial humans injected with the souls of human sacrifices. In effect, they act like flesh-eating zombies, though\|\|. - In the 2003 anime version, however, homunculi are \|\|the product of 'successful' attempts to revive the dead using alchemy\|\|: their bodies consist of \|\|the body of the revive, reinforced with incomplete Philosopher's Stones\|\|. Most of them have allied themselves with Big Bad \|\|Dante, who made several of them (Envy, the current Greed, Pride and most likely Gluttony) and is also implied to have given them their Seven Deadly Sins theme names.\|\| - Hibiki's Magic has Shiraasan as a little girl with a big attitude and an affinity towards guns. - Humanoid Monster Bem has a brother-sister pair that tried to extend their own lives by draining Bero's. - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: - Golden Wind: Melone's Stand, Baby Face is capable of creating a homunculus that can hunt down a target, though its process is long and laborious. Melone needs to have a DNA sample of the intended target, find a suitable human female host to "incubate" the homunculus, wait for it to grow, inform it how and who to kill and only then watch it do the job. - Stone Ocean: The Green Baby is revealed to be a homunculus of \|\|Dio Brando, created through the combination of various Stand abilities integrated into one of Dio's bones. Part of Pucci's plan to obtain Made in Heaven is by fusing with The Green Baby and evolving his Stand further upon the night of a new moon\|\|. - In MÄR, \|\|Snow could be considered one. At least in the anime. She's never directly referred to as such but the process of her creation is strikingly similar to how homunculi are sometimes made. She's somewhere between a homunculus and clone, but the anime doesn't like the use the word "clone", probably because it sounds too sci-fi for the fantasy setting. She's usually referred to as a "copy" of Koyuki.\|\| - In SHUFFLE!, \|\|Primula\|\| is a homunculus created for the sole purpose of being experimented upon. - Trinity Seven: The White Demon is classified as a homunculus, which makes sense given that he was created by the founder of Outer Alchemy. - Mad monk Inasa from Ushio and Tora created several Homunculi using Western Sorcery and alchemy during his research for the ultimate buddhist weapon. Kuin, Kirio's companion, is his masterpiece and powerful enough to fight with a 2000-years old Youkai like Tora. The Homunculi's creation involved using horse semen and intestines simmered in a cauldron and their appearance is wildly different, as they include two humanoid creatures vaguely similar to Kuin, a maid whose body is made of flowing water and a golem. \|\|He also tried to make artificial people empowered with superior houriki since birth but failed.\|\| - Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Jaden's Double Agent mentor Professor Banner was an alchemist who transferred his soul to a homunculus when he came down with a fatal disease so he could continue his research and later stop the funder of his research, who found a secret to eternal youth through the Serious Business card game. - Magic: The Gathering: Most homunculi are bloated humanoids with a single huge eye. A popular example is Riddlekeeper. All named homunculi, regardless of plane, have names that completely lack vowels. Fblthp, a recurring Ravnican Butt-Monkey is a prominent example, as is Zndrsplt, a homunculus gladiator living on Kylem. The creation process is generally vague, but in the Gothic Horror plane of Innistrad they're made by the skaaberen (Blue-aligned mad scientists that make zombies by stitching bodies together) implying they're either small zombies or created through the same process. - Black Moon Chronicles: After Haazheel Thorne's demise, the heroes are visited by a clone that the wicked sorcerer had created of himself to manage the Black Moon prayers (and is also far less evil-minded than him so he would be easier to control). He's basically just there to serve as Mr. Exposition about Haazheel's final plan before he melts into a puddle because there's no more magic energy to sustain him. - The B.P.R.D. comes down on the wrong side of this question when it fits Roger the Homunculus with a self-destruct. - Caballistics, Inc.: During World War II the Nazis were running a program to assassinate Allied political and military leaders and replace them with homonculi. They were given this knowledge by \|\|Solomon Ravne\|\|, who is revealed to be one himself. - In Finder, "Munky" is the mascot of a city-sized Disneyland-like amusement park. He's depicted as one of the neurological homunculi mentioned under Real Life below. - In Hellboy, Roger the Homunculus is one of the main characters, being a homunculus the size of a tall human, having a large degree of intelligence, being incredibly strong and durable, and requiring a power source to be constantly hooked up to a plug in his chest in order to function (although he was once able to power himself using the power he absorbed from Liz after she placed her finger into the plug, though this would have eventually killed her). The fact that Roger is an unusually large and sentient homunculus is often referred to (and occasionally draws unwanted attention), and is put down to his creator being a genius alchemist who had a lifetime of experience and experimentation behind him when he created Roger. Roger actually fights his "brother", a less sophisticated homunculus, and his army of goblin-sized homunculi in Almost Colossus, and Nazi homunculi appear in Conqueror Worm. - In The Two Sides of Daring Do, it's revealed that the magically created Daring Do clone is considered one of these. Equestria, being a fantasy world, actually has laws that recognize Homunculi as Equestrian citizens if they're proven to be truly alive and not just mana clones. - In Queen of All Oni, Jade creates one in Chapter 17, formed from her chi, to act as another enforcer. It has the appearance of her in her snake form, is stored in her stomach when she's not using it, and is described as basically being an extension of her will. \|\|As such, the fact that it would take the bullet for Tohru is highly surprising to everyone.\|\| - In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, George several times becomes a homunculus seemingly straight out of the AD&D Monster Manual. He weirds the others out when he does this form because he looks like a lizard-skinned, half-finished winged small copy of himself. He can't talk in this form (because the thing can only communicate via telepathy, and only with its creator), but he does have a bite that puts people to sleep, and good darkvision. - Fate/Black Dawn: - Mordred, as in canon, is a homunculus that Morgan le Faye grew in her own womb using DNA stolen from King Arthur. Mordred is basically a Super Soldier, given natural battle instincts, a superhuman body, and Rapid Aging to get her up to age fast enough to be useful. While initially Morgan dismisses "it" as nothing but a tool, Shirou encourages her to actually be a decent mother. Once Mordred is physically an adult (which is at approximately age three), Mordred gives her immortality. She is a little ashamed that, even though the process is very easy with Mordred because of her artificial construction, she had never considered doing that before Shirou came along and was perfectly willing to let her die of old age in a decade or two. - In the sequel, Mordred is compared to Illyasviel von Einzbern. Morgan notes that while Mordred is physically far superior, in terms of construction and purpose Illya is much more advanced. Illya is built to contain a major ritual and is thus something of a living miracle, while Mordred is basically a battle golem with a brain. - The stitchpunks of 9 were created using techniques pioneered by Paracelsus, and are essentially robot homunculi. They're only a few inches tall, and each one is animated by a fragment of their creator's soul. - Bride of Frankenstein has Dr. Pretorious' little people (with different personalities— one likes the Devil) in jars. They aren't called homunculi, but are obviously supposed to be. - The homunculus created by Prince Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. A small flying gargoyle: its master can use its senses. - Star Wars - Anakin Skywalker could be considered a homunculus of sorts. While he was born naturally from his mother, it is strongly hinted in the prequel trilogy (and confirmed by Word of God) that he was artificially conceived through The Force by the Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis. The recent Expanded Universe novels about Darth Plagueis explain that the method by which he created Anakin was a branch of Sith alchemy. - In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, \|\|Supreme Leader Snoke is revealed to be this, created by Palpatine to rule the First Order in his stead.\|\| - The Programs in TRON and TRON: Legacy are implied to be this, especially with Gibbs's rant in the first film about "our spirit remains in every program," and Word of God saying that the Programs retain emotional impressions, personality traits, and some memories from their Users. - From The Other Wiki, The Homunculus, a novel by David Keller: The novel concerns Colonel Horatio Bumble who has retired to his ancestral home with his wife, Helen and their Pekingese, Lady. The Bumbles are childless. Colonel Bumble employs the siblings Pete and Sarah at his home. The Colonel is also attempting to create a baby through parthenogenesis. As a result of his experiments, the Colonel is kidnapped and Sarah rescues him by employing supernatural means. - From The Other Wiki, Alraune, a 1911 German novel in which the eponymous character is a beautiful (but soulless and sexually perverse) woman created by artificial insemination. It was made into several films. - In The Alchemy of Stone, the protagonist uses old-fashioned grown-in-jars-with-alchemy homunculi to complete magical tasks important to the plot. - Baccano! - Ennis is a good homunculus who is presented as the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter. The opening credits of the anime adaptation allude to the traditional version by showing her as the reflection in a bottle of chemicals her "father" was pouring. - Later in the novels, several other homunculi, mostly created by Huey, appear. They have different properties and powers from Ennis due to the different resources and techniques used by their creator. We also learn that \|\|the demon of the Advena Avis\|\| originated as one of the traditional confined-to-a-bottle variety. - In Vampire Romance, a short story from the novel The Bloody Red Baron, Dr. Ten Brincken uses alchemy and dark sciences learned from World War One to make a homunculus for Lord Karnstein using a piece of Carmilla's heart, plant and mineral matter. The homunculus is in a constant state of stupor and only awakes when feeding on the blood and life force of an elder vampire (no other food source works for it). - Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun has \|\|Dr. Talos\|\| as a homunculus of \|\|Baldanders\|\|. - The little imps that run iconographs and dis-organisers in Discworld are sometimes referred to as homunculi. According to Making Money, they're a kind of sentient spell. - Domina: - The fey use remote-controlled bodies they call homunculi to interact with the world. The bodies only last for a few months at the most, but the fey can always make more. They also melt on death so that no one can dissect them for their secrets. - During the war with Domina, America fields a small number of clones among the regular troops. The fey immediately identify them as homunculi, though the clones are not remote controlled, and are perfect copies of a specific soldier in both body and mind. They are also not expected to last more than a week or two. \|\|Only one survives the war, and the fey give him treatments to bring him up to a normal human lifespan. It later turns out the entire project was a ploy by Silk to gain bodies for her Hive Mind; she switched out the sample once she was sure that the equipment was up to spec, and ended up with ten thousand mind linked clones\|\|. - \|\|The changelings, supposedly kidnapping victims, are in fact just more homunculi built by the fey, though they are built to have normal human lifespans. Word of God is that they are all perfect specimens of humanity, so they will actually live longer than average\|\|. - In Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider, the character Twigleg is a homunculus created by an alchemist from a test tube. Apparently, the alchemist was not truly able to create life, but instead "borrowed" the life of another creature, such as a spider or beetle. - Forest Kingdom: As discussed in the Hawk & Fisher spinoff series' book 3 ( The God Killer), the creation of homunculi is illegal in the setting; as exact physical duplicates of a person, they make it hard to keep bloodlines pure. They're also good for pulling a Kill and Replace, and for creating entire armies. They can also be inhabited by the mind of a living person; the titular God Killer, and the sorcerer Bode, who created the Dark Man homunculi, have been taking up residence in their bodies when needed. - Frankenstein: In Mary Shelly's original novel Frankenstein's monster is implicitly a homunculus. The exact procedure of its creation is left deliberately murky, though Victor made at least one reference to visits to bonehouses specifically to gather materials to create his creature. So while his creature wasn't made entirely out of corpses, they were still a vital part of the process. Specifically the dissecting room and the slaughter-house are said to furnish Victor with many of his materials, and he also dabbles in "the unhallowed damps of the grave." The implication is that the monster is formed at least partly out of human and animal remains, not merely "filth." The animal remains may serve as the explanation of the monster's size: it could even be speculated that it was a set of pig bones that gave him his extra foot of height. More importantly, Victor's obsession with creating the monster seems inspired by his interest in alchemy. He names several prominent alchemists and declares that, by diving into such esoteric sources with the resources of modern science, he alone has discovered the arcane secrets that brought his monster to life. - A tiny woman was created via alchemy in Goblin Moon. - The title creature in James P. Blaylock's Homunculus \|\|averted this trope by being a tiny alien rather than a synthetic creation\|\|. - In W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Magician, the magician Oliver Haddo (a non-subtle Expy/Take That! against Aleister Crowley) tries to find the secret that would allow him to create his own homunculi. \|\|He dies, but not before reaching his goal. His homunculi, along with all his notes, are burned in his mansion at the end\|\|. - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Enoch makes little "armies" of homunculi, which are tiny clay soldiers with mice hearts to animate them. - In The Monarchies of God fantasy series, Homonculi are familiars grown without Ur Blood; they mature faster than Imps, but they have bad eating habits and are Always Chaotic Evil. - Vurdmeisters use homunculi to summon pit wyrms in The Night Angel Trilogy - Tulpa in Rebel Genius are artificial humans created by infusing a soul from The Wellspring into a physical shell. But despite knowledge of the theory, the only known successes are Zanobius and \|\|Giacomo.\|\| - In the short story Seventy Two Letters by Ted Chiang, humanity reproduces via the original definition of Homunculi, found below in the Mythology category. The main character is recruited to help deal with scientists discovering there's a finite supply in the world and they are running out. - In Slayers, homunculi (knows as copies) are supposedly just like normal humans in appearance, but have no will or memory of their own. Of course, the only two homunculi that have a larger part in the story are also the only known exceptions. - In Tales of Kolmar, there was once a \|\|man later called the Demonlord\|\| who magically removed his own heart and hid it away; when his body was killed his mind survived, because that's how the spell worked. Later a lesser summoner creates a body for him around that distant heart, \|\|dragon-shaped and made of rock and lava, able to fly through magic\|\|, and calls this a homunculus. - In Crusade one of Galen the techno-mage's abilities is to create a Hard Light holograph of himself that he refers to as a homunculus. He controls it mentally and can stream what it sees to the Excalibur's monitors. - Doctor Who: In "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", one of Magnus Greel's henchmen is Mr. Sin, a sentient ventriloquist dummy. The Doctor explains that Mr. Sin is actually the Peking Homunculus, an android from the 51st century created as a playmate for a government official's son; Mr. Sin was fitted with the cerebral cortex of a pig to give him sentience, but the pig's animalistic instincts took over, giving him an insatiable lust for carnage, which Greel exploits. - In GoGo Sentai Boukenger, the Questers form a giant homunculus out of three Precious. - Kamen Rider OOO has the Greeed, artifical life created from human desire and the attributes of animals combined into the Cell and Core Medals. They finally gained sentience when their tenth Core was destroyed, but then tried to eat the world. \|\|Though it turns out they were created by a greedy king who intended to absorb all their power to become a god. It didn't work out like he expected and seemingly killed him, imprisoning them in a stone box for 800 years.\|\| - The Canadian series Todd and the Book of Pure Evil featured a homunculus in the second episode. It was the manifestation of a nerdy girl's desires and thus resembled the main character, who she had a crush on. She created it with the intention of entering it in a science fair, but instead it just killed the local science teacher. - Sperm were originally believed to contain miniature people, and the alchemical concept of homunculi were attempts at growing these little men without a female womb, which was expected to lead to a drastically different development. - Some scholars took this concept even further; they believed that the tiny people in the sperm would have sperm of their own, with even tinier people in it, and so on. They deduced that if you could count them down all the way, you could deduce the approximate date of the Judgement Day from them. This was also used as an argument for the concept of original sin, since at the time of his sin, Adam contained every future human in his nuts. - The Atlantean Trilogy: Homunculi are among the many alchemically-created life forms that can be concocted by player characters. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The homunculus, or homonculous; similar to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad version, except that it has a poisoned bite that causes sleep. It's made by an expensive alchemical recipe from the wizard's own blood and is a living tool linked much like a familiar. Some wizards even turn their homunculi into their familiars, which is generally a better use of them than just having a homunculus. - The simulacrum is similar in basic theory to a homunculus but is a replica of the caster. - Boguns are essentially druidic equivalents of humonculi. They're extensions of their creator and thus share their alignment and have a direct mental link that makes each aware of everything the other knows. Boguns are assembled from compost and forest detritus, and animated through a week-long magical ritual. - The Basic/Expert/etc D&D system introduce the "magen", a type of human-like magical creatures grown in vats, combining advantages of homunculi and simulacra, but more expensive. On the other hand, they aren't as strong or invulnerable as golems, but cheaper and smarter. They came in several types, most with weird powers. In AD&D2 era Mystara they are formed from gelatin-like mix in molds and brought to life by lightning bolt spells. - Dark Sun has the psionocus, very similar to the magical homunculus (up to the sleep-causing bite) but created through psionic means rather than alchemy. Its brain is a gem empowered with sentience and its body is shaped from the creator's blood. - Dragon magazine has "The Wizard's Companion: The Care and Feeding of Homonculi" article with details and eight variant homunculi. - Eberron: The artificer class has the ability to create homunculi sooner than most casters. The setting also introduces a number of specialised homunculi, including arbalesters (self-firing crossbows), dedicated wrights (dwarf-like homunculi which can craft items on their master's behalf), expeditious messengers (fast winged lemurs which their masters can speak through), furtive filchers (tiny shadowy figures adept at stealing), iron defenders (mechanical dogs made for combat), packmates (Chest Monster caddies) and persistent harriers (spiky humanoids used for combat support). - Mystara also has manikin, little constructs made of mandragora root and a bit of the master's lifeforce. - Ravenloft: Van Richten's Arsenal, a 3E book from Arthaus, tells how to craft "alchemical children": sentient, organic constructs that can pass for human if desired. - GURPS: Homunculi in GURPS Magic must live in bottles because they are so ridiculously vulnerable that they can be killed by harsh light. - Chronicles of Darkness: - The player characters in Promethean: The Created are arguably homunculi, but their creature differs wildly from the standard myths (for starters, the base material they're made from is human corpses). However, there is a Transmutation called "Homunculus" that lets the Promethean using it craft a servant from their own flesh. Its size and physical capabilities depend on how much Pyros the creator puts into it, and it has no will of its own, being telepathically controlled by its creator. If it's destroyed (and isn't the base four-inch model), the loss of flesh causes damage to its creator. - Geist: The Sin-Eaters allows a Sin-Eater possessing the Elemental Marionette to craft a homunculus from a representation of said element. The creation of the homunculus requires the Sin-Eater to sacrifice some of their will to create an egg; if this egg is captured by another Sin-Eater, then they gain control of the homunculus. The homunculus also gains powers depending on which Elemental Key was used to forge it — a Cold-Wind Homunculus can fly rather fast, while a Pyre-Flame homunculus is immune to fire. - Mage: The Awakening allows mages to create homunculi. It is a fairly serious undertaking as creating one requires mastery of at least three Arcana; Matter to shape the body, Life to animate it, and Mind to give it a mind (or Death or Spirit to bind a ghost or spirit into the body). Since mastering three Arcana is a pretty rare achievement for mages, the homunculi are usually a collaborative project. - Pathfinder: Homunculi are small, mute constructs created from clay, ash, mandrake root, spring water and a touch of their creator's own blood. They are often a construct-maker's first creation due to the relative simplicity of their creation, which requires much fewer material and less costly components, potent magic and complex know-how than do those for golems or clockwork creatures. The use of the creator's blood forges a powerful bond between them and the homunculus, which remains steadfastly loyal to them unto death. Most homunculi sink into depression and die after their creator perishes, but a few retain a spark of will and a fragment of their maker's soul and come to see themselves as their creator's children or successors, striving to continue their work and growing voiced and free-willed. Most never become more than flat caricatures of their makers, but a few grow into true, mature minds in their own right. - In Warhammer 40,000, Dark Eldar Haemonculi use the term, but they are the mad alchemists who do the constructing rather than the constructs — those are Grotesques and Mandrakes. Possibly a Double Subversion as most Haemonculi are likely to manipulate their own bodies into something completely new at some point in their careers. - Res Arcana: The Homunculus is a scaly demon grown in a jar. Its effects are giving a discount on other Demons and generating essences. - In Faust: Second Part of the Tragedy, the titular character's student Wagner creates a homunculus who goes on to accompany Faust and Mephistopheles on their time travel adventure in Ancient Greece. - In BlazBlue, Kazuma Kval and Hazama are artificial humanoids created by the alchemist Relius. They were commissioned by Yuuki Terumi/\|\| Susano'o\|\| to serve as his hosts, as he doesn't have a physical body of his own. - Call of Duty: Zombies: The Chaos storyline's answer to the monkey bomb is a homunculus, which is apparently so angry that it'll attack any zombie that comes near it, and they think it's easy prey. It's a very effective way to kill a hoard too. - Homunculi have appeared as an enemy in two of Castlevania games; - In Castlevania Chronicles, they appear as tiny creatures that burst out of vials. - In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, they appear as a humanoid connected to the wall by an umbilical cord in underwater areas. If forced to run too far, they rip their cords from the wall and promptly asphyxiate. - A sidequest in Dragon's Crown reveals that homunculi are full-sized, artificial humans created with the hopes of transmuting human souls inside as a roundabout means of immortality. However, they can't survive out of the jars they are created in, and not only has no one ever successfully transmuted a soul, simply the act of creating a homonculus is seen as an act of blasphemy. The only homunculus shown is a fully grown, naked woman, due to the Fanservice rampant in the game's design. - Homunculus is the Final Boss of Two's Prologue DLC in Drakengard 3. In reality it's a \|\|fused consciousnesses and bodies of children Two was caring for, as a result of Cent using and botching Two's magical song to enpower the soldiers.\|\| Fitting for Yoko Taro game. - Despite what we are originally lead to believe about her origins, \|\|Nanashi\|\| turns out to be a homunculus in Duel Savior Destiny. Because of this, she is largely indestructible as well as nearly immortal. The down side is that while she's hard to kill, her body constitution makes her rather fragile and severely hampers her stamina. - There's one in Edelweiss. \|\|And it's not Natsume.\|\| - In Fate/EXTRA, Rani VIII is a homunculus from the Atlas Institute, \|\|and will be your sidekick if you choose to save her instead of Rin Tohsaka at a critical moment.\|\| - EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Idea, the emotionless, artificial maid created by the Dream Demon King to watch over his earthly mansion in his absence. - Fate/Grand Order: - The Servant Mephistopheles is not the demon as described in Faust, but a homunculus created by the real-life alchemist Dr. Georg Faust. Faust was generations ahead of others in the creation of homunculi, but his mistake with creating Mephistopheles was giving him self-awareness, leading him to get bored of his master and kill him in an explosion. - One type of enemy in the game are called Homunculus, which are vaguely humanoid white (green in the case of Proto-Homunculus) creatures mainly composed of just muscles with very vague idea of a face. They drop items called Homunculus Baby, which is a homunculus embryo inside a vial. - A Homunculus is a familiar for Beastmasters in Final Fantasy XI, a play on the meaning of the word (Little Man). It is also possible to buy artificial nerves to make parts for a Puppetmaster's Robot Buddy. - Fire Emblem: - Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia reveals that \|\|Grima\|\| is a homunculus in its new post-game chapter. \|\|Okay, technically he's a dragon, but he was an experiment by an alchemist named Forneus. Additionally, he's implied to be something of a human-dragon hybrid before becoming fully draconic with time.\|\| - Fire Emblem: Three Houses: \|\|Byleth's mother is Sitri, a homunculus "born" of Sothis's crest stone, and while their father Jeralt obtained a Major Crest of Seiros directly from Rhea via blood transfusion, he's an otherwise ordinary human.\|\| - Genshin Impact: \|\|It is heavily implied that Albedo, an alchemist himself, is an Artificial Human created by his master (another powerful alchemist), who is not his birth mother yet his creator nonetheless. His claim that he's borne of chalk could be interpreted this way, especially in contrast how the rest of the people of Teyvat are of the soil. One of his talent is called "Homuncular Nature."\|\| - GrimGrimoire: - Any creature available to the 'Alchemy' school of magic counts under this trope (though it's less clear with Golems and Gargoyles, who might be highly advanced machines or primitive mechanical lifeforms); it's the only school of magic that creates its creatures on the spot rather than summoning them from another plane of existence. However, the second-tier unit of the school is actually called Homunculi: They look like cats with normal-size heads, thin and tiny bodies, and spider-like legs. Except for their legs, they are entirely bottled up inside clear glass beakers filled with chemicals absolutely necessary to keep their imperfect biology alive (in contrast, the ultimate creature, Chimera, has no such bottle and is constantly losing HP until it dies); smashing the bottle will kill a homunculus, and they cannot survive outside of them. Understandably, they don't move fast, they don't take much damage to kill, and they have no basic attack. What they DO have are heightened psychic abilities, which starts them with the ability to clairvoyantly spy on distant places, a power that can be also be used their immediate vicinity to make immaterial spirits vulnerable to physical attacks. They can also learn an Astral Storm area-of-effect power which causes considerable damage-over-time to enemy creature units, even spirits. - The story features a unique and highly advanced homunclus whom was created around an angel, who serves as the creature's soul. As per Valkyrie Profile below, this basically incarnated the angel as a physical being, but in this case the purpose was just to create a homunculus who could freely leave its life-sustaining bottle, save for periodic rests. The homunculus is as intelligent as any human and seems to have the ability to use Alchemy like a human magician (and was likely taught such by the alchemist who created her), but doesn't have any memories of being an angel. Her bottle apparently does more than simply perform periodic maintenance on her incomplete body, as shattering it will cause an immediate Critical Existence Failure that manifests as a glorious lightshow as the angel within emerges and then returns to heaven. Even aside from the bottle, however, this homunculus has a nigh-physical need for even just one other person to love her, as her artificially created form is not part of God's design and thus "is not connected to God's love". The exact form of love offered doesn't matter as long as it is genuine; a father, friend or lover are all just as good. - Haunting Ground offers an especially disturbing view of Homunculi. \|\|Every character but the protagonist and the Big Bad are Artificial Humans, including the protagonist's father. (He and The Dragon are clones.) Debilitas and Daniella seem to be two successful creations, to say nothing of the rambling failures and Fetus Terrible Mooks. Daniella mentions being unable to experience taste, pleasure or pain. There is no given reason for their creation except as cheap labor and For Science!.\|\| Note: \|\|the world 'successful' (when used in the regard of Daniella and Debilitas) is extremely lenient, given their less than reassuring temperaments. Also, Word of God claims that Daniella is actually a human woman convinced she's a homunculus, a delusion backed by congenital disorders robbing her of feeling\|\|. - Helen's Mysterious Castle: The Artificial Humans of the city in Floor 4 are Homunculi, created together with the other monsters. In Ardis's laboratory, some other Homunculi are common enemies. - In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, \|\|Millium and Altina\|\| are stated to be homunculi created in The Black Workshop using technology stolen by Black Alberich. \|\|The reason for their creation was so that either one of them could fulfill the requirements to be transformed into the Originator Zero Sword that would be use to kill the Ancient Beast and unleash The Great Twilight.\|\| - It's not yet been completely explained what exactly homunculi are in Mabinogi, but \|\|Eabha\|\| is one. - My Lovely Daughter, by Game Changer Studios, tells the tale of an alchemist that must create and raise homunculi... Then murder them and use their souls as part of a ritual to resurrect his dead daughter. - In NetHack, Homunculi are one of the weakest types of demon. It, again, has a sleep-inducing bite. - Safiya of Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer creates these to act as scouts and servants. Her most advanced one, Kaji, serves as her familiar and a partial rogue for the team. - Homunculi in Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012) turn into Chimeras after Ryu takes them down. They are also the only enemies that beg him to kill them while they attack. - Homunculi are just items in the Persona series of games. They will take an instant death effect for the player so you don't get a game over. - In Ragnarok Online, homunculi are somewhat like pets, except they can fight for their owners, level up, and gain skills. The only humanoid ones (Lif) are cute monster girls, while the other options are birds (Filir), Blobs (Vanilmirth), sheep (Amistr), or monkeys (Amistr's other version). - A Homunculus features as a major character in Shadow of Destiny. This is an especially interesting case, as Homunculus is, in fact, \|\|a djinn-like being who is contained in the philosopher's stone. The process of "creation", in fact, only released him\|\|. - Referenced in the blurb for the technology "Industrial Nanorobotics" in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, delivered quite passionately by Sister Miriam of the Believers: - Ivy from the Soul Series sought to create a homunculus animated by an artificial soul between Soulcalibur III and IV, knowing that carrying the cursed blood of Soul Edge would likely deem her ineligible for wielding its opposite number, Soul Calibur. With a clash between Ivy and her undead father Cervantes resulting in her lab's destruction and Cervantes stealing most of her soul, Ivy was forced to replace her soul with the artificial one in order to stay alive (though V revealed she freed her original soul and all others claimed by Cervantes after defeating him). Her creation presumably was eradicated along with the remainder of Ivy's belongings and research. - Super Robot Wars Reversal: - Vatista from Under Night In-Birth is an Autonomic Nerve, a kind of magical construct built in ancient times to protect the Hollow Night and exterminate the extra-dimensional Voids. It is unclear exactly what an Autonomic Nerve is and how one is created, but Vatista can consume food and has a sense of taste. Blazblue Cross Tag Battle explains that Autonomic Nerves are inorganic doll bodies given human souls so they can possess art and instinct, but it is unclear if the souls are newly-created or taken from living people. Given the suggestion that ten thousand Autonomic Nerves were created originally, the latter prospect would require human sacrifice on a mass scale. - Valkyrie Profile also features homunculi (or at least similar creatures called chimera), mostly created by the twinked-out multiclass Alchemist/Necromancer/Runemaster/Sorcerer, Lezard Valeth. The first one seen is basically just a big, stupid, frankensteinian monster, but his best creations are basically enhanced human bodies worthy of a goddess. Which makes sense, seeing as he'd planned to use them to incarnate the Valkyrie with. - \|\|Rudy\|\| of Wild ARMs is an Artificial Human called a "holmcross," originally a mistranslation of "homunculus", retained in the remake because it was thought to sound unique and cool. He's said to be made of living metal. - World of Warcraft: - Homunculi are highly-lifelike undead created by the Burning Legion to infiltrate mortal kingdoms. They're undetectable to even undead-hunting experts, but bleed green ichor. - There are other monsters called homunculus introduced before the official lore versions. They appear in at least 2 instances: the Sunken Temple and Karazhan, and are white imp-like demons. Word of God confirmed that the name was chosen because it's cool, and the two kinds are unrelated. - Homunculi in the Ys franchise are essentially Fairy Companions, created by members of the Clan of Darkness through magic. However, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox states there's another type of homunculus that can exist - \|\|a biological clone of a living subject by using its memories, created through alchemy. This homunculus is practically identical to its source, but there's an inherent Fatal Flaw, where homunculi created as an infant has a higher chance at surviving long-term than a homunculus created when its origin is older. Series protagonist Adol Christin as the "Crimson King" finds this out the hard way, since the latter is actually a homunculus of the real Adol\|\|. - In Fate/stay night and its spinoffs, homunculi are created through alchemy by combining human genetic material and several elements. They come in several varieties: - The von Einzbern family are alchemy specialists, and all members of the family we've seen are homunculi. note : The sole exception thus far has been Jubstacheit, "head of the family" in Fate/Zero. In that story, Jubstacheit takes the form of an old man with a long white beard and blue eyes, but later supplementary materials reveal that it's really some kind of AI that controls their castle in Germany, and merely interacts with people through a "golem." They're invariably red-eyed, white-haired, and female, and most are created as adults that appear to be in their 20s. They have extraordinary magical ability, and some can even potentially live forever while being technically "unkillable," though not indestructible. \|\|Too bad Illyasviel and her mother Irisviel aren't that kind. Sure, it makes them much more human than their counterparts... but Illya dies a year or so after the end of any route she survives in and is actually eighteen despite only appearing to be ten. Sucks, huh?\|\| Illya is also exceptional in that she was conceived and born like a human child. - Leysritt in Fate/stay night is, in some ways, even odder than Illya: She has her lifespan linked with Illya's, so she will die when Illya does if she (Leys) isn't killed first. She can also transmute into the Dress of Heaven that Illya wears when performing soul magecraft. And she has Super Strength on par with many heroic spirits. - There's also \|\|Mordred, who's basically an alchemical clone of her "father", Saber\|\|. She also grew up much faster than a human and thus has the mind of a child, partly explaining her personality in Fate/Apocrypha. - Additionally, the main character of Apocrypha, Sieg, is a homunculus. He's noticeably a more "defective" version, as not only only is his body weak, but his model at most only lasts for about two or three years. He himself was meant to just be a Living Battery before he escaped. \|\|After being badly wounded and having Siegfried's heart implanted, his body literally ages up to compensate and it's posited he could survive for at least a century with it. Of course, Siegfried's heart has other effects no one expected, such as allowing him to turn into a copy of Siegfried for a limited time, as well as slowly transforming his body into a nigh-immortal dragon.\|\| - Rani VIII of Fate/EXTRA is a creation of the Atlas Institute alchemists of Egypt. note : Specifically of Sialim Eltnam Re-Atlasia, the sister of Sion Eltnam Atlasia. She has brown skin, and shares her creator's purple hair and eyes. She's a walking supercomputer able to connect directly to the cyber world, and her internal organs appear to be made of opal. - In Umineko: When They Cry Beatrice tries to invoke this, as her explanation for a woman who looks just like her existing in 1967 was that Kinzo Ushiromiya had made a homunculus and trapped her soul in it. In EP7, however, it's revealed that this is false: \|\|the Beatrice of 1967 was actually Kinzo's daughter and Beatrice's mother.\|\| - The "bladder imps" from the Bandwith Theatre episode "Homonculi" [sic]. - In Charby the Vampirate the Orrotta are basically Scotodino designed homunculi that are often mistaken for elves. - In Creative Release, a homunculus appears to ??? to try and stop her from leaving her current location. It doesn't work - she doesn't mind killing things that, according to her, aren't even alive to begin with. - In Girl Genius, Sparks make all sorts of crazy stuff, so artificial life isn't something unusual, though most of it ends up eating wanderers in sewers or wastelands. As the Castle informed Agatha that once her ancestress sent two hundred warrior homunculi in a little invasion... just to get acquainted with a prospective fiance. - The RPC Authority has RPC-102, which are a group of monsterous miniuture humanoids, originally created via alchemical means, but capable of reproducing on their own as a viable species. - Serylites are an universally female race created by a magical septer which impregnates any women who uses it with a clone-daughter. Aside from usage of the septer, they're universally sterile. - In 2015, Youtuber Как Сделать posted a video documenting what he described as the process of creating and growing a homunculus following the ancient precepts of Alchemy. Skeptics began attempting to duplicate the experiment themselves. The original video can be found here. - And this is far from the only video. Unfortunately, the series was left unfinished after his untimely death. - Mia and Me has the "Munculus", creatures created to serve Panthea. These creatures have a vulnerability to water (as shared by Panthea and Gargona), which shrinks them temporarily. They are also vulnerable to the unpleasant sounds of the Trumptus. - Milton the Monster: Professor Weirdo creates monsters by pouring bizarre liquids into a sort of "monster gelatin mold" and then waiting for the mixture to congeal and rapidly harden into a fully-formed monster. - Technically, The Powerpuff Girls (and Rowdyruff Boys), as artificially-created superhumans, with Chemical X as their base, would be this. - The Owl House: - One of the nine main schools of magic focuses around the creation of purple, mudlike humanoids called abominations that can follow simple instructions. - The Season 2 episode "Eclipse Lake" features a recipe for something called a "Grimwalker" in the Cold Open, which seems to be more of the Artificial Witch variety of homunculus. While otherwise indistinguishable from ordinary witches, Grimwalkers are made of Palistrom wood, selkiedomus scales, a Galderstone, and a bone of Ortet note : "Ortet" is a botany term referring to a plant that clippings are taken from in order to make clones., and "For the Future" shows that they are grown in the ground like plants. \|\|It's implied and later confirmed that Hunter is the latest in a long line of Grimwalkers who have all served as the Golden Guard, created and discarded on a whim. These Grimwalkers are all clones of Belos's brother Caleb — who Belos murdered for marrying and having a child with a witch — in an attempt to create a "better version" of him.\|\| - Graphic illustrations called "homunculi" are used by neurobiologists to illustrate how much of the brain's gray matter communicates with each of our body parts. As our hands, feet, and faces contain far more nerve endings, and individual motor units of muscles, than an equivalent volume of arm, leg, neck or torso, these homunculi have huge heads, feet and hands on little spindly bodies. To say nothing of the genitals.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurHomunculiAreDifferent
Our Imps Are Different - TV Tropes You thought an imp was a cute little dude in a red suit with a pitchfork. Where did these brown bastards come from? Imps are fantasy creatures, often inhabiting the lowest tiers of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil. They're typically seen acting as henchmen and lackeys for mortal summoners or more powerful supernatural entities; when independent, they're usually unaligned nuisances or scavengers, but never powerful figures in their own right. In personality, they're usually malicious and fond of cruel humor, but also cowardly and simpering when faced with more powerful beings, and will reserve their full malice for creatures who can't fight back or are somehow even weaker than themselves. Less malevolent examples still tend to be tricky and mischievous. Imps are usually weak and lowly beings. They're often summoned by and serve wizards, typically more malevolent or unscrupulous ones, and may be seen as a "safe" choice of creature to summon and bind due to their weakness and lowly status, in contrast with more powerful and dangerous beings who would be more likely to break free or trick their would-be master. Some possess no strength or skill of any sort, sometimes being little more than Fantastic Vermin. More formidable examples typically rely on things other than brute strength; some are magically skilled, becoming Squishy Wizards who can deal strong damage from range but can't stand long in melee. Others are Fragile Speedsters instead, moving quickly and hitting hard but possessing little ability to absorb damage themselves. While they're usually lackeys and underdogs, imps can sometimes be seen in positions of greater influence. Many are portrayed as very intelligent or at least fairly cunning, and can make up for their small size and lowly strength by using their smarts to establish themselves as hidden manipulators, leaders of wider organizations, or at least successful con men. In situations where demonic beings can "evolve" into stronger forms, imps are typically one of the first stages in such ladders and can mature or be promoted into stronger types fiends — in these cases, their weakness is less a sign of being a naturally weak breed of creatures and more a product of low personal rank and/or youth. Physically, imps tend to resemble tiny demons, but are otherwise fairly variable. They may or may not have wings, horns, or prominent ears, and may have skin in any of a variety of unnatural shades (green, red, and coal black are the most common). Most are small, which can range from the size of a songbird to the size of a child, but some examples can be the size of a grown person. They're often linked to demons, and are often a specific variety of these beings — invariably the weakest. Not to be confused with The Imp, which is about any weak but bothersome characters who serve as stronger villains' sidekicks. See also Our Demons Are Different, Our Goblins Are Different, and Griping About Gremlins. ## Examples - Digimon: Impmon is a Virus-type Rookie Digimon who first makes his appearance in Digimon Tamers. He is portrayed as a Boisterous Weakling hiding massive insecurities \|\|which lead to him taking a deal with Caturamon and becoming the Mega-Level Beelzemon in exchange for killing the Tamers\|\|. - Dungeon Keeper Ami: Imps are made by Dungeon Keepers giving evil spirits artificially-made bodies to serve as the Worker Unit doing all the digging, land claiming, and logistics. They are also made out of mana and have undying loyalty. - According to legend, the Lincoln Imp, a decorative carving within the Lincoln Cathedral in England depicting a squat, ugly humanoid, was once one of two imps brought to Earth by Satan to cause havoc and mischief. When angels arrived to command them to stop, one of the imps threw a rock at them and was petrified in punishment. - The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh: When she catches news that Childe Wynd and his companions are returning home, the queen sends out her imp familiars to sink or wreck their ship. However, their powers can do nothing against the rowan wood making it up. - Artemis Fowl: Imps are infant demons; when they're ready for adulthood they undergo a metamorphosis that grants them tremendous strength and physical prowess. Although most can't use magic, a rare few imps that do not metamorphose are known as warlocks and have the potential to become the greatest mages of all fairykind. - The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Imps are the least powerful and easiest to summon of the five main classes of demons (mites are even weaker, but they're not worth summoning most of the time). Unlike more powerful demons, they cannot shapeshift. - Discworld: Imps are tiny green humanoids used to power Magitek devices like cameras (they have no imagination, so they paint what they see) and watches. - Fighting Fantasy: Imps are a recurring, minor threat, with the most common being Fire Imps — bat-like, fire-breathing, flying critters with a human's face and horns, who attack the heroes by spitting fireballs. They're Fragile Speedster-type enemies who, despite being fast, go down in two hits, although in a few books (like Trial of Champions) the Fire Imps display the ability to further transform into far more powerful Fire Demons upon being slain. - Grounded for All Eternity: Imps are residents of Hell and serve as gatekeepers between the interdimensional voids. - Harry Potter: Imps are mentioned in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and like many Standard Fantasy Races, are presented more like animals than people. They live in British and Irish marshes and, having a slapstick sense of humor, like to trip people, though they're easily fought off by your average wizard. - InCryptid: In the short story "One Hell of a Ride", the train Jonathan and Frances are riding gets temporarily sent to a hellish dimension, where squat, six-limbed humanoids called border imps start killing and eating the passengers. They can only be killed by a Silver Bullet or blade, which both our heroes happen to carry. - Pact: Imps such as Pauz are the weakest form of demon, having been crafted from stronger demons in order to fulfill a purpose in some way related to furthering demonic interests in the world. Given time, they can become more powerful demons. - Akumaizer 3: The Aguma are based on imps and naturally serve as Mooks for higher-ranking demons. - Charmed (1998): Imps are small, red, bat-winged demons who swarm to attack enemies. They are spawned from the bodies of lower-level demons called Imp Masters who can control the swarm. - Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV has the Familiars Imps, serving as the Mooks of the series main villains, the Psyma Family. Known as The Batlings in America on Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. In Japan, they also had an Elite female variant, who essentially served as the Monster of the Week for the episode they appeared in. The latter female versions were not seen in America though. - Supergirl (2015): Imps in this show are more like Human Aliens, and they seem to have a true form which isn't a You Cannot Grasp the True Form type. They have Reality Warper powers, Time Travel powers, superhuman strength, and are The Juggernaut, so these should in theory be a Story-Breaker Power, but the characterization the imps get often means that the story-breaking element goes by the wayside in order to limit their powers. When they have used their powers, they've been beaten by Supergirl and her team over several episodes. Besides the imps that J'on Jonnz are noted to have played with in a flashback when he was younger (who were minor characters who had limited personality and were there to provide Back Story for J'on), there are two imps that are major characters: - Dungeons & Dragons: - Imps are very weak, small, and low-ranking devils who take on jobs as familiars in the hope of carrying their master's soul off to the Lower Planes. Until then, they supply aid as a lab assistant, gopher, and irritant. They resemble tiny versions of the classic red-skinned, bat-winged devils with scorpion tails. Additional imp variants are described in the 3rd Edition Fiend Folio: - Bloodbag imps were created by the lords of the Nine Hells are a sort of infernal nurse corps. They're swollen and rotund from the blood that fills their bodies, which can be drunk by other devils to restore health. - Euphoric imps are produce a weak version of common imps' venom, which doesn't do damage but serves as a potent hallucinogenic. These imps serve powerful devils as alchemists and drug dealers, and often inject themselves with their own toxin. Most are emaciated, constantly-dazed layabouts as a result. - Filth imps are rotund imps with yellowish skin and stringy, filthy hair. They're talented translators, forgers and code-breakers, but they stink to high heavens and most other devils loathe them as a result. Consequently, most filth imps seek out employment on the Material Plane. - Quasits are the demonic equivalent of imps, and fill largely the same role to both higher-ranking fiends and mortal wizards. Unlike true imps, they're green and wingless and possess tall horns and solid black eyes. - Mephits are elementals who maintain the "leering gargoyle" aesthetic. Each mephit is a Mr. Vice Guy (with the specific vice varying by elemental type), and they're also none too bright and suffer massive delusions of grandeur. In Planescape, mephits are most often summoned to be sent as gifts to people that the sender really doesn't like, with each type conveying a subtly different kind of insult. - In Nomine: Imps are minor infernal spirits charged with hindering and inconveniencing humans without actually causing physical or spiritual harm, such as by hiding car keys, draining batteries, or tampering with birth control. - Magic: The Gathering: - Imps are usually depicted as essentially much smaller, weaker versions of demons, and like them are mostly tied to Black mana (the color of selfishness, treachery, and amorality) and secondarily to Red mana (the color of impulsivity and emotion), and mostly appear as weak scavengers or servants to greater powers. They're chiefly associated with the Phyrexians, who use them as disposable minions and agents, and the Ravnican Cult of Rakdos, which mostly uses them as jesters. While most look like tinier versions of the humanoid, bat-winged demons, more unusual examples include the older art of Bog Imp, with diaphonous blue wings, green skin, and an elongated skull; the Red-aligned dieflyns of Shadowmoor, which are wingless and Wreathed in Flames; Infernal Pet, which resembles a rat with horns; the Phyrexian skirges, which have vaguely frog-like heads split by vertical, fang-filled mouths; and Teferi's Imp, the only Blue imp, which resembles a monkey-cat with bird wings and a prehensile ratlike tail. - Magic also uses the term Devil separately from Demons, referring to a kind of small, red-skinned, horned imps. Unlike the scheming Deal with the Devil-type, corrupting demons, devils are small nuisances that delight in causing chaos and suffering on a small scale. - Pathfinder: - Imps are among the weakest of all devils, and resemble diminutive versions of the classic Big Red Devil with long tails tipped with venomous stingers. They are often summoned by evil spellcasters to act as familiars, a role they take to with servile glee because it allows them extended one-on-one time with which to subtly push their would-be master towards damnation. In Hell, they mostly act as secretaries, gofers, and general-purpose lackeys while trying to impress their superiors enough to be promoted into a stronger form of devil. - Quasits are demonic counterparts to imps, and resemble tiny, horned, winged humanoids covered in green scales. Unlike other demons, which originate from the souls of deceased, sinful mortals, quasits are created in the act of being summoned when a fragment of the summoner's soul breaks off and mixes with the matter of the Abyss. They're spiteful and scheming servants, but serve their role until their master's death frees them; at that point, they either race their master's soul to the Abyss to grab it for themselves and use it to bargain for power or a better position with more powerful demons, or choose to remain as free-willed troublemakers in the material world. - Res Arcana: The Chaos Imp is a scaly demon with fins on its head, the ability to straighten another demon (letting it act again), and the ability to turn 1 Death and 1 Elan into 3 Death. - Warhammer: - Furies are weak lesser daemons that live as unaligned scavengers in the chaos realms, their forms shifting in tune with the balance of power between the Gods of Chaos. They typically resemble winged, animalistic humanoids, and prefer to travel in large flocks. - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Imps are the most minor species of daemon, little more than motes of emotion and magical energy within their native Realm of Chaos. The exact form they take in the mortal world varies, but they're usually diminutive humanoids, and daemonologists like to use them as Familiars. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: Feral Imp is a card released in the first set of cards and with the first Yugi structure deck, depicting a small green humanoid with wings and large ears. It has since seen zero play, thanks to far more powerful cards showing up. - CarnEvil: The Muertito imps are human-bat hybrid creatures summoned by supernatural forces to deal with you. Oddly enough, they prefer speaking in Spanish. - Conan Exiles: Imps are apelike nuisance enemies in the terrain closest to where new players start. - Daemon Summoner: The Imp enemies, despite being named as such in-game, are more akin to goblins, being small, midget-like enemies who runs circles around you while trying to run you through with their knives. They may be fast, but dies in one hit using any weapon. - Doom: Imps are the most common demons Doomguy will encounter; they typically resemble lean humanoids covered in spikes or bony armor. Their primary weapons are fireballs at long range and their claws at close range. Beginning with Doom³, they can also use their claws to climb on walls and objects. They're the lowest on the demon totem pole, with only former humans being lower; in combat, they're Fragile Speedsters who rely on mobility and agility to make up for their physical fragility. - Dungeon Keeper: Imps are the Worker Unit doing all the digging, land claiming, and logistics. They are also made out of mana and have undying loyalty. - The Elder Scrolls: Scamps, the weakest of Daedra, are small, pointy-eared beings used by Daedric Princes to cause mischief. They're noted to not be all that bright, and not especially dangerous to prepared adventures except in large numbers. - Final Fantasy: Imps are recurring enemies resembling small purple humanoids with bat wings and long, arrow-tipped tails; a more unusual version occurs in Final Fantasy XIII, which is fat, neckless, and with a wide mouth and a single central eye. They're usually fairly weak and described as cowardly, but can use a variety of elemental spells in combat. - Heroes of Might and Magic: Imps are usually the tier 1 creature for the Inferno faction. Their stats are awful, usually second-worst only to Peasants. They make up for it with their special ability, which is some form of Mana Burn or Mana Drain depending on the game. Plus, they can be used as Cannon Fodder to sacrifice and summon more powerful demons. - Nate (and many of the other smaller demons) from Hell Pie qualify as these. While being a demon already qualifies you for a miserable time, imps seem to have it the worst, being lowest in Hell's pecking order. Just the fact that Nate has to be the one to make Satan's birthday pie probably qualifies. - The Legend of Zelda: - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The Skull Kid is referred to as an "imp", but thanks to the titular mask, he's an exceptionally powerful one. \|\|Except not really, since the demon inside the mask turns out to have been running the show the whole time. Without it, he's far less imposing. He's also the same Skull Kid that Link teaches Saria's Song to in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In that game, Skull Kids are described as being spirits of those children who lose their way in the Lost Woods (basically, young Stalfos).\|\| - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Miniblins are small, very weak members of the Blin family of enemies, which makes up the series's most common Mooks. They're tiny, devilish figures with prominent buck teeth and a pair of curved horns, and are armed with pitchforks. They make up for their weakness by attacking Link in huge waves, aided by the fact that they constantly respawn. - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Midna begins the game as a small black imp, and is disrespectful and very clearly only using you as means to an end. However, eventually you learn that it isn't her real form at all, but the result of a curse that sealed away most of her powers (and seeing as she still has access to teleportation, energy blasts, and flight in her weakened state, her true powers must be quite considerable). At the end of the game she's a fully heroic character, and beating the final boss restores her to her true form. - Miitopia: - Enemy Imps come in Imp, Naughty, and Clever forms. They all wield pitchforks for their basic attacks and have a chance to "dip a Mii's heart in darkness", causing a Mii to temporarily turn evil. In gameplay terms, affected Miis may trip up their teammates to interrupt their attack, which can cause resentment in developing relationships. - Imp is also one of the available classes alongside the more standard ones. This class is very magic-orientated and is not only able to steal health and magic from enemies, it can reduce their defense too as well as buff teammates' attacks. - Nightmare Creatures has three fire-breathing Grey Imps that show up in the first level, which attack by spitting fire but can be easily defeated. Later — much, much later, after seven more levels — the player encounters the imps' larger and stronger cousins, Red Imps, which show up in the ruins of Westminster Abbey and Tower of London. - Plants vs. Zombies: Imps are the smallest zombies, being short, bald creatures with less than five fingers. They come in many forms throughout the series, but are typically seen riding on the backs of hulking Gargantuars, who throw them deep into the plant defenses after taking enough damage. - Pokémon: Impidimp are tiny, pink, humanoid Pokemon with large heads, pointed ears, and upturned noses. They're mischievous Peeve Goblins who like to play pranks on people, cause minor damage, and hide objects, in order to generate annoyance and irritation that they can feed on. They evolve into Morgrem, a stronger and more malicious gremlin, and then into the ogre-like Grimmisnarl. - RuneScape: Imps are small, red, demonic creatures that drop ash when killed. Originally they looked like gnomes in a hoodie with horns, but were re-designed to look more like a demon, with red skin and bat-like wings. There's also the friendlier Snow Imps, who are blue colored and are the servants of the Queen of Snow. Similar creatures include the implings, which look like small imps and can be caught for the Hunter skill. - South Park: Phone Destroyer: Imp Tweek is Tweek's Mystical set card. His card art depicts him as looking like a human with red bat wings and horns, a forked tail, goat legs, and a pitchfork, and his quotes have him talking about how "Darkness will prevail!" and such. - Warcraft: - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft: Imps are one of the most common types of demons, typically with exactly one attack and one health, and are usually summoned in large groups by Warlock spells. More powerful imps like Flame Imp and Bloodbound Imp exist, which have higher than average stats but also cost health to use. There's also Jumbo Imp, a massive 8/8 that becomes cheaper each time a friendly demon dies. - World of Warcraft: The first demons that warlocks can summon are Imps. They're small, fragile, and whiny little things with long ears and goatlike horns that can only cast fireballs and make snarky jokes. They're replaced with other, more powerful demons as the Warlock levels up. They are however fairly effective for certain purposes, as they're the only demon with a ranged attack, and often continue to be used right up to the endgame. Lorewise, imps are used as Cannon Fodder by the Burning Legion. Female imps are also much larger and more dangerous than the males. Interestingly, an imp in Legion implies that he was originally born on Azeroth, implying that imps were once native to the world before being corrupted into demons. - Helluva Boss: Imps are the lowest class of demons in Hell, and are not really treated well by many higher-class demons, often being used as servants. Blitzo and his company IMP cannot enter the living world normally, and have to use a book that Blitzo had to obtain by sleeping with its owner Stolas, one of the Princes of Hell. - Team Fabulous 2 has Spunky the Imp, who is a red cat-like being with a devil tail, spade shaped horns, and a black and white shirt. He's first seen sealed away in Elliot's fun box, but he escapes with the help of the Engineer. - Homestuck: Imps are the weakest and most common underlings, monsters created in the in-universe game Sburb to oppose the players. They resemble stout humanoids about the same size as human children, and while their basic form is simplistic and generic they gain a number of increasingly complex traits as the game progresses — among others, jester and princess outfits, feline and canine traits, facial and arm tentacles, and wings all become present among them. They're fairly challenging foes when the game first begins, but as the kids grow stronger they quickly cease to pose a meaningful threat and eventually cease to be seen as dangers at all. They're also portrayed as more mischievous than violent; while stronger underlings focus on attacking players, imps primarily steal objects, vandalize houses and make nuisances of themselves. - Looking for Group: Richard the warlock has an imp as his familiar named Elttil Hctib. They do not get along. - The Weekly Roll: Klara has a Quasit familiar, a demonic version of a type of imp from Dungeons & Dragons. - Aladdin: The Series: The Egyptian-themed Nefir Hasenuf and his band of fellow imps are recurring antagonists. Their get-rich-quick schemes tend to involve a lot of trickery, such as getting Agrabah and Odiferous into a war or using magic shoes to cause a giant to destroy a city night after night so they can charge for rebuilding it. Typically, once their underhanded deeds are exposed, their schemes fall apart rapidly and the imps are forced to flee rather than fight. - Harvey Beaks: The twins, Fee and Foo, are imps. They aren't particularly demonic looking, being short, humanoid creatures covered in pink and orange fur respectively, and possess sharp teeth. They do however share the mischievous nature of typical imps, being rambunctious but friendly troublemakers. Their parents later arrive in the series finale and hail from the "Greater Impland Empire". However, their parents are much bigger than the usually diminutive imps in classic fiction. - Masters of the Universe: - She-Ra: Princess of Power: The Big Bad, Hordak, has an imp named Imp as his sidekick. A shapeshifting spy, Imp rarely takes a direct hand against the good guys, but he's invaluable for collecting info on Rebel schemes. The fact that he's also one of the few minions Hordak has who is competent at his job makes him a favorite of his master. - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power also features the Imp, but in a smaller role. It mostly acts as Hordak's Familiar and can't talk, but can perfectly mimic voices it's heard, which it uses to spy on Hordak's subordinates for him. Season 3 \|\|implies that the Imp is a failed clone of Hordak\|\|. - The Smurfs (1981): One episode features a redheaded, green-skinned imp who is the same size as a Smurf and gives Smurfette some magical dancing shoes that lock her into an Involuntary Dance. Papa Smurf notes that all imps are evil.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurImpsAreDifferent
Our Gryphons Are Different - TV Tropes Pinkie Pie: What's a griffon? Rainbow Dash: She's half eagle, half lion. Gilda: And AAAAAALL awesome! Our Monsters Are Different, dealing with bird/mammal hybrids. While not as popular as dragons or unicorns, gryphons, also known as griffins or griffons, with alces and keythongs being archaic alternatives, are still prominent beasts in modern fantasy. The oldest gryphon myths come from the Egyptian Mythology and ancient Sumer. Later, they were picked up by Classical Mythology, and afterward used in Heraldry. They became a symbol of Christianity thanks to being a mixture of two majestic creatures that Christians back then saw as the "kings" of animals, thus making them rulers of both the earth and the heavens. After that, they went into literature, but their popularity would be low until the 1990s. In modern media, gryphons are often wild, powerful predators but are also found as guardians, mostly of treasures, or as winged steeds. When not simple beasts, they're usually noble beings; they sometimes retain their medieval connection with explicitly divine forces, but this isn't very common. They're usually animal-level beings, but a few portrayals depict them as intelligent and capable of speech. If you are really prone to do some research you can see that their love for gold, their negative attitude towards horses (sometimes expanded to other real and fantastic equine beings), and their old conflict with vaguely cyclopean races are in fact drawn from myth, but don't expect them to be very prominent. All in all, gryphons tend to have four main body plans: - The Classical Gryphon, or Griffin, which is portrayed as a Mix and Match critter with the body, back limbs and tail of a lion (modern depictions may add a feather fan at the tip), the wings, head, and front legs from a bird of prey. Some portrayals give them ears that may be either flesh-and-blood feline ears or based on the "ears" of eagle owls. - The Opinicus, a slight variation with has the front legs of a lion, rendering only the wings and head (and sometimes they even don't have the wings) as being bird like; don't expect ears to show up. The tail is usually leonine, but may sometimes be reptilian or a full snake, chimera-like. - The Wingless Gryphon, also called the Minoan Gryphon, Alces, Keythong and Demigryph, depicted as either a regular gryphon without wings or an eagle-headed lion. The exact name used tends to depend on context and the precise anatomy of the creature. "Minoan gryphon" tends to be restricted to gryphons in the artwork of the Minoan civilization of Crete. The alces and keythong originate in medieval heraldry, with the keythong being distinguished by spikes or thorns replacing the wings (in the original heraldry, those "spikes" are in fact sun rays). "Demigryph" is a more recent term and tends to be applied in fantasy fiction to all wingless gryphons, although those depicted with spikes or sun rays sprouting from their shoulders are still typically called keythongs. - The Hippogriff, which resembles a gryphon with the body and back limbs of a horse note : nothing to do with hippopotamuses, hippo is Greek for "horse" and 'hippopotamus' itself means "river horse". And Now You Know instead of a lion. It gained a lot of newfound popularity and attention after one was prominently featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but was otherwise already well established in Renaissance lore due to its use in Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso note : Hippogriffs appear or are mentioned sporadically in works before Orlando, but both their popularity and their nature and appearance in later works are very much due to their appearance in Ariosto's epic. It is the most likely variant of gryphon to appear as a flying steed. It seems to have originally been an extravagant Cue the Flying Pigs-style joke: "breeding gryphons with horses" was a metaphor used by Virgil for an impossible task, since gryphons ate horses (compare "dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria"). Other ungulates might be used instead of horses. In addition to these, variety is sometimes introduced to griffons by means of varying what creatures their designs combine: while the traditional griffons are part eagle and part lion (or part horse, in the hippogriffs' case), fiction sometimes varies this by using different cats and birds of prey, resulting in griffons that are part hawk, part owl, part vulture, part tiger, part leopard and so on. This may be either a purely aesthetic distinction or may impact the griffons' habitat and abilities (such as a peregrine falcon-and-cheetah griffon being very fast, a vulture-hyena griffon being a scavenger, or a snowy owl-and-snow leopard griffon living in cold climates). Raptorial birds are the most common kinds used, but almost all sorts of bird, such as ravens or parrots, are used on occasion. It's very rare for the mammalian parts to be anything other than a feline or an equine, however. May overlap with Giant Flyer should the gryphon have wings. The wingless kind never flies, being seemingly not as magical as eastern dragons. Not to be confused with Call a Pegasus a "Hippogriff", where one type of mythical creature is given the name of another mythical creature, and Hold Your Hippogriffs, where commonplace sayings are modified to include references to fantastic fiction worlds. See also Our Sphinxes Are Different and Our Manticores Are Spinier for more sometimes-winged leonine creatures with non-leonine heads from Mediterranean mythology. See also Our Perytons Are Different, for another bird/mammal hybrid, though its mythical pedigree is a bit less genuine. ## Examples - Aquarion Logos: Aquarion Gai is a robotical, blue-and-white griffon with two horse legs, two lion legs, and the head and wings of a falcon. - Digimon: - Gryphomon is a Mega-level Phantom Beast Digimon with tiger stripes, batlike wings and a face covered by a metallic helmet, who has appeared briefly in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier. He was also a Monster of the Week in Digimon Adventure: (2020). He's the version that has a snake for its tail. - Hippogriffomon is a hippogryph Digimon, with large claws over its hind hooves. All There in the Manual says he's Gryphomon's previous form, but in the Frontier movie, \|\|he was a disguise for a bad guy\|\|. - Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan have Nobita creating mythological critters by mixing various strands of animal DNA, one of them being a purple-furred Gryphon named Gri. - Fate/Apocrypha: Rider of Black can summon a hippogriff that he rides on. - Tweeny Witches: Gryphon fairies look like owls and their feathers are used by the witches to fly on brooms. - Artist Mel Tillery has designed eight species of "trash gryphons", including magpie/skunk, pigeon/rat, and ibis/possum. note : Australian possum, not American. Though there's also a vulture/opossum. - Magic: The Gathering has griffins as a creature type. They're usually white flying creatures, stronger than pegasi and some spirits but weaker than angels. - Scars of Mirrodin has Razor Hippogriff, currently the only true hippogriff in The Multiverse. Hippogriffs also appear in Innistrad, usually as allies to the Church of Avacyn, but they're typed and referred to as griffins alongside the regular kind. In sets set on Innistrad, the hippogriff creature type is instead used for gryffs, which are like hippogriffs, but with four horse legs and the tail, wings and head of a heron. - Griffins are also common in the plane of Theros, based off of Greek mythology, where they were originally created by the gods to catch falling stars. Athreos, the ferryman who brings the dead to the underworld, uses skeletal griffins to fetch the souls who try to avoid the crossing. - While most griffins use the traditional eagle and lion anatomy, exceptions include Teremko Griffin, which has the hindquarters of a leopard; Spotted Griffin, which is part cheetah and part kestrel; Peregrine Griffin, with the forequarters of a peregrine falcon; and Resplendent Griffin, from the Mayincatec plane of Ixalan, with the forequarters of a brightly colored parrot. - While Majestic Myriarch, from Hour of Devastation, is technically typed as a chimera rather than a griffin, its appearance — a lion with the head of a raptorial bird and a pair of translucent energy wings — still gives across the impression of a griffon. With a cobra for a tail. - Unstable Unicorns: The Unicorn Phoenix looks like an orange hippogriff with a horn. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: - While not actually a gryphon, the Winged Dragon of Ra looks more like a griffin with teeth than a typical dragon. He's also light themed. - One of the cards that was printed is Hieracosphinx albeit this one has wings. - Star Wars Adventures: The Argora resembles a bright blue griffin with four eyes, and with four leonine legs instead of two being mammalian and two avian. - Superman: The Krypton Chronicles features Kryptonian hippogriffs called Tanthuo Flez or "the Winged Ones", being winged mammals with four horse legs and the head of a raptor. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Hippogriffs can be found in the mountainous versions of multiple environments and have a different coat and feather pattern for each biome, such as bald eagles in taigas, golden eagles in temperate mountains, kestrels in savannahs, and snowy owls in icy peaks. They are neutral and can be tamed to serve as flying steeds that can be commanded to attack enemies. They love eating rabbits, and can be tamed by feeding them rabbit feet and bred by feeding them rabbit stew; instead of producing a young immediately, they lay an egg that hatches after a while. Their talons can be used to craft powerful swords. - Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: One of Lexi's favorite mythological creatures is the gryphon and he is capable of changing and folding his papers to have the appearance of one. He turns into one at the end of Chapter 6 for Chloe and Atticus to ride on. - My Inner Life: Griffins are a noble but reclusive race who live in the Black Mountains, across the desert from Hyrule. They are intelligent and can speak and even brew beer, and live in a town laid out very much like a human settlement. - As they were one of the earliest intelligent species besides ponies to be introduced in the show, griffons tend to feature quite often in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction. - Equestria Divided: House Stormwing uses both regular gryphons and keythongs, horned and wingless griffons with shoulders and upper backs bristling with long spikes and with a taste for pony meat, as mercenary soldiers. - Heart of Gold, Feathers of Steel: The griffons are a Dying Race whose glory days are long behind them; they're well aware of both their glorious past and dismal future, and it shows. Culturally speaking, they're patterned after the Germanic tribes. They're traditionally a warrior people and on poor terms with ponies; Gilda believes that their insistence on holding onto their old traditions is a large part of why they're declining now. - The Palaververse: - The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Wind Breaker is a classic griffon with the front of a bird of prey (although he's colored more like a falcon than an eagle) and the back of a lion. Griffons are also described as having two different subspecies, mountain griffons and the smaller valley griffons, Wind Breaker being the latter type. - Ponyfinder, a fanmade adaptation of Pathfinder based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, includes griffons and hippogriffs as playable races: - Griffons are divided between several aspects, which affect their avian traits, feline traits, or both. These are the Predator aspect (basic griffons), Cheetah aspect (more ground focused, faster running speed), Cursed aspect (crystaline growths across the body that cause great pain and weakness, but enhance endurance and psionic ability), Prey aspect (less adept in melee, but better spellcasters and more charismatic), Pride aspect (lion feline traits, more socially focused and diplomatic), Scavenger aspect (vulture and raven avian halves, more focused on cunning), Sea aspect (otter back half, sea eagle front half, adept in water as well as land and air) and Snow aspect (usually resembling snow owls and snow leopards, adapted for cold environments). - Hippogriffs are the hybrid children of griffons and ponies. They can belong to any of the griffon aspects and have the associated avian traits, and can have the hindquarters and nature of any kind of pony (regular pony, zebra, crystal pony, etcetera). - The Steep Path Ahead: Considered Brimir's sacred animal, Saito claims that they look like wolves with wings, and both their feathers and feces are valuable reagents. They don't primarily attack humans unless provoked, but they can easily clear out a countryside. - DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: At the end of the movie, the villain Merlock transforms into a gryphon as part of his One-Winged Angel act. - Fantasia 2000: A gryphon can be seen among the various mythical creatures (the others being a dragon and a unicorn) that were mocking the animals as they were boarding Noah's Ark, and presumably drowned in the flood. - Onward has a bizarre example, as griffins are apparently the Fantastic Fauna Counterpart to chickens, with Corey the Manticore's tavern even serving "griffin nuggets". - Quest for Camelot has a particularly weird gryphon. While following the classical griffin design, the black-feathered bird forequarters are proportionally much larger than the lion hindquarters, while the head is not particularly eagle-like — the beak, especially, resembles that of a vulture. He's also very much a Butt-Monkey, being continually beaten by a falcon ten times smaller than him and by his boss, to whom he is loyal though sadly very incompetent at doing his job. He's eventually burned, presumably to death, by the two-headed dragon, and on top of that he is considered The Scrappy by the fans. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The movies features classical gryphons with feline ears, which aren't present in the original books, as part of the heroes' army in the first movie. - Godzilla (1998): An early draft features a rival monster called the Gryphon; however, it's described as an amalgam of mountain lion and bat rather than the traditional lion and eagle. - The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: An opinicus, representing good, fights a centaur cyclops (representing evil). In the ensuing fight it becomes clear the griffin is gaining the upper hand until Prince Koura slashes the griffin's hind leg, weakening it and allowing the cyclopean centaur to throttle it. - Revenge of the Sith: The planet Utapau has creatures called dactillions that basically resemble the gryphon version of a pteranodon. They appear in the prominently in the background of several scenes set on the planet, as the inhabitants use them as aerial mounts. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Like the book series, the compressed adaptation included a griffin but only halfway through the movie; its only purpose is to fly the heroes to the Secret Glade. - Alice in Wonderland has a classical gryphon, which is about as much of a help as the mock turtle. He only appears rarely in the movie versions, being no help to Alice opposite Cary Grant in 1933. In the 2010 movie it's implied he once fought against the Jabberwock, as a picture of him fighting the monster appears in a mural.◊ - Barlowes Guide To Fantasy, by Wayne Barlowe: Griffins are fancifully portrayed as a species of real, albeit extinct, creatures native to Central Asia, which endured until at least the first century AD before dying out for unknown causes. In a nod to (fanciful) speculation that the griffon myth arose from early discovery of Protoceratops fossils, they are portrayed as literally being descended from a mutant strain of the actual dinosaurs, and consequently depicted as Protoceratops with avian wings and long, feather-tipped tails in the illustration◊. Female griffins excavated extensive tunnel systems in which to brood their eggs, often bringing gold to the surface as they did, but only a very brave or very foolish person would have risked delving into a griffin's nest to get it. - Book of Imaginary Beings: - Sir John Mandeville, in his fantastic accounts of his supposed travels, reported that griffons were large enough to carry off two oxen together, while medieval texts and artwork typically used griffons as symbols of Christ. - Hippogriffs are inherently paradoxical things, as griffons' hatred of horses was so well-known that "to breed horses with griffons" was a saying referring to an impossible task. Ludovico Ariosto was inspired by this saying to create a hippogriff for the Orlando Furioso, which is used as a steed by Astolpho until he sets it free late in the poem. - Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel, Year of the Griffin, feature a mixed human and griffin family, the result of a wizard who created intelligent griffins by mixing lion and eagle (and, later, cat) germ plasm with his own and his wife's and raising the hybrid kids alongside his more traditionally-conceived (human) children. There are also naturally occurring griffins in the world, which gave the wizard the idea in the first place. - "Darkness Box", by Ursula K. Le Guin, features gryphons used as war animals, which are apparently immortal (or near to it) and which bond closely to their owners. - David And The Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd, features three different species, each with a slightly different spelling. The reader encounters the lazy, thick-headed griffens and vicious, territorial griffons; the amiable, red-feathered griffins remain off-screen. - The Divide: Brazzles are what griffons are known as in the magical world, but have a number of unusual properties: their claws turn red when dipped in poison, their feathers have mystical properties \|\|related to the treatment of heart conditions\|\|, and they have a culture where male brazzles typically become mathematicians while females are generally historians. - The Divine Comedy: A gold-and-white griffin appears at the top of Purgatory as an allegory for Christ, who is both God and man like the griffin is both eagle and lion. In order to make this work with the doctrine that Christ is 100% divine and 100% human with no compromise, Dante perceives the griffin as both a complete eagle and a complete lion simultaneously, creating a very bizarre image that he struggles to convey. - Dracopedia: Griffins and hippogriffs are described in Dracopedia: The Bestiary. - Griffins are pretty much what you'd expect. They're large predators that dwell in the mountains of Europe hunting fish and game, but went extinct in the Renaissance for unknown reasons. There is also speculation of the existence of an American species due to the prominence of eagle-like deities in American mythologies. - Hippogriffs are described as herbivorous cousins of the griffin, with their equine body being more like a wild mustang in contrast to the more elegant purebred form of the pegasus. - Dragon Rider: In the second book, The Griffin's Feather, griffins have the traditional love of gold and hatred of horses — but, less traditionally, they have a poisonous snake for a tail. Surprisingly, they give live birth while pegasi in this universe lay eggs. The majority of griffins, as they come from the Babylonian desert, have tawny plumage and fur, but one younger griffin who had been born in the Indonesian jungle has bright green feathers, a blue-green snake-tail, and the fur of a marbled cat. Some speculate that he is the son of a "Pelangi bird". - The Dragon Wars Saga: Like all Speakers, gryphons come in various types depending on affinity. Kimi has an ice affinity and is half arctic eagle, half snow leopard. - Fancy Apartments has its own resident gryphon, Gordie; who was raised, more or less, by the building's manager. - A Fantasy Attraction includes Bob and Sally, two recently married griffins, as well as a murderous hippogriff. - The Firebringer Trilogy has gryphons that prey on unicorn colts, probably a reference to the mythical horse-eating gryphons. - Great Ship: Griffons are used as artificial soldiers by the Gaian entity in the short story Aeon's Child. They have claws adapted to be compatible with high-powered laser rifles, and have beaks made of a nearly indestructible compound known as hyperfiber. They are connected through a sapient Hive Mind. - "The Griffin And The Minor Canon", by Frank Stockton, has a Griffin that is, from its description, quite obviously meant to be a dragon. While the front half matches the usual type, the wings have spikes on their joints and it has no hindquarters, having a snakelike tail that ends in a barbed tip that glows red hot when it's angry. It eats only at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and feeds only on the brave and the good. - Griffin Mage Trilogy features griffins who are magical and fully intelligent — even if they mix with humans only very problematically. They are also strongly associated with fire, and live in deserts. - Harry Potter: Hippogryphs are a dangerous but tamable type of magical creature, and can be ridden as flying steeds by wizards who earn their respect — which can be a bit difficult, as they're very proud and intelligent creatures and prone to viciously lashing out when treated badly. More "traditional" griffins also exist in the setting, but are only part of the background lore. - Hell's Gate: Griffins are barely controllable killing machines created by magical genetic engineering. - Heralds of Valdemar: Gryphons are highly intelligent beings who were created by a powerful mage thousands of years before the main timeline; their origins are explored in the Mage Wars prequel trilogy. They are generally noble and brave, but many of the males tend toward the vain and hedonistic, and they depend on having human "assistants" to help with daily tasks such as grooming. Gryphons can neither communicate by Mindspeech nor speak a clear human language; instead, they can speak aloud but are prone to Sssssnaketalk and Trrrilling Rrrs. They are not capable of carrying a rider, but magic-using gryphons (of which there are a few) can enchant a basket to be weightless, and then carry a person (or the equivalent weight of cargo) in it. - Urtho's enemy Ma'ar created a counterpart species, the makaar, who are like Bizarro versions of gryphons: just as large, just as agile in the air, but ugly as sin and distinctly less intelligent; one-on-one, the best makaar is barely a match for an average gryphon. - During the Mage Wars, Urtho experimented with a variant gryphon he called a "gryfalcon". The prototype gryfalcon lacked talons and was less of a warrior than an average gryphon, but she was also more agile on the ground and in the air, and her talonless forepaws made more-than-adequate hands. - Imagine Someday: Griffins are Proud Warrior Race Guys but have no magic powers to speak of. - InCryptid has many species of Lesser Griffins, which have the front half and wings of some sort of bird, the hindquarters of some kind of feline, and feline ears on their bird head. Alex Price has a pet church griffin (crow and large cat) named Crow. Australia has the convergently evolved Garrinna, which has the front half of a galah and the back half of a thylacine. Shelby has one as a pet. - The Lotus War gryphons are known as Thunder Tigers and are half-tiger rather than half-lion. They are descended from the thunder god Raiden and have lightning powers as a result. Certain individuals with supernatural bloodlines known as Stormdancers can bond telepathically with them. - Miras Griffin has four-limbed griffins (the wings fold to become forearms). They are sentient but cannot communicate with humans. Though bigger than humans, they are not large enough to carry one in flight. - Mistress Of Mistresses features hippogriffs as part of an Impossible Task. The author illustrated the book himself, and gave the hippogriffs horse heads, raptor wings and front legs, and lion rear halves. Not quite your classical hippogriff! - The Night Circus: Celia uses them as figures on the carousel. Once Widget and Poppet both wanted to ride one, and Celia had to tell of the Kitsune to get Poppet to ride the nine-tailed fox instead. - Ology Series: Monsterology, a companion book for the Dragonology series, includes griffins and hippogriffs in its chapter about flying creatures. The former are carnivores with a taste for horses, and are especially fond of winged ones. The latter are grain-eaters instead. People seeking to hatch griffins or hippogriffs should keep both horsemeat and grain handy, as their eggs are largely indistinguishable, but keep them out of sight until the chick hatches, as a hippogriff chick will find the sight of horse flesh distressing. - The Orphan's Tales: Griffins are he size of elephants, often vivid in coloration — picture cobalt blue and marbled white. Their preferred diet is horses, their preferred material for their nests is gold, and their enemies are the Arimaspians — gigantic cyclopses. - Protector of the Small: Keladry raises a baby Opinicus-type griffin until his parents are found, getting savaged often in a subversion of Pet Baby Wild Animal. Griffins there are intelligent, if hard to communicate with and not quite on the level of humans and some other immortals. They're also Living Lie Detectors — it's physically impossible to lie when they are near — whose feathers have related properties such as seeing through illusions and making arrows fly truer. Griffins can sense if someone has handled their young, and will kill whoever that is unless, as with Kel, there's a translator there to explain. And there are also hurroks (horse-hawks), which like griffins are magical immortals, but decidedly nastier and more animal. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: There is a gryphon called Byron, whom the children find rescue from a goblin camp and secretly nurse back to health in their barn; he afterwards comes to serve as a flying mount for them. While following the eared variant of the classical griffin design, he's more slender than most depictions and his beak has teeth/tooth-like serrations. Griffins are also quite large — Byron is around the size of a bus — and mortal enemies of horses; because of this, the rare hybrid hippogriffs are considered to be a symbol of undying love. - Star Trek Novel Verse: The Kinshaya race are essentially griffins, being mammals with four legs and a pair of wings sprouting from their back. They are too heavy to fly, though — in modern Kinshaya, the wings are used for display purposes instead. - The Summer King Chronicles is a Xenofiction High Fantasy series about "gryfons". Physically, they range from wolf-sized to lion-sized and give birth to a single "kit" at a time. Most live in "prides" ruled by kings. Males fight while females hunt. There are two races of gryfon: the Aesir and the Vanir. Aesir are larger, powerful, predisposed to battle, eat red meat, and are often impossibly brightly colored. \|\|This turns out to only apply to the population who conquered the Silver Isles, due to a dragon curse. When Shard travels to the Aesir homeland, the gryfons there are much more naturalistically colored.\|\| Vanir are smaller, more agile, eat fish, and have more subdued coloring. Both are sapient and can interbreed. - Thursday Next: The griffin from ''Alice in Wonderland' appears on a number of occasions. - The Traitor Son Cycle: Griffons grow rapidly and not only generate love, but feed off it. They will bond with the first person to demonstrate immense love in front of them and can talk with their bondsmate telepathically, though their intelligence is rather childlike. Appearance-wise, they're your traditional Mix-and-Match Critters, to the point where Gabriel wonders if they weren't artifically created. - The Unicorn Chronicles: Medafil, introduced in book 2, is pretty much a classic gryphon; he even hoards treasure. He's also the most intelligent of his kind, the rest being little more than beasts and barely able to say more than "Gaaah", which is part of why he left their territory and lives on his own. - Xanadu (Storyverse): The first sighting of a winged horse that Hannah and Beth investigate when searching for Wynd turns out to be a hippogriff, which as they point out to the soldier accompanying them is distinguished from a pegasus by its eagle head and predatory habits, which are soon after demonstrated when it dives on and decapitates a cow. - Kamen Rider: - Kamen Rider Wizard: Kamen Rider Beast has a Griffin familiar that seems to be the Classical style. - Kamen Rider Zi-O: The title character's potential future self Ohma Zi-O wears black-and-gold armour with both lion and eagle motifs note : His helmet has detail evoking a lion's mane, and his arrival is said to be heralded by the lion star Regulus. Meanwhile the characters for "RIDER" on his visor have become barbed to resemble Shocker's eagle crest, and he has "wings" on his back in the form of a pair of giant clock hands., representing his nature as an absolute, invincible Evil Overlord. - Merlin (1998): Merlin and Arthur are attacked by creatures that Merlin calls "griffins". They look a little like monkeys with the patagia of a flying squirrel and the heads of hawks, and they act an awful, awful lot like the "raptors" in Jurassic Park. - Merlin (2008): One episode has an opinicus, which acts pretty much as a one-time terror, eventually meeting its demise. - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Goldar is something of an odd example, as his leonine features include a muzzle. This, along with his fur colour and the shape of his forward fangs have lead some to assume he's a gorilla or wolf-man, but he is in fact an anthropomorphic griffin. This is backed up by his Zyuranger self being named Grifforzer. In season two, the Yellow Ranger had a Griffin Zord (as a Western version of its Dairanger counterpart, a Kirin). - According to the Greek historian Herodotus, there were griffins living among the Riphean Mountains (generally thought to mean the Urals or Carpathians) in Hyperborea (meaning "beyond the North Wind", a general term used by the Greeks to refer to the wild north beyond Thrace/modern Bulgaria and Romania). There, they were supposed to jealously hoard gold, something that brought them in constant conflict with the Arimaspi, a race of one-eyed barbarians who lived in the same area. - Recognisable gryphons first appear in Scythian gold artworks, usually as guardians or as eating other animals. Unfortunately we know little of Scythian Mythology, but it is likely the inspiration for Herodotos' claims. - It has been suggested that the myths of the gryphons are connected to the sphinx and the Mesopotamian shedu and lammassu (which also influenced the origins of cherubs, other lion bodied creatures generally depicted with wings). - The heraldic Keythong is a wingless griffin with large spines on its body that is occasionally depicted as having horns on its head. - Some legends about Charlemagne claim that he and his knights rode on hippogriffs. - Magic Girl has a brown-furred gryphon with taloned hands perched in the upper-right corner of the playfield. - Paragon prominently features a lion/eagle/lizard hybrid griffon on both its backglass and playfield. - Cool Kids Table: In the Harry Potter-themed game Hogwarts: The New Class, Jake gets a pygmy gryphon (whom he names Jomps), which has the body of a house cat and the head and wings of a red-tailed falcon. - The Dark Eye: - Griffons are holy creatures, servants on the god Praios and stalwart defenders of truth, justice and order. They are intelligent creatures and can speak multiple languages, and never lie. They exist to serve their god and his cause, and can be found all over the world in crusades against demons and dark magic. - Irrhalks are griffon-like demons with horns, black feathers, and a fiery glow in their chests, serving the demon lord Blakharaz, and are very intelligent and evil. They are either fallen griffins or demons made in mockery of the real thing, it's not entirely clear. - Dungeons & Dragons: - The game has long included the griffon and the hippogriff among its monsters. Generally, griffons are intelligent creatures capable of either speaking human languages or at least understanding them, while hippogriffs are animals. Both are used as mounts, although obviously riders have very different relationships with a sapient griffon steed than with a hippogriff mount. Griffons prey on horses, which often results in enmity between them and intelligent horselike beings such as pegasi and asperi, and in some settings this includes a sense of animosity towards hippogriffs as well. As a result, although pegasi normally reserve their enmity for evil beings, they bear a particularly deep-seated hatred of griffins and hippogriffs. Some further variants exist, such as Rimefire griffins with elemental affinity for both ice and fire. - The Hieracosphinx, mentioned in the page image, has been a semi-regular monster which is here depicted as an Always Chaotic Evil variant of the sphinx that can be mistaken for a griffon quite easily, due to having an eagle's head and wings on a lion's body. It's an Always Male race that reproduces by raping the Always Female gynosphinxes. - The Opinicus also appears by that name in older editions, but instead it is a Chaotic Good creature resembling a winged camel with a lion's tail and mane, a monkey's head and hands, and a love for jokes and playing pranks. - While they've never been linked to griffons, owlbears fit the mould pretty well as hybrid beasts with the bodies of large mammalian predators and the heads of birds of prey. And while owlbears can't fly, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare them to some of the wingless griffon variants. - In the Eberron setting, the griffon is House Jorasco's heraldic magical beast. - Exalted: - Gryphons are Wyld creatures that originated as chance fusions of hawk and lion, but have since stablized into their own species. They're frequently used as steeds by the Fair Folk. - Flame gryphons are a variant found in the Southern Wyld, and possess golden claws and wings made out of flame. They can live fine in creation, but can only reproduce in the Wyld. They're fiercely independent, to the point of tearing themselves apart rather than submit to magical compulsion. They also possess a deep and innate hatred of horses and horse-like creatures, which they kill whenever possible. - Gods of the Fall: Griffons are wild predators with the head, wings, forelimbs and talons of an eagle, and the torso, hind legs (but not feet) and tail of a lion. They are wild animals, but those found as chicks can be trained as mounts. - GURPS Fantasy Bestiary includes gryphons and hippogriffs, both of which fly through the use of Mana stored in their feathers. - Gryphons are fierce predators, and fond of horse meat. They can be tamed if captured young, but will only obey the commands of their original trainer. - Hippogriffs have the hindquarters of horses and the forequarters of gryphons — essentially, a hippogriff has the legs, rump and tail of a horse, the head, talons and wings of an eagle, and the chest of a lion. They're easier to tame than gryphons are, which is thought to be due to their partly equine nature, and their horse legs make them faster runners on the ground. - Palladium Fantasy: Griffons fit the standard fantasy mold in terms of physical appearance, live in high mountains in northern climes and will generally leave humans alone unless threatened or hungry. - Pathfinder includes the griffon, hippogriff (speculated in-universe to have come about as a wizard's weird joke on the griffons' taste for horse meat) and hieracospinx, ultimately based on their D&D incarnations. - Griffons were originally created by Curchanus, a god of beasts and the wilderness, to act as guardians to his faithful. When Curchanus was slain by the demon lord Lamashtu, the formerly intelligent and organized griffons descended into their current bestial state. - While eagle-and-lion griffons are the most common kind, certain environments are home to specific variants: desert-dwelling griffons typically have the heads and wings of hawks and the hindquarters of mountain lions, while jungle-dwellers may blend the bodies of panthers with those of colorful parrots or black-feathered eagles and arctic griffons may resemble lynxes and snowy owls. Griffons whose bird and feline parts are of different kinds from those common in their region (such as a tiger-striped griffon born among lion-based ones) are shunned by their parents and forced to live on their own. - Alces are a rare variant of swift-running griffon born without wings. In 1st Edition they're hatched from eggs brooded by their father, rather than their mother, while in 2nd Edition they're the result of a rare mutation and often treated as the runts of their litters. - Pathfinder's hippogriffs have the added peculiarity of having birdlike talons at the end of all four limbs, and do not coexist very well with true griffons — griffons are sapient, hippogriffs aren't, and the former have a habit of hunting and eating the latter. However, while the two are normally separate species, it's possible for a mythic griffon to produce hippogriffs or mythic hippogriffs by mating with awakened horses, Unicorns, or mythic horses or unicorns. - RuneQuest: - Griffins have the heads, wings and forelegs of eagles, and the bodies and hind legs of lions, and hoard gold and treasure in their lairs. They are an ancient and powerful race, know basic magic and sometimes join their equivalent of Fire/Sky Rune cults. They rarely mix in the affairs of men, and leave others alone unless they try to take the griffin's hoard of gold. - Modern hippogriffs are the descendants of the goddess Hippogriff from before the Great Darkness, and like their ancestress have the bodies of horses with the wings and foreclaws of eagles. - Shadowrun: Classic griffins, resembling the usual mix of lion and eagle with feathered ears, exist as Awakened animals of unclear origin, although they're tentatively classified as birds. They're solitary mountain-dwellers and prey chiefly on large hoofed mammals. A few additional variants are known to exist, generally created by additional magical mutation of the main griffin species. - An Asian species exists that is distinguished by a scaly head and neck and a spiny fin running down its neck and back. - False griffins are largely identical to the normal kind, but lack wings and external ears. - The hieracosphinx resembles a griffin with a falcon-like head and vestigial wings, while the criosphinx resembles a hieracosphinx with lion ears and ram horns. They live only in the Serdarbulak Plateau in the Middle East and are believed to have diverged from regular griffins in the surge of magical transformations that came with the passing of Halley's Comet. - Heliodromus are mutant griffins with fully feline bodies and the wings and heads of vultures. They're opportunistic scavengers, waiting near freeways to glean roadkill, raiding graveyards, lurking around battlefields and sometimes picking through garbage dumps. They are also known to try to scare other creatures into dangerous situations by using their ability to induce supernatural fear, and will attack targets directly if they're especially hungry. - Warhammer: Griffons are highly sought-after steeds among the nobles and generals of the Empire and the High Elves due to their ferocity in battle, their ability to fly and the prestige of having one as a mount. Hippogryphs play a similar role for Bretonnia. Such steeds are very rare, as neither griffons nor hippogryphs will breed in captivity — all tame ones have to be taken as eggs or very young chicks from the high mountains where they nest, something rather complicated by their highly protective parents, and nobles will pay exorbitant prices for an egg or chick of their own. Griffons in Warhammer are also fairly varied in appearance — they've been portrayed with markings like leopards and tigers as well as lions, others have hawk- and falcon-like forequarters, and some have two heads. - Karl Franz, the current Emperor of the Empire, can ride one of the Empire's fiercest gryphons into battle (or a regular horse, or a dragon, depending on what you're willing to put together) that he himself raised from an egg. King Luen Leoncoeur of Bretonnia rides a hippogryph named Beaquis, and in the End Times the imperial wizard Gregor Martak rode a two-headed griffon named Twinshriek. - One Imperial hero, Theodore Bruckner, rides to battle on a wingless breed called a demigryph. Demigryph-riding knights are an Imperial unit choice as well. All four of a demigryph's legs are feline, making them resemble giant tigers with eagle heads. - Hippogryphs and griffons are extremely hostile to each other, usually fighting to the death when they meet in the wild, and have claimed distinct mountain ranges as their territories — griffons chiefly live in the World's Edge Mountains and hippogryphs in the Grey. This has led to their association with the nations neighboring this mountain ranges. Griffons in particular are considered sacred animals in the Empire, and the leader of Sigmar's church wears a jade emblem carved to resemble a griffon. - In early editions of the game, griffons and hippogriffs were instead creatures of Chaos and part of the Chaos army lists. This largely fell by the wayside as the game evolved, but there is still some in-universe speculation that griffins and hippogryphs were originally Chaos mutants created in a similar vein to manticores or chimeras, due to their chimeric body plans. The theory goes that, despite their origins, they have been separated from their unnatural genesis for long enough to stabilize and "go native", and now live and breed like any other animal. Due to the symbolic importance they carry for most major human nations, however, this theory is a very unpopular one. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar brings back griffons and demigryphs as creatures associated with the forces of Order, and particularly with the Free Cities and the Stormcast Eternals. Griffons and demigryphs are native to Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, which is generally associated with birds and aerial creatures. A distinct breed of two-headed griffons, originating as an offshoot of the main Azyrite kind, exists in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, and is known for greater strength and fiercer temper. These are usually ridden by wizards of the Lore of Beasts. In addition, two additional breeds of wingless gryphs are introduced: - Gryph-hounds are essentially demigryphs the size of a large dog and have very keen senses; they're typically used as attack animals, watchdogs and companions. - Gryph-chargers resemble wingless hippogriffs with lion tails, as they have horselike hind legs and avian forelegs instead of a demigryph's four feline legs; some also have two tails. - In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Griffin spirit is the tribal totem of the Red Talons. - Transformers: - There has been some speculation surrounding the Beast Machines toy of Silverbolt◊, which ostensibly turns into a condor... a condor with plainly visible, not-hidden-in-the-least legs in front of its wings. The toy can be reconfigured into a griffin mode by turning these legs downward, and for all world, this makes it actually look like something. However, beyond the fact that this configuration looks a hundred times better than its "condor" mode, and that it's also something of a callback to Silverbolt's original form (a wolf-eagle hybrid), there is nothing official to suggest that this was the original intent of the designers, and the character appears as a condor in the animated series as well — although the cartoon was notorious for often disregarding what the toys looked like, so perhaps releasing the toy as a condor was a (failed) attempt to make it resemble its on-show counterpart. - 2013 brought Grimwing, a Predacon in the Transformers: Prime toyline, who is an ursagryph, which is basically a classical gyphon with the lion swapped out for a bear. He never appeared on the show, but a Palette Swap named Darksteel was in the Predacons Rising finale movie (with his own limited toy release), and Budora is their counterpart in Transformers: Go!. - American McGee's Alice has the Gryphon, who is initially held captive by the Mad Hatter. Alice frees him, and he helps lead her force against the Red Queen's army. \|\|He is killed in an aerial duel with the Jabberwock, and his corpse is pretty much one of the only things that Alice can take cover behind in the ensuing boss fight.\|\| - ARK: Survival Evolved: Griffins are added from the Ragnarok Update onwards, which is a fantasy-themed update. They are difficult to tame and they attack by slashing their claws or dropping from a tall height. - Brigandine has griffins as a base monster with the holy attribute. If you upgrade it, then it becomes a holy griffin and can shoot its feathers at enemies. - Castlevania: - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a Hippogriff as the boss of the Royal Chapel, with the body of a horse and the front claws, head and wings of an eagle. Later, in the Inverted Castle, more Hippogriffs appear as a Degraded Boss. - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Hippogriffs return, although only as a regular enemy, again with the hindquarters of a horse and the claws, wings and head of an eagle. - Darksiders: The Angels ride angelic creatures called Ortho that look like white, armored griffins. - Dragon Age: In the lore, the Grey Wardens of old rode on Griffins. They all eventually died out by the present, though. Warden armor still carries a griffin crest in their honor. Due to the events of Last Flight, \|\|griffons are revealed to just barely avoided extinction, with about thirteen griffon eggs recovered from a magical stasis spell\|\|. - Dragon's Dogma: The griffons are of a rather classical design, except for having the coloration of bald eagles and for generating electricity while flying. - Dwarf Fortress: Griffons are one of a small number of creatures that exist as in-game myths: they have a bare minimum of game data and show up in engravings, but they do not exist as actual creatures you can encounter. Despite this, dwarves can still express a liking for their strength. - The Elder Scrolls Online has gryphons as wild animals, which follow a somewhat more avian version of the classical appearance: they do have cat-like ears, but their bodies are completely feathered and their hindlegs are bird-like claws as well. There are a rare few trained ones, namely by the Welkynar Knights of Cloudrest (which are featured in the Cloudrest 12-player trial). There is also a wingless variety called the quasigriff, which were selectively bred to be used as mounts, and which do have feline hindlegs. - Fire Emblem: Awakening: The Griffin Rider, a Jack of All Stats armed with an axe, is an alternate branch class of the Wyvern Rider sub-group. - Gigantic: Leiran, one of the Guardians, is a five-story tall gryphon that can shoot lasers from its eyes. - God of War II: There's a sequence where you fight people riding griffins. This being God of War, you hop on the griffin's back, cut off its wings, and let it plummet to its death while you hop back on Pegasus. Closer inspection of artwork and scenes suggests the creatures have a hooked blade at the end of their tail similar to a manticore. There are also the dark griffin riders, who ride black griffins wearing bronze masks. - Heroes of Might and Magic: In the first three games, the griffins stand on their hind legs, while in IV and V, they go on all fours. At least in the old setting ( I-IV, and all the Might and Magic RPGs except for X), while the recruitable creature is consistently called griffin across the games, variant spellings do appear when it comes to people actually in the setting referring to them — mainly gryphon (the Gryphonheart family was named that because they got to power by managing to tame Erathia's native griffins). - Krut: The Mythic Wings have a gigantic rainbow-feathered Gryphon Mini-Boss in the Garuda palace. Who flies all over the place during the boss fight, and can fire gusts of wind from it's wings as a ranged attack. - The Last Guardian: Tricos are often called griffins by the English-language fanbase, being mix-and-match critters with an emphasis on feline and avian traits. However, the proportions of cat to bird are different from classical gryphons, other animals such as hyena facial features and ratlike (albeit furred) tails are in the mix, and the species sports blue horns, lightning powers, and a reputation for eating people. - Miitopia: Griffins are modeled after the Opinicus but have ears like the Classical Gryphon. They also have multiple Mii eyes on their wings. - Monster Sanctuary has the Gryphonix. Like the traditional European griffon, it's half-eagle, half-lion, and is said to guard gold, rulers, and tombs, but it's ON FIRE! - Octopath Traveler: The Ogre Eagle has the hindquarters of a lion and the wings, forelegs head of a colorful eagle. Despite this, its English name references the "Tengu" portion of its Japanese name with the term "Ogre", and emphasizes its avian traits by referring to it as an eagle rather than a griffon. - Phantasy Star Online has the Gal Gryphon, a hippogriff-styled gryphon with hooved feet, a bulky body reminiscent of a bull, and two large tusks protruding from the sides of its head that it uses to fire lightning beams. - Pokémon: - It took surprisingly long for the franchise to have a griffon among its creatures. When it finally did, in Pokémon Sun and Moon, it was a pretty weird one. Type: Null and Silvally are essentially cyborg Pokemon made out of parts of other Pokemon, but their basic shape (talons on their front feet, paws on their hind feet, and a beaked head) resembles a Keythong or Minoan Gryphon. - Pokémon Uranium, a fan game, has Gargryph, a griffin made of rock and based on gargoyles. - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within features an enormous griffin, as a boss. Interestingly, it serves as a protector of the castle. - Riviera: The Promised Land: Griffons appear as demons, and in Yggdra Union and Blaze Union as mounts alongside horses and dragons. The latter two games have griffon-riding units as female-only, seeing as all the characters riding anything else happen to be male. In Yggdra Unison, the superior mobility of griffon riders during the daytime makes the only two of them in the game, Kylier and Emilia, Lightning Bruiser-style Game Breakers for as long as the sun is up and Mighty Glaciers at night; the other two Ancardia games give the class the Weaksauce Weakness of lacking terrain bonuses, making them far easier to pummel. - Shovel Knight has two fire-breathing and armored gryphons as minibosses in King Knight's stage. Talking to the castle's previous owner in the village after finishing the stage reveals that they were the king's pets. Good thing they respawn. Palette swapped versions also appear in the final stages. - Skylanders: One of the Skylanders is Sonic Boom, a mother Opinicus. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: - As in the parent tabletop game, Emperor Karl Franz can ride an enormous griffon named Deathclaw that he raised from an egg. Imperial Griffons are also a high-level steed for Imperial generals, and Imperial Amber Wizards, who specialize in the Lore of Beasts, can ride green-feathered jade griffons. Griffons can have the back half of multiple kinds of large cat; while generic griffon mounts have traditional lion bodies, Deathclaw has tiger-striped hindquarters and jade griffons have those of clouded leopards. - A couple or regular Imperial units ride demigryphs, essentially wingless griffons with catlike front limbs. Like the regular kind, they have to be individually tamed by prospective riders, but the reward is the Undying Loyalty of one of the fiercest creatures in the Empire. The main version has white heads and tiger-striped bodies, but their unique Regiment of Renown, the Royal Altdorf Gryphites, ride demigryphs with blue-gray feathers and snow leopard bodies. - The Warden and the Paunch introduces griffins to the High Elf army, including Eltharion's mount Stormwing, who has leopard-spotted hindquarters and an osprey's front; generic griffon mounts for generals with bald eagles heads; and the Knights of Tor Gaval, a unique regiment of three elven knights riding jade griffons. - Hippogriffs appear in the Bretonnian army roster both as mounts for lords, a single hero and a unit of elite air cavalry, the Hippogriff Knights. Unlike the tabletop version, they have lion tails. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Griffins are creatures present in the Mythical mode, where they can be recruited if the Griffin Patriarch is brought over to the player's side. They all have the bodies and ears of lions and heads and wings of vultures, with feathers as strong as bronze; the Patriarch resembles a griffon vulture, while his lesser progeny have the features of lammergeiers. They're also quite big — lesser griffins are the size of elephants, and the Patriarch is around twice their size. They jealously hoard gold and live in a complex, conflict-filled balance with the one-eyed Arimaspoi that share their lands, with whom they constantly compete for treasure. As such, partnering with the Patriarch also allows the recruitment of Arimaspoi units. In battle, griffins serve as extremely fast and mobile flyers capable of dealing devastating damage to most common units. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Griffons are among the many creatures Geralt can hunt. Unlike most examples, it seems more like a rough cross between a vulture, a lion, and a bat. It has only four limbs as well, and uses its wings as forelimbs while it's on the ground. - World of Warcraft has both classic style gryphons and hippogriffs, the latter with antlers due to being raven/stag hybrids. The former are associated with dwarves, in particular the Wildhammer Clan, while the latter are associated with night elves (whether these are meant as a reference to perytons or just a function of the Rule of Cool is unknown). "Standard" (dwarven) gryphons function as the default flying mount for the Alliance. - El Goonish Shive: A griffin appears for a one-panel gag, which becomes far more serious when another shows up, looking for the first. Tara the gryphon is a Magic Knight from an Alternate Dimension, and she and her wife were investigating the unusual magic situation when her wife disappeared, apparently Trapped in Another World (ours). (Although it turned out \|\|Andrea just got a bit lost and couldn't find the spot where she could return from\|\|). Griffins in that dimension have more variety than eagle + lion: Andrea is the classic version, Tara's pantherine-half is a tiger, \|\|Liam Tyrant-Slayer has an owl head with a lion's mane, and Dwight is all white with a cockatoo head\|\|. - Erfworld has Gwiffons and the larger Megalogwiffs, which are giant marshmallow peeps that fulfill the role of griffons as mounts for the good-aligned forces. - Their resemblance to a certain type of candy is important early on. Stanley requests that the perfect warlord be summoned "who eats Marbits and Gwiffons for breakfast". Cue Parson, who literally eats Peeps and Marshmallow Bits for breakfast. - They're also apparently actually quite fearsome, which is understandable when you realize that their entire front opens into a gigantic gummy maw. They eat horn, hooves, and marrow, and get soggy in the rain. - Skin Deep: Both classical griffons and opinici are present as named characters, in addition to some weirder species in the bonus content. As with most of the mythical creatures with multiple subspecies, it's not uncommon for a single family to have multiple variants among its members. They're also known to be among the creatures native to Wonderland. - Classical gryphons are the most common variety, and have tufts of feathers resembling pointed ears that grow in when they hit adulthood. - Some gryphons resemble cats and raptors other than the standard lions and eagles, but they're not common. As an example, Leah Tanno is part red-tailed hawk and part bobcat, and as a result is much smaller than other gryphons. - Opinici, or maned gryphons as they're usually known, have lion forepaws, lion ears and — in the case of males — leonine manes; they are also the only type of griffon to give live birth instead of laying eggs. Most of the central gryphon characters in the comic are opinci. - In contrast to the lion-heavy opinci, feathered gryphons favor their avian side and largely resemble four-legged eagles. The Jubjub Birds of Wonderland are also thought to descend from Wonderlander feathered gryphons, and themselves resemble all-bird griffons with checkered wings and black-and-white banded antennae-like structures on their heads. - Alce, or keythongs, resemble classical gryphons in most respects but do not have any wings; instead, they have pointed horns sprouting from their heads and shoulders. - Inverted gryphons, as their name suggests, have their bird and lion bits in the inverse of the usual order, with leonine heads and forepaws and avian wings, hind legs and tails. - "Pigmy" gryphons are any extremely rare variant that may combine any type of bird and mammal. At least some, such as the diminutive hummingbird-and-mouse gryphons, aren't sapient and are effectively just animals. - Hieracosphinxes — wingless, hawk-headed lions — are considered by other sphinxes to be just a gryphon variant with pretensions. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: When Arnora attempts to summon a gryphon Familiar, the result... isn't quite what she expected. She's the size of a housecat and has a parakeet front half, to begin with. - Codex Inversus: In the World Before, griffins were noble creatures that soared through the skies of Heaven. When the Collapse forced all planes of existence into a single world, they found themselves having to compete for food and space in the mundane food chain and lost much of their heavenly status. Their modern descendants are for the most part just predatory animals. - Birch griffins, part tiger and part snow owl, are among the creatures that inhabit the Infinite Forest, a dimension-warping landscape formed from a shard of a heavenly wilderness. - Psittagryphs are macaw-like gryphons that live in areas where the natural jungles of Uxali border the mechanical jungles created by the Matras. They hunt the living constructs found there, cracking open their artificial casings to drink their animating fluids. - Wolfyrs lost their wings entirely, and have lupine traits instead of feline ones. They live throughout the Angelic Unison as vicious and intelligent pack predators with a taste for horse meat, especially that of magical equines such as pegasi and unicorns. Some believe that the wolfyrs are driven by a hunger for the paradise that they've lost. - Neopets: - The Eyrie originally a dragon-like creature, became an opinicus sort of gryphon, albeit with ears. - Add the rare Maraquan Paintbrush item, and you've got yourself a Marigryph. - Windsonde is a community-based role-playing game at DeviantArt, and nearly all of the player characters are gryphons. The rules for character design are pretty strict... except for Tookie Island, where any bird/mammal combination goes. There, the gryphons are really different. - Aladdin: The Series: A few episodes involve griffins. One episode has Aladdin and his friends try to return an egg stolen by Abis Mal to a rampaging mother griffin, another has the group encounter one of a bunch of mechanical monsters piloted by a grumpy insect, among them a mechanical griffin, and another has a clumsy thief transform himself into a griffin from the Stone of Transformation given to him by Mozenrath. This was an appalling move on his part, since the toenail of a griffin was needed to transform Jasmine's father back to normal after magic powder turned him into a golden statue, but somewhat mitigated by the fact that the transformed griffin had Projectile Spells. - Gargoyles: Griff is a British gargoyle that looks a lot like a humanoid griffin, he has greenish brown skin, a hawk-like beak, feathered wings and a lion's tail, he does not have Griffin ears, he makes him look more like a humanoid hawk than a humanoid griffin and wears a punk style black leather vest and wears black underwear. He is very considerate, courageous and friendly. He's also adventuring with King Arthur himself. - American Dragon: Jake Long: According to Fu-Dog, gryphons lay an egg only once every thousand years. Once the baby hatches, the mother actually swallows the baby, which lives in her digestive tract for a week or two before it's healthy enough for the mother to throw back up and live on its own. Of course, this all grosses out Jake. - Avatar: The Last Airbender: - In keeping with the plethora of Mix-and-Match Critters in the franchise, one episode briefly features a griffin (with what appears to be a griffon vulture's forequarters) that's used as one of the trained animals in a traveling circus. - The Legend of Korra: The Lizard Crow is a scavenger that can be seen scouring the city for scraps, especially around industrial and coastal areas. It has the head and wings of a crow on the body of a lizard, giving it a strong resemblance to a more reptilian take on the classic griffon. - Disenchantment: A single griffon has been seen, nesting on a cliff at the edge of the world. In addition to being hybrid of lion and eagle, they're also part human — they have the hindquarters of lions, the chests, heads and arms of humans (they walk on their knuckles) and the wings of eagles, in addition to very beak-like noses. Further, griffons have no sexual dimorphism; even the females look and sound masculine, despite laying eggs. - Garfield and Friends: One episode has Orson and his friends Separate Scene Storytelling themselves in their own version of Camelot called "Hamelot" where they must bypass a hungry talk show host griffin who's obviously a spoof on Merv Griffin. - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002): Beast Man's control over wild creatures allows him to use whale-sized, twin tailed gryphons as his mounts. - Hercules: The Animated Series has two griffins. One is elderly and has the job of guarding the first diamond. The other is a talk show host and is voiced by... Merv Griffin. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: - Griffons were one of the first non-pony species introduced; they come from another continent and consequently aren't all that common in Equestria itself. Biologically, they're Classical griffons without the "ears" and with more variety than the traditional half-eagle half-lion build, with some resembling tigers or owls instead, and while most stick to natural color schemes several instead have fur and feathers as brightly colored as the ponies'. All their names also start with "G". - "Griffon the Brush-off" has Rainbow Dash's friend from flight school, Gilda the Griffon; she's the first griffon in the show, and has the white head of a bald eagle. It turns out she's a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who has an aversion to all of the ponies except Rainbow Dash for being "uncool". Remember what was said in the introduction, about how griffons were said to be hostile toward horses? - "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" includes Gustave le Grand. He's a baker with a thick French accent who comes off initially as a jerk, but then again so do his baking contest opponents. Strangely, he has a mustache on his beak. - Given how Equestria seems to be set up, the griffons appear to have a city state within Equestria's borders. The episodes "Rainbow Falls" and "Equestria Games" have griffon participants, the latter showing that the griffons are also prone to having a technicolor population — one of them is pink and maroon, another solid purple and third cyan with teal head and wing feathers. - "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" exposits rather abundantly on griffons. Gilda hails from Griffonstone, a griffon kingdom located in a mountainous continent across the sea from Equestria. Said kingdom used to be proud and strong; however, when a one-eyed monster named Arimaspi stole a precious idol that they based their national pride around, the griffons' spirit broke. Griffonstone is little more than a decrepit slum nowadays, and almost all of its inhabitants are greedy, selfish jerks who won't do anything for free even if lives are at stake. Gilda actually turns out to be one of the nicest griffons by virtue of being willing to let her old friendship with Rainbow Dash motivate her into saving her life \|\|even while costing her the chance to recover the lost idol\|\|. The episode's portrayal of griffons is fairly faithful to mythology — the love of gold, less than friendly relations with horses, and rivalries with cyclopean beings are all shown to some extent in this episode. - From Season 8 onwards, a male griffon, Gallus, appears as a supporting character, as he becomes one of five foreign students who study at Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. - The movie introduces hippogriffs, which appear to be a totally separate species. They're referred to as half pony and half eagle and tend towards light body colors and crests of colorful feathers. Their nature as chimeric creatures is less visibly obvious than the griffons' is, as their bird and mammal parts are the same color and don't stand out much against each other; they also possess external ears, and their tails are made of feathers. \|\|They used to live on the island of Mt. Aris in the far south, but when the Storm King rose to power their queen used the power of an enchanted pearl to transform them into seaponies, so that they could hide under the sea where they would be safe.\|\| Hippogriffs make proper appearances in the TV series starting in Season 8, with the Pearl of Transformation having been divided up amongst them so they can change between hippogriff and seapony at will, and Queen Novo's niece Silverstream joins Gallus as a supporting character and student at Twilight's School of Friendship. - The Owl House: - Griffins are referenced in a flashback of the main character's "weird" antics when she makes a taxidermy replica out of the upper body of a pigeon, the lower body of a squirrel, and "anatomically correct" spider-breath — something that gets her in trouble. Upon arriving in the Boiling Isles and escaping guards with Eda, they fly by a much larger, real griffin (with a leonine lower body) that spits up spiders, with Luz even gleefully shouting "I knew it!" - "The First Day" includes a seemingly young (and rather adorable and affectionate) griffin named "Puddles", owned by the troublemaker Viney who also served as her medic assistant before she was put in the Detention Track. Puddles is used by Viney as her part of the defeating the Monster of the Week. - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: - The Daughter, the embodiment of the Light Side of the Force, can turn into a gryphon with white and golden feathers and a light green mane and tail tuft. This is in contrast to the Son, the embodiment of The Dark Side, who can turn into a monstrous creature resembling a mix between a bat and a particularly ugly dragon. - Mastiff phalones are quadrupedal predators native to the world of Maridun with muscular, feline bodies, vulture-like heads and feathered manes. They're pack hunters, and overall resemble typical griffins without wings. - World of Quest: Graer is a brown-furred griffon, depicted as an intelligent if comical companion of Quest and Prince Nestor. However, his front-heavy build, lack of tail, and cartoony proportions (namely, his oversized beak, which is quite deep and broad for a griffon) can make this a bit less than obvious for first-time viewers. In the episode "War of the Griffins", we meet more of Graer's kind, depicted as having all kinds of beak shapes and coming in many colors, although they also share his burly body shape. - The platypus is the closest modern-day thing in the real-world animal kingdom to one, having the face and limbs of a bird (in this case, a duck) and body and tail of a mammal (specifically, a beaver). - The dinosaur Hagryphus. The group that it belongs too, Oviraptorosauria, is in itself quite gryphon like, having bird of prey-like beaks and powerful claws on both front and hind-limbs, and have long tails. - Historian Adrienne Mayor theorizes that the legend of griffons was based on a misinterpretation of Protoceratops fossils (four legged animal, birdlike beak, crest on its head that could be interpreted as a set of wings if broken off at the base, etc.). However, there are arguments against this theory, as articulated here by paleontologist Mark Witton. - Historically, the gryphon has been a common and important heraldic animal in Europe, and is especially common in this role in English and German heraldry. - British heraldry recognizes male griffons as distinct from the neutral kind, and depicts them without wings and with a short horn on their foreheads. - The sea-griffin, also termed the gryphon-marine, is a heraldic variant of the griffin with the head and legs of the basic variant and the hindquarters of a fish or a mermaid. - The logo for Sprecher Brewery of Wisconsin is a fairly standard gryphon, but the more cartoonish version◊ (named Rooty) on their root beer has a huge beak and a vaguely monkey-like body. - Merv Griffin is naturally a very different griffin, being a person with that family name. The emblem for his company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, was a stained glass window of an Opinicus griffin with lion ears (and strangely, a single horse hoof◊). This emblem appeared after the closing credits for each Enterprises television show in the 1980s and 1990s, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. - The Swedish jetfighter SAAB 39 Gripen ("Gryphon"), designed to be able to carry out both interceptor, ground attack and reconnaissance duties. - The source of the name for 1970s Progressive Rock band Gryphon.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGriffonsAreDifferent
Our Kelpies Are Different - TV Tropes In Scottish mythology, the kelpie is a shape-shifting spirit that inhabits lakes and lochs. Its true form is a horse-like creature, but it can take on human form, as well. A story centering around this creature is a cautionary tale about the dangers of large bodies of water; people who ride on a kelpie are carried into the water and drown. Other legends tell that if a kelpie was successfully captured and harnessed, it could be put to work and carry far heavier loads than an ordinary horse... but might leave you cursed when it finally got free. Some modern depictions of the kelpie are Lighter and Softer, and instead portray them as horses with water powers. The kelpie is probably also known as the each-uisge (water horse), although some folklorists insist that this is a completely different shapeshifting horse creature that drowns people. One difference is that an each-uisge is more likely to eat its victims, although this is present in some kelpie legends as well. Compare Our Hippocamps Are Different for a different kind of water horse, Nuckelavee for another deadly horse-like aquatic creature from Orcadian mythology, and Selkies and Wereseals for another deadly aquatic shapeshifter from Scottish lore. Also see Stock Ness Monster for another famous resident of the Scottish lochs, and one who is often linked to the kelpie folklore. ## Examples: - Berserk: The Kelpie is one of many astral creatures that appears when Griffith's physical incarnation weakens the borders between the corporeal and spiritual worlds. It looks like a bizarre cross between a horse and a frog, and it proves to be an incredibly dangerous creature in how it controls water. Of note, it can launch balls of water as highly concussive projectiles, raise a wall of it up as a protective shield, or engulf an enemy in a massive cocoon of water to drown them in. - Delicious in Dungeon: A Kelpie appears in Chapter 14, Kelpies resemble horses but are blue-green in colour and have a mane made of kelp, they've got a fish's tail and teeth sharp enough to crack through a giant crab's shell. The one shown is treated as a pet by Senshi, who's named it Anne. \|\|Anne unfortunately turns out not to be as tame as he thought and tries to drown and maul him the moment he tries to ride her, forcing him to put her down. As with all monsters killed by the main party, the Kelpie is cooked into several delicious meals such as a meat grill and a stew\|\|. Kelpie fat is a prized soap making ingredient and it's suggested that their internal organs can be used as makeshift flotation devices. - Heaven's Design Team: Horse-obsessed Saturn creates a kelpie (that looks more like a hippocamp) hoping it would be accepted along with Neptune's dolphins and whales. Predictably, it's rejected. However, he later makes it smaller and it's accepted as the seahorse. - The Kelpies are a pair of gigantic horse-head sculptures beside the Forth and Clyde Canal outside Falkirk, Scotland. As the statues are intended as a tribute to the role heavy horses played in Scottish industry, such as towing canal boats, the name draws more from the kelpie's supposed extraordinary strength than from its shape-shifting or man-eating. - One interpretation of the mysterious Pictish Beast, a vaguely seahorse-like creature found on many Pictish symbol stones in Scotland, is that it represents a kelpie. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): - The antagonist of issue 23 is a kelpie named Cassie who brainwashes all the ponies in Ponyville by singing. She looks like a hippocampus, with frill-like ears, fins instead of legs, and a mane that looks like seafoam. - Very different kelpies appear in season 10's "The Farasian Shores" arc. They're Elemental Shapeshifters who can control water, have stripes like zebras, and live in a place based on sub-Saharan Africa. - In Chapter 31 of There's More Magic Out There, the gang runs into a vicious kelpie that shapeshifts into a friendly-looking horse form to lure in prey, though its true form has rows and rows of teeth, backward hoofs, and a mangled swapish form. It's also intelligent, able to speak to the gang and taunts how it will enjoy eating them. - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Newt Scamander keeps a Kelpie in a tank full of sea weed. It is depicted as a gigantic legless horse-headed creature with strands of seaweed growing from its body, and Newt has managed to train it enough that it lets him ride around on its back. - In Loch Ness (the one with Ted Danson), the monster is repeatedly referred to as a kelpie, although when it actually appears at the end it looks more like the classic plesiosaur design. - In the Cryptozoologicon, kelpies are not carnivorous aquatic horses, but giant relatives of the water chevrotain. note : A semi-aquatic hoofed mammal sometimes called the "mouse-deer", found in Africa. - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Kelpies are shapeshifters whose favorite form is a horse with a mane of bulrushes. The world's most famous kelpie dwells in Loch Ness, and is the source of the Loch Ness Monster legend, as it has been observed taking the form of a giant sea serpent when viewed from a distance, but shapeshifting into an otter when Muggle tourists try to get a closer look at it. - One of the many creatures featured in Fate/Labyrinth are kelpie who look like horses made out of water with a large fin acting as a tail. They can shapeshift from their regular four-legged form into a winged form known as "Boobrie". This design of them is notably the only design from Fate/Labyrinth that directly appears in Fate/Grand Order in the "Sea Monster Crisis" event, trying to devour the Kon by having them ride on it. - Modern Faerie Tales: A Kelpie appears in the first book. Kelpies here are depicted as waterhorses which trick unwitting people into coming with them and then drowning them. Kelpies can also shapeshift into more handsome forms to captivate their victims. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Kelpies are malign water spirits in the form of horses, with seal-like skin, cloven hooves and manes always dripping with water. They entice people into riding them in order to drown them, but can be controlled if a prospective rider manages to slip a bridle over their heads. - In The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, the people from the island of Thisby race water horses called the Capaill Uisce every November. The races are held along the shoreline, which makes the horses go into violent rages, and if the riders aren't careful they are dragged into the water and eaten. - In Supergirl, Lena is of Irish descent, and grew up hearing stories about kelpies, so when her mother drowned when she was a child, she believed that a kelpie was responsible. Years later, when forced to face her fears, she and Dreamer end up in a battle with a kelpie, here depicted as a liquid xenomorph-like monster. - Jethro Tull's song "Kelpie" is sung from the perspective of a shape-shifting kelpie, taking the form of a handsome man to charm a young lady, though ultimately he plans to "steal [her] soul to the deep". - Cardfight!! Vanguard: The Aqua Force clan has a subdivision called "Kelpie Riders" - a cavalry unit that rides Kelpies. The Kelpies in question are depicted as looking like Amazing Technicolor Wildlife horses in the front, occasionally with fins instead of ears, and the back part is a fishtail with matching colours. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Kelpies have appeared here and there in the game's history, making their debut in the original 1 st Edition Fiend Folio. Rather than horse-like fey creatures however, they are instead evil, intelligent seaweed-like plants ( kelp, get it?) able to assume other forms (usually horses or beautiful women) to lure prey to their watery graves. - 2 nd Edition Celts Campaign Sourcebook has a version much closer to the Scottish legends, the "water-horse": a Chaotic Evil, carnivorous monster which tries to drag any rider underwater by making its back magically adhesive. The actual "kelpie" is described as a more intelligent, shapeshifting variant who can take human form, but is just as nasty. - In Pathfinder, kelpies are evil amphibious fey that assume the forms of horses or humans to lure creatures to drown and devour. Artwork of them varies however, with earlier depictions having them as horse-headed women with slimy skin, and later installments portraying them as horse-like creatures with green seaweed-like hair and skin. Filling a similar role is the water orm, a less folkloric and more cryptozoological take on Nessie-type creatures. - Shadowrun supplement Paranormal Animals of Europe: The each-uisge is the Shadowrun equivalent of the kelpie. It is a horse-like para-animal that lives in bodies of water. It can compel metahumans to ride on its back, and secretes a glue-like substance on its skin to keep them there. It dives into the water and stays there until its rider drowns, then eats the victim's body. - We Are All Mad Here: A sinister aquatic creature that takes the shape of a grey horse or white pony, the kelpie lures unsuspecting passers-by and attempts to drown them in a nearby body of water. - Cassette Beasts: The second page of Frillypad's bio compares it to the kelpie. While it's a water-dwelling predator, it looks like a watery frog with a lilypad covering its head. - A Kelpie is the pact beast of Hanch, one of the Knights of the Seal, in Drakengard 2, which predictably means that it ends up being fought as a boss when Nowe and Manah set out to break the seals and liberate the districts. This Kelpie is fought with Legna above a dam and is capable of flying, firing energy blasts, and conjuring ice blocks to restrict Legna's mobility, but the player is periodically forced to dismount Legna to deal with mages who show up and seal Legna's dragon-fire. - Flight Rising has kelpies as familiars. They appear similar to the classical depictions as water-themed equines, though it is unknown if they are able to shapeshift. According to their item descriptions, though, they do drown their prey, but the game's dragons are considered too large to ride kelpies and are considered to be allies instead. Kelpie manes are also in-game apparel items. - In God of War Ragnarök, Kratos, Mimir, and Freya find a Kelpie that takes them to visit the Norns. According to Mimir, Kelpies weren't typically prone to drowning people unless they did something to offend it. - Krut: The Mythic Wings has a Kelpie who resembles a mer-horse with a gigantic fishtail as its lower body serving as a mid-level Mini-Boss in the Seas of Himmaphan. In what's likely a myth version of Misplaced Wildlife, the Kelpie boss is the only western creature in a game set entirely in South-East Asia. - Keldeo, the Mythical fourth member of the Swords of Justice from Pokémon Black and White, looks like a Water/Fighting unicorn that uses its horn as a sword and can blast water out of its hooves. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, it can be found in the Crown Tundra, which is based on Scotland. - Shin Megami Tensei: Kelpie appear as demons in various entries in the franchise. In some entries, they are fully horse-like, while in others the front of their body is a horse and their back half is something more aquatic, such as a mass of seaweed or a fish's tail. - Temtem: Oceara is a watery horse that looks like it's covered in seafoam. According to Denizan mythology, they're descended from the Serbatiyo who served the Sea Queen. It can only be found at the water's edge in Aguamarina Caves. - American Dragon: Jake Long: A kelpie is depicted as an oceanic monster and the second-greatest threat to the Magical Community. It is depicted as a Fish Man which feeds off other magical creatures and then can shapeshift into their form and use their powers. - DuckTales (2017) has a pair of kelpies named Bramble and Briar in an episode. They are generally friendly, even if they would like everyone to follow them into the water and drown. They look like My Little Phonies with wet manes and the added bonus that they're voiced by Andrea Libman (Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie) and Tara Strong (Twilight Sparkle).	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurKelpiesAreDifferent
Our Love Is Different - TV Tropes Only you, only you can, you are unique at last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time A person is dealing with someone who they know has uncanny powers of charm. These can be normal features of The Casanova, or special Mind Control abilities. So, knowing this, a person will be on their guard and be ready to ask "Am I Just a Toy to You?", right? Well, not exactly. Because while this guy might be a selfish manipulator of women most of the time, when it's with me, he's different. He's sweet and kind and caring, and everything that other people say about him is because they're just jealous and don't really know him. Cynical sounding write-up aside, when this trope happens to the protagonist in a story, they'll almost always be right, simply out of the genre convention that The Hero is rarely ever allowed to be wrong. Of course, misunderstandings implying that The Casanova was really a Jerkass all along are still quite common in order for the couple to earn their happy ending. This trope can also be played from a completely tragic angle, where it's obvious to everyone that one half of this "relationship" is being played like a fiddle, but she refuses to listen to anyone about it because true love is the best thing ever. Changing status quo in this situation usually requires a Batman Gambit by a third party, an Idiot Ball moment by the seducer, or a completely random coincidence exposing him for what he really is. (Alternately, it can played as tragic for the seducer: the former Casanova really has changed their ways, but no one believes them and no one finds out - at least, not until after it's too late...) Use of this trope is necessary in most stories with a central focus on All Girls Want Bad Boys. Not to be confused with an Our Tropes Are Different page about love. If you really were looking for such a page, you want The Four Loves. ## Examples: - Red River (1995): Yuri's and Kail's relationship, as even though Kail has been known to sleep around with lots and lots of women, he falls for Yuri hard and thereafter only has eyes for her. Played with in that it isn't Yuri who makes the claim, but one of Kail's former lovers on her behalf. When Yuri admits that she and Kail sleep together (that is to say, sleep in the same bed; at this point they weren't having sex), the woman responds that Kail has never actually slept with any of his lovers: they'd have sex and he'd go back to his own room. The fact that he's willing to show that vulnerability to Yuri she takes as proof that Kail's love for Yuri goes beyond any of his previous relationships. - Several of Agatha Christie's works feature the trope (often combined with All Girls Want Bad Boys), and rarely ends well. - Inverted in Five Little Pigs, where one woman was heard saying "It's too cruel" regarding her husband cheating on her yet again with his latest art subject. \|\|It turns out she meant it was cruel to the other girl (Elsa), as her husband would inevitably tire of his muse and return to her as he'd always done.\|\| This led to the husband's murder \|\|at Elsa's hands\|\| once she realized it was happening again. - One Parker Pyne Investigates story has Pyne recommend the criminal claim this is the case to his wife (he stole her jewels because he was being blackmailed for a Not What It Looks Like situation), telling him the only way she'll remain interested in him is if she thinks he's a Reformed Rake and not the Extreme Doormat he actually is. - Forever Amber takes an odd view of this trope. When Amber first meets Bruce Carlton at sixteen years of age, she's convinced that they're true lovers even after he leaves, and this continues when they reunite some years later. The thing is, Amber knows he's The Casanova. When her stepdaughter becomes infatuated with him, Amber is cruel and blunt in explaining about how Carlton only cares about her to the extent it gets him laid. And yet never at any point does Amber consider that her infatuation with him is any different, willfully ignoring all evidence to the contrary. - It's this aspect of her character that ends the story when \|\|two nobles at the English Court who are normally enemies decide that Amber's highly fickle political whims make her too dangerous to keep around. They forge a note from Carlton saying he loves her and wants her to follow him back to America- and poof! Problem solved!\|\| - Galactic Milieu has the more tragic version of this. Laura Tremblay is convinced that what she and Paul Remillard (the series' resident The Casanova) have is 'special' and that eventually he will marry her. She is eventually told by one of the Lylmik that Paul does not love her, and that he will never marry again. - Arguably the point of The Twilight Saga. Bella falls in love with Edward, even though he (and her friends) keep reminding her just how dangerous he is. It is even mentioned that the reason Edward is so charming and gorgeous is to lure his prey, since he is a vampire. - Cheers: Though Diane at times struggles with the question of Am I Just a Toy to You?, she knows in her heart that the answer's "no", as far as Sam's concerned. - One episode of Maverick has this happen to the daughter of an old family friend of Bret's. Notable in that it's unclear whether the old man's daughter is being manipulated until halfway through, when the man (played by Clint Eastwood) visits his other girlfriend and they discuss how his plans to seduce the old man's daughter and gain access to the ranch are going. Also notable in that the plot isn't resolved by Maverick seducing the daughter, like you'd expect. \|\|He actually tricks Clint Eastwood into thinking Maverick's a high-grade gunslinger who could conceivably beat him in a duel, exposing him as a coward when he flees town.\|\| - Too common to be believed on The Bachelor and its spin-offs. Every contestant has something special with the lead in their own mind, only to be stunned when they don't get a rose. - Thrill Me has this trope, down to Nathan actually saying the line, "I thought we had something different!" Richard attempts to pretend that this is only due to Nathan's Selective Obliviousness, but there are a few moments of Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other that prove that's not entirely true. Not that it's the best relationship regardless. - Six: Katherine Howard attempts to justify her "relationships" with older men as this, because they all tell her it's different, they care about her, and "[they] have a connection". In reality (both in-universe and historically), she was sexually abused by those men, starting when she was thirteen and culminating in her beheading at 20-21. The audience is very often cringing as she describes sexual acts with men in a carefree manner to the upbeat "All You Wanna Do". In-universe, the queens acknowledge that she "had it bad" and her song had four verses because "that's how much sht [sic] [she] had to deal with". By the end of the song, Howard realizes this and her sanity/promiscuous act slips. He just cares so much, he's devoted He says we have a connection I thought this time was different Why did I think he'd be different? But it's never, ever different 'Cause all you wanna do All you wanna do, baby Is touch me, when will enough be enough? - This is what happens in the meta-narrative of Dragon Age: Origins* if you get Zevran to love you. In this case the "love is different" spiel is played off as genuine, as Zevran admits he isn't even sure what true love is.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurLoveIsDifferent
Our Genies Are Different - TV Tropes "I beg you, my son," she said, "by the milk with which I suckled you, throw away the lamp and the ring! They can only cause us a great deal of terror, and I couldn't bear to look at that jinnee a second time. Moreover, it is unlawful to have relations with them." In Middle Eastern folklore and Islam, genies ( jinn, Arabic for "hidden") were the first beings with free will, created out of "smokeless fire" by God before he created the First Man out of clay. They are (usually) invisible beings that are actually more like humans than we realize — they are born, grow up, marry, have children and eventually die. They are said to be made of "smokeless fire", perhaps something along the lines of Energy Beings. They are also extremely long-lived and highly skilled in magic. However, they can be killed by mundane means, if the Arabian Nights is any indication. (At least a couple of genies there being done in by a rock to the head.) They were sometimes trapped in bottles. They might grant you a wish if you free them, or they might have been bound to something like a ring or a lamp and forced to obey the orders of anyone who summoned them. Genies are creatures of free will; they can be good or evil and may even be religious (there are Muslim genies, Christian genies, Jewish genies, etc...), and when there are enough of them around, they can form a Wainscot Society, sometimes living invisibly alongside humans. There are even various types of djinn, not unlike how The Fair Folk comprises many different creatures. Belief in genies is still common in the Middle East today. In Islamic theology, God told the Djinn that they should bow to man's superiority, but their leader, Iblis, refused to do so; thus, a good chunk of them ended up imprisoned by Suleiman and other holy men in lamps and such and forced to grant wishes. Genies in Islam can also possess humans for a variety of reasons — they might have a crush on the human, or they might just be a jerkwad. During exorcisms, the genie is given the option to convert to Islam, leave the body of the human or die. Iblis, by the way, never repented, and in fact swore that he would corrupt mankind... in other words, he's their version of Satan (and in fact is sometimes called Shayṭān or Shaitan). note : On a related note, linguists have proposed that that the word Iblis is etymologically derived from the Ancient Greek word Diabolos. That is, the Devil. In popular Western media, genies are immortal beings almost invariably trapped inside a lamp or a bottle, often materializing through a puff of smoke. (Originally, at least part of those items only acted as a means to summon the genie and didn't actually contain it). They must grant you Three Wishes ("And ix-nay on the Wishing for More Wishes!"), which they may or may not screw up horribly. (In the Arabian Nights, this number ranged from one to infinity). Their precise spelling varies, but "djinn", "jinn" and "genie" are the most common; generally, depictions based more closely on the original folklore are called djinni or jinni, while the more modern three-wishes kind are more likely to be called genies. Also, Genies are extremely likely to be an Amazing Technicolor Population and to have Fog Feet. Female genies in modern media typically wear Bedlah Babe outfits. A few specific types of genies also tend to crop up. The most common are efreet (also spelled ifrit, afrit, and afreet). In Arabic folklore, these are generally understood as a particularly dangerous and chthonic, but not necessarily inherently evil, type of spirits; they usually have some link to "regular" jinni, and may be seen as a specific kind of the broader group, but this is somewhat vague and not always constant. In modern fiction, efreet/ifrits are usually a specific type of genie, and are often depicted as closely linked to fire; they are usually either evil or simply more powerful and less predictable than other or true genies. The correct Arabic grammar is "one djinni", "two djinn" (also spelled jinn(i)). The English word "genie", used to translate "djinni", derives from the Roman "genius", which is the spirit inherent to any person or object, such as in the term genius loci. The same concept in Hebrew is called a shed ("one shed", "two shedim") and shida in Aramaic. See also Genie in a Bottle, Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie. Not to mention Our Ghouls Are Creepier; ghouls have their origins as a class of djinn, although modern Western works rarely depict them as such. And there's always a chance that The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson. ## Examples: - In the English dub of Nana Moon, the lunarians are referred to as "moon genies" despite having absolutely nothing in common with stereotypical depictions of the mythical beings. In the Chinese original, they're called "moon elves" instead. - Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, being a Crossover with the Arabian Nights-verse, have a few odd genies. - One of the new characters introduced in the episode is Mikujin, a ditzy robot-genie from the future hired by Doraemon as a tour guide. He looks like a cat crossed over with a genie, but is a robot underneath, with his name lampshading it (" miku" - a variant of " mirai", or future. So he's a "future"-djinn, get it?) - Doraemon and gang are rescued by Sinbad halfway through and gets to explore Sinbad's castle of enchanted goods, one of them being a Genie in a Bottle - when the bottle is sealed, the genie sleeps inside at a Sleep-Mode Size. It then grows into a kaiju-sized behemoth once the stopper is removed, and carries out every bidding given by it's owner. Unfortunately said bottle gets stolen by the villains late in the story. - Dragon Ball: - Majin Buu, or Djinn-Boo in the Viz manga, is quite genie-like both in appearance (most notably his Arabic clothing), and in the fact that he first manifests as smoke after being unsealed from a container. Other genie-like attributes include his magical powers (such as shapeshifting and being able to transmute other objects/beings), effective immortality, and debut appearance which featuring him being summoned by an evil sorcerer who tries to order him around. As noted earlier, he was called Djinn-Boo in the manga, as one could make a case for translating it either way. Though due to the "M" symbols on Buu himself, and other Buu-related things, "Majin" is generally preferred over Djinn. note : Good luck finding a consensus on Boo vs. Buu, though In a 2007 interview, Toriyama stated that he came up with Buu's design because he saw The Arabian Nights as a kid, and "had this set image of what a Majin, or genie, should look like", confirming that he thinks of Buu as a kind of genie (or at least modelled him on one). - The dragons themselves combine this trope with Our Dragons Are Different. Shenlong (or "Shenron") is the first such creature introduced, and appeared to be an all-powerful, Eastern-style dragon with no limitations regarding whatever wish is asked of him. Later, it not only turns out he's entirely mortal (when he's killed directly by King Piccolo), but that he is only capable of granting wishes that don't exceed the power-based limitations of his creator (an alien that confirmed he designed the balls as Plot Coupons as a test of character to whomever decided to collect them). If the creator dies, the dragon goes with him. Note that while their powers may be different, every dragon depicted in the series is generally presented with the same setup: they're sealed inside a magical object, an incantation must be recited to awaken them, and then they'll grant one, two, or even three wishes. They're not jerks, and are kind enough to admit when their restrictions will not work in the wisher's favor, even suggesting different wishes as an alternative. Then, they take their leave, waiting for the Dragon Balls to be gathered again to do the same shtick all over again. - In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, djinn are more like Olympus Mons, Bond Creatures, and Guardian Entities. - \|\|And former humans who absorbed soul power after one of their former allies lost her mind (she watched her god get murdered by Solomon) and ritually sacrificed 99% of life on the face of the planet\|\|. - In One Piece, one of "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin's sons, Daifuku, has a Devil Fruit power that doesn't turn him into a genie, or grant him a lamp, but instead makes Daifuku himself a lamp, able to summon a halberd-wielding genie from his own body by rubbing himself, to fight his enemies. - Turbain use a genie as his guardian ghost in Shaman King. - Magic: The Gathering features both djinn and efreet as creature types. They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost, but often have some drawback or ability reflecting their general fickleness, like dealing damage to their controller, making enemy creatures stronger or harder to block, or only attacking or blocking when they feel like it according to a coin flip. They're also two of the few creature types that have cards specifically intended to neutralize them — King Suleiman and his legacy, respectively; the former can destroy any one djinn or efreet when activated, while the latter destroys all djinn and efreets on the field when played. - Djinn are usually tied to Blue mana; they are usually associated with either air or water, more commonly the former. They often have powerful abilities, such as Djinn of Infinite Deceits, which gives you control of one of your opponents' creatures while giving them control of one of yours, and Djinn of Wishes, which lets you play up to three cards of your choice for free. In older sets they're more monstrous and hostile, and have a weaker link to Blue mana; more recent djinn are more clearly Blue-focused and consequently tend to be more contemplative and peaceful. Older djinn usually have Fog Feet; modern ones resemble blue-skinned, pointy-eared humans instead. The ones from the plane of Tarkir also have horns. - Efreets were not particularly distinct from djinn in older sets, and consequently don't appear there much. Modern efreets are closely tied to Red mana and to the element of fire, and have a clearer Blue Oni, Red Oni relationship with djinn — while djinn are passive and thoughtful, efreets are wild, emotional and impulsive. Efreets from Tarkir are tall, spindly humanoids with red-and-black skin, three backwards-pointing horns and short barbels around their mouths, while those of Arcavios resemble red-skinned humans. - One of the main characters of G. Willow Wilson's Cairo is a three-piece suit-wearing genie inhabiting a water-pipe who grants wishes by manipulating probability. - The DC Comics character Johnny Thunder was a clueless young man who inherited a genie-like being called The Thunderbolt (who seemed to be a living bolt of lightning) that obeyed his commands- if he said the magic words "Cei-U" first (pronounced "say you!"- as you can imagine from that, hilarity often ensued.) It was later revealed that there's a whole dimension of creatures like The Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt later passed to a young African-American boy named Jakeem, and merged with another "genie" to create a new being summoned by the magic words "So Cul" (pronounced "so cool"). - Djinn: Rather than wish-granting spirits with foggy feet, they are Middle-Eastern Succubi and Incubi with the ability to enthrall virtually any human with their beauty, but they are devoid of compassion, love and feelings. Jade, the main protagonist's grandmother, was one such creature and was the Ottoman Sultan's favorite concubine in his royal harem. - Eight Billion Genies: Earth, a short time from now, gets a visit from eight billion genies, one for every person on Earth. The genies are small, translucent blue creatures from another dimension, they offer one wish each, and there's one of them assigned to every human being on Earth. Madness ensues very quickly.◊ They're not bound by a lamp or any other restriction: they grant wishes because they see it as an art. As a result, they refuse to grant wishes that would cancel out too many other people's (a zombie apocalypse, world peace, any one country taking over the whole world), and break out in applause when they get to grant a completely selfless wish. - Fables plays with the idea that a djinn's lamp is actually a very elaborate prison for a very powerful, very destructive being of chaos. As such, it is very important that your third wish be for the djinn to return to his imprisonment in the lamp. - Gold Digger reveals genies to be basically a highly evolved version of artificial magitech lifeforms made as companion-pets who'd 'aid and protect' the children they were with as one of their functions. This directive leading to them, as they grew in stature and intelligence, developing further powers they could only unlock in the service of others- or, 'wishes.' Reflecting the two designs of the original companions, the genies have two physical variants, one with four arms, and the other with their eyes on their stomachs rather than their faces. - The latter configuration causes trouble for one woman who went on a date with a coworker who happened to be a Genie. At the end of the date, she convinces him to show her his real eyes, and she spends some time staring into them, face-to-abdomen. Problem was, they were sitting in a car, and a photographer waiting for them came to entirely the wrong conclusion... - According to a story in Legion Of Super Heroes, the Djinn were a technological race who attempted to invade the wrong planet: Oa. The Guardians promptly sealed each one in a bottle until he or she granted someone three wishes. The Legionnaires find one 40 light-years from Earth. - Baraka from Soulsearchers and Company is a Arabic fire demon (also known as a djinn) who dwells in a bottle. However, he is also a slob and whenever his bottle gets too dirty, he moves into a new one. - A genie who manages to combine Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie shows up in one Xxxenophile story. He's in love with the heroine, and, when an evil general captures her for the expected reason, he interprets one of the general's commands as creating a new legal identity for the heroine, thus allowing him to grant her three new wishes, which she uses to defeat the general. He's also bound to his lamp until someone makes a wish that he wants to grant but isn't able to. This being Xxxenophile, that wish is for another round of wild sex right after he's exhausted himself. - The genie of one weird sci-fi tale was actually a super-advanced alien whose ship was freed from the ice it was imprisoned in by an Arctic explorer. When he mentioned the tale of the wish-granting genie the alien offered to use his vast psionic powers to grant his rescuer three wishes. He promptly screws up and after accidentally wishing himself with his third wish into being transformed into a copy of the alien inadvertently uses the powers he had to prevent himself from ever making the bargain in the first place (although the alien has to explain to him that he'd granted the fourth wish himself). - Avenger Goddess: Djinn are reality-warping beings who were created in the Primordial Chaos of another dimension, and can be bound to any object with the proper seal. - Gaz Dreams of Genie has a genie named Azie whom Gaz gets Three Wishes from after intentionally breaking her bottle to annoy Dib (which counts as opening it). Azie is noted as looking like the typical image of a genie, being a woman in a belly dancer outfit whose lower body tapers into a smoke tail, and has certain limits to her powers, such as no wishing for more wishes. \|\|One key thing, however, is the curse that comes from breaking the bottle — if Gaz doesn't make a single Selfless Wish (which she doesn't), she's doomed to switch lives with Azie and take her place in the restored bottle, complete with being aged up and stuck in the same outfit (according to Azie, it comes with the job).\|\| - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The camels of Naqah, back over a thousand years ago, created djinns, camel-shaped living weapons who tend to use one of the four elements. No wish-granting here, unless that wish involves covering something with large amounts of fire (not that this stops people who know about their existence asking them to grant wishes anyway). They're also bound to an amulet, and anyone who holds it can command them. - Vow of Nudity: Most flashbacks involve Haara growing up a slave in the Genasi Empire. In D&D canon, Genasi are the rare offspring of mortal-genie unions. Here, they're a full-fledged civilization with their own empire, four distinct subcultures catering to each elemental variant, and they reproduce through biological families like any other race. There's even a fifth variant, the Void Genasi, who serve as the royal family. - Aladdin: - Genie is a giant blue humanoid with Fog Feet, lives inside a lamp, has to grant three and only three wishes to anyone who rubs his home, and is a really nice jinni who doesn't go for the literal or jackass route even when he's saddled with an evil master. The wishes have three limitations: genies can't kill anyone, make people fall in love, or bring people Back from the Dead. (Well, Genie elaborates that he can do the third one, it's just "not a pretty picture". He's probably just joking.) He is doomed eternal servitude to an endless series of masters unless someone wishes for him to be freed. - Freed genies seem to be much less powerful than genies of the lamp, as Jafar (now a genie himself) utterly trounces the newly-freed Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (and Genie himself describes his former "phenomenal cosmic powers" as "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic"). They also have subtle references to traditional beliefs about genies. Genie is blue, which is a reference to the marid, which were believed to be blue djinn who were mostly goodish. Jafar on the other hand is red, which is a reference to the ifrits who were associated with the color red and were Always Chaotic Evil. - Wish Dragon has Long, who resides in a jade teapot, can revert wishes if he misinterprets them, can shapeshift into a human form, he's a dragon, and so forth. And much like Genie from Aladdin, he also can only grant 3 wishes and has 3 limitations; he can't kill, can't make people fall in love, and can't Time Travel. But perhaps the most notorious unique traits of Long are that \|\|he Was Once a Man and granting wishes to 10 masters is Heaven's intended way of making him atone for his cruelty during his life as a human emperor\|\|. - The remake of Clash of the Titans has Djinn, even though they are from the Arabian lore rather than from the Greek mythology. Here, they appear as black-colored humanoid creatures with bright blue eyes that use blue fire magic that seems organic based (they tame scorpions, heal the hero and are claimed to rebuild themselves of wood). And they also can suicide bomb themselves. - In The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Richard tells Thomas they were attacked by a djinn and that the djinn can possess inanimate objects. The rest of his explanation is straight out of classical Arabian mythology. - In the Arabic-English Tobe Hooper movie Djinn, the Djinn are pretty much The Fair Folk, including the use of Glamour and replacing babies with non-human ones. They're intelligent beings who live in haunted places and kill any human intruders, though one man manages to make a bargain by offering the life of his friend. They don't offer any wishes though. Also, it turns out that \|\|the male lead\|\| is a Djinn, which he didn't know about. - The Field Guide to Evil: In "Haunted by Al Karisi, the Childbirth Djinn", the eponymous djinn manifests as a goat and passes judgement on a pregnant teenager, later possessing the girl's invalid mother-in-law wreak vengence on her. - Kazaam: A genie's bottle falls into a stereo and produces a rapping genie. Also, the main character says that all genies are naturally slaves, and "djinn" — or free spirits — are nothing more than fairy tales. We find out that Kazaam became a genie as a punishment long ago when he was human. Also, a genie can only create or manipulate objects, which is a lot of power but far less than the feats of reality-warping seen in some other genie stories, and not much use to someone whose true desire is something non-shiny. "Make or summon some thing for the holder of the radio, three times," is what a genie can do, period — and this means even a nice holder can't say "I wish you were free." ("I wish for more wishes" wouldn't work either, probably.) - My Darling Genie is a Shaw Brothers fantasy-comedy film where the titular genie - played by the gorgeous Cherie Chung - lives in an umbrella. She was released when the down-on-his-luck protagonist (played by Derek Yee) accidentally opens her parasol and tags along with him, but trouble occurs when news of her "magic umbrella" makes her target of loan sharks. - In the Italian 1986 film Superfantagenio (or its version of Aladdin to U.S. audiences), Bud Spencer stars as the genie. His wishes are his master's command as long as the latter addresses one as "I want _____." Also, his powers don't work at night. This genie is also very much a Benevolent Genie as he defends Al Haddin, his master and his family (within his limitations) and refuses to grant a wish to a villain that's captured him and Al (via the bad guy telling Al to make that wish) to eliminate all the world's armed forces except his own personal army. - According to Detective Ringwald, the villain in When Evil Calls is a dark djinn who grants one wish that works perfectly so long as the wisher passes the text message on to others. Thus the wishes are propagated through the phone network, and the djinn horribly twists the wishes of every subsequent wisher. The djinn can only be defeated by the original wisher wishing their original wish to be undone. For some reason, the djinn manifests as a Monster Clown. - The djinn in the Wishmaster series are some kind of byproduct of God's creation of the universe and are all inherently evil and as such were banished to some Hell dimension. The main one is trapped in a red jewel on Earth and if he successfully grants his summoner's three wishes he can free his brethren and get rid of whatever it is that's restricting his powers so that they only activate for wishes. He also collects souls and has a very loose definition of what exactly constitutes as a wish. - One joke concerns a bartender who used up his three wishes and afterwards kept the genie's lamp on the shelf behind his bar as a curiosity. A customer entered the bar, looking with curiosity at a nine-inch-tall man playing the piano in the corner, and then noticed the lamp and asked about it. The bartender offered to lend it to the man, it being of no further use to him. The man summoned the genie and wished for a thousand gold bars. The genie made him look outside, and when the man did, he saw a thousand old cars lining either side of the street. The man re-entered the bar and complained that the genie was a little hard of hearing. The bartender replied, "Well, yeah. Do you seriously think I wished for a nine-inch pianist?" rim shot - A Master of Djinn has djinn returning to the world. They coexist peacefully among humans and even have children with them. Their appearances are very diverse and rarely give their true names but go with geographical regions or titles. When in a bottle, they aren't necessarily trapped than sleeping. The first chapter with the main character has two teenagers opening a bottle to get their wished granted. They woke up a very annoyed and anti-human marid, who chose to grant them one wish. "Very well. I will grant you only wish. You must choose. Choose how you will die." - American Gods has a very odd side-story about a gay genie who was stuck as a cab driver after immigrating to America, passing his status as a mystic creature on to a man he engaged in a one-night-stand with. The only indications that he wasn't human were flaming eyes and, er... flaming something else showcased in a sex scene. He does not grant wishes, however. Though he did kind of grant the wish of the guy he had a one-night-stand with by liberating him from his dead-end life, and giving him a chance to start over as a New York cabbie. - There were several genies in the Arabian Nights. Here's a sampling... - One was trapped in a jar. Apparently, being stuck in a jar made him so cantankerous that his idea of showing gratitude was to let his rescuer choose how he would die. Which wasn't his original plan — when first sealed into the jar, he pledged that the one who freed him would be granted three wishes. After a thousand years, he pledged to reveal to his rescuer all the treasures of the Earth. After a thousand more, he pledges to grant his rescuer the choice of how he'll die. - Another took a fancy to a handsome young man. After whisking him away to show him to another genie, she dropped him in Damascus, far away from his own home. - A woman rescued a female genie from an amorous male genie — by throwing a rock at his head and killing him. The grateful female genie offered to help the woman in the future if she needed it. - The genies in the Aladdin story are bound to a lamp and to a ring. The genie attached to each item must obey whoever holds it at the time. - A particularly Literal Genie granted a man's wish for a bigger manhood... by making it gigantic. Like fallen tree gigantic. - A man throws a date pit away and accidentally kills a genie's son with it, causing the genie to swear revenge. Until three men tell stories that impress the genie so much he doesn't kill the man. Even evil genies have a tendency to be Lawful Evil and allow you a way out of your predicament. Which Arabian Nights characters almost always find. - Prince Ahmed gets married to a genie after a failed attempt at gaining a princess (Long story). - The Bartimaeus Trilogy has a whole pantheon of spirits (afrits, jinn, etc.) who magicians use spells to bind to their will. Typically, their actual appearance is that of an Eldritch Abomination, and they use shapeshifting and glamour to take other forms. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The Jinn were created from smokeless fire by Allah like angels were created from light and men from earth. They are normally invisible but can take many forms, and live in wells, crossroads and abandoned houses. They can be good or evil and pious or impious, and due to being able to access the lower heavens and listen to the conversations of the angels they can provide soothsayers with knowledge of the future. - Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Bottle Imp does something like The Lord of the Rings with its One Ring — taking a traditional fairy-tale MacGuffin and turning it into an Artifact of Doom. The imp is a demon and buying the bottle is like making a Deal with the Devil; the only way to escape hell is to sell the bottle for less than you purchased it. Unfortunately, if you are ever dissatisfied after selling the bottle, the imp will make something nasty happen to you to pressure you into buying it back. \|\|The story did have a Happy Ending, more or less. The hero was more or less trapped, having bought the thing for only three French centimes (a centime is worth one tenth of an American cent), meaning that finding someone he could convince to take it would be almost impossible; but a drunken sailor who had deserted his ship figured his soul was damned anyway, and did so.\|\| - The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia is half Jinn and half Giant. - Or at least, that's the origin Mr. Beaver gives in the first book; specifically, he says she's descended from Lilith, Adam's first wife. The prequel book reveals she's from neither our world nor Narnia's, so that story is thrown into question. - The Daevabad Trilogy has a highly complex society of djinn (originally called daeva, their own word for themselves) mostly hidden from human sight. There are several tribes with different cultures, magical powers, and languages. Outside of djinn society are ifrit, dangerous and Unfettered beings who refused to submit to Suleiman's judgement. The "wish-granting genie in a bauble" that humans usually encounter are slaves; they are often imprisoned by ifrit who deliberately let them be found by humans who will cause the most chaos and destruction (inevitably, it ends with the slave killing their master). Djinn society is ruled from the city of Daevabad in Central Asia, where all the tribes intermingle. Finally there are the shafit, part-humans who are treated as second-class citizens (if they're lucky) and confined to the city, supposedly so they don't wreak havoc in human society. - Declare by Tim Powers has British and Soviet intelligence agencies vying for control of the djinn who live on Mount Ararat. The djinn here are beings of pure thought, often taking the form of storms, flocks of birds, or the movement of a mob, and view things from a completely, utterly inhuman perspective. Bargains or deals struck with a djinni can grant immortality \|\|(which works just as well for nations as individual humans)\|\| and other supernatural powers, but the price is often a Deal with the Devil. - The Discworld novel Sourcery has a yuppie genie who apparently isn't bound to his lamp; he has several lamps, including "a small but well-appointed lamp where he lived during the week, another rather unique lamp in the country, a carefully restored peasant rushlight in an unspoilt wine-growing district near Quirm, and just recently a set of derelict lamps in the docks area of Ankh-Morpork that had great potential, once the smart crowd got there, to become the occult equivalent of a suite of offices and a wine bar." He's rather overcommitted on lamps, in fact, and is thinking of diversifying into rings. He grants wishes, if he approves of them, but insists that nobody says "Your wish is my command!" any more. - Harlan Ellison's story "Djinn, No Chaser" features a very angry genie trapped in a lamp. He proceeds to make life hell for a couple on their honeymoon and gets the husband temporarily institutionalized \|\|until the wife decides to just bust open the lamp with a can opener, releasing the genie and earning his gratitude\|\|. - In Tom Holt's Djinn Rummy, the genies are transdimensional beings (which is how they can fit into those bottles), and like to hang out together in their spare time and get drunk. On milk. - Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The same idea as in the first Arabian Nights example is used in Dealing with Dragons. When a genie is accidentally let out of the bottle, he explains to Cimorene and Therandril the terms of reward with years of imprisonment, and then insists that their only choice now was their manner of death, which Cimorene responds to by choosing "old age". \|\|Also in keeping with the theme of the story, the genie actually had only been in the bottle long enough that he'd be forced to grant them three wishes for his release instead of killing them. Because no genie was ever released before the "kill-the-releaser" period, he felt that granting the wishes and not killing anyone would make him a laughingstock. He decides to follow Cimorene's advice and return to the bottle for another three hundred and eighty-one years, when the two of them would certainly be dead of old age and he could go home without granting wishes or breaking his oath.\|\| - Fancy Apartments features Tisa, who usually looks like a short girl, but can change form into an eight-foot jinn. - Somer, a guardian genie who has the form of a cat-dog, is the first arrival in A Fantasy Attraction. He name is pronounced so-mer, not summer. - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: - In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Genies are allowed to grant wishes, but not wishes about wishes, which are known as meta-wishes. Meta-Genies (who come from Meta-Lamps) are allowed to grant meta-wishes, but not wishes about meta-wishes, which are within the authority of Meta-Meta-Genies. The word "Djinn" is generically used to designate Genies, Meta-Genies, Meta-Meta-Genies, and all others in GOD (which stands for "GOD Over Djinn"). - In the chapter "Typographical Number Theory," "djinn" is an undefined term used in place of "natural number" in setting out the five Peano postulates, with "genie" taking the place of zero. - The Portuguese translation of His Dark Materials literally translates "daemon" as "genie" ("génio"). In this case, "daemon" is derived from a Greek term defining any lesser supernatural entity, and it was under that definition that jinns originally fell; in other words, those are essentially the Greek and Islamic analogues of The Fair Folk. In the context of the books, daemons/genies are your soul walking around as a sentient, talking animal, whose species reflects your personality. - Djins in the Myth Adventures series come from the dimension of Djinger, a place so strapped for funds that they've resorted to hiring out their citizens to work in magic lamps, rings, bottles and so on. Don't believe the hype about what they're capable of; after all, they're only a few inches tall. \|\|Usually. They underplay their power very heavily.\|\| - In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, the genie is sealed in a bottle (with Solomon's Seal no less) but does not have to grant wishes. Virginia must use psychological tricks on it. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, djinni are among the beings Prospero Inc. must keep from causing natural disasters. - Piers Anthony took a sci-fi twist in the book, Prostho Plus. An Earth dentist repairs the "tooth" of a powerful robotic being. The being declares that he had waited so long he had sworn an oath he would kill his rescuer, but a previous oath bound him to grant him a wish before his death. \|\|The dentist wishes for a delay of 50 years.\|\| For the rest of the book, he has a faithful Deus Ex Machine who protects him from all harm, declaring "None but I shall do him die!", and even goes to the point of helping him get together with his lady-love because married humans tend to live longer. - Jinn in Septimus Heap sport both heavily armed Warrior Jinn and the more peaceful "actual" Jinn. The former are antagonists in the final phases of Syren. - In her 500 Kingdoms novel Fortune's Fool, Mercedes Lackey used an ifrit as the villain. \|\|At the end, he is sealed into his bottle "until you repent of your evil ways, and are ready to join your lawful kin in the City of Brass." Djinn do have free will, so it's a valid condition.\|\| - Sandy Frances Duncan's The Toothpaste Genie is about an unskilled young genie bound to a tube of toothpaste. He explains to the protagonist that the more successful and esteemed a genie is, the better the container they're assigned to by their superiors. Toothpaste tubes and boxes of laundry detergent are apparently the bottom of the totem pole, with fancy bottles being near the top. - Malik ibn Ibrahim, the main character of the anthology Wandering Djinn pretty much Walking the Earth, has the ability to disguise himself in a myriad of human forms, knows a lot of different folklore creatures because he's met a lot of them, and has the creepy appearance of skin that's so dark blue it borders on black, golden cat eyes, and instead of hair a scalp covered with flame. If he wasn't such a goofball, he might be frightening. - The jinn in the TV adaptation of American Gods has a larger role than in the original book, particularly in the second season, where we learn that he's working for Mr. Wednesday because the latter freed him from an amulet, and that he originally refused to follow Allah when given the chance. He still does not grant wishes. - Charmed's Phoebe got turned into one in the Season Six episode "I Dream of Phoebe". French Stewart also played one in the Season Two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For", as the archetypal trickster character. - Creepshow's segment "The Man in the Suitcase" features a Middle-Eastern man contorted to fit into a medium-sized suitcase, and will spit gold coins if he experiences pain. The Reveal is that \|\|he's actually a Djinn subjecting people to a Secret Test of Character - those that try to help him out of the suitcase even if it means forgoing wealth pass, while those that torture him fail, and get stuffed into their own suitcase\|\|. - The Genie from Down Under deals with the adventures of the very Australian genie Bruce and his son Baz who live in an opal pendant and are forced to obey the commands of whoever holds the opal. - Four words, I Dream of Jeannie. Jeannie is an atypical Happiness in Slavery version. One episode featured the "Blue Genie" (the one who initially planned on rewarding whoever freed him, but eventually decided to kill that unlucky individual). - Imagin, the Monster of the Week race from Kamen Rider Den-O, are an odd variation of genie: they claim to grant wishes, typically twisting them horribly, and once the contract is complete they use their contractor's memories to create a portal to the past so they can alter history for their benefit. Of course, while there is an overall leader, every Imagin has its own personality and can choose whether or not it wants to obey him. The protagonists include several Imagin that decided there were other things they wanted to do (like chase skirt or become the strongest karateka) and partnered up with the kind-hearted protagonist to protect people from their malevolent brethren. - In Legacies A genie (It's Jinni) shows up at the school. She's able to choose who to show herself to and only grants wishes that she wants to grant. Her tactics are to twist people's wishes in the traditional "Be careful what you wish for" sense and until the only way to get what they want is to wish for what she wants in the first place. - In The Magicians Eliot and Margo try to brew some Magical Gin but it turns out the spell was to summon a Magical Djinn. The Djinn grants even wishes that are only thought. Margo, not knowing this and frustrated at the attention Eliot is showing his new boyfriend Mike accidentally sets the Djinn on Mike by simply thinking: "I wish Mike would go back where he came from and suck on some other knob." The Djinn takes this literally and takes Mike to the library the group first met him at and enchanted him to lick and suck on a doorknob. - In the Enchanted Forest in Once Upon a Time there is the Genie of Agrabah who becomes Regina's \|\|Unwitting Pawn in her plot to kill her husband, King Leopold, and is transformed into her Magic Mirror.\|\| - In Once Upon a Time in Wonderland the genie Cyrus is both the main character's love interest and the show's Living MacGuffin. He also has two brothers, but they don't get much screen time. Later in the series, it is revealed that those who cross Nyx, guardian of the Well of Wonders, are punished for their desire to change fate by being turned into genies, \|\|which is what happened to Cyrus and his brothers.\|\| - In Special Unit 2 Djinn are gaseous beings that can assume human form and can only grant wishes someone with such abilities would be capable of doing and even then only to further their own goals (a wish for a celebrity leads to said celebrity becoming a kidnap victim). They can hide themselves in containers they can make airtight by lining the insides with their molecules. - In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", the Winchester brothers track down a djinni that appears to grant whatever its victim wishes for, altering the world around them. But Dean learns first hand that the djinni just puts his victims in an acid-trip-like state, hooks them up to an IV, and drinks their blood for a few days until they die (but it feels like years in the djinni-induced-acid-trip). The victims do occasionally get flashes of reality, though, which is what helps Dean figure it out and get out of Wishland. - Super Sentai / Power Rangers - Smokey from Mahou Sentai Magiranger (adapted as Jenji in Power Rangers Mystic Force) is a comical cat-headed genie who was sealed in a lamp for his troublemaking and can't stay outside the lamp for more than three hours. He can grant wishes, but chooses to only grant one to his masters because he can't be bothered to do more, and only if he receives some kind of payment for it. He also doesn't get any kind of Reality Warper powers or anything that would be Required Secondary Powers for a traditional genie, so "making a wish" basically just amounts to "working to fulfill a request to the best of his ability". This being a Merchandise-Driven series, while he's in the lamp it doubles as the main weapon of MagiShine, a magical Ray Gun that's reloaded by rubbing (and at full power can shoot Smokey himself as a projectile). - One episode of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Season 1) featured an Anubis-like genie as the Monster of the Week, whom the villains are trying to gain control over so they can wish for him to destroy the Rangers. In Zyuranger, he was a pretty nice guy when not being bossed around, but would lose all his magic powers if his lamp was destroyed. In Power Rangers, he's completely evil, while his life is connected to his lamp. - The Crystalians and the Yodonheim from Mashin Sentai Kiramager are genies that do not come from lamps, nor do they grant wishes. Instead, they came from another planet. - The Twilight Zone (1959): In "I Dream of Genie", the genie is an obnoxious loudmouth who smokes a cigar and dresses in contemporary clothes with the exception of "velveteen mukluks." He also offers George P. Hanley only one wish instead of the usual three. - Ultraman 80: One of the last episodes of the show has the appearance of Marjin, a genie-like alien who lives in a vase, uncovered by a bunch of children who then use the wishes granted by Marjin to help make the city a better place, such as cleaning up the trash. But when the vase falls into the hands of a bunch of bullies, the lead bully decides to ask for a "cool monster toy as big as the real deal"... which ends up accidentally resurrecting the kaiju Red King. - An episode of Wizards of Waverly Place featured a Jackass Genie. In their lamps they have a Reset Button for all their granted wishes. - The Genie that Becky finds in Big Wolf on Campus has a bit of a nasty caveat to his wishes... once the third wish has been properly fulfilled, the Genie is set free... and the owner of the bottle becomes the new Genie. - Satu Jinn, who appeared to be a giant genie bear before he renounced facial hair and becoming an "angel face wearing" jinn. With that said, even before shaving he began dressing more like a majin than a djinn as part of his quest to beat Goku. Winning title belts in The National Federation Of Wrestling apparently was part of this training. - Dungeons & Dragons - Genies are elemental spirits from the elemental planes. They have several different types, each tied to a particular element. Efreet are Lawful Evil genies from the Plane of Fire. Djinn are Chaotic Good genies from the Plane of Air. Jann are made of all of the elements, can be of any alignment, and spend most of their time on the Material Plane. Later supplements added Neutral Evil Dao (Earth) and Chaotic Neutral Marids (Water), which aren't usually remembered very often since they overlap a lot with Efreet and Djinn on a conceptual basis. They all have various magical abilities, but whether they can grant wishes varies between them. Efreet can grant wishes, but since they hate servitude, they tend to be Literal Genies, if not outright Jackass Genies. Only "noble" djinn (about 1% of them) can grant wishes. In 5th edition, very few genies are capable of granting wishes, but wish-granting genies are represented among all types (except the jann, who are not present in 5th edition). - The Al-Qadim setting clarifies this. Genies are more or less widespread there, but treated as powerful, whimsical and extremely dangerous, albeit honorable, beings. Most people avoid any contact closer than hearing tales about them. All genies can grant wishes in proper circumstances, but usually bend any request toward their own desires; when pressed into service they are just as inventive with vengeance later, and while individual genies can be trapped or killed, this tends to upset their pals and rulers. There's also Jann ("composite" genies living in mortal worlds) and Great Ghuls (undead genies). Servitor Genies are specialized sub-breeds that have literally been bred to hold specific roles, such as miner, courier or even wine-maker. Gen are minor genie-kin implied to be kids of the main elemental types and contracted out as servants to sha'ir wizards. Again, gen may serve faithfully, but people unwise enough to mistreat one are in for a big surprise. - In 4th edition, Efreeti (Fire Element Genies) are all slave-trading bastards who consider plans a fun way to spend their spare time. While they can grant wishes, they don't do it by supernatural means (well, beyond their affinity for high level magic, that is); they instead use their connections within their Mafia-like societies to get things done, and always for a high price. On the other hand, Djinni (Air Element Genies) are magical craftsmen and engineers, most of whom have been sealed away. Their primary goal is reclaiming the lost creations of their "golden age" and freeing their allies and family while ensuring their enemies remain imprisoned forever. Dao and Marids also exist, having been added in a late issue of Dungeon, but are basically just their Great Wheel counterparts transported into the World Axis cosmology. - 5th edition eventually introduced noble genies as one of the patrons for the Warlock, which zig zags around the modern archetype. For starters Genie Warlocks get several elemental powers (depending on which of the above kinds of genies they get as a patron). As for more stereotypical genie powers, these warlocks get a special lamp, ring, or other trinket that behaves as a pocket dimension where they can hide, store things and take shelter (apparently these genies find ironic pleasure in having people stuff themselves in lamps). They can also fly (no magic carpet needed) and can eventually make wishes to their patrons, in the form of the very powerful Wish spell (which warlocks dont usually get), and a weaker version that replicates any spell of 6th level (as opposed to the normal maximum 9th spell level) or lower without any of the usual class or cost restrictions; they do however only get one such wish every few days. - Exalted: Ifrit are humanoid fire elementals of fairly considerable power, and generally given much more respect by the gods than elementals usually are. - GURPS: One of the Infinite Worlds is Caliph, a scientifically advanced Arab-dominant timeline where references to djinn in the Qu'ran are believed to be prophecies of A.I., and actual A.I. are called "djinn". - Legend of the Five Rings: In the spin-off Legend of the Burning Sands, Jinn are the original creations of the Sun and Moon, or of the Ashalan, depending on who you believe. They are usually malevolent, but can be bargained with for service. - Mage: The Awakening: One option for the fabled Sixth Watchtower is the realm of the Djinn, where Spirit and Forces hold sway. - In Nomine: The Djinn are a type of demon, the fallen counterparts to the Cherubim. They are sullen, moody and cynical, and prone to developing possessive, stalkerish obsessions with mortals. Their humanoid vessels tend to be short and stocky; their celestial forms are monstrous, surreal beasts. - Old World of Darkness: - In the fan forum Shadow n Essence, a member once proposed a fanwork called Djinn: Of Smokeless Fire that imagined them as Middle Eastern fae. An interesting idea, but nothing really came of it. - "Lost Paths", the Mage: The Ascension supplement which spotlights the Ahl-i-Batin and Taftani factions, features a great deal of detail on the Djinn, supernatural beings created by Allah from "smokeless fire given spirit and form and life" that normally reside within an Umbral Realm called the City of Brass. In general, they envy and hate humans with considerable intensity, most especially since Solomon compelled one of their number to reveal the elaborate facets of djinn behavior and culture, which he codified into the Solomonic Code and used to force the djinn into doing the bidding of anyone following its strictures (and imprisoning them within bottles, rings, gems, etc. inscribed with the Seals of Solomon). The djinn have subraces as varied as those of humanity, and range in personality from Jackass Genie to Literal Genie to almost every variation in between except Benevolent Genie. Again, about the only thing the djinn have in common other than their basic composition and access to unimaginable power is their desire for vengeance upon the arrogant human insects that dare command them — so any mage dealing with them must have varying amounts of foolishness, intelligence, boldness and charisma. - Pathfinder Genies are naturally like their D&D counterparts, originally being from the same source. PF Earth Genies are called Shaitans, however. And yes, it's possible to be a Djinn/Efreet/Jann/Marid/Shaitan Sorcerer, not to mention the Half-Elemental Sylph/Ifrit/Suli-Jann/Undine/Oread, who often have Genie heritage. Genies are also a big focus of the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, which deals with the aftermath of a Genie War (you can imagine how crazy that got), and takes you to the Efreeti-run capital of the Elemental Plane of Fire known as the City of Brass. - In Rifts, Jinn are elemental demons that, if captured, can be compelled to grant a wish. However, they aren't nearly all-powerful, so if you were to wish for a million dollars from one, for example, it can't just make it appear out of mid-air, but will have to go and get it... and won't be particularly picky about where it comes from, or what he does in the process. Ever seen a Jinni rob a bank? You're about to. - Shadow of the Demon Lord from Schwalb Entertainment, has genies being the first creatures made by the Demiurge after God had created the universe and the Demiurge and then went off to rest. The genies stole much of God's power and persona and they killed the Demiurge. All that was left of God was his wrath and this coalesced to become the Demon Lord which tried to destroy the universe for happened. The Genies were horrorified and many sacrificed themselves to be a barrier to lock away the Demon Lord and they could do it because of the remainders of God's power they had stolen. The surviving genies migrated to the world that the rpg is set in and would become the fey race. - Warhammer: Djinn are occasionally mentioned in association with Araby, a culture that's largely medieval Arabia with the serial numbers filed off. They come in multiple different kinds — "djinn" is less a species name as a catchall category used by Arabyans to refer to powerful, non-Daemonic spiritual beings — but are all powerful elemental spirits, often toweringly tall, that are often bound to the service of Arabyan wizards. Efreets, one of the more commonly referenced kinds, are spirits of fire, and are a particularly aggressive and volatile type of djinn, and best suited for combat purposes. A character in Dreadfleet, the Golden Magus, captains a ship called the Scimitar that's powered by two colossal bound djinn — a wind spirit to inflate the sails and a fire spirit to power the engines. - AdventureQuest Worlds: The Sandsea saga has our hero having to battle a powerful Djinn that has become chaorrupted. Djinn are immensely powerful beings that much like the djinn of folklore can grant wishes. They cannot be destroyed, only defeated, contained or bound to the physical world through means of lamps, rings or other objects. Three kinds of djinn generally exist: the Marid, who are Benevolent Genies like Saahir; the Ghul, who are evil genies like Tibicenas (the Big Bad of the arc) once was; and the Efreet, the ruler of all djinn. When a djinn is defeated \|\|such as Saahir at the hands of Tibicenas\|\|, it usually takes him several millennia to regain enough power to return. - Age of Wonders: Djinn appear as tier 3 units for the distinctly Arab-themed Azrac race, serving as flying scouts and ranged support units. They reappear in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, filling a similar role for the nomads. - Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse features a number of genies, and being set in the Forgotten Realms, it applies that system. The elemental division is clearly made an efreet (fire) is different from a djinn (air) is different from a dao (earth) is different from a marid (water). The "three wishes" thing doesn't really come up, although the broader subject of controlling genies is highly relevant. - In Ape Escape 3, the Genie Dancer Morph allows Kei and Yumi to summon a genie to distract enemies via dancing. - Arcana had the hero Rooks coming into ownership of four genie-like spirits: Sylph, Efrite, Marid and Dao, representing wind, fire, water and earth, respectively. Their levels are tied to Rooks' and are mostly there to supplement the party's attacks with magical support. - Barbarian (Titus): Djinn are portrayed as feral, demonic beings capable of magical abilities originating from an alternate dimension. As for appearance, they are Horned Humanoids that have charcoal dark gray skin and claws and pronounced canines. - Born Under the Rain: An Efreet is part of the group of enemies that's blocking the way after the chest with the Serpentius Priest Hat. - Cuphead: One of the bosses is Djimmi the Great, an orange-skinned genie with an impressive Evil Laugh who fights with a variety of Egyptian/Arabian-themed attacks. - Destiny has the Ahamkara, shape-shifting, reality-bending Starfish Aliens that prefer draconic forms but can assume any shape that would suit their needs. In a twist on the trope, they tend to specialize in unvoiced wishes — any stray desire that becomes conscious thought is fair game for them to fulfill. - Digimon has Lampmon, a Demon Man digimon that looks like a stereotypical green genie. His description states that he will grant wishes to anyone frees him from his lamp. However, he has a distorted personality and will instead attack his benefactor. - Dragon's Crown: When you arrive at the final boss of the Ghost Ship Cove Route A, you have to deal with dozens of pirates, one of them carries a lamp that can summon a genie. You can even steal that lamp and use the genie against them. - EXTRAPOWER: Magma-O the fire genie lives in Magarda Volcano. A giant being who has been watching the Earth for millennia, he is sometimes sought out for his wisdom though may not always be impressed to give an answer. In Giant Fist, hitting certain parts of the environment will reveal the Lucky Lamp, summoning a genie that grants you the ability to cast all your special attacks without cost and perform transcendental attacks without being at low health for a limited time. - Golden Sun has Djinn as Waddling Head-like creatures aligned with one of the four elements, used to power-up your characters (like Familiars, sort of). Some are hostile and have to be defeated or tricked (or both) to gain their services. Surprisingly consistent with Arabic mythology, except that they're not trapped in rings, bottles, or lamps. - Guild Wars Nightfall: Djinn appear in a number of locations, some as allies and some as creatures to fight. - King's Quest: - In King's Quest VI a genie by the name of Shamir Shamazzle causes trouble for the protagonist. Working for the Big Bad, Shamir shapeshifts into various people and animals, but is always identifiable by his glinting gold eyes, and seems unable to do the hero direct physical harm (instead coercing him into dangerous situations if he is foolish enough to listen to him). Whoever had possession of the lamp had control over — not just the Shamir's servitude — but his very nature. When Alexander \|\|takes possession of the lamp, Shamir celebrates the switch in master, glad that he no longer has to be evil.\|\| - In King's Quest II, Graham acquires a lamp, out of which a genie appears to grant him a flying carpet, a sword and a bridle before disappearing. - In King's Quest V, Graham gets a brass bottle that also contains a genie. However, if he opens it \|\|the genie simply traps him in his place and disappears, thereby ending the game.\|\| - Might and Magic - Genies in the original setting were fairly standard, apart from being the complete opposite and sworn enemy to the Efreet, an Inferno creature. Their magic in both the old world and Ashan tends to produce random effects and they seem to have a touch of Literal Genie as well. - The second case is the most evident in Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East. Zehir asks them to create a flying city, which they do, but unfortunately they didn't tell him the price of moving it beforehand: a large amount of experience, justifying the Bag of Spilling effect of the expansions in this particular case. - Monster Girl Quest features an avoidable battle with a genie that tricks people into making a selfish wish and then devours them. The game's flavor text mentions that only a strong-minded person with absolutely no selfish desires whatsoever behind their wish will actually have it granted. - The Bajarls from Monster Rancher 2 resembled genies. - Pokémon - Pokémon Black and White has a trio of Legendary Genie Pokémon, incredibly fitting for a series that already lets you trap God. They aren't typical genies as they have no wish granting powers and are more likely to terrorize the countryside by whipping up severe thunderstorms. They're more based on Oni, specifically Raijin and Fuijin. Landorous is more benevolent and is more of a fertility god. Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces the fourth member named Enamourus. As the only female of the group, it bears a resemblance to female genies, especially to Jeannie. - Gen VI introduces a an event Legendary that is a more typical genie. Hoopa's main motif is its rings, which it uses to teleport and store anything it desires, up to an including entire islands. \|\|With an item called a Prison Bottle, it can unleash its true power and become a gigantic and terrifying being of immense size and avarice.\|\| - Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire has two varieties. The Sealed Evil in a Can Iblis and a wishgranting variety in a ring akin to Aladdin. In the backstory, another Djinni turned Julanar into a tree while she was attempting to escape from a band of brigands. - The strategy game Rise of Legends featured genies prominently among the Alin race, which takes virtually all of its cues from Arabian Nights and Arabic folklore, with genies coming in fire, sand, and glass varieties. Some are simple units, but the three Alin hero units are particularly powerful genies, each representing one of the Alin elements. - The Secret World features the Jinn, a powerful race of elemental spirits that can be found in both Egypt and the upper echelons of Hell. They don't inhabit lamps, they don't grant wishes, and they really don't like humans. Later investigation reveals that, like the original Djinn of Islamic theology, they were among the first beings brought into existence and initially served Gaia and the Host without question; however, when humanity was created, they were outraged and hurt by the fact that they would be "rejected" in favour of such a puny species, and were eventually banished to the Hell dimensions for their rebellion. Most are eager to wipe out humanity regardless of the cost, but a few remember their love of Gaia and reluctantly agree to help humanity for her sake — even if it means killing their former comrades. - However, in a subversion of standard fare, players eventually run into a Jinn that actually does grant wishes: over the course of your meeting, he offers you choices between eternal life and eternal love, wealth or power, knowledge and music. In true Jerkass Genie fashion, each choice bites you in the ass. However, it's not until the very end that the Jinn is revealed to be none other than \|\|Mephistopheles, currently serving as the CEO of Faust Capital, a division of the Orochi Group.\|\| - Later still, players also run into the standard Genie-In-The-Lamp... and it turns out to be arguably the most dangerous being in the entire setting with the notable exception of the Dreamers. - Shantae: The title character is a half-genie girl who acts as her home city's Guardian Genie. As well as using her hair as a weapon in combat, she can also transform into different animals by performing dances. - The Genies from the The Sims are the standard "genie in the lamp" wish granters, but are not very competent. When you wish for money, you could either get free cash or a pile of bills. Wishing for "water" could give you a hot tub, or flood the house. Wishing for fire could heat up your social life... or burn your house down. They're more competent in the sequels, and are even playable in the third game. How do you make them playable? \|\|Wish them free, of course.\|\| - Sonic and the Secret Rings is based on the Arabian Nights. There's Erazor, the Genie of the Lamp who is a colossal asshole who was imprisoned for his crimes and went right back to being a criminal as soon as he was freed. Sharah, the Genie of the Ring who seems to be more of the American "Good willing but bound to grant wishes". And numerous Genie Mooks that Sonic has to fight along the way — most of which don't look very humanoid and more like animated flying statues, including a cyborg Ifrit and a giant jellyfish Marid. Also, one mission states that Genies reproduce via laying eggs.... - Terraria: The Desert Spirit seems inspired by the malicious examples of Djinn. Only appearing in Hardmode deserts which have fallen victim to the Corruption or the Crimson, they have the stereotypical shape as portrayed nowadays (a muscular, shirtless man, without legs, with a ponytail). As of the 1.3.3 update, they can drop an oil lamp as well as a pants item that gives you the legless effect when equipped. If used as armor, it prevents falling damage. - The Djinn in Tibia are divided in two races of Green and Blue Djinn, that don't get along well. They are powerful magicians and work as buyers for more expensive loot. - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has djinn as Elite Mooks in the lost city of Iram of the Pillars. They initially appear as ordinary human soldiers, but when killed, they revive with their heads on fire and Glowing Eyes of Doom. In this state, they can throw fire, release a burst of fire if Nate gets too close, and teleport via flames. When killed again, their torsos light up and their fire throwing becomes more powerful. It's necessary to kill them a third time to keep them down. According to in-universe legend, they used to serve King Solomon but rebelled against him. Solomon imprisoned them in a brass vessel, but the spirits of the djinn drove the populace mad and caused the destruction of the city. However, it turns out that \|\|the djinn Nate encounters are merely hallucinations, caused by drinking hallucinogen-tainted water. The hallucinogens leaked from the brass vessel into the city's water supply, implying that this is the source of the djinn legend.\|\| - World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion introduced Djinn into the game as powerful air elementals serving under Al'Akir the Windlord, a servant of the evil Deathwing. Most of them appear in Uldum (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Egypt) and the Skywall (the Elemental Plane of Air), and they fittingly have a very Middle Eastern motif. They don't grant wishes, and are quite hostile to the player characters (being loyal servants of the Old Gods). - Razi Nassar in Havenfall Is for Lovers, owner/manager of the bowling alley where the player character works and one of her possible love interests, is secretly a djinn (he objects to the word "genie"). His magic specializes in illusions and transfiguring things — or people — into other things, though he's also capable of throwing around waves of force and creating defensive shields. His power is also specifically linked to his home territory, in this case the bowling alley: not only is he at his most powerful on its grounds, using his magic away from the bowling alley is physically painful. Razi likens it to an electrical current, which within the bowling alley is grounded so that he can safely channel it, while away from that ground there's nothing to bear the brunt of the power except his own body. - In Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, three of the inmates in Gold Cords underground prison look like stereotypical genies. Gargouille punches them all out before they can do much of anything. Theres also a fourth inmate who claims to be a genie, but is clearly a skeleton. - The Genie With a Dirty Mind, a Spin-Off of The Lazer Collection, in which a genie accompanies a boy in the bedroom at shop class and lunch and... does nothing except laugh when the boy says or does something that could be interpreted as innuendo. - RWBY has the Spirits of the Relics, magical beings sealed inside the divine objects. - Jinn is the first Spirit encountered, dwelling in the Lamp of Knowledge. When her name is called by a Summoner, she will appear to them and offer to answer a specific number of Questions. Every century, Jinn may answer a total of Three Questions before her power is sealed and she must wait for the next era. While she cannot reveal the Future, she has access to all the knowledge of her creator, the God of Light. When asked a question, her response may be as simple as a verbal answer ("You cannot.") or as elaborate as an illusion that draws the summoner(s) into a story narrated by Jinn. - Ambrosius is the second Spirit encountered, dwelling inside the Staff of Creation. \|\|When summoned, he will create whatever is requested from him with the caveat that his creations have No Ontological Inertia. For decades, his power was used to hold up the floating city of Atlas. He is openly dismissive of that Task, viewing it as "pedestrian" and a poor usage of his artistry. However, Ambrosius is a Literal Genie that will create exactly what is requested, requiring that his Summoner be extremely thorough to avoid unforeseen issues. Ozpin advises the heroes to bring blueprints and other real world examples, treating Ambrosius as a Craftman being commissioned\|\|. - In El Goonish Shive, during the "Goonmanji 2" storyline, one of the cards from the eponymous magical card game transforms the player into a genie form capable of tranforming others into forms from the game including the genie form itself. - In Dan Standing's Held Within both genies are former college students who were turned into genies thanks to unknowingly making wishes on a magic amulet. No "natural born" genies have been seen. Unlike other genies, these do not have a three wish limit, and are specifically tied to their specific mistresses. Instead of lamps they have a very private connection to the women they are bound to. - In I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle, a guy gets transformed into a (female) Genie. A spoof of I Dream of Jeannie and parodying the tropes used there. - Last Res0rt's Djinn and Djinni-Si are so far off the myth they're practically In Name Only. Magical? sure. Long-lived? Well, they're undead, so we'll count it. Freaky colored skin? Yup. Wish-granting? No. Live in bottles/lamps? Well, Efreet CAN, but not the rest. Evil? Mebbe. Oh, and this is without including the detail that the term "Djinni-Si" encompasses ALL undead creatures, including Vampires (dubbed "Life Djinn") and Zombies. Efreet (one of the most powerful variants of Djinn) have recently been revealed to be capable of living in small glass balls. - This strip of The Non-Adventures of Wonderella parodies the disconnect between the original djinni myths and the American pop-culture genie. - In Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War, Jinn are presented as etheric entities of great magic power, which can only be used against someone at close range, and are bound to serve whomever holds the container they're tied to. Several Muslim nations start searching for and collecting these in order to use Jinn as weapons, while the French recover some from Algeria for the same purposes. - The Djinn in New York Magician, who works for Cthulhu and is forced to wander around New York, body to body until such a time as undisclosed. - Aladdin: The Series, beyond Aladdin's blue Genie, also introduces Eden, a green-skinned female genie. She gets romantically attached to the Genie, and is going to be set free with her master's third wish, until her master (who is a lonely little girl) accidentally says: "I just wish you could be with me forever." The couple is parted... but they realize that because they're immortal they can just meet up in a hundred years or so. But they can still date each other in the mean time. - Danny Phantom had Desiree, an evil "ghost genie" who grew in power when she granted wishes. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't stop herself from granting wishes, and that led to her defeat in both of her solo appearances. - The Fairly Oddparents has Norm (voiced by Norm Macdonald), a Jackass Genie (in fact, most genies are like that according to Wanda) who was trapped inside a lava lamp and is weak against things made of "smoof". He follows the typical three wishes rule (although that's a bluff to avoid hard work. Masters can just wish for additional three wishes as much as they can), which are rule-free, unlike fairy wishes. He also wants to be a fairy in order to avoid being stuck in a lamp. \|\|He eventually becomes one, but it backfires on him thanks to a Chekhov's Gag.\|\| - Genius Genie's title character is an anthropomorphic blue elephant in a World of Funny Animals who is summoned by simply saying the word "problem". Rather than granting wishes, he uses his magic to try and help solve people's problems, and while he means well, he usually tends to give silly or impractical solutions to mundane issues. - Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: "Wishful Thinking" has a cat genie, but other than be a cat is the typical genie in everything else. - Miraculous Ladybug: - Kwamis may seem fairy-like at first glance, but they're actually repressed gods bound to jewelry and forced to serve whoever holds their Miraculous. Only the Ladybug and Black Cat used in tandem can grant a wish, \|\|but any wish they grant has to destroy the existing universe to create a new universe where the wielder's desires are realized\|\|. - Season 4 introduces Wishmaker, a black-and-white supervillain with the power to force people to live out their childhood dreams. Anyone hit by his stardust attacks will happily, but mindlessly, act out their dreams while transformed. (Ex. A toymaker turning into Santa Claus and delivering toys, Jagged Stone becoming an actual crocodile). - My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "Through the Door", Aladdin's genie resembles a large, heavyset human with pointed ears and small fangs, lives in a lamp, and can conjure up anything as long as someone wishes for it. - In Pixel Pinkie, Pinkie is a digital genie trapped in a really old mobile phone. She has to grant unlimited wishes to whomever owns the phone. She is generally well-meaning, but often falls into Literal Genie territory. - The Real Ghostbusters: "Janine's Genie" has a genie of the Jerkass Genie variety. The genie is evil and uses Janine's wishes to open a portal from the spirit world to Earth. - In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Scrubbin' Down Under," Rocko uses a jackhammer in a misguided attempt to remove spinach from between his teeth. Obviously, he ends up landing himself in the hospital. While he's laid up in traction, sleeping, he dreams of a hygiene-obsessed monkey genie attempting to re-educate him about hygiene. The monkey genie is actually the doctor who's treating him in the "real" world. - Shazzan: The eponymous character is a giant genie summoned by magic rings. - Shimmer and Shine: They live in another dimension, their bottles are just a way to travel between their world and Earth and they don't have to return right after granting the third wish. Shimmer and Shine usually stay around to fix their mistakes and only then go back home. - In The Smurfs we have Gourdy, Farmer Smurf's genie who only made three appearances in Season 6. - Yogi's Gang: The Greedy Genie is free to roam the world with a flying lamp and is free to offer his wishes to anyone he wants. In his case, it means people who agree to never share anything he gives them.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurJinnsAreDifferent
Magical Native American - TV Tropes Paris: Isn't there some Indian trick where you can turn yourself into a bird and fly us out of here? Chakotay: You're too heavy. A specific type of Ethnic Magician, centered around indigenous peoples (for example, Native Americans, Canadian First Nations, and Aboriginal Australians) and fantasy races based around them. Natives that fall under this trope have magical powers coming from innate spirituality or closeness to nature that "civilized" races don't have. Such powers usually involve influence over nature or animals, or other spirit powers. Quite often, the Native in question will be dressed very "traditionally" even in modern settings. May sometimes speak-um Tonto Talk. Overlap with Badass Native is far from uncommon. If the indigenous magic comes from beyond the grave, see Indian Burial Ground. Works often use this trope to promote a "positive" image of indigenous peoples rather than accurately portraying their culture or developing them as characters. Like Noble Savage, this trope can have obvious Unfortunate Implications. While this trope does render indigenous peoples badass in their own right, it also furthers stereotypes of them as exotic outsiders, and often trivialises deep spiritual traditions as mere fantastical magic in a manner that many real indigenous people view as disrespectful (compare how Hollywood Voodoo treats the similarly real religion Voudoun). In some cases the characters are often framed as luddite and anti-technology in favour of being one with nature, ignoring the vast empires and complex technologies Indigenous Americans had (though tech-savvy examples do exist). If this character is a superhero, see Captain Ethnic. See also Magical Negro and Magical Asian. Contrast with Hollywood Natives. ## Examples: - Walken, from Baoh: The Visitor. A giant Native American, last of his tribe, and the most powerful psychic of the world, with Tetsuo-like telekinetic attacks. - Laughing Bull doles out sage wisdom on Cowboy Bebop, making him a Magical Native Martian? Laughing Bull qualifies on the grounds that his people are from Earth originally. Actually, just about any indigenous people sufficiently Closer to Earth can fit this trope. - Though Geronimo Jr. aka 005 of Cyborg 009 plays more the Gentle Giant role and is Made of Iron, he also has some degree of empathy related to nature that does not come from Black Ghost's Cyborg Project. - The Mimiba people in The Five Star Stories appear to have a culture that is a cross between Native Americans & stereotypical portrayals of Ninja. While not overly mystical, they are physically superior to most humans aside from those with inherited genetic enhancements (Headdliners). Their empathy with nature simply comes from a combination of Super Senses & learning from an early age to pay attention to their environment. - Luke's mother Adelaide, from GARO: Vanishing Line was a Makai Alchemist and a Magic Gunwoman who fought with magical Guns Akimbo, the very ones Luke now carries. - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has had two named native American characters throughout its run, both of whom possessed Stands (psychic powers formed from the person's spirit). - Devo the Cursed appears in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, and his Stand "Ebony Devil" allows him to "curse" people by having a doll he controls remotely attack them, so long as they injure him first. - Sandman \|\|whose true name is Soundman,\|\| appears in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run, and his Stand "In A Silent Way" allows him to incorporate onomatopoeia (a staple in JoJo) into offensive or defensive tactics. He's given more characterization than Devo, with his status as a native American as actually part of his character, considering Steel Ball Run is set in 19th century America. - Sara Nome in Macross Zero. She gets fought over because of her magical power. \|\|In actuality it's just that Protoculture technology recognizes and reacts to her because of her blood type\|\|. The Mayans of the South Pacific have a rich belief system, but many of their traditions have been forgotten with westernization (something that had already been started many years prior to the events of the OVA, as opposed to happening immediately). \|\|Sara comes to hate the rest of the world when the Unification War between the UN and anti-UN decide to make her village the latest battlefield.\|\| - In Midori Days the Native American medicine man is the only one of the spiritual experts called in for Midori's "illness" to actually have some idea of what's going on. - In episode three of Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, Rei meets one of the engineers that made the titular aircraft. He's unmistakably Native American, but he's nothing really special; even his name is a nondescript Tom John. He tells about how he is a bit of coward even when he was raised in a Proud Warrior Race Guy tribe, and actually having a plutonium-powered artificial heart (which he lamentably admits giving him problems since he wouldn't be accepted in several countries due to his heart). By the end of the episode, \|\|he's revealed to be a JAM copy, and his original died, yet he possesses so much personality of the original that he decides to perform a Heroic Sacrifice rather than letting him be a threat to other humans\|\|. A noteworthy thing is, aside from Rei's Commanding Officer and his own aircraft, Tom John is the only other person Rei has shown emotions to. - The novel and manga further flesh out his backstory: he studied aerospace engineering but couldn't find a job related to his field on The Rez. The manga also contradicts his anime backstory by making him out to be a rather violent individual who got into fights a lot which bit him hard when he got stabbed in the chest, necessitating his artificial heart. Another difference from the anime is that \|\|he's not a JAM copy, but he is murdered by the JAM on the Banshee-IV aircraft because they can perceive the mechanical parts of his body while being unaware of his flesh\|\|. - The Shaman Fight in Shaman King is run by a Native American tribe called Patch. - Comedian Greg Warren has a joke questioning why every traditional Native American elder in fiction is so all-knowing and infallible in their wisdom, and wonders whether or not there are any out there who instead give stupid, terrible advice like some of the old rednecks in his own family: Wise Elder: "If you are having problems with your woman, go to her pillage, and steal her corn. And she will know you are a man of courage." Greg: "What are you talking about?!" Wise Elder: "I am just saying!" - A runaway young man in Beasts of Burden can understand and speak animal. The only reason he gives is that his "people" do that too, and given his tattoos and explanations about them, he's Native American. - "Crazy Wolf" from the Chick Tract of the same name, although (no surprise here) he's portrayed negatively. - The DCU: - Aquaman archnemesis Ocean Master was both half-Native American and an Evil Sorcerer in the Post-Crisis continuity, yet subverts the trope—his magic powers come not from his native heritage, but from having sold his soul to the (very Christian) demon lord Neron. - Silver Deer, an erstwhile Firestorm (DC Comics) villain from the Cherokee Nation, used magical shapeshifting abilities. She even "enlisted" a former Firestorm adversary, Black Bison, to help her scheme. She also had luck powers. The Black Bison is himself a Native American with an impressive command of magic. - The Freedom Fighters (DC) have Black Condor in the John Trujillo version. He's a Native American man who received his powers from an ancient spider-goddess. - Manitou Raven and his wife Dawn, the Justice League of America's magical advisors when Joe Kelly was writing the book. As if the wholehearted embracing of every single stereotype wasn't enough, Kelly gave them Apache Chief's magic word. - Flying Fox, the Post-Crisis Earth-2 Batman replacement in the All-Star Squadron sequel series The Young All-Stars, is this. He received his powers from his grandfather, the tribal shaman, and was given a magical fur cloak that enabled him to fly. - Downplayed in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe with the Peeweegah; created by Carl Barks for his story "Land of the Pygmy Indians", they are one of several technology-avoiding Perfect Pacifist People cultures created by him, and consist of extremely short (about the height of Huey, Dewey and Louie) Native Americans with enormous noses. Their "magic" mostly manifests in their ability to talk to the animals and move with preternatural stealth in their home in the forests of Canada. Naturally, they were brought back by Don Rosa at least once, in "War of the Wendigo". - The elves in ElfQuest are arguably modeled on native Americans and are literally magical. The elves are a varied bunch, and none of them are strict Fantasy Counterpart Cultures. The Sun Folk seem vaguely Native American (maybe Central American), and the Go Backs clearly show some Eskimo/Inuit traits. The Wolfriders seem a little more like European myths of forest-dwelling elves, and they're certainly drawn to look European. The Gliders are kind of unclassifiable - let's say Art Deco. - Parodied in Jack of Fables with Raven, Jack's guide/sidekick. Raven isn't particularly good at his job (he at first mistakenly attached himself to Jack's double John), loathes Jack, and only helps him reluctantly, because his spirit guide threatens to peck out his eyes if he doesn't. - In Lori Lovecraft, one of Lori's boyfriends is Arthur Black Crow: a Native American shaman with the ability to transform into a crow. He tutors Lori in the use of magic. - Played with in the initial Lucifer miniseries, with the teenaged Rachel Begai. Half-Dineh (Navajo) and the granddaughter of a shaman, she's far from serene or wise. Indeed, she comes across as whiny, hostile and reckless, only accompanying Lucifer on a quest through the Dineh "four worlds" in hopes of getting back her brother whom she'd inadvertently killed. Nevertheless, thanks to her shamanic heritage she does possess a considerable degree of intuition which comes in handy on the quest (\|\| for Lucifer, not for her\|\|). Later in the series proper, Rachel, now in her twenties, reappears as a straighter example of the trope, having become her grandfather's apprentice and also matured a good deal. - Many Native American, First Nations and Aboriginal Australian characters in the Marvel Universe have ended up either using magic or going on a Vision Quest at some point. - Alpha Flight: Michael Twoyoungmen, aka Shaman, is a magical shaman. His daughter Elizabeth inherited magical powers as well and became the super heroine Talisman. - Captain America becomes one of these in a What If?, and \|\|Marvel 1602\|\|. - In Champions, Amka Aliyak / Snowguard is introduced as a regular teen who just happens to be Inuit. Later on, she gets the power to shape-shift as a gift from Sila, the spirit of Northern Canada. So she is magical and Native American, but neither is necessarily related to the other. - Aboriginal Australians are frequently portrayed with magical powers. A 'magical bullroarer' and the ability to teleport through Dream Time are the powers of two completely separate characters — Talisman (no relation to Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, above) from Contest of Champions (1982) * and Gateway from X-Men''. - Gateway was both far more mystical than Talisman (he never spoke) AND subverted the trope by being an airplane pilot in the alternate reality of The Age of Apocalypse. - The Ghost Rider: The original 1967 series was a Western, and the titular Ghost Rider's origin story involved the Native American medicine man Flaming Star, who healed Carter Slade, equipped him and named him as The Chosen One, saying that the Great Spirit had predicted his coming. Although Slade refuses to believe there's magic involved and the series keeps some level of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane, it's generally implied that Flaming Star has real powers. - Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants* provides a mild subversion. Despite the involvement of a demonic bear in her Parental Abandonment Backstory, her own illusion/nightmare summoning abilities were run of the mill Psychic Powers and she only acquired mystical abilities well after she came to Xavier's... when she was kidnapped to Asgard and became a Valkyrie more-or-less by accident (All because she wanted to help out a winged horse trapped in a bog. Blessed with suck indeed). Her grandfather was actually a shaman who taught her what he could about controlling her illusion powers but, knowing their origin were different from his own abilities, he talked her into going to Xavier's School. - She-Hulk's Native American boyfriend Wyatt Wyngfoot turns out to have a rich magical heritage. Initially just Human Torch's Muggle buddy from college (a great athlete at the school, he was an expy of famed Olympic Athlete Jim Thorpe), he had no magic powers. He claimed to be good with dogs but couldn't handle Lockjaw. - Spider-Man: Amusingly, Thomas Fireheart is a literal example, being a shape-shifting were-puma and protector of his tribe. However, he's also got a mercenary streak and is firmly on the darker side of morally gray. He later turns out to be the only person in the whole multiverse who can hurt the Beyonder (besides God), but then a Retcon fixed all that. Some other members of Fireheart's tribe qualify too (in fact, that's probably the whole idea), including his unnamed uncle, the tribe's shaman, and his kinsman, the mutant Charles Little Sky, aka Portal. - Downplayed with Forge from X-Men. He has powerful shamanic powers and used them to summon demons against the Viet Cong when his troops were wiped out and he lost his leg in the Vietnam War. This enabled the Adversary to appear so he used his powers again and defeated it in the '80s. After that, everything about Forge has inventing new tech and using the BFG of the day and mention of his magic is practically nonexistent in over 30 years. - Prez (1973): Prez Rickard's longstanding friend, companion and FBI head is Eagle Free, a Native American who continually dresses the part and is surrounded by a group of animals. - The Passengers of Revival were raised by a Hindu ritual, but a Native American is able to use his own tribe's rites to understand and trap them. - Played with in Scalped. Nominally a crime-n-family drama, it also delves into the realm of dreams and spirit animals, and it's not certain if it's just metaphors. Certain characters (Grandma Poor Bear, for instance) have an inherent connection to this vaguely magical background. - In Shaman's Tears, Joshua Brand is a half-Sioux who is selected by the spirit of the Earth to become her champion and granted magical nature powers. - Blackfeather in Silverblade. When he first appears, he is a wizened old Indian who works as a medium conducting seances. Later he is rejuvenated into a youthful form with the ability to transform into Native American totemic animals. - In Discworld fic Small Medium, Large Headache, Mrs Cake's spirit guide One-Man-Bucket makes an appearance. Everybody knows Red Indian Spirit Guides are wise and compassionate spirit entities who work with mediums out of compassion for the human race, and pass on the pure wisdom of their earthly lives, right? Well, a new medium has arisen in Ankh-Morpork. And her Guides are the other sort of Indian. Ones to whom the word not-an-Apache is cognate with target, victim or To be tied upside-down over a roaring fire until their skulls explode. Mayhem ensues. - In a series of Emergency! fics by abfirechick, John Gage has a sort of psychic link with his girlfriend that seems based on this. When she's kidnapped in one fic, he can feel her pain and there are a couple scenes with what look to be spirit guide animals as well. - In the re-write of The End of Ends, Beast Boy and Terra are told the events of the story by a Native American man with a magical campfire. - House Shark: Darth Squanto, the specialist that Ulysses hires to deal with the house shark problem. He's basically a Native American with force powers. - Iron Will has Ned, a Native Alaskan who is a friend to Will Stoneman's family and is Will's mentor in sledracing. On top of that, he talks to animals by speaking in his Indigenous language. - Averted with Kicking Wing from Joe Dirt. Joe assumes he's magical because he's Native American, but Wing says he's just some guy selling fireworks. - Old Lodge Skins in Little Big Man. "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't." - Tonto has elements of this in The Lone Ranger, especially in his manner of dress and during his plot exposition. Subverted later on when John meets the rest of the Comanche, who inform him that Tonto is insane and the Native American myths that he's been reciting throughout the film are just that, simply myths. (Even so, there's something... off about Tonto. He seems to know when "nature is out of balance" just from observing animal behavior. Then there's that spooky makeup on his face that makes him look like a paleolithic street mime, and that never comes off (even when he's underwater!) until he decides to take it off. - Averted in Man's Favorite Sport?, John Screaming Eagle talks in stereotypical Indian talk, hinting that he knows things only Indians know, until he's found out, then he becomes a normal American man in speech and 'knowledge', and willingness to help out his fellow man - for a price. - The Missing has good and bad types of this. One of the heroes, Samuel, who is white, was accepted into Chircahua culture and became this in a sort as well. - Taylor, the eccentric but benevolent shaman in Poltergeist II: The Other Side. - Predator. Billy senses the presence of the alien long before anyone else does. Justified as he is after all their scout, but Billy's reactions are very different from what you'd expect if an ordinary human enemy was stalking them, indicating that he somehow understands the otherworldly nature of their foe. He also keeps a medicine bag around his neck at all times, suggesting he takes his people's traditions (implicitly Mohawk) very seriously. - Subverted in the plot of the Mystery Science Theater 3000-mocked film The Pumaman. An Aztec gives the hero a magic belt that gives him all the powers of a puma, including flying. Subverted because the actual Native American is a Badass Normal and the "magic" is alien super-technology. Despite having the belt and super-powers, the hero stays only one notch above utter coward, while his Aztec sidekick does all the work of actually defeating the bad guy. - One appears in Purgatory. More specifically, he turns out to be \|\|St. Peter\|\| in Indian form. - In Savaged, Grey Wolf is a shaman who finds Zoe after she has been Left for Dead. He preforms a ritual in an attempt to bring her back, but she comes back wrong. - When the revenge western Seraphim Falls veers into Magic Realism in the third act, a Native American man played by Wes Studi appears to each of the two main characters by a water hole in the middle of a barren desert. He trades Pierce Brosnan's character some water for the horse that Brosnan had stolen from Liam Neeson, then gives Neeson the horse for free. When Neeson gives him money anyway, he discards the coins. His name is listed as Charon in the credits, and the film suggests that he's a demon who is engineering a final confrontation between the two nemeses. - Thunderheart: - "Grandpa" Sam Reaches fits the trope, but the movie earns points by presenting a brutally unromanticized view of reservation life at the time, with government corruption, violence, alcoholism, and crushing poverty. Also, everything Grandpa does is what Lakota people would reasonably expect a wikchasa wakan (holy man) to do; he leads a sweat lodge and later an outdoor prayer session, prays and leaves food out for animals, telepathically picks up on some facts about Ray's father, and offers to share a sacred pipe with him. - Jimmy Looks Twice has a reputation for shape shifting, but the film keeps it sufficiently ambiguous. - The main character, a federal agent assigned to investigate a murder at Pine Ridge Reservation (and the hero of the piece, mind you), iscontemptuous of and sarcastic toward Sioux traditions at first - even though he is of part-Sioux ancestry himself, which is something he usually doesn't discuss. By the end of the film, said federal agent also fits, to an extent. - And spoofed by tribal police officer and Deadpan Snarker Walter Crow Horse, who claims that he heard a message on the wind that the protagonist was exceeding the speed limit. Later when the federal agent has a vision, Horse gets rather annoyed because he has never had one! - Walkabout had a young aboriginal boy who fit this perfectly, to the point of \|\|a senseless suicide\|\|. - A humorous example is the "weird naked Indian" from Wayne's World 2. That was a parody of a more straightforward example: the almost naked Native guy from Jim Morrison's visions in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). - Mystic Native American high-steel workers in Wolfen. (The mysticism aspect is not really present in the novel.) - White Wolves III: Cry of the White Wolf': The Native American pilot appears to Pamela in a vision after his death. - Subverted in Wonder Woman (2017). \|\|Chief is magical, but it's because he's a demigod, not Native.\|\| It's only revealed in an untranslated conversation in Blackfoot, and otherwise he's just a smuggler with a Hidden Heart of Gold. - The Yellow Handkerchief has Gordie believing he's this. He's a white orphan who was raised by Native Americans. It's mostly used to show him as out of touch with reality. - The trope is played with here. - It was already late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief in a modern society he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. Being a practical leader, several days later he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter." The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find. Two weeks later the chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen." "How can you be so sure?" the chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy!" - Exploited by Sherman Alexie's character Victor Joseph, who uses his "stoic look" to meet women. - Oberon of Alterien could be considered this, though it is somewhat downplayed. As an Alterien, Oberon's abilities are actually based in science beyond anything human scientists have discovered or could understand. To most humans, many of his abilities might seem like magic. - Whiskey Jack in Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Though he actually is magical, being a culture hero from Native American mythology (Wisakedjak), most of the time he acts like an average Joe. Subverted with Samantha Black Crow. She's part Cherokee, and one of the few characters who is not magical in any way. - African tribals rather than Native Americans, but in the Artemis Fowl series, the fairies drop off mind-wiped humans in the African savanna to be adopted by nearby tribes. When a couple hunters find him, one pulls out his cell phone to call his chief. "Yeah, the earth spirits left us another one." - In Avalon: Web of Magic, Adriane's Native American grandmother dispenses mystical advice and fortune cookie sayings almost every time she appears, while a Native American rock monument is a literal gateway into the magical spirit world. - In Mike Resnick's The Buntline Special Native American magic has been powerful enough to keep the United States of America East of the Mississippi as of 1881. - In Chance And Choices Adventures, main character Noah Swift Hawk is one of these, as are most other Native American mystery men. Usually it's real medicines and scientific principles being presented as magic potions and spells, but not always. - The Deoraghan of The Children of Man fall under this trope. They are a distinct ethnic and political unit, divided into multiple nomadic Tribes. They are also much more powerfully magical than any other race (nearly every Deoraghan can use magic, while only about one in ten non-Deoraghan can) and are the only people left who worship Lior, this setting's incarnation of the Christian God. - Played with in the Dunwych tribals of Cthulhu Armageddon by C.T. Phipps. They are also a subversion in that they are one of the most technologically adept peoples and have access to the most knowledge from before the Rising. It's just that they are also a tribal people, ecologically integrated, worshipers of the Great Old Ones, and take names based upon their deeds as often as not. They also apparently partially related to real-life Native American peoples that survived the Rising. - In The Dragon Murder Case, from Philo Vance, someone has been killed at a party and one of the suspects is a man who is half Native American, another suspect - a woman - accuses him of killing the victim using "His mystic Indian skills that allow him to become practically invisible." \|\|He is not the murderer, and is not magic.\|\| - Dream Park: In The California Voodoo Game, Black Elk is the Army team's principal spell-caster, and his Magic-user/Cleric character is patterned on his Native American heritage. Outside the Game, he's just an ordinary mid-21st-century military man. - The Dresden Files has Joseph Listens-to-Wind, also known as Injun Joe, note : He jokingly says if one was to be politically correct, unlike his peer Ebenezer McCoy, he insists on being called "Native American" Joe genuine Illinois medicine man (as well as a medical doctor, getting requalified every decade or so to keep up with mundane advancements), member of the White Council's Senior Council and, by extension, one of the most powerful wizards in the world. He's described as having a great sense of empathy for animals and even has a pet raccoon. He's also well over two (possibly three) centuries old, so he's one who remembers the better part of their history with the White Man - and it's part of why more than one person suggests Harry learn from him, not about magic, but about dealing with anger, because he's got previous. All in all, Listens-To-Wind is probably the least strained and most badass version of this trope. Ever. "Don't plan to bind or banish you, old ghost. Just gonna kick your ass up between your ears." - The Aboriginals portrayed in Fall From Grace are a strict and deliberate aversion, and realistically if depressingly portrayed. The portrayal of Aboriginals, Cree in this case, is quite authentic. Leo also has a humourous moment when a Cree man offers him a cigarette, and Leo wonders if turning it down would be an insult to the man's peace offering. - Subverted in the Stephen King horror novel Firestarter. Professional Killer Rainbird's death-oriented mysticism makes him terrifying and dangerous rather than understanding and helpful. - Downplayed in From a High Tower. Medicine Chief (and former U. S. Army Scout) Leading Fox being an Air Master is totally justified by magicians occurring in just about every nationality; however the only other members of Captain Cody's Wild West Show aside from Cody himself (a low-level Fire Mage and longtime friend of Leading Fox) and their current announcer/manager (an Austrian who has relatives in the Brotherhood of the Black Forest) who knows anything about magic are the other Pawnee with the show. - In The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong, Maya is adopted, but is said to be part Native American, and she also is discovering mysterious abilities coming from her paw print birthmark. - In the Gods Of Manhattan series, the native Munsees' spiritual beliefs give them actual magic. - Subverted in that Tadewi Omaha, the scythe-wielding main character of Grimmer Reaper, is an actual Native American from the Age of Exploration, but seems not in tuned with nature (or people, for that matter) at all, nor is she magical or spiritual. While she does have powers (wind manipulation, actually) , so does (almost) everyone else in the series. And don't take her name the wrong way. She was given the last name "Omaha" after her tribe by the officials who hired her. The same happened with the cavewoman character Leia Sapien. But she does make reference to the culture on occasion, and dresses in the traditional garb of the Omaha tribe when not on duty, complete with the open buckskin jacket with no shirt underneath. Though it's worth noting that Tadewi actually comes from an off-shoot of the Omaha tribe, which is probably just the author trying to cover for any accidental or intentional mistakes he/she makes in Omaha tribe lore. - Harry Potter: Centaurs as a whole are very analogous to Native Americans, especially with the mentions of being allowed restricted territories by the government. Their main methods of Divination consist of stargazing and burning leaves to find patterns in the smoke. - Subverted somewhat, in the works of Tomson Highway, including The Rez Sisters—who play bingo. - In The House of Night, protagonist Zoey is one-quarter Cherokee, which is often treated as exactly the same as the fact that she joins a vampyric Mage Species. Much mention is made of how her and her grandmother's Cherokee blood makes them closer to nature and more mystically inclined, and Zoey uses smudging rituals when she does spells. The fact that Zoey's mom married a (badly written) Christian and became a housewife, however, is proof that "the Redbird Wise Woman blood had skipped over her." - In the Jane Yellowrock Series, Jane the main character is of Cherokee decent and has the power of shape-changing passed down in her line. - Mercedes Lackey: - In the stand alone novel Sacred Ground, the main character has magical powers explicitly because she's a Native American shaman-in-training. - The Heralds of Valdemar has a version of this trope with the Hawkbrothers, who are almost magical, though there may be some subversion of it in their cousins, the Shin'a'in, who shun the use of magic completely (except when their ultra-magical goddess gets involved). There are actually good reasons for this, revealed over the course of the series. Shin'a'in who are found to be magically inclined are either trained as Shamans, or sent to the Hawkbrothers. But then again, magic use is represented heavily across all cultures in the Valdemar series; Lackey uses the stereotype but it's far from out of place in-universe. Doesn't stop the Hawkbrothers from being portrayed as probably the most magically powerful society in the series. - Charles de Lint has an entire collection of novels and short stories of urban fantasy based on the idea that the various Native American spirits (Coyote, Raven, etc) are still around and active in people's lives, particularly in one town. Further, once you encounter one of these individuals, their magic is "contagious," and you will almost certainly encounter more and become more aware of the magic surrounding everyday life than you probably wanted to be. Of course, a house in Ottawa is a nexus of planes in de Lint's stories. And many of the magical creatures are Celtic, such as the evil faeries. - Simon's friend in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams, is one of the troll-like Qanuc, rides a wolf, fights with a blowgun, and solves a lot of problems with his traditional knowledge. - Mercy Thompson is herself an example as a half-Native coyote shapeshifter, although she subverts it in part by having a job (auto mechanic) that's about as far from Closer to Earth as you can get. Her powers area also eventually revealed to have come not from her being half-Native American, but because \|\|her Native American father was actually Coyote, because the offspring of such unions are always Walkers\|\|. The series itself has featured this trope in the backstory of Bran's son, Charles, whose mother was a Native shaman's daughter and practiced real magic, some of which Charles has inherited along with his father's lycanthropy. However, All Myths Are True and Native American magical abilities don't stand out much in a setting full of witches, werewolves, The Fair Folk, vampires, and even the occassional god or Eldritch Abomination. - The Neverending Story has the literally green-skinned Greenskins (Atreyu's people) who live on the plains of the Grassy Ocean are Native Americans with the serial numbers filed off. They even hunt a purple kind of buffalo. - Xabbu, Renie's Love Interest in Otherland, is an African Bushman who was raised partly in the Bush and partly in a modern setting. His natural sensitivity to his surroundings comes in very useful once they become trapped in the Grail Network - this would be ironic considering it's really a vastly sophisticated simulation, but it turns out that the operating system knows about this trope and is deliberately feeding him extra information. The first Otherland book also starts out with a foreword by Williams that basically says "Look, I know there are like fifty billion Bushmen tribes, and it turns out they all have their own completely unique and mutually exclusive religions, but I'm kinda gonna pretend there's only one for the sake of the story, okay?" Although, even within the story, it's only insinuated that !Xabbu subscribes to a general "Bushman" religion; he's the only one we ever meet, so we don't really know the contrast between the tribes. - Race to the Sun: Both Nizhoni and her younger Mac are direct descendants of the Changing Woman, one of Navajo Holy People, which grants them magical powers needed to fight and slay monsters. But apart from that they dress and behave just like average kids and their Navajo origin is sometimes a burden. - In The Saga of the Borderlands, by the argentine writer Liliana Bodoc, the inhabitants of The Fertile Lands are a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the pre-Columbian peoples of America, therefore all their magicians - or "Brujos de la tierra" - fall into this category. The main difference between the magicians of The Ancient Lands (the equivalent of Europe in this world) and those of The Fertile Lands, is that they became proud and focused solely on man, while the "Brujos" continue in close contact with nature. - A few humans...or flat-faces...in Seeker Bears are this. They could even turn into different animals...but only one form unlike Ujurak. But it's thanks to them that Ujurak knows that the earth is suffering. - In The Secret of Moon Lake by Gloria Tesch (as "Sofia Nova"), the character Mr. Brown is a stock magical Native who, despite residing in a big city, owns a pet hawk, has shamanic powers, chooses to live in the forest and tells mystical, prophetic stories. - In Shaman of the Undead there's Okhamhaka, spirit of Indian boy, with classical Hollywood Indian outfit, magical dreamcatches and powerful magic. Luckily, his snarky nature averts "nature wisdom and sayings" part, but how did he get from America to Poland is left unexplained. - The Weird West novella Sheep's Clothing has Wolf Cowrie, a half-Indian gunslinger who is also half-skinwalker on his Native side and uses shamanistic techniques to fight vampires. He can also turn into a wolf, to varying degrees. - Played with in "Sixth of the Dusk". Dusk does understand and respect the island, and even worships it in a cautious way, and is violently protective of the land. But when he sees that a small cannon can actually kill the Nightmaws, his first response is to celebrate that they could kill them all. Another character notes that he's disillusioning her of her romantic view of his culture. - Played with in Christopher Buehlman's The Suicide Motor Club, a vampire charming stare has no effect on those with True Sight and...native Americans. When the Big Bad, Luther Nixon (a vampire who was an ex-con and NASCAR cheat) and his enforcer are badly weakened from an explosion. They try to take shelter from the sun by going to a native souvenir shop. Unfortunately for them, the owner was a former victim of theirs. He and his nephews couldn't be charmed and they beat the two vamps then execute them by tying them on a railroad track for the rising sun. - Subverted in Orson Scott Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker Alternate History series, where the Native Americans genuinely are magical, but so is everyone else in 19th century America. While the White Americans are hiring dowsers and crafting amulets, and the Black slaves are building Voodoo fetishes by candlelight, the Natives prance through the trees in tune with Nature's song, using blood magic to control animals and bend light around themselves. As a whole, most tribes responded to White aggression by migrating West of the Mizzippy and closing down the river, while the Aztecs still dominate Mexico, using human sacrifice to fuel their magic. - The Twilight Saga character Jacob Black and his fellow Quileute werewolves are all an example of this. They're apparently not true werewolves, but rather "spirit wolves," which comes from a traditional Quileute origin story about shape-shifters. Unlike vampirism, spirit-wolf-ism is hereditary. - Ruth, who is Hopi, in Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. After helping Delia deal with the aftermath of \|\|her father kidnapping her as a child from her alcoholic mother\|\| with wisdom and sayings, she kills herself at an ancient mural rather than go through chemo. - In the Whateley Universe, there are two literal examples: Heyoka, a Lakota 'two-spirit' who can communicate with spirits and astral project, but can't keep from physically shifting into the form of spirits that Heyoka merges with; and Charlie Lodgeman, once the superhero Totem but now 'merely' a supervisor at the Superhero School Whateley Academy, who actually possesses the spirit of The First Shaman. As a subversion, there's also a superpowered mutant native American at the school who isn't magical: Skinwalker has the power to possess people and take over their bodies, but isn't a shaman. - Heyoka is a partial deconstruction, as she was sorta dragged into this, doesn't get ALONG with said spirits and astral projections, and wasn't especially into the specifics of her religion. (Her dad was, but he got struck by lightning.) Her powers are also a pain in the ARSE. (Her gender and personality can change pretty drastically thanks to the spirits...) - Ever since Little Big Man, the winkte (what Heyoka actually is with her changing from female to male, and later going back and forth) and heyoka (someone who does everything backward) are different Character Classes. Whatever the case, being either is considered a mixed blessing. - Later that year another character shows up, Pejuta (Kayda Franks, born Brandon), who is the Lakota Messianic Archetype figure known as the Ptesanwi, the Avatar Paladin of Wakan Tanka. While this trope is played a lot straighter for her than with Heyoka, there are more than a few deconstructive aspects of how the it plays out for her, especially when Coyote gets involved. - Skinwalkers, or yee naaldlooshi, are sort of the villains of Navajo tradition. It's a real Body Horror to be the victim of one. It isn't clear if the character was aware of how much of a name to run away from really fast it was when he chose it. - Two Bears/O'olish Amaneh from The Word and the Void novels by Terry Brooks. While he is wise and magical, he isn't above violence and in fact is a dangerous killer for the lawful and good force in the universe, as well as being a shell shocked Vietnam vet. He's also heavily implied to be some manner of supernatural being in the form of one- note that as of his last appearance he's been alive for centuries, always appears exactly where and when he's needed, and actually scares Findo Gask, who is The Stoic in addition to being arguably the most powerful demon on earth. - Ash vs. Evil Dead has a south-of-the-border version: Pablo's uncle is a " brujo," and Pablo inherits his magical powers. - More or less averted in the revival of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, where the native Americans don't have any real powers beside total lack of vertigo, and a plot-significant knowledge of local herbs. - Subverted somewhat in an episode of Bones. The investigative team is being introduced to a case by a small-town sheriff who mentions the remains were found by a Native American who will be assisting in the investigation. When someone asks if he's a "Indian tracker" the sheriff remarks sarcastically that since the man is a park ranger and found the remains in the course of his normal duties he "didn't have to use any of his Indian powers." Later on that same sheriff asks the ranger if an apparent Indian ritual site is legitimate, to which he replies, "What am I, a shaman?" - In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Thanksgiving episode "Pangs", Buffy faces a Native American vengeance spirit who can shapeshift, and summon ghostly Native American warriors. Of course, magic is hardly limited to Native Americans in the Buffyverse, and this trope is sort of examined — Willow feels sympathetic to the spirit since it's avenging legitimate wrongs, while everyone else points out that, you know, it's still a murderous vengeance spirit that kills people and gave Xander magical syphilis. They wind up destroying it at the end. - While following a magic wolf in Magic School in an episode of Charmed (1998), Phoebe runs into a shaman student who sends her on a vision quest. - The Colbert Report: - Sherman Alexie talks about this myth a lot during his first interview. "No, I can't talk to animals. I have no Dr. Doolittle-type powers. Pocahontas couldn't talk to animals, either. But in the Disney movie, she did talk to Mel Gibson, which sort of counts." - It was parodied in a later episode when Colbert underwent a Mushroom Samba (courtesy of Prescott Pharmaceuticals' latest "Vaxa" product); "Chief Wandering Meadow" (Eugene Mirman) shows up to guide Stephen through his imagination; when Colbert points out it "looks so real", Wandering Meadow explains that Colbert simply has a very limited imagination. - In the Creepshow episode, "The House of the Head", Evie buys a Tipis and Totem Poles style Native American "chief" to protect her haunted dollhouse from the malevolent head that has been torturing her dolls. He holds the head off for a while, apparently trying to cast out the curse (which is a lot more than any of the regular dolls were able to do, but \|\|he does ultimately get beheaded.\|\| - Criminal Minds mostly subverts it with the episode "The Tribe" and the character of John Blackwolf. Blackwolf is the reservation sheriff and does exhibit excellent powers of deduction, but it's more akin to the skills used by the BAU themselves than anything mystical. He also figures out that the tribal-looking murders are not being done by the Apache - if the UnSubs were Apache, they "wouldn't be so confused", if anything, they'd be more brutal. Finally, Blackwolf is shown to abhor guns, and talks Hotch into taking down the UnSubs, \|\|who are college-aged kids brainwashed by a cult leader\|\|, with just a baton and his hands. Hotch does end up shooting one. - Dharma & Greg has an old Native American who shows up to die in their apartment building because it was built over an ancient burial mound. He returns in at least one later episode as a ghost/spirit guide - or possibly a dream. It's up to the viewer to decide. - SCP Foundation, SCP-992 ("Gaia's Emissary"). SCP-992 is a male Australian Aborigine who claims to be 57-71 years old but hasn't aged in the 65 years that he's been contained by the Foundation. He appears to be able to control the weather and talk to plants. - The Twilight Histories miniepisode "Lakota Thunder" takes place in a world where the Ghost Dance proves far more effective than it did in our world. - The Apache Tracker in Welcome to Night Vale puts on the act of being one of these, stereotypical feather headdress and all, despite being a white man "of apparently Slavic origin." Cecil never skips an opportunity to point out that this caricature is racist and offensive, even after \|\|the Apache Tracker mysteriously transforms into an actual Native American\|\|. - Subverted by the Great Cheyenee, who at first looks and sound the part but is really a "Monstress From Hell" (this can probably be attributed to her predecessor, the Great Malachi) - In December 2006, as part of the very last gimmick he performed before mysteriously disappearing from WWE, Tatanka, enraged at having supposedly been repeatedly cheated out of in-ring victories by biased officials, tapped deep into his Native American psyche and gained access to a "vengeful warrior" persona that induced him to paint his face white and draw a black horizontal band over his eyes, and to talk in a dark, angry, mystical manner. He had only two matches in WWE after that, but the first match was a draw and the second resulted in a victory for him (his first victory in many weeks), suggesting that he somehow drew on supernatural power to win his final match. - Played with in the Anchôromé campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. On the one hand, you have the Minnenewah, Indigenous American-like humanoids who were brought to Anchorome from another plane and still possess minor mystical labilities, such as increased longevity and a heightened affinity for the magical classes — they're even directly likened to the Spirit Folk of Kara-tur. On the other hand, they're surrounded by ordinary humans who also are based on Indigenous Americans, and they're just treated as regular people. Even their ability to learn magic is nothing that doesn't exist in other parts of the world. - Deadlands averts this to a large extent. Native Americans and those who have been welcomed into their tribes are the only characters eligible for Guardian Spirits or learning rituals and favors from the local spirits. But the Native shamans are only one of the many kinds of magic-users who can use various forms of magic typical to their cultural background. Priests can perform miracles because of their faith, voudou practitioners call upon loas, sorcerers use occult knowledge, hucksters (magical gamblers) engage spirits in games of wits and even mad scientists get their inspiration from the supernatural sources. It is explicitly stated that the form of the magical abilities is of the cultural, not ethnic character. An European greenhorn can master the Native magic should they follow the Native way of life and gain the favour of the relevant spirits. - Played with in Pathfinder. The Arcadians do not practice a unique magical tradition. They do, however, have a unique magical-technology for scavenging monster parts and making guns out of them. This magic has left Arcadia, and now is practiced by other peoples, but it is tagged Uncommon so you need GM permission to take it. - In the Ravenloft campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, the Nightmare Lands are home to the Abber nomads, primitive humans who have a culture and general appearance similar to North American tribes. (Their language is described as "absolutely unique" and unlike "any tongue spoken by any other race in any known land", hinting that they may have origins with actual Native Americans, like the inhabitants of Odiarre, whose language is described the same way, as it is Gothic Earth's equivalent of Italian.) While they can't outright use magic (unless they gain levels as druids, and some do) living in the Nightmare Lands have made their minds tough enough to withstand a place that tends to drive visitors insane; they don't dream, and can distinguish illusion from reality with ease. (One source gives a flat 25% chance of such magics failing against them, while other sources say it depends on several factors.) - The metaplot for Shadowrun has Native Americans as the first to use magic properly after the Awakening, with the reasoning being that they never really left it behind in the first place. The circumstances around this are less pleasant than it sounds, as most of the Native American population were rounded up into prison camps after protesting their land being seized by the US government on behalf of the nascent Mega Corps. Their magical talent manifested a year later and provided them a much needed edge in escaping and in the brief war that followed, and resulted in the fracturing of the US and Canada, and the emergence of the Native American Nations as regional powers. - Mother Raven (from the Superhero RPG Silver Age Sentinels) is a shaman (and one of the setting's major heroines) who received her powers from the actual Raven. - Warhammer 40,000: - Necromunda has the Ratskins. - Mainline 40k also has the Native American-themed Space Marine chapter known as the Raven Guard. It can be a bit hard to tell by looking at them as a genetic mutation results in them having albinistic skin. It does give a striking look in combination with their inky tribal facepaint, though. There's also the Space Marine chapter known as the Rainbow Warriors. The name is inspired by what is usually claimed to be an Indian myth (usually identified as either Hopi or Cree), but was in fact invented wholesale by two Evangelical Christians in 1962, and was, if anything, a bald-faced attack at Indian belief systems. Later works, however, tend to portray them as resembling native South Americans instead. - In the Old World of Darkness game Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Garou follow a tribal structure, with two of the tribes, the Uktena (exploratory mystics) and the Wendigo (warriors who still weren't over colonization) being Native American. Then again, the game also had tribes of urban homeless, Amazons, Vikings, Irish warrior-poets, and Egyptian travelers, so it was a bit of a grab bag. Also, werewolves gained their particular form of magic, Gifts, by making deals with spirits. - Werewolf wasn't the only game in the Old World of Darkness to work the Native American motifs. Mage: The Ascension had the Dreamspeakers, a mystical Tradition made up of shamans of all types (Aborigines, Native Americans, African bushmen, even modern technoshamans) who showed a mastery over the spirit world. Changeling: The Dreaming had the Nunnehi, changelings who took after Native American myths the same way the Kithain took after European (and African) myths, and whose relationship with the Kithain ranged from "friendly, but keep your distance" to "fucking white man." - The tribes and spiritual motifs continue in the successor game, Werewolf: The Forsaken, but the Native American themes are downplayed. Furthermore, the werewolves in this game aren't so much protectors of the spirit world as they are protectors of humanity from a rapacious spirit world. - In Witchcraft, the Native Americans had just as many coven equivalents as everyone else. The reason the Natives didn't use their magical superpowers to stop the White Man was because the Combine nullified their advantages somehow. - It appears at first that The Dreamwalker Chronicles will play this trope straight but it quickly becomes apparent that while Kyle may be a dreamwalker it is not something he understands or has control of and as all human characters outside of a single quickly eaten poacher are Native Americans and no others outside Kyle's grandfather have a hint of the trope it is ultimately averted. - Lampshade Hanging in The X-Files parody comic Monster of the Week: the shaman who raises Mulder complains that "for generations, my people have been convenient plot devices". The Either/Or Title for the episode is "Crap Goes Down Part 2: Indians are Magic". - Parodied in the journal comic Moosehead Stew by Alina Pete where she comments on how she has to do her part to keep up the "Mystical Indian" image, citing such requisite powers as: telling the time by the position of the sun, sensing when enemies are approaching, and occasionally fading into the mists. Her boyfriend is.... skeptical. Layne: I've seen you trip over your own feet on level sidewalk. Mystical Indian you ain't. - Romeo in No Songs For The Dead is native American, and inherited his magical powers due to his father being a messenger of the Primordial, an entity who is also the source of black magic. He does not wear any of the stereotypical clothing or any warpaint, though he does go around bare-chested most of the time. - The Clan of the Hawk attempted to invoke this with William Ghostraven in The Wandering Ones, which was why he left. William: "The only use the "Clan of the Hawk" had for me was to play "Wise Native Dude." Always asking me about this ceremony or that craft. In the before time, I worked in a freakin' Casino! I just wanted to scream!" - John Blackstar is fanonically considered American Indian. That said, the original intention was for him to be African-American, but this in conjuncture with naming both the show and the character "Blackstar" was deemed a little beyond the pale. It seems to be its own trope for Filmation. - The toy-based animated series Bravestarr, which had a titular character based on this trope... Just, like said, in space. Magical Native Spacemerican. He was the on-duty marshal of a mining colony on the planet "New Texas", making liberal use of animal powers bestowed on him by spirits. His mentor's name was "Shaman"... - Challenge of the Super Friends had Apache Chief, whose magic phrase "inekchok" (which causes him to grow to 50 feet tall) used to be quoted at the top of this page. One episode says that this is the Apache word for "giant man" (it isn't). In one episode, this power was far more powerful; he was able to say the word dozens of times in succession and actually become bigger than the Earth itself in order to fight a Cosmic Entity that was just as big. (This is clearly a case of New Powers as the Plot Demands, but it did seem to come out of nowhere.) There are also not one, but two episodes in which some of the Superfriends find their comrades "with the help of Apache Chief's keen tracking abilities." - Family Guy: - See the episode where Lois loses the car to corrupt Native American casino owners. They realize they are being jerks, give the car back and wonder what the hell is wrong with them. The fact they are very rich is a comfort. - Another episode, "PTV," has a cameo from the above-mentioned Apache Chief, whom Peter summons to install his satellite dish. Having done so, Apache Chief dejectedly says that was the high point of his day and goes off to gamble. - The Native Martians in Futurama play the part, as they can summon sandstorms by making some strange noise. Aside from hypnotoad, and a few Energy Beings they seem to be the only race in the Futurama verse capable of something resembling magic. They also parody it when, discovering that the "bead" that their ancestors traded their land for is actually a gargantuan diamond (they'd just assumed it was worthless because their ancestors had no sense of value), they are delighted to realise that they're rich, and are happy to leave Mars and just buy a new planet, where they'll "act like it's sacred". - Gargoyles sort of zig-zags on this one: it includes a few of the typical "you're magic, get closer to your roots" versions of this trope during the World Tour arc, but then, in this world All Myths Are True and it does the same thing for plenty of other cultures. Also, the main human character is half-Indian (and half-black), yet has a decidedly non-stereotypical job as a detective in the New York City Police Department. Elisa Maza's father is also this, but he's not very fond of the idea. He eventually ends up accepting it though. Of course his magical nature pretty much comes down to sharing some sort of bond with the Coyote, other than that he's a pretty ordinary old man. Meanwhile, his daughters are thoroughly urbanized city folk with Beth learning about her ancestor's ways through formal student in university. - Jonny Quest: - In the TOS episode "Werewolf of the Timberland", White Feather can talk to animals and perform a Stealth Hi/Bye worthy of Batman himself. - Hilariously subverted in one episode of Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures, that ironically deals with Magical Native Americans. Jonny and co meet one old man who turns out to be completely ordinary person, who only knows Jonny's name because it's written on the dog's collar, and he only guessed that the enemy has a helicopter because he saw one recently, as opposed identifying the trail a helicopter would leave behind after taking off. Despite this, both he and his wife are sufficiently amused by the idea that they start acting as stereotypical Native Americans for the rest of the episode, from referring to themselves as Indians, to calling Lorenzo 'white man', culminating in them honoring an old native tradition at the end of the episode. - John Redcorn of King of the Hill plays with this trope pretty heavily. He has a leitmotif of being introduced with spiritual noise and blowing leaves, even on mundane occasions. He has also been nailing Dale's wife for years (with Joseph as proof of that, despite Dale's claim that Joseph's brown skin is from a Jamaican grandmother Dale allegedly has). A fair amount of his spiritual talk comes across as simply B.S. as part of his profession as a masseur/faith healer. Indeed, his job is mostly a front for bedding women; when Hank goes in for treatment, it's revealed that make-out music and mood lighting automatically activate in his "treatment room". On the other hand, some episodes do portray him as genuinely spiritual, an advocate of his native culture, and possessing a measure of wisdom and insight. When played straight, it generally serves the show's theme of mocking romantic, exotified views of other cultures and instead focusing on undercutting racism by showing characters' fundamental similarity. Redcorn's "love for the land" is shown to be no fundamentally different from the love Hank Hill has for his home (and propane), and is appealed to in similar terms. - Gray Owl in The New Adventures of Zorro (1997) is Zorro's mentor in spirituality and magic. A very similar character called White Owl appears in the 2005 novel Zorro by Isabel Allende, where she's Diego's grandmother. In Zorro: Generation Z, another (unnamed) version of the character is a six-year-old girl who gives Zorro cryptic advice, but who he later recognises in a portrait of his dead grandmother when she was young. She also appears as Tainah in Zorro: The Chronicles, where she's teaching her knowledge to her granddaughter (Diego's sister) Ines. - The Simpsons had an episode where Bart is shown his somewhat unpleasant future (as a drunken, washed-up rock star living with Ralph Wiggum) by the head of a Native American casino after he tries to sneak into the casino in The Great Gabbo's dummy case. At first, this is a Double Subversion: When they meet, Bart is very surprised that the casino owner knows his name and thinks he's this trope, before revealing he knows it because Homer put Bart down as collateral while taking out a second mortgage on the house. He then reveals he really is this trope. - South Park: - Parodied in the episode "Red Man's Greed", in which Indians are about to buy out South Park to build a casino, and Stan has to become a Magical Middle Class White Guy. Complete with Vision Quest. He ends up curing SARS with the folk medicine of the Middle Class White Man: Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Dayquil, and Sprite. - The 'magic native' trope is ridiculed further in "It Hits the Fan" where they (rightfully) assume that a Las Vegas waiter could identify a mystic Arthurian gemstone, simply by being British. - "Cherokee Hair Tampons", dealing with alternative medicine, has Chief Running Pinto and Carlos Ramirez. This is an odd double-subversion. On the one hand, they're paper-thin scammers. On the other, they're really Mexicans. But of course, only Americans believe that border with Mexico always existed. - Hawk in Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic is literally this; bonus points because he has the stereotypical connection to nature. - The title character of Xavier: Renegade Angel is a parody of this character type. He seems to fit most of the traits associated with the trope at first (including mystical music playing when he speaks), but his "wisdom" is really just utter nonsense that only makes sense to him, and his attempts to help people always result in disaster. - X-Men: Evolution: Averted with Forge, whose powers are technopathic in nature and played straight with Dani Moonstar, whose powers are like those of a "dreamwalker". Ultimately defied, however, as their powers are not magical, but a mutation. - Young Justice (2010) includes Tye Longshadow, who is loosely based on the above-mentioned Apache Chief and his various expies. Here he can create a giant Hard Light projection of himself, but the power actually came from being abducted by aliens. We also meet Tye's grandfather, who is this trope Played for Laughs — he says a bunch of mystical stuff that sounds meaningless, but in retrospect pretty much describes what happens. Also, when he says something about Jaime having an inner struggle the Scarab declares that he "knows too much" and must be destroyed. - Played for Laughs in Yvon of the Yukon with Bill Tukyuk who thinks he is this, but in reality is a Kindhearted Seemingly Profound Fool who lacks any supernatural abilities, isn't even in very good physical shape, and constantly exasperates his much more grounded son with ludicrously stupid stories to "teach" him lessons. At the same time he's much more intelligent and spiritual than Yvon, so it's all relative.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurIndiansAreDifferent
Our Hippocamps Are Different - TV Tropes "Who are you calling 'seahorse'?" You take the front half of a horse and the back half of a fish and that's a hippocamp(us); a merhorse, so to say. It is also known as a hydrippus, a sea horse, and a water horse, but those last two terms have other meanings too. Although not as popular as pegasi, unicorns, and centaurs, hippocamps have been around for just as long. What makes the difference is that for most of history, hippocamps had a presence in art only and never got any legends attached to them. The oldest known depictions of hippocamps are from 4th Century BC Phoenicia and the creature was known around the Mediterranean, making its way to modern times through Classical Mythology. Horses were imagined as the creation of the sea god Poseidon, who'd either ride on them or have them pull his shell chariot over the waves. Several sources describe four-legged horses, but more often they're depicted as hippocamps. Hippocamps are a favored mount among the rest of the sea deity crowd too. Classical art regularly gives the creature wings. These may be taken literal, but also symbolical because wings may signify speed instead of actual flight. Most modern-day depictions omit the wings or turn them into fins. Different depictions may alter how much the fish and horse parts blend into each other; some may have purely equine front halves and fishlike tails, but others may give hippocamps flippers or webbed claws instead of hooves or long fins instead of manes. The aforementioned term "water horse" is a catch-all for water spirits of equine form, whether permanent or part of the time, such as the Scottish kelpie. Most are part of North-West European folklore and none are hippocamps as defined by Classical Mythology, but they may be depicted in the form of a hippocamp. Due to their mythological origins, hippocamps are commonly found in settings or regions associated with the Mediterranean, fantasy stand-ins thereof, Greco-Roman myth, Lords of the Ocean, Atlantis when presented as an undersea city, and mermaids in general. "Seahorse", of course, is the name of a real-life fish, and to keep things confusing its genus name is Hippocampus. If seahorses and hippocamps show up in the same story, they're either the same sort of thing or the seahorse will be on the person end of things and the hippocamp on the animal end of things. For the record, "hippocamp" is shortened from "hippocampus", which is a Latinified combination of "hippos" and "kampos". The former means "horse" and the latter "sea monster (in the sense of something with a long, flexible tail)". "Hydrippus" is a Latinified combination of "hydros" and "hippos". The former means "water" and the latter, as said before, "horse". Modern works typically use the Latinized hippocampus/hippocampi, Anglicize it into hippocamp/hippocamps, or simply translate it directly into "sea horse" or "water horse". A Sub-Trope of Cool Horse and Our Mermaids Are Different. A Sister Trope to Seahorse Steed, Seahorses Are Dragons, and Dolphins, Dolphins Everywhere. Compare to Our Kelpies Are Different for another kind of water horse. Combine it with centaurs and you get ichthyocentaurs, which go on Our Centaurs Are Different. The hippocamp has no connection to any Brain Monster whatsoever. ## Examples: - Cardfight!! Vanguard: The Aqua Force clan has a group called "Kelpie Riders". Despite the name, these Kelpies are essentially horses in aquatic colors and fish tails. Given the lore of the Aqua Force clan, they may or may not be artificially created. - Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Hippo's true form is a hippocamp with a near-perfect classic design. He's got wings, he's got a very long tail, and his hooves are bronze. However, his tail is serpentine and lacks the fins at the end. His mane alse reaches all the way to his tail. Hippo rarely makes use of his hippocamp form, however, favoring his human and penguin forms. - Saint Seiya: Sea Horse Baian of Poseidon's Mariners has hippocamp armor. Contrary to the usual half-horse and half-fish look of the hippocamp, this one is a regular horse with only the tail replaced by a fish's. Additional fins are added here and there. - Hippocampus, a sculpture by Mardi Storm, consists of three pieces: a hippocampus's torso (of rideable size), a tail midsection, and the fins. The pieces are arranged so that it looks like the hippocampus emerges from the floor as if it was the sea's surface. It debuted at Burning Man in 2002 and has been on display at various locations since. - Magic: The Gathering: Hippocamps have appeared uncommonly in the game, either as steeds for merfolk, tritons and other aquatic characters or, more recently, as creatures in their own right. Hippocamps from Dominaria, the game's original central setting, have fairly standard horse bodies and fish tails, but Theros' possess large, showy fins and even crustacean plating on their mammalian portions. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Tatsunootoshigo card, which depicts a hippocamp, is a fine example of a cross-cultural mutual homage as it deals with the Western view of a seahorse as a horse and the Eastern view of a seahorse as a dragon. In Japan, the card is known as "Shiihoosu", which is the transliteration of the English word "seahorse". In all Western languages, the card is Tatsunootoshigo. "Tatsu no otoshigo" means "bastard child of a dragon" and is the Japanese word for seahorses. - There's "Het Zwarte Zeepaardje" note : "The (Little) Black Seahorse" in the first Nahomi album by Didier Chrispeels. In it, the titular seahorse saves the ocean god's son and is rewarded by being made one of the mounts that draw his chariot. All the other mounts are hippocamps. - Under The Sparkling Sea, a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic picture book released in 2013, introduces sea ponies and mermares. Sea ponies resemble striped seahorses with equine heads and two large winglike fins, while mermares are much larger than regular ponies, have mermaid-like fish tails and long manes, and are noted to be shy and very fast swimmers. Mermares of this sort are seen again in the IDW comics' "Friendship Ahoy" arc. - The Bridge: There are three kinds of merhorse variants in the setting. - Seaponies are the smallest and simplest, resemble oversized seahorses and are ruled by King Leo in Aquestria. - Mermares look like a hippocampus with fins for forelimbs, but using the magical charms they wear around their necks they can take on the appearance of a terrestrial equine with a wet mane. They do this to either work above sealevel or, given that they are an all-female species, find a mate. Any offspring born from such unions will overwhelmingly be female and Mermares themselves, with any rare sons being the father's species. Most of them used to be nomadic, but those in the Eastern ocean amassed at Mako Island and named the founder of that island the first queen. Since then they have lived under an elected monarchy, with the current ruler being an old friend of Celestia and rival to Luna named Queen Maui. - Sirens also resemble hippocampi and were born from the union of three windigoes forcing themselves upon a pair of mermare princesses. They specifically draw power from song magic by inducing certain emotions in people that listen to their singing. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Hippocamps are fish-tailed horses found in ocean biomes. They can be tamed by feeding them kelp and bred with prismarine crystals and saddled to serve as aquatic steeds; players riding them can breathe water. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The three Sirens in Longest Day, Longest Night resemble ponies from the waist forward, albeit with fins at their fetlocks and longer crests instead of manes, and with mermaid-like tails from the waist back, with long, trailing fins instead of legs, and can hypnotize others with their songs. Notably, this story came out about two years before sirens with the same overall description debuted in canon. They're carnivorous, use their hypnotic songs to lure ponies into the water to drown and eat them, and live in both fresh and saltwater. Seaponies also exist and are purely marine, and sirens dislike being mistaken for them. - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks features the Sirens as its primary antagonists. While they remain in human shape for most of the movie, their true form is that of large, monstrous hippocamps capable of flying through the air, but their merchandise artwork depicts them as land-based ponies. They later make a cameo appearance in the main series, showing up in their monstrous merhorse forms in a flashback in "Shadow Play -- Part 2". - My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) features seaponies redesigned as more traditional hippocamps, with finlike manes, large flukes for tails, winglike fins on their backs, and forelegs tipped with fins. It's revealed that the sea ponies were originally hippogriffs, but their queen turned them into their current form with the Pearl of Transformation to escape the Storm King's attack of their home. Once he's defeated, some sea ponies choose to become hippogriffs once more while others remain in the water. When the main characters are turned into sea ponies by the Pearl, their design is somewhat different; they retain their original front halves, manes and hoof-tipped legs, while gaining a small dorsal fin sporting their cutie marks; the winged ones gain the other sea ponies' trailing fins, while the flightless ones don't. - Aquaman: The people of the underwater kingdom of Xebel use hippocampi as mounts, although they are never named in the movie, and the concept art calls them "Sea Dragons" in reference to the leafy and weedy seadragons, real-life seahorse relatives. - Dracopedia: In Dracopedia: The Bestiary, "waterhorses" are elusive herbivorous denizens of Scottish lochs with horse-like heads, powerful front flippers, eel-like lower bodies, and crests on their heads similar to those of dinosaurs like Parasaurolophus. They also have phosphorescent spots along their backs, giving rise to the legend of waterhorses that cooperate with will-o'-the-wisps to lure humans to their doom. - * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Hippocampi are among the beasts described in the book. They're native to the Mediterranean Sea, but a specimen was discovered by merpeople off the shores of Scotland in 1949 and subsequently domesticated. Hippocampi lay semi-transparent eggs, from which so-called tadfoals emerge. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Hippocamps have appeared as early as The Sea of Monsters. They can emerge from waves like white seahorses do, but otherwise are fairly traditional, and are most often seen as servants and emissaries of Poseidon. The hippocamp Rainbow is a major recurring ally and the associated mount of Tyson. - "The Sea Horses" by William Hope Hodgson: The wild sea horses are a mix of unicorns, white horses, and hippocamps. Nebby is obsessed with the wild sea horses his diver grandfather Zacchy tells about, for which the elderly man makes him a hobby-horse of wood and the tail of a bonito. Zacchy goes as far as to pretend it's a real sea horse locked between life and death while on land to indulge the boy's imagination. He also ends up telling Nebby that sea horses are the mounts of angels, unintentionally turning his grandson into a Heaven Seeker. When Nebby is brought along on the barge, severe misbehavior causes Zacchy to give him an ultimatum: either the boy apologizes to the crew or he'll return the sea horse to the seafloor. Nebby refuses, planning to use the diving gear to retrieve his sea horse himself later. Unsurprisingly, he drowns. Zacchy goes mad with grief and scours the seafloor for days to find his grandson's body until a storm rolls in and he hears Nebby singing the "Ballade of the Sea-Horses". Zacchy cuts off the air supply to reunite with his boy and ride the sea horses with him. Meanwhile, the storm pushes the lost hobby-horse up unto the waves like a true sea horse. - A Song of Ice and Fire* contains a good example of the overlap between the seahorse and the hippocamp. The coat of arms of the House Velaryon of Driftmark is a "silver seahorse on sea green" and official art switches between using a seahorse and a hippocamp. - Chinese Mythology has the Longma, or dragon-horse. Dragons in eastern myth are associated more with water than fire. A Longma will sometimes appear from beneath a river and bestow blessings or honors to someone who has earned heaven's favors. - Classical Mythology: Hippocampi were chiefly an artistic phenomenon in Ancient Greece and Rome; they appear in friezes and on coins, but most myths use regular if aquatic horses for the role. Exceptions include the Argonautica, which specifically refers to "two-hooved" horses of Poseidon. They often appear winged and as pullers of Poseidon's chariot. - Chapter 22 of the Physiologus is where the term "hydrippus" comes from. The religious nature of the book casts the hydrippus as a prophet, specifically Moses, whom the other fish have to follow in order to reach God. - Baby Bestiary Handbook: "Hippocampus Fry" is featured in the first volume, which focuses on the baby stage of various monsters. Of note is that hippocamps are portrayed as mammals that every so often need to breathe, though they can go without for very long. They hibernate in the deeps when it gets cold. - Dungeons & Dragons: The hippocampus' debut was in the 1st Edition Monster Manual, and they've been around on and off since. They tend to be silver, blue or sea-green, and have fins instead of hooves and manes. They're intelligent Chaotic Good creatures that are usually seen as the mount of choice of tritons and sea elves. - Exalted: Sea horses are Wyld creatures that live in the oceans of the far West. They look like normal equines while on land, but in the water their hindquarters turn into large, scaled fish tails. They are often used by the Fair Folk as steeds, and are sometimes tamed for the same purpose by Exalted or daring mortals. - GURPS: GURPS Fantasy Bestiary classifies as "makaras" any creature with the back half of a fish and the front half of a land-dwelling animal. While the term is Indian in origin, the book notes that it can be applied to creatures such as hippocampi, which would be considered horse makaras. - Pathfinder: Hippocampi are generally depicted as blue-skinned horses with fins instead of manes and hooves, and are popular mounts and beasts of burden for aquatic races. They're also in use by the people of Absalom, which, being a harbor city, has a special sea cavalry in the form of hippocamp-mounted Wave Riders. - Ponyfinder: Sea horses resemble regular ponies with fins around their hooves. They were the first ponies to exist and ruled a vast civilization on the ocean floor, which collapsed before recorded history due to the attack of an ancient, nameless terror. The survivors fled onto dry land and mostly diversified into the modern pony kinds; a few sea horse communities still endure along shorelands, but they have diminished greatly as a people and lost most of their ancestral abilities, such as their ancient talent for water magic and the ability to survive the crushing pressure of the deep ocean. They are also one of the only two pony tribes to eat meat as well as plants. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: The fierce Deepmares used as mounts by the Akhelian Kings of the aquatic Idoneth Deepkin are based on hippocampi, only leaning more towards the fish half than the horse half in looks and sporting clawed forelimbs. They also have long horns resembling those of unicorns or narwhals that they can put to devastating use when they charge into combat. - Age of Mythology: Hippocampus is an aquatic scouting unit which will spawn for free from the Dock once both the Dock and the Temple is built. They are exclusive to the Greek with Poseidon as their major god. - Arche Age has the aquestria, a hippocamp-like creature, as a choice for aquatic mount. - Blood Brothers by DeNA counts the Armored Hippocamp and the Chariot Hippocamp among its possible familiars. - Culdcept: Hippocampus is a card in Culdcept Revolt. It looks like a seahorse with horse legs and its flavor text states that once it's fully grown, it'll climb onto shore and become a kelpie. - FarmVille: Mystical Hippocamps are available as farm animals. As sea creatures, they can be housed inside the Marine Observatory. As horses, the can also be housed inside the Horse Paddock and the Horse Stable. - Final Fantasy III: Tangies and noggles are hostile NPCs depicted in hippocamp form. - Flight Rising: There's the hippocampus, a green and blue creature, and the clown hippocampus, an orange creature designed after the clownfish. They're familiars. The flavor text of the hippocampus — that it never forgets — is a reference to the hippocampus portion of the brain, which is important to the formation of memories. - God of War III: Hippocamps are heavily reimagined. They're composed in part of water and have crustacean stingers protruding from their bodies. As Poseidon's Right-Hand Attack Dogs, they make for several boss fights. To an extent, the hippocamps' unusual design is as it is because the original idea was that Poseidon would have leviathans as his trusted servants. These were turned into hippocamps to stay in-line with Classical Mythology, but some of the leviathan traits remained. - Grandia: Pirate Island features elongated aggressive fish as enemies. These are called marine gang in the Japanese version and are renamed hippocamps in the localization despite not at all looking like horses. - In La-Mulana, hippocamps are an aquatic enemy that can attack on the surface and under water. Rather than two legs and a tail, they have four fins. - Magi Stream: Amongs the Virtual Pets of are three types of hippocampi: kelp hippocampi (green), coral hippocampi (purple), and trench hippocampi (blue). - Shadowverse: A hippocampus card is included in the Tempest of the Gods expansion. The main visual difference between its default form and its evolved form is that the evolved form has wings. It belongs to the dragoncraft class and the description reads that "[it] defends dark, icy waters" and that it is one of the most beautiful kinds of horses in the world. - Shin Megami Tensei: Kelpies have been part of the franchise since the first game and have had various appearances, including normal-looking horses, unicorns, and the current horse-kelpie hybrid look. Kelpies have also been depicted as hippocamps in a few games, notably Last Bible III and Last Bible Special. The former is a heraldic interpretation, while the latter is close to the Classical creature, looping tail included. The Last Bible versions of the kelpie are preceded by the one in Shin Megami Tensei if..., which looks like the interpretation of the hippocamp from Saint Seiya: four-legged but with a finned tail. The last instance of a hippocamp-like kelpie in the series is in DemiKids, where if allied it gets the name Mermount. - Tiny Castle: Hippocamps are among the creatures that can be raised. Unlike normal hippocamps, these have a human torso. - Valley of Unicorns: Hippocampi are available pets. There's seven types of which four have two variants. Those four are based on the water-themed components of the Western Zodiac: Aquarius (Blue & Pink), Cancer (Red & Blue), Capricorn (Earth & Sea), and Pisces (Dawn & Dusk). There's also the Neptune Hippocampus, the Fire Forged Hippocampus (part of a Fire Forged quartet of mythical horses), and I Am Shark Hippocampus, which looks like a hippocampus dressed up as a shark. - World of Warcraft: Both hippocamps and seahorses appear as aquatic mounts. They're similar models, the most notable difference being that the hippocamps have front legs and seahorses do not. The hippocamps aren't called "hippocamps", but are known as tidestallions and deepseekers. - Homestuck: Maplehoof, a My Little Phony horse owned by Rose, has Alternian counterparts that live in the seas and have fish tails instead of horse hindquarters. Following the trolls' habit of using grandiloquent names for everything, these are referred to as Aquatic Hoofbeasts. - Skin Deep: Hippocampi resemble horses with hindquarters ending in seahorse tails, a continuous fin running down their head, neck and back in lieu of a mane, sharp teeth, and forelegs ending in fins instead of hooves. - Neopets has the Peophin species. Fish tail, one set of (usually gold) front hooves, horse head with long mane, fin ears, and a golden helm with a jewel in the center. - Elena of Avalor: Cuco is a hippocamp. He's a member of the Kingdom of the Sirenas and a bit of a puffed-up jerk. - Mia and Me: Of the four Element Unicorns, the Unicorn of Water is a hippocamp. It's the guardian of the Birth Grotto of the unicorns, where it watches over and aids with the birth of the foals. - My Little Pony: - The franchise has had hippocamps among the Little Ponies in the first, third, and fourth generations. They're usually called "seaponies", and are sometimes treated as the fourth core pony type to the trifecta of earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. - The second year of Generation 1 introduced three new types of ponies to diversify the all-Earth Pony cast of the first year, those being Unicorn Ponies, Pegasus Ponies, and Sea Ponies. Sea Ponies are seahorse-based Little Ponies and for years were the mermaid equivalent of Little Ponies. Then came the eleventh year, which coincided with the release of the Spin-Off My Pretty Mermaids, and the Fancy Mermaid Ponies hit the market. These are literally mermaid versions of Little Ponies. This leaves the Sea Ponies in a nice middle position between hippocamp and seahorse, because there's also one comic page that shows an actual, Pony Friends-style seahorse. Her design is distinct from that of the Sea Ponies. - Mermaid Ponies and mermaid versions of existing ponies were released at the end of Generation 3.5. - Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders: In "Jewel of the Sea", merfolk magic is used to turn the unicorns Cleo, Sunstar, and Moondance into hippocamps so they don't drown. At the end of the episode, this spell to give any creature aquatic form is gifted to the Jewel Riders. It is made good use of in "The Last Dance" during the challenge for the Jewel of the Sea. Said battle takes place underwater and while the ancient wizard Morgana can turn herself into a mermaid by virtue of her vast magical power, if it weren't for the merfolk magic the Jewel Riders would've drowned. Sunstar, Moondance, and Shadowsong become hippocamps this time around. - There are two examples by Terrytoons: - An aged sailor in "The Sailor's Home" claims to have married a mermaid in his youth. He and she rode a hippocamp to the surface, where bride and mount abandoned the sailor upon approaching a ship. - In "Oceans of Love", the royal underwater mounts look like real-life seahorses except for the fact they have two front legs. Equally so, their movement resembles a horse walking rather than a seahorse swimming. - The hippocamp is part of several coats of arms. It's the main critter of the ones representing the Macedonian Heraldic Society, Leitheim in Germany, and Donville-les-Bains in France. It's furthermore featured in the ones of Cardiff (Wales), Bridgend (Wales), Carmarthenshire (Wales), Newcastle upon Tyne (England), Medway (England), Merseyside (England), Schillingen (Germany), Almere (Netherlands), and Port Louis (Mauritius). A design with a hippocamp in it was one of the three finalists in the 1908 competition to create a coats of arms for New Zealand. - Most of the time when hippocamps are included in bestiaries, they're grouped with fishes in general as this big bunch of unknown. Because the ocean was and is a tough place to explore, so information is hard to come by. There's often other 'camps around too, because it was believed that every sky and land creature had a water counterpart, which probably explains some of the more unusual names for real sea creatures, too. - One of Neptune's moons is named Hippocamp. - In 2014, the Year of the Horse, the Perth Mint produced a Horses of Lore and Legend set of three silver 1 dollar coins of which each coin depicted a duo of legendary horses. There are Sleipnir and the Unicorn, Pegasus and the Qilin, and the Hippocamp and the Kelpie. - The human brain includes a pair of white-matter tracts named after the hippocampus. The name arose due to the way the tracts curve, much like a hippocamp in artwork.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurHippocampsAreDifferent
Our Kobolds Are Different - TV Tropes Aventurians are familiar with many different kinds of kobolds, such as the hardworking and friendly Warhome hammerlings , the Warunk imps , and the dexterous Angbar gnomes . Dwarves fear bosnickels * in particular because they can convert precious metals and stones into worthless junk with just a touch. * Invisible teasers * sit on people's necks and manipulate them into causing mischief. * Bookbolds * create chaos in libraries, while * klabauters * are practically cherished at sea for the aid they give to ships and crews.* Kobolds originate in Germanic folklore, where they were goblin-like spirits alternatively believed to live in mines, in households or aboard ships. They were a fairly diverse lot, and ranged in personality from helpful household spirits to cruel tricksters. In this meaning, which is still prevalent in German-speaking areas, "kobold" is used as a catch-all term for humanoid fairy beings in European folklore, and in some European languages the term is still used as translation for "goblin", "gnome", "leprechaun", and similar things. In Anglophone media, kobolds remained relatively obscure until they showed up in Dungeons & Dragons, at which point they entered the ranks of uncommon Fantasy races. From there they spread to Japanese media, where they are more commonly depicted as canine creatures. Due to their origins as mine-spirits, modern fantasy kobolds are almost always depicted as living underground, either in caves or in complex tunnel systems they dig themselves. They're often prolific miners, and may be depicted as skilled engineers and crafters. Kobolds are rarely dangerous or powerful creatures. They're generally stuck firmly at the bottom of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, usually either as minor nuisances or as weaker minions of more powerful beings. They will often rely on cleverness or sheer numbers to face stronger foes. In terms of appearance, they are typically short, goblin-like humanoids that may or may not have varying degrees of resemblance to other mammals, chiefly canids or rodents. However, in works influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, which originally depicted them as doglike humanoids before giving them their current reptilian look, they can resemble miniature Lizard Folk or Draconic Humanoids. See also Our Goblins Are Different, Our Gnomes Are Weirder and Our Dwarves Are All the Same, for other fantasy races with similar origins and habits. ## Examples - Delicious in Dungeon: Kobolds are a race of humanoid dogs with heightened senses of smell and resistance to poison. The most prominent example is Kuro, a member of Kabru's party. - Monster Musume: Polt is a kobold of the dog-like variety, and is most commonly seen exercising. She (and kobolds in general) is pretty wealthy due to her race's association with mining cobalt. - Record of Lodoss War: The typical canine Japanese kobolds are featured as one of Beld's mooks. However, instead of being goblin-like in size, they are only slightly shorter than humans and thus look more like werewolves. - Magic: The Gathering: Kobolds are small humanoid creatures, typically with red skin and pronounced, muzzle-like faces. They're a fairly rare creature type; while kobold cards were printed early in the game's history, there was little to differentiate them from goblins in terms of playstyle — they were both small, basic Red creatures, and as goblins were more common and iconic they were kept over the kobolds. In-Universe, kobolds are restricted to the plane of Dominaria, where they live in the Kher Ridges. They're extremely resilient creatures and managed to survive the various disasters and apocalypses that struck Dominaria over its history, enduring into the setting's present where they worship the dragon Prossh as a god. - Bodie Troll: One shows up in the third issue of the series. It's a buck-tooth, bald-headed being with spines on his head and arms that can use magic and apparently Eats Babies. He also works on Rumpelstiltskin-like rules when it comes to claiming ownership — if you can guess a kobold's name, they'll be sucked into the ground (though it has to be the true parent of the baby that does so, otherwise it's null). - Masters of the Universe: In Slave City!, the kobolds are hunched, purple-skinned humanoids with protruding backbones. They are minions of the villain Lodar, and are banished underground alongside him by the heroes. - American Gods: \|\|Hinzelmann\|\| is a kobold who was "born" when an ancient Germanic tribe \|\|ritually sacrificed a young child\|\| to create a minor god. In the present day, he appears as a kindly old man who brings good fortune to his town but secretly \|\|sacrifices a town child to himself every year to maintain his power\|\|. - Crowthistle Chronicles: Kobolds, so-called because they're some form of construct made of cobalt, are the diminutive, aggressive and stupid servants of the goblins. The goblins themselves are very elf-like — tall, skinny, aristocratic and vegan — but their stereotypical appearance comes from people thinking that their more common kobold flunkies are the goblins themselves. - The Dark Profit Saga has dog-like kobolds as a sub-clan of gnolls. There's a bit of a fashion among elven ladies for "purse kobolds", and it's considered a cushy job for NPCs (Non-Combatant Paper Carriers). - Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Kobolds are Wolf Men about the size of humans. They live underground, particularly within the Cyrene Mines, and are skilled metalworkers, although not to the level that dwarves and gnomes are. - House of Many Ways: Kobolds are little blue people who live in the mountainous nation of High Norland. They serve as House Fey for Wizard Norland, but have gone on strike because he planted pink flowers in his garden (in addition to blue, the color that flowers are supposed to be). They also seem to be craftsmen who sell their products to other races. - Kings of the Wyld: Kobolds are described as short creatures that look like bipedal rats. They're intelligent enough to speak in broken sentences, but feature as minor monsters that are often forced to take part in the arena shows that modern adventuring bands take part in. - The Long Earth: Kobolds are introduced as a subspecies of elves in the second book. Neither as xenophobic as elves or as welcoming as trolls, kobolds are still regarded as dangerous, but have learned human languages and are willing to trade with other species. This makes them one of the few sources of information on how the Long Earth is doing in relation to the other alien species. - Magic Kingdom of Landover: Kobolds are a type of fairy resembling large-eared monkeys with mouths full of sharp teeth. They don't talk, but communicate through gestures, hisses and other noises. Two named Buinion and Parsnip work as servants in the King's living castle. - The Oddmire: - Kobolds are a kind of animal that live underground and can phase through solid rock. Madame Root (a rået) keeps them as pets. We also see kobbs, which are a related, almost extinct species that are much larger. - Delvers (the race that humans call "Tommyknockers") basically fill the niche that kobolds have in other series. They look a bit like humanoid bats and turn out to be \|\|bringing about The End of the World as We Know It\|\|. - Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Kobolds appear in Princesses in the Darkest Depths, and have their own language, which "resembled a mix of barks, yips, and yelps" and is revealed to have lost some words in their ~3000 year long history. In the past, they've interacted with the gnomes, and destroyed one of their cities about 2000 years ago. Their children only get names when they do something spectacular and are named after that. - Spells, Swords, & Stealth: The world of Spells, Swords, and Stealth is based on Dungeons & Dragons, and as a result it, too, has kobolds as a race commonly seen as minions. The most prominent kobold in the story is Grumble, who in antiquity ascended to godhood and made himself the God of Minions. One of the protagonists, Thistle the gnome, was a minion in his past and remains a devout follower of Grumble — devout enough that, when he and his friends must take on the lives of traveling adventurers, Grumble offers Thistle the chance to serve him in the role of paladin. - The Spirit Ring: In Lois McMaster Bujold's historical fantasy novel kobolds (also referred to as gnomes or "rock-demons") are brown-colored humanoids, two feet tall, with narrow chins, thin arms and legs, long fingers and toes, "joints like the knobs of roots", and pointed tongues. They live in the earth (and can move through soil and stone as if they were air) and have a strong affinity for metal. They also greatly desire milk (including human milk). Many miners distrust them, fearing they may play mischievous or even dangerous tricks, but they can be helpful when they feel like it, even putting ore in a miner's basket. In the climax of the story the protagonists are able to strike a bargain with them for their help; they don't help the humans for altruistic motives, but do faithfully keep their end of the bargain. The book's conception of kobolds is drawn from traditional European folklore; in an author's afterword, Bujold notes her kobolds came from a footnote in Herbert Hoover's translation of De re metallica, a 16th century treatise on the mining and refining of metals. - Sword Art Online: An early boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, is a hulking, muscular, large-bellied kobold with greyish (in the manga) or red (in the anime and games) fur and a kangaroo-esque design. - Too Many Curses: Nessy is a doglike kobold employed as a housekeeper and general assistant by the evil wizard Margle. It's mentioned that most kobolds live underground because the gods seem to make a sport of dropping things on them, one of Nessy's uncles getting crushed by an ox that dropped out of a clear sky. - The Treachery of Beautiful Things: Kobolds are tree spirits, made by carving the wood of their trees. Oberon has enslaved them all. - Carnival Row: Kobolds are extremely short (around 1 foot or so) humanoids with flat faces, long ears and armoured skin. Though they can't speak and most people assume they're unintelligent animals, Runyan Millworthy has a trained troupe of kobolds who serve as actors in his street shows. - Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV: The Psyma Clan member Kobold, besides sharing a name with the mythological creature, is the leader of the Earth Demons. - Pumuckl: The eponymous protagonist is identified as a kobold. He's a small, elf-like creature with bushy red hair and the power to turn invisible, lives in and old woodsmith's workshop and likes to play pranks on people. - Kobolds originate in German folklore, where they served as the primary local version of the tiny, mischievous, sometimes malevolent and sometimes helpful little people of folklore. They typically appeared as tiny human figures, generally either little old-looking men or children, but could also take the shapes of animals or other natural entities, as well as disembodied voices. They were generally placed in one of three environments, with different stereotypes broadly associated with the kobolds found in each place: - Some kobolds were household spirits, living in houses or shops and helping perform domestic chores, care for animals and run the shop. They demanded respect and offerings of food in exchange, and could become vengeful and angry if insulted or neglected; slighted house kobolds could take out their anger by causing accidents around the house, or by causing magical bad luck or disease. These kobolds were typically depicted as miniature versions of local peasants. - Some kobolds lived underground, often within mines. German miners believed that they were expert miners and metalworkers, and that the sounds sometimes heard underground were the kobolds digging, smithing and drilling. They were considered hostile and territorial, and accidents such as cave-ins and rock slides were blamed on angered kobolds. They occasionally left nasty surprises in the form of a worthless, poisonous metal that would break mining equipment. This substance we now know as the element "cobalt", the ore of which is naturally found bonded with arsenic oxide forming sharp, brittle shards. Some tales however claim them to be potentially helpful, and if treated with respect they can lead miners to rich veins of mineral. - Ship kobolds, also called klabautermanns, lived on ocean vessels and performed maintenance tasks such as fixing sails and ropes and filling in holes. They shared their terrestrial cousins' tempers, however, and if upset would cause mischief such as by tangling rigging. They were considered best when heard but no seen; a kobold in plain sight was a sign of terrible bad luck. - Chivalry And Sorcery: In the 3rd Edition adventure Stormwatch, red-eyed kobolds living in a copper mine have been kidnapping, killing and eating human miners and other villagers. - The Dark Eye: Kobolds are relatives to fairies and extremely varied, both in appearance and in behavior. Some are diminutive humans with additional traits such as mouse tails, green or wrinkled skin, large and pointed ears and noses, and the like; others look like small humanoid bears or monkeys instead. They are typically mischievous and fun-loving, but beyond that can range from helpful house and shipboard aides to cruel tricksters who spread chaos and disorder, steal children to replace with their own changelings, and turn precious gems and metal to worthless junk. Most live in human dwellings and ships, although many prefer to live in nature under trees and rocks, in riverbanks, inside huge mushrooms or underground. They speak a clicking, whistling language that most other species can't pronounce, which is good for them, as someone who knows a kobold's true name can magically control it. - Dungeons & Dragons: Kobolds are a small, subterranean, generally evil species who are Dirty Cowards but superlative Trap Masters, and generally have some connection to dragons. They're usually seen as those wimpy monsters that you fight when you're first level and should be able to curb-stomp by second level. They worship Kurtulmak, the god of war and mining, whom they believe created the first kobolds from an egg discarded from the dragon goddess Tiamat's nest. - 1 st edition depicts them as relatives of goblins with doglike features; in 2 nd, the doglike traits are dropped in favor of depicting kobolds are short, large-eyed goblins. 3 rd edition reimagins them as miniature Draconic Humanoids who serve and sometimes worship true dragons. This depiction is kept into the 4 th edition, and although 5 th edition artwork largely sticks to the previous model it also gives kobolds doglike noses. - Tucker's Kobolds (named for their DM, who believed in playing the monsters smart) could do serious damage to 6th-12th level characters while still being 1d4 hit point monsters through clever use of traps and tactics. Later versions of the game interpreted this to mean that all kobolds are naturally gifted at turning their lairs into mazes of traps and pitfalls. - Sometimes, kobolds are hatched with wings and other signs of a draconic heritage. 2 nd refers to them as urds, and depicts them as the descendants of ancient kobold/dragon matings and as living in a separate society from the rest of kobold-kind. Later editions refer to them as dragonwrought kobolds instead; instead of living separately from other kobolds, dragonwroughts are sporadically hatched from regular kobold eggs and are believed to be throwbacks to the kobolds' mythical dragon ancestors. - Flying Circus: The kobolds of Himmilgard, the game's Kaiserreich-style setting, draw influence from their traditional Germanic folklore origins, rather than the Dungeons & Dragons version. Himmilgard's kobolds are one of the Fae, and they are a cohort of the faeries' landed nobility, along with being messengers and servants. They're described as having the form of a small animal, and the rulebook's artwork depicts a kobold as a seemingly normal-looking rabbit. - GURPS Banestorm: Kobolds are smallish blue humanoids (related to the setting's goblins) who are not very bright, tend to live downtrodden and sordid lives — and are vicious practical jokers. - Kobolds Ate My Baby: Kobolds are small, stupid, evil humanoids who eat babies. They're also perfectly happy to eat each other should babies be in short supply. Their stupidity often causes them to die in droves, something they compensate for by being very, very numerous. - Pathfinder: Kobolds, much like the ones in Dungeons & Dragons, are small, reptilian humanoids distantly related to dragons. Second edition reimagines them as squatter beings with almost toadlike faces and broad, backwards-pointing horns. Their myths generally link them to dragons in some manner, usually with kobolds being dragons who were stripped of their power in some manner or with dragons having been created by empowering preexisting kobolds. In the modern day, kobolds live underground in mazelike warrens behind layers of deadly traps, are ancestral enemies of the goblins, dwarves and gnomes and worship dragons as living gods. The vastly more powerful dragons, in turn, mostly see kobolds as a cheap source of expendable minions and as a source of mild embarrassment otherwise. - All kobolds have the scale color of one of the five types of chromatic dragon (white, black, green, blue and red). This is normally purely cosmetic, but a very rare variety, the dragonbreath kobolds, are able to use the Breath Weapon of their associated dragon type (respectively ice, acid, poison gas, lightning and fire). - Culturally, kobolds are defined by strictly hierarchical societies, profound xenophobia towards anything that isn't a kobold or a dragon, fanatical devotion to their tribes and a vastly overwrought sense of self-importance — kobolds believe themselves to be the true rulers of the world and as the creators of most forms of technology and civilization. - While most kobolds live in complex tunnel systems underground, some tribes of green-scaled kobolds live nomadically deep within ancient forests. - Small World: In the "Cursed" expansion pack, kobolds are depicted as tiny, humanoid creatures with pink skin and Pointy Ears. They are one of the most numerous races in the game. - Warhammer: The background material for some editions mentions that Kobolds are a sub-species of Goblin with longer arms and smaller hips that give them a crooked appearance. While they have never been officially represented on the tabletop, one White Dwarf article for the game's 6th Edition did include unofficial rules for Fire Kobolds that have a red patches on their green skin, spit fire and are resistant to heat. - Armies of Exigo: Kobolds are part of the Beast hordes alongside the goblins, ogres, trolls, and Lizard Folk. - Curious Expedition 2: Kobolds are very goblin-like and much more similar to traditional depictions than the lizard-like folk variety found in Dungeons & Dragons, who also happen to be hermaphrodites. They are companions that can be recruited and found in the wilds on Avalon maps. - Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara: Kobolds are the lowest level mooks, being shorter than goblins (which aren't even in the first game) and having a doglike appearance except for a small pair of horns. - Dwarf Fortress: Kobolds are small, squat humanoids with pointy ears and glowing yellow eyes; they're described as reptomammals, creatures related to true mammals but still bearing reptilian characteristics. They are one of the main sapient races in the world alongside dwarves, humans, elves and goblins, and are the most primitive of these; they're generally strictly in the Copper Age. They live in simple tribal groups, usually inside caves, keep poisonous animals as pets and often sneak inside fortresses to steal things. - EverQuest: Kobolds are a race of quadrupedal anthropomorphic dogs. They were the first of numerous races that Brell Serilis, God of the Underfoot, had created. With each new race he created afterwards, the the kobolds felt more and more despair for being forgotten, and lash out at other races in hostility. Various clans exist all over Norrath, including The Warrens zone on Odus, the Mines of Gloomingdeep, and in the Steamfont Mountains. - Final Fantasy XIV: Kobolds are short, long-eared, and mole-like beast men who wear protective gear, which completely cover their bodies, and live in a complex tunnel system beneath Mount O'Ghomoro. They are skilled, mining-obsessed craftsmen and alchemists and believe the wealth of the earth to be a gift to them from the primal Titan they worship, and as such are extremely protective of their mineral rights. The kobolds the player can befriend fall under Lovable Coward, but it doesn't seem to be a species trait. - In Gems of War, kobolds look like short dragonoids, and in fact think that they are descended from the dragon Emperina (much to her annoyance), but they are actually a subspecies of goblin. - Idling To Rule The Gods: Kobolds resemble mixes of goblins and wolves, and are described as being stronger than either. - Kingdom of Loathing has kobolds that are... living lower-case letter Ks, as part of its Whole-Plot Reference to NetHack. They're described by Monster Manuel as lizard-dog men, a reference to the monster changing between editions of Dungeons & Dragons. - Neverwinter Nights is set in the Forgotten Realms setting and features standard D&D kobolds small, yapping reptilian humanoids, weak, cowardly, and not particularly bright, but deceptively skilled with traps and ambushes. - In Shadows of Undrentide, a tribe of kobolds attack Hilltop at the beginning of the game, poisoning your mentor and setting the plot into motion by stealing four artifacts left in his keeping. They serve a young, unusually friendly white dragon named Tymofarrar. Dealing with the kobolds forms one part of the main quest for Chapter One — Tymofarrar even trained one member of the tribe as a bard, Deekin Scalesinger, who goes on to be a potential party member and an early example of a heroic kobold in D&D. - Deekin was popular enough to reappear in a major role in Hordes of the Underdark, the Hero of Waterdeep's sidekick and Tagalong Chronicler, where he achieves epic level and the Red Dragon Disciple Prestige Class, and so endlessly loyal that he cannot be convinced to turn against you even by the Archdevil Mephistopheles. He even has a cameo as a shopkeeper in the main campaign of Neverwinter Nights 2. - Pillars of Eternity features "Xaurips" which are effectively D&D kobolds in all but name. They're diminutive reptilian creatures, sapient yet still considered vermin, who are (almost) Always Chaotic Evil and have a primitive religion centering around dragons. - In Phoenotopia and Phoenotopia : Awakening, Kobolds are humanoid wolflike alien mercenaries who act as a scouting force for the (also alien) invaders. Unlike most examples here, they are Consummate Professionals, elite troops, and among the some of the most dangerous groups of enemies you meet in the game. With their technological superiority, they manage to take over the Daean royal palace, killing the king and queen and capturing the prince. - Pokémon: Sableye is a hybrid of traditional kobolds and the Kelly-Hopkinsville aliens, being a diminutive cave-dwelling goblin-like creature who digs for the gems it eats. While largely solitary and apathetic towards others as long as you don't get in its way, many Pokedex entries allege that it can steal souls whenever its eyes glow, but this is likely superstition. - Quest for Glory: You encounter a kobold as part of your general quest to save the kingdom. He's hiding a cave guarded by a bear in a collar and will attack you via Teleport Spam when you approach him. The key to beating him is to first blind him, either with Erasmus's Razzle Dazzle spell or a sudden flashbomb depending on your player class, then attack. Defeating him is crucial as he holds the key to unlocking the bear's collar note : Of course, the Thief class can sneak up and steal the key from around his neck and the Magic User can get it by casting Fetch; This assumes that you are skilled enough at stealth or casting Fetch to pull it off. transforming it back into the Baronet you're trying to save... unless of course you killed the bear first. - Shin Megami Tensei: Kobolds are frequent early-game enemies that belong in the Jirae race and are usually associated with the Neutral alignment. Like all other demons, they can be recruited and fused by the player. - Suikoden: Kobolds are humanoid dogs who may not always be the brightest, but are just as capable at fighting as any human, and their profile pictures are adorable. - The Tenth Line: Kobolds are humanoid fennec foxes about the size of a human child, whose fur is sought after by hunters. - Warcraft: Kobolds are rat-men found in tunnels and dungeons and who wear candles on their heads as primitive miner's lights, sometimes available as mercenaries. They speak in grunts, but as of World of Warcraft they became better known as the Trope Namer for You No Take Candle. - Fen Quest: The Northern Empire is home to a half-dozen kobold races, reptilian and mammalian alike, each born from the death of a Greater Beast (and native to the region where the Greater Beast met its fate). The Southern Empire houses yet more kobold races, the only one seen being avian in aspect. - Orion's Arm: Kobolds are a type of humans adapted for life on high-gravity worlds. They're a meter tall and about as wide, with stout limbs, barrel chests and flat noses. They usually live in extensive burrows beneath their worlds' surfaces, and are known for a cultural tendency to be skilled jewelers. - Tales of MU: Kobolds are goblinoids, an order of humanoids that aren't mammalian or reptilian. They resemble goblins, but with red skin instead of green. They live in mines beneath mountains and fight dwarves for territory while trying to protect their wealth from human looters. Their society is rigid and more stratified than the goblins'.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurKoboldsAreDifferent
Our Lawyers Advised This Trope - TV Tropes "If you are the kind of asshole who takes medical advice from a Las Vegas juggler, then you are an idiot who deserves to die!" In the interests of full disclosure, we are describing Our Lawyers Advised This Trope here. Pursuant to the avoidance of unnecessary civil and criminal litigation, a variety of disclaimers, notices, and even changes to the actual work, are present in modern fiction, usually in the packaging of said works, before the beginning if applicable, or during the opening and/or ending credits if applicable. These may be mandated with threats of legal actions by government bodies or could be attempts by the well-advised creators to reduce their vulnerability to civil litigation from civilian citizens. Please note that these threats may or may not be actually true, considering the number of people who do exactly the opposite of this disclaimer and still roam the streets at night, but we are heavily implying that you follow them anyway. Parodies of the trope may, or may not, have some overlap with Suspiciously Specific Denial. See separate documents, heretofore referred to as the Sub Tropes of this Super-Trope, called This Is a Work of Fiction and Don't Try This at Home, for instances relating to said notices. Our lawyers recommend you see also Content Warnings, No Animals Were Harmed, Side Effects Include.... They also explicitly deny the implications of Screwed by the Lawyers regarding the diligence of legal professionals with respect to media properties. Within the following folders are, to the degree and/or extent which is so far known to us, et alii our lawyers, Straight Examples: ## Straight Examples - The Excel♡Saga DVDs from ADV Films actually add in-series jokes to the FBI warning at the beginning of the disc. Here's the screenshot◊; hopefully TV Tropes won't be prosecuted under the Don't Toucha My Toot-Toot Pact for posting this... - Full Metal Panic!!: - The North American release of the anime has a different character voicing over the FBI warning at the beginning of each disc. The FBI has never been cuter than when advocated by Tessa Testarossa. "You wouldn't want me to have to put a cruise missile down your chimney, would you?" or scarier when advocated by Gauron: "Look, I'm a businessman, and digital piracy is bad for business. So don't do it, or else you and I might have to have some words in the future, got it friend?" - Shouji Gatou gives one of these at the end of the first Full Metal Panic! novel, on his use of the country of North Korea: The author happens to harbor no ill will against a certain country that is integral to the plot. I was limited to choosing a dictatorship reachable by domestic flight. So, to those from that country, please don't abduct me. On the other hand, if I disappear or die in an accident—or if there's a mysterious fire at Fujimi Books—you readers know where to start the investigation. - The Uta∽Kata DVDs also feature disclaimers narrated by the main characters, who, in this example, discuss the finer points of the message. Ichika: The video, audio, packaging, and all contents of this work are the property of the copyright holders. The only rights granted to you are for personal viewing within your own household. Manatsu: It says, "in your household," right? So if you live alone, then that's just one person. Ichika: Any other uses, for example secondary works, modification, screenings, broadcast, or cable broadcasting, cause the copyright holders serious damages, and is strictly prohibited by law. Manatsu: But if you've got like a huge family, and a ton of them all get together during New Year's or Obon, and you show it to your family of more than like, 100 people... That's basically a screening, right? I wonder how that would work? Ichika: Eh... Ehh? - The Blu-ray release of Macross: Do You Remember Love? has Mika Doi reading the Japanese anti-piracy warning in the character of Misa Hayase as if it were an announcement from the bridge of the Macross. - The final page of The View Askewniverse comic Chasing Dogma shows Jay uttering the following disclaimer: "So's we don't get sued, I just wanna remind all you knee-jerk fucks out there that this is a work of parody. Doogie doesn't really make porn ... not that I know of anyway. And Fred Rogers is probably a saint of a guy. Federal Wildlife Marshals aren't nearly as stupid as they're portrayed here, and John Hughes has never led anyone to believe that Shermer really exists. And I never ... NEVER ... jerked no guys off. Snoogans." - Any issue of The Beano in days gone by would have included its child characters, caught out in mischief, being up-ended over an adult's lap and roundly spanked for their sin with hand, slipper, cane or belt. Corporal punishment in D.C. Thompson-published comics lasted long after its abolition in schools. The issue was only really confronted when Scotland passed laws to make physical punishment of children an act of illegal child abuse. Therefore the Dundee-based publishers of these comics could not be seen condoning actions likely to breach Scottish law. It was well into the 1990's when the father of Dennis the Menace kept his slippers exclusively for wear on his feet, and the long-suffering teacher of the Bash Street Kids hung up his cane for the last time. - A Postman Plod strip in Viz ended with the title character being fired from the Royal Mail, getting a reference which described him as a lazy, clumsy idiot, and then going to work for a new employer whose interviewer greeted him with "Welcome to Initial (REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE)". In-context to anyone who read the strip at the time, it would probably have been obvious that the new employer was meant to be Initial City Link, then a prominent courier company in the UK. note : (The only other company the punchline would likely have been seen as referencing was Initial Rentokil, and having Plod go work for a pest control company would have made for a rather illogical punchline) - In Equestria: A History Revealed, a referenced book which describes the exact recipe for a love potion has a legal warning before it, saying not to try this at home. Upon immediately trying it at home, the Lemony Narrator writes in her letter of formal complaint to the publishers that "before their lawyers point this out, while she did see the warning beforehand, she chose not to acknowledge it, so she couldn't possibly be held accountable for that." - Sakuya Izayoi Gives You Advice And Dabs: The Steam store page contains a tiny disclaimer that the game "is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical condition and is not meant as a substitute for professional help". - The homage/unauthorized parody/fanfic A Shoggoth on the Roof. The album cover states that it's written by "Him Who (For Legal Reasons) Must Not Be Named." - Numerous films subject to colorization have a disclaimer before their broadcast or video saying, "This is a colorized version of a film originally marketed and distributed in black and white. It has been altered without the participation of the principal director, screenwriters, and other creators of the original film." - An American Werewolf in London modifies the usual disclaimer to state "any similarity to actual persons living, dead, or undead is purely coincidental." - Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe both contain notices stating that, according to the US Air Force, the events of the films could never take place. Given that both movies are about accidental nuclear war, this was probably reassuring to the audience. Or the filmmakers were using a Suspiciously Specific Denial to imply that they could take place. Both movies came out in 1964, and while distrust in the government then was not quite as widespread as it would become by the end of the decade, there were a substantial number of people who, informed by the government that something couldn't possibly happen, would immediately start to regard it as something to be legitimately worried about. - The Mr. Magoo live-action film featured a disclaimer saying that it was "not intended as an accurate portrayal of blindness or poor eyesight." To which Roger Ebert said: "I think we should stage an international search to find one single person who thinks the film is intended as such a portrayal, and introduce that person to the author of the disclaimer, as they will have a lot in common, including complete detachment from reality." - The Hungarian comedy-drama Kontroll, about a group of eccentric ticket inspectors on the Budapest Metro, started with a stiff address by a member of the Metro management complimenting the director's skill but warning people not to take it as an accurate depiction of the system. - Borat: "selling piratings of this moviedisc will result in punishment by crushing" - The Fight Club DVD had a warning from Tyler Durden. Though if you make the effort to freeze-frame the warning so you can read it, it tells you \|\|to get out and do something instead of wasting your life reading secret messages on DVDs.\|\| - The Ring had noises in the background during the FBI warning. - There was a video montage of male-male kissing scenes from Hollywood films that made the rounds a few years back, which came with a disclaimer along the lines of "If you find this material offensive, we suggest you watch it over and over until you become desensitized." - Scarface (1983) started with a disclaimer that the film does not depict Cuban-Americans in a representative way. - Similarly, early television broadcasts of The Godfather included a similar disclaimer regarding Italian-Americans. - James Bond Films: - A View to a Kill opened with a disclaimer that the villain's name "Zorin" was not based on any real-life person or organization. The disclaimer was added when it was discovered a company with a similar name did exist, but well after filming and too late to make any changes. - The Living Daylights in certain showings and video releases featured a disclaimer regarding the use by the villains of the Red Cross/Red Crescent emblems and pointing out that said actions were illegal under The Laws and Customs of War. - Licence to Kill featured a recognizable brand of cigarettes in one scene. Despite the fact said cigarettes were disguising a bomb, the makers of the film were forced to add the Surgeon General's warning against smoking to the closing credits. - The Hunt for Red October has a disclaimer that "according to official sources, none of the events in this film ever happened." - The Boy Who Could Fly had a disclaimer on its British VHS release that "The scenes that include flying in this film are performed by professional stunt artists, observing special safety rules under strict supervision. DO NOT IN ANY WAY ATTEMPT TO IMITATE ANY OF THE STUNTS PERFORMED." - Some Galactica 1980 and all Project UFO episodes ended with this disclaimer. "The United States Air Force stopped investigating UFOs in 1969. After 22 years, they found no evidence of extra-terrestrial visits and no threat to national security." - Penn & Teller: Bullshit!: "You'll notice more obscenity than we usually use. That's not just because it's on Showtime, and we want to get some attention. It's also a legal matter. If one calls people liars and quacks, one can be sued and lose a lot of one's money. But "motherfuckers" and "assholes" is pretty safe. If we said it was all scams, we could also be in trouble. But BULLSHIT, oddly, is safe. So forgive all the bullshit language. We're trying to talk about the truth without spending the rest of our lives in court because of litigious motherfuckers!" - The Multilevel Marketing episode hung a giant lampshade on it. They were standing in front of a Pyramid (dressed as Pharaohs) talking to their lawyer that they cannot describe the companies in the words they knew they really were. - MythBusters has the classic "Please, don't try anything you're about to see at home." It was usually followed up by one of these: - "Ever!" - "We're what you call 'experts'." - "It's safer that way." - The hosts or narrator will also frequently mention variations of "Don't try this at home" during the course of the episode usually right before (or during) especially dangerous moments. Sometimes even right before seeing exactly how badly it can go. - Lampshaded by Adam during an episode when they're making thermite and the ingredients (which had their labels obscured in post-production) warned against mixing "blur" and "blur." - In an effort to get kids interested in science, a few episodes featured interesting but unlikely-to-go-wrong experiments, and the disclaimers were changed to "Please do try this at home." - In one such case it was zigzagged — when doing an experiment with the well-known reaction of Diet Coke and Mentos, they told audiences that they could (and should) try the experiments at home... under the condition that they do them outside, as they would make a gigantic mess. - Satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You has a habit of adding "...allegedly" after saying anything that could get them sued. Despite the fact the players know that it has no legal effect whatsoever, and have commented on it. - And they were actually charged with contempt of court and fined for the joke, "The BBC are in fact cracking down on references to Ian and Kevin Maxwell just in case programme-makers appear biased in their treatment of these two heartless, scheming bastards." The heartless scheming bastards' trial was about to start, and pointing out on television that they're heartless scheming bastards risks prejudicing the jury. There's footage from the taping of Ian Hislop expressing concern over leaving the joke in, but leave it in they did. - Never Mind the Buzzcocks had the host Simon Amstell speculate with Noel Fielding about how Courtney Love would beat the stuffing out of Amstell. - Immediately captioned by the producers with the disclaimer "Simon Amstell is definitely wrong." - DVDs by Blue Rhino, including Beast Wars and Mystery Science Theater 3000, have a pen drawing glasses and a mustache over J. Edgar Hoover's face during the FBI Warning. They also did this on VHS tapes as early as the '90s. - The Daily Show, Global Edition (which, in some countries, is shown on 24-hour news networks), has this disclaimer posted to comply with certain countries' legal qualifications on what they consider a news program (such as the United Kingdom): The show you are about to watch is a news parody. Its stories are not fact checked. Its reporters are not journalists. And its opinions are not fully thought through. - This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a satirical examination of daily events. Often followed by a satirical "Warning!" based on an examination of daily events. - Happens all the time on 10 O'Clock Live with Jimmy Carr's segments. Particularly funny because it is live and you almost hear the pain of the show's lawyers and producers as they shout in Carr's earpiece to clear up any "misinterpretation" that might have arisen with his completely innocent monologues. - The JAG episode Rogue began with a statement the story was not based on any real person or event, however anyone who had read the Rogue Warrior novels would know this is based on the real and fictional exploits of Richard Marcinko, down to phoning a Commanding Officer at the last minute to confirm orders thus giving carte blanche to well, go rogue (Marcinko made a habit of informing his superiors of his actions, before usually being unable to receive orders not to.) - The X-Files credits included the sentence "This production has not been approved, endorsed or authorized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." - One episode of Inspector Morse had to have a particularly embarrassing disclaimer added to the end credits. The story involved the Inspector investigating a murder in a screwed-up upper-class family, with an extreme Asshole Victim named Sir John Balcombe. Unfortunately, it was realised too late that the Asshole Victim had exactly the same first name, surname, and knightly title as a senior judge, forcing a disclaimer to be read out after the episode explaining that the character had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the real person. - " COPS is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law". - "Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised." - Many other police shows such as Live PD include similar disclaimers about viewer discretion and the presumption of innocence. - The :20 Minute Workout: note : Any exercise program will include a "consult your physician" disclaimer, but this one is specific to this show. "WARNING: The following program depicts exercises which, depending upon your physical condition may be hazardous to your health. You are therefore warned not to attempt any of these exercises without consulting your doctor. Even with such approval, all exercises should be done in moderation, and should not be performed if tired, or to the point of fatigue or pain. Do not overexert yourself." - Most if not all of the allegations made on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert are about Trump and thus Colbert will cover himself by saying something along the lines of: "No, Russia had no involvement in defaming Hillary Clinton, it was all Trump's idea...allegedly. - On The New Yankee Workshop Norm always advised the viewer about proper use of power tools right before beginning to use them in every episode: - "Be sure to read, understand and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury. And remember this, there is no more important safety rule than to wear these—safety glasses." - The Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, about the singer's sexual assault allegations, contains not one, but four disclaimers, presented separately in succession as follows, and repeated after every commercial break: - R. Kelly has denied all claims related to sexual assault, domestic violence/abuse, and sexual misconduct with minors. - Kelly's lawyer claims that Kelly has witness statements and evidence showing his innocence, but cannot release them due to the active court cases against him. - His lawyer also alleged that Kelly "is the subject of a smear campaign" and that "the accusers have not acted like victims at all" because "they have used their accusations to promote contemporaneous books, albums, and speaking tours." - Due to explicit discussion of sex involving minors, parental discretion is advised. - Geraldo Rivera's original claim to fame was as a maverick reporter on New York's WABC-TV in the 1970s with a tendency to unexpectedly veer on-air into political rants on the Vietnam War, various elected officials, and other hot-button topics while making straight news reports. The very strict rules about the divide between news and opinion in television journalism at the time made this unacceptable, but Rivera was a top reporter and a ratings godsend and couldn't be fired. WABC's solution was to have the control room primed to throw up a caption reading EDITORIAL the instant Rivera went off topic, thereby converting Rivera from objective news reporter to subjective pundit at the press of a button. - A 2022 Channel 4 documentary called Jeremy Kyle: Death in Daytime about salacious things that happened on the now-canceled chat show The Jeremy Kyle Show ends with a long disclaimer that was provided by ITV claiming among other things, that all guests knew what they were getting themselves into, support was given before during and after episodes, and that the claims made in a documentary are false. He also claimed that Kyle himself was asked to be interviewed but he refused due to ongoing litigation. - Humorously subverted in the Xena finale. "Xena was fatally harmed in the filming of this episode". - "Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued" by Fall Out Boy. Technically a subversive parody, since their lawyers really did make them change the name of the song. (From "My Name is David Ruffin... and These Are The Temptations".) - The Offspring has a very sarcastic track on Ixnay On the Hombre titled "Disclaimer", as seen on the Quotes page. - The BBC demanded that The Monkees song "Randy Scouse Git" (a title deemed a tad offensive) be given an alternative title or it could not be played on-air. So its official title in the UK became "Alternate Title". - Ironically, songwriter Micky Dolenz had learned the expression "randy Scouse git" from watching Til Death Do Us Part, a sitcom that aired on BBC television. - Irish folk-rockers the Horslips subverted this trope with a very large disclaimer on one LP sleeve. At the time of the official music industry disclaimer Home Taping is Killing Music! followed by a list of imperatives note : This was printed in very big letters on the inner sleeve and reminded buyers of the terrible apocalyptic outcome of borrowing a friend's paid-for copy and running off a tape, a large banner advert on the gatefold sleeve read You cannot, will not, shall not, are not allowed to, etc. If in doubt, consult your dealer. - When Australian band TISM were sued by artist Ken Done for using cover art that parodied his work for their EP Australia The Lucky Cunt, it was re-issued with a new cover and the title Censored Due To Legal Advice. - The Monty Python Contractual Obligation Album lists "Farewell to John Denver (Tune: Annie's Song)" on the sleeve. This is actually Terry Jones explaining that for legal reasons the song is not on the album, and then apologising for the long pause and announcing the next song. The original version had been Eric Idle singing "You came on my pillow..." and then being strangled, and Denver had in fact sued. Magazine adverts for the album proudly announced "Now a major lawsuit!" - The LP itself is an example of this trope; the Pythons had a recording contract that ''obliged'' them to cut one more LP. The group members frankly admit they didn't want to do it and were running out of ideas, but they had to turn out something to fulfill the contract with Chrysalis Records. Or, as their lawyers advised them... The LP is an hodgepodge of bits, including reworkings of lots of old sketches that in fact predated Python's formation and had already been performed on stage, TV and radio by other people. Add in scrapped bits meant for films and TV which were rescued from the editing room floor, and some pieces which sound like last-minute slapdash desperation but remain funny nonetheless and you get a comedy album... - The video for Filipino comedy duo Moymoy Palaboy's "Rugby Boy", a parody of Aqua's "Barbie Girl", has a disclaimer at the beginning stating that "due to their personal convictions", they and by extension the record company do not in any way encourage or condone substance abuse, particularly inhalants such as the titular Rugby brand of rubber contact cement typically used by destitute street youths. - Stephen Fry used to have a radio show called Saturday Night Fry. From the intro to the first episode: "It may be that some listeners will find some parts of this program rather badly written and incompetently performed." - Before beginning the quiz portion of Whad Ya Know, host Michael Feldman always calls for a volunteer from the audience to read The Four Disclaimers: 1. All questions used on Whad'Ya Know have been painstakingly researched, although the answers have not. Ambiguous, misleading, or poorly worded questions are par for the course. Listeners who are sticklers for the truth should get their own shows. 3. Persons employed by the International House of Radio or its member stations are lucky to be working at all, let along tying up the office phones trying to play the quiz. Listeners who have won recently should sit on their hands and let someone else have a chance for a change. 4. All opinions expressed on Whad'Ya Know are well-reasoned and insightful. Needless to say, they are not those of the International House of Radio, its member stations, or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight. - The prologue of the musical Louisiana Purchase had a lawyer warning the show's producer that he and the show's authors could be sued by all the recognizable people in it, even though their names were changed. His advice is to add a disclaimer saying that This Is a Work of Fiction, and the Opening Chorus comes on to assert that the characters, the state of Louisiana, and everything else in the show is "mythical." - Melody contains a disclaimer that basically states that the story doesn't violate any laws or Patreon guidelines. Since the creators had gotten burned for violating Patreon's guidelines once before, you can imagine how fastidiously they kept to this. - Doki Doki Literature Club!'s content warning is the only hint in its advertising that it's a psychological horror game and not the bubbly dating sim it initially presents itself as, likely to stave off false advertising and mental trauma lawsuits. - Red vs. Blue made fun of those too. For the season one disc, the sign read something to the lines of "do not steal this disc, but you already know this. So don't eat it or throw it at your sister either." Then it switched to Spanish, which was the same as English, but with accent marks placed at random. One of the other seasons' DVDs' Spanish FBI warning had one sentence of Spanish followed by something like "This is basically the message above only in Spanish. To be honest, we only took one year of Spanish so the only phrases we know are 'Happy birthday!' and 'My cousin likes to walk on the beach.'" - The Homestar Runner DVDs have characters showing up during the FBI warning and commenting (for example, Homestar pops up during one warning and declares it "Bowwwwinnnngggg!" (this was also used on a legal page for the actual site), while in another Coach Z interprets it as a rap song). - Napster Bad: The original Flash movie opens with disclaimers that the opinions (not) expressed by Metallica in the movie are not necessarily the animators' opinion and that viewer discretion is advised due to strong language, then notes "We say this only because we're afraid Metallica might come after us, too, when and if they see this." - Each episode of Helluva Boss starts with its own disclaimer, particularly warning about graphic violence, strong language, flashing lights, horny demons, and sometimes horny humans. - A straight example written as a parody from "Dave does the Blog" notes 'The views expressed by me on this weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, my church, my party, my candidate, my community, my wife, my friends, or, on occasion, myself.' - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has an 'ELE' warning on the DVD. - The warning on Neil Cicierega's New Kids on the Rock DVD admits that they really have no way of knowing whether you do any of the things they're warning you against. - On the infamous shock site "Goatse.cx", the following text was displayed above said shock image: The goatse.cx lawyer has informed us that we need a warning! So.. if you are under the age of 18 or find this photograph offensive, please don't look at it. Thank you! - Skippy's List has examples: I don't mind if you want to quote a few items from my list of your site. But please do not copy the list in its entirety. - The disclaimers that start every episode of Dragon Ball Z Abridged utilize this. The following is a fan-based parody. Dragon Ball , Dragon Ball Z , Dragon Ball GT , and Dragon Ball Super * are owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, Shueisha, and Akira Toriyama. Please support the official release.* - MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch opened with a standard disclaimer about celebrity voices being impersonated, blah blah blah... then added at the bottom in large letters, "BESIDES, IT'S ONLY CLAY!" - This was included from season 3 onwards of Beavis and Butt-Head; this was the result of kids who watch the show try to emulate the duo's antics, namely Beavis' "Fire! Fire!": "Beavis & Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human; they're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. So to put it another way: Don't Try This at Home ." - South Park's opening disclaimer: "All characters and events in this show — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated ... poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone." - Ironically, some networks have broadcast it with a genuine disclaimer either before or instead of the joke one. - The ending credits of Trapped in the Closet ended with all of the names in the credits replaced with "John Smith" or "Jane Smith" because of the propensity of the Church of Happyology to sue their way out of trouble under various copyright and trademark laws. - On one of the Futurama DVDs, an alien-language FBI warning screen displays after the usual one. - In the Invader Zim episode "FBI Warning of Doom", the FBI Warning Of Doom! on a rented DVD makes Zim believe he's being watched by the FBI. - An episode of The Simpsons that was based on the musical Evita had the following disclaimer at the end: On the advice of our lawyers we swear we have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Peron. - In another episode, an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon is followed by the warning "The preceding cartoon contained scenes of graphic violence and should not have been watched by young children". - In another episode, a talent show had a disclaimer stating it wasn't based on American Idol and that they had never heard about American Idol. - Also, the episode where Homer complains about not receiving any awards when everyone else in Springfield has. Homer: Oh, why won't anyone give me an award? Lisa: You won a Grammy. Homer: I mean an award that's worth winning! (Words run across bottom of screen: "LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Mr. Simpson's views do not match those of the producers, who don't consider the Grammy an award at all.") - Total Drama notably plays this trope straight at the start of every episode: Chris Mclean: This episode of TD_ contains scenes of extreme stunts performed by animated teens . Do not try any of what you see here at home. Seriously, you could get really messed up. - The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat: - The episode "Night Drop": "Do not copy this tape, or we will find you and flick your ear." - One episode featured Earth being repossessed by Da King of an alien planet. When Felix demanded to know what Da King did to Earth, he showed a film to explain it. The film had an FBI warning stating unauthorized duplication would result in "violent-type actions". - Copyright and trademark notices in all commercially available fiction. - It was a virtually automatic acknowledgment of how bad a movie was, around the 1980s, that the intensity of the wording of the copyright notice was inversely proportional to how likely it was someone would pirate it. Until the use of the Interpol notices became almost universal on movies, the rare movie that had one was probably so awful that you didn't even need to watch the movie to know how bad it was. - A Japanese government website circa 2006 had a copyright notice in English with the words "All Rights Reserved." This is a notice for obtaining protection under the Buenos Aires' Convention, to which Japan is not a party. The whole use of the phrase was absolutely meaningless because both Japan and every member of the Buenos Aires' Convention is a member of the Berne Convention, which doesn't require copyright notices in the first place. - The "FBI Warning" found in countless home video formats over the years. They often now also appear on CD cases because of the whole Napster/MP3 fiasco. - The Interpol warning. Just like the FBI warning, but international and frequently multilingual. - "If you find yourself traumatized by what you've seen here, call 555-xxxx" - "Professional driver on closed course" - "Overseas model shown" — Just in case there's any confusion from this ad, the vehicle sold in this country will have the steering wheel on the correct side. - "Warning: The beverage you're about to enjoy is extremely hot." This one came about after a woman got third-degree burns from a cup of McDonald's coffee. The suit she filed is often laughed at and cited as an example of the problems with the American legal system, but it's more of an example of a "Lack of Institutional Control" on the McDonalds Corporate itself Elaboration : The Corporate end required franchisees to keep their coffee at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit (82-88 degrees Celsius), which can cause third-degree burns in two to seven seconds. To be more specific, the problem was that this McDonald's was serving its coffee significantly hotter than usual (like over 180 degrees rather than a more typical 140 or so), and they (not just McDonald's generally, but that specific store) had been previously sued by other people for the same thing. The plaintiff was only suing for her actual medical expenses ($ 620,000, of which McDonalds was willing to pay $800), so the jury essentially said "Clearly it's going to take a truly outrageous amount of pain and suffering damages to make you actually take notice and stop this, so okay, here you go." - Anything required by The Comics Code, MPAA rating system, ESRB, Woman's Christian Temperance Union rules, or any Censorship Bureau. - Anything required by the FCC, an American agency with broad scope. - "The opinions expressed in the following (episode, speech) do not necessarily represent those of this station." - "This copyrighted telecast is presented by the authority of the office of the commissioner of [insert major sport here or sporting organization here], for private enjoyment by our audience and may not be retransmitted in any form, or have its facts disseminated without express written consent". - "The following is a paid commercial program. The thoughts and opinions expressed are solely those of the program's producers and do not reflect the views of this station." - On documentaries and News Broadcasts, especially ones dealing with controversial issues, a modified version of the previous disclaimer may be used: "This program is a production of <producer's name>, which is solely responsible for its content". This was common on NBC News programs in the 1980s, as well as PBS shows like Frontline in the present. - The licenses for a lot of software, even including web browsers and iTunes, include warnings like You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. You further acknowledge that the software is not intended or suitable for use in situations or environments where the failure of, or errors or inaccuracies in the content, data or information provided by, the software could lead to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage, including without limitation the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, life support or weapons systems. - Health warnings on cigarette packages. The United States were the first to introduce these in 1966, though theirs are now the weakest of the various warnings around the world, just a small "SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING" stuck on the side of the pack in small print. In comparison, many other countries have adopted huge labels, with some including gruesome pictures and/or mandating generic packaging with no distinctive brandings. - The so-called "quack Miranda warning" is a relatively new one in the US for any Spice Rack Panacea: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease." - Some cookbooks and other collections of food writing have a warning not to alter the recipes in any way. Conversely, several prepackaged dinners and mixes have "Ovens vary; cooking time may need to be adjusted". So, in essence, if something went wrong with the dish, it's either your fault for deviating from the recipe, or your oven's fault for not being a lab-controlled oven. - "Requesting rare or medium-rare meats (or undercooked eggs) may increase your risk of foodborne illness." Similarly for Frozen dinners: "Do not cook in microwaves under 1100 watts as product may not cook thoroughly." On the other side, microwave dinner instructions generally include a line about "let cool for 2-5 minutes before eating", in case people scald themselves trying to eat the food straight out of the microwave. - The disclaimers that show up on kids' superhero costumes: Use of this costume does not enable wearer to fly. Apparently, a number of kids died thinking otherwise—granted, younger children may not always be able to separate fact and fiction, so possibly justified. - ThinkGeek sells a letter opener shaped like a batarang as a tie in to Batman: Arkham Knight. Its three-line description reads: Look, we know you're going to throw it But our lawyers wanted us to remind you not to aim it at other humans And that what we're selling you is a LETTER OPENER - Two New British Universities risked legal difficulties with the names they selected after being allowed to rebrand themselves from their prior status as polytechnics and tech colleges. note : American readers, think "community colleges". In the first instance, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAn). note : Formerly Lancashire Polytechnic, situated in Preston. Has a sizeable population of mature and part-time students and an apparently vast advertising budget. The former Preston Polytechnic sailed close to the wind of legal action by seeking to style itself UCLA — University of Central LAncashire. While the chances of Preston being confused with Los Angeles are vanishingly small — save by those who seriously failed Geography — legal advice insisted that the "n" should be added. The "n", in the form "UCLAn", is very small and inobtrusive. - In the second case, when the North-East Wales Institute of Techology (Wrexham) was allowed to leap all the way to University status, at first it named itself "Yale University" after one of its founder colleges — in fact, named for the same Mr Yale who emigrated to the USA and founded Yale University in Connecticut. Even though NEWI had the name first, the superior legal firepower of Yale University, USA, acted as a deterrent, although the Welsh-language Coleg Ial was permitted. Wrexham University now trades under the name Prifysgol Owain Glyndwr/Owen Glendower University. - In recent times, poker websites and one-week fantasy sports websites in America (where online gambling is illegal in most states) have put up a disclaimer claiming that they are "not a gambling website", despite advertising how you can win money for spending money on their games. The FCC and FTC have shut down poker websites (maintaining that despite their disclaimer, they are in fact gambling websites), but have yet to do so with one-week fantasy sports sites... yet. - Commercial fiction, such as novels and comic books, sometimes carry disclaimers that neither the creator of the work nor the publisher assume responsibility for any website content, either their own or third-party; social media; public commentary and so on. This has been done for various reasons such as avoiding controversy from Moral Guardians over Rule 34 involving characters from said work. - "Do not take this medication if you are allergic to it or any of its ingredients." - A television ad for an insurance company shows a woman chopping up a $100 bill in a blender. At the bottom is a disclaimer reading "Dramatization: Do Not Attempt." This is because destroying US currency is illegal, and so is both to keep them safe from prosecution (by establishing that the bill is a prop bill and not genuine) and to keep viewers from trying the same with real currency. In the name of the 'TV Tropes Ltd.' Legal Department, we like to recall that the items contained in the following folder are Not Straight Examples of the page's topic, or anything resembling it: ## Not Straight Examples - The credits of Frozen (2013) make the following disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Kristoff in the film that all men eat their own boogers are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Walt Disney Company or the filmmakers. Neither The Walt Disney Company nor the filmmakers make any representation of the accuracy of any such views and opinions. - Trinity And Beyond The Atomic Bomb Movie, being made up of footage of American nuclear tests, has an interesting version of this: "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. Some goats, pigs, and sheep were nuked in the making of the original films." - Fido: "No zombies were harmed during the making of this film." - Same warning at the end of the first Jurassic Park :"No dinosaurs were harmed in the making of this movie." - The Killer Elite. A tongue-in-cheek notice announces that there is no company called Communications Integrity nor ComTeg, "and the thought that the CIA might employ such an organization for any purpose is, of course, preposterous." - No Bed For Bacon by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon — which is deliberately set in The Theme Park Version of Elizabethan England — has the disclaimer "Warning to Scholars: This book is fundamentally unsound." - Good Omens has near the beginning the disclaimer: "Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not try it in your own home." - The Muppets Character Encyclopedia entry for Spa'am (the Wild Boar Chief from Muppet Treasure Island) includes the following: Not-So-Fine-Print The character Spa'am is not related in any way to any other person, animal, character, hologram, vehicle, place or canned luncheon meat. (Our lawyers made us put this in — we have no idea why.) - This is a reference to an actual lawsuit Hormel Foods issued against the Muppets when the character was introduced. They lost, with the judgement snarkily observing that "by now Hormel should be inured to any such ridicule" and "one might think Hormel would welcome the association with a genuine source of pork". - The Science of Discworld: The second book explores the phrase "may contain nuts", and how it came about in the notoriously Literal-Minded Ankh-Morpork: The Patrician feels very strongly about food labelling (an understandable view in a city like Ankh-Morpork), and asked the wizards of the Unseen University if they could prove whether an item did or did not in fact contain nuts. He wasn't satisfied with their answer that they couldn't be certain, because it was unhelpful. Hence, "may contain nuts". The book then proceeds to use it as a Running Gag. - Also parodied in Garth Marenghis Darkplace with the line "I do not believe that any form of life, be it human, animal, or plant, should be hurt in the making of a television programme. So I personally feel really bad about that cat we killed." - The MTV show Fur TV started each episode with an overly long viewer warning. It changed every episode too, so it doubled as a sneak preview. Warning: This show contains adult humor, strong language, random acts of violence, shocking images, and scenes of a sexually explicit nature between humans and puppets, which some viewers may find offensive. - In one episode of Insomniac with Dave Attell, Dave spends some time with some government employees tasked with hunting an invasive rodent species with airsoft rifles to control their population. At the conclusion of the segment, he informs the camera that "a lot of animals were harmed in the making of this program". - Parodied in an episode of Las Vegas in which Jean-Claude Van Damme is killed in a rooftop motorcycle movie stunt gone wrong. According to the credits, "No Jean-Claude Van Dammes were killed in the making of this episode". - The MythBusters has had a few gags of this nature throughout the series, mixed in with their much more serious warnings not to try what they do on the show. One memorable one from Lead Balloon involves Adam discussing the sex appeal of Jamie's walrus mustache, while they're dissipating static electricity from adhesive tape on their facial hair. Adam: There's women out there going, "Oh, I wish I was that piece of tape right now!" Jamie: Ya think? Adam: I'm sure of it. ( looking at the camera ) Raise your hand. Yeah, you! Jamie: Gimme a break. Rob Lee: The producers of MythBusters are not responsible for any marital issues resulting from raised arms. - There was an Australian sketch show a few years back that started one episode with a recording of a sheep grazing and a voiceover announcing "no animals were harmed in the making of this show... except for this sheep". Cue the sheep being "blown up". - Played with by Andy Levy on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, who states "As always, by the way, legal asks me to point out that I am not a lawyer. But I am Jewish, so we can assume I could be if I wanted to." Greg: Or a doctor. Andy: Yeah, absolutely. Isiah: Producer. Andy: What was that? Bill: He said 'Go back to Israel.' It was terrible. - On How I Met Your Mother, Robin's song "P.S. I Love You" includes the lyrics, "The lawyers at the record company / made me promise to say / that the views expressed in this song do not necessarily reflect the views of Dominant Records or any of its subsidiaries." - Saturday Night Live: - Frequently parodied in the credits of All Aussie Adventures: This program is in no way endorsed by the Alice Springs Tourism Authority. Russell Coight's School Wildlife Visiting Program is no way endorsed by the Education Department and is currently the subject of police investigations. The makers of this program in no way endorse the shooting of sheep or crushing of native bandicoots. They also have some reservations about handling loaded guns to minors. - On one Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode, John Oliver gave away (well, sold for 25 cents) tickets to premium Yankees seats to whoever could come up with the most ridiculous outfits. (One set of winners dressed up like dragons, for example, and another went as Ninja Turtles.) This was a protest about Yankees owner blocking access to elite seating and accommodations to "someone who has never sat in a premium location". John: We are legally bound to give you these contest rules and tell you that the Yankees were not invited in this contest in any way, but I think that should be pretty fucking obvious by now. - In regards to the end of a libel suit brought by Bob Murrey, John initially plays it straight by discussing how they've run things by their legal team "who are getting very tired of us by now"... but then does this when having a fake lawyer drag Murrey in a musical number that was apparently also run by said lawyers to avoid libel/slander... by being so outrageous that no reasonable person could assume the jokes were true. - Discussed — and mocked — on Taskmaster. During one of the "prize rounds", Rose Matafeo brings in an unspooled cassette tape as a prize (long story) and jokingly claims that once it's been respooled, the tape plays the true identity of the assassin of John F. Kennedy. During the resulting discussion, Greg Davies quips that he'd love it if the identity of the assassin on the tape was musician and celebrity Peter Andre, which prompts David Baddiel to remark that Greg might want to offer one of these disclaimers in order to avoid any kind of legal action. Greg ruthlessly mocks the idea that anyone would seriously take legal action over the joking suggestion that Peter Andre of all people was part of a cabal to assassinate a US president, to the point that he boldly states "I think that Peter Andre killed JFK. Sue me." For what it's worth, Peter Andre was born about ten years after the assassination. There is of course no evidence whatsoever that Peter Andre is a Time Lord, a Victorian inventor with a strange machine in his basement, or some smeghead with an experimental time drive who really wants a curry. - The Mattress-Tag Gag isn't possible, because the tags say "Under penalty of law, this tag is not to be removed except by the consumer." So, you're okay with ripping it off. The salesman, on the other hand... Please note, however, that removing the tag may actually void the warranty on the mattress. Warranties that forbid tag removal often accompany mattresses whose tags are placed right where accidental removal during ordinary sheet changing is quite likely. Please read the fine print before engaging in tag violations. - Pandemonio has a parody of the cautionary "this is fictional" disclaimers found in White Wolf and other supernatural horror RPGs. It's extremely stealth, up until the last line, where instead of warning against any of the "evil" actions depicted in the game, it warns that Neoplastic Press does not condone the practice of monotheism. - It seems to be a running gag for the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Rulebooks to contain humorous disclaimers. For example: - The Player's Handbook disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast is not responsible for the consequences of splitting up the party, sticking appendages in the mouth of a leering green devil face, accepting a dinner invitation from bugbears, storming the feast hall of a hill giant steading, angering a dragon of any variety, or saying yes when the DM asks, "Are you really sure?" - The Monster Manual disclaimer: Any similarity between monsters depicted in this book and monsters that actually exist is purely coincidental. That goes double for mindflayers, which absolutely, utterly, and completely do not exist. Nor do they secretly run the D&D team. Do we really need a disclaimer to tell you that? Don't use your brain to consider such irrational thoughts. They only make the mind cluttered, confused, and unpleasantly chewy. A good brain is nice, tender, and barely used. Go ahead, put down this book and watch some reality TV or Internet cat videos. They're really funny these days. You won't regret it. We say this only because we love you and your juicy, succulent gamer brain. - The Dungeon Master's Guide disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast does not officially endorse the following tactics, which are guaranteed to maximize your enjoyment as a Dungeon Master. First, always keep a straight face and say OK no matter how ludicrous or doomed the players' plan of action is. Second, no matter what happens, pretend that you intended all along for everything to unfold the way it did. Third, if you're not sure what to do next, feign illnes, end the session early, and plot your next move. When all else fails, roll a bunch of dice behind your screen, study them for a moment with a look of deep concern mixed with regret, let loose a heavy sigh and announce that Tiamat swoops from the sky and attacks. - The Elemental Evil Player's Companion disclaimer: For safe utilization of elemental magic, remember the following guidelines. You can drink water but not fire. You can breathe air but not earth. You can walk on earth but not on water (unless you have the right pair of boots or spell). You can do a lot of things with fire, but almost all of them are bad ideas. - The Volo's Guide to Monsters disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast does not vouch for, guarantee, or provide any promise regarding the validity of the information provided in this volume by Volothamp Geddarm. Do not trust Volo. Do not go on quests offered by Volo. Do not listen to Volo. Avoid being seen with him for risk of guilt by association. If Volo appears in your campaign, your DM is undoubtedly trying to kill your character in a manner that can be blamed on your own actions. The DM is probably trying to do that anyway, but with Volo's appearance, you know for sure. We're not convinced that Elminster's commentary is all that trustworthy either, but he turned us into flumphs the last time we mentioned him in one of these disclaimers. - Evil Hat uses joking disclaimers beneath credits and copyright information in its Fate products: - Fate Core and Fate System Toolkit disclaimers state: This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible, impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to real people, fantasy adventures, wizards of the arcane, supernatural cops in China-colonized Hong Kong/America that never was, cybernetic super-intelligent apes, or squirrel mechanics is purely fictional, but kinda hilarious. - Fate Accelerate edition disclaimer: This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible, impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. All resemblance to real people, magical martial artists, schoolgirl witches, pulp scientists, or piratical cats is purely fictional, but kinda hilarious. - Sonic Colors: "Please keep your hands and feet in the car at all times, because there are tiny asteroids traveling at incredible speed hurtling through space. Keeping your hands and feet in the car won't prevent you from being hit, but our lawyers tell us we have to say it anyway." - Parodied in the credits of the original Spyro the Dragon games. "No sheep were harmed in the production of this game." - Later repeated in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, which was made by the same developers. It also adds, "Except for one. He had it coming to him." - Qwark featured one or two of these at the end of his own advertisements in the first game, too. Qwark Enterprises is not responsible for sprains, broken bones, snapped tendons, bruised egos or accidental death incurred while taking the challenge. - And also parodied at the end of a campaign in Left 4 Dead, in which case it is used to show the body count. - Every second-generation Sierra game starts with an appeal to please not make illegal copies because they worked hard on creating this game. They went for the moral angle instead of the legal one. Several of those games follow up with something like "...by the way, the game is unplayable without the information contained in the manual. It's not just the law, it's a good idea!" Confusingly, this follow up was actually false in some games, that were perfectly playable without the manual. - In Fallout: New Vegas, the Courier can take a tour of the headquarters of REPCONN, a pre-War rocket manufacturer that used a wide variety of nuclear waste as fuel and had frequent problems with their prototypes exploding or crashing into people's homes. Every single exhibit on the tour features at least one (and usually two or three) legal disclaimers regarding the terminology used. - Hane Hane Paradise parodies the typical Arcade Game territorial license warning screen: WARNING THIS GAME IS DOWNLOAD AND USE IN JAPAN AND OTHER COUNTRIES. NEVER INQUIRE OF THE MANUFACTURER BECAUSE I AM A FAN OF AND NOT PARTIES CONCERNED THOUGH THIS GAME LOOKS LIKE THE CERTAIN ARCADE GAME THAT A CERTAIN MANUFACTURER DEVELOPED EITHER. - The manual of Boogerman makes a few cheeky additions to the otherwise standard warnings about handling the game cartridge, cautioning readers not to "bend it, crush it, or submerge it in liquids or boogers," and noting that "boogers will melt in extreme heat." - CAVE became somewhat emblematic of poorly-translated legal warnings on their arcade games. In the 2010's, when they began porting those games to Steam, they updated the warning to proper English, but left the word "jam" in place of "law" in tribute to the original Gratuitous English. They also altered the text to say that the game was for use on Planet Earth only (as opposed to "Japan only") and any use by extraterrestrials would be considered a copyright breach. - In 2006, Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya missed part of the team's playoff schedule with a sore wrist which the team's GM admitted in a radio interview was caused from Zumaya playing Guitar Hero (specifically the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II). Though Zumaya would later admit that the Guitar Hero story was untrue and a cover for the real (and never disclosed) reason for the injury, the later Xbox 360 release of Guitar Hero II carried the following disclaimer: "No pitchers were harmed in the making of this video game. Except for one. Joel Zumaya. He had it coming." - A video made by "The Mechanic Shark Channel" features a disclaimer, which features the "Tianamen Square Copypasta", a long string of Chinese and English texts of China's forbidden topic. - Dragon Ball Z Abridged has this to say right before a young Gohan gets kicked by Raditz: "We here at Team Four Star do not condone child violence... we do, however, find it hilarious." - Also, before their blooper reels (which typically contain large amounts of swearing), there is the disclaimer: "Warning. The following contains language unsuitable for minors. If you are under the age of 18 and have not heard the word "fuck" before... well, ya have now." - Parodied at the beginning of Doctor Steel's Propaganda DVDs. An FBI warning screen pops up... but the words are not what you were expecting. - The Spoony Experiment: Spoony occasionally includes one right before an awesome scene in the Reb Brown movie he's reviewing. For example: - Parodied on a Zero Punctuation video when Yahtzee says the Paper Mario game he's reviewing isn't [a Paper Mario game] despite "looking like one and wearing the skin of one." He then says that he's not a fat woman, even if he- and then cuts himself off saying his lawyer has advised him not to finish the statement (accompanied with an image of his avatar wearing the bloody skin of a fat woman a la Michael Myers). - In the Half in the Bag review of Jack and Jill, Mike and Jay make a very half-hearted attempt before making their case that the movie is basically a scheme to pump the cash from an inflated movie budget into the pockets of Sandler and his friends. Though the first two notes they start to read from their lawyers are themselves libelous (and even in the third, Mike has to change the word "cohorts" to "associates" as he is reading the statement.) - CJ DaChamp: During "Revy's Hood Safari" in the Black Lagoon video, Lagoon Company comes across Nazis who want to steal a painting that Lagoon Company is after. However, CJ doesn't want to get in trouble with YouTube for mentioning Nazis on his channel, so he refers to the Nazis as "Hydra agents" instead. - The Simpsons: - Parodied in "Dog of Death" with "No dogs were harmed during the production of this episode. A cat threw up and somebody shot a duck, but that's it." - In "Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson", Homer is putting up with unfair treatment on an airplane, and a disclaimer appears saying that if we're watching this episode on a plane, the airline depicted is not the one you're on. - The ending of "The President Wore Pearls" has a claim that "Our lawyers had us insist we have absolutely no knowledge of a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. - The bonus short on the Ratatouille DVD ended with a parody disclaimer, with warnings about rat interaction varying from the reasonable (rat interaction can cause disease) to the outlandishly slanderous. (claims that rat interaction can lead to mutilation, and that all right-minded people know rats caused the Black Plague). Remy is offended, and protests loudly while trying to stop the disclaimer. - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit has bunnies floating around during the credits. They end with "No rabbits were harmed during the making of this film" — and the last rabbit bumps its head on those words. - Parodied in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Fun and Games". When Superman crashes in on Toyman (who is about to execute Bruno Mannheim) the villain throws something called "Dopey Dough" on him, which quickly starts to grow and spread. Toyman: Uh, maybe you should read the label: "Dopey Dough is a lethal biochemical formula. Contact with the skin can prove fatal, as it won't stop growing until it asphyxiates its host. Not recommended for children under three. - This moment from the Duckman episode "Ajax and Ajaxer": Duckman: Why, I bet a kid, thinking I was a role model and wanting to imitate my behavior, could easily steal sodas from a vending machine... too. DO IT! Do it now, kids! Stick it to the man! HAHAHAHA!! [Cornfed is handed some Censor Notes] Cornfed: "But of course that would be wrong." - No Animals Were Harmed is for publicity reasons, not legal reasons. It's a certification from the American Humane Society. - This actually has historical reasons for existing, though. According to The Other Wiki, the AHA disclaimer was brought on by controversy about a 1939 movie named Jessie James, in which a blindfolded horse was ridden off a cliff to its death. (Needless to say, said movie was not following the AHA guidelines.) Our lawyers, who consequently took action, persisted, that both A Little From Column A, and A Little From Column B shall be displayed in this article, naturally in a fair and comprehensive ratio: ## A Little From Column A, A Little From Column B - A magazine ad for Pokémon Red and Blue featured drawings of Pokémon imposed on a Game Boy screen, with the small text below the image saying, "This is a color illustration, not an actual game screen. We know you know that, but this line makes our lawyers feel better." - A TV advertisement for Sheba cat food features a woman snuggling her cat when her son offscreen shouts that he fell. She says there are bandages in the cabinet but when he says he's bleeding, she casually replies "grab two." A disclaimer on screen flashes up saying "We don't encourage this behavior, though your cat might." - A 2022 E-Trade commercial, which marked the return of the E-Trade Baby, has a disclaimer reading "Dramatization. Wood chopping, helicopter flying and financial advising are not suitable activities for babies." - From the beginning of ''Monty Python" album "Live at City Center"... Announcer: "Good evening ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please. The taking of photgraphs, the use of recording devices and smoking are strictly prohibited in this theater..." John Cleese "But are encouraged nevertheless." - From Kevin Smith's film Dogma, the following disclaimer ... over four separate screens ... Disclaimer: 1) a renunciation of any claim to or connection with; 2) disavowal; 3) a statement made to save one's own ass; 4) a foresaid word for not being blamed later. Though it'll go without saying ten minutes or so into these proceedings, View Askew would like to state that this film is from start to finish a work of comedic fantasy, not to be taken seriously. To insist that any of what follows is incendiary or inflammatory is to miss our intention and pass undue judgment; and passing judgment is reserved for God and God alone (this goes for you film critics too... just kidding). So please before you think about hurting someone over this trifle of a film, remember: even God has a sense of humor. Just look at the Platypus. Thank you and enjoy the show. P.S. We sincerely apologize to all Platypus enthusiasts out there who are offended by that thoughtless comment about Platypi. We at View Askew respect the noble Platypus, and it is not our intention to slight these stupid creatures in any way. Thank you again and enjoy the show. - Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a standard legal disclaimer which purports to be signed by Richard M. Nixon. It was made in 1974 during Watergate. - At the end of the Phantasm films (at least, from the second one onward), there is "Any unauthorised duplication will result in civil liability, criminal prosecution, and the wrath of the Tall Man." - Airplane! used a standard disclaimer/copyright notice... except that it added "So There" at the very end. - The Informant! has this: "While this motion picture is based on real events, certain incidents and characters are composites, and dialog has been dramatized. So there." - This from Slumber Party Massacre II: Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution or copying of this film or any part thereof [including soundtrack] is an infringement of the relevant copyright and will subject the infringer to severe civil and criminal prosecution as well as a midnight call from the Driller-Killer. - From Not Of This Earth 1988 (the Traci Lords version): "Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution or copying of this film or any part thereof (including soundtrack) is an infringement of the relevant copyright and will subject the infringer to severe civil and criminal prosecution... not to mention a one-way ticket to Davanna." - (500) Days of Summer: "AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch." - The credits to Doctor Strange (2016) include a warning against reckless and distracted driving, based on how Strange had ruined his life doing so at the beginning of the film. This counts as "part parodic" because its placement calls back to a gag earlier in the film where Strange tests out a magic spell and then sees all the warnings against the dangers of using it, wondering why in the world the warning didn't come first. - The Three Stooges short "You Nazty Spy" begins with the following disclaimer: "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle." This is a borderline example because at the time, The Hays Code prevented any movies from depicting any foreign power "in an unfavorable light", even the Nazis, and they could have gotten into trouble for it. - The actual disclaimer of the hardcover edition of Kildar by John Ringo: - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Raoul Duke's lawyer, Dr. Gonzo, frequently began sentences with the phrase, "As your attorney, I advise you to...". Said "advice" was almost never legal, and in fact was often blatantly illegal, e.g., recommending that he take a hit of adrenochrome. Reportedly, Oscar Zeta Acosta, whom Dr. Gonzo was based off of, had this particular verbal habit in Real Life, hence Thompson's inclusion of it in the novel. - Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe spoofed the "If you're traumatized call 555-xxxx" variation few times on the course of the show. The following example comes from the episode about news coverage. If you have been affected by the issues in that picture phone the National Buzzsaw Incident Hotline on 0808-1dehblehdeh - With OFCOM's strict rules about keeping opinions separate from news, editorial pieces are prefixed with Charlie Brooker saying "Remember, these are his views, not facts". One particularly controversial one, about media influence in Parliament, had Charlie Brooker repeating this over a stern red card reading "Viewer information hastily added following legal advice" for the best part of 30 seconds. - The Arrested Development episode "Motherboy XXX" gave us this gem when Michael went to the hotel for the Motherboy pageant: Michael: I'm here for Motherboy. Desk Clerk: You realize that's not the band. Narrator: Motherboy was also the name of a heavy metal band that rocked pretty hard throughout the seventies. We are legally obligated to make this distinction. - When Laverne & Shirley was shown in certain countries, this disclaimer, or something similar to it, was shown before every episode. Warning: The two women you are about to see have escaped from an insane asylum. Do not try to imitate their actions. - MythBusters added their traditional (and deadly serious) warning to the million match heads experiment, and then Adam added this: "If I find out that any of you tried this at home, I will personally come to your house and kick your butt!" - Ani DiFranco's albums contain the notice "Unauthorized duplication, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing." - 2 Live Crew albums featured the warning "Unlawful duplication will get you fuck up by the Ghetto Style DJs." [sic] - White Wolf tabletop RPG books mostly contain some serious though tongue-in-cheek examples. Examples from Vampire: The Masquerade books usually start with the five words "You are not a vampire." and end with a suggestion that if you want to carry out various inhuman acts you should seek counselling and leave roleplayers to get on with their games. One Exalted disclaimer helpfully advises players that "You should not hit your friends or loved ones with swords." - The Bretonnia sourcebook for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay starts with the disclaimer that Games Workshop, Black Industries and the author do not endorse the sexism which is part of the Bretonnia setting, and which was included because the author believed that women pretending to be men made interesting characters. The author also does not endorse fighting wars over insults, worshipping the Ruinous Powers or arbitrarily executing peasants. - In the JAWS ride at Universal Studios, numerous disclaimers are included in the commercials for Captain Jake's, including: "Seats not available on all boats", "Some boats may be guest-operated", "Shade available at additional cost", "Insurance waiver required", and so on. - The Trauma Center series, being a series of games based around surgery, has the bog-standard disclaimers that the player is not a qualified practitioner of medicine and thus should not attempt to practice medicine without proper licenses, degrees, or certifications. Trauma Center: Second Opinion has a bit of fun with this: Should the player complete all seven X operations, the player gets one final monologue that again states that the player is not an actual medical doctor and therefore shouldn't go straight into real-life surgery... and that if the player is an actual doctor, they probably shouldn't tell their patients how much they struggled with a (rather Nintendo Hard) video game about surgery. - The Dragon Ball Z Kai versions of Dragon Ball Z Abridged mixes the disclaimer with a shortened version of it. Vegeta: [first episode] This is a parody support Akira Toriyama ! Freeza: [second episode] This is a parody. Buy the fucking show! Garlic Jr.: [third episode] Don't be a dummy! Give them your money! Android 16: [fourth episode] Physical media is forever! Buy Laserdisc! Perfect Cell: [final episode] Give money, receive Dragon Ball! - A disclaimer appears at the end of chapter 77 of the Roman à Clef comic Joe vs. Elan School, and what pushes it into almost parody — albeit quite grimly, given the comic's subject matter — is the fact that the author claims that Elan School didn't even exist, even though he'd spent the previous several years linking to evidence of its abuse and speaking quite openly about his own terrible time there. Due to the subject matter of upcoming chapters, a lawyer has advised me to state that This Is a Work of Fiction . That's right, I made it all up. There was no Elan School (so don't bother looking it up!). All similarities are purely coincidental and nothing I wrote or am about to write actually happened... ahem... especially the stuff I'm about to write . - The disclaimer for the video seen here with the Swedish Chef is both. (The message is sarcastic when it claims the Chef is "sort of" a professional, but you should not try this.) - An episode of Outside Xbox plays with this trope. Hosts Andy and Jane attempting to recreate a cocktail recipe that they had seen in Dishonored. However, because of the way the recipe was written and poor comma placement, the two of them believed it called for a handful of nutmeg. A warning appears underneath saying "Spoiler: This is too much nutmeg." Later, it says "Like, seriously, a dangerous amount of nutmeg. Do not eat this much nutmeg ever." - One of GradeAUnderA's videos exposing Prank Channels specifies that there's only a possibility that the pranksters he brings up are fakes, and then proceeds to come up with an alternate explanation for everything suspicious - for example, when he sees a victim/paid actor turning violent during a prank, Grade points out that the prankster gets punched, but his head doesn't move in the same direction as the punch, which violates the law of conservation of momentum. As such, Grade concludes...that the laws of physics are incorrect. Grade: Because, right, the only other possibility is that this video is fake, which, I'm sure you'd agree, would be an absurd thing to suggest. - The DVD release for My Little Pony 'n Friends: "The End of Flutter Valley" and apparently many Rhino DVDs includes the standard copyright disclaimer from the FBI at the end, but it is prefaced with "A friendly reminder from the FBI" and during the spot, the image of the FBI agent is given spiky hair, glasses, and a beard in crayon. - All six episodes of Clerks: The Animated Series began with your typical disclaimer (read by Kevin Michael Richardson), followed by a joke statement (like for the pilot "Is anybody still watching after all that?"); he also did a VO in the middle of episode 3 stating "Due to the recent lawsuit by Dustin Hoffman over the alleged unauthorized use of his likeness, the role of Dustin Hoffman in Randal's cartoon brain calculation will be played by- Al Pacino!" - The disclaimer from this article — in financial articles, there is an obligation for the writer to disclose if they own or handle for others any security, stocks or companies directly mentioned, for conflict-of-interest purposes — has a nice gem at the end: - Cancer Treatment Centers of America would like to remind you that "No case is typical. You should not expect to experience these results". - The flowcharting software Interactive EasyFlow is mostly remembered today for its humorous and cynical disclaimer and user license agreement, which express the usual sentiments in blunt English rather than legalese: We don't claim Interactive EasyFlow is good for anything — if you think it is, great, but it's up to you to decide. If Interactive EasyFlow doesn't work: tough. If you lose a million because Interactive EasyFlow messes up, it's you that's out the million, not us. If you don't like this disclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute minimum provided by law, up to and including nothing. [...] Last not least, our Legal Dept. might like to inform you, that none of the promises, regulations or compilations of tropes of any kind, that were mentioned above, are valid, or should be taken seriously. We would like to apologize in advance for any errors and serious complications, regarding property, health, or sanity. TV Tropes is the owner of this article and its content for the purpose of copyright. All rights reserved. ©2023 TV Tropes	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope
Our Liches Are Different - TV Tropes Even a dead guy can make it in the world if he's got himself a college education! "For inherent in undeath, and particularly in the state of Lichdom, is a reversal of nature's order. The winter that is the end of mortal life is a rebirth for the undead. The autumnal deterioration of life energy that precedes the mortal winter follows the rebirth in undeath, as the fragmenting of mind and body are sewn back together, resulting in a period of illumination during which the undead sees the world in all its brilliant facets. Finally, there is the Lich's spring, a season of growing power and vitality that can and will be sustained for an eternity, so long as their phylactery and physical vessel endure." A lich is an undead sorcerer, often one who seeks immortality or power above anything else, and became undead as the price he had to pay. Typically, his soul is stored elsewhere in a Soul Jar, at times called a phylactery, which must be destroyed before he can be fully defeated. In other fiction, the Soul Jar is optional. A lich's physical appearance can range from near-normal, to zombie/corpse-like, to completely skeletal, which usually depending on the lich's age. Because of their skill at magic, liches tend to be among the most powerful and dangerous type of undead (if not the most powerful and dangerous, barring perhaps old Grim himself) in settings where they exist. They are also common candidates for Undead Abomination if they are particularly powerful and have few or no limitations on their ability to resurrect and act on a large scale. In nearly every fantasy work in which liches appear, they are evil or at least antagonistic, although there are some exceptions. They are usually either deeply isolationist, performing terrible experiments and studies in isolation, or power-hungry and ambitious beings with goals of widespread domination; a typical lich of the second sort is usually an Sorcerous Overlord or planning to become one, if it doesn't have aspirations for higher status still. If a kingdom is ruled by the dead, liches are often at the top of the hierarchy. Something resembling the concept goes at least back to Koschei the Deathless from Russian Mythology and Tales. He was a gaunt, skeletal villain whose "death" was hidden in a needle inside an egg. To kill him without his coming Back from the Dead, one had to destroy the needle. He was also an Evil Overlord, a powerful sorcerer, and a great fighter. Basically, the only thing that distinguishes him from a lich is that he is very good at using his BFS. The word 'lich' rhymes with 'witch' and is derived from the Old High German word lih or lika for "corpse". In modern and slightly-archaic English, graveyards are still occasionally called "lichyards", and a lychgate, or lichgate, is a covered gateway at the entrance to a graveyard where a coffin might rest for a time before a funeral. 'Lich' was used in reference to (sometimes undead) corpses by Clark Ashton Smith in the 1930s, and in the story "The Sword of the Sorcerer" (1969), one of his tales of his Conan the Barbarian expy 'Kothar', author Gardner Fox depicted an undead sorcerer, referred to by the term. Inspired by this, Gary Gygax used the word in Dungeons & Dragons specifically to mean an undead sorcerer with their soul stored away. (Gygax openly acknowledged the inspiration, and claimed Fox as a friend.) The influence of D&D on fantasy literature and Video Games has spread the term to some degree, especially in games, although it's still not entirely standard and there are plenty of undead sorcerers in media that are never called liches. Equally, there are cases where the creature is called a lich, but is just a walking corpse, if the author thinks that "zombie" sounds anachronistic or inaccurate. Rarely, lich is used to refer to zombies that retain human intelligence, but aren't necessarily sorcerers at all. Funnily enough, Fox's "lich", while undead and creepy, was not entirely evil, or at least not vicious, gifting the hero with a magic sword to complete a quest and even letting him keep it (with conditions). So the trope was only fully codified in D&D; despite its roots in myth, and the fact that the word is Old English, the full trope is more modern than some people realise. While "lich" is only related to "lech" in the loosest etymological sense, the coincidental similarity between words used for a charismatic but unpleasant suitor and a dangerous variety of undead often associated with self-serving (ab)uses of people and magic hasn't been lost on creators. Much like vampires, liches are frequently depicted as persuasive tempters who at least at one time had status and a taste for the finer things in life, even if they might now be too decayed to enjoy them. See also Necromancer, a sorcerer who has actual powers over the dead. The tropes can and often do overlap, as liches often have the power to raise the dead, and becoming a lich is commonly the ultimate goal of powerful necromancers as a means of attaining immortality. See also the Dracolich (a lich who was a dragon in life) and The Worm That Walks, which in some settings is a lich-like undead created by a sorcerer transferring his or her soul into a swarm of vermin. For zombie-type undead who aren't magicians but are fully sentient, see Revenant Zombie. ## Examples: - In 3×3 Eyes, in a very roundabout way, Wu could be considered this: during his life, a Sanzhiyan/Triclop (such as Pai/Parvati) can absorb the soul of a living being, linking their lives together and making them completely immortal as long as their soul is stored inside the Sanzhiyan. While all known Wu in the story (Yakumo, Benares, Amara, El Madurai and Ganesha) look alive and well, they're referred to as undead or zombies by humans and can master spells, taking advantage of their limitless life force required to use magic. Killing the Sanzhiyan will kill the Wu as well, though if the Sanzhiyan is simply depowered through the Humanization Ritual the Wu simply regains his soul and becomes mortal again (wether long age catching up with them is factored in is not known). - Ga-Rei -Zero-: The Sesshouseki is essentially a phylactery, and it can animate those who've died. - Inuyasha gives us Yura of the Hair, whose phylactery/real body is a comb. - In KonoSuba, Liches are undead sorcerers, with the more powerful ones capable of creating The Undead from their presence alone. So far though, both seen in the series have been pretty cordial and not evil. One actually makes it a hobby to go out of her way and lay spirits to rest, the other only became a lich to be with his beloved until her final moments and then waited for a priest to send him to the other world since he can't commit suicide. - Magical Girl Apocalypse: The terrifying and murderous Magical Girls are liches in all but the name. They look corpse-like and grotesque; They have abilities that would fit an evil wizard more than a magical girl, including, funnily enough, necromancy; And no matter what you do to their bodies, they will always regenerate, but if you manage to break their phylacteries (In this case, \|\|their wands\|\|), they will instantly die and won't recover from that. - Overlord (2012): - Ainz Ooal Gown, the main character, is an overlord, an Evolution Power-Up version of an Elder Lich, which themselves evolved from Skeleton Mages. - Liches could spawn when the corpse of an evil magic caster gains unholy life through sacrificial rituals or a player dies prematurely with heavy regrets. - Ainz has gifted Fluder Paradyne, a Wizard Classic who joined him out of greed for magical power, a Book of the Dead. If Fluder manages to decipher the book (it's written in Japanese), he would be able to learn a ritual that allows the user to change their race to a lich. - Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The magical girls are faced with liches in the form of \|\|themselves, with their Soul Gem acting as the phylactery. It's even worse than normal liches, because normal liches don't lose consciousness when their bodies are distanced from their phylactery. Additionally, magical girls don't gain any form of immortality, neither biological (at least one magical girl who had reached adulthood is mentioned in supplemental materials) nor any other kind (magical girls can still be killed if too much irreparable damage is dealt to their bodies). They do, however, gain significant pain resistance without which, according to Kyubey, fighting Witches would have been impossible. Their phylactery also has to be purified after they use a lot of their magic\|\|. - Record of Lodoss War has Karla, an old-school lich whose phylactery is a head ornament. She doesn't actually have a separate body that regenerates — rather, she possesses whoever wears the headband. The anime is obviously D&D-inspired, and the Magic Jar spell fits Karla perfectly. - Sailor Moon villain Wiseman/Death Phantom is heavily related to the Lich, being a powerful sorcerer with only glimpses of a skull to his true face. Taken even further in the manga when you learn \|\|the planet Nemesis itself is his Soul Jar\|\|. - In Shadow Skill, liches are the spirits of deceased humans magically possessing artificial bodies composed of Paper Talismans who will exist for a limited fixed period, until their Unfinished Business is settled. - Tokyo Ravens: Natsume has her soul bound to her Familiar after her botched resurrection. Her body is that of a normal girl but skilled magic users can still see that she is not among the living. - Cannon Busters: The Fetter is a type of immortal wizard that drains the life force out of their victims. After continuous absorption of Philly's Life Energy, he resembles a living skeleton. - Arawn: After Fenris is killed by Siahm, he resurrects himself as a walking skeleton but retains his magical powers. - Black Moon Chronicles: Wismerhill and his gang decide to go tomb raiding in a kingdom of the living dead in the southern provinces ruled by a lich prince. He's by far the most dangerous undead they face, and almost kills them with his magical powers. They survive only by summoning their boss Haazheel Thorn to help them out, who's an even more powerful dark wizard. - Wizards of Mickey: The sorcerer Yen Sid accidentally divided his soul into 10 parts, 9 for his different flaws and evil sides, and the tenth being the incarnation of his little bit of goodness. While the nine evil Yen Sids form a group that seeks world domination and destruction, the nice tenth Yen Sid leaves them and goes studying in a frozen country in order to avoid interruption. Hundreds of years later, when Mickey Mouse is sent in search of the tenth Yen Sid, he finds out that Yen Sid, after all this time, is nothing more than a moving skeleton only living thanks to his own magic. - Elementals: The titular super-team might be considered liches. All four members died due to one of the four classical elements. However to stop an evil wizard from unleashing a giant magical vortex, the lords of these elements "resurrect" these four individuals and empower them with incredible magic potential. Unfortunately the newly made Elementals didn't understand that all four of them are actually wizards and instead only really use the specific elemental abilities they have (one did achieve his potential after a face-heel turn). Their "resurrection" was only partial, the Elementals are undead rather than fully alive. When they're not in combat or training, they tend to be aimless and living in a fog, requiring other people to take of their regular wants. Normal humans can only stand being near them for a short amount of time since they can instinctively sense the Elementals' undead nature. The plus is that being undead makes each of the Elementals extremely hard to kill and unaging. - In Gold Digger, Gina and Britanny's kindly grandfather got caught in a magical accident that corrupted him into the undead Lich King. - Hellboy: - Rasputin was killed early on in Hellboy's adventures, but it didn't do much good since the sorcerer had the foresight to bury half his soul in the roots of Yggdrasil. - Koschei the Deathless just like in the original Russian myth was an undead sorcerer who had his soul placed inside a creature inside another. Unlike most examples of this trope, he is one of the few sympathetic examples of this trope ever (while still being an antagonist, he is more of an Anti-Villain) its revealed in his backstory that he was turned into a lich by his own father figure, a kindly dragon who saved him and raised him from the dead after Koschei was murdered and hacked to pieces by his treacherous wife. - Judge Dredd: - Judge Death and his fellow Dark Judges have lich-like properties, having become astral entities occupying dead hosts with various superpowers and psychic abilities. They also seem to possess some level of magic control over the dead even without their dead fluids. No matter how many times Dredd and Anderson seem to destroy them, they keep on coming back to terrorize Mega City One. - The two Sisters of Death are clearly this. They strongly resemble Wicked Witches, their powers are explicitly magical in nature, and they gave the Dark Judges their own powers. They have since transcended their mortal nature to become an Undead Abomination who still assist the foursome with their plans. - Sabbat the Necromagus is a fairly straightforward example, although his true state as an immortal undead is only revealed towards the climax of the story arc where he is the main villain. While it's already implied since he raises an army of zombies to overrun the Earth, he looks very human, a form that Sabbat maintains only for appearance's sake. - Sagos in Lady Death ticks all boxes despite never being called a lich: he is an undead sorcerer who could raise legions of zombies, had a very skeletical visage and his power was connected to a phylactery-like gem, that made it possible to defeat him once it was destroyed. - "Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard": Petr's mother has been kidnapped by Koshchei the Deathless, an immortal and powerful sorcerer. In order to kill him, Petr must finds his soul. However, it is kept in a needle, hidden inside an egg hidden inside a duck hidden inside a hare hidden inside an iron chest buried under an oak tree on an island in the middle of the ocean. - Alexander Afanasyev's "The Death of Koschei the Deathless": Queen Marya Morevna had managed to imprison Koschei in a cellar beneath her palace. But when Marya's husband stupidly takes pity on Koschei and gives him water, the wizened sorcerer regains his strength, breaks his chains and kidnaps Marya. After defeating him, Ivan and Marya manage to get rid of the undead sorcerer by crushing his head and burning his body. - Asbjørnsen and Moe's "The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body": The titular giant is an ancient sorcerer who keeps his soul hidden away in a chest. - Actually, I'm Dead: An interesting case. After being killed by the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie is turned into a creature that so happens to resemble a lich. When many readers started commenting on this, however, the author explained that he had no idea what a lich even was and thought he was doing something new. - Daily Equestria Life with Monster Girl: Although the term is not used, this is effectively what Tirek has become. His power to drain the magic of others comes from having specially treated platinum wires implanted into his body, woven through organs and into bones. At some point, this process technically killed Tirek, but the platinum kept his soul trapped inside his body, able to keep it moving and quasi-alive by spending thaums. However, he still has no ability to generate thaums of his own, and as such is wholly dependent on stealing from others to replenish what he burns through spellcasting or basic functionality. - The Freeport Venture: Rising Fire is a fully self-aware and intelligent skeletal undead with a great deal of magical power and a particular talent for necromancy, and is consistently referred to as a lich. She does not appear to have anything like a phylactery, though. - The Golden Quiche: - The process of creating the first-generation skeletons were reminiscent of android/cyborg production note : they have a spell that plants a quasi-artificial SOUL by mixing the deceased's essence with the blueprint of a monster. Humans with magical potential who're converted at near-death or from a fresh corpse keep their SOUL'S colour as 'Liches'. This unlocks the fullest potential of their type. - Their descendants inherit their skeletal form and a fraction of their power. Those who had at least one Lich in their ancestry are called 'Lichborn'. The mixture of human traits with magic resulted in a unique branch of spacetime powers that are exclusive to Lichborn. They manifest in the form of a coloured, flaming 'Seer's Eye'. Some are born with two. - Oversaturated World: The setting's iteration of Vignette Valencia manages to turn herself into a lich by accident. Earth-aspect magic means that her "pouring her soul" into her phone is Not Hyperbole, and by the time she gets hit by a truck she has more of her soul in her phone than she does in her original body. - Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: The human world's Sombra is a massive armored lich, armed with shadow magic (a form of illusion magic — regular illusion magic creates images and sounds, but shadow magic specializes in concealment, deception, and mental manipulation and mimics the effects of illusion magic by tricking the target's mind). He cannot be permanently destroyed as long as his soul jar is intact, as he will simply regenerate in his tomb over a few years, and he desires souls to fuel his magic. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In The Return Of Tambelon, Grogar successfully turns himself into a lich. Liches are the most powerful form of undead in this setting, nearly indestructible and possessing powerful magic. They are sustained by souls, and are the only entities in this setting that can forcibly take another's soul. While we aren't given all the details of how Grogar becomes a lich, the final step is to die. However, that death must not come by your own hand or order, you must be killed by another who genuinely wishes you dead. - In Resonance Days, Mami Tomoe specifically states that \|\|Magical Girls\|\| are Liches, not zombies like Kyouko thinks. Ironically, by the time the fic takes place the liches in question have all died and arrived in the afterlife as Energy Beings. - Ponies of the Five Rings: Trixie is turned into something like a lich by a combination of Shadowlands taint and the ritual Zecora used to remove the drawbacks. Fittingly, her transformation looks like an Onikage, an undead horse brought back to life by taint. - Tiny Sapient Ungulates: Princess Celestia of all characters is interpreted as one, due to the fact that she uses magic to keep herself immortal, thus technically making her a lich by definition. - To the Stars: exploits the example from canon Madoka Magica. \|\|Magical girls can recover from complete body loss by having their gem transferred to a clone of their original body, or, less reliably, a sufficiently similar fresh cadaver. As a result, they are taught to prioritise saving the gems over everything else, to the extent of abandoning their bodies entirely in emergencies\|\| - Under the Northern Lights: Liches are powerful undead sorcerers, whose existence is mostly theoretical. Later in the story, Luna explains that \|\|liches are specifically animated by the power of the Nightmare, a nebulous force found within the dream world, and were created through her direct intervention. They don't have Soul Jars of any kind; rather, they're literally impossible to kill. Only one lich ever existed, Wiglek the Wicked, and Luna has no intention of creating more, making the existence of liches as a category of things a fairly academic point.\|\| - Anastasia: Rasputin is a pretty straightforward example, except for lacking a real drive for immortality or power above all else, which were more a byproduct of his quest for vengeance than his main objectives. He was already a powerful sorceror before he made his Deal with the Devil, but he became undead upon selling his soul (not after he went to Limbo; he loses all his flesh when he gives up his soul, and restores it with the powers he gains). - The Black Cauldron: Although it's never quite stated exactly what the Horned King is, the fact that he's an Evil Overlord with a Skull for a Head who obtains a magical cauldron to raise an army of the dead to conquer the world makes it pretty obvious. - Bloodlands: These are witches brought back by a desire for revenge. Their power is sustained by a pile of flesh that's maintained by killing people, the rest of whom they eat to sustain their existence. They appear normal at first, but their skin turns charcoal black with age, and they can resurrect people into their coven. - Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness \|\|temporarily becomes a rather odd version of one when he possesses another version of himself killed at the beginning of the movie.\|\| - Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God has a lich (according to him, anyway) who acts as The Dragon to the villain (who himself wanted to be the Dragon to the Dragon God). That is, he acts as the Dragon until it looks like the good guys are going to win and the villain starts being unpleasant to be around. Then he basically does a Screw This, I'm Outta Here. - Lord of Illusions: Post-resurrection, Nix the Puritan is a zombified revenant, but no less evil a sorceror. His mission? Murder the world. - The Mummy Trilogy: - Imhotep, the Mummy from The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns, was once the Pharaoh's high priest until he killed him to take his mistress for himself. He was punished with a Fate Worse than Death for his crime, but it inadvertently gave him world-ending powers after he returns from the dead. His mummified foot soldiers notably lack almost all of his magical abilities. - The Dragon Emperor from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor became a Sorcerous Overlord as part of a deal with an immortal woman that he would use it to unite China and rule it in peace. When he betrayed her, she cursed him and locked him away, until he comes back as an undead God-Emperor with control over the Chinese elements and the ability to shapeshift into a dragon. - The Mummy (2017): After she's resurrected as a mummy, Princess Ahmanet displays vast sorcerous powers courtesy of her Deal with the Devil with Set, including necromancy, telepathy, and summoning sandstorms. - Technically, Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street is a sort of "astral lich". He definitely would qualify as a powerful sorcerer, with an appearance that screams "undead", and killing him tends to involve some rather unusual methods, most often dragging him onto our plane, and, even then, nobody has ever managed to kill him permanently. An easier parallel is that Freddy is some sort of ghost or a demon (he is in service to nightmare demons after all). - Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean is similar to one; he had his heart ripped out after being rejected by a woman, then stored it away in a chest within a chest, and now is the lord of the seas, gathering crewmen for his ship, The Flying Dutchman. But instead of retaining his live human form or a rotting body, he became a Cthulhumanoid. It's implied that his and his crew's bodies got like that because at some point in the past they refused to do their job of collecting the souls of sailors. - The Rise of Skywalker: \|\|Palpatine has effectively become a lich, noting that he "died once" as he's visibly decaying but is now seeking to cheat death through either Grand Theft Me or absorbing the lifeforce of other Force users to restore himself. And of course, the Force is effectively just magic powers Recycled IN SPACE!, of which he would definitely be considered a very powerful practitioner.\|\| By Author: - H. P. Lovecraft: - The term "lich" is actually used in "The Thing on the Doorstep" in reference to \|\|Ephraim, a body-jumping sorcerer who could also keep a corpse he inhabited animated long enough to seize a new body\|\|. - In "Two Black Bottles", one of Lovecraft's "revisions" (works on which he acted as uncredited collaborator or ghostwriter) with Wilfred Blanch Talman, the titular bottles contain the souls of undead alchemists. - Dr. Muñoz in "Cool Air". By Work: - Liches in Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor are magicians who used forbidden magic to gain immortality (though it is Age Without Youth) and increased magical power. They must drain the souls of others to continue living. Their victims become undead thralls under the Lich's control and are used to help gather souls. A Lich cannot move far away from their place of origin. - In Greg Costikyan's Another Day, Another Dungeon, a send-up of Dungeons & Dragons, a lich functions as the main Big Bad's dragon. He's an undead sorcerer, but he's pretty much the Only Sane Man for Team Evil. He once spent a century as a disembodied skull being used as a birdfeeder, and it's left him with an almost uncontrollable urge to kill all songbirds. - The Ten Who Were Taken in The Black Company series are strongly based on liches if not genuine liches themselves. They're each ridiculously powerful sorcerers for whom age doesn't mean much. Several clearly seem to have died at some point either before or after becoming one of the Taken (one still wears a noose around his broken neck), and further attempts to kill them have an unfortunate tendency to fail unless you completely annihilate their bodies. As well, the process of becoming one of the Taken is all but outright declared to involve killing and resurrecting them multiple times, making them fairly count as undead. - In The Chronicles of Prydain, the party encounters a magician at one point who did the soul-transfer thing into his finger, which he then cut off and put in a coffer hidden in a tree in the middle of the forest. Guess which tree the party had previously rested at and searched.... - Thanks to the antics of a playful crow, who tried to stash some "treasure" of his own in said tree. - However, in the Disney adaptation, it's the Horned King that's a lich. - In the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, an extinct but incredibly feared and magically powerful class of beings called the demondim are frequently namedropped, and were the creators of the ur-viles and their waynhim offshoots. The Last Chronicles reveals exactly what the demondim were, and it turns out they were like this. Themselves creations of the Viles, the demondim were sentient, reanimated dead with immense magical power (described at one point as "corpses with the puissance of Lords"). Though they didn't apparently use soul jars, their spirits could hop from one corpse to another if their current vessel was damaged beyond repair. However, for all their power the demondim apparently hated their unnatural existence, and when the Ritual of Desecration hit, they remained on the surface of the Land and passively allowed themselves to be destroyed. - Counselors and Kings: Akhlaur, a powerful necromancer, has prepared a Soul Jar in readiness for a lich transformation, which naturally worries his Bastard Understudy Kiva, who feared this might make disposing of him after they'd conquered Halruaa rather more difficult. Turns out that Akhlaur, who was already immortal, didn't prepare that Soul Jar for himself, but for his former friend turned enemy Vishna, whom he forcibly converts into a lich and places under his direct control in a feat of necromancy so powerful Kiva hadn't even believed it was possible. - The Craft Sequence features the Deathless Kings. Some of them are literal Kings (and queens and other). Some of them are Lich CEOs or Lich Chancellors. They play most lich tropes pretty close, being fleshless sorcerous skeletons. The first major twist is that they don't come about through some dark ritual "lich"dom (they're Not Using the Zed Word) is just a natural part of a Craftsperson's lifecycle. The second is that there's nothing inherently evil about them though the culture of the Craft is shot through with a wide Nietzchian streak that doesn't serve very well as an ethical basis, so a hefty proportion of them are non-inherently evil anyway. Some of them like to experiment with alternative bodies. Stone statues are quite popular. - The Dark Profit Saga: Book 2, Son of a Liche, has the undead necromancer Detarr Ur'Mayan building an army of the undead to conquer the Freedlands. He looks like a skeleton with a column of amethyst flame wreathing his skull in place of a neck. When the hero who originally killed him decapitates him a second time all it does is annoy him. \|\|His son Jynn does manage to destroy his body with Omnimancy, but leaves the gem in his skull intact while wrapping it in spells to prevent the body regenerating.\|\| - The lazar from The Death Gate Cycle are something of a cross between liches and zombies. Their souls are not stored in Soul Jars but rather have partially separated from their bodies, an excruciatingly painful process that drives most lazar completely Axe-Crazy, and the bonds between soul and body can only be severed by an immensely powerful spell that only three mages (in a series chock-full of magic users) were ever able to cast. All lazar seen were originally necromancers in life, but it's unclear if that's a requirement or not. - In The Death of the Necromancer, "lich" is the word for a corpse animated by a necromancer to do his bidding, in a usage that deliberately shies away from D&D's influence and goes back to the original archaic term. - The novelization of Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth has a lich (standard AD&D type, as it is an AD&D novel) as a major mid-novel foe. He doesn't last very long, but he does yield a few handy magic items that come in very useful for the rest of the series. - Discworld: In The Colour of Magic, Liessa Wyrmbidder's father Griecha is a wizard-king whom she murdered, but who hangs around in his dead body until one of his children proves strong enough to claim the throne. How he accomplished this feat isn't specified, but the high level of ambient magic that permeates the Wyrmberg probably helped. - Dragaera series: - Sethra Lavode is a vampire upwards of 250,000 years old and has been studying sorcery all that time, allowing her to become the most powerful magic-user in the Empire. Given that standards for what constitutes "powerful magic" in Dragaera are a bit higher than in most settings, "most powerful" means "on casual speaking terms with a few gods," who rely on her to keep certain greedy Starfish Aliens out of the Empire when they can't. - \|\|Lorann, an Athyra wizard whom Vlad confronted twice, was evidently some sort of lich, although he looked ordinary enough to pass for living. The primary evidence for this is that he survived the soul-eating effects of Blackwand in their first confrontation, but was rendered powerless and vulnerable to a Morganti weapon by "dark water" - something that only certain undead are impaired by - in the second.\|\| - Also worth mentioning: one Cryptic Background Reference suggests that having a Soul Jar is a prerequisite for officially being considered a wizard in Dragaera. - In The Dragon Crown War series, Chytrine is served by a Quirky Miniboss Squad of undead lieutenants (some of whom are deader than others) known as the sullanciri or "Dark Lancers". Though they all have magical abilities, most of them are more warrior than mage; however, one of them, Lord Neskartu, is a spectral archmage who was recruited post-mortem and fits here rather nicely. - The Dresden Files: Though never explicitly described as such, Heinrich Kemmler may well have been one. He had the immense power (enough to fight the entire White Council) and quest for immortality/godhood down pat, and given it took seven attempts to actually kill him off permanently and not come back like the first six attempts he probably had some means of cheating death. Even his name is a shout-out to the Warhammer character of the same name who certainly is a lich. - Mercedes Lackey brought Koschei back for her book Firebird, only it's his heart encased in diamond, and it's hidden inside a magically fast duck hidden inside a magically fast rabbit locked inside a magic chest at the top of a magically tall tree guarded by a magical mechanical dragon. Get past all that, and the diamond must be smashed at Koschei's feet to kill him; nowhere else will do. - Forest Kingdom: Overall, lichs in the Forest Kingdom and Hawk & Fisher series are simply dead bodies animated by a sorcerer's will (or in some cases, the will of an Eldritch Abomination), and aren't required to have been magical themselves when they were alive. However, Hawk & Fisher #2: Winner Takes All features a more traditional lich, a sorcerer formerly known as Masque, who's been reanimated by his own will in order to continue protecting his friend James Adamant (having died defending him from magical assassination) and now calls himself Igor Mortice. Unlike most examples, his lichdom is a temporary state, and he's forced to hide out in an ice-filled cellar to avert his body's slow and painful decomposition. - Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood seems fond of using liches (mostly of the (A)D&D varieties discussed below) as various supporting characters in his novels. They're almost never recurring characters, though, as even those few who don't suffer from spontaneous cases of Undeath Always Ends shortly after introduction are generally not revisited. - Rare non-villain example: In the Garrett, P.I. novels, the titular detective is advised by the Dead Man, the ghost of a Loghyr (a near-legendary race of geniuses) that haunts its own corpse. Nominally one of the good guys, the Dead Man didn't choose to become a lich — it's just what happens when Loghyr die but he shares their near-indestructibility, and has Psychic Powers on par with conventional liches' magic. - Morthûl the Charnel King from The Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell. He's not so much undead as a powerful wizard who has affixed himself between life and death using powerful magic. His Soul Jar \|\|comes in two parts: a crown that lets him possess other bodies, and his dragon, a demon whose immortality Morthûl has been using to sustain himself.\|\| - Voldemort in Harry Potter is a pretty straightforward example. He split his soul into seven pieces \|\|(technically eight; see below)\|\| with successive murders, and stored each one inside a Horcrux. When his Killing Curse backfires and kills him \|\|unwittingly splitting his soul again and trapping a piece inside the baby he was intending to murder\|\|, he remains stuck in the mortal world as "less than a ghost" yet unable to die. Eventually, one of his followers helps him to create a new body (although whatever he then becomes, it is doubtful it can truly be called human), and he gets back in business. - The Licanius Trilogy: Though the term is never used, Davian fits this trope. He is technically dead, and keeps his body functional by leaching Essence from all life in the area. Unusually for this trope, he is not a villain, which may be related to the fact that he did not enter his current state deliberately (he was killed as a baby, and instictively activated his ability to steal Essence in order to survive). - Lyctors in The Locked Tomb are immortal necromancers with immense magical powers, clearly inspired by classical Liches. They are different in that they are technically alive, and in that rather than removing their soul and placing it in a phylactery, they \|\|take someone else's soul and burn it inside of them as an infinite source of power\|\|. - Sauron from The Lord of the Rings is a famous example, although he isn't really undead. His essence is imbued in the titular ring, which keeps him alive so long as it is intact, thus acting as his soul jar or phylactery. - The Ringwraiths are a straighter example. Although a Nazgûl's soul isn't stored into its ring, they keep them bound to the earthly plane, essentially fulfilling the same function. - Quatach-Ichl from Mother of Learning is a classic lich. - Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series has the dyrmagnos, which are the ultimate result of the use of necromancy/dark magic: the body deteriorates, leaving a desiccated husk animated by a strong, evil intelligence and wielding very powerful magic. Even dismembering cannot completely incapacitate one of them. Of the two cases seen thus far, one has been divided in many pieces that were dispersed, the head being put into a metal casket and dropped in the deep sea, while the other was still able to nearly kill one of the main characters after being cut in two. - Old Kingdom: - Kerrigor became a Greater Dead Adept, the in-universe equivalent. In a variation of the typical Soul Jar, he can never be banished entirely to death as long as his magically-preserved body still exists (the Kerrigor most people interact with is just his spirit, which may or may not be riding around in a magically-created fake body). Also, he has a staggering amount of power even across the Wall, because he's \|\|one of the royal family, and therefore one of the great Charter Bloodlines.\|\| - In the sequels, Chlorr of the Mask is a Free Magic sorceress who begins as a living woman but eventually also becomes a Greater Dead; she's not as powerful as Kerrigor but is still extremely formidable. She does a Villain: Exit, Stage Left rather than be killed off in Abhorsen. \|\|Goldenhand reveals that, like Kerrigor, she has her original body hidden, and for the same reason, beyond the Great Rift in the far north. In fact, it's implied she may have taught him the trick to begin with.\|\| - Liches exist in The Riftwar Cycle, but have never played a huge role — Recurring Boss Leso Varen has dealt with them, but while he's a necromancer who uses a Soul Jar, he isn't one himself, since he steals living bodies to inhabit rather than animating dead ones. - In Desmond Warzel's short story "Same-Day Delivery", \|\|the narrator turns out to be an undead wizard, and so probably qualifies\|\|, though no Soul Jar is mentioned. - Sepulchre's Felix Kline, via natural Psychic Powers, acquired the preserved heart of Sumerian incarnate deity Bel Marduk, custody of which, along with periodic shedding of his skin, enabled him to transfer the effects of bodily ageing onto a "Keeper" imprisoned in his estate. - Skate the Thief has straightforward examples existing out in the wider world, with the suggestion that they tend to go insane as the years drag on. \|\|Belamy says he is a lich, though he found an "alternative" method that didn't require anything outright evil to achieve. His restoration is what Skate sets out to make happen at the end of the book.\|\| - Skulduggery Pleasant (a wise-cracking skeleton detective) isn't a traditional example, but he is an undead sorcerer. \|\|Skulduggery's Superpowered Evil Side,\|\| Lord Vile is a straighter example and uses a black suit of armor to channel his Necromancy. - In The Stormlight Archive, the Fused are effectively liches. They are the souls of ancient Parshendi who were killed thousands of years ago in the endless wars between the Parshendi and humanity, but through their pacts with Odium, they do not pass on after death. Instead, they can inhabit the body of any willing Parshendi, a process that kills the soul of the Parshendi and lets the Fused take control of the body. The process is not easy on the Fused, and tends to drive them insane over time, with the leaders of the Fused essentially being the ones who stayed sane all this time. - Koschei (here spelled "Katschei") is final villain in the first Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms book, again it was his heart, he's later mentioned again in the third, which is actually primarily based off Russian folklore. - Seker from Tasakeru. Not exactly undead, but his body is frozen in time, meaning that he doesn't eat, sleep, or breathe. - An Unattractive Vampire: Yulric looks like a reanimated corpse, but is clearly intelligent, so he is mistaken for a lich by a vampire's guard. Since Yulric was last awake three hundred years ago, he has never heard the modern term, and is just bewildered. He notes that the man definitely isn't German enough to be using the word correctly. - Wise Phuul uses the term "lich" to describe any reanimated corpse. - Wraith Knight: The Wraith Knights of the King Below are all immortal wizard ghost-warriors who can assume physical forms, wear black cloaks, and sport demonsteel armor. They are the leaders of the King Below, a God of Evil's armies, and each possesses a magical sword that grants them Resurrective Immortality. Of course, the destruction of their sword means that they immediately lose this (and get replaced with whoever figured it out). - Xanadu (Storyverse): In "Far Indeed From Sherwood Forest", the villain is a Kestagian mage, a type of undead from a fictional roleplaying game. A Kestagian mage is an undead wizard who stores his soul within a diamond called an Aelpa, cannot be killed as long as this is intact, and has innate knowledge of its location proportional to how far away it is from him — if it's within a hundred feet he only knows that it's within that distance, as it grows further away he gets a stronger bead on its position, and once it's ten miles or more away he can point straight at it. One who seizes this Aelpa can control the mage, such as by casting spells using the mage's magic. An Aelpa can only be destroyed with magic, or if one somehow contrives to make the mage swallow it, which will reunite his soul with his body; this won't kill him, but it will make him mortal. - Are You Afraid of the Dark?: - The Tale of the Captured Souls: In a remote inn, Peter Kirlian III, via machinery connected to various mirrors, drains guests' vitality, by which he retains his own bodily youth. - The Tale of the Unfinished Painting: In the Hunter Gallery, Mrs Briar invites struggling artists, with enchanted paintbrushes, to work on unfinished paintings. On completion, the painter is \|\|absorbed into a phantom solidification of the painting\|\|; whereby Mrs Briar, and a disembodied embalmed head in her secret cabinet, feed on their life force. - Doctor Who: - Davros is mostly dead, is kept alive by dark means, turns people into servitor monsters, and is an Omnicidal Maniac. Additionally, he has survived things that are supposed to be unsurvivable (although the Daleks' gunsticks may have been part of a Thanatos Gambit, which is another common lich pattern) multiple times, is able to modify his body extensively, and once shown that he has multiple bodies (or at least really convincing puppets). - A Clarke's Third Law-tinged Evil Sorcerer at their core, for a time, the Master runs Out of Continues and turns into a walking, decayed-looking corpse. He then merges with (and, in effect, kills) the body of a living man and, in effect, returns to life. After that, he becomes a Puppeteer Parasite in the TV movie, the body of which decays as the film went on. Subsequently, after returning in his normal body and dying, he Comes Back Wrong. As Missy, she briefly gains dominion over the dead and learns how to use Cyberman technology for necromancy, which carries over into the "Spy" incarnation. The Expanded Universe books even gave Koschei as the Master's name before they chose their current alias. - The Monks from Series 10 resemble withered walking corpses in robes. (They imply that they chose the appearance on purpose.) - Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: \|\|Kuroto Dan, A.K.A. Kamen Rider Genm, is the odd case of a technologically-created lich. By gathering enough data on death (culminating in his own, which he uses as the final data), he creates the Rider Gashat, Dangerous Zombie. It grants him a zombie-like Level 10 form, with continuous resurrections that only make him stronger, the ability to create more zombies (and later, clones of himself), and vastly increased combat ability. The Dangerous Zombie Gashat is his phylactery, though how he's defeated is also rather... non-standard.\|\| - In Lost Girl, a lich (pronounced "lick") is a species of flesh-eating fae from ancient Egypt. (The historical ancient Egyptians did have fairy legends.) Despite their unusual origins, they do share traits with more traditional liches. They've transformed themselves into quasi-undead creatures in order to extend their already impressive fae lifespans, and maintain living phylacteries. - In Willow (2022), one of the Big Bad's four henchman is a sorcerer known as the Lich. - Russian Mythology and Tales: One villain in Slavic folklore, Koschei the Immortal note : He's commonly referred to as "Koschei the Deathless", which is a too literal translation (Koschei basically means skeleton) is a lich by any other name (as stated above). Notably, he's also alive, albeit very old, as opposed to undead. While some incarnations made it possible to destroy Koschei by other means (like dropping him into a river of fire) the most notable incarnation makes his Soul Jar a needle, hidden inside an egg hidden inside a duck hidden inside a hare hidden inside an iron chest buried under an oak tree on an island in the middle of the ocean. Notably the hare will try to run away, and the duck will fly out if said hare is killed, so Koschei is probably the lich who put the most security on his Soul Jar ever. Worth mentioning is also that isle Buyan, on which said needle in egg in duck and so on resides, is an actual mythical place, considered myth/fairy tale in fairy tales, which changes location by means of teleportation, is inhabited by beings such as the Northern, Western and Eastern Winds, and also, in older legends, is the source of all weather, created there by the god Perun. No wonder heroes only get to it with help of special animals, dragons, elementals and a certain old lady. - The warlock of a Russian myth was an undead magician who came alive at night. He would terrorize a town (in the myth, he casts a spell that causes a bride and groom to sleep forever), and could only be killed if he was burnt on a pyre of 100 aspenbaus logs, and even then, his corpse would burst into birds, reptiles and insects, all of which had to be captured and thrown back on the fire. If as much as a single one got away, he would rise again. - The Adventure Zone: Balance: Liches are powerful spellcasters who have fused their soul with their magical essence, making them immortal and unbelievably powerful. The catch is that the process tends to shred the consciousness of the caster, often either killing them outright or leaving them functional but far more evil than they were in the past. Liches therefore try to anchor themselves with powerful emotions in order to keep their identities intact. \|\|It's actually very possible for liches to remain good, but it doesn't happen often because of the nature of the process. Lydia and Edward are implied to be how liches usually turn out, while Lup and Barry are rare exceptions.\|\| - Roll To Dodge: Savral: Most liches are undead made of billions of spiders with black rings as phylacteries. Philosopher in his second and third incarnations is an exception to this, as he takes the form of a more traditional lich with a zombie-like body and an amulet phylactery. - 13th Age: Liches are arcane spellcasters who turn themselves into undead creatures to continue their pursuits after a lifelong study of magic. The new lich creates a phylactery, a relic imbued with its essential life force. If the lich's body is destroyed, it slowly reforms near the phylactery over a period of days. To truly kill a lich, the phylactery must be destroyed first. - Ars Magica: A supplement included notes on how to become a lich. In a world where most mages create longevity potions anyway (as each "adventure" was a season or ten long, characters rapidly got older in a long-term campaign), such an enterprise wasn't going TOO much further. However, the execution was odd — instead of becoming undead, the character effectively replaced his failing organic bits with inorganic bits, effectively becoming a magitek cyborg and eventually a golem type. - Blue Rose: - Dragon Dice features the lich as a playable undead unit - it is the most powerful spellcaster available to the faction, and is also capable of melee combat. - Dungeons & Dragons, of course. - The Monster Manual-standard lich is a powerful spellcaster who chose undeath over mortality, using a dark ritual that involves ripping out their soul and binding it to a Soul Jar called the phylactery, then drinking an elixir that completes their transition from living to undead. Liches enjoy Resurrective Immortality, as when "killed" their undead bodies will reform from the phylactery unless it is destroyed before they do so. There are, however, many, many different variations of liches, not all of which of have a phylactery, and some of which are specific to a certain setting or edition. - To power their phylacteries, liches must regularly feed souls into them, which is why the vast majority of liches are of evil alignment (the rare good "archlich" presumably uses a different ritual to maintain themselves). But if centuries of unlife wears away a lich's mind and they forget to feed their phylactery, or a lich chooses to "evolve" into a higher form of undead, their physical bodies deteriorate until nothing but a skull, skeletal hand, or other small part of it is all that remains, while the lich's disembodied consciousness roams the multiverse. Such a "demilich" loses the arcane spellcasting ability of a normal lich, but remains a fearsome opponent able to drain energy from anyone who disturbs it, or snuff out the lives of intruders with an unearthly howl. If a demilich's phylactery remains intact, it can regenerate its reduced form after being destroyed, or by feeding a fresh soul into their phylactery, a demilich can regenerate as a lich. - In 5th Edition, a demilich may even be more dangerous than a normal lich in its lair, with a Challenge Rating of 21 or 23 compared to a "normal" lich's Challenge Rating of 22 while in its lair. The example given is the demilich Acererak, the infamous master of the Tomb of Horrors. However, these liches became that way by intentionally transforming into one via a special procedure. Demiliches that came to be due to being unable to feed their phylactery are actually weaker due to losing their spell casting and procence of mind. - "Arch-shadows," from older Monster Compendiums, are what happens when the ritual to achieve lichdom results in a Critical Failure. A magical explosion reduces the would-be lich to a tormented specter, not bound to a prepared phylactery, but a random magical item in the vicinity. The arch-shadow can use its relationship with this magic item to improve its power, but doing so runs the risk of destroying the item and, by extension, the arch-shadow. If the arch-shadow can drain enough energy from someone who has handled their soul receptacle, they can transform into a "demi-shade" and regain a physical existence, but remain bound to their knock-off phylactery. These demi-shades become obsessed with somehow transcending their precarious grip on undeath, but are also consumed with spreading death and destruction throughout the land. - Even a destroyed lich can be dangerous, should its remains not be disposed of properly. A lich's phylactery can be stolen and used to power a grisgol, a golem-like construct composed of magical detritus such as expended spell scrolls and charge-less wands, but which gains several of a lich's abilities thanks to the occupied phylactery inside it. Meanwhile, should an ordinary spider decide to make its home in a fallen lich's skull, the residual magic and echoing thoughts may transform the spider into a gray shiver, a megalomaniacal arachnid with the power to dominate other creatures with its bite, and mid-level spellcasting ability. - The Fiend Folio (1981) brought a different type of lich to AD&D 1e game — the Death Knight. They were created from a fallen paladin by a demon prince (it was thought to be Demogorgon). In this incarnation they needed not be skeletons and there was no indication they had a phylactery. This was changed with the 2e incarnation. - A third-party supplement, The Immortals Handbook, has akaliches, which are what remains when the last of the demilich's bone withers away, leaving only gemstone teeth within a shadow. Demiliches are consuming souls for food. Akaliches eat gods. - The Dark Sun setting has a specific type of lich-like being called a Kaisharga. The Kaisharga is an extremely powerful type of free-willed undead, but it differs in a few regards from a "normal" lich: a Kaisharga is usually created by someone else (generally very potent magic users) and therefore can have any baseline class (including completely mundane ones), and it doesn't use magic by default as liches do, but gains psionics upon becoming undead on top of any supernatural abilities they had in life. - In the Red Hand Of Doom campaign, one of the Red Hand allies is a lich known as the Ghostlord; unlike other examples of this trope, he is NOT an arcane spellcaster but a corrupted druid! The Ghostlord is providing the Red Hand with undead soldiers but if you are able to find his phylactery and return it, the Ghostlord ceases aiding the Red Hand. - A Mummy Lord is, in many ways, the clerical counterpart of a Lich. Just like how a Lich's existence is tied to its Soul Jar, a Mummy Lord also cannot be permanently destroyed unless its Soul Jar, namely the Mummy Lord's shriveled heart, is destroyed. The key differences are that a Mummy Lord does not have to engage in Soul Eating to sustain itself and the fact that Mummy Lords usually wield divine magic as opposed to a Lich's arcane magic, as Mummy Lords were generally high priests of evil gods in life. - If you're an Abyssal Exalted, you can become one with Immortal Malevolence Enslavement. Normally, dead is dead even for Exalted, but this Charm even allows you to quip "I'll be back" if you meet your (temporary) demise. The drawback of this charm is that your soul is too tightly bound to the Neverborn for you to ever seek redemption, and you'll inevitably fall into Oblivion if you ever meet your death. - Fighting Fantasy doesn't explicitly have liches, but some of the characters have heavy features of them, especially Zanbar Bone in City of Thieves, described in a later Universe Compendium as "more than half undead himself". - In GURPS Technomancer, a setting that injects magic into a previously mundane modern world, a CIA project to artificially create mages with radioactive potions failed when all the subjects died. However, a few of them returned to unlife as angry glowing skeletons. These atomic liches are stronger and tougher than normal humans, leak radiation, and have high-level spellcasting abilities. One of the most prominent is Elrond Carver, the Dark Lord of Chicago, who runs the crime syndicates in the Midwest. - Magic: The Gathering has three enchantments that turn you into a lich, making you impervious to damage, though you die immediately if your opponent manages to remove the Lich enchantment. There are also a small handful of Lich creatures, almost all Blue and/or Black Zombie Wizards. The most straight example is probably Phylactery Lich, which must choose an artifact you control as a phylactery in which to hide its soul when you play it — it cannot die as long as the phylactery exists, but dies instantly if it's destroyed. - Pathfinder has the standard Liches and Demiliches, but it also has Bones Sages, liches from the dead planet Eox, survivors of a self-inflicted Apocalypse. - The Graveknight is a variant of a D&D Death Knight, mostly because the Death Knight is product identity. The Graveknight's armor serves as its phylactery, making it a Magic Knight version of the lich. Merely breaking a graveknight's armor does not destroy it; it must be ruined, such as by being disintegrated, taken to the Positive Energy Plane, or thrown into the heart of a volcano. If the armor isn't destroyed and the adventurers who "killed" the graveknight and looted that sweet +1 full plate might end up losing the unlucky sod who decided to wear the armor, as the armor slowly corrupts the wearer and, after 1d10 days from when the graveknight was slain, if the person wearing the armor fails a will save, the graveknight pulls a Grand Theft Me on the person, immediately slaying the person and utterly destroying the body. The armor can be cleansed and made safe to wear, but this requires casting three spells on it: break enchantment, holy word and one that varies with each graveknight and relates back to the unique circumstances surrounding its first death and return. Figuring out the correct spell to cleanse the armor usually will entail a lot of research and thinking. And while this detective work is happening, the armor continues to steadily regenerate the graveknight. - The ultimate Big Bad of the "Shattered Star" adventure path is the Clockwork Reliquary, which is essentially a lich/golem hybrid containing the soul of the wizard who founded Thassilon, a now-lost empire of the past. It's essentially a somewhat distorted human skeleton encased in a massive crystal, which is fitted into an arcane clockwork apparatus (tripodal legs, four arms) for locomotion and defense. So sort of an undead wizard in a weaponised coffin, like the above Space Marine example. - Alling Third is a cyborg lich, whose dark ritual consisted of feeding a barbarian tribe into a sick machine he built, one by one. "Third" wasn't actually his surname in life, and nobody's entirely sure why he's using it now. - In The Splinter the Asilos and the Haon-Dor are essentially shape-shiftier liches, with a human form, lich-like middle form, and ghost-like "beast" form. The Haon-Dor also have a tendency to wield various high-tech/magitech weapons and equipment. - Warhammer provides us with some examples of liches (n.b. the singular of "liches" in Warhammer is "liche", not "lich") who don't have a Soul Jar — the liche-priests of Khemri, an ancient mortuary cult that learned the secrets of necromancy and managed, after several generations of study, to preserve themselves as liches and cheat death. Their skills came into their own when the rest of their destroyed civilization was raised as undead by the Great Spell of Awakening. There is also at least one example of a wizard who was so absorbed with his work in the lab, he "didn't notice when he died", becoming a liche purely by accident. - Nagash, "The Great Necromancer", is also an example, having become undead through a combination of great magical power and Heroic Willpower when his body died in the desert. By his looks he is clearly a liche (though constant exposure to Green Rocks has made him over 9 feet tall) and behaves as such but doesn't seem to have a Soul Jar. Even so, even cutting him up with Infinity +1 Sword and burning the remains to ash failed to kill him for good. - Warhammer's liches don't follow the Soul Jar trope as a matter of course, but in Nagash's case his spirit clung to the world in a similar fashion thanks to the persistence of his severed hand - cut off during his battle with Alcadizaar and overlooked - and his Crown of Sorcery. The Crown, in particular, was imbued with much of Nagash's power when he created it, and he is much weakened now he no longer possesses it. Whether he made it specifically as an insurance policy against his death is unclear however. He also has the ludicrously gigantic Black Pyramid that he always reforms in when killed, which unfortunately for him is in territory he no longer controls so he then has to fight his way back to his own fortress. - Heinrich Kemmler (the Dresden Files character is named after him) is known as "The Lichemaster", although in this case it's because of the older meaning of "liche" (a corpse). Although a powerful necromancer, Kemmler himself is a living human being and stays alive through a pact with the Chaos Gods. - Nagash's lieutenant Arkhan the Black is also referred to as a liche, although unlike the others he actually spent a few centuries ordinary dead before Nagash raised him as undead. Amusingly, while he's described as a powerful necromancer in the lore, in the tabletop game he doesn't have access to necromancy (also known as the Lore of Vampires) at all. - As an effectively undead psyker, the God-Emperor of Man in Warhammer 40,000 bears not a few similarities to a lich. - The entire race of Necrontyr. - The Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnoughts also resemble liches. A Dreadnought is essentially an undead Humongous Mecha and a Space Marine Librarian is essentially a wizard, so it's pretty much an undead wizard in a weaponized coffin. - The Lich Lords of Cryx in WARMACHINE are otherwise your typical liches (ie. skeletal undead spellcasters), except with added Steampunk. Since the Cryx are piratical raiders, this technically makes them Pirate Zombie Robots. Which is awesome. - Led by the love child of Godzilla and Cthulhu no less, oh and it's only a matter of time until they throw in some ninja. - World of Darkness/ Chronicles of Darkness: - Liches in Mage: The Ascension note : Ascension uses "liche" as the singular. are mages who discovered how to turn themselves into immortal undead while still retaining the ability to learn and use magick. It comes at high cost, however, including insanity and inability to develop their Arete (their basic magickal strength) further. - Mage: The Awakening features a Left-Handed Path known as the Tremere Liches, whose origins lie in a bunch of vampires trying to diablerize a bunch of mages and the whole thing going horribly, horribly wrong. They're not technically undead, but they become functionally immortal by consuming the souls of others. Of course, later books in the line clarify that the "accident" that led to the formation of the Tremere Liches was actually wholly intentional on the part of the mages, who attempted to find true mastery over the soul and bound themselves to a force in the deepest depths of the magical realms that promises complete mastery of the universe by merging all the "subtle" magical arcana (Fate, Mind, Spirit, Prime, and Death) into one singular force. The Tremere not only subtly evangelize, they recruit, with several Houses made up of other soul-eating Legacies that they've managed to conquer and cannibalize. - The Second Edition further clarifies things by explaining Lich, in this setting, covers as a whole all Mages who use their Mage to either become immortal or further their lifespan, with Tremere Liches merely being one of the most unpleasant variants. Other examples include undead Mages who survive through their ghosts by using their Dedicated Tools as Anchors, Shaman who convert themselves into Spirits, Psychonots who preserve their soul in the Astral Realm, or Mages who just apply a lot of enchantment on themselves to stop their aging process. - Arx Fatalis has them filling a mini-boss role, much like the Ultima games. In Arx, they're ghostly entities (who can manifest from piles of bones) rather than the still-animate bodies of sorcerers. - Baldur's Gate 2 has several liches as dangerous high-level opponents, and two demi-liches appear as bonus bosses (Kangaxx the Lich in Shadows of Amn, and an unnamed demi-lich in a tomb that is a side area of the Bonus Dungeon of Throne of Bhaal.) You never have to seek out their phylacteries though. - Gruntilda in Banjo-Tooie could be considered a kind of lich, given that she fits the idea of a very magically powerful intelligent undead. She has an instant-kill spell, for God's sake! AND she wasted away into a skeleton under that rock inbetween the games, and yet she's still moving, fine and dandy. "Determinator" doesn't even begin to describe it, especially in Nuts & Bolts, where she shows up as nothing but a head. - Common villains in Battle for Wesnoth, this turns out to be a central point of Descent into Darkness. - Also simply one of the two final advancement choices for a Dark Adept unit that makes it past the Dark Sorcerer/Sorceress stage (the other being the Necromancer), so it can potentially show up in general play if the Undead faction is involved and the game goes on long enough. - Azoth from Brawlhalla was an evil emperor who became a skeletal Lich Lord after using seven soul stones that returned him to life when gathered. When he was finally defeated and his soul stones were dispersed, he was granted entrance to valhalla because of his battle prowress. Whenever his soul stones are gathered, however, he comes Back from the Dead and becomes the scourge of the living once again... even though he would rather just stay retired in Valhalla, fight in the ocassional tournament and look after his cat. But apparently the only way to break his old oath is to do ten thousand acts of uninterested goodness (if pet care counts, then he's at one), implying that, unlike most phylacteries, his soul stones cannot be destroyed. Also, while he has some attacks that summon ghostly skulls, he mostly fights with either an axe or a bow. - Bravely Default II: Vigintio Isaac was once a wizard who performed unethical experiments on people in order to understand the nature of life and death, until he was killed by Lady Emma of Wiswald. Revived from the dead as the "Mighty Wight" by his own dark magic and given the Arcanist Asterisk by the Holograd Empire, he seeks revenge against the nation of wizards who killed him and seeks to turn them into his undead minions. - Chest: Hyroin II is a skeletal sorcerer who attacks the party for disturbing his grave. - In Darkest Dungeon, the first boss of the Ruins is referred to as the Necromancer, but as a scholarly sorcerer who was Slain in Their Sleep by the Ancestor and revived using the necromancy they taught him, they do fit the trope. After the Ancestor revived them, they went into the Ruins and started reviving the long-deceased remains of the Ancestor's forebears into an undead army, who now crowd the Ruins. As hinted by their Eldritch classification and utterance of Black Speech, whatever the Ancestor did to them, they definitely aren't human anymore. - In Dark Souls III, High Lord Wolnir fits the bill down pat. He was once the ruthless sorcerer king of a desert kingdom of Carthus. He conquered many surrounding kingdoms through brute force and quite literally stamped the crowns of the other lords out of existence. One day he encountered the Abyss and tried to harness its power for himself, but it consumed him, so he killed his clerics and looted their holy bracelets in an attempt to stave off the darkness. When that didn't work, he set up shop in the catacombs in a deliberate attempt to trap people and damn them to the Abyss to prolong the inevitable. His form is that of a gigantic skeleton, several stories tall (though his legs and hip-bones are missing) and he can be accessed \|\|by interacting with a jawless skull chalice that houses his essence. The easiest way to defeat him, destroying his protective bracelets and letting the Abyss swallow him, is similiar to destroying a Lich's phylactery.\|\| - In Dealt in Lead, the Lich-Emperor Abraham Lincoln has risen from the grave to continue the war against the South. - Destiny: - Many of the Ascendant leaders and gods of the Hive are examples of this. The gods of the Hive, such as Oryx, his sisters, and his children, all have "throne worlds" where their true souls reside, and when they enter reality they are echoes of their true power. If killed in the real world, they return to their throne world to recover and will resume their assaults later on unless someone (i.e. the player) goes in after them and kills them there, which will permanently end them. Oryx takes things a step further, preparing for his ultimate defeat by crafting a weapon of immense power and instructions on how to obtain it. This weapon, the Touch of Malice, carries part of Oryx's soul and, as the wielder uses it, the Touch of Malice will gradually merge their two souls together, combining them into a new Taken King. - On a much wider scale, every single Guardian can be considered a light-aligned technolich due to how they are created; a Ghost wandering out in the wilderness happens upon a corpse that has the capacity to accept the Traveler's Light, and by funneling said Light into the corpse/skeleton it revives them into the being they once were (albeit as Space Wizards, Space Paladins, or Space Rangers with no memories of their life before they died). The Ghost then serves as that Guardian's Soul Jar and can revive them an infinite number of times upon death so long as the Ghost still has Light to give. There are exceptions to this however, as some Guardians were still alive when their Ghosts found them, with Ikora Rey and Shin Malphur being the most notable ones. - This has lead to the budding profession of Thanatonauts like Pujari, who spend their days holed up in a lab with a notepad and a gun with which they kill themselves over and over and then describe the experience when the Ghost revives them. - In Disciples II, The Undead Hordes have liches as their mass-attack magic units. Male necromancers can become liches and later archliches (one of the most powerful mass attacker units in the game). The Undead mage hero unit, the Lich Queen, is a female necromancer who went through the process of becoming a lich. In the expansions, Mortis takes her revenge on Gallean by raising fallen Elves as pale vengeful undead shadows of their former selves. The former Elves hold nothing but resentment for the Elves and their god Gallean. In a particularly vicious move, she even does this to their son after he is slain by demons. The sight of his undead son cursing him for letting him die a horrible death enrages Gallean to the point of madness. - Divinity: Original Sin II: Liches are characterized by their skeletal bodies, green Volcanic Veins, and Horror Hunger for Source, which they try to drain from living victims. Xhaxh the lich has a Soul Jar, which doesn't protect him from death but does destroy him if broken. One small group of undead are cursed to rise from death as long as their Soul Jars are intact, but they aren't named as liches in-game. - Double Dragon Neon: The Big Bad, Skullmageddon, is referred to as a "super-lich". He doesn't use much actual magic until the end of the game, where he \|\|tears a portal through time and transforms into a mechanical version of himself\|\|. - Dragon Age: - Arcane Horrors are the corpses of mages animated under Demonic Possession, and possess many of the standard traits of liches. - Corypheus / the Elder One is basically a lich in all but name. One of the Tevinter Magisters who tried to enter the Golden City in the game's backstory, he instead became one of the first darkspawn. After being sealed away for centuries, he returns in the present to wreak havoc — and if he's killed, he can Body Surf into any creature with the darkspawn taint. \|\|He inadvertently creates a Soul Jar analogue by corrupting a high dragon. So much of his power is invested in it, killing it temporarily disrupts his body-jumping ability.\|\| - Dragon Quest: - Dragon Quest III: Zoma isn't explicitly anything besides a "demon lord", but his huge and gaunt frame, sunken face with a skeletal nose, show of necromancy, and overpowering sorcery centered around deathly cold all definitely invoke the image. - Dragon Quest VIII: The Tortured Soul Boss is an undead high priest with magical powers. - Lobelia in Duel Savior Destiny is essentially a lich, though her body is as beautiful as it was when she died. She's still quite undead, however, and has ceased to age. Her soul is contained in her body, but this is because it's free to jump out, meaning physical destruction still is not really enough to kill her. - Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup features the spell Necromutation, a high-level Necromancy/Transmutations spell that temporarily turns a character into a lich, giving them increased necromantic power and various resistances associated with undeath. Downside is, you also gain the weaknesses associated with undeath, such as vulnerability to holy weapons and the inability to eat or drink. - Regular liches (i.e. powerful undead spellcasters) also appear in the deep portions of the Dungeon. There's also unborn (lich-priests of Yredelemnul, god of death), ancient liches, Zonguldrok, a special lich who jealously guards his special side level, and Boris, a lich who has mastered the art of regeneration to the point where he can show up to fight you again so long as there's a new floor for him to spawn on. - The PSP game Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics has liches of the 3.5 edition. However, because of video game quirks, liches in this game are the Piñata Enemy. No enemy, not even the final boss (a dragon that's trying to achieve apotheosis), gives out as much experience as a lich and they become fairly common later in the game. Additonally. in Dungeons & Dragons, liches are normally really dangerous but not these punk-asses, they're highly vulnerable to your party's magic and melee characters can completely shut down their spell-casting. Preying on liches becomes an almost guarantee for maxing out your characters' levels. - The Elder Scrolls - Throughout the series and in the backstory, liches are a type of powerful undead wizard, having sacrificed their very lives and humanity in exchange for extreme magical power. They can be found throughout Tamriel, where they can often be found using their gifts in the school of Necromancy to create legions of undead followers. As with many of Tamriel's supernatural creatures, there are regional variants when it comes to the specific powers and abilities of liches. One variation on the standard fantasy lich is that a soul jar does not seem to be required for certain lich variants, though soul jars are mentioned in lore. Instead, the most common means for becoming a lich is said to be the consumption of a potion made up of powerful and rare magical ingredients. Some liches are able to maintain a facade of humanity, using powerful illusion magic. If this form is killed, they switch to their true undead forms and must be defeated again. - The most famous lich in Tamriellic history was also the first to complete the transition. Mannimarco, a powerful Altmer necromancer known as the "King of Worms", became a lich as part of his being an Immortality Seeker. It was his first step toward his ultimate goal of truly becoming a god with Complete Immortality, something he he later accomplishes following the events of Daggerfall... sort of... - Oblivion has a quest involving the only lich soul jar in a game to date. A necromancer is oh-so-slowly changing himself into a lich; if you steal his Soul Jar, he instantly drops dead. An in-game note states this is the origin of the old wife's tale about the Soul Jar being a lich's weakness. After the transfer is complete, a lich can discard the item with no ill effect. - Skyrim: - The Eight Dragon Priests are Nordic versions of liches. These powerful undead dragon worshipping sorcerers can be found in various tombs and barrows \|\|and one Dragon roost.\|\| The return of their master Alduin has stirred them from their ancient slumber. One quest actually has you stop a Dragon Priest's efforts to become a full lich; this one actually does involve a form of Soul Jar, as the Priest in question drained his own blood and stored it in three jars. You have to collect the jars and pour out the blood, preventing him from gaining full lich powers, and then kill him. - In the Dawnguard DLC, in order to enter the Soul Cairn, the Player Character has to technically be dead. As such, they have to choose between becoming a vampire (if they aren't one already) or becoming a semi-lich, having part of their soul trapped in a phylactery which must be retrieved later, lowering their stats (thankfully, the process can be reversed). - Undeath, a popular Game Mod, allows the Last Dragonborn to become a lich, too. This grants the ability to transform into a new form◊ that works a lot like the Vampire Lord, with the ability to cast a spell similar to Vampiric Grip with the right hand and a variety of powerful Expert and Master-level spells with the left. - Pious Augustus, the chronologically first playable character in Eternal Darkness, becomes a "lieche" due to the "magick" of the Ancients. The artifact isn't a traditional phylactery, though, as it's mainly through the magical protection from the Ancient's link to the universe that grants him undeath and magical power. \|\|You still have to destroy it to get him vulnerable again, though.\|\| - EverQuest has Lucan D'Lere, Venril Sathir, and Miragul. - Lucan was a human Paladin who betrayed his god, was stripped of his holy powers, and found a way to turn himself into a lich, in which form he now rules over the city of Freeport with an iron fist. - Venril Sathir was an Iksar necromancer who once ruled over the Iksar empire. His pursuit of power and knowledge led him to become a Lich by inhabiting the body of one his own sons many years after he had died. He currently rules over the Sathirian Empire on the continent of Kunark, as well as forcing all the Iksar rulers who took over after him to become his own vassals. They are fully aware that he is forcing them to work for him against their wills. - Miragul was an Erudite necromancer who only wanted to learn all the world's knowledge and master all forms of magic. As he grew older, he realized that his body would soon fail and he would die, so he created a lich body to transfer his soul into so he could continue his studies. Unfortunately, a miscalculation caused the ritual to go wrong, and his soul was transferred into the phylactery and not into the lich's body just as his body died. - Liches aren't necessarily evil in the Exile/ Avernum games (one was even created from a war hero to guard a demon's tomb in the aftermath of a battle), but most of them are egotistical psychopaths. A possible variation on liches might be the Crystal Soul, souls immobilized inside crystals that can only talk and cast spells. - The player character in Fallout: New Vegas at least briefly becomes a technological example of this in the DLC "Old World Blues." Upon being transported to the Big Empty, the Couriers brain is promptly scooped out of him or her and deposited into a jar, after which it sends and receives data using a wireless connection to its dismembered body via "The COILS of NICOLA TESLA!" that had been placed in the Couriers head. Despite player death still resulting in a game over, it can be argued that the Courier is alive and kicking until someone or something comes along and mashes up their brain wherever its stored in the Big Empty. That the Big Empty is absolutely full of lobotomized skinvelopes also makes the Couriers body easily replaceable. - Nas'Hrah, a floating, sentient wizard head is this in Fear & Hunger. His goals align with that of a typical lich, and he is completely unkillable — reducing his Body (health) to zero only stuns him instead of killing him like every other character. - The original Final Fantasy has the Lich as the boss of the Earth Cave; a powerful spellcaster capable of using some devastating magic. The later games, however, merely borrow the word for any undead mook; the only time this trope is in effect is in the rare cases when the original Lich makes a superboss appearance. - His successor Scarmiglione in Final Fantasy IV is also a clear Lich, too. Like the original Lich, Scarmiglione is the undead fiend of Earth, and he is able to use magic effectively. - Liches in Final Fantasy XI are mid-level skeleton monsters who drop an item used in the first level cap quest. Corses more closely follow this trope- they are incredibly powerful skeleton sorcerers that absolutely no one willingly wants to fight because they are death on a stick that can charm players. And a few of the Notorious Monster Corses have skeletons that assist them. - Liches appear In Name Only in Fire Emblem Gaiden, there, they are simply sword using skeletons who mindlessly obey their summoner. Later games would call this monster class, ''Wight''( Hellbone in Japan). The Spanish version of Fire Emblem Gaiden also uses the word, Lich, but for a basic zombie monster. - One of the major villains of Guild Wars Prophecies is a lich necromancer, transformed during the Cataclysm of Orr by Abaddon. - Kan-Ra from Killer Instinct is an ancient Babylonian sorcerer who was cursed with a withering rot that causes his flesh and organs to disintegrate. He seemingly cannot be killed as shown by him surviving the Night Guard's attempts to burn him alive. He can also steal souls. - Kingdom of Loathing's Misspelled Cemetary contains lihces, which do not look very much at all like traditional liches. The Cyrpt also contains slick lihces, dirty old lihces, and senile lihces (who performed the requisite dire rituals to become immortal accidentally, while trying to make some breakfast). There is a Giant Lihc Mini-Boss; who can be killed instantly if you destroy a "plus-sized phylactery" during battle with it. It is not difficult to defeat without doing so, though, and it never appears again even if you kept the phylactery intact. It also has a Dracolich called the Bonerdagon. - In Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, two are encountered, both of whom were once official government necromancers back in the days when that was legal. Percheron, the lesser of the two, is rather addled from his isolation. His master, Sice Larwan, is a lot more lucid (and a lot more powerful). Neither, however, have to be fought rather, they're sources of information, since the magical master-apprentice links they had in life persist after death (and Larwan's other apprentice is of interest to the protagonist). - League of Legends features the lich Karthus. He was captivated by the moment between life and death and voluntarily chose to enter a permanent, skeletal, undead state at the Shadow Isles. Karthus is a lategame-oriented, sustained damage mage notorious for having an ultimate that strikes all enemy Champions regardless of range for large magic damage. His passive, Death Defied, lets him cast spells (albeit standing still over his corpse) for no cost for 7 seconds...after he dies. This is much better than it sounds — Karthus is known for having absurd damage output lategame, and 7 seconds of that for free in the middle of a teamfight is more than enough to decimate careless foes. His Soul Jar isn't known (and he can be "killed," albeit very easily resurrected), although if he has a Soul Jar it might be the Shadow Isles themselves. - As of his 2015 lore update, Mordekaiser has also become a full-blown lich. Unlike Karthus (who may not even have a phylactery), he explicitly does have one; the skeleton of his physical body is tied to his undeath and must be intact for him to be able to resurrect if he is felled, as he does not appear to be able to self-resurrect and requires a ritual (which he conveniently has several liches bound to his will for). He also does not appear to have a physical form; while his armor moves, it appears to be animated purely by his will, as there is no apparent body within. - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks features Skeldritch, the Ancient Demon. He wears a viking helmet and specializes in spitting up rocks. You need to deflect and load the rocks onto catapults so they destroy Skeldritch's rib cage, and finally knocks the helmet off so you can stab the gem embedded in its skull. - In Loop Hero, the entire world is destroyed by the Lich Omicron, who appears as a skeleton filled with stars and void with an ornate robe and nimbus. In life, he was an archmage who felt that sleeping was a waste of research time, so he created a spell that allowed a copy of his mind to puppet his sleeping body. When the archmage died of natural causes, the spell took over his corpse and continued his research. - In Lords of Magic the Lich is the legendary creature for the Death faction, made through the transformation of a necromancer. It can reach level 12, otherwise attainable only by faction lords, has the largest mana pool in the game, and strong attack and defense and the ability to enter defense mode, averting the Squishy Wizard issue most mages suffer. - Lichdom is the ultimate skill in Necromancy in Lusternia. The Necromancer dies, but rises again as an archlich — with increased strength and intelligence, a freezing aura, and the ability to bestow a lesser version of lichdom upon non-Necromantic allies. Nihilist priests fit the Evil Sorcerer mould and like the idea of immortality: elite ur'Guard troopers are mainly in it for the increase in power, becoming Death Knights in the process. - Mabinogi's most infamous field dungeon is called Peaca note : Meaning 'sin' in Irish Gaelic, which is quite fitting.. Its standard difficulty features the Demi Lich as its final boss. The creature is fast-moving and wields high-level magic spells that can kill even advanced players in one or two hits. It's also invulnerable to all but a very specific class of weapon that is prohibitively expensive to craft and breaks after one hit. Really, it's no wonder Peaca is the only dungeon in the game's history with a minimum party size restriction (though that's since been removed). - Peaca's higher-difficulty version takes it a step further with the Master Lich. This goat demon doesn't have the nigh-invulnerability of the Demi, and he's a fair bit slower; but he more than makes up for that with nearly half a million HP (compared to the Demi's 5,000), an advanced AI with high-level magic that can outclass all but the most veteran of players, and a unique area-of-effect spell called Flames of Hell that is a guaranteed death sentence if you get caught in it. - Finally, there's the toughest of them all, the Arc Lich. A field boss found only in a certain part of the Connous desert, he's similar to the Demi in lots of ways. For example, he's immune to all weaponry. All of it. The only way to deal any damage to him is with explosions. Luckily, he spawns along with a bunch of explosive horses, so the battle is overall easier than the other two if you just play your cards right. - One of the bosses in Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is the "Liche Queen", who uses powerful dark magic and can summon undead minions. The flavour text doesn't mention any Soul Jar, but it does explain that she used to be a high priestess of Krypta whose mind snapped when a ritual to increase Krypta's power backfired. Presumably, that's what turned her into a lich. - In Might and Magic VII, it's possible for sorcerers in your party to undertake a ritual to become liches, complete with Soul Jars. Liches also show up as part of the Necropolis army in the Heroes of Might and Magic games, both as heroes and units; however, they don't require Soul Jars — their use of necromancy allows them immortality, while also eating away at their vitality until they're reduced to emaciated living corpses. Lich units are typically mid-high tier shooters (usually tier 5 out of 7), often with a "death cloud" area of effect component to their shots. They also have additional dark magic abilities in the games where units can have them. As heroes, Liches are on the "magic" side of the "might and magic" scale. - Magic-users had the option of becoming liches in Might and Magic VII through IX. The process was always quite complicated, and the main payoff was access to the top dark magic powers. It didn't give any particular immortality (it grants immunity to Body magic and removes age as a factor, but otherwise you're no more protected from death than any other character) — though this might be because they games vary between indicating that the soul jars are only needed for the process (with the souls then put back in the body) or that liches have to carry their soul jars with them. VII has dialogue revealing that necromancers are still actively researching how to refine the lich transformation, which is why there's so many living necromancers around — the current iteration of the ritual has so specific requirements for soul jars that the supply of it (the production of it is not under necromancer control) acts as a bottleneck, and some necromancers that would be powerful and influential enough to get a claim forgo it in the hopes that research will lead to better versions of lichdom. - In Might and Magic Heroes VI, lichdom is achieved by replacing all of the blood in your body with the venom of the Mother Namtarru, the embodiment of the creator goddess Asha's nightmares. If you remain a lich for a long time, you eventually become a vampire. - In Minecraft Dungeons, the Necromancers and their King Mook variant, the Nameless One, while being able to both attack the player and summon undead hordes with their magic, are skeletal and undead themselves. - The RTS-game Minion Masters has not one but two Masters who are liches: The skeleton-sorcerer Mordar and the Lich Queen Morellia - Quan Chi of Mortal Kombat is an arguable example — he's not entirely undead physically, but he did rise from the Netherrealm in sorcerer form (after being an Oni) and isn't exactly the most lively-looking man in the world with his white skin and sunken eyes. The unnaturally deep voice doesn't help. - The titular Fallen Lords of Myth: The Fallen Lords fit the bill. Like the Black Company novels the game takes heavy inspiration from, the Fallen Lords are powerful spellcasters from throughout the setting's history brought back from the dead and enslaved by The Leveller. While none has a proper Soul Jar, The Watcher's severed arm serves as his greatest weakness, and finding it leades directly to his destruction. - There is also a powerful unit called a Shade that can be fielded by the Dark. It's essentially a generic Fallen Lord, wielding extremely dangerous magic and a sword for melee combat. Like The Black Company, Squishy Wizard is averted in this setting. - Neverwinter Nights is a D&D CRPG, so naturally it has liches of various types, as does its sequel: - In Shadows of Undrentide, the Netherese scholar Belpheron survived the aeons since the Fall of Netheril by becoming a lich, but was apparently defeated by the Harpers, with his mummified hand being one of the artifacts stolen from Hilltop. \|\|The hand is a Red Herring, but Belpheron's onetime apprentice Heurodis becomes a lich herself as part of her ascension.\|\| - In Neverwinter Nights 2 - The original campaign has the crystal wyrm Nolalothcaragascint, a dragon who was hired by the ancient elven kingdom of Illefarn to kill the King of Shadows. Nolaloth actually came pretty close, injuring the King badly enough to force it to withdraw to the Astral Plane, but he was killed in the attempt. Illefarn transmuted his heart to crystal and bound his soul to it. - In Mask of the Betrayer, Rammaq is a demilich who \|\|fought alongside Akachi when he rebelled against Myrkul, and will join you in the invasion of the Fugue Plane in the endgame.\|\| Since he was a Titan in life, even as a floating skull it's ten feet tall. - Storm of Zehir has an alhoon as a superboss — a mind flayer lich. It is meant to be an encounter for epic-level characters and is about the only reason to keep grinding after you beat The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, which is doable at level 18. - Liches in Nexus Clash are the dedicated summoners of the humanity-focused, free-will-defending Transcended side, who have ironically given up their humanity to undeath in defense of their free will. Undeath and necromancy in the Nexus are neutral, not evil, so Liches can be civil or even downright saintly in practice so long as they can keep the violent nature of their undead minions in check. Most don't bother, and there's no shortage of angels who prefer to kill the undead on sight just to be sure. - Most of the Ogre Battle series features Liches, both as enemies and playable units. They do look quite desiccated/skeletal, and are usually dark-aligned. But you can actually make Holy-element Liches. The Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system means that they'll hit harder against dark Liches, but will also take more damage from their dark spells. - Usually, getting one requires an upgraded Wizard character of low alignment, plus several extremely rare evil artifacts. As the trade-off, though, they receive multiple castings of the most powerful multi-elemental spells around. Having one in any unit is usually enough to decimate all comers. - In Tactics Ogre, Nybeth is a necromancer who becomes one in a bid to cheat death. - Outward borrows from Dungeons & Dragons in that liches are empowered by hidden "phylacteries" that allow them to regenerate their body if it is destroyed. However, they depart from there: rather than moldering undead, most liches resemble biomechanical constructs and are aligned to one of the damage elements of the game: fire, lightning, poison, etc. Additionally, they have a noticeable lack of empathy, regardless of their actual motivations, implying that their immortal status has robbed them of their initial humanity. They're not necessarily villains, either: the Plague Doctor can be reasoned with, the Light Mender can be forced into a stalemate, and Whispering Bones is willingly helpful. - Tubba Blubba from Paper Mario can count, possibly even as a dracolich if one is willing to count an oversized monstrous turtle as a dragon. His (sentient) heart has been removed from his body, making him invulnerable. Mario and friends beat up the heart and force it to rejoin the body, which removes Tubba Blubba's invincibility. Unusually for a lich, he does not have magical attacks, though his heart does. - Pillars of Eternity liches are fairly standard (although it is possible for people who aren't mages to become liches, even if it is implied they'd need help to set it up), which in the context of the setting is unusual — undead are people that died but had their souls stuck to their bodies, and need to consume fresh flesh, preferably kith flesh to avoid degenerating physically and mentally (and it's practically impossible to keep that up forever, so sooner or later a fampyr will degenerate into a dargul, and so on until they end up as skeletons who can't consume flesh). Liches are people that used a very rare ritual (there's exactly one lich that shows up throughout the game and expansion) that involves a phylactery and their soul, with the end result that when they die they avoid the hunger for kith flesh and the mental part of the degeneration (they do still get the physical part, though, hence why they tend to look like skeletons). - Puzzle Quest has liches, which are rather strong enemies, and archliches, which are even stronger. - Liches in Rift are towering skeletons with their ribcages showing out of their robes, hovering slightly over the ground, and having wings made of bone. Necromancers get Lich form as their end talent; neither of these cases seem to use phylacteries. - In Secret of Mana, Thanatos is the linchpin of some eldritch lich pact which has recently started wearing off and now his mortality is finally beginning to manifest. But you can't cheat death forever... - In the third Gold Box game, Secret of the Silver Blades, the Final Boss is a classic liche. He must be defeated and then his phylactery must be destroyed in order to complete the game. - Skullgirls: Every seventh year, the Skull Heart manifests and grants one girl a single wish. However, should her heart be impure then the wish will be corrupted and the Skull Heart will take Demonic Possession of the wisher and turn her into one of the titular Skullgirls, an immensely powerful undead being. If her heart is strong enough, however, she'll be able to retain her sentience for a while... The current Skullgirl, "Bloody" Marie Korbel, is noted as being the weakest Skullgirl ever, much thanks to the strength of her heart allowing her to fully retain her sentience and keep Fighting from the Inside against the Skull Heart's influence. She's still powerful enough to raise her victims as undead thralls by the hundreds though. - Liches appear in Total Annihilation: Kingdoms as a Tarosian unit. They follow the characteristics for other undead units in the game (can't be turned to stone, fade away on destruction without leaving a body), can cross bodies of water by floating above them, and their weapon is a life-draining wave of energy that can also damage your own units in the vicinity. - The form of cheating death used by Toyosatomimi no Miko and her coterie in Touhou resembles lichdom. They swap their soul into an inanimate object, which takes their form when they 'die'. Not exactly undead, though, so much as confusing heaven into thinking that they've died. Their awakening even follows the standard "evil necromancers stir up from their millennial sleep in their forgotten tomb and threaten the life of decent people" plot. - Ultima had the Liche as a monster. - In Ultima I the evil wizard Mondain can survive being repeatedly killed as long as his phylactery is left untouched. The monsters the game calls liches, though, have no similar phylacteries evident. It's unclear how smart they are, but they are powerful and dangerous. They appear as merely floating skulls, so they look more like AD&D's Demiliches. - Ultima Underworld 2 even has non-wizard liches — a quadrumvirate of warrior, wizard, assassin, and one more as a hidden superboss. The warrior is the leader and the most dangerous. - Liches are uncommon enemies in Vagrant Story. They're Glass Cannons: They can actually be easy to defeat if you attack them enough times before they can get a spell off, but said spells can be devastating. Liches are some of the only enemies in the game who know Radial Surge, a light spell. In Vagrant Story, the main character gains resistance to elements the more he's attacked by those elements, but light spells are extremely rare and so the main character is likely to have absolutely no resistance to it. It's entirely possible for a Lich with a high-level Radial Surge to kill you in one shot. - Vagrant Story's liches are a subversion of the way liches are traditionally portrayed, in that they gain their powers and immortality from a Deal with the Devil rather than a Soul Jar, and the game treats them as evil-type enemies (akin to demons) rather than undead. - Liches in the Warcraft universe are former mages or warlocks turned Undead. The first round of Liches were Ner'Zhul and his Orcish Warlocks and Death Knights (which is why Liches in WC3 have those huge fangs; they're Orcs), Death Knights in the second war were the corpses of Azerothian knights from the first war animated by the soul of a dead Warlock. Human mages can also be turned into Liches, the most obvious example being Kel'Thuzad. Death Knights in the third war are undead Paladins with their souls sucked out, hence why Arthas turned into one. The Lich King (the 'second' one formed by merging Arthas with Ner'Zhul, not to be confused with just Ner'Zhul, who was also the Lich King) is therefore the body of a death knight combined with the mind of a lich with his soul bound to his sword, making him somewhat of a combination of the two. It's complicated especially given that the term "Death Knight" is, per the Fiend Folio, used to denote a type of lich in D&D. - While this is usually not important, liches in World of Warcraft do have phylacteries, though they CAN be slain without destroying the phylactery. However, it is mentioned they may come back if the phylactery is left untouched. Back in vanilla World of Warcraft, a quest involving the phylactery of Kel'Thuzad has the player character pull a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero by selling it to an Argent Dawn member (who later turns out to be a Scourge spy) instead of destroying it, and for Wrath of the Lich King Naxxramas indeed returns as a level 80 raid, complete with Kel'Thuzad. - It's also mentioned that what is ostensibly the lich's body (the skeletal, adorned upper body with the strips of cloth flowing down to about ground level from the hips) isn't actually their body from when they were alive, and is instead merely a physical form projected by the phylactery. As such, even destroying the body to a ludicrous extent won't matter when it comes to keeping the lich dead. - While his power seems to be demonic in nature rather than undead, a warlock in the Goblin starting experience will come back to life repeatedly if his Soulstone is not destroyed. (Of course, since every player passing through his cavern has to kill him to progress their own story, he respawns in a minute's time even then.) - 8-Bit Theater has the Lich as he was in the original Final Fantasy: an undead sorcerer. He managed to seal his soul in the Earth Orb, a powerful magical objects that controls the Earth itself, until Thief expels it by invoking anti-pollution laws. He is then dragged down to Hell thanks to Black Mage, but manages to replace him as the ruler of Hell, until the Lich is briefly summoned back to life by one of his son's former allies. Black Mage then promptly utterly destroys him. - Ashface's Daughter: The Master is one of these as well as a powerful and skilled necromancer. He's also quite fond of sipping tea and playing with kittens. - Baskets of Guts: Liches are wizards who somehow bound their soul to an inanimate object (a phylactery) and thus kept their link with the mortal world after their technical death. Though a phylactery can't actually move, the bound soul can still cast spells. Your guess what kind of magic comes in handy first. - Harry Potter Comics: The Necromancer is the inventor and perfector of the Horcrux formula that Voldemort used. - Homestuck: Liches are enemies encountered in the Medium once the kids are drawn into the reality-warping video game Sburb. They're only shown fleetingly and in limited detail, but they don't appear to be undead creatures and instead resemble demonic humanoids with horns and skull-like heads. - Looking for Group: Richard is an undead warlock. He seems to store his soul elsewhere, likely his gem or father's corpse, but this has not yet been confirmed. Many fans speculate that he is a lich. - The Order of the Stick: Xykon is a standard lich by D&D rules, as well as the Big Bad. (Although Redcloak, Xykon's Chessmaster Dragon, may have something to say about that before all is said and done,) He is naturally protective of his phylactery, (in this case the phylactery is Redcloak's unholy symbol) and threats to it are one of the few things that can motivate Xykon into serious action. - In their store, Penny Arcade has a shirt that says, "Life's a lich, and then you never die". - In Unsounded, Duane is an interesting subversion. One, he's a quiet, lawful scholar who's been blackmailed into escorting a brat of a child. Two, there are indications that his raising was done to him (later we find out that \|\|Bastion did it as an experiment\|\|). If he has a phylactery, he certainly doesn't know it. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic is D&D-based, so it features a lich named Lewie (short for King Lewstrom VII). At first he is portrayed as an Affably Evil Harmless Villain (a trait he shares with many of the characters) who would gladly lend you some of his skeletal minions to help with your gardening, and is fond of saying "Curses!" when annoyed. However, once he \|\|gets his hands on an artifact that allows him to summon his death goddess\|\|, he becomes a Not-So-Harmless Villain. \|\|Unfortunately, he has forgotten what his original goal was (i.e., why he became a lich in the first place, and began plotting and scheming and amassing power). And by the time he does recall the reason, it turns out that the whole idea is pointless now, since several centuries have passed and his enemies are long dead.\|\| - In Angel of Death, a community of around 2,000 liches exists. They can shapeshift between a human form and that of an 8-foot tall corpse, and have copious amounts of magical power. Most horrifying of all, these liches must devour the souls of the living on a nightly basis, or else their starvation will drive them into a frenzy likely to kill hundreds of people. - Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War: Koschei the Deathless, one of the Trope Codifiers, is discovered by the Soviets when they dig up the golden egg his soul was tethered to, which then possesses one of the officers involved. In exchange for this, he pledges loyalty and use of his extensive magical knowledge to the Soviet Union; he even manages to prolong Stalin's life an additional five years after the stroke which killed him in OTL. - The Necromancer in the true path of Necromancer and in Death Song \|\|becomes a lich after Lord Rostov breaks his neck in an attempt to kill him.\|\| The same world had been terrorized by a lich centuries before. - The Dead King from A Practical Guide to Evil is an ancient undead sorcerer who rules over a land full of various undead creatures, several of which could qualify as liches themselves. He turned himself, his people, and an invading army into undead through an unknown ritual (after facilitating the war in the first place). He proceeded to then conquer his own personal Hell Dimension, and has since completely rebuffed several Crusades from alliances of Good-Aligned nations and added their Heroes to his armies. He's affectionately referred to by the Black Knight as The Original Abomination. - Boris Yegorovich of The Wanderer's Library is an Evil Sorcerer who hides his death \|\|inside the thirteen days that Russia skipped when it moved from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar after Red October.\|\| - Discussed in Void Domain. Said to be one of the main things that Death cannot stand existing. One of the main villains of the first book was attempting to turn himself into a lich. - An extremely rare benevolent example is illustrated here. - The final boss in the first campaign of Critical Role is Vecna, the most iconic lich of all time. See the tabletop games folder for more info on them. - The Big Bad of Dimension 20's Unsleeping City season is \|\|Robert Moses, a real-life realestate developer who planned most of modern New York, but intentionally bulldozed a lot of poorer-income (and mostly african-american) to do so\|\|, who at some point stored his soul in a phylactery. - Adventure Time: - The Lich is introduced as a nigh-unstoppable Walking Wasteland trying to escape being Sealed Evil in a Can. At first, he appears closer to a traditional Lich, with sorcerer's robes and necromancy, but by his second appearance he's portrayed more like an ephemeral Humanoid Abomination. Later, it was implied he was struck as a human by a demonic nuclear bomb, becoming possessed with the desire to end all life. As of "Evergreen", it appears he's somehow connected to the comet that \|\|killed the dinosaurs\|\|. In "Gold Stars", he claims to know what it was like before there was a universe. In some form or another, he may have been around long before the bomb. - Although the word isn't used, the Fight King from the episode "Morituri Te Salutamus" is blatantly a lich. He's a horribly-scarred, mummified figure with evil magical powers, who dies instantly when Finn destroys his sword, which was presumably his phylactery. - Aladdin: The Series: Mozenrath, arch-enemy of Aladdin throughout the show, is the magic ruler of the Land of the Black Sand. His sorcerous powers are derived from a cursed gauntlet which is actively eating away at his lifeforce, with his hand bearing the gauntlet having already become skeletal, and the rest of Mozenrath's body having a very gaunt, unhealthy appearance. Finally coming to terms with the fact that he's on the border of life and death, he seeks to skirt his Faustian bargain through Grand Theft Me. - In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Abracadaver", the magician Al Lusion had his tricks exposed and was mocked by the entire town before he fell into an Iron Maiden. Decades later, when the building containing the maiden is demolished, he is released and rises from the dead as a zombie with magic powers to get revenge on Townsville. The city immediately falls into chaos as he starts transmuting people and buildings and trapping the girls themselves in death traps. In fact, he was such a dangerous Monster of the Week that he was only defeated by a Deus ex Machina. - The Pastmaster from SWAT Kats is never called a lich, but he fits the image: a skeletal, undead-looking Evil Sorceror who makes a big deal out of being immortal. His first appearance shows him reanimating two skeletons to do his bidding, and a later one has him calling up an army of giant mummies. His pocket watch seems to be the source of his power (he's unable to do magic when it's stolen in one episode), but whether it's an actual Soul Jar is never addressed. - Despite his name and semi-bandaged appearance, Mumm-Ra from Thundercats 1985 and Thundercats 2011 comes across more as a lich than a mummy. His exact mortal status is never made entirely clear: he must retreat to his sarcophagus every 24 hours to maintain his existence, but at the same time... "As long as Evil exists, Mumm-Ra lives!!" - While, again, never referred to as a Lich, Lord Hater from Wander over Yonder fits the bill — a skeletal sorcerer with grand evil plans of galactic conquest. \|\|The stinger of the series finale heavily implies he was originally an ape shot into space by NASA, who was uplifted and reanimated by some magic in the show's main galaxy.\|\| - In The Owl House the main villain Emperor Belos initially appears to be a witch like most others, albeit with supreme mastery over magic. However, it is later revealed that \|\|he is a human from the 17th century that survived the centuries through arcane means. This process has transformed him into a horrific skeletal beast covered in foul ooze, which also allows him to recover from almost any injury. While he has no phylactery like traditional liches, he maintains his immortality by devouring the magical essence of Familiars.\|\|	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurLichesAreDifferent
Our Tropes Are Different - TV Tropes ...Although you wouldn't know it from reading the titles. Not to be confused with Playing with a Trope.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurIndexesAreDifferent
Our Mermaids Are Different - TV Tropes "Mermaid, oh murmur into my ear The answers to questions I'm longing to hear; Does it relax you to hearfolde the sound of the land? Do you, O mermaid, have slightly webbed hands?" Mermaids, or more generally merfolk, crop up quite a lot in fiction. However, like most mythical creatures and monsters, they are a little different every time and have different rules applied to them. Their dispositions, morality, and alliances vary depending on the author, and whether or not they can become human is a question everyone answers differently. Even their general appearance isn't fixed: see the picture. Appearance: Merfolk are generally portrayed as beautiful women (mermaids) or handsome men (mermen) with fish- or dolphin-like tails in place of legs. Sometimes they have a few fishy characteristics on the human half as well- such as Ear Fins, arm fins or scattered scales- an aquatic Cute Monster Girl. Others are more blatantly sea-creatures with few human characteristics and are quite ugly, for example the Harry Potter merman (mermaid?) pictured. Sometimes they have features reminiscent of other, more exotic sea-creatures, and sometimes they are sea-animals that become human-like under certain circumstances. Some joke that merfolk must have the fish half on top instead of on the bottom in order to resolve "the Mermaid Problem". Mermaids who are more human-looking (and modest) tend to wear Seashell Bras. And then there's underwater folk like Aquaman, Namor, The Man From Atlantis etc. who look like normal humans for the most part but can survive and breathe underwater and may have some odd physical adaptations that are well-hidden until they return to the sea. It should also be noted that most mermaids have the "fish half" in a cetacean (horizontal fluke) configuration, rather than a fish's vertical configuration, since this is closer to how an actual human swims, though exceptions exist. Finally, given that there are more than 15,000 species of fishes in Earth's oceans, the actual kind of fish-tail which even a traditional mermaid might sport provides yet another basis for diversity of appearance among them. Of course, a sizable fraction of mermaid imagery doesn't actually replicate any extant fish, but just starts out with a feminine hip-bulge and tapers the tail down to a big wide fin. Merperson to Human: Sometimes merpeople can turn into humans, or vice versa, under certain circumstances. The way this is done and differences in the "rules" surrounding this are numerous: - The Splash Method: The mermaid can become human when they are dry and turn back when wet. Sometimes this is something all merpeople can do, and sometimes there are limits on how long they can do it. - The Little Mermaid Method: The mermaid invokes a magic spell which allows them to turn human. Sometimes, this is at a hefty cost. In the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, it's the title's character's tongue; the sea-witch responsible expects payment, and specifies, "the best thing you possess will I have for the price of my draught.". May be combined with the above. - The Fredericka Bimm Method: Mermaids can switch forms more or less at will. Unlike the Splash method, getting doused with water is not a problem. - The Magical Item Method: Common in some mythologies but, curiously, not often utilized in modern fiction, aside from anime and magical girl genre. The Mermaid has a magical item which allows her to change from one form to another. Some of these items are obvious; a Selkie needs her shed seal-skin to return to her home in the sea. Or a mermaid could pass for human on land in a wheelchair. Others are... kind of random; a Merrow needs a hat made of red feathers to (depending on which variant on the legend you are reading) return to the sea or assume human form. - And of course, some mermaids don't possess shapeshifting abilities at all — no matter how much they may want to change, the half-fish appearance is their default, permanent form. Good or Evil?: Sometimes mermaids are portrayed as evil seductresses (sometimes called devil fish) who lure sailors to their deaths note : this is based on the myths of sirens which were originally birdwomen but who are generally portrayed as mermaids these days due to language confusion. Others, their singing is a sign of disaster, but not from seduction. In most mythologies, they display the inscrutable and sometimes dangerous amorality of The Fair Folk, especially if mermaids are treated as marine fae. Sometimes they are good but flirty and mischievous. Sometimes they are mostly innocent and naive. Sometimes they are honorable, and of these, several resent us for treating their ocean home so badly for so long. Sometimes (just sometimes) they are just like us and have all sorts of personas. Very often, though not always, they are Tsundere, or even outright Yandere types. Octopus or Squid-based mermaids—sometimes called cilophytes or cecaelia—are usually portrayed as evil, probably owing to the influence of Disney's sea-witch Ursula, or perhaps because of the "alien" nature of tentacles. One thing that also tends to vary among depictions of mermaids is their ability to survive on land: some depictions show them being completely unable to breathe out of water, others show them being able to stay above the surface but needing to be wet to avoid drying out, and some show no qualms at all about leaving the sea and can stay out of water seemingly indefinitely (except for not having legs). Most merfolk can communicate with fish and sea creatures, regardless of whether they eat them or not. Expect merfolk to remain naked no matter how deep they swim or how little protection their skin has, though their bodies might have some unseen protection against the cold and high pressure of the depths. Many artists portray merfolk as having human-like knee and ankle joints instead of a spinal column. They'd probably swim much like a human using a monofin, a single large flipper to use both legs at once. If you watch swimming competitions you do notice that when they are underwater (after kicking off the end) they do keep their legs together and use an undulating motion. A horizontal fluke just extends this motion. Unscaled Merfolk is a Sub-Trope, where the non-human parts are not a scaled fish, as are Mermaid Problem, Apparently Human Merfolk and Sirens Are Mermaids. See also Selkies and Wereseals. See also Mermaid Media, Shapeshifting Lover, The Fair Folk, Siren Song, Water Is Womanly, and Friendly, Playful Dolphin, Heroic Dolphin and Sapient Cetaceans. For a similar body plan applied to another type of mammals, see Our Hippocamps Are Different. Compare Token Aquatic Race. May occasionally overlap with Fish People, though they are generally more of genetic fusion than a half-and-half put together. Given that mermaids are by definition fictional, No Real Life Examples, Please!. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other Examples: - Beast Fables: The seas of Urvara are inhabited by merfolk who look like anthropomorphic sea creatures, from sharks to bony fish to cephalopods. Unlike the werebeasts, they don't have human forms. Most werebeasts believe they're a myth. - René Magritte's painting The Collective Invention◊ depicts a "reverse mermaid", the front half of a fish joined to the pelvis and legs of a nude woman, stranded on a beach in the least dignified way possible. It also solves the Mermaid Problem in one fell swoop. - Cardfight!! Vanguard has a Clan called Bermuda Triangle that's basically Mermaids combined with the concept of Idol Singer, these can either look like a generic Half-Human/Fish, but sometimes they incorporate more exotic design traits like Fin ears and Webbed Indexes. - Magic: The Gathering has had a variety of merfolk cards throughout the years, usually as small utility creatures, and have been a standard Blue tribe. Since the game takes place in a multiverse, Merfolk are different on each plane that has them. They range in appearance from deep-sea fish to Abe Sapien. There are a few subraces of particular note: - Vodalia was an ancient empire of merfolk from Dominaria that existed offshore from Sarpadia. It was destroyed in a war with the lobster-like homarids, who completely destroyed it except for a small group that used a portal to flee to a distant colony and which were accidentally sent 3,000 years in the future in the bargain, where they reestablished their empire. They worship Svyelun of Sea and Sky, the game's only Merfolk God to be printed, as the goddess of the Pearl Moon and a distant and stern deity who holds herself apart from her followers like the moon lies unreachably far above the sea. - The Rootwater merfolk of Rath are hideous, fish-faced monsters that kill members of any other race without hesitation. They apparently started out as the more standard Dominarian merfolk but were altered via genetic engineering. - The merfolk of Saprazzo in the Mercadian Masques set have the power to switch between legs and fins. On land, they just look like lanky, hairless, blue-skinned humans, sometimes with head fins. They have a vaguely Middle Eastern culture. - The Odyssey and Onslaught blocks introduced Cephalids, a squid-based type of merfolk that were more squid than humanoid, with soft bodies and limited mobility out of water. In keeping with the "evil tentacles" motif, most of the cephalids were right bastards. - The merrows of Lorwyn are the usual attractive human-looking merfolk, though they have brightly colored skin and flamboyant fins; they're merchants and porters with good diplomatic skills. When Lorwyn is transformed into the dark world of Shadowmoor, though, the merrows become black-hearted monsters with much more piscine features (very similar to the Rootwater merfolk of Rath) who prey on other races as pirates. The comparison here: Lorwyn, a bit fishy but friendly-looking. Shadowmoor, looking like a cross between a catfish and Cthulhu. - Interestingly, because of their position as small blue creatures, combined with the fact that blue gets small flying creatures, there are a number of merfolk in Magic that can fly. The weirdest example would have to be Gaea's Skyfolk, an "Elf Merfolk" who flies. There has been no attempt to explain this, unlike the other 8 merfolk flyers. - More modern MtG merfolk come with legs, which allows sea-themed races without the entire oddness of creatures that can swim in water, and so should beat any non-water breather there, but that can't do much in the atmosphere. - Zendikar's merfolk are also heavy on flyers, some — but not all — due to riding large birds or flying manta rays. They also had a rather well fleshed out tripartite religion centering on Leviathans and Angels \|\|which unfortunately turned out to be based on distant memories of the Eldrazi\|\|. They also have continuing extraplanar representation in the form of the planeswalker Kiora. - The Tritons of the Greek Mythology-inspired Theros are distinguished by large, trailing head-fins resembling the plumes of ancient Greek war helmets. They're partially amphibious — they can stay on dry land for several days, but must return to the water to keep their gills soft — and worship Thassa, the God of the Sea, above all other deities. Thassa herself is depicted as a traditional, fish-tailed merfolk with several tentacles growing from her back and shoulders. - The merfolk of Ixalan, the River Heralds, are colorful, resembling tropical river fish. They are also nomadic in nature, use jade jewelry and armor and are aligned with Green mana as well as Blue. - "Mystical Medleys: A Vintage Cartoon Tarot": The "Queen of Cups" has a red-headed mermaid with a crown sitting on a beach with a cup. There is also a baby mermaid (complete with Seashell Bra), a pacifier, and a bonnet. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Mermail archetype. There are some monsters that fit the traditional fish-tailed depiction. But some like Abyssdine are Unscaled and The Level 7 ones like Abyssteus are straight up Fish People. - Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts: The Sazae-oni in "The Pirates" is portrayed as having the ability to switch between a Redhead in Green and a monstrous lobster-esq form. - Archie Comics character Ethel Muggs actually dated a merman once — he saw her at the beach, depressed that nobody wanted to go to a dance with her, and used Voluntary Shapeshifting to temporarily gain legs and take her himself. - Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer: Suli Stellamaris is a beautiful mermaid with a very long purple tail who works as an actress. She can't be long out of water nor walk on land so she hires the newly superpowered Alix to be her bodyguard. - The ElfQuest spin-off Wave Dancers played with this in several ways. (The "mermaids" were space elves modified by magic to live in the water. Exactly how they were modified varied wildly.) One of the females is the octopus variation, but not shunned or evil. Her lower half looks like a hoop skirt made of tentacles. - Fathom is about a race of beings who can turn into water or use it as a weapon, among other things. - In Gold Digger, Atlanteans are humanoid amphibious aliens with dolphin-like skin, gills, and small fins on their arms and legs to assist in swimming. - In Hellboy, Abe Sapien is basically a gill-man. A good-natured, erudite, streamlined gill-man. In Hellboy: The Third Wish, the title character meets some mermaids, including the Bog Roosh, a mermaid-witch who captures him and wants to kill him to prevent the apocalypse. - Marvel Comics Atlanteans, and various subraces, are an interesting example. Their appearance generally depends on what continuity is active at the time. In the Silver Age, Marvel Atlanteans were the human inhabitants of Atlantis until it sank, whereupon they were turned into blue-skinned water breathers by the god Neptune. In earlier comics, the men looked like fishmen and they weren't actually from Atlantis. When Namor was reintroduced in the 1960s in Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby retconned the Submariners (what they used to call Namor's mother's race) to Atlanteans as water breathing blue-skinned people. Hybrids apparently can breathe air, are stronger than either race, and can fly with wings on their feet. There were also green-skinned fish-men who were the later Lemurian offshoot, mutated by the snake-god they worshiped. Namor is the only one with the wings though, and that's because in addition to being a Half-Human Hybrid, he is also a mutant. - Meat Cake has Effluvia, a beautiful but slutty mermaid who flirts with sailors — and then lures them to their deaths and turns their souls into jewelry. She travels about on land with a wheelchair, usually. - CrossGen's Scion has a variety of humanoid sea-dwellers who were descended from a genetically-engineered servant species, but had broken free and lived in an Underwater City. They were smallish, gray humanoids with two legs and gills. And their leaders (?) look like giant, luminescent brine shrimp. No joke. - The silver age comic Sea Devils had a good example of this trope in one issue with the Sea Devils themselves being turned into various forms of nontraditional merfolk including a manta ray, sea horse and shark. - Silverblade: Jonathan Lord played a merman in two films: The Green Lagoon and Return to the Green Lagoon. He assumes this form while swimming with Sandra (who regards The Green Lagoon as the most romantic movie they ever made together) and unintentionally almost causes her to drown. - Superman's ex, Lori Lemaris, is a mermaid (it's... complicated) who lived on land by using a wheelchair and keeping her tail covered. Eventually she was magically given the power to turn into a human (any contact with water changes her back, though.) - Tamsin And The Deep has a mermaid as the primary villain, who made a pact with one of Tamsin's ancestors and transforms into a giant monster at one point. - Swordquest: Waterworld has the Aqualanians, a race of undersea merpeople; aside from their yellow-green skin and green hair, they look like humans (complete with legs) and are capable of breathing air. - In Teen Titans Go!, the comic adaptation of the Animated Adapatation of Teen Titans, Gill Girl is a Fish Person who, unlike most, isn't human-looking enough to be your typical hot mermaid. She is tearing up the city searching for \|\|her mate... revealed to be a normal, non-anthropomorphic turtle\|\|. Other than her (and we don't get her story) most Atlanteans are of the Aquaman/Aqualad entirely human-looking style (except for the solid-black eyes, in Aqualad's case [purple-irised in the original comics].) Gill Girl was possibly inspired by The DCU character Lagoon Boy, who was introduced in Erik Larsen's Aquaman run as a representative of one of various oceanic humanoid races who comprised Atlantis' minority groups (merfolk and Aquaman-type humanoids being the majority). L.B. is basically a teenage version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, with the ability to expand like a puffer fish. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman (1942): In the Golden Age Gerta von Gunther created a number of winged shark mermaids; they were led by one of their number named Sharkeeta and turned against her to get retribution for being kept in tanks like pets. - Wonder Woman (1942): In the Silver Age Ronno is a merman who has had a crush on Wonder Woman since they were both teenagers, and ends up putting himself in danger by insisting on hanging out on land to be near her since he is not very mobile out of the water and has to hop to get around. His mer-village offshore of Paradise Island is also home to mer-centaurs. - The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The mermaids in the waters around Themyscira are cruel creatures Diana is not fond of and try to drag a recuperating Steve Trevor to a watery grave as he sleeps in a cave on the shore. Diana gives him the leaves of a red plant to strew about to keep them away. - The short-lived 1980's comic strip Norb by Tony Auth and Daniel Pinkwater visited Atlantis once, and that story arc ended with the implication that Jacobowitz was about to get romantic with a mermaid... one with the head and body of a fish, and the legs of a beautiful woman. - Safe Havens: - Main character Remora, who has taught us a lot of unexpected things about merfolk over the years. For example, they use bubbles for currency. Not sure what they use for a wallet. They also have the option of either being a merperson 24 hours a day or splitting their time between being a human for half the day and a fish the other half. Also, \|\|it's the mermen that get pregnant, as Thomas found out the hard way\|\|. Probably the most notable thing though is, if a human saves a merperson's life three times, they themselves become a merperson. And 'saving' can be something as simple as tossing them a flotation ring or signing legislature. - As it turns out...merfolk are of alien origin, as the first thing Samantha discovered when she studied their genome is that they didn't evolve on Earth. It turns out merfolk originated on Venus, tried moving to Earth when Venus became uninhabitable, and modern merfolk descend from those left behind when the rest of the species left Earth after finding it too dangerous (Remora suspects it was because they missed the ride, rather than any bravado on their part). - Enough of their DNA remained on Mars that, when Samantha terraformed it, merfolk began appearing in Mars's lake...except since the dodos have made their home there, the Martian merfolk are half fish, half dodo. This causes Samantha to theorize that merfolk take on whatever the dominant species on a planet was as their top half, and goes on to further suggest that plesiosaurs were what merfolk looked like in the age of the dinosaurs. - When Remora, armed with the above knowledge, tries to stretch her innate shapeshifting beyond the norms for the species in an emergency, she manages to change into an octopus ... and when she reverts to mermaid form, now has a tentacled lower body. This is apparently permenant. - In An Anthem for Sheltered Bays, at first Eren and his village appears to be the standard half-human, half-fish mermaid and Mikasa is an octopus based mermaid but the former are escaped genetic experiments that were originally human \|\|and the latter were a branch that evolved within the sea. Mikasa's people were killed because of this and both variations cannot procreate with each other\|\|. - In The Bridge, there are three types of mermaid equivalents in Equestria. Seaponies are the smallest and simplest, resembling oversized seahorses and are ruled by King Leo in Aquestria. Mermares look like a hippocampus with fins for forelimbs, but using the magical charms they wear around their necks they can take on the appearance of a terrestrial equine with a wet mane. They do this to either work above sea level or, given that they are an all-female species, find a mate. Any offspring born from such unions will overwhelmingly be female, Mermares themselves, with any rare sons being the father's species. Most of them used to be nomadic, but those in the Eastern ocean amassed at Mako Island and named the founder of that island the first queen. Since then they have lived under an elected monarchy, with the current ruler being an old friend of Celestia and rival to Luna named Queen Maui. A sirens also resemble hippocampi and were born from the union of three wendigoes forcing themselves upon pair of mermare princesses. They specifically draw power from song magic by inducing certain emotions in people that listen to their singing. - By the Sea: This being a classic mermaid AU, Cody's people are more like Disney's Little Mermaid, in that they have a mostly ordinary-looking human upper half (complete with hair, but only on their heads, and no mentioned facial hair) plus some patches of scales on the torso here and there, and a multicolored fish tail lower half. (Cody's tail scales are gold.) It's also mentioned that they can't sit upright unassisted or lean forward much like most surface-world depictions of mermaids because their spines just don't work that way. They also have non-retractable claws and webbed fingers, a mouthful of sharp teeth, sharp spines up and down their arms that raise and lower like hackles, a respiratory system that can swap between aerobic and aquatic respiration, some level of increased strength given that Cody is able to snap a lobster's shell with his bare hands, and bioluminescent markings on their skin that change colors in accordance with emotion. Blue and purple are used in courtship displays, for instance. - Child of the Storm - Namor appears towards the end of the first book, first stabilizing a collapsing SHIELD Helicarrier, then intervening at the Battle of London, smashing open HYDRA's base atop a colossal sea serpent, whilst bellowing his catchphrase. Like canon, he looks more or less human, and he has an ambivalent attitude to the surface world - he respects certain humans (holding Steve in particular in very high regard), but is fairly suspicious of humanity as a whole, feeling out a potential alliance with Magneto. - More inhuman varieties, closer to fae than human, such as Sirens, are referenced, and their relatives, Undines, appear in the sequel, complete with hypnotic singing. Harry mostly just finds it annoying and tells them — at which point they get annoyed at his insulting their music. When they take physical form, they're noted as being attractive young women, though this puts Harry even more on his guard, as he's conscious that in many ways, it's a hunting strategy. - A Diplomatic Visit: - After Queen Novo is namedropped in chapter 18, she's officially identified in chapter 21 as Queen of Seaquestria and the seaponies. - The same chapter mentions King Leo of Aquastria (from the picture book Under The Sparkling Sea), which is located in the western ocean and is home to seaponies, mermares and merlions; in the book, these seaponies are based on the seahorse-like G1 seaponies, with prehensile tails and large, transparent fins, while the mermares are similar, but have larger bodies, full fish tales and prehensile fins, and King Leo is closer in looks to a mermare but with a lion's head instead of a horse's. - Guppy Love: Neither Rarity nor Sweetie Belle's tails turn into human legs when theyre out of the water, further negating Applejack's desire for Rarity to stay after her injured tail has healed. - Mirabel's main ability in Just Add Water (Akela_Victoire) is that she turns into a mermaid when she touches water, including a tail and the ability to breath underwater. - In Keepers of the Elements, there are the mermaids who live in Aequori Kingdom. They are all shown to wear regular tops on their top halves. The previous Water Keeper Marissa lived there for some time and even fell in love with one of mermen there, eventually getting him changed to a human somehow and going to Earth to live with her where they eventually had a family together. - Kaiju Revolution: The Seatopians are the descendants of a paleolithic human civilization who took refuge on Mu when their society collapsed. Generations of living there has altered their biology, they grew a tail derived from their sacrum, their legs became flippers and what appears to be red hair on their heads are actually stands of blood-vessel rich tissues that allow them to extract oxygen from the water, not to mention that they're all female and reproduce parthenogenically. They have managed to retain some of their advanced technology and sometimes send genetically modified agents to observe humanity. - Kindred explains mermaid biology in Ariel's oneshot: Ariel is a warm-water Pacific ocean mermaid, which are the "classic" mermaids everyone knows of. Deep-sea mermaids are pale, have distended jaws, whip-like tails with threads attached to them, and very little hair. Indian ocean mermaids are half the size of Pacific mermaids, have two lace-like fins, and can't swim (instead they use currents to move). Atlantic ocean mermaids are muscular, have a lot of blubber, and wear sealskin cloaks. South Pole mermaids are as small as sea-horses and can only float. It's mentioned that some mermaids, such as Pacific mermaids, only have mouths as vestigial organs and actually filter-feed using their fins. - Strange Scales introduces mermaids as a third race of immortals. Like vampires, humans can be turned into mermaids and subsequently gain an appetite for blood (as well as obviously eating marine life). While they obviously gain a tail in place of legs, they can also return to a human form if brought to land, although they can only communicate in English while underwater, requiring the Cullens to learn Mermish through Edward translating based on the characters' thoughts (characters speculate that they could make a "mask" that would allow Bella to talk by placing water over her mouth, but no such mask is created in the narrative). - What The Water Gave Me: Mermaids are an all-female race of creatures that have a powerful, hypnotic song and a taste for human flesh (especially men). They lure sailors along, then they snatch them up, mate with them and then eat them. Despite this, they do possess intelligence and personalities close to humans, with the power to imbue humans the power to breath underwater through a kiss and the even worship a mystical force they call "the Water", which turned Hiccup, Valka and Astrid into merpeople. Hiccup is currently the only merman in existence. - Any of the many, many, derivatives of The Little Mermaid always use "The Little Mermaid Method" of course. - The most famous being Disney's, which features a time limitation (three days), a price (like always, her voice), and a clause which means Ariel turns into a polyp if she can't get Eric to kiss her in time. Note that this is all due to Ursula's plot; it's not a limitation of the spell (either that or Triton has more powerful magic). - Ursula herself has purplish skin (with the rest of the merfolk showing normal human skin-tones) and an octopus bottom. Even stranger because she was originally meant to be Ariel's aunt in earlier versions. note : Once Upon a Time which is non-canon, but features Disney characters anyway, gives Ursula a backstory — that she used to be a traditional mermaid but used the trident to change her tail to the more familiar octopus bottom. The sequel gives her a sister, Morgana, who also has an octopus design (or maybe squid, since she's skinnier) and greenish skin. - The Nightmare Before Christmas has an "Underwater Gal" as a scene-stealing minor character. She is essentially a Mermaid-as-Monster-Girl. - Onward shows a few, though none are named or given lines (despite the "kiddie pool" one from the trailer becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse). They're pretty standard, but with some added fishy features on their human halves, including fin-like ears. - Interestingly, the mermaids in Disney's Peter Pan are of the "dangerously amoral" type, especially for its time. Their shell bras are much more "realistic" than Ariel's, who came later; they're not held on by any straps, they're just sea-creatures attached to the mermaids' chests. One of them is quite obviously only covered by a flower lei, and another by her hair. When Wendy meets them, they attack her. When Peter calls them on this, one of them protests, "We were only trying to drown her!" By the time The Little Mermaid came around, Disney had toned down its mermaids quite a bit, and no one seems to remember the ones from Peter Pan. - Luca has humanoid sea monsters, who are able to change into humans when on dry land. - In Turning Red, Mei draws Devon and later imagines Robaire as mermen. Their top halves are entirely human and transition from skin to scales below their belly buttons. - Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken depicts Mermaids as power-hungry narcissists and bullies. The apparent Big Bad of the film, a mermaid named Chelsea, is an arrogant Alpha Bitch who has almost the entire school swooning over her. Mermaids apparently also turn human on land via (as-yet-)unknown means. - It varies kingdom to kingdom in Aquaman (2018). Atlantians and Xebelians look like standard humans, while others evolved further when Atlantis fell into the sea: the Fishermen are fish-like humanoids, the citizens of the Kingdom of the Brine evolved to look like crustaceans, and the Trench regressed into what look like violent, animalistic human-anglerfish hybrids. The Kingdom Beyond the Sea and the Desert Kingdom are both long since abandoned, although, given the statues in the latter, the Deserters may have stayed humanoid when Atlantis fell. - The film version of Aquamarine follows "The Splash Method" — but see Literature below. She also has to turn back into a mermaid after sunset so she takes up residence in the town's water tower each night. She's also able to grant a wish to any human that helps her. As long as "it doesn't violate the laws of physics". - There's a running joke in The Cabin in the Woods about one character's desire to see a "merman." His partner replies, "Why? Those things are terrifying." \|\|He does eventually get to see one... shortly before it eats him, causing him to let out an exasperated "oh, come on!" as his last words.\|\| - The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Now, now, he is ugly and lives in The Amazon Rainforest rather than the sea — but he IS still technically a merman. - Dagon starts with the protagonist having a dream about a classic mermaid, only that it turns out she had sharp teeth. Later in the movie, he meets that mermaid... \|\|but she does not look like a typical mermaid or have the fangs she had in the dream. She looks like a human with gills along her ribs and a long, squid-like tentacle in place of each leg\|\|. She was also \|\|his half-sister\|\| and \|\|wanted him to marry her\|\|. Don't blame H. P. Lovecraft; none of this was in the book. - Deadtime Stories: Volume 1: In "Wet", mermaids are evil creatures with a taste for men's flesh. They can only be destroyed by hacking them apart and burying the pieces separately sealed inside special jade boxes called 'mori tombs'. - The live-action film Hook, which has Peter Pan revisiting Neverland as an adult, has a brief scene with a trio of mermaids. They appear as half-beautiful woman, half-fish creatures with brightly-colored hair, each giving Peter a kiss to give him air before sending him up to the Lost Boys' camp in a giant oyster. - The Lighthouse features a single mermaid, first seen in a (possible) dream sequence swimming in the ocean, then found by Robert Pattinson's character stranded and covered in seaweed where he examines her and finds that this particular mermaid avoids Mermaid Problem by having what can be best described as a "fin vulva". While he is originally horrified, he eventually has sex with her, and she appears finally during one climatic scene. Or maybe he imagined all of that. - In Local Hero, the mermaid Marina only has webbed toes. Or maybe she's just a woman with webbed toes. - The Made-for-PAX-TV Movie Mermaids (not to be confused with the 1980s Cher vehicle — which has nothing to do with mermaids) features the "Splash Method," with an added complication: the protagonists also turn into mermaids at low tide every night. They're also bound by some kind of natural law to grant wishes for humans. If a human says "I wish" within their presence, they're forced to grant it. - The Mermaid have a community of merfolk who can form-shift into having human legs, but must train from birth to achieve that effect. They must also learn walking on human legs to effectively blend with society; meanwhile, the merfolk's leader, a mer-octopus, have the ability to blend with humans by turning his tentacles into legs hidden in trousers. - The Animal Planet Mockumentary Mermaids: The Body Found attempts to speculate how mermaids could have evolved (with a heavy amount of Artistic License Biology) by presenting the idea that they are descended from apes that adapted to a more aquatic lifestyle. - A 2014 film called Nymph features a villainous mermaid as its monster. She hypnotizes a hermit into murdering people to presumably feed to her. She's also able to change from a beautiful woman to a scary demon at will. - In Pan mermaids feature briefly when the protagonists take a trip to their lagoon and they save Peter from drowning. Their tails glow and they appear to be identical in appearance — as they're all played by the same actress. - In Finnish comedy film Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä ("Pekka and Pätkä as Frogmen") The protagonists have been drafted to Navy as combat divers. Pekka, while practicing SCUBA diving, rescues a mermaid who has stuck on fishing nets. He takes her to his home and puts her in bathtub. When Pekka's wife, Justiina, arrives from grocer's, \|\|she initially sees her tail, and thinks Pekka has brought a humongous pike for dinner, and takes a knife to prepare her for dinner. But when she sees the tail belongs to a real mermaid, she faints from shock\|\|. - The 2003 film version of Peter Pan featured mermaids that look to simply be beautiful half-naked women with fish-tails; you don't notice the claws and the needle-sharp teeth at first. - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides features pretty naked women with fishtails...who also have fangs and will rape you (given that there's no men, it's apparently the only way they can supply their numbers) and eat you until there's nothing left. If you're lucky, you drown before the latter happens. But ignoring that, they can be very nice. - They are also strong enough that in large groups they can tear an entire wooden ship apart in moments. - Their fins can turn into legs if on land, but they don't do this very often, so they aren't very good at at it. Also, despite being aquatic creatures, they need air to breathe. But will apparently dry out and die if left out of water for too long. - They can also shoot seaweed out of their hands like Spider-Man. - In the British diving movie Pressure, one of the divers has a hallucination of a naked young woman swimming freely in the deep sea. She embraces him, and then bites into his neck. - Made-for-TV Movie Sabrina Down Under has a merperson colony. It follows "The Little Mermaid Method"; no payment but there is a time limitation on Sabrina's spell which turns merman Barnaby human. Mermaids are also susceptible to diseases that fish get as a result of toxic waste being dumped into the ocean. - The second Sharktopus sequel was originally intended to sic the title creature on a "Mermantula". Averted when this concept was replaced with a "Whalewolf". - The mermaid in She Creature \|\|has the ability to grant fertility by possessing women during sex. She does this to the female protagonist Lily, whom she spared from the massacre of the crew\|\|. - Splash, obviously. Daryl Hannah plays the mermaid in question and much hijinx comes from her trying to pass herself as a human to her love interest (played by Tom Hanks). She transforms whenever her legs get wet. - The Made-for-TV Movie The Thirteenth Year has its mermaids and mermen appear as normal human children up until their 13th birthday, upon which they begin to go through a fishy puberty where they acquire a mishmash of marine animal abilities. In addition to becoming able to swim very well and hold his breath underwater for several minutes, the lead character starts to grow scales on his arms, discovers he can scale walls thanks to octopus powers, and discovers he can produce electricity thanks to electric eel heritage. And this is all before his legs become a fishy tail. That still doesn't explain why he swims like a dolphin rather than any normal stroke (he is on his high school swim team) before the transformation. - Jin and Shau from Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet are alien mermaids. They hail from a distant galaxy after their homeworld was destroyed by the alien monster Sandros, taking refuge in Earth's oceans, and can shapeshift voluntarily between mermaid and human forms at will. Shau in fact makes her debut rescuing protagonist Haruno from drowning as a mermaid. - Zoolander has Ben Stiller appear as a mer man in a TV commercial. - The Bininj Gun-Wok and Gunwinggu cultures have the Yawkyawk, which are often depicted as women with seaweed hair but can shapeshift into any aquatic animal like dugongs and swordfish. They are sea gods in their own right, controling the waves and weather. They are married to Ngalyod, the Lord of the Ocean and a deity often shoved into the horrific umbrella term that is the "Rainbow Serpent". - In The Achilleid, Amphibious people called "tritons" follow Neptune as he rides through the ocean, managing to cheerfully sing underwater despite lacking air and being surrounded on all sides by horrifying Sea Monsters. - Nautical Folklore: - In some variations, it is possible to take a mermaid captive by stealing an item of magic, thus keeping her captive. Because Abduction Is Love, she will often marry the man who did this and raise a loving family. But, she will spend all her spare time trying to find it, and once found she will swim away. - Those who are nice to stranded mermaids on the other hand receive kindness from them. One Scottish boatbuilder rescued a stranded mermaid and wished that no boat he built would ever sink. His family's boats are, according to one version, famous through large parts of Scotland. - The Encantados from Brazilian Folklore are basically magical, shapeshifting river dolphins, who like to assume human form to enjoy our parties, alcohol, and women. Unlike most examples here, they are nearly Always Male. - Also from Brazil, there is the Iara, who is closer to European mermaids, being a woman with the lower body of a fish, dolphin or other aquatic creature, with a mesmerizing voice. - The ipupiara is an older myth, about an aggressive humanoid monster that kills fishers and swimmers. - Japanese Mythology: - The Ningyo. These are mermaids, but their bodies look rather animal-like, only the faces are human. - The Sazaeoni, which have the lower body of a sea snail. And in contrast to the Ningyo, they are mostly evil. - The Philippines' mermaid folklore was extremely grim before the Spanish arrived: While some Filipino merfolk are scary-looking Fish People, others are Apparently Human Merfolk, and still others are the standard "top-half-human, bottom-half-fish" variety, all of them are primarily known for eating people. Or sacrificing them to the water-gods, which is no less unpleasant. - In Slavic Mythology there is the Mermaid of Warsaw. She was disrupting the fishing nets of local fishermen, but upon hearing her song, they let her go. A greedy merchant didn't, however, and captured her to perform at a fair. Luckily one of the fishermen's kids heard her one day, freed her, and she vowed to protect Warsaw from then on. - The Syrian goddess Atargatis, often also known as Derceto, was often represented as the standard top-half-human, bottom-half-fish even if alternatives as her being entirely fish-like except for her arms and face also existed. - African Mythology: In West African mythology, mermaids (aka Mami Wata) are beautiful water spirits, usually female (but sometimes male). They may appear friendly, but they can also be malicious. However foreign depictions of mermaids such as in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) are still popular because, after all, Their Mermaids Are Different. - Celtic Mythology: - Barracora is remembered for its unabashedly unconventional, Giger-esque mermaids. - Fathom has sea nymphs with webbed fingers, prehensile serpentine tails, large dorsal fins, and a psychotic tendency to drown anyone they can get their hands on. - Williams Electronics' Fish Tales has a beautiful mermaid on the side of the backbox and the far wall of the playfield. - One of the worlds the Sequinox team is sent to in the Gemini arc turns them into merfolk, with each resembling a different sea creature. Chell's a squid, Sid's a nurse shark, Hannah's a betta fish, and Yuki's a dolphin. Gemini herself is a kraken. - Changeling: The Dreaming has the Kithain Merfolk and the Thallain Murdhuacha (pronounced mer-RU-ka). The Merfolk are what one generally thinks about when one thinks mermaid: their lower halves are of various bony fish (except for House Melsinee, who instead take the form of air-breathing marine mammals and reptiles). The Murdhuacha are merged with crustaceans, mollusks, and other seagoing invertebrates. When either kith takes to land, their lower halves automatically turn into legs — the Merfolk resemble Sidhe with their otherworldly beauty, while the Murdhuacha are disturbing enough they can momentarily freeze people in their tracks. - There's also a bit of horror, as the Merfolk and Murdhuacha are trying to fight off the game's constantly-oppressive force of Banality. Any changeling who succumbs to Banality loses all access to their fae abilities and forgets all about their second life. Imagine being one of them, and coming to in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... about five hundred feet down. - The French-language Le Monde des Tenebres: France has the Morganed kith, who are similar but not identical to the mer: they're able to draw humans to them with their songs, and need to spend time in salt water every day or lose Glamour. They associate themselves with land-dwellers more than the isolationist Merfolk do, aligning themselves with the overland courts of the Sidhe rather than the undersea courts of the Merfolk. Thanks to a Kickstarter stretch goal, they got included in the 20th anniversary corebook for Dreaming. - The New World of Darkness variant, Changeling: The Lost, has the Swimmerskin type of Changeling. They can breathe underwater with a point of Glamour (their "mana", powered by emotions), but cannot breathe air unless they spend another point of Glamour or let the first power expire. There's also an Elemental version, but those aren't Merfolk. - Beast: The Primordial has the Makara, a Family of Beast covering Sea Monsters in general. These include Mermaids and Sirens, and two of their Atavisms reflects abilities commonly associated with them. - One of the New World of Darkness fan-supplements, Siren: The Drowning, stars their own take on this trope. Here, Sirens, also known as the Surfaced, are humans who were transformed by the Song, and are supposed to prevent The End of the World as We Know It by using their abilities to stop all its potential causes. In term of appearance and personalities, they are as varied as any human can be, and can be based on pretty much any aquatic life form, be monstrous or beautiful, aggressive or nice. They all have the ability to switch between two forms: a human one, which allows them to go around among humans and live out of water, and a Diluvian form, which possesses Natural Weapons and is much more powerful, but only truly effective when underwater. They also have the ability to use Magic Music through their song to various effects, including but not limited to charming mortals. - Cthulhutech has the same Deep Ones as anything else Lovecraft-related, but this time they brainwash small settlements to produce offspring, rather than their standard dependence method. And now they're out to find Cthulhu. - Dungeons & Dragons: Generally speaking, if there's a race that walks on land, there's an aquatic variant. If there isn't, templates exist to make them. - True merfolk are the common human-with-a-tail version; 5E gives their humanoid halves blue skin and fins on their forearms and instead of hair. They're isolationist and reclusive, and often raise large fish like sharks and barracudas as attack dogs and mounts. - "Merrow", depending on the setting and edition, can refer to a number of different things: - In Mystara, merrow are just the local merfolk. They can breed with humans (solving the Mermaid Problem via shapechanging by one or the other), and the Queen of Aquas, half-sister of the heir to the Empire of Alphatia, is half-merrow on her mother's side. - In the default game up to 3rd edition, merrow are marine ogres with green skin, fish scales, and webbed hands and feet. They resemble hulking, monstrous merfolk, with prominent fangs, fishlike heads, and catfish-like barbels growing from their lower jaws. They're vicious raiders, and gleefully attack other marine species and coastal settlements alike. - In 5th Edition, merrow descend from a tribe of merfolk that was corrupted by the worship of the demon prince Demogorgon. - Tritons are distinct from merfolk, having more Lawful and ordered societies and either — depending on the art and edition — a pair of fish tails instead of legs or webbed and finned feet. - Sea giants are essentially giant-sized merfolk, and can turn their tails into legs to walk about on land — a trait true merfolk lack, notably. - There are several races of the aquatic humanoid with fins variety, such as sea-elves, sea-trolls (scrags), sea-ghouls (lacedons), and so on and so forth. - Eclipse Phase: Selkie morphs usually look like human-seal hybrids, but there's rumors that someone made a variant that looks like a drop-dead gorgeous mermaid. - Pathfinder: Merfolk, physically the standard type, are highly reclusive and xenophobic ocean-dwellers. They typically keep to themselves and avoid contact with other races, whether terrestrial or aquatic, and tend to attack intruders in their territories. They're also one of the numerous species engineered as slaves, servants and agents by the aboleths, who refer to them as sapiaquali-oths, and these are the only species that the merfolk consider to be their allies. - Res Arcana: The Mermaid is a woman with a Seashell Bra a fish-like tails in place of legs. She has the rare ability to infuse a component with one of the listed elements (Calm, Life or Gold — notably not Pearls). - Rifts manages to pull off just about all Mer-types. In addition to the traditional mermaid/man, you also have random aquatic species, and the Amphibs, human mutants who range in appearance from Black Lagoon-like to Fish-headed. - RuneQuest: Merfolk are descended from ancient water deities, and are divided into two main groups, the Cetoi and the Piscoi, based on which side of a divine conflict their ancestors took part in. Most need to breathe air, but only once every hour or so. - The Cetoi descend from deities that allied with the Storm gods. They resemble sea mammals, and are generally friendly to land-dwellers. They include the dolphin-bodied Ludoch and the rarer, walrus-like (but tuskless) Ouori of the northern ice shelves. Both are largely benevolent and friendly to humans who win their trust, but the Ouori are very reclusive and prefer to flee when approached by strangers. - The Piscoi descend from deities that fought the Storm gods and were defeated. They are scaly and fishlike, and hostile to both surface-dwellers and the Cetoi. They include the huge, monstrous Gnydron, the last merfolk to still breathe water, which haunt the depths of the ocean; the Malasp, the most common Piscoi breed, who hate all air-breathers (including themselves); and the Ysabbau, the most physically alien and monstrous breed, who bitterly hate humans and attack or sabotage ships at every chance they have. - The Zabdamar are an unusual race neither Ceoti nor Piscoi, descended from a sea goddess and a human prince. Their women are classic mermaids, while their men look like especially ugly toothless walruses. They are powerful magicians, but very rare and reclusive. - Shadowrun: Merrows and mermaids are, respectively, Awakened seals and sea lions provided with arms and clawed and webbed hands (merrows have thumbs, mermaids do not), anthropoid upper bodies and long hair, although their faces are still those of pinnipeds. In mermaids, both sexes possess pronounced breasts. Merrows come in both salt- and freshwater varieties. Both species are found worldwide in warm and temperate seas, and mermaids are both highly tolerant of and dependent on pollution — like several other Sixth World species, they reacted to rampant environmental degradation by becoming so well-adapted to it as to be unable to survive without it. In mermaids' case, they're entirely unable to survive without a constant intake of mercury in their diets. - Warhammer games: - Dreadfleet: The background material for the pirate captain Aranessa Saltspite relates that she was born a mutant with her legs fused together into a scaled, fish-like tail below the knee so that she appeared to be a mermaid. When she grew older Aranessa amputated her mutated legs and replaced them with swordfish blades so that she wouldn't be hated by human society. - Warhammer: - While they rarely appear outside of Gaiden Games, mermaids are mentioned in the lore, with the port city of Marienburg having a sword-wielding mermaid on its coat of arms for instance. - A giant, crowned and trident-wielding merman called Triton is said to be the last of a race of demigods or sea-giants who ruled the seas in ancient times and taught the elves the art of seafaring. He now deeply hates the Druchii for twisting his teachings to dark ends. - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Regular mermaids resemble human or elven women with clawed hands and fish tails instead of legs, and can range from being supernaturally beautiful to twisted, monstrous and hag-like. Scholars believe them to be Chaos mutants who stabilized enough to breed true, while Kislevites call them rusalkis and believe them to be the ghosts of drowned women come to lure the unwary to watery graves. They live along rocky coasts and use hypnotic songs to lure ships onto reefs for the sheer hell of it, utilize little technology beyond crude stone tools, and worship Triton. - As the third-party Dungeons & Dragons setting of Seas Of Vodari is an Ocean Punk setting, there are naturally a wide variety of subaquatic humanoid cultures, depending on how far you want to stretch the definition of "merfolk". - The actual merfolk are amphibious humanoids with a fish-like tail in lieu of legs. They're more "fishy looking" than in classic D&D settings, with their whole bodies covered in scales, webbed fingers, small fins on their elbows, large fin-like ears, and complicated fin structures on their heads that resemble hair. They're divided into two subraces: Sunreach merfolk occupy the highest portion of the ocean, are extremely brightly colored, have the innate ability to transform their fin into humanoid legs so they can explore the surface, and are able to speak fluent animal. In comparison, the Twilight merfolk, who occupy the deeper zones where light starts failing to reach, are darker colored, have limited bioluminescence, are faster swimmers and are supernaturally resistant to the cold. Both subraces are clan-based societies, but the cultural divide between them is considerable, with a starting basis that sunreachers are expressive and extroverted, but twilighters are more introverted and stoic. - Cecaelia are the classic "octopus-folk" variety of Unscaled Merfolk. Their upper bodies are very similar to those of the standard merfolk of the setting, but like the octopi they resemble, they have the innate ability to alter the coloration of their skin, with a predilection for tones of red, orange and purple. They are one of the shortest lived races in the setting, with a maximum lifespan of about 60 years, and this coupled with their naturally high intelligence and curiosity makes them a very outgoing people; the typical cecaelia reaches adulthood at 16 and then leaves the hidden villages of their people, intent on cramming as much exploration and discovery into their life before they reach their twilight years, where they will return to the village, breed, and raise the next generation before expiring. - Tiburons are a cross between merfolk and sharkfolk, having the upper body of a humanoid shark and the tail of a great shark in place of legs, in the traditional merfolk bodystyle. Whilst they are a nomadic culture of hunters and have an intimidating appearance, they are actually not an evil race - something that separates them from their distant sahuagin cousins. In fact, they tend to follow a very strict code of honor. Unlike merfolk, tiburons are unable to breath in non-aquatic environments, making them the only species of subaquatic humanoids unable to explore the surface. - Grindylows almost look like a cross between the aforementioned cecaelia and tiburons, having a humanoid upper torso, eight octopus tentacles in lieu of legs, and the head of an anthropomorphic shark. Culturally, they could be considered being subaquatic Vodari's goblins; they are a race largely made up of fearless nomadic scavengers whose general indifference to the rules of settled races keeps them on the fringes of society and gives them a (rather overstated) reputation as bandits and raiders. - Selkies are a race of aquatic coastal and oceanic fey from the northern regions of Vodari, who can shapeshift between the forms of a large seal and a human, although both forms can breathe water and are naturally superb swimmers. They live in nomadic family groups and are characterized as friendly, kind-hearted and helpful, but with a tendency to fall in love quickly and easily — which can often turn tragic, given the strong curiosity and wanderlust that most selkies wrestle with. - Sirens are a race of aquatic fey who largely inhabit the coastal and shallow depth zones of the ocean, resembling elves with light blue to deep indigo hair and turquoise to indigo skin, gill-slits in their neck, webbed hands and feet, and small fins on their calves and forearms. Like merfolk, they're divided into two subraces; seasingers are the more infamous "natural enchanter" types, with supernatural charisma and the ability to create a Charm Person effect by singing, whilst wavedancers are supernaturally agile and can shapeshift their legs into a merfolk-like tail, which grants them greater speed and maneuverability underwaer. Seasingers tend to prefer life on the shoreline or even inland, whilst wavedancers are more connected to Vodari's subaquatic world. - Vodas resemble sirens at a glance, being bright blue to deep purple skinned amphibious humanoids with webbed hands and feet, small fins on calves and forearms, and finlike "head tresses" in lieu of hair. However, vodas are natural shapeshifters, able to adopt the forms of any other humanoid they wish, and this combined with their inquisitive natures and affinity for both the surface and the subaquatic means they are arguably the single-most widely spread race across Vodari's many biomes. - Finally, there are the "technical merfolk", in the form of the subaquatic subraces of elves, dwarves and dragonborn. Quessari, or "sea elves", are the standard for D&D; bluish-green elves with gills and webbed digits who inhabit the subaquatic regions of Vodari. Aurirn, or "sea dwarves", are a dwarven analogue to sea elves; the mutated descendants of dwarves who attempted to mine subaquatic geothermal vents, causing them to develop gills, webbed digits, and a distinct blue-green color (as well as a tolerance for extreme heat). Finally, sea dragonborn are an amphibious offshoot of the dragonborn race related to sea dragons, which allows them to breathe underwater and gives them a steam-based Breath Weapon. - In the summer of 2019, an adorable blue mer-bear◊ was made available at participating Build A Bear Workshop stores. - Dolls in the "Merwees" collection (somewhat similar to Polly Pocket, except the dolls were about 3x the size) would change from "human" to "mermaid" when in warm water. They could be changed back (to resemble a human woman wearing leggings) by running them under cold water, or simply leaving them out. - My Little Pony: The second year of Generation 1 introduced three new types of ponies to diversify the all-Earth Pony cast of the first year, those being Unicorn Ponies, Pegasus Ponies, and Sea Ponies. Sea Ponies are seahorse-based Little Ponies and for years were the mermaid equivalent of Little Ponies. Then came the eleventh year, which coincided with the release of My Pretty Mermaids, and the Fancy Mermaid Ponies hit the market. These are literally mermaid versions of Little Ponies. As well, the fifth year introduced the Pony Friends, animals like the Little Ponies but not ponies. What appears to be a Toyless Toyline Character of that kind is a seahorse queen that appears in one of the comics. - My Pretty Mermaids was a 1991 Spin-Off of My Little Pony and that's quite what its mermaids were: ponies in mermaid form. No limit on colors as long as they stood out, name designs on their fins, very few guys, and composite word names. - Tamagotchi: - Ningyotchi from the Tamagotchi Ocean is a simple mermaid with no ability to shapeshift into a human. She does long for a handsome prince, though. - Pichipitchi is another Tamagotchi that looks like a mermaid who debuted on the Tamagotchi iDL. She can apparently walk on land on the tip of her tail. - In Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse, the oasis near Zaratan is home to a pahari, who can turn from mermaid-like to human at will. She provides you with a certain amount of help, and also turns out to be married to the sorcerer Farid Al-Mutan, who provides more assistance later on. - In At Night in a Party: The Whisper of the Sea, \|\|the titular Whisper of the Sea that summoned Karin to its aid from deep within a sunken shipwreck turns out to be a magical redheaded mermaid named Rittie. Upon rescuing her from the shipwreck, she becomes the last of the three items in the game that triples the length of Karin's Oxygen Meter, and also allows the player to view the game's Golden Ending where Karin successfully escapes from the shipwreck, and from there is prevented from drowning too soon thanks to Rittie's powers\|\|. - Atlantis Underwater Tycoon gives you the opportunity to attract traditional mermaids to your city distinct from the more Fish People-like Atlanteans. - Mermen in Battle for Wesnoth, even if they're doomed to the supplementary in most campaigns, still are a major playable race. A good spectrum of units (3 branched advancement trees covering all main roles) fast and powerful in their own environment, but weakened on the ground. - Bust A Move 4 has Marino, a merboy prince with a golden trident that he can use to summon waves. His hair appears to be made of ocean waves. - In Chrono Cross, mermaids (but no known mermen) are considered ordinary, albeit aquatic, demi-humans. They do not transform on land but can still somehow transport themselves as though walking (necessary for the playable character Irenes), and they can have children with humans (in fact, two of the other playable characters are Irenes's nephew and niece.) The children appear perfectly human (although the son is mentioned to be inhumanly beautiful). No explanation for any of this is even attempted. - Black Pearl Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom is a gargantuan black mermaid Cookie that haunts the Duskgloom sea. This murderous entity has the habit of indiscriminately sinking every ship she comes across and now sits on a throne made of the countless shipwrecks she sunk over the years. She is so unnaturally huge that even her head alone dwarves entire ships. - Cuphead has a huge mermaid called Cala Maria. Once she takes enough damage, she becomes a gorgon after two of her eel minions shock her. She's also shown to be able to go on land in the good ending. Also, unlike in classic mythology, mermaids apparently DO have immortal souls in Cuphead, as Cala Maria sold hers to the Devil for an unknown reason, and is one of his runaway debtors. - The Mermen race in Darkstalkers are an odd mix of the traditional beautiful merpeople, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Lovecraftian Deep Ones. They have disturbingly beautiful faces, webbed claws for feet and hands, come in a multitude of rainbow colors, and can transform their body parts to mimic the appearance and abilities of any other sea creature — although usually on a bigger scale. - The 'Freemium' game Dawn of the Dragons recently added Merfolk (both male and female). One Merfolk Unique Character has flavor text in her entry about her being captured by fishermen, shifting her tail to legs at will to escape the net, then being told to put her tail back as she "is more valuable with the tail whole". - Dislyte: Biondina is the host of the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and as such has been transformed into a silvery mermaid, with a tail that's several times the length of her torso. When attacking, she'll move up to enemies by slithering around. - The Death in the Water games have sirens, as the "evil" variety of mermaids depicted as fish-women hybrids who attacks you on sight with their harpoons. They also look creepy as hell◊. - Mermpeople in Dragon Quest XI live for five hundred years and are subject to Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism. Mermaids have the traditional human upper body with a fish tail. Mermen are rather ugly Fish People who walk on the ocean floor with two legs. In a Shout-Out to the Hans Christian Anderson story, mermaids can become human if they fall in love with a human man, but if they get wet after doing so they turn to foam. - In Dungeon Crawl, Merfolk are one of the many playable races. Among other things, they're absolutely deadly with polearms and are the only race aside from octopodes without Super Drowning Skills; their legs turn back into tails when they enter the water. Hostile ones show up in the Shoals, toting the supposedly-forgotten water magic and hypnotic sirens. - There are merpersons in Dwarf Fortress. Their bones used to be worth as much as dragon bone, though as they're sentient, the game won't let you butcher them. For a while, players were bypassing the "no butchering sentients" rule to get valuable mer-bone anyway, by \|\|building "mermaid farm" machines that would trap merfolk until they bred, then beach the offspring so they died and their bones rotted clean\|\|. As much as the fanbase loves their Video Game Cruelty Potential, this was seen as too much even for them, and Toady One ended it by decreasing their value to the default. - Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City has mermaids appear in the form of \|\|the Deep Ones, which are the spawn of an alien Eldritch Abomination\|\|. - In E.V.O.: Search for Eden, you are able to become a mermaid, albeit only temporarily, in the last age by stepping into the ocean off the southmost point of South America. While you're first given a workable amphibian version of whatever you've evolved into, you now have the option to "evolve hands and feet"; doing so will turn you into a seal, then a dolphin, then... something the Let's Play titled "Abomination" for a good reason◊, and then blonde mermaid. It's not clear which gender you are, but you apparently attack with devastating effect by kissing your foes. Also, since you cannot evolve further, you cannot replenish HP by minor evolutions, making the boss fight a good deal more difficult. Of course, since you're an evolutionary dead end, once you've defeated the local boss you're returned to the shore as the creature you entered with. - EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: The mer people of Deep Heaven fall under two varieties: adorable half-human hybrids of various sea life, or Fish People. The Half-Human Hybrid types also opt away from "top half, bottom half" style mermaids and more incorporate the animal into their design: the lobster merfolk is covered in red lobster shells akin to armour, and the octopus girl has the tentacles coming out of her back. - Final Fantasy uses typical girls-with-fishy-bottoms mermaids as NPCs in the first game, but somewhere along the way someone decided that they may have been a bit too much of a cliche fantasy element and they haven't appeared in a game since (unless you count the totally-not-Gungans Hypello in Final Fantasy X.) - Mermaids in Genjuu Ryodan can use music to put units into sleep and have the same movement range as foot units without needing to transform their tails into legs at all. - In Harvest Moon DS, one of the special girlfriends is a mermaid. Or at least she would be special if they didn't explain how to get her in the manual. She can't transform and if you want to marry her (yes, you can marry her) you have to build a pond on your farm first. - Harvest Town features a merman who can fly across lands to travel between his beach abode and the lake/river water, and can hang out on land for several hours. According to his bio, merpeople of the game's universe can also control weather. - There's no limitations on Donald's easily reversible spell that allows Team Keyblade to go to Atlantica in the Kingdom Hearts gamesbut it does turn Sora, Donald and Goofy into different merfolk than Ariel and Triton. They become human/dolphin, duck/octopus, and dogface/turtle. - Kingdom of Loathing has the Mer-kin, a race of nasty, xenophobic merfolk who worship Lovecraftian horrors. It should be noted that the word "merkin" has a real-world meaning. \|\|It's a pubic wig. No, really.\|\| - The King's Quest series has two mermaids: one in King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne and the other in King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! The first's colouring bears an uncanny resemblance to Disney's Ariel, whilst the second is blonde and friends with a beach-hermit. Both are voiceless and have minor roles in the game. - Nami the Tidecaller from League of Legends is a member of a mermaid race called the Marai. As well as being rather more fish-like than the usual mermaid (they have pale-skinned humanoid faces and arms, but at least their females have a coat of scales with a Navel-Deep Neckline covering their Non-Mammal Mammaries) they also live so deep in the ocean that the light of the sun and moon cannot reach them and they know nothing of the surface world. Nami, at least, can cross land by floating on a small personal vortex of water. After a lore Retcon, the Marai are now a subrace of Vastaya, half-breeds whose ancestors used to be human before magically adopting animal traits. - The Legend of Zelda has the Zoras. They have legs with flippers, sea-resistant skin, and can breathe underwater. They have the tail of the aquatic animal they're based on instead of hair. They are able to live on land, but can dehydrate quickly. - And it's implied that they can interbreed with Hylians. Or at least, relationships between the two races aren't unusual. Neither Ruto in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time nor the girl running the treasure box maze game in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask nor Mipha in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are portrayed as out of the ordinary for their Zora affection. - It's heavily implied that one of the Rito (evolved Zoras) in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker had a human ancestor. There must have been a marriage somewhere in the line, though it's unclear whether it happened before the Zora became Rito or afterwards. - Less pleasant are the "River Zoras" (as they are called in Oracle of Ages), also known as "Zolas" due to a difference in translation, which are green, fish-headed and pop out of the water to shoot fireballs at you. Technically the River Zoras predate the friendlier Sea Zoras, but the latter became more popular. - There's also Martha, a more traditional mermaid, in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. - Mermaids in Lunarosse can turn into humans if kept out of land too long and change back when submerged in water. And if they fall in love with a human, the heartbreak of their death turns them into seafoam. Oh, and their tears can be weaponized due to their magical content. - In Mega Man 9, Splash Woman's look is based on the regular mermaid—female human on top/fish tail on the bottom. She sings to call in a few waves of fish robots and uses a laser trident. - The Undines from Monster Rancher 2 have a transparent, Jell-like appearance and use both water and ice based attacks. - In the Japanese island horror Playstation game Ningyo No Rakuin, when they're not sacrificing people, an evil cult is taking ordinary girls and turning them into mermaids through alchemy. These ex-human mermaids have fin-like growths on the sides of their arms and heads. - No Straight Roads has Sayu, a mermaid that is a virtual idol \|\|piloted by four kids that designed her\|\|. - Ōkamiden allows the player to have a mermaid girl as their partner. She looks like a traditional mermaid, but she has the Dragonians' fin-ears. - In Overlord II Mermaids appear as enemies. They're all rather fat compared to other examples, and their tails resemble a pufferfish. As expected, a main attack of theirs is to inflate. - Pokémon: - Vaporeon is a Pokémon based on a mythical creature in Singapore folklore called a "Merlion" (think upper body of a lion and lower body of a fish). It's also a walking Visual Pun in the sense that it's a feline-like creature with fish-like traits. In other words, either a "Catfish" or a "Sea Lion." - Milotic somewhat resembles a mermaid because of its hair-like fins, pale upper body, and scaled lower body. - The Seashell Bra on Gorebyss makes it resemble a mermaid. - While Pokémon Sun and Moon's Popplio line of water-type starter Pokémon starts out as a sea lion clown, its clown motif is gradually phased out as it evolves in favor of a mermaid motif. - Quest for Glory V has the Merfolk, but they are just the standard fishy bottom, human top variety. - RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore: While on the floating city of Jenua, Remi can ask Lore if the world they're in, Ragnoah, has mermaids, since it's so fantastical to her. He, who has studied some things about Earth, responds that there are mermaids, but they're "different" than what Remi imagines. How they're different is not mentioned, at least not in that conversation. - Rune Factory 3 features Persia, who transforms by the splash method. - SaGa Frontier has Mesarathim, a grey-skinned mermaid who, like Irenes in Chrono Cross, spends more time out of water than in, although she'd like to change this. - The mermaid we meet in the Telltale Sam & Max: Freelance Police games is completely human in appearance (save for oddly-coloured hair), and (by Word of God) basically immortal, except for accidents. She's also psychotically evil, but that's probably not a mermaid thing. She's not really a mermaid either. Her outfit has a distinct mermaid theme to it, but that's neither here nor there. \|\|She's actually an unholy golem created from an infernal recipe called "The Cake Of The Damned", and why the ambulatory form of The Cake Of The Damned should be a psychotically evil, attractive young lady in a mermaid-themed outfit is for the writers to know and us to never find out.\|\| At least, \|\|that appears to be the case until episode 305 apparently, and somewhat confusingly, Retcons the above, making her actually a mermaid\|\|. - Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Mermaids appear as enemies in the aptly named Mermaid Cliffs. They look pretty standard save for the green skin, and they can shoot bubbles with their tridents and dive into puddles to avoid attacks. However, when they die, they shrivel up and turn into a tiny fish before disappearing. The title character eventually gains the ability to turn into a mermaid, and can shoot bubbles underwater, but on land can only flop along (there is even an achievement for crossing an entire land level while in mermaid form). In the sequel Half-Genie Hero, Shantae finds herself investigating Mermaid attacks in an area where several girls have disappeared. She finds a factory where the missing girls are loaded onto a conveyor, and large fish glommed onto their hips to turn them into fake mermaids. It turns out that \|\|Techno Baron has been trying to turn Mermaids into food for other monsters, and making fake mermaids to fill out his orders. He's also captured the Mermaids' Queen, the whale-sized Giga Mermaid, who is not happy\|\|. After freeing and calming down the Giga Mermaid, Mermaids cease to appear as enemies, even on return trips to the same stage. - Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid: The goddess Aphrodite created the world and the merpeople or Meremanoid. The Meremanoid are your standard mermaids physically, but socially they are a matriarchy in honor of Aphrodite. They also rule the world as there are no humans in this world, and they do so with fancy weapon tricks and powerful magic. Prophecy has it that one of these merpeople is the dreaded Destroyer who will usher in an apocalypse, unfortunately due to the lack of gender in their language they don't know who it is. - The Sims 3: Mermaids are introduced in the Island Paradise Expansion Pack. While in water, mermaids have fins, however on land they have scaly legs. They have unique Needs. The Hydration need can be satisfied by swimming, taking a bath/shower, or standing in the rain. They eat kelp and fish. And they're called mermaids regardless of gender. - Something Else: Mermaids replace the Dolphins, but they only show up in the secret exit path for Mysterious Maze. - Soul Nomad & the World Eaters: The Nereids are essentially a One-Gender Race of mermaids. Due to this they use males of other species in order to breed. This is why they have a little human boy around with them. - Spyro: A Hero's Tail: Ineptune, the evil queen of the seas, is a green-skinned mermaid with a blue fish tail the same color as her chest plate, and can spit acid. She's served by Mer-Gnorcs with fish tails instead of regular Gnorcs' legs, Ear Fins, and anglerfish-like lures on their heads. - Stardew Valley: The Wizard first mentions the existence of merfolk during the Luau festival, on the winter's Night Market there's a mermaid that has a song performance, and on Ginger Island during rainy days the same mermaid can be seen on a rock at the beach. - In the unofficial expansion mod Stardew Valley Expanded if the player marries the Wizard he will take them to the sunken city of Atlantis to meet the Mermaid again. - In Ridgeside Village, another popular unofficial expansion mod, it is heavily hinted that \|\|Alissa's mother, Malaya, is in fact a mermaid; it's implied that the reason she and her husband left their daughter and were traveling all over the world was to find a way to give her permanent legs (no explanation on how they overcame the Mermaid Problem back then). Alissa herself is confirmed to be half-mermaid by a character, she has a love for singing and has a Beautiful Singing Voice\|\|. - Suikoden IV packs a mermaid that deviates from the standard fish tail mermaid. While on an island that you shipwreck on, you can meet a mermaid that has legs instead of a tail, but still is called a mermaid in game (by both game text and another character in your party). She can give items if you play nice with her, and also warns the party that the big boss of the island has attacked one of their own. - Lochadies from Super Mario Odyssey. They all have blue skin, are excellent seamstresses, and can easily maneuver and survive on dry land. Oh, and they're exclusively female. - Tale of Food's East Sea merfolk, of which Shunde Sashimi is a member, may as well be humans with one or two marine creature bits on their bodies they have legs and can survive in air as well s they do in water. - Tales of Monkey Island has the Vaycalians, a race of mer-people that live in Spinner's cay and left some ancient artifacts across some islands. They are said to have stopped their evolution years ago, and used their technology to give themselves human feet to live on land, but eventually reversed it and returned to the sea. The Vaycalians also have no visible secondary nor Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, making it impossible to tell if they're male or female, which leads to some awkward moments between the flirty Vaycalians and the happily married Guybrush. Not to mention like Real-life Caribbean-located water-dwellers, they are very colorful. - Touhou Project has Wakasagihime, the fresh water mermaid of Misty Lake. She's normally a gentle Youkai who spends her time singing songs and picking up rocks, but something caused her to become violent in Double Dealing Character, where she serves as the first boss. - Twisted Wonderland has Azul (an octopus merman), Jade and Floyd (twin moray eel mermen). They use transformation potions to take human form at their land-based Wizarding School (the twins' inhumanly sharp teeth notwithstanding), but can revert to their original forms in water. While the twins easily prefer their eel forms when returning to the sea, Azul remains in human form due to trauma from a bullied childhood, octopus merfolk being rare in their homeland. While Azul's true form has yet to be revealed, the twins' eel forms lean noticeably further towards the fish end of the spectrum than the background merfolk depicted in the game, who all possess typical Disney mermaid anatomy. - When visiting the Coral Sea, Ace strikes up conversation with a security guard, asking him about merfolk culture and common myths. The guard tells him the stereotype of all merfolk having wonderful singing voices is false, and some of his old classmates were actually tone deaf. - Played with in Undertale. Aaron is explicitly stated to be a seahorse (as indicated by the game's "Check" option), but his appearance is of a muscular, horse-headed merfolk, instead of the typical seahorse. - In Valkyrie Profile, Yumei is a half-human mermaid who is recruited to be an Einherjar. Her mother's a mermaid and her father was the Shogun of Yamato. This allows Yumei to take on human form to wander the surface world, but she'll revert to mermaid form when she casts magic. - A common type of citizen in Wadanohara. Since they can't go to the surface due to not having legs, a few of them often ask Wadanohara for favors, like collecting apples. - In Wandering Hamster, there are mersheep. Yep, sheep with a fish tail. - Warcraft has the Naga, the cursed elves so transformed at the Sundering. They don't have fish tails per se, but instead have serpentine lower bodies and can breathe underwater. The multi-armed females are relatively cute as per normal, but males are far more draconian in appearance. - Although Aquell from A Witch's Tale is supposedly based off of The Little Mermaid, she seems to behave similarly to the mermaids in Peter Pan. - Yggdra Union has Undines. They're a One-Gender Race of women with fishtails that use tridents. One notable feature is that they can move on land like a snake. They also appear in its prequel Blaze Union and the mostly unrelated Gloria Union. - Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand has a river mermaid named Nedo, who may be based on the naiads of Greek mythology. - Rotary Park has Dr. Giselle, who used to be a human scientist who created the AKA Machine, that transforms people into their "true selves". He tries experimenting on himself, but it turns him into a merman instead. - Bravest Warriors introduces us to Plum and her species the Merewifs, grey-skinned amphibious humanoid aliens whose legs merge into mermaid tails when in water. Plum is also depicted with webbed hands in the comics, in contrast with the web cartoon where she appears to have two fingers on each hand. \|\|In the second season, Plum reveals she can transform into a scarier, more monstrous form with glowing purple eyes and fangs, and her arms split into six tentacles, something which was foreshadowed in the episode Ultra Wankershim. Since she is the only Merewif to have appeared in the series to date, it's unknown if every member of her people possess this power.\|\| - Accidental Centaurs: When the protagonists have to cross an ocean, their helpful genie friend turns them into merfolk instead. (Humans cannot exist in otherspace, but mythological parallels are acceptable.) Alex is at first enthused at the opportunity for hot mermaid sex, until his girlfriend cruelly points out that fish use a different method for reproduction. Mermaid tails also appear to have human knee and ankle joints. - In Beaches and Basilisks, two distinct varieties have been seen. Fish-like merfolk are seen early on. Later, Principal Tursiops represents a more human-like type of merfolk. - Cassiopeia Quinn has the Doll-Fins, a troupe of alien aquatic performers who bear a distinct resemblance to mermaids. They are apparently the Heroes Of Another Story with their performances being a cover story to conceal the fact they are a military unit deployed to counter aquatic threats such as lavadons that threaten the planets they visit. - The merfolk of Castle Swimmer mostly resemble traditional mermaids though they do have fish-like traits on their upper bodies like webbed fingers and scales on their sides. However, they also come in multiple varieties depending on what kingdom they belong to and they range from various types of fish like sharks or barracuda, to octopi and even crustaceans. They all seem to worship a god of the surface which is inaccessible to them. - In Charby the Vampirate they seem to have extremely bizarre sexual dimorphism. Only one mermaid family has been shown but it consists of a fairly typical beautiful humanoid mermaid wife, her gargantuan horned Fish People husband and their bipedal horned Fish People teen aged son who is about as tall as a human eight year old. She can fit in her husband's hand no problem. - The Dreamland Chronicles Mermaids to the rescue! - Elf Life: In the original version, the mermaid queen Leukothea gets banished to the surface after the fairy queen Glynthial takes her ability to breathe water. When Airek, a young half-ogre accompanying them, addresses the Mermaid Problem, Glynthial points out that mermaids do have functional legs inside their tails which will come out now that she's on land... but as Thea's lived in the ocean her whole life, they'll be hideously stunted and misshapen. Turns out they're quite attractive, actually. - In El Goonish Shive, Nanase has a dream in which first Ellen then both of them are mermaids. - Homestuck's Troll race is divided between a land-dwelling caste and a sea-dwelling caste, the latter of which have vastly different internal anatomy from the others as well as a pair of fins sticking out from their necks. They are the royalty amongst the Trolls, and the only examples we see of them are the heir apparent and a genocidal noble with a crush on her (as well as any paradox-created ancestor/descendants of said two). - A Loonatic's Tale: Rebecca Burg has released concept art which reveals that in Loonatic-land, merfolk are a type of aquatic vampire. When they're luring in prey, they're fairly cute, if slightly overfinned. When they're about to feed, their eyes take on a crazed look, and their mouth splits into a grin which reveals that all their teeth are razor-sharp. And unlike some vampires in this setting, where being turned isn't even a guarantee, when a mermaid feeds on you, you become one. - Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: The team has to move some mermaids up to a sanctuary. Jared asks what's wrong with them. The Commander just says "that's what mermaids look like." Commander: Yer aware a' how often these things get mixed up with manatees, right? Kratos: They still look more or less like humans. I mean, when you're on a ship for a while it's not so weird to check that out... Commander: [wearily] Kratos does not get to be on Team Mermaid. - Modest Medusa has the DollFins, who are basically mermaids in the traditional style, including shell bras. - The Noordegraaf Files: The Nereids are the half-squid version. Most of the time they are friendly and amiable to humans, but the saltwater version will often kill humans on sight, and when they don't kill them immediately, they torture, drown, and eat the poor soul who happened to encounter them. Although it is kind of our fault - they're nearly extinct, and our pollution doesn't help their numbers.(They are also one of the author's favorite kinds of creatures - the comic has an entire page on them, and it has the most text of any page on the site.) - No Pizza After Midnight has a merboy named Dart, who is the secret friend (and mutual crush) of a girl named Sera Sophia. He is the typical depiction of merfolk, though he has gills on his sides which need to keep wet. He can't turn his tail into legs, even though he'd like to. The series does frequently lampshade a lot of issues with mermaid biology. - Pearls Of Mer a webcomic about a standard, Splash style mermaid. - In Question Duck, tragically, love was not possible between a man and a mermaid. - Seaglass: The mermaids are seemingly bestial, massive creatures that barely resemble humans (and that travel through space). Cutting a mermaid's hair is the key to obtaining the eponymous item, and \|\|eating mermaid's flesh can extend your lifespan by hundreds of years\|\|. Additionally, \|\|mermaids used to be human — their current state is due to genetic tampering\|\|. - Skin Deep: Nixies are similar to mermaids, but with more fangs, hydrokinetic powers and a limited ability to transform without a medallion — they can turn their tails into legs and back, but that's about it. Nixies also have the ability to turn other creatures into mermaid-like versions of themselves (i.e., their natural form with a mermaid tail instead of their hindquarters, as well as gills and various fins) with their spit, which lasts as long as the target being remains wet. There are also nokks, the males of the same species. Nokks are noted to have indefinite lifespans, but almost always go insane after age 60. - Tales Of Gnosis College: At the end of the first volume, Li Anwei reveals that she is in the process of a slow transformation into something like a mermaid by showing expanded webbing growing between her fingers. She still looks pretty human when she takes to the sea, though. - Unsounded: Water-Women are all-female water elementals in the form of blue-skinned women except their throats are replaced with glowing gold tubes and bones. They're generally persecuted by humans because (A) they steal corpses from navy battles and (B) when they reproduce (with male elementals), it causes actual hurricanes. Water-Women gain Healing Factor regeneration when they're in the water, and if they sing you'd better run; it's more of a creepy screech to Summon Bigger Fish. - Wonderlab: The Piscine Mermaid resembles an idealized, pretty mermaid, but she has pink skin, no arms and her hair is water. - Zoophobia has two types of mermaids: - Murms, which are joke creatures that are brightly-colored, generic mermaids that do nothing but flop about and look silly, yet are beautiful and harmless. They hide the monstrosities that are... - Menaces, which are monsters related to sirens that lure victims◊ into the water with their friendly words, where they tear them apart and feed on their hearts. They are known as "the true mermaids", and are extremely rare to spot. - The Sea In You features Skylla, a mermaid who strikes up a friendship with Corinth, a human. Eventually we also meet her sisters (boo!) and her mother (yay!) The mermaids in this universe are humanoid fish, not humans or part-humans with fishy characteristics. Except for the fact that they conveniently speak English \|\|(Or maybe it's magic.)\|\| they are pretty much aliens who live in the ocean instead of outer space. \|\|Hungry aliens.\|\| - Pretty much every fandom has been given mermaid AUs by fans, portraying different characters as mermaids in fanart and fan fiction. The popularity of mermaid AUs has extended to franchises like Hetalia: Axis Powers, Attack on Titan, Marvel Cinematic Universe, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and most notably Free!, due to a dream sequence where Haru imagines himself as a merman, which fans eagerly ate up. - DeviantArt: - In The Dragon Wars Saga, the merfolk can shift their tails into legs — albeit still covered in scales — for use on land. Many of them live in freshwater and it's been suggested they use this form for migrations if their home dries up. However they become ill if out of the water too long. - Mermaid's Tail Galleries has galleries of mermaids based on specific fish (mostly sharks, rays, and freshwater fish) in addition to the usual generic mermaids. - Three Little Fish and a Bird has the three titular mermen be based off dolphins, and such are entirely mammalian. As such they are entirely air-breathers, can survive out of water for significant amounts of time, and also deal with the Mermaid Problem pretty well... - The Merpeople of Orion's Arm are simply humans who have undergone genetic engineering (or descendants of such humans) to be suited for an aquatic lifestyle. The extent of engineering varies: some Merpeople still have legs (so they wear flippers to swim better) and can merely hold their breath for a long time, while others have their legs merged into tails and can breathe water. The Europans take it even further, being cold-blooded as they were designed for the cold subsurface ocean of Europa.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMermaidsAreDifferent
Our Gods Are Different - TV Tropes L — R: Ful (constancy and fire), Jas (sand, air and progression), and Bik (alteration and earth). "And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Gods. What is meant by that word? In fiction? It could mean anything. There really aren't many similarities between gods. Lots of tropes go with gods and religion. A god might be the classical God of ethical monotheism: omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely good. That's on one end of the scale. On the other end, she might be an easily embarrassed teenage girl. Or he might be a Superhero that, despite his godhood, gets beaten up by people empowered by radioactive slime. A general minimum requirement for a character to be considered divine, though, is that regardless of their power level and number and conviction of their followers (if any) the narrative should acknowledge them as an actual god at some point. Without that, "mere" sufficiently advanced aliens, eldritch abominations, angels in many cases, and of course mortal pretenders to the title do not usually qualify. Another trait almost universally associated with gods is having a divine portfolio or sphere of influence — that is, the thing(s) they are the gods of. (The main exception would be in the case of a monotheist capital-G God, who can go without an explicit job description by virtue of lacking competition and generally already being the "god of everything" anyway.) In some settings, gods are omnipotent, strange, or scary; in others, they are basically just people, and sometimes not even particularly powerful ones. In some, just thinking about them can drive you mad. Basically, gods can be distinguished based on several criteria: Power How powerful is the god? What can they achieve? This ranges from ... - Omnipotence: Can do anything, though many theologians would usually put in the limit "anything that it is possible to do" (e.g. they're incapable of making something contradictory, like a square circle, or a stone that they themselves cannot lift). - Omnipotence, but with some kind of rules in place; might even be self-imposed, but the point is that the god won't break them. - Scarily powerful but still capable of being outwitted or even defeated using some kind of magical artifact. - Above the power-level of "normal" people in whatever universe, but still capable of being defeated in mundane ways (generally the way of Physical Gods). - Very powerful on home ground (either a specific region or anywhere they have worshipers) but weak outside it. - Just an ordinary guy of the setting, who happens to be a god. - Powers are useless or so very restricted that they are functionally useless: Many Odd Job Gods are like this. Immortality Gods are almost always immortal. However, the meaning of "immortal" changes from context to context. - Absolute Immortality with Agelessness and instant healing/invulnerability: can never die, is not affected by age, and either recovers instantly from anything, or is invincible. A character would have about as much luck trying to kill the Author as one of these. - Advanced Immortality: cannot die of old age. However, can be killed under certain circumstances. Such as beheading them with a sacred sword during a certain cosmic event might kill them, but not fire, bullets, or being stabbed. - As below, this is often coupled with the idea that killing a god does not destroy its powers and responsibilities, instead causing them to pass to another. - Simple Immortality: don't die of old age, but can be killed by anyone with enough strength to bypass their defenses. - Near Immortality: not truly immortal, but capable of living for millions of years or longer. May be combined with Eternal Recurrence, where the birth and death of gods is tied to that of universes. - Dependence: immortality requires something to be sustained, perhaps a special food or drink, or prayers from mortal worshipers. Needs Gods have been known to need or not need certain things. Anthropomorphism How "human" is the god? This deals more with emotion and personality rather than power. An omnipotent god can remain scarily human (such as Haruhi Suzumiya). A few possible variations: - Overarching Cosmic Principle: Does not have a "mind" or "personality" as such, but is still somehow responsible for operating things. Might need A Form You Are Comfortable With (or some kind of lesser god) to communicate with people. - Ineffable: God has a mind or personality but it is simply impossible for human beings to grasp or comprehend. - Disembodied Mind or Energy Beings: They have a mind and a personality, but not a body. They are just spirits powerful spirits. - Physical God: Human, but bigger in size, perhaps somewhat smarter, with great powers. Or with a greater knowledge of the universe. Have personality traits, anyway. - More than human: God is mostly human but still possesses some traits that are distinctly inhuman. (As far as personality and not power, etc. goes, that is.) Usually this god is an avatar of some kind of principle and has a personality that matches. - Just a guy: A god that is essentially a human being doing a job. - Subhuman God: The god is more like an animal than a human being. May be a mindless force of nature or an Almighty Idiot. Morality Gods can be moral or immoral or neither. Numbers How many gods are there? - Monotheism: There is one definite discrete God entity. And only one. He/She/They/It may or may not have agents around, who may or may not qualify for godhood in any other setting, but the god is definitely the only god. - Dualism: There are two completely equal divine forces, usually one Good and the other Evil, but they can be defined along on one or more other theming axises as well, such as Life Versus Death, Order Versus Chaos, Male Versus Female, Red Oni Versus Blue Oni, etc. Other systems might also exist (tritheism?). Regardless of number, even the relationship these gods have to each other can vary. The might fight, they might operate as a sort of "Cosmic Tag Team," or it might be more complicated than that. - Henotheism: There are multiple gods, and any of them can be worshiped. However, we in particular only worship one. - Monolatry: There are many gods, but only one should be worshiped. In many cases this is the creator deity, a superior being to the rest. Or perhaps the others are deemed lesser aspects of the one. - Polytheism: There are multiple gods, usually arranged in some kind of pantheon. There might be rankings between them, and one is usually considered the head of the pantheon, but they are only different in status and not in nature and might be overthrown. - Animism: There are zillions of gods. Indeed, everything probably has a god, including individual blades of grass. The more gods there are the less powerful each individual god seems to be, for some reason. - Pantheism: Overlaps with and occasionally reverts back to monotheism. God is singular and totally pervasive. All that exists is God, God is all that exists. - Panentheism: Everything is inside of God (e.g. as ideas in his mind). Place in the Universe Where do gods come from and what do they do? This is a catch-all category for what gods do. Questions that can be raised are: Etc, etc, etc. For related tropes, see God Tropes and Tropes of the Divine. ## Examples: - In Bleach, there are certain characters who are referred to as "Transcendent Beings". Transcendent Beings are entities that evolved beyond the limits of their races, and have become Gods. \|\|Sosuke Aizen sought to become one, and managed to become an immortal Transcendent Being by implanting the Hogyoku into his chest. Ichigo Kurosaki is revealed to be a hybrid of all four races (Human, Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy) and after fulfilling his true potential, became a Transcendent Being himself. The most powerful being in the setting however, is the Soul King, which sustains all of existence. Without its presence, all the worlds would collapse on each other. Even parts of the Soul King's body could be considered Transcendent Beings: Gerard Valkryie is the heart of the Soul King and possesses nigh-immeasurable power; Pernida Parkgjas is the right arm of the Soul King and governs evolution; Mimihagi is the left arm of the Soul King and governs stagnation. Yhwach, the son of the Soul King, eventually killed his father and absorbed his power, becoming an almost eldritch-like being capable of altering reality, and creating and destroying dimensions at will. Other characters who could be considered Transcendent Beings include: Gremmy Thoumeaux, who can make anything he imagines into reality; and Lille Barro, the first Quincy gifted with power by Yhwach, who at his most powerful, can only be destroyed by a weapon that is said to disperse the power of divine entities.\|\| - In A Certain Magical Index, there are many examples of characters and creatures with abilities, whether magical, scientific, or divine, that can allow them to be perceived as gods, as the result of All Myths Are True. The most egregious example would be the Perfect Majins/Magic Gods: \|\|Human Archmages who had stepped into the boundaries of God after reaching the apex of magic, and achieve reality-bending omnipotence.\|\| - In Code Geass the being referred to as "God" is left extremely nebulous and complicated, but it is clear that this God is an anthropocentric concept. It is actually known as the "collective human unconsciousness" and represents the collective mind, spirit and soul of humanity. It is not supreme or omnipotent, as \|\|Charles zi Britannia wants to destroy it to unite all of humanity into one collective soul, and Lelouch uses his Compelling Voice on it to kill Charles.\|\| Its most common physical manifestation is a Jupiter-like planet with a strange tower connected to it. - The Digimon multiverse has a number of gods and how powerful they are beyond combat vary; as all Digimon are data in our computer networks and play by the same rules, none of them are completely untouchable. Adventure and Tamers have Digimon versions of The Four Gods. Frontier has Susanoomon, the fusion of all twenty spirits. Savers has the Olympus XII. Multiple unrelated continuities have Yggdrasil/King Drasil, who isn't a Digimon but the computer that runs the digital world. Or rather, it's the persona taken on by the computer that runs the Digital World. So, within one franchise, the power level and nature of the characters treated as gods by others can vary. - In Dragon Ball, there are many different types of gods, consisting of a henotheistic system. Almost all of them are Long-Lived, but at one point will have to retire, and are very powerful individuals that don't need any sort of prayer. At least some of them possess a secondary reserve of Ki called "divine ki", which is superior to the normal variety and cannot be detected by mortals without special training. While they are not completely explored, the pantheon works like this: - First there are the guardians, referred to simply as kami (gods), who each serve a single planet and are recruited from pure-hearted mortals by the planet's previous guardian. Guardians have an extended lifespan, somewhat enhanced senses (including the ability to sense divine ki), and are capable of travelling between the worlds of the living and the dead, but otherwise do not seem to be any stronger than mortals - rather, the position tends to go to people who already have mystical powers that help in their role. - Then there are the Shinjin ("pith people"), a race born from magical "world trees" on planet Kaishin, who are appointed to the more important roles. Most of them are not fighters, but unlike mortals their ki (both regular and godly) usually does not glow, remaining invisible to the naked eye. They are skilled at moving objects telekinetically, and have the abilities to create objects from thin air and sometimes to heal others. - The Kaio ("world kings") or Kais. There are four, each ruling over a quadrant of the universe, and they have a boss in the form of the Dai-Kaio/Grand Kai. They have the ability to sense events going on in their sector with greater precision than mortals, and can communicate telepathically at unlimited range. - Then, there are the Kaioshin ("world king gods") or Supreme Kai, the gods of creation. Their job is to create new planets and watch over mortals and guide them, but never intervene directly. They are normally a subspecies of Shinjin born from a rare golden fruit, with only one in existence at a time (sometimes with an inactive apprentice), though a normal Shinjin can also be appointed to the position if they show sufficient talent. At one point in Universe 7's past, five active Supreme Kai existed at once, with their leader holding the title of "Grand Supreme Kai". Supreme Kais are capable of teleporting anywhere in the universe instantly, and are the only beings capable of fully utilising the Time Rings (to travel through time) and the Potara Earrings (to fuse with another being permanently). Dragon Ball Xenoverse introduces another special position in the form of the Supreme Kai of Time, who monitors distortions in the timeline. - The Supreme Kais' counterparts are the Gods of Destruction, whose job is to destroy planets to make room for new ones. Appointed from mortal stock like the guardians, their power far exceeds that of other gods, usually making them the most powerful being in their universe. They lack most of the Kais' more utilitarian powers, but can generate "the energy of destruction" in order to erase things from existence utterly. Also unlike other gods, they have very few restrictions on their behaviour, to the point where they are free to kill mortals on a whim. The life of a universe's God of Destruction is directly tied to that of its Supreme Kais, meaning that if every Supreme Kai in a universe is killed its God of Destruction will also die. - Above the gods of destruction are the angels, whose origins are unclear. Their job is to guide and train the gods of destruction but, like the Supreme Kai, they must remain neutral. If their god of destruction is killed off, they will become inactive until a new god of destruction is appointed to them. While they do not possess the Supreme Kais' teleportation abilities, they can fly at extremely high speeds, have a limited ability to "undo" events, and at least some are actually stronger than the Gods of Destruction they support. Their boss is the Grand Priest, who is the father of most of them. - Finally, there is the god above all of them, the Zen-O (Omni-King). He is a child-like entity who rules the entire multiverse and can destroy it in an instant if he pleases. The Grand Priest serves as his guardian. - The Truth in Fullmetal Alchemist. It bears the knowledge of everything and imitates the voice and a bit of the appearance of the person it speaks to. - In Naruto, the Ten-Tails is a primordial being that, according to Kurama, is the beginning of all Chakra and the progenitor of everything that exists in the Shinobi World, in the ancient past it was once known as the God Tree, until a woman named Kaguya ate the Chakra Fruit from it, as a result it transformed into the Ten-Tails, its powerful enough to create natural disasters and destroy entire continents, Kaguyas son the Sage of Six Paths sealed it inside himself and later split its chakra into nine Tailed Beasts. - In Noragami, gods are numerous and born from the wishes of humans. They exist to fulfill these wishes. The more followers they have, the more their godly status is cemented and they will be reincarnated if they die. However, if a god dies while no human recognizes them anymore, they will disappear forever. - In Princess Mononoke, gods are natural, seemingly physical beings that do not seem to be in any shape or form concerned with human worship (in fact, by the time the story rolls by most would rather prefer human beings to leave), down to being mortal and easily killed if you have guns. Most are animal-shaped, making them essentially giant talking animals, though a few are more abstract beings. All are liable to turn into demonic dark spirits if sunk into fear or hatred. - Re:Zero: Deconstructed with the Witches of Sin. They are never referred to as "gods" in the setting, but they nonetheless hold great power that they might as well be seen as gods. They are the reason why the Mabeasts exist, the reason why non-humans have emotions, and the reason why the world is the way it is. While most of the original seven are dead, they all continue to persist as souls long after their flesh has rotted away. - Black Moon Chronicles: There are said to be many different gods, although they're almost never seen. God and his angels occasionally help out the holy orders of knights who serve the empire but prefer to keep their distance from mortal affairs. The Oracle is another god, whose true form is a multi-headed Eldritch Abomination \|\|but is in fact a female Hot God.\|\| - Clive Barker's Next Testament has Wick\|\|, Christ the Reconciler, and his Holy Spirit\|\| who have an Amazing Technicolor Population thing going for them. - In The DCU gods tend to range from being incredibly powerful superhuman individuals more akin to physical gods (Most of the New Gods, Onimar Syn, the classical gods, Lobo, etc.) to nigh omnipotent but still human minded individuals (Anansi and several classical gods, etc.) to basically omnipotent cosmic forces (The Endless, Lucifer, The Spectre, Michael, etc.) right up to a single Omnipotent God who may or may not be split into several aspects (The Presence, The Source, etc.). Those who fall in the second category are incredibly difficult to kill by mortal hands as they just return a bit weakened unless they are already so faded their death unavoidable, which is why Wonder Woman has never balked at killing them. Then of course you have entities who are essentially Omnipotent for all purposes but are at best physical gods since they aren't really religious or worshipped individuals (Mr. Mxyzptlk and other denizens of the 5th dimension). Jack Kirby's New Gods started as fairly similar to the Marvel gods (no surprise since he helped create most of them), but retcon has suggested that the aspects of them that mere mortals can see and interact with are only the tip of a vast metaphysical iceberg. Darkseid, in particular, is so powerful he is Top God in comparison to all the other New Gods he either rules or seeks to enslave or destroy. He achieved this power through various methods, including slaughtering the pantheons of other worlds and stealing the power of those gods for himself- he basically has the power of a hundred or so gods within himself. - Marvel and DC tend to take the Henotheistic route, with one supreme God occasionally referred too (and, more rarely, seen) with a number of gods, demons and entities fulfilling various roles beneath him. - Gods in the Marvel Universe tend to be fairly powerful, and may or may not be powered by belief Depending on the Writer. - Asgardians, Olympians, Heliopolitans and others are extra-dimensional superhumans who exist as the gods of various Earth pantheons (Norse, Greek, Egyptian etc.). The average god is immortal (with subtle differences in mechanics depending on the pantheon), far stronger, faster and more durable than humans, and possesses greater magical potential. The more notable ones like Thor and Hercules are incredibly strong even by their races standards, while gods like Loki (who is actually a very small Frost Giant) and Set (the Egyptian one, different from the Elder God, see below) gain power through other means like magic and stealing power from other gods. Death Gods are members of each pantheon who have made a pact with the abstract cosmic entity Death that gives them the rights to claim souls according to certain conditions (eg. they worship a god/gods of the given pantheon, or died in the pantheons realm); the Death God rules a portion of the Splinter Realms (a shattered netherworld that used to be Hell) that represents their pantheon; the more souls a Death God rules, the stronger they become. Above all are the Skyfathers, the chieftains like Zeus and Odin, who wield nigh-omnipotent power that goes with their station, Odin being the strongest of them all with his Odinforce. - Things are made even more complicated by the Abrahamic God, who tends to appear mainly in Ghost Rider, though it's implied he coordinates with the Skyfathers as well as being more powerful than them, including Odin. - Some writers occasionally show a more metaphysical side to Earth's gods. Different stories have implied they were formed by mankind's beliefs, that as long as humans belief in them they can come back from death (though they don't need it to exist), to having some sort of link with Earth or the civilizations that worshiped them. Other writers treat them as just superpowered beings from another dimension (this tends to be the canon, and the former contradicts a few details, like some gods being around before humanity even existed). - Current (at least 2010-) Loki stories paint a very meta picture: That gods are trope based lifeforms, literal living myth and metaphor. So they are immortal because ideas don't really die (worst case scenario: they remember themselves, but many have libraries for a reason). Also they are defined by their stories, and are literally rewritable/tellable if someone can find the right texts and tools (the manuscript of their authorized biography, or a legendary prophecy counts more than fanfic on the internet etc.). Take this Fiction Identity Postulate and MST3K Mantra and go in piece! - The Elder Gods are magical entities born on Earth who, with two heroic exceptions, degenerated into demons as they began cannibalizing each other. They are extraordinarily powerful creatures and Earth has numerous magical spells and barriers set up to prevent them returning, though they still exert influence where they can. The Elder Gods, along with various other demons like Dormammu and Shuma-Gorath, are all nigh-omnipotent, especially in their own dimensions, and are themselves worshipped as gods in their own right, as are magical entities like Cyttorak. Other demons like Mephisto who rule the other portions of the Splinter Realms are called Hell Lords; they likewise have a pact with Death, and all gain more power the more souls are in their death realm. - Most are still lower on the totem-pole than the various entities that govern the universe- Galactus, Eternity, Death, Infinity, Oblivion, etc.- who are abstract beings that represent fundamental aspects of existence, e.g. Eternity personifies Time, Infinity personifies Space etc, and they are all aspects of beings that personify them across the multiverse, with each verse having it's counterpart for them note : Eternity has claimed that Chthon is a threat to him; Dormammu's power fluctuates and on a good day he can at least give any these guys a serious fight; and Shuma-Gorath may be stronger than everyone listed so-far as he rules more than a hundred universes. Galactus's power also tends to fluctuate (depending on how well-fed he is) and he has sometimes been so weak he can be defeated by teams of human heroes, and both gods and mortals can increase their power to the level of an Abstract or beyond with the use of certain Amplifier Artifacts, such as the Infinity Gauntlet / Gems, the Heart of the Universe and others, or in the case of certain beings might actually have particular superpowers on-par with these entities, or even beyond.. The Phoenix Force, which is also worshiped in some places, guards the M'Krann Crystal and hence the Multiverse, and is stronger than Galactus, whose existence is necessary to keep imprisoning Omnicidal Maniac Abraxas, a nigh-omnipotent being that threatens the multiverse. Celestials and the Watchers are Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that wield godlike power, the former so much that even supposed omnipotents feel beneath them. Random all-powerful beings like the Beyonder and the Stranger pop up from time to time. And of course, the Living Tribunal. The One Above All, however, is essentially analogous to God and is above and in charge of everyone and everything else else. Appropriately enough, he looks like Jack Kirby, and hints that he has a writing partner presumed to be Stan Lee. - This trope was put to a more literal test during Secret Invasion, when a strike team of Earth gods went to kill the Skrull gods. - Also Nick Fury's God has a hammer. - Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing featured a story arc (first appearance of Howard the Duck, incidentally) featuring a big epic struggle to protect the gods (later confirmed to be specifically "the gods of Therea") from a demonic invasion force, with several characters wondering why the gods can't just intervene and protect themselves. After the invasion force is finally defeated, the heroes go to the Realm of Therea and meet the gods, who are revealed to be... German Shepherds living in quiet contentment on a farm tended by kindly old folks. - In the world of the The Motherless Oven, household appliances, such as egg timers, are viewed as Gods. All the Gods are alive in some capacity and sing strange, nonsensical songs that some characters believe possess a deeper meaning. However, although the Gods are seen as special possessions, they are not worshipped. - In Watchmen, God exists, and he's American. For those who haven't read the book, it's Dr. Manhattan. - Codex Equus: In the Codexverse, deities are created by, and defined by, a system in which magic holds a heavy influence in their development in various ways. - Most deities are born from various elemental/abstract phenomena as simple lifeforms that gradually develop sapience and intelligence until they Ascend to godhood. Other deities, however, are the result of mortals Ascending to godhood, hence the Ascendant category. While generally composed of magic, deities can assume physical forms and are capable of biological reproduction, even spawning racial divine hybrids in some cases, and unlike mortals, they generally do not suffer any consequences from incestual relationships. Also, unlike mortals, deities only become more powerful and eldritch as they get older, with the oldest of them being feared and incomprehensible. However, due to the fluid nature of divinity in general, it is possible for deities to take this further by having their 'age' accelerated or even re-Ascending into a completely different being under the right circumstances. - Deities also come in three categories: Elementals, Ethereals, and Ascendants. Elemental deities spawn from elemental phenomena such as storms, volcanic eruptions, and oceanic currents. Ethereal deities spawn when abstract ideas, emotions, and thoughts come to life and gain sapience. Ascendant Deities are sapient mortals which, whether in life or upon death, had acquired enough power or achieved such impressive deeds that they were judged worthy of Ascension by higher powers. Many mortal factions/individuals like the Alicorn Ascendancy have tried creating more Ascendant deities by 'shortcutting' their way to godhood, but because the complex nature of Ascension and divinity in general ensure that many of said attempts fail disastrously. - However, because the nature of deities is fluid, it is possible for them to have their ages accelerated far past their natural age or 're-Ascend' into completely different beings under the right circumstances. Princess Arcus, Queen Aoide Mousikós, and \|\|Diamond Tiara/Queen Elpis\|\| are a few examples of the former, while Moon Ray Vaughoof/Prince Canticum Lunae Cahaya is an example of the latter. - As shown with a few entries, divine reincarnations are also possible. Unlike traditional Reincarnations, a divine reincarnation is essentially someone fusing with the essence of a dead deity. While their souls do merge as one, the two individuals are able to co-exist and channel their full being under certain circumstances. Examples of this include Tranquil Harbor/Omega (who becomes Promes' reincarnation), \|\|Princess Amicitia/Twilight (who becomes Mana Equus' reincarnation), and Diamond Tiara/Queen Elpis (who becomes Diamond Glow's reincarnation). In Amicitia/Twilight's case, her status as Mana Equus' reincarnation is kept secret by the Church of the Stars so she'll be protected from those who will come to resent her for supposedly being more privileged than others\|\|. - Enlightenments: The viewpoint character, Dormin, is a god of life and death with a secondary domain over light that makes their land experience eternal day, and their influence causes horns to grow on mortal men which glow or shine to divine sight. A high enough dose of their soul in a mortal causes regenerative, ageless immortality, as well. In the fic's interpretation of canon, the Colossi were created by nearby gods who have the developer nicknames for the Colossi, but we don't hear much about them beyond things like the tenth Colossus being referred to as "Dirge's Colossus". - The Mansionverse: Presumed to be similar to, but more powerful than, the setting's demons, Gods (at least, but probably not limited to, those of Ancient Greek and Egyptian mythologies) did once exist, although they all appear to have disappeared at some point... leaving some of their minions like the One-Eyed Black Cat to roam free. - The Night Unfurls: - The main setting has multiple gods that can be worshiped by anyone, even the unsavoury folk note : e.g., the goblins using a Human Sacrifice for their dark gods (Chapter 6, original ver.), the Malys clan dabbling with less sympathetic gods (Chapter 22, original ver.), the orcs ululating to their dark gods around a cooking pit (Chapter 9, remastered ver.), etc.. However, only two are regarded as the most prominent: gentle Laurendau, who reincarnates in her descendants to hold her power for generations; and haughty Garan, Laurendau's polar opposite (though her "cruelty" is merely an Informed Attribute). Celestine Lucross is the current inheritor of the former's power, while Olga Discordia is the current inheritor of the latter. Both have engaged in warfare for centuries. - Examples exclusive in the remastered version: - During a conversation between Kyril and Prim, Kyril mentions that he has seen gods far above mortal, indicating that \|\|he equates the great ones with gods\|\|. - The Rat notes that The Old Gods are waking, and they may have need of Kyril during some future war. Though this merely falls under Vagueness Is Coming rather than meaningful lore. - There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: - According to Word of God, the Asgardians and the Olympians differ from each other outside of being physical gods. While they both are so powerful and comparable that it would be impossible to tell the difference at a glance, the individual Olympians are the Anthropomorphic Personification of aspects of nature or concepts and have Complete Immortality barring their sphere of influence falling out of favor with mankind. Asgardians, meanwhile, are more akin to Sufficiently Advanced Aliens with power on an identical scale to gods, and while killing them is certainly a feat in of itself, they can be felled in battle and they do age, so they are not immortal like their Olympian counterparts. - This also applies to the Kwamis and how they differ from the Asgardians and Olympians. Word of God states that they're more like the Egyptian gods from The Kane Chronicles in that with few exceptions (Plagg and Tikki), the only method they have in terms of interacting with the mortal world is through a Miraculous Holder, which has many limits on the Kwamis' power so as not to cause untold destruction and harm to the world. They were also all originally one being, which supplemental materials reveal to be a Celestial, and another reason for the Miraculouses being made was to try and counter the pull they feel to reunite again. - Vilgax notes that whatever Ben thinks a "god" is, it pales in comparison to what a Celestial truly is. Apparently they created everything — matter, energy, magic, even the Multiverse as a whole. They spend their time in the Forge of Creation creating entire dimensions with a thought. And one is powering the Omnitrix. - The Diamonds are specifically compared to gods more than once with how much more power they have compared to "regular" Gems. Word of God is that nothing short of a Celestial could shatter their Gemstones in this universe. - In Turning Red, Sun Yee is said to have prayed to the gods for help who then granted her prayer by giving her and all her female descendants the ability to transform into a giant red panda. - The entire point of American Gods. All gods are fueled and in-part defined-by belief in them and sacrifices made in their name. It's basically the new gods (of Media, the Internet, Cars, etc. all the things modern people put their faith in and "worship") and the old Gods (from Asian, European, Native American, and African pantheons), or rather, American versions of them created by the belief of settlers and immigrants. Odin appears as does, Anansi, Kali, Czernobog, Jesus (mentioned in passing, though not appearing in the book itself), Anubis, Thoth and a whole lot of others. Oh yes and \|\|Loki. Who is, along with Odin, the Big Bad planning on getting all the old and new gods killed in their names in order to reap the power of a massive divine sacrifice\|\|. There are also indications of someone (relatively benign and unthreatening) who is much much older than any of the gods still remembered today. It seems unconcerned with the conflict(s) of the book, viewing even the old gods as mayflies. - The high spirits in Adam R. Brown's fantasy series, Astral Dawn, are powerful beings who served as the gods of the various pantheons throughout human history. - The high spirits implanted the idea of themselves in the minds of a few people who later spread it to many others, creating polytheism. - Using the psychic energy generated by worship, the high spirits who participated in the God Age became even more powerful. - Simon and others developed a means of staying linked to a specific period of space-time. This allowed the gods and legends to retain their psychic connection and the power it brought them no matter where (or when) they were in space or time. - The Aash Ra are also considered god-like beings. Even the spirits think of them as the original angels and demons. - The gods in The Belgariad are powerful immortal beings, they are however still bound by the Purpose of the Universe and cannot directly go against it. (It is usually handwaved as two gods confronting each other directly would annihilate the planet.) - The Book of All Hours - the Unkin. \|\|humans that experienced a unique event in their life that allowed them to touch the Vellum underneath reality.\|\| In the multiverse inscribed on the surface of the Vellum, these meta-humans have long since taken up different roles, presenting themselves to mortal humans in different ways in pursuit of power. - In El Conquistador every civilization in the novel thinks this of their own gods. Note that there are many similarities noted by Quetza between the gods that he despises in his own culture, and the gods in the other continent. - Gods of Dora Wilk Series vary greatly. On one end of the scale you have fellows like Anubis who is "simply" immortal being with animal head and some powers, and on the other you've got God and Goddess, who can warp the reality, invade your dreams and don't have a material forms at all. Somewhere in the middle there are Badb and Loki, who look disturbingly inhuman and has some great superpowers, but are nowhere close to God's level of awesome. As a matter of fact, multiple, multiple gods of this series has powers and abilities that are reflection of how humans perceived them through the history. - Discworld: - Generally, gods run the gamut. However, it's shown as gods need (and are shaped by) belief: The more belief, the stronger the god. If you only have one believer, well you might be able to summon a minor thunderstorm over one person's head. The other end is Death, whom everything believes in. One god seems to get by believing in his own work. There are other cosmic forces at work, like the Auditors, but they are not the subject of worship and have no need for it. - There are eight entities that inverts the usual relationship, as the universe exists because they believe in it. One of them appeared, the multiversal Death, of which the Death of the Discworld is merely an aspect. It's clock tells time what time is, and it's so awesome its "YES" fills a whole page. - The Dragonlance universe has a fairly large pantheon with ~~eighteen~~ sixteen gods divided evenly between Light, Dark, and Neutral. Formerly, there was a tribunal of chief gods, Paladine, Takhisis, and Gilean, but then Paladine and Takhisis were made mortal \|\|and Takhisis died.\|\| Now it's a power struggle for who gets to rule the gods, as Gilean just sits with his nose in a book all day. There are also two beings as high above gods as the gods are above mortals, the High God and Chaos. These two are usually at war. However, the High God manipulated events such that Chaos would be taken out of the picture. - The Dresden Files : Harry Dresden lives in a Fantasy Kitchen Sink world, and he states at one point that many if not all gods and godlike beings from myth are all out there as well. Faith has a sort of magical power and Harry has met pagan gods like Odin, the Faerie Queens, and the godlike Erlking. It's theoretically possible to ascend to nigh-godlike power, but that might have never actually happened. Because of their strong magic, gods (and beings powerful enough to pose as gods, such as the Red King and the "Lords of Outer Night") are also defined by an "aura" or "willpower" that can force mortals to their knees in pain with a thought. However, the capital-g Judeo-Christian God (also called "the White God" or the "Almighty") also exists and is so powerful that the knights who worship him can ignore the will of other gods and slaughter them. He's so beyond the other gods that Harry believes that one of his archangels, Uriel, could "probably take apart all the planets. Like, all of them. Everywhere." According to Volume 2 of the guidebook to the tabletop game, The Almighty is at the highest tiers of power, with his arch-angels equaling the strongest pagan gods (like Odin) and the Faerie Mothers. - The gods of The Elenium have wildly varied personalities, but they all appear to Need Prayer Badly. Aphriel assures herself a steady diet by always appearing as a cute child, so that she always gets love. The Elene God is much more stodgy and refuses to give out even his name, but is respected by other gods for his Popularity Power (which he never uses). Like The Belgariad, the Gods of this universe were created by, and can be bound by, even higher powers. - In Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East and Book of Swords trilogies, there are several different levels of beings who are worshiped at various points: - ARDNEH, who is initially worshiped by the West and is later worshiped as a god of justice, healing, mercy, and redemption throughout the world, although he was actually \|\|a very advanced and powerful artificial intelligence and denied that he was a god or should be worshiped, and died at the end of\|\| Empire. - Orcus, King of all Demons, who founded The Empire of the East, and was ARDNEH's archenemy. In reality, \|\|he was just the most powerful demon, and like all demons was really a nuclear bomb that had been altered by ARDNEH.\|\| - Draffut, who was eventually worshiped as a god of healing, even though he denied being a god, and was actually a \|\|highly evolved dog\|\|, although his healing powers were quite real. He was powerful enough to face Mars, god of war, in single combat, twice, and win once. - The gods, who made the Swords and played the Game. They were very powerful, and could defeat demons with ease. They were, however \|\|not really gods, but actually the product of the dreams of men, and could be killed by the Swords they had made. They all eventually died when men stopped believing in them.\|\| - The Emperor, a mysterious man who is believed by many to be a myth, and by others to be a simple clown or wandering jester, or perhaps a con-man or mountebank. A few know him to be a very powerful wizard. In reality \|\|he is the real God\|\|. - Factory of the Gods: Gods are the result of normal mortals finding and touching Godcores. Becomes extra unusual when a phone touches one of those cores and the Godcore bonds with it since it has a processor it interprets as a mind. - Geoph Essex's Jackrabbit Messiah appears to run on this trope: the few gods we get to see in action appear just as desperate and fallible as the humans. Several characters discuss the possibility that the gods are actually less powerful, in certain ways, than mortals. - The "gods" of the H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos come in several varieties. - The Great Old Ones - Cthulhu, Hastur, Tsathoggua, Ghatanothoa, etc, are more or less Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. They are usually immortal, of monstrous size and appearance, capable of producing swarms of spawn, and are powerfully psychic, but their influence is usually limited to a single planet and they are often consigned to hibernate through cosmic cycles for thousands or millions of years. - The Outer Gods, of which Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep and Azathoth are chief, are more literal gods, who seem to rarely have any concern for human affairs. They are immensely powerful, though occasionally limited by the barriers between universes (Yog-Sothoth, though a four-dimensional being who lives beyond time, is still usually locked out of the mundane universe). Azathoth, for example, is a mindless demiurge responsible for creation of all of cosmos (which is far greater than our known universe). While Yog-Sothoth is locked out of the universe, it's also coterminous with all points of space and time, being the Living Multiverse. - In no way anthropomorphic, often with frightening bizarre alien anatomy; amorphous swarming tentacles, animate slime, and glossy inter-dimensional bubbles of energy. They are often viewed as cosmic organisms, rather than traditional gods in any respect. A few Outer Gods may adopt quasi-human avatars to interact with us, or use mutated followers to the same effect. - Both varieties are completely amoral, often animalistic forces of nature, though sometimes with very vaguely defined personalities. Some, like Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, seem willing to reward followers who help them towards their inscrutable goals, while others, like Nyarlathotep, seem to exhibit deliberate malice for all civilized races. For the most part, however, humanity and earth has no real relevance to them. - The Outer Gods seem to have always been, and often even have their own universes that they created and dwell in, while others were the creation of even greater outer gods. The Great Old ones are hinted to have evolved naturally, each on his own or with the help of a precursor species, though some writers have them reproducing like a single unified family. Some Great Old Ones (especially those with a family tree) can have an Outer God or two among their forebears, though whether such claims are factual or the delusions of crazed cultists is ambiguous. - The Elder Gods, usually considered August Derleth's discontinuous insertion, have sometimes been Retcon'ed as a second group of Outer Gods who oppose the originals, but a less immediate threat to humanity. - The Lovecraft story "The Cats of Ulthar" seems to hint at the existence of entities resembling the gods of ancient Egypt... in the Dreamlands where Ulthar is located according to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, anyway. - A number of stories also feature the "mild gods of Earth," suggested to be old standbys such as Zeus or Isis, but seldom referenced individually. They are also dangerous and unknowable, albeit slightly less so. - The Malazan Book of the Fallen is filled with gods of varying levels of power and influence. There are two main categories of them: - The Elder Gods embody primal forces of nature and vastly predate most everything else in the setting. Some are said to be responsible for the creation of various races. As of the time of the main series, most of the Elder Gods are no longer active owing to their worship having been forgotten, but a few are still around. - The second group is composed of deities who were once mortal; mortals can become Ascendants (superhuman immortals) through a process that is poorly-understood in-universe but typically involves proving oneself truly exceptional in some way, and Ascendants can in turn become gods by being worshipped and/or taking over a divine position that was vacant at the time. And there are at least a couple of Ascendants, like Anomander Rake, who are worshipped but voluntarily choose not to claim full godhood. The majority of the modern pantheon are Ascendants. - Then there's the Crippled God, an interloper from another world who doesn't follow the usual rules and makes quite a lot of trouble as a result. - In the Nightside, an entire street is devoted to beings that can be worshiped, and worship is a path to power. That said, worship isn't the only way to gain power — Razor Eddie tolerates no worshipers of John Taylor, but the latter could end the world. God in an Abrahamic sense (and specifically Christian) also exists akin to the Dresden Files — sympathetically portrayed, but relatively indirect in acting (His angels are a different story). - No Gods for Drowning: Deities come in various forms in this book: - The Dawn Gods are a group of extraterrestrial higher beings who journyed to this world and uplifted humanity to help them fight the monsters that were preying on them called Glories. These Gods have an etherial and otherworldly appearance. - The major gods that are worshipped by humanity are actually either former human lovers or descendants of Dawn Gods. These gods can vary in looks and descriptions and feature the nine headed Logoi. They can also reproduce with humanity and give them children regardless of the gender of the god in question. It's possible to become a god by taking a god or goddess as a lover and producing a divine child. - In Ravelling Wrath, the gods perceive the world much more slowly than humans, they have titles like "The Blood God" instead of names, and they are referred to as "it". - The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses has Deities, the highest rank of Spirits. There are 21 in all, and they include the eponymous twelve goddesses and the Demon King Hadar. Deities possess extreme power, enough to fight an army of thousands, and some form of Resurrective Immortality. Humans can form contracts with them just as with lesser Spirits, becoming the rare and renowned Deity Knights, but this is obviously extremely difficult. - Brandon Sanderson has admitted up front that the idea of godhood fascinates him. As such, all of his major works feature some sort of gods. - The Elantrians from Elantris are mortal wizards who are so powerful they are revered as divine in their home nation. - The Lord Ruler from Mistborn: The Original Trilogy is an immortal, seemingly invincible Evil Overlord worshipped in The Empire. - The Returned from Warbreaker are humans who died in some significant manner and are returned to life with superhuman magical abilities. It's worth noting that Returned only have a few powers not available to mere mortal magic-users with enough power, they can heal a person at the cost of their lives, they can \|\|shapeshift, though the majority of them aren't aware of it\|\|, and as hinted in the story, and confirmed by Word of God, they get glimpses of the future. - And then there's the Stormfather, in The Stormlight Archive: has the unforgiving mood of the Old Testament God, his physical form is a vast face in the clouds, he's responsible for the weather, spirits who help people do his bidding, and he sends visions of the future to a Chosen One. Sounds exactly like God, right? \|\|He denies being God when asked, and he is the biggest and oldest of those spirits and maybe their father but not actually a creator-figure for anyone else. As for the visions, the actual God required him to send them to the Chosen One when the circumstances were right.\|\| - But none of these are the real gods. Long ago, a single god-like entity/force/power known as Adonalsium was "shattered." Its fragments, called Shards, are universal principles that form the bedrock of the books' magic systems. The Shards were taken up by the people responsible for the Shattering, becoming the first Vessels; the Vessel functions as the personification of their Shard. Confirmed Shards are Ruin and Preservation from Mistborn, the being who creates Warbreaker's Returned (named in Word of God as Endowment), and Cultivation, Honor, and Odium from The Stormlight Archive. Word of God identifies a few more: Devotion and Dominion, held by Aona and Skai, were once the gods of the world of Elantris; Autonomy, held by Bavadin, primarily rules over the world of White Sand, though she has avatars on many other worlds as well; and Ambition, held by Uli Da, who has some connection to the world of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Needless to say, all of these works are part of the same universe. Other Shards have been named but not yet elaborated on: Invention, Mercy, Valor, and Whimsy, and there are two more that have not yet been named. - The Gods in the Suggsverse are all absolutely omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and everything else related to absolute omnipotence. - The Sky-Dogs from Survivor Dogs are gods in all-but-name. They're a group of sibling dogs that live in the sky. They sleep, play, and act much like ordinary dogs. Dogs worship them but dogs also worship Anthropomorphic Personifications of nature, such as the Earth-Dog (who is both Mother Nature and The Grim Reaper). The Sky-Dogs don't tend to interact with mortals but they can cause earthly trouble, including thunderstorms when they "play fight" with Lightning and the Earth-Dog, and they're known to get mad at normal dogs. - Till We Have Faces presents the theologies of Greece and Glome before hinting at the truth about the gods: - In the Greeklands, the people recognize a single, abstract Divine Nature who controls providence and exists outside of physical reality. This makes the Divine Nature impersonal, so the Greek known as Fox scoffs at intercessory prayer and idol worship as baseless superstitions. Some of Glome's priests come around to Fox's views, but non-intellectuals have no need for such a safe and uninvolved god. - In Glome, the people worship and fear an obsidian rock that they call Ungit, a Love Goddess and mother of the divine Shadowbrute. The gods are associated darkness, the rotting smell of their sacrificial lambs, and the plagues they send to punish blasphemous mortals they known as the Accursed. This person is devoured and/or married to the Brute in a ritual like a Human Sacrifice. Bardia and most of the characters find these gods real as air, far more than any type of "Divine Nature." - If she isn't an Unreliable Narrator, Orual has a personal encounter with the god of the Grey Mountain. As a pagan of Glome would know, the god is violent enough to flatten a forest and so radically present as to make everything else in reality seem like a dream. Yet, he (or maybe He) may be the God known to Greek philosophy, as the god is benevolent enough to love Psyche more than her foster mother, metaphysical enough that Orual cannot see if he has a shape, and omnipotent enough to change the past at will. - There are several levels of divine powers in Tolkien's Legendarium, implied in Lord of the Rings and elaborated on in The Silmarillion. There is one single, all-powerful creator god: Eru Ilúvatar. He created other divine incorporeal spirits, the Ainur, which could be classified as angels or minor gods. The Ainur who entered the world are split into two categories: 1) the 14 Valar (a term that literally means "Powers" but can also be translated as little-g gods or archangels) and the (not-included in the counting) Vala Melkor Morgoth; and 2) the Maiar (approx. lesser angels or gods), whose ranks include such notables as Sauron, the five wizards, the Balrogs, and those who steer the ships of the Sun and Moon. The scope of a Ainu's power reflects their part in the great song that created the world. Manwe (whose aspect is air) and Ulmo (whose aspect is water) are particularly powerful because of how pervasive their domains are throughout the whole of creation. Lesser Ainur might represent clouds, or surf... powerful beings, but vastly less so than the greatest Valar. Melkor has his hand in just about everything, which is why he is so powerful and capable on his own. - The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: Generally, there's a pantheon. Otherwise, just three, or one. All of them are dependent on getting prayer and worship to exist. Because of this, they'll make a point to appear regularly so that people don't stop believing in them. Despite this, no Tourist will ever worship Gods. - In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series there are two godlike creatures. The Creator and The Dark One respectively. They both seem to exist outside of known reality and it is implied that they might be incarnations of Order and Chaos. However it is shown that in this universe human beings are capable of reaching this level of power as well through the proper tools. - In the Young Wizards series the One made the Powers That Be and tasked them with creating reality. While most of them got busy with their task, one stood aloof, wishing to come up with a contribution that none of the others could have thought of. After all of the others had finished, It made Its unique contribution: Entropy and Death. It was cast out of Heaven for this, and came to be known as The Lone Power. - The One is assumed to be all-powerful, but rarely does anything directly, possibly because acting directly would destroy reality (His name alone is so powerful that, if it were whole rather than kept in pieces, it would destroy universes). The Powers aren't all-powerful since, when acting inside of a physical universe, they are constrained by that universe's laws, which includes entropy, which means that the amount of energy they have available to expend is finite. However, the amount of power that they do have is still unimaginable by mere humans. - Not much is known about the mind of the One, other than that He has a tacky sense of humor. The most powerful of the Powers exist mainly outside of time, inserting multiple fragments of themselves into the timestream, so the totality of their minds can't be comprehended by mere mortals; however, the inside-of-time fragments that the mortal characters interact with give the appearance of having human-like minds. The Powers which are small enough to fit inside of a single universe appear to have human like minds. - The One is entirely good. Among the Powers all but the Lone Power are good (as the "Lone" in Its name suggests), though not all of the Bright Powers are still "active status" do-gooders: some of them became so attached to the things that they created that they retired so they could dwell amongst their work. There are morally ambiguous Powers as well; the Morrigan is mentioned as one in A Wizard Abroad. - Angel featured the nebulous "Powers That Be", who were never seen, but who used various means to pass information to Team Angel, most notably painful visions. They were apparently on the side of good, but were often referred to as the "Powers That Screw You". - One exception to the "unseen" rule was the rogue Power Jasmine. Jasmine herself is never referred to as a god, but her former role suggests that status, and she mind-controls anyone she encounters into worshipping her. She's also super-strong, but has to eat people to survive. - In the last half of season 5 we were introduced to Illyria, an Old One in human form, who frequently refers to her/itself as a god (and once, "God to a god"). Initially she could manipulate the flow of time and was Nigh Invulnerable as well as super-strong, and could talk to plants, but her powers nearly killed her and had to be greatly reduced. It was never made clear precisely what relationship the various "gods", "Powers", and "Old Ones" had to each other, although Glorificus was explicitly said not to be a demon. - Then there's Wolfram & Hart's "Senior Partners", otherwise known as "the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart", who were bit players on the cosmic scene in Illyria's day, until humanity came around and they learned to feed off of our darker emotions, which fuel them. - In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glorificus ("Glory" for short), was one of three gods who ruled a hell dimension, but was cast out by the other two when it appeared she'd become more powerful than them both. On Earth, she was trapped in the body of a human male, and had to exist in human form even when she was manifested; she also had to periodically drain people's sanity to keep from going more nuts. Her main superhuman attributes were immense strength and Nigh-Invulnerability, though she once demonstrated advanced spellcasting ability. We also heard vaguely about "Higher Powers" and "Spirit Guides", who may be the same as Angel's Powers That Be. - Supernatural seems to be based on Henotheism — there are multiple pagan gods (who are scarily powerful but can still be defeated and killed), with the Judeo-Christian Creator God as the one that is actually omnipotent but inaccessible. Appropriately enough "Word of God" confirms American Gods, mentioned above, was a major influence on Supernatural, so it likely works on similar rules. Therefore, Kali and Ganesh were simply versions of the gods brought over by settlers. In America, a largely Christian country, an Judeo-Christian angel is more powerful. Had the fight taken place in India, it would have been a different result. - And then Season 11 comes along and introduces the Darkness, an Anti-God who has existed as long as God has \|\|and is His sister\|\|. - Season 15 provides a significant retcon regarding the various gods: \|\|God/Chuck is the original deity, who created all the others for humanity to worship... and to blame when things went wrong, so that He could then eventually swoop in and get people to worship Him instead.\|\| - Transformers has two canonically existing deities. Primus is the god of the Transformers, and embodies goodness and order; his body is the planet Cybertron. Unicron is his Evil Counterpart, a Planet Eater who embodies evil, chaos, and destruction. The two previously existed as The One, who made up the "sentient core of the universe". Other gods are present, but rarely mentioned; one of the known ones is the Chronarchitect, who exists outside of time and occasionally intervenes in order to steer events toward a Grand Plan. - Also, each retelling of the Primus and Unicron story downplays the idea of others like them a bit more; Primus goes from one of a pantheon to the last of his pantheon, to him and Unicron being all there is. What "The One" is and how it relates to Primus and Unicron varies with the retelling (it did create at least one of them, though.) The Chronarchitect is one of Primus and Unicron's kin... if they have kin. Confused yet? - The various entities of Aboriginal Australian Myths (variously translated as spirits or gods) have a multifaceted and at times extremely complex nature. For instance the Wandjina of the cultures of Western Australia are simultaneously Genius Loci, lightning flashes, ancestor spirits and unborn souls. Broadly speaking most gods exist outside of time and space and can die but not really, though further specifics vary widely from culture to culture. Conversely, despiste their complicated nature they can be surprisingly down to earth; for example the Gunwinggu God of Thunder Mamaragan dwells in puddles, not exactly Olympus or Asgard here (though most do dwell in the sky. - Aztec Mythology didn't consider the "gods" the same way as the Europeans did. Their word for it was "teotl", which indicated a powerful force of nature that did not necessarily have an Anthropomorphic Personification. However, due to the similar nature and the fact that "teotl" sounds like "teolog" (close enough to "teologia", the Spanish word for "theology"), the word became "god". - Classical Mythology has three levels of gods. The Protogenoi are the consciousnesses of substances and abstract concepts, such as sky (Oranos), light (Aether), earth (Gaia), and destiny (Aithir). From the Protogenoi were born the Titans, who in turn were overthrown by their own offspring, the Olympians. It should be noted that there are other different families of gods too, Daimones embody concepts like justice or happiness, while a whole host of rustic spirits, Satyrs and Nymphs of all types, Harpies, Gorgons, Erinyes, and the Old Sea Deities (Thaumas, Nereus, Cetus) count as particular families of deities. On the other hand, many of these families have no more than three gods. - Native American Mythology had most tribes believing in the monotheistic "Great Spirit/Great Mystery/Wakan Tanka/Manitou/Gitche Manitou". However, it's not in the same manner as the European's view of the Christan God of The Bible, instead, the "Great Spirit" is often conceptualized to be many things that vary amongst different indigenous tribes; being more than one entity, a force of nature, a life force, the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, etc. - Norse Mythology is rather vague on what the difference between a god and a giant is. The main rule of thumb appears to have been that gods were associated with the Aesir or Vanir familial groups, while non-god giants note : There were at least two cases where giants became gods through the simple expedients of getting adopted as a brother and marriage, respectively weren't. It gets better: some sources list the elves and even the dwarves as families of the same sort of beings as the Aesir, Vanir, and Jötnar (giants). One triptych goes: the Aesir have power, the Álfar (elves) have skills, and the Vanir have knowledge. - Japanese Mythology is animism. Since everything houses a spirit, anything can be a god. The gods are collectively known as the Yaoyorozu, the eight million gods, a poetic way of saying that there is an undefined but large number of gods rather than putting a specific number on them. Broadly, there are three categories of gods: Amatsukami, the celestial gods, the big-wigs of the Shinto pantheon who created and are the world. Notable names among them are Amenominakanushi, the supreme god that is all of creation including all other gods, Izanagi, god of creation and life, Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, Tsukuyomi, god of the moon, and Susanoo, god of storms. The second category is the Kunitsukami or terrestrial gods, who are the most numerous group. These include native and local deities as well as distinguished humans and ancestors. Youkai and vengeful spirits, which is what happens when the spirit within someone or something gets pissed off, can also be sorted into this category. The third category is the Yomotsukami, the gods of the dead. Aside from Izanami, the goddess of death, they're not discussed. - YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah of The Bible, who spends a large chunk of the Door Stopper trying to convince everyone and their mother that not only is he greater than all other gods, but that almost all of the "gods" he competes for worship with are false idols. "You are my witnesses," is the utterance of Jehovah, "even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and have faith in me, and that you may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none. II am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior." — Isaiah 43:10-11 - Technically speaking Judaism and Christianity have traditionally believed that other gods exist, just that they aren't gods. For example in Psalm 82, God sits in the divine council among the other gods and begins to enact judgements on them. "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince" (Psalm 82:6-7). The reason why Judaism and Christianity are said to only believe in one god is that the definition of "God" has changed over the centuries, once it meant simply any spiritual being that was worshiped, but later on it meant specifically an ontologically distinct being. Definitions like "monotheism" and "polytheism" are actually fairly recent concepts, in fact the early Christians had argued that the gods of the pagans were lesser spirits ("daimones") rather than that they weren't real. - There has been much confusion created by the concept of The Holy Trinity in the Bible, the idea of one Godhead in three persons. It is an infamously confusing concept that has kept biblical scholars from getting sleep for literal millennia. The Trinity holds that God appears in three persons, The Father (Jehovah/Yahweh/I Am), The Son (Jesus Christ), and The Holy Spirit. Scholars disagree if these figures are different manifestations of one deity or are three individual deities themselves connected by a similar substance. These ideas have challenged Christianitys place as a monotheistic religion, and other Abrahamic faiths have come to label Christian beliefs as polytheistic. Catholic priests often teach Jesus is the direct manifestation of the God who created the Earth in seven days and the are not actually separate, independent, beings. However the concept of direct incarnation have had some doubt thrown on them and have been challenged with scripture from the Bible itself. Quotes such as Matthew 27:46, when Jesus cries Oh Father, why have you forsaken me while being crucified shows signs of Jesus and God having separate intentions and independent minds. However, most church goers surprisingly never put much thought into the concept of the Trinity and dismiss it as something humans are unable to understand. - In Zoroastrianism gods (yazatas) are "sparks" from Ahura Mazda. There are good gods (ahuras) and evil ones (daevas). Ahura Mazda is himself God of Good, as opposed to God of Evil Ahriman. If that sounds familiar, that's because theres evidence of some cross-pollination with Judeo-Christian theology, with these being similar to angels or demons. The major difference is that Zoroastrians believe that Ahura Mazda is not omnipotent yet, though after his final showdown with Ahriman he will be victorious and will become omnipotent through absorbing his dead rival. Modern practitioners will sometimes confusingly refer to Ahura Mazda as "God", and this has also been done by some translators and writers. Strictly speaking though, Ahura Mazda is not the God described in the Bible. Zoroastrians have their own holy texts. - Hinduism has a last collection of gods and other divine entities to deal with. The Devas map most closely onto the gods of pre-Christian Europe: not omnipotent, not morally perfect, still subject to various forces of fate and destiny (and karma), but they have great power and live in a heavenly realm and you can sing praises to them if you like. Besides them, there's the Trimurti, who personify creation, preservation, and destruction, respectively. In a twist, enlightened human beings are usually treated as wiser and freer than any gods and far more worthy of emulation, particularly in the spin-off religion of Buddhism. There are apparently 330 million of them. Buddhism on the other hand traditionally says there is no creator deity, only the devas, whom they view as having to be enlightened too (some stories have Buddhas teaching them). Some enlightened devas and human beings however have been worshiped (Buddhist practices vary). - Mormonism, in contrast to most other branches of Christianity and other Abrahamic religions, falls somewhere between henotheism and monolateralism. It teaches that this world and its God are both just one of many in the universe, but that people can and should focus their attention on just the God of this world. - Anima: Beyond Fantasy has on the top C'iel and Gaira, the goddess of light and the god of darkness respectively and below them fourteen entities, seven of them spirits of light (Beryls), who serve C'iel, and the other seven spirits of darkness (Shajads), who serve Gaira. Word of God, however, states that all of them are above what is a god there, existing minor, god-like, powers in the setting note : Chased by the Powers in the Shadows and being unclear what's a god in Anima. - Dungeons & Dragons: - In general, the status of gods varies depending on world: most of them Need Prayer Badly in some fashion or another, although not all do. Gods are powerful but killable, either by MacGuffin or by the sufficiently powerful (still no easy task though). In some campaign settings like the Forgotten Realms, there is also an Overgod who oversees the pantheon, and appoints people to the various divine positions when necessary. - The Classic D&D game, conversely, avoided the terms "god" or "deity" to placate Moral Guardians and set it apart from AD&D. Its "Immortals" were nearly all former mortals who'd managed to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, and senior Immortals who didn't admit to such a past were so mind-bogglingly ancient that it was implied they just couldn't remember their mortal days. Once Immortal, they didn't technically need to be worshipped, but having devoted followers increased their influence over the world and status among their own kind, and some needed believers to become Immortal in the first place. Notably, the CD&D rules allowed for player character Immortals, so their powers and limitations were laid out explicitly by experience level. - An even higher rank of beings was implied to exist, and to be as far beyond Immortals as the Immortals are beyond mortals. Their existence was never confirmed in-universe, only speculated about by Immortals who wondered why some of the greatest among their own number had gone away. - The final scenario of the Wrath of the Immortals campaign featured one of those beings actually showing up very briefly. But there were never any game rules for them; there was theoretically a process for becoming one and thereby effectively "winning the game" after all (by going all the way from first-level mortal to highest-possible Immortal level twice with the same character), but the playing time requirements for actually doing so would have been prohibitive and the chance of success fairly low due to the obvious risk involved. Not to forget that as far as the Immortals know in-universe the only two of them who ever managed that feat anyway were promptly annihilated by blackballs... - In Exalted, the gods were a slave race created by the even more powerful and ancient Primordials to keep Creation running while they played games. The gods were extremely unhappy with this arrangement, but were unable to attack the Primordials, so they granted power to mortals (the titular "Exalted") to fight them instead. The most powerful of gods, the Incarnae, represent celestial bodies — the Unconquered Sun, Luna, and the Five Maidens (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). But there are gods for everything, including individual grains of rice, and a lot of them are low-level bureaucrats trying to gather enough worship to live. - Fate System: In Gods and Monsters, the gods are the remnants of the primordial mind that arose from chaos, thought everything into existence, then stopped for a moment to consider itself and promptly shattered into a million pieces. (The setting correspondingly aims for a world that is still very young and in which all the myths people will one day tell each other are still in the making.) They don't need prayer badly as such, but they do need anchors to the world in the form of holy places and communities of worshippers in order to safely manage their power without their every whim potentially warping either themselves (gods grow actively more powerful by playing to their strengths and going to extremes, but this also exaggerates their corresponding weaknesses and if they cross a certain threshold they irrevocably lose their identity and become the monsters the title also alludes to) or else the world around them without their necessarily meaning to. Oh, and the player characters are among them, of course. - Humblewood: The Amaranthine each represents one of the ten races, with the exception of Tyton and Ardea, the gods of life and death, and of night and day. While the five Birdfolk Amaranthine have concrete creation myths involving a contest to give the best gift to Ardea, the five Humblefolk Amaranthine are more varied and mysterious. - Magic: The Gathering: For most of the game's history, deities were primarily part of the background lore and had no presence in the actual cards; in many cases, it was left ambiguous as to whether any gods existed at all. This changed with the Theros block, which introduced god creature cards, as it was felt that you cannot do Greek mythology without its gods. Deities have remained a part of the game since, and are always typed as "god" regardless of gender ("deity" was originally preferred, but it didn't fit in the Theros gods' creature descriptions due to their lengthy list of other creature types). - Before the introduction of true deities, there were a handful of beings mentioned as being "gods", such as Karona and the Eldrazi, as well as avatars from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor and occasionally angels, chiefly due to their immense power. - Yawgmoth, known as the Ineffable by his followers, was also known as the God of Phyrexia. - Old planeswalkers were nothing short of Physical Gods themselves. Some, such as Serra, were worshiped by their followers as such. - The Greek Mythology-inspired Theros expansion features a pantheon of fifteen gods; one major god for each color overseeing a broad field of power — such Erebos, God of the Dead and Thassa, God of the Sea — and one minor god for each color pair, overseeing something more specialized — such as Keranos, God of Storms and Karametra, God of Harvests. They are noted for featuring Gods Need Prayer Badly as a game mechanic: they are enchantment creatures, meaning they are effectively living, sapient spells. If your devotion to their color (the number of mana symbols on your permanent cards) drops below a certain level, they stop being creatures and become enchantments only. - The Amonkhet expansion, inspired by Egyptian Mythology, has gods that are somewhat different from the Theros gods: besides each having an animal head, they are simply creatures instead of enchantment creatures, and live among and mingle freely with mortals in the city of Naktamun, unlike the distant gods of Theros. There is also the planes walker Nicol Bolas, worshipped in Amonkhet as the God-Pharaoh, who is believed to have created the plane. - Kaldheim has deities based on Norse myth, which are fundamentally superpowered humans who derive their immortality from drinking a special mead and can still be laid low by sufficient damage. - The Gruul Clans of Ravnica believe in a deity called Illharg, the Raze-Boar, who they believe will come one day to lead them in a plane-wide rampage against civilization. As it turns out, he's very much real as well. - The merfolk of the ancient Dominarian nation of Vodalia worshipped Svyelun, the goddess of the Pearl Moon, as a distant and stern goddess who held herself apart from her followers like the moon lies unreachably far above the sea. She remained a part of the background lore for decades, but received a card in the 2021 Modern Horizons set. - Maro-Sorcerers, each the embodiment of a forest in Dominaria, are frequently worshipped as deities (Titania of Argoth being an early example), although they are subservient to Gaea, the world soul of Dominaria, who would be more fitting were she present. - Nobilis: You play as a god. There are also several classes and categories of things that might be considered gods. - Imperators (which come in a variety of classes, be it Angels, The Fallen, Aaron's Serpents or some other extremely powerful being), are powerful entities which carry different aspects of Creation with them. Their nature makes them the embodiment of parts of the universe that they have "domains" or control over. - Nobles, who are ordinary mortals who have had a shard of an Imperator's soul imbued into their own. They have more limited control over certain domains, but that's still enough to let them reshape the world. The PCs will generally play as these. - In Nomine: - The pagan gods are beings of the Marches, the world of dreams; they were created when early humanity first attempted to anthropomorphize the cosmos around them, and as human culture began to form consistent myths and archetypes that coalesced within the dream world. As they're entities of manifested thought and belief, they depend on human worship to regenerate Essence. They used to be very powerful and influential, but Uriel's Purity Crusade destroyed many of them and forced the survivors to either flee into the Far Marches or seek the protection of Hell. - The Abrahamic God is an entirely different type of being. He generated the cosmos and humanity rather than the other way around, and does not seem to depend on anything for sustenance. The pagan gods believe that He began as one of their own, the tribal deity of the Hebrews who in time gained enough power to rewrite reality in His favor; the angels consider this to be insulting heresy. - Pathfinder has three tiers of deity (defined as "a being capable of granting spells to their worshippers"). - The lowest level is "quasi-deity". This includes nascent demon lords, qlippoth lords, various powerful monsters and potentially even characters who have the appropriate mythic ability. They have stats and their Challenge Rating (basically level) is usually 21-25, making them tough but winnable encounters for powerful characters without mythic ranks. - The next level up is "demigod". This is a large category, including true demon lords, archdevils, Great Old Ones like Cthulhu and many beings of similar power. They have stats, and their Challenge Rating is at the top of the scale, ranging around 26-30. This makes them boss-level encounters for high-level characters with many mythic ranks. - The top tier is full deities. They are explicitly beyond the concept of rules or stat blocks, and cannot be fought or slain by even the highest-level characters; in background lore, however, they have sometimes been harmed by demigods. Their powers are essentially unlimited. Luckily for the players, true deities are extremely reluctant to intervene directly in mortal affairs, because doing so would invite other opposed deities to do the same, with catastrophic consequences for the mortals caught in the middle. They rely on their worshippers to work their will in the world. - RuneQuest: In the setting of Glorantha, the gods are/were powerful beings who arose before Time. After a massive war which created Death, killed many gods, let Chaos loose, and nearly destroyed the world, the Great Compromise created Time, which sealed away the gods and allowed mortal races to flourish. Mortals can gain magic from the gods, and even ritually "hero quest" through the acts of the gods prior to the Dawn of Time. Unless you're a monotheist from the west, in which case the Kingdom of Logic fell apart under the onslaught of Chaos, and the Prophet Malkion unified with the Creator to create Time and restore the universe. Unfortunately, Malkion's followers ended up in the same world as the pagans and their false gods. Or unless you're a dwarf, in which case Mostal the World Machine was destroyed... you get the idea. Glorantha's that sort of place. - In the White Wolf game line of Scion the parents of the PCs (and eventually the PCs themselves) are literally gods of various pantheons. They have removed themselves from the world of mortals and placed heavy rules regarding their involvement with it, for the sole reason that the more they spent time doing crazy shit that broke the rules of reality, the more they were bound into specific roles and personalities; the more power they used, the more people thought of them a certain way, the more they became that certain way. Also, those gods are now under siege by the Titans, vast incomprehensible realms of sheer conceptual power (such as Light, or Water, or Chaos) that are so immensely powerful and alien, they must manifest themselves in significantly less powerful (but still capable of laying siege to multiple pantheons of gods) avatars, just to have some kind of mind that could understand things like "winning" or "goals" or "death." (As a side note, killing an avatar of a titan is a BAD idea. When Odin killed Ymir, the titan of winter, the Ice Age ended instantly and most of the earth got flooded.). - In the Brazilian setting Tormenta, there are essentially 3 kinds of "gods": the first ones, Nothingness and Hollowness, which aren't considered gods, but created the world and possess great power. Below them is The Pantheon, composed by 20 deities considered the "true" gods. Each of them has a private plane in which they are invincible, but they can also create an avatar in other planes. Bellow them are "minor deities", who can be anyone with enough power (level 20+) and enough worshippers (there is actually a minor NPC who aims to become one by creating his own church). Both True and Minor gods need prayer to maintain they powers, and after a genocidal war the Elven Goddess ended up falling to minor deity status. - Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 - Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch, the Great Gods of Chaos are nearly omnipotent in their own plane of existence (the Winds of Magic in Warhammer and the Warp in 40k), their power kept in check only by each other; but their influence on the mortal realm is somewhat more limited. Partly because the rules say they can't get involved directly, and partly because they are in fact so powerful that they cannot manifest themselves in the mortal realms. Despite this, they are still capable of leaving their mark on the world of men and are perhaps the most powerful beings in both settings to be given the divine moniker. In 40K, their description varies from enormous sentient vortices of Warp energy to actual (meta)physical beings who live in their realms in the Warp, sit on their thrones and generally act either like up-scaled humans or beings whose schemes and actions are inscrutable to mortals. It's mentioned that since it's impossible for mortals to truly perceive the Warp or the Winds of Magic (what they see is an analogy created by their mind and different from person to person), both and neither of these descriptions are true. - While those are the big four, the existence of other, lesser Chaos Gods have been hinted at, especially in 40k. There was Malal/Malice, a lesser, renegade Chaos god of Anarchy, born from Chaos's tendency to fight against itself, who was Exiled from Continuity due to confusion about who owned the IP. To round out to eight (Chaos is generally represented by a star of 8 arrows pointing in different directions) in Fantasy, there was Belakor (who had originally been a god demoted to Demon Prince, but has been updated to always have been one), as well as: Hashut, god of Chaos Dwarves; Necoho, god of atheism; and Zuvassin, the Great Undoer. In 40k, there was the in-name-only Ans'l, Mo'rcck, and Phraz-Etar, who had been mentioned once in 1999, and never brought up again. - In both settings, the Greenskins' twin gods of Gork and Mork are present, though don't really contribute much beyond flavor. One is the God of brutal cunning, the other god of cunning brutality (one hits you when you aren't looking, the other hits you really hard when you are). Arguably, the cunning one is apparently the patron of any Orc/Ork who might take up a trade or show a degree of shrewdness, the other is patron of any who simply prioritizes brute strength. Though the consensus is in the order of description, they're essentially identical, and confusing them is just another reason for the greenskins to fight amongst themselves. - In Fantasy, the two Elven pantheons exist, one for the Overworld gods and one for the Underworld. In 40k, there's one Eldar almost identical to Fantasy's Overworld pantheon with a few gods from the Elven Underworld inserted in and one unique analogue of another Elven god inserted in. The 40k Pantheon is essentially dead, most gods killed or eaten by Slaanesh when the Eldar brought It into existence. The three still alive are Khaine, who escaped into the realspace by breaking into pieces; Isha, the Matron, who was taken as a trophy and then "liberated" by Nurgle; and Cegorach, who literally fled into the Webway. - It may be possible for mortals to become lesser gods: large groups of people with similar mindsets may commit mass suicide and have their souls fuse together in the Warp to create a small-scale version of whatever the Chaos Gods are. It's hinted that the Emperor of Mankind was born this way, by many powerful psykers committing mass suicide and having their souls transferred into a human body. Likewise, the souls of dead Eldar stored in the Infinity Circuits of the Craftworlds are thought by their race (well, hoped, anyway) to be slowly coalescing into Ynnead, the prophesied Eldar God of Death who will destroy Slaanesh and avenge the Eldar race. - Similarly, there are gods who seem to represent the psychic projections in the Warp of races as a whole, rather than emotions in general, and who are on the whole rather weaker than the big four. An example would be the rest of the Eldar pantheon, each god supposedly representing a different aspect of their people. Another would be the Ork gods Gork and Mork. Each seems to represnt the race as a whole fairly well by himself, but an Ork's hardly an Ork without someone to have a good fight with. - Warhammer also has the Chaos God of Atheism, who gets weaker the more believers he has. - There's also the gods of law/order; their victory is about as undesirable as that of the forces of chaos. Perhaps luckily, their obsession with order and stasis means they rarely do much of anything. Other deities also exist, generally siding against chaos. - In 40k, acting originally as rough analogues for the Gods of Order but having developed down their own path since, there are the C'tan Star-Gods, beings literally as old as the universe itself and far older than the Chaos Gods, not having required the appearance of emotive beings to come into existence. Originally diffuse Energy Beings the size of solar systems who were given bodies of living metal by a mortal race they later enslaved and turned into the Necrons, they used to eat stars but later switched to mortal souls, and whole worlds were fed to their hunger. They aren't gods in the same sense as the Chaos Gods — their existence is completely divorced from mortal emotions and belief, to begin with — but they're obscenely powerful beings, were actively worshiped by at least one species, are effectively unkillable (the best the Necrons could do when they rebelled was shatter them into pieces), and used to serve as a sort of foil to the Chaos Gods — where the Chaos Gods were beings entirely of the Immaterium who could not project directly in the physical world, the C'tan were entirely of the Materium and had no power over the Warp. - At least one C'tan, the Nightbringer, is implied to figure into the religious systems of nearly every species around as Death, after it Mind Raped life to fear death so as to feed on their despair. Another, the Void Dragon, is heavily implied to actually be the Machine-God the Mechanicus worships. - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Two types of gods are described: Ascended Gods and Elemental Gods: - An Ascended God is a Deity of Human Origin, and includes most members of the former Pantheon Of Order, made up as it was of the former champions of the World-That-Was, as well as the Ancestor Gods of the Dwarves, the drogukh warrior Kragnos, and \|\|Morathi\|\|. How one becomes an Ascended god varies, but it generally involves absorbing a lot of powerful, raw magic, or consuming many, many souls of very powerful beings. They're generally what you expect from a Physical God, and are even known to take the battlefield alongside their followers. - Elemental Gods are more complicated, and best described as an Anthropomorphic Personification of some phenomena or emotion; the Chaos gods fall under this category, and so does Gorkamorka, the god of the Orruks, Ogors, Grots, and giants. Elemental deities aren't necessarily more powerful that Ascended deities, but they aren't constrained to one physical form, or even the rules of space and time; Gorkamorka is described by his champion Gordrakk as being omnipresent, existing everywhere wild and untamed, and the Chaos Gods likewise can influence massive areas of the Mortal Realms without physically present. The Ascended deities, by contrast, have to physically be somewhere to get most of their work done, but can match an Elemental deity in a straight fight, as shown when Sigmar and Gorkamorka fought each other to a stalemate. - World Tree (RPG): The gods, referred to collectively as the seven-plus-twelve, are divided into two categories: - The seven verb gods, known as the creator gods, which each had a hand in the creation of the world itself and a prime species (or two), and each manage a magical Art related to how a things are affected; a Verb. Among them are creation, destruction, knowing, changing, sustaining, healing, and controlling. They generally sit in the sky and watch, rarely intervening in mortal affairs; two of them are known to visit on a frequent basis, but say and do nothing of consequence. - The twelve noun gods, who live on the tree itself and manage an element, a magical Noun. These gods are much more active in the affairs of mortals. The twelve nouns are fire, water, air, stone/metal, plant matter, animal matter, time, space, mind, spirit, sensation, and magic itself. - The science-fiction rpg FAITH, every sentient species encountered so far has the same five Gods. While the details vary by species, all the gods are essentially psychic embodiments of basic philosophies on how sentient life should be organized. Ranging from communalism to chaotic individualism. They can't effect the physical world directly but those people who align themselves with a specific god's ideals can be granted reality warping powers, known as Soulbound. ## Games with their own pages <!—index—> <!—/index—> - The Age of Decadence: There exists creatures behind an unknowable void that, centuries after their war caused After the End for everyone on Earth, are considered to be gods. What, if anything, created Earth is never brought up. - In the Civilization IV mod Fall from Heaven II, there is only one God responsible for the creation of Erebus (the world). However, he is absent for the most part, letting his angels run around, call themselves gods, and generally screw up he lives of mortals in their endless wars with one another. There are, however, other religions which worship, for example, octopi. Oh, and The Devil is a former angel. - Dark Souls: - According to the games backstory, the gods came about when the First Flame came into being and introduced disparity into world such as dark and light, heat and cold, life and death, and presumably, gods and mortals. The Top Gods of the setting were beings that retrieved the powerful Lord Souls when the First Flame appeared. Notably, these gods arent as powerful or immortal as theyd like you to believe, as their power is linked to the First Flame, which by the time the first game starts has long since started to fade, and with it the gods power. - A distinction is also made between gods and the divine race: all of the Lords, such as Gwyn and his family, the Witch of Izalith and Nito, are all very explicitly gods, while there are other, often massive humanoids who either explicitly or implicitly aren't human, and are implied to have some sort of divine heritage, but aren't worshipped as gods: Gwyn's Four Knights and some of the enemies in Anor Londo being prominent examples. - In the Diablo universe (though not becoming relevant until Diablo III), different cultures worship different gods, and their existence is confirmed in-game what with \|\|Covetous Shen\|\| being a Trickster God. But in the grand scheme of things, it seems the gods are actually lower ranked than either Angels or Demons. details : The Creation Myth said there used to be only Anu, who purged all evil out of himself which became Tathamet, and their titanic battle ending with a Mutual Kill resulted in the birth of Creation, along with The High Heavens and The Burning Hells. Therefore, Angels and Demons are the third beings to come into existence, after the former two. - In the Disciples series, each major race has their own deity. For humans, it's a little more complex, as they were created by Bethrezen, the favored angel of Highfather. However, after the fall of Bethrezen (he was set up by other angels), Highfather took over as the deity of humans. He is more often referred to as the Celestial Lord in Disciples III. The dwarves were created by and worship Wotan, who gets pissed off at the drop of a horned helmet and teaches his "children" Steampunk-level technology and runic magic. The elves were created by Gallean, and they used to worship him and his girlfriend Solonielle, who also created the merfolk. That is, until Wotan killed Gallean, and Solonielle's attempts to save her lover resulted in her becoming the goddess of the undead. Bethrezen, driven mad by the hate and imprisonment, created demons and sent them to destroy the world. Other lesser gods are mentioned, such as the creator of the greenskins. - Dragon Age: Origins has The Maker, the supreme deity that married the mortal Andraste, and allegedly "cast down the false gods". Other deities are also present, mainly the Old Gods, dragon gods that were worshiped by the Tevinter Imperium, trapped in the Deep Roads, but are currently zombified and leading the Darkspawn Horde. - Notably, the game's theology is quite ambiguous. The Church of Andraste doesn't have any more genuine evidence for the existence of their deity than the religions of Real Life, leaving room for religious faith rather than any sort of certainty. The Old Gods are definitely real, but their true nature is unknown, and it's unclear whether they really deserve the title of gods or not. The same goes for the Dalish pantheon that may or may not somehow relate to the Old Gods, which seem to parallel the Dalish Forgotten Ones. Dragon Age: Inquisition reveals that the Dalish gods \|\|were "merely" incredibly powerful elven mages. Solas explains that they went from being respected as powerful leaders to being revered as gods, and the truth was forgotten after elven civilization collapsed and elves lost their immortality.\|\| - The DLC for Dragon Age II reveals that the Golden City was real - and the powerful Tevinter Magisters were probably tricked into entering it by their Dragon god pals. Whether or not the Maker is real is up for debate, but SOMETHING imprisoned those intelligent blood magic using dragons. However the same DLC says that the "Golden City" was the Black City before the Magisters got there, which contradicts the standard mythology as much as it confirms and casts serious doubt on the normal interpretation of the Maker. In short, religion in the Dragon Age world is scary as hell. The few concrete facts about the remaining deific forces in the world are wildly contradictory, even if they're independently confirm-able, and the only Creator forces in the world any protagonist has ever seen is the \|\|Titan in the undercroft of the Deep Roads that may have created the Dwarves. Absolutely nobody left in the world knows the exact relation between the Titans, Lyrium, Dwarves, Darkspawn, and the Old Gods, and more disturbingly, why the entire Dwarven empire seems to have, slowly but inexorably, migrated surfacewards over the course of the last few thousand years.\|\| - The concept of divinity in Elden Ring can be...confusing, to say the least: - The only God recognized by the Golden Order, the primary civilization/religion/philosophy/structure of the laws of nature itself, is Marika the Eternal, vessel of the Elden Ring, a Cosmic Keystone that gives her power over the order of the world and even command the firmament (though it's not omnipotent, as she still needed armies to expand her territory). The Elden Lord and the children of Marika are considered demigods and gain great physical and magical prowess as of result, along with full immortality (at least, untill the Rune of Death was stolen and Godwyn was murdered.) but aren't worshipped as gods and are moreso royalty. - Other divine entities are recognized or revered by the Golden Order, but are never referred to as gods. The Greater Will is an abstract, seemingly formless entity that chose Marika and granted the world the Elden Ring in the first place, and has connections with the very concept of life, laws and gold, but is never referred to as a god or worshipped as such. The Two Fingers, giant finger-like creatures are considered 'vassals' of the Greater Will and act as their messangers, and they are worshipped, but more like prophets or angels than proper minor gods. The powerful Ancient Dragons, being associated with lightning and thus "imbued with gold", are allied with the Golden Order and have their own official sub-religion dedicated to worshipping them (the capital's Dragon Cult), but are not considered gods. - Then come the Outer Gods, mysterious unseen entities of massive power that seek to spread their influence in the world through proxies and servants. The three entities explicitly stated to be Outer Gods are different flavours of malicious: The Scarlet Rot is an Alien Kudzu that spreads across the land like a living plague, infecting every living being in it (even creatures of great power like ancient dragons or demigods) and either drives them into mindless creatures or turns them into blood-filled funguses that fuse with the land itself, the Frenzied Flame is an ancient god of chaos that seeks to burn all life and fuse it as one and burrows its way into the eyes and minds of the desperate and nihilistic, and the Formless Mother is a goddess of blood and 'love' who seeks to be wounded, and for her worshippers to wound others in turn. Each have a Religion of Evil that are particularly prevalent as enemies across the game. - The Dark Moon is in a similiar state as the Greater Will in that, while considered very powerful and 'divine', is not explicily called a god, outer or otherwise, anywhere in the text. It's an entity associated with the stars, the night, chaos (but a much more benevolent one than the Frenzied Flame, the chaos of freedom rather than nihilism and insanity) and magic, and is implied to be an actual living moon. It was once worshipped by the Carians, but the only worshipper that seemingly yet remains is Lunar Princess Ranni. Unlike other divine entities, it does not attempt to expand its influence or show any particular interest in the Lands Between. This turns out to be important in one of the endings, as \|\|its neutral nature allows Ranni to ascend to divinity like Marika with the Dark Moon as her patron...and then promptly leave the world so that there will be no divine order binding the land and its people.\|\| - There are also various mystical creatures (usually resembling giant animals) that possess roughly demigod-level power and are never called gods, but are still worshipped complete with their own temples, and have magic sourced from them. The most prominent would be the God-Devouring Serpent that Rykard fused with, note : Implied to be named Eiglay, as its shedded skin is at the worship altar at a location called "Temple of Eiglay. the unnamed patron of Stormveil and its winds, note : Implied to be a giant hawk, as that's the crest◊ that shows up whenever you use certain Storm Art spells like Storm Blade. and the Ancestor Spirits worshipped by the Ancestral Followers. - Empyreans are particularly confusing: Empyreans are demigods, children of Marika, who were for reasons unknown chosen by the Two Fingers as potential Gods that could replace Marika as vessels of the Elden Ring - the thing is, they don't need to have the Greater Will as their Patron, they can be chosen by Outer Gods or other similiarly powerful divine beings. Malenia is a particularly stark example: she was afflicted with the Scarlet Rot since birth that rotted her limbs and eyes, and the fact she's an Empyrean makes her an (unwilling) champion/avatar of the Scarlet Rot. \|\|She's shown to be able to ascend to divinity even without the Elden Ring, as the 2nd phase of her boss fight has her 'bloom' into the Goddess of Rot herself.\|\| - The One-Eyed God, also referred to as the 'fell god' is the god of the Fire Giants whom Marika and her still nascent empire warred with for dominance of the Lands Between. It's said to be an evil god that resides within the Fire Giants, and seems to be as formless as the Outer Gods despite never being referred to as such. After defeating and nearly exterminating its servants, its essence was sealed away by Marika inside a giant forge so that its flames couldn't threaten the Erdtree. It's implied that its moniker as the 'One-Eyed God' comes from \|\|the one-eyed face on the torso of all Fire Giants, which awakens and begins aiding the last Fire Giant in the 2nd half of the fight.\|\| - Destined Death, also referred to as the Rune of Death, is perhaps the most confusing: its introduction as the Rune of Death and it was 'plucked' from the Golden Order implies that it was the very concept of death that was removed from the Elden Ring, but later reveals imply that it's an entirely separate, possibly sentient entity that represents death and Un-Death. Destined Death takes several forms in the game itself. Most prominently, it is the power source of all Death-related magic: the Black Flame used by the Godskin, the empowered daggers of the Black Knife Assassins and the Necromantic Death Sorceries are all distinct applications of its power, meaning that Destined Death has both the power to act as an Immortal Breaker and give death to the deathless, and create 'life' from death through generation of Those Who Live in Death. - There's also an unnamed but mentioned Outer God who sent the 'Twinbirds' as envoys, and is both connected with Deathbirds as well as Ghostflame, another magic type associated with death; but if said Outer God is Destined Death, the being who created it, or a completely separate god who also represents death in some form is never specified or clear. - The Elder Scrolls: The series has several varieties of "divine" entities. While every race and religion has their own Creation Myths and names/personalities/powers for these entities, there are enough similarities to paint a general picture. For the sake of quick summaries (using their most commonly recognized names): - In the beginning, there were Anu and Padomay, the anthropomorphized primordial forces of "stasis/order/light" and "change/chaos/darkness", respectively. Their interplay in the great "void" of pre-creation led to creation itself. Creation, sometimes anthropomorphized as the female entity "Nir", favored Anu, which angered Padomay. Padomay killed Nir and shattered the twelve worlds she gave birth to. Anu wounded Padomay, presuming him dead. Anu salvaged the pieces of the twelve world to create one world: Nirn. Padomay returned and wounded Anu, seeking to destroy Nirn. Anu then pulled Padomay and himself outside of time, ending Padomay's threat to creation "forever". From the intermingling of their spilled blood came the "et'Ada", or "original spirits", who would go on to become either the Magna-Ge, the Aedra, or the Daedra depending on their actions during the creation of Mundus, the mortal plane. (Some myths state that the Magna-Ge come from the blood of Anu, the Daedra the blood of Padomay, and the Aedra from the mixed blood of both). - One of these spirits, said to have been "begat" by Padomay, was Lorkhan. Depending on the version of the myth, he convinced/tricked some of the other et'Ada into helping him create the mortal plane, known as Mundus. (The races of Mer, or Elves, generally believe this was a cruel trick that robbed their ancestors of their pre-creation divinity while the races of Men believe it was a good thing.) Those et'Ada who sacrificed large parts of their being to create Mundus became known as the Aedra, while those that did not participate became the Daedra. For his treachery, the Aedra "killed" Lorkhan and tore out his "divine center" (heart), which they cast down into the mortal world he helped to create. His spirit then wandered Mundus, occasionally taking physical mortal forms, known as "Shezarrines" after Lorkhan's Imperial name, Shezarr. Nirn's two moons are said to be his sundered "flesh divinity" and he also may have re-ascended to godhood as part of the deity Talos (see below). - The Aedra, meaning "Our Ancestors" in the old Aldmeri language, sacrificed a large portion of their divine power in order to create the mortal world. They were originally many in number, but only 8 survived the creation of Mundus. (And depending on the story, even they did not truly "survive," but they are dead and "dreaming the are alive.") These 8 are known as the "Divines" and would become the primary deities worshiped by the Church of the Divines. Their sacrifice has left them weak, and thus they prefer a lighter touch in dealing with the mortal world, at most typically acting through mortal agents. Any instances of direct Divine Intervention are typically reserved for dire circumstances, such as averting The End of the World as We Know It. As such, the primary view of the Divines to most mortals is as impersonal, generally benevolent spirits, worthy of worship and reverence but without any strong direct relationship. - Some of the lesser et'Ada who aided in the creation of Mundus would become the Ehlnofey. They chose to remain on Mundus and populate it, becoming the progenitors of the modern mortal races. Others would sacrifice themselves further to become the "Earth Bones," the laws of nature and physics required to make the world function. - Other lesser Aedric beings have been known throughout history. The most famous is perhaps Morihaus, a "winged man-bull", said to be the demi-god son of Kynareth, one of the Divines. The dragons, servants/fragments of Akatosh, the draconic god of time and chief deity of the Divines pantheon, are another. These beings are typically considered by many in-universe to be the equivalent of angelic beings. - The Daedra, meaning "Not Our Ancestors," did not sacrifice any of their power during the creation of Mundus and remain truly immortal. The 16 (17 following the events of The Shivering Isles) of the most powerful Daedra are known as the Daedric Princes. Each governs a particular "sphere" of influence, and rules from their own plane of Oblivion, the infinite void between worlds. Unlike the Aedra, they are much more active in directly influencing the mortal world, with several have made attempts to take it over at different points in history. Most of the Daedric Princes are seen as evil or demonic, but in-universe scholars are quick to point out that they are really beings Above Good and Evil who operate on their own scale of Blue-and-Orange Morality, where how "good" or "evil" they seem is dictated by how benevolent or malevolent their actions toward mortals are. Additional details on the Daedra can be found on the series' Daedra sub-page. - There are many other Daedric spirits below the Princes, collectively referred to as "Lesser Daedra". Like the Princes, they are technically immortal and cannot be truly "killed". If their mortal form is slain on Mundus, their spirit returns to Oblivion to reform. The lesser Daedra are often found in service to one of the Princes and are also favored summons of mortal conjurers. They are typically considered by many in-universe to be the equivalent of demonic beings. - Talos, the ascended divine form of Emperor Tiber Septim, became the Ninth Divine after his death in the early 3rd era. There are many theories explaining how he accomplished this feat, but it is most commonly accepted that he in some way "mantled" Lorkhan, and the fused being ascended (or reascended in Lorkhan's case) to his station amongst the Aedra. - Magnus was one of the et'Ada who originally aided Lorkhan in creating Mundus, serving as the chief architect. However, as the architect of Mundus, he eventually realized that in order to create it, the Aedra would become forever bound to the world he was designing and abandoned the project. He and his followers, the Magna-Ge, fled Mundus for Aetherius, the realm of magic. In the process, they punched holes in between the realms that would become the sun and stars, and through which light and magic flows into Mundus from Aetherius. - For thousands of years, the Dunmer (Dark Elves) worshiped the Tribunal, a trio of Physical God Deities of Mortal Origin. The three of them (Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil), along with their former ally turned rival, Voryn Dagoth, tapped into the power of the aformentioned Heart of Lorkhan to obtain their divine power. As a result of the events of Morrowind, \|\|they are cut off from their source of power and all but Vivec are killed\|\|. The Dunmer people later revert to their traditional ancestor veneration and worship of the "good" Daedra. - While some more-Imperialized Argonians may recognize the Aedra and Daedra, their race primarily worships the Hist — a race of sentient, ancient note : "ancient" as in "they have existed on the planet before linear time was conceived of", and possibly Omniscient spore-reproducing trees. They can communicate with each other via deep, interconnected root systems and can communicate with the Argonians via visions transmitted in their sap, which the Argonians drink to learn and grow. - While the Khajiit worship some of the Aedra and Daedra, no deity is more revered than Masser and Secunda, the two moons of Nirn who are elevated to god status by the Khajiit since the many different forms a Khajiit can take depends on the phases of the moons. - Genshin Impact: - The Seven Archons are gods who each have a connection to one of the seven elements and one of the seven nations of Teyvat. Their power is determined by how much control they have in their nation, so the God-Emperor Tsarista is much more powerful than Barbatos, who refuses to rule since that would violate his principles as the God of Freedom. The mysterious entity who attacks the Traveller in the opening cutscene is known as "The Unknown God" but what connection, if any, she has to the Archons is unclear. - Seemingly even higher on the divine ladder than the Seven Archons are the Celestial Gods, divine entities that remain unseen but present in Teyvat and literally look down on the world from the Floating Continent of Celestia. Their motivations and what they actually are is kept tight-lipped, but most of the Archons are implied to not want to mess with them. - God of War - The Greek Gods are not quite immortal, as Kratos is quite willing to prove. In a way this is consistent with Classical Mythology, in which the god's immortality was dependent on who was telling the story. Regardless, they're phenomenally powerful and intrinsically tied to whatever their sphere of influence is, and should any of them perish the element or concept they rule over would go catastrophically out of control. - The Norse Gods are shown to be somewhat different in their own right: while strong, they don't reach quite the point of majesty that the Olympians did, coming across more like your standard comic book superhuman, and killing them isn't quite as world-shaking \|\|as the deaths of Magni, Modi and Baldur showed\|\|. Though Mimir does mention that every god is unique, so maybe that also applies to pantheons. - Hyperdimension Neptunia has its residents from the four worlds worship their goddesses fervently. The catch? Three of the goddesses are caricatures of the three consoles and the fourth one is a Sega console that never got released (Sega Neptune). - Legacy of Kain: The Elder God is a traditional Eldritch Abomination with near-omnipotence and power over the afterlife (\|\| It consumes the souls of all those who have passed\|\|). \|\|But as later games in the series reveal, he is much less of an actual God and more of a cosmic parasite.\|\| - In The Legend of Zelda series, many gods have been introduced of varying levels of importance. At the very top are the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, the creators of the world and the Triforce. Just below them, introduced in Skyward Sword, is Hyrule's patron deity Hylia, who was entrusted with the protection of the Triforce and the land of Hyrule. Below her, many powerful beings take up minor divine roles, such as the Deku Tree, the gods of wind Zephos and Cyclos, and the spirits of light. - In the Mardekverse, there are several classes of god (their names are always written in all caps, by the way). They are nonphysical entities who keep the balance and make sure the universe works out. They tend to take A Form You Are Comfortable With. - Higher Creator Deities, such as YALORT, who create planets and invent lifeforms. YALORT note : the Omnidragon is the creator of Belfan and Anshar, among others. - Midlevel Elemental Deities, who each control one of the eight elements: KROGHMM note : the Stalwart Titan for earth, CRYSOOSUNA note : the Graceful Mermaid for water, HWOUK note : the Zephyr of Change for air, VOLKOS note : the Everburning Flame for fire, ONEIROS note : the Dreamweaver for aether, an unknown one for fig note : As in figment, figurative, figure etc., AREINDEEN for light and SHUMBRA note : the Caliginous Warlock for dark. They forge the Elemental Crystals that a Higher Creator requires to form a planet. - The Lesser Archetype Deities represent the acme of a profession, skill, or facet of personality. They include AACIUPHI note : the Darling Heartsaint, goddess of love, friendship and joy, LUTINUET note : the Bard of Stars, the deity of music, and PLOMHARG note : the Friendly Wheatherd, the farmers' god. - Overseer Deities such as GALARIS note : the Evereaper, who is the god of death and who runs the Antilife note : the black void where guilt-laden souls stay and repent until they come to terms with themselves, or SOLAK, the god of suns and stars. - To create a world, a Higher Creation Deity must get the cooperation of SOLAK (for the star) and all of the Elemental Deities (for the Great Crystals; however, the Moral and Spiritual Element Crystals are unnecessary for non-life-bearing planets). - There are no penalties for not worshipping any god, but the gods do appreciate prayer, and reward sincere followers with good fortune, natural skill and even magical abilities. - Extra magical abilities. - One amusing reference: ABOMONOTOROS note : the Unconditional Abhorrer, goddess of hatred and dislike, is used as an interjection of extreme dislike, as in "May ABOMONOTOROS glare at you!" - The nine Elder Powers from Nexus War games got their divinity by getting control of the Source of Creation and shaping worlds in the image of the ideas or beliefs they represent. Whenever the cracks in the latest winner's ideology cause their world to fall apart (and it inevitably will) the player characters pick sides and fight it out to to determine who controls the Source next. - Ōkami's gods are a pantheon, with protagonist Amaterasu as the chief goddess of the sun. They don't age, and if they are killed, they can be still reincarnated a hundred years after if a wood sprite offers their power or a divine weapon (judging from the introduction, it could be either). They take the form of the twelve animals from the Chinese Zodiac plus a cat, all of them white with red markings. Their power is tied directly to prayer, and Amaterasu can use some of the abilities of any of the other gods. As of the DS Sequel Ōkamiden, the replacement/reincarnation is changed into all of the gods having children. Chibiterasu, the protagonist who is stated to be the kid of Amaterasu is much weaker and smaller (even lacking freedom like swimming and wall jumping) than his mother despite Amaterasu not being any smaller than Shiranui "at birth". - OneShot is a version of pantheism where \|\|the world is a simulation created when it was discovered help would arrive too late for the original and everything is managed by a sort of sentient operating system known as "the world machine".\|\| Oddly enough, the player is actually referred to as a monotheistic god despite having little of the actual power associated with that title. - The pantheon of Perihelion are hyperintelligent beings who exist as immense pools of living energies set amongst the abyss of time and space and their thought processes being described in terms of emotions. Their existence is known to and felt by all in Perihelion, making faith in them both unnecessary and inapplicable. The exception to this is the Unborn God, a Primordial Force, whose presence was only warned of by a psionic-in-training's prophetic vision 100 years before the events of the game. Its current form is physical, though it seeks to become living energy like the other gods. - In Pillars of Eternity the same gods are worshipped by everybody in the setting and are definably real. Each of them represents a set of related ideals and natural aspects (for example, Magran is the goddess of Fire, War, Consumption, Purification and Trials) and can appear in many forms with different names. They can grant their followers priestly powers and can cause children to be born as godlikes with strange appearances and powers. \|\|The fact that they're demonstrably real and worshipped by everyone is discussed, instead of being just a fantasy thing. They're artificial, being extremely powerful self aware magical constructs created by the ancient Engwithians to provide kith with answers to the questions of existence.\|\| - Sinnoh's pantheon in Pokémon fits the description for henotheism to a T; Arceus is said to have created the universe and shaped everything in it, by creating the aspects and embodiments of Time (Dialga), Space (Palkia), Antimatter (Giratina), Willpower (Azelf), Emotion (Mesprit), and Knowledge/Memory (Uxie). - Not just Sinnoh, but every region's legendary Pokemon. You have the creators of the land, oceans, and sky (Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza), the guardians of the sea and sky (Lugia and Ho-Oh), the gods of the seasons (Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres), the new moon/dreams and the full moon/nightmare (Darkrai and Cresselia), volcanos (Heatran), victory (Victini), wind, storms, and fertility (Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus), balance (Reshiram representing Yang, Zekrom representing Yin, and Kyurem representing Wuji) Life, Death, and Order (Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde), the Sun & Moon (Solgaleo and Lunala), Light (Necrozma), and guardian spirits of Alolas islands (Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini). - Puzzle & Dragons: Some of the mons are literally gods, which you may defeat and capture. Because of how the game works, though, you don't get much backstory on them besides 'they are gods'. Mons in the God category tend to be powerful but hard to level and maintain, and it's advised that when you get a God monster that you treat it with a 'grind now, profit later' mindset. Many of the god monsters in this game are named and modeled after actual classical gods, from the Roman, Egyptian, and Hindu pantheons, among others. - In the Taiwanese video game franchise Richman, which is similar to Monopoly,there are gods that stay on the road until someone stop at their spots. After that theyll possess the players and give them buffs such as paying less to no rents or debuffs such as unable to purchase any properties. - Shin Megami Tensei: Like Discworld and American Gods, all supernatural beings seem to exist on and draw power from the principals of Clap Your Hands If You Believe and Gods Need Prayer Badly. That said, most if not all can be taken down with a good old-fashioned ass-beating, though the belief of their followers can still bring them back. Certain evidence likewise implies that YHVH and Lucifer are the paragons of Law and Chaos insofar as they don't need worship explicitly to exist - neither can truly die as long as there are people who yearn for salvation or freedom. - Master Hand and Crazy Hand from the Super Smash Bros. series are said to be the personifications of humanity's creativity (Master Hand) and destructiveness (Crazy Hand). Though any fighter in the roster can beat them in combat if the player is good enough. There's also Master Core, apparently the true form of one or both of the Hands, and Tabuu, who is some kind of god of another dimension who defeated and imprisoned Master Hand. The fourth game escalates this by including Palutena and Rosalina, though they are not stronger than any other character. - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introduces Galeem, a personification (though less anthropomorphic than the Hands) of order and light, who commands an army of Master Hands and turns the fighters into soulless soldiers to fight for him. \|\|Later, we're introduced to Dharkon, Galeem's chaotic and dark counterpart commanding an army of Crazy Hands. Sephiroth can be considered one, since during his reveal trailer he was able to slice down Galeem in half and curb stomp the other fighters with little effort.\|\| - Tears to Tiara 2: Expanded on from the first game. Powerful lineages of the precursor races are worshiped as gods by humans. The people of Hispania mainly, tho not exclusively, worship the gods of Ba'al, of which Ashtarte is one. They appear on earth to teach and guide the people. They need prayer to be powerful. Watos is still missing. - In Touhou the word "God" (well, OK, "Goddess") doesn't carry too much weight. Thanks to the fact that monsters and even humans are practically Physical Gods, anyway, the Odd Job Gods are little more than Butt Monkeys of the game universe. Even the truly powerful goddesses can merely go toe-to-toe with some of the more powerful youkai, and Reimu canonically kicks in the door of The Rival Moriya Shrine, defeats its Shrine Maiden, and its Live-in Goddesses. You'd think that would hurt the ol' donation drive, to have your deity publicly beaten in her own temple by a rival deity's priestess? That said, this seems to mostly apply to the "lower gods"; the ones that inhabit the Earth and are part of the Myriad Gods. Yorihime is such an overpowered character because she's capable of summoning gods of far greater power than previously shown, which allowed her to effortlessly defeat every single character that went against her (including Reimu). Also, one must bear in mind that the Spell Card rules that everyone follows specifically limits how much power the characters can use in a fight, and it's always non-lethal. - The gods in World of Warcraft are hugely variable, and there plenty of contenders for the role of actual gods. - The Wild Gods, which are colossal animals of immense power. Almost all of the Beast Man races in the game are decended from their respective wild god, and it's been proven that tampering with a wild god's power can create new races even in relatively modern times (this is how the Worgen and their infectious curse came to be). You can kill a wild god, but there are ways to bring them back. Though it is actually possible to kill them off for real as well, by killing their manifestation in either the Emerald Dream or the Ardenweald realm in the Shadowlands. Under normal circumstances though, neither of those is possible. - Loa, the troll gods, tend to be primal forces of nature made manifest. Some loa are just wild gods worshipped by the trolls under a different name, although other loa are both more numerous and more varied. Their power can be channeled by a mortal, and they can be permanently killed. Some, like Bwonsamdi, take the form of a troll rather than an animal. - The Titans fit the bill most classically, as cosmic humanoid beings that are the creators of much of the life across the universe. In fact, most planets are actually their eggs (or World-Souls) where they incubate for millennia. Their former champion Sargeras is an obvious Satanic Archetype, giving them a solid good vs. evil motif. They have a heavy Norse or Egyptian theme. They however are not almighty beings - at the end of Legion \|\|you kill a Titan. Granted, it was a newborn Titan and you had the help of the entire Pantheon, but they're still just as mortal as the other races.\|\| - The Old Gods are, funnily enough, the worst contender for being actual gods. They're Eldritch Abominations which are literally parasites. They infect planets to corrupt the Titans within. While you can kill them, it's a very bad idea. They essentially wrap themselves into a planet's lifestream, and ripping them out has disastrous effects. At best, you can beat them back and lock them away. Worshipping Old Gods is reserved only for the insane, since they really do not care about mortal life at all. - Night Elves believe in a moon goddess named Elune. She, or something to her effect, does exist. The most obvious impact she's had on the world was mothering the demi-god Cenarius (with the wild god Malorne no less), who is an important lore character that you can interact with. The High/Blood Elves instead worship a sun god, likely named Belore although it's rarely brought up. The tauren believe that Elune and the sun are simply the eyes of their goddess, the Earthmother. Either way, that collective pantheon is by far the least defined out of Warcraft's roster, with no solid origin or exploration. - The non-canon RPG has Elune as by far the most powerful character in the setting, with a challenge rating set over 80. Since specifics about Elune are unknown, it's a mystery whether she has influence in any other part of the universe. - More recently, the Light and the Void were presented as the ultimate cosmic forces. The universe was created when the two opposite energies collided. The Light is the source of all Holy abilities, while the Void is the source of all Shadow abilities. It's ultimately downplayed however - neither force is a sentient being (at least not in a way we understand), more being laws of nature. - In volume 4 of RWBY, Qrow recounts the supposedly true Creation Myth of Remnant, involving two brother gods, Light and Dark. Light embodied creation and created life, while Dark embodied destruction, creating the creatures of grimm. Sick of their endless conflict, Light proposed that they should create something together, resulting in humanity, and giving four gifts; Knowledge, Choice, Creation and Destruction. \|\|Volume 6 reveals that this story is more or less true, but also leaves out a great deal; Light and Dark once dwelled on Remnant, and their mere presence was apparently enough to empower humanity with great magic (originally given to them by Dark). They appear either as dragons or as humanoid figures with horns. When humanity, manipulated by the girl Salem whom they had cursed with immortality, defied them, the gods wiped out humanity entirely, and left the world behind. While humanity eventually reappeared, the absence of the gods means that there is very little actual magic remaining in Remnant\|\|. Volume 9 further expands this, \|\|by revealing the gods themselves are creations of the World Tree in the dimension known as the Ever After; the brothers were created by the Tree to fill the Ever After with life, first by destroying the chaotic tangle that filled it, and then by creating sapient beings — the Afterans — to populate the now cleared world. The Brothers got restless, however, when that job was done, and quarrled over what to do now, so the Tree gave them a new world — Remnant — to create whatever they please\|\|. - Aurora (2019): There are two very distinct classes of divine beings in the setting. - True gods are described in an official lore page as "nothing more than vast, self-sustaining lattices of soul energy", and tend to form as embodiments of a specific concept or of a place such as a city, a mountain or a forest. The bodies they use to interact with the world are temporary constructs that hold a small part of the god's essence, and no matter what happens to them the actual entity will survive. A god's actual consciousness is spread throughout their domain; it's speculated that in this state they have a much more diffuse mental state, as some gods imply that taking corporeal form helps them to think and perceive things in a clearer manner. - The six Primordials are immense entities that existed long before the gods or anything else, and each represents one of the six in-setting elements. They died in the distant past, their bodies forming the physical world, but their souls still linger and can be induced to inhabit small portions of their bodies again, forming the basis of elemental magic. - Beaches and Basilisks: Several gods have been mentioned, ranging from Drooch, god of alcohol to Krysavi the dragon-god who created the islands in which the story takes place and who \|\|is revealed to be a giant robot\|\|. - Cthulhu Slippers: The Old Gods are vastly powerful and have taken over the world despite being terrible morons. They are actively worshipped as gods by their employees at Cthulhu Corp. - DHS Comix: The LaRaGa is ruled first by the "creation triad" of Luna, Sola, and Gaea, whose interactions with mortals are mostly limited to the forms their names suggest, but the former two have lines of empowered mortals fighting an eternal war, and the third's own magic persists in a number of forms separate from the magic gods. After them come the nine/eight magic gods, creations of Gaea: the three elemental gods, Phoenix (fire), Ceraph (wind), and Leviathan (water); the three movement gods, Emelia (time), Clyde (change), and Altair (travel and death); and the three perception gods, Marie (truth), Jude (knowledge), and Jake (lies). The lattermost is anathema to all the others, and his worship is a capital offense in most of the mortal world. Beneath them are a number of lesser gods, most prominently the twin Fels (luck), and the deities, a distinct category of being from gods, who serve the gods. - In El Goonish Shive, Arthur refers to the "Will of Magic" as a god, Heka refers to himself as holding the mantle of the god of magic and Voltaire refers to the former role of Immortals as demigods. - Homestuck: - Successful players of Sburb eventually reach the "God Tiers," the highest character levels available. These fully realize a player's strength and Elemental Powers while also granting them Resurrective Immortality so long as they don't die heroically or justly. The condition for ascension is steep though: \|\|the player must first die on their Quest Bed.\|\| - The Gods of the Furthest Rings are stereotypical monsters of the H. P. Lovecraft variety, residing in the dark abyss between universes where time, space, and all other aspects of existence fail to act consistently. Its impossible to place their morality, but their mortality is made explicit once the Greater-Scope Villain gets to them. - The Order of the Stick: The world was created by four pantheons of equal power but wildly different viewpoints, the Aesir in the North, the Babylonian Pantheon in the West, the Olympians in the East and the Twelve Earthly Branches in the South. When they couldn't agree on the various ways that their monsters would be different, their divine powers accidentally created the Snarl, a being of pure divine anger (which wiped out the Eastern gods). Afterwards, the three remaining groups set up strict rules on what parts of the world they could each directly affect. Additional gods have ascended or been created since then, generally by joining a preexisting pantheon. - All gods have a quality referred to as "quiddity", represented as the color of their aura, which all members of a pantheon share. As the Snarl was created from four combined quiddities, but the Eastern one is now entirely gone, it's beyond the combined power of the gods to overwhelm — it's essentially more real than anything they can make. However, \|\|the Dark One, the god of the goblins, ascended entirely on his own and consequently developed an entirely new quiddity\|\|. - Gods gain power proportionate to their believers, and can fade away entirely if starved of mortal worship for long periods. Elan's puppet god Banjo gains enough power from his one believer to create a small thundercloud and harmless lightning bolt. - In Sluggy Freelance, the most prominent are the gods of the Mokhadunese, ancestors of the Egyptians, who after a Götterdämmerung that Gwynn witness in a time travel arc, reinvent themselves into various figures previously seen in the present day, not least of them \|\|Bun-bun, the name under which the audience had known the now freelance Sluggy\|\|. There's also a reference in the backstory of an Artifact of Doom to Zeus reigning in Greek times. Finally, the Dimension of Pain has a Goddess of Goodness, a Physical God powered by the amount of goodness in the world she's in. Too bad she lives in a world populated entirely by incredibly sadistic demons. - Vanadys: Tales Of A Fallen Goddess has a fallen goddess as its titular caracter. While she is immortal, older than the world itself, and has great power, her status as a "fallen" means she's not as great or powerful as the other gods, some of whom she has a rather antagonistic relationship with. Apart from the outcast Vanadys, the gods have a distinct hierachy: The humanoid gods, who each have their area of responsibility (God of the Sun, Goddess of the Sea, Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge, and so on) are all subject to the two highest gods, the Dragon and the Serpent. They themselves are subject to the being called "the Light", who is the creator of the gods and whom nobody knows much about. - Wildlife: The gods are determined to destroy or seal away the Eldritch Abomination A'zi, who just happens to be the protagonist of the story. - How to Hero's version of Zeus steadfastly refuses to learn any language other than Ancient Greek. Because of this the guide advises against getting into a car with Zeus, since he can't read any of the signs. - In Amphibia, \|\|the Calamity Guardian/Three Stones Deity is a god of the omnipotent-but-unseen variety. It created the Calamity Stones that caused most of the plot, for better or worse, but only appears in the final episode, saving Anne after her Heroic Sacrifice and offering her to take over its job, which it has grown bored of. It somehow strikes a balance between benevolent and childish, throwing a tantrum when Anne turns it down but still respecting her decision. It also returns her to life in the hopes that she will reconsider its offer once she reaches the end of her natural life. It can also be debated if Anne herself qualifies as a god when wielding the power of the three calamity gems, though the strain swiftly kills her\|\|. - In Avatar: The Last Airbender the concept of a god is deliberately left unclear and complicated. Spirits and their own realm do exist in this universe, but they are also essentially just another mortal species that only have a little bit more power than humans. They can also be killed by humans and tend to stay out of human affairs. The Avatar, and by proxy, the spirit Raava, could be considered godly to an extent, as they are consistently reincarnated as forces of balance and good and are seen being worshipped in some temples and shrines. However, they are both susceptbile to being destroyed as evidenced at several points in the story. Ultimately, the closest thing to a god is likely the universe itself, which would also connect with the heavy Buddhist and Taoist influence on the show. - In Gargoyles it seems All Myths Are True. The most powerful of The Fair Folk are absolute rulers of the others with Reality Warper abilities but aren't quite worshipped, and a lot of mythological creatures who are unrelated in Real Life mythology are "Oberon's Children" in this show. However, once, a man figured out how to summon Anubis in hopes of getting his dead son back. We avert Everybody Hates Hades here; Anubis is a neutral Psychopomp figure. He's also everyone's lord of the dead; apparently, the Egyptians just happened to be the only people to get his name and look right. Word of God reveals that the Aesir of Norse Mythology are actually a group composed partially of Children of Oberon, partially of powerful mortal magicians and other such beings. - Koala Man: The Gods of Dapto look like ordinary people but they're taller than regular people, and the God of Fire is the only one you would believe is a god because she has Flaming Hair. The Gods of Dapto includes the God of Fire, the God of Good Health, the God of Popping Down the Shops, the God of Always Has a Guitar at a Party, the God of Fancy Seeing You Here, the God of Just Fuckin' Do It, and the God of Realizing Your Potential. In the past, they created the Sick Sunnies (sunglasses) of Dapto to give the town Dapto good luck for hundreds of years, but someone accidentally sat on it and Dapto was cursed ever since. It's later revealed they made a ton of Sick Sunnies for a New Year's party and never gave any of it to Dapto and put the leftover sunglasses in a box that's left on a pile of trash. - In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the two seemingly-immortal Winged Unicorn princesses who raise the sun by day and the moon by night, respectively, and have ruled Equestria since time out of mind, are treated as gods and as royalty at various times by the other ponies; they have chariots and royal guards and a castle... and we get phrases like "Thank Celestia!" or "For Celestia's sake!" It gets better: Tartarus exists, and when Cerberus went missing once, Princess Celestia sent lost dog flyers. However, there was definitely a time before their rule, they're not all-knowing or all-powerful, and season premiere/finale villains are always more than they can dispose of with a wave of their horn, even if they're who put them in the can thousands of years ago.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGodsAreGreater
Our Hydras Are Different - TV Tropes Hydras are a type of giant, multi-headed reptilian monster, often possessing powerful regenerative abilities. Fictional hydras trace their roots to the Lernaean Hydra, which inhabited the Swamps of Lerna in Greek myth until slain by Heracles. Like many monsters with mythical origins, hydras are often A Kind of One — the original Hydra of Greek myth was a singular named monster, but the name is now typically used for entire species of multi-headed reptiles fashioned after the Greek Hydra. One of the most iconic characteristics of hydras is their ability to regrow severed heads; sometimes they will simply regrow a new head whenever an old one is cut off, but they can often grow multiple heads (traditionally two) for every one lost. As a result, most obvious ways of dealing with these beasts tend to be useless at best and actively counterproductive at worst, requiring would-be hydra slayers to get creative with their methods. Even when hydras can't grow back heads, they'll often have some form of Healing Factor. Like the original Greek beast, hydras are very often swamp-dwellers; so they can easily be the resident Swamp Monster in a Swamps Are Evil setting. As the original hydra was typically described as a many-headed water snake, modern hydras often display ophidian traits to greater or lesser degrees. They may be depicted as limbless, snake-like slitherers, but it's also very common in modern media for them to be four-legged creatures instead, generally resembling some sort of lizard or dinosaur with a writhing tangle of heads sprouting from their torsos. While not overwhelmingly common, it's not unheard of for a link to be made between hydras and dragons. Some works will treat the two creatures as distinct but similar or related species, while others have hydras as a specific sub-type of dragons. If a Breath Weapon is present, it's common to have each head possess a different breath weapon, similar to Tiamat from the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Works which define hydras as a form of dragon are the likeliest to give them traits such as legs, stubby wings, horns or the like, in order to increase their physical resemblance to what dragons are usually shown as looking like. See also Hydra Problem, describing any case where harming an enemy in a straightforward way only makes it stronger, Reptiles Are Abhorrent and Multiple Head Case. Compare Orochi. ## Examples: - An ad for Red Bull features a six-headed Hydra, to whom Hercules offers the advertised drink as a gift. The Hydra is bested as the six heads fight over the one can and knot themselves up. Hercules then takes back his offering, to the Hydra's disdain. - Bakugan has two examples: Exedra, the legendary warrior of Darkus, and Hydranoid, the Guardian Bakugan of Masquerade \|\|and later Alice\|\|. Hydranoid is an interesting example, as he started with one head and gained a new one each time he evolved. - Berserk: One of the first exterior signs that Griffith has brought the material and spiritual realms together is the appearance of a massive hydra chasing a herd of unicorns and followed by a flock of harpies. While it's undoubtedly reptilian, the shape of its skull makes it heads look disturbingly humanlike. - My-HiME: Shizuru's CHILD, Kiyohime, is a biomechanical beast with six serpentine heads and an octopus-like body, and can spray avid from her mouths. - Saint Seiya features the Hydra Cloth as one of the Bronze Cloth owned by Ichi. Modeled after a large serpent, the armor includes sets of poisoned claws that can pop out of the armor and sink in the opponents' flesh and will reform if broken or removed, as a nod to the regrowing heads. However, Cygnus Hyoga easily puts a kibosh on that and uses his ice powers to prevent the regeneration. Supplemental material implies that the Hydra armor can grow more heads if the user is strong enough, and the Omega series include the Hydrus Cloth as a Silver Cloth. - Tweeny Witches: Hydra fairies resemble snails made of dark purple muddy water. - Ushio and Tora: Western Serpent God Shibumori is an unusual spin on this, being apparently a giant single-headed serpent (coiled around the body of a monk) who can split its head in four segments, allowing him to attack from multiple sides like a Hydra. He's also Made of Iron but it's unknown if he can regenerate, as his opponents end up swallowing him whole to defeat his defense - Marie de' Medici Cycle: A many-headed hydra shows up to get slain in "Reconciliation of the Queen and her Son", struck down by Divine Providence and symbolizing the end of Marie and Louis's conflict. - Stanisław Szukalski's sculpture "Rooster of the Gauls" shows the titular creature — an unofficial national symbol of France — in battle with a three-headed hydra, representing Nazi Germany. The sculpture was made as a tribute to La Résistance during World War II. The sculpture that exists was actually supposed to just be a proof-of-concept miniature for a truly monumental one he wanted to build, which he was hoping to get the United States to fund as a gift to France, reciprocating the gift of the Statue of Liberty. Sadly, the government turned down his proposal. - Magic: The Gathering: Hydras are the iconic creatures of Green, the color of nature, instincts, and the wilderness, playing the same role for it that angels do for White and demons do for Black. Their heads can number anywhere from four or five to a full dozen. Most are quadrupedal, but some have only two limbs. Many have mechanics themed around increasing their strength when they're dealt damage, symbolizing new heads growing from the stumps of severed ones. - The hydras native to Dominaria and Rath are Red- rather than Green-aligned, and live in mountains and volcanic badlands; as these were the first hydra cards printed in real life, this is an artifact from before the hydra creature type settled into its current identity. Occasional Red specimens still turn up in Dominaria in modern sets, such as Shivan Devastator, a winged, fire-breathing Dragon Hydra. - Several hydras, such as those from Tarkir and those from Amonkhet, are snakelike to the point of explicitly having cobra hoods and heads, and are typed as both Snakes and Hydras. - Due to the association with Green magic, Plant Hydras are relatively common. Ravnica is home to phytohydras, serpentine carnivorous plants that only grow back more and more energetically the more they're cut back. Briar Hydra is a tree-like beast with roots for feet and wooden necks and heads. Genesis Hydra appears as a normal hydra with wooden flesh and leafy manes. Rampant Rejuvenator is a living, branching vine with glowing pods for "heads". - In the Theros block, the planeswalker Elspeth Tirel has to fight Polukranos, a hydra that is dubbed the World Eater with very little apparent hyperbole, which used to lair in the realm of the gods before literally falling to earth as a result of a battle between two deities. - The fairytale plane of Eldraine is home to turtle hydras modeled after the Tarasque, Steelbane Hydra and Thunderous Snapper, which resemble giant, multi-headed turtles. They inhabit the Wilds outside of the main realms and are frequent foes of wandering knights. - Unusual hydras include the Apex Devastator is a Chimera Hydra with the heads of five different creatures including a lion, a bird, and a goat, and the Whiptongue Hydra, which resembles a five-headed chameleon. - Alara has Progenitus, the hydra avatar of the reunited plane. To reflect Alara's reborn state as a plane with all five colors of magic, Progenitus is also a five-colored creature. - DC Comics: - The Monster Society of Evil has a literal Hydra created by Mister Mind, which, when it loses a head, grows it back with the head of another animal. At first, it resembles a kangaroo with a human head, but the new heads it grows are those of a dog, a lion and an ox. - Wonder Woman faced one of these fairly early in the George Pérez run of volume 2; she overcame it through the fairly Boring, but Practical tack of tying all its heads together with her unbreakable lasso, then piercing its heart with arrows. - Godzilla: Rage Across Time: In Ancient Greece, Godzilla battles the Hydra. He defeats it by blasting Mount Olympus and letting the Hydra get crushed by the falling rocks. - The second volume of The Loud House graphic novels features a story entitled "10-Headed Beast", in which Lincoln imagines himself as a barbarian fighting a hydra version of his sisters. - It got a short adaptation with an extended plot in 2020. - The Element of Time: Hydras have two legs and inflexible tails, and always start out with three heads but can naturally grow two more for every one that gets cut off without the wound getting immediately closed off somehow. They also have immensely acidic and toxic blood capable of dissolving most metals, and the one \|\|Naruto summons is capable of spitting the stuff thanks to DNA from Alex implanted into it during its creation\|\|. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Hydras are three-headed serpents found in swamps. They fight by shooting streams of poison and can only be killed by being burned to death. They fangs can be used to craft powerful poisoned arrows and their hearts give regeneration when held. - The New Adventures of Invader Zim: During Season 1's Beach Episode, Dib and his friends discover a sea serpent slumbering offshore; when fought, it's quickly determined that it's a hydra, which grows new heads every time one's cut off or mortally damaged. And then, when they try using the "cauterize the stump" trick, the fire causes it to mutate into a demonic form, with Dib noting that demon sea hydras are ridiculous even by their standards. - Saga (Metroid): While it's not clear if "Void Hydra" is a term actually used by Viper's species or if it's an exonym, due to Viper's origins being a near total unknown in-universe, Viper is described as a hydra more often than anything else. Unlike most examples of the trope, some of the heads are on their tail. Also noteworthy is that Viper has fur and takes after mammalian creatures such as deer as much as they do after serpents. - The Sword of Justice and the Shield of Time: One new Witch takes this form, being a large three-headed serpent. Unlike the hydra of myth, it doesn't split off new heads after getting them blown off by Homura's missiles, but it does regrow them without issue. Sayaka and Homura are forced to destroy the glowing red core inside its body to finally kill it. - Hercules: Hercules faces the iconic multi-headed serpent early in his hero career. Its face is rather disturbingly humanoid and it drags its bulky body with its only two birdlike talons. The creature starts out with only one head, but three new ones grow in the place of each cranium lost. \|\|It's eventually defeated when it pins Hercules to a cliffside and the hero uses his super strength to cause an avalanche on top of the monster.\|\| - Hercules (Pure Magic): Hercules hallucinates fighting and losing against a Hydra (pronounced "heedra") after being poisoned with Hades' nectar, destroying Thebes and injuring Deianira during his stupor. Shortly after, King Eurystheus reveals that Deianira is fated to die unless Hercules can slay the real Hydra. The Hydra serves as a Disc-One Final Boss, and each of its heads has a different power: one can spit green slime that hardens like concrete, one can turn into weapons and fly separated from the body, one breathes fire, one shoots lightning from its eyes, and the final one is immortal and can regenerate any of the other heads that have been destroyed, although the number of heads it regrows is equal to the number it lost rather than greater. - Monsters University: One of the professional scarers seen at work is a reptilian creature with three heads. Terri/Terry, the two-headed member of the Oozma Kappa team, is particularly excited to see a fellow multi-header working for Monsters, Inc. - Godzilla: King Ghidorah, Godzilla's Arch-Enemy, is partly inspired by the Greek Hydra and the Japanese Orochi as well as the Slavic dragon Zmey (specifically by way of its appearance in the Soviet fantasy film Ilya Muromets). The name "Ghidorah" comes from the Japanese pronunciation of "hydra". - In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Ghidorah takes the hydra similarities further by having heads that can grow back when destroyed (though they thankfully stay at three). This version of Ghidorah is also specifically referred to as a hydra at one point. - The Loves of Hercules, despite ostensibly depicting the hydra from Greek myth, seems to have combined it with Cerberus. This hydra is a quadrupedal dragon with three heads, guarding the gates of the underworld. Strangest of all, when Hercules cuts off one of its heads, it simply dies, rather than regenerating. - Jason and the Argonauts: The Hydra appears as the guardian of the Golden Fleece and is killed when Jason stabs it in the heart, bypassing its traditional ability to regrow severed heads, and its teeth are later used to animate skeletal warriors. It's effectively a Composite Character of the actual Hydra, the Colchian dragon (which guarded the Golden Fleece in the original myth), and Cadmus' dragon (whose teeth grew into fierce soldiers when sown). - Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb: A Living Statue of Xiangliu, the hydra's counterpart from Chinese folklore, turns up as a minor antagonist. Since the statue is made of metal, Larry takes it out by using a defibrillator to give it an electric shock and knock it down. - Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: A hydra disguised as five janitors attacks our heroes at the Parthenon replica in Nashville when they attempt to retrieve the second pearl from the statue of Athena. The monster breathes fire from its middle head and is able to sprout two new heads when one is cut, but is ultimately defeated by Grover who uses Medusa's head to turn the hydra into a harmless statue. - Variation Hydra, a 2020 Chinese DTV monster movie revolving around a film crew's investigations of the legend of a nine-headed giant snake monster living in the mountains. It turns out All Myths Are True, and that \|\|there's more than one of them\|\|... - Sorcery! have an encounter where you battle a hydra with the heads of gods. It's a Hopeless Boss Fight where you do not have a single change of beating it, but as it turns out you're supposed to let the hydra hit you - it's actually an illusion, and getting hurt by it removes the illusion immediately. - Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.: Maple faces a Hydra with three heads and poison breath. With judicious timing of Health potions, she tanks its breath attacks until she gains an immunity to poison. When it tries to constrict Maple in one of its necks, she finds that she can't hurt it with her attacks. so she eats it instead. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The Lernaean Hydra, the child of Typhon and Echidna, was a many-headed monster — most writers gave it seven heads, but some said fifty or even a hundred — which in some accounts were human. Two heads sprouted for every one cut off, and one head was immortal. It lived in the swamps around the lake of Lerna until killed by Hercules and Iolaus, who prevented its regrowth by branding its wounds with a burning iron and burying its immortal head under a rock. The head is still alive and lies under that rock to this day, hating and dreaming. - Dracopedia: Hydras are a family of dragons distinguished by possessing multiple heads per body. Typically, hydras are born with two and grow more as they age and become larger; they can regrow severed heads, but this takes them about a year and thus isn't very useful during combat. Their multiple heads allow the animal to remain constantly aware of its environment by taking turns sleeping, but their small size compared to the rest of the body mean that hydras are notoriously small-brained and unintelligent. They mostly live around bodies of water, such as swamps, rivers and the sea, and use their long necks to fish for prey. Most possess stout, dinosaur-like bodies, but others are snakelike and limbless. Notable species include the European bull hydra, considered the archetypal hydra in-universe; the salamander-like Japanese orochi; the three-headed, short-necked cerebrus [sic] hydra, often kept as a guard animal, which unlike other hydras never grows additional heads; the stout-bodied medusan hydra; the winged hydra; the Indiana hydra or naga; the snake-bodied Lernaean hydra, which ambushes prey by hanging from tree branches; and the marine hydra of Melanesia, which spends most of its life in the sea. - The Dragon With a Hundred Heads and the Dragon With a Hundred Tails, a Jean de La Fontaine fable, is about a man who saw a hundred-headed hydra try and fail to pass through a hedge, while the dragon with a single head and a hundred tails easily pushed through, respectively as allegories for the many disparate forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the unified army of the Turks. This is supposedly based on an even older story told by Genghis Khan on why he could easily beat the squabbling tribes of Mongolia though they outnumbered him. - Fablehaven: A fifteen-headed hydra named Hespera is the first guardian of the Dragon Temple in Wyrmroost. - Fate/Apocrypha: Kairi Sisigou notices a preserved baby hydra in a jar while discussing the Holy Grail War at the Mage's Association and asks for it as part of his advance payment. He later uses it to \|\|create an antidote to the poison used by Semiramis, allowing Mordred to finish their fight and cripple Semiramis for the rest of the war.\|\| - Goblin Slayer: The dinosaur-like Mokele-Mbembe is stated to be a hydra; it's just young, and the extra heads have yet to come with age. - How Not to Summon a Demon Lord: The Force Hydra has four heads and though the heads don't multiply when cut off, they do regenerate instantly. One head breathes fire, one breathes ice, one breathes wind, and one breathes sand. It can only die if a tiny core in its body is destroyed, but the core constantly moves around. Diablo kills it with a really huge lightning blast that completely incinerates it. - The Labours of Hercules: Poirot investigates a rumor that a village doctor killed his wife to marry his dispenser, the metaphorical hydra being that every time one source of the rumor is tracked down, a new source appears, allowing the rumor to persist. - Les Dieux S Amusent features a parodic retelling of Hercules' labors in which the author holds that instead of cauterizing the stumps (because why should a Healing Factor that can fix decapitation fail against mere fire), the hero instead grafted a sheep's head on each neck, not only preventing the chopped head from regenerating but causing a septic infection that killed off another head, allowing Hercules to kill two heads for every head he added. - Ology Series: Dragonology describes hydras as a species of dragon native to the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, where they lair in the ruins of dead civilizations, and distinguished by their multiple heads (generally between three and seven, but sometimes more), atrophied wings and a bipedal, birdlike stance. In addition to being able to regrow lost heads, the actual severed heads can regrow new hydras of their own — indeed, this is their main way of reproducing. They also feed primarily upon other dragons' young, but are quite happy to eat humans when baby dragons aren't around. - Overlord (2012): Saryasu keeps a pet hydra named Rororo he reared from a hatchling, which looks like a Brachiosaurus with four snake heads and necks. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Hydra from Classical Mythology appears in the second book of the series. Like all monsters, it has Resurrective Immortality and is the only one of its kind. It appears as a massive water serpent with an initial nine heads. Unlike most monsters, its life force has been magically tied to a doughnut shop, and a new location of the franchise magically opens whenever it regrows two heads. \|\|Annabeth scolds Percy when he cuts off one of its heads, as even he knew what would happen. Before they can figure out how to deal with the beast, Clarisse vaporizes it with a cannon.\|\| - Redwall: Invoked in Triss, where a trio of newly-hatched adders \|\|had their tails entwined by the flail of King Sarengo, the rat who'd gotten in a Mutual Kill with their mother. As they grew into adulthood, the chain remained wrapped around them, so they had to learn to move as a team. They are horrifying in close combat, and for most of the book, terrorize characters by their mere presence, the raw and rotting flesh of their tails giving off a sickeningly sweet odor.\|\| - Star Wars Legends: Battle hydras are creatures resembling traditional Western dragons with two heads mounted on long, snake-like necks, although some have more, and with tails tipped with poisonous stingers. They were created by the Sith Lord Exar Kun as war monsters during the Great Sith War. They're normally fairly reclusive creatures that avoid contact with sapient beings but are easily dominated by Dark Side users. After Exar Kun's defeat, they largely retreated into the wildernesses of Yavin 4. - Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Hydras appear as threats to the heroes at various points through this series and its spinoffs. They're all descended from the original three-headed Lernaean Hydra, which was killed by Hercules and Iolaus. - Discussed in Kaamelott as a kind of monster one can encounter while Dungeon Crawling: Léodagan: A room full of bags of gold — and to guard the whole thing, a six-headed hydra. Arthur: A six-headed hydra?! Léodagan: Yes, your majesty! Myself, I've already done a four-headed one, well it wasn't a walk in the park, I can assure you. Arthur: I've done a six-headed one, once. Léodagan: Ah yeah? And so... Arthur: I nearly got wasted. Léodagan: Oh? Arthur: And we were three. You're sure about this? Léodagan: Well, to tell the truth, I asked for something hard, so we could gloat a bit when we'll be back... Arthur: Yeah, but with a six-headed hydra, we aren't going to gloat for long, I can tell you... - Classical Mythology: - Greek mythology is the Trope Maker through the Lernaean Hydra, a monstrous nine-headed snake that lived in the swamps of Lerna and guarded one of the entrances to the underworld. A creature of poison, its breath and blood were both fatally toxic and, in some versions, even its scent was deadly. The creature was a daughter of the primordial monsters Typhon and Echidna, like many of the other multi-headed or hybrid monsters of Classical myth, and was eventually slain by Heracles during his second labor, scorching the stumps of the Hydra's heads to keep them from growing back and burying its last immortal head beneath a rock. He then dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood, turning them permanently poisonous. One interpretation of the original hydra myth was that it served as a symbol of the Lernean swamp itself, where plugging up one spring would cause another to spring up shortly after. - Heracles would later encounter Ladon, the dragon of the Hesperides, which was sometimes described as having a hundred heads, though these heads did not regrow after being destroyed. - Slavic Mythology: represented by Zmey Gorynych (wyrm of the mountains), something of a fusion between a "traditional" western dragon and the classical hydra. In addition to the four limbs and wings of a traditional dragon, Gorynych typically has three heads. In some tales, he is, however, the first and weakest member of a family of multi-headed monsters with 3, 6, 9, and 12 heads. Unlike the Hydra, the Zmey is often sapient and always associated with fire, possessing fiery breath and often a fiery finger. This finger is used to reattach removed heads and must obviously by removed by the hero fighting the monster. - Chinese Mythology: The Xiangliu or Xiangyao is a monstrous, nine-headed snake demon that brings flooding and destruction. It was originally portrayed as having all of its heads cluttered on a single neck, but modern depictions show it as having each head resting on its own separate neck, much like the classical hydra. According to the myth, the Xiangliu terrorized ancient China spreading pollution and decay wherever it went and spoiling water with its breath before it was slain by Yu the Great. - Japanese Mythology: Yamata no Orochi is a gigantic, eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon that was killed by the storm god Susano-o, who found the sword Kusanagi hidden inside one of the serpent's tails. One commonly depicted weakness of the Orochi is intoxication, as the legend had Susano-o feed it eight barrels of sake, and slew it as it was passed out drunk. - Guaraní mythology: Teju Jagua, the first son of Tau and Keraná's cursed matrimony, is described as a draconic creature with canine traits that can shoot fire from his eyes. One version claims he has seven heads, giving him a strong resemblance to the hydra, but others claim he only has one huge head. All versions agree in that he has very limited movement and as such prefers to spend all day resting in his cave, rolling over his collection of jewels and treasures while eating fruit and honey. - The herren-surge of Basque folklore is a seven-headed serpent which is able to fly without any wings. It dwells in caves and behaves much like the usual Western dragon. - Albanian mythology has the Ljubi, a feminine serpent-like demon associated with water and storms. She is described as having multiple heads, up to hundreds depending on the version, and, just like her Greek counterpart, if one is cut, another grows in its place. She's also said to have a particular fondness toward human meat, especially the flesh of little girls. There's also the Kulshedra, a semi-divine multi-headed female dragon that is capable of spitting fire and unleashing natural disasters such as thunderstorms, earthquakes, flooding, and droughts among others. To stop her, she must be assuaged with a Human Sacrifice. Because of the similarities between both figures, some scholars believe both may be one and the same. - Zanzibar folklore has the Neeo'ka Mkoo' from the tale of Haamdaanee, which is a humongous seven-headed snake tyrannically lording over people in a town. Gales of dust kick up whenever he comes around to eat and drink his fill, which happens to be once every other day at noon! - The seven-headed dragon of Kanlaon is a myth in Philippine mythology of a dragon with seven heads that came regularly to a kingdom to devour its maidens. It was slain by the folk hero La-On, who, with his ability to summon and speak to animals, sent ants and bees to bite and sting its underbelly and eagles to peck its eyes, allowing him to slay it as it was distracted. Its corpse was buried where it fell, which became the volcano Mount Kanlaon: "the mountain that breathes fire like a dragon." - 13th Age: Hydras are massive serpents with at least five heads, and can sprout more when wounded. - Dungeons & Dragons: Hydras are large, four-legged reptiles in all editions except the fourth, which depicts them as limbless, and can have anywhere from five to twelve heads, with two new ones growing in whenever one is lost. They inhabit swamps and other areas of stagnant water and are some of the most dangerous things living there short of black dragons, with whom they often compete when they coexist. - While hydras aren't dragons, some scholars believe that they share a common ancestor — a minor scholarly tradition that believes dragons to descend from wyvern-like creatures rather than having been created by the gods holds that certain ancient skeletons of multi-headed reptiles are the remains of mutated proto-dragons who later evolved into modern hydras. Fifth Edition changes it to them having been created by the shed blood of a primordial dragon goddess named Lernaea who was slain by Tiamat at the beginning of time, before the age of elves, humans, or dwarves. - Hydra body parts have a surprising number of uses: hydra tongues hung from a pole, for instance, will change color rather dramatically depending on the approaching weather, while hydra fat mixed with corn meal makes for extremely effective rat bait and powdered hydra bone is a potent desiccant. - A couple of variants exist, including cryohydras, which can breathe out clouds of icy mist, and pyrohydras, which breathe fire instead. Gulguthydras are magical hybrids of hydras and otyughs, with six heads and a pair of tails tipped with grasping appendages; they're ravenous devourers of anything organic, from humans and halflings to trees. Dracohydras are a variant created by magically combining hydra blood with the magic of chromatic dragons; they resemble winged dragons with multiple heads belonging to several different chromatic breeds, alongside several snake-like tails, and are voracious predators due to each head demanding a feast of its own when hunting. - Forgotten Realms: Nagahydras are a large variant of naga whose bodies fork into multiple necks and heads, each of a different color, which will grow back if severed unless the stump is seared with fire. - Earthdawn: Hydras were created when a human sorcerer stole a clutch of dragon eggs and fused the hatchlings into a single, many-headed monster. They've been breeding on their own since then, but dragons view them as abominations and believe they should be wiped out. - GURPS: GURPS Fantasy Bestiary describes the original Hydra of myth as a unique monster with nine heads and four legs, but notes that GMs may redefine it as a whole species of creatures with varying numbers of heads. They can attack multiple times per round and cannot be stunned or knocked out, thanks to their multiple heads, and if one is cut off two more grow from the stump and reach full size in a few rounds unless cauterized with flame. The body instantly dies if all heads are severed, and the heads die quickly if the main body is killed. The text also notes the original myth having one immortal, unkillable head, and leaves dealing with such a thing as an exercise for the players. - Pathfinder: Hydras resemble giant, multi-headed snakes, are about as bright as dolphins, and have varying numbers of heads topped with bony crests used in signaling and intimidation. Besides that, their appearance can vary greatly between individuals — any given hydra's features may resemble snakes, crocodiles or even dragons. They have a Healing Factor on top of their regenerating heads, and the energy needed to fuel both things makes them constantly hungry and ravenous predators. They prefer to inhabit swamps and other wetlands, but can be found in any environment with easy access to standing water. - Their ability to regrow heads is also how hydras procreate. They constantly gestate embryonic heads at the bases of their necks, which quickly grow to adulthood if the neck they're growing in is severed. If they're not released this way, however, the gestating heads are either coughed up as slimy, egg-like cysts, which the parent hydra then incubates until swarms of snake-like larvae emerge, or just tear their way out of their neck, with the largest one grafting itself to the parent's body as a replacement head and the rest moving away as a swarm. Either way, hydras don't look after their young past hatching and the larvae set off on their own, with the strongest individuals eventually sprouting new heads and leaving their siblings to find territories of their own. Since hydras reproduce entirely asexually, other members of their species are only competitors to them, and hydras will typically fight when they meet. - Numerous varieties exist in addition to the common, swamp-dwelling, acid-vomiting kind, including fire-breathing pyrohydras whose flaming attacks make them very effective at countering other hydras' regeneration; ice-breathing cryohydras; three-headed schism hydras capable of splitting in half like amoebas; warden hydras geared, like the Lernaean one, towards protecting holy sites; grave hydras infused with necromantic energy; and extremely powerful, quadrupedal, twelve-headed miasma hydras, which have caustic blood and can breathe clouds of toxic gas. - Thessalhydras are not true hydras — they're typed as Aberrations rather than Magical Beasts, to begin with — but resemble monstrous and warped versions of their namesakes, being hulking, quadrupedal reptiles with stout tails ending in a giant crab pincer and necks topped with a gaping, jawless maw ringed with writhing snake necks capable of spewing intensely acidic spit. - Pathfinder also has the gorynych — a three-headed dragon from Slavic folklore. All three heads breathe fire. Although they are considered dragon-type creatures, they are no friends of the "true" dragons, and frequently feud with Green and Black dragons for territory and treasure, while weaker dragons — like wyverns and drakes — they may bully into servitude. They also love to magically disguise themselves as human to mess pick up humanoid chicks. - Rifts: Hydras are a type of aggressive, bestial Dragon. They typically have seven heads, and each has a different Breath Weapon. - RuneQuest: Hydras are Chaos monsters with reptilian bodies and multiple heads. They are divided into lesser hydrae, which usually weigh more than 200 kilograms, have between two and twelve heads, and cannot regrow lost heads, and greater hydra, which can be as large as small cities, can possess as many as seventy-two heads, and have many magical powers. - Shadowrun: Hydras are large, seven- or nine-headed dragon relatives native to Greece. They're fairly indiscriminate omnivores with a diet ranging from aquatic vegetation to cattle and humans. Of note, the different heads don't have distinct wills — the craniums only contain sensory ganglia; the real brain is at the base of the spine. There's a more aquatic species, the hydra-wyrm, which possesses gills and seal-like flippers on its hind limbs; while normally native to lakes and estuaries, it has been developing greater salt tolerance and spreading into the Aegean proper. The hydra-wyrm was the default hydra in the 2nd edition Paranormal Animals of Europe sourcebook that introduced hydras to Shadowrun, but was retconned into being a distinct aquatic variant in later material. - Star Wars d20: Geonosian hydras are immense winged insects with three heads, although some specimens have more. They live deep beneath Geonosis' few, small seas, occasionally emerging to prey on Geonosian hives. - The Strange: Hydras are creations of Lotan with five or more heads, and assimilate the heads of their victims into their collective self if these possess useful knowledge or skills. A hydra will shed excess heads if it gains more than it can easily manage, which will braid together to form a new hydra. - Tails of Equestria: In addition to the swamp-dwelling kind from the cartoon, there are also gloombrine hydras, which have fish tails instead of legs and live deep in the ocean. - Talislanta: Kaliyas are dragons with up to seven heads. They are intelligent, breathe fire and smoke, and can do magic as well. - Warhammer: Hydras are immense, powerful and multi-headed monsters in the Dark Elf army roster. They're typically shown with five heads specifically, often topped by pointed, bony crests, and as having powerfully built, quadrupedal bodies, although models from the first few editions of the game show them as gigantic multi-headed snakes instead. They're seemingly entirely ageless, as no hydra has ever been recorded as dying of old age — all known hydras lived for centuries or millennia, never decreasing in strength or vigor, until being killed by something else. While only a few are left in the Old World, many still lurk in the Chaos Wastes and in the Dark Elven homeland of Naggaroth. Dark Elven war hydras are a distinct and especially fearsome breed, as their masters have spent millennia perfecting the already formidable beasts through magic and selective breeding. As a unit, their special rule Another Takes its Place allows them to randomly regenerate from damage at the start of each turn, representing a new head suddenly growing from a bloody stump. An article on White Dwarf #261 describes a couple of hydra variants further bred and magically modified by the Dark Elves: royal hydras are created from particularly successful war hydras through the dark magic of the dark elven king and have acidic blood and bony armor, while spellthirster hydras are highly resistant to magic at the cost of being physically weaker than the normal kind. - Age of Mythology: Naturally Hydras appear as a myth unit for the Greeks. They're depicted as large quadrupedal reptiles which begin with only one head but can grow up to five as they kill enemy units. With each head grown the creature's attack power increases. - Age of Wonders: Hydras are giant, six-headed quadrupedal reptiles that can be recruited as high-end monsters by the Draconians in Age of Wonders 2. They have regeneration and immunity to poison in addition to the dragon descriptor, which they share with other dragons but which drakes and wyverns do not have, making hydras true dragons where these other creatures are not. - Bloodborne has the large Snake Balls in the Forbidden Woods. Like the mythical hydras, they're large, multi-headed, serpentine monsters with poisonous breath and blood. Unlike most depictions of hydras, they're land-dwellers, not sea creatures. - Crypt Killer: The Hydra boss looks more like a plesiosaur with eight dragon heads, rather than a serpent. It also averts the Hydra Problem — its severed heads don't regenerate, and after removing all the heads the boss battle then ends. - Digimon: Hydramon is a giant carnivorous plant with a body made out of tangled vines and three heads on snakelike necks. Its central head has four eyes and a split, snake-like lower jaw; its left and right heads are eyeless and have maws filled with glowing structures. - Dominions: Hydras are available units for the serpent-worshippers of Pythium and their Sauromatian ancestors. In the Late Age of Pythium, they have sacred status. Sauromatia and Late Age Pythium can also summon a unique hydra known as the Daughter of Typhon. - Dragon City: Hydra dragons are wingless, four-headed dragons described as having poisonous breath — although in practice their attacks are all electricity- or water-based — and are rumored to be able to grow back two heads for every one cut off. - Dragon's Dogma: Four-headed, very aggressive snakes. Their heads regrow if severed unless fire is used, but they do not sprout additional ones. - Dwarf Fortress: Hydras are megabeasts — extremely rare, gigantic and powerful monsters, a category also including rocs and dragons — described as dragon-like beasts with seven heads. While only around half the size of other megabeasts, they can attack with all seven heads at once, thus overwhelming single opponents or keeping multiple attackers at bay simultaneously. They also possess a strong Healing Factor, a rarity in the game, that allows them to heal a hundred times faster than other creatures can, although they cannot actually regrow lost heads. - Epic Battle Fantasy: 3, 4, and 5 feature multiheaded dragons (but only their heads fit on the battle screen, and only in 3 does the dragon have a body on the overworld). They're particularly dangerous because, in addition to strong attacks, high HP and defenses, at least one head will have healing magic, and in 5 you actually need to kill all three heads within a turn of each other or they'll revive one another indefinitely. - EverQuest: The Plane of Time is where Zebuxoruk, the "Un-god of Knowledge", is held prisoner by the other gods. As the mortal adventurers defeat each god that tries to stop them, the four elemental gods form together as a four-headed hydra named Quarm to serve as the last line of defense. Each head is made of a different element — earth, fire, water, and air. A head gets cut off at each 25% of its life taken off. - Final Fantasy: Hydras are recurring enemies typically found in swamps and rivers. Early games tend to portray them as many-headed snakes, but post- Final Fantasy V they're usually polycephalic dragons instead. Draconic hydras are usually wingless, but the ones in Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Dimensions have dragon wings. They have only two heads in Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and Final Fantasy Adventure — the hydras in IV are essentially giant two-headed snakes — and Orochis appear in several games as green Palette Swaps of hydras. - Flight Rising: There are two multiheaded dragon breeds; Emperors, who are massive undead made when dead Imperial dragons of different elements are left near each other; and Aberrations, a Plague breed who gained an extra head and tail after swimming in the Wyrmwound. There is also boss enemies in the Volcanic Vents area called Hydras, who look like huge, three-headed snakes, but they arent connected to the aforementioned breeds. - God of War features a hydra supposedly descended from the Lernaean one, which unlike the original is explicitly a Sea Monster. - Golden Sun: - Several hydra variants appear, essentially giant three-headed venom-spewing snakes whose unique ability is a triple bite attack (the strongest one, the Pyrodra, breathes fire as well). One, somehow formed from several cuttlefish-like monsters joining together, is fought as a boss. - The Doom Dragon is the three-headed final boss of Golden Sun: The Lost Age. While it doesn't respawn heads, it has an interesting mechanic to let it counter the Disc-One Nuke summon rush strategy (where huge damage is done in one turn, but leaves the summoner vulnerable and greatly weakened for several turns) where every head is treated as a separate battle, meaning any extra damage done to one head is wasted. - Guild Wars has three-headed Hydras which are fire-specialized Elementalists, with a signature ability being either Meteor or Meteor Storm. A group of Hydras can be very dangerous as they can chain-stun and kill the players in one round. - Guild Wars 2 calls back to the original's Hydras in the Path of Fire expansion. The Hydras are significantly larger and more dangerous, having gained a fire breath ability, universal access to Meteor Storms, and even the weakest being Veteran ranked or higher. In addition, at certain health break points one of the two side heads will be cut off and become a separate enemy which thrashes around and bites any nearby player. - Hades: The second boss is the Lernaean Bone Hydra, the skeletal remains of the legendary monster that now serve as guardian of Asphodel. Each time it loses a third of its health, it grows additional heads while the main one turns invincible, forcing you to kill all the other heads before you can keep damaging it. - Heroes of Might and Magic: Hydras are large, powerful monsters available to certain factions as high-tier units, and can usually attack multiple foes at once. They're explicitly many-headed snakes in the earlier games, but later installments depict them as quadrupedal creatures with elephantine gaits instead ( Heroes of Might and Magic IV effectively splits the difference by having its hydras drag themselves along on only two sprawled limbs). - In the first two games, the hydra is spawned from the Swamp building; the third game changes this to the Hydra Pond. - The basic hydra in Heroes of Might and Magic V has only three heads, but can be upgraded to a six-headed deep hydra or foul hydra. They're thought to be bestial and primitive relatives of dragons and have been captured by the dark elves to serve as creatures of war. Foul hydras have dangerously caustic blood, seemingly from having fed upon large numbers of Giant Spiders. - Hey! Pikmin: The final boss, the Berserk Leech Hydroe, is a three-headed, four-legged monster that can fly and spit poison. However, it's a plant controlled by a parasite instead of a flesh-and-blood creature. - IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga: The minor Idola "Hydra", a three-headed dragon creature that's a fan of spitting poison bile at your team. Its individual parts are just its separate heads, which disappear as you destroy them. - The Last Federation: The game's solar system used to be ruled by the Hydrals, a species of four-headed snakelike aliens. - The Legend of Zelda: - The original game features the multi-headed wyvern Gleeok, whose heads thankfully do not regrow when severed, but burst into flames and fly about the room attacking while you deal with the remaining heads still attached to the body, making the four-headed variant an especially tough fight. This boss would not reappear in a main console installment until The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, almost 40 years later. - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The dungeon boss Trinexx resembles a four-legged dragon/turtle with three heads: a central one, one that spits fire, and one that spits ice. - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Staldras are enemies resembling three-headed snake skeletons; all three heads need to be sliced off with one swipe to kill them, otherwise they simply regenerate and put the monster back to full health. Their name is a portmanteau of hydra and the stal- prefix associated with skeletal enemies in the series. - Lorwolf: Two different color morphs appear as companions, namely the Coral Hydra and Whirlpool Hydra. They're drawn as viper-like snakes with 3 heads and live in shallow water. - Spartan: Total Warrior has a uniquely insectoid take on the Lernaean Hydra, with multiple spider-like eyes and Predator-like mandibles on each head. - Pokémon Black and White: Hydreigon (note the name) is a darkness-aligned dragon with three heads and six wings. note : Behind the scenes, it was said to be based on the Orochi. - Quest for Glory V: The Hydra appears in one of the rites of rulership. It is described as a three-headed dragon, and its heads will regrow unless fire is used to cauterize the stumps. - The mythological Hydra itself appears as the first boss in Shin Megami Tensei V. This game depicts it with eyeless Xenomorph-esque faces and teeth, covered with masks decorated with patterns reminiscent of Greek pottery. Much like its traditional depiction, it has Toxic Breath as a unique skill. - Skylanders: A Hydra (or rather, a Hydragon) appears as the most powerful of Kaos' minions in the first game. This appears as a four-headed dragon, each head representing one of the four Eternal Elemental Sources Kaos tried to stop the player from getting and each head can use a different spell of Bullet Hell. - The Fire head has skin similar to cooled magma and summons moving fireballs that leave miniature volcanoes in their wake. - The Water head has a more fish-like appearance and unleashes a swarm of Doomsharks. - The Life head has leafy projections growing out of it and summons centipedes with orbs trailing behind it. - The Undead head resembles a skeletal goat and summons laser beams. - Titan Quest: The Lernean Hydra appears as a superboss in the swamps near Athens, though only on legendary difficulty. Smaller two-headed reptiles called Hydradons also appear as regular enemies. - To Arms: Due to the way unit mechanics work in this game, the Hydra enemy doesn't regrow heads; it actually regrows new hydras. The effect is the same, though; if you can't kill the spawning hydras fast enough, you'll get nowhere, and just end up with a deck full of hydras. They do at least provide some healing when they're fighting on your side. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Hydras, gigantic, fire-breathing quadrupeds with five heads, are powerful monster units that can be fielded by the Dark Elves. They are far more outwardly snakelike than in the source material, having fully adder-like heads, forked snake tongues, and rattlesnake tails. There's also a Regiment of Renown version in the form of the Chill of Sontar, a legendary frost-breathing hydra with ice-blue scales. The Warden and the Paunch DLC additionally gives Greenskin factions the ability to temporarily recruit hydras in Waaagh armies when in Norsca, the Chaos Wastes or Naggaroth. - A Total War Saga: TROY: The Lernaean Hydra is a unique unit recruitable through a special quest. It's a massive, swamp-dwelling, nine-headed serpent with poisonous blood, toxic breath, and regeneration so potent that its last surviving head was able to regrow its entire body after being torn apart by Herakles. - Warcraft: - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos: Hydras appear as neutral "creeps". They are three-headed, two-legged reptilian creatures. When a hydra is killed, two smaller hydras spawn from its corpse, as a variant on the usual regeneration. They also have high passive regeneration and will heal faster from wounds if left alone. - World of Warcraft: Hydras return as strong enemies and bosses, although they no longer split in two when killed. A distinct variant, with long horns and multiple eyes per head, is found in Outland, primarily in the fungal swamplands of Zangarmarsh. Their ancestors are found in the alternate timeline Draenor, and lack the Outland hydras' more alien features but are horned, quadrupedal and generally much more draconic in appearance than the previous types. Four legendary Draenor hydras are explicitly named from Greek mythology — Keravnos note : "thunderbolt", Lernaea, Echidna, and Typhon. - Zeus: Master of Olympus: - The Order of the Stick: The party once fights a hydra that keeps growing heads past the normal limit of twice its starting number of heads. Elan and Belkar keep chopping off heads until it grows too many for its blood supply to support and passes out. Then an enterprising goblin finds it and starts selling barbecued hydra heads. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: The Chimera runs across a Hydra that has managed to tie itself to a tree. Once the Chimera helps get them unstuck, they immediately get into an argument about whose fault it was. The Chimera sneaks away and they muse on how their situation could be much worse. - Codex Inversus: Hydras are animals mutated by the influence of the Infinite Woods, which occasionally cause creatures to be born with many repeating heads, each smaller than the previous. These creatures usually perish quickly, but some, most often snakes, survive and can become monstrous predators. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: A giant four-headed hydra, bipedal but lacking forelimbs, appears in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", inhabiting Froggy Bottom Bog, and attacks the main characters when they ventured into the swamp. Its heads' personalities are distinct enough for them to laugh at each other's misfortunes and for one to be somewhat slower on the uptake than the rest. It's later mentioned in "Molt Down" that hydras are among the most prevalent predators of young dragons alongside Roc Birds and tatzlwurms. - There's a real-life animal named Hydra after the mythical monster. It's a small freshwater creature that bears little resemblance to its fantastic namesake. It may have been gotten its name either because it has numerous tentacles that resemble serpentine heads, or because it possesses remarkable regenerative abilities, being able to regrow from a single tentacle and never showing any form of senescence. It belongs to the class Hydrozoa which also includes several species of jellyfish and the iconic Portuguese Man o'War.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurHydrasAreDifferent
Our Gargoyles Rock - TV Tropes GARGOYLE, n. A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents. In Real Life, gargoyles are sculptures of grotesque humans and animals designed to ward off evil spirits and channel rainwater from rooftops and spit it out, (hence gargling) away from the building to prevent damage from erosion. Most commonly found on large buildings from The Middle Ages and early modern era such as cathedrals. Fiction, however, has decided that they'd make a great fictional species, so they often appear in fantasy settings (Urban or otherwise) as a race of Winged Humanoids that have a penchant for perching on high terrain. Given their origins, they also tend to have an ability to turn to stone, voluntarily or not. Another common feature is that any damage done to them while animated can be repaired while statuefied, but destroying the statue kills them permanently. Some, however, may actually be made of stone rather than flesh and blood. If that's the case, they (or at least the first of their kind) may have actually been statues before being brought to life. Traditionally, in folklore, they were benevolent, despite their appearance, which was framed as being frightful to scare demons away from churches, but meeting their gaze was dangerous. This is less common in modern fiction. Fun fact: the technical term for a gargoyle that doesn't include a rainspout is a grotesque — this means something different on this wiki, although the two can coexist. Compare Animate Inanimate Object and Our Alebrijes Are Different. See also Asian Lion Dogs and Shedu and Lammasu for other kinds of fantastic creatures derived from statuary. ## Examples: - Buster Keel!: One of the secondary villains and agent of the monster guild Ayakashi is Kataiston, a Gargoyle. He appears as a sharp-dressed humanoid with stone-like hide, bat-like wings, small horns and the ability to shoot high-pressure water jets from his mouth. He's always seen alongside the much more emotive and violent Garuda Firebird. Gargoyles are considered Class B Monsters, thus are quite dangerous but not to expert adventurers. - Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Gargoyles are among the basic troops of the Legions of Evil serving under the Demon King Hadler and appear like their videogame counterpart: bird-like humanoids with purple skin, robes, sword and bat-like wings. - Magic: The Gathering has a Gargoyle creature type, which has appeared in several sets. They are depicted as creatures made of animated stone, and often flavored as guardians of some sort. One example is Innistrad's Manor Gargoyle. - Yu-Gi-Oh! has a few gargoyle-themed cards, such as the Ryu-Kishin, which even has a Monster Clown variant. - Batman: Gotham's Gothic/Art Deco architecture is teeming with gargoyles and grotesques of the inanimate kind. "Gargoyles of Gotham" in the anthology series Batman: Black and White actually explains their history, makes note of the difference between the two (Batman prefers gargoyles because grotesques are often added to cornices superficially and make terrible purchases for grappling hooks) and explains that most Grotesques on Bruce Wayne's buildings are secret emergency Bat-Gear caches. Batman likes to blend in with the gargoyles during his nightly vigils. There are actually comparisons to be drawn between Batman and a gargoyle, as both are scary but benevolent guardians. - The new marquis in "Stone Cold Death!" in The Creeps #4 wants nothing to do with the sculptor Montes and his gargoyles and wants them out of his newly-acquired castle. Montes sees no other option than to send one of his gargoyles, which are actually alive, out to kill the marquis. This is witnessed by Francois, a high-ranked member of the marquis' court, who figures that with a few more deaths he could be marquis themselves. He discovers that Montes regularly applies a potion to the gargoyles and upon learning the recipe kills Montes. However, the potion does nothing. Later, Francois learns that the potion doesn't bring the gargoyles to life but rather keeps them as statues. As the gargoyle closes in to attack him, he also learns they only obey their sculptor. - An unnamed Parisian sculptor in "The House of Gargoyles!", published in House of Mystery #175, is being hunted down by two gargoyles he made. They may be his handiwork, but he stole the designs from a colleague he murdered out of jealousy and who cursed the designs with his dying breath. Nonetheless, the gargoyles appear unable to either use violence or enter buildings, so as long as the sculptor stays locked away indoors, he's safe. He's captured anyway when a boy, fascinated by the gargoyles, wants to show his friends they're alive. So he calls out to the sculptor that the gargoyles are gone and when the man cheerfully opens the window, they grab him and fly off with him. As a sidenote, during his time hiding, he created a miniature gargoyle all of his own that ended up left in the care of Cain. - Iron Man villain The Grey Gargoyle is a human alchemist who can turn himself into a Rock Monster and his victims into statues for one hour. - In Paperinik New Adventures, the two Gargoyles note : technically grotesques, since they're only statues on top of Ducklair Tower are revealed to be more than mere decorations, and essentially keep a gateway to a dark world filled with demons closed. One volume revolves around a warlock who tries to destroy them to open up said portal. In The Black Beam, it's revealed that those two Gargoyles assume a humanoid form (as armor-covered winged humanoids) in the Pentadimension to fight back Moldrock's attempts to escape. - Wonder Woman: - Despite not particularly looking like one, Toto, the crow from The Cat Returns, is a gargoyle. Just like the living toy Baron, his state of being alive comes from being a work of love. He's a member of the Baron's Cat Bureau alongside the cat Muta, whom he likes to antagonize. They save the human Haru from a forced marriage into cat royalty. - Chernabog in Fantasia is arguably a titanic gargoyle: he looks quite demonic and turns into stone during the day. Not just any regular stone statue: he turns into the top of friggin' Bald Mountain, the eponymous mountain of the segment. - The gargoyles in the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame come in two varieties: the Plucky Comic Relief trio of legless Winged Humanoids who can summon swarms of pigeons and talk, and the animalistic heads that adorn the roofs (one of which apparently turns alive as Frollo clings to it). Turning into stone is only done when they sleep or show Quasimodo he's disappointed them. Although it's questionable whether they're actually alive, or Quasimodo just has an active imagination (he's strong enough to move them around after all), the fact that one of them comes alive to confuse Esmeralda's pet goat seems to indicate they're real. - Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) features a Gargoyle which perches on the evil warlock's mansion like an ordinary statue. However he can bring it to life and send it out on missions to spy on people or kill his enemies. - Curse of the Talisman (2001) has one (rather small-3ft tall) stone gargoyle revived thanks to a magic talisman which tries to re-awaken the rest of its kin with said talisman. - Gargoyle (2004) featured a larger than average (10ft tall) demonic entity which was trapped in stone centuries ago. It (and its asexually produced offspring) can only be slain by holy weaponry (specifically a crossbow). - Gargoyles 1972 has only one of these green, devilishly featured creatures with wings (the other gargoyles we see look more like Lizard Folk). As Spawn of the Devil, they work to destroy humanity by kidnapping human women, killing anyone who knows about them, or plotting world conquest for Satan. The Gargoyles makeup effects was done by Stan Winston. - Gremlins 2: The New Batch includes a gremlin that drinks an experimental serum giving it bat wings. It gets tossed into wet cement, then flies up and perches onto the side of a church, where it hardens into a passable gargoyle. - I, Frankenstein has gargoyles who are angels in nearly all but name; they were created by Archangel Michael to fight demons. - Rise Of The Gargoyles (2009) has the monsters as Sealed Evil in a Can in their stone forms. - Tales from the Darkside: The Movie has a female gargoyle \|\|which can turn into a human\|\|. - In The Alchemy of Stone gargoyles are a dying race, born of the living rock and once able to shape it by their will, a power they have now lost. \|\|In the end an alchemist, at their request finds a way to make them flesh, mortal and, it's implied capable of reproduction\|\| - In the Allie Beckstrom universe, gargoyles are merely statues animated by elaborate and expensive spells — until Allie accidentally puts her magic into one. "Stone" then becomes a self-powered individual with the intelligence and personality of a dog. - Bone Song by John Meaney is set in Tristopolis, a City Noir inhabited by all sorts of fantastic creatures, including talking gargoyles. - In the Codex Alera series, all normal humans have Elemental Powers. Those with earth-controlling powers can sometimes summon and control animate elementals, or sometimes bind them on (or in) walls and buildings to serve as guardians. The physical shape of earth elemental guardians, like all elementals, varies depending on the individual elemental and/or the human controlling them. - A Deal With A Demon: Gargoyles are, in the series, one of the five races of demons. They have stone skin and the ability to fly. They can also, like all demons, interbreed with humans. - Discworld: Gargoyles are believed to be a subspecies of trolls adapted to urban environments. They're wingless and retain their waterspoutish nature, channeling rain through the ears and out their mouths to filter out anything potentially tasty (especially pigeons). This means that their mouths are always open, giving them a speech impediment, though by The World of Poo the younger generation seems to have evolved past that problem. They're named after where they're located ("Cornice overlooking Broadway", for example) and are frequently used as Watchmen or to man the clacks system—jobs where a tendency to stare at a single location for days on end is a very useful capability. - In Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc. gargoyles appear to be statues to the muggles but magical people see them as moving, talking creatures. They are still made of stone, can fly and can gain power from resting on the roof of a church. - A gargoyle shows up in A Fantasy Attraction, where he...sells insurance. Door-to-door at that. - God Bless The Gargoyles, a children's book by Dav Pilkey of all people, is a melancholy story about how people eventually forgot that gargoyles are supposed to be protectors and became afraid of them. When they come to life at night, however, angels show up to keep them company. - In Harry Potter, both the Staffroom and Headmaster's Office are guarded by gargoyles, which in this setting are just statues brought to life by magic. They're job is to just move aside for anyone who gives the correct password and snarkily deny access to those who don't. The final book shows that they can still speak (again, sarcastically) after being smashed to pieces. - H. P. Lovecraft gives us Night Gaunts, denizens of the Dreamlands and straight out of his childhood nightmares. Humanoid, horned, bat-winged, with slick whale-like skin and no faces at all they often show up in flocks to capture hapless humans and take them to terrible places, tickling them mercilessly the entire way. - Clark Ashton Smith's "The Maker of Gargoyles" has one of the first known examples of gargoyles as living monsters in media. Here, the gargoyles are two architectural gargoyles created by a 12th-century pariah stonemason for a cathedral, only for them to come to life and begin attacking people when their creator's anger against the townspeople for shunning him is unwittingly transferred into his sculptures. The first is the classic horned, bat-winged humanoid gargoyle, but the second instead has a cat's head and bird wings. - Max & the Midknights: Gastley has had a couple of stone gargoyles magically brought to life to act as guards at the castle gate. They serve as the first obstacle the protagonists need to deal with to get inside. - In Monster Hunter International, gargoyles are constructs: stone brought to life by magic. They carry out the orders of whoever created them. The only ones we see are created by the power of an Eldritch Abomination, but it's weakly implied that other powers could create them, too. - The Monster Hunters Survival Guide cribs its Gargoyles mostly from the Disney series, with the Author expressly saying that they're not evil, and can even be allies. - In the Oz books, gargoyles are creatures from the Land of Naught. They are made entirely of wood and stand at less than three feet. They communicate entirely by hand signals and are nocturnal, removing their wings while they sleep. Different indeed. - The Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide details gargoyles as dwarf nocturnal dragons that dwell on city roofs, blending in among their inanimate counterparts. Although wingless, they are agile and can leap great distances, while also being able to grip onto walls with immense strength. However, if they are struck by lightning, they turn to stone and fall to the ground where they shatter. - In The Stoneheart Trilogy gargoyles are a subset of taints, Always Chaotic Evil living non-human statues. They have a weakness that, being rainspouts, whenever it rains they must return to their original location. - The Stormlight Archive has a variant in the thunderclasts, enormous quadrupedal stone monsters shaped something like a dog the size of a small house. - In Laura Ann Gilman's Vineart War series the Guardian combines this with Our Dragons Are Different as it looks like a stone dragon. It also has considerable magic mojo as lon as it is on the territory it was created to protect. - In Void City, Gargoyles are a type of demon which possess stone statues to use as their bodies. Destroying their statue only renders them incorporeal for a time before they move into a new body; it takes an attack on their true spiritual body to actually harm them. - Gargoyles in Charmed are creatures in statue form who come alive to ward off evil, and are so powerful that not even the Source can get by them. - Doctor Who: - The Classic Who story "The Daemons" has Bok, a gargoyle animated by Daemonic powers. - The Weeping Angels also share most characteristics with gargoyles. They don't usually perch on ledges, though. - Reign of the Gargoyles: These are stone statues brought to life by a mad god to kill in his name. They have no will but their master's, but can be destroyed by conventional weaponry. - In Special Unit 2 gargoyles are creatures that evolved from dinosaurs. They appeared in the first episode. - On What We Do in the Shadows (2019), a pair of gargoyles act as informants for the Vampire Council's Guide. When she comes to them for information, they gossip like sitcom housewives and call out to other rooftops' gargoyles with cries that sound like a large truck's brakes engaging. - As Goldberg and future Flock member Scotty Riggs made their way to the ring for their match on the October 13, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro (4-0), the camera noticed Raven and Perry Saturn and the as-yet-unnamed Sick Boy sitting together in the crowd. Announcer Tony Schiavone said that Saturn was "sitting there like a gargoyle." He later introduced a top-rope head-and-arm suplex called the "Gargoyleplex". On the February 21, 1998 WCW Saturday Night, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn the Gargoyle." On the March 12th WCW Thunder, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn: Ultimate Gargoyle." - Groon XXX, an independent circuit luchador who made his way onto the B shows of CMLL and, later, AAA, has a gargoyle gimmick. There is also a Mini Groon XXX. - Li'l Horrors included a pair of grotesques named Garg and Goyle among the cast, mostly as observers of the others actions. - On The Muppet Show episode featuring the cast of Star Wars, the original guest star was the inexplicably Scottish Angus McGonagle the Argyle Gargoyle. His act consists of gargling George Gershwin songs "gorrrgeously". Small wonder that Kermit fires him in favor of the Star Wars cast. - Changeling: The Lost: One possible character type is the lurkglider, explicitly stated to be gargoyle-like. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Gargoyles are wicked ambush predators that lie perfectly still, passing for stone statues. Their origins have varied from edition to edition, being either earth elementals, animated statues, or simply natural monsters. - The Ravenloft setting also has Gargoyle Golems, a variant of Stone Golems shaped to look like grotesques. Unlike living gargoyles they're too heavy to fly, but like to drop from a high place to crush unwary victims under their considerable weight. - Fighting Fantasy: In Citadel Of Chaos, you can encounter a Gargoyle in a sculptor's studio in the upper floors of the castle. Luckily, if you made your way there through the kitchens, you may have come across a potion in one of the cabinets that's specifically brewed for combating creatures of stone. - HeroQuest has a gargoyle — a large winged humanoid resembling a Balrog — that is a Giant Mook and the toughest normal opponent in the game. Kellar's Keep completes its Moria analogy by having an end boss in the form of an especially powerful gargoyle. - Rifts: Gargoyles come in five types: the standard Gargoyle, the wingless G urgoyles, the tiny Gargoylites, and the Gargoyle Lords and Mages, who have the ability to turn to living stone for short periods of time. The largest concentrations are found as Mooks for the Demons of Hades and serving the Splugorth, but a large Empire of them is found in Europe, and is fighting the Human NGR with high-tech weapons and Humongous Mecha of their own. - RuneQuest: Gargoyles are creatures seemingly made of stone. When resting they are like statues, but when active they are very deadly. All gargoyles have hideous faces, rock-hard flesh, and crudely humanoid bodies. All are stupid, and most are winged. Beyond that there is tremendous variety in the shape and form of gargoyles. - Shadowrun: - Paranormal Animals of North America describes gargoyles as humanoid creatures with a single short horn and pointed ears; they normally live on cliffs, but some have adapted to cities. The main kind has males with wings and female with arms, but one subspecies possesses both sets of limbs. Another, also six-limbed variety is described in Paranormal Animals of Europe, with twisting horns and skin marked by numerous complex ridges. Unlike most other paranormal animals, which Awakened from clear mundane ancestors, no one really knows where gargoyles come from. - Neogargoyles, originally mistaken for a variant of gargoyles, are once-normal bats turned blind and flightless by chemical runoff, and whose skin is heavily calcified as a result of the same. They crawl along buildings, tapping, prodding and digging at them to find food, and over a period of five to seven months completely calcify into immobile statues. - Talislanta: Gargoyles are a type of lesser devil that serve as mercenaries, guards, and heavy infantry. - Vampire: The Masquerade has a vampiric bloodline of Gargoyles, created by clan Tremere as bodyguards. They are allegedly created through a ritual that combines the blood of the Gangrel, the Tzimisce, and the Nosferatu, with different concentrations creating different sorts of Gargoyles. They can turn to stone at will, which is particularly useful when avoiding sunlight, as they are invulnerable while in stone form. The Gargoyles can turn other people into Gargoyles, but have little autonomy, and are even said to get confused when left to their own devices. - Vampire: The Requiem has gargoyles as constructs created by blood sorcery, possibly as a Mythology Gag to Masquerade. - Warhammer 40,000 has an example verging on In Name Only. Gargoyles, aka Hellbats, are Tyranid air-attack creatures created by equipping the swarms' basic Mooks with batlike wings. They can't turn into stone, but may have got their name from their tendency to perch atop a larger Tyranid flier called a Harridan. - Monster High has Rochelle Goyle and Garrott DuRoque, an Official Couple of French gargoyles. They're both human-like in appearance, except with stone-hard grey skin, wings, and odd winglike ears, and Rochelle is shown to be immune to Deuce's petrifying gaze since she's already made of stone. Friday Night Frights also introduced the gargoyles Gary and Rocco, who look more muscular and monstrous than Rochelle and Garrott. - Arena.Xlsm: One of the types of enemies that can be fought. - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance: Gargoyles are encountered in both games as mooks inside the Onyx Tower, an otherwordly magical construct tower tied to the Plane of Shadow. Gargoyles in game are actually pretty small, bat-winged creatures that lob fireballs at you. - In Blood, there were the flesh gargoyles (stone statues that turned into fleshy demonoid-things) and the mercifully rare stone gargoyles, who stayed stone even after they animated (and were frigging hard to kill). - In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, gargoyles are flying demons with a large central eye that fires a petrification beam. - Book Of Demons is an affectionate homage to the original Diablo and features similar gargoyles. They are a little tougher, however, since they are invulnerable when in stone form and rapidly heal to full health, meaning they must be killed quickly before they fly off. - Castlevania. Though most of these are Palette Swap Underground Monkey varieties of other monsters, and merely fly and look grey, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has the actual turn from stone variety. One prominent example is Gaibon, who was fortunate enough to receive a recurring role, occasional boss status, a loyal teammate, and a position directly serving Death \|\|and occasionally Soma\|\|. - The Crystal of Kings have gargoyles as the toughest, strongest Airborne Mook variant in the game, capable of launching fireballs from above you while swooping below to jab at you with their spears. They can be hit with some jumping and slashing. - Gargoyles start showing up in higher difficulty Ruins missions in Darkest Dungeon, capable of stunning your party members with tail whacks as well as tearing apart the front two rows with their claws. While they have incredible armor ratings, being made of stone and all, they have low hp pools, meaning Blight can kill them very quickly. - In Darklands, Gargoyles show up as a rare enemy you can encounter in the wilderness. They fly very fast and have a very good armor rating thanks to their stony skin. - Dark Adventure have gargoyles as Airborne Mooks in stages where you attempt crossing a lava river in a volcano. They're stronger than the bat enemies in previous encounters. - Gargoyles are a Recurring Element in the Dark Souls series: - The Bell Gargoyles are an early boss fight in Dark Souls. They're made of patinated bronze instead of stone — appropriate since they're fought in a Gothic church. They come back later in the game as a Degraded Boss. - In Dark Souls II, the Belfry Gargoyles come back as boss fight. This time each gargoyle is easier to beat, but there are also six of them. - They come back again as an Elite Mook in Dark Souls III, this time wielding massive flaming spears and maces. - Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: The Blood-goyles are flying demons made out of blood, but can turn into stone. In "blood" form, they significantly resist melee damage and would split into more Blood-goyles if you strike them anyway. It's possible to kill them by brute-forcing your melee attacks, but it takes a long time. The game recommends you to forcibly turn Blood-goyles into stone using ranged attacks before you can properly smash them with your melee attacks. - Diablo: The first has gargoyles, which are statues until you get too close and turn back to stone if they take enough damage, making them a lot easier to hit (and surprisingly not much harder to kill). - In Disciples 2, Gargoyles are the Legion's archer unit. While most archer units are single slot Fragile Speedsters, Gargoyles take up two slots meaning they have to be on the front line. They make up for this by being about twice as powerful as the average ranged unit and far more durable thanks to higher hitpoints and armor while being just as fast. In battle they are in "statue" form most of the time (explaining their high armor rating) and become animate when attacking. The final stage of the Gargoyle tree, the Onyx Gargoyle, has an armor rating of 65, the highest natural armor rating in the game. - In Dragon's Dogma, the Gargoyles are flying creatures and a variant of Harpy type enemy. Their tails can petrify anything being impaled by it. - Drakensang The River of Time: Gargoyles (represented as small, eroded humanoid statues with beastly heads) infest the Bosparanian Ruins and in several rooms they'll wait for your arrival before descending from their pedestals to attack. - The Elder Scrolls: - In Daggerfall includes gargoyles as generic enemies. They are creatures "made of living stone" and possess an innate resistance to magic. - Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC includes gargoyles as powerful guardians and summons of the Volkihar vampire clan. Most of the time, the gargoyle stands perfectly still as a statue, but when enemies are nearby, it bursts from the statue and attacks. In other words, Skyrim gargoyles behave mostly the same as ones from Blood. And like in that game, there are also some statues that are just statues, stand there, do nothing and invoke paranoia. - There have been gargoyles in every Heroes of Might and Magic game to date. They were controlled by the Warlock (Dungeon) faction in Heroes I and II, briefly by the Necropolis in IV, and adopted by the Academy (Tower/Wizard) in III onwards. - In Eternal Lands, Gargoyles are one of the weaker monsters. - Final Fantasy: Gargoyles are a recurring enemy in the series, resembling demonic Winged Humanoids. In at least one game, using a Soft (which cures petrification) on them will kill them instantly — because they're made of stone! - Gargoyles and Deathgoyles are enemy monsters fought in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. - Gargoyle's Quest a Spinoff of Ghosts 'n Goblins starring everyone's favorite Boss in Mook Clothing, the Red Arremer, known in his own series as Firebrand. - Ghostbusters: The Video Game has haunted Stone Gargoyles. Justified: these gargoyles come from Shandor buildings. - The Golden Sun gargoyles are flying Winged Humanoids with very high physical defense. - Stone Guardian in Guild Wars are found near Kurzick Buildings. They often start as statues that come to life when a player or enemy walks past. Unlike other examples on this page, they are human creations rather than separate species. - Killer Instinct 2 has a final boss named Gargos and styled after a gargoyle. - In Kingdom Hearts, the Gargoyles are vaguely bat-like flying Heartless that will either melee you or spit magic at you. The sequel introduced other types of Gargoyles that were basically the stereotypical animated statues. - Last Armageddon: One of your party members is a Gargoyle. Although he's just a demon-like monster with no stone-based abilities, one scene involves him finding an old gargoyle statue, which leads to him reconsidering his thoughts on humans and his relation to them. - League of Legends has playable character Galio, the Colossus. Originally created as a giant bulwark of an Anti-Magic material, he was merely made to repel mage armies from the kingdom of Demacia, but due to an (unintentional?) anomaly of his design, he ended up absorbing the magic rather than nullifying it, and now he's able to come to life and smash baddies on his own when in the presence of strong magics. In gameplay, he acts as a tanky anti-mage brawler, able to not only dispel incoming magic damage through his colossal bulk, but also protect his allies from oppressive enemy spells by forcefully slamming into the center of attention. - Nightmare Creatures have gargoyles as an enemy in the later stages, where they'll disguise themselves as statues before leaping out to attack the players. - Nitemare 3D features two enemy types that are gargoyles, which is the name they have in the game data. One looks like a humanoid goat and is found among the hedges. The normal statues appear as early as the first episode's second level, while the animate ones show up starting the eight levels. The other can be described as a batlike minotaur and inhabits niches within grey stone walls. Both the unliving and living variants show up starting the sixth level of the first episode. - Pokémon Uranium has Gargryph, a Rock-type Pokémon based on a griffin-like gargoyle. It's genderless, cannot fly despite having wings, and can restore parts of its own HP through it Rebuild ability. - Gargoyles in RuneScape are winged humanoids made of stone, that require a Slayer level to kill. If they're not smashed with a rock hammer once they get below a certain health level, then they're unkillable and regenerate health as fast as one hits them. - In Scooby-Doo! First Frights, some of the gargoyles in Episode 4 come to life and attack the player. - Splatter Master contains two gargoyles on a bridge in the second level, who comes to life and attacks by dropping themselves on you. You don't encounter this enemy for the rest of the game. - Ultima: - Gargoyles — red-skinned, horned, winged humanoids — pop up in the series, initially as rare enemies. Ultima VI reveals more about them: they are \|\|a good race living in other world, who follow their own system of values, similar to the human system of virtues. They were enemies in the earlier games mainly due to cultural misunderstandings.\|\| The winged gargoyles are the leaders are guides of the non-intelligent wingless ones. - The Ultima V installment has a one-time instance of actual stone gargoyles coming to life and attacking you. They are one of the nastiest enemies in the game due to being hard as all hell to kill, and splitting in two when you strike them. - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines had a Gargoyle living in an abandoned theater in Hollywood. Both Isaac (the local Baron) and Maximillian Strauss (his creator) send you to kill him as a boss fight. It's possible to reason with him and get him to side with the Anarchs, but if you're a Tremere or make any mention of Strauss, you hit his Berserk Button and it can only end in violence. - Rufus in A Vampyre Story certainly doesn't rock: he has to sit through all sorts of humiliations. - In the Warcraft universe, gargoyles are bat-like flying undead creatures of the Scourge, who can turn into ground-based statues to regenerate health but cannot attack when they do so. They were introduced in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. - Gargoyles occasionally appear in World of Warcraft as still statues that may or my not attack. *** There is a series of statues lining a path in Halls of Lightning, some of which come to life when you pass them. Of note is a trash mob in old Naxxramas, the Stoneskin Gargoyle, has become infamous as it possessed the ability to turn into stone at low health, regenerating health fully, ad infinitum, if the group failed to burst it down within a set amount of time. A raid group with low damage dealing potential could remain stuck on one forever, unable to beat the cast time of the petrification. - The Shadowlands Expansion Pack introduces the stoneborn of Revendreth, gargoyle-like creatures created by the venthyr. There are three varieties: the standard build ones are tall humanoids used as frontline fighters, then there are stonefiends, small imp-like humanoids used as couriers; and gravewings, hulking beaked flyers used as mounts. - The Stoneskin Gargoyle features in Hearthstone as a relatively weak creature that fully heals at the start of its owner's turn. - Wild Blood has gargoyles as members of Morgana's forces of chaos. Most of the time (including their Mook Debut Cutscene) they appear as motionless statues, before coming to life to attack when you're nearby. - In Bibliography, Gargoyles are Pages of the Petrified Codex. The only one seen so far is William "Sentinel" Adams, an enormous man who can turn his skin to stone, launch stone pillars and enter an enraged mode when hurt. - In Exterminatus Now gargoyles are angels of Mort. - In Goblin Hollow gargoyles are the natural predator of goblins. Unfortunately, this is discovered after someone not in on the Masquerade brings a few statues into a home of several goblins. To prove they are lifeless stone and not the creatures that inspired the stone angels of Doctor Who, one of the main characters plans to take a power drill to their skull. Cue the Lighning. Lights go dark, Lights come on, and... gargoyles have vanished. Cue the Oh Crap. - Adventures of the Gummi Bears: In one episode, Duke Igthorn sends a sinister gargoyle statue (which looks more like a gremlin) to King Gregor to destroy him. After the Gummis save Gregor from the gargoyle by turning it back to stone, they decide to send it back to Igthorn to give him A Taste Of His Own Medicine. - A gargoyle appears as a Monster of the Week in the Fangface episode "The Goofy Gargoyle Goof-up!", emerging from a cave in the Hollywood Hills to kidnap a film star and make her its bride. - Futurama: A flying gargoyle named Pazuzu appears in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", being lambasted by Farnsworth for running away after the Professor put it through college. Apparently it's a biological creature, as it's seen with its offspring at the end. Presumably it was bio-genetically engineered or something. Pazuzu also appeared in the second movie as a Deus ex Machina, where it's revealed that it has the ability to grant wishes. Also it speaks French. - Gargoyles is a series in which 6 gargoyles, originally the guardians of a castle in 10th-century Scotland, are transported to modern-day New York. They fight evil at night, and turn into statues to sleep during the day, when they are also healed of any injury. They possess great strength, and while they cannot fly, they can glide on air currents. They also lay eggs as opposed to live birth. They may absorb solar energy while they sleep, as a scientist states that to maintain their abilities, they would otherwise have to eat the equivalent of two cows a day. - This species of gargoyles had variations from all over the world, usually somewhat resembling the local legendary creatures, and always dedicated to protecting some location or population. As Goliath explains on several occasions, it is a gargoyle's nature to find a place to call home and defend it to the death. When the local humans APPRECIATE this protection, it can work out very well for all parties, as the gargoyles can offer superior strength and resilience to fight off invaders or other threats, while the humans can protect them during their vulnerable daylight hours. When the nearby humans DON'T appreciate their presence... gravel supplies tend to swell... Most gargoyle clans (of those few remaining by the present day) have given up on having anything to do with humans as a result — the Ishimura Clan is one of the very few gargoyle clans that have a good relationship with the local human population. - Word of God states that while most humans treat gargoyles with fear and distrust when they actually meet them, the Real Life use of gargoyle statues to ward off evil shows that humans subconsciously recognize the Gargoyles' true protective nature. - It should also be pointed out that while magic existing in this setting, gargoyles are entirely biological. Their species is explicitly stated to have naturally evolved these features and no part of what they are capable of as a species is any more magical than a human, including the whole Stone by Day thing—except for the fact that their clothes turn to stone with them, which actually is the result of a spell that was cast on the entire species. - In Jonny Quest TOS in the episode "The House of Seven Gargoyles," one of the gargoyles is a disguised acrobat. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Daring Doubt", the temple where the Truth Talisman of Tonatiuh is kept is guarded by "guardiangoyles", magical stone statues resembling bat-winged ponies which come to life at Ahuizotl's command and attempt to take the Talisman back from the other characters and are disoriented and eventually repetrified by bright lights. - In Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, they are large fire breathing three-eyed winged demon-like creatures. - In the Space Ghost episode "The Gargoyloids", the title monsters are gargoyles — IN SPACE! - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Son can turn into a gargoyle, in contrast to the Daughter's radiant griffin form. - SWAT Kats: - The unfinished SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron episode "Succubus!" would've included gargoyles, of a sort. Katrina Moorkroft's male Mooks would've been capable of transforming into hideous living gargoyles at night in order to abduct victims for their employer. - In the episodes that were finished, the Pastmaster brought a gargoyle on a bridge to life briefly in the episode "A Bright and Shiny Future," which grabbed the Turbokat and dragged it through one of the villain's time portals. It was basically just a demonic head with a bitey mouth at the end of a long stretchy neck, though. - Wishfart has a gargoyle named G as the security guard of Dez's apartment. Interestingly, he's completely immobile due to the fact that the pedestal base he stands on is actually a part of his body, so he's really more of an animated statue than a living creature.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGargoylesAreDifferent
One-Woman Wail - TV Tropes "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more." For the proper reading experience, play the music from this video while reading on. It's not Ominous Latin Chanting, it's not the Cherubic Choir, but somewhere in between, close to the Ethereal Choir. A solitary, usually wordless wail (possibly to simulate wind or grieving), usually done by either a woman or, for extra poignancy points, a child (usually a boy soprano). The best time to include this trope is during the aftermath of something really dramatic a battle, natural disaster, etc. Basically, any event where vanilla OLC would just fall short in the sadness department. Often fills out a Moment of Silence. Kin to the Lonely Piano Piece. This is also what can come to mind when you hear the word "Opera". You get extra extra poignancy points for cutting out all sound during the epic event, go into Slow Motion, and having the One Woman Wail play over it. Note that this is explicitly part of the soundtrack, though a Diegetic Switch is allowed. If you're looking for a single character, male or female, screaming in anguish, try Skyward Scream or perhaps Screaming Woman. Clean-up note: Wordless singing that isn't the otherworldly, often anguished, and even startling wail is not this trope, it's Scatting. Feel free to move examples which would be more at home over there. Melismatic Vocals are a different sort of wailing noise representing actual words being stretched over a rack and tortured. Subtrope of Simple Score of Sadness. ## Examples: - The track " Libera Me From Hell" from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, instantly identifiable by being an integral part of all the most badass scenes of the second arc. And for being a fusion of opera with Ominous Latin Chanting (the words actually are a Latin prayer) and Rap (although the rap part is skipped the second and third time it plays). - The Latin lyrics used thereof are derived from two songs used in a Requiem Mass,a to note: - The first Latin line, from the Introit: Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine... - The second line (The first full Latin stanza) from Libera Me, albeit with a bit of variation: Líbera me, Dómine, de morte æterna in die illa treménda, in die illa Quando cli movéndi sunt et terra. Dum véneris iudicáre sǽculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego, et tímeo, dum discússio vénerit, at que ventúra ira. - The second full stanza, although mistaken for Dies Irae, is actually an altered continuation thereof: Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, Dies illa, dies magna et amara valde, et amara valde. - The final line, after going back from the Introit, is the last half of the final verse, before going back to the first half of the first stanza: Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Libera me, Domine... - The song "Dante" from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) features a uniquely low female voice echoing Dante's leitmotif. - The opening theme to Gatekeepers 21. The second half flips the themes, and this is moved to the ending credits, while the catchy J-Pop song "Ima, Egao ga Areba" in the ending credits plays to a new OP sequence. - Prominently featured in Anemone's theme from Eureka Seven. - "Lilium", Elfen Lied's opening theme, is both this trope and Ominous Latin Chanting by being a one-woman Latin wail. When it's used during scenes, it sounds like it's sung by a bunch of monks instead. - The "Introjection" track from (disc III of) the Neon Genesis Evangelion soundtrack. - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, where almost ALL the opening themes are sung by a Russian singer named Origa. The first theme, "Inner Universe" even takes the next step and features Latin vocals from boy soprano Ben Del Maestro. - Appears frequently in Blood+, where the aria "Diva" is sung by Elin Carlson. - Kira Yamato's personal battle theme in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, "Kira Just as He Pleases" features the One-Woman Wail, in direct contrast to Shinn Asuka's theme, which has Ominous Latin Chanting. - "Innovator" from the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. - ∀ Gundam: "Black History" plays when Black History is revealed. It's a funeral dirge during the final battle, underlining the severity of the catastrophe that set up the premise of the series and is now on the verge of repeating. - Hell Girl uses these to evoke a lot of different moods and emotions. "Ake ni Somaru", for example, features both a woman and a child, mixed with creepy trance music. It did a damn good job of turning mundane, peaceful scenes (like a cityscape at sunset) into spooky panoramas while seeming to kick the characters while they're down. "Mangetsu," by contrast, is a heartwarming theme that plays over some of the few genuinely happy moments in the series. "Kumo To Rouba To Shoujo," meanwhile, is used to evoke feelings of sadness and sympathy both for the Victim of the Week and for Ai and her minions. And that's just from the first season's soundtrack. - The ending credits to Gunslinger Girl has this in Italian, with a second voice occasionally speaking without tone during interludes. The entire sequence shows a handgun lying on a cobblestone street as it rains and the credits scrolling up, heightening the tragic overtones of the series. - Flag's opening puts a wail over photographs of war and the childhood of the protagonist. It's actually pretty good. - Saint Seiya had two different songs with this. One was sung by none other than famous theme song singer Horie Mitsuko, who'd later join the cast as Princess Hilda. - The Sailor Moon S anime featured one of these every time \|\|Hotaru manifested her powers as Mistress Nine\|\|. Here it is. - The track "Cage of Fate, Circle of Destiny" from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Used in scenes such as the final confrontation with Precia. - The track that accompanied the opening scenes of the Negima! Magister Negi Magi ~Ala Alba~ OAD's first episode, where Ku:Nel confirmed that Nagi was alive and could possibly be found in the Magicl World and Negi and crew proclaim their intent to search for him there. - Spoofed in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: the track that would normally serve as a wail tends to play during faux-dramatic scenes and sometimes at completely random times, such as during the sponsor message. It's also often cut short when the shot suddenly changes. - Dragon Ball Kai: When Goku \|\|dies in front of his friends\|\|, the BGM changes to a wail as the episode draws to a close. - And also after when \|\|Yamcha is killed by a Saibaiman's sacrifice\|\|, also before that \|\|Tenshinhan it's going to do the Kikoho and sacrifice their life, in the same moment that Kamisama is predicting their own death\|\|, when \|\|The Saichoro dies, and by consequence, the namek Dragon Balls are turned in stone before the third wish\|\|, when \|\|Vegeta is dying by the hands of Freezer\|\|, and in a filler scene when \|\|Goku is having a nightmare during their combat with Freezer, now using the 50% of their maximum power\|\|. - Prétear has a creepy wail (accompanied with either clanging piano or doomy sounding kettle drums, depending on the version) titled "Nikushimi no Hate" that's a leitmotif for the Dark Magical Girl. It's one of the best (and creepiest) songs on the entire soundtrack. - Used in Bleach when Ulquiorra releases his Zanpakuto. - "Autumn of Life" during the final confrontation with Kagato in Tenchi Universe. - A great example is from Uchuu Senkan Yamato. Almost every movie and TV series opening starts with a voice-over narration accompanied by a magnificent wail The Infinity of Space. Example from the Space Battleship Concert 1984. - In Digimon Data Squad, the Burst Mode evolution theme is an orchestral piece accompanied by a wail. - There are a couple of songs in the anime Soul Eater that fall under this category — usually the darker sounding negative ones played during parts dealing with evil magic users in the show. Particularly notable are Kindertotenlied (translating roughly as "Song of the Dead Children") and Peace be with you. - Tiger & Bunny scores Barnaby's flashbacks of his parents' murder with an ominous operatic wail. - Features in a few tracks on the Attack on Titan soundtrack (most notably the tracks "Attack on Titan" and "Bauklötze"). - In My-Otome, "Materialise" starts with this before getting joined by a choir and techno music. It gets played when one or more of the heroes is about to unleash some major ass-kicking on the enemy. Which makes sense, since the title is basically the command word to activate the Otomes' Dresses. - Revolutionary Girl Utena has this twice the first with "Bara No Tameiki" which is Anthy's theme and then again later with "Poison" which uses elements with of Anthy's theme used especially after \|\|the dark reveal of the relationship between Anthy and Akio\|\|. - Much of the score to Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- feature vocalist Eri Ito. The noted examples include, "A Song of Storm and Fire", "Voices Silently Sing", "Ship of Fools" and "Sacrifice", to name a few. - Hell Girl uses soundtracks with this in scenes with a variety of moods ranging from sad to creepy to tense to heartwarming. - Used hauntingly throughout Shiki's soundtrack, but especially in its main theme, aptly name "SHI-KI". - Pokémon: The First Movie has an epic one being delivered during the big battle where the Pokémon fight their clones. Unfortunately, in the dub it was replaced by the awkwardly-sounding "Brother, My Brother". The wail was retained in the dub for the 2019 remake, however. - The non-chorus parts of "Karma", the first opening to the Phantom of Inferno OVA Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~. - During Misuzu's final moments in the AIR anime, the acapella intro of the song "Aozora" starts playing. It evolves into a full-blown song after a while, but it serves its purpose as a One-Woman Wail at that point very well, immensely heightening the impact of an already very sad scene. - In Ah! My Goddess it occurs when Keiichi's wish for the goddess Belldandy to stay by his side forever is granted. - Frozen: - Frozen (2013): Used over the end of For the First Time in Forever (Reprise) after Anna is struck in the heart by Elsa's ice magic. It really drives home how screwed she is. Oddly, the wail is absent in the soundtrack version of the song. - Frozen II has this for the Voice of the Mountain in "Into the Unknown", courtesy of Norwegian singer Aurora. - The animated adaptation of Harmony features a One-Woman Wail in its final soundtrack: "Harmony", the moment where \|\|people are robbed of their consciences to create an utopia\|\|. - Used to great effect in The Prince of Egypt: "Deliver Us" and several other tracks feature vocals by Ofra Haza, who also voices Moses' mother, Yocheved. - Mocked in Team America: World Police, during the scene after the dam bursts and everyone drowns. - In The Red Turtle, "She Is Dead" plays first plays during the red-turtle-floating vision, then when the man and the woman get romantically involved for the first time and also at the end when the turtle leaves the beach. - Sleeping Beauty: During the scene where Maleficent lures Aurora to the top of the tower to prick her finger on a spindle and fulfill her curse, if you listen closely to the background music, a woman's voice can be heard calling ominously, "Aurrrroraaaa...". Flora hears this, which alerts her to Maleficent's presence. - In the opening sequence of The Amazing Spider-Man, a boy soprano sings mournfully over the score as Peter Parker is handed over by his parents to his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. - Apollo 13 features Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics wailing away as the titular ship disappears into radio silence behind the far side of the Moon and Marilyn Lovell finally breaks down crying. She sings several other times, but usually with accompaniment. - Apocalypse: The Second World War uses this trope (accompanied with the rest of the orchestra) as part of its credits theme, over video clips of the war. - Used in the climax of Gravity as Dr. Stone \|\|re-enters Earth's atmosphere in the Shenzou\|\|. - Blade Runner has this. It was a great effect with the blue light filtering in from overhead. - Blown Away opens with "Prince's Day", a wail-like reprise of the Irish song "Though Dark Are Our Sorrow" rearranged by Alan Silvestri and sung by a soprano boy (instead of a woman) with an ethereal choir in the background. Thomas Moore originally wrote the lyrics. - Heard for a while in Borat, after Azamat leaves. - This same piece of music, Ederlezi, was first used in Emir Kusturica's Time of the Gypsies during Perhan's dream on the river. - Chika Fujino's score for Boys Love repeatedly features a string heavy piece with a soaring soprano part (sung in Latin, of course) particularly during the film's bittersweet climax. - Several cues in the score for Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula featured an especially ghostly female vocalist. - A One Woman Wail provides an "eerie vampire sadness" motif in Dracula 2000 as well. - Inama Nushif from Children of Dune, which plays over the Cleansing of the House montage towards the end of the first film. For added points, it's in Fremen - There's a bit in the end credits music of Cloverfield. - The trope is used many times in the movie Crash (the one without James Spader or fetishism) to make some scenes more moving. - Not surprisingly, the Graeme Revell score for The Crow has a lot of this going on. - This happens in The Day After Tomorrow, as the camera lovingly pans over scenes of meteorological destruction. - DC Extended Universe: - Heard during the execution sequence in Dead Man Walking. - The main theme for Death Wish V: The Face of Death. - Drop Zone has one right after the hero's kid brother is shot and yanked out of the depressurized airplane cabin. - Occurs throughout numerous scenes in Denis Villeneuve's Dune, with the destruction of the harvester by a Sand Worm perhaps being the most notable. Other scenes, such as the departure from Caladan, have the instruments imitating the wail. It also shows up in the trailer for Dune: Part Two. - The Field of the Dead from Alexander Nevsky. - The Diva's song in The Fifth Element during Leeloo's fight against the Mangalore soldiers is a partial example of this trope (partial in that it is a moment of high asskickery rather than of grief or dramatic tension). - Flash Gordon: The scene in which Aura resurrects Flash after his execution is sung solo: by Freddie Mercury. - The soundtracks of Gladiator and Troy indulged in a fair amount of this. - "Godzilla's Requiem" in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah plays with this, by having a whole choir sing alongside Akira Ifukube's Orchestra. This is especially striking, as the notes continue to be sung, even as Godzilla's death is played out in full. - Is a recurring theme throughout the soundtrack of The Grudge 2. - Used at the start of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Snape \|\|overlooks the soulless military camp that Hogwarts has become.\|\| For bonus points, it's "Lily's Theme". - Used twice more to great effect: the tracks are called \|\|"Snape's Demise"\|\| and "The Resurrection Stone". While "Lily" and "Snape" are very mournful lamentations that complement each other, the warmer, more hopeful "Stone" plays as Harry prepares to join his loved ones in the Forbidden Forest, bringing the Marauders' strand of the story to its close. - The Hunger Games: One-woman wails are used several times throughout the series. Notable uses include the opening scenes of the first film, where ethereal vocalizations are heard as we are introduced to Katniss and her impoverished home in District 12, as well as the final film during the rebel siege of the Capitol. - The opening sequence of I, Frankenstein features this. - The Insider, which also starred Russell Crowe one year earlier than Gladiator, uses (and some would say abuses) the wail. - In Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, there's a one-woman wail during the giant bee chase when Kaylani falls off the bee and plummets to the jungle floor below, until \|\|she is caught by Sean astride his giant bee.\|\| - Used in The Karate Kid (2010) during the cobra scene (and whenever it makes reference to it). - In King Arthur (2004) with Clive Owen. While Bor's... wife? Wife-to-be? is singing what appears to be a Sarmatian song, her voice gradually fades out as the scene cuts to the other knights, who are mouthing the words. - Appears in-universe and to chilling effect (though there was more than one woman performing it) while the Harif army in Lawrence of Arabia is setting out to cross the Nefud and attack Al-Aquaba. The shot from the top of the cliff with the mourning women drowning out the stirring battle songs from below. - It's called "ululation", which is different from a wail and could also be interpreted as the women giving the men an encouraging send off. - That's what it is when Native American women do it (well, that and to scare the enemy). Lakotah holy man Black Elk refers to it as the "tremolo". It's also a way of showing respect or honor and is done in many other world cultures. - The Lord of the Rings series has several moments like this: - A boy soprano cutting in at dramatic moments like Gandalf's escape from Orthanc and the Ents breaking Saruman's dam, and almost any other moment when nature shows resurgence. - Faramir's \|\|apparent death\|\| is accompanied by a One Hobbit Mournful Solo that Pippin is singing elsewhere for Denethor. - Female solos accompany several significant scenes: - Gandalf's fall from the bridge of Khazad-dum. - Leading a chorus of other singers during Gandalf's lament in Lothlórien, and as Haldir and the other Lórien elves are cut down at the Battle of Helm's Deep. - The resurrecting dream Arwen sends to Aragorn after his tumble fighting the wargs. - When Gollum recovers the One Ring. - When the Eagles rescue Frodo and Sam at the end. - In the extended version, Éowyn's lament at her cousin Théodred's funeral provides this. - The Matrix: while they're giving Neo acupuncture as part of his transition into the real world. - Mission: Impossible II has Injection and Mano a Mano. - The entire ending sequence of The Mist, starting after they escape the food mart and continuing to the Downer Ending. - One of these is delivered near the end of the "Shiver My Timbers" opening number in Muppet Treasure Island, shortly before we're reminded that dead men tell no tales and Flint opens fire on his crew. - Ennio Morricone likes this. - Mercedes' lullaby to Ofelia in Pan's Labyrinth. - Passion in the Desert features this heavily on the soundtrack. - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: The teaser trailer ends with a haunting, melodic wail before the skull-and-crossbones logo is shown. - Lestat's song "Forsaken" (as sung by David Draiman) in Queen of the Damned features this. - Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Ark's theme has it at certain points. When it shows up, really bad things start happening to people. - Battle Adagio from Rambo. - In The Red Violin, a woman humming, called "Anna's Theme" on the soundtrack, introduces the titular violin. In a subtle transition, the woman's hum becomes the sound of ~~ Joshua Bell~~ the violin. And if you pay attention, during the credits the violin's score returns — and then fades back into Anna's humming. - Gavin Hood's jaunt through real-life attrocity, Rendition features a lot of one-woman wailing since much of the movie is poignant. - Repo! The Genetic Opera. There is a short burst of this at the start of 'At the Opera Tonight', and the choir backing up 'We Started This Op'ra Sht'. - Certain versions of "Lux Aeterna" from Requiem for a Dream* have this. - Used in Rob Roy. As Archibald Cunningham murders Alan MacDonald, setting the plot in motion, Rob and his clan listen to a woman (Karen Matheson of Capercaillie) sing a mournful solo performance. The film cuts between the two scenes with the song playing over both. - Genius Bonus if you know that she's singing "Aleinn duinn" ("Dark Alan"), the lament of a woman whose lover was lost at sea...and the last, shadowy image we have of MacDonald is that of Cunningham sinking his body in the loch. - A Mood Whiplash moment in the Kevin Bacon comedy She's Having My Baby: Kevin Bacon's wife is in labor, and he's in the hospital, psyching himself up to coach her. Before he can enter the delivery room, a nurse pushes him back, informing him that, due to complications in the delivery, they have to perform a potentially dangerous cesarean section on his wife. As it dawns on him that he may lose both his wife and unborn child, the soundtrack shifts to Kate Bush wailing the first notes of "This Woman's Work". - Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith has an extremely eerie one as Anakin is sitting in his quarters and fighting with himself as to whether he should save Padme by protecting Palpatine. At the same time, Padme senses that something is wrong with him and goes to her window to look outside. Without realizing it, they are looking at each other from miles away as they're sharing the same fears. Cue chilling wail, with no other sound. - The Sum of All Fears has The Mission. - Titanic (1997) uses this quite a bit, with the vocals of Sissel Kyrkjebø being beautifully interwoven throughout the score to invoke nostalgia and memories for the entire film. - Brian Tyler's "Into Eternity" from the Thor: The Dark World OST (played during \|\|Frigga's funeral\|\|) uses this. - Mocked in Thor: Ragnarok, where an a capella version of "Into Eternity" is sung by a small choir during a deliberately Narm-tastic recreation of \|\|Loki's apparent death\|\| from Dark World in an Asgardian play. - The Tree of Life features an epic 15-minute The World Is Just Awesome scene full of Scenery Porn with a haunting operatic voice over scenes taking the viewer from the creation of the universe to the birth of the main character. - Like many tropes, this one is parodied in Tropic Thunder. - Top Gun has "Memories," which plays when Maverick consoles Goose's wife and son \|\|after he dies in a training accident halfway through.\|\| - In Irish and Scottish folklore, the banshee (or bean-sidhe) is a fairy-woman and often guardian spirit of the old Gaelic families who can foretell death in "her" family; she wails and cries through the night to warn the family that one of them will soon die; if the family hears her crying three nights in a row, they know that they should begin planning a funeral. As she can foretell death in the family that she protects, the banshee is also grieving for the family as well as warning them of impending death. When many mná-sídhe (fairy-women) are heard wailing at once, it foretells the death of a major political or religious figure. - Much of Latin America believes in the legend of La Llorona, the spirit of a woman who died after she drowned her children and cannot enter Heaven until she has found them; she is heard crying "¡Ay, mis hijos!" ("Oh, my children!") as she searches for them. Those who hear her crying supposedly are doomed to die soon. - Used to great effect when Jack Bauer raids the warehouse where the Drazens (who Jack believes to have killed his daughter Kim) are hiding out near the end of the first season of 24. - A big feature of the revamped theme tune of the second season of The 100. - Parodied in the latest season of Arrested Development, in which the wail turns out to just be a very overworked rendition of the word 'coincidence'. - Also used when Jack kills \|\|Curtis Manning\|\|. - Battlestar Galactica examples include "A Call to Arms" and "The Storm and the Dead", the start of the main theme and in "Lords of Kobol." - Used in "Slayer's Elegy" from the Buffy episode "The Wish" when absolutely everything is going wrong. - Used in The Colbert Report during the segment Mysteries of the Ancient Unknown: King Tut's Penis," with some accompanying eyebrow twitches. Also used the first time he talks about the revolts in Egypt. - The opening credits for the CBS detective series Cold Case features a rather ghostly female wail. - Parodied in the Community episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples." A female vocalist ululates Abed's name for a sort of joking Biblical epic effect many times throughout the episode, then in the "dramatic" ending, the singer eerily wails Shirley's name. - Also parodied in "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" when Brutopolis is cruelly slain by Pierce the Insensative (read: Chang's character is killed by Pierce's character, and has to hand in his character sheet). - Doctor Who: - "The Ice Warriors" has a weird score, especially by Classic series standards, consisting of a wailing operatic soprano over dissonant orchestra stabbing. It's very Sixties. And terrifying. - The series has its resident wailist, Melanie Pappenheim, notable for contributing wordless vocals for tracks such as the old Doctor's theme, "Doomsday", "Martha's Theme", and "The Doctor Forever". - "Planet of the Ood" has a lot of this to represent the songs of the Ood. - The Steven Moffat era seems to have switched over to Yamit Mamo, who sang "The Stowaway" and "My Angel Put the Devil in Me", for the wailing, as heard in "The Mad Man with a Box." - And in Season Six we have one for the, as a fan described it, "having my brain explode" moments. - The Thirteenth Doctor's theme starts off as this trope before the soloist escalates it into a full-throated yell. - Dollhouse's main theme carts out this trope. - The beginning of the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold". That one is an old Punjabi wedding song called "Madhaniyan", if anyone cares to listen. - Gameof Thrones features this in a few pieces, perhaps most poignantly in the end of "The Iron Throne," which plays over \|\|Daenerys's death scene, as Drogon flies away over the sea with her body.\|\| - General and I's first episode starts an eerie, mournful wail. - Lampshaded in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, where the singing is heard while Herc is mourning the death of his second wife, and the singer turns out to be Xena. - The funeral song that Xena sang in multiple episodes of the franchise was actually a pre-existing song called "Burial" written and performed by Lucy Lawless. - The opening theme for The Last Kingdom, performed by Eivør Pálsdóttir. - Promos for various cop shows, especially Law & Order, use a wordless Arabic-style women's vocal when this week's episode is going to feature Muslims in some way. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The One-Woman Wail is heard while the orcs are chasing Arondir, Theo and Bronwyn through the woods, belongs to Disa, which is a plea to rocks to let the miners get out alive. - Parodied in MADtv (1995) where they invite a woman supposedly responsible for providing the wailing and demonstrate how it makes everything more dramatic. The host asked her what language that's suppose to be but she replies that she doesn't know. - played with in the Modern Family, in the episode Family Portrait, where Cameron is singing Ave Maria in a wedding, while Mitchell is trying to kill a pigeon who got into their house. - Once Upon a Time uses one in the episode "Shattered Sight" as \|\|Ingrid the Snow Queen makes a last minute Heroic Sacrifice to redeem herself. She is then reunited with her sisters in the afterlife.\|\| - In Over There, the wail would usually play in the Iraqi side-story. - Used in the fifth episode of The Philanthropist when \|\|a bomb goes off in Kosovo and kills four people.\|\| - Princess Silver: An eerie wail plays during Rong Le and Rong Qi's farewell. - Heard in the background every so often on Rome. - The Silent Witness theme tune, Silencium by Jane Sheldon. - Subverted in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. This plays after Spartacus and Crixus think they've defeated The Dreaded Theokoles in the arena. But it turns out it's just a Hope Spot, and Theokoles jumps up to let the real battle begin. - Included in the theme music for Stargate Atlantis (otherwise an Instrumental Theme Tune). - The theme song for Star Trek: The Original Series. - Star Trek: Picard: In "Absolute Candor", when Elnor and Picard meet again for the first time in fourteen years, there's the sound of a woman wailing. It's towards the end of the piece entitled "Picard Goes Back." - Survivor used this during its Pearl Islands and All-Stars seasons; the former when Sandra and Lil were leaving the camp for the last time, and the latter when Jenna chose to take herself out of the game to be with her terminally ill mother. - Gray's Theme from Torchwood is a rather heart-wrenching one. It first appears in "Adam" when Jack recalls losing his brother as a child. - The West Wing: - The X-Files had bunches of these, though the most notable was probably Scully's theme from Season 8. - Amon Düül II has a lot of this on their first album, Phallus Dei, courtesy of singer Renate Knaup. - One of music's Ur Examples is surely Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground." Supposedly a musical interpretation of Christ's suffering on the cross, it was considered such a powerful expression of human loneliness that it was chosen to be sent into space. - Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, "The Great Gig in the Sky". - Lisa Hannigan, especially in the background on "Ora" and "Swan". - The soprano solo in Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Sinfonia Antartica", who alternates with a wordless wailing female chorus accompanied by a wind machine. (The symphony is derived from the film score for Scott of the Antarctic.) - Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Pastoral" symphony features another wordless soprano (or tenor or, if neither is available, clarinet) solo at the beginning and end of the fourth movement. - Yoko Ono is known for this. Example: "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)". Particularly the version on her release with John Lennon, Some Time in New York City/Live Jam. It's also the main reason why Lennon's first two solo albums Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins and side 1 of Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions are such a Sensory Abuse. - The opening guitar solo from Asia's "Don't Cry" was written to sound exactly like this. - Tenacious D does a one- man wail in "Tribute": "Nay, we are but men! Rock!", not to mention the various "Ah"s from "Master Exploder". - Ethereal Wave is subgenre of Goth Rock which combines a more soothing sound with the sound of Goth Rock with many songs in the genre having these types of vocals. - The Cat Empire do the male version of this all the time, making use of Harry James Angus' magnificent falsetto. - Ian Gillan also does the one-man wail in Deep Purple's "Child in Time", especially the live version. - Some early Judas Priest songs had Rob Halford doing the male version of this, most notably the incredibly powerful falsetto passages in "Run of the Mill" and "Dreamer Deceiver". - "Helena's Theme" In Kamelot's album Epica. \|\|After the previous track, in which the protagonist tells Helena he's Lost and Damned. She softly sings her lament while walking by a river, then she throws herself into it, an unborn child in her womb.\|\| - Fortress Europe by Asian Dub Foundation. - Dead Can Dance: It was while a member of that band that Lisa Gerrard developed her aforementioned signature style. - Tiesto's "A Tear in the Open" uses a Gaelic stock vocal snippet based on a Scottish folk song, which was also used in the Tomb Raider: Legend soundtrack. - Inverted: Ozzy Osbourne does a one-man wail in the song "Black Rain". - Used by various Gothic Rock bands such as Within Temptation ( What Have You Done, The Cross and the haunting live performance of Memories) and Lacuna Coil ( Our Truth - twice). - Another Within Temptation song makes excellent use of this trope is The Truth Beneath the Rose, immediately after the first chorus and again at the end of the song. - Henryk Górecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs", although not a straight example as the Wail is in Polish and sung in a rather traditional operatic style, as opposed to the more recent examples that have an "exotic" flavor to them. - Natalie Merchant's "My Skin". - In Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic," the extended A Cappella opening of the fifth movement trails off into a wordless, unaccompanied soprano solo. - Michael Jackson's "Little Susie" starts with sad chanting, and then moves on to a small girl (presumably the titular Susie) singing wordlessly accompanied only by a music box. - Blixa Bargeld does this often. Nick Cave once described Blixa's wailing as "a sound you would expect to hear from strangled cats or dying children." - Ayreon's "Ride the Comet." - A signature of Enya. - Kate Bush and her various devotees, most obviously Tori Amos, Sarah Brightman and Sarah McLachlan... the latter of whom used a classic example of this trope in the song "Silence" with... - Delerium, a side project by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, who employ this trope to the point of excess. Featuring a series of female back-up singers (including their label-mate, a pre-superstardom Sarah McLachlan), Delerium songs rarely employ more than a handful of words; the substance of the song comes from long wordless vocal interludes over techno-rock orchestrations. Originally an ambient soundscape band, Delerium found commercial success with a more emotionally-oriented techno-pop approach - the keystone of which involves this trope. - Conjure One, another side project of Rhys Fulber, records albums that are virtually indistinguishable from those released under the name Delerium... especially in their (over)use of this trope. - Kristy Thirsk, a regular vocalist with Delerium, also appears on FLA's cover of "Justify My Love". - The late Israeli pop icon and Eurovision Song Contest representative, Ofra Haza, provided one in "Temple of Love" by The Sisters of Mercy. - Orbital: "Belfast", "Halcyon (& On & On)", "Are We Here", "Dwr Budr", "Nothing Left" (both featuring Alison Goldfrapp), and "One Perfect Sunrise" (featuring Lisa Gerrard). - Paul Hartnoll's solo project 8:58 continues the trend with "The Past Now", featuring Lisa Knapp. - Hybrid featuring Kirsty Hawkshaw - Just For Today, which also samples the vocal from the aforementioned "Belfast" at one point. - Blue Amazon: "The Javelin", "Paradise Regime", etc. - Juno Reactor's "Pistolero", "Giant", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", and "Navras", all featuring Taz Alexander, and maybe others. The latter two also use Ominous Latin Chanting. - "First Strike" by Signum. - "Healesville Sanctuary" also uses this. - BT features this in "Quark", "Firewater", and "Mercury and Solace". - Dave Matthews Band: "The Last Stop". - Linkin Park (circa 1999, when they were known as "Hybrid Theory"): "Carousel". - Mike Oldfield uses this occasionally. - In "Red Dawn" from Tubular Bells II. - In "The Inner Child" from Tubular Bells III. - Rhapsody (of Fire)'s "Queen of the Dark Horizons" uses this. - Spinoff band Luca Turelli's Rhapsody does this in "Dark Age of Atlantis." - Sarah McLachlan. - Found in The Most Unwanted Song. - Vocaloid KAITO's "Sayang": The beginning and ending's wail obviously sung "Sayang", but it's officially a One Man Wail in the middle. - Another KAITO song, "Pane dhiria," features this as one of the background vocals. - Amanda Palmer likes this on tracks like Slide and Deliah - Rapsody's "Prince Igor" features frequent switches to an impressive wail from Sissel Kyrkjebo, wherein she sings an excerpt from the original Prince Igor. - "Persia" by The Art of Trance uses a Middle-Eastern wail. - Swans' former vocalist Jarboe was prone to this. "Blood On Your Hands" comes to mind, as does the Swans Are Dead version of "I Crawled", in which [[spoiler:it eventually mutates into a Metal Scream. - Roza Rymbaeva, especially in "Alia." "AAAAAALIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Aru qyzy sen khaaaaalqyyyyyymnyyyyyn! AAAAAALIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Batyr qyzy sen khaaaaalqyyyyymnyyyyyn! Yerke kusy sen daaaalaaaamyyyyn! AAAAAALIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" - Nina Hagen's "Natuträne." The song starts out as a very positive, poetic description of a German city. Then she mentions how much seeing a loved one outside makes her want to cry, and how the little bits of nature around the city touch her heart, and she starts to warble. - The Tiger Lillies do this occasionally, despite being an all-male band — the lead singer is a perfect falsetto. Their song "Maria", a 9-minute wail about a woman who is slaughtered by a madman, is the most prominent example. - Tarja Turunen naturally is rather fond of this. Nightwish tunes "Astral Romance," "Angels Falls First," "Swanheart," "The Siren" and especially "Passion and the Opera" use it, and most of her solo works as well. - Current Nightwish singer Floor Jansen lent her name to the fandom term "Floorgasm" after she joined the band, applying in particular to the closing aria of her take on "Ghost Love Score" (originally written for Tarja). - Much of Iced Earth 's recent Set Abominae-based material has made use of both this and Ominous Latin Chanting. Most blatant one is probably "Awakening." - The third movement of Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah" Symphony has a mezzo-soprano singing extracts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah in Hebrew. - Another rare male example occurs in Rush's "2112", at roughly 1:45 here. Of course, if any man can do such a wail, it's Geddy Lee. - The deeply unsettling Doom. A Sigh by Kronos Quartet features field recordings of two Romanian women singing laments for the dead; the first seems to be actually weeping as she sings, and the poor quality of the recordings gives it all an otherworldly feel. - On the ABBA song "The Day Before You Came," Agnetha Falskog sings the verses with lyrics about a romantic affair and then Frida Lyngstad(who is a trained opera singer) sings a long mournful wail. - Emilie Autumn likes this, and it's most notable in "Shalott" and "God Help Me". Usually preceded by a Madness Mantra. - Deborah Sasson's "Carmen (Danger in Her Eyes)" samples "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. - PJ Harvey does this in "The Mountain." - Present in Diamanda Galás' "skotose me (kill me)." - Another one-man wail inversion occurs in Simon & Garfunkel's live rendition of "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her". - Namgar uses these both in her own songs (often reinterpretations of traditional Buryat-Mongol songs) and in her vocal work on the soundtrack for Inspector Putilin and Prince of the Wind. - Canadian goth-synthpop band Austra uses this trope regularly. - Traditional music has many great examples. Here's Yo-Yo Ma and Mongolian singer Khongorzul introducing a Long Song. The name refers not to how long it takes to sing the song, but rather the long distances over which the song may be heard, as it is an ancient method of communication. - Electric Wizard employs this in "Ivixor B/Phase Inducer". - The intros of Funker Vogt's "Hard Way" and "Our Life". - Solarstone uses these in "4ever", "Ultraviolet", "Zeitgeist", "The Last Defeat (Part 2)", which also uses Ethereal Choir at its climax, "Nothing but Chemistry Here", and "Shield Pt 1". - The verse of The Cruxshadows' "Cassandra" has a vocodered background wail, alongside electric violin. - Dream Theater uses this in the intro to Through Her Eyes from their Concept Album Scenes From a Memory. - Lindsey Stirling in her music video for Assassin's Creed 3, when she's not rocking out on her violin. - Vangelis uses this on the Heaven and Hell concept LP. On the Hell side, a chorus of the damned souls in Hell (who are being whipped by demons) morphs into a classic One Woman Wail, loaded with pain and sorrow and regret. - Within Temptation uses a two women wail in their song Paradise (What about Us). It also features Tarja Turunen as the second wailing woman. - The Frozen Autumn's "Fragments of Memories", which was their first song to feature the female vocalist Arianna, also known as Froxeanne. - Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" has a male falsetto wail, courtesy of Jimmy Somerville. Ditto "Why?" - Front 242 used this trope in "Modern Angel," and its reprise, "Happiness(More Angels)." - Void Vision uses this vocal style in "Everything is Fine", "To The Sea", and "Slow Dawn". - Delta Rae occasionally use this - one of the most striking is Brittany's singing in "Scared." - The song "Ah Yeah" by Korean Pop Music group EXID features one by member Solji to kick off the song's climax. - Many songs by Grimes, such as "Laughing and Not Being Normal." - Most of Xeno & Oaklander's female vocals are this trope or scatting. - Ratty's "Sunrise (Here I Am)." - Sabaton: The soundtrack version of their Concept Album about World War I remixes the songs into epic and often forlorn orchestral pieces featuring a mixture of choir and this trope in songs such as "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and "The End of the War to End All Wars" lamenting the tragedy of the war. - Black Rain's "Profusion" and "Profusion II," both featuring Zoe Zanias. Ditto most of Zanias's solo material. - Watergate's "Heart of Asia," the trance version of Ryuichi Sakamoto's theme song to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, has a wailing woman vocal that wasn't present in the original. This carries over to the Speedy Techno Remake "Tokyo Rush" by Brisk, Vagabond and Uraken. - Mono Inc.'s Katha Mia performs One Woman Wails on many of the songs that have her backup singing, complementing lead singer Martin Engler's deep baritone vocals. For example, "Children of the Dark." - The Scandinavian music tradition of kulning/kaukning almost is this trope — as a result of originally being a form of herding call, they are wordless songs sung by a single person (usually a woman) with aspects that make them carry far (many that overlap with 'and sounds haunting'). It also incorporates tones traditionally associated with sad music. - The Gaels of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man have a currently defunct keening tradition, the practice of ritualized singing and wailing for the dead. "Keening" is derived from the Gaelic verb caoin, meaning "to weep, to mourn/lament" and the verb caoineadh ("weeping") also refers to a musical style, a lament for the dead. A keening-woman would be hired by the family of the deceased to lead the community through their grief, with the keening occurring at the graveyard and the keening-woman (or bean-chaointe in Gaelic) would sing and wail a semi-improvised lament with the rest of the mourners joining at least during the chorus, the whole performance often punctuated with sobs. It was a way of helping the family and the community through their grief as well as a means of ensuring that the soul of the departed with reach Heaven, The Otherworld, or wherever spirits seek to go. the wealthier the family of the deceased, the more keening-women that they would hire. The caoineadh usually consisted of stock elements (the illustrious ancestry of the deceased, their good qualities, and the heavy hearts of their surviving family and friends) and was often half-improvised, complete with beating your hands and tearing at your hair. The tradition of keening-women is described here, plus a few surviving recordings. - The keening-woman is the human counterpart of the banshee (or bean-sidhe, if you speak Gaelic). Bean-sidhe (plural, mná-sidhe) means "woman of the fairy folk", a guardian spirit of the ancient Gaelic families. She visits "her" family's home in the evening and wails and sobs through the night to warn the family that one of them will soon die. if the family hears her crying three nights in a row, they know that they should begin planning a funeral. They wail of the banshee might be dreaded, but the banshee herself is only a messenger and she means no harm. If many mná-sidhe could be heard wailing in chorus, it was a warning that somebody of great political or religious importance would soon die. - The vocals in "Isabella's Dream" by Anders Enger Jensen are entirely wordless one-woman wails. - "U" by Grum features a heavily electronically-modified wail at various points of the song. - "Nocturne" by Irish-Norwegian duo Secret Garden (later covered by Celtic Woman), which won the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest. - Interface's Where All Roads Lead album has this in its outtro track, "Hiraeth". - Apollo 440: - "Moonshine" by Project Medusa vs. Exor plays up this trope most strongly in the two Exor mixes. - Gearwhore's aptly-named "Ghost By Day" is a Drum N Bass track employing banshee-like wailing vocals. - Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights ends with an eerie soprano voice resembling Cathy's, accompanied mostly by the sound of the wind, calling out to Heathcliff. - Cirque du Soleil: - The Songbird's numbers in Saltimbanco. - The "Aftermath" interlude in KA. - "Le reveur" in Varekai. - The suspended poles ("Enchanted Reunion") and Chinese pole ("Creature of Light") acts in Amaluna - "Distorted" in La Nouba. - Volta most prominently has this in "Man Craft", "Battle of the Man", the climax of "The Bee and the Wind", and the coda of "Inside Me". - The Phantom of the Opera has Christine do this near the end of the titular song. - Richard Strauss's opera Daphne ends with Daphne transformed into a laurel tree and her now-wordless voice singing through the branches. - The stage musical of The Little Mermaid has a one-woman wail version of "Part of Your World" as a Dream Melody. - The BGM for Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War's final mission, "Zero," includes about 50 seconds of wailing... before heading into a remix of the BGM from the final mission of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. - Axiom Verge and Axiom Verge 2 feature multiple tracks with wailing, fitting the lonely feeling of the games' many isolated areas. Sometimes there's even a chorus of wailing. - Appears prominently in the soundtrack for Baten Kaitos, particularly as things get darker around the second disc. Probably the most memorable use is "Ruinous Commander," the Final Boss theme from Origins. - Bayonetta 2 features one during the boss theme "Alraune Whisperer of Insanity," which fits in eerily well amongst the Ominous Latin Chanting. - The soundtrack for Xen in Black Mesa makes heavy use of this. One of the best examples is the haunting opening track Transcendent, perfectly setting the tone for the beautiful, dreamlike, alien place that is Xen. - BlazBlue features this as the Leitmotif for Nu -13-. Awakening The Chaos. - Borderlands 2 features one briefly in the ambient soundtrack for Thousand Cuts. - Castlevania: - One of the GLA's tracks in Command & Conquer: Generals has this at the start. - Commandos 2: Men of Courage has a couple of such themes. For example, Savo island's undersea areas are set to this. - "Critical Moment of Contra" from Contra: Shattered Soldier. - Crimson Echoes: The song played during the battle with Antaeus Porre features this. - The DanceDanceRevolution songs "L'amour et la liberte" and "Tears". - Darius: - Darius Gaiden: - This clip. It doesn't help that in that clip it is heard just as the boss appears. Not only this is the final stage music, the bosses in Darius Gaiden are Nintendo Hard in and of themselves. Even the uploader admitted that he'd die if the boss pulls the disappear-into-the-background trick again; yeah, The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. For bonus score? This particular boss resembled the very first boss, giving a very nasty surprise to any unprepared players. - That same warbling voice echoes in the game's many different endings, most of which are either tremendously nihilistic or just downright weird, kinda like the music. - Darius Burst: - In Dark Chronicle, Emperor Griffon's battle theme, "Sun", features a dramatic wail set against a male choir of Ominous Latin Chanting, representing \|\|Sirus' longing for Alexandra as well as his psychotic hatred towards humanity.\|\| - Dark Souls has a few boss themes that fit the mold. There is also "Daughters of Chaos", which plays at the bonfire kept by Quelaag's sister—probably the most tragic of all Tragic Monsters in the game. - In Dead Island, the background music for the church safehouse has a theme based on this trope. - DEFCON has this in the main background music. Extra points for not being a woman singing in a sad voice, but actually crying. Which is very fitting, considering that the point of the game is to bomb as many of your enemies' cities with nukes as possible. - While the soundtrack of the original Deus Ex is almost entirely techno - the second game, Invisible War features a One Woman Wail remix of the original game's theme. The soundtrack of Human Revolution, on the other hand, has a wail in almost every track. - The Diablo III cinematic trailer unveiled in June 2008 features such a wail. - Dragon Age series: - Dragon Age: Origins loves this trope, with wailing at the title credits and during the Battle of Ostagar. Leliana will sing in camp if you have high enough approval rating with her. - Our Lady makes a brief reappearance in the main theme for Dragon Age II, but she's mostly replaced in favor of some very plaintive strings. - In Drakengard 3, whenever Zero taps into her Intoner powers, she sings along to the background music. This is also featured in all the Intoner boss fights, with the voices turning into jumbled murmuring (not unlike a fast rap verse) when Intoner Mode is activated. - The main theme of Dungeons & Dragons Tactics, also used in the map screen. - The first level of Einhänder. - The track Frostfall in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim contains one. - In Endless Legend, both themes associated with the Drakken feature One Woman Wails: An Ancient Wail and Wisdom of Dark Ages. - "Dust to Dust," from Final Fantasy XIII, plays when you enter the ruined village of Oerba. Particularly powerful, since Oerba was Vanille and Fang's hometown, but is now nothing but decaying wreckage, crystal sands, and Cie'th. The music even overrides the battle theme, driving home the sorrow and desolation. - Fire Emblem: Awakening has a rare fusion of Ominous Latin Chanting and the One Woman Wail: before you fight one of the major story bosses, as he and your character have their dramatic discussion before fighting one another, this piece will play: a One-Woman Wail that isn't sad or forlorn, but rather ominous and chilling. Once the fighting starts, though, it kicks right into Ominous Latin Chanting. - Gears of War 2 has this in With Sympathy, except that the wail slowly becomes more powerful towards the end. - God of War (PS4) uses this to great effect throughout the soundtrack, such as in "Memories of Mother." - In .hack//G.U. we have the Keel Mountain Range of Briona Gwydion, which is just one of several pieces like this. - Halo: Used in "Ashes" from Halo: Reach, alongside Lonely Piano, and "Atonement" from Halo 4. - Hearts of Iron III's song Letters From Home features this. - From Hellsinker we get the theme of the Apostles of the Seed. - And soon thereafter we get Segment 7, the theme of Rex Cavalier although it's more of a One-Man Wail. - Hollow Knight has a one-woman wail in the outside sections of the City of Tears, whose melody is also sung by the ghost songstress Marissa in the Pleasure House. Some portions of "Daughter of Hallownest" (Hornet's remixed DLC theme) also fit. - Horizon Zero Dawn uses the vocals of Julie Elven frequently and to great effect, most obviously in "Aloy's Theme" but in many other parts of the soundtrack as well. - "Grace and Glory," the final boss theme of both Jet Set Radio games. - The ending song by Lisbeth Scott, "I Was Born for This", from Journey (2012). - A One-Woman Wail in Kid Icarus: Uprising plays when Pit sees \|\|the destroyed Skyworld, caused by the Chaos Kin possessing Palutena, for the first time. It later serves as a Recurring Riff throughout the rest of the Chaos Kin arc.\|\| - Kingdom Hearts III: The gut-wrenching fight against \|\|a darkness-corrupted Aqua\|\| has segments that involve a wordless "ah" vocalization from one woman, and segments that seem to be a duet between two of these. - A number of the special Infected leitmotif in both Left 4 Dead games feature ominous wailing, especially the Witch's theme. - The Legend of Zelda: - LittleBigPlanet 2's Victoria's Laboratory Int Music with only the Melody playing. - Lobotomy Corporation has this included in the Third Warning music. - Library of Ruina has a similar haunting wail during the third version of Furioso, the theme that plays when you fight Roland during his Floor Realizations \|\|as well as the first three stages of his reception.\|\| - The opening animation for The Lost Crown has this. - From Lost Odyssey, "Parting Forever," which plays when \|\|Lirum dies.\|\| - Some tracks of the game Malicious use it, such as the eponymous music (very soothing by the way). - Mass Effect: - An in-universe example happens in Mass Effect, wherein defeating the geth in the Armstrong Cluster triggers a recording of a lone quarian woman wailing. This is also one of the first indications of their (for want of a better word) humanity. - The beginning of "After The Drop" from Medal of Honor: Frontline has a boy soprano version of this. Halfway through the song, a full Cherubic Choir joins in. Ditto for "Arnhem". - The game Medieval: Total War uses this trope in every way it can. - Rome: Total War has it as the theme for losing battles and battles ending in a draw, as opposed to the victorious-sounding Ominous Latin Chanting played during victories. It is fittingly entitled "Lost Souls". - The opening (and later, the ending) of Metal Gear Solid features a One-Woman Wail... in Irish, which not even a native speaker can follow. (Ironically, if you look at the official translated lyrics, she's singing about how life is wonderful and how people aren't alone). - Metal Gear Solid 4 took it to a more obvious extreme by wrapping the trailers in a Hebrew One Woman Wail which is more emblematic of the trope. It's about how terrible war is. \|\|A vocal-only version accompanies Snake's trip through the microwave hallway, as he damn near kills himself, and his allies do the same thing.\|\| - Metal Gear Solid 4 also \|\|features a callback to the first game's One Woman Wail when Snake goes back to Shadow Moses Island.\|\| - Metal Gear Solid 4 also has the credits song "Here's To You", which probably counts as a one-woman wail if you don't speak English. The bulk of Japanese gamers probably don't have to sit and wonder who Nicola and Bart are. - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain features the song "Sins of the Father" by Donna Burke, which has a more dramatic take on this trope, seen in gameplay when Snake smokes a Phantom Cigar: " WOA- " HAAAAAAAA! - The ending theme of Metro 2033 that plays if you get the good ending includes this alongside the music as Artyom sits atop the tower, looking out across the world. - Might & Magic 7 features this in heaps. The wailing is present almost everywhere, but the soundtracks for Barrow Downs, Eofol, Deyja and the Bracada desert really lean on it. Perfect wasteland wandering motifs. - From the Myst series, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Uru Live (AKA Myst Online) has a wail in Kadish's Gallery. Another such wail plays in Kadish's Vault. - The Kadish Vault theme was later used in the trailer for the movie Munich. - The main theme and related leitmotifs for Ninety-Nine Nights features this technique. - No More Heroes with Bad Girl's theme, Pleather for Breakfast. - The main menu theme of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising starts with one of these, followed with throat singing and very US Army orchestral reprise (sounding very much like themes from America's Army and Metal Gear Solid 4). - Ori and the Blind Forest has many examples sung by Aeralie Brighton, such as "Ori, Lost in the Storm", "The Spirit Tree", "Approaching the End", "Returning to the Spirit Tree", "The Sacrifice", and "Light of Nibel". - Parasite Eve: While it has a few musical themes using this trope throughout the game, the most notable of these is Eve's battle theme, "Influence of Deep", which features a One-Woman Wail being heard amidst techno music. It also has an instrumental segment played using an organ tossed in. - Persona: - The music in the Velvet Room, variously translated as "Aria of the Soul" and "The Poem for Everyone's Souls". In the first and second games, it's justified by having the singer (Belladonna) actually standing at a mike in the Velvet Room. It's also used in the final boss battle of Persona 3, which makes sense given that the song's title can be translated as "The Battle for Everyone's Souls". - In Persona 2, a frightened woman's scream is repeated throughout Nyarlathotep's Leitmotif. - The music in P.N.03's intro cutscene, and by extension the final stage, features both male and female throat singing. - There is an incredibly haunting track on the second volume of the Portal 2 soundtrack called \|\|PotatOS's Lament\|\|. It's sung by GLaDOS after she's been \|\|turned into a potato\|\|, and plays in the Act II title screen. The lyrics are in Latin (and make little to no sense when translated), but the Drone of Dread-music combined with the fact that you can hear GLaDOS's voice breaking at the end. - Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones often has this as background music when navigating the ruined city of Babylon. - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has a track that consists entirely of this. - Quake has this in one of its CD music tracks, although strictly speaking it's a one-man scream. A man's yell/scream begins and continues for an unnaturally long time, fading in and out and occasionally becoming ragged. The effect is suitably disturbing for the player. - The last level in R-Type Delta has a One Woman Wail as a soundtrack. Here's a music-only submission. - Resident Evil Code: Veronica: Alexia's battle themes use this prominently for the "Berceuse" melody. - This is a favorite technique of Shadow Hearts series composer Yoshitaka Hirota. Take for example "Brain Hopper", a battle theme. - Skullgirls uses this trope in the intro to the opening theme of the game, and is also used in the Final Boss theme: "Skull Heart Arryhmia". - Another example definitely intended to be ominous rather than sad is the final boss theme of Sonic CD. - The themes for the battles against Fienne, Thuris and \|\|Drazil\|\| in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters. - Notably in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the background music on the aptly named planet Styx. - The opening animation sequence of Suikoden II. - The opening animation sequence of Suikoden III. - The Super Mario Galaxy 2 remix of the "Road to Bowser" music from Super Mario 64. - The Judecca's Leitmotif in Super Robot Spirits is basically this, probably because Levi is the final boss of the game. - The Super Smash Bros. Melee remix of the Pokémon theme. - In Team Fortress 2, the "ROBOTS!" song on the soundtrack features this near the end, as the voice wails along with the melody. - The opening and ending of Thunder Force VI. - In Turgor, the tracks called "The Adit" and "\|\| Sister's Death\|\|" - Twilight Wing has these in "Emotion Eater"(Changeling Swamp) and "Gold Dusk"(Final Stage). The former samples the vocals from the Metal Gear Solid intro/ending theme. - The Snowy Roads music in Twisted Metal Black uses this. Also used, along with For Doom the Bell Tolls, on the Freeway level. - Tyranny has Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack based on one such wail. It runs through tracks like "Binder of Fate" and "Kyros", and shows up in-game in the game's climaxes, \|\|such as during the breaking of Edicts and the deaths of Archons\|\|. - Reina Akikawa's theme in Wangan Midnight R, which can also be listened to in Maximum Tune 3 by unlocking the Wangan Midnight R soundtrack. - Warcraft III uses this when Arthas returns before killing his father, a One Boy Soprano Wail as he catches a rose petal and watches it wither in his hand, and a One-Woman Wail in The Ascencion cinematic at the end of The Frozen Throne. - The Night Elves' defeat music also features one. - World of Goo: - "The Burning Man," which plays in a good amount of the dark, industrial levels of Chapter 3, consists largely of metallic screeching combined with ethereal choir. It effectively encapsulates the hell that the factory is in the game. - Its reprise, "Are You Coming Home, Love MOM," that plays upon meeting the eponymous character, as well as \|\|in the wreckage of the World Of Goo Corporation\|\|, reuses the above's vocals to a much more relaxed, yet still somber melody. - In World of Warcraft, an obscure questline ends with you going to Undercity to give Lady Sylvanas a necklace she lost in battle, at which point she conjures a choir of banshees and sings "Lament of the Highborne" as she recalls the fall of Silvermoon and her own death. The song replaces Undercity's normal BGM for its duration, and all players in the city will hear the ghostly dirge, which especially adds to the city's haunted feel for players who don't know about the quest. There are words, but they're entirely in Thallasian (the High/Blood Elf language). - The Wrathgrate Cinematic created for Wrath of the Lich King has one near the end, during \|\|Highlord Bolvar Fordragon's death\|\|. - The intro cinematic to Wrath of the Lich King also features this, using the Ascension theme from The Frozen Throne (see below), except this is a boy soprano, not a woman. - In the X series, the BGM for the Boron capital sector Kingdom End-uses this with some reverb added. In this case, it's probably meant to be evocative of whale song, since the Boron are an aquatic species. - In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, the song "Engage the Enemy" has a woman wail that plays in the 2 minutes mark. Since the first use of the song is \|\|before Fiora's death\|\|, this works with the heartwrenching nature of the song. The Switch version makes the wailing more emotional. - Fate/stay night: - In the 2012 Updated Re-release, the new version of Shirou's leitmotif that plays whenever he does something momentous is accompanied by this. Have a listen. - "This Illusion", the opening song, turns into this halfway through. - The main theme of Higurashi: When They Cry. It's the main theme because it sort of embodies the tragic insanity everyone, including most of the young girls \|\|and the male lead\|\|, fall under. It's most often used during scenes regarding the aftermath of the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster. - One song that plays often near the end of Snatcher has a decent-for-its-time clip of a woman screaming between repetitions. - Broken Saints: - At the final part of Chapter 24 Act 4, contains a very powerful wail titled "Truth". - Apart from that, the tracks "Come Into The Dark", "The Eight Element", "Belief", "Kenoma", and "Qaf", used at various points in the series. - Weiss's theme Mirror Mirror from RWBY features this. - Avatar: The Last Airbender: - The Grand Finale features the Wail during the climax of the battle between Aang and Fire Lord Ozai. - Also happens during the last episode, when Sokka and Toph are about to die. Just before Suki arrives! - Courage the Cowardly Dog: Multiple: - This trope is used during a boat chase scene in "Human Habitrail" where Doctor Gerbil pursues Courage. - Also in the episode "Shadow of Courage", played whenever Muriel rushes over to whack Eustace with a rolling pin (because he's scaring/harming Courage). - Code Lyoko incorporates a wail whenever Aelita uses her Creativity power. (Some viewers mistake it for Aelita actually doing the singing, but she sometimes speaks, vocalizes, or sings her own note at the same time, showing it isn't the case.) - Gravity Falls: Parodied in "Sock Opera", where a woman singing "Ave Maria" plays over a puppet show getting destroyed by fireworks. - Parodied in the Phineas and Ferb Halloween episode "Druselsteinoween." When Ferb starts singing the song "Vampire Queens Love Pimpernels," there's an ethereal wail in the background... and as the song progresses, there's a brief moment where it turns out that Baljeet is doing the wail. - Samurai Jack: Heard in a couple of brief moments in "Jack and the Spartans". - The Space Ghost Coast to Coast theme song, which begins with a wail of parts of the original Space Ghost theme. - Shows up in Squidbillies as the Sheriff attempts to resuscitate a pig who has died of a meth overdose. - During \|\|Kanan's sacrifice\|\| in Star Wars Rebels, all audio is muted except for the music, with the Wail serving as the voice for the grieving characters. - Wordless ethereal female singing can be heard in "The Ballad of the Crystal Ponies" from Season 3, Episode 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Unusually for this trope (but more in line with what you'd expect from the franchise) it's very cheerful and uplifting (it's easier to listen to here (at 0:55) than in the full song proper).	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurLadyOfSoundtrackSorrow
Totally Not a Werewolf - TV Tropes She couldn't tell a coyote from a werewolf? That was like looking at a Geo Metro and calling it a Hum-Vee. When a Voluntary Shapeshifter's alternate form is mistaken for another monster by humans. The lore behind werewolves is myopic at best. Some werewolves are Voluntary Shapeshifters, others are Cursed or infected with Involuntary Shapeshifting. Thus, it's easy to assume that if you see any character working and living a human life by day, but running through the woods and howling at the moon by night, then you should at least pack a Silver Bullet in case you run into them during a full moon... right? WRONG. They're not that kind of werewolf. The Universe Bible defines the rules and requirements for being a "werewolf," and this individual doesn't fit the description of the creatures that bible ascribes the terminology to. But at least they'll forgive you—they must deal with this confusion all the time. Depending on the individual's demeanor, some may even play off the confusion. A subtrope of Our Werebeasts Are Different and Not Using the "Z" Word, where multiple kinds of werewolves exist in a work but the word "werewolf" itself is only used in-universe to refer to one specific variety. Contrast Not a Zombie (where a person refuses to acknowledge the existence of zombies when confronted with one) and Actually Not a Vampire (where a normal person is mistaken for a supernatural monster). If someone has to actually keep saying that they're "Totally Not A Werewolf", beware: They may also be Most Definitely Not a Villain, and one should consult Insistent Terminology (and possibly Suspiciously Specific Denial) for more details. Should the Voluntary Shapeshifter be mistaken for the monster by other members of its own species, this may be due to the romantic phenomenon of Attractive Bent Species. ## Examples of being mistaken for a werewolf: - The Marvel Universe has the mutant Wolfsbane from New Mutants, who had to be reassured she was not a werewolf, as they were considered to be demons where she was from and her wolf-like appearance caused her much self loathing. - The X-Men once fought an entire team of wolf-like mutants calling themselves the Dominant Species, and managed to stop them from forcefully recruiting a teenage mutant named Wolf Cub. Unsurprisingly, Wolfsbane ended up mentoring him at the Xavier School. - Spider-Man. John Jameson, J. Jonah Jameson's son, may occasionally turn into a ferocious Man-Wolf, but he's not a werewolf. He's a guy who found an alien gem on the moon that's supposed to turn the bearer into a lupine Physical God, but it doesn't work very well in our dimension, making him lose control. He's also explicitly not bothered by silver, as one Wrong Genre Savvy opponent found out the hard way. - Inverted on one occasion in Captain America, when Cap, in the process of searching for the missing John Jameson (who'd been working as his pilot), assumed reports about a wolf-man in rural New England were about John and went to find him. It turned out to be an entire town of actual werewolves, resulting in the notorious Cap-Wolf story. - Dusk in Dimensional Links can transform into a wolf by using his Cursed Stone at will. Practically everyone calls him a werewolf or says that he has lycanthropy, even though he points out that's wrong and he could literally have ended up with any other animal form. - Hiko in Vathara's Walk Through the Valley was mistaken for a werewolf by a member of La Résistance working with him at night because that's when he has Eye Colour Change change from blue to amber. He also possessed Absurdly Sharp Claws, which he used to tear apart the people who'd conquered Kwannon and their Mind Controlled collaborators, when he wasn't hacking them apart with a sword. Hiko wasn't a Forced Transformation victim or a Voluntary Shapeshifter, though; instead, he underwent a Metamorphosis into one of the more human-looking Catboys in fiction, leaving him with no tail or any visible changes to his ears. Oh, and werewolves were not said to be real in this universe. - In Turning Red, Priya initially thinks that Mei's giant red panda form means she's a werewolf and asks her bluntly if she is. - While the Animorphs are Voluntary Shapeshifters thanks to alien technology, in Megamorphs #3, they meet some German soldiers and can distinctly make out one calling Cassie a "werewolf." - On another occasion, she morphs into a wolf at an amusement park and gets seen mid-transformation. Fortunately, she happened to be in the park's haunted house, so the people just assumed it was All Part of the Show. - In The Twilight Saga, a local group of Magical Native Americans note : from the Quileute ethnic group, an actual Native community in Washington State (though they can't shapeshift in Real Life) can turn into wolves at will (or accidentally when under emotional stress), during which they keep their human minds. They're called "werewolves" through three different books, but near the end of the final one, Edward suddenly explains that they're actually "shape-shifters," while this world apparently includes actual "werewolves" who fit the modern perception (full moons, etc.) more closely. Arguably comes off as an Ass Pull, since this basically just makes it so that a werewolf-hating member of the Big Bad Duumvirate doesn't have an excuse to kill them all. - Mercy Thompson: The titular character is a walker, not a werewolf. Even if she does hang around with them a lot. - The Dresden Files has at least five completely different magical creatures that could be classified as "werewolves," not one of which works in horror movie fashion. Getting them mixed up can potentially be fatal. The trope is averted because they're all referred to as werewolves and there is no Insistent Terminology. - The unstoppably destructive loup-garou, a person cursed to turn into a wolflike demon. If you don't have its one, specific weakness handy, run. - Hexenwulfen, people using an addictive Artifact of Doom to turn into a wolf. Merely human when separated from the artifact, but beware Bad Powers, Bad People. Because of its druglike effects, even someone who starts out with the best of intentions doesn't stay that way long. - Lycanthropes, people who can channel animal spirits, including those of wolves, but don't actually transform. Badass Normal and crazy, but basically human. Not to be confused with the Real Life delusion that one is a werewolf. - Actual werewolves, magic-users who know only one single Voluntary Shapeshifting spell. More dangerous than a real wolf because they have a human's mind, but they don't have the self-control issues of the previous types. - At least one \|\|wolf who can turn into a human at will\|\|. - Wolf from the Wolf & Raven Shadowrun short stories was originally intended to be a werewolf, until the author was told that Weres in that Verse are animals who assume human form, not vice versa. The character was therefore re-written as a human physical adept with an intense — sometimes too intense — spiritual bond to the Wolf totem. - Divine Blood Novels: As one of the ridiculous questions she has to discuss with her opponent Eija Semezou is asked whether she prefers vampires or werewolves. She protests that the layman's terms are too vague for a response. Some of the local goths mistake Eija and Hel for various supernatural creatures. They're actually underestimating. - In Wolf in Shadow Rhian can transform into a wolf and people assume that she is a werewolf. Actually, her ability comes from an ancient Celtic brooch which is infused with the power of the sorceress/goddess Morgan le Fay who was the queen of shapeshifters. A character more familiar with supernatural matters concludes that this more closely resembles demonic possession and derives from ancient elf/fae magic. Werewolves are said to exist in that universe but their characteristics are not discussed. Ironically, a Totally Not a Vampire character assumes that she is a powerful witch who found a way to use wiccan magic to shapeshift. Totally Not Vampires are referred to as "suckers". While they feed on life energy contained in human blood and are damaged by sunlight, they are quite different from stereotypical fictional vampires. The people who have to fight them use insist on the name "sucker" to remind everyone of the differences. - Oddly inverted in A Wolf in the Soul. Greg fits the standard werewolf tropes a lot more than do the species of werewolves described in the mythology, of which he is not a member. - In Bruce Coville short story "Little Monsters," the protagonist finds little statuettes of monsters that turn out to be real creatures Taken for Granite. The one that looks like a werewolf, however, is actually their pet dog. During the full moon, he turns into a vaguely humanoid "wolf-man" creature. - Bligh from The Dogs objects to be called a werewolf, preferring to be thought of as a kind of "half-dog" (or "dawg," as he says it. The other characters that are changed into this form, Andrew and Cody, acquiesce to the title. Lampshaded when Stephen, Andrew's brother, asks them if they changed because of a full moon. \|\|(They didn't.)\|\| - In the Discworld novel Reaper Man, when newly-revived zombie Windle Poons is introduced to the Monster Mash of the Fresh Start Club, he assumes the hairy and wolf-like Brother Lupin is a werewolf. Lupin corrects him, he's a were man. Every full moon, some of his hair falls out and he starts walking on two legs. - Early on in An Unattractive Vampire, Amanda mistakes the ancient vampire Yulric Bile for a werewolf, and insists on this identification even after he's been shot with a silver bullet and spritzed with wolfbane to no effect; she only changes her mind when he transforms into a bat. It quickly becomes clear that current pop culture is so saturated with overly-attractive Anne Rice-style vampires that nobody knows quite what to make of Yulric, who Looks Like Orlok at the best of times. As a result, Yulric is often mistaken for just about anything other than a vampire, which becomes especially annoying to Yulric when mistake him for a mummy. modern vampires - Wolven: Protagonist Nat gets a new dog, Woody, who later transforms into a boy. Woody explains that he's a "Wolven," meaning that he's born with the ability to shapeshift (at first randomly, later more purposefully), while "werewolves" are born as humans before getting that ability by getting bitten by another werewolf. - This Is Not a Werewolf Story: Raul knows a magic formula to voluntarily change into a wolf. As the title suggests, he hates the term "werewolf," because in his mind that implies tropes that don't apply to him (like being a Wolf Man with no control over himself, the full moon thing, etc.) There are no "real" werewolves to compare him to, though we eventually learn that there are various other shapeshifters who turn into different animals. - The Cloak Society has Kirbie, who is often referred to as a "werewolf," though technically it's just that Animorphism is her power and "wolf" happened to be the first transformation that she got. She can also turn into a bird, with Lone Star theorizing that she'll get more forms as time goes on. She did find herself Involuntary Shapeshifting a lot when she was younger, though. - Played with but mostly averted in InCryptid. Waheela transform into giant wolflike monsters (or transform from that into human, depending on your point of view), but they are definitely not werewolves (for one thing, they're a separate species, and can't turn people by biting them), and aren't mistaken for werewolves (since the protagonists by and large know the difference). Actual werewolves (which appear in a later book) are caused by The Virus and can infect any mammal. - Happens all the time on Doctor Who, although it is possibly a subversion. The Doctor has admitted to making up some of the technobabble because they don't want to say "It's magic", so a "Lupine Wavelength Hamaevoform" fits the Not Using the "Z" Word aspect of this trope in "Tooth and Claw". - True Blood: \|\|Sam\|\|'s not a werewolf, he's a shifter, thank you very much. Werewolves genuinely exist—and yes, they're different. He's not a big fan of werecats either. - Supernatural introduced "skinwalkers", who can transform into wolves (or dogs, at least) and are distinct from the actual werewolves who do transform with the lunar cycle, but into humans with evil eyes and bad teeth. However, they do share a number of characteristics, including the ability to infect people by biting them, and an allergy to silver. Not very surprising, then, that the brothers thought they were hunting a werewolf when they started looking into the skinwalker. - Grimm has "Blutbaden" which are wolf-like Wesen; the term used to refer to creatures on the show. - In The Vampire Diaries, Tyler notices Caroline's abnormal strength and speed and accuses her of being a werewolf like he is. She laughs and reveals that she's a vampire instead. - In Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the 'werewolf' is their mentor, a Wolf Style master, whose energy was out of balance due to an attempt to rip the wolf spirit out of him by the Big Bad a few episodes prior. Once he gets better, he becomes a wolf-themed Ranger. (He wasn't the series' first "werewolf," but they were Not Using the "Z" Word back in Power Rangers Wild Force; Zen-Aku was called 'the wolf beast' until they knew his name.) - The main character, Maddy, of Wolfblood is very insistent that she, her family and Rhydian are not werewolves, they are Wolfbloods. - World of Darkness: Vampires, werewolves, Pooka changlings, Devourer demons and mages all had powers which could let them turn into wolves. So what happened if you put one of each on a stage to perform this trick in front of mortal witnesses? The vampire gets the expected mundane reaction (and the vampire Men In Black on his tail, most likely), the werewolf drives witnesses into hallucinations and denial, the changeling leaves all but the least banal of viewers remembering it as a vague dream, the demon won't be able to pull it off because the collective disbelief of the viewers blocks the use of the transformation and the mage explodes because the universe doesn't like people turning into wolves. - Chronicles of Darkness too. Changelings, Vampires, Prometheans, Sin-Eaters, and Mages can all access powers that allow them to turn into a wolf or other animal, in addition to the actual Werewolves. - Don't forget Changing Breeds; that book contained rules for werewolf-like transformations... including wolves. - Then Skinchangers reveals you also have Skin-Thieves, basically people who turn into wolves by wearing a wolf skin. They are no way related to true werewolves, who in fact usually despise them. - In Bloodborne, the Beasts in Yharnam are often being mistaken with Werewolves thanks to their furs and wolf-like appearance. \|\|They are, in truth, a hybrid species of various creatures infected by the blood of Great Ones distributed by the Healing Church, and some are Body of Bodies artifically created by the School Of Mensis for their rituals. They are more close to zombies rather than Werewolves.\|\| - In City of Heroes, the War Wolves of the Fifth Column and the Council were created through scientific means. They are immensely strong, and howl like wolves, but they aren't actually werewolves. - When the 2005 trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released, fans and reviewers quickly attached a 'werewolf' label to the depiction of Link being transformed into a wolf. Nintendo did respond saying that only the 'wolf' part was accurate; Link's transformation was revealed to be a Fisher Kingdom effect caused when Link is exposed to the Twilight Realm. - Quest for Glory IV has the gypsies, whom the superstitious townsfolk think are werewolves. Their leader laughs at the idea, saying "Cross my palm with silver; you'll not see me flinch!" The hero has some experience with this, having befriended a tribe of Leopardmen in the previous game. - Inverted in World of Warcraft with Worgen druids, who are actual Worgen, but can shapeshift into other animal forms through druidic spells unrelated to their natural lycanthropic abilities. - A dialogue option in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines allows you to mistake Beckett for a Werewolf in your first face-to-face meeting. He finds it funny. Unless you're a Gangrel; instead your character fanboys over his power and asks if he can teach you that discipline. - Lugh Beowulf from Witch on the Holy Night is a nature spirit who can transform into a golden wolf. He was discovered by a tribe of werewolves who saw him as a saviour who would revive their race. When they discovered that he was not a werewolf, he was ostracized and sold to Touko Aozaki. - Sorcery 101 distinguishes werewolves from wolf-demons, which are sort of the opposite: supernatural wolves that can assume a mostly-human form. - Spinnerette has a rather long arc starting out with both the heroes and the villains chasing something that appears to be a werewolf. The heroes end up catching a three headed guardian of the underworld. The villains run into an Eldritch Abomination the former was trying to hunt down. There wasn't a single werewolf involved in the story, unless we count one of the heroes. - Wilde Life has a main character, Cliff, who has been able to instantly change into a wolf for as long as he can remember; he can think and speak normally in both forms. Oscar asks if "werewolf" is the correct term, and Cliff admits that he has no idea, but that it's what he's always used. They keep saying "werewolf" even after learning that Cliff is technically an "animal person," and that not all of the others are wolves. - On a related note, Word of God says that Barbara's "kids" aren't animal people, they're normal dogs that she transforms with her own magic. - There are also the rougarou. In Real Life they're considered a variant of the werewolf legend note : The word is derived from "loup-garou," the French term for a werewolf, but the comic treats them as different from animal people. They're created through a curse, do lose their human minds, and they're stuck as monsters forever. - Techwolf of the Whateley Universe looks like a seven foot tall werewolf all the time. He's not. He's just under a curse. And Bloodwolf can transform into a werewolf shape because he's a mutant: he's an Avatar who has captured the spirit of the werewolf. However there are real werewolves out there. And Paige has been turned into a werecat. (Werecougar, specifically ) In fact, most of the local Native American tribe who own the land Whateley is on are were-folk of various kinds. There is also a wolf-were, Lupine (she is a wolf spirit who incarnated into a human body), who is also a mutant and hence a student at Whateley. ## Examples of being mistaken for other monsters: - Shaman King has Boris Tepes Dracula, a descendant of the original Dracula whose family use shaman powers to mimic vampires. Specifically he uses blood as a medium to channel bat spirits, forming a cloak which can split into bats. When he bites someone he absorbs more blood into the cloak while injecting some back in - since this blood is still under his control he can then use the victims as People Puppets. - Arystar Krory from D.Gray-Man is an Exorcist who unknowingly gained an Innocence that takes the form of fangs and compels him to drain the blood of Akuma. Since most of the Akuma he attacked were in human form, he thought he had become a vampire who was killing helpless humans. - In Soul Eater, witches are humans with the power to change into animals. Blair is an animal with the power to change into a human. It actually makes a huge difference, as Maka and Soul just needed Soul to eat one witch's soul to become a Deathscythe, but eating Blair's soul instead made them lose all the progress they'd made so far. - In Hellsing, the Major commands a legion of vampire Nazis. One would thus assume that he's a vampire, too. He's not; he had a chance for an Emergency Transformation, but saw surrendering his humanity as an intolerable show of weakness. He's still alive and young is because he's \|\|a cyborg\|\|, and thus, he says, merely a man who seems like a monster. Most would agree that he qualifies as a "monster" regardless. - The Marvel Universe has plenty of vampires. Morbius differs from the rest by his scientific origin (combined with DNA of a vampire bat), and the fact that he is very much a living being. How much this trope applies varies depends on the writer. - X-Men: Mutants frequently end up being mistaken for various supernatural creatures. For example, Nightcrawler may have a forked tail and his teleports smell of sulfur, but he's no demon. Storm and her tribe thought she was a goddess until Professor Xavier found her and explained what mutants were. The inverse happens as well, with anyone with super powers being mistaken for a mutant until their origin is known to the public. - In one arc in Fables, the characters' Masquerade is threatened by a journalist who, being Wrong Genre Savvy, assumes that their near-immortality means that they must be vampires. - DC comic The Movement had Christopher, AKA Burden, a young gay man whose extremely religious parents thought he was possessed, resulting in his emerging shapeshifting powers creating him a demon-looking alt form. It took a while before before he accepted the fact that neither his shapeshifting or his orientation made him possessed. - Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers: Rashid enters Anakaris' tomb believing it to be an alien ruin, and mistakes him for an alien despite him being actually a mummy. Donovan Baine also mistakes Akuma as just another Darkstalker, but he is just a superpowered human martial artist that looks demonic. - Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens are an angel and demon respectively, but in some fanfictions are mistaken for other supernatural beings. - In this Good Omens fanfiction, the demon Crowley is mistaken for several supernatural creatures. - In The Godfather of Soho, a pair of Irish mob bosses mistake Aziraphale not only for one of the Fair Folk, but as another mob boss. Their dad also figured that Crowley was an evil spirit of some sort, and in the sequels Crowley takes advantage of this by subtly implying that he's a Dullahan, just to mess with them. - Animorphs has at least three books where the protagonists, who turn into animals with alien technology, go to other parts of the world (the Amazon, Inuit territory and the Australian desert) and get mistaken for the local culture's version of shapeshifting spirits. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Shrieking Shack is said to haunted by violent ghosts, accounting for the banging sounds that have been heard by the villagers. It was actually the werewolf \|\|Remus Lupin\|\|, who as a student used the house to transform while he studied at Hogwarts. - Lumbanico The Cubic Planet: When the main characters see Aralia getting out of an oak tree and walking among the flower beds surrounding her house-tree, little girl Mela mistakes her for a fairy, and Aralia herself has to explain she is only a regular woman. - Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: Agathe is mistaken for a fairy for Ted when she flies through his bedroom's window wearing a winged suit. After some initial muddle (Ted addresses to her in English because he assumes fairies must come from Ireland, and Agathe, who does not speak English, nods to be polite), Agathe has to explain she is a regular human girl who happened to find a magical outfit. - In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy believes that a Demonic Dummy is killing people for their organs, as collecting them would allow him to become human. However, it turns out that the dummy is possessed by the ghost of a monster hunter and he's after the demon who's actually responsible. He thought that Buffy was the culprit when he saw her use her Super Strength. - In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the large majority of super-powered people were either Gifted people, the Avengers, and Inhumans. Because of this, when Ghost Rider is introduced in season 4 as the very first supernatural being of the show, people initially assume he is an Inhuman, and are sceptical when he insists he actually got his powers from a Deal with the Devil. - Doctor Who: There are any number of examples over the years of seemingly supernatural threats that turn out to be aliens, usually in historical episodes. In many cases, they are barely different, so much that it may qualify as a subverted Not Using the "Z" Word. Some highlights include: - "The Unquiet Dead" and "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" feature alien/futuristic threats mistaken for ghosts. (Though in the latter case, there may have been an actual ghost as well). - In "The Witchfinders", the Doctor herself, an alien, is mistaken for a witch, while in "The Shakespeare Code" another alien race (who essentially use a scientific form of witchcraft) become the inspiration for Shakespeare's witches from Macbeth. - Various so-called Vampires who turn out to be aliens appear in "Curse of Fenric", "Smith and Jones", "Vampires of Venice", "State of Decay", etc. - Olivia Moore, the protagonist from iZombie, justifies her ability to sense how people were killed by telling her partner she is a psychic. This is actually a lie to cover the much darker truth on the matter- she actually is a Zombie whose precognitive flashes are memories from the brains she eats at the morgue. - Supernatural: The monster in the black and white episode "Monster Movie" was actually a shapeshifter, but the boys kept confusing it for other monsters because it emulated all of them because of its love for the universal horror classics, to the point that it seemed like a straight-up Monster Mash before it turned out to just be the one monster. What clued them in that something was up is because its appearances didn't fit the "real" versions of the other monster species at all, such as a Classical Movie Vampire instead of the savage, but otherwise able to pass for human vampires they're used to (which ironically made witnesses identify it right away as a vampire). - The Twilight Zone (1985): In "The Little People of Killany Woods", Liam O'Shaughnessy claims that he has seen Leprechauns in Killany Woods. Mike Mulvaney later learns that they are three foot tall green aliens from a distant galaxy who enlisted Liam's help to repair their ship, which is shaped like a toadstool. - The World of Darkness has were- spiders, of all things, imitating vampires (helped by both being blood-drinkers). - Similarly, the Risen also pass themselves off as vampires. - Chronicles of Darkness: - This tends to happen pretty often in Hunter: The Vigil. Hunters are for the most part poorly informed about the supernatural, many of them have completely incorrect belief on it (The Malleus Maleficarum and the Long Night are both convinced every single supernatural creature is either a demon or connected to the Demons, and Les Mysteres believe them to all be connected to spirits), and there are plenty of monsters who don't even fit any of the established categories, so confusion between multiple types is common occurrence. - Slashers mentions that many particularly wild Mutants slashers are occasionally mistaken for demons or werewolves. - It doesn't help either that most supernatural species come themselves in a wide variety of subspecies, and an archetypal mythological monster can sometimes match the descriptions of several subspecies from different species at the same time. - Want werewolves? The Protean discipline, Beast Changelings, certain Prometheans and some Mages can all look like wolves. All these powers are different in nature and come from different sources. - Want Hot as Hell? Daeva, Fairest Changelings, some Spirits, Galateids, siren-like Beasts, and some demons. - Want a traditional devil? Aside from demons, you have the Luiferge (who are explicitly descended from demons, but not the ones ''The Descent is about), some Beasts, some Darkling changelings, the Maeljin spirits, Abyssal entities, and vampires can pull off a good impression if they need to. - Want a mummy? You don't even need Arisen- Osirians are basically mummy Prometheans. - Want vampires? Leechfinger Changelings, and some Ridden are possessed by blood-drinking spirits (leech spirits, for example). There's also several 'vampire-like' entities that still use Blood Potency and feed from humans (like Aswang and Kuei-jin), but have different powers and weaknesses. - Want mages? Forget the game about them, every splat has some form of ritual magic, though the specifics vary. - Heroes from Beast: The Primordial have a similar problem to Hunters; seeing how they usually have to learn about the supernatural from scraps, and the creatures they hunt, Beasts, can appear as any form of mythological monsters, many of them initially assume all supernaturals are Beasts. One of the Heroes provided in Conquering Heroes, Micheal Bellinger, occasionally hunts down supernaturals who turn out to be unrelated to the Begotten, usually causing him to leave disappointed in the middle of the fight. - Amusingly enough, fangame Dragon: The Embers has the Werewolves, of all people, being the one making this type of mistake. A frequent reason they end up fighting Dragons is because they mistake them either for spirit invaders or people possessed by them, both things they fight on regular basis. The game also mentions that more than once Hunters have mistaken a Dragon for a Vampire and tried to Kill It with Fire - a good tactic against Vampires, who burn like dry kindling, but just an annoyance to Dragons. - In other fangame Princess: The Hopeful, it's very common for Hunters to mistake Princesses for another kind of "witch". Hunter: The Vigil Dark and Light reveals its still subject to debate amongts hunters if they even are just another subtype of witch or another kind of supernatural being entirely. - An example can also be found on the antagonist lists for Princesses. Among the differents Creatures of the Darkness the Hopeful fight, there are two kinds, the Mnemosyne note : humans who lost their last shred of integrity while Darkened but didn't have their body warped enough to become mindless monsters and the Cataphractoi note : sentient Darkspawns born from the death of someone who crossed the Despair Event Horizon, who frequently get mixed up because they are both completely human-looking and capable of controlling lesser Darkspawns. Making such a mistake actually is quite dangerous, since a key difference between the two is that Mnemosyne are Squishy Wizards, while Cataphractoi have a very powerful One-Winged Angel form. - In other fangame Genius: The Transgression, one of the main reason Geniuses have a hard time dealing with supernaturals is because of this trope: Mania, the energy they get their power from, occasionally ends up creating beings called Manes, which are physical manifestations of discredited theories, and can occasionally give birth to strange creatures such as dinosaurs, nazi sorcerers, aliens and even a specific representation of angels and demons. Because of this, it is somewhat difficult for them to figure out which supernaturals are Manes, and which ones are entirely different creatures born from another source. - Similarly, because both Mages and Geniuses are human-looking supernaturals capable of bending the laws of physics and gaining their powers through a form of Enlightenment Superpowers, it's not unusual for Geniuses to mistake a recently awakened Mage for one of them, and for Mages to mistake a recently Inspired Genius for a Mage. The Scholastics and the Free Council have an agreement specifically created so they can exchange members should that sort of thing happen. - Here's a question for you: what's a demon? There are three separate answers. Mage: The Awakening has the defining entities of Pandemonium, which are essentially "philosophical" demons that torture sinners to absolve them of their sins. Demon: The Descent has the Unchained, who are defectors from the plans of the God-Machine. The sourcebook Inferno has the demons of the Inferno, who are classic tempter-and-corrupter demons (this last group may be the source of the Maeljin and are canonically the ancestors of the Lucifuge). None of these have anything in common with each other, powers- or purpose-wise. - A werebat from Ravenloft's Children of the Night: Werebeasts made a point of dressing and acting like a vampire to throw off potential monster-hunters. - Played for laughs in A Very Potter Sequel. While \|\|Remus Lupin\|\| is very obviously a werewolf, even more so than in Harry Potter canon, other characters who see his transformation call him everything from a zombie to a gremlin. - In Threads of Fate, when Rue transforms himself into a harmless Pollywog to sneak up on some bandits, the girl he rescues assumes that the Pollywog is his true form, and it takes a while for Rue to correct this mistaken first impression. - A frequent point of comedy (and irritation) for Lady Zozo in Code of Princess, who gets called a "zombie" by just about every bad guy she meets. She constantly has to remind them that she's Not a Zombie, but a necromancer. - Inverted in El Goonish Shive: Sarah (because of her own bitter experience) and Elliot assume that Grace's transformation is the result of some Tedd's experiments. Oops... Grace: What was it? The monster. Susan: It used to be human. Some people use magic to try and achieve immortality by turning themselves into parasites. The immortals call them aberrations, and... [beat] You know what? Screw it, it was a vampire. Grace: Really?! Sarah: A vampire?! Susan: No, not really, but it was a monster that used to be human, hypnotized young women and sucked blood out of their necks. It doesn't matter what I say, you two are going to hear 'vampire.'	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersArentLikeThat
Our Manticores Are Spinier - TV Tropes The manticore (from Persian martyaxwar or mardkhora, "man-eater") is a legendary creature typically thought to come from Ancient Persian folklore, said to stalk the jungles of India. Its favourite prey was humans, which it would devour without leaving any remains behind. These tales were recorded by Ancient Greek naturalists (although the lack of corroboration from Persian or Indian sources raises the possibility that they made it up themselves) and were among the many creatures featured in the bestiaries, where they represented tyranny and envy. From there, it found its way into popular culture. What nearly all manticores have in common is a leonine body (traditionally with red fur) ending in the tail of a scorpion or, more rarely, a dragon. However, usually, it will also possess at least some of the following attributes: - Instead of a stinger, the tail may end in a cluster of spikes, which can be launched in deadly volleys. Both versions are almost guaranteed to be venomous. In a few bestiaries, the manticore could also shoot from its mane. Also, many ancient texts stated only elephants were immune to a manticore's spikes. - The classical manticore had the face and the ears of a human and three rows of razor-sharp teeth. In fiction, the face can range from feline to human to wholly monstrous. May also have horns. - While sapient and capable of speech (speaking in a melodic voice reminiscent of trumpets or pipes) in the original version, in some adaptions, manticores possess only animalistic intelligence. - May occasionally have bat wings, which are only found in modern fantasy depictions. For another mythological monster with a human head, a lion body and sometimes wings, but very different connotations, see Our Sphinxes Are Different. Compare also the Classical Chimera. Subtrope of Our Monsters Are Different and Mix-and-Match Critters. See also Nue. ## Examples - Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Manticores, also known as Scaled Wolves, are some of the many non-human people of Alma Toran. Unlike most portrayals, they are colossal, humanoid wolf-like beasts with scales, with their own civilization, culture and tools. Their leader, Agares, became one of the 72 Djinns, currently in possession of Ren Kouen and can also take the form of a comparatively smaller cat-like being with scales on his body. - One Piece: Manticores are man-eating animals found in Level 2: Beast Hell of the prison Impel Down. They have lion bodies with large, caricature-like human faces that differ between individuals. They can imitate human speech because their face is human-like, but do not understand what these words mean and just repeat whatever sounds they hear prisoners making. They can also stand on their two hind legs and pose like a human would. They first appeared in Chapter 529 and Episode 430. - Soul Eater, Arc Villain Noah summons a Manticore from the Book of Eibon to fight the Shibusen staff: this manticore has a rather abstract appearence but overall resembles a leonine machine/creature with a scorpion tail attached to the spine, shoulderpads on the legs reading "Man", hammer-like front paws and a vaguely humanoid head with a single eye and a huge mouth full of square teeth. As he summons the monsters, the Kid-Rescue team manage to grab ahold on its tail and escape from the Book at last. The manticore is quickly killed by Kid and BlackStar. - Magic: The Gathering: - Manticores appear as an uncommon creature type, resembling winged lions with human faces, scorpion tails and mouths with far too many teeth. Their wings are normally batlike, but the manticores from the plane of Mercadia have feathered wings instead. - The manticores of Theros live in the wilderness well beyond the reach of civilization and are said to be the reincarnated spirits of great warriors. According to myth, they were created when a mortal army was destroyed by the archons who once ruled the plane; unwilling to let their valor and vitality die, the gods transformed them into the first manticores. - The manticores of the Egyptian Mythology-inspired plane of Amonkhet break from the pattern, instead resembling wingless tigers with scorpion tails and with their lower legs covered with black, spiked natural armor. - There are also masticores, mechanical wingless manticores. At least one seems to have been able to superheat its stinger in lieu of poison. - A manticore is one of the first monsters Tim Hunter faces in Books of Magic, initially appearing as Faux Affably Evil human who seeks to destroy all mythical creatures, with the only clue to its nature being its large number of teeth. It later takes its monstrous form when Tim angers it, and has a venomous bite that Tim almost succumbs to. - The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The first time a young Diana leaves the city of Themyscira to explore the island she is attacked by a manticore, with a leonine body, human head, a swarm of pupils in each of it's eyes, a scorpion tail dripping corrosive poison, and sharp spikes between it's shoulders that elongate into Spider Limbs on the shoulders. - The John Ostrander Suicide Squad* featured a Greek terrorist named Manticore as a member of the Jihad. Several successors have taken the name, usually villains, but on one occasion a member of the Global Guardians. They're generally some form of leonine Beast Man with a scorpion tail. - Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK features a manticore named Dominic Alexander as one of the new students arriving in Harry's sixth year. He has wings and a stinger tail, but apart from that seems fairly bog-standard, though Harry feels a little guilty upon realizing that he's worked with manticore-skin gloves throughout most of his lessons. - Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: despite being based on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the manticores introduced in the movie are a colony of cat-sized, scorpion-like monsters with four chitinous tentacles tipped with a secondary mouth full of feelers, with their queen being a colossal version big enough to impale a person on its stinger tail and swallow them whole. They become aggressive when the light is out, but can be distracted by moving in a certain way, waving the arms in imitation of their tentacles. These beasts reside in the Erkstag prison, where \|\|Theseus Scamander is imprisoned by Grindenwald's men.\|\| - The Last Unicorn: A manticore is among the animals on display in Mommy Fortuna's travelling show. It's actually a decrepit old lion enchanted to look like a manticore; almost all of the "creatures of night" on display are bogus. - Onward features a manticore named Corey (voiced by Octavia Spencer) who assists the Lightfoot brothers on their quest. She's basically a humanoid lion with horns, bat wings, and a scorpion tail, and breathes fire, but her head is as leonine as the rest of her. She's also a former adventurer who once ran a tavern, which she converted into a family restaurant in the modern day as a sign of How the Mighty Have Fallen. - Fighting Fantasy frequently have Manticores showing up as boss battles. - Deathtrap Dungeon: The very last boss of the book is a Manticore, who launches a barrage of spikes from its tail towards you before leaping into battle. If you didn't read a scroll about the Manticore beforehand, you will be caught off-guard by the spike attack and lose numerous STAMINA points, but if you did, you can suffer either minor or no injury at all. It's still a difficult battle, since your STAMINA is likely rather low at this point of the game and you're fighting an enemy with SKILL in double digits. - Sorcery!: The first book, The Shamuntanti Hills, ends with a boss battle against a Manticore whose stats a higher than the aforementioned Deathtrap Dungeon example. Not only that, but this Manticore has a barbed tail that can make you lose up to 6 STAMINA points of damage each round. - Downplayed example in Master of Chaos. You might battle a Chaos Manticore, but it's tail isn't poisonous and its stats are quite low. - Averted in Magehunter with the Golden-Lion Lord. It's a lion monster with a human's head, but it lacks a barbed tail. - Inverted in Stormslayer where you can fight a captive Manticore. However, the monster looks like the classic depiction of Manticores, complete with a barbed tail, but it has been de-venomed and held in a cage for a long period of time, and as such it has pathetic stats and a much easier fight than previous Manticores in the series. - Baudolino: A manticore shows up while the heroes are trying to find the kingdom of Prester John, along other strange creatures found in bestiaries. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The manticore, or martichoras, is a monster like a blood-red lion with a human face, three rows of teeth, a tail ending in a stinger and a voice like flutes and trumpets. It can fling the barbs of its tail like arrows, and is fond of human flesh. - Dracopedia: Dracopedia: The Bestiary depicts manticores with the front bodies of tigers, the hind bodies and wings of dragons, and scorpion-like tails, as well as human-like ears and noses. They are described as fierce predators from the Middle East that developed a taste for human flesh as a result of frequently coming into contact with human settlements to hunt livestock, resulting in them going extinct during Roman times when humans hunted them all down. - Fighting Fantasy: Manticores of various types are often encountered as dangerous monsters in the series. The Sorcery! spin off has a massive one in a cavern as the Final Boss of the first book. - Harry Potter: Manticores are mentioned in passing when the heroes are looking for cases of dangerous animals being spared execution. They find such a case with a manticore, but lose hope when it turns out that was because everyone was too scared to go near it. According to supplemental materials, they are sentient monsters with a leonine body, a humanoid head and a scorpion's stinger. Their poison kills instantly, while their hide deflects all charms, placing them into the most dangerous category of magical creatures. - Jedi Academy Trilogy: In Dark Apprentice, the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals includes an exhibit on manticores, depicted as creatures with humanoid heads, venomous fangs, feline bodies, and scorpion tails, and living in a desert environment. Threepio is surprised at their inclusion, stating that the creatures had been proved to just be a jumble of mismatched fossils. - The Last Unicorn: A captive manticore is on display in Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Circus. It's actually an illusion laid over an ordinary lion. Mommy Fortuna is a fraud and most of her fantastic beasts are bogus. - Myth Adventures: Class Dis Mythed features manticores as dimension travellers from Manticora. They have average human intelligence, and can shoot lightning from their tail. Skeeve and his apprentices must save a town from a rampaging manticore. \|\|The manticore is a soldier on leave, drunk and unable to speak the local language. Trapping him and using a translator pendant allows them to communicate with the demon and befriend him.\|\| - Ology Series: Monsterology depicts manticores as lions with human heads, three rows of teeth and scorpion tails that can shoot poisonous, invisible barbs - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Titan's Curse, the manticore Mr. Thorn acts as The Dragon to Luke and the General. He has heterochromatic eyes and his poison only paralyses. While his true form follows the classical description, he is capable of assuming human guise, and can use Partial Transformation to still launch spikes. He is extremely powerful physically, but psychologically degrades over the course of the story due to being put under pressure by his superiors. - In A Song of Ice and Fire, a manticore is just a monstrously large scorpion-like arthropod (large by arthropod standards — they can still fit inside a human hand) with deadly venom and a pattern resembling a human face on its front. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: In the tie-in guide, manticores are depicted as cougar-sized panther-like creatures that live deep in tropical forests. They have monkey-like faces and clusters of poisonous quills at the end of their tails, which they can launch at their prey and continue to pump out poison even after being expelled. - Voyage of the Basset: The party encounters a manticore. He is leonine with a human face and intelligence to match. He initially decides he has to kill them, because he's under orders by the fairy king Oberon as a guard, but when the fairies tell him otherwise, he backs off. - Xanth novel A Spell For Chameleon. While trying to enter the Magician Humfrey's castle Bink encounters a manticora ("a creature the size of a horse, with the head of a man, body of a lion, wings of a dragon, and tail of a scorpion. One of the most ferocious magical monsters known."). Bink manages to out-think the creature and continue his quest. The following book, The Source of Magic, reveals the creature was guarding the castle as a service to Humfrey to find out if it had a soul. - The Worm Ouroboros: Mantichores (variously also spelled "mantycores" and "mantichoras") inhabit the high mountains of Impland "below the snow fields". They are given their usual appearance as similar to lions but bigger, of "dull red" colour, with "prickles" like a porcupine, a hideous-looking "man's face", "elephant ears", and huge teeth. Their name is (correctly) explained as meaning "man-eater", and they are said to be especially fond of human brains. Because of the mantichores, the inhabitants of Mercury consider it impossible to scale the mountains of Impland; when Lords Juss and Brandoch Daha nevertheless ascend Koshtra Pivrarcha, they are attacked by a mantichora, which however they manage to kill. Fortunately mantichores are solitary and repelled by the smell of mantichore blood, so after being soaked in the blood of the mantichore, Juss and Brandoch are no longer troubled by other mantichores. - In Grimm, Manticores are a particularly dangerous type of Wesen. They resemble Löwen, but are distinguished by their teeth, longer, stringy manes, and having a scorpion tail (being one of only two tailed Wesen mentioned, and the only to appear). They are fierce and are not afraid of death, and often serve in the military. - In Merlin, the Manticore was a creature of the Old Religion, directly connected to the spirit world. It could be summoned to the real world through a portal in the form of a box, but would die if the box was destroyed. It was rather small, though had many of the classic features: scorpion tail with extremely dangerous venom, feline body, humanoid face, mane, and sharp teeth. It could force people to do things against their will, and forced Gaius's old flame, Alice, to try and poison Uther, after she summoned it intending to use its powers for good. The plot was found out, but she was helped to escape before she could be executed for magic use. The manticore itself was destroyed by smashing its box to bits. - In Power Rangers Mystic Force, using their Legend Powers allows the rangers to transform into a firebird and a lion. When the firebird attaches to the lion's back, it can then rise up on its hind legs and transform into the Manticore Megazord (a Winged Humanoid with a lion's face on its chest). This may be a Woolseyism from Mahou Sentai Magiranger, where the combination is simply named "MagiLegend". - The Book of Revelation mentions locusts showing up during the Apocalypse. Except that these "locusts" have human heads, lion teeth, scorpion tails and wings that sound like an Onrushing Army. - The manticore legend originates from Persian folklore, and is thought to have originated as essentially overdramatized accounts of tigers. Its name in Pharsi, "martyaxwar", means "man-eater", and while this was usually translate phonetically into Greek to become "martichora", from which we get "manticore", it was sometimes translated literally as "androphagus", again meaning "man-eater". Originally depictions had it as essentially a tiger with a human head and a mouth with three rows of razor-sharp teeth, as well as a tail tipped with spikes it could launch like arrows. Over time, in medieval and later depictions, the tail-spikes became a scorpion stinger and the beast gained bat wings, leading to the manticore's most common depictions in modern fantasy. - In Spanish folklore, as recently as the twentieth century, the manticore was known as a type of werewolf that Eats Babies. - The Dark Eye: Manticores resemble lions with flattened human faces, three rows of teeth — typically some combination of human and feline ones — and scorpion tails. They're creations of dark magic, as all chimeric beings are, and are typically considered the most perfect product of the craft. They're intelligent enough to speak and have distinct personalities, but not enough to reliably control their animalistic side. Some exceptional specimens can master themselves enough to find a place in a royal court, a mage's tower or a temple as councilors guards or exhibition pieces; most live as beasts and die violent deaths. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Manticores are Lawful Evil Magical Beasts that can fly and launch spines, while the dragonne is a dragon with the head and overall body shape of a lion. Most editions have given manticores a fairly straightforward appearance with a lion body, batlike wings, a human head with three rows of shark-like teeth, and a tail tipped with a cluster of spines, but the 3.5 Monster Manual depicts them with low-slung, leopard spotted bodies and heads resembling twisted, monstrous monkeys more than anything else. Regardless of appearance, they're evil, aggressive beings with a taste for human flesh — and human flesh specifically; other humanoids who expect to go through manticore territory have been known to hire human guards in part to attract the beasts' attention away from themselves in case of an attack. - Mantidrakes, described in Dragon #170, are hybrids of manticores and evil dragons, resembling regular manticores with a draconic, instead of humanoid, head, but retaining a mane. Their draconic parents are usually blue dragons, as they share the manticores' preference for arid, open environments. - Exalted: Manticores are creatures of the Wyld, and resemble lions with three rows of shark-like teeth and scorpion tails tipped with potent venom. They're as smart as apes, and can flawlessly imitate human voices and project the apparent origin of their calls to anywhere within a thirty-feet radius of themselves. While native to the Bordermarches of the Wyld, their biology is stable enough that they can survive indefinitely within Creation. They're no real threat to experienced Exalted or Fair Folk, but are terrifying foes for mortals, lesser fey, and inexperienced Terrestrials. - Palladium Fantasy: Manticores are foul-tempered predators resembling lions with goblin-like humanoid faces and tails tipped with clusters of poisonous quills. In addition to being dangerous hunters, they also have sadistic streaks a mile wide, something luckily tempered by their rarity. - Pathfinder: Manticores are monsters with leonine bodies, batlike wings, tails ending in clusters of poisonous spikes that they can launch at their prey, and either human or lion heads. Female manticores with human heads grow beards the same as males; likewise, lion-headed females sport full manes. They can breed with most other kinds of lion-bodied creatures — including regular lions, dire lions, lamias, chimeras, and sphinxes — to produce hybrid offspring resembling their non-manticore parents with a manticore's spiked tail. - RuneQuest: Manticores are lion-bodied Beast Men with scorpion tails and human heads. They are surly and independent, and have little to do with their fellow beasts. - Shadowrun: Manticores (proper name "martichoras") are Awakened lions with rows of sharp teeth and a porcupine-like bundle of spines at the end of their tails which are barbed and venomous. They never use their spines to hunt, however, and never eat prey they kill with them — they're immune to the venom, but apparently don't like the taste. Their prides are led by the females, unlike how regular lions operate. They prefer unspoiled and untainted environment and have a mild allergy to pollution. - Warhammer: Manticores are creatures of Chaos with spiked tails, bat wings, leonine bodies and vaguely humanoid heads. They're most common in the Chaos Wastes, but often fly south to lair in the mountains and forests of southern lands. They're often trapped by Dark Elf beastmasters to use as war animals, and some Dark Elf lords also use them as mounts. - In Age of Mythology, they are the myth unit for Apollo. They are red, have (non-functional) wings and launch volleys of spines. - In the Age of Wonders franchise, manticores are lions with wings and scorpion tails and are Tigran units in II/ Shadow Magic. In Age of Wonders 3, they serve as mounts for the Warlord's ultimate unit, and are also a powerful mount for heroes; their tails now end in several spines, but they still cannot shoot them. - ARK: Survival Evolved: The expansion pack Scorched Earth adds a manticore as a boss, along with many other mythical creatures. It's a huge, horned, feline, monstrosity with leathery wings and the stinger of a scorpion which can shoot purple bolts and thorns, and is able to inflict torpor with its tail. - Manticores are encountered in the Caves of the Dead in Cadash. Their strength is medium, but they are fast. On the upside, their speed means they need to find their momentum to turn around once past the player, leaving them open for a counterattack. - The first boss of Chesters Revenge is a fierce manticore who attacks by shooting energy bolts from it's tail, besides unleashing a thick beam attack with each roar. - In Civilization: Beyond Earth, the Manticore is an alien lifeform that can shoot spheres filled with Miasma from its tail, making it the only ranged alien. - Dark Souls features the Sanctuary Guardian, which is a manticore with pure white fur and four feathered wings, but lacks a human's face and has goat-like horns on its head. It can also shoot balls of lightning out of its mouth. The game's description states that no one really knows what this thing is, and the prevailing theory is that it's something like a demon. - Digimon: Manticoremon, a "Demon Beast" Digimon debuting in the Digimon Pendulum Z II virtual pet, is a rather unusual take on this trope. It's got the leonine body, human head, sharp teeth and stinger-tipped tail as usual, but has three tails instead of one, a metal mask completely covering its face, a freakishly long tongue, tattered wing-like projections growing from its facial mask, a bib-like cloth inscribed with Japanese kanji, and fanged mouths on its feet. Personality-wise, it's a savage hunter of other Digimon, driven by nothing more than a mindless hunger for their data, but its marked preference for viruses and demonic Digimon as prey has led to it often being employed by angelic Digimon. - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: A monster-class exclusive to the first game, the "Beast" demon has a lion's mane, monkey's face, bat wings and a stinger tail. Notably, their tail is used for a Life Drain maneuver, and cannot inflict poison. Higher classes of this monster are named Nue, Chimera and Sphinx. The HD remake replaced them with the Skeletal Dragon, although they function the same. - Dragon's Dogma Online: A manticore with a red-hued leonine body, bat-like wings and a scorpion's tail can be found as a boss in the Northern Betland Plains. Its head is that of a human, with Pointy Ears and a Bald of Evil as well as a Beard of Evil. - Dungeon Crawl: Manticores can flick volleys of spikes at you, which become lodged in your body, and make moving dangerous. However, they are not poisonous. - God of War: Ascension: A manticore appears as a miniboss fought in Delphi. It is portrayed as a wyvern-like beast with a lion-like head, jaws like those of a shark which can become unhinged, dragon wings, human arms and torso, a scorpion tail and plates running down its back. The monster reproduces by laying eggs, and manticore hatchlings can breathe fire. Another one is found at Delos. - Golden Sun: A truck-sized manticore (scorpion tail, red lion body and the head of an old man) serves as the boss of the Lamakan desert, blocking an invisible cave entrance. The first time you walk up to it, it roars and pushes you away, the fight starting on the second try. Underground Monkey variants include a green Magicore and a purple Manticore King. - Grim Dawn: Manticores appear as enemies, infesting the Pine Warrens area and the Blood Grove, taking the appearence of massive,white or black lion-like monsters with humanoid heads, spiky manes and a long tail tipped with massive blade-like spikes. Manticores corrupted by the Void or the Aether do appear in some areas. - The first boss of Hero of Sparta II is a huge, fearsome Manticore, the size of a building who assaults you in am amphitheater. After a lengthy battle you kill it by shoving it's barbed tail into it's head. - In The Legend of Dragoon, Manticores appears as common enemies as you climb the \|\|Tree of Life\|\| in the fourth act. They can attack either with their stinger tail (causing Poison) or get up close to your character and roar at him (causing Fear). - Melfand Stories have a stage where you're flying on the back of a giant parrot and must battle a winged manticore while airborne. - In Might and Magic series Manticores are common monsters. - In Enroth their origins are unknown, but in Ashan they are described as magically created beings, who mutated into what they are under the influence of dragon blood. They mostly look like lions with scorpion tail and bat wings, but in later depictions they get horns. Their stronger breed is called "Scorpicore". - In the very first game they rather inexplicably breath fire. - Heroes of Might and Magic III and VI has manticores and scorpicores as units of the Dungeon faction. - In HoMM V and VII, meanwhile, they appear as neutral units. - The Mo' Creatures mod for Minecraft includes manticores among its many other creatures. They come in green and dark varieties by default and in snow and fire varieties in cold biomes and the Nether respectively. They're inherently hostile, but if killed will drop an egg that hatches into a tame manticore you can ride. Tame manticores and big cats will attack each other out of hand. - Monster Hunter: The Manticore serves as the inspiration for the monsters Teostra and Lunastra, which debuted in Monster Hunter 2 (dos). Male and female versions of each other respectively, they have a leonine body (red for Teo, blue for Luna), Batlike wings, and a long tail, but with several differences; Scale-covered bodies, thicker tails, and horns on their heads. And they breathe fire. - Monster Sanctuary: Manticorb is named after the manticore. It's a Waddling Head with tiger fur and a stinger in its tail. - Odin Sphere has Manticores as the mini-boss of the Elrit Forest map. Aside from stinging the player with their scorpion-like tail, they can launch poisonous globs with it, and can extended their rows of teeth to bite the player. One trial stage in Leifthrasir has the player fight two of them at once. - Outward: Manticores are just about the most dangerous thing you can encounter outside of a boss arena, thanks to a combination of fast reflexes, brute strength, and an incredibly potent venom. The Royal Manticore is even worse; it could easily give any boss a run for their money, but freely roams the countryside, waiting to eviscerate any unlucky travelers. - Scribblenauts: A manticore is among the many things that can be summoned in the game. Its design is rather simplified compared to manticores in other media, simply appearing as a red-eyed lion with dragon wings and a scorpion tail. However, its sharp, angular design is a noticable contrast to the more rounded features of "normal" lions in the game. In the later games in the series, adding adjectives allows the player to give a manticore whatever personality they desire. - Slashout have a two-headed Manticore as it's first boss, having a leonine body and dragon-like wings as it swoops down a chapel's roof to chew at you. It doesn't have a barbed tail though, subverting the "Spinier" part. - Titan Quest severely upgrades the Manticore and turns it into a superboss in a deep cavern in the Egyptian desert (on Normal difficulty you'll find just its skeleton). The Manticore here is a massive black lion with bat wings, a skull-like face and a spiked tail that shoots venomous darts. Its most dangerous feature is the electrical Breath Weapon which can obliterate the player if he doesn't get out of the way in time. - Total War: Warhammer: - Manticores are ferocious, horned leonine monsters with bat wings and scorpion tails and found in the Chaos Wastes, which the mightiest champions of Chaos can, at great personal peril, attempt to capture and break into a war mount. They're available in this capacity as a mount for Hero Units of the Warriors of Chaos. - A Feral Manticore, by itself, is also a unit in the army roster of the Chaos Warriors, the Norscan Tribes, the Beastmen and the Dark Elves. - Hero Units who use the Lore of Beasts, including Beastman Bray-Shamans, Imperial Amber Wizards, Skink Priests and the treeman Durthu Oakheart, can learn a spell to summon a manticore in the middle of battle. - Which Way Adventure has a manticore that pops out randomly to kill the player. - Warcraft has monsters with lion head and body, bat wings and scorpion tail, obviously inspired by manticores... called wyverns. - RWBY: While Manticore Grimm do have a scorpion tail and a mammalian body with four taloned paws, they also possess feathered wings. Their heads are bestial, almost dog-like, with large horns curving out of the foreheads like cattle. Instead of a mane, they posses a ruff of bone spikes that frame their heads like a drawn depiction of the rays of the sun. - Charby the Vampirate: Daray buys a manticore to ride since he's never gotten along with horses, she is very fluffy and red and makes trumpeting vocalizations. Kavonn considers her to be a ridiculous mount since she poses a danger to her rider and has a craving for human flesh. - Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell: Skittles is a manticore, with a lion's body, a face with a mix of human and feline features, and a scorpion's stinger. Skittles has roughly human intelligence and interests, but as a 2000-year-old tween he is relatively immature. - In El Goonish Shive, there is an Aberration described as a Scorpion Bull Centaur Vampire which, while lacking explicit lion aspects, does have a mane and a great deal of chest — all in all, it ends up looking like a manticore/centaur cross. - Girl Genius: The Phlogiston-Powered Mantigoons, leonine machines with segmented tails tipped with powerful flamethrowers. - Skin Deep: Manticores have lion-like bodies, bright red fur, poisonous tail darts (usually bandaged up or removed to avoid accidents), teeth that can bite through anything, and either humanlike or lionlike faces depending on the subspecies. They can also produce a great variety of sounds such as whistles, trumpeting, fluting and other musical noises, which they use in a language of their own know as Manticorsi. They are defined as monsters since they have no "natural" way to assume human form, but are no more or less civilized than anyone else; despite this, however, they are subject to a great deal of Fantastic Racism in the magical community. Ike Sanford is half-manticore-half-buggane. - In Yokoka's Quest, Betelgeuse is a manticore with a feline body, draconic wings, ram horns, a scorpion tail, and a forked tongue. She's also so large that she never leaves her cave to avoid accidentally demolishing her village, and her usual form is that of a person. - Codex Inversus: The true manticores were torturers in Hell, punishing sinners through mockery and humiliation. Their modern descendants, the imperial manticores, live among the ruins of the Circles of Hell and retain the ability to induce shame and embarrassment through their laughter. They use this to throw prey off balance and goad it into either attacking their tormentor, at which point the manticore subdues it with its venomous claws and sting, or fleeing, which will lead it into an ambush prepared by the manticore's mate. Their venom is incredibly painful, as it induces both physical and mental anguish described as feeling like being doused in acid while reliving your worst memory. - Lioden: Manticores are intelligent creatures with the bodies of lions, six horns, bat-like wings, and a scorpion tail. One of them, Nirah, is encountered during the October storyline. Hes not at all malicious, and when hes battled while exploring hes not much tougher than the regular lions who can be fought. Befriending him instead of siding with the armies of Heaven or Hell is the neutral option during the October storyline. - Adventure Time: A small manticore appears trapped in a jar by Magic Man. Finn frees it, but it later appears back in the jar, complaining that it has "some sort of hostage syndrome". - Class of the Titans: The season 1 finale "Time After Time" features a manticore which looks like a big lion with red eyes, a bat's wings and a scorpion's tail. In an alternate present created by Cronus, Odie is killed by the beast. - The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: A manticore appears in an episode where it saves Flapjack and K'nuckles when they are almost killed on one of their misadventures. Also counts as a Brick Joke, as Flapjack had initially imagined the manticore for a story he was telling K'nuckles. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Manticores are recurring creatures in the show's world. The first one is seen in the pilot, and it mostly serves as an Establishing Character Moment for Fluttershy who recreates the Androcles' Lion scene with the beast, foreshadowing that she is the Element of Kindness. Another one appears in "No Second Prances" as part of Trixie's magic act, with a slightly reworked design, including a small pair of horns. Since there aren't any humans in the setting, their faces are lion-like. They also have bat wings and scorpion tails, and may or may not have horns depending on the individual manticore. Overall, they usually serve the same roles which lions have in many works of fiction. Furthermore, supplementary material reveals they all have names starting with the letter "M" and possess some level of sapience despite their bestial appearance and behavior. - Tangled: The Series features a creature known as a Sneezeweasel in "Goodbye and Goodwill". Despite its name, the Sneezeweasel is a lion-sized creature with a spiked tail that lives in the forests near Vardaros. It fits the traditional appearance of a manticore, and Lance and Hook Foot end up causing problems for Rapunzel and friends when they capture a Sneezeweasel, somehow mistaking it for a gopher. - A manticore appears in one episode of Wishfart as a pet. It's a pretty standard-looking individual, but acts more like a giant dog than anything else. - It's thought that the idea of the manticore was derived at least partly from early encounters with tigers, with which the ancient Greeks would not have been familiar. They were, however, familiar with lions, which is why the manticore as traditionally envisioned has a lion's body. - The so-called "manticore beetles" of the genus Manticora, which can grow more than two inches long and are capable of preying on scorpions and tarantulas, were named after the legendary manticore. They obviously don't prey on humans, but in some African cultures they are considered symbols of death.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurManticoresAreSpinier
Our Doors Are Different - TV Tropes The Doctor: Look at this. Classic design. Pressure seals, hinges. None of that shk-shk nonsense. Nardole: Space doors are supposed to go shk-shk , not urrrrr . The creators of a show or movie really want to demonstrate that we are in a highly advanced future setting. This usually involves some futuristic furniture, holographic displays and, surprisingly often, really weird door designs. Doors and hatches tend to be pretty boring objects in Real Life. They are usually rectangular, flat and have only one or two moving parts, mostly because this is the most simple and efficient design. In the minds of many set designers, future doors are different. This may include: - Automated: Manually opened doors are near-extinct in the future. Even the most rarely used storage room will have an automated door, or at least a door that opens as soon as you press a button. - Noisy: Sound effects are mandatory (swooshes and beeps are popular). - Lots and lots of parts: Highly complex designs with many interlocking and overlapping parts for no apparent reason. - No right angles: Non-rectangular shapes (especially hexagons) and protruding parts that use a lot of space and reduce clearance. Bonus points for huge and intricate locking mechanisms. - Converging from all directions: Door panels coming not only from left and right but also from above and below. Uses even more space. Less common in Live-Action TV because it is expensive to build on a set. A typical example is the "iris door". Note that while the first two traits are justifiable in most cases, the others are often a consequence of Rule of Cool, with essentially no advantage over simpler designs. This trope is mainly intended for high-tech door designs that are needlessly complicated and impractical. It usually does not apply when magic is involved, after all, wizards can do anything. Subtropes: ## Examples - Galaxy Angel has several including two-tone double doors that split diagonally along different axes. - ElfQuest has a variation: the exterior "door" to Blue Mountain is solid rock until the elf named Door is commanded to make an opening in it telekinetically. - Spoofed in Airplane II: The Sequel, where the doors were voice activated—to open them the characters (including William Shatner) made a Star Trek-like "Shhhk!" sound where upon the door opens with a shhhk! Repeat to get it to close. - The Black Hole. The Cygnus has hatches that slide up, down, apart and sideways. In one scene a door slides up halfway from the deck, providing cover for the Killer Robots' lower half while they fire over the top. - Forbidden Planet: The doors left by the Krell had two of these traits, "no right angles" (a flattened pentagon, leading to speculation that the Krell were Starfish Aliens) and "converging from all directions" (actually four doors—two raising to the roof, and one sliding to either side). - Lampshaded in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. A pair of aliens encounter a normal door and begin to panic when it doesn't open by itself. - Mars Attacks!. The humans Roll Out the Red Carpet for the Flying Saucer, which obligingly rolls out a tongue-like ramp to connect with it. - Oblivion (2013). The Tet has a triangular entrance with three rotating triangular doors, as befits its triangular shape. \|\|These doors are only shown after The Reveal that the Tet is alien spacecraft and not a human-built space station, so the trope is used to accentuate its alien design.\|\| - In Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (once featured on MST3K), the Martians doors opened by pointing at them. - Star Wars: Not only are they different from reality, it's rare to see two similar doors in a whole darn movie. The Empire seem to be fond of doors that close vertically and swiftly, evoking a guillotine. - The most standard Star Wars door appears to be the Imperial blast door, which appears with little change even in the pre-Imperial era: the guillotine-like device that slides up and down, resulting in a diamond-shaped passage. - These Are the Damned. Juvenile delinquent King is a bit freaked out at the sensor-activated automatic door used to enter the secret underground facility where the children are kept. The children can open it by waving a hand across a sensor, but he can't; plus the door won't open from the inside. This turns out to be plot-significant. - Wreck-It Ralph: King Candy's safe, which holds the source code for Sugar Rush, is secured with a Nintendo Entertainment System controller. In order to access it, King Candy uses the Konami Code. - In Computer War by Mack Reynolds, a government bureaucrat goes on a brief rant about automatic doors, because what if he wanted to walk up to the door and not enter, to eavesdrop on someone inside? He concedes that at least it's better than the automatic doors of his youth that would open for anyone, instead of being programmed for specific people. - Dragon Bones: Doors are not intentionally programmed to love their existence, but Oreg mentions that it is hard to keep a door closed with magic, but easy to open it, as doors are made for letting people in and out, and it is against their nature to stay closed. - Harry Potter has a fantasy version in the vault doors of Gringotts bank: as befitting one of the most secure places in the world, the magic-enhanced locking mechanism covers the entire door, so everything moves when the goblin banker unlocks it. - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Doors manufactured by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation are programmed to love their simple lives; they love nothing more than to open and close for passing users, and thank them profusely for so emphatically validating their existence. - The Machineries of Empire: Hexarchate spaceships connect their interior rooms through Extradimensional Shortcuts that can be rerouted at will, so, rather than bother with a door, characters might walk through a solid wall and get whisked down an infinitely-long hallway to their destination. - The Neverending Story appropriately, in the Temple of a Thousand Doors. Doors were described as extremely thin, thick, gingerbread, buttoned, caves, shaped like an ear, mouth, etc. - Hobbit doors are round in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. - Neverwhere. Door's family can open, well, anything. Their house is really freaky. - The War Against the Chtorr. In A Season for Slaughter, a robot probe is sent into a Chtorran nest, which turns out to have Organic Technology doorways resembling a labia. On seeing this on the camera screen, one soldier quips, "If there are teeth behind that thing, I'm turning gay." - Babylon 5: - Many doors on the station (mostly to living quarters) are automatic, pentagon-ish and hinged at the top to rotate out of the way. The Observation Dome and Medlab doors slide horizontal to Centrifugal Gravity (though for whatever reason, the seal between Medlab doors is diagonal to this). However it is subverted on Earth where they have perfectly ordinary wooden hinged doors in most buildings. It would appear that the station needs doors that can be sealed in the event of a hull breach, which is not a problem on Earth. - On Z'ha'dum, the automatic doors opened with the standard door noise. The shadows tried sneaking up on Sheridan by using a quiet door, but Sheridan wasn't caught off guard. - Blake's 7 uses the downward-descending door version so that \|\|Gan\|\| can do a Heroic Sacrifice holding it up long enough for the others to pass beneath it in "Pressure Point". In "Orac", a rotating tube elevator rises from the sand to take the protagonists to an underground bunker. The entrance to Xenon Base in Season D involves a pair of revolving triangular doors. - Doctor Who: - In every season bar one of the classic series, the inner doors of the TARDIS are massive and power-operated, with hexagonal edges on the hinge side. - In "The War Games", the aliens' security chief has a door of the 'converging from all directions' design. The top part is deliberately made to resemble a guillotine blade. The aliens' space/time machines also have noisy powered doors, and it's strongly implied that the same is true of TARDISes in their default form. In the same story, some TARDISes are shown as featureless boxes with doors that actually slide outwards - like a gull-wing door that stays parallel to the surface it's projecting from. - Get Smart - Parodied in the Title Sequence where the bumbling hero enters (and in the credits, leaves) CONTROL's underground headquarters through a veritable gauntlet of automatic sliding or swinging doors. Hilarity Ensues. - In The Nude Bomb the entrance to the supervillain's mountain lair was a giant zipper. When Max sees it start to open, he says to (female) Agent 22, "Close your eyes, we don't know what's coming out of that thing!" In Control headquarters there's also a door disguised as the wall next to the door, as part of the Running Gag of spy gadgets. - Mystery Science Theater 3000: The scene right before the movie starts shows a hallway with various different kinds of doors. - SeaQuest DSV: Played very straight, with lots of different doors and hatches. Going red alert on the SeaQuest includes closing all kinds of hatches, so they show this off a lot. - Justified Trope (somewhat) in that the creators took steps to try and make SeaQuest appear as practical as possible. While contemporary subs of the time (1993) had fairly standard doors throughout, their prediction of the future (...of 2014) was that subs would be much more developed than they actually were over the years. - Star Trek - Used mildly on Federation vessels. The doors are automated and come with a trademarked sound, but are otherwise normal (except for knowing when they're needed). Played straight with Deep Space Nine, with lots of weirdly shaped doors because the space station was built by the Cardassians. - The creators went overboard with the automated doors. Almost every alien society has them, no matter what their technological level or whether there's actually an energy source available to power them. It should be noted that reality still writes the plot, as not a single door goes down into the floor, since the soundstage floor can't really be altered. - Star Trek: The Original Series had a set whose doors (and corridors) were unusually shaped; it was reused, with different trim and paint schemes, for many episodes set on alien planets or ships. - Interestingly, many of the doors in the hallways slide up into the ceiling despite the fact that there are pipes running along the ceiling and through to door's frame, meaning that the pipes either get cut off every time one of the doors opens, or don't actually do anything. - Analog: The October 1939 issue has a door that is shaped like a movie set's bank vault door, with small levers set into the centre instead of a wheel. - Doors in Batman: Arkham Asylum are massive steel slabs with body scanners and several locks and slide open either very fast or incredibly slow. Justified since they are designed to keep the worst psychopaths from escaping the asylum, but it's not like they actually work. - Becomes apparent in Doom 2016's SnapMap Mode where you can choose the type of door connecting two rooms, such as ascending vertically, splitting in two, splitting in four and more, but none that actually swing to the side via a hinge and opened with a handle. This may be a Mythology Gag, as the original IdTech Game Engine that powered the original Doom and its sequel was incapable of making doors swing open any other way. (They'd figured out how to do it by the time Hexen came out a couple of years later.) - Fallout 3 has overcomplicated doors everywhere, a standard secure door folds up sideways and then the middle part sinks into the floor. Then there's the Vault doors, which light up and having a warning klaxon and spin when the open button is pressed. - In the opening train ride in the first Half-Life, Gordon goes through a number of very elaborate blast doors in the tour of the Black Mesa Elaborate Underground Base. - Mass Effect and its sequels love their bizarre, six or more segment doors. - Doors in Metroid are opened by firing energy weapons at them, are circular, and come in many, many component parts that open separately, or look like a bubble. Most often the doors seen are on planets once inhabited by Chozo, like Zebes, which are now occupied by space pirates. Usually, they're unlocked using weapons the space pirates do not possess. Galactic federation doors, to confuse players, are simple automated doors. The games in the Metroid Prime Trilogy explain shoot-to-open doors as Samus' weapon deactivating a force field intended to keep critters out. - The X-Naut fortress in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. \|\|It's on the moon.\|\| The doors require passwords and keys, and make a "swish" sound upon opening. - All doors in The Persistence are suitably science-fictional, either being totally automatic or automatic to those accepted by their retinal scanner. You only need to physically move malfunctioning doors that can randomly close in your face. - In Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, the doors on General Skun-ka'pe's ship slide in a different direction every time they open or close. For example, the first time, a door will slide to the right to open and then come up from the bottom to close. The next time, the door could open by sliding up and close from the left. Apparently, his ship, like everything in the game, runs on the Rule of Funny. - Buzz Lightyear of Star Command has just about every type of high-tech door/hatch you could think of, plus the occasional doorknob. - Futurama - In "Space Pilot 3000", Fry stares in awe of the automatic sliding doors that slide up. However, he's doing so directly under the door, so just as he says "Wow, just like in Star Trek" the door closes down on him. Then mere moments later, he goes through another door and looks up, expecting the door to come down again. Only this time, it closes on him from the side. - The doors to the bridge of the Planet Express ship from Futurama even work differently each time they're shown. Some doors even have two sound effects. A sound effect that you would normally expect from that type of door, and the Star Trek sound effect. - The Simpsons episode "Hurricane Neddy": When Ned's house gets destroyed by a tornado and the town rebuilds it there are several oddly shaped doors because the townsfolk who rebuilt his house don't actually know anything about building houses. - Star Trek: Lower Decks: The doors of the buildings on the Galardonian homeworld are round. - Truth in Television: In his book The Design of Everyday Things, Cognitive Scientist Don Norman describes the ways in which architects and designers invariably create fancy doors that are hard to operate, typically because it is not obvious which side is hinged, or whether they open inward or outward. In an updated edition, he notes that people have started telling him stories of "Norman doors." - The Evolution Door - Watertight doors on a sea ship can be expected to have at least six bolts and a complex locking mechanism ensuring that they are all engaged when the door is closed. Also, they can often be closed remotely and "should" have a distinctive alarm when they are remotely closed.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDoorsAreDifferent
Our Manticores Are Spinier - TV Tropes The manticore (from Persian martyaxwar or mardkhora, "man-eater") is a legendary creature typically thought to come from Ancient Persian folklore, said to stalk the jungles of India. Its favourite prey was humans, which it would devour without leaving any remains behind. These tales were recorded by Ancient Greek naturalists (although the lack of corroboration from Persian or Indian sources raises the possibility that they made it up themselves) and were among the many creatures featured in the bestiaries, where they represented tyranny and envy. From there, it found its way into popular culture. What nearly all manticores have in common is a leonine body (traditionally with red fur) ending in the tail of a scorpion or, more rarely, a dragon. However, usually, it will also possess at least some of the following attributes: - Instead of a stinger, the tail may end in a cluster of spikes, which can be launched in deadly volleys. Both versions are almost guaranteed to be venomous. In a few bestiaries, the manticore could also shoot from its mane. Also, many ancient texts stated only elephants were immune to a manticore's spikes. - The classical manticore had the face and the ears of a human and three rows of razor-sharp teeth. In fiction, the face can range from feline to human to wholly monstrous. May also have horns. - While sapient and capable of speech (speaking in a melodic voice reminiscent of trumpets or pipes) in the original version, in some adaptions, manticores possess only animalistic intelligence. - May occasionally have bat wings, which are only found in modern fantasy depictions. For another mythological monster with a human head, a lion body and sometimes wings, but very different connotations, see Our Sphinxes Are Different. Compare also the Classical Chimera. Subtrope of Our Monsters Are Different and Mix-and-Match Critters. See also Nue. ## Examples - Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Manticores, also known as Scaled Wolves, are some of the many non-human people of Alma Toran. Unlike most portrayals, they are colossal, humanoid wolf-like beasts with scales, with their own civilization, culture and tools. Their leader, Agares, became one of the 72 Djinns, currently in possession of Ren Kouen and can also take the form of a comparatively smaller cat-like being with scales on his body. - One Piece: Manticores are man-eating animals found in Level 2: Beast Hell of the prison Impel Down. They have lion bodies with large, caricature-like human faces that differ between individuals. They can imitate human speech because their face is human-like, but do not understand what these words mean and just repeat whatever sounds they hear prisoners making. They can also stand on their two hind legs and pose like a human would. They first appeared in Chapter 529 and Episode 430. - Soul Eater, Arc Villain Noah summons a Manticore from the Book of Eibon to fight the Shibusen staff: this manticore has a rather abstract appearence but overall resembles a leonine machine/creature with a scorpion tail attached to the spine, shoulderpads on the legs reading "Man", hammer-like front paws and a vaguely humanoid head with a single eye and a huge mouth full of square teeth. As he summons the monsters, the Kid-Rescue team manage to grab ahold on its tail and escape from the Book at last. The manticore is quickly killed by Kid and BlackStar. - Magic: The Gathering: - Manticores appear as an uncommon creature type, resembling winged lions with human faces, scorpion tails and mouths with far too many teeth. Their wings are normally batlike, but the manticores from the plane of Mercadia have feathered wings instead. - The manticores of Theros live in the wilderness well beyond the reach of civilization and are said to be the reincarnated spirits of great warriors. According to myth, they were created when a mortal army was destroyed by the archons who once ruled the plane; unwilling to let their valor and vitality die, the gods transformed them into the first manticores. - The manticores of the Egyptian Mythology-inspired plane of Amonkhet break from the pattern, instead resembling wingless tigers with scorpion tails and with their lower legs covered with black, spiked natural armor. - There are also masticores, mechanical wingless manticores. At least one seems to have been able to superheat its stinger in lieu of poison. - A manticore is one of the first monsters Tim Hunter faces in Books of Magic, initially appearing as Faux Affably Evil human who seeks to destroy all mythical creatures, with the only clue to its nature being its large number of teeth. It later takes its monstrous form when Tim angers it, and has a venomous bite that Tim almost succumbs to. - The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The first time a young Diana leaves the city of Themyscira to explore the island she is attacked by a manticore, with a leonine body, human head, a swarm of pupils in each of it's eyes, a scorpion tail dripping corrosive poison, and sharp spikes between it's shoulders that elongate into Spider Limbs on the shoulders. - The John Ostrander Suicide Squad* featured a Greek terrorist named Manticore as a member of the Jihad. Several successors have taken the name, usually villains, but on one occasion a member of the Global Guardians. They're generally some form of leonine Beast Man with a scorpion tail. - Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK features a manticore named Dominic Alexander as one of the new students arriving in Harry's sixth year. He has wings and a stinger tail, but apart from that seems fairly bog-standard, though Harry feels a little guilty upon realizing that he's worked with manticore-skin gloves throughout most of his lessons. - Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: despite being based on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the manticores introduced in the movie are a colony of cat-sized, scorpion-like monsters with four chitinous tentacles tipped with a secondary mouth full of feelers, with their queen being a colossal version big enough to impale a person on its stinger tail and swallow them whole. They become aggressive when the light is out, but can be distracted by moving in a certain way, waving the arms in imitation of their tentacles. These beasts reside in the Erkstag prison, where \|\|Theseus Scamander is imprisoned by Grindenwald's men.\|\| - The Last Unicorn: A manticore is among the animals on display in Mommy Fortuna's travelling show. It's actually a decrepit old lion enchanted to look like a manticore; almost all of the "creatures of night" on display are bogus. - Onward features a manticore named Corey (voiced by Octavia Spencer) who assists the Lightfoot brothers on their quest. She's basically a humanoid lion with horns, bat wings, and a scorpion tail, and breathes fire, but her head is as leonine as the rest of her. She's also a former adventurer who once ran a tavern, which she converted into a family restaurant in the modern day as a sign of How the Mighty Have Fallen. - Fighting Fantasy frequently have Manticores showing up as boss battles. - Deathtrap Dungeon: The very last boss of the book is a Manticore, who launches a barrage of spikes from its tail towards you before leaping into battle. If you didn't read a scroll about the Manticore beforehand, you will be caught off-guard by the spike attack and lose numerous STAMINA points, but if you did, you can suffer either minor or no injury at all. It's still a difficult battle, since your STAMINA is likely rather low at this point of the game and you're fighting an enemy with SKILL in double digits. - Sorcery!: The first book, The Shamuntanti Hills, ends with a boss battle against a Manticore whose stats a higher than the aforementioned Deathtrap Dungeon example. Not only that, but this Manticore has a barbed tail that can make you lose up to 6 STAMINA points of damage each round. - Downplayed example in Master of Chaos. You might battle a Chaos Manticore, but it's tail isn't poisonous and its stats are quite low. - Averted in Magehunter with the Golden-Lion Lord. It's a lion monster with a human's head, but it lacks a barbed tail. - Inverted in Stormslayer where you can fight a captive Manticore. However, the monster looks like the classic depiction of Manticores, complete with a barbed tail, but it has been de-venomed and held in a cage for a long period of time, and as such it has pathetic stats and a much easier fight than previous Manticores in the series. - Baudolino: A manticore shows up while the heroes are trying to find the kingdom of Prester John, along other strange creatures found in bestiaries. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The manticore, or martichoras, is a monster like a blood-red lion with a human face, three rows of teeth, a tail ending in a stinger and a voice like flutes and trumpets. It can fling the barbs of its tail like arrows, and is fond of human flesh. - Dracopedia: Dracopedia: The Bestiary depicts manticores with the front bodies of tigers, the hind bodies and wings of dragons, and scorpion-like tails, as well as human-like ears and noses. They are described as fierce predators from the Middle East that developed a taste for human flesh as a result of frequently coming into contact with human settlements to hunt livestock, resulting in them going extinct during Roman times when humans hunted them all down. - Fighting Fantasy: Manticores of various types are often encountered as dangerous monsters in the series. The Sorcery! spin off has a massive one in a cavern as the Final Boss of the first book. - Harry Potter: Manticores are mentioned in passing when the heroes are looking for cases of dangerous animals being spared execution. They find such a case with a manticore, but lose hope when it turns out that was because everyone was too scared to go near it. According to supplemental materials, they are sentient monsters with a leonine body, a humanoid head and a scorpion's stinger. Their poison kills instantly, while their hide deflects all charms, placing them into the most dangerous category of magical creatures. - Jedi Academy Trilogy: In Dark Apprentice, the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals includes an exhibit on manticores, depicted as creatures with humanoid heads, venomous fangs, feline bodies, and scorpion tails, and living in a desert environment. Threepio is surprised at their inclusion, stating that the creatures had been proved to just be a jumble of mismatched fossils. - The Last Unicorn: A captive manticore is on display in Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Circus. It's actually an illusion laid over an ordinary lion. Mommy Fortuna is a fraud and most of her fantastic beasts are bogus. - Myth Adventures: Class Dis Mythed features manticores as dimension travellers from Manticora. They have average human intelligence, and can shoot lightning from their tail. Skeeve and his apprentices must save a town from a rampaging manticore. \|\|The manticore is a soldier on leave, drunk and unable to speak the local language. Trapping him and using a translator pendant allows them to communicate with the demon and befriend him.\|\| - Ology Series: Monsterology depicts manticores as lions with human heads, three rows of teeth and scorpion tails that can shoot poisonous, invisible barbs - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Titan's Curse, the manticore Mr. Thorn acts as The Dragon to Luke and the General. He has heterochromatic eyes and his poison only paralyses. While his true form follows the classical description, he is capable of assuming human guise, and can use Partial Transformation to still launch spikes. He is extremely powerful physically, but psychologically degrades over the course of the story due to being put under pressure by his superiors. - In A Song of Ice and Fire, a manticore is just a monstrously large scorpion-like arthropod (large by arthropod standards — they can still fit inside a human hand) with deadly venom and a pattern resembling a human face on its front. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: In the tie-in guide, manticores are depicted as cougar-sized panther-like creatures that live deep in tropical forests. They have monkey-like faces and clusters of poisonous quills at the end of their tails, which they can launch at their prey and continue to pump out poison even after being expelled. - Voyage of the Basset: The party encounters a manticore. He is leonine with a human face and intelligence to match. He initially decides he has to kill them, because he's under orders by the fairy king Oberon as a guard, but when the fairies tell him otherwise, he backs off. - Xanth novel A Spell For Chameleon. While trying to enter the Magician Humfrey's castle Bink encounters a manticora ("a creature the size of a horse, with the head of a man, body of a lion, wings of a dragon, and tail of a scorpion. One of the most ferocious magical monsters known."). Bink manages to out-think the creature and continue his quest. The following book, The Source of Magic, reveals the creature was guarding the castle as a service to Humfrey to find out if it had a soul. - The Worm Ouroboros: Mantichores (variously also spelled "mantycores" and "mantichoras") inhabit the high mountains of Impland "below the snow fields". They are given their usual appearance as similar to lions but bigger, of "dull red" colour, with "prickles" like a porcupine, a hideous-looking "man's face", "elephant ears", and huge teeth. Their name is (correctly) explained as meaning "man-eater", and they are said to be especially fond of human brains. Because of the mantichores, the inhabitants of Mercury consider it impossible to scale the mountains of Impland; when Lords Juss and Brandoch Daha nevertheless ascend Koshtra Pivrarcha, they are attacked by a mantichora, which however they manage to kill. Fortunately mantichores are solitary and repelled by the smell of mantichore blood, so after being soaked in the blood of the mantichore, Juss and Brandoch are no longer troubled by other mantichores. - In Grimm, Manticores are a particularly dangerous type of Wesen. They resemble Löwen, but are distinguished by their teeth, longer, stringy manes, and having a scorpion tail (being one of only two tailed Wesen mentioned, and the only to appear). They are fierce and are not afraid of death, and often serve in the military. - In Merlin, the Manticore was a creature of the Old Religion, directly connected to the spirit world. It could be summoned to the real world through a portal in the form of a box, but would die if the box was destroyed. It was rather small, though had many of the classic features: scorpion tail with extremely dangerous venom, feline body, humanoid face, mane, and sharp teeth. It could force people to do things against their will, and forced Gaius's old flame, Alice, to try and poison Uther, after she summoned it intending to use its powers for good. The plot was found out, but she was helped to escape before she could be executed for magic use. The manticore itself was destroyed by smashing its box to bits. - In Power Rangers Mystic Force, using their Legend Powers allows the rangers to transform into a firebird and a lion. When the firebird attaches to the lion's back, it can then rise up on its hind legs and transform into the Manticore Megazord (a Winged Humanoid with a lion's face on its chest). This may be a Woolseyism from Mahou Sentai Magiranger, where the combination is simply named "MagiLegend". - The Book of Revelation mentions locusts showing up during the Apocalypse. Except that these "locusts" have human heads, lion teeth, scorpion tails and wings that sound like an Onrushing Army. - The manticore legend originates from Persian folklore, and is thought to have originated as essentially overdramatized accounts of tigers. Its name in Pharsi, "martyaxwar", means "man-eater", and while this was usually translate phonetically into Greek to become "martichora", from which we get "manticore", it was sometimes translated literally as "androphagus", again meaning "man-eater". Originally depictions had it as essentially a tiger with a human head and a mouth with three rows of razor-sharp teeth, as well as a tail tipped with spikes it could launch like arrows. Over time, in medieval and later depictions, the tail-spikes became a scorpion stinger and the beast gained bat wings, leading to the manticore's most common depictions in modern fantasy. - In Spanish folklore, as recently as the twentieth century, the manticore was known as a type of werewolf that Eats Babies. - The Dark Eye: Manticores resemble lions with flattened human faces, three rows of teeth — typically some combination of human and feline ones — and scorpion tails. They're creations of dark magic, as all chimeric beings are, and are typically considered the most perfect product of the craft. They're intelligent enough to speak and have distinct personalities, but not enough to reliably control their animalistic side. Some exceptional specimens can master themselves enough to find a place in a royal court, a mage's tower or a temple as councilors guards or exhibition pieces; most live as beasts and die violent deaths. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Manticores are Lawful Evil Magical Beasts that can fly and launch spines, while the dragonne is a dragon with the head and overall body shape of a lion. Most editions have given manticores a fairly straightforward appearance with a lion body, batlike wings, a human head with three rows of shark-like teeth, and a tail tipped with a cluster of spines, but the 3.5 Monster Manual depicts them with low-slung, leopard spotted bodies and heads resembling twisted, monstrous monkeys more than anything else. Regardless of appearance, they're evil, aggressive beings with a taste for human flesh — and human flesh specifically; other humanoids who expect to go through manticore territory have been known to hire human guards in part to attract the beasts' attention away from themselves in case of an attack. - Mantidrakes, described in Dragon #170, are hybrids of manticores and evil dragons, resembling regular manticores with a draconic, instead of humanoid, head, but retaining a mane. Their draconic parents are usually blue dragons, as they share the manticores' preference for arid, open environments. - Exalted: Manticores are creatures of the Wyld, and resemble lions with three rows of shark-like teeth and scorpion tails tipped with potent venom. They're as smart as apes, and can flawlessly imitate human voices and project the apparent origin of their calls to anywhere within a thirty-feet radius of themselves. While native to the Bordermarches of the Wyld, their biology is stable enough that they can survive indefinitely within Creation. They're no real threat to experienced Exalted or Fair Folk, but are terrifying foes for mortals, lesser fey, and inexperienced Terrestrials. - Palladium Fantasy: Manticores are foul-tempered predators resembling lions with goblin-like humanoid faces and tails tipped with clusters of poisonous quills. In addition to being dangerous hunters, they also have sadistic streaks a mile wide, something luckily tempered by their rarity. - Pathfinder: Manticores are monsters with leonine bodies, batlike wings, tails ending in clusters of poisonous spikes that they can launch at their prey, and either human or lion heads. Female manticores with human heads grow beards the same as males; likewise, lion-headed females sport full manes. They can breed with most other kinds of lion-bodied creatures — including regular lions, dire lions, lamias, chimeras, and sphinxes — to produce hybrid offspring resembling their non-manticore parents with a manticore's spiked tail. - RuneQuest: Manticores are lion-bodied Beast Men with scorpion tails and human heads. They are surly and independent, and have little to do with their fellow beasts. - Shadowrun: Manticores (proper name "martichoras") are Awakened lions with rows of sharp teeth and a porcupine-like bundle of spines at the end of their tails which are barbed and venomous. They never use their spines to hunt, however, and never eat prey they kill with them — they're immune to the venom, but apparently don't like the taste. Their prides are led by the females, unlike how regular lions operate. They prefer unspoiled and untainted environment and have a mild allergy to pollution. - Warhammer: Manticores are creatures of Chaos with spiked tails, bat wings, leonine bodies and vaguely humanoid heads. They're most common in the Chaos Wastes, but often fly south to lair in the mountains and forests of southern lands. They're often trapped by Dark Elf beastmasters to use as war animals, and some Dark Elf lords also use them as mounts. - In Age of Mythology, they are the myth unit for Apollo. They are red, have (non-functional) wings and launch volleys of spines. - In the Age of Wonders franchise, manticores are lions with wings and scorpion tails and are Tigran units in II/ Shadow Magic. In Age of Wonders 3, they serve as mounts for the Warlord's ultimate unit, and are also a powerful mount for heroes; their tails now end in several spines, but they still cannot shoot them. - ARK: Survival Evolved: The expansion pack Scorched Earth adds a manticore as a boss, along with many other mythical creatures. It's a huge, horned, feline, monstrosity with leathery wings and the stinger of a scorpion which can shoot purple bolts and thorns, and is able to inflict torpor with its tail. - Manticores are encountered in the Caves of the Dead in Cadash. Their strength is medium, but they are fast. On the upside, their speed means they need to find their momentum to turn around once past the player, leaving them open for a counterattack. - The first boss of Chesters Revenge is a fierce manticore who attacks by shooting energy bolts from it's tail, besides unleashing a thick beam attack with each roar. - In Civilization: Beyond Earth, the Manticore is an alien lifeform that can shoot spheres filled with Miasma from its tail, making it the only ranged alien. - Dark Souls features the Sanctuary Guardian, which is a manticore with pure white fur and four feathered wings, but lacks a human's face and has goat-like horns on its head. It can also shoot balls of lightning out of its mouth. The game's description states that no one really knows what this thing is, and the prevailing theory is that it's something like a demon. - Digimon: Manticoremon, a "Demon Beast" Digimon debuting in the Digimon Pendulum Z II virtual pet, is a rather unusual take on this trope. It's got the leonine body, human head, sharp teeth and stinger-tipped tail as usual, but has three tails instead of one, a metal mask completely covering its face, a freakishly long tongue, tattered wing-like projections growing from its facial mask, a bib-like cloth inscribed with Japanese kanji, and fanged mouths on its feet. Personality-wise, it's a savage hunter of other Digimon, driven by nothing more than a mindless hunger for their data, but its marked preference for viruses and demonic Digimon as prey has led to it often being employed by angelic Digimon. - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: A monster-class exclusive to the first game, the "Beast" demon has a lion's mane, monkey's face, bat wings and a stinger tail. Notably, their tail is used for a Life Drain maneuver, and cannot inflict poison. Higher classes of this monster are named Nue, Chimera and Sphinx. The HD remake replaced them with the Skeletal Dragon, although they function the same. - Dragon's Dogma Online: A manticore with a red-hued leonine body, bat-like wings and a scorpion's tail can be found as a boss in the Northern Betland Plains. Its head is that of a human, with Pointy Ears and a Bald of Evil as well as a Beard of Evil. - Dungeon Crawl: Manticores can flick volleys of spikes at you, which become lodged in your body, and make moving dangerous. However, they are not poisonous. - God of War: Ascension: A manticore appears as a miniboss fought in Delphi. It is portrayed as a wyvern-like beast with a lion-like head, jaws like those of a shark which can become unhinged, dragon wings, human arms and torso, a scorpion tail and plates running down its back. The monster reproduces by laying eggs, and manticore hatchlings can breathe fire. Another one is found at Delos. - Golden Sun: A truck-sized manticore (scorpion tail, red lion body and the head of an old man) serves as the boss of the Lamakan desert, blocking an invisible cave entrance. The first time you walk up to it, it roars and pushes you away, the fight starting on the second try. Underground Monkey variants include a green Magicore and a purple Manticore King. - Grim Dawn: Manticores appear as enemies, infesting the Pine Warrens area and the Blood Grove, taking the appearence of massive,white or black lion-like monsters with humanoid heads, spiky manes and a long tail tipped with massive blade-like spikes. Manticores corrupted by the Void or the Aether do appear in some areas. - The first boss of Hero of Sparta II is a huge, fearsome Manticore, the size of a building who assaults you in am amphitheater. After a lengthy battle you kill it by shoving it's barbed tail into it's head. - In The Legend of Dragoon, Manticores appears as common enemies as you climb the \|\|Tree of Life\|\| in the fourth act. They can attack either with their stinger tail (causing Poison) or get up close to your character and roar at him (causing Fear). - Melfand Stories have a stage where you're flying on the back of a giant parrot and must battle a winged manticore while airborne. - In Might and Magic series Manticores are common monsters. - In Enroth their origins are unknown, but in Ashan they are described as magically created beings, who mutated into what they are under the influence of dragon blood. They mostly look like lions with scorpion tail and bat wings, but in later depictions they get horns. Their stronger breed is called "Scorpicore". - In the very first game they rather inexplicably breath fire. - Heroes of Might and Magic III and VI has manticores and scorpicores as units of the Dungeon faction. - In HoMM V and VII, meanwhile, they appear as neutral units. - The Mo' Creatures mod for Minecraft includes manticores among its many other creatures. They come in green and dark varieties by default and in snow and fire varieties in cold biomes and the Nether respectively. They're inherently hostile, but if killed will drop an egg that hatches into a tame manticore you can ride. Tame manticores and big cats will attack each other out of hand. - Monster Hunter: The Manticore serves as the inspiration for the monsters Teostra and Lunastra, which debuted in Monster Hunter 2 (dos). Male and female versions of each other respectively, they have a leonine body (red for Teo, blue for Luna), Batlike wings, and a long tail, but with several differences; Scale-covered bodies, thicker tails, and horns on their heads. And they breathe fire. - Monster Sanctuary: Manticorb is named after the manticore. It's a Waddling Head with tiger fur and a stinger in its tail. - Odin Sphere has Manticores as the mini-boss of the Elrit Forest map. Aside from stinging the player with their scorpion-like tail, they can launch poisonous globs with it, and can extended their rows of teeth to bite the player. One trial stage in Leifthrasir has the player fight two of them at once. - Outward: Manticores are just about the most dangerous thing you can encounter outside of a boss arena, thanks to a combination of fast reflexes, brute strength, and an incredibly potent venom. The Royal Manticore is even worse; it could easily give any boss a run for their money, but freely roams the countryside, waiting to eviscerate any unlucky travelers. - Scribblenauts: A manticore is among the many things that can be summoned in the game. Its design is rather simplified compared to manticores in other media, simply appearing as a red-eyed lion with dragon wings and a scorpion tail. However, its sharp, angular design is a noticable contrast to the more rounded features of "normal" lions in the game. In the later games in the series, adding adjectives allows the player to give a manticore whatever personality they desire. - Slashout have a two-headed Manticore as it's first boss, having a leonine body and dragon-like wings as it swoops down a chapel's roof to chew at you. It doesn't have a barbed tail though, subverting the "Spinier" part. - Titan Quest severely upgrades the Manticore and turns it into a superboss in a deep cavern in the Egyptian desert (on Normal difficulty you'll find just its skeleton). The Manticore here is a massive black lion with bat wings, a skull-like face and a spiked tail that shoots venomous darts. Its most dangerous feature is the electrical Breath Weapon which can obliterate the player if he doesn't get out of the way in time. - Total War: Warhammer: - Manticores are ferocious, horned leonine monsters with bat wings and scorpion tails and found in the Chaos Wastes, which the mightiest champions of Chaos can, at great personal peril, attempt to capture and break into a war mount. They're available in this capacity as a mount for Hero Units of the Warriors of Chaos. - A Feral Manticore, by itself, is also a unit in the army roster of the Chaos Warriors, the Norscan Tribes, the Beastmen and the Dark Elves. - Hero Units who use the Lore of Beasts, including Beastman Bray-Shamans, Imperial Amber Wizards, Skink Priests and the treeman Durthu Oakheart, can learn a spell to summon a manticore in the middle of battle. - Which Way Adventure has a manticore that pops out randomly to kill the player. - Warcraft has monsters with lion head and body, bat wings and scorpion tail, obviously inspired by manticores... called wyverns. - RWBY: While Manticore Grimm do have a scorpion tail and a mammalian body with four taloned paws, they also possess feathered wings. Their heads are bestial, almost dog-like, with large horns curving out of the foreheads like cattle. Instead of a mane, they posses a ruff of bone spikes that frame their heads like a drawn depiction of the rays of the sun. - Charby the Vampirate: Daray buys a manticore to ride since he's never gotten along with horses, she is very fluffy and red and makes trumpeting vocalizations. Kavonn considers her to be a ridiculous mount since she poses a danger to her rider and has a craving for human flesh. - Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell: Skittles is a manticore, with a lion's body, a face with a mix of human and feline features, and a scorpion's stinger. Skittles has roughly human intelligence and interests, but as a 2000-year-old tween he is relatively immature. - In El Goonish Shive, there is an Aberration described as a Scorpion Bull Centaur Vampire which, while lacking explicit lion aspects, does have a mane and a great deal of chest — all in all, it ends up looking like a manticore/centaur cross. - Girl Genius: The Phlogiston-Powered Mantigoons, leonine machines with segmented tails tipped with powerful flamethrowers. - Skin Deep: Manticores have lion-like bodies, bright red fur, poisonous tail darts (usually bandaged up or removed to avoid accidents), teeth that can bite through anything, and either humanlike or lionlike faces depending on the subspecies. They can also produce a great variety of sounds such as whistles, trumpeting, fluting and other musical noises, which they use in a language of their own know as Manticorsi. They are defined as monsters since they have no "natural" way to assume human form, but are no more or less civilized than anyone else; despite this, however, they are subject to a great deal of Fantastic Racism in the magical community. Ike Sanford is half-manticore-half-buggane. - In Yokoka's Quest, Betelgeuse is a manticore with a feline body, draconic wings, ram horns, a scorpion tail, and a forked tongue. She's also so large that she never leaves her cave to avoid accidentally demolishing her village, and her usual form is that of a person. - Codex Inversus: The true manticores were torturers in Hell, punishing sinners through mockery and humiliation. Their modern descendants, the imperial manticores, live among the ruins of the Circles of Hell and retain the ability to induce shame and embarrassment through their laughter. They use this to throw prey off balance and goad it into either attacking their tormentor, at which point the manticore subdues it with its venomous claws and sting, or fleeing, which will lead it into an ambush prepared by the manticore's mate. Their venom is incredibly painful, as it induces both physical and mental anguish described as feeling like being doused in acid while reliving your worst memory. - Lioden: Manticores are intelligent creatures with the bodies of lions, six horns, bat-like wings, and a scorpion tail. One of them, Nirah, is encountered during the October storyline. Hes not at all malicious, and when hes battled while exploring hes not much tougher than the regular lions who can be fought. Befriending him instead of siding with the armies of Heaven or Hell is the neutral option during the October storyline. - Adventure Time: A small manticore appears trapped in a jar by Magic Man. Finn frees it, but it later appears back in the jar, complaining that it has "some sort of hostage syndrome". - Class of the Titans: The season 1 finale "Time After Time" features a manticore which looks like a big lion with red eyes, a bat's wings and a scorpion's tail. In an alternate present created by Cronus, Odie is killed by the beast. - The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: A manticore appears in an episode where it saves Flapjack and K'nuckles when they are almost killed on one of their misadventures. Also counts as a Brick Joke, as Flapjack had initially imagined the manticore for a story he was telling K'nuckles. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Manticores are recurring creatures in the show's world. The first one is seen in the pilot, and it mostly serves as an Establishing Character Moment for Fluttershy who recreates the Androcles' Lion scene with the beast, foreshadowing that she is the Element of Kindness. Another one appears in "No Second Prances" as part of Trixie's magic act, with a slightly reworked design, including a small pair of horns. Since there aren't any humans in the setting, their faces are lion-like. They also have bat wings and scorpion tails, and may or may not have horns depending on the individual manticore. Overall, they usually serve the same roles which lions have in many works of fiction. Furthermore, supplementary material reveals they all have names starting with the letter "M" and possess some level of sapience despite their bestial appearance and behavior. - Tangled: The Series features a creature known as a Sneezeweasel in "Goodbye and Goodwill". Despite its name, the Sneezeweasel is a lion-sized creature with a spiked tail that lives in the forests near Vardaros. It fits the traditional appearance of a manticore, and Lance and Hook Foot end up causing problems for Rapunzel and friends when they capture a Sneezeweasel, somehow mistaking it for a gopher. - A manticore appears in one episode of Wishfart as a pet. It's a pretty standard-looking individual, but acts more like a giant dog than anything else. - It's thought that the idea of the manticore was derived at least partly from early encounters with tigers, with which the ancient Greeks would not have been familiar. They were, however, familiar with lions, which is why the manticore as traditionally envisioned has a lion's body. - The so-called "manticore beetles" of the genus Manticora, which can grow more than two inches long and are capable of preying on scorpions and tarantulas, were named after the legendary manticore. They obviously don't prey on humans, but in some African cultures they are considered symbols of death.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurManticoresAreDifferent
Our Mages Are Different - TV Tropes How does someone become a mage? Why should someone have the power to alter reality? Obviously, mages use magic — but how does one gain access to magic? Look no further, this page will detail them. Note that these analogies could be mixed: for instance, it is possible that the innate ability to wield magic is based on bloodline (as with the mage race), but that to develop this innate ability, the mage must use ancient lore (as with the scholarly mage). Also note that this is about how the mage acquires power, not the source of that power; that is, whether magic is drawn from nature, the elements, the spirit world, or what-have-you is not relevant. It is also possible that there are multiple kinds of mages in one setting; sometimes they are mutually exclusive, sometimes they can be mixed. When one of them is supposedly rare or unusual in-universe, see Wrong Context Magic. Despite the name, this can sometimes apply to Differently Powered Individual as well; see also How to Give a Character Superpowers. Artists Artist-like mages gain their ability based on creativity and imagination. As with being a great artist, being a great mage may require practice and technical skill to some extent, but a sense of artistic creativity is vital. These mages may have their heads on a cloud as a result of their wild imagination. Associated tropes: Imagination-Based Superpower , Art Attacker , Art Initiates Life , Magic Music Athletes The ability of the athlete-like mage to wield magic is based on years of intensive, exhaustive training. In Asian works, may sometimes overlap with the Monks subtype. Associated tropes: Charles Atlas Superpower , Full-Contact Magic , Ki Manipulation , Kung-Fu Wizard , Supernatural Martial Arts , Magic Dance Chemists To work magic, a mage just finds and combines the right physical components in such a way that produces the effect they want. This is distinct from Gadget Users in that the components tend to be specific to the spell and used up in the process, rather than reused, and distinct from Mutants in that they have to keep gathering and recombining ingredients, rather than just being exposed to the substance once. While almost any physical materials can potentially work, potions tend to be the most common type. Associated tropes: Alchemy Is Magic , Eye of Newt , Insubstantial Ingredients , Sympathetic Magic , Hermetic Magic note : Though it frequently overlaps with the Gadget User and Theurgist types Gadget Users Sometimes they're not so much "mages" as they are "magical equipment users": Their magic abilities come from what they have in their person - be it an accessory, clothing, a weapon, etc. Depending on the work, said equipments may be so vital to the character that he/she is as good as a Muggle without it; or they already have magic abilities by themselves and the equipments are just there to help them; or (when this is subverted) their magic abilities come purely from themselves and said equipments only act as a crutch . Common with the Magical Girl genre. Associated tropes: Upgrade Artifact , Amplifier Artifact , Magic Wand , Magic Staff , Magical Accessory , Clothes Make the Superman , Magitek Gods In this variant, a mage is not a human being. The mage may take on the appearance of a human, but the actual nature of the mage is divine, whether demonic or angelic. The mage might also be half -divine and can draw magic from that part of themselves. May overlap with the Theurgist subtype if these gods can allow their followers to use a portion of their power. Associated tropes: The Fair Folk , Our Demons Are Different , Our Angels Are Different , God in Human Form , Semi-Divine Lottery winners Mages get their ability to wield magic completely at random. Nothing but chance determines who is likely to wield magic. These characters will often have their power level determined by chance as well, though some still need to work at it . Associated tropes: The Gift , Randomly Gifted , Superpower Lottery Monks Mages' most notable feature is their mental discipline and force of will — abilities that might be cultivated through meditation. It seems likely that in worlds where reality responds to sufficiently intense strength of will, these mages might be likely. Associated tropes: Enlightenment Superpowers , Clap Your Hands If You Believe , Heroic Spirit Mutants Magic is acquired by being exposed to some kind of substance/energy. It may or may not cause any adverse effects to the mage's body. It may also overlap with the race subtype if the mutation is passed down to offspring. This one is often the most common way for a non-mage to become a mage, alongside Gadget Users. Associated tropes: Super Serum , Touched by Vorlons , Viral Transformation , Superhuman Transfusion , Super Empowering , Mass Super-Empowering Event Naturalists Here, one can become mage by getting closer to nature. How exactly that is may vary, and overlap with other means: Maybe you're close with a mystical entity pertaining to nature that entrusts you with the power of nature (Cultist), maybe you study hard about nature (Scholar), maybe you find deeper meaning in how nature works and thus become enlightened (Monks). They're not just limited to those, however; e.g. being kind and friendly to nature may make them help you in return, or there's an unseen force of nature (often, but not always, confined to a place) that you can manipulate by different means. Associated tropes: In Harmony with Nature , Background Magic Field , Sentient Cosmic Force , Nature Spirit , Mother Nature , Wild Magic note : When the magic is more of a force of nature that the mage taps into Programmers Mages change reality by giving it commands in a specific format — as if all reality is one huge computer program, and the mages are hackers in a world of the tech-illiterate. Depending on how flexible the code is, this could range from standard spells with an unusual flavor all the way up to full-blown reality-warping . Associated tropes: Powers as Programs , Language of Magic , Formulaic Magic , Rewriting Reality , I Know Your True Name A Race The ability to do magic is passed from parents to children. It may skip generations, or crop up unexpectedly on occasion, but it is ultimately based on inheritance. When mages are like this, they'll tend to make an isolated community of themselves, but not always. Associated tropes: Mage Species , Superpowerful Genetics , Magic Genetics Scholars Mages of this kind are studious and resourceful. They know dead languages and ancient history to a huge extent. You can find a classicist-like mage poring through dusty tomes of forgotten lore in a huge library. Expect them to come with Ancient Artifacts . Alternately, or in addition, they're likely to not only understand magic but to have an understanding of the natural world itself — understanding things like chemistry and physics, as well as the attendant tools to formulate such laws, such as advanced mathematics. Associated tropes: Science Wizard , Sufficiently Analyzed Magic , Magic Is Mental , Scientifically Understandable Sorcery , Wizarding School Theurgists "Theurgists" refers to cultists, shamans, and priests, mortal beings who draw their powers through contact with spiritual entities. Cult mages (or warlocks) draw from demonic beings , oftentimes with nasty /destructive powers, or those with unwanted side effects on the user. Clerics (or priests) draw from the verse's God or some other divine being, and their powers tend to be either supportive/healing, or a Holy Hand Grenade . Shamans, meanwhile, commune with morally-neutral everyday spirits rather than aiming straight for the top of the celestial pyramid, and if they do have gods that they call upon, it's usually more of a quid pro quo relationship rather than worship. Theurgists, regardless of their flavor, may be able to summon said entities to help. Associated tropes: Religion is Magic , Ritual Magic , Deal with the Devil , Bargain with Heaven , Wild Magic note : where you have to appeal to the magic's nature for it to work Oftentimes there'll be discussions about how one type of mage differs from another. This may devolve into arguing over which is better. See also Functional Magic and Magic by Any Other Name for "Our Magic Is Different". If magic is something that not everyone can do, but mages still also need special education, that's Training the Gift of Magic. Compare Magicians Are Wizards (when stage magicians are lumped together with actual magic users). ## Examples: - In Black Clover it is a mix of multiple version of mages: - Mages are like scholars: Some people like Yuno can take time to study and improve their magical abilities and have magic that is not physically based. - Mages are like a race: As almost everyone in the series has the ability to use magic. - Mages are like gadget users: Even though the people can use magic on their own, their true power comes from the use of grimoires. - Mages are like athletes: some mages can increase their magical strength through training. Asta is unique in that he is not a mage. The way others react to finding out he has no magical power at all, it's implied that this is very unusual. - Magic in Fairy Tail is totally mundane and accessible to anyone, but it requires training, making them a mix between Athletes and Scholars. Some are also Gadget Users, requiring items to access their powers. - In Fullmetal Alchemist, understanding chemistry and laws of physics seems to be the only requirement for using alchemy. - In Hunter × Hunter, everyone has an aura that can be used to achieve supernatural effects by learning Nen. Using basic Nen techniques requires extensive physical training (Athletes) and, since controlling the aura requires a strong will, meditation (Monks). Furthermore, Nen allows everyone to create unique abilities in different categories. You can achieve any effect you want as long as you place restrictions, but the more an ability suits your personality, the stronger it will be, (Artists). Also, people with innate Nen abilities and people who belong to the Specialist Nen category are Lottery Winners. - In Jujutsu Kaisen, while all people inevitably produce varying amounts of Cursed Energy, only a tiny sliver of the total population is capable of sensing and channelling it - the Jujutsu Sorcerers (and their Evil Counterpart, the Curse Users). Most Sorcerers are Lottery Winners, being born with the ability to use their Cursed Energy through a specific technique, and even among sorcerers, vast differences in terms of power levels exist. However, Sorcerers are also Athletes and Monks, since effectively wielding their Cursed Energy requires significant mental discipline and practical knowledge. Being an Artist also pays, since even though one's Technique is pre-set, depending on its nature, it can have a wide range of applications. Some Sorcerers wield Cursed Tools to supplement their Techniques, however few of these can wholly substitute for lacking one and are usually simply tools capable of affecting Curses. Finally, any person not born a Sorcerer can either have their latent Technique awakened through external tampering by a Sorcerer, or can choose to become a Cursed Vessel, allowing himself to be possessed by a Cursed Spirit to channel its Energy and Technique - however, seeing as most Cursed Spirits are violent, predatory creatures, the latter option is very much not recommended. - In the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, the mages are somewhere between Lottery Winners and Athletes: magical abilities are pretty random (a child of two Muggles can grow up to be a powerful mage, and vice versa), but becoming a qualified mage (not to mention a combat mage) requires years of extensive physical and magical training and continuous workouts to keep yourself in shape. Extensive training and innate magical power are depicted largely interchangeably. - Ninjutsu in Naruto is Training the Gift of Magic. If you don't have the gift (like Rock Lee), you can't do ninjutsu, but even if you have it, it takes a lot of training to do anything with it. There are also bloodline-specific techniques (called "Kekkei Genkai") that are only inherited by a subset of ninja. - Summoning techniques, particularly for summoning living creatures, need a pact signed in blood to be used, making their users theurgists. - Practitioners of Senjutsu (sage techniques) are basically Naturalists, mixed with Monks in that they can access nature energy and then use it to turn one's chakra into a stronger form by becoming close to nature; this is done primarily via meditation (i.e being perfectly still). - In the Nasuverse, particularly the Fate/stay night subseries which focuses on them, mages are treated much like scientists, dedicating their lives to research on magecraft in an effort to open a path to the Origin in order to gain unlimited knowledge. Sometimes their research can get extremely unethical, but the Mages' Association doesn't really care, so long as they don't break the Masquerade. However, to become a mage requires someone to have been born with "magic circuits", and someone who doesn't have them has no ability to manipulate magic. - In Ojamajo Doremi, the titular character and her friends, Doremi, Hazuki, Aiko, Pop, Onpu, and Momoko, are the Gadget Users variety due to how they were given their magic; they were granted Magic Wands with limited amounts of magic by their mentors so they could eventually become full-fledged Witches and undo the curses they inadvertently triggered. Successfully turning into a full-fledged Witch would technically make them Mutants, but only if they ever got that far and are able to keep their magic. Before then, they have to train and be tested to see if they are eligible to pass to the next levels, making them somewhat like athletes and scholars. - The full-blooded Witches themselves, such as the aforementioned mentors and the Ojamajos' "daughter", Hana, are all born with their powers in the form of a crystal ball, making them a combination of Gadget User and Mage Species, moreso the latter. - The Ojamajos themselves have turned to various forms of art through out the series as well as a means to an end, making them into artists who create different magical items depending on which series they're in (charms during S1, flowers in Sharp, baked sweets during Motto, and accessories in Dokkan). - In One Piece, it's closer to superpowers, but Devil Fruits can turn any of its eaters into "mutant" superbeings. Also, as the power of the fruit is limited only by the user's creativity, fruit users are also akin to artists. - For Haki (basically force of will), anyone can get access to and learn it by training (athletes), but it's a rarity for someone to have a special form of Haki named King's Disposition (lottery winners). Nevertheless, if you happen to have it, it too can be trained. - In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Puellae Magi are formed by a contract with Kyubey, in that they're given magical powers (and a wish) and in return you have to fight Witches (Eldritch Abominations of the verse). - This anime is an interesting example. By making a contract with Kyubey, a girl gets a Soul Gem that allows her to become a Magical Girl in exchange for a wish, making them Gadget Users. \|\|It is revealed however that the Soul Gem is actually the girl's soul, taken apart from the body. This grants magic but also makes the soul get corrupted with time, making them Mutants.\|\| - Sorcerers in Radiant are humans who were inflicted with a unique curse after surviving contact with a Source Nemesis, letting them control Fantasia to use magic. Sorcerers are feared by most of the populace as evil beings tied to the Nemeses, so they're often persecuted especially by the Inquisition. - Shamans from Shaman King learn to channel spirits through meditation (Monks). However, other Shamans have a spiritual lifestyle that leads them to interact with nature spirits, like Horo Horo (Naturalist), or spirits of beings considered deities (Theurgist). - Green Lantern: Back in the Golden Age at least, the magical Green Lantern Ring is the source of all of his abilities. Nowadays said ring is Magic from Technology in nature. - Aurics in We Are All Pokémon Trainers have aspects of: - Artists: Being a skilled Auric is often determined by the creativity of the user. - Athletes: Their powers improve through training. - Mutants: Kim and Lily got their powers via being transformed by human to Pokémon armbands - Race: Their powers are mostly based on genetics. - In Magic and Mayhem, there are two types of witches and warlocks. - Pact Witches (like the Sanderson sisters) are Theurgists and Gadget-Users. They make bargains for power and need their Book to look up specific spells. They can't adjust or improvise with their spells and have lots of limitations. - Natural Witches (like Wendy and her aunts) are Racial and Gadget-Users. The ability to use magic is hereditary and a Magic Wand makes using magic a lot easier. There's a lot more flexibility with their magical abilities. - There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: At the end of Thanatos Scowled, Nico explains the different kinds of magic users to Ellie — witches/wizards are those born with inherent magic due to being descended from a deity and/or having a divine being or demon lord as a patron, sorcerers are those who master the Mystic Arts through study and practice, and warlocks are those who make a Deal with the Devil in exchange for power. "Magician", meanwhile, is a catch-all term that applies to all magic users, but most prefer that their specific terminology be applied to them. - In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Sorcerers of Doctor Strange are heavily Monk-oriented, with additional splashes of Athletes (learning martial arts and weapons skills), Scholars (learning both Eastern languages as well as the "language of magic"), and Gadget Users (using various relics, such as the Staff of the Living Tribunal, the Wand of Watoomb, and the Cloak of Levitation). The second Doctor Strange movie makes clear there is a difference between sorcery and witchcraft, which is what powers the Scarlet Witch — as WandaVision detailed, witches have innate inabilities, making them more Race and Lottery (albeit Wanda herself is also — of course — Mutant, given most of her powers awakened after experimentation with alien tech). - In Star Wars, the Jedi seem to be a combination of Monks, Naturalists, and a race: They are already born sensitive to the Force, but need to develop their connection in order to gain special abilities. The Sith also do the same but by different means. - Sorcerers in The Belgariad are a mix of Lottery Winner and Monk-the potential for sorcery is present in every human, but unless you're being guided in some way you'll probably never unlock your potential (without vaporizing yourself). Once the power is released that first time, it's probably closer to Monk, since everything you do is by force of will. There's also a touch of theurgy-except for those few with the random gift of sorcery, people trained in magic live normal lifespans unless chosen as Disciple of a god, in which case they become immortal. There's also a smidgen of Scholar: the sorcerer has to know the potential long-term effects of their magic -Galrion nearly starts an ice age through misuse of weather magic, and it takes Belgarath and his fellow sorcerers six months to fix it. The sorceror also must know the fundamental rule of the universe: While you can order something to dissolve down to its component atoms, you cannot order it to not exist. The magic will rebound on the caster. Violently. - In The Bible, in Exodus 7, both Aaron and the Egyptian "sorcerers and magicians" are capable to transforming rods into snakes (although Aaron's snake is more powerful). The popular explanation for Egyptian sorcerers' apparent ability to perform miracles is that they were demon-worshipers, while Aaron's magic comes from God. The source of the sorcerers and magicians' abilities is never made clear. It could be demon worship, it could just be sleight of hand and misdirection, or it could have come from alien technology that they found. The Bible doesn't seem to care how they are doing it, only that God is doing it better. - Magicians in A Certain Magical Index are scholars, they gain their powers from learning ancient knowledge but they align themselves with religions so they overlap with priests. - The magicians in The Chronicles of Narnia (the Hermit of the Southern March, Coriakin, and Ramandu) have all the classical attributes, with one additional detail: they are always barefoot. Oh, and the fact that \|\|two of them are stars\|\|. - Circe: Magic is feared by the gods. Although Circe and her siblings grow up with an affinity for magic (and her niece Medea becomes a witch as well), she eventually concludes that witchcraft isn't particularly tied to divinity what makes it is will. While her siblings' magic is not delved into, Circe's is most akin to the chemistry flavor, as it involves a lot of mixing ingredients and drawing power from nature. - The Deryni in the works of Katherine Kurtz are a combination of categories: - The raw ability is inherited. - The use of the powers must be taught, and through practice, a certain level of physical endurance must be built up ("Athletes"). - Each actual use of the powers entails a deep concentration bordering on self-hypnosis, a concentration which must also be learned ("Monks"). - The Haldanes (and possibly other humans) have dormant abilities that are activated by rituals or other overt actions involving psychic power ("Mutants"). - Thanks to persecutions and efforts to escape the same, some people turn out to have the powers seemingly at random ("Lottery Winners"). - In Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword, magic is more like a combination of lottery and scholarship, but the Orders of the Rainbow insist it's like a race or an aristocracy, and only manifests in scions of noble Human bloodlines. Any common-born or non-Human people with magical talent who disprove the Rainbow's theory with their mere existence are persecuted (or, if they are weak Human hedge wizards and thus do not threaten the theory, overregulated with expensive licenses). - In Discworld certain people have the ability to detect octarine, which means they can see what they're doing when manipulating magic. This often runs in families (Race) although it's also been known to just happen (Lottery Winners). Knowing how to manipulate magic is taught to wizards in universities (Scholars) and witches in mentor-apprentice relationships (Naturalist Athletes). Using magic on the Disc is surprisingly easy; the trick is knowing enough to survive doing so. - In The Dragon Knight, magickians are priests. Their (entirely defensive) magic is awarded to them by a Celestial Bureaucracy called the Accounting Office, as payment for their work foiling the eternal threat of the Dark Powers. Sorcerers, meanwhile, are magickians' Evil Counterparts; their entirely offensive magic is powered by their service to the Dark Powers. Jim starts out using magic like a Programmer, but eventually inverts this and progresses to poetry and applied symbolism (Artist). - In The Dresden Files, mages are generally a race; while anyone can use rudimentary magic with the proper training, the amount of raw power they're able to bring to bear seems to be inborn. Additionally, wizards have much longer lifespans than regular humans. Wizards are also gadget users, since we rarely, if ever, see a mage who doesn't use focus items of some sort, and scholars, who study both magic and science in order to bring their powers to bear more effectively. (As Harry explains it, fire is fire, no matter if you use a spell or a lighter to create it, and if you don't understand how fire behaves you're going to be wasting a lot of energy getting it to do what you want it to.) There is also chemist-type magic, in the form of potion creation and thaumaturgy. - In Harry Potter, the ability to use magic is hereditary and how pure someone's bloodline is seems to be a big deal for some wizards. It is however possible for children born to non-magic families to be born with magic (so called muggle-born). The reverse is also true; the so-called "squib" are children born to magical families but lack magical ability themselves. Mages here are also gadget-users in that they're reliant on a Magic Wand to help them control their magic. Using magic without a wand is, consequently, considered a masterful feat of control of their own magic, and people who achieved it can be counted by just one hand. Potions are still racial, since they require magic to create, but overlap with Chemist types. - Inheritance Cycle: - Racial: Dragons naturally have massive amounts of magical energy, which their Riders can then draw upon. Elves also have a lot of magic naturally and are more likely to become full magicians, but their approach is more like Artists or Scholars. - Mutants: Being chosen by a dragon to be their rider gives the human or elf a mark and guarantees that they'll be a magician. - Naturists: Wild Magic exists on its own and can be manipulated by anyone who learns to tap into it, but is very difficult and risky to control — in one case, it nearly destroyed the entire world. - Programmers: An ancient race called the Grey Folk linked their language to magic itself, resulting in most magic being done by describing the effect with it. - Athletes: Using magic is very strenuous and requires training, part of which is making the body stronger since magic consumes the user's energy. - Cultists: Sorcerers summon and bind spirits for energy, but that has the risk of the spirits possessing them and creating a Shade. - Gadgets: Spells can be placed on items that will draw from the energy of whoever uses it, and magicians can greatly increase their energy by storing it in gem stones or by tapping into a dragon's Soul Jar. - Chemists: Wizards and witches use potions and herbs as often as outright spells. - The Iron Teeth web serial has mages. They are born with the ability to burn crystals to produce magic. Making and knowing what crystals do requires knowledge and education though, and burning crystals when you have no idea what they do or how they work is basically a flamboyant form of suicide. - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Magicians are scholars. Before Mr. Norrell emerged on the scene, most magicians were theoretical, researching spells in older books, but never doing them. Mr. Norrell does the spells, but he has to rely on his study of older works to do it. - Journey to Chaos: - Generally speaking, mages are like scholars. Everyone has the ability to use magic so the only thing that separates the mages from the muggles is the willingness to sit down and study. - Dragon's Lair mercenaries, like Eric, are closer to Athletes because they incorporate magic into martial arts. - In some cases, mages are like priests. Lady Daici, for instance, can use silent earth magic because she has lived like a cloistered nun on Mount Daici for years. note : She also counts as a naturalist because she studies the mountain and a theurgist because her spells are basically prayers to it. - In the Land of Oz real magic seems to be the result of study more than biology. When the Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz comes back to Oz in a later book, Glinda teaches him "real" magic to replace his stage magic. He becomes one of only three people in all of Oz legally allowed to practice magic. note : The other two being Glinda herself and Ozma. - In The Lord of the Rings, wizards such as Gandalf are like gods: Gandalf is a Maia (as is Sauron), not a human. - Magic by the Numbers by Lyndon Hardy has five types of magic. All of them are primarily Chemist type with leanings toward Scholar, with the only requirements being knowledge of what elements to combine and how. Thaumaturgy (sympathetic magic, i.e. using a splinter of wood to cause a crate of goods to fly) and Alchemy are those two almost exclusively. Magic (rather confusingly, one of the five magics is called magic) uses elaborate rituals to create magic items enabling Gadgeteers. Sorcery (mind control) and Wizardry (summoning demons) are accessible to anyone via Chemist principles but require hefty amounts of Monk and Athlete to actually produce useful results. In the latter case, a useful result meaning not being eaten by a demon — wizards are by far the rarest type of magic user. - In The Magicians, the students and professors of Brakebills are treated very much as scholars: the study of magic works like the study of a language, with many contradictions, exceptions, and paradoxes acquired from having been drawn from so many different sources over the eons. For good measure, there are so many circumstances that effect the way spells work that an entire year of a student's education is spent forcing them to internalize it all, just so they'll be able to act on them without thinking. Only the most intelligent, driven, and obsessive individuals can become magicians, and even the average Teen Genius doesn't necessarily have what it takes to pass the notoriously demanding Brakebills entrance exam. - Malazan Book of the Fallen: - The ability to use magic occurs at random in all races and social classes and usually manifests in some way — if the mage hasn't been formally taught it develops into some kind of latent gimmick, like Blend's ability to remain unnoticed if she so desires note : (although she thinks it's a gadget thing because she once bought a stone from some hawker who told her it's magical). The direction of one's magic can be influenced by one's surroundings, though: e.g. Bottle uses shamanistic magic because his grandma taught him, High Alchemist Baruk is a scholar, and most squad mages seem self-taught warren-users. There's certainly an individual limit to how much power any mage can channel before it begins to affect him physically. Additionally, mages are limited to what warrens (Paths of Magic) they can access by personal inclination and race, with humans having access to more varied but less powerful warrens while most other races have their own racial warren. - High Priests and Destriants (who are somewhat interchangeable with High Priests) are cleric-types who gain access to certain powers granted by their deities. Destriants, who are more associated with martial positions completing the trio of a deity's chosen, together with the Mortal Sword and the Shield-Anvil, tend to gain healing powers, while a normal High Priest's powers are closer to their deity's theme, e.g. shadow magic. - Necromancers seem to be almost their own category as they gain their powers through a combination of inborn talent and an agreement with Hood, the Lord of Death, to play a game with him — they steal as many souls away from under his nose as they can manage and get his respect in return. Otherwise, Hood does not look favourably on those who meddle in his affairs. - Modern Magic Made Simple have a mix of gadget users and lottery winners. Magic in this setting is performed by programming codes, and apparently anyone can learn it, but on the other hand, some are naturally far more gifted than others. For example, Kaho, a muggle, started to learn using codes and does a decent job at this because she is good with a computer, but since she is only beginning to learn it, she can not see some supernatural things and can only use basic spells. Koyomi is good at...summoning basins, and nothing else. But she is really good at it and can even nullify powerful spells by turning them into basins. Heredity apparently also plays a role in this, since Misa and Yumiko are both descended from great mages. - My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister has Circe witches, who are Chemists. They can use ordinary chemicals and chemistry equipment to create magical potions, mainly for the purpose of transforming living things. - The Old Kingdom has several types of magic users who work in various ways: - Charter Mages are like programmers and scholars. The Charter is a sort of all-encompassing metaphysical document that describes all existence; it is composed of Charter Marks, rune-like glyphs that correspond to very specific concepts, objects and phenomena. Charter Mages learn, through extensive study, how to link up charter marks to create spells. Anyone can become a Charter Mage, but you have to be baptized with a personal Charter Mark by a previously-existing Charter Mage first. - The Charter Bloodlines (Royal, Abhorsen, Clayr and Wallmaker) are like races; they're people born with particular abilities that get passed down through heredity. These powers typically come naturally to them, though they can learn additional Charter Magic on top of it. - Free Magic Sorcerers are like theurgists or gadgeteers. Free Magic is the raw chaotic power opposed to the structured Charter and humans can't normally access it without a bond to a Free Magic elemental or some sort of powerful artifact. If they're not careful, however, the chaotic and volatile nature of Free Magic will likely result in the sorcerer falling under the control of their power source rather than the other way around. - Necromancers' are a specialized form of Free Magic sorcerer, and they're specifically like gadgeteers, using a set of seven enchanted bells to summon and control the Dead. Each bell has its own particular powers and properties, and a skilled necromancer must be familiar with all of them. The Abhorsens use the same sort of bells as Free Magic necromancers, but power them with Charter Magic instead and focus on binding and banishing the Dead rather than controlling them; compared to an Abhorsen's, a Free Magic necromancer's bells are described as being "raw" with less artistry but more power. - Brandon Sanderson: - The Rithmatist: Rithmatists are partly random chance, being about 0.1% of the population, and apparently chosen during a religious ceremony. However, to be a good Rithmatist you need to be good at freehand geometric drawing in order to make strong lines of power, and a talented artist in order to make useful chalklings. - The Cosmere: - In Elantris, the titular Elantrians are Randomly Gifted. The magical process known as the Shaod transforms ordinary humans into Elantrians pretty much at random. The child of an Elantrian is not necessarily one himself. The same universe also features the Dakhor (Cult Theurgists who gain powers via sacrifice to their God), ChayShan (monk-style system that is a picture-perfect Kung-Fu Wizard), and Forgers (a weird combination of Scholar and Artist that rewrite an object's past along artistic principles via intricate runes). - In Mistborn mages literally are aristocrats — the noble families are the descendants of the Lord Ruler's handpicked allies who were given nuggets of Lerasium, making them Mistborn. These houses remain noble because there's a chance an allomancer will be born in their bloodline, while it should be impossible for the slave race of skaa. Any skaa who shows allomantic abilities has a noble somewhere in their ancestry, though there's been enough interbreeding that allomancer skaa aren't significantly more rare than among the nobles. Mistings and Mistborn also need to regularly consume metals to fuel their powers, making them a combination of a Race, Mutants, and Chemists. Feruchemists are also a Race, but Gadget Users instead of Chemists. Hemalurgy can be used by anyone with the knowledge of where to insert the spikes and done to anyone, making it a mix of Scholarly and Mutant magery. - In The Stormlight Archive, Surgebinders are a strange sort of priest-like mage. They gain power by wholeheartedly embracing the Ideals of the Knights Radiant, thus forging a bond with a spren (a sort of refined, self-aware idea) and gaining a Shardblade and power over two of the ten forces of nature. - In Warbreaker mages are scholars; every person has a Breath from birth, but you need a lot of Breaths to do anything significant. Basically, everyone is born with 1 Mana Point, but Breaths can be transferred between people. Magic is treated like a science, where mages are still trying to figure out all the rules to make a successful spell, why certain spells cost more Breath than others, and, given how scarce they are, the way to use Breaths more efficiently. - Malessar's Curs: The warlocks' magic powers depend on their patron god. - Second Apocalypse: Sorcery is a combination of learning and innate ability. - Sorcery can only be learned by some humans, called the Few. Sorcerers are scholars, and the ability to use magic can be learned and taught. All sorcerers belong to one of several rival schools of sorcery, each with their own slightly different specialization. Those who practice magic outside of a school are called wizards and generally get hunted down by the schools. - The Nonmen invented sorcery, and a large percentage of their population are sorcerers, though they do not belong to schools. All magical cants use their language. - After the Inchoroi arrived from the stars, they modified their genetics using their Organic Technology to gain the ability to use magic, which they tricked the Nonmen into teaching them. - In Shadow of the Conqueror, Sunforgers are Gadget Users, making use of the setting's natural Phlebotinum to craft both technology and enchanted items called sunucles, which enhance the item's natural properties. (Swords cut through nearly anything, cloaks deflect the rain, boots grip any surface, etc.) Lightbringers are Clerics who dedicate their lives to doing good and helping others, receiving their abilities directly from the Light: the lighting and healing abilities common to all Lightbringers, as well as two powers that vary by individual, such as telekinesis or matter creation. Light binders are Mutants who underdo a ritual called the Vigil and make an oath to fight evil as an Archknight, receiving one of two power sets. The first, called Lifebinders, can channel Light to augment any of their traits, including things like intellect or perception. The other type of Lightbinder, Worldbinders, gain Combo Platter Powers that affect the external world, like gravity manipulation or lightning storms. Light blaring is an evil type of magic, granted when an individual is exposed to darkness for too long and becomes one of the Shade, mutating into a monster with darkness-themed abilities. At least some of the morality associated with the magic types isn't as clear-cut as it appears, as \|\|the protagonist, a Retired Monster, finds a way to gain Lightbinding abilities without making an oath to fight evil, a very dangerous secret that the Archknights are determined to keep hidden.\|\| - In Slayers, magic power is a combination of lottery and scholarship. To be a mage, you have to have both natural talent ("bucket" and "pool" capacity for magical power) and a mind to study and master the magical science. Gourry Gabriev, for example, has the magical talents but lacks the mental capacity to master magic, which makes him a muggle. - A Song of Ice and Fire: - The magic performed by the Red Priests of R'hllor veers close to the Cultist category, as it's implied their considerable power comes from allegiance to the Red God. Some, though, such as the shadowbinder Melisandre, come with their own abilities of varying origin. - Skinchangers are more random, as it's mentioned that only one person in a thousand is born as one. There's also slight hereditary there somewhere, as having the blood of the First Men allegedly makes it more likely to become on. The series' six Stark siblings, for instance, are all skinchangers. - The Alchemist's Guild in King's Landing are likely chemists and scholars, as while their practice is rooted in science, they draw upon plenty of ancient knowledge. - The sorcerers of Qarth draw their magic from unknown sources, but drink Shade of the Evening, a type of psychotropic drug, to better understand the mysteries of sorcery. - The Sword of Truth: - Most wizards and sorceresses are a Race and Lottery Winners but learn their powers like Scholars. The gift is sometimes inherited from one's ancestors (less and less common ever since a major magical disruption 3,000 years ago), and sometimes, it seems, pops on its own (there used to be a time when nearly everyone was a wizard, so there isn't much difference). However, it is possible for a wizard to take an apprentice without a gift, and teach him to use magic, with the process probably using some magical procedures (Mutants). The wizards trained that way are, apparently, considerably less capable. Subtractive magic is also Theurgic, as it requires a Deal with the Devil unless the wizard is born with the most powerful gift, that of the war wizard. War wizards and prophets are wizards with extra powers, even more rare than the less powerful kind. - Creatures of magic gain their powers through various, unique means. Most are Mutants (created by ancient wizards using lost magical techniques) and a Race (passing it down to their children with rates of inheritance between 1% and 100%). Dreamwalkers and Sorcerers are also Lottery Winners, with one of each being born to no magical parentage after 3,000 years. Mord-Sith and Slides are purely Mutants, but the processes of becoming one are both a Fate Worse than Death. - Constructed magic is invested in items and can be used to some degree by anyone (Gadget Users). Certain people are better at using the items than others, especially with the Sword of Truth, which only grants all of its powers to a true Seeker. The cave paintings in Tamarang overlap with Artists, as it requires at least a rudimentary skill in drawing and takes longer to learn with less apt pupils, like Violet. - Magic in Tairen Soul is usually racial, as one's potential magic power is determined by how much blood of the magical races the user possesses (Tairen, Fey, Elvian, Feraz, Eld, etcetera), and how strong their individual bloodlines are. Elden Magery and Feraz Witchcraft overlap with Scholar types, as the former requires extensive study and knowledge, while even a mortal can use certain witchspells with the right incantations. The briefly seen Danael and Drogan magic seem to be Naturalists and Gadget Users respectively, with the former heavy on spirits and the latter on Blood Magic and Human Sacrifice. Hearth witches and hedge wizards are Mutants, gaining lesser magical gifts from being exposed to strong magic in areas where magical battles took place. Also, the last book reveals that \|\|most of the magical races originated as the descendants of mortals exposed to powerful Tairen magic\|\|. - The Wheel of Time uses nearly all of the above. - Race, Artist, Monk — Channelers. The talent is hereditary; very few people are born with the ability to channel the One Power, and the book's timeline describes the ritual practice of gentling the potentially insane men who can channel has been accidentally culling the ability out of the general population. Those who have the talent (with the exception of a very few prodigies) must be taught how to channel the One Power, and all traditions of channeling typically require practice, training, meditation and mental discipline to do it safely. And channeling for a particular effect also requires the knowledge of how to 'weave' together the elemental threads of the One Power, and the creativity to alter those weaves to produce a desired spell. - Gadget Users — Ter'angreal. Usually associated with channelers, some ter'angreal are magical devices that anyone can use if they know how (this was especially prevalent in the video game). - Lottery Winners — Viewings. Only one character in the entirety of the series possesses the ability to 'View' images and auras around certain people that are tied to some prophetic interpretation. Even those interpretations are seemingly random, as the character herself doesn't always know what the images mean, but when she does know it always comes true. - Naturalists — Wolfbrothers. Not much is known about how this ability comes into being, save that wolves themselves are able to tell, and seemingly help along the process. - Artists, Lottery Winners - Dreamwalkers. Often goes hand-in-hand with channeling, but is not necessary for it. Dreamwalkers have some prophetic powers, and the ability to consciously enter into the World of Dreams and manipulate the reality there. - Theurgy — Friends of the Dark. Some high-ranking darkfriends are granted special abilities by the Dark One to serve his will, and the highest among them can directly access and channel his malevolence into spells. - Mutants — Mashadar, the remains of an ancient and corrupting evil that spreads hate and mistrust through its avatar. - Gods — The Aelfinn and the Eelfinn - The Witch of Knightcharm: Magicians in this story include almost all of the above types. The potion-master Bahar, for instance, seems to be a chemist type, while the protagonist Emily is a programmer who is skilled at 'seeing' exactly how threads of magic comprise a spell and can precisely weave her own magic to do the things she wants. - The Witcher: Magic is something you need a natural talent for (Lottery Winner and Race, it can show up randomly or be inherited), but to control it you need practice and knowledge (a beginner has to master the gestures and similar technicalities like an Athlete, past this stage it's Scholar all the way through). Yennefer describes it as both an art and a science. They tend to behave more than a bit like socialites though. Priests and druids seem to function roughly like Theurgists and Naturalists respectively, although wizards believe they're actually Monks plus some self-delusion. - Builders in The Young Ancients are like Monks, Programmers, and Chemists, but most of all like Gadget Users. The skill of magic is, through intense discipline and a meditative trance state (Monks) create a field in which the laws of physics work a bit differently. The more you understand physics and chemistry, the more options you have for telling the universe how you want it to behave (Chemists) while the process itself is described much like programming the universe on a quantum level. Of course, spending hours meditating to get a momentary field that fails the moment the Builder is distracted is inefficient, so the most common practice is to build fields into objects (anything will do, but usually a small metal plate or talisman with a distinctive sigil is used) that anyone can activate by tapping and willing it so. Thus Builders are first and foremost producers of magic devices for the use of all. - The Speech in the Young Wizards universe is essentially a programming language for reality; spells are instructions and/or equations in The Speech and wizards are like the IT staff for the Universe who "know the little noises it makes every day when it's running. And where to kick it to make them stop." When they need spells at all, that is. Because The Speech is the foundation for all languages, wizards can hold conversations with just about anything animal, vegetable, mineral, and beyond; many of their day-to-day feats can be accomplished through persuasion and a small investment of their personal energy. - In Ars Magica, magi are lottery-winner scholars. A magus must be born with the Gift (which is completely random) but then he will spend years of his life in a Hermetic lab developing new spells or seeking out a means of rewriting the rules of magic. This paradigm applies to most non-Hermetic wizards in the setting as well. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Divine spellcasters, particularly clerics and paladins, gain their abilities through allegiance to supernatural forces. This is usually a deity, although archfiends can grant spells in some settings, and other setting such as Greyhawk follow Clap Your Hands If You Believe by allowing them to give their allegiance to a non-personified force such as Order. Divine spellcasters can also lose their powers by acting contrary to their oaths. Druids flavour it with nature, with varying degrees of how much they are allowed to draw power from faith in nature alone. - Wizards, and sometimes bards, are scholars who learn magic through study. They carry spellbooks that they study from and add new spells to. - Sorcerers, and sometimes bards, have magical abilities in the blood. They do not require spellbooks, but can only gain the ability to cast a limited selection of spells. - Warlocks are people who have entered pacts with various greater beings, serving them in exchange for power. These greater beings can include the aforementioned archfey and fiend, the lovecraftian Great Old One, and the divine Celestial. - The aforementioned classes are the most common, but over the various editions there have been many others with their own quirks — often as mages are like x by way of mages are like scholars (for example, artificers gained their magical abilities through study, but rather than cast spells they enchanted their items with temporary magic turning them into a gadget user, while archivists were priests and fundamentally cast their spells through faith, but approached it in a scholarly, experimental fashion). - Fellowship has the Harbinger playbook, who has more in common with Gandalf the Grey than your typical fantasy RPG wizard. The Harbinger is a sage and soothsayer who wields powerful but dangerous magic and joins the Fellowship to avert the end of days threatened by the Overlord. They have a unique core stat, Doom, that allows them to Finish opponents with luck or fate, and they have spells with a variety of simple effects or a big, flashy magical attack that takes a lot out of them. Variants include Angelic Remnants (who can "read the prophecies" on someone to get info without speaking directly to them), Blind Prophets (who can use their second sight to see right through walls, or through the eyes of others), Principled Academia (who can conduct powerful rituals with the help of their Spell Book), and Servants of the Dark (a former minion of the Overlord with great destructive power). - Ironclaw: - Scholars: Elementalists, Green and Purple mages, and especially Thaumaturgists learn magic through intensive study, while Most Clerics of S'Allumer aren't actually channeling the divine so much as using their own power to cast spells recorded in the holy scriptures centuries ago. The possible exception is the Sacerdotal prayers in the oldest, untranslated, editions. - Cultists: Druids and Blessed Priestesses of Lutara make pacts with nature spirits to cast their spells, while Necromancers enslave the restless dead to wield immense power. However some Druid spells, all Blessed weapon spells, and every single Necromantic spell carries a risk of the spirits breaking free and doing other stuff when three sixes are rolled. - Magic: The Gathering, being around for over three decades and offering a potentially infinite variety of settings, has employed a lot of takes on this. While the basis of magic (the five colors of mana, acquired from bonding with the land) is the same, how it's practised varies immensely, from mages born with inherent powers to those that channel divine entities. Notably, one early work compares magicians to musicians, in that everyone can play a note, but only a few can create a song. - Talislanta has several different schools of magic, such as aquamancy, cartomancy, spellweaving, technomancy, and thaumaturgy. In the 3rd edition, there were two dozen different types of magic, although that list was considerably shortened in later editions. - Old World of Darkness: - Obviously, Mage: The Ascension, which focuses on Awakened Mages, who are somewhere between lottery winners, programmers, and monks, as they have an innate ability to alter reality but still rely on cultural and/or technological stylings as a focus (their "Paradigm"), which may paint them as various Traditions: an athlete/monk (the Akashic Brotherhood), gadget user (Sons of Ether), naturalist (Verbena), priest (the Celestial Chorus), and many others. Their biggest weakness is Paradox: altering reality beyond what is accepted as natural (especially in the presence of muggles), which results in reality biting back and physically harming the mage in question. A clever Mage knows how to work around Paradox and mask their magic as everyday occurrences ("Coincidence"). - Also from Mage, sorcerers are magic users who lack innate ability and can only work magic through old-fashioned, well-established spells and rituals ("hedge magic" as opposed to mages' True Magick). They're not as potent as mages, as mages can eventually graduate beyond needing magical foci while sorcerers cannot, but they're also not vulnerable to Paradox since they're "staying in their lane" by reality's standards. - In Vampire: The Masquerade, several clans are known for their sorcery. Blood magic which is functionally similar to hedge magic, but souped-up on vampire blood. The sorcerous clans are either scholars like the Tremere or theurgists like the Baali. - In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Garou born under the crescent moon are Theurges, who are the shamans of Garou society. They don't have access to any special sorcery, as any Garou can learn to perform Rites with good reason, but Theurges are expected to specialize in this area. Since shamanism is a central theme of the game, most of the non-Garou shapeshifters have a Theurge-equivalent among their ranks as well. Shifters are also capable of learning human hedge magic, though it's rare and limited to only the most mystical-minded tribes (rarer still is the Storyteller who allows it, since reeks of Special Snowflake Syndrome). - Warhammer 40,000: - Most races have access to psykers, which are, broadly speaking, like theurgists in that they draw power from a greater source. Psykers are individuals who draw power (usually from the Warp) for a variety of effects. In the weird Science Fantasy setting of 40K, psychic powers are treated more as magic, rather than as traditional Sci-Fi psychic powers. Without discipline, training, or sheer strength of will, psykers who draw from the Warp are prone to its influences. This can include insanity, mutation, possession, and even damnation. - The Eldar, who are like monks, all have psychic potential which is suppressed through rigorous discipline unless they join the Path of the Seer, where they use a training system that relies on discipline and focus to cultivate their potential. The Farseers and Warlocks are revered as advisors, leaders, and invaluable battlefield support. - With humans, psykers are like lottery winners (except it's a Lottery of Doom for most of them) in that being born with the psyker mutation is left to random chance, though environmental factors can influence it. Humans don't have a widespread support system in place, which is because and partly the reason for the way that humans view psykers with superstition and justifiable but not-always-sympathetic fear. The various human organizations will sometimes try to recruit unsanctioned psykers for nefarious purposes, or more often outright kill them or try to capture them to hand them over to the Adeptus Telepathica for evaluation, and in the best case, sanctioning and training for service to the Imperium. - Unique to humans are also the Untouchables, who null out any psychic powers around them. Harmless on their own, but their power is a tremendous utility used by the Inquisition when they can get their hands on one, and they are congregated and militarily trained as one of the Sisters of Silence, one of the more obscure military services of the Imperium who crew the Black Ships that transport psykers to Terra for evaluation and indoctrination/recycling, or as a superhuman specialist assassin by the Officio Assasinorum, and there's an instance of one being raised up to an Astartes who acts as cryptkeeper for the otherwise all-psyker Grey Knights. - Orks generate a passive psychic field which ramps up with numbers or violence, and its effects influences the world around them (it helps their ramshackle technology work, makes red paint makes things "go fasta") and makes them immune to the effects of the Warp. Weirdboyz, active psykers who draw from this field for their powers, are like lottery winners (like human psykers, they don't like it since for works, it manifests as a massive splitting headache that ends with the release of semi-controlled psychic energy). - Even the most humble Tyranids contribute to their Hive Mind which forms a higher consciousness and acts as their deity. Active psykers are bioengineered and purpose-built to draw power from the Hive Mind for psychic support on the battlefield and to telepathically connect the Nids to the Hive Mind for on-the-ground coordination. - There's also sorcery, whose users are like scholars and theurgists to an even greater extent. Sorcery is used particularly by the forces of Chaos and some radical Inquisitors. While the line between sorcery and regular psychic powers is hazy at best, the common theme seems to be that sorcery willingly draws from the worst elements of the Warp, emphasizes ritual magic, and/or requires forbidden knowledge of the Warp. Most sorcerers are also psykers, although it doesn't appear to be a requirement. - Warhammer Fantasy: Wizards are a major part of the game, and typically derive their power, either directly or at several removes, from the Realm of Chaos. Generally, wizards derive their power from the Winds of Magic, and draw on magical energy within their environment to cast spells; when this is exhausted, no more magic can be cast until the Winds build up again. - Most wizards harness the eight colored winds, created when the power of Chaos splits apart on entering the material world, each of which is aligned with a specific set of themes such as fire and emotions, the sky and knowledge, and so on. Wizards can attune themselves to specific winds, which allows them to channel it in order to cast spells and create magical effects. This method of spellecasting is available to all races and species, although most wizards can only attune themselves to one without burning out their souls or turning themselves into living gate to the realm of Chaos; only magically-attuned species such as the Elves or Slann can harness multiple winds at once. - Powerful deities can also generate their own unique lores of magic, which they can then grant to their followers; mechanically, these work the same way as the "natural" lores do, but are unique to a single faction each. - Culdcept: Cepters are a variant of scholars. Their powers come from cards that are pages of the Book of Creation, which are found scattered throughout the world (or, of course, in the hands of other Cepters). - Mages in Dark Souls all attain their power through study. It is suggested that anyone may become a mage, if they're willing to put the effort in. The different schools of magic each have different requirements though: Miracles are done by studying stories (generally religious ones), and putting one's faith in that story to produce the magic effect; the more faithful one is, the more powerful the Miracle. Sorcery is done through more "scientific" study, is believed to draw on one's own soul for its power, and is strengthened by one's intelligence. Pyromancy manipulates one's "inner fire" and is closely related to the magic flames in the series, and requires no investment in stats to use (except in the third game, where it requires a bit of both faith and intelligence); pyromancy's power is tied to the power of its catalyst, which can be strengthened through reinforcement. - Dishonored: - Mutants: The safest and surest way to magical power is to be marked by the Outsider. The Outsider's mark allows the user to unlock supernatural abilities by collecting runes carved from whalebone and inscribed with the same symbol, and the individuals thus marked are a very exclusive club, to the point where only eight people in the entire world bore it at the time of the first game. - Theurgists: All magic has a heavily Cultist element to it, with runes often being found at shrines raised to the Outsider, all magical energy drawn from the Void, and many who seek magical power worshipping the Outsider outright. The Outsider displays indifference and sometimes distaste towards the people who try to contact him this way, and those who try often end up with nightmares at best and insanity/death at worst. - Artists: Delilah Copperspoon, an artist before she was marked by the Outsider, achieves unique magical effects (such as creating portals to the Void or a Grand Theft Me ritual) by including paintings in her rituals. - Chemists: Intricate rituals can be performed (often with Eye of Newt requirements) to craft runes, or as part of the aforementioned attempts at contacting the Outsider. One of Delilah's paintings also makes heavy use of Sympathetic Magic, gathering items related to her target to craft the canvas and brushes. - Gadget Users: Whalebone can also be used to create bone charms, which give passive benefits (ranging from preventing pregnancies to enhancing magical power) to anyone who wears them. The Outsider will also occasionally gift Clock Punk Magitek devices to his favorite people, including a Soul Jar Heart that locates runes or bone charms, and a Timepiece that can take advantage of the time-distortion in an Eldritch Location. - Dragon Age is a weird case that mixes the Aristocrats and the Lottery Winners subtypes: magical abilities tend to run in the family, but mages are born into muggle families, as well, seemingly at random. Also, mages are kept isolated by force in most societies due to the fact that they are prone to getting possessed by demons. - In The Elder Scrolls universe, there are several types of "mages" who utilize magic in different ways, and these types of mages are not inherently mutually exclusive. Generally speaking, there are four main ways to utilize magic, each with its own sect of users: - Mundus, the mortal plane, has a Background Magic Field. Magicka) flows in from Aetherius, visible as nebulae in the night sky. It flows through the sun and stars, which are actually holes punctured in reality by escaping spirits (Magnus and the Magna-Ge) during the creation of the world. Any mortal on Mundus is capable of tapping into this Magicka field, with some races and species more naturally adept at it than others. Many civilian NPCs will know a low-level utility spell or two, and even a relatively Magically Inept Fighter who doesn't develop their magical stats can benefit from same. Those who choose to do so may take the scholarly pursuit of studying magic, where increasing their knowledge also increases their magical prowess. Tamriel has a number of Magical Societies and Wizarding Schools which train members/students in the use of magic. For this type of mage, there are a number of "school of magic" specializations as well. Though the exact breakdown varies from game to game (along with the spells classified within), the primary schools of magic are Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism (a class of spells which alters the nature of magic itself, such as Anti-Magic and Mana Drain type spells, as well as Warp Whistle and Soul Trap type spells), and Restoration. - The natural substances of the world also have inherent magical properties. When ingested individually, they release trace amounts of these properties. Alchemists, essentially fantastic chemists, mix these ingredients to bring out and intensify their inherent magical properties. This requires neither a natural gift nor even aptitude in the schools of magic. These Alchemists brew potions and poisons with wide-ranging effects using this knowledge. - Items ranging from weapons and armor to clothing and jewelry can be imbued with magical power by utilizing Soul Power. Souls of creatures, monsters, and lesser Daedra (as well as those of sapient mortals under certain circumstances) can be trapped in special soul gems by using the Soul Trap spell of the aforementioned Mysticism school (sometimes classed under Conjuration instead). Once trapped, Enchanters can bind the souls to items along with a spell (or spells), imbuing the item with the chosen spell(s). The enchanted items in question will eventually be drained through use but can be recharged with additional filled soul gems. Anyone can use these enchanted items, though skilled Enchanters can create better items and get more use out of them than novices. - Another category of "mage" goes beyond using standard Magicka, becoming a Programmer variant. To use extremely esoteric "lore speak", the universe the series takes place in was created using metaphysical "tonal architecture". Many beings and races throughout the backstory have discovered ways to alter these "tones", creating all sorts of reality warping effects by abusing the loopholes in reality. To note a few prominent examples: - The Dwemer were (in)famous for doing this. Essentially, they used a form of Magic Music to alter the tonal architecture of the "Earthbones", essentially the laws of nature and physics which are required for the world to function. One of their most famous uses for this ability was the Ragnarök Proofing of their creations, ensuring that they would last in working order for eons. Other uses included constructing magical Humongous Mecha, a Weather-Control Machine, and a machine capable of safely reading an Elder Scroll while bypassing the usual nasty side effects. When the Dwemer discovered the still-beating Heart of Lorkhan, the "dead" creator god, they attempted to tap into its power in hopes of creating a new god - Anumidium (or "Walk-Brass"). They intended to use it to transcend mortality, but something went awry, causing the entire Dwemer race to disappear from all known planes of existence in a single instant. - The Psijic Order, a powerful Magical Society and the oldest monastic order in Tamriel, is another group believed to be capable of this. It is believed that the abilities of the Psijics come from their manipulation of nature itself ("The Old Ways") rather than through the application of Magicka, like standard magic. However, the end result is largely the same. Still, the Psijics are capable of performing this in ways (and on a scale) that no other extant group in Tamriel is capable. - Dragons are a divine species with immortal Aedric souls, to whom their Language of Magic (referred to as the "Thu'um" by mortals) is so intrinsic to their very beings that it gives them a small scale reality-warping effect. Using the Thu'um, dragons can command elements into existence. While it make look like a dragon is, for example, breathing fire, the dragon is actually channeling magical energy through his words to create fire. When the dragons came to dominate early mankind, mankind prayed to the Divines for aid. Their prayers were answered when they were taught to use the Thu'um themselves against the dragons. While any mortal can learn to use the Thu'um through study, it comes naturally to one who are Dragonborn, special mortals born with the Aedric soul of dragon. Being Dragonborn apparently can be hereditary, as Tiber Septim's descendants were Dragonborn, but not always. - Achieving CHIM, essentially realizing that everything, including yourself, is just a dream of the Godhead but having the mental fortitude to exist as one with it, grants this ability. Only two beings in history are believed to have achieved it — the Chimeri/Dunmeri Tribunal deity Vivec and (Mind Screw warning) the being known variously as (some or all of) Tiber Septim/Talos of Atmora/Hjalti Early-Beard/Zurin Arctus/Wulfharth Ash-King. Following the death of Tiber Septim, founder of the Third Tamrielic Empire, though an unknown but hotly debated means possibly involving the Numidium and/or the spirit of Lorkhan, the Deity of Human Origin known as Talos came to be the Ninth Aedric Divine. Talos then (allegedly) used this power to change Cyrodiil from a jungle to a temperate grassland, a change that was retroactive, essentially making it so Cyrodiil had always been a temperate grassland. As well as achieving CHIM, Septim was also Dragonborn, giving him natural use of the Thu'um, and used the Numidium in his conquests. Taking all of that into account, it's not surprising that he was able to conquer all of Tamriel. Beyond CHIM supposedly lie two other states of being: Amaranth and Zero-Sum. Achieving Amaranth means that one exits the dream of the Godhead to create his own reality, while Zero-Sum occurs when one fails to maintain his individuality upon realizing the dream, fading into it and ceasing to exist. - In Elsword, Aisha's three job branches turn her into different kinds of mages: - Elemental Master has her study and train hard to master elemental magic; a mix of athlete and scholar. - Void Princess is her making a contract with a demon to access dark magic; said demon gives her an outfit that lets her wield dark magic. A cultist mage, combined with gadget user. - Dimension Witch uses magical artifacts and enchanted stones that are the source of her space and time magic; a gadget user, with some touches of scholar (she studies how she can apply said magic). - In Final Fantasy VI, Magicite makes "mutant" mages, eventually granting Esper's spells to the person that holds it for a given time. Technically, the original Espers were created in a similar way, as they used to be normal people that were altered by being caught in a crossfire between The Warring Triad. - In Final Fantasy VIII the Sorceresses are like a Race, being genetically compatible women who inherit the ability to use magic when a fellow sorceress passes her powers upon death. Other humans can use a lesser form of magic called Para Magic which can be used by anyone by a process of controlling energy or by Junctioning a Guardian Force making their abilities closer to mutants. - Fire Emblem: Mages are like scholars. Most games describe tomes as simply a weapon type that you would train to use in an academic setting rather than a physical one. Anyone could use magic as much as anyone could use a sword. Further the tomes are often in ancient tongues or sources of other arcane wisdom, and the most powerful mages are typically scholars or Really 700 Years Old so they have had time to learn more about magic. Though some people have natural aptitude for using magic well, it's also incredibly rare to meet someone who can use magic innately without the use of books, staves, or other tools. - The Legend of Zelda: - Gadget Users: Link's most prominent way of utilizing magic across the games is through magical weapons and items. Usually, they draw upon Link's Magic Meter, but others have a set number of uses, especially in Breath of the Wild. - Chemists: Potions can be made, usually from the remains of monsters, with various effects—such as healing the user or restoring magic. - Artists: Magic Music features prominently in several games, with the magic taking effect when a particular song is played, often with special instruments like the Ocarina of Time. A Link Between Worlds also introduces a form of magic based on painting. - Gods/Mutants/Theurgists: If Link wields outright magic without items, it tends to be as a result of it being bestowed on him by some magical being, such as fairies or spirits. The ultimate example of this kind of magic is the Triforce, which was left by the three goddesses who created Hyrule and bestows near omnipotence on whoever can assemble all three parts. - Race: Certain beings are naturally more inclined to magic than others, most notably the Hylians themselves. The original Japanese manual of A Link to the Past explains that they were given these abilities when they were chosen by the gods, whereas the English localization instead attributes it to their "magic-infused blood." - Scholars: In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link is taught spells by elderly wizards in the towns he visits, an unusual outlier for the series. - In LOOM, magicians are basically artisans who belong to hereditary guilds. Some guilds have reached such a sophistication in their craft that it has become magic: Weavers have transcended material cloth and weave patterns in the very fabric of the universe, while Glassmakers can make scrying spheres and teleportation devices. Weavers' magic is depicted as Magic Music with weaving terms (thread, pattern) substituted for musical terminology. - Minecraft mods: Thaumcraft 4 thaumaturges are scholars, researching the techniques for making magic wands, tools, devices, and minions, which they craft using collected magical energy and the refined essence of items. - In the Nasuverse, mages are commonly hereditary. Most magi families pass their magic circuits from generation to generation, and in the case of having more than one child, is not uncommon for them to either send them to other houses or keep them out of the loop. - In Umineko: When They Cry, witches are cast-off aspects of people that gain tremendous power over reality, usually associated with a territory; but stronger witches' territories are subjective to their current location, therefore making them "voyager" witches and impossibly powerful- like Gods and Goddesses, though they share some traits with old-school fairies. - Dreamscape: Magical powers are usually just inherited, but you can also just straight-up learn how to use magic like Melissa did, as she reveals in a flashback in "Confronting the Dark". - Code Name: Hunter: Magic requires strong "essence" (willpower, faith, conviction, etc). However, even among those with strong essence, only a rare few actually get magical talent, apparently at random. Of note, mages are powered by the aggregate essence of their entire culture, so a nation full of happy, productive, empowered citizens (like most first-world countries) has much more magical potential than a nation of downtrodden peasants like Astoria. - Daughter of the Lilies: - Mages are individuals who learn to manipulate the magical energy that naturally exists in everything. Everybody has some innate magic and the potential to manipulate it; mages are simply individuals who have taken time to train in and improve this ability. Mage powers draw from a "Core" of magic in the body, which is finite but refills over time; not everybody has equal amounts of stored energy. The mage Thistle compares this form magic use to a martial art, where the amount of raw energy present within you isn't as important as precision, control and skill. - Wizards are their own distinct thing. There are only seven wizards alive at any given time, and they significantly outclass mages in power; the wizard Master Wu, for instance, is able to effortlessly solo a demon that two experienced mages nearly died stalling. Wizardry is also implied to be capable of tasks that are impossible using regular magic. Not a great deal of detail is given about how wizards come into being, but it's stated that they're "chosen" by something. - El Goonish Shive is a mixed case: "The most common form of magic in EGS is powered by spiritual energy from the spell caster. This energy can be innate, obtained, and/or enhanced via training. Power alone isn't enough to cast spells. One must train in a specific fashion to obtain access to their spells, or have the power awakened within them by being that are capable of such things." - There are three levels of magical access. Most people are "sleeping", and have no access to magic. Those who are fully "awakened" will continue to get new spells, customized to reflect their desires and personalities, as long as they continue to use magic. In between the two is "dreaming", which is an umbrella term for anyone who has access to some form of magic without being fully Awakened. - There are also wizards, who are born as such, the ability being genetic. They can Awaken just the same as a normal magic user, but have the ability to learn the spells others get after doing so. Examples include \|\|Mr. Verres, Tedd's mother, Agent Wolf, and Ashley\|\|. - \|\|Seers, like Tedd, his half-brother, and Arthur, are a special kind of wizard with a Magic Wand making focus, have Aura Vision regarding magic, and decent Anti-Magic\|\|. - \|\|Of the latest arc, it appears that it is possible to make wizards artificially\|\|. - Homestuck: The main characters all have titles that determine what their powers are. These are composed of an Aspect, one of twelve fundamental forces of reality, and a Class, which determines how they will use their Aspect. The Mage is one of these Classes. Unfortunately, it's the Class we know the least about, so what they actually do with their Aspect is unknown. - Stand Still, Stay Silent: "Mage" is the term for any person living in the post-apocalypse that was born with magic, which only started happening after the end of the world. Broadly speaking, mages are divided into two categories, based on where they were born and what powers they have; - Finnish mages, or Noita, can command the elements through the power of nature spirits, gods and their own animal spirit, or luonto. They perform verbal spells called runo, and work on protecting the few Finnish communities that remain. Noita can also sense the souls of trolls and beasts, and guiding those souls to the afterlife is among their duties. Of the main characters, Lalli and Onni are finnish mages. - Icelandic mages, or Seiðkona (female) and Seiðkarl (male), can be born in both Iceland and Norway, though Norway lacks a formalized training institution, and their mages are trained in Iceland. They deal more in dream visions but can draw magical symbols known as galdrastafur that can be used for combat, to ward of dangerous creatures or as simple aid in everyday life. Icelandic mages attribute their magic to the gods Oðinn and Freyja. Among the main characters, Reynir is an Icelandic mage but lacks training. - Halfway through adventure I, Reynir and Onni encounter Pastor A\|\|nne, a Lutheran priest and old world mage. While she had no powers she knew of in life (possibly due to living before the apocalypse), she lingered on as a spirit even after her body had fully succumbed to the plague. In this state, she can effortlessly fend off the attacks of a hostile Mind Hive and guides them onwards to Heaven. She, of course, attributes this power to the guidance of her God.\|\| - Magic users in Amphibia are Chemists and Gadget Users, either making expendable spells by mixing together ingredients (like Maddie and Barry) or using magical artifacts (Valeriana). - Avatar: The Last Airbender: - Benders are a mix of Racial, Athletes, and Monks: Which element you could possibly bend is hereditary, and for example Aang's (Airbender) and Katara's (Waterbender) children, Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi, are an Airbender, a Waterbender, and formerly a non-bender respectively (the latter became an Airbender come Season 3). On the other hand, since Benders control the elements with physical movements, one's prowess in magic is also determined by the skill of one's master and the amount of basic form training. Lastly, to fully utilize the power of the elements, one needs to understand their philosophical nature (controlling earth can be difficult for someone who lacks determination, whereas wind requires certain flexibility and calmness of mind). - The Avatar (who can bend all four elements) is a special case in that they also have traces of Theurgist and Lottery Winner in them: The Avatar's power comes from the spirit of light, Raava, that inhabits their body, and the Avatar has all the knowledge and power of the previous generations of Avatars in their hands. Who gets to wield this power is chosen by Raava alone, so from the point of view of humans this is completely random. Apparently in the first series, the Avatar was the reincarnation of the planet's spirit, like a Gaia type entity without connotations of good or bad, and various official webpages (now lost) reflected this. - Mages in The Dragon Prince come in two varieties: - First, there are Dark Mages, who are a mix of Scholars and Chemists (Dark Magic spells require components to produce a desired effect). - The other is Primal Magic. While almost every creature (apart from humans) are born with a connection to a Primal Source — called an arcanum — Primal Mages primarily resemble Monks, in that they have to cultivate a deep mental and spiritual connection to their arcanum, learning to perform complex abilities such as crafting illusions, super-strength, or flight. Mages in Primal Magic are partially also Scholars (in that they have to learn the right runes and draconic words for each spell) as well as Athletes (they have to draw the rune in the air, and often need to physically exert themselves in order for the spell to work). Depending on the primal source, mages have different specialties. Moon mages are primarily illusionists, Sun mages are healers, and Sky mages tend to be acrobats and dancers. - In the animated TV version of Frosty the Snowman Frosty comes to life after a magic top hat is placed on his head. The previous owner of the hat is a bumbling magician who didn't realize the hat had actual magic and spends most of the show trying to get it back. - The Legend of Vox Machina has many fields covered by the title group: Keyleth is a Naturalist Druid, Scanlan is an Artist with Magic Music summons, and both Pike and Percy are Theurgists, the former a Religious Bruiser following the Everlight, the latter became a gunslinger (thus also qualifying as Gadget User) under influence of a dark spirit. - The Owl House: - Witches and bipedal demons are able to do magic thanks to an actual magic organ attached to their hearts. The bile in this organ helps fuel the casting of magic spells, with a major example being the use of spell circles (with the particular spell being cast being based on thought). - Luz stumbles across an older way of doing magic in the same episode that Eda explains this. It turns out that spell circles contain runes that represent the spell being cast but are only visible for a split second. Writing the rune down on any object and striking it will allow anyone to cast it, with the object usually destroyed in the process. It later turns out that this works because the Boiling Isles itself assists in fueling spells done this way, as \|\|attempting the same thing on Earth renders the inscribed object inert.\|\|	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMagesAreDifferent
Totally Not a Werewolf - TV Tropes She couldn't tell a coyote from a werewolf? That was like looking at a Geo Metro and calling it a Hum-Vee. When a Voluntary Shapeshifter's alternate form is mistaken for another monster by humans. The lore behind werewolves is myopic at best. Some werewolves are Voluntary Shapeshifters, others are Cursed or infected with Involuntary Shapeshifting. Thus, it's easy to assume that if you see any character working and living a human life by day, but running through the woods and howling at the moon by night, then you should at least pack a Silver Bullet in case you run into them during a full moon... right? WRONG. They're not that kind of werewolf. The Universe Bible defines the rules and requirements for being a "werewolf," and this individual doesn't fit the description of the creatures that bible ascribes the terminology to. But at least they'll forgive you—they must deal with this confusion all the time. Depending on the individual's demeanor, some may even play off the confusion. A subtrope of Our Werebeasts Are Different and Not Using the "Z" Word, where multiple kinds of werewolves exist in a work but the word "werewolf" itself is only used in-universe to refer to one specific variety. Contrast Not a Zombie (where a person refuses to acknowledge the existence of zombies when confronted with one) and Actually Not a Vampire (where a normal person is mistaken for a supernatural monster). If someone has to actually keep saying that they're "Totally Not A Werewolf", beware: They may also be Most Definitely Not a Villain, and one should consult Insistent Terminology (and possibly Suspiciously Specific Denial) for more details. Should the Voluntary Shapeshifter be mistaken for the monster by other members of its own species, this may be due to the romantic phenomenon of Attractive Bent Species. ## Examples of being mistaken for a werewolf: - The Marvel Universe has the mutant Wolfsbane from New Mutants, who had to be reassured she was not a werewolf, as they were considered to be demons where she was from and her wolf-like appearance caused her much self loathing. - The X-Men once fought an entire team of wolf-like mutants calling themselves the Dominant Species, and managed to stop them from forcefully recruiting a teenage mutant named Wolf Cub. Unsurprisingly, Wolfsbane ended up mentoring him at the Xavier School. - Spider-Man. John Jameson, J. Jonah Jameson's son, may occasionally turn into a ferocious Man-Wolf, but he's not a werewolf. He's a guy who found an alien gem on the moon that's supposed to turn the bearer into a lupine Physical God, but it doesn't work very well in our dimension, making him lose control. He's also explicitly not bothered by silver, as one Wrong Genre Savvy opponent found out the hard way. - Inverted on one occasion in Captain America, when Cap, in the process of searching for the missing John Jameson (who'd been working as his pilot), assumed reports about a wolf-man in rural New England were about John and went to find him. It turned out to be an entire town of actual werewolves, resulting in the notorious Cap-Wolf story. - Dusk in Dimensional Links can transform into a wolf by using his Cursed Stone at will. Practically everyone calls him a werewolf or says that he has lycanthropy, even though he points out that's wrong and he could literally have ended up with any other animal form. - Hiko in Vathara's Walk Through the Valley was mistaken for a werewolf by a member of La Résistance working with him at night because that's when he has Eye Colour Change change from blue to amber. He also possessed Absurdly Sharp Claws, which he used to tear apart the people who'd conquered Kwannon and their Mind Controlled collaborators, when he wasn't hacking them apart with a sword. Hiko wasn't a Forced Transformation victim or a Voluntary Shapeshifter, though; instead, he underwent a Metamorphosis into one of the more human-looking Catboys in fiction, leaving him with no tail or any visible changes to his ears. Oh, and werewolves were not said to be real in this universe. - In Turning Red, Priya initially thinks that Mei's giant red panda form means she's a werewolf and asks her bluntly if she is. - While the Animorphs are Voluntary Shapeshifters thanks to alien technology, in Megamorphs #3, they meet some German soldiers and can distinctly make out one calling Cassie a "werewolf." - On another occasion, she morphs into a wolf at an amusement park and gets seen mid-transformation. Fortunately, she happened to be in the park's haunted house, so the people just assumed it was All Part of the Show. - In The Twilight Saga, a local group of Magical Native Americans note : from the Quileute ethnic group, an actual Native community in Washington State (though they can't shapeshift in Real Life) can turn into wolves at will (or accidentally when under emotional stress), during which they keep their human minds. They're called "werewolves" through three different books, but near the end of the final one, Edward suddenly explains that they're actually "shape-shifters," while this world apparently includes actual "werewolves" who fit the modern perception (full moons, etc.) more closely. Arguably comes off as an Ass Pull, since this basically just makes it so that a werewolf-hating member of the Big Bad Duumvirate doesn't have an excuse to kill them all. - Mercy Thompson: The titular character is a walker, not a werewolf. Even if she does hang around with them a lot. - The Dresden Files has at least five completely different magical creatures that could be classified as "werewolves," not one of which works in horror movie fashion. Getting them mixed up can potentially be fatal. The trope is averted because they're all referred to as werewolves and there is no Insistent Terminology. - The unstoppably destructive loup-garou, a person cursed to turn into a wolflike demon. If you don't have its one, specific weakness handy, run. - Hexenwulfen, people using an addictive Artifact of Doom to turn into a wolf. Merely human when separated from the artifact, but beware Bad Powers, Bad People. Because of its druglike effects, even someone who starts out with the best of intentions doesn't stay that way long. - Lycanthropes, people who can channel animal spirits, including those of wolves, but don't actually transform. Badass Normal and crazy, but basically human. Not to be confused with the Real Life delusion that one is a werewolf. - Actual werewolves, magic-users who know only one single Voluntary Shapeshifting spell. More dangerous than a real wolf because they have a human's mind, but they don't have the self-control issues of the previous types. - At least one \|\|wolf who can turn into a human at will\|\|. - Wolf from the Wolf & Raven Shadowrun short stories was originally intended to be a werewolf, until the author was told that Weres in that Verse are animals who assume human form, not vice versa. The character was therefore re-written as a human physical adept with an intense — sometimes too intense — spiritual bond to the Wolf totem. - Divine Blood Novels: As one of the ridiculous questions she has to discuss with her opponent Eija Semezou is asked whether she prefers vampires or werewolves. She protests that the layman's terms are too vague for a response. Some of the local goths mistake Eija and Hel for various supernatural creatures. They're actually underestimating. - In Wolf in Shadow Rhian can transform into a wolf and people assume that she is a werewolf. Actually, her ability comes from an ancient Celtic brooch which is infused with the power of the sorceress/goddess Morgan le Fay who was the queen of shapeshifters. A character more familiar with supernatural matters concludes that this more closely resembles demonic possession and derives from ancient elf/fae magic. Werewolves are said to exist in that universe but their characteristics are not discussed. Ironically, a Totally Not a Vampire character assumes that she is a powerful witch who found a way to use wiccan magic to shapeshift. Totally Not Vampires are referred to as "suckers". While they feed on life energy contained in human blood and are damaged by sunlight, they are quite different from stereotypical fictional vampires. The people who have to fight them use insist on the name "sucker" to remind everyone of the differences. - Oddly inverted in A Wolf in the Soul. Greg fits the standard werewolf tropes a lot more than do the species of werewolves described in the mythology, of which he is not a member. - In Bruce Coville short story "Little Monsters," the protagonist finds little statuettes of monsters that turn out to be real creatures Taken for Granite. The one that looks like a werewolf, however, is actually their pet dog. During the full moon, he turns into a vaguely humanoid "wolf-man" creature. - Bligh from The Dogs objects to be called a werewolf, preferring to be thought of as a kind of "half-dog" (or "dawg," as he says it. The other characters that are changed into this form, Andrew and Cody, acquiesce to the title. Lampshaded when Stephen, Andrew's brother, asks them if they changed because of a full moon. \|\|(They didn't.)\|\| - In the Discworld novel Reaper Man, when newly-revived zombie Windle Poons is introduced to the Monster Mash of the Fresh Start Club, he assumes the hairy and wolf-like Brother Lupin is a werewolf. Lupin corrects him, he's a were man. Every full moon, some of his hair falls out and he starts walking on two legs. - Early on in An Unattractive Vampire, Amanda mistakes the ancient vampire Yulric Bile for a werewolf, and insists on this identification even after he's been shot with a silver bullet and spritzed with wolfbane to no effect; she only changes her mind when he transforms into a bat. It quickly becomes clear that current pop culture is so saturated with overly-attractive Anne Rice-style vampires that nobody knows quite what to make of Yulric, who Looks Like Orlok at the best of times. As a result, Yulric is often mistaken for just about anything other than a vampire, which becomes especially annoying to Yulric when mistake him for a mummy. modern vampires - Wolven: Protagonist Nat gets a new dog, Woody, who later transforms into a boy. Woody explains that he's a "Wolven," meaning that he's born with the ability to shapeshift (at first randomly, later more purposefully), while "werewolves" are born as humans before getting that ability by getting bitten by another werewolf. - This Is Not a Werewolf Story: Raul knows a magic formula to voluntarily change into a wolf. As the title suggests, he hates the term "werewolf," because in his mind that implies tropes that don't apply to him (like being a Wolf Man with no control over himself, the full moon thing, etc.) There are no "real" werewolves to compare him to, though we eventually learn that there are various other shapeshifters who turn into different animals. - The Cloak Society has Kirbie, who is often referred to as a "werewolf," though technically it's just that Animorphism is her power and "wolf" happened to be the first transformation that she got. She can also turn into a bird, with Lone Star theorizing that she'll get more forms as time goes on. She did find herself Involuntary Shapeshifting a lot when she was younger, though. - Played with but mostly averted in InCryptid. Waheela transform into giant wolflike monsters (or transform from that into human, depending on your point of view), but they are definitely not werewolves (for one thing, they're a separate species, and can't turn people by biting them), and aren't mistaken for werewolves (since the protagonists by and large know the difference). Actual werewolves (which appear in a later book) are caused by The Virus and can infect any mammal. - Happens all the time on Doctor Who, although it is possibly a subversion. The Doctor has admitted to making up some of the technobabble because they don't want to say "It's magic", so a "Lupine Wavelength Hamaevoform" fits the Not Using the "Z" Word aspect of this trope in "Tooth and Claw". - True Blood: \|\|Sam\|\|'s not a werewolf, he's a shifter, thank you very much. Werewolves genuinely exist—and yes, they're different. He's not a big fan of werecats either. - Supernatural introduced "skinwalkers", who can transform into wolves (or dogs, at least) and are distinct from the actual werewolves who do transform with the lunar cycle, but into humans with evil eyes and bad teeth. However, they do share a number of characteristics, including the ability to infect people by biting them, and an allergy to silver. Not very surprising, then, that the brothers thought they were hunting a werewolf when they started looking into the skinwalker. - Grimm has "Blutbaden" which are wolf-like Wesen; the term used to refer to creatures on the show. - In The Vampire Diaries, Tyler notices Caroline's abnormal strength and speed and accuses her of being a werewolf like he is. She laughs and reveals that she's a vampire instead. - In Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the 'werewolf' is their mentor, a Wolf Style master, whose energy was out of balance due to an attempt to rip the wolf spirit out of him by the Big Bad a few episodes prior. Once he gets better, he becomes a wolf-themed Ranger. (He wasn't the series' first "werewolf," but they were Not Using the "Z" Word back in Power Rangers Wild Force; Zen-Aku was called 'the wolf beast' until they knew his name.) - The main character, Maddy, of Wolfblood is very insistent that she, her family and Rhydian are not werewolves, they are Wolfbloods. - World of Darkness: Vampires, werewolves, Pooka changlings, Devourer demons and mages all had powers which could let them turn into wolves. So what happened if you put one of each on a stage to perform this trick in front of mortal witnesses? The vampire gets the expected mundane reaction (and the vampire Men In Black on his tail, most likely), the werewolf drives witnesses into hallucinations and denial, the changeling leaves all but the least banal of viewers remembering it as a vague dream, the demon won't be able to pull it off because the collective disbelief of the viewers blocks the use of the transformation and the mage explodes because the universe doesn't like people turning into wolves. - Chronicles of Darkness too. Changelings, Vampires, Prometheans, Sin-Eaters, and Mages can all access powers that allow them to turn into a wolf or other animal, in addition to the actual Werewolves. - Don't forget Changing Breeds; that book contained rules for werewolf-like transformations... including wolves. - Then Skinchangers reveals you also have Skin-Thieves, basically people who turn into wolves by wearing a wolf skin. They are no way related to true werewolves, who in fact usually despise them. - In Bloodborne, the Beasts in Yharnam are often being mistaken with Werewolves thanks to their furs and wolf-like appearance. \|\|They are, in truth, a hybrid species of various creatures infected by the blood of Great Ones distributed by the Healing Church, and some are Body of Bodies artifically created by the School Of Mensis for their rituals. They are more close to zombies rather than Werewolves.\|\| - In City of Heroes, the War Wolves of the Fifth Column and the Council were created through scientific means. They are immensely strong, and howl like wolves, but they aren't actually werewolves. - When the 2005 trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released, fans and reviewers quickly attached a 'werewolf' label to the depiction of Link being transformed into a wolf. Nintendo did respond saying that only the 'wolf' part was accurate; Link's transformation was revealed to be a Fisher Kingdom effect caused when Link is exposed to the Twilight Realm. - Quest for Glory IV has the gypsies, whom the superstitious townsfolk think are werewolves. Their leader laughs at the idea, saying "Cross my palm with silver; you'll not see me flinch!" The hero has some experience with this, having befriended a tribe of Leopardmen in the previous game. - Inverted in World of Warcraft with Worgen druids, who are actual Worgen, but can shapeshift into other animal forms through druidic spells unrelated to their natural lycanthropic abilities. - A dialogue option in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines allows you to mistake Beckett for a Werewolf in your first face-to-face meeting. He finds it funny. Unless you're a Gangrel; instead your character fanboys over his power and asks if he can teach you that discipline. - Lugh Beowulf from Witch on the Holy Night is a nature spirit who can transform into a golden wolf. He was discovered by a tribe of werewolves who saw him as a saviour who would revive their race. When they discovered that he was not a werewolf, he was ostracized and sold to Touko Aozaki. - Sorcery 101 distinguishes werewolves from wolf-demons, which are sort of the opposite: supernatural wolves that can assume a mostly-human form. - Spinnerette has a rather long arc starting out with both the heroes and the villains chasing something that appears to be a werewolf. The heroes end up catching a three headed guardian of the underworld. The villains run into an Eldritch Abomination the former was trying to hunt down. There wasn't a single werewolf involved in the story, unless we count one of the heroes. - Wilde Life has a main character, Cliff, who has been able to instantly change into a wolf for as long as he can remember; he can think and speak normally in both forms. Oscar asks if "werewolf" is the correct term, and Cliff admits that he has no idea, but that it's what he's always used. They keep saying "werewolf" even after learning that Cliff is technically an "animal person," and that not all of the others are wolves. - On a related note, Word of God says that Barbara's "kids" aren't animal people, they're normal dogs that she transforms with her own magic. - There are also the rougarou. In Real Life they're considered a variant of the werewolf legend note : The word is derived from "loup-garou," the French term for a werewolf, but the comic treats them as different from animal people. They're created through a curse, do lose their human minds, and they're stuck as monsters forever. - Techwolf of the Whateley Universe looks like a seven foot tall werewolf all the time. He's not. He's just under a curse. And Bloodwolf can transform into a werewolf shape because he's a mutant: he's an Avatar who has captured the spirit of the werewolf. However there are real werewolves out there. And Paige has been turned into a werecat. (Werecougar, specifically ) In fact, most of the local Native American tribe who own the land Whateley is on are were-folk of various kinds. There is also a wolf-were, Lupine (she is a wolf spirit who incarnated into a human body), who is also a mutant and hence a student at Whateley. ## Examples of being mistaken for other monsters: - Shaman King has Boris Tepes Dracula, a descendant of the original Dracula whose family use shaman powers to mimic vampires. Specifically he uses blood as a medium to channel bat spirits, forming a cloak which can split into bats. When he bites someone he absorbs more blood into the cloak while injecting some back in - since this blood is still under his control he can then use the victims as People Puppets. - Arystar Krory from D.Gray-Man is an Exorcist who unknowingly gained an Innocence that takes the form of fangs and compels him to drain the blood of Akuma. Since most of the Akuma he attacked were in human form, he thought he had become a vampire who was killing helpless humans. - In Soul Eater, witches are humans with the power to change into animals. Blair is an animal with the power to change into a human. It actually makes a huge difference, as Maka and Soul just needed Soul to eat one witch's soul to become a Deathscythe, but eating Blair's soul instead made them lose all the progress they'd made so far. - In Hellsing, the Major commands a legion of vampire Nazis. One would thus assume that he's a vampire, too. He's not; he had a chance for an Emergency Transformation, but saw surrendering his humanity as an intolerable show of weakness. He's still alive and young is because he's \|\|a cyborg\|\|, and thus, he says, merely a man who seems like a monster. Most would agree that he qualifies as a "monster" regardless. - The Marvel Universe has plenty of vampires. Morbius differs from the rest by his scientific origin (combined with DNA of a vampire bat), and the fact that he is very much a living being. How much this trope applies varies depends on the writer. - X-Men: Mutants frequently end up being mistaken for various supernatural creatures. For example, Nightcrawler may have a forked tail and his teleports smell of sulfur, but he's no demon. Storm and her tribe thought she was a goddess until Professor Xavier found her and explained what mutants were. The inverse happens as well, with anyone with super powers being mistaken for a mutant until their origin is known to the public. - In one arc in Fables, the characters' Masquerade is threatened by a journalist who, being Wrong Genre Savvy, assumes that their near-immortality means that they must be vampires. - DC comic The Movement had Christopher, AKA Burden, a young gay man whose extremely religious parents thought he was possessed, resulting in his emerging shapeshifting powers creating him a demon-looking alt form. It took a while before before he accepted the fact that neither his shapeshifting or his orientation made him possessed. - Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers: Rashid enters Anakaris' tomb believing it to be an alien ruin, and mistakes him for an alien despite him being actually a mummy. Donovan Baine also mistakes Akuma as just another Darkstalker, but he is just a superpowered human martial artist that looks demonic. - Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens are an angel and demon respectively, but in some fanfictions are mistaken for other supernatural beings. - In this Good Omens fanfiction, the demon Crowley is mistaken for several supernatural creatures. - In The Godfather of Soho, a pair of Irish mob bosses mistake Aziraphale not only for one of the Fair Folk, but as another mob boss. Their dad also figured that Crowley was an evil spirit of some sort, and in the sequels Crowley takes advantage of this by subtly implying that he's a Dullahan, just to mess with them. - Animorphs has at least three books where the protagonists, who turn into animals with alien technology, go to other parts of the world (the Amazon, Inuit territory and the Australian desert) and get mistaken for the local culture's version of shapeshifting spirits. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Shrieking Shack is said to haunted by violent ghosts, accounting for the banging sounds that have been heard by the villagers. It was actually the werewolf \|\|Remus Lupin\|\|, who as a student used the house to transform while he studied at Hogwarts. - Lumbanico The Cubic Planet: When the main characters see Aralia getting out of an oak tree and walking among the flower beds surrounding her house-tree, little girl Mela mistakes her for a fairy, and Aralia herself has to explain she is only a regular woman. - Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: Agathe is mistaken for a fairy for Ted when she flies through his bedroom's window wearing a winged suit. After some initial muddle (Ted addresses to her in English because he assumes fairies must come from Ireland, and Agathe, who does not speak English, nods to be polite), Agathe has to explain she is a regular human girl who happened to find a magical outfit. - In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy believes that a Demonic Dummy is killing people for their organs, as collecting them would allow him to become human. However, it turns out that the dummy is possessed by the ghost of a monster hunter and he's after the demon who's actually responsible. He thought that Buffy was the culprit when he saw her use her Super Strength. - In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the large majority of super-powered people were either Gifted people, the Avengers, and Inhumans. Because of this, when Ghost Rider is introduced in season 4 as the very first supernatural being of the show, people initially assume he is an Inhuman, and are sceptical when he insists he actually got his powers from a Deal with the Devil. - Doctor Who: There are any number of examples over the years of seemingly supernatural threats that turn out to be aliens, usually in historical episodes. In many cases, they are barely different, so much that it may qualify as a subverted Not Using the "Z" Word. Some highlights include: - "The Unquiet Dead" and "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" feature alien/futuristic threats mistaken for ghosts. (Though in the latter case, there may have been an actual ghost as well). - In "The Witchfinders", the Doctor herself, an alien, is mistaken for a witch, while in "The Shakespeare Code" another alien race (who essentially use a scientific form of witchcraft) become the inspiration for Shakespeare's witches from Macbeth. - Various so-called Vampires who turn out to be aliens appear in "Curse of Fenric", "Smith and Jones", "Vampires of Venice", "State of Decay", etc. - Olivia Moore, the protagonist from iZombie, justifies her ability to sense how people were killed by telling her partner she is a psychic. This is actually a lie to cover the much darker truth on the matter- she actually is a Zombie whose precognitive flashes are memories from the brains she eats at the morgue. - Supernatural: The monster in the black and white episode "Monster Movie" was actually a shapeshifter, but the boys kept confusing it for other monsters because it emulated all of them because of its love for the universal horror classics, to the point that it seemed like a straight-up Monster Mash before it turned out to just be the one monster. What clued them in that something was up is because its appearances didn't fit the "real" versions of the other monster species at all, such as a Classical Movie Vampire instead of the savage, but otherwise able to pass for human vampires they're used to (which ironically made witnesses identify it right away as a vampire). - The Twilight Zone (1985): In "The Little People of Killany Woods", Liam O'Shaughnessy claims that he has seen Leprechauns in Killany Woods. Mike Mulvaney later learns that they are three foot tall green aliens from a distant galaxy who enlisted Liam's help to repair their ship, which is shaped like a toadstool. - The World of Darkness has were- spiders, of all things, imitating vampires (helped by both being blood-drinkers). - Similarly, the Risen also pass themselves off as vampires. - Chronicles of Darkness: - This tends to happen pretty often in Hunter: The Vigil. Hunters are for the most part poorly informed about the supernatural, many of them have completely incorrect belief on it (The Malleus Maleficarum and the Long Night are both convinced every single supernatural creature is either a demon or connected to the Demons, and Les Mysteres believe them to all be connected to spirits), and there are plenty of monsters who don't even fit any of the established categories, so confusion between multiple types is common occurrence. - Slashers mentions that many particularly wild Mutants slashers are occasionally mistaken for demons or werewolves. - It doesn't help either that most supernatural species come themselves in a wide variety of subspecies, and an archetypal mythological monster can sometimes match the descriptions of several subspecies from different species at the same time. - Want werewolves? The Protean discipline, Beast Changelings, certain Prometheans and some Mages can all look like wolves. All these powers are different in nature and come from different sources. - Want Hot as Hell? Daeva, Fairest Changelings, some Spirits, Galateids, siren-like Beasts, and some demons. - Want a traditional devil? Aside from demons, you have the Luiferge (who are explicitly descended from demons, but not the ones ''The Descent is about), some Beasts, some Darkling changelings, the Maeljin spirits, Abyssal entities, and vampires can pull off a good impression if they need to. - Want a mummy? You don't even need Arisen- Osirians are basically mummy Prometheans. - Want vampires? Leechfinger Changelings, and some Ridden are possessed by blood-drinking spirits (leech spirits, for example). There's also several 'vampire-like' entities that still use Blood Potency and feed from humans (like Aswang and Kuei-jin), but have different powers and weaknesses. - Want mages? Forget the game about them, every splat has some form of ritual magic, though the specifics vary. - Heroes from Beast: The Primordial have a similar problem to Hunters; seeing how they usually have to learn about the supernatural from scraps, and the creatures they hunt, Beasts, can appear as any form of mythological monsters, many of them initially assume all supernaturals are Beasts. One of the Heroes provided in Conquering Heroes, Micheal Bellinger, occasionally hunts down supernaturals who turn out to be unrelated to the Begotten, usually causing him to leave disappointed in the middle of the fight. - Amusingly enough, fangame Dragon: The Embers has the Werewolves, of all people, being the one making this type of mistake. A frequent reason they end up fighting Dragons is because they mistake them either for spirit invaders or people possessed by them, both things they fight on regular basis. The game also mentions that more than once Hunters have mistaken a Dragon for a Vampire and tried to Kill It with Fire - a good tactic against Vampires, who burn like dry kindling, but just an annoyance to Dragons. - In other fangame Princess: The Hopeful, it's very common for Hunters to mistake Princesses for another kind of "witch". Hunter: The Vigil Dark and Light reveals its still subject to debate amongts hunters if they even are just another subtype of witch or another kind of supernatural being entirely. - An example can also be found on the antagonist lists for Princesses. Among the differents Creatures of the Darkness the Hopeful fight, there are two kinds, the Mnemosyne note : humans who lost their last shred of integrity while Darkened but didn't have their body warped enough to become mindless monsters and the Cataphractoi note : sentient Darkspawns born from the death of someone who crossed the Despair Event Horizon, who frequently get mixed up because they are both completely human-looking and capable of controlling lesser Darkspawns. Making such a mistake actually is quite dangerous, since a key difference between the two is that Mnemosyne are Squishy Wizards, while Cataphractoi have a very powerful One-Winged Angel form. - In other fangame Genius: The Transgression, one of the main reason Geniuses have a hard time dealing with supernaturals is because of this trope: Mania, the energy they get their power from, occasionally ends up creating beings called Manes, which are physical manifestations of discredited theories, and can occasionally give birth to strange creatures such as dinosaurs, nazi sorcerers, aliens and even a specific representation of angels and demons. Because of this, it is somewhat difficult for them to figure out which supernaturals are Manes, and which ones are entirely different creatures born from another source. - Similarly, because both Mages and Geniuses are human-looking supernaturals capable of bending the laws of physics and gaining their powers through a form of Enlightenment Superpowers, it's not unusual for Geniuses to mistake a recently awakened Mage for one of them, and for Mages to mistake a recently Inspired Genius for a Mage. The Scholastics and the Free Council have an agreement specifically created so they can exchange members should that sort of thing happen. - Here's a question for you: what's a demon? There are three separate answers. Mage: The Awakening has the defining entities of Pandemonium, which are essentially "philosophical" demons that torture sinners to absolve them of their sins. Demon: The Descent has the Unchained, who are defectors from the plans of the God-Machine. The sourcebook Inferno has the demons of the Inferno, who are classic tempter-and-corrupter demons (this last group may be the source of the Maeljin and are canonically the ancestors of the Lucifuge). None of these have anything in common with each other, powers- or purpose-wise. - A werebat from Ravenloft's Children of the Night: Werebeasts made a point of dressing and acting like a vampire to throw off potential monster-hunters. - Played for laughs in A Very Potter Sequel. While \|\|Remus Lupin\|\| is very obviously a werewolf, even more so than in Harry Potter canon, other characters who see his transformation call him everything from a zombie to a gremlin. - In Threads of Fate, when Rue transforms himself into a harmless Pollywog to sneak up on some bandits, the girl he rescues assumes that the Pollywog is his true form, and it takes a while for Rue to correct this mistaken first impression. - A frequent point of comedy (and irritation) for Lady Zozo in Code of Princess, who gets called a "zombie" by just about every bad guy she meets. She constantly has to remind them that she's Not a Zombie, but a necromancer. - Inverted in El Goonish Shive: Sarah (because of her own bitter experience) and Elliot assume that Grace's transformation is the result of some Tedd's experiments. Oops... Grace: What was it? The monster. Susan: It used to be human. Some people use magic to try and achieve immortality by turning themselves into parasites. The immortals call them aberrations, and... [beat] You know what? Screw it, it was a vampire. Grace: Really?! Sarah: A vampire?! Susan: No, not really, but it was a monster that used to be human, hypnotized young women and sucked blood out of their necks. It doesn't matter what I say, you two are going to hear 'vampire.'	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersAreDefined
Our Minotaurs Are Different - TV Tropes "'Moo'. Are you happy now?" Talking bulls or bull-men, especially those who stand on two feet (usually hooves, though not always). They tend to take strength- and toughness-based characteristics, often being either a Mighty Glacier or a Lightning Bruiser, but rarely a Fragile Speedster or Glass Cannon. They tend to wield axes, as a kind of ancient waraxe called the labrys was strongly associated with the Minotaur's legendary home of Crete, and no self-respecting labyrinth level is complete without one of these as a Boss Battle. They're mostly carnivorous and man-eating, despite having an herbivore's head, as the original Minotaur was explicitly a man-eater. Minotaurs are often savage, Always Chaotic Evil monsters. If they've given a more sympathetic portrayal, you can expect them to be Proud Warrior Race Guys. In this case their horns emphasize their barbaric nature. They are often included among the Standard Fantasy Races, typically as members of The Horde. Physically, minotaurs tend to be depicted as much bigger and stronger than humans. Besides having bull heads, many also have bovine hooves at the end of their legs. Notably, the mythical version was depicted as an otherwise normal human with the head of a bull. The concept of depicting minotaurs as having bovine hooves instead of human legs and feet is something that developed (or at least became prevalent) in modern fantasy fiction. This trope goes all the way back to the Gud-alim of Mesopotamian Mythology, so it's Older Than Dirt. The Greek myth of the man-eating Minotaur, specifically, was the Trope Maker in western culture, and has directly or indirectly inspired most of the examples below. The classical Minotaur of Greek, Etruscan and Roman myth was a unique figure instead of a whole species of beings — "Minotaur" was a title meaning "Bull of Minos", after the king who built the Labyrinth. Other than that, the Minotaur was either not given a name or, more rarely, was called "Asterion" or "Asterios". Some modern works that go for the single-individual interpretation sometimes use these names as well. Compare Brutish Bulls, as minotaurs are often portrayed as aggressive, violent or generally barbarous creatures. See also Horn Attack and Bullfight Boss. ## Examples: - 3×3 Eyes: During the second arc, a bull-headed, one-horned demon belonging to Zhou Gui's squad attacks Yakumo. Not only he can use a sword, but he also controls the fire Juuma Huo Zhao (Fire Claws), but is eventually slain by Yakumo's Tu Zhao (Earth Claws). - Berserk: The Apostle form of Nosferatu Zodd is a giant minotaur with a tiger's face and gigantic bat wings. - Bleach: Yylfordt Grantz, when he releases his Zanpakutō, Del Toro. It greatly enlarges his upper body and coats it in bone white armor, with massive shoulders and a horned helmet that's reminiscent of a bull's head. In this form, he starts walking on four legs, and his method of attacking involves skewering his opponents with his horns. - Buster Keel!: one of the Four Evils is the Ushi-Oni T-Ros (the T reads out loud as "Tau"), appearing as a towering, humanoid Holstein with red beard and a muscular body. While violent and not adverse at putting a potentially deadly brand on the servants of his organization, the Behemoth, he's A Father to His Men and an overall Noble Demon. His only asset is tremendous brute force, his only peculiar power lets him grow even stronger. - Digimon: - Minotaurmon is a peculiar creature resembling a standard, if boot-wearing, minotaur with a quake-producing machine on its left arm, but closer inspection shows that its skin is seemingly stitched together, has a prominent zipper on its chest and doesn't cover its chin, making it seem as though Minotaurmon is some other kind of hairless, bull-headed humanoid wearing a minotaur costume. - Vajramon, one of the twelve devas and representing the zodiacal Ox, is a centaurine being with a bull's body and a minotaur's torso and head. - Gyukimon combines this trope with Spider People, being a more centaurine take on the Gyuki of Japanese folklore. Its lower body is a giant venomous spider complete with a mouth, while the body of a purple humanoid ox sprouts from where the head would be. - Fairy Tail gives us Taurus, a Stellar Spirit of the Ecliptic Zodiac. Appears as a tall, muscular bull-man with spotted hair, a giant labrys axe and a perverted disposition. - Fullmetal Alchemist: Loa looks human, but is a chimera fused with a bull. He's an insanely strong hammer-wielder, but while pursuing someone, his teammates leave him behind because he can't keep up. - Heterogenia Linguistico: In the "Village of Death", Hakaba, Susuki, and the Lizard Folk Kashoo and Kekoo meet a minotaur named Mou (or that's the closest equivalent they can pronounce). He's a bit scary at first, but once they figure out how to communicate he proves to be a Gentle Giant. - Humanoid Monster Bem has one show up in the thirteenth episode, abducting humans working on a subway. - Inuyasha has the half-demon Gyu-oh. In contrast to the other half-demons, he looks like a pure human being during the day, and like a pure demon at night. In his demonic form he resembles a minotaur. He is also very strong, even for a half-demon. - Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Some of the monsters the adventurers have to face are Minotaurs. They are so powerful monsters that only experienced and powerful adventurers can reliably face them. The fact that the main protagonist Bell Cranel can later defeat a Minotaur illustrates how strong he has become in a short time. Later, the Minotaur that Bell defeated is reincarnated as a Xenos, gaining the ability to speak and the name Asterius, which is a derivative of the Minotaur of Crete's true name, and desires to face Bell in a rematch. - An episode of Lupin III: Part II involves the mysterious Minotaur buried on an island to act as a line of defense to one of Lupin's treasure stash... though despite looking like a massive bull man, it's real purpose was the ability to take the shape of anyone standing in front of them, with only the bovine tail giving away their identity. - Minotauros no Omoibito: Minotaurus is a powerful brown minotaur and the ruler of the forest. - Monster Girl Doctor: The anime adaptation opens with the main character, Dr. Glenn, giving a female Minotaur (Minobous?) an examination before telling her husband, also a Minotaur, that she's pregnant. The last episode of the series briefly shows the two of them walk-in down the street with their newborn baby in hand. - Minotauros' Plate, a Fujiko Fujio one-shot, revolves around a human astronaut who crash-landed on a planet inhabited by cow-people, it's master race. Humans do exist on their planet, \|\|as food stock\|\|. - Monster Musume: Male minotaurs show up after a while as background characters. They follow the classic appearance, but they're peaceful vegetarians and quite friendly. Female minotaurs, however, look much more human-like, having human faces with cow horns rather than full-on cow heads. They're a bit on the pushy side and rather standoffish but generally nice once they get to know you. - One Piece: - Minotauros, one of four demon guards in Impel Down. Actually some sort of zoan fruit user who awakened his fruit, as with the other Demon Guards.. - Earlier on in the series, the former Drum Kingdom guard captain Dalton used the Ox-Ox Fruit: Model Bison to become one of these. - Ranma ½: Pantyhose Tarou, whose cursed form is a two story-tall winged minotaur. With an eel for a tail. And octopus tentacles. You see, he was baptized and named in the Spring of Drowned Yeti Riding an Ox While Carrying a Crane and an Eel. Later, he splashed himself with water from the Spring of Drowned Octopus (neither the octopus' presence, nor the drowning, nor the method of application is ever explained) to get the tentacles. - One of the Specters of Hades in Saint Seiya is Minotaur Gordon, wearing the Minotaur Surplice: as expected has massive horns and comes equipped with the "Minotaurus Axe", a powerful karate-chop infused with Cosmo and compared to the axe carried by the Minotaur in fiction. Said attack is powerful enough to clash with the Excalibur, the sacred sword of Caprico. - Sgt. Frog features Giroro getting turned into a minotaur-like monster in one chapter. - YuYu Hakusho had a few of these as background demons. - Magic: The Gathering: Minotaurs are usually portrayed as Proud Warrior Race Guys. Hurloon Minotaur was an iconic creature in the early history of the game, but it wasn't actually a very good card. The creature type is sometimes also applied to humanoids with the heads of other bovids besides true bovines. - Minotaurs feature prominently in the Classical Mythology-inspired plane of Theros, where they're vicious and barely sapient monsters who worship Mogis, the God of Slaughter (who himself takes the shape of a colossal minotaur), and in the Egyptian Mythology-inspired Amonkhet, where they have ovine upper bodies instead, with the overall effect being reminiscent of the ram-headed Egyptian god Khnum. - The legendary creature Zendruu the Greathearted is a minotaur with the head of a kudu-like antelope. - The Ixalan and War of the Spark storylines include and give speaking lines to a minotaur named Angrath, who wields a metal chain that he swings like a whip and can make red-hot. - "Mystical Medleys: A Vintage Cartoon Tarot": Both "The Empress" and "King of Pentacles" are anthropomorphic bovines that, while not going full Informed Species, are still Pie-Eyed Cartoon Creatures with no joints whatsoever. - Yu-Gi-Oh! has the Battle Ox, one of Seto Kaiba's iconic cards in the anime, and literally called "Minotaurus" in the original Japanese. It can fuse with the centaur Mystic Horseman to become the Rabid Horseman and has a stronger counterpart, appropriately called the Enraged Battle Ox, which grants every Beast-Warrior piercing damage against Defense Position monsters. - De Argonautjes: Since the series is set in Ancient Greece, it was inevitable that the heroes would encounter the mythological Minotaur sooner or later, which happens in the story The labyrinth. - DC Comics: - Kingdom Come: One of the new superheroes is actually called "the Manotaur". He's got a really HUGE set of horns, and is surprisingly durable. - Legends of the Dead Earth: In the Supergirl Annual #1 story "Shootout at Ice Flats", the Nerfs, the native population of Bonechill IV, are a race of bovine humanoids. - Robin (1993): Brutus is an enforcer for Mr. Baptiste who spends most of his time transformed to look like a huge muscular man, but his true form is an even larger minotaur. - Wonder Woman: Diana has occasionally been seen encountering the, or at least a, Minotaur. - Wonder Woman (1942): The last of several monsters Circe sends to abduct Diana Prince is a Minotaur. Diana lets it think it had knocked her out in order to see who was giving him orders. - In Wonder Woman (1987) and Wonder Woman (Rebirth) she is friends with a large bull-headed chef at her embassy named Ferdinand, who prefers to be called a Kythotaur, as Kythira is where he's from. In Justice League (2018) he starts lending his cooking services to the League's cafeteria. - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones: In #17, Indy and Marion are confronted by a Minotaur wielding a massive club in the labyrinth beneath Knossos on Crete. It turn out to be a man in costume: part of a local Cult taking advantage of the legend. - Marvel Comics: - Daredevil: Man-Bull is a supervillain who was turned into a humanoid bull by after being used as a Human Guinea Pig for an experimental serum. He's later transformed into a fully fledged Minotaur and terrorises Greece before the Scarlet Witch gets involved and breaks the spell. He then tries to commit suicide, as he'd gone from a god to, in his view, a genetic freak. - Doctor Strange: Rintrah, who was Stephen Strange's apprentice for some time in the nineties, resembles a green minotaur. - Iron Man: Tony Stark once faced a human/bull hybrid, during the age he also met Midas and Madam Masque, in a trend of Greek foes for the Ironclad one. - The Mighty Thor has Bison, a supervillain who wears a minotaur-like bison costume. - More recently and more seriously, Thor has Dario Agger, CEO of Roxxon, who can transform into a Minotaur at will. This is noted by Malekith, when Agger explains his Dark and Troubled Past, to be the result of a bargain with a very old, very angry god. It also actually makes him less of a threat to Thor in many ways: as CEO of Roxxon, he has vast resources and is capable of subverting the law to advance his agenda, making him effectively untouchable. As the Minotaur, sure, he's as strong as the Hulk (at baseline). He's also a giant monster who has no idea how to actually fight, and who Thor can therefore beat the crap out of with ease and impunity. - He also becomes one of the primary villains of Immortal Hulk, being drawn as much more overtly as beastly. However, while he's in Minotaur form all the time — and a surprisingly sharp suit — seeing it as a reflection of his impunity following the fallout of the War of the Realms, he very sensibly doesn't try to fight the Hulk head on. - Ms. Marvel (2016): In Issue #38, when various characters are transparent to videogame-like areas, Bruno is found after having transformed into a shaggy minotaur with hoofed legs. - Transformers had two Decepticon characters in G1 that turned into mechanical bulls: Tantrum, one of the Predacons (who is unusual compared to other examples of this trope in that he's noted to be on the physically weak side) and Horri-Bull who really looks more like a Terror Dog than an actual bovine. - Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts: The Kudan from "The Cow Head" looks less like its traditional portrayal — a cow with a human face — and more like a minotaur. - Dave Made a Maze: Just like the Greek myth, Dave's (cardboard) labyrinth has its own (cardboard) minotaur. - Immortals subverts this despite being an adaptation of Theseus' myth. The Minotaur is not a human/bull hybrid, but in fact a freakishly large man with a bull helmet. - Minotaur: The titular monster is not a man-bull hybrid, but a ZOMBIE COW. - The Scorpion King: In The Scorpion King II: Rise of a Warrior, Mathayus and his companions encounter the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, which serves as entrance to the Underworld. - Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger had the Minaton, a giant bronze minotaur-shaped golem. - Time Bandits: Kevin accidentally helps King Agamemnon defeat a bull-headed warrior. It's not clear whether it's meant to be a real minotaur or just a guy wearing a bull's head mask, but the latter seems more likely since the scene doesn't take place in the Time of Legends. - Wrath of the Titans: Perseus fights a Minotaur in the Labyrinth. The Minotaur has a more human, yet deformed, face than the more common bull-headed depiction. - American Gods: In addition to several briefly-mentioned minotaurs, there's "the buffalo man", a man with the head of a bison who seems to be an Anthropomorphic Personification of America itself. - Book of Imaginary Beings discusses the Greek Minotaur, opining that, although a house designed to make visitors lose their way is more fantastical than a man with the head of a bull, the two things go well together and it makes sense that a monstrous building would be home to a monstrous creature. Borges also notes that bull-headed figures feature prominently in Minoan art, and speculates that the Greek myth is likely just a faded retelling of much more horrifying tales. - Books Of The Gods, by Fred Saberhagen, has Prince Asterion, son of the bearer of Zeus' Face and Pasiphae. Born an eunuch with dream powers, he primarily serves as an advisor and messenger to the heroes, although he's fearsomely strong. - Caeli Amur: A race of long-lived minotaurs saved the city of Caeli-Amur from an invasion and from then on have been held as near-sacred beings there. - The Chronicles of Narnia: Bull-centaurs or shedu may exist in Narnia. Regular minotaurs exist as well; they mostly feature in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as part of Jadis' army of monsters, although the Prince Caspian movie has a heroic badass one.) - Cordwainer Smith: One short story has B'dikkat, a humanoid bull-person, as a caretaker of the inmates on a prison planet. - Cretan Chronicles: Being a trilogy of novels based on the myth of Thesus, specifically revolving around Thesus' fictional brother, Altheus, it goes without saying that the Minotaur is a major antagonist in the books. - Deepest Blue: Minotaurs are an alien race. They mostly look like the typical minotaur except for an equine shaped head (which however has horns and bovine ears), are atypically, herbivores and while very territorial and stubborn are not evil. - In The Divine Comedy, the Minotaur guards the entrance to Hell's Circle for the Violent. He is depicted as wrathful and savage enough to attack himself upon seeing someone trespass on his domain. Curiously, this version is often depicted in art as a bull-headed centaur instead of the tradition bull-man. - Fablehaven briefly features a huge shedu-style creature (see below) called a Lammasu. They also have traditional minotaurs. - Fengshen Yanyi: Jin Dasheng is a monstrous warrior whose real form is that of a massive water buffalo: in human form he's humanoid but bull-like, with pointy ears, horns on his head and curled lips. In some depictions he's even more bovine-looking and his special technique has him spitting a bezoar from his stomach at great speed. Notably, he's the only other character in the novel wielding the exact same weapon as Yang Jian/Erlang (a straight, double-edged three-pointed glaive). - In Helen And Troys Epic Road Quest, by A. Lee Martinez, Helen was born with minotaurism, an hereditary condition that runs in her mother's otherwise-human family. Five thousand years ago she'd likely have died fighting heroes in an arena; today, she has to muddle through suburban life with horns, hooves, and an embarrassing propensity to shed brown-and-white fur. - The House of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges retells the Minotaur legend from the monster's perspective. - House of Leaves has numerous references to Greek mythology, including the Minotaur. The book has mythological references printed in red, and passages which are, to some degree, threatening to the reader are also struck out. Minotaur may or may not be struck out, depending on if it's in one of the aforementioned mythological references. - The Immortals: The Tauros are a One-Gender Race that exists only to rape and kill human women. In this series, immortals are created from human dreams and fears, and the Tauros was borne of women's fear of rape. Daine notes that it doesn't have any choice in what it is and tries to petition the gods to help them, but because of the nature of Immortals, Tauroses will exist as long as women fear rape. - Journey to the West features two important bull demons: one is the "Special Guest", a large and fat man who's actually a zebu demon, while the other is the famous Bull Demon King, former buddy of Sun Wukong and one of his strongest opponents, usually represented as a gigantic minotaur or a bull-like humanoid. - The Laundry Files: - Minotaurism is the result of a certain type of extradimensional entity residing in the subject, causing increased testosterone production and horn-like bone outgrowths. The victims tend to seek seclusion in order to deal with the pain and physical and mental changes. - There is also "Man-Bull", a man who, when the barriers of physical reality begin to deteriorate, finds himself waking up with super-strength and a bull's head. He's a pretty affable type, but he is also dumber than a bag of wet mice. - The Minotaur Trilogy by Thomas Burnett Swann: Silver Bells and his son Eunostos subvert the usual Dumb Muscle stereotypes of this trope, as they have at least as much brains as brawn. However, their heads are also more human-looking than the classical minotaur (basically they're more like bovine versions of Satyrs). - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: - The Minotaur appears, of course. Amusingly, this isn't in book four (wherein the characters end up in the actual Labyrinth), although he is mentioned by name a few times, but the very first book, possibly because he's one of the creatures in Classical Mythology most people know about/remember. Also amusingly, he is both easily dodged (because once he gets up a head of steam he can't stop or turn aside) and easily fooled (because of his lack of intelligence and Hot-Blooded nature). He reappears in book five, as monsters come back to life eventually due to their immortal nature. - Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes retells the original Minotaur legend, and gives the Minotaur, named Asterion, a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal — as the story notes, the Minotaur began life as an innocent infant who was imprisoned at birth for something he had no control over and left alone in a mazelike building to become, essentially, a perpetually starving feral child. - Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Cookies and Campers mentions minotaurs in the prologue, and such a character, Renon of Bezon-Bron appears as the illustration before "Day 1 (Saturday)". - Rose Madder: Both a minotaur-type creature (oddly named Erinyes, and blind) and a rubber Ferdinand the Bull mask figure in the plot. - Sirena: When Philoctetes tells Sirena the story of Theseus and the minotaur, the heroine constantly interrupts him with Fridge Logic questions, such as why would a creature that was half-human and half-bull (an herbivore) eat human flesh, and how could he survive by being fed only once a year? - Thursday Next: In The Well of Lost Plots, a murderous Minotaur escapes and wreaks havoc throughout the books of the Book World. He goes by the alias Norman Johnson, and in the following book Something Rotten he is hit with a Slapstick marker so that they can track him through Fiction. No one in the books he enters seems to notice he's a Minotaur. - The Wandering Inn: Calruz, the adventurer, is a minotaur with the typical axe in hand, who prefers to use brawn over brain. Later, Venaz, a minotaur [Strategist], is introduced who prefers to use both brawns and brains. - Warriors Circle: A genetically engineered minotaur appears in the third book. He's a nice guy normally, but he's been built to go into a murderous sexual frenzy periodically, inflamed by the smell of a virgin. Murderous because, well, he's hung like a bull. - American Horror Story: Coven: A horrifying example occurs in the first episode when Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a nineteenth-century Historical Domain Character from Louisiana who keeps tortured slaves in the basement of her mansion, talks about how the Minotaur has always been her favorite element in Greek mythology... and the camera reveals that she's made one by grafting a bull's head onto a human man. The Minotaur later turns out to be immortal, and becomes a recurring antagonist in the present day. - Kamen Rider: - MythQuest: The pilot episode features the protagonist taking the place of Theseus. Naturally, he meets the Minotaur. - Super Sentai and Power Rangers have featured numerous bull-themed Rangers over the years, which for whichever reason have all been either Green or Black Rangers. - In Ultraman Ace, the monster Cowra is based off the Minotaur. It is actually a Forced Transformation that Was Once a Man, and rather than killing Cowra, Ace simply turns it back to a man. - David Bowie: The "Artist/Minotaur" is part of the dramatis personae on the Concept Album Outside. He may or may not have killed Baby Grace and is represented by dark songs "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)" and "Wishful Beginnings". - Lordi: OX, the bassist, is a skeletal "bulltaur". - Radiohead: The creature in the logo for Amnesiac is referred to as the "Minotaur", even though it doesn't really resemble a bull. - Chinese Mythology: Ox Head is a minotaur-like monster who, alongside Horse Face, serves as a lackey in the Hells. They're not malevolent though - they escort the newly dead to the Underworld, and also act as messengers for Yanluo Wang. They're commonly known in Japan as Gozu and Mezu. - Classical Mythology: The Minotaur, the Trope Maker. Its origins in some versions are about as squicky as you'd imagine (in others, it's just Minos' pet monster): Pasiphaë, the wife of Cretan king Minos, had been cursed to fall in love with a white bull, given to the king by the Gods (specifically because Minos had promised to sacrifice it to Poseidon, then backed out when he decided he liked it). To cut a long and darkly comical story short, Minos locked the resulting abomination up in an underground labyrinth. Minos demanded an annual tribute of seven youths and seven maidens from Athens (which owed a debt to Crete at the time) to feed to the monster. The Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus, with help from Minos' daughter Ariadne. Just to add to the Squick: \|\|a 1967 excavation showed there were, at the real palace at Knossos, bones of children. The knife marks on the bones indicate the children were butchered and eaten, presumably by the people there. A monster in the palace, indeed.\|\| "Minotaur" wasn't a proper name, but rather a title meaning "Minos' Bull" — "Mī́nōos Taûros" in Greek, "Mīnōis Taurus" in Latin. Some versions of the myth give its name as being Asterion; according to the historian Pausanias, use of this name was particularly commonly in Crete. - Mesopotamian Mythology: - The bull man — part-man, part-bull — was a demon from Mesopotamian mythology. - The Sumerian Shedu were depicted as bulls with human heads. - The Ushi Oni (Ox Ogre/Demon) Yōkai from the Japanese legends may sometimes rarely be described as an an ox-headed kimono-clad human; more commonly seen, however, is the version from the coasts of Western Japan, which is a Giant Spider with an ox's head. - WWE: The WWF had Mantaur. Somehow, mankind survived anyway. Torito, his successor in the WWE, has simliar impact. - 13th Age: Minotaurs are unholy monstrosities driven by bestial bloodlust. At their best, they prowl the underworld, seeking fresh blood. At their worst, they enter the service of unholy cults devoted to human sacrifice. - Banestorm: Minotaurs look like outsize humans with bull heads, but eat other sapient species and are extremely violent Blood Knights who often go berserk in combat. Some, however, manage to overcome their brutal nature towards other lifeforms enough to instead turn Psycho for Hire. They're among the numerous species that originated on another world and were carried to Yrth by the Banestorm; they specifically come from Loren'dil, which they shared with the centaurs, giants and halflings. - Dungeons & Dragons has had minotaurs and a number of minotaur variants across multiple editions and histories. - When first introduced, minotaurs were an Always Male One-Gender Race created by magical curses, in much the vein of the mythical minotaur. They were savage, brutish flesh-eating monsters. This was slowly modified; they started becoming a true-breeding race by 2nd edition, and were a fully functioning race (just evil and savage) in 3rd edition. Like orcs and goblinoids, despite being evil, they also slowly came more into the limelight as a playable race. - D&D is also home to Baphomet, the Demon Prince of Beasts. Typically taking the appearance of a giant, demonic minotaur, Baphomet is worshiped by them (as well as by ogres and giants in D&D settings other than Dragonlance) as their racial patron god, in a manner similar to gnolls and Yeenoghu. The similarity is even subtly called upon by the two Demon Princes, and their respective races, loathing each other and wanting to war with each other. - Goristros are massive demons that resemble fiendish minotaurs. note : Although earlier editions depicted them as hybrids of bison, gorillas, and bears. They're Baphomet's preferred demonic servants and sometimes seem in the armies of other demon lords as living siege engines. - The connection between minotaurs and Baphomet is taken to its logical conclusion with Baphitaurs, a race introduced in 3rd edition material for the Forgotten Realms; these are a race of minotaurs with fiendish blood, usually connected to the minotaur-like bovine demons called goristros and ghours. They're essentially the minotaur equivalent of tieflings. - Al-Qadim: The Yakmen, or Yikaria as they call themselves, are a race of malevolent humanoid yaks who possess powerful innate magic, and can even enslave genies. - Dragonlance includes minotaurs as a fairly civilized, if not always nice, Proud Warrior Race, which may have inspired 4e to make them a playable race in general. It definitely is the reason they are playable in 5e. - Mystara has Enduks — winged minotaurs with a Mesopotamian civilization. Unlike other minotaurs, especially during the time period when they appeared, they are a highly civilized and benevolent race, even after being driven from their former cities by the treachery of the Scorpion People. The wingless, savage sort of minotaur are implied to be an Immortal-cursed offshoot of the Enduks. - Nentir Vale has minotaurs as a race created by Baphomet when he was a Primordial. After Baphomet was driven into the Abyss, they were adopted by the gods Moradin note : God of Crafting and Erathis, note : Goddess of Civilization who made them into one of the world's first great civilizations. Unfortunately, Baphomet Came Back Strong as a Demon Prince and used his spiritual connection to the minotaurs as a whole to corrupt a significant portion of the race so thoroughly that the gods Melora note : Goddess of Nature and Kord note : God of War destroyed their empire by sinking their homeland beneath the sea, Atlantis style. The minotaurs have been a fractured race ever since; some embrace Baphomet's savagery and seek to bring the world under his thrall, others preserve their civilization and use strict philosophical paths to shield themselves from Baphomet's influence. - In the 3rd party setting Odyssey of the Dragonlords, for D&D 5th edition, minotaurs descend from humans cursed by the cruel god Sydon, who transformed their whole city-state into cattle and yoked them to plows that they were cursed to pull until the yokes finally broke. The result is that minotaurs bear a true for that mingles human and bull to various degrees, and they can also transform into bulls at will. - Another 3rd party setting, Arkadia, has two kinds of minotaurs in it. Those of the mainland are savage, bestial Fey creatures. Those of the island of Kinos are a civilized people who still inhabit the ruins of the empire they once shared with the native dwarves. - In Seas of Vodari, another 3rd party setting, minotaurs have a background that combines elements of the Nentir Vale and Dragonlance versions; they were created as slave-soldiers by a powerful demon, which abandoned them during the mighty divine conflict that sank most of the world beneath the waves. They have since become a race of seafaring traders, mercenaries and pirates. - In the 3rd party setting Wagadu Chronicles we have the Swala, which are essentially Anthelope minotaurs. - One oddity about "standard" D&D minotaurs is that they have an innate sense of direction that makes it impossible for them to get lost even in the most complicated mazes. While obviously intended to maintain the link between the classical minotaur and the Labyrinth, it's kind of the exact opposite of why the Labyrinth existed. - Exalted: - One of the signature Lunar Exalted is Strength of Many. Since his Spirit Totem is a bull, his war form greatly resembles a minotaur. His Tell is having the hooves of a bull for feet. - One of the setting's most commonly featured secondary gods is Ahlat, the southern god of war and cattle and patron of the kingdom of Harborhead. His favored form is that of a towering, dark-skinned human with the head and legs of an aurochs. - Arctic demitaurs are creatures with taurine heads, humanoid bodies and horses' hooves. They're highly territorial, and any intrusion into a herd's territory will send it on a maddened rampage until it finds a new suitable home. - The Laundry: The Mythos Dossiers brings its own take on the minotaur in the form of Asterion Snarl. It's not an actual intermingling of man and bull so much as possession by a low-grade demon that results in increased bulk, monstrous rage, bone-like growths from the head, and a penchant to wander around labyrinthine structures. It's possible for the minotaurs to reproduce, however, resulting in a child that doesn't lack in size and easily makes up for its parent in mental stability. - The Madness Dossier: The horrific Anunnakku created a number of species as servitors (including humanity, but we got away and they want us back); the kusarikku, or bull-men, are the heavy assault troops in Anunnakku forces. This is an explicit reference to Mesopotamian Mythology — see the entry above. - Mutants & Masterminds: Freedom City has Taurus, who in addition to being the original Minotaur, has prospered quite well since his days of being locked up in the Labyrinth on Crete. Now, he runs another sort of Labyrinth, a criminal organization operating behind so many shell companies that few individuals get a glimpse of the whole thing. - Noumenon: The Minotaur is a horned beast who walks on powerful legs and hooves and slouches its way through the labyrinth that is the Silhouette Rouge. - Palladium Fantasy adds minotaurs as a playable R.C.C. in the Old Ones sourcebook. - Pathfinder: - Minotaurs are savage bull-headed and -hooved humanoids who inhabit labyrinths and mazelike caves. Many live in the mountains of the Isle of Kortos, where they came as part of a monstrous army alongside centaurs and harpies. They worship Baphomet, who was originally bull-headed as well before adopting his current goat-headed form, and who lives in an inescapable country-sized maze in the Abyss. - Labyrinth minotaurs are outsiders from the Abyss created by Baphomet from the souls of the first minotaurs, and resemble hulking specimens of the regular breed clad in bronze masks. They inhabit and guard Baphomet's Abyssal realm, the Ivory Labyrinth, and on those occasions where they meet without violence typically greet each other by offering and answering riddles and logic puzzles. - The third-party supplement In the Company of Minotaurs offers them as a playable race. They can (and culturally have to) breed true from human, dwarf, orc or giant women. They are not a One-Gender Race, but not for lack of trying: due to a curse mentioned in their origin story, minotaurs try to drown females as soon as they are born. However, many mothers (and just as many fathers) have arranged to spirit their daughters away and/or fake their deaths, meaning female minotaurs exist outside of minotaur lands. This has also led to the sort-of half-breeds known as meretaurs, sort of a Cute Monster Girl version of the minotaur, who have less-bovine faces (some can even pass for their mother's race) and only two of the three "sacred" taurian features (horns, hooves, and tail). Most (90%) of females are born meretaurs, but full-blooded female minotaurs and male meretaurs do exist. - Scion introduces Minotaurs as a Demigod-level threat (and potential followers)... and makes their origin even more squicktastic, by virtue of making Poseidon even more of a Jerkass than Classical Mythology normally makes its gods! In the most common version of the myth, Poseidon cursed Pasiphaë to fall in lust with the White Bull after King Minos tried to cheat his way out of giving it back to Poseidon. In Scion, the White Bull's first act upon emerging from the sea was to rape Pasiphaë, then rampage across Crete raping any woman it could catch! King Minos couldn't do anything to stop the creature as, while Poseidon took no interest in what it was doing, he knew that harming it would draw the Sea God's wrath — the only relief came to Crete when Heracles came and carried the White Bull off as one of his labors. In its wake, it left a considerable brood of Minotaurs, which are still a One-Gender Race that procreates by raping human women. - Shadowrun: There are actually two forms of minotaur. - The standard kind are a troll variant (trolls in this game are technically a Human Subspecies with a heavy build and horns) that are more symmetrical (and thus less ugly) than normal trolls, with only two horns. - The second kind, the "wild minotaur", is a wild bull awakened by natural occurring magic into an incredibly powerful form that can rise up on its hind legs and grab things with its tripartite front hooves. Despite its herbivorous ancestry, the wild minotaur is an aggressive carnivore with a taste for human flesh. - Starfinder gives us the Nuar, bull-headed humanoids who claim to be of a distinct species from common minotaurs and trace their lineage back to Lost Golarion. Outside of Absalom Station, they're seen on exploration vessels and far-flung colonies given their technical and research expertise alongside their physical prowess. - The Strange: The singular half-man, half-bull Minotaur (there's no other) is the most famous inhabitant of the Labyrinth, a recursion seeded by the original Greek myth. - Trail of Cthulhu: In the Dreamhounds of Paris campaign frame, savage bull-men roam the Dreamlands, albeit in low numbers. - Warhammer: - The beastmen include minotaurs in their ranks, as well as their heavily mutated variants, the gigantic Ghorgons with an extra pair of arms ending in bone blades and the one-eyed Cygors whose mere presence disrupts and prevents magic casting. Regular minotaurs are powerful, dangerous monsters given to berserker rages at the mere smell of blood, and are often used by the powers of Chaos and their servants as guards for shrines, tombs and other such sites. - Regular beastmen can also have the heads of cattle instead of the more iconic caprine or ovine variants; these beastmen, known as bovigors, are distinguished from true minotaurs by their smaller size, as minotaurs are much larger than regular beastmen, and by lacking the minotaurs' insane aggressiveness — bovigors are still as violent and aggressive as any other beastman, but minotaurs are berserk killing machines even by beastman standards. - The World of Darkness: - Werewolf: The Apocalypse: - The Apis are an extinct Changing Breed, who before their extinction were a race of were-aurochs whose task was matchmaking to ensure successful bloodlines of shifters. Sadly, they were wiped out in the massive wave of werewolf jackassery known as the War of Rage. The Minotaur was the last of their kind. - A spirit of Minotaur also shows up in the line. The connections between the spirit and the Apis are unclear, but if there are any ties, they've obviously been warped, as Minotaur serves as the patron to the Skin Dancers (a small movement of werewolf-blooded humans who become true shifters by killing their Garou cousins and performing blasphemous rituals using their skins). - Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Apis' heirs, the Baal-Hadad (alternatively, "Gudthabak"), are much less nice. They are a race of Helios (sun-spirit) worshippers who are convinced it is their purpose to rule over humans as "lords of the herd" and who only reproduce by magically transforming wolf-blooded humans into their own kind. - The Women of Trachis, one of Sophocles' tragedies, has Hercules' wife Deianira speak of the spirit of the Acheloüs River who appeared to her as a bull, a great water serpent, and finally as "a man's body but a bull's face, and from his clump of beard whole torrents of water splashed like a fountain." - Academagia: Minotaurs are one of the non-human intelligent species of Elumia. While civilized and not innately hostile, they apparently tend to keep to themselves and don't normally mix with humans or other species. One notable exception to this seclusion is Gorithnak, Academagia's Master Smith and head of The Grand Forge. Although he isn't portrayed as particularly gregarious either... - ActRaiser: The final boss of the first land is named Minotaurus, no guesses as to what he is. - Age of Mythology has minotaurs as trainable units if you chose to worship Athena in the classical age: they carry large axes and their special attack can gore a single unit and send it fly. The campaign also features Kamos, a minotaur pirate leader with a sword for a hand, as one of your enemies. - In the Playstation remake of Altered Beast, the penultimate Genome Cyborg form you can obtain is the Minotaur, which you must get from the Balrog boss (a fire-breathing giant bat). The Minotaur form can only attack by horns or by spitting fire, but he also possess a nigh-unstoppable charge attack and can briefly turn into iron to block even enemies or obstacles larger than itself. - Akuji the Heartless has half-Minotaur demons, Minotaurs with only the upper halves of their bodies, who can float around while pursuing the titular hero with heavy axes. They serve the role of Giant Mooks late into the game. - Battleborn: Thralls are a Slave Race of minotaur demon-like altered beasts. - Blue Dragon: Jiro's shadow is a Minotaur, although he's also the brains of the team \|\|(that is, at least before Zola joins the party)\|\|, has a smooth voice and tends to fight better as a back-row mage. - Brawlhalla: Teros is an interesting case in that, despite having the strength and viciousness expected from a minotaur, he's not really evil and, at most, works as a henchman-for-hire since that's an easy work to find. He does have some disdain for adventurers and their tendency of seeing everything only as "Heroes vs Monsters", which is one of the reasons he's willing to do that work. - Castlevania: First appeared as a boss in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the Minotaur has been hanging around the franchise as a boss for a while now. - City of Heroes: Minotaurs appear as boss enemies. You'll find them in Cimerora, which is loosely based on Rome and it's mythology. Thanks to the Animal Pack, players can make one of their own, complete with Beast Run. - The Crystal of Kings have two fearsome, carnivorous Minotaur monsters serving as a Dual Boss. The first of the two is encountered in the middle of his meal, where he's gnawing a leg of roast (to reiterate, the Minotaur is based on a cow. Cannibalism?) until you interrupt him, at which point he flings his meal aside and calls his partner. - Dark Adventure: Oddly enough, this fantasy-themed game turns Minotaurs into extremely weak, pathethic enemies, with green Minotaurs as The Goomba who dies in a couple of hits. The game later throws stronger blue or purple minotaurs around in later stages. - Dark Souls gives us the Taurus Demon, along with the non-bovine but very much minotaur-inspired Capra Demon. They appear as early game bosses and come back much later as DegradedBosses. - Dark Souls II invoked but subverted by the Iron Warriors of the Old Iron King (whose domain has a strong bull iconography): these gigantic, lumbering warriors were supposed to wear a custom helmet (which you can find) shaped like a bull's head and thus giving them the form of a giant ironclad minotaur, but they lack such an helm as enemies. In the proper game, the giant idol of Eygil found in the Iron Keep is shaped like a minotaur. - Dead by Daylight's Oni Killer can have his model replaced with a minotaur by equipping an Ultra Rare skin. - Defense of the Ancients: Barathrum the Spirit Breaker is a minotaur-like Lightning Bruiser whose playstyle is largely based around charging across the map at high speeds and stunning other heroes, and actually does more damage the faster he is. He actually is a tauren in the original DotA, but in Dota 2 he's an extradimensional being who deliberately chose to be a Load of Bull because he thinks it fits his strength and speed. The game also includes a character who is known as "Tauren Chieftain" in the original game, but "Elder Titan" in the sequel, who is also a strength-based hero but is based mostly around long-ranged spell casting (but at least retain some horn-ish design to look a little more similar to the original). Also, another strength-based hero Earthshaker was a Tauren in the original Dota, but changed to a gorilla-like creature for Dota 2. - Diablo: - Diablo II: - In Lord of Destruction, there are some enormous minotaur-like demons in Act V, called [Descriptor] Lords. For some reason, bull-demons are all named for the Clans of goatfolk from Act I and Act II — Moon Clan/Lord, Blood Clan/Lord, etc. - The Hell Bovines from the Secret Cow Level are bipedal cattle who wield polearms. - In Diablo III Infernal Bovines appear in a rare Rift and during a special event. - Doom: Anything in the Baron family (namely Barons of Hell, Hell Knights, Cyberdemons, Skulltag's mod-exclusive Belphegors, possibly even the Baphomet itself \|\|unless you clip through his face and find John Romero's head; then he's just a wall sprite with attitude\|\|) all base themselves off minotaurs. The 3D versions? Eh... Our Cyberdemons Are Sissier. While far more bloated and chubby, Pain Elementals share the Baron's bull horns, even bearing stubby, useless little arms as well. An evolution / degradation to the Baron genus? - Dinosaurs For Hire have a boss, Mega Minotaur, which is a kaiju-sized robot Minotaur which you fought atop the Empire State Building, "King Kong" Climb-style. - Dragon's Crown: The Bilbaron Subterranean Fortress has a Minotaur whom has made its lair in the sewers, acting as the stage boss of the A Route. - Dwarf Fortress: Minotaurs will sometimes attack your Fortress and can be found in Labyrinths in Adventure Mode, where they will taunt you with the ways they plan on devouring you. They are less than a tenth the size of any other semi-megabeast, but more than make up for it by naturally being experts with all melee weapons. - The Elder Scrolls: - The series' backstory includes Morihaus, an Aedric demi-god who aided the Alessian Revolt against their Ayleid masters. Morihaus took the form of a massive "winged man-bull" with a favored fighting style of goring enemies with his horns. Morihaus fell in love with Alessia, the human "slave queen", and remained with her for the rest of her life. What happened to Morihaus after her death is unknown. - Minotaurs, a massive race of half-man/half-bulls, are are believed to descend from the union between Alessia and Morihaus. They are believed to be a sapient beast race, but are treated as little better than monsters by most other denizens of Tamriel. Alessia's son, Belharza, was said to be the first Minotaur, and became the second Emperor of the Alessian Empire following her death. - Eternal Card Game has banker minotaurs. - Fantasy Quest pits you against one, hand to hand, in a volcano. - Fate/Grand Order: - The Minotaur himself is a summonable Servant as a Berserker-class Servant, with his Noble Phantasm being the labyrinth he was trapped in most of his life. He's mostly referred to by the protagonist and his closest friends by his real name Asterios (lightning) and he's actually a pretty nice and loyal guy by Berserker standards. Also, while he does have the horns, his face is actually humanoid though usually covered by a metal mask in the shape of a bull. He deeply regretted killing the children that his foster father Minos sacrificed to him and welcomed his death at Theseus' hands. Before they fought, Theseus talked to him and was appalled to learn that Asterios was essentially an innocent child forced to kill to avoid starving to death. Theseus regretfully slew him as a Mercy Kill, and they considered each other friends as he died. As a Servant, he becomes happy to finally be free of the labyrinth and develops a romance with Euryale. - In the first Lostbelt story, "Permafrost Empire, Anastasia", the heroes run into an Alternate Self of Asterios who embraced his feral nature and enjoys killing and eating people. He is referred to as Minotauros and is nothing but a mindless killing machine. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy VIII has Sacred and Minotaur, a pair of brothers who start out as bosses, and then become the Brothers Guardian Force, working on your side. They are fought inside a tomb that has practically identical corridors, and a map that costs a bit of money early on in the game, making it easy to get lost. - Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: A minotaur disguises itself as a tree and infects Kaeli (one of the hero's traveling partners) with poison. - Gauntlet Legends has a bonus version of the Warrior modeled after a minotaur and with higher stats. - Gems of War: The Wild Plains region is home to minotaurs (specifically the Tauros and Soothsayer troops). They live next door to the land of the centaurs, and across a strait from the land of the cat-people, so that part of the world seems to belong to animal-inspired creatures. - Goblin Sword: A minotaur serves as the first boss. He attacks by charging back and forth across the arena, then punching the ground, causing three stalagmites to shoot up. - God of War features several Minotaurs as Giant Mooks and pits Kratos against a gigantic armored minotaur demon zombie who is on fire as a level boss. Early games Minotaurs tended to be more monstrous and less bull-like, though as the graphics improved they become closer to the myth depiction. - In Grandia, the Lainians are a race who inhabit the cold, mountainous region of the unnamed continent beyond the Sea of Mermaids. They have a very pronounced Sexy Dimorphism; the menfolk are tall, broad, humanoid bulls, whilst the women are tall and strong but beautiful women who appear perfectly human apart from their Pointy Ears — essentially like amazonian elves. Lainian men are the "thinker" sex, being presented as the smarter sex due to their horns essentially acting as extensions of their brains — to the point that losing a horn makes a male Lainian dumber. In contrast, the women are the workers and fighters of the community, being much more aggressive than their gentle menfolk. - In Guild Wars 2, minotaurs are (non-sapient) animals with a gorilla-like posture. The shamanistic Norn race considers their totemic spirit a manifestation of nature's savage strength and feral cunning. They also appeared in the first Guild Wars where they inhabited most regions of Tyria and were also found in the northern reaches of Elona. Some of their herds were domesticated by the Sand Giants of Vabbi. - Gryphon Knight Epic: Asterion Hornedson, one of the bosses in the game, is a minotaur riding a rhino. - In Hades The Minotaur of Crete, referred to as Asterius, is one half of a Dual Boss together with Theseus. With Theseus' aid he was able to re-invent himself after death into a better, nobler being, and as such now dwells within the fields of Elysium together with his former slayer. - Heretic. The Maulotaurs were the second episode boss, and were about as tough as the Cyberdemon. In the final battle of Shadow of the Serpent Riders, you had to fight eight of them. They also showed up in Hexen as well, where they could be summoned to help you in battles. - Hero of Sparta, befitting a game set in ancient Greece, has Minotaurs as recurring mooks in both games, in various colours for good measure. The largest ones are of the Fake Ultimate Mook-variety though, only slightly harder to kill than the regular ones despite their size. - The Bovinarian Moomen from In Pursuit Of Greed are Minotaur-like, bull-headed aliens. One of their members, Aldus Kaden, is among the selectable player characters. - Jetpack Joyride 2 features one named Minertaur. He is in charge of the Subterranean Labyrinth, which, despite what the name indicates, is a straight line. - King's Quest VI, in direct reference to the Greek myth, includes a minotaur which has driven the residents of an isle out of a labyrinth and claimed it as his own. The residents even wear Greek-styled togas. - Knight Bewitched: In the Depths's Labyrinth zone, the Minotaur boss prowls the hallways in order to hunt down the party. While the player can see it in the westernmost map of the area, where it is blocked by a gap, it will show up in the easternmost map too, and killing it in one map keeps it from appearing in any map in the dungeon. This implies that the Minotaur knows the layout of the labyrinth and decided to take the initiative by going through the basement to reach the eastern map rather than wait in the western map. - Last Armageddon: A minotaur is one your party members. While he can wield different weapons, he gains extra attack when using axes. - League of Legends: Alistar the Minotaur is a playable champion. He's a dual tank and support-type champion, being both incredibly durable and having several crowd control attacks and an AoE heal. - Legendary: The Box: Minotaurs are encountered later on as very powerful monsters whose front are invulnerable to conventional firearms and must be shot in the back. - Majesty features minotaurs as an enemy. Here, they are bipedal bull creatures who wander the widerness weilding huge axes. - Majyuo has three-horned, red-skinned Minotaur demons as Giant Mook enemies in the first half of the game. - MechQuest: You need to defeat a Minotaur boss to get into a certain house. - Mega Man Zero 4: Mino Magnus is an enormous robotic minotaur who wields an equally enormous axe. - Might and Magic: - Minotaurs are almost always associated with the Warlock/Dungeon/Asylum faction ( Might and Magic VI leaves it at implication and history, the warlock faction having collapsed in the region years earlier) but in Might and Magic VIII they're both a Proud Warrior Race faction of their own you ally with in the mid part of the main quest and a playable race. Interestingly, they are not only indicated to be a created species, but implied to be a fairly recently created species — their human creator was still alive note : as in, neither dead nor undead as recently as the end of Heroes II — less than two decades prior to Might and Might VIII. - Warriors of Might and Magic: Minotaurs appear as Demonic Spiders, having lots of HP and being very strong in battle. The best way to kill them is using Air magics like Thunderbolt and Ghosts. - Miitopia has Minotaur enemies. - Moshi Monsters has Lummox, a Moshling who resembles a minotuar, having a muscular humanoid body, a face with mixed human and bovine features, and large bull horns. - NetHack, being a mythology kitchen sink, has them. They're fast-moving, hard-hitting, carnivorous monsters that show up almost exclusively in mazes. - Nioh 2 features the Gozuki (a giant, fiery, half-rotten bull demon with a giant club) as the enemy you can meet at the start of the game, though you're supposed to sneak past him. - Nosferatu Lilinor: A Minotaur serves as a boss in the game. It attacks by charging at Lilinor. - Oriental Legend, a video game based on Journey to the West, has the Bull Demon King as it's Final Boss. He's depicted as a horned, bull-headed humanoid wearing Chinese armour, have lesser minotaurs serving as mooks, and a Sequential Boss that needs to be defeated three times in a row. In his last fight, he gains a One-Winged Angel form as a rampaging Ox God whose horns are even larger than the players! - Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon: One of the aliens you can encounter while trying to find Robbie Radar looks like a top-heavy blue minotaur. He uses his horns to point where you need to go next. - Puzzle Quest: Minotaurs are mostly Proud Warrior Race Guys and the protagonist has to earn their respect, after which a minotaur priest joins the party. The minotaurs' god — Lord Sartek — is also a huge minotaur. Among the bad guys there are minotaur slavers, undead Skelotaurs (skeletal minotaurs), undead minotaur Doomknights, and even mechanical Mechataurs. - Quest for Glory: - The first game has a minotaur named Toro as the guard of the gate of the Brigands' Lair. \|\|He's actually there only to protect the Baron's daughter, Elsa, who due to an enchantment has forgotten who she is and become the Brigands' leader.\|\| He shows up again in the fifth game as the Guildmaster of the Adventurers' Guild in Silmaria... even if you killed him in the first game. If you defeat him in the first game, he shows up in the ending with one arm in a sling. - In addition to Toro making a return in Quest for Glory V, there is a minotaur in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. The Minotaur's owner? Called Minos. - Raging Blades have a powerful red minotaur as a boss, who Dual Wield gigantic axes as his weapons. - Shin Megami Tensei series has used Minotaur has a recurring demon, and is one of few mythological creatures to appear as a Shadow in Persona series. In Shin Megami Tensei IV, the first major boss is Minotaur, who guards the gate that leads into the Unclean One's Country a.k.a. Tokyo. Asterius himself has appeared as a downloadable demon for Shin Megami Tensei IV and as a Persona for Shadow Labrys in Persona 4: Arena. - Tauronos: The minotaur pursues your character throughout the game. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Minotaurs are powerful Lightning Bruisers in the Beastman roster, appearing both as regular units and through the Gorebull melee hero, all of whom are savage terrors in combat. Their Regiment of Renown variant, the Butchers of Kalkengard, in addition to possessing regeneration, are colored black-and-white like Holstein cows and wear belt plates shaped like udders. The Silence and the Fury DLC brings Doombulls, Lord-tier Minotaurs who fight with their fists, and the Ghorgon, a giant, four-armed, ox-headed monster. In Total War: Warhammer III, Khorne also has access to red-skinned, four-horned Minotaurs of Khorne. - A Total War Saga: TROY: - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, the Minotaur is a bandit lord who uses a bull mask made of a bull skull, wears what appears to be a bull hide and some sort of material to hide his face and wields a double-headed axe, using the symbols of the bygone Minoan civilization to solidify his own power. The implication here is that he ended up inspiring later legends through centuries of retellings. - In Mythos mode, the Minotaur is a golden-furred bull-headed man with human feet (like the mythical being, but unlike the hooved versions more common in modern fantasy) and with a labyrinth design tattooed over his chest and right arm. - Warcraft: The tauren race, in something of a subversion of the classic minotaur concept, are Gentle Giants with a culture inspired by western Native American tribes (piss them off, and they have tough melee units that like dealing area-of-effect damage). They are the largest Player Character race in World of Warcraft and, appropriately enough, are the only ones whose "/moo" emote sounds like an actual bovine's. - While evil Tauren are relatively rare, there are Mr. Smite, a now-defunct villain stationed in the Deadmines, and the Grimtotem, a tribe that views tauren as the Master Race and is willing to kill anyone who sides with another race. With those exceptions, most tauren tend to be friendly (and cuddly). - Three offshoots of the tauren have been introduced in expansions: - The bison-styled taunka of Northrend have a bleaker outlook than the Tauren, their harsh homeland forcing them to fight for survival. - The yak-styled yaungol of Pandaria are even worse, having developed a Proud Warrior Race mentality to help them survive on the steppes. The Taunka joined the Horde, while the Yaungol are enemies of all races. - The Highmountain tribe of the Broken Isles, while still strictly tauren and not an offshoot, is visually distinct from the rest of the species for the moose-like antlers bestowed upon them by the demigod Cenarius. They are a playable race like the main tauren are. - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: The Minotaur is a stout, nose-ringed and red-skinned member of Captain Syrup's pirate crew. - Warlords Battlecry has them as an entire faction, serving under the horseman of war. They vary from simple grunts with a ball on a chain, through ax tossers and ending up with a gigantic minotaur king that could well cut a tower down in two or three blows of its gigantic axe. Getting a minotaur hero also opens up some interesting possibilities for a One-Man Army that can solo entire maps without so much as building a base. - Will Rock: Minotaurs appear as mooks. They throw axes at you and can split up into two smaller Blood Minotaurs if killed with anything but the Sniper Crossbow, the Acid Gun, Medusa Gun or Atomic Gun. - Yo! Joe! Beat the Ghosts has a boss named Meanotaurus who, oddly enough, lives in an Egyptian pyramid. - Zeus: Master of Olympus: The Minotaur appears as a random monster or if Hermes is hostile to the city: appears as a hairy man with an oversized ox head dragging a huge labrys behind and tossing lightning bolts with his free hand at you and anyone closer. As per myth, you'll need Theseus' help to slay the beast. - In Minotaur Hotel, there is Asterion (the Minotaur himself) and Storm (later Oscar). The former retains his mythological origins while the latter's are a mystery. They are roughly human and bovine in equal measures (even mooing when stressed) though the NSFW itteration of the game reveals that they have rather different genitalia from each other. - At Arm's Length: Dagg the Fierce, a would-be pillager minotaur, runs afoul of dragon mercenaries Kaige and Kiley. His cousin supposedly once attacked the main characters Ally, Reece and Sheila, with a .44 Magnum at that. - Atland features Bruce the minotaur as a main character. Physically, Bruce has the body of a tall muscular human male with the head of a bull. While he has a pair of human hands, his feet are stout cloven hooves. His entire body is covered with short sleek brown fur and he has a very human-like tuft of black hair on top of his head. Bruce has sired a half-human son named Tad who seems to be entirely human with the exception of a pair of horns and green eyes lacking in pupils, just like his old man. - Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell has Pat, an affable but crude minotaur. He is implied in one strip to literally be the Minotaur from the original myth. - The Dreadful gives us Boozloaf, who doubles as a somewhat Badass Preacher and Pungeon Master. - Dungeons & Denizens stars Min, a beefy yet mild-mannered Minotaur working as a janitor in a dungeon. His younger brother is much taller and beefier, being half-hill giant. A recently-introduced new Minotaur, called Titanic, is even larger. - In El Goonish Shive, when Mr. Tensaided is offered the chance to be transformed into a form from a magical board game he chooses cowgirl since he's a D&D nerd and it's the closest to being a minotaur. Later, Grace also transforms herself into this form for the same reason. - Gunnerkrigg Court: The dreaded Minotaur of Crete is one of the denizens of the Court. He's called Basil, and he's a nice guy who's easily startled. - The KA Mics: One story features a minotaur named Bob. - Looking for Group: Krunch Bloodrage (and the whole Bloodrage clan) are hulking, muscular minotaurs. Believe it or not, he's not the warrior. - Oglaf: The legend of the Minotaur is referenced in this comment, and the Minotaur himself appears here. (Caution: the linked comics are sfw, but the comic as a whole is very much not.) - The Pride of Life: Gaur is a minotaur, a term which here refers to any sapient bovid. - Slightly Damned: Talus is a brutish Earth Demon (which resemble large land animals) who looks like a 12ft minotaur with a nose ring and also wields a large battle axe like minotaurs are frequently depicted with. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has Turg. Sort of cool big chap, but as the only member of his species around, very lonely — until he met a \|\|Sphinx and chose to stay with her. Yeah.\|\| - Codex Inversus: Minotaurs are taurine Beast Folk famous for their impeccable sense of direction, and are often employed as navigators, guides and cartographers. This is in large part a self-enforcing cultural thing — the stereotype developed in the past for somewhat unclear reasons, and modern Minotaurs face a strong societal pressure to be good at finding their way. - SCP Foundation: SCP-432 ("Cabinet Maze") is an extradimensional maze haunted by an unseen entity that eats people. It's strongly implied that the labyrinth inside SCP-432 and the monster SCP-432-1 that haunts it are the Labyrinth of Knossos and the Minotaur Asterion of Classical Mythology, which the creator has admitted to be the case. - Adventure Time: Manish Man, the Manly Minotaur, guardian of the Hero's Enchiridion. - Castlevania (2017): The horde of monsters that attacks the main characters while they're in the ruins of the Belmont house includes a gigantic minotaur with apelike arms, which serves as the monsters' main muscle both in smashing through the seal and in leading the charge against the heroes. - Centaurworld: The members of the evil army are referred to as minotaurs. The reference to this is through their horn-adorned helmets, but they resemble hulking, savage Beast Men with the upper halves of various animals, unlike the centaurs of Centaurworld, who have the lower halves of animals. The minotaur race \|\|were created by the Nowhere King by fusing humans and animals together using the power of The Artifact. In the second season, the Artifact is used to merge the minotaurs with even more animals, including a bird centaur who is fused with a boar minotaur and an alligator that has predictably nightmarish results\|\|. - Dan Vs.: One episode features a minotaur beneath the DMV used to dispose of problem customers. It's revealed that when the DMV was founded, its initials originally stood for "Dungeon of Minotaur Violence." - DuckTales (1987): In "Raiders of the Lost Harp", Scrooge takes a magic harp from an ancient temple causing the treasure's guardian, a giant stone minotaur, to come to Duckburg looking for it. Interestingly, since this is a Funny Animals world where the human species doesn't exist, when the chief of police is describing the monster to Scrooge, he says, "They say it's as big as an office building, like a living stone statue with the head of a bull and the body of a... a..." before the monster itself appears and cuts him off. - Egyxos has Apis, a humanoid bull who trains young warriors. - The Fairly OddParents!: In one episode, after Timmy wishes the world was like a superhero comic, the resident bully Francis becomes a minotaur-like villain known as the Bull-E. - Freakazoid!: Longhorn, a half-man, half-steer country singer supervillain. - Gargoyles has the children of New Olympus. They are hybrids of humans, animals and fairies, and therefore often look like humanoid animals. One of them, Taurus, is stated to be the descendant of the original Minotaur. He's still quite bitter about his ancestor's demise at the hands of a human. - Gravity Falls: "Dipper vs. Manliness" features the Manotaurs, who are half MAN and half... er, taur. They help teach Dipper to be more manly. - The Hollow: The desert land has a significant population of antagonistic minotaurs. - In Jimmy Two-Shoes, all of Lucius' typical henchman and enforcer jobs are done by minotaur-like creatures. There's also Miseryville's soccer star Wreckem who combines this with Cyclops. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Putting Your Hoof Down" introduces minotaurs to the mythology of Equestria, in the form of a motivational speaker named Iron Will. Like most other part-human Mix-and-Match Critters, his design is adjusted to fit in with the fact that there are no humans in the setting — he's entirely bull from the waist down, with two bovine legs instead of a human lower half — but his clearly human torso and arms are still quite jarring. - The Smurfs (1981): Petula, the spoiled brat child that adopts Smurfette as her new toy doll in "The Trojan Smurfs", has two minotaurs in her house that serve as guards. - The Venture Bros.'s "The Mighty Manotaur!", although it turns out that he's not very badass. - Wishfart: One episode sees Dez and his friends incur the wrath of a Minotaur ice cream man after Puffin gets into an argument with him over ice cream flavors. This Minotaur notably has the ability to create a magical labyrinth that can only be escaped by passing three tests before the Minotaur stomp-eats you.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMinotaursAreDifferent
Our Monsters Are Different - TV Tropes The creator of a fantastic fiction universe gets to set the rules for how the stock fictional creatures and peoples work. There are a bunch of mythological creatures that are, as a whole, vaguely defined, and even though their recognizable traits (blood-sucking, flying, fiery breath etc.) are widely known, they need to be cleared up and re-defined to be able to appear as actual characters in a particular work. However, the audience is going to want said creator to stick pretty close to the rules they pick. A writer uses this trope any time they want to use a famous critter or race without having to deal with the all of the various baggage said critter has accumulated in folklore and pop culture over the years, allowing them to leverage existing tropes and characteristics only as much as they want to. So in the end, when they use a term like "elf" or "vampire", we have a pretty good idea what to expect, but at the same time we know that there may be something off about it compared to somebody else's book. Fantasy RPG creators often engage in this while populating their worlds, rulebooks and monster manuals. As well as getting the various creatures to fit properly in their particular fantasy scenario and play nice with their game mechanic, they often want to produce as big and varied a bestiary as they can. So, for example, if two folkloric creatures are so similar as to be interchangeable, one or both may end up being altered just to make them distinct and justify separate entries. A similar thing can happen if a creature is known by more than one traditional name. In some cases, a single creature will be spun off into several varieties, often distinguished by colour or habitat. A violation of Genre Consistency, but (usually) not of Internal Consistency. For an index of all fictional creatures see the imaginatively named Index of Fictional Creatures (including Angelic Tropes, Dragon Tropes, the Undead Index, et cetera). See also Stock Monster Symbolism.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersAreDifferent
Call a Pegasus a The daughter trope of Our Monsters Are Different and Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp". So your characters are on an adventure in a Magical Land, and they naturally run into a mythical creature. Said creature is then identified in the text or dialogue by the name of a different mythical being or fantasy creature. Cue a moment of confusion for the viewer. This could be employed just to underline in red crayon that Our Monsters Are Different. Alternatively, of course, the writer did no research — or did a little too much research, finding an extremely obscure name or form of a familiar creature. This is a common cheat when fishing for names for Palette Swap Underground Monkeys. This isn't quite Sadly Mythtaken as the very fact that the writer knows that mythical creatures have specific names implies doing some research. (Sadly Mythtaken is more for The Theme Park Version / Disneyfication of classic myths.) In case you're wondering, the most commonly accepted generic term for Winged Horses is " pterippi" (which is Greek for, well, Exactly What It Says on the Tin). However they're often simply called "pegasi/pegasus" after the most famous example — see A Kind of One. Compare Istanbul (Not Constantinople), which is similar but for place names. When a completely fantastical character is named after a commonly-known creature, see Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit", which is a sister trope. The title is a takeoff on Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp", and is a reference to one of the best-known examples. ## Examples: - Gryphon from Bakugan is actually portrayed as a winged, three-headed monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail instead of a monster with a bird's head and wings and a lion's body. This more closely resembled a chimera. - In Black Clover, the fire spirit is described as a "salamander." While it starts off small, it has wings and pretty quickly grows into what would be better described as a "dragon." - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba refers to the titular monsters as "oni" in Japanese, and the English versions uses "demons", but they typically have more in common with vampires: insatiable bloodlust, Healing Factor, fangs, reproduce by infecting humans with their blood, and can only be killed by decapitation or exposure to sunlight. - Negima! Magister Negi Magi: - There's an in-story example when the group encounters a monstrous dog creature with multiple heads. Nodoka, being the high-fantasy book fan, identifies it as Orthrus by its snake-head tails. But at the same time, it has three heads total like Cerberus (whereas Orthrus had two), so she can't really identify it as anything. \|\|This probably serves as a Chekhov's Gun because the person who conjured it (it was actually an illusion) was just a child with likely not much knowledge on mystical consistency\|\|. Note that in some myths, Cerberus is depicted with a snake tail or with snakes on his back, despite this trait being more typically associated with Orthrus. - They later encounter a dragon. Nodoka and Yue briefly get caught up in a discussion of whether it's technically a wyrm before realizing that a gigantic fire-breathing lizard is charging them and decide it doesn't really matter that much. - Later on, Yue and her classmates fight against a creature called a "Griffin Dragon". The only thing about it that was Dragon-like was a scaly tail and a pair of horns. Oh, and the Breath Weapon. - The witches from Puella Magi Madoka Magica aren't humanoid magic users, but Eldritch Abominations that feed on human emotion and live in Labrynths. This name makes a bit more sense when you learn that \|\|they're corrupted Magical Girls\|\|. Their familiars also aren't animals, but rather similar monsters that are subservient to them. - Shadow Star has this on multiple levels. All of the monsters in the story are collectively referred to as "dragons", even though most of them are closer to Starfish Aliens than anything else. There's only one that does look like a dragon, at least in the sense of being a giant reptilian creature with wings. . . but it's called "Tarasque", after a monster from French folklore that it looks nothing like. - Dream of The Sandman (1989) has three guardian beasts, one of which is a winged horse. This character is also identified as a hippogriff. Given that this is Neil Gaiman writing, it's likely an E. Nesbit tribute (see Literature below). Also, the dragon (four legs) is called a wyvern (two legs) - possibly Neil knew what he was talking about but none of the artists did. - Atlantis: The Lost Empire: The Leviathan is actually still referred to in-film as "a mythical sea serpent", but it is actually a giant mechanical lobster; it does not look remotely serpent-like. - The Black Cauldron: Creeper is universally reckoned to be some sort of goblin or imp (small, misshapen, pointy ears, green skin). However, production material identifies him as a "dwarf"◊. - In Frozen (2013) the Scandinavian-inspired magical kingdom has trolls who are depicted as tiny magical creatures that aid human beings. In actual Scandinavian folklore, trolls are an Always Chaotic Evil race that mostly lure away children and wanderers to eat them. The creatures in the film would fit better as dwarves/dark elves in Norse Mythology. They were, however, accurate in portraying trolls as magic users. Sweden still uses the word "troll" as a prefix to mean magic; for instance, a wizard or a stage magician is a Troll-Man (trollkarl) and the act of using magic is Troll-Art (Trollkonst). - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks: The Dazzlings' original Equestrian forms resemble hippocampi, but are called "sirens" due to their Mind-Control Music powers similar to sirens of Greek mythology. Seeing as ponies are the dominant life form of Equestria, this could also be considered a take on Sirens Are Mermaids. - The creatures in Are We Monsters are called werewolves, but while they use the classic traits of Alternate Identity Amnesia, full-moon transformations, and the silver bullet weakness, the fact they lack any clearly lupine trait and look like long-necked humanoids bring more into mind the Rokurokubi. - In Avatar the giant, reptilian, mountain dwelling creatures are called "Banshees" by the humans. Granted, hearing the call of such a creature very well could signal the end of your life (the largest of which, called the Toruk, actually even means "the last shadow", as in the last one you'll ever see), but one would think that the first thing that came to mind when the humans saw them would be a dragon. - The monster from Clash of the Titans is referred to as a Kraken. The Kraken originates from Scandinavian mythology, not Greek, and the monster in the myth on which Clash of the Titans was based was actually named Cetus (Which, incidentally, is where we get the scientific term cetaceans, meaning whales.) - In Drag Me to Hell, the classic "man-goat" demon that is after the (female) protagonist is oddly called a lamia, a creature with vastly different representations in the folklore of different European countries but that is always said to be female and most often a beautiful seductress. This is acknowledged in one scene where the demon's shadow briefly resembles that of a young woman before morphing into its usual figure. - An early draft of the first American Godzilla featured a rival kaiju called the Gryphon; however, it is described as an amalgam of mountain lion and bat rather than the traditional lion and eagle. - Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams: At one point Juni refers to the half gorilla, half tarantula creature that's been following him as a centaur. Its actual name seems to be a "spider monkey". - In MirrorMask there are a lot of catlike creatures with human heads. In Classical Mythology, such creatures are known as sphinxes, but the one of them that asks a riddle is identified in the script as a Gryphon, which should be a hybrid of a lion and eagle. - The undead from the original Night Of The Living Dead were called ghouls rather than zombies. Though at this stage, the idea of zombies converting people by biting them was an Inbuilt trope and most later zombie movies were influenced by this one. - In the Russian movie, Guardians of The Night, what are clearly vampires are called ghouls. When questioned about it, Igor just says that vampires are from Hollywood. - In-Universe in The Giver, which is set in a time when most animals (except those farmed for food) are extinct or considered mythical. When presenting a "comfort object" (stuffed animal) to baby Gabe, Jonas' father calls it a "hippo," even though it's clearly an elephant. Later Jonas, having gained memories of the past, calls it by its proper name. - The titular sea monster The Giant Behemoth is a case of this. It's called the Behemoth, but the biblical Behemoth was a land-dwelling creature generally implied to be some sort of big mammal. The so-called Behemoth from the movie has more in common with the Leviathan. - In E. Nesbit's The Book of Beasts, the hero must summon a creature identified as a hippogriff to save his city from a dragon. The creature that appears is what most people would identify as a pegasus, a winged horse. To be fair, you can't say that a hippogriff isn't a winged horse (or that a pegasus isn't technically part horse, part bird for that matter). It's also possible that Nesbit figured that the word pegasus must only refer to the Pegasus. (Though Pliny the Elder mentioned Pegasi living in Aegypt, so the idea multiple Winged Horses is Older Than Print.) - An older example is Frank Stockton's short story, The Griffin and the Minor Canon from 1885, in which the eponymous monster — by its description — is clearly a dragon. The story might actually be considered a Lampshade Hanging on this trope, as the dragon sees a statue of a griffin and assumes that he must be of the same species and that "griffin" is what humans call him. Got all that? Sir Arthur Charles Fox-Davies warns against confusing the two in his A Complete Guide to Heraldry, so it was apparently a common Victorian mistake. It had a large head, with enormous open mouth and savage teeth; from its back arose great wings, armed with sharp hooks and prongs; it had stout legs in front, with projecting claws; but there were no legs behind,—the body running out into a long and powerful tail, finished off at the end with a barbed point. This tail was coiled up under him, the end sticking up just back of his wings. - In The Firebringer Trilogy, the enemies of the unicorn protagonists are referred to as wyverns - but from their description, they're more like hydra. - One of the stranger examples is in the book Thorn Ogres of Hagwood. A character wanders into the action about halfway through the story. He is a short humanoid with a big, big beard and he carries a lot of different tools and has a great talent for metalwork. He is identified as a dwa... no, wait, he is a Pooka. Pookas technically can appear as dwarves but they also tend to be a lot weirder. - Boggarts in Harry Potter, which are not shapeshifters in English lore, but rather malicious fey that spend their time by infuriating housewives and maids through mischief and vandalism. The creatures in "Harry Potter" are more likely boogeymen, which fit the idea of a closet-dwelling demon that takes on one's worst fear. - Rowling tends to do this a lot. Her "selkies", for example, are apparently just the Scottish subspecies of merfolk, with no connection to seals. - Amusingly, the hippogriffs that do appear are actually hippogriffs - that is, half eagle, half horse. However, they are not Ludovico Ariosto's griffin/horse hybrids but rather their own species. - Dobby the elf gets his name from a type of hobgoblin in Lancaster folklore. - J. R. R. Tolkien was fond of using "worm", the Middle and Modern English cognate of Old English "wyrm", to mean "dragon" or "serpent". "Worm" in the sense of "dragon" is attested as late as the mid-19th century in Northern English, as in the ballads of The Lambton Worm and The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, so the Good Professor wasn't just making it up as he went along. It is even older — in the old North Germanic languages, "orm" could mean a snake, a worm or a dragon by modern English terms. - Although she never appears in the stories in person, it's made pretty clear that the Cthulhu Mythos' Mother Hydra (a Mythos addition by August Derleth) has nothing to do with the Hydra of the Greek myth. - In David Weber's Safehold books, the humans who have settled on the planet Safehold have named many local animals after mythical beasts. Examples include the kraken (described as a cross between a squid and a shark, fitting the latter's place in Safeholdian ecology), the dragon (a massive, six-legged animal that comes in both carnivorous and herbivorous varieties), and the wyvern ( four-winged flyers that are the Safeholdian analogue of birds). - Arcana has "Unicorns," which resemble the usual image of unicorns only in that they have a single horn and are roughly horse-sized and shaped. They are black, with disproportionately long legs, powerful hindquarters, and ears like a bobcat — and possess a mouthful of long tusks and sharp, carnivorous teeth. - Elvenbane: - There are carnivorous "Alicorns" (also called "One-Horns", but guess what unicorn means) in this series as well. Traditionally, this word refers to either winged unicorns or the horn of a unicorn, although it's likely a result of centuries of Recursive Translation from English <-> French (unicorn -> une icorne -> l'icorne -> a licorn -> alicorn). - In The Carpet People, there's an enigmatic, prescient race which most people would call "elves" based on the description. Instead they're "wights", which more commonly refers to minions of The Undead. Wight originally just meant "being" in Old English, so this usage is a throwback to the traditional definition. - H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy shows humans taking a third option when naming an alien animal. It's big and has a horn on its nose. Rhino? No, it has three horns. Triceratops? No. They call it a "damnthing". - In Richard Ellis Preston Jr.'s Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin, the aliens are called Martians. They're not from Mars. Whatever they are, it's much farther away. Nevertheless the name stuck even though characters are well aware that it's this trope. - Richard Sharpe Shaver called his subterranean morlock-like boogiemen "deros", which was apparently short for "detrimental robots", even though they weren't supposed to be mechanical at all. - The White Court vampires from The Dresden Files are succubi/incubi and have nothing in common with vampires apart from feeding (sexual energy not blood) off humans. - In The Mortal Instruments, an ifrit (a powerful genie from Arabian legend) is instead the Warlock note : who, in this series, are the offspring of humans and demons equivalent to a Muggle Born of Mages. - Downplayed in Many Waters, where the Nephilim are depicted as fallen angels, as opposed to the Half-Human Hybrid children thereof. Those exist too, but they don't seem to have a name. - The how-to-draw book disguised as a field guide Dracopedia claims that some mythical creatures are actually dragons. Example include: - The Kirin is a species of Arctic dragon. - The salamander is a species of basilisk. - The Phoenix is a species of Coatyl. - The Jabberwocky is a species of Feydragon. - The Indian Naga is a species of hydra. Also mentioned is the medusan hydra, cerebus hydra and the Japanese hydra, aka Yamata-no-orochi. - The sea orc also goes by sea serpent or leviathan. - The Lindwyrm is a type of wyrm that has vestigial legs. Wyrms also go by Ouroboros. - The Elwah dragon is also called a Thunderbird. - Downplayed in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, where a "svartalf" is the offspring of a dwarf and a god, which makes them look relatively more human than a normal dwarf. "Svartalf" translates as "dark elf," but scholars are eternally confused whether Norse mythology considered this a separate race or another term for dwarves; either way, there's no indication that they would be the children of gods. - Ogres in The Secret of Platform 13 are one-eyed giants that tend sheep. A description more fitting a Cyclops. - Somewhat related: The creatures that attack Arthur and Merlin in the Merlin (1998) miniseries are Raptors with squirrel-like patagia no matter how much Merlin insists on calling them griffons. - Rather than wild, intoxicated and lustful female followers of the Greek god Dionysus, maenads in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Expanded Universe are depicted as equally mad followers of an ancient vampire named Kakistos (whom Faith slew later) who were prime cases of Being Tortured Makes You Evil (or just plain crazy) and passed their tortures onto other unfortunate girls until their minds broke and served Kakistos as well. - Xena: Warrior Princess: - This show did the same, except it used the name "Bacchae", which actually referred to Bacchus' human female followers (at least, the maenads were nymphs). - They also had winged skeletons that were called "dryads" for some reason. - Power Rangers: - In the second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, two Thunderzords were renamed from their Gosei Sentai Dairanger counterparts to other, similar creatures: - The Yellow Ranger's Qilin/Kirin mecha became a Griffin; probably to downplay the Chinese-ness of the original and because the audience wasn't expected to know what a Qilin or Kirin was. - The Blue Ranger's mecha was shifted from a Pegasus (by its Chinese name "Tenma" in Dairanger) to a Unicorn. This could have been done to smooth over the change from the prior season's blue mecha, a Triceratops, by making a 'horned beasts' connection. The fact that the mecha has no wings * : The details painted on its sides appear to be meant as stylistic wings, but are abstract enough that they can potentially go unnoticed. but does have a small blaster "horn" extending from the front of its mane. - In Seijuu Sentai Gingaman and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, the Green Ranger's parter/mecha was dragonlike with some birdlike characteristics. Both shows referred to it as a kind of bird and denied it was a dragon at all ("Gingalcon" - that's "Galaxy Falcon" - in Gingaman and "Condor Galactabeast" in Lost Galaxy). - Power Rangers: Dino Thunder took a pterosaur mecha and referred to it as the Drago Zord. Justified, as the character is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for the original Green Ranger, who piloted the Dragon Zord. - The Charmed (1998) episode "Little Monsters", features a species of demon called Manticores. They're more like orcs than anything, while mythical manticores are scorpion-tailed lions with human heads. - Radiohead's "Weeping Minotaur" mascot really looks nothing like the traditional portrayal of the Minotaur as a man with a bull's head, but more like a cartoon demon, despite the use of the Minotaur being based on the mythology of the Labyrinth. At least it was still a horned humanoid. - Sirens are often portrayed as being mermaid-like in appearance, even though they were originally closer to harpies in the myths. Several languages conflate the two names altogether. See Sirens Are Mermaids. - The chimera is often portrayed as being similar in body structure to Cerberus, with the goat head, lion head (which is often depicted as a male lion's head in modern media as opposed to the original female lion's head where the beast was generally considered in Greek mythology to be a female), and a dragon head all together in the front. In original Greek mythology the chimera had the body and front head of a lioness, a snake for a tail (which is still present in modern depictions), and a goat's head on its BACK at the center of the spine. To confuse matters even more, the term "chimera" is often used as a generic term to refer to any Mix-and-Match Critters. Not so unsurprisingly, as genetic chimerism is when an individual body is composed of cells of different genetic origin. Non-identical mammalian twin embryos may for instance fuse during early gestation, and the resulting individual is in fact their own twin, and may be half male, half female. - The Lobisome(m) of Galician-Portuguese folklore, despite meaning literally "wolfman", actually turns into a black dog-pig hybrid thing, and has little in common with most portrayals of the werewolf besides the fact that it is a human shapeshifter. - Half the things in Eastern European folklore called werewolves (some variation on "vilkodlak") are actually vampires, with little or no wolfish identity remaining. The distinctions in the lore are often fairly minor; notably, in the book, Dracula turns into a wolf (or possibly a very large dog) on several occasions. - See also any creature from folklore in the Americas which goes by a variant of the French word "loup-garou". E.g., the Haitian one? It's either a vampire or a witch, and it turns into a Will-o'-Wisp, not a wolf. The Cajun one can turn into a wolf, but it's usually just an invisible personand they apply "garou" note : From Frankish "garulf" and literally the same word as "werewolf". to any other animal shape-shifter (their folklore has people that can become cats and horses, for just two examples). - There is a tendency to take the most well-known variant of a mythical and/or folkloric creature and apply its name across the board, even to cultures which, by virtue of distance or time, could never have heard of it. Examples include calling any large reptilian mythical creature a "dragon" or any blood-sucking monster a "vampire". - Westerners have long used Western mythical names for a number of Chinese mythical creatures, even if they bear only the slightest resemblance to their supposed counterparts. Examples include calling the Fenghuang, or August Rooster, a "phoenix", even though it has no association with fire or rebirth, or the Qilin (a mythical creature with the head of a dragon and a body of tiger with scales) a "unicorn". Thanks to a Chinese Emperor, the word "Qilin," or its Japanese equivalent "Kirin", is used today as the name of the very real giraffe. The Chinese word for the creature we call a Chinese dragon is Long or Lung, and they don't exhibit many of the characteristics associated with the "original" dragons of Europe, such as breathing fire or having wings. The same applies in reverse; the Western dragon is itself called Long in Chinese. - There is a creature in Romanian folklore called a zmeu. It's basically an ogre, but its name is probably derived from the Slavic word for dragon. - There's a magical spirit in Ibero-American folklore know as Duende, a rather mischievous small creature know for being short, ugly and a trickster. For centuries, in Spanish speaking countries there wasn't a translation for words like Goblin, Troll, Elf, or Leprechaun so they were all translated as Duendes even when in some cases the comparison is rather clashing. It's falling out of use since those words are now incorporated into Spanish vocabulary, "Elves" are now translated as Elfos -Probably due the success of High Fantasy literature towards the middle of the 20th century- but Santa Claus's helpers are still known as Duendes due to the Grandfather Clause. One of the reasons while the word Elfo was created is because of the different types of elves that exist. When they are portrayed as small creatures — specially if they're ugly — that translation works, but the tall, beautiful noble Elves of books like The Lord of the Rings look like the polar opposite of Iberian Duendes. - In a similar way how Goblin was generally translated as "Duende" en Latin America but in Spain as "Trasgo", especially in Tolkien's works. The word Trasgo becomes more common in Latin America due to the movies. Troll is now accepted as an official Spanish word by the Royal Academy (the agency in charge of governing the language) but the correct spelling is the Latinized Trol (singular) and Troles (plural). Leprechaun still has not translation though some dubs use "Leprecón". - Age of Mythology: The tabletop version depicts The Phoenix as a fire-breathing legless dragon-like creature with membraneous wings, scaly skin and no discernable avian features aside from it's beak. This is an especially odd case, considering the original video game had a much more traditional (albeit somewhat pterosaur-like) phoenix. - Dragon: One article suggests that game masters use this trope in-game to screw with their players' expectations, perhaps justifying it as disinformation spread by smart monsters. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Get a drink for this one. Gorgons are a variation on the creature known as the catoblepas in more classical bestiaries. The creatures that resemble the Gorgons of Greek mythology are named medusas, after the best-known Gorgon. And as if that weren't confusing enough... the catoblepas, by that name, has actually appeared in some editions of D&D. (And while — unlike the previous two — it's always fit one version or another of the catoblepas myth, it's always been notably distinct from the gorgon.) - The use of the name "gorgon" for a bull-like creature comes from a particular medieval bestiary, which used that name for the catoblepas as a reference to the whole "kill with a glance" thing. - "Gorgon" as a name for a bull-like creature used to be a case in Real Life, when the Blue Wildebeest had the scientific name Gorgon taurinus (currently it is classified as Connochaetes taurinus). The wildebeest is thought to be the real life inspiration for the catoblepas. - Lamia have a confusing history in the real world due to Lamia's own historically confusing mythology as either a snake woman, a hermaphroditic hag, or as a four-legged beast with a woman's head & breasts. D&D actually traditionally uses a blend of the first and third options; the standard Lamia is a woman's upper torso with the body of a "beast" from the waist down — although the artwork traditionally depicts it as a lion, an Ecology article for the race in Dragon Magazine claims they also resemble goats, deer and antelopes — whilst there also exists a "Noble Lamia" that resembles the more iconic snake-person version, although lack of artwork for it in 2nd edition and the fact it wasn't converted until the "Expedition to the Demonweb Pits" adventure in 3rd edition has kept it obscure. The aforementioned Ecology article even brings in the second option, stating that whilst Noble Lamais are either male or female, Common Lamias are all hermaphroditic, with the upper torso of a woman but both male and female genitalia on their bestial incarnation. In 4th edition, however, the Lamia was changed to a swarming species of fey carnivorous beetle with a Hive Mind that hollows out the skin of its victims and wears it as a disguise to secure more prey. - D&D has had Baku since 1st Edition, but other than having an elephant's head and trunk, these creatures had nothing to do with the Dream Eater of legend — instead they were denoted by having Psychic Powers and dwelling in the Upper Planes. So when the Asia-themed supplement Oriental Adventures was released, the result was a separate entry for a dream-walking, trunked spirit, which was dubbed "shirokinukatsukami," which might be an attempt at saying "white silk spirit" or "bedsheet spirit." - Magic: The Gathering: - The Innistrad blocks feature "Griffins" that look an awful lot like hippogriffs... which is particularly confusing since "Hippogriff" is a separate creature type in the preceeding Scars of Mirrodin block. On Innistrad, the Hippogriff creature type is still used... but for the gryffs, creatures resembling pegasi with the heads and tails of herons more than anything else. - Mercadian Masques also features some decidedly odd trolls note : Although see the justification in the flavor text and satyrs. And then there're the Ravnican Nephilim which... don't resemble anything, much less Biblical giants. It's possible that they're a reference the "Angels" of Evangelion, which in turn is also an example. - The French edition of the game has something of an ambiguous example born of a translation mixup: the Wurm creature type, which encompasses enormous serpentine or wormlike monsters, is called "guivre" in the French translation. The ambiguity comes from the fact that "guivre" can refer to two things in French: on the one hand, it can refer to the original interpretation in Western tradition of dragons as limbless, serpentine monsters not far off from the games version (this was the type found in Greco-Roman myth, and also what the English term "wyrm" — pronounced "worm" — originally referred to). On the other hand, it can also mean wyvern — that is, a birdlike, bipedal bat-winged dragon more like M:tG's drake creature type than anything else. - The Hyalopterous Lemure borrows the name of the lemure, a shade of the dead in Roman myth, and attaches it to a lemur, a small, fuzzy animal that climbs trees. Whether this was a pun or a wacky artistic miscommunication is a riddle for the ages. - RuneQuest: In a literal version of this, hippogriffs — and their mythical progenitor, Hippogriff — resemble pegasi with bird claws instead of front hooves more than anything else. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: Might be the case with the The Winged Dragon of Ra card. It looks more like a toothed griffin than a dragon. - One of the songs from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko had a visitor from India describe the wonders of his land, including The Phoenix. Except the description he gives is that of a creature named Sirin; that is, the Siren. - Zoids doesn't even seem to care, considering robot triceratops with sharp pointy teeth are Rule of Cool, but to writ: the Liger series of Zoids are referred to as "lion type" and several four-legged-and-winged dragons are "wyvern type" note : The idea of wyverns being distinctly two-legged beasts with wings for forelimbs is a relatively modern idea, as "dragon" and "wyvern" were used interchangeably until Dungeons & Dragons differentiated them.. For that matter, whether Godzilla-esque or more like a giant monitor lizard, any big reptile Zoid made before 2000 will be called "Tyrannosaurus type". - Mononoke Kiss suffers from this. It's an Otome Game wherein the player may romance different Youkai, but the word is translated as "spirit" or "demon" in the story. Each character's species has an individual example: - Enojo the Kitsune is called a "humanoid fox." - Raizo the Nue is called a "humanoid beast," and the only clue to his actual Youkai type is his description ("A hybrid of a monkey, tiger and snake"—i.e. a Nue). - Hikobane the Tengu is called a "demon crow," described as "A creature in a monk outfit, which has a beaked face and black wings that give him the ability to fly." As with Raizo above, it describes the actual type of Youkai (a Tengu in this case) exactly. - Ryuzaburo is a variation on this, being called a "water dragon," which is simply the English translation for the type of Youkai in question (Mizuchi). - Homestuck - Liches are much more comparable to gargoyles (though the wings are not part of the monster design; they come from the prototyped crow). - While we're at it, the trolls are are a race of Cute Monster People whose infant forms are reminiscent of insects and whose life cycle and physiology is just a tad strange. While not a full example — myths about trolls rarely agree on anything — the Homestuck depiction was intended to be rooted more in the idea of internet trolls (that's all the characters were before Andrew Hussie decided to make them relevant to the plot), and as such are certainly divorced from the traditional brutish, man-eating monsters that live under bridges. - Then Cherubs show up, and needless to say, the don't resemble Classical Cherubs in anything but name. - Somewhat averted with the leprechauns, which are in fact green in both skin tone and outfits and even have a self-parody of the troll romance system involving lucky charm shapes in sectors instead of quadrants with playing card suits in them. However, all of the leprechauns resemble fully shaven younger men and vary in both height and girth. - Modest Medusa's species is referred to as "the hydra" by the Prince of Yeld. Modest's mother's name is Gorgon, and her daughters all call themselves Medusa until they decide that's too confusing. They're mostly just the author's own invention. - Mermaids in Neopets are called Water Faeries. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: - The term "alicorn" to describe the Winged Unicorn, which later became Ascended Fanon. The term Alicorn usually refers to the theoretical substance of a Unicorn's horn, barring the fact there were already fan terms in play from previous generations such a "unipeg" and "pegicorn". The Other Wiki traces the usage of "alicorn" to mean "winged unicorn" back to a book by Piers Anthony, originally written in 1984. - The book in question is Bearing an Hourglass, the second book in the Incarnations of Immortality series. Anthony maintains that he saw "alicorn" in a fantasy magazine in reference to a figurine of a winged unicorn, and had never seen the word before. Bearing an Hourglass was translated into many other languages which simply kept "alicorn" as is, and it was brought back into English with this new definition sometime between then and Friendship is Magic, at which point probably no one still alive had ever heard of the word in its original definition either. That said, the fact that modern unicorns almost always have spiraled horns is most likely a cheeky reference to the fact that spiraled narwhal tusks were the most common item for swindlers to pass off as unicorn horns / alicorn. - The Windigos are named after the cannibal monsters in Algonquin religion, but are actually equine frost spirits that feed on hatred and bring Endless Winter. Wendigos are, however, associated with wintertime starvation, so there is at least a tenuous connection to the original. - The Tatzlwurm from "Three's a Crowd" is most reminiscent of the Graboids from Tremors. It looks nothing like the creature from Swiss Alpine mythology, which has the head or front half of a cat and the hind half of a snake, and is usually described as ranging in size from a foot long to somewhat longer than a man is tall, in contrast with episode's enormous monster. - The second half of "School Daze" sees the students being attacked by a group of pukwudgies, creatures from the folklore of the Delaware and Wampanoag people of the American East Coast. They're generally described as humanoid little people of the woods, not unlike European myths of kobolds and wood-fairies, intelligent and fond of playing cruel pranks on humans and shooting them with poisoned arrows. The episode's pukwudgies are essentially long-tailed, pastel-colored hedgehogs that stand on their hind legs in a manner like a kangaroo's and behave more like territorial, rabid animals than anything else. They are also Spike Shooters who attack by launching volleys of their own quills, which might be intended as a link to the the mythological pukwudgies' archery. This may have been done because there are no humans in the world of Friendship is Magic, and this extends to semi-human mythical creatures (for example, the show's manticores and sphinxes have the faces of lions and ponies, respectively, rather than those of humans) - It's possible the G4 Pukwudgies may have been modeled after G1's Bushwoolies but redesigned or renamed due to the trademarks expiring. - The animated adaptation of Little Bear occasionally featured mischievous creatures called Goblins. But rather than being the traditional green skinned monsters, they were portrayed as little bearded men with pointed hats, essentially being Gnomes in all but name. This was possibly applied to make their appearance more family friendly. - SWAT Kats: - The giant that The Queen Of Fables sends after the gang in the Harley Quinn (2019) episode, Devil's Snare has one eye but is only ever called a giant rather than a cyclops.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersByAnyOtherName
Medusa - TV Tropes "My garden's full of pretty men, who couldn't stay away..." Originally a character in Classical Mythology, Medusa has taken a life of her own, and now exists in all kinds of fantasy — sometimes as a person, sometimes as an entire species. Medusa's main characteristics are snakes for hair and that people turn to stone just by seeing her face. So don't look at that illustration. note : All bets are off, though, if she is of the Gorgeous Gorgon resp. Cute Monster Girl variety. Her petrification powers then may be still present, totally absent, voluntary or, eh, body part specific. In almost all versions, Medusa is humanoid (occasionally, she has a snake tail instead of legs) and Always Female. In some versions, her hair-snakes are venomous. In others, they are not literal snakes but rather hair that supernaturally behaves as if it were made of living snakes. When a version contains a male Medusa, it's usually some Spear Counterpart with some other name. Medusa's appearance varies depending on what source you're reading. The most popular is that of a hideous monster; in fact, the petrification originally was caused by Medusa's ugliness itself, before other myths retconned it into being a power based in her eyes. Other myths say that Medusa retained her mortal beauty, as a cruel Irony. And then there are some that offer a compromise and state that she was both beautiful and terrible at the same time. The oldest story known to feature Medusa is the adventures of Perseus. In this story she is a powerful monster whom Perseus defeats by decapitating her (and later using her head to petrify enemies) without looking at her — he sticks to looking at her shadow or looking through a mirrored shield, depending on the version. Myths and stories with background for Medusa were added later. There are two different such prequel myths regarding the origins of the original Medusa. When Medusa is used in fiction as a unique being rather than as a species, she is typically given either one of these two origins, or no origin at all. The ancient Greek origin is that she and her fellow Gorgons were simply created/born that way. In this origin, the Gorgons are typically three sisters, the other two being Stheno and Euryale. The Greek word "gorgon" means "horror". Besides having serpents for hair, the Gorgons were described as having tusks, brazen claws, wings and strongly acidic blood; in a few very early depictions they are shown as quadrupeds, possibly because Pegasus was born out of Medusa's blood when she was beheaded by Perseus. Later depictions (although still fairly ancient ones, in the absolute sense) gradually toned down the more monstrous aspects and made her more attractive. Note that the Erinnyes (Furiae) were depicted very similarly as hideous snake-haired women. Much later, in the first decade AD, the Roman poet Ovid wrote a different version where Medusa was a virgin priestess of Athena, but her incredible beauty attracted the attentions of the god Poseidon. Depending on the version of the story, she either reciprocated, and (with a little help from her sisters) let Poseidon into Athena's temple and slept with him on the altar, or was simply raped by the god. In both versions, Athena, pissed that her priestess not only broke her vows but did the nasty in her temple, punished her by turning her into her new hideous form and banished her to a desolate island until Perseus slew her. Medusa's popularity is somewhat Newer Than They Think. She doesn't appear that often in media made before the 80s. Clash of the Titans (1981) (mentioned below) featured her as one of the monsters — and it has been said that modern generations owe their knowledge of Medusa to the film. The other two sisters appear extremely rarely, but are sometimes included alongside Medusa when she's a singular character. The Gorgon sisters as a whole are the Trope Namer to Gorgeous Gorgon. Some of the Gorgons' depictions make them Snake People. ## Examples - Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld have Medusa as one of the demon lord Demaon's most powerful minions, which Demon sends after Nobita and Doraemon after the two of them are the only heroes who escaped from his army. The 2007 remake of the anime gives Medusa the Related in the Adaptation treatment by making her the heroine Miyako's long-lost mother, a former human corrupted into becoming a gorgon after being tained by the powers of darkness. - Medusa from Soul Eater is a witch with a pronounced snake theme (including having magical snakes stored in her body and a snake-like "vector arrow" attack). Even though she still looks "human" she still strongly resembles a snake especially when she gets her Game Face on. - Rosario + Vampire has Hitomi Ishigami, a Mad Artist who turns unsuspecting people to stone for her private collection. Her snake hair bites people and the venom slowly petrifies them. - Saint Seiya: The Silver Saints of Perseus, Algol, has a cloth which includes a shield featuring the head of Madusa (just like in mythology). It can turn people into stone when they look into its eyes. Shiryu tried to defeat Algol with the mirror trick it was believed to have been used against the original Medusa but the Silver Saint, already knowing how she was defeated, didn't fall for it. Shiryu had to pierce his own eyes. - A later book in the Bakemonogatari series is titled "Nadeko Medusa", which focuses on Nadeko imbibing the remnants of a snake oddity and transforming into a Snake Goddess, complete with snakes for hair. - Kagerou Daze: Azami, an immortal being as old as the planet whose long black hair grows as snakes. She can petrify people with eye-contact, but she controls when/if that happens. \|\|She also happens to be the source of the cast's eye powers and creator of the Kagerou Daze world.\|\| She and her descendants (daughter Shion and granddaughter Mary) are called 'medusae' as a species, and regarded as monsters. Shion and Marry also inherited her abilities, but they get weaker as the medusa-blood is diluted (Shion is a Half-Human Hybrid, hence her daughter is only 1/4 medusa) — by Marry's generation, the most she can do is freeze people in place for a few minutes at a time and make her hair wiggle like snakes when highly emotional. - One Piece: Boa Hancock and her two sisters earned the title "Gorgon Sisters" after they allegedly slew a Gorgon, who left them with eyes on their back that will petrify anyone who sees them. Hancock has the ability to intentionally petrify anyone who feels lust toward her, while her sisters can transform into snakes, with one of them being able to transform her hair into snakes. In reality, their powers come from Devil Fruits, and the story about the eyes on their backs is intended to hide their \|\|slave marks\|\|. - Medusa is the main villain in Pygmalio. The protagonist Kurt goes on a journey to defeat her after finding out his mother Galatea was turned to stone along with an entire village. Medusa here is described as the greatest of all demons, second only to the God of Evil, and has an entire army of demons serving her. In addition to the standard snake hair and petrifyint gaze, she's also gigantic in size. Anyone who drinks her black blood will become a demon himself. - One of the first major villains faced by the heroes of Shinzo is Gyasa, a reptile Enterran with snake hair and the complexion and demeanor of the Joker. He turned Yakumo to stone before dropping her off in an acid lake (it's later reversed) and could shed his skin to avoid getting killed, growing stronger each time. - The little known 1978 anime film Metamorphoses, which is based on The Metamorphoses by Ovid, features Medusa as a blonde girl who can change her appearance into a hideous, fanged monster. It is her decapitated head that turns into Pegasus, not her blood as in the myth. Oddly, Pegasus is also depicted as a hybrid between a horse and snake. - In GO-GO Tamagotchi! episode 23b, Mametchi and his gang are searching their school for ghosts to capture and think they have encountered Medusatchi, a Tamagotchi version of Medusa. They all worry as they think they're about to be Taken for Granite... \|\|except it's just Tamagotchi School's nurse Mrs. Houtaiko rather than Medusatchi\|\|. - Dropkick on My Devil: One of the characters is a gorgon devil named Medusa, appropriate enough, though is oddly more decked out in Egyptian wear than Greek related and doesn't have the snake hair. However she can still (temporarily) turn humans to stone if she gazes at them. Why? Because she's too adorable! - Ayakashi Triangle: A medusa is one of the few non-Japanese ayakashi we see, which snuck into a crate full of art shipped from abroad to Lu's house. It's a giant fanged head covered in snakes, mostly seeing through their eyes and only exposing the main eyes to use its petrifying vision. The medusa acts (mostly) feral and territorial, turning ever human around in stone to make a nest. Lu figures they could reflect its power back at it with a mirror, but it simply smashes it before they can try. - Magic: The Gathering The Gorgon creature type, while not a staple one, is far from rare. Most gorgons have some variety of Deathtouch, which destroys any creature that they attack. Physically, some have human legs and some are Snake People — it varies from plane to plane. - One that deserves particular mention is the Xathrid Gorgon which is the only one to actually petrify its enemies. - Gorgons have a particular presence on Theros, a plane directly inspired by Classical Mythology, where they have the lower bodies of enormous snakes where other gorgons would have humanoid legs. One Therosi gorgon, Hythonia the Cruel, is shown in her card's art as reclining on a large throne made entirely of her petrified victims. Pharika, the goddess of poisons and medicine and the progenitor and chief deity of the gorgons, herself takes the form of an enormous member of their kind. - One card, Evolutionary Leap, shows a giant python shedding its skin to become a snake-bodied gorgon. - Special mention also goes to the gorgon planeswalker Vraska, a major character in storylines relating to the City Plane Ravnica. Like other Ravnican gorgons, she has serpent tails, rather than heads, for hair. - The Far Side cartoon captioned "Medusa Starts Her Day" featuring one of his dowdy, bespectacled women showering, wearing a shower-cap through which a snake has poked its head. Another cartoon has Medusa growing up (her snake hair becoming Girlish Pigtails, braids, beehive...). - The Marvel Universe used to feature a supervillain/superhero named Medusa. Her superpower was long hair that could be used as tentacles to grab people. She was in the Fantastic Four for a while. She was eventually Put on a Bus to go and live in space with her fellow Inhumans, and mostly appears in Marvel Cosmic books these days. - Masters of the Universe featured Snake Face, a male medusa-like character with snakes popping out of his eyes rather than hair. The main power, turning people to stone, was the same. - Wonder Woman (1987): - Wonder Woman 600: The Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and Rod Reis collaboration depicts Diana standing above Medusa's decapitated head, her eyes closed and the snakes still snapping at her. - In issue four of The Avengers which featured the Silver Age return of Captain America, Cap encounters an alien who turned the other Avengers to stone with a special ray. The alien had been stranded on Earth for thousands of years living in a cave and Cap surmised that the alien's wild hair, made him look like a woman in the shadows and was the basis for the myth about Medusa. Cap got the alien to change the Avengers back and helped him leave Earth and return home. The alien would turn out to belong to the D'Bari, whose planet was later destroyed when the Dark Phoenix caused their sun to go nova. - The Man-Serpents from Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comics are an unusual variant, having a medusa's head on the body of a giant snake. They can't petrify, but do have a paralytic gaze. - An art piece from Conan Saga #56 features an usual interpretation of Medusa that plays with the trope's tendency to overlap with Cute Monster Girl, Butter Face and Snake People. This medusa looks like a shapely humanoid woman with scaly skin (complete with diamond-patterned markings on her back) and prehensile snake tails for fingers and toes... then you get to her head, which is the head of a giant snake, but still sporting the iconic mane of small snakes. In this particular example, however, Conan has decapitated the creature and is holding its head aloft triumphantly as her body slumps at his feet. - Averted in Long Live Perseus!, a short from the Soviet/Russian animated anthology series Happy Merry-Go-Round. People describe Medusa as an evil flying medusa-like (we mean, jellyfish-like), but in fact it's a UFO. - Bad Hair Day , a Discworld fic by A.A. Pessimal, expands on the throwaway canonical mention of a Medusa as a Watchwoman, explores the particular day-by-day trials of a gorgon policewoman, and expands on the Discworld's Fantasy Counterpart of Greece, Ephebe. - Here Be Monsters: This is what Violet Parr is transfigured into — although referred to as a gorgon, Word of God name-drops Medusa and her origin myth when giving the reasons for this choice of monster form. Violet's gorgon form is based on Clash of the Titans (2010)' take on Medusa, being a Gorgeous Gorgon with her long, dark hair replaced by live snakes and a rattlesnake-like tail instead of legs. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Gorgons, resembling women with snake torsos and snakes for hair, live in the basements of overgrown Grecian temples found on beaches. They can turn all mobs that look at the them to stone, including players; fighting them requires the player to wear a blindfold, which limits their perception to a few blocks around themselves. When slain, they drop their heads, which are a one-use item that can transform any one mob into stone. - Powers of Invisibility has Madusa, an akuma modeled on Medusa, who turns people to stone via Eye Beams. - Clash of the Titans (1981) included Medusa as an obstacle for Perseus to overcome — cutting off her head so he can use it to petrify the sea monster who will eat Andromeda. She's made even more monstrous than usual — with a rattlesnake tail that she uses to scare people when she's off screen. She also becomes an Adaptational Badass who is pretty nifty with a bow and arrow, hunting down Perseus's comrades one by one. As noted above, this portrayal brought Medusa into to pop culture, in no small part thanks to the special effects creator Ray Harryhausen used to bring her to life. - Clash of the Titans (2010) includes Medusa's backstory about being cursed. This time it was Aphrodite rather than Athena note : A deleted subplot would have had Athena and Apollo conspiring to help Perseus behind the other gods' backs; presumably having Athena be the one who cursed her would have put her in Designated Hero territory. — and this version also follows the compromise of Medusa being beautiful and terrible. She's a Gorgeous Gorgon here, but has a Game Face whenever she petrifies people. She also becomes far more sadistic — cackling cruelly whenever she petrifies someone. - Medusa is one of the exhibits in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, played by Tony Randall. (The film is based on the novel The Circus of Doctor Lao.) - The Gorgon: A small village is terrorized by the eponymous beast and its secret is the Driving Question. In this case, the titular Gorgon is a lot like a werewolf, who transforms at night and is human during the day. It was notably made before Medusa's pop culture popularity — as the Gorgon in this version is named as Magaera (who was one of the Furies). - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In the first film, she's played by Uma Thurman. So, not so much hideous. When she discovers that Percy is the son of Poseidon, she snarks "I used to date your daddy." - In Dante's Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil are initially barred from entering Lower Hell at the Gate of Dis in Circle Six. Those at the gate threaten to bring out Medusa to turn Dante to stone; Virgil, not trusting Dante to keep his own eyes closed, covers Dante's eyes with his own hands while they wait for divine aid to come to let them pass through. - Medusa is one of the exhibits in The Circus of Doctor Lao. - Piers Anthony's Xanth book The Source of Magic has a Gorgon with snakes for hair. Any man who looks at her face is turned to stone. She is treated sympathetically since she does not want to do this and is forced to live alone; later she marries the Good Magician Humphrey after he fixes her problem by turning her face invisible. - Thomas Ligotti has a short story called "The Medusa" about an Author Avatar who worships the titular character. Guess what happens. - A gorgon joins the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld book Unseen Academicals. She wears sunglasses to avoid turning people to stone when she shouldn't. (In an earlier book, Vimes is very pissed off about citizens interfering with his job by demanding certain kinds of people not be let into the Watch and he says that at this point he'd hire a gorgon. Guess what.) - Medusa is the Alpha Bitch for Athena in the children book series, Goddess Girls. - Percy faces Medusa (or \|\|Aunty Em, as she's called\|\|) as one of the monsters he battles in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. - Later in The Heroes of Olympus. Percy meets the two other Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale. They can't freeze people though, they're also a little touchy about it so don't bring it up. Apparently they had faded away but were restored by a demigod googling their names. - Percy also confronts the forgotten other son Chrysaor, embittered at being ignored in legend, who honors his heritage as a son of her and Poseidon by becoming a fearsome pirate. He wears a golden mask modeled after her face and trounced Percy in combat, hard. - Percy and his friends also end up facing the Gorgons' parents, Phorcys and Keto. - Ology Series: Gorgons, native to Europe, Africa and the Americas, resemble human women with huge, batlike wings and snakelike hair. Their gaze is hypnotic rather than petrifying, and they use it to keep prey still while they spray it with poison from their "hair". - A Hippie in the House of Mouse: Disney releases a film about Medusa in 1996 roughly taking the place of Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame which diverges heavily from the original myth, starting with giving Medusa a heavy dose of Adaptational Heroism and having a romance with Perseus instead of being slayed by him. - Land of the Lost (1974): In "Medusa", a version of Medusa who calls herself "Meddy", appears as a beautiful young woman at first, before her hideous true form is revealed. Her stone gaze only worked in her true form, but it worked on anything she looked at, even plants. She could control vines around her garden (eventually turning them to stone out of anger for letting the heroes escape). She also had a mirror where her reflection could move on its own and talk to her, but she could only confront it in her pretty form so she would not turn herself to stone. Her reflection constantly scolded her because of her vanity and ego, telling her to just turn Holly to stone right away instead of trying to beautify her or waiting for the others to arrive. Jack defeats her by finding the mirror and showing it to her in her true form. Right before she turned to stone, her reflection commented that she should have listened to her warnings. - Robot Wars once had a robot called Medusa 2000; the design spec called for a flail at the back, to look rather like snake hair. Unfortunately, the weapon idea fell through, so all that was left was the name and the picture on the top of the robot, which never was shown clearly on TV. - Star Trek: The Original Series: The episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" features a race known as the Medusans. Their appearance is a madness-inducing Brown Note for most humanoid races. They're not bad guys. - Swamp Thing: In one episode, Swampy and Dr. Arcane both encounter Medusa in the form of a beautiful woman — that is, she's only beautiful as long as she keeps her sunglasses on. When she takes them off we see glowing eyes and part of a monstrous face. She can't petrify Swamp Thing, as he isn't made of flesh, but she can (somehow) turn him into dry bark. Arcane is a scientist to the core about the whole thing; in one scene she partially petrifies him, and he spends the entire time clinically describing the sensation of his soft tissues being turned to stone. - Legends of the Hidden Temple: One of the later rooms is Medusa's Lair, where contestants have to properly place snakes into Medusa's head. - Tales from the Darkside: "Miss May Dusa" involves an amnesiac woman discovering that she is Medusa. - Atlantis: Medusa is initially a normal young woman with whom Hercules falls in love after the heroes rescue her from the cult of the Maenads. - Big Wolf on Campus: Medusa is the Monster of the Week in an episode. She looks like a regular human, and can turn people or objects to stone by making eye contact. Merton falls victim to her. - Once Upon a Time: Medusa is present in the Enchanted Forest. It turns out that her head can't be cut off, but she also isn't immune to her own gaze. Petrifying herself also seems to restore her other victims back to life. - Blood Ties (2007): In "Stone Cold", Medusa is a club owner who turns men who fall for her beauty into stone. She is a love interest of Mike's, until Vicky saves the day. - Charmed (2018): The first season has an interesting approach to the myth, where Medusa actually turns those who won't look at her to stone. Macy "defeats" her by acknowledging her pain. - And then, there's the 2021 Amazon Prime commercial in which Medusa buys sunglasses, and becomes the life of the party (but doesn't hesitate to petrify someone who is annoying her and her new friends). - "Medusa" by Anthrax is a Thrash Metal song with a very straightforward description of Medusa that's fairly accurate to the original myth. - The song "Medusa" by folk artist Heather Dale (which provides the page quote) describes a Medusa who has chosen to own her identity as a monster in the face of other people's scorn. - Whitney Avalon released a song in late 2020 called "Plaything of the Gods" which tells Medusa's story from her side, lampshading the ancient Greek & Roman tendency for the gods to inflict serious punishment on innocent (or at least non-antagonistic) people as a way of soothing their own egos. "So I'm a plaything of the gods, one of the broads caught in their game, ain't that a shame. One day they'll use my head, but cleave and leave the rest of me behind, which seems...unkind." - Since this is a trope about a mythological creature, see the trope description above for the most common versions of the mythology. - Some interpretations argue that Medusa was a Libyan goddess who was equated with Athena before the Greeks defeated them and demonized her as Athena's enemy and inferior. - Another origin is that Medusa and her sisters were so beautiful that they angered Athena by bragging about being more beautiful than the goddess, in any case, Athena turned them into monsters so hideous men would turn to stone if they looked at them. A slightly different version of this origin is that they were still beautiful, but they couldn't be looked at without the beholder turning to stone, making their beauty pointless. - A slightly different version of the second origin is that Medusa was willingly seduced by Poseidon rather than raped. In some versions, we'll never know if it was consensual. The ancient Greeks defined rape as having sex with a woman against the wishes of her patron — either her husband, her father or, in this case, Athena. The woman's decision is entirely inconsequential. - There are some variations of the myth in which, despite what wad done to her by Athena, Medusa continued to be faithful and committing rituals for Athena in private since she's really Married to the Job as a priestess. This was enough to make Athena regret her decision to turn her into a monster, but since she couldn't undo it, she helped Perseus as a way to Mercy Kill Medusa and when all's done good, she put Medusa's head to her shield, less because she wanted to decorate her shield with something awesome, but to posthumously reward her with what she dedicated her life for. This variation tends to hold ground since Greeks believe that Medusa's head on Athena's shield was meant to symbolize extra protection. - Arduin: Chaeronyx are medusa centaurs, pairing the typical snake hair and petrifying gaze with a horse's body in place of human legs. - Banestorm has a race of Medusas, with the traditional features (including a petrifying gaze weapon just looking at one is okay, which may be just as well given that they tend to be quite good-looking). They are always female; they interbreed with humans, elves, or orcs to produce more Medusas (or occasional male babies with recessive Medusa genes). Unfortunately, the petrifying gaze thing means that they are widely treated as monsters, which may in turn be enough to explain their mostly negative view of other races. One online article describes an island village on this game-world ruled by a noble family whose womenfolk are all, unbeknownst to the outside world, Medusas. - Dungeons & Dragons: Medusas have always been a species, but they have undergone some changes between editions. - In 2nd edition, medusas are a race resembling elven maidens with serpents for hair and the ability to petrify with their gaze, even affecting creatures on the Ethereal or Astral Planes (into which they can see). Approximately 10% of the females are "greater medusae", who have super-toxic blood and a giant snake's body in lieu of humanoid legs. There are also male medusas, called maedar, who appear as bald muscular elven men. Maedar are ridiculously rare; whereas female medusae produce 2-6 medusa daughters by mating with human men, the result of a medusa/maedar coupling is two to six offspring, with 25% being male and the remaining 75% being female. Only 1% of the males are maedar; the rest of them, and all of the females, are pure human. In addition to lacking the hair-snakes, maedar have no petrifying gaze; instead, they are immune to petrification, paralyzation and medusa venom, can walk through stone, and can undo petrification with a touch. Medusa/maedar pairs often use this to keep food fresh — the medusa petrifies victims, they smash the statue, and the maedar turns chunks back to flesh when the pair wants to eat. - In editions 3 and 3.5, medusas are an Always Female species with a humanoid body but scaly skin, glowing red eyes, and gaunt faces with flatted, almost non-existent noses. A petrifying gaze attack as well as poison bites from the hair snakes come with the package. Medusas can procreate with any humanoid species, with the offspring normally being medusae themselves. Petrification is permanent by default, but advanced magic can reverse it. In Savage Species, several intelligent monsters including medusae are made into playable races. If you wanted to play a medusa under the standard rules you have to start at level 10 or higher, but with Savage Species you can start as a level 1 immature medusa who has not yet developed her full potential. The same expansions also introduces a feat that allows medusas to enable and disable their gaze attack at will or to focus it at specific opponents, allowing others to see their faces without being turned to stone unless the medusa wants to do so. Sadly, like most monsters in the book, medusas are Cool, but Inefficient due to losing so many class levels to normal player character races and because their two main powers (petrification and poison) are things that are extremely dangerous to normal PC races but something that many monsters are immune or highly resistant to. - In fourth edition, medusae are a species in the usual sense, with both males and females. The female are the classic medusa, pretty much the same as in the previous edition except that she can now un-petrify her victims by applying a drop of her own blood. The males have different powers, in that they're bald (so no snake-hair attacks) and they can poison with their gaze rather than petrify, rather like certain mythological depictions of the basilisk. Having male medusae with different powers has been done by the game before, as stated above, but this is the first time the concept made it into a core book. Both sexes resemble the scaly humanoid from 3rd edition, though with less haggish features. - In the fifth addition, medusae look like humans with snakes for hair, have males with identical powers and are cursed to turn into medusae on an individual basis. - Eberron: Medusae have a unique culture largely based around avoiding looking someone in the eyes — they're not immune to the petrifying gaze of other medusae, so its kind of the only choice. They were created by the daelkyr, but broke free when the creatures were sealed away. Oh, and there are explicitly males as well — where do you think all the baby medusae come from? - Scarred Lands: Medusae were created by the titan Mormo. In this setting, pretty much everything was created by the Titans, including the gods. Two centuries ago, the gods rose up against them in what came to be known as the Titanswar or the Divine War. The medusae were initially an important force at the titans' side, but they switched side to serve the Gods, particularly the neutral evil goddess Belsameth. - In Nomine: Gorgons are children of humans and ethereal spirits — which can include anything from animate dreams to efreet and valkyries to the surviving pagan gods — who changed to be born as warped, terrifying monsters. In essence, they're the ethereal equivalent of the celestial-born Nephilim. Like the Nephilim, most live in isolation, hunted by angels, demons, and humans, but they're not more inherently evil than any other mortal. - Pathfinder: Medusas are rather tragic, as they are not innately evil, but rather are driven to pursue their dark desires out of spite, scornful of those who shun them for their curse. They can mate with any race capable of reproduction with humans, although their children are always female and always bear their curse. They also have literal hearts of stone that are constantly petrifying and un-petrifying themselves, and the places they live tend to be blighted because their petrifying gaze indiscriminately wipes out the local wildlife (including pollinators such as birds and insects). - Medusas normally have entirely human bodies, snake hair aside, but medusas who mate with powerful humanoids give birth to brazen medusas, who have the lower bodies of giant, bronze-scaled snakes. - First Edition's 6th Bestiary introduces the euryale, an epically powerful medusa variant supposedly representing ancient medusa sages corrupted by the demon goddess Lamashtu. They have the lower bodies of giant serpents with stony plate-like scales, and are enormously powerful — Challenge Rating 20, which is just behind things on the level of Demon Lords and Archdevils! As well as the spellcasting abilities of 18th level Oracles, they have a wide array of extra abilities. For starters, not only can they turn the petrified corpses of their victims into animated statue defenders, but if those corpses shatter, they can "consume some of the victim's essence" and restore health by doing so. Perhaps not coincidentally, they also have several powerful sonic attacks, in the form of spell-like abilities for Greater Shout, sonic analogues of Fireball, and even the "kills you if you hear it" Wail of the Banshee spell, and a special trait that makes it easier for them to shatter petrified creatures with their sonic attacks. Their venom and their serpents are much nastier than those of their little sisters, and they can turn any blunt weapon they wield into a Rod of the Viper — an enchanted item consisting of a live and angry serpent they can use to simultaneously beat someone to death and bite repeatedly with venomous fangs. Oh, except their version can also spit fangs like poisoned darts. - Second Edition's 3rd Bestiary introduces sthenos, a race that emerged about a century before the setting's present day when an euryale named Stheno, resentful of the constant nightmares plaguing her kind thanks to Lamashtu's "blessings", prayed to the goddess Shelyn for help. Lamashtu's jealous rebuke slew Stheno, but Stheno's will and defiance caused each of the one hundred snakes that made up her hair to become a new being; these newborn people took the name of sthenos after their progenitor and went out into the world. Modern sthenos almost completely resemble medusas but lack their petrifying powers; their hair snakes are alive and semi-autonomous, although they share their host's emotions. Sthenos are a scattered and spreading people, without a homeland or a unified culture, and mostly keep their numbers up by mating with humans — the children of human/stheno pairings are always either human or stheno, more or less randomly. - Warhammer: Bloodwrack Medusae are former Dark Elf sorceresses who were twisted into monstrous shapes by the goddess Atharti when she grew jealous of their beauty. Their hair turned into writhing tangles of snakes, their gaze deadly, their teeth into fangs and their legs into serpentine trunks with secondary snake bodies branching off of their lengths. - Warhammer 40,000: Medusae are a type of psychic parasite that can take over mortal hosts, creating a fused being notable for a gaze that can kill those that meet it. - Monster High: One of the characters is a son of Medusa, Deuce Gorgon. He has a snake mohawk and normally wears sunglasses to protect his friends from his petrifying gaze (which wears off after 24 hours). He also has a cousin, Viperine (Stheno's daughter), who has (mostly) normal hair and lacks the ability to petrify people. - Monster in My Pocket: Medusa is part of the toy line and also appears in the Licensed Game. She is the boss of the fifth level with four other copies in a Doppelgänger Spin and returns in the Boss Rush. - The Adventures of Lolo games have a bust of Medusa as an enemy. It paralyzes and kills Lolo if he steps into its line of sight. The only way to get past the busts is to block their line of sight with an egg or Emerald Framer. - Age of Mythology: - Choosing to worship Hera when you advance to the Mythic Age lets you train Medusae at your temple. Yes, Medusae, plural. As expected, their special ability lets them turn one enemy unit into stone (except Siege Weapons and Heroes). Their scientific name is Gorgon chrysaorus (while the genus is obvious, the species derivates from Chrysaor, her son with Poseidon). - Hades players can get Perseus as a hero in the Mythic age. He carries a Medusa head that he similarly uses to petrify enemy units. - In Castle Crashers, Medusa appears as a level boss. Snakes jump from her hair and attack the player, and she has an attack that can turn players to stone. \|\|When she's defeated, Medusa herself is turned to stone.\|\| - Castlevania: - Dark Wizard has the Medusa Head as an item that can be used to petrify enemies. There's also Gorgon's Tails, which are the antidote to petrification. - Day Dreamin' Davey: Medusa is one of the Gorgon Sisters that Davey must defeat in one Ancient Greece stage. - Desktop Dungeons: Medusa is the boss form of the Gorgon enemy. - Dota 2 features Medusa as a hero that can be picked. She is notoriously one of the hardest carries in the game, capable of 1v5ing entire enemy teams if sufficiently decked out with items. Her ultimate ability, appropriately named Stone Gaze, petrifies anyone who looks at her when activated. Her lore, however, is a variation of her myth: Medusa has an unnamed mother and her snake form wasn't because the curse from Athena or Poseidon flirting with her (in fact, the two didn't exist in the Dota-verse despite Zeus existing) but some raiding humans attacked her home island and captured her sisters because they're immortal, and yet she's left behind due to her mortality and she asked her unnamed mother for power to rescue and avenge her sisters, leading to her snake-woman form. - Dragon Unit has Medusa as a boss in the third stage, where she resembles a giant snake-woman with green skin. - Dragon's Crown has Medusa as the boss for Route B of the Ancient Temple Ruins. Here, she has the lower body of a snake, scaly green skin, and monstrous clawed hands in addition to the traditional snakes for hair. In addition to her petrifying gaze, she could also summon snakes and shoot Eye Beams. Completing the Request to defeat her solo reveals her history. \|\|Combining both of the classical Medusa origin stories, this Medusa is the youngest of the three Gorgon sisters who desecrated the resident Athena Expy's temple by meeting with men there, whereupon she was turned into a monster as punishment. She then hid herself away with her sisters, who stayed with her out of pity, until she started showing up again at the temple.\|\| - Dungeons & Dragons games with medusas as monsters include Curse of the Azure Bonds, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Pool of Radiance, Pools of Darkness, Neverwinter Nights, and Secret of the Silver Blades. - In Neverwinter Nights expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide, the Interlude introduces a medusa who inflicts an inescapable case of petrification on the heroes. \|\|The Big Bad of the campaign is the medusa Heurodis, who served as an apprentice to one of the few mages to survive the fall of the ancient empire of Netheril, the lich Belpheron. With Belpheron destroyed by the Harpers, Heurodis now intends to reclaim the empire's power for herself so that she can Take Over the World.\|\| - Final Fantasy: - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones depicts Gorgons as Snake People with snaky hair. They hatch from eggs and use petrification attacks. - Medusa shows up in the first God of War. Her sister Euryale was also a boss in the second game. In both games, Kratos chops off their heads and uses them as weapons to petrify enemies. Other Gorgons appear as Mooks, have the same petrification ability, and won't hesitate to shatter Kratos afterwards. - In Hades, the heads of dead gorgons persist in the Underworld, haunting the Fields of Asphodel where Zagreus may occasionally encounter them as an enemy. They hover over the river Phlegethon, and launch projectiles that petrify Zagreus on hit. Nyx also employs a much friendlier gorgon head, called Dusa, as a maid note : in other words, maid-dusa in the House of Hades, who can be interacted with between runs. It's strongly implied that Dusa is really the severed head of Medusa herself, but her past is unknown and Dusa will only make vague comments about how she's a very different person than she used to be. - Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV had Medusas as minions of the Dungeon faction. II had them as neutral (recruitable) creatures. Several of the Might and Magic games also had medusas. VII even used the same sprite as Heroes III. - Holy Umbrella has a villainess named Donderadusa, who, aside from magically turning people into stone, looks and acts much more like a stereotypical Cat Girl than a classical Gorgon. - Kid Icarus: Medusa is the Goddess of Darkness and in opposition to Big Good, Palutena the Goddess of Light. She serves as the Big Bad in the first game and in Kid Icarus: Uprising — or at least \|\|for the first part of\|\| the latter game. - King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human features a Medusa antagonist in the desert. The hero needs a mirror to defeat her. He also needs to face away from her, or else he's petrified instantly. If he has the mirror and the player types "use mirror" fast enough, the Medusa will see herself and be turned to stone. If he doesn't have it, or doesn't use it quickly enough, she will catch up and force him to look at her. The AGD Fan Remake adds a new wrinkle. She is in a cave instead of the open desert, and there is more than one way to solve the puzzle — the traditional mirror, or a test of character. - League of Legends has a champion named Cassiopeia which is a snake-woman very similar to that in Clash of the Titans. She has snake hair and her ultimate ability is to turn enemies into stone in a cone in front of her. Her name is even tangentially related: Cassiopeia was the mother of the princess that Perseus was out to save. - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: The dungeon boss Medusa Head, fighting Link with petrification powers and damaging Eye Beams. - Majesty: Medusae are a type of enemy, who not only have snakes for hair, but are also serpent from the waist down. The Northern Expansion introduces the stronger Greater Gorgons. - Miitopia: Medusas are regular enemies, appearing as serpentines ladies with a Mii mouth on their faces and a Mii eye on five snakes of her hair. Of course, one of their attack can petrify Miis. - NetHack: Medusa is a boss. - A non-hostile Medusa appears in Planescape: Torment as one of the women in the Brothel for the Slaking of Intellectual Lusts. You never clearly see her as she's hiding in a dark room to avoid harming anyone with her petrifying gaze due to having lost the veil she normally wears over her face. Finding it for her is one of the quests you can complete inside the Brothel. - Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time has the Zombie Medusa from the Ancient Grome set of enemies. She comes in pushing a tough petrified zombie, and is capable of turning any zombies or zomboids facing her into durable stone obstacles, making her an Obvious Rule Patch against the otherwise-overpowered Caulipower (which hypnotizes zombies to fight the horde) and Zoybean Pod (which spawns zomboids). Fortunately, she cannot petrify plants, and in a case of Developer's Foresight, if the Snap Pea eats her and spits out her head, it'll turn any zombies near the impact into stone obstacles. - Pokémon Uranium: Arbok's Mega Evolution evokes this; it has multiple smaller snakes growing around its head, and has the Petrify ability. - Rings of Medusa does not feature any character with any traits of the mythological Medusa. While "Medusa" is the main villain, she never comes into play herself, and she doesn't have any traits beyond being evil, in a strictly Protagonist-Centered Morality sense of the word. - Scribblenauts: Medusas are among the creatures you can summon . True to the myth, they can turn other characters to stone. You can also summon only a Medusa's head, which Maxwell himself can use to petrify others. - Skull & Crossbones features Medusa herself (she's even named as such by the game) as the boss of the caves level. She's seen behind a cauldron in her quarters, full of her skeleton mooks, and after defeating her skeletons she then fights you. - Smite: Medusa is playable and, for once, able to go toe to toe against the ones who caused her misery: Poseidon and especially Athena (ironically, she's also an excellent partner to play with Medusa). She's not a Goddess, but gets the pass for being one of the more famous monsters in mythology (when they have already included monsters like Scylla or Demigods like Hercules). Medusa is portrayed here with a porcelain emotionless mask over her face that hides a more snake-like face underneath it. Like in Clash of the Titans (1981), she makes use of a bow (but can also loose vipers with it). Her snake heads can also spit out acid, and her ultimate is removing her mask to cause her signature effect to enemies, which damages and temporarily stuns all enemies facing her as she does it (doing less damage and slowing enemies facing away). Being killed by her ultimate leaves a statue of the dead god behind — these statues can be broken, interacts with her acid spitting by helping spread it over a larger area when it hits them, and even potentially (though it's very difficult and not very likely) break the line of sight for Medusa's ultimate for players to avoid it in a future situation. - Total War: - Total War: Warhammer: Bloodwrack Medusae, former sorceress turned into monsters by a jealous goddess, are a type of monster unit in the Dark Elf army roster. Their deadly gaze is represented as a powerful magic missile capable of tearing through ranks of infantry. They're fairly typical snake-bodied medusae beyond having additional snakes sprouting from their lower bodies; while most have bright green scales, their unique Regiment of Renown, the Siren of Red Ruin, has coppery red scales instead. - A Total War Saga: TROY: Gorgons are a type of agents available to players who court Athena's favor. In Truth Behind the Myth Mode they're fully human, but cultivate deliberately horrific appearances and focus on sabotaging enemy units and morale, the implication being that tales of these women eventually morphed into the later myth of Medusa through centuries of retellings. In Mythos Mode, they're instead monsters with birdlike wings, a crown of snakes for hair, and reptilian faces with snakelike eyes, a leer full of tusk-like fangs and a long pointed tongue, and a "beard" of spikes. Among other things, they can pretty render a place's garrison to being nearly non-existent. - The Touhou Project fangame The Genius Of Sappheiros has them appear \|\|as the youngest of the Gorgon sisters responsible for the main game's incident, Litos Medousa Gorgon, complete with the ability to petrify with a gaze (and in fact, of all means of inflicting petrification in the game, she has the most powerful infliction effect through one of her Last Spells). Once the Gorgon sisters are defeated by Reimu's party, she and her sisters take on the role of guardian goddesses in Gensokyo. In the Lingering Summer Heat expansion, she is a member of the starting party, working to resolve the incident to avenge her sister, who was one of the victims\|\|. - Town of Salem has the Medusa as a role, aligned with the Coven. At night, she can choose to gaze, which will petrify anyone who visits her, making their roles and wills lost. When she gains the Necronomicon, she can choose to single out a target to petrify. - Xena: Warrior Princess: One of the later levels of the game, appropriately titled The Three Sisters, have Xena battling Medusa and both her sisters one at a time in three consecutive boss battles. Each of the gorgon sisters are progressively harder than the previous one, with Medusa herself being the strongest. - Fate/stay night features the actual Medusa (or, more precisely, her Heroic Spirit, i.e. superpowered ghost) as the Servant Rider, under the backstory of having been born as an incomplete goddess that was mocked and cursed. While her eyes still turn people into stone, her "snake hair" is explained to be a negative exaggeration of her really long and luxurious hair... however, it turns out it would be more accurate to call this Medusa as the one before she became a monster. She also has the ability to summon her son Pegasus as a mount. One summonable version of her, an Avenger, in Fate/Grand Order (specifically summoning her as the Gorgon of legend) does have the snakes for hair (more accurately, "hair feelers" with snake head-shaped ends) and all versions of her can apparently shift to the monster she eventually became at the end of her life at the cost of her sanity, which can only be described as a giant monster made of snakes that can shoot lasers from its single eye. A third summonable version, a Lancer, appears in the form of a child that represents her time as a goddess, wielding Harpe, the weapon that in myth was used by Perseus to decapitate her. A fourth version, a Saber, looks similar to the Rider but wields the golden sword of her son, Chrysaor. - Astoria: Fate's Kiss also features the actual Medusa. She is a Gorgon in the middle of a mob war with her sisters, and is a romance option. She has red hair and can turn people to stone with her red hair. However, she hates how people think of her in mythology. - The title character from Modest Medusa is a friendly medusa child named Modest, and is a member of a race of Medusas. Their gaze does not petrify, the venom of their snake hair does. \|\|It is eventually revealed that Medusas are the larval form of hydras. Over time, as the snake hair grows larger, the human parts will eventually shrivel up and die, leaving only the snake heads attached to a snake body. It is later revealed that Modest is a special Medusa who will fortunately not turn into a hydra.\|\| - Wapsi Square: While Medusa herself has not appeared, her sister Euryale has, and she gives an amusing re-interpretation of the legend. Medusa's form was always that way; it was not a curse or anything, and the petrification was under conscious control. The deal with Poseidon in Athena's temple was consensual, and Athena put a price on Medusa's head as a result. Then, Medusa fell in love with this Perseus guy, so they conspired to fake her death at his hands and lived the rest of their lives selling statues. - The Story of Anima has a little girl in a straight jacket with gigantic snakes for hair appropriately named Medusa, or "Medi", for short. - Marina in Monster Pop! has snakes for hair and needs to wear sunglasses so she doesn't petrify anyone. This doesn't stop her from being completely cute, though. - She's one of the main characters in Nightmarish, portrayed as a stoner with eye obscuring bangs. - Skin Deep: Gorgons are a very rare species of Always Female, extremely long-lived magical creatures resembling human women with snakes for hair, scaly skin, brass claws and great feathered wings, as well as the famous petrifying gaze. The gorgon shopkeeper Madame U, the only gorgon character in the comic, is blind, and as a result does not have her deadly gaze any longer. The eyes and tongues of her snake hair still work fine, though, giving her a limited ability to see, feel and smell the world through them. - Last Res0rt: Kendril are an alien race who probably inspired myths of Gorgons, though unlike many examples their petrification attack isnt projected from their eyes, but their split-mandibled mouth, which is usually covered by a mask or veil in mixed company. - Port Sherry: She is portrayed as a nice woman who just happens to have snakes for hair and petrification powers. - Played with in The Powerpuff Girls (1998). The show had Sedusa; a character with tentacle-like hair (wasn't snakes but definitely had a life of its own) whose specialty was to, yes, seduce men. - Celebrity Deathmatch has Steve Irwin fighting against a Medusa. The fight ends with a Shout-Out to the ending of the original Clash of the Titans. - The episode of The Fairly OddParents! where Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda visit ancient Greece and go to a party at Mt. Olympus features Medusa as a party-crasher. - In Hercules: The Animated Series, Medusa was The Woobie, who makes a deal with Hades to make herself look like a regular girl. - Medusa appears in Justice League Unlimited thanks to Wonder Woman connecting the Greek pantheon to this show. Batman and Zatanna have to be blindfolded in order to meet her as she arrives from her cell in Tartarus. For her good information Lady Justice notes she has shaved off three hundred years from her sentence moving it up to now 4010. Medusa also sounds like she was raised in New York. - All three gorgons appear in American Dragon: Jake Long. Aside from their snake hair, they generally look human, and are both good-looking and vain. In addition to their petrifying gaze (which they must intentionally activate), they're also adept at mind control. - Hurricanes: Stavros Garkos uses the name "Medusa" for some of his business ventures, named his soccer team "Garkos Gorgons" and his big sister once dressed herself as Medusa to trick people into thinking players from a rival team were turned into stone. - Medusa appears in an episode of Rocket Robin Hood (episode: "Young Mr. Ulysses"). - The Gorgon sisters in The Smurfs (1981) episode "The Smurf Odyssey". - One of the students at Gravedale High, called Dusa for short. - Super Friends: In "Battle of the Gods", Wonder Woman is challenged by Zeus to steal Medusa's necklace. She eventually defeats her by showing Medusa her reflection with her bracelets, which turns her to stone and restores the Wonder Twins who had been petrified. - Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures: In "Heroes", Jeremiah Surd makes his Quest World avatar turn into Medusa. In addition to the stone gaze, the snakes could detach and their venom could partially petrify. He manages to petrify Race and Jessie, and his snakes petrify Jonny's hand and foot. Jonny defeats him by making him see his own reflection, which turns him to stone and restores the others. - Tasha plays this role in The Backyardigans episode "Sinbad Sails Alone". - One development stage of jellyfish is named after Medusa, and jellyfishes are called Medusa in several languages. - There exists a genus of horned dinosaur named after Medusa called Medusaceratops due to its horns snaking around. It also carries the species name lokii too, might we add.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMedusasAreDifferent
Our Orcs Are Different - TV Tropes "Wesnoth Orcs are brown; a portrait showing them as green is inconsistent." — Artistic Guidelines for Contributing Artists from the open-source game Battle for Wesnoth Ever since Tolkien, the worlds of fantasy literature and video games have been overrun with tribes of ugly, bellicose humanoids, whose main purpose for existence is to serve as the Mooks of the Forces of Evil. Trolls, goblins and/or hobgoblins (and such) are usually also closely associated with them, or may just be different names for the same thing. The word orc comes from Old English and shares linguistic roots with ogre, borrowed from French. Both terms are related to the Latin word Orcus, the name of an Etruscan/Roman god of The Underworld which came to denote the place itself (like Greek Hades). Later, Orcus was glossed as a term for a demon or hell itself. Thus, the Old English word orc, as attested by medieval glossaries — as well as cognates in other languages like French ogre, Italian orco and Portuguese and Spanish ogro — denoted a kind of demon or monster. However, the only appearance of orc in surviving Old English literature comes from Beowulf in the form orcnéas, "demon-corpses", sometimes translated as "living dead" — ghouls, perhaps? Orcnéas are said to be evil creatures descended from Cain, together with eotenas (giants), ylfe (elves) and gigantas (giants, again, so eotenas is sometimes translated as ogres or trolls). note : Confusingly, a homonym of orc also exists in Old English with the meaning of "cup" or some other sort of "vessel", with the plural orcas appearing in Beowulf. This is also derived from Latin, but is completely unrelated to Orcus since it comes from urceus, much later orca — which itself has a homonym meaning "whale", hence killer whales are called orcas. In modern fiction, Orcs come in two general flavors: the original model developed by J. R. R. Tolkien who borrowed the word from Beowulf and used it for his version of goblins, and a revisionist model best exemplified (but far from invented) by Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft series. There are also orcs IN SPACE!!! ## Tolkienesque or "traditional" orcs: - Are Always Chaotic Evil. - Often have pig-like snouts or upturned noses that resemble pig snouts. (Sometimes taken one step further by actually giving them pig heads, like in early editions of Dungeons & Dragons.) May have tusks. This is possibly drawn from the fact that "orc" is Welsh for "pig", and Welsh was the inspiration for Tolkien's Sindarin; alternately, it comes from the illustrators misunderstanding Gary Gygax who supposedly told them to make the orcs look "pig-headed"; or, simply, that "orc" rhymes with "pork". This look was popularized in Japan by RPGs like Dragon Quest. Often called "Porcs" on the internet. - If they're not porcine as mentioned above, they'll have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth due to their meat-heavy diet. - Are usually carnivorous or hypercarnivorous, often cannibalistic. If not, they may instead be Extreme Omnivores. - Are of varying colors; ranging from sallow to gray to red. Green is not unknown, though generally not the vibrant green of "Blizzard" orcs ( Dungeons and Dragons orcs are grayish-green). - Are most likely to be Faceless Goons/Mooks. - Are dumb, either using only primitive technology or with an affinity for industrialized production, lacking craftsmanship and having Creative Sterility. - If these orcs use any magic at all, it would be Black Magic. - Have little or no culture outside of raiding/war parties and worshiping gods of war or the local Evil Overlord. - Usually have oppressive, patriarchal societies, with females being treated as property (if female orcs are even shown or mentioned). - Are oftentimes made solely as artificial creatures rather than reproducing naturally (since Creating Life Is Bad), thus explaining the aforementioned lack of females and making the dehumanization and extermination of these creatures less morally questionable. - Are of variable strength and size, but usually shorter than humans or elves but taller than dwarves. - Are often hunched or stooped in build or posture with awkward musculature and proportions, and may lope like a great ape when running. - May or may not have a British cockney accent (as popularized by Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000). - Are a Proud Warrior Race with an extensive honor system partially inspired by the Japanese, the Norse, or other "warrior" cultures. They've been referred to as "green Klingons" in the past. - Have intelligence on par with humans and other races (though other races might not see it that way). Their technology and magic might even be on par with humans and elves, though their magic will be more shamanic than arcane, and their technology will be more "earthy". - Are far more likely to have a more fully fleshed-out culture than Tolkienesque orcs. But unlike other races, they rarely have a direct real-world counterpart, but are instead a mishmash of various tribal cultures, although most can be summed up as a Proud Warrior Race. - Have an animist and/or shamanistic religious structure. - Are more likely to be omnivorous. - Are more likely to have cities or settlements beyond war camps, although other races will likely still consider them barbaric and primitive. - May appear rugged and violent to other races because historically they lived in dangerous environments that have very few resources available so they resort to a spartan way of life. - Are more likely to have females portrayed, gender equality or even female leaders. Although sexual dimorphism does exist, Orcish women are expected to fight to exactly the same degree as men, and usually also have the same degree of martial ability. More fearsome females may exemplify the Beast Man trope. - Have bright green skin and are physically similar to (some) trolls from European folklore. - Aren't necessarily repulsive. They can even be quite attractive, with the women shown as Amazonian beauties and the men burly and ruggedly handsome. - Will have large tusks jutting out from their lower jaws, though if the orcs are portrayed as attractive, these will be reduced to inverted Cute Little Fangs (though female orcs tend to have small "cute" tusks even when the men's are still large and imposing). This is the one holdover from when orcs were more pig-like in appearance. Even if they have human noses, they'll always have the tusks. - Are larger than humans and nearly always stronger. An Orc will be probably about 6-8 feet tall, and much more stocky and robustly built. Limbs are close to a foot thick. Competitive Balance usually ensures that this does not make them superior to other races in battle: elves are still much more agile and attuned to nature or magic, dwarves have comparable strength, toughness and superior equipment, and humans have superior logistics, tactics, and coordination on the battlefield. - May have incredibly thick muscle, broad chests and shoulders and somewhat elongated arms, but generally stand upright and appear undeniably humanoid. - Are vastly more likely to be protagonists or at least supporting characters as opposed to rank-and-file Mooks. Although the two interpretations differ significantly, they broadly share both a monstrous, primitive appearance and conflict with humanity and the other Standard Fantasy Races. The author's choice of which model to emulate usually depends on whose perspective the story is written from, the story's relative position on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, and whether or not the author intends to explore ramifications of killing sentient beings. In any case, expect humans to treat revisionist orcs as if they were Tolkienesque orcs, at least initially. Also both types are generally mooted to reach maturity faster and to have a lower life expectancy than even humans, though this isn't universal. Around half human lifespan seems to be common, with half-orcs bridging the difference. You average orc will be an adult at ten, in their prime at twenty, be middle aged at thirty, old at forty and venerable at fifty, in the unlikely event they live that long - orc lives tending to be dangerous, brutish and short. In modern fiction, "orc" is sometimes spelled as "ork", both to make the orcs that much more different and for Xtreme Kool Letterz appeal. 'Orc' is usually the spelling in medieval fantasy, while 'ork' is the norm in modern or futuristic settings, as popularized by Warhammer 40,000. The form "orke" appeared in early modern English during the Renaissance period, perhaps influenced by the French "ogre". Tolkien considered spelling it "ork" late in his life, but never got around to revising his published stuff for it. Orcs typically share a close relationship with goblins, and indeed Tolkien originally used the words "orc" and "goblin" more or less interchangeably. Modern fantasy typically separates them into distinct species, with goblins usually being smaller and more lightly built. Orcs are also frequently associated with other monstrous humanoid races. See: Our Ogres Are Hungrier, All Trolls Are Different and Our Giants Are Bigger, as well as Standard Fantasy Races. The trope often overlaps with Pig Man, especially in Japanese media, though the pun on "pork" is linguistically coincidental. They are often the "adopting" parent when a child is Raised by Orcs. In many cases, Space Orcs will literally be fantasy orcs IN SPACE!, although it's somewhat more common for them to be an original species with a Tolkienian orcish personality added on. ## Examples: - Delicious in Dungeon: Orcs are tall, stout, and porcine (plus small horns and tusks), but are primarily Blizzard-style, respecting courage, living in communal villages, and despising cowardice. They have a wholly justified reputation as murderous raiders, but the humans and elves they target can't be called innocent, having historically committed their own fair share of atrocities against the orcs. They're actually pretty amiable around non-orcs who somehow get on their good side. - Monster Musume being a Japanese work, the orcs are Pig Men of human-level intelligence. Typical for the series, while the males closely resemble the "Boar-men" orcs of Dragon Quest, the females shown in spinoffs are attractive, curvy humanoids who are a Little Bit Beastly instead. The first orcs shown in the series are the first truly hostile liminals introduced; terrorists who take a comic book store hostage to make ridiculous demands for the publication of orc-centric pornography. - In Interspecies Reviewers Orcs are the ruling political party of the setting due to the fact that they apply their lifestyle of "Eat, Sleep and Fuck" to politics (a focus on agriculture, low taxes, public support for sex industry). Otherwise aside from looking like pig men and a high sex drive/stamina there's little separating them from other species. In one notable scene, a "Raid Party" consisting of 100 orcs saves the Reviewers from Out with a Bang. - Dark Tower: The Brigands, although bearing antlers and beaks, clearly serve the function of Tolkienian orcs. - Magic: The Gathering: - Orcs had a presence in early sets, before growing out of focus due to goblins taking over the niche of small Red-aligned creatures, leaving little need to maintain orcs as a separate creature type. They made a reappearance in the Khans of Tarkir expansion after being absent for about fifteen years. While early orcs were exclusively aligned with Red mana (the color of impulsivity, emotion, chaos and ferocity), modern orcs are split fairly evenly between Red and Black (the color of self-interest, ambition and amorality). - Early orcs don't fit the Tolkensian archetype or the Warcraft archetype very well. Rather, they are sort of "goblins, but bigger (and somehow even dumber)". Their primary distinguishing characteristics are their supreme cowardice and complete incompetence; early orc cards were printed with abilities that made it difficult or impossible to force them into any combat that would kill the orc, while others had ridiculous drawbacks for minor effects that made them a bigger liability to their controller than the opponent outside of overly complicated combos. - The orcs of Dominaria were mainly found in the isolated island continent of Sarpadia, where they lived in tunnels within the continent's mountains alongside the local goblins. They warred extensively against Sarpadia's dwarven, elven and human nations — especially the humans — and alongside the thallids (fungi farmed by the elves as food sources that ended up developing sapience) and the thrulls (creatures bred as living sacrifices and meat shields by human necromancers) ended up destroying Sarpadia's nations. However, after the humans, dwarves and elves were gone, the thrulls' deep-seated paranoia led to them attacking the orcs and goblins once the other threats were gone, eventually wiping them out as well. Other orcish populations survived on other continents, such as the Ironclaw orcs of Aerona, but they're not particularly common or prominent. Physically, they chiefly resemble burly humans with green skin and pointed ears. - Orcs on Tarkir are much closer to Blizzard's orcs, and tend to be portrayed as proud, aggressive brawlers and warriors. They tend to have heavy frames, greyish-tan skin, triangular ears and flattened, almost absent noses. They are often found as warriors in the Mardu hordes and the Abzan houses. In the reforged timeline they are found almost exclusively among the followers of the dragon Kolaghan, and like the rest of Kolaghan's clan are ferocious, warlike barbarians and often cannibalistic. - Ixalan's orcs, found in the Brazen Coalition, are Blood Knights who have been known to raid their own ships if they go too long without plunder. They have much more human-like proportions than the orcs of Tarkir. - Orggs are a rare creature type created from the crossbreeding of orcs and ogres. They're characterized by their large and pointed ears, four arms and incredible stupidity. - 2000 AD: In Kingdom, a race of grey-skinned dog-human hybrid warriors is officially designated "Aux". Given that their human creators had a love of Punny Names (individual Aux include Gary the Old Man and Val Kill-More), this may have been deliberate. - Birthright portrays orcs as one of the native races from Terrenos. Despite fitting the Tolkien mold as they are mostly servants of God-King Lore, the most prominent orc character in the narrative is Rook, who serves the Blizzard mold being an heroic warrior and the main protagonist's mentor. - Black Moon Chronicles: Similar to Warhammer orcs, with the same sense of tactics, only usually with more humanlike skintones and racial hatred of elves. - The DCU: The Khunds are, in many ways, the setting's Klingons, so all the comparisons of Klingons to orcs apply equally well to the Khunds. They're a big, muscular, ugly Proud Warrior Race who have a strong code of honor but still generally act like imperialistic bullies who get into fights with the good guys. - Drago Nero: Gmor follows the Blizzard example, being a Boisterous Bruiser and Bash Brothers with the titular character. - ORCS! and its sequel ORCS! THE CURSE concerns a tribe of orcs who are fun loving and always eager for a dance party. They are also extremely fierce fighters in defence of their own, and their tribal witch is a very powerful magician. The characters are drawn in a rounded cartoonish style with a wide variety of body sizes, skin and eye colours, and clothing. - Orc Stain depicts a world populated by Warhammer-ish orcs who rely upon Organic Technology. They're an all-male species who reproduce by ejaculating mobile plant seeds that grow into vegetative wombs full of new orcs and who use coins made from sliced up, petrified pieces of orc penis as money. - In Rat Queens, most orcs are more Tolkienesque, though the only orc main character, Braga, left her people after she realized they would never accept her goals to reform their culture and end the constant bloodshed (\|\|also her coming out as Transgender\|\|). note : She's now a Destructive Savior Hero For Hire with the Rat Queens, so she's not a pacifist by any means. - Bright: Orcs live integrated with humans and other races in a modern-day Earth. Orcs are pretty normal people for all of their racial differences. They maintain some vestiges of being a Proud Warrior Race, with the idea of being "blooded" having a central role in their society. They have intelligence roughly on par with humans, though they're stereotyped as dumb. The main orc character, Jakoby, is frequently slow on the uptake, but much of this might just be a combination of "doesn't understand human verbal play" and "inexperienced cop who hesitates," and he's more thoughtful, serious and idealistic than his human partner. They are apparently larger, heavier, stronger and slower the humans on average, and Jakoby exhibits some extraordinary toughness. They are extremely clannish and generally discriminated against by other races, making them second-class citizens in the wider society — so no wonder they're big on their own clans/gangs. - In the Name of the King features the Krug, who are mindless humanoid monsters for the heroes to slaughter. - The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have orcs as sharp-toothed humanoid monsters ranging from the very impish-looking goblins of the Misty Mountains to the hulking and brutish Uruk-hai of Isengard. Those that do speak do so in low-class British accents, with screechy or grating voices. Fitting with the pro-nature theme of the series, orcs are focused on ruthless industry, shown tearing down trees and building crude, jagged weapons of war in service of their dark masters. - One abandoned film treatment turned orcs into avian-like creatures with wings and beaks, causing Tolkien to comment that "Orcs is not a form of Auks." . - The script by John Boorman also had orcs with avian features, and threw in some reptilian ones for good measure. They also apparently spend time not fighting in a form of suspended animation, likely forced on them by Sauron. Notably, they are not serving Sauron of their own free will. - Star Wars: The Gamorreans, first appearing in Return of the Jedi, are brutish, strong, green, pig-snouted and tusked, matriarchal, violent brutes with low intelligence, often used as minions and low-level grunts by Hutt crime lords. - Warcraft 2016, being based on a game made by the Trope Codifier of Blizzard-style orcs, obviously has a multitude of examples of the latter type. There's a lot of women, and orcs have friendships, families, a Code of Honour and sacred traditions. The orc protagonist Durotan is treated as just as important as humans and questions and then opposes the actions and motivations of Gul'dan, the Sorcerous Overlord who commands the Horde. - In NERO, orcs are green and tusked. Half-Orcs generally look exactly like orcs but can be PCs. Whether they are of the Tolkienian or Blizzard variety seems to vary from tribe to tribe. - Angel: The demonic army at the end of "Not Fade Away" is meant to look like Tolkien Orcs. Indeed, there is an interview where Joss Whedon calls them "Orcs". - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Turok-Han are basically Tolkenian Orcs crossed with vampires. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The orcs are pale and cover their entire bodies to shield themselves from sunlight, as they have been hiding literally underground for centuries. In the show, they are an Always Chaotic Evil corruption of elves. - Star Trek: - The Wheel of Time (2021): The Trollocs look very much as they are described in the books, with a largely humanoid frame but also beastial features, often horns, plus hooves in some cases. However, as of season 1, they had no chance to show any free will beyond killer instinct and a fear of water. - Clamavi de Profundis: Orcs are present in the world of Hammerdeep, where they're a barbaric, warlike people whom other species fear and hate. They're almost invariably evil and destructive people, but it's implied that this is something instilled in them by a cruel upbringing rather than innate nature. - In Dungeons And Dragon Wagon, Orcs are called Orccans and were created from Swamp Mud by the goddess, Rasa. Though, they have green skin, are large, and have tusks, they may just return to mud if Rasa ever falls from power, as Suggested by Ugu-ta (Michele Specht) in Chapter 8.2. - 13th Age: Orcs are the classic evil variant. They can't breed with humans in the standard setting (half-orcs arise spontaneously), and sometimes just spawn from the ground. Orcs can be green-skinned, big, pig-snouted, snake-eyed, bandy-legged, leather-faced or cinder-skinned, but only the orcs themselves care about the different varieties. They're also becoming steadily more united as the new Orc Lord rises to prominence. - Age Of Ambition: Orcs are one of the 5 subtypes of the Ogre race. Their main distinction being impulsive to a fault, and a mild healing factor that gives them an increased appetite. Unlike most other fantasy settings, they are mostly accepted in most civilized nations. - Burning Wheel Orcs are Tolkien style for the most part. The game plays up the brutal and vicious aspects of Orc society by giving orcs a 'hate' attribute. Orcs are more likely to be killed or maimed by another Orc than by their real enemies. Naturally, Orc campaigns mostly deal with power, treachery and deceit within a group of Orcs. - The Chronicles of Aeres: Orcs are what happens when goblins manage to live a particularly long time. They're still Made of Evil, but the prolonged lifespan allows them to grow larger and stronger and marginally smarter — and considering Aeres orcs are still Dumb Muscle, that says something for how dumb Aeres goblins are. They're rarely seen, and because lesser goblins obey them instinctively, they're commonly known as "Goblin Kings". - In Chronopia the Blackblood orcs are a mixed between Tolkien and Blizzard-style orcs with Mongolian themes. They also specialized in Alchemy. - The Dark Eye: Orks are smaller than humans, but stronger. They are covered in black fur (Blackpelts) and have tusks. Normaly nomadic, they have begun building cities in recent years. Due to a coming choosing of a race that will govern a new age, they could overpower humans. They believe in Brazoragh, the god of males, power and war, and Tairach, the god of death and magic. Brazoragh killed his father Tairach, becoming the new godly chieftan. The orkish culture is just like that, constant fighting for the highest place. The only reason they have begun buidling cities, instead of killing themselves and everybody else, is their new leader, the Aikar Brazoragh (Chosen of Brazoragh): as strong as a giant (meaning amongst the strongest creatures on the planet), more magical power than three archmages and, being the sole chosen of a god, having more clerical power than all human high priests together. He had to beat every single chieftan though until his people accepted him as leader. - Deadlands: Two of the three settings use orc-like characters. - Dungeons & Dragons was highly influential in making orcs a standard part of fantasy settings. The game's characterization of orcs varies widely based on the edition and campaign setting, (to say nothing of dungeon master interpretation). One of the monster guides gave a picture◊ showing the different interpretations of the monsters including a Tolkien-inspired orc. - Early editions of the core game follow Tolkien model fairly closely. Orcs are violent humanoids who dwell underground and find sunlight uncomfortable. They are said to be highly competitive and good tacticians. Earlier editions had them as Lawful Evil, but later editions made them Chaotic Evil. Half-orcs are also a playable race, receiving extra strength but lower charisma. In the first edition, Orcs were drawn as piglike creatures despite the description not mentioning this. As many early and popular JRPGs, most notably Dragon Quest, based their monsters off of first edition D&D illustrations, this helped popularized the "porc" look in Japan. - Second Edition and subsequent editions are largely Tolkien model, but include hints of the Blizzard model. Orcs are violent, stupid creatures who typically serve as fodder for low-level heroes to slaughter. They have a shamanistic (albeit violent) culture, and a more troll-like appearance. They are typically drawn with green skin, though this can vary. 3rd Edition explicitly states that they have grey skin, though this is not borne out in most of the illustrations. - The 3.5th Edition Races of Destiny book also introduced the Sharakim as a sort of orcish subrace, gray-skinned, tusked, flat-nosed brutes who go beyond orcish ugliness by sporting a pair of curved horns on their temples. They're the descendents of early humans who were cursed by the gods for killing and eating a sacred silver stag. Sharakim are taught from birth that they were created from sin, and thus go out of their way to compensate by being fastidious about their dress and hygiene, and always friendly and well-mannered in their interactions with other races... except in the case of true orcs, which they utterly despise. - Fifth Edition has given the orcs more character by focusing on their pantheon and increasing its importance, turning the race into borderline Religious Bruisers fighting to appease their savage gods. Gruumsh remains the orcs' primary war deity, but also important are Ilneval the strategist, the barbaric Bahgtru, the rotten Yurtus, and the dark and sinister Shargaas. These gods' followers all serve specific roles in a tribe, so Gruumsh's chosen act as leaders, Ilneval's followers as tacticians, and Bahgtru's as berserkers. Yurtus' priesthood operates on the fringes of orc society, only interacting with the rest to claim the bodies of the dead or to tend to plague-ridden orcs, while the followers of Shargaas only emerge from their unlit caverns to cull the weak members of a tribe or assassinate its foes. And while previous editions treated female orcs as mere chattel, in 5th Edition the importance of the orcish mother goddess Luthic has been increased so that her worshippers are the ones holding the tribe together, crafting their weapons and armor, constructing defenses and expanding their cave lairs, and viciously defending their homes and children from invaders. One archmage even believes that the divine war between the orcish and goblinoid pantheons will end with Luthic as the last deity standing, who will go on to rule over the orcs. - One trait that has remained consistent throughout editions is the ability to successfully interbreed with other races. Known orc hybrid races include the Tel-amhothlan (half-orc/half-elf) from Kingdoms Of Kalamar, the Dworg (half-orc/half-dwarf) from Midnight (2003)), the Losel (half-orc and half- baboon), the Orog (orc father/ogre mother, resulting in an orc with increased stature, vigor and intelligence), the Ogrillon (orc mother/ogre father, a violent, dimwitted brute whose skin is covered in bony armor), and Tanarukks (half-orc/half-demon). This trait has become somewhat less pronounced as time has gone by — Orogs were presented as a smarter subrace of orcs originating from the Underdark in the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms, whilst in 5th edition Orogs are the recipients of a divine blessing from the orc mother-goddess, Luthic. - The Forgotten Realms setting deviates from the above in that while the orcs can interbreed with most other races, and a significant number of orcs are actually half-breeds with humans, goblinoids, or giants, they cannot interbreed with elves. This is because Gruumsh explicitly forbids it due to his burning hatred toward the elves and their pantheon, - For the most part, the Forgotten Realms has followed the usual D&D variety straight, but it has been played with over time. The Legend of Drizzt series eventually saw the founding of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a legitimately recognized orc kingdom founded by a Visionary Villain, Obould Many-Arrows. In 4th edition, the Many-Arrows kingdom had been enjoying a real peace with its formerly hostile neighbors for decades, implying orcs in at least that part of the world were finally climbing out of their Always Chaotic Evil niche... and then 5th edition came in and had Many-Arrows destroyed and orcs cast out again, with Salvatore's novels having traditionalist orcs denounce Many-Arrows' existence as an aberration in the natural order . Before Many-Arrows, there was Thesk, which wasn't a orc kingdom but as a result of a grand coalition involving a Zhentarim orcish mercenary army had a significant and mostly non-evil orcish minority from a while into 2E onward. - The Forgotten Realms are also home to the Ondonti, a rare group of pacifistic Lawful Good orcs who prefer to tend their farms and mind their own business. They're believed to be descendants of orcs who were saved by the clergy of a minor goddess of peace and agriculture who chose a third option to the traditional Orc Baby Dilemma. - Orcs in Eberron are somewhat "Blizzard orcs," but somewhat fulfill the role of elves in other settings (Eberron elves are a Proud Warrior Race). They have little actual conflict with the other races, are the best druids in the setting (despite a fullblooded orc getting a Wisdom penalty) and actually have a sort-of company that finds Dragonshards — crystals that are essential to create magic items. The shamanistic culture of the orcs of the Shadow Marches is responsible for keeping one type of Cosmic Horror from causing The End of the World as We Know It. However, there are also other orcish cultures — the Jhorash'tar orcs of the eastern mountains, separated from the Marches by hundreds of miles of land occupied by other cultures, don't have much in common with them and are closer to "Tolkien orcs" - although they're still generally portrayed as people whose long-running enmity with the dwarves of the Mror Holds is just an awkward result of two cultures in close proximity but without much in common, and not just generic enemies to stab for money. - In the Spelljammer setting, there's a villain race called the Scro, who are tougher than normal orcs, and are also more "civilised" (i.e. "usually Lawful Evil). - The D&D Adventure Drums on Fire Mountain introduced the kara-kara, a primitive race of green-skinned, island-dwelling orcs who possess a Polynesian-based culture (while still being brutal savages). Their primitive weaponry and garb are logical enough for humanoids living in such an environment, but they also have afros. The race has been swept under the table for years due to the Unfortunate Implications surrounding them. - Hobgoblins in D&D sit at a juxtaposition between this and Our Goblins Are Different. They also derive from the original Tolkienish model of the orc as a bestial humanoid dedicated to war and conquest, but more strongly take up the Hordes from the East aspect — the earliest hobgoblin artwork even depicts them wearing distinctly Japanese styled armor. The main difference in early versions of the game was that hobgoblins were more proactive and organized, whilst orcs tended to usually be busy fighting amongst themselves until somebody else took charge. From 3rd edition onward, the two races took a greater divergence; orcs became a Chaotic Evil Proud Warrior Race and hobgoblins became a Lawful Evil Proud Soldier Race. - Eon: Gûrds, Tiraks and Trukhs are the setting's stand-in for Orcs, (being roughly analogus to Goblins, Orcs and Ogres respectively, or even D&D's Goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears) and are further culturally differentiated from each other depending on which family lineage they belong to: Frakk and Bazirk, while adhering to a culture based on might-makes-right, are not evil, though they are often brutish and savage, with the former being a Barbarian Tribe of Proud Warrior Race Guys and the latter primarily being either pirates or merchants, traders and fishermen. The Marnakh family, on the other hand, have comepletely assimilated into human society and behaves like the culture they're part of. The Frakk and Bazirk families, while barbaric and brutal, are also among the forefront opposers to all things demonic. - Fellowship: Orcs are one of the playbooks available to players. All orcs are known for being tough, warlike, and industrious; Blood is their core stat, and they have the ability to break something and fashion it into a weapon, or break their weapon to pay a price for a move or to finish off an opponent in "glorious combat". Variants available include Spawn of Darkness (mushroom-people who are resistant to poison and disease), Daughters of Chaos (aggressively free-spirited warriors who can shrug off all attempts to influence, control, or scare them), Children of Fire (basically orc-like fire elementals), and Sons of War (fighters with a knack for making improvised weapons in the heat of battle). - Fighting Fantasy: Orcs generally adhere to the Tolkien model of orc, although they have a few notable differences. Fighting Fantasy orcs are known for being able to eat almost anything, including, wood, rocks, and metal, although they prefer fresh meat. They also stand out due to their violent team sports, such as a variation on volleyball where the players of the losing team are eaten by the winners, or a variation on rugby played with a live slave at the ball that has no restrictions on play, often turning into a bloodbath as a result. One notable exception is Daggers of Darkness (set in an area with a Mongol-like culture) in which Orcs appear to have near-human intelligence and mingle freely with humans; some are servants of the Big Bad, but there's also one illustration (opposite section # 346) which shows Orcs mixed in with the human warriors of one of the villages you visit. - Flintloque: Orcs are a civilized race like any other, and in fact the main race of the setting, since it's a barely disguised Naopoleonic wargame with the Orcish kingdom of Albion as the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of England. - Hack Master, as a Darker and Edgier Affectionate Parody of old-school Dungeons & Dragons, presents its orcs as a race of violent, vicious, filthsome humanoid swine who are incredibly physically mutable because they rely extensively on kidnapping women from other races and raping with them to produce biological half-orcs, which are considered true orcs in orc culture. - Heroscape: The local orcs are Tolkien style, but are bright blue. And they ride dinosaurs. - Iron Kingdoms: While the setting has no races actually called orcs, there are races that fit both the Tolkien and Blizzard models. - Trollkin have many elements of Blizzard orcs, being large, physically powerful creatures with a sophisticated tribal culture, a shamanistic religion, and history of being screwed over by other, more advanced cultures. They're significantly more Scottish than most orcs (or trolls, for that matter), though. - Ogrun, although their name suggests ogres, also are pretty much Blizzard orcs. They're a proud people, but have no real enmity with the other races of Immoren, although a corrupt and evil subrace called Black Ogrun are allied with The Necrocracy of Cryx — they effectively sit somewhere between the Tolkien and Blizzard models. In a particularly unusual twist, in contrast to the standard dwarf/orc enmity, ogrun often serve dwarves as loyal servants, as their feudalistic culture relies heavily on a distinct chain of hierarchy and dwarves make excellent masters in their eyes. - The skorne, meanwhile, are heavily based on Tolkien orcs, with elements of the Easterlings. Appearance-wise, they have the upturned noses, and human-like build of Tolkien orcs, and their culture is abhorrent to the other peoples of Immoren: They make extensive use of slavery, Blood Magic and torture, to the point of having a dedicated torturer caste, and one of their models in HORDES is a baby elephant-like creature tortured into insanity so the skorne could weaponise its screams. They also take on the role of Hordes from the East. D&D players will probably identify the skorne more with hobgoblins, although their cultural basis in pain-fueled Blood Magic is very distinctly different. - In Kings of War, Orcs are typical evil barbaric green skinned savages. They're almost the same as the Orcs of Warhammer Fantasy. - Legend System: Hallow Orcs were originally the shock troops of chaos gods, kept stupid and unquestioning to serve their gods' purposes. Once introduced to Hallow, they were freed from their mental shackles and started their own (still militaristic) society, becoming Hallow's most prominent mercenaries. In other words: Blizzard orcs who were forced to act like Tolkien orcs for most of their history. - Ork has all player characters be Orks. In this game, the Orks are boar-faced, green and furred humanoids that usually go naked aside from armor they scrounge off of killed opponents (or each other). They live in tribes ruled by a Shaman and have strange biology — for instance, baby orcs burst out from growths on an Ork's body in a process known as "The Urg!". They are also mostly omnivores, but they explode if they eat broccoli. Only their shaman is allowed to be smart and magical. As in; "If I catch you doing card tricks or not talking like you got hit with a shovel as a baby I will straight-out murder your ass." Orks aren't given a name when born, but have to earn it. Finally, they worship the local God of Evil, a deity that alternatingly grants them victory and punishes them for metely existing. - RPG creator John Wick created a small-press RPG titled Ork World in direct rejection of traditional tropes about orcs. The orcs of the RPG are a peaceful, tribal society who are slowly being hunted to extinction by imperialistic humans and elves. - Pathfinder: - Orcs seem to look more like the Blizzard variety. However, to say that they act like the Tolkien variety would be to vastly underestimate their sheer batshittery. - They have varying appearances, with different bloodlines with more or less human blood. Because of this, they vary between Beast Man and Green-Skinned Space Babe, depending on the individual. Even the sourcebooks on them and their homeland of Belkzen pretty much portray them as irredeemable savages. - They served Tar-Baphon, the setting's main Evil Overlord, and filled the ranks of his living armies the first and second time he tried to conquer the world. During his third rise during the cross from 1st to 2nd edition, though, the orcs refused to rally to his banner again and remained an independent force, and now find themselves in the delicate position of being stuck between several human factions that hate them for having spent millennia raiding their lands and Tar-Baphon himself. - Half-orcs don't look quite as monstrous and do not have penalties to their Intelligence or Charisma. - Hobgoblins, as in 3E canon, are the Lawful Evil Proud Soldier Race to the orcs being a Chaotic Evil Proud Warrior Race. They were an attempt to engineer a Living Weapon against the elves from goblin base stock, though. As a result, elves and hobgoblins profoundly hate each other even in the modern day. - RuneQuest has the Tusk Riders, who are pretty much traditional orcs, down to riding boars and having a culture of evil that really loves to torture. What makes them different, is that they were a one-time experiment made from crossbreeding trolls and humans. Unlike orcs of any other variety, they aren't prolific — in the bestiary, it says there's only at most 10,000 Tusk Riders in the world. - Shadowrun: Orks are one of the four main metahuman types that emerged from humanity during the Awakening. Much like trolls, they mostly arose when humans spontaneously transformed into new forms as magic surged back into the world. They tend to be more belligerent than and not quite as bright as humans, but not to the same degree as Tolkienian orcs; more to the degree of the redneck shit-kicker one might meet in their local bar. Being descended from humans, they show the full human range of pink-to-brown skin tones rather than the green skin typical of fantasy orcs. They do, however, retain D&D features such as tusks. - Orks have developed their own culture and language which seems to draw many parallels with African-American and Hispanic "Gangsta" cultures. There are such things as non-orks embracing ork culture and becoming ork posers. Lacking the prettiness of the elves, the non-threatening appearance of the dwarves, or the sheer scariness of the trolls to keep people off their back, and the fact that they reproduce abundantly (twins and triplets amongst orks being the norm, not the exception) ensures that the orks get the worst of the Fantastic Racism, as they are often seen as threatening to take over Humanity's place due to their expanding numbers. They tend to get along with Trolls better than the other metatypes do, as the two find common cause in the discrimination both habitually face. - Orks also tend to be one of the shortest-lived metatypes, with an average lifespan around 40 (for natural-born orks, that is; orks who Goblinized from baseline human have a longer lifespan). However, this is noted to be a combination of lifestyle factors (see the racism above) and orks' dependency on purer background mana; ork lifespan estimates are taken from orks in crowded, violent, polluted urban environments, whereas orks that live in more "pure" environments (e.g., the wildlands of Nigeria) tend to live much longer. - As with the other metatypes, a number of distinctive variants have emerged from ork stock as a result of genetic variance and secondary awakening events. These are hobgoblins, wirier Middle Eastern orks distinguished by greenish skin and a strong sense of personal honor; ogres, shorter and heavily built European orks with reduced body hair; oni, magically adept Japanese orks with blue, red or orange skin; and satyrs, Mediterranean orks with slighter builds, furry legs, cloven hooves and goatlike horns - Talislanta's Kang are Blizzard style, but are bright red. And much like Heroscape's orcs, they ride dinosaurs. - Tenra Bansho Zero depicts Oni as Blizzard orcs in contrast to their usual Always Chaotic Evil portrayal, being a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Ainu who are hunted by humans because their crystalline hearts can be used to power Magitek. Oni also look enough like humans that they can pass as human by cutting off their horns, though this causes them to lose their racial Psychic Powers. - Traveller: The closest thing to space orcs is the Ithklur. These are a reptilian Proud Warrior Race that serves in a Gurkha-like role to the Hivers. They have an innate love of combat in their psychology, but are not evil per se. Rather their hat is as a Boisterous Bruiser race. - Victoriana RPG: Orcs are one of the Human Subspecies of the setting, subject to Fantastic Racism from the others, being ostracized and pushed to the outskirts of civilization. They have a strong sense of spirituality and a knack for mechanics. - Warhammer: The Orcs occupy a strange space between the Tolkien and Blizzard models, as they're warlike enough to serve as The Usual Adversaries but have more character than most orcs. Physically they are larger, stronger, and tougher than humans, with skin tones ranging from bright green to nearly black in the case of the brutally-disciplined Black Orcs. There are no female orcs; instead, the species reproduces by shedding spores. Their "kultur" revolves entirely around fighting, so much so that the army has the "Animosity" special rule, meaning that most Greenskin units have a chance to ignore orders and squabble amongst themselves while the boss cracks some heads to impose order, shoot at a rival making funny faces at them, or break formation and charge the enemy with an almighty "WAAAGH!" Their Shamans worship Gork and Mork, one of whom is "cunningly brutal" (he hits you when you aren't looking) and the other "brutally cunning" (he hits you really hard even if you are looking). They're also cannibalistic, and will gladly eat both their enemies and weaker members of their own kind. Orcs make poor minions, but a Greenskin army can be made up of a mixture of Orcs and Goblins, as well as Trolls and Giants. Finally, they have thick Cockney accents written phonetically in flavor text. There are also a number of distinct kinds of Orcs in-universe: - Savage Orcs live primarily in the depths of the Badlands and in the Southlands. They are primitive even by the standards of other Orcs, and only craft and use weapons made from bone, stone and wood. They are also extremely superstitious and have the largest number of shamans of any Orc kind, and wear no armor — they instead rely on magical warpaint for protection. - Black Orcs were created by the Chaos Dwarfs are slave soldiers, but rebelled and broke free. They are larger, stronger, more intelligent and more disciplined than other Orcs — while most Orcs make do with patchwork armor and ramshackle weapons, fight in disorganized mobs, have a very limited grasp of tactics or self-control, and fight constantly among each other, Black Orcs are clad head to toe in thick plate, use high-quality and scrupulously maintained weaponry, fight in organized and well-drilled ranks, and are extremely disciplined in battle. Luckily for other peoples, Black Orcs are too few to form their own tribes and instead tend to be the leaders or elites of tribes of other Orcs. They have no shamans of any kind among their ranks. - Old editions include Half-Orcs, which rather than being actual crossbreeds are the result of humans growing more orc-like and Orcs more human-like until a sort of in-between point is reached, something speculated to be due to evil magic blending the traits of the two races in the distant past. There is also mention that Orcs and Goblins have interbred in the past to create multiple Orc variants, including the "Pig-Faced Orcs" that were numerous in the past but have since declined note : a reference to how older editions of Dungeons & Dragons depict orcs with porcine heads, but newer ones drop this trait. - The Beastmen are arguably closer to Tolkien Orcs than the actual Orcs of the franchise. They're an Always Chaotic Evil race of mutants born from humans corrupted by the dark magic of Chaos, usually brown or red skinned and physically identifiable by their animal-like traits like hooved feet, horns, and fangs; size is variable, but averages around "broad human." They are omnivores but particularly prefer human flesh, and organize in simple, primitive, hyper-violent societies with a great deal of intraspecies Fantastic Racism, with the larger and more mutated Beastmen treating the weaker ones as slaves. Their "culture" is entirely based around the Black Magic of the shamans, raiding, and reverence for the Chaos Gods, and while they can reproduce among themselves they also depend on infecting (or raping) human women to replenish their numbers. They are incapable of building true civilization and actively detest any kind of technology beyond the bare minimum of needed to equip their Iron Age war bands. Functionally they're total Cannon Fodder for the hordes of Chaos, and considered inferior to humans in every relevant way, even by the gods they worship, but their sheer numbers make them threatening to the protagonists regardless. Also in keeping with the Tolkien inspiration, the Wood Elves consider them their Arch-Enemy. - Warhammer 40,000 uses Orks, which are Orcs from Warhammer IN SPACE with Funetik Aksents and Xtreme Kool Letterz. 40K is such a Crapsack World that, due to their straightforward attitudes, hooligan-style Funetik Aksents, and Insane Troll Logic, these bloodthirsty, amoral monsters are the comic relief. Although they are Tolken style, 40k Orks can be considered to be the prototype of the Revisionist Orcs and among the very first non Chaotic Evil Orcs albeit a violent Blue-and-Orange Morality brand Chaotic Neutral. - The Orks were genetically engineered by the Old Ones to be living weapons during a desperate war against star-eating void entities, and are as such genetically hardwired to want nothing more than to be fighting. Any Ork that's not participating in a Waaagh! against aliens is probably participating in some intra-ork civil war. They also have Oddboyz, Orks born with the unconscious Genetic Memory and special powers that let them play specialized roles in the hordes — Mekboys have an instinctive knowledge of technology, Painboys are natural (if brutal) doctors, and Wierdboyz are powerful but unstable psychics. All Orks generate a gestalt psychic field that bolsters their morale in battle, can be channeled by Weirdboyz to dramatic effect, and even allows some of the Meks' stranger devices to function because the Orks expect them to. - Orks are extremely durable and persistent, and able to survive things like partial dismemberment, most diseases, and having large chunks of their skulls shot off. Because they reproduce by shedding spores, especially upon death, Ork infestations are hard to eliminate once they have set foot on a planet. They're also technically the most raucous part of a complex invasive ecosystem — their spores first sprout into several varieties of mushrooms later creatures eat or cultivate for various purposes; then produce a variety of fungus/animal hybrids known as Squigs, which Orks use as Attack Animals, beasts of burden, livestock and pets; Grots emerge next, and establish the basic structure of Orkish society; Orks emerge last, once the rest of the ecosystem and necessary infrastructure has been worked out, and get started on the business of finding things to fight. - In Wicked Fantasy, a third-party setting for Pathfinder, orks were the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider race... until they decided that they hated it and murdered their malevolent creator-gods to try and forge their own path. Now, they've made a tentative peace with humanity. They're still war-like and rather creepy, with their religious philosophy about the value of pain, but they're not evil all the time anymore. \|\|Also, they weren't created by evil gods, but by a malevolent race of amoral scholarly Snake People called the Hassad.\|\| - Zweihänder: The Orx are exactly the Orcs from Warhammer Fantasy Battle with something more for the an extra helping of Grimdark. Orx can spawn from spores but they can also breed sexually. As in the case of the other mutant races, female Orx are rare but Orx can mate with almost anything. So Orx will make a captive female into a Sex Slave when they go Rape, Pillage, and Burn. - Orcs in Allods Online and Evil Islands are gray-skinned Blizzard-types (and dimorphic as hell). The otherwise unthinkable "Orc Paladin" also exists in-game. - Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura mix Tolkien and Blizzard Orc traits. While Orcs are primarily Tolkienian outside of cities, serving as Random Encounters (unless you play as a half-orc; then they'll just apologize for bothering you) or being seen in bandit gangs on the outskirts of towns, in industrialized cities they appear as a unjustly oppressed underclass working poorly paid jobs in factories. One Sidequest centers around this, as a group of workers are in a standoff with the police when they take control of a factory to demand better rights. How things work out in the end depends on how you handle the situation. - Battle for Wesnoth: In most campaigns, orcs are the Tolkien type. They are mostly portrayed as pretty much Evil, but sometimes they have motives beyond that as well. Some orcs are also allied to the (generally) good Knalgans. Appearance wise they have simian characteristics and brown or grey skin. Their massive numbers are explained by orcs being born in large litters, the runts being called goblins. Strangely, the average orc soldiers seem to have better armor and weapons then the regular human soldiers. Due to Wesnoth's decentralized development structure, the portrayal of Orcs and Trolls suffers from a touch of Depending on the Writer. - Blackthorne, an early game by Blizzard, features the grag'ohr, green skinned humanoids who closely resemble the orc grunts of Warcraft, being burly and fanged humanoids, usually with greenskin and horned helmets. In this setting, Grag'ohr were once humans who fell under a curse. They are one of the main enemies in the game and use automatic rifles. Blizzard even calls them orcs in later material for Blackthorne. - Dragon Age: - The Darkspawn are twisted corruptions of the races of the world with poisonous, tainted blood who live underground in perpetual war with the Dwarves. They are normally fairly mindless Always Chaotic Evil but are capable of forging and using metal weapons and armor and intelligent enough to kidnap others to propagate their species. They are drawn by the call of Archdemons, constantly digging to find them and when they do, it leads them on an organized warpath to conquer the surface, known as a Blight. - The Qunari fit into the Blizzard Orc archetype. They're large horned humanoids stereotyped as violent conquerors by humans, are technologically advanced compared to every other race in the setting, and have a distinctly alien culture. - Dragon Quest: Orcs are often found as random encounters and default to the Tolkienian model, being humanoid boars with spears. Interestingly, they (and their variations) tend to be rather powerful, usually being encountered mid- to late-game. - In Dungeon Crawl, no official description of orcs is given beyond "[they] combine the worst features of humans, pigs, and several other creatures." Cave orcs (mooks) err towards the Tolkien model; they're Always Chaotic Evil, worship the proud but ruthless (and canonically evil) god Beogh (who refuses to accept non-orc worshipers). Hill orcs (playable) are a bit more Blizzard-like; they can play as any class, though their priests follow Beogh instead of Zin. Those who do serve Beogh can attempt to become the Dark Messiah of the orcs. - Dungeon Keeper: The orcs are this In Name Only. Long white hair, purple skin and wrinkles all over make them look more like trolls. In fact, the trolls in the game look more like orcs than the orcs themselves. - Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War: The orcs are neither Tolkienian nor Blizzard variety. They're actually humanoid boars with a love of spears. They also like to hang out in kitchens, since in orc culture using metal cookware is considered a sign of sophistication. - Dwarf Fortress has creatures that serve as orcs in all but name. Like much of the game's weirder creatures, they're procedurally generated and vary wildly from generated world to generated world. Necromancers can experiment on sapient creatures to create entities with names like "night's warriors" or "Tooltwist's eyes" note : Tooltwist being the name of the necromancer that created them that basically fill the "orc" role. They're the big, powerful minions of dark magic wielding villains who hole up in towers. They're not, however, Always Chaotic Evil, and can escape to join other civilizations; if able to reproduce (some have No Biological Sex), they can even produce independent populations. - Elden Ring Demi-Humans are the closest equivalent to classical orcs, being a race of sapient but savage humanoid creatures that tend to form tribes of bandits and murderers and have a Might Makes Right mentality; Boc, the only positive Demi-Human encountered, was cast out of his tribe for being well-spoken, weak and wanting to be a seamster instead of a fighter. They come in four forms: low-ranking demi-humans that resemble more humanoid pale-furred chimpanzees, 'brutes' that are more classically orc-like, Chiefs that are bigger and more lupine in appearance, and finally Queens, gigantic lupine matriarchs of their tribes. - The Elder Scrolls: - Within the TES universe, the Orcs are another race of Mer (Elves), known as the "Orsimer" or "Pariah Elves/Folk," and to say that they have undergone Characterization Marches On is an understatement. As with most of the races of Mer, their split with the Mer Precursor "Aldmer" was over religious differences, though in the case of the Orcs, it was not voluntary. They were originally the worshipers of the Aldmeri spirit Trinimac, but Trinimac was "eaten" by the Daedric Prince Boethia and later excreted. Trinimac's remains became the Daedric Prince Malacath, while his Aldmeri followers, who continued to worship him as their central diety, were transformed into the Orcs. The Orcs possess strong, muscular builds and green skin. They are known for their ferocity and courage in battle, as well as their skill as armorers and smiths (especially with the rare metal Orichalcum), making them some of the finest heavy infantry on all of Nirn. They are a Proud Warrior Race who believes that Asskicking Leads to Leadership, which leads to their chieftains gaining that position via Klingon Promotion. They exhibit a number of other Blood Knight and Death Seeker traits as well, having a Martyrdom Culture. They've long been victims of Fantastic Racism due to their bestial appearance and perceived barbaric culture, and have been Fighting for a Homeland (or fighting to keep their homeland) for ages. Details per game: - In Arena, the Orcs are an Always Chaotic Evil enemy race. Essentially, flat out Tolkein Orcs. - In Daggerfall, the Orcs begin to receive some greater characterization. In fact, they are Blizzard Orcs before Blizzard invented Blizzard Orcs. One of the game's possible endings is to hand over the MacGuffin to the Orcish leader, which allows him to establish the first Orcish state in Tamriel. - In Morrowind, the Orcs are Promoted to Playable. Rather than just being dumb/barbaric, it is shown that the Orcs have been severely marginalized for ages. Emperor Uriel Septim VII began to use the Orcs as elite heavy infantry in the Imperial Legions, which gained them greater acceptance throughout the Empire. - Oblivion features a lampshade when you talk to one of the Orcs at Malacath's Daedric shrines. He says something like: "People think we're evil. Do I look evil?" There is also Dark Brotherhood member, Gogron Gro-Bolmog, who takes an unsubtle approach to his contracts but "has his heart in the right place". - By Skyrim, the Orcs have been driven back into a diaspora in the years since the end of the Septim dynasty. They now have tribal strongholds dotting Tamriel, worship Malacath and raid as bandits, although many are still Imperialized as smiths or soldiers for the Empire. (One Orc even implies that this is the norm for those that leave their stronghold.) There are couple others that stand out, like several Orc bards note : A quest for the Dark Brotherhood involves killing an Orcish bard because of his terrible singing, though this doesn't seem to apply to all Orcish bards. and even one of the faculty at the College in Winterhold known for its strong, but small population of mages. He's the archivist/librarian, to boot, and gladly threatens to sic Atronachs on you if you mistreat his books, but still. - Falmer in Skyrim stand in for Tolkienian Orcs, or more specifically Moria Goblins, both in appearance and in backstory (they used to be a race of Mer called "Snow Elves", but were enslaved and blinded by the Dwemer). \|\|With one (technically two) exception.\|\| They also overlap significantly with The Morlocks. - Endless Legend has Orcs in the form of the minor race, the Urnas. Visually they are Blizzardian, with tusks, green skin, and a bodybuilder physique. They are belligerent by default — like all minor races — but can pacified and absorbed into an another empire. They are excellent archers and are hardy, being unaffected by the movement penalty caused by the brutal winters that are destroying the planet. - In The Fairyland Story, orcs are basic cutlass-wielding Mooks with pointed ears sticking out of their helmets. Like all characters in the game, they're cute and Super-Deformed. - Fallout has the Super Mutants. They're big, they're green, a few of them eat humans, and all of them can kick ass. Regardless of whether they're portrayed sympathetically or not, they're usually portrayed as more aggressive and warlike than other in-game factions (as they indeed are created to serve as Super Soldiers in Pre-War times) and are rarely very bright. They all start out as humans, becoming Super Mutants after being exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, a mutagen that turns their skin green, massively increases their muscle mass, eliminates their secondary sexual characteristics, drops their IQ a notch or three (though some strains have a small but non-zero chance to instead increase intelligence) and, as an unintended side-effect, turns them sterile as mules. - They come in two broad groupings, differentiated by what specific strain of mutagen was used to make them and by where that strain originated from: East Coast Super Mutants are almost always vicious Tolkien-esque monsters, while West Coast Super Mutants are more likely to be Blizzard style. - The art book for Fallout 3 puts even more emphasis on the Tolkien part as well as the "ogre" aspect as they are shown to make their own cobbled-together armor and guns, as well as forge melee weapons such as axes, swords, maces, and flails/meteor hammers. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy XI: Orcs are one of the more consistently evil beastmen in the game. According to a guide that was only ever released in Japan, martial ability is so prized that orcish mages hide their faces in shame. Like Tolkien's original orcs, they have good technological ability. Physically, XI's Orcs are green skinned Lizard Folk. - Final Fantasy XIV replaces the previous MMO's orcs with the Amalj'aa. Most Amalj'aa are Tolkienesque, in that they are constantly raiding civilized settlements and merchant caravans in service to their deity, the primal Ifrit. As the story progresses, though, the Warrior of Light can ally with the Brotherhood of Ash, a tribe of Amalj'aa who adhere much more to the Blizzard model, being Proud Warrior Race Guys who oppose the worshippers of Ifrit because their culture dictates that honor is found in battle against strong warriors, not by victimizing the weak. - Golden Sun: There's an Orc monster resembling a shirtless pig-headed man with a sword that lives in the desert. - Gothic: Orcs are intelligent, nomadic members of a Proud Warrior Race. They attack Myrtana (the land of the Humans) to capture slaves and perform archeological excavations on the sites that bear religious importance to Orc Shamans. Also, unlike many other games, they aren't low-level mooks — they're among some of the more powerful enemies in the game. - Halo: - The Brutes are orcs in everything but name. They're big, bulky, and very strong, to the point where the Hunters are the only known contemporary species capable of physically overpowering them. They even resemble several different Earth beasts (mostly gorillas), complete with fur and tusks. As their name implies, they are very brutal, to the point where they commonly eat other sapient races (they openly discuss eating an Elite in one of the first cutscenes of Halo 2). In the bonus material, it's revealed that they managed to make their way into space only to nuke themselves into the stone age, and had just rediscovered radio and rocketry when the Covenant found them, without having learned anything from their past mistakes. In fact, they are the most directly violent of the races of the Covenant; the Elites have honor, the Prophets are power-hungry, the Grunts are enslaved, the Hunters and Drones are enigmatic, the Engineers are neutral, and the Jackals are Hired Guns, but the Brutes seem to just like killing people. All that said, a lot of Expanded Universe media have shown that they're not Always Chaotic Evil, with a number of individual Brutes even being somewhat sympathetic. - Also, the weapon designs of the Brutes are orc-like. The rest of the Covenant use sleek and curvy guns of fantastical design that shoot plasma and other energy projectiles. The Brute weapons however, are angular, awkward-looking, and all shoot metal projectiles (except for their version of the plasma rifle, which is just the same, except painted red and a little more rapid-firing). Also, they have bayonets on all their guns (and even their hammers), except for the aforementioned plasma rifle which they hardly ever use. Their vehicles also differ from the standard Covenent designs, and follow their own angular and primitive design (in fact, one of them is repurposed farm equipment), and they have names like "Prowler" and "Chopper", compared to those of standard Covenant craft like "Ghost" and "Shadow". - It should also be noted that due to the relative recency of their induction into the Covenant, the Brutes had a traditionally less restrictive attitude towards modifying technology than the other Covenant races, though most of that advantage has been lost thanks to \|\|the Great Schism forcing the other former Covenant species to quickly rediscover their old technological creativity\|\|. Still, between that and their status as primates, the Brutes are one of the more humanlike aliens in the Haloverse. - The Grunts serve as orc-esque equivalents as well, particularly before the introduction of the Brutes. While the Brutes embody the savagery, strength and ferocity of orcs, the Grunts are reminiscent of lesser orcs and goblins. They make up the brunt of Covenant infantry as swarms of cannon fodder, are diminutive, slow-witted and cowardly, but tenacious in groups. Some can even be found sleeping at their posts if Master Chief sneaks into an area unseen. - Heroes of Might and Magic games usually featured orcs as part of Stronghold faction. - Heroes of Might and Magic 1 and 2 featured orcs as Barbarian troops. These orcs were orange-skinned and porcine, and attacked with crossbows. - Heroes of Might and Magic 3 featured orcs primarily as Stronghold troops. These were greenskinned and attacked with throwing axes. The game also featured orcs who rode on wild boars and wielded maces as a neutral troop. - Heroes of Might and Magic 4 featured orcs as part of the Chaos (Asylum Town) faction, with their design especially boar-like and first orcish heroes being mostly sorcerers. - The second expansion of Heroes of Might and Magic 5, Tribes of the East, introduced them as a whole new faction. Apart from having brown skin (or sometimes spreckled with red, and having horns) and being created a la Tolkien by the Wizards as slave warriors to fight the demons (by injecting demon blood into human criminals), they are very close to their Warcraft counterparts in almost any conceivable way. - HEX: In Hex: Shards of Fate, the orcs are actually members of the Ardent faction alongside humans, elves and coyotle. They have a Mayincatec-styled Religious Bruiser culture that favors an aggressive playstyle in-game. - The Orcs from Kingdom of Loathing are primarily Frat boys. They're a parody of frat boy stereotypes, but the stereotypes (being big, muscular, unpleasant and thuggish in personality, lack of culture aside from breaking other people's stuff) make them pretty close to the Tolkienian version. A second group of orcs called the smut orcs were introduced several years into the game. Their culture seems to be designed around building things out of materials with awful double-entendre names (e.g. "raging hardwood plank" and "thick black caulk"). - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity has shaggy, blue-skinned ice orcs in the Frozen Reaches. - Knight Orc is an extremely snarky Interactive Fiction game where you play a genuine Tolkien Orc. Solving the puzzles and defeating opponents requires you to think like a cruel, underhanded cheating bastard, since in a fair fight you are a weak, sword-fodder mook. A third of the way through the game, a malfunction reveals that you're actually a robot orc in a futuristic virtual-reality MMORPG, and the objective becomes breaking the game to escape. - Kohan: The Drauga are technically Orcs (just like the Haroun are elves and the Mareten are humans). They're large, decidedly simian, warlike and posess a shamanistic culture. They follow Darius after he defeats their former leader, and become his powerful supporters later in the game (though some of them will insist that you beat them to earn their respect). - Last Armageddon: Orcs are one of the monster races of the underworld, looking like humans with blue pig-like heads. One Orc acts as one of your party members. - The Legend of Zelda: Whereas the moblins fall more under "ogre" and the bokoblins under "goblin/troll", the green-skinned bulblins in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess were full-on orc, complete with their leader having a Proud Warrior Race Guy attitude. - Lineage 2: Orcs are both Tolkenien and Blizzard-type. The player controlled orcs generally follow the Blizzard version closely, being Proud Warrior Race Guys and following a shamanistic culture based around their progenitor Pa'aagrio, god of fire. There are some aesthetic differences, mainly that they don't generally have horns or tusks or really big teeth, just hairstyles that look like horns. Their melee classes essentially fill the role of the big, muscular Scary Black Man, except with green skin. Their women are something else entirely. Only Dark Elf women are bustier. The orc Mooks you fight, which by the way the player orcs HATE, are nearly always Tolkenien in most ways, being mostly dumb, savage tribal guys who generally pillage their neighborhood. - Master of Magic: Not much is explained about orc society, but worth noting is that orcs are the Jack of All Trades of the races, having access to the entire tech tree (they are also devoid of any extra-special units or interesting characteristics, making them fill the role humans usually take). To elaborate, Orcs can build Universities whose students help in the player wizard's research, Alchemists' Guilds to produce magical weapons for the troops, War Colleges to produce Elite Mook squads, Merchants' Guilds, and Engineers. They seem to be a blend of Tolkien and Blizzard varieties, though they predate the latter; they're as strong as humans and have civilization and engineering equal to High Men, but while they can build cathedrals, their clergy are shamans rather than priests. - In the 1.16 Nether Update Minecraft introduced the Piglin, which the closest vanilla Minecraft has to Orcs. They are a race of pig beings that live in the hostile dimension. Being barbaric and belligerent, they will attack you on sight, making it an interesting case where the zombie variant is actually less hostile. Thankfully, they have a massive fondness for gold, and wearing any gold armor will make them neutral towards you — as long as you don't open any chests or mine gold around them. Once neutral, the player can barter items with them using gold ingots. - Piglin Brutes go a bit further and make them more hostile and aggressive, unwilling to barter and unafraid of the fears of their lesser kin - Zombie Piglins actually subvert this, being more docile and neutral to the player... unless you hurt one of them - Mutant Football League has "Monster Orcs" among the player races, fat green-skinned creatures that vary greatly in size. Fluff states they're tough to coach and each generation of orcs is less intelligent than the last, "like a VHS copy of a VHS copy of a VHS copy." In Dynasty Mode, it's extremely expensive in both XP and cash to increase their Intelligence stat, which determines reaction time, field awareness, and self-preservation instinct. On the field they're typically slow but strong and sturdy, and are thus mostly linemen on either side of the ball, but a handful are nasty linebackers, bruising receivers or tough running backs. - In Of Orcs and Men, Orcs are of the Blizzard Orcs variety and are at war with the Human Empire, who wants to use them as slave laborers due to their strength. They're actually the heroes of the game, specifically Arkail. - Okiku, Star Apprentice: They're in the Mountain Pass of the Isle of Tamuro, as enemies. - Oracle of Askigaga: A guard in the bottom left of the starting area mentions their existence, and the following dialogue implies they're intellgent enough to form bases of operations: Guard: You preparing for a journey? I've heard stories from merchants about viscous snakes and orcs along the border with Hachisuka. Oharu: The snakes are one thing, but, have we not pinpointed a base of operations for the orcs? Guard: Sorry, ma'am, I don't know anything about that. Hiroji: Don't you have other matters to attend to? Oharu: Of... of course. - In Orcs Must Die! and its sequel, the Orcs and the rest of the Horde are Always Chaotic Evil. Interestingly, they do have rather a sympathetic motive for trying to invade Earth: their own world is a barren wasteland. They can also be pretty Laughably Evil at times. - Paladins: Grohk the Lightning Orc is a blue-skinned eccentric support champion who heals allies with his healing totem and fries enemies with his lightning staff. He's definitely not brutish like Tolkien Orcs, and very into his shamanistic side like Blizzard Orcs... but he's just bizarre. - In Pillars of Eternity, they're a race called the aumaua. They're musclebound and sharp of tooth, but have multicolored skin similar to tropical fish instead of the usual green or brown. The typical orcish hats are also defied; aumaua have a warmongering history, but are more civilized about it and you don't really encounter any "Proud Warrior" types. In fact, they actually have a strong seafaring tradition and the one who joins your party is a Badass Bookworm. - Serious Sam 2 features Orcs as one of the many variety of mooks for the Big Bad. Mostly used as Cannon Fodder, and are not really shown having any sort of intelligence other than basic ability to operate military equipment like the Kozak Helicopters, laser rifles, plasma ball launchers, and propellers that they use as jetpacks. Background material states that they are actually a primitive alien race drafted by Mental and given training and weapons. - Soulcalibur VI: The Malefic are green-skinned humanoids with red eyes and tusk-like teeth that were originally primeval warriors corrupted by Astral Chaos energy. - Spellforce: Orcs lean largely toward Blizzard-style orcs but have Tolkien-orc elements. They're explicitly darkness-aligned and willing to do the ravaging horde routine, and are pretty much always at odds with the light races of humans, elves, and dwarves; but they have a culture based on honor and clan allegiance, with an animistic religion. - Spyro the Dragon: - The platform series has the Gnorcs, which are mostly green, have protruding teeth that look like fangs or tusks, and vary in size (the Big Bad Gnasty Gnorc and some of the mooks are very large, but most Gnorcs aren't much bigger than Spyro). Their name is supposedly a combination of "gnome" and "orc" but they're much more like orcs than like gnomes. - The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon features Orcs as the main servants and army of Malefor in a pure Tolkenian role. They however differ in appearence, being a race of grotesque lizard-like humanoids with elongated heads, gangly limbs and bodies made of earth, grass and rock and armed with either axes or crossbows attached to their arms. Stronger and bigger variants known as Orc Heroes also exist. Other creatures in Malefor's army include the goblinesque Grublins and the humongous Trolls, all made from earth and vegetation like the Orcs. - Thunderscape came close to having Blizzard orcs before Warcraft and Daggerfall. One of player races is the juraks, fur-covered brutes with large fangs, who made good warriors but can just as well be Combat Medics, mages or mechanics. - Orcs, goblins and trolls in Ultima are straight-up Tolkien-style, in the first three games, they could even be unmade by magi using the Repond spell. - Vagrant Story features orcs of porcine "porc" variety though they are well-muscled rather than running to fat and they're decently equipped with regards to gear. Their leaders can use magic to augment them. - Warcraft: The orcs were initially a brown-skinned, peaceful, hunter-gather society, but were manipulated by demons and turned into a ruthless army of green-skinned monsters. Further demonic influence turns them red, invoking Good Colors, Evil Colors. In the earliest games, orcs were portrayed as stupid and Laughably Evil in unit quotes and like, but they were still ruthless killing machines. - By the events of Lord of the Clans and Warcraft III, the orcs have returned to their original ways and are now as intelligent and well-rounded as humans. Current lore portrays them as going from a primarily hunter gatherer society to a full on industrial war machine within a matter of decades, although they most likely had help from the goblins. By the time of World of Warcraft, they've become one of the Horde's most important member species. - The first orcs descended from ogres, who in turn arose from a species of hulking cyclopean humanoids native to Draenor known as the ogron. The ogron further descend from a lineage of increasingly gigantic cyclopes leading back to Grond, a mountain given life by a Titan in Draenor's earliest days, making the orcs technically a species of very, very small giants. It should be noted that they share this trait with one other race: their erstwhile rivals — Humans. - Another interesting caveat to the Warcraft orcs, is that they take to water very well. They are very competent sailors and maintain a vast fleet of warships. They even pulled off a Flaunting Your Fleets manoeuvre in the intro to II. They also avert Klingon Scientists Get No Respect in that a shaman who wields great magical power is respected just as equally as a powerful warrior. - Warlords Battlecry: Orcs are of the Tolkienian type. They're a bunch of Always Chaotic Evil thugs with no redeeming qualities other than the fact that they fight each other as often as they fight other, more civilized, people. - Wizardry: The Gorn in Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant in all but name. Green, porcine features, and tusks. Xenophobic, militaristic, and live mostly underground on account of living directly in between two powerful races that hate each others' guts, but honorable and have an Asian-influenced art design. - Xenoblade Chronicles X: - The Prone are essentially Space Orcs — their skin colors include pink and purple rather than green, and they have tentacles hanging off their faces, but aside from appearance they are essentially Blizzard orcs. They come in the Cavern and Tree Clan varieties, and tend to have aspects of both Tolkien and Blizzard orcs, usually depending on how likely they are to shoot you. - Meanwhile, the Marnucks, being one of the primary Mook races (alongside the Prone) for the Ganglion, are essentially Tolkien orcs, aside from their blue skin, being reptilian, preference for guns, and having invented their own military technology. What little we know about the Marnucks is that they don't just love war; their chief deity is their god of death, and they think killing people in battle is an honorable act. Their homeworld was destroyed by a global civil war, and the only ones left are the ones that sided with the Ganglion. - Sword Daughter: The orcs might have been lifted directly from a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with all the usual trappings: they're green-skinned, brutish and cruel, not very intelligent, and in most story paths they're working as Mooks for the main villain. - Ananthalos: Gruvalg is intelligent and rational as opposed to the barely-articulate orc archetype still found in a lot of fantasy stories. With his green coloring and bald head, he also appears more like an ogre. The comic's creator acknowledges that Shrek was an inspiration for Gruvalg's character design. - Daughter of the Lilies: Orcs are green, hunky, occasionally axe-wielding and inexplicably Russian-accented, but besides that, they're just another sapient species, and no less civilized than any other race. They do have a history of warfare with elves, but note that the elves started it. - Dominic Deegan: Orcs, muscular and green-skinned humanoids with prominent tusks and about a head taller than humans, lean towards the Blizzard model with a lot of Fantasy Counterpart Culture traits for Native Americans (not to mention being completely obligate herbivores), but most of the clans are still heavily patriarchal. They are also heavily shamanistic, with their magic being a "gift from the land", tapping entirely to the natural elements, which include life and death itself. - Drowtales has kotorcs in the Blizzardian model, being a tribal culture with a heavily honor based society. They're considered "goblins" along with humans, with hints of a common ancestor. There's also a sub-species known as Noz who have more in common with the Tolkien orcs and appear much more wild, and can best be described as looking like humanoid hyenas. - Gaia Online: The orcs look somewhat like the Blizzard kind, but dress and act like they belong in a Dungeon Punk story. Apparently, they lived under the mountains near the city, until they were discovered and subsequently employed in Factory Town of Aekea. Why you would need to hire orcs in a city that already has an ample supply of robots is questionable... - Girl Genius has the Jaegermonsters, who — other than their nigh-immortal Super Soldier by Mad Scientist origin — fit this trope very nicely. They mostly resemble the humans they used to be, but adorned with a variety of tusks, claws, horns, odd skin colors, shaggy mane-like beards, and similar things — no two Jaegers look truly alike — and they become larger and more monstrous as they age; their oldest generals have grown into towering, ogre-like beings. They have a code that defines them to the point that there are "former" Jaegers. Their loyalty to the (Mad Scientist) Heterodynes and ludicrous strength tends to lead them to be Europa's bogeymen. They also have an interesting culture around (comedic) violence and hats, which are evidently a combination of status symbols and a sign of worthiness. Also, when we see a bar for (patched-up, too wounded to fight) Jaegers at one point in the story, it's a pretty typical rowdy establishment... until the nightly bar fight starts, at which point everything becomes a massive Improvised Weapon brawl. - Goblins: Orcs are large humanoids with gray-green skin and part of the traditionally "evil" races alongside ogres, goblins, kobolds and so on. One of the few orcs who's appeared so far, "Biscuit", is a big hulking brute... who speaks politely and exaggerates The Stoic personality: tribe been dead for 200 years? "Meh." His people, the Roak, made a very big deal about rising above loss and personal attachments. - Guilded Age: Orcs have little political presence in the world and are largely used for slave labor by both the Gastonians and Savage Races. Both parties view them as little more than labor animals with sub-human intelligence, and though nothing has yet explicitly disputed that, the main authority on the subject is so racist and unreliable that it's impossible to take this assumption at face value. - Linburger has the Trokks. They're a savage race that roam the wilderness and kill anybody they meet. The main character, Lin, encounters them on occasion whenever she searches the junkyard for spare parts. There's also an alcoholic beverage made by them and only them, nobody knows the secret ingredident, and the only way to get the beverage is to live among their tribe for a set amount of time. - The Order of the Stick: - Unsurprisingly, subverts the usual "Tolkienian" characterization of Dungeons & Dragons orcs. The orcs shown in the webcomic are just a primitive tribe; and those of the paperback prequel are just mistaken for hostile by townsfolk because they are heavy metal fans. - Several characters are also half-orcs. While technically all of them are bad guys, Thog is a Psychopathic Manchild who's mostly Obliviously Evil, Bozzok is a business-minded gangster who negotiates with the heroes, and Therkla is more of an Anti-Villain with a good dose of Villainous Valor. Therkla also subverts the trope of halfbreeds being born of rape: her orc mother and human father were happily married. - There is a race of green-skinned goblins that are more civilized, if still stuck living at the edges of civilization. Unlike most recent portrayals of goblins, they are the same height as humans, making them much like Blizzard model orcs. The conflicts between the goblins and the humans drive much of the backstory of the current conflict and are integral to the goblin villain Redcloak's Start of Darkness. - Sluggy Freelance's World of Warcraft parody naturally has its own version of orcs, called Gorks. The only notable thing about them is the joke that they're the race of choice for players who like to pretend they're playing as monsters when they're really green humans with tusks. - Tales of the Questor orcs are nomads or traders, although even merchant clans are pretty darn tough. They have a strong code of honor and stick up for their friends (against almost all enemies) and are generally fairly Blizzardish. Their appearance is fairly distinctive, though: they basically have the faces of long-eared blue bulldogs. - TwoKinds: The Basitin hybridize this with Our Dwarves Are All the Same and Beast Man. They're a highly orderly Proud Warrior Race who can't (or at least reeeeealy shouldn't) use magic, tending towards Charles Atlas Superpower instead. They also seem to do the Games Workshop orc thing where they start smallish and grow bigger the more authority they gain. Immune to most poisons and illnesses, slightly regenerative, and perpetuate a Forever War because it's so much fun. - Zukahnaut's protagonist rejects the descriptor of "orc" despite his appearance, but his one-page origin story hints that his people may have lived up to the brutal stereotypes inherent in it. - Ash & Cinders: While not specifically called orcs, the Stonewights show various orcish tendencies. They're brutush, stupid, killing machines. The Rock Lord's first appearance is even reminiscient of Tolkien's description of the Great Goblin from the Hobbit. - Codex Inversus: Orcs are green-skinned, tusked humanoids who once served the Djinn in the World Before. They sided with Heaven during the ancient cosmic war and thus retain a strained relationship with the Infernal Empire. Their society is highly rigid and caste-based, with each family being expected to follow a specific profession or vocation. They are also highly militaristic, and are famous for practicing a martial art that uses complex sword flourishes to quickly inscribe spells in combat to produce devastating effects. - Critical Role: In Exandria, the standing of orcs and half-orcs seems to depend on the region. - In the Mighty Nein campaign, prejudice against orcs and half-orcs was common enough throughout Wildemount that they predominantly live in the drow-ruled Krynn Dynasty with other stereotypically "evil" races, but the villainy of the Dynasty turns out to be a case of Grey-and-Gray Morality colored by the propaganda of their enemies. - By contrast, in the continent of Marquet, orcs and orc-blooded hybrids enjoy a better reputation. The orcish patron of Bell's Hells \|\|until his death at the hands of one of their enemies,\|\| Ariks Eshterhoss is a wealthy and erudite Retired Badass who uses his vast resources to support the budding adventurers and others who work toward the betterment of the region. They also later venture to the city of Yios, the City of Flowing Lights, which has a primarily orcish and orc-blooded population, and is renowned in the region as a center of learning and enlightenment. - Gaia Online introduced orcs for the 2008 Rejected Olympics event, but they've never been seen since. The only thing we really know about Gaian orcs at present is that they're basically cave-dwelling greasers that were recently discovered. - Graven Hunter Files: Orcs are are the typical tolkein-esque orc, with greenish-gray skin, tusks, and a bad temperament. Sye encounters a trio of vampire converted orcs working for the Zemrelt clan, the most aggressive and warlike of the clans. - In The Midgaheim Bestiary, orcs are a type of boogeymen, a family of The Fair Folk which also includes goblins, bugbears and trolls and specializes in forming connections between Fairyland and the mortal world, allowing the fairy world to consume small portions of mundane reality to maintain some measure of internal stability. Orcs themselves are sapient, humanoid boars — their legs end in hooves, and their hands have only three, distinctly hoof-like fingers — and were explicitly bred by other fairies to be a race of soldiers. While garrulous, short-tempered and militaristic, they aren't the mindless Mooks humans tend to see them as — they're noted to have strong poetic traditions, and even have some epics that aren't about epic wars they've fought. - Tales From My D&D Campaign: The orcs were once standard Tolkien/D&D orcs, brutish, stupid, cowardly, and only dangerous through their vast numbers. But when the orcs pissed off a goddess by killing her mortal lover, the goddess cursed them and turned their homeland into a desert. Within a couple of generations, the orcish numbers fell from tens of millions to just a few thousand, but the survivors became unparalled warriors. These days, two or three orcs could easily burn a small city to the ground and two-three orc bands regularly slaughter hundred-man patrols. - Tales of MU: Orcs have not been seen, perhaps because they're not native to the continent on which the story takes place, but they form part of the cultural backdrop. "Going orcshit" is a common expression, and a history class revealed that orcs occupied the role of Hessian mercenaries in the equivalent of the American Revolution: mooks for hire with a vicious rep. The same class revealed their racial Berserk Button: attacking orc women and children. There's also one character (\|\|Coach Callahan\|\|) who appears to be part orc, and who is the biggest badass in the series. - The Tolkienesque type is discussed on Terrible Writing Advice in the "Fantasy Races" episode, in which he advises writers to avoid talking about the implications of an Always Chaotic Evil race in terms of morality, and just use them as generic bad guys (despite how Tolkien struggled with these questions). - Disenchantment: The Bozaks and their unseen relatives, the Borcs, are a brutish warrior race with horns and sharp teeth. Rather atypically for this trope, they're also seafaring pirates... and the Bozaks are also some of the kingdom of Dreamland's closet allies. - My Little Pony 'n Friends: Ice orcs are beings of living ice with bodies that are almost all head with stumpy limbs, who live underground, can shoot freezing Hand Blasts and are ancestral enemies of the lava demons with whom they share their subterranean home. - Voltron: Legendary Defender: The Galra are basically Blizzard orcs IN SPACE!. They're large, proud, purple-skinned Proud Warrior Race with appearances that range from shaggy and brutish to ruggedly attractive. On their homeworld, they were just one of many tribes, but rose to prominence on their planet and beyond through martial conquest. They also display an ability to breed with other species note : Keith, one of the heroes, is half-Galra on his mother's side. Likewise, Prince Lotor is half-Altean. that is either unique to them, or simply more prominently shown with them because of the vast scope of their empire. On the more noble side, the Blades of Marmora are a secretive faction of Galra who oppose the empire and assist the heroes. Even King Zarkon, ruler of the empire, was once a true hero before he was corrupted into a genocidal monster. - W.I.T.C.H.: Most of Prince Phobos's minions are orc-like humanoids; they're initially portrayed as the Tolkien variety. They are revealed, though, to have been fed on propaganda and aren't necessarily that bad; most of them do a collective HeelFace Turn after Phobos is defeated, and the main orc who remains villainous, Raythor, is nonetheless an honorable Noble Demon. The lurdens, Phobos' more monstrous and bestial minions, are Tolkien orcs played straight. - X-Men: The Animated Series: Wolverine is predictably depicted as a Blizzard variant (though he's referred to as a troll), in a fairytale told by Jubilee in one of the series' later seasons. It's not easy bein' green....	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOrcsAreDifferent
Our Nymphs Are Different - TV Tropes Nymphs are a type of Nature Spirit resembling beautiful women, and typically serve as protectors of nature and the wilderness. They originate in Greek mythology, where "nymph" generally referred to any minor female deity of the wilderness. Numerous distinct types of nymph were recognized in association with specific environments and landmarks, some of which have become recurrent creatures in modern culture in their own right, sometimes as subtypes of a broader nymph "species" and sometimes as independent types of creatures in their own right. - Dryads, nymphs associated with trees and forests, are the most commonly used, and are typically depicted as beautiful women, sometimes with green skin or hair or as outright Plant Persons, who exist to protect the wilderness, or plant life specifically, from civilization. A subtype exists in the form of hamadryads. Those myths that distinguished between the two depicted hamadryads as so strongly associated with a single tree that they would die if it was cut (unlike dryads, who had the run of any forest they felt like); modern fantasy fiction sometimes inverts this, depicting dryads as life-bound to a single tree and hamadryads as the stronger, unbound variant. - Nereids, naiads, oceanids or undines are nymphs associated with water, living within and protecting aquatic environments. They may be related and/or similar to mermaids. - Oreads are a variant associated with mountains, stone and earth. They're not as commonly seen as dryads or water nymphs, and typically appear in works which already include a variety of nymph types. In Classical myth, nymphs of all stripes were an Always Female One-Gender Race; when they had male counterparts, these were generally either satyrs or male river gods. Some modern interpretations still use this version, generally treating their nymphs as either arising from nature itself in some form or as depending on humans, satyrs or other species for reproduction, but some works choose to discard the Always Female angle and include male nymphs, dryads and the like alongside their female counterparts. See also Nature Spirit, Earth Mother, Mother Nature, and Water Is Womanly. For the other type of "nymph", see Really Gets Around. See also Our Elves Are Different, Our Fairies Are Different, and Our Mermaids Are Different. ## Examples: - Cardcaptor Sakura: The spirit form of the Wood Card resembles a dryad. - Delicious in Dungeon: Dryads' main bodies are their actual plants, and their humanoid selves are actually their mobile flowers. Anatomically, theyre basically hollow skins filled with stamen and pollen, and pollinate each other by kissing. They're also monosexual, as there are male and female flowers. They dont appear to be sentient, and are in fact mindlessly hostile, turning their hands into sharp points to attack intruders. Pollinated flowers later turn into pumpkin-like fruits with human faces on them. - Negima! Magister Negi Magi: . They have two horns that can be used in powerful healing potions. The horns are often poached with the dryad being sold into slavery. We only see one called Shirobe who can transform into a "Tree Dragon", lengthening her horns and growing wooden dragon-like wings. - Overlord (2012): Dryads have wood-like skin and leaves for hair. They get weaker the further they move from their tree, but the tree can be moved — Pinison Pol Perlia, for example, had hers moved to Nazarick. - Rosario + Vampire: The Monster of the Week in "Curry and a Vampire" is Ms. Apsara, Yokai Academy's Home Ec. teacher. She is a literal Apsara (a water nymph of Hindu/Buddhist mythology) with a particular obsession with traditional curry. When Kokoa ruins one of her dishes out of spite, Apsara turns her into a yellow-skinned zombie obsessed with curry before deciding to do it with the rest of the school. - A classic Stock Pose interchangeable with the Reclining Venus is the Sleeping Nymph, a depiction of a woman (the eponymous "nymph") sleeping in a similar reclining position. - The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau): Inspired by Grecorroman imagery, the three nymphs illustrated are Nereids/Oceanids. Nymphs whose domain is the ocean and, as a result, can effortlessly swim long distances. They appear here to attend Venus' birth. - Hylas and the Nymphs: The naiads are all portrayed as relatively human-looking (if somewhat identical) women, nude in the pond. They are also presented as Femmes Fatales. This one is probably one of the most famous artistic depictions of nymphs. - Nymphs and Satyr by William-Adolphe Bouguereau is an oil painting depicting a quadruplet of nude nymphs frolicking with a satyr in the woods. - The Return of Spring: The description provided on the Joslyn Art Museum website describes the female nude as a nymph, presumably a lesser goddess of the titular season. - Satyr Satisfies Nymph by Arthur Fischer is an oil painting depicting a nymph being given oral sex by a satyr. - Ninfa en el estanque (Nymph in the Pond) by Gabriel Grün features a red-headed woman (presumably the nymph) staring at her own reflection in a pond. - Young Hylas with the Water Nymphs: Dryope and the other nymphs seduce Hylas behind Hercules' back. They are depicted as attractive young women that play the role of a Femme Fatale. - Magic: The Gathering: Nymphs and dryads are separate creature types in-game. - Dryads are the most common of the two types and strongly aligned with Green, the color of nature. They're reclusive forest dwellers and wardens of nature, usually appearing as humanoid women with pointed ears and sometimes green skin and hair. Other times they're out-and-out Plant Persons. They're bonded to individual trees that their lives depend on, and some believe them to be the dreams of trees. They're present on multiple planes, including the Gothic Horror-inspired Innistrad and the City Planet of Ravnica, where they're strongly associated with the Selesnya Conclave, the guild responsible for maintaining Ravnica's green spaces. The founder of the Conclave, Mat'Selesnya, was formed from the fusion of multiple dryads, and the guild's current leader, Trostani, is a group of three conjoined dryads acting as Mat'Selesnya's "face". - Wrenn is a dryad planeswalker with a unique situation — she pulled a forest fire that was devouring her home forest into herself, granting her the ability to move from tree to tree at the cost of burning her alive if she goes too long without a partner. As a result, she forms symbiotic relationships with trees that she physically fuses herself with; Wrenn provides the plant with intelligence and molds it into a mobile Treant, while the tree allows her to contain the fire within her and gives her the ability to planeswalk. She has gone through seven trees over her life, changing partners when old ones die or become tired of traveling, but can't bond herself with just any tree — she needs to find a specifically suitable partner, which she describes as finding one whose "song" matches hers. - Nymphs are a rarer creature type with no clear color identity, and are most strongly associated with the Greek mythology-inspired plane of Theros, where they are divinely-created servants of the gods. All dryads found on Theros, notably, are typed as both nymphs and dryads and serve Nylea, the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness. Besides them, White nymphs are called alseids, inhabit meadows and are closer to the civilized races than other nymph types; Blue nymphs are called naiads and inhabit streams, grottos and isolated beaches; Black nymphs are called lampads, live in the Underworld and aid the god Athreos in guiding the dead; Red nymphs, called oreads, live in mountains and volcanoes and are more aggressive than other nymphs, and are creations of Purphoros, the god of the forge. There is also the unique Green/White/Blue nymph Kestia, who oversees agriculture and irrigation. - JLA: A League of One features two Nympths called Zoe and Athlea, a Nereid and Dryad respectively, who live around Themyscira and shown to have been Wonder Woman's childhood friends growing up. Both are depicted as in the forms of little girls (Zoe all blue and Athlea all green) who have powers associated with their respective domains. - Wonder Woman Vol 1: In the Marston stories, Nymphs are the all-female residents of the lunar forest, who are ruled by and worship Artemis. - The New Adventures of Invader Zim: The non-canon spinoff Mature Edition has Kleodora. She's a dryad, and has the standard wood-like skin and green hair, as well as the ability to teleport herself or others. - Paradoxus: The nymphs of Winx Club already show a fair amount of discrepancies with the Greek nymphs. Instead of being very minor deities (if they can even be called that) tied to some natural aspect such as trees or water, these nymphs are the most powerful fairies across all dimensions and the rulers of said dimensions' fates after the Great Dragon's disappearance. Also, all of them harbor the Dragon's Flame during their lifetimes. In Paradoxus, however, the nymphs draw more from the Ainur of Lord of the Rings than their canonical counterparts. They were still created by the Great Dragon's thoughts, but they also represent one aspect of magic (light, time, shadows...). Furthermore, their souls are immortal and will reincarnate from time to time (mostly to fix messes) while remembering each iteration unless they are in peace with themselves so they can choose not to. - Allegro non Troppo: The Prélude à l'après-midi short has an elderly fawn chasing a green-skinned nymph. - Barbie Fairytopia has a dryad called Dahlia. They don't seem to be much different from standard winged fairies but can fly through trees like they aren't there. - Hercules: Hercules meets Philoctetes as he is peeping on a group of nymphs lounging by a river. When his cover is blown, Phil is quick to try and catch one, only for them to turn into a pile of flowers and a tree. When he claims the nymphs were chasing him, the tree slaps him. - Mavka: The Forest Song is about a Ukrainian variant of nymphs, from Slavic Mythology. The eponymous protagonist is a Nature Spirit in human form who watches over forests, and several other nymphs like her watch over bodies of water etc. - The Guardian (1990): The villain, Camilla, is a dryad who poses as a babysitter, \|\|abduct babies, and feeds them to her tree\|\|. - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Dryads are tree spirits who only become visible as patterns within blowing leaves, flower petals and other plant material. - The Belgariad: Dryads live in southern Tolnedra, within the Wood of the Dryads. They're all female and reproduce with human males, and are bonded for life to a tree and live as long as it does. They're also strict vegetarians, and experience sexual euphoria when they eat chocolate. Ce'Nedra is the daughter of a man and a dryad, and is often described as very pretty due to her exotic looks. - Book of Imaginary Beings: Nymphs are minor goddesses of nature, although no temples were built for them. They haunt wild places and are given different names depending on their homes: dryads (or hamadryads) are bonded to trees and live and die alongside them; oceanids and nereids live in the sea; naiads in rivers and lakes; oreads in mountains and caves; napaeae in glens; alseids in groves. Seeing one will strike a man blind, and seeing one naked will strike him dead. - The Chronicles of Narnia: Dryads are among the numerous fantastical creatures native to Narnia, and Lewis describes them in great detail. Birch dryads look like slender girls with showery hair, dressed in silver and fond of dancing, beech dryads look like gracious, queenly goddesses dressed in fresh transparent green, and oak dryads look like wizened old men with warts, gnarled fingers, and hair growing out of the warts. - Daughters of the Moon: The nymphs that appear in The Choice, Azera, Zonda, and Lizelle, can disguise themselves as humans, but their true forms have reptilian wings, talon-like claws, snake-like tongues, golden scales covering their skin, and black snakes for hair. - Discworld: Dryads appear in The Colour of Magic, where they live in pocket dimensions within trees and are extremely protective of their homes. Since they're stated to be vanishingly rare, it's possible that their absence from later books is because they've gone extinct. They look like greenish humans, don't wear clothes and have a Hive Caste System with smaller, intelligent females and Dumb Muscle males. (Rincewind is surprised by the latter, and is asked "Where do you think acorns come from?") - Everworld: The protagonists are guided by a nymph named Idalia after they save her from being gang-raped by satyrs. She's four feet tall, green, unable to leave the woods, has Super Speed and is a thousand years old. She flirts with Jalil, but the more he talks to her, the more he realizes she's basically sapient furniture—she can't remember any of her many past lovers or even add two plus two. Apparently nymphs are just created to serve their patron deity (Idalia's is Iris) and help/fall in love with mortal men. - Everybody Loves Large Chests: Dryads are powerful spirits present in the elven Ishgar Republic. Each one is tied to a mighty, magical Hylt tree, which acts as an extension of their own bodies, and vice-versa. Dryads are seldom seen, if ever, because they spend thousands of years at a time asleep until something rouses them, but once awake they're so powerful that appealing to their wants and needs is a good way to get an eternally protective ally, and angering them is likely to be the last mistake you'll ever make. - "The Hardwood Pile", a short story by L. Sprague de Camp: In upstate New York, Aceria Jones is secretly the spirit of the tree whose lumber was used to make the floor of her workplace, and seeks another tree of the same species to bond herself to. Although she specifically identifies herself as a sphendamniad (maple spirit), and not a dryad (oak spirit), her green hair (which changes to red in the fall) found its way into the Dryad entry of the Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Compendium. - The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus: Wood nymphs are one of the races inhabiting the Forest of Burzee, ruled over by Queen Zurline. One of them, Necile, is somewhat discontented with only caring for the plants, and winds up adopting the human baby who becomes Santa Claus. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Nymphs appear fairly often as supporting characters. A large population of dryads inhabits Camp Half-Blood's forest alongside the satyrs, while naiads live in its lake. In the early books they looked like human girls, even wearing modern clothing, though later they're described as somewhat elfin. Other nymphs appear inhabiting rivers throughout the series, including the Mississippi. Nereids are part of Poseidon's court, and while naiads do not serve him directly they still honor him. - Portals Of Infinity: In the second book of the series, the protagonists are portal-hopping through The Multiverse to make their way to a specific world. Each world operates by its own set of physical and magical rules, often populated by creatures very similar or very dissimilar to humans, and the travelers find their physical forms changed to reflect the current world's rules. After traveling through one portal, the entire party suddenly strips nude on the spot and degenerate into a massive orgy that lasts several days. When they have finally messed around enough to exhaust themselves, they gain barely enough self-control to realize this world is populated by satyrs and nymphs, and that when the two species come into contact, they are Overcome with Desire. - Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Dryads are connected to elves, appear to be Plant Persons with plant manipulation powers, and are at least mentioned a few times: - In the second episode, Princesses Are Never Lost: (Everything Else Is Simply Misplaced), they're called "fey tree-women". - In the eighth episode, Princesses on the Broken Sea, it's revealed that elves \|\|exploit them by turning them into items\|\|. - The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries has a Maenad called Callisto. She can cause madness and lust in people, she has Complete Immortality and is stronger than a vampire. She can also turn he thanks I to claws that can poison your blood if she scratches you. - Tales of MU features, among standard river nymphs, "cereal nymphs," the Anthropomorphic Personifications of their fields, summoned by a ritual that involves local farmers, ah, seeding said field. Such nymphs are Ethical Sluts who believe in sharing their divine beauty with the world and having lots of sex with Anything That Moves, which strengthens both their humanoid bodies and the fields they're bound to, ensuring an ample harvest. - Ravirn: Cybermancy: One spam email header seen is Totally Nude Nymphs., fitting the Greek Mythology basis of the series. - Charmed (1998): Wood nymphs use their magic to make nature grow, and their presence causes flowers to bloom. They're also guardians of the Eternal Spring, whose waters make the drinker immortal. - The Magicians has an episode featuring a dryad who is an ambassador for a forest of talking trees. This Dryad is a man and is in fact quite sexist. He considers it an insult that two females (one of which was the High Queen) would come to negotiate instead of the High King. - Classical Mythology: The Trope Maker and Trope Namer. Nymphs — nymphe — are a major class of semi-divine creatures, essentially minor female deities who watch over landscapes and natural landmarks. They're often depicted as the lovers, mothers or daughters of various heroes and divinities, and come in a staggering variety of types associated with specific landforms and environments. - Alseids were an obscure type associated with glens and groves, and only mentioned by Homer. - Aurae were nymphs of winds and breezes; some texts treat them as a singular being, Aura, the daughter of the titan Lelantos. - Dryads ( druas) were the nymphs of trees. Originally, the term specifically referred to the nymphs of oak trees ( drys, in Ancient Greek), before expanding to tree nymphs in general; the nymphs associated with other trees had their own specific names — meliads for ash trees, for instance. Hamadryads were a subtype who were associated with one individual tree, rather than forests and trees in general, and perished if that tree was cut down. - The Hesperides were the nymphs of the twilight and the West, who guarded Hera's golden apples in a garden in the utmost west of the world. They're usually considered to be the daughters of the titan Atlas, although some myths have them as daughters of Zeus or of Nyx and Erebus. There were only a few of them, though the exact number (either 3, 4 or 7) and their names are Depending on the Writer. - The Hyades were a group of nymphs who brought rain. - The Lampads were the nymphs of the Underworld, and accompanied Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and magic, in her nightly travels. - Naiads presided over freshwaters. They were further subdivided into numerous types associated with specific water bodies, such as limnads (lakes), potamides (rivers) and pegasides (springs). They were often associated with river gods, who were either their fathers, their sons, or just generally their male equivalents. - Nereids were the nymphs of the seas. They were strongly associated with Poseidon, whom they often accompanied. Some myths describe them as the daughters of the sea god Nereus, hence their name, and the Oceanid Doris. - Oceanids, contrary to what you'd assume, were the nymphs of rivers and springs. note : To the ancient Greeks, "ocean" was the name of a giant river that encircled the known world; Oceanus was its god, so his kids ruling the other rivers made sense. They numbered three thousand and were the daughters of the titans Oceanus and Tethys, with three thousand river-god brother. Styx, the nymph/goddess of the Underworld river that bears her name, was the oldest of their number. - The oreads were the nymphs of the mountains, and were associated with Pan and Artemis. - The seven Pleiades, another group of daughters of Atlas, were companions to Artemis and were at some point transformed into the stars that bear their name. - Individual nymphs include Amphitrite, a nereid and Poseidon's wife; Echo, who was cursed by Hera to only be able to repeat what others said and eventually faded away to only a disembodied voice; Melinoë, an underworld nymph and bringer of nightmares (though usually she considered a full fledged goddess in her own right); and Metis, an Oceanid and Athena's mother. There's also a running theme of nymphs being transformed into plants after misadventures involving the gods — Daphne note : meaning "laurel" in Greek, for instance, was a naiad who was pursued by an amorous Apollo, prayed to her river god father for escape and was transformed in to a laurel tree; the naiad Minthe tried to seduce Hades and was turned into the first mint plant by a furious Persephone; the dryad Syrinx met a similar fate to Daphne's, being transformed into a river reed by her sisters to escape Pan; the oread Pytis note : "pine" was transformed into a pine tree under the same circumstances. - The Hulder/Huldra (and their male counterparts, the huldrekall) are a type of seductive forest creature of Scandinavian folklore who appear in the form of a beautiful maiden who would routinely seduce men and bring them to their underground homes. They are typically told apart by their cow-tails that they would hide in their skirts. - In Islam and Arabian folklore, Houri are celestial maidens created by God as rewards for pious Muslims. They're said to have Raven Hair, Ivory Skin and can grant wishes unlimitedly, transmute any liquid into honey, and sometimes change their shape without limits (depends on their husbands' desires). They also sweat musk and spit honey. - Hur-in, the best type of houri, have supernatural charming eyes and bodies made of saffron. - Kawa'ib (singular Ka'ib, lit. "busty") Atrab (singular tarba' literally "near or in her husband age") are a type of busty houri who are poured from clouds like rain. - In Persian folklore there's a type of jinn and fair folk called peri, which are possibly synonyms of houri or a Persian counterpart of them. They are beautiful winged women; some of them evil, but most of them good. They can also appear and disappear as will. - The Gamer's Alliance: Nymphs are agile female creatures with ebony skin and cat-like eyes who are in tune with nature, live in Libaterran forests and have intimate encounters with travelers, which makes books of lore refer to a nymph as the "ranger's fondest conquest". It serves as a plot point once it's revealed that the nymphs are seducing travelers because they need them to become pregnant; a magical curse makes nymphs only give birth to females of their kind and thus they need males from other races to keep their bloodline going. - The Dark Eye: Nymphs are fairies who resemble beautiful humanoid women with slightly pointed ears. Like all fairies, they come to the material world from the fairy realm for reasons they don't usually discuss, although they must return to their home to avoid wasting away. They appoint themselves as protectors of bodies of water and use their magic to punish humans who damage them. They're also extremely beautiful and almost always nude, and are known for seducing humans away to the fairy land and never to be seen again. There are also dryads, which are much the same but look after trees instead. - Dragon Dice: Naiads and Dryads are a central part of the Treefolk army, serving as the faction's cavalry and mages. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Nymphs are beings resembling beautiful elven women, and live alone in and protect places of unspoiled natural beauty. They are essentially living embodiment of beauty — in fact, they form spontaneously in places of natural wonder as a reflection of their splendor, and will sicken and perish should their homes be ruined or despoiled; likewise, if the nymph is injured or sullied her home will decay as well. They're themselves supernaturally, perfectly beautiful to such a degree that anyone looking directly at a nymph's face will be struck blind — and anyone looking at a naked nymph will straight-up die. - Dryads likewise resemble beautiful elven women. They are bonded to individual trees — oak trees, specifically — and will die if they spend too much time away from them or if the tree is cut down. They can meld with and teleport between trees, and serve as protectors of forested lands. Their skin and hair change color with the seasons: in the spring and summer, their skin is tan and their hair green; in the fall they both turn golden or red, and in the winter they turn white. Since all dryads are female, they rely on other species for reproduction — generally, a dryad will have children with either a magically enthralled human or elf, in which case the child will always be a dryad, or with a satyr, in which case there's an even chance of the child being either a dryad girl or a satyr boy. A young dryad will live with her mother until she reaches adulthood, at which point she will seek a tree of her own to bond to. - Nereids are blue-skinned marine nymphs hailing from the Elemental Plane of Water. They don't often move to the Material Plane and interact with the surface world even more rarely, preferring the company of water elementals and sea creatures. They carry seafoam-white shawls that they depend on for their lives — a nereid whose shawl is destroyed will wither and die within an hour — and unscrupulous individuals often enslave them by taking their shawls from them. - Oreads are women with stony skin who live on and protect mountains. - Grain nymphs are associated with farmland and agriculture and usually benevolent to humans (and looked down upon by their kin as city-slicker snobs). Their presence can double a farm's harvest, giving plentiful bounty to whatever community it feeds. Woe betide a farmer who tries to exploit or hurt a grain nymph, however; not only will it drive her away, she "marks" the transgressor so that farm animals (including riding horses) regard him as an enemy forever. - Exalted: - Nymphs are water elementals resembling blue-skinned women with pearl eyes. They're extremely beautiful and sometimes take mortal lovers, but these inevitably drown when the nymph takes them to her underwater home. - Dryads are minor deities of individual trees, charged with recording their lives but often driven to actively protect them; this is complicated for them because, as they're supposed to be passive recorders and gods aren't supposed to directly meddle with mortals anyway, they're prohibited from actively harming those who'd cut their trees. They're not bound to their trees and don't die with them, but the loss of their charge leaves them essentially unemployed until they can find another, form a cult or join a spirit court. They resemble women with bark for skin and leaves for hair, and often use tattoos or scarification to emulate wounds left on their trees by lightning or axes. - Palladium Fantasy: Nymphs are ethereal, incorporeal faeries that appoint themselves as protectors of areas of land, favoring features such as ancient trees, springs, rivers, boulders and hills for their dwellings. They are normally gentle and good-hearted beings who willingly aid the lost and helpless, but respond with violent anger at senseless destruction of their land. - Pathfinder: - Nymphs are a type of fey resembling impossibly beautiful, pointy-eared humanoid women, and watch over and protect natural wonders; they are in fact so supernaturally gorgeous that looking at one is enough to strike a man blind. In first edition, the nymphs' traditional subtypes are treated as distinct types of fey in their own right, only similar to nymphs insofar as they're humanoid, Always Female (usually; male dryads have appeared in stories and official artwork) and protectors of nature. 2nd edition overhauls this classification to more closely resemble the Greco-Roman model — "nymph", as such, is a general category of humanoid, female fey that watch over natural landmarks, with the previous nymph-like fey being reinterpreted as numerous subtypes that watch over specific environments and landmarks. Nymph queens, rare and powerful exemplars of their kinds, take over the role of the older nymph species, to which they're largely equivalent mechanically. Common nymphs are bonded to specific areas and sicken and die if they leave them, while nymph queens are more mobile. - Dryads guard specific trees and cannot stray far from them without withering and dying. Dryad queens, also called hamadryads, are not bound to individual plants and watch over whole forests. Some dryads' appearances and personalities change depending on the type of tree they're bonded to; cherry tree dryads, called kraneiai, are for instance distinguished by a pink coloration and a preoccupation with the fragile beauty of life. - Naiads are bound to and watch over fresh waters such as rivers, ponds and lakes. They can transfer their bonds to other bodies of water, though, allowing them some mobility. - Lampads are the wardens of subterranean wildernesses, keeping lonely vigil over caverns and abysses. They have little interaction with intelligent beings outside of guiding lost travelers to the surface and battling evil groups like duergar and drow, and consequently tend to be very lonely and deeply morose. They are bonded to specific caves. - Hesperides are nymphs of sunset, and guard places from which the setting sun can be seen particularly well, and often also keep watch over precious or magical artifacts. They can manipulate sunlight to create fire and searing light, and are bonded to the specific panorama they guard. Hesperid queens often form close partnerships with gold dragons. - In addition to true nymphs, there are a number of similar humanoid fey that fill similar niches and roles: - Nereids are largely that in name only and bear more resemblance to medieval water spirits than anything else, being capricious freshwater seductresses who can spray poison and drown with a touch. 2nd Edition, they're instead Heroic Neutral isolationists who are maligned because of confusion with rusalkas, who are the actual malicious fey who prey on sailors that nereids are mistaken as. - Oceanids are marine counterparts to nymphs, possessing lower bodies made out of roiling water than only become legs on dry land and extensive power over the element of water. - Oreads are that In Name Only, being otherwise regular humanoids with earth elemental ancestry. - Nephlei, while not true nymphs or even fey — they're a type of air elemental, strictly speaking — strongly resemble them, appearing as giant, blue-skinned, pointy-eared women with skin covered in whorled white markings. They're known as cloud nymphs in-universe and are closely connected to their element, being able to command wind, clouds and lighting to a fairly extensive degree. - RuneQuest: Dryads are one of the species that make up the Aldryami, a collection of sapient plants and plant spirits that most famously includes the elves, and often live alongside other Aldryami in mixed communities. They're a lithe and feminine race of protective spirits of the woods and all within their forests; they are generally incapable of harming anything except those that would harm that forest. - Shadowrun: Dryads are an elven metavariant that is not tied to any specific place of origin. Instead, elven (and sometimes human) children are just occasionally born as dryads. They underwent some fairly drastic changes over the game's history, but have always been Always Female, mildly allergic to pollution and shorter on average than other elves. - In 2nd edition, dryads are much shorter than other elves and inevitably migrate away from their places of birth as soon as they can, resettling in whatever wilderness they can find and reverting to an almost feral state. Adult dryads live in strict separation from society, speak their own language and are always shamans that follow the Father Tree totem. - In and after 5th edition, dryads are only somewhat shorter than elves and better integrated into urban society, in part because their being as scattered as they are prevents them from forming a cohesive culture. They are still, however, deeply connected with nature, and pointedly avoid areas of heavy urbanization and pollution — which, in Shadowrun, is easier said than done. - Talislanta: The Dryad Bush is a flowering shrub that, at night, turns into a green skinned forest nymph. - Warhammer: - Dryads are among the Nature Spirits native to the enchanted forest of Athel Loren. They take the form of beautiful women dressed in minimal garments, but when faced with an enemy — and they have a very generous view of what counts as an enemy — they take on their true forms as monstrous, vicious woody humanoids and tear their foes limb from limb. - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay further describes naiads, aquatic counterparts to the dryads of the woods, who live within and claim rulership over rivers. They resemble elven women, usually with blue or white hair and blue-tinged flesh. They also have a tendency to lure men into their realms. Much like dryads, they are immensely protective of their homes, prone to taking on monstrous war-forms when these are threatened, respected and admired by elves, hated by dwarves and greatly feared by humans. - We Are All Mad Here: Nymphs are supernatural female beings associated with protecting a particular location or landform, such as a river, tree, or mountain. - Age of Mythology: Dryads and Nereids are mid-tier Myth units available to the Atlanteans. Nereids are aquatic shark-riding anti naval units, while Dryads are slow tree-like attackers that can only be summoned with a specific God power. - Age of Wonders: Nymphs are creatures in the elves' roster; they resemble beautiful women in minimal clothing, can befriend animals and attack by seducing enemies. - The Elder Scrolls: Nymphs are a type of Nature Spirit most commonly found in the Iliac Bay region. They take the form of beautiful, naked, long-haired women and attack using fire spells. Although rumored to be highly sexual beings, most are rather shy and rarely approach mortals on their own. - Fable nymphs are malevolent nature spirits that shift between small female bodies and intangible Spark Fairy forms. They come in Wood, Water, and Succubus varieties; have nature-themed magic; are able to summon scorpions, hobbes or undead; and are rumoured to transform lost children into goblins by eating their souls. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy IX features Nymphs in two categories — antagonists who appear as enemies in battle and benevolent creatures that give the party money and AP in exchange for ore. They have tangles of roots instead of feet, and large flowers growing from their heads. - Final Fantasy Tactics has Dryads as the weakest Palette Swap of Treants. - Quest for Glory I: There's a dryad who is very protective of the forest, and if you kill or threaten the local wildlife she'll transform you into one of the local wildlife. - Rayman: Betilla and her sisters, who were the first of Polokus's creations and act as his emissaries. Origins gives them a more Stripperiffic makeover. - Terraria: - Nymphs are enemies found deep underground. At first sight, they appear as an NPC called "Lost Girl". Upon approaching or attacking them, they reveal themselves as they attack nearby players. - One of the helpful NPCs that can move into your houses is the Dryad, who can tell you how much Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow has consumed the world, along with selling you items. - Unavowed: Galene is a dryad who once sought to prevent humanity from settling Manhattan Island and cutting its forests, until she was defeated and trapped in a small patch of woods in what would become Central Park. She's still there, and wants to magically turn New York back into unspoiled wilderness. - A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: The "Nymph's Robe" item is described as being "spun by pixies". - Warcraft: Dryads first appeared in Warcraft III as Anti-Magic units for the Night Elf faction. Rather than forest spirits, they instead look like night elf women with the lower body of a deer. Also uniquely, "dryad" is almost exclusively the name used, with nymph being a rare interchangeable term for the same creature. Variants include dryads with crystalline hair, hooves and armor who live in a forest of crystal trees; and frost nymphs, who have cooler hair and fur colors and inhabit snowy regions. - The Witcher: Nymphs are Always Female, pointy-eared and beautiful humanoids who watch over nature. They procreate by mating with humans or elves or by transforming humans into more of their kind — drinking the Waters of Brokilon will turn a human into a dryad, for instance. They're equated with The Fair Folk to a degree — they share some of their names with European fairies, and are known to kidnap human children to raise as their own and replace them with changelings. They appeared in the Continent long before the arrival of the first humans and elves and warred bitterly against the dwarves; the latter saw the nymphs as dangerous barbarians, while the nymphs saw the industrialized dwarves as despoilers and polluters. Numerous distinct types exist: - Dryads are the nymphs of forests, and may have green hair alongside brown and russet shades. Hamadryads have especially strong connections to nature and form strong bonds with individual trees. - Leimoniads are the nymphs of fields. They're now mostly extinct due to conflicts with humanity, who turned their prairies into arable land. They got along better with the elves, who do not practice agriculture. - Naiads, also called rusalkas, are the nymphs of lakes and rivers. Their hair is black or green, and their skin ranges from alabaster to greenish. Some possess webbed hands, and all naiads must remain close to water at all times — if they go too long on dry land they'll dehydrate and die. - Nereids are the nymphs of the sea. They're mostly found in the depths of the Great Ocean, where they live alongside merfolk and sea witches in a civilization of their own. They're close kin to naiads, and tend to have green and blue skin and hair. - Oreads are the nymphs of mountains, and like the leimoniads are now mostly extinct. - Zork: Nymphs are House Fey. Tiny Winged Humanoids summoned to act as servants, guards or exotic dancers. - Gunnerkrigg Court: \|\|Marcia Sutton\|\| is a dryad who typically resembles a normal human woman but can turn into a Plant Person should she choose to, and can communicate with, see through and control both natural and magically altered plant life. - The Legend of Maxx features a race of Dryads, expanding on the single Dryad present in Terraria. Each Dryad is based on a certain plant which they physically resemble, including the wise Elder Willow and the dementia-riddled Elder Fungus. - In Lore Olympus we see various nymphs, most notably Minthe, the nymph of the river of the underworld who has bright red skin and hair and pointy ears but otherwise looks like a very attractive and slender human, and Thetis, a sea nymph with a grey and aqua coloration, fin like ears, and a similarly attractive (if maybe slightly more curvaceous) figure. - In The Noordegraaf Files, Nereids are a species of Always Female aquatic humanoids with the lower bodies of squid. They breathe water through microscopic gill slits on their faces, and some can stay on land as long as their gills stay moist. They have eyes with colored scleras and grey irises, and live in a monarchical society where one's standing is determined by her physical beauty Naiads are subspecies adapted for life in bodies of freshwater, although "Nereid" can be used to refer to both kinds as a whole. Dryads and something called "Incindads" (fire nymphs) are also said to exist, but have not been seen in-comic. - Nothing Special: The first antagonist \|\|who also happens to be Callie's mother\|\| is revealed to be a dryad, though in this universe their true forms are very ethereal until they cover themselves in their element. In this case, skin made of wood and a hair made of flowers. Dryads can posses trees and use people's souls as decorations of sorts. - In Looming Gaia, nymphs are magical, femininine beings created by Gaia, the spirit of the planet itself, to protect Her from pollution and industrialisation. They come in ten types: Hydriads (water), Isanae (frost), Pyriads (fire), Oreads (land), Aurae (air), Limniads (plant), Faunae (beast), Maenads (soul), Dryads (wood), and Pleiadae (star). They are classified as fae due to their natural magic ability, but they don't age and can't naturally reproduce.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurNymphsAreDifferent
Our Orcs Are Different - TV Tropes "Wesnoth Orcs are brown; a portrait showing them as green is inconsistent." — Artistic Guidelines for Contributing Artists from the open-source game Battle for Wesnoth Ever since Tolkien, the worlds of fantasy literature and video games have been overrun with tribes of ugly, bellicose humanoids, whose main purpose for existence is to serve as the Mooks of the Forces of Evil. Trolls, goblins and/or hobgoblins (and such) are usually also closely associated with them, or may just be different names for the same thing. The word orc comes from Old English and shares linguistic roots with ogre, borrowed from French. Both terms are related to the Latin word Orcus, the name of an Etruscan/Roman god of The Underworld which came to denote the place itself (like Greek Hades). Later, Orcus was glossed as a term for a demon or hell itself. Thus, the Old English word orc, as attested by medieval glossaries — as well as cognates in other languages like French ogre, Italian orco and Portuguese and Spanish ogro — denoted a kind of demon or monster. However, the only appearance of orc in surviving Old English literature comes from Beowulf in the form orcnéas, "demon-corpses", sometimes translated as "living dead" — ghouls, perhaps? Orcnéas are said to be evil creatures descended from Cain, together with eotenas (giants), ylfe (elves) and gigantas (giants, again, so eotenas is sometimes translated as ogres or trolls). note : Confusingly, a homonym of orc also exists in Old English with the meaning of "cup" or some other sort of "vessel", with the plural orcas appearing in Beowulf. This is also derived from Latin, but is completely unrelated to Orcus since it comes from urceus, much later orca — which itself has a homonym meaning "whale", hence killer whales are called orcas. In modern fiction, Orcs come in two general flavors: the original model developed by J. R. R. Tolkien who borrowed the word from Beowulf and used it for his version of goblins, and a revisionist model best exemplified (but far from invented) by Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft series. There are also orcs IN SPACE!!! ## Tolkienesque or "traditional" orcs: - Are Always Chaotic Evil. - Often have pig-like snouts or upturned noses that resemble pig snouts. (Sometimes taken one step further by actually giving them pig heads, like in early editions of Dungeons & Dragons.) May have tusks. This is possibly drawn from the fact that "orc" is Welsh for "pig", and Welsh was the inspiration for Tolkien's Sindarin; alternately, it comes from the illustrators misunderstanding Gary Gygax who supposedly told them to make the orcs look "pig-headed"; or, simply, that "orc" rhymes with "pork". This look was popularized in Japan by RPGs like Dragon Quest. Often called "Porcs" on the internet. - If they're not porcine as mentioned above, they'll have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth due to their meat-heavy diet. - Are usually carnivorous or hypercarnivorous, often cannibalistic. If not, they may instead be Extreme Omnivores. - Are of varying colors; ranging from sallow to gray to red. Green is not unknown, though generally not the vibrant green of "Blizzard" orcs ( Dungeons and Dragons orcs are grayish-green). - Are most likely to be Faceless Goons/Mooks. - Are dumb, either using only primitive technology or with an affinity for industrialized production, lacking craftsmanship and having Creative Sterility. - If these orcs use any magic at all, it would be Black Magic. - Have little or no culture outside of raiding/war parties and worshiping gods of war or the local Evil Overlord. - Usually have oppressive, patriarchal societies, with females being treated as property (if female orcs are even shown or mentioned). - Are oftentimes made solely as artificial creatures rather than reproducing naturally (since Creating Life Is Bad), thus explaining the aforementioned lack of females and making the dehumanization and extermination of these creatures less morally questionable. - Are of variable strength and size, but usually shorter than humans or elves but taller than dwarves. - Are often hunched or stooped in build or posture with awkward musculature and proportions, and may lope like a great ape when running. - May or may not have a British cockney accent (as popularized by Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000). - Are a Proud Warrior Race with an extensive honor system partially inspired by the Japanese, the Norse, or other "warrior" cultures. They've been referred to as "green Klingons" in the past. - Have intelligence on par with humans and other races (though other races might not see it that way). Their technology and magic might even be on par with humans and elves, though their magic will be more shamanic than arcane, and their technology will be more "earthy". - Are far more likely to have a more fully fleshed-out culture than Tolkienesque orcs. But unlike other races, they rarely have a direct real-world counterpart, but are instead a mishmash of various tribal cultures, although most can be summed up as a Proud Warrior Race. - Have an animist and/or shamanistic religious structure. - Are more likely to be omnivorous. - Are more likely to have cities or settlements beyond war camps, although other races will likely still consider them barbaric and primitive. - May appear rugged and violent to other races because historically they lived in dangerous environments that have very few resources available so they resort to a spartan way of life. - Are more likely to have females portrayed, gender equality or even female leaders. Although sexual dimorphism does exist, Orcish women are expected to fight to exactly the same degree as men, and usually also have the same degree of martial ability. More fearsome females may exemplify the Beast Man trope. - Have bright green skin and are physically similar to (some) trolls from European folklore. - Aren't necessarily repulsive. They can even be quite attractive, with the women shown as Amazonian beauties and the men burly and ruggedly handsome. - Will have large tusks jutting out from their lower jaws, though if the orcs are portrayed as attractive, these will be reduced to inverted Cute Little Fangs (though female orcs tend to have small "cute" tusks even when the men's are still large and imposing). This is the one holdover from when orcs were more pig-like in appearance. Even if they have human noses, they'll always have the tusks. - Are larger than humans and nearly always stronger. An Orc will be probably about 6-8 feet tall, and much more stocky and robustly built. Limbs are close to a foot thick. Competitive Balance usually ensures that this does not make them superior to other races in battle: elves are still much more agile and attuned to nature or magic, dwarves have comparable strength, toughness and superior equipment, and humans have superior logistics, tactics, and coordination on the battlefield. - May have incredibly thick muscle, broad chests and shoulders and somewhat elongated arms, but generally stand upright and appear undeniably humanoid. - Are vastly more likely to be protagonists or at least supporting characters as opposed to rank-and-file Mooks. Although the two interpretations differ significantly, they broadly share both a monstrous, primitive appearance and conflict with humanity and the other Standard Fantasy Races. The author's choice of which model to emulate usually depends on whose perspective the story is written from, the story's relative position on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, and whether or not the author intends to explore ramifications of killing sentient beings. In any case, expect humans to treat revisionist orcs as if they were Tolkienesque orcs, at least initially. Also both types are generally mooted to reach maturity faster and to have a lower life expectancy than even humans, though this isn't universal. Around half human lifespan seems to be common, with half-orcs bridging the difference. You average orc will be an adult at ten, in their prime at twenty, be middle aged at thirty, old at forty and venerable at fifty, in the unlikely event they live that long - orc lives tending to be dangerous, brutish and short. In modern fiction, "orc" is sometimes spelled as "ork", both to make the orcs that much more different and for Xtreme Kool Letterz appeal. 'Orc' is usually the spelling in medieval fantasy, while 'ork' is the norm in modern or futuristic settings, as popularized by Warhammer 40,000. The form "orke" appeared in early modern English during the Renaissance period, perhaps influenced by the French "ogre". Tolkien considered spelling it "ork" late in his life, but never got around to revising his published stuff for it. Orcs typically share a close relationship with goblins, and indeed Tolkien originally used the words "orc" and "goblin" more or less interchangeably. Modern fantasy typically separates them into distinct species, with goblins usually being smaller and more lightly built. Orcs are also frequently associated with other monstrous humanoid races. See: Our Ogres Are Hungrier, All Trolls Are Different and Our Giants Are Bigger, as well as Standard Fantasy Races. The trope often overlaps with Pig Man, especially in Japanese media, though the pun on "pork" is linguistically coincidental. They are often the "adopting" parent when a child is Raised by Orcs. In many cases, Space Orcs will literally be fantasy orcs IN SPACE!, although it's somewhat more common for them to be an original species with a Tolkienian orcish personality added on. ## Examples: - Delicious in Dungeon: Orcs are tall, stout, and porcine (plus small horns and tusks), but are primarily Blizzard-style, respecting courage, living in communal villages, and despising cowardice. They have a wholly justified reputation as murderous raiders, but the humans and elves they target can't be called innocent, having historically committed their own fair share of atrocities against the orcs. They're actually pretty amiable around non-orcs who somehow get on their good side. - Monster Musume being a Japanese work, the orcs are Pig Men of human-level intelligence. Typical for the series, while the males closely resemble the "Boar-men" orcs of Dragon Quest, the females shown in spinoffs are attractive, curvy humanoids who are a Little Bit Beastly instead. The first orcs shown in the series are the first truly hostile liminals introduced; terrorists who take a comic book store hostage to make ridiculous demands for the publication of orc-centric pornography. - In Interspecies Reviewers Orcs are the ruling political party of the setting due to the fact that they apply their lifestyle of "Eat, Sleep and Fuck" to politics (a focus on agriculture, low taxes, public support for sex industry). Otherwise aside from looking like pig men and a high sex drive/stamina there's little separating them from other species. In one notable scene, a "Raid Party" consisting of 100 orcs saves the Reviewers from Out with a Bang. - Dark Tower: The Brigands, although bearing antlers and beaks, clearly serve the function of Tolkienian orcs. - Magic: The Gathering: - Orcs had a presence in early sets, before growing out of focus due to goblins taking over the niche of small Red-aligned creatures, leaving little need to maintain orcs as a separate creature type. They made a reappearance in the Khans of Tarkir expansion after being absent for about fifteen years. While early orcs were exclusively aligned with Red mana (the color of impulsivity, emotion, chaos and ferocity), modern orcs are split fairly evenly between Red and Black (the color of self-interest, ambition and amorality). - Early orcs don't fit the Tolkensian archetype or the Warcraft archetype very well. Rather, they are sort of "goblins, but bigger (and somehow even dumber)". Their primary distinguishing characteristics are their supreme cowardice and complete incompetence; early orc cards were printed with abilities that made it difficult or impossible to force them into any combat that would kill the orc, while others had ridiculous drawbacks for minor effects that made them a bigger liability to their controller than the opponent outside of overly complicated combos. - The orcs of Dominaria were mainly found in the isolated island continent of Sarpadia, where they lived in tunnels within the continent's mountains alongside the local goblins. They warred extensively against Sarpadia's dwarven, elven and human nations — especially the humans — and alongside the thallids (fungi farmed by the elves as food sources that ended up developing sapience) and the thrulls (creatures bred as living sacrifices and meat shields by human necromancers) ended up destroying Sarpadia's nations. However, after the humans, dwarves and elves were gone, the thrulls' deep-seated paranoia led to them attacking the orcs and goblins once the other threats were gone, eventually wiping them out as well. Other orcish populations survived on other continents, such as the Ironclaw orcs of Aerona, but they're not particularly common or prominent. Physically, they chiefly resemble burly humans with green skin and pointed ears. - Orcs on Tarkir are much closer to Blizzard's orcs, and tend to be portrayed as proud, aggressive brawlers and warriors. They tend to have heavy frames, greyish-tan skin, triangular ears and flattened, almost absent noses. They are often found as warriors in the Mardu hordes and the Abzan houses. In the reforged timeline they are found almost exclusively among the followers of the dragon Kolaghan, and like the rest of Kolaghan's clan are ferocious, warlike barbarians and often cannibalistic. - Ixalan's orcs, found in the Brazen Coalition, are Blood Knights who have been known to raid their own ships if they go too long without plunder. They have much more human-like proportions than the orcs of Tarkir. - Orggs are a rare creature type created from the crossbreeding of orcs and ogres. They're characterized by their large and pointed ears, four arms and incredible stupidity. - 2000 AD: In Kingdom, a race of grey-skinned dog-human hybrid warriors is officially designated "Aux". Given that their human creators had a love of Punny Names (individual Aux include Gary the Old Man and Val Kill-More), this may have been deliberate. - Birthright portrays orcs as one of the native races from Terrenos. Despite fitting the Tolkien mold as they are mostly servants of God-King Lore, the most prominent orc character in the narrative is Rook, who serves the Blizzard mold being an heroic warrior and the main protagonist's mentor. - Black Moon Chronicles: Similar to Warhammer orcs, with the same sense of tactics, only usually with more humanlike skintones and racial hatred of elves. - The DCU: The Khunds are, in many ways, the setting's Klingons, so all the comparisons of Klingons to orcs apply equally well to the Khunds. They're a big, muscular, ugly Proud Warrior Race who have a strong code of honor but still generally act like imperialistic bullies who get into fights with the good guys. - Drago Nero: Gmor follows the Blizzard example, being a Boisterous Bruiser and Bash Brothers with the titular character. - ORCS! and its sequel ORCS! THE CURSE concerns a tribe of orcs who are fun loving and always eager for a dance party. They are also extremely fierce fighters in defence of their own, and their tribal witch is a very powerful magician. The characters are drawn in a rounded cartoonish style with a wide variety of body sizes, skin and eye colours, and clothing. - Orc Stain depicts a world populated by Warhammer-ish orcs who rely upon Organic Technology. They're an all-male species who reproduce by ejaculating mobile plant seeds that grow into vegetative wombs full of new orcs and who use coins made from sliced up, petrified pieces of orc penis as money. - In Rat Queens, most orcs are more Tolkienesque, though the only orc main character, Braga, left her people after she realized they would never accept her goals to reform their culture and end the constant bloodshed (\|\|also her coming out as Transgender\|\|). note : She's now a Destructive Savior Hero For Hire with the Rat Queens, so she's not a pacifist by any means. - Bright: Orcs live integrated with humans and other races in a modern-day Earth. Orcs are pretty normal people for all of their racial differences. They maintain some vestiges of being a Proud Warrior Race, with the idea of being "blooded" having a central role in their society. They have intelligence roughly on par with humans, though they're stereotyped as dumb. The main orc character, Jakoby, is frequently slow on the uptake, but much of this might just be a combination of "doesn't understand human verbal play" and "inexperienced cop who hesitates," and he's more thoughtful, serious and idealistic than his human partner. They are apparently larger, heavier, stronger and slower the humans on average, and Jakoby exhibits some extraordinary toughness. They are extremely clannish and generally discriminated against by other races, making them second-class citizens in the wider society — so no wonder they're big on their own clans/gangs. - In the Name of the King features the Krug, who are mindless humanoid monsters for the heroes to slaughter. - The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have orcs as sharp-toothed humanoid monsters ranging from the very impish-looking goblins of the Misty Mountains to the hulking and brutish Uruk-hai of Isengard. Those that do speak do so in low-class British accents, with screechy or grating voices. Fitting with the pro-nature theme of the series, orcs are focused on ruthless industry, shown tearing down trees and building crude, jagged weapons of war in service of their dark masters. - One abandoned film treatment turned orcs into avian-like creatures with wings and beaks, causing Tolkien to comment that "Orcs is not a form of Auks." . - The script by John Boorman also had orcs with avian features, and threw in some reptilian ones for good measure. They also apparently spend time not fighting in a form of suspended animation, likely forced on them by Sauron. Notably, they are not serving Sauron of their own free will. - Star Wars: The Gamorreans, first appearing in Return of the Jedi, are brutish, strong, green, pig-snouted and tusked, matriarchal, violent brutes with low intelligence, often used as minions and low-level grunts by Hutt crime lords. - Warcraft 2016, being based on a game made by the Trope Codifier of Blizzard-style orcs, obviously has a multitude of examples of the latter type. There's a lot of women, and orcs have friendships, families, a Code of Honour and sacred traditions. The orc protagonist Durotan is treated as just as important as humans and questions and then opposes the actions and motivations of Gul'dan, the Sorcerous Overlord who commands the Horde. - In NERO, orcs are green and tusked. Half-Orcs generally look exactly like orcs but can be PCs. Whether they are of the Tolkienian or Blizzard variety seems to vary from tribe to tribe. - Angel: The demonic army at the end of "Not Fade Away" is meant to look like Tolkien Orcs. Indeed, there is an interview where Joss Whedon calls them "Orcs". - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Turok-Han are basically Tolkenian Orcs crossed with vampires. - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The orcs are pale and cover their entire bodies to shield themselves from sunlight, as they have been hiding literally underground for centuries. In the show, they are an Always Chaotic Evil corruption of elves. - Star Trek: - The Wheel of Time (2021): The Trollocs look very much as they are described in the books, with a largely humanoid frame but also beastial features, often horns, plus hooves in some cases. However, as of season 1, they had no chance to show any free will beyond killer instinct and a fear of water. - Clamavi de Profundis: Orcs are present in the world of Hammerdeep, where they're a barbaric, warlike people whom other species fear and hate. They're almost invariably evil and destructive people, but it's implied that this is something instilled in them by a cruel upbringing rather than innate nature. - In Dungeons And Dragon Wagon, Orcs are called Orccans and were created from Swamp Mud by the goddess, Rasa. Though, they have green skin, are large, and have tusks, they may just return to mud if Rasa ever falls from power, as Suggested by Ugu-ta (Michele Specht) in Chapter 8.2. - 13th Age: Orcs are the classic evil variant. They can't breed with humans in the standard setting (half-orcs arise spontaneously), and sometimes just spawn from the ground. Orcs can be green-skinned, big, pig-snouted, snake-eyed, bandy-legged, leather-faced or cinder-skinned, but only the orcs themselves care about the different varieties. They're also becoming steadily more united as the new Orc Lord rises to prominence. - Age Of Ambition: Orcs are one of the 5 subtypes of the Ogre race. Their main distinction being impulsive to a fault, and a mild healing factor that gives them an increased appetite. Unlike most other fantasy settings, they are mostly accepted in most civilized nations. - Burning Wheel Orcs are Tolkien style for the most part. The game plays up the brutal and vicious aspects of Orc society by giving orcs a 'hate' attribute. Orcs are more likely to be killed or maimed by another Orc than by their real enemies. Naturally, Orc campaigns mostly deal with power, treachery and deceit within a group of Orcs. - The Chronicles of Aeres: Orcs are what happens when goblins manage to live a particularly long time. They're still Made of Evil, but the prolonged lifespan allows them to grow larger and stronger and marginally smarter — and considering Aeres orcs are still Dumb Muscle, that says something for how dumb Aeres goblins are. They're rarely seen, and because lesser goblins obey them instinctively, they're commonly known as "Goblin Kings". - In Chronopia the Blackblood orcs are a mixed between Tolkien and Blizzard-style orcs with Mongolian themes. They also specialized in Alchemy. - The Dark Eye: Orks are smaller than humans, but stronger. They are covered in black fur (Blackpelts) and have tusks. Normaly nomadic, they have begun building cities in recent years. Due to a coming choosing of a race that will govern a new age, they could overpower humans. They believe in Brazoragh, the god of males, power and war, and Tairach, the god of death and magic. Brazoragh killed his father Tairach, becoming the new godly chieftan. The orkish culture is just like that, constant fighting for the highest place. The only reason they have begun buidling cities, instead of killing themselves and everybody else, is their new leader, the Aikar Brazoragh (Chosen of Brazoragh): as strong as a giant (meaning amongst the strongest creatures on the planet), more magical power than three archmages and, being the sole chosen of a god, having more clerical power than all human high priests together. He had to beat every single chieftan though until his people accepted him as leader. - Deadlands: Two of the three settings use orc-like characters. - Dungeons & Dragons was highly influential in making orcs a standard part of fantasy settings. The game's characterization of orcs varies widely based on the edition and campaign setting, (to say nothing of dungeon master interpretation). One of the monster guides gave a picture◊ showing the different interpretations of the monsters including a Tolkien-inspired orc. - Early editions of the core game follow Tolkien model fairly closely. Orcs are violent humanoids who dwell underground and find sunlight uncomfortable. They are said to be highly competitive and good tacticians. Earlier editions had them as Lawful Evil, but later editions made them Chaotic Evil. Half-orcs are also a playable race, receiving extra strength but lower charisma. In the first edition, Orcs were drawn as piglike creatures despite the description not mentioning this. As many early and popular JRPGs, most notably Dragon Quest, based their monsters off of first edition D&D illustrations, this helped popularized the "porc" look in Japan. - Second Edition and subsequent editions are largely Tolkien model, but include hints of the Blizzard model. Orcs are violent, stupid creatures who typically serve as fodder for low-level heroes to slaughter. They have a shamanistic (albeit violent) culture, and a more troll-like appearance. They are typically drawn with green skin, though this can vary. 3rd Edition explicitly states that they have grey skin, though this is not borne out in most of the illustrations. - The 3.5th Edition Races of Destiny book also introduced the Sharakim as a sort of orcish subrace, gray-skinned, tusked, flat-nosed brutes who go beyond orcish ugliness by sporting a pair of curved horns on their temples. They're the descendents of early humans who were cursed by the gods for killing and eating a sacred silver stag. Sharakim are taught from birth that they were created from sin, and thus go out of their way to compensate by being fastidious about their dress and hygiene, and always friendly and well-mannered in their interactions with other races... except in the case of true orcs, which they utterly despise. - Fifth Edition has given the orcs more character by focusing on their pantheon and increasing its importance, turning the race into borderline Religious Bruisers fighting to appease their savage gods. Gruumsh remains the orcs' primary war deity, but also important are Ilneval the strategist, the barbaric Bahgtru, the rotten Yurtus, and the dark and sinister Shargaas. These gods' followers all serve specific roles in a tribe, so Gruumsh's chosen act as leaders, Ilneval's followers as tacticians, and Bahgtru's as berserkers. Yurtus' priesthood operates on the fringes of orc society, only interacting with the rest to claim the bodies of the dead or to tend to plague-ridden orcs, while the followers of Shargaas only emerge from their unlit caverns to cull the weak members of a tribe or assassinate its foes. And while previous editions treated female orcs as mere chattel, in 5th Edition the importance of the orcish mother goddess Luthic has been increased so that her worshippers are the ones holding the tribe together, crafting their weapons and armor, constructing defenses and expanding their cave lairs, and viciously defending their homes and children from invaders. One archmage even believes that the divine war between the orcish and goblinoid pantheons will end with Luthic as the last deity standing, who will go on to rule over the orcs. - One trait that has remained consistent throughout editions is the ability to successfully interbreed with other races. Known orc hybrid races include the Tel-amhothlan (half-orc/half-elf) from Kingdoms Of Kalamar, the Dworg (half-orc/half-dwarf) from Midnight (2003)), the Losel (half-orc and half- baboon), the Orog (orc father/ogre mother, resulting in an orc with increased stature, vigor and intelligence), the Ogrillon (orc mother/ogre father, a violent, dimwitted brute whose skin is covered in bony armor), and Tanarukks (half-orc/half-demon). This trait has become somewhat less pronounced as time has gone by — Orogs were presented as a smarter subrace of orcs originating from the Underdark in the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms, whilst in 5th edition Orogs are the recipients of a divine blessing from the orc mother-goddess, Luthic. - The Forgotten Realms setting deviates from the above in that while the orcs can interbreed with most other races, and a significant number of orcs are actually half-breeds with humans, goblinoids, or giants, they cannot interbreed with elves. This is because Gruumsh explicitly forbids it due to his burning hatred toward the elves and their pantheon, - For the most part, the Forgotten Realms has followed the usual D&D variety straight, but it has been played with over time. The Legend of Drizzt series eventually saw the founding of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a legitimately recognized orc kingdom founded by a Visionary Villain, Obould Many-Arrows. In 4th edition, the Many-Arrows kingdom had been enjoying a real peace with its formerly hostile neighbors for decades, implying orcs in at least that part of the world were finally climbing out of their Always Chaotic Evil niche... and then 5th edition came in and had Many-Arrows destroyed and orcs cast out again, with Salvatore's novels having traditionalist orcs denounce Many-Arrows' existence as an aberration in the natural order . Before Many-Arrows, there was Thesk, which wasn't a orc kingdom but as a result of a grand coalition involving a Zhentarim orcish mercenary army had a significant and mostly non-evil orcish minority from a while into 2E onward. - The Forgotten Realms are also home to the Ondonti, a rare group of pacifistic Lawful Good orcs who prefer to tend their farms and mind their own business. They're believed to be descendants of orcs who were saved by the clergy of a minor goddess of peace and agriculture who chose a third option to the traditional Orc Baby Dilemma. - Orcs in Eberron are somewhat "Blizzard orcs," but somewhat fulfill the role of elves in other settings (Eberron elves are a Proud Warrior Race). They have little actual conflict with the other races, are the best druids in the setting (despite a fullblooded orc getting a Wisdom penalty) and actually have a sort-of company that finds Dragonshards — crystals that are essential to create magic items. The shamanistic culture of the orcs of the Shadow Marches is responsible for keeping one type of Cosmic Horror from causing The End of the World as We Know It. However, there are also other orcish cultures — the Jhorash'tar orcs of the eastern mountains, separated from the Marches by hundreds of miles of land occupied by other cultures, don't have much in common with them and are closer to "Tolkien orcs" - although they're still generally portrayed as people whose long-running enmity with the dwarves of the Mror Holds is just an awkward result of two cultures in close proximity but without much in common, and not just generic enemies to stab for money. - In the Spelljammer setting, there's a villain race called the Scro, who are tougher than normal orcs, and are also more "civilised" (i.e. "usually Lawful Evil). - The D&D Adventure Drums on Fire Mountain introduced the kara-kara, a primitive race of green-skinned, island-dwelling orcs who possess a Polynesian-based culture (while still being brutal savages). Their primitive weaponry and garb are logical enough for humanoids living in such an environment, but they also have afros. The race has been swept under the table for years due to the Unfortunate Implications surrounding them. - Hobgoblins in D&D sit at a juxtaposition between this and Our Goblins Are Different. They also derive from the original Tolkienish model of the orc as a bestial humanoid dedicated to war and conquest, but more strongly take up the Hordes from the East aspect — the earliest hobgoblin artwork even depicts them wearing distinctly Japanese styled armor. The main difference in early versions of the game was that hobgoblins were more proactive and organized, whilst orcs tended to usually be busy fighting amongst themselves until somebody else took charge. From 3rd edition onward, the two races took a greater divergence; orcs became a Chaotic Evil Proud Warrior Race and hobgoblins became a Lawful Evil Proud Soldier Race. - Eon: Gûrds, Tiraks and Trukhs are the setting's stand-in for Orcs, (being roughly analogus to Goblins, Orcs and Ogres respectively, or even D&D's Goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears) and are further culturally differentiated from each other depending on which family lineage they belong to: Frakk and Bazirk, while adhering to a culture based on might-makes-right, are not evil, though they are often brutish and savage, with the former being a Barbarian Tribe of Proud Warrior Race Guys and the latter primarily being either pirates or merchants, traders and fishermen. The Marnakh family, on the other hand, have comepletely assimilated into human society and behaves like the culture they're part of. The Frakk and Bazirk families, while barbaric and brutal, are also among the forefront opposers to all things demonic. - Fellowship: Orcs are one of the playbooks available to players. All orcs are known for being tough, warlike, and industrious; Blood is their core stat, and they have the ability to break something and fashion it into a weapon, or break their weapon to pay a price for a move or to finish off an opponent in "glorious combat". Variants available include Spawn of Darkness (mushroom-people who are resistant to poison and disease), Daughters of Chaos (aggressively free-spirited warriors who can shrug off all attempts to influence, control, or scare them), Children of Fire (basically orc-like fire elementals), and Sons of War (fighters with a knack for making improvised weapons in the heat of battle). - Fighting Fantasy: Orcs generally adhere to the Tolkien model of orc, although they have a few notable differences. Fighting Fantasy orcs are known for being able to eat almost anything, including, wood, rocks, and metal, although they prefer fresh meat. They also stand out due to their violent team sports, such as a variation on volleyball where the players of the losing team are eaten by the winners, or a variation on rugby played with a live slave at the ball that has no restrictions on play, often turning into a bloodbath as a result. One notable exception is Daggers of Darkness (set in an area with a Mongol-like culture) in which Orcs appear to have near-human intelligence and mingle freely with humans; some are servants of the Big Bad, but there's also one illustration (opposite section # 346) which shows Orcs mixed in with the human warriors of one of the villages you visit. - Flintloque: Orcs are a civilized race like any other, and in fact the main race of the setting, since it's a barely disguised Naopoleonic wargame with the Orcish kingdom of Albion as the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of England. - Hack Master, as a Darker and Edgier Affectionate Parody of old-school Dungeons & Dragons, presents its orcs as a race of violent, vicious, filthsome humanoid swine who are incredibly physically mutable because they rely extensively on kidnapping women from other races and raping with them to produce biological half-orcs, which are considered true orcs in orc culture. - Heroscape: The local orcs are Tolkien style, but are bright blue. And they ride dinosaurs. - Iron Kingdoms: While the setting has no races actually called orcs, there are races that fit both the Tolkien and Blizzard models. - Trollkin have many elements of Blizzard orcs, being large, physically powerful creatures with a sophisticated tribal culture, a shamanistic religion, and history of being screwed over by other, more advanced cultures. They're significantly more Scottish than most orcs (or trolls, for that matter), though. - Ogrun, although their name suggests ogres, also are pretty much Blizzard orcs. They're a proud people, but have no real enmity with the other races of Immoren, although a corrupt and evil subrace called Black Ogrun are allied with The Necrocracy of Cryx — they effectively sit somewhere between the Tolkien and Blizzard models. In a particularly unusual twist, in contrast to the standard dwarf/orc enmity, ogrun often serve dwarves as loyal servants, as their feudalistic culture relies heavily on a distinct chain of hierarchy and dwarves make excellent masters in their eyes. - The skorne, meanwhile, are heavily based on Tolkien orcs, with elements of the Easterlings. Appearance-wise, they have the upturned noses, and human-like build of Tolkien orcs, and their culture is abhorrent to the other peoples of Immoren: They make extensive use of slavery, Blood Magic and torture, to the point of having a dedicated torturer caste, and one of their models in HORDES is a baby elephant-like creature tortured into insanity so the skorne could weaponise its screams. They also take on the role of Hordes from the East. D&D players will probably identify the skorne more with hobgoblins, although their cultural basis in pain-fueled Blood Magic is very distinctly different. - In Kings of War, Orcs are typical evil barbaric green skinned savages. They're almost the same as the Orcs of Warhammer Fantasy. - Legend System: Hallow Orcs were originally the shock troops of chaos gods, kept stupid and unquestioning to serve their gods' purposes. Once introduced to Hallow, they were freed from their mental shackles and started their own (still militaristic) society, becoming Hallow's most prominent mercenaries. In other words: Blizzard orcs who were forced to act like Tolkien orcs for most of their history. - Ork has all player characters be Orks. In this game, the Orks are boar-faced, green and furred humanoids that usually go naked aside from armor they scrounge off of killed opponents (or each other). They live in tribes ruled by a Shaman and have strange biology — for instance, baby orcs burst out from growths on an Ork's body in a process known as "The Urg!". They are also mostly omnivores, but they explode if they eat broccoli. Only their shaman is allowed to be smart and magical. As in; "If I catch you doing card tricks or not talking like you got hit with a shovel as a baby I will straight-out murder your ass." Orks aren't given a name when born, but have to earn it. Finally, they worship the local God of Evil, a deity that alternatingly grants them victory and punishes them for metely existing. - RPG creator John Wick created a small-press RPG titled Ork World in direct rejection of traditional tropes about orcs. The orcs of the RPG are a peaceful, tribal society who are slowly being hunted to extinction by imperialistic humans and elves. - Pathfinder: - Orcs seem to look more like the Blizzard variety. However, to say that they act like the Tolkien variety would be to vastly underestimate their sheer batshittery. - They have varying appearances, with different bloodlines with more or less human blood. Because of this, they vary between Beast Man and Green-Skinned Space Babe, depending on the individual. Even the sourcebooks on them and their homeland of Belkzen pretty much portray them as irredeemable savages. - They served Tar-Baphon, the setting's main Evil Overlord, and filled the ranks of his living armies the first and second time he tried to conquer the world. During his third rise during the cross from 1st to 2nd edition, though, the orcs refused to rally to his banner again and remained an independent force, and now find themselves in the delicate position of being stuck between several human factions that hate them for having spent millennia raiding their lands and Tar-Baphon himself. - Half-orcs don't look quite as monstrous and do not have penalties to their Intelligence or Charisma. - Hobgoblins, as in 3E canon, are the Lawful Evil Proud Soldier Race to the orcs being a Chaotic Evil Proud Warrior Race. They were an attempt to engineer a Living Weapon against the elves from goblin base stock, though. As a result, elves and hobgoblins profoundly hate each other even in the modern day. - RuneQuest has the Tusk Riders, who are pretty much traditional orcs, down to riding boars and having a culture of evil that really loves to torture. What makes them different, is that they were a one-time experiment made from crossbreeding trolls and humans. Unlike orcs of any other variety, they aren't prolific — in the bestiary, it says there's only at most 10,000 Tusk Riders in the world. - Shadowrun: Orks are one of the four main metahuman types that emerged from humanity during the Awakening. Much like trolls, they mostly arose when humans spontaneously transformed into new forms as magic surged back into the world. They tend to be more belligerent than and not quite as bright as humans, but not to the same degree as Tolkienian orcs; more to the degree of the redneck shit-kicker one might meet in their local bar. Being descended from humans, they show the full human range of pink-to-brown skin tones rather than the green skin typical of fantasy orcs. They do, however, retain D&D features such as tusks. - Orks have developed their own culture and language which seems to draw many parallels with African-American and Hispanic "Gangsta" cultures. There are such things as non-orks embracing ork culture and becoming ork posers. Lacking the prettiness of the elves, the non-threatening appearance of the dwarves, or the sheer scariness of the trolls to keep people off their back, and the fact that they reproduce abundantly (twins and triplets amongst orks being the norm, not the exception) ensures that the orks get the worst of the Fantastic Racism, as they are often seen as threatening to take over Humanity's place due to their expanding numbers. They tend to get along with Trolls better than the other metatypes do, as the two find common cause in the discrimination both habitually face. - Orks also tend to be one of the shortest-lived metatypes, with an average lifespan around 40 (for natural-born orks, that is; orks who Goblinized from baseline human have a longer lifespan). However, this is noted to be a combination of lifestyle factors (see the racism above) and orks' dependency on purer background mana; ork lifespan estimates are taken from orks in crowded, violent, polluted urban environments, whereas orks that live in more "pure" environments (e.g., the wildlands of Nigeria) tend to live much longer. - As with the other metatypes, a number of distinctive variants have emerged from ork stock as a result of genetic variance and secondary awakening events. These are hobgoblins, wirier Middle Eastern orks distinguished by greenish skin and a strong sense of personal honor; ogres, shorter and heavily built European orks with reduced body hair; oni, magically adept Japanese orks with blue, red or orange skin; and satyrs, Mediterranean orks with slighter builds, furry legs, cloven hooves and goatlike horns - Talislanta's Kang are Blizzard style, but are bright red. And much like Heroscape's orcs, they ride dinosaurs. - Tenra Bansho Zero depicts Oni as Blizzard orcs in contrast to their usual Always Chaotic Evil portrayal, being a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Ainu who are hunted by humans because their crystalline hearts can be used to power Magitek. Oni also look enough like humans that they can pass as human by cutting off their horns, though this causes them to lose their racial Psychic Powers. - Traveller: The closest thing to space orcs is the Ithklur. These are a reptilian Proud Warrior Race that serves in a Gurkha-like role to the Hivers. They have an innate love of combat in their psychology, but are not evil per se. Rather their hat is as a Boisterous Bruiser race. - Victoriana RPG: Orcs are one of the Human Subspecies of the setting, subject to Fantastic Racism from the others, being ostracized and pushed to the outskirts of civilization. They have a strong sense of spirituality and a knack for mechanics. - Warhammer: The Orcs occupy a strange space between the Tolkien and Blizzard models, as they're warlike enough to serve as The Usual Adversaries but have more character than most orcs. Physically they are larger, stronger, and tougher than humans, with skin tones ranging from bright green to nearly black in the case of the brutally-disciplined Black Orcs. There are no female orcs; instead, the species reproduces by shedding spores. Their "kultur" revolves entirely around fighting, so much so that the army has the "Animosity" special rule, meaning that most Greenskin units have a chance to ignore orders and squabble amongst themselves while the boss cracks some heads to impose order, shoot at a rival making funny faces at them, or break formation and charge the enemy with an almighty "WAAAGH!" Their Shamans worship Gork and Mork, one of whom is "cunningly brutal" (he hits you when you aren't looking) and the other "brutally cunning" (he hits you really hard even if you are looking). They're also cannibalistic, and will gladly eat both their enemies and weaker members of their own kind. Orcs make poor minions, but a Greenskin army can be made up of a mixture of Orcs and Goblins, as well as Trolls and Giants. Finally, they have thick Cockney accents written phonetically in flavor text. There are also a number of distinct kinds of Orcs in-universe: - Savage Orcs live primarily in the depths of the Badlands and in the Southlands. They are primitive even by the standards of other Orcs, and only craft and use weapons made from bone, stone and wood. They are also extremely superstitious and have the largest number of shamans of any Orc kind, and wear no armor — they instead rely on magical warpaint for protection. - Black Orcs were created by the Chaos Dwarfs are slave soldiers, but rebelled and broke free. They are larger, stronger, more intelligent and more disciplined than other Orcs — while most Orcs make do with patchwork armor and ramshackle weapons, fight in disorganized mobs, have a very limited grasp of tactics or self-control, and fight constantly among each other, Black Orcs are clad head to toe in thick plate, use high-quality and scrupulously maintained weaponry, fight in organized and well-drilled ranks, and are extremely disciplined in battle. Luckily for other peoples, Black Orcs are too few to form their own tribes and instead tend to be the leaders or elites of tribes of other Orcs. They have no shamans of any kind among their ranks. - Old editions include Half-Orcs, which rather than being actual crossbreeds are the result of humans growing more orc-like and Orcs more human-like until a sort of in-between point is reached, something speculated to be due to evil magic blending the traits of the two races in the distant past. There is also mention that Orcs and Goblins have interbred in the past to create multiple Orc variants, including the "Pig-Faced Orcs" that were numerous in the past but have since declined note : a reference to how older editions of Dungeons & Dragons depict orcs with porcine heads, but newer ones drop this trait. - The Beastmen are arguably closer to Tolkien Orcs than the actual Orcs of the franchise. They're an Always Chaotic Evil race of mutants born from humans corrupted by the dark magic of Chaos, usually brown or red skinned and physically identifiable by their animal-like traits like hooved feet, horns, and fangs; size is variable, but averages around "broad human." They are omnivores but particularly prefer human flesh, and organize in simple, primitive, hyper-violent societies with a great deal of intraspecies Fantastic Racism, with the larger and more mutated Beastmen treating the weaker ones as slaves. Their "culture" is entirely based around the Black Magic of the shamans, raiding, and reverence for the Chaos Gods, and while they can reproduce among themselves they also depend on infecting (or raping) human women to replenish their numbers. They are incapable of building true civilization and actively detest any kind of technology beyond the bare minimum of needed to equip their Iron Age war bands. Functionally they're total Cannon Fodder for the hordes of Chaos, and considered inferior to humans in every relevant way, even by the gods they worship, but their sheer numbers make them threatening to the protagonists regardless. Also in keeping with the Tolkien inspiration, the Wood Elves consider them their Arch-Enemy. - Warhammer 40,000 uses Orks, which are Orcs from Warhammer IN SPACE with Funetik Aksents and Xtreme Kool Letterz. 40K is such a Crapsack World that, due to their straightforward attitudes, hooligan-style Funetik Aksents, and Insane Troll Logic, these bloodthirsty, amoral monsters are the comic relief. Although they are Tolken style, 40k Orks can be considered to be the prototype of the Revisionist Orcs and among the very first non Chaotic Evil Orcs albeit a violent Blue-and-Orange Morality brand Chaotic Neutral. - The Orks were genetically engineered by the Old Ones to be living weapons during a desperate war against star-eating void entities, and are as such genetically hardwired to want nothing more than to be fighting. Any Ork that's not participating in a Waaagh! against aliens is probably participating in some intra-ork civil war. They also have Oddboyz, Orks born with the unconscious Genetic Memory and special powers that let them play specialized roles in the hordes — Mekboys have an instinctive knowledge of technology, Painboys are natural (if brutal) doctors, and Wierdboyz are powerful but unstable psychics. All Orks generate a gestalt psychic field that bolsters their morale in battle, can be channeled by Weirdboyz to dramatic effect, and even allows some of the Meks' stranger devices to function because the Orks expect them to. - Orks are extremely durable and persistent, and able to survive things like partial dismemberment, most diseases, and having large chunks of their skulls shot off. Because they reproduce by shedding spores, especially upon death, Ork infestations are hard to eliminate once they have set foot on a planet. They're also technically the most raucous part of a complex invasive ecosystem — their spores first sprout into several varieties of mushrooms later creatures eat or cultivate for various purposes; then produce a variety of fungus/animal hybrids known as Squigs, which Orks use as Attack Animals, beasts of burden, livestock and pets; Grots emerge next, and establish the basic structure of Orkish society; Orks emerge last, once the rest of the ecosystem and necessary infrastructure has been worked out, and get started on the business of finding things to fight. - In Wicked Fantasy, a third-party setting for Pathfinder, orks were the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider race... until they decided that they hated it and murdered their malevolent creator-gods to try and forge their own path. Now, they've made a tentative peace with humanity. They're still war-like and rather creepy, with their religious philosophy about the value of pain, but they're not evil all the time anymore. \|\|Also, they weren't created by evil gods, but by a malevolent race of amoral scholarly Snake People called the Hassad.\|\| - Zweihänder: The Orx are exactly the Orcs from Warhammer Fantasy Battle with something more for the an extra helping of Grimdark. Orx can spawn from spores but they can also breed sexually. As in the case of the other mutant races, female Orx are rare but Orx can mate with almost anything. So Orx will make a captive female into a Sex Slave when they go Rape, Pillage, and Burn. - Orcs in Allods Online and Evil Islands are gray-skinned Blizzard-types (and dimorphic as hell). The otherwise unthinkable "Orc Paladin" also exists in-game. - Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura mix Tolkien and Blizzard Orc traits. While Orcs are primarily Tolkienian outside of cities, serving as Random Encounters (unless you play as a half-orc; then they'll just apologize for bothering you) or being seen in bandit gangs on the outskirts of towns, in industrialized cities they appear as a unjustly oppressed underclass working poorly paid jobs in factories. One Sidequest centers around this, as a group of workers are in a standoff with the police when they take control of a factory to demand better rights. How things work out in the end depends on how you handle the situation. - Battle for Wesnoth: In most campaigns, orcs are the Tolkien type. They are mostly portrayed as pretty much Evil, but sometimes they have motives beyond that as well. Some orcs are also allied to the (generally) good Knalgans. Appearance wise they have simian characteristics and brown or grey skin. Their massive numbers are explained by orcs being born in large litters, the runts being called goblins. Strangely, the average orc soldiers seem to have better armor and weapons then the regular human soldiers. Due to Wesnoth's decentralized development structure, the portrayal of Orcs and Trolls suffers from a touch of Depending on the Writer. - Blackthorne, an early game by Blizzard, features the grag'ohr, green skinned humanoids who closely resemble the orc grunts of Warcraft, being burly and fanged humanoids, usually with greenskin and horned helmets. In this setting, Grag'ohr were once humans who fell under a curse. They are one of the main enemies in the game and use automatic rifles. Blizzard even calls them orcs in later material for Blackthorne. - Dragon Age: - The Darkspawn are twisted corruptions of the races of the world with poisonous, tainted blood who live underground in perpetual war with the Dwarves. They are normally fairly mindless Always Chaotic Evil but are capable of forging and using metal weapons and armor and intelligent enough to kidnap others to propagate their species. They are drawn by the call of Archdemons, constantly digging to find them and when they do, it leads them on an organized warpath to conquer the surface, known as a Blight. - The Qunari fit into the Blizzard Orc archetype. They're large horned humanoids stereotyped as violent conquerors by humans, are technologically advanced compared to every other race in the setting, and have a distinctly alien culture. - Dragon Quest: Orcs are often found as random encounters and default to the Tolkienian model, being humanoid boars with spears. Interestingly, they (and their variations) tend to be rather powerful, usually being encountered mid- to late-game. - In Dungeon Crawl, no official description of orcs is given beyond "[they] combine the worst features of humans, pigs, and several other creatures." Cave orcs (mooks) err towards the Tolkien model; they're Always Chaotic Evil, worship the proud but ruthless (and canonically evil) god Beogh (who refuses to accept non-orc worshipers). Hill orcs (playable) are a bit more Blizzard-like; they can play as any class, though their priests follow Beogh instead of Zin. Those who do serve Beogh can attempt to become the Dark Messiah of the orcs. - Dungeon Keeper: The orcs are this In Name Only. Long white hair, purple skin and wrinkles all over make them look more like trolls. In fact, the trolls in the game look more like orcs than the orcs themselves. - Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War: The orcs are neither Tolkienian nor Blizzard variety. They're actually humanoid boars with a love of spears. They also like to hang out in kitchens, since in orc culture using metal cookware is considered a sign of sophistication. - Dwarf Fortress has creatures that serve as orcs in all but name. Like much of the game's weirder creatures, they're procedurally generated and vary wildly from generated world to generated world. Necromancers can experiment on sapient creatures to create entities with names like "night's warriors" or "Tooltwist's eyes" note : Tooltwist being the name of the necromancer that created them that basically fill the "orc" role. They're the big, powerful minions of dark magic wielding villains who hole up in towers. They're not, however, Always Chaotic Evil, and can escape to join other civilizations; if able to reproduce (some have No Biological Sex), they can even produce independent populations. - Elden Ring Demi-Humans are the closest equivalent to classical orcs, being a race of sapient but savage humanoid creatures that tend to form tribes of bandits and murderers and have a Might Makes Right mentality; Boc, the only positive Demi-Human encountered, was cast out of his tribe for being well-spoken, weak and wanting to be a seamster instead of a fighter. They come in four forms: low-ranking demi-humans that resemble more humanoid pale-furred chimpanzees, 'brutes' that are more classically orc-like, Chiefs that are bigger and more lupine in appearance, and finally Queens, gigantic lupine matriarchs of their tribes. - The Elder Scrolls: - Within the TES universe, the Orcs are another race of Mer (Elves), known as the "Orsimer" or "Pariah Elves/Folk," and to say that they have undergone Characterization Marches On is an understatement. As with most of the races of Mer, their split with the Mer Precursor "Aldmer" was over religious differences, though in the case of the Orcs, it was not voluntary. They were originally the worshipers of the Aldmeri spirit Trinimac, but Trinimac was "eaten" by the Daedric Prince Boethia and later excreted. Trinimac's remains became the Daedric Prince Malacath, while his Aldmeri followers, who continued to worship him as their central diety, were transformed into the Orcs. The Orcs possess strong, muscular builds and green skin. They are known for their ferocity and courage in battle, as well as their skill as armorers and smiths (especially with the rare metal Orichalcum), making them some of the finest heavy infantry on all of Nirn. They are a Proud Warrior Race who believes that Asskicking Leads to Leadership, which leads to their chieftains gaining that position via Klingon Promotion. They exhibit a number of other Blood Knight and Death Seeker traits as well, having a Martyrdom Culture. They've long been victims of Fantastic Racism due to their bestial appearance and perceived barbaric culture, and have been Fighting for a Homeland (or fighting to keep their homeland) for ages. Details per game: - In Arena, the Orcs are an Always Chaotic Evil enemy race. Essentially, flat out Tolkein Orcs. - In Daggerfall, the Orcs begin to receive some greater characterization. In fact, they are Blizzard Orcs before Blizzard invented Blizzard Orcs. One of the game's possible endings is to hand over the MacGuffin to the Orcish leader, which allows him to establish the first Orcish state in Tamriel. - In Morrowind, the Orcs are Promoted to Playable. Rather than just being dumb/barbaric, it is shown that the Orcs have been severely marginalized for ages. Emperor Uriel Septim VII began to use the Orcs as elite heavy infantry in the Imperial Legions, which gained them greater acceptance throughout the Empire. - Oblivion features a lampshade when you talk to one of the Orcs at Malacath's Daedric shrines. He says something like: "People think we're evil. Do I look evil?" There is also Dark Brotherhood member, Gogron Gro-Bolmog, who takes an unsubtle approach to his contracts but "has his heart in the right place". - By Skyrim, the Orcs have been driven back into a diaspora in the years since the end of the Septim dynasty. They now have tribal strongholds dotting Tamriel, worship Malacath and raid as bandits, although many are still Imperialized as smiths or soldiers for the Empire. (One Orc even implies that this is the norm for those that leave their stronghold.) There are couple others that stand out, like several Orc bards note : A quest for the Dark Brotherhood involves killing an Orcish bard because of his terrible singing, though this doesn't seem to apply to all Orcish bards. and even one of the faculty at the College in Winterhold known for its strong, but small population of mages. He's the archivist/librarian, to boot, and gladly threatens to sic Atronachs on you if you mistreat his books, but still. - Falmer in Skyrim stand in for Tolkienian Orcs, or more specifically Moria Goblins, both in appearance and in backstory (they used to be a race of Mer called "Snow Elves", but were enslaved and blinded by the Dwemer). \|\|With one (technically two) exception.\|\| They also overlap significantly with The Morlocks. - Endless Legend has Orcs in the form of the minor race, the Urnas. Visually they are Blizzardian, with tusks, green skin, and a bodybuilder physique. They are belligerent by default — like all minor races — but can pacified and absorbed into an another empire. They are excellent archers and are hardy, being unaffected by the movement penalty caused by the brutal winters that are destroying the planet. - In The Fairyland Story, orcs are basic cutlass-wielding Mooks with pointed ears sticking out of their helmets. Like all characters in the game, they're cute and Super-Deformed. - Fallout has the Super Mutants. They're big, they're green, a few of them eat humans, and all of them can kick ass. Regardless of whether they're portrayed sympathetically or not, they're usually portrayed as more aggressive and warlike than other in-game factions (as they indeed are created to serve as Super Soldiers in Pre-War times) and are rarely very bright. They all start out as humans, becoming Super Mutants after being exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, a mutagen that turns their skin green, massively increases their muscle mass, eliminates their secondary sexual characteristics, drops their IQ a notch or three (though some strains have a small but non-zero chance to instead increase intelligence) and, as an unintended side-effect, turns them sterile as mules. - They come in two broad groupings, differentiated by what specific strain of mutagen was used to make them and by where that strain originated from: East Coast Super Mutants are almost always vicious Tolkien-esque monsters, while West Coast Super Mutants are more likely to be Blizzard style. - The art book for Fallout 3 puts even more emphasis on the Tolkien part as well as the "ogre" aspect as they are shown to make their own cobbled-together armor and guns, as well as forge melee weapons such as axes, swords, maces, and flails/meteor hammers. - Final Fantasy: - Final Fantasy XI: Orcs are one of the more consistently evil beastmen in the game. According to a guide that was only ever released in Japan, martial ability is so prized that orcish mages hide their faces in shame. Like Tolkien's original orcs, they have good technological ability. Physically, XI's Orcs are green skinned Lizard Folk. - Final Fantasy XIV replaces the previous MMO's orcs with the Amalj'aa. Most Amalj'aa are Tolkienesque, in that they are constantly raiding civilized settlements and merchant caravans in service to their deity, the primal Ifrit. As the story progresses, though, the Warrior of Light can ally with the Brotherhood of Ash, a tribe of Amalj'aa who adhere much more to the Blizzard model, being Proud Warrior Race Guys who oppose the worshippers of Ifrit because their culture dictates that honor is found in battle against strong warriors, not by victimizing the weak. - Golden Sun: There's an Orc monster resembling a shirtless pig-headed man with a sword that lives in the desert. - Gothic: Orcs are intelligent, nomadic members of a Proud Warrior Race. They attack Myrtana (the land of the Humans) to capture slaves and perform archeological excavations on the sites that bear religious importance to Orc Shamans. Also, unlike many other games, they aren't low-level mooks — they're among some of the more powerful enemies in the game. - Halo: - The Brutes are orcs in everything but name. They're big, bulky, and very strong, to the point where the Hunters are the only known contemporary species capable of physically overpowering them. They even resemble several different Earth beasts (mostly gorillas), complete with fur and tusks. As their name implies, they are very brutal, to the point where they commonly eat other sapient races (they openly discuss eating an Elite in one of the first cutscenes of Halo 2). In the bonus material, it's revealed that they managed to make their way into space only to nuke themselves into the stone age, and had just rediscovered radio and rocketry when the Covenant found them, without having learned anything from their past mistakes. In fact, they are the most directly violent of the races of the Covenant; the Elites have honor, the Prophets are power-hungry, the Grunts are enslaved, the Hunters and Drones are enigmatic, the Engineers are neutral, and the Jackals are Hired Guns, but the Brutes seem to just like killing people. All that said, a lot of Expanded Universe media have shown that they're not Always Chaotic Evil, with a number of individual Brutes even being somewhat sympathetic. - Also, the weapon designs of the Brutes are orc-like. The rest of the Covenant use sleek and curvy guns of fantastical design that shoot plasma and other energy projectiles. The Brute weapons however, are angular, awkward-looking, and all shoot metal projectiles (except for their version of the plasma rifle, which is just the same, except painted red and a little more rapid-firing). Also, they have bayonets on all their guns (and even their hammers), except for the aforementioned plasma rifle which they hardly ever use. Their vehicles also differ from the standard Covenent designs, and follow their own angular and primitive design (in fact, one of them is repurposed farm equipment), and they have names like "Prowler" and "Chopper", compared to those of standard Covenant craft like "Ghost" and "Shadow". - It should also be noted that due to the relative recency of their induction into the Covenant, the Brutes had a traditionally less restrictive attitude towards modifying technology than the other Covenant races, though most of that advantage has been lost thanks to \|\|the Great Schism forcing the other former Covenant species to quickly rediscover their old technological creativity\|\|. Still, between that and their status as primates, the Brutes are one of the more humanlike aliens in the Haloverse. - The Grunts serve as orc-esque equivalents as well, particularly before the introduction of the Brutes. While the Brutes embody the savagery, strength and ferocity of orcs, the Grunts are reminiscent of lesser orcs and goblins. They make up the brunt of Covenant infantry as swarms of cannon fodder, are diminutive, slow-witted and cowardly, but tenacious in groups. Some can even be found sleeping at their posts if Master Chief sneaks into an area unseen. - Heroes of Might and Magic games usually featured orcs as part of Stronghold faction. - Heroes of Might and Magic 1 and 2 featured orcs as Barbarian troops. These orcs were orange-skinned and porcine, and attacked with crossbows. - Heroes of Might and Magic 3 featured orcs primarily as Stronghold troops. These were greenskinned and attacked with throwing axes. The game also featured orcs who rode on wild boars and wielded maces as a neutral troop. - Heroes of Might and Magic 4 featured orcs as part of the Chaos (Asylum Town) faction, with their design especially boar-like and first orcish heroes being mostly sorcerers. - The second expansion of Heroes of Might and Magic 5, Tribes of the East, introduced them as a whole new faction. Apart from having brown skin (or sometimes spreckled with red, and having horns) and being created a la Tolkien by the Wizards as slave warriors to fight the demons (by injecting demon blood into human criminals), they are very close to their Warcraft counterparts in almost any conceivable way. - HEX: In Hex: Shards of Fate, the orcs are actually members of the Ardent faction alongside humans, elves and coyotle. They have a Mayincatec-styled Religious Bruiser culture that favors an aggressive playstyle in-game. - The Orcs from Kingdom of Loathing are primarily Frat boys. They're a parody of frat boy stereotypes, but the stereotypes (being big, muscular, unpleasant and thuggish in personality, lack of culture aside from breaking other people's stuff) make them pretty close to the Tolkienian version. A second group of orcs called the smut orcs were introduced several years into the game. Their culture seems to be designed around building things out of materials with awful double-entendre names (e.g. "raging hardwood plank" and "thick black caulk"). - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity has shaggy, blue-skinned ice orcs in the Frozen Reaches. - Knight Orc is an extremely snarky Interactive Fiction game where you play a genuine Tolkien Orc. Solving the puzzles and defeating opponents requires you to think like a cruel, underhanded cheating bastard, since in a fair fight you are a weak, sword-fodder mook. A third of the way through the game, a malfunction reveals that you're actually a robot orc in a futuristic virtual-reality MMORPG, and the objective becomes breaking the game to escape. - Kohan: The Drauga are technically Orcs (just like the Haroun are elves and the Mareten are humans). They're large, decidedly simian, warlike and posess a shamanistic culture. They follow Darius after he defeats their former leader, and become his powerful supporters later in the game (though some of them will insist that you beat them to earn their respect). - Last Armageddon: Orcs are one of the monster races of the underworld, looking like humans with blue pig-like heads. One Orc acts as one of your party members. - The Legend of Zelda: Whereas the moblins fall more under "ogre" and the bokoblins under "goblin/troll", the green-skinned bulblins in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess were full-on orc, complete with their leader having a Proud Warrior Race Guy attitude. - Lineage 2: Orcs are both Tolkenien and Blizzard-type. The player controlled orcs generally follow the Blizzard version closely, being Proud Warrior Race Guys and following a shamanistic culture based around their progenitor Pa'aagrio, god of fire. There are some aesthetic differences, mainly that they don't generally have horns or tusks or really big teeth, just hairstyles that look like horns. Their melee classes essentially fill the role of the big, muscular Scary Black Man, except with green skin. Their women are something else entirely. Only Dark Elf women are bustier. The orc Mooks you fight, which by the way the player orcs HATE, are nearly always Tolkenien in most ways, being mostly dumb, savage tribal guys who generally pillage their neighborhood. - Master of Magic: Not much is explained about orc society, but worth noting is that orcs are the Jack of All Trades of the races, having access to the entire tech tree (they are also devoid of any extra-special units or interesting characteristics, making them fill the role humans usually take). To elaborate, Orcs can build Universities whose students help in the player wizard's research, Alchemists' Guilds to produce magical weapons for the troops, War Colleges to produce Elite Mook squads, Merchants' Guilds, and Engineers. They seem to be a blend of Tolkien and Blizzard varieties, though they predate the latter; they're as strong as humans and have civilization and engineering equal to High Men, but while they can build cathedrals, their clergy are shamans rather than priests. - In the 1.16 Nether Update Minecraft introduced the Piglin, which the closest vanilla Minecraft has to Orcs. They are a race of pig beings that live in the hostile dimension. Being barbaric and belligerent, they will attack you on sight, making it an interesting case where the zombie variant is actually less hostile. Thankfully, they have a massive fondness for gold, and wearing any gold armor will make them neutral towards you — as long as you don't open any chests or mine gold around them. Once neutral, the player can barter items with them using gold ingots. - Piglin Brutes go a bit further and make them more hostile and aggressive, unwilling to barter and unafraid of the fears of their lesser kin - Zombie Piglins actually subvert this, being more docile and neutral to the player... unless you hurt one of them - Mutant Football League has "Monster Orcs" among the player races, fat green-skinned creatures that vary greatly in size. Fluff states they're tough to coach and each generation of orcs is less intelligent than the last, "like a VHS copy of a VHS copy of a VHS copy." In Dynasty Mode, it's extremely expensive in both XP and cash to increase their Intelligence stat, which determines reaction time, field awareness, and self-preservation instinct. On the field they're typically slow but strong and sturdy, and are thus mostly linemen on either side of the ball, but a handful are nasty linebackers, bruising receivers or tough running backs. - In Of Orcs and Men, Orcs are of the Blizzard Orcs variety and are at war with the Human Empire, who wants to use them as slave laborers due to their strength. They're actually the heroes of the game, specifically Arkail. - Okiku, Star Apprentice: They're in the Mountain Pass of the Isle of Tamuro, as enemies. - Oracle of Askigaga: A guard in the bottom left of the starting area mentions their existence, and the following dialogue implies they're intellgent enough to form bases of operations: Guard: You preparing for a journey? I've heard stories from merchants about viscous snakes and orcs along the border with Hachisuka. Oharu: The snakes are one thing, but, have we not pinpointed a base of operations for the orcs? Guard: Sorry, ma'am, I don't know anything about that. Hiroji: Don't you have other matters to attend to? Oharu: Of... of course. - In Orcs Must Die! and its sequel, the Orcs and the rest of the Horde are Always Chaotic Evil. Interestingly, they do have rather a sympathetic motive for trying to invade Earth: their own world is a barren wasteland. They can also be pretty Laughably Evil at times. - Paladins: Grohk the Lightning Orc is a blue-skinned eccentric support champion who heals allies with his healing totem and fries enemies with his lightning staff. He's definitely not brutish like Tolkien Orcs, and very into his shamanistic side like Blizzard Orcs... but he's just bizarre. - In Pillars of Eternity, they're a race called the aumaua. They're musclebound and sharp of tooth, but have multicolored skin similar to tropical fish instead of the usual green or brown. The typical orcish hats are also defied; aumaua have a warmongering history, but are more civilized about it and you don't really encounter any "Proud Warrior" types. In fact, they actually have a strong seafaring tradition and the one who joins your party is a Badass Bookworm. - Serious Sam 2 features Orcs as one of the many variety of mooks for the Big Bad. Mostly used as Cannon Fodder, and are not really shown having any sort of intelligence other than basic ability to operate military equipment like the Kozak Helicopters, laser rifles, plasma ball launchers, and propellers that they use as jetpacks. Background material states that they are actually a primitive alien race drafted by Mental and given training and weapons. - Soulcalibur VI: The Malefic are green-skinned humanoids with red eyes and tusk-like teeth that were originally primeval warriors corrupted by Astral Chaos energy. - Spellforce: Orcs lean largely toward Blizzard-style orcs but have Tolkien-orc elements. They're explicitly darkness-aligned and willing to do the ravaging horde routine, and are pretty much always at odds with the light races of humans, elves, and dwarves; but they have a culture based on honor and clan allegiance, with an animistic religion. - Spyro the Dragon: - The platform series has the Gnorcs, which are mostly green, have protruding teeth that look like fangs or tusks, and vary in size (the Big Bad Gnasty Gnorc and some of the mooks are very large, but most Gnorcs aren't much bigger than Spyro). Their name is supposedly a combination of "gnome" and "orc" but they're much more like orcs than like gnomes. - The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon features Orcs as the main servants and army of Malefor in a pure Tolkenian role. They however differ in appearence, being a race of grotesque lizard-like humanoids with elongated heads, gangly limbs and bodies made of earth, grass and rock and armed with either axes or crossbows attached to their arms. Stronger and bigger variants known as Orc Heroes also exist. Other creatures in Malefor's army include the goblinesque Grublins and the humongous Trolls, all made from earth and vegetation like the Orcs. - Thunderscape came close to having Blizzard orcs before Warcraft and Daggerfall. One of player races is the juraks, fur-covered brutes with large fangs, who made good warriors but can just as well be Combat Medics, mages or mechanics. - Orcs, goblins and trolls in Ultima are straight-up Tolkien-style, in the first three games, they could even be unmade by magi using the Repond spell. - Vagrant Story features orcs of porcine "porc" variety though they are well-muscled rather than running to fat and they're decently equipped with regards to gear. Their leaders can use magic to augment them. - Warcraft: The orcs were initially a brown-skinned, peaceful, hunter-gather society, but were manipulated by demons and turned into a ruthless army of green-skinned monsters. Further demonic influence turns them red, invoking Good Colors, Evil Colors. In the earliest games, orcs were portrayed as stupid and Laughably Evil in unit quotes and like, but they were still ruthless killing machines. - By the events of Lord of the Clans and Warcraft III, the orcs have returned to their original ways and are now as intelligent and well-rounded as humans. Current lore portrays them as going from a primarily hunter gatherer society to a full on industrial war machine within a matter of decades, although they most likely had help from the goblins. By the time of World of Warcraft, they've become one of the Horde's most important member species. - The first orcs descended from ogres, who in turn arose from a species of hulking cyclopean humanoids native to Draenor known as the ogron. The ogron further descend from a lineage of increasingly gigantic cyclopes leading back to Grond, a mountain given life by a Titan in Draenor's earliest days, making the orcs technically a species of very, very small giants. It should be noted that they share this trait with one other race: their erstwhile rivals — Humans. - Another interesting caveat to the Warcraft orcs, is that they take to water very well. They are very competent sailors and maintain a vast fleet of warships. They even pulled off a Flaunting Your Fleets manoeuvre in the intro to II. They also avert Klingon Scientists Get No Respect in that a shaman who wields great magical power is respected just as equally as a powerful warrior. - Warlords Battlecry: Orcs are of the Tolkienian type. They're a bunch of Always Chaotic Evil thugs with no redeeming qualities other than the fact that they fight each other as often as they fight other, more civilized, people. - Wizardry: The Gorn in Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant in all but name. Green, porcine features, and tusks. Xenophobic, militaristic, and live mostly underground on account of living directly in between two powerful races that hate each others' guts, but honorable and have an Asian-influenced art design. - Xenoblade Chronicles X: - The Prone are essentially Space Orcs — their skin colors include pink and purple rather than green, and they have tentacles hanging off their faces, but aside from appearance they are essentially Blizzard orcs. They come in the Cavern and Tree Clan varieties, and tend to have aspects of both Tolkien and Blizzard orcs, usually depending on how likely they are to shoot you. - Meanwhile, the Marnucks, being one of the primary Mook races (alongside the Prone) for the Ganglion, are essentially Tolkien orcs, aside from their blue skin, being reptilian, preference for guns, and having invented their own military technology. What little we know about the Marnucks is that they don't just love war; their chief deity is their god of death, and they think killing people in battle is an honorable act. Their homeworld was destroyed by a global civil war, and the only ones left are the ones that sided with the Ganglion. - Sword Daughter: The orcs might have been lifted directly from a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with all the usual trappings: they're green-skinned, brutish and cruel, not very intelligent, and in most story paths they're working as Mooks for the main villain. - Ananthalos: Gruvalg is intelligent and rational as opposed to the barely-articulate orc archetype still found in a lot of fantasy stories. With his green coloring and bald head, he also appears more like an ogre. The comic's creator acknowledges that Shrek was an inspiration for Gruvalg's character design. - Daughter of the Lilies: Orcs are green, hunky, occasionally axe-wielding and inexplicably Russian-accented, but besides that, they're just another sapient species, and no less civilized than any other race. They do have a history of warfare with elves, but note that the elves started it. - Dominic Deegan: Orcs, muscular and green-skinned humanoids with prominent tusks and about a head taller than humans, lean towards the Blizzard model with a lot of Fantasy Counterpart Culture traits for Native Americans (not to mention being completely obligate herbivores), but most of the clans are still heavily patriarchal. They are also heavily shamanistic, with their magic being a "gift from the land", tapping entirely to the natural elements, which include life and death itself. - Drowtales has kotorcs in the Blizzardian model, being a tribal culture with a heavily honor based society. They're considered "goblins" along with humans, with hints of a common ancestor. There's also a sub-species known as Noz who have more in common with the Tolkien orcs and appear much more wild, and can best be described as looking like humanoid hyenas. - Gaia Online: The orcs look somewhat like the Blizzard kind, but dress and act like they belong in a Dungeon Punk story. Apparently, they lived under the mountains near the city, until they were discovered and subsequently employed in Factory Town of Aekea. Why you would need to hire orcs in a city that already has an ample supply of robots is questionable... - Girl Genius has the Jaegermonsters, who — other than their nigh-immortal Super Soldier by Mad Scientist origin — fit this trope very nicely. They mostly resemble the humans they used to be, but adorned with a variety of tusks, claws, horns, odd skin colors, shaggy mane-like beards, and similar things — no two Jaegers look truly alike — and they become larger and more monstrous as they age; their oldest generals have grown into towering, ogre-like beings. They have a code that defines them to the point that there are "former" Jaegers. Their loyalty to the (Mad Scientist) Heterodynes and ludicrous strength tends to lead them to be Europa's bogeymen. They also have an interesting culture around (comedic) violence and hats, which are evidently a combination of status symbols and a sign of worthiness. Also, when we see a bar for (patched-up, too wounded to fight) Jaegers at one point in the story, it's a pretty typical rowdy establishment... until the nightly bar fight starts, at which point everything becomes a massive Improvised Weapon brawl. - Goblins: Orcs are large humanoids with gray-green skin and part of the traditionally "evil" races alongside ogres, goblins, kobolds and so on. One of the few orcs who's appeared so far, "Biscuit", is a big hulking brute... who speaks politely and exaggerates The Stoic personality: tribe been dead for 200 years? "Meh." His people, the Roak, made a very big deal about rising above loss and personal attachments. - Guilded Age: Orcs have little political presence in the world and are largely used for slave labor by both the Gastonians and Savage Races. Both parties view them as little more than labor animals with sub-human intelligence, and though nothing has yet explicitly disputed that, the main authority on the subject is so racist and unreliable that it's impossible to take this assumption at face value. - Linburger has the Trokks. They're a savage race that roam the wilderness and kill anybody they meet. The main character, Lin, encounters them on occasion whenever she searches the junkyard for spare parts. There's also an alcoholic beverage made by them and only them, nobody knows the secret ingredident, and the only way to get the beverage is to live among their tribe for a set amount of time. - The Order of the Stick: - Unsurprisingly, subverts the usual "Tolkienian" characterization of Dungeons & Dragons orcs. The orcs shown in the webcomic are just a primitive tribe; and those of the paperback prequel are just mistaken for hostile by townsfolk because they are heavy metal fans. - Several characters are also half-orcs. While technically all of them are bad guys, Thog is a Psychopathic Manchild who's mostly Obliviously Evil, Bozzok is a business-minded gangster who negotiates with the heroes, and Therkla is more of an Anti-Villain with a good dose of Villainous Valor. Therkla also subverts the trope of halfbreeds being born of rape: her orc mother and human father were happily married. - There is a race of green-skinned goblins that are more civilized, if still stuck living at the edges of civilization. Unlike most recent portrayals of goblins, they are the same height as humans, making them much like Blizzard model orcs. The conflicts between the goblins and the humans drive much of the backstory of the current conflict and are integral to the goblin villain Redcloak's Start of Darkness. - Sluggy Freelance's World of Warcraft parody naturally has its own version of orcs, called Gorks. The only notable thing about them is the joke that they're the race of choice for players who like to pretend they're playing as monsters when they're really green humans with tusks. - Tales of the Questor orcs are nomads or traders, although even merchant clans are pretty darn tough. They have a strong code of honor and stick up for their friends (against almost all enemies) and are generally fairly Blizzardish. Their appearance is fairly distinctive, though: they basically have the faces of long-eared blue bulldogs. - TwoKinds: The Basitin hybridize this with Our Dwarves Are All the Same and Beast Man. They're a highly orderly Proud Warrior Race who can't (or at least reeeeealy shouldn't) use magic, tending towards Charles Atlas Superpower instead. They also seem to do the Games Workshop orc thing where they start smallish and grow bigger the more authority they gain. Immune to most poisons and illnesses, slightly regenerative, and perpetuate a Forever War because it's so much fun. - Zukahnaut's protagonist rejects the descriptor of "orc" despite his appearance, but his one-page origin story hints that his people may have lived up to the brutal stereotypes inherent in it. - Ash & Cinders: While not specifically called orcs, the Stonewights show various orcish tendencies. They're brutush, stupid, killing machines. The Rock Lord's first appearance is even reminiscient of Tolkien's description of the Great Goblin from the Hobbit. - Codex Inversus: Orcs are green-skinned, tusked humanoids who once served the Djinn in the World Before. They sided with Heaven during the ancient cosmic war and thus retain a strained relationship with the Infernal Empire. Their society is highly rigid and caste-based, with each family being expected to follow a specific profession or vocation. They are also highly militaristic, and are famous for practicing a martial art that uses complex sword flourishes to quickly inscribe spells in combat to produce devastating effects. - Critical Role: In Exandria, the standing of orcs and half-orcs seems to depend on the region. - In the Mighty Nein campaign, prejudice against orcs and half-orcs was common enough throughout Wildemount that they predominantly live in the drow-ruled Krynn Dynasty with other stereotypically "evil" races, but the villainy of the Dynasty turns out to be a case of Grey-and-Gray Morality colored by the propaganda of their enemies. - By contrast, in the continent of Marquet, orcs and orc-blooded hybrids enjoy a better reputation. The orcish patron of Bell's Hells \|\|until his death at the hands of one of their enemies,\|\| Ariks Eshterhoss is a wealthy and erudite Retired Badass who uses his vast resources to support the budding adventurers and others who work toward the betterment of the region. They also later venture to the city of Yios, the City of Flowing Lights, which has a primarily orcish and orc-blooded population, and is renowned in the region as a center of learning and enlightenment. - Gaia Online introduced orcs for the 2008 Rejected Olympics event, but they've never been seen since. The only thing we really know about Gaian orcs at present is that they're basically cave-dwelling greasers that were recently discovered. - Graven Hunter Files: Orcs are are the typical tolkein-esque orc, with greenish-gray skin, tusks, and a bad temperament. Sye encounters a trio of vampire converted orcs working for the Zemrelt clan, the most aggressive and warlike of the clans. - In The Midgaheim Bestiary, orcs are a type of boogeymen, a family of The Fair Folk which also includes goblins, bugbears and trolls and specializes in forming connections between Fairyland and the mortal world, allowing the fairy world to consume small portions of mundane reality to maintain some measure of internal stability. Orcs themselves are sapient, humanoid boars — their legs end in hooves, and their hands have only three, distinctly hoof-like fingers — and were explicitly bred by other fairies to be a race of soldiers. While garrulous, short-tempered and militaristic, they aren't the mindless Mooks humans tend to see them as — they're noted to have strong poetic traditions, and even have some epics that aren't about epic wars they've fought. - Tales From My D&D Campaign: The orcs were once standard Tolkien/D&D orcs, brutish, stupid, cowardly, and only dangerous through their vast numbers. But when the orcs pissed off a goddess by killing her mortal lover, the goddess cursed them and turned their homeland into a desert. Within a couple of generations, the orcish numbers fell from tens of millions to just a few thousand, but the survivors became unparalled warriors. These days, two or three orcs could easily burn a small city to the ground and two-three orc bands regularly slaughter hundred-man patrols. - Tales of MU: Orcs have not been seen, perhaps because they're not native to the continent on which the story takes place, but they form part of the cultural backdrop. "Going orcshit" is a common expression, and a history class revealed that orcs occupied the role of Hessian mercenaries in the equivalent of the American Revolution: mooks for hire with a vicious rep. The same class revealed their racial Berserk Button: attacking orc women and children. There's also one character (\|\|Coach Callahan\|\|) who appears to be part orc, and who is the biggest badass in the series. - The Tolkienesque type is discussed on Terrible Writing Advice in the "Fantasy Races" episode, in which he advises writers to avoid talking about the implications of an Always Chaotic Evil race in terms of morality, and just use them as generic bad guys (despite how Tolkien struggled with these questions). - Disenchantment: The Bozaks and their unseen relatives, the Borcs, are a brutish warrior race with horns and sharp teeth. Rather atypically for this trope, they're also seafaring pirates... and the Bozaks are also some of the kingdom of Dreamland's closet allies. - My Little Pony 'n Friends: Ice orcs are beings of living ice with bodies that are almost all head with stumpy limbs, who live underground, can shoot freezing Hand Blasts and are ancestral enemies of the lava demons with whom they share their subterranean home. - Voltron: Legendary Defender: The Galra are basically Blizzard orcs IN SPACE!. They're large, proud, purple-skinned Proud Warrior Race with appearances that range from shaggy and brutish to ruggedly attractive. On their homeworld, they were just one of many tribes, but rose to prominence on their planet and beyond through martial conquest. They also display an ability to breed with other species note : Keith, one of the heroes, is half-Galra on his mother's side. Likewise, Prince Lotor is half-Altean. that is either unique to them, or simply more prominently shown with them because of the vast scope of their empire. On the more noble side, the Blades of Marmora are a secretive faction of Galra who oppose the empire and assist the heroes. Even King Zarkon, ruler of the empire, was once a true hero before he was corrupted into a genocidal monster. - W.I.T.C.H.: Most of Prince Phobos's minions are orc-like humanoids; they're initially portrayed as the Tolkien variety. They are revealed, though, to have been fed on propaganda and aren't necessarily that bad; most of them do a collective HeelFace Turn after Phobos is defeated, and the main orc who remains villainous, Raythor, is nonetheless an honorable Noble Demon. The lurdens, Phobos' more monstrous and bestial minions, are Tolkien orcs played straight. - X-Men: The Animated Series: Wolverine is predictably depicted as a Blizzard variant (though he's referred to as a troll), in a fairytale told by Jubilee in one of the series' later seasons. It's not easy bein' green....	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOrksAreDifferent
Not Using the Ed: Any zombies out there? Shaun: Don't say that! Ed: What? Shaun: That. Ed: What? Shaun: That . The Z word. Don't say it. Ed: Why not? Shaun: Because it's ridiculous! Ed: [sighs and rolls his eyes] All right... Are there any out there, though? A story has creatures that are obviously based on some sort of mythological monster, but goes out of its way not to call them that. The title comes from Shaun of the Dead, which gave this a Lampshade Hanging, as seen in the page quote: Shaun doesn't like it because it makes him nervous, but the real reason they're not supposed to say it is that they're in a zombie movie. A subtrope of the Sci Fi Ghetto. Can be used to highlight how their monsters are different. Suppose your monsters are rotting shambling undead that want to drink your blood. Call them zombies and every casual reader's going to assume they're after "braaaaaiiinnss". Calling them vampires brings up images of old black-&-white horror movies, Anne Rice, and sparkles. When it's used to force a sense of "realism" (we don't call them "zombies" because zombies aren't real), it smacks painfully of Genre Blindness. If you were confronted by what appears to be a member of the walking dead, how much effort would you spend coming up with an alternative name? (After all, we know that hobbits are a fictional creation of J. R. R. Tolkien, but people were quick to nickname the extinct species Homo floresiensis as "hobbits" due to their short stature and human likeness.) Compare to Differently Powered Individual (for superheroes), Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames (for superheroic individuals) A Mech by Any Other Name (for Humongous Mecha), Magic by Any Other Name (for magic), and Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" (for animals). If the reason why someone doesn't want to use the Z-word is not for semantics but because saying the word will bring bad luck, it's The Scottish Trope or Speak of the Devil. If it's because the Z-word is considered rude, it's Fantastic Slurs, or T-Word Euphemism. When used for non-fantastic things and attributes, it may be an attempt to show and not tell. ## Examples: - In Aposimz the generally called "Frame Disease Sufferers" are victims of the Frame Disease, a virus that slowly turns people into mindless doll-like skeletons. Rebedoa treats it like The Plague and potential carriers are quarantined or killed right away. The True Core Church has learned to partially undo it. - Black Butler introduces Came Back Wrong zombies in the Campania arc, which have a very traditional appearance (stitches, falling-apart bodies, gaping mouths, shambling gait) but are referred to as Bizarre Dolls. This is most likely because the series is set in Victorian England, long before the word "zombie" entered common usage. - Blood+: - Chiropterans are a way to lampshade that they are sorta different from... Vampires. To be fair, the only things they have in common are the blood-sucking habit and the bat-like characteristics. Chiroptera is the scientific word for bats. - And in Blood-C they're called... Elder-Bairns. - In Chapter 47 of Franken Fran, most characters don't have any problem with the word "zombie" or the indigenous population's term for man-eating monsters in the forest that reproduce by infecting humans, but Fran suggests calling them "human-flesh-eating-syndrome-inflicted-individuals" and wants to look for a cure. \|\|It turns out Fran is right: The "zombies" are created by a brain parasite, a deathlike low-metabolism state is part of its maturation cycle, the infected could probably make a full recovery if the parasite were removed, and victims are still conscious but unable to control their actions.\|\| - Highschool of the Dead doesn't even bother making up some name for the zombies, everyone just calls them "Them". One character called them zombies, only to be corrected by another character who made it sound as though zombies are entirely different creatures from the ones the cast faces (they're not). It's later mentioned by one of the main characters that the word "Them" was a piece of brilliance: It becomes easier to put "Them" down if you don't think of them as anything and thus affirm their existence as former humans. In the English dub, Takagi mentions it once while in the mansion, but it's the only time it's spoken. Not sure if it was a mistake on the voice actress' part, or if they accidentally had that word in the script dialogue she was reading. - The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service has to deal with corpses on a regular basis. Most of them are even animate at some point, due to the main character's ability to let the spirits of the dead briefly animate their own bodies. They are, however, never referred to as "zombies". "Clients" is used instead. - Naruto The Revenant Zombies created by Orochimaru and Kabuto are referred to as "Edo Tensei Reanimations." Oddly enough the term "zombie" seems to exist, as Kisame jokingly calls Hidan and Kakuzu the "Zombie Combo" for their powers making them somewhat resemble the undead. - Parasyte: Humans are quick to identify the mysterious invaders as "parasites", rather than aliens. But because the narrative is deliberately ambiguous on whether or not new predators came from another world, or just manifested from ours, the absence of the "a"-word may totally be justified. \|\|It also makes the Mayor's Humans Are the Real Monsters-centric speech at the end much more meaningful.\|\| - Samurai Champloo: - In the episode "Lullaby of the Lost", there's a character named Okuru. To Western viewers, he seems to embody a lot of tropes that apply to American Indians. This is because he's supposed to be one of the Ainu, the native peoples of Japan. However, Japanese broadcast code is extremely strict on how the Ainu may be portrayed. Therefore, Okuru is never explicitly identified as Ainu. - A later episode features zombies as villains; despite the show being a serious Anachronism Stew (and proudly so), none of the protagonists refer to them as such or as anything, really. Again, the series is set well before the modern concept of a zombie was established, but this is the same show with beat-boxing samurai (and, later on, a baseball episode pitting the main characters — who live in the Edo period — against Americans). - The zombies in School-Live! are never mentioned in any fashion, they're just there. If anything it makes the contrast between Slice of Life and Zombie Apocalypse even more disturbing. According to the manga zombie fiction does exist, and you can even spot a poster from The Walking Dead once, however still no one mentions the word "zombie" or even euphemisms like "undead". - The Mariage introduced in StrikerS Sound Stage X of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise are flesh-eating undead armies that are raised by a Necromancer. However, they are never called zombies or ghouls, and are instead referred to as Corpse Weapons. - Vampire Hunter D doesn't refer to half vampires as dhampyrs because when that word was transliterated into Japanese for the novels and then back into English for the American release of the movies, we ended up with "dampiel" in the first film and "dunpeal" in Bloodlust. The novels correctly use "dhampir". - In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub, Jaden and the others keep annoyingly referring to the zombies as "Duel Ghouls". - In the Big Finish Doctor Who audio production "Loups-Garoux", in which the Fifth Doctor meets a group of werewolves, they're usually called "Loups-Garoux", but one character calls them "Lobos", sometimes they're referred to as "wolves", and "Werewolf" is used sparingly. - We're Alive prefers to use terms like "biters" or simply "them." - Afterlife with Archie: - Kevin gets berated for referring to a group of zombies as "the horde". According to him "zombie" lacks a certain " je ne sai quoi". - The Comics Code once prevented the portrayal of zombies in comics. Marvel Comics decided to get around this by literally just making zombie comics but replacing the letter "o" with "uve", calling them "zuvembies" instead (a term popularized by "Pigeons from Hell", a Robert E. Howard story), since technically, they weren't using "zombies". The word zombies. It's even lampshaded in comics featuring them: - In Dead Eyes Open, the undead are called Returners. They also can be called Deadies. - In Defoe, zombies are referred to as 'reeks', though Defoe himself has the title 'zombie-hunter general'. - Robert Venditti's first Demon Knights storyline involves a horde of bloodsucking undead lead by the Big Bad from I, Vampire, but because it's set in 11th century Western Europe, none of the characters know the word "vampire". - Pre-Code horror comics, particularly those from EC, are probably the root of zombie ubiquity in pop culture horror, but you'll find the word used only a handful of times in any of them. Like Romero later, these writers associated "zombie" with Caribbean folk magic, and employed it only in stories where voodoo raises the dead. There was no single word for other types of walking corpses at all. - In Empowered, reanimated supers really hate the "z-word." Understandable, as aside from briefly post-reanimation, most are as smart as ever. - In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) #16, Rainbow Dash is really against anypony using "the zed word", in a probable direct reference to the trope namer. - Grant Morrison's New X-Men run did this with superheroes. Though "mutant" is used frequently, the word "superhero" is only mentioned once, when Cyclops remarks "I was never sure why Professor Xavier had us dress like superheroes," when reviewing the team's new black leather uniforms. As part of Morrison's run, the other superheroes in the Marvel Universe are never mentioned or acknowledged, and the X-Men fervently insist that they're not (nor have they ever been) superheroes themselves...despite the costumes, codenames, secret identities, use of mutations to fight crime... - Preacher has a vampire, Cassidy, who is never called a vampire (though they do in a way invoke this trope by him saying he's "the 'v' word"). This is partially due to the fact that, for quite a while, Cassidy didn't know he was a vampire (he was born before Dracula hit the big screen, and he never got to talk with the vampire who turned him). In fact, he didn't realize it until a friend of his lent him a copy of the original Dracula. However, outside of the regular series, in an all-Cassidy special where he meets another vampire, they play with the vampire image (especially the Anne Rice version) all over the place, also referencing (and pointing out the lack of) many different vampire tropes, but the closest they come to actually using the word is when Cassidy calls Ecarius a "wanker" and Ecarius asks if this is an eastern pronunciation of "Whampyre"... - Raptors features blood-drinking, super-strong, fanged immortals that are not once referred to as vampires. - Simon Dark: Includes one flesh golem made of twenty-four dead teenagers, two revived murder victims with stopped aging, three formerly human "familiars" who essentially Escaped from Hell an entire cult of dead humans who are being worn by demonic entities and a whole bunch of living humans who end up pale and superstrong and under the control of a bit of evil magic that causes them to mindlessly attack any other living soul in their vicinity. The word zombie is never once uttered or hinted at. - Downplayed in The Walking Dead. The survivors call the zombies by a variety of names, including "walkers", "lurkers" and "roamers" (depending on the zombies' behavior) or simply "biters." Unlike the TV adaptation, the word "zombie" exists, but is used only infrequently — the characters admit they find their undead adversaries hard to take seriously when they're called that. - In Zombies That Ate the World by Guy Davis and Jerry Frissen they are called "living impaired". - Candorville justifies this in a humorous fashion regarding its "fangs": "Copyright issues. Lawyers would get involved." - Respawn of the Dead is what would happen if you added zombies to Team Fortress 2. Of course, The Medic, being a man of science, insists that his teammates refrain from calling victims of The Virus zombies. (They do anyway.) - In With Strings Attached, the word "Beatles" rarely appears in the narrative; the author refers to them as "the four". Almost the only time the name appears is when one of the four makes a sardonic or angry reference to it, or when one of the Fans mentions it. Justified in that the book is set in 1980, and the four haven't been The Beatles for ten years, and the author isn't trying to reunite them in that way. - Futari wa Pretty Cure Dragon never refers to qipaos in-story, even in the narration, using that term; the qipao is always referred to as a "Chinese dress" or something similar. - Necessary in the Doctor Who fanfic Death and Liberty, which features reptilian Earth-natives who predate humanity who are familiar to any Doctor Who fan, but doesn't feature any characters who'd have heard the names "Silurian" or "Sea Devil". They end up being referred to as "Serpent Men", after Clark Ashton Smith. 'Klepsmnemon, in the same series, similarly refers to the "predators" from Planet 5, rather than the Fendahl. - In The Magic School Bus fanfic, Under Cover of Darkness, only once is the word "zombie" used, and it's in a joking manner pre-apocalypse. Post-apocalypse, everyone calls them "maulers." - In the Wicked fic Verdigris, zombies are referred to as "Unmentionables" and "Verdigris'". - The only uses of the word LEGO in The LEGO Movie are in the title and on the studs of the actual pieces the world is built from. Nobody uses terms like "minifig" or "minifigure", either. - Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever: The "Prehistoric Giant Flying Lizard" is only ever called that or some variant. At no point does anybody think to just call it a dinosaur. For that matter, it's never called a dragon either, even though it could easily pass for one, despite not breathing fire. - Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night: The titular Emperor is a demonic figure who wants Pinocchio to sign a contract so the Emperor can have the boy's "freedom", because the Emperor becomes more powerful whenever he takes somebody's "freedom". You thought he wanted Pinocchio's soul or something? - The Secret of Kells never uses the word "bible" — it's really a Gospel Book — despite being about making one. The Book of Iona/Kells is just referred to as "the book" or a sacred text. Considering that Bible comes from the Greek for "Book", maybe its just a case of Translation Convention. - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is a movie about a crew of swashbuclking sailors who rob people on the high seas, and yet somehow never once uses the word "pirate." - 28 Days Later calls them the Infected. This has resulted in rather nerdy arguments on the Internet on whether they are actually zombies or not. However, Word of God claims that an infected person is intended to be a Technically Living Zombie. note : As explained in the introduction, the word zombie originally refers to a person in Voodoo folklore under the control (whether magically or by a strange chemical substance) of other, mainly a witch doctor. So, in the original sense of the word, a zombie is not a living dead, but a mindless living person. Interesting enough then, the infected in 28 Days Later are effectively no living dead, but they are closer to the original meaning of the world zombie (i.e. a living human being altered by an external agent) than the modern concept of zombie as a walking corpse. The exact same is also true of the zombies (or not) in The Crazies (2010) and [REC]. - Subverted in 30 Days of Night, where one character asks "if they aren't vampires, then what the hell are they?" after being told it's ridiculous to assume that the monsters are exactly that. - Alien: - They always call the Aliens "serpents" and the Predators "hunters" in AVP: Alien vs. Predator. In-universe, the Aliens are officially known to humans as Xenomorphs, although the nickname "Bugs" is more common (a minor character in Alien³ calls them "dragons"). Likewise, when the Predators are used as viewpoint characters in the Expanded Universe books, they refer to themselves as "yautja", though not many humans do. The Predators also refer to the Xenomorph as "kainde amedha" — "hard meat" — and humans as "pyode amedha" — "soft meat". The Predator Broken Tusk refers to humans as "oomans". Well, if that's the best they can do... For the record: the term "Xenomorph" — basically meaning "strange shape" — was initially used to refer to "an" alien, not "the" Alien. They have also been referred to, in the role-playing game materials, by a Latin species name, Linguafoeda acheronsis — literally "vile tongue of Acheron". The " Alien Quadrilogy" DVD menus, on the other hand, refer to them as Internecivus raptus — literally "murderous thief". - Aliens: Bishop prefers to be called an "artificial person". Played straight in that the apparently technically correct term is "synthetic", then subverted with numerous uses of both "robot" and "android". - Discussed at length in The Battery, when a drunken Ben and Mickey have a friendly argument about calling the Zombies that have them surrounded "Zombies". Ben is for because they logically are, Mickey is against because he thinks it's silly and zombies are fictional (although he does accidentally let a "zombie" slip later, much to Ben's amusement.) - Bit: Subverted in that characters have no problem using the word "vampire," then played straight with Vlad, who, despite the mountain of evidence, is never actually called Dracula. - In BrainDead, the one time the word "zombie" is used, the corpse of Lionel's mother immediately kills the hooligan who says it. Maybe she took offense. - No-one in Cloverfield mentions the words "Godzilla", "King Kong", or even "Monster", which would be the logical words anyone would utter upon seeing the creature. Not immediately, though. - The Cursed primarily focuses on a couple of villagers turning into vaguely-canine monsters upon contact with a cursed set of silver fangs, their bites instilling a Viral Transformation. While the crew confirms it as a werewolf movie, the word is never once used to describe the beasts. - The Z-word is not used in Dawn of the Dead (2004), but it is used once or twice in the DVD-extra news footage. Notably, a doctor who has been studying the reanimated corpses explicitly refers to them as "zombies". - Deadtime Stories: Volume 2: If you know the legends, then it is apparent that Donna is turning into a Wendigo at the end of "The Gorge", but the word itself is never used. - Death Becomes Her. No one in the film mentions zombies, but director Robert Zemeckis openly admits in interviews it's a zombie film, albeit glamorous literally Hollywood zombies. - All mechs in Elysium are called droids, not robots. - The Evil Dead series refers to its undead monsters as "deadites", a term first used by the medieval knights that Ash finds locked in combat against them in Army of Darkness. Justified in that 13th century Europeans would hardly know the word "zombie", but also an effort to emphasize that their monsters are different. The deadites, the result of Demonic Possession, can levitate, perform acrobatic feats such as cartwheels and spinning jump kicks, and possess a fiendish intelligence that gives them the heads-up on mortal enemies... not to mention great singing voices. The word "deadite" may refer to anything possessed by the spirits of the Necronomicon rather than a single creature, as it's been equally used to describe everything from possessed and reanimated humans to evil skeletons, winged gargoyles and mirror doppelgangers. - Fast Color: The word "superhero" is only said once, when Ruth chides Lila for suggesting they use their powers openly. Ruth: We're not superheroes. - The villains from The Forgotten are never called aliens, aside from the implications of the missing children being referred to as "abducted" and not kidnapped. - The guards in Frankenstein Island are never referred to as 'zombies', despite being described as mindless dead bodies reanimated by a psychic force. - In From Dusk Till Dawn, an argument begins over whether the creatures they were fighting are technically vampires. The monstrous, rapid transformation is more typical of zombie films than of vampire stories. Quentin Tarantino himself has said that a zombie movie was what he had in mind. Played with at the end of the movie: Carlos: What were they, psychos? Seth: Did they look like "psychos"? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires! "Psychos" do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are! - Ganja & Hess doesn't use the word "vampire", putting the condition resulting from getting killed with a ceremonial dagger from the mythical African Myrthian tribe as "blood addiction". These addicts are pretty much immortal, though. - Mundane example: David Fincher refused to use the term "Serial Killer" in his adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, seeing it as horribly clichéd. The closest he gets is the line "So we're looking for a serial murderer." - Not a mythological monster example, but it is worth noting that The Godfather (part 1) does not once use the word "Mafia", and in the novel it's based on, only people outside the syndicate refer to it as such, while Vito uses the phrase Cosa Nostra (i.e., "this thing of ours") during his speech to the bosses of the Five Families. This ties in with the fact that real-world mobsters never use the term, as far as anyone can tell who is likely to say anything about it. - The first member to even publicly acknowledge its existence was Joe Valachi, in October 1963. - Word of God has it that one of the conditions for the real life Mob allowing the film to go ahead was that the word "Mafia" should never appear in the screenplay. However, there was only one instance of it in the first place, so it was hardly a dramatic edit. - American mobsters didn't really use "Mafia" or "La Cosa Nostra" to refer to themselves until they adapted those terms from law enforcement and film and television. In Italy Mafia refers to geographically specific (Sicilian) crime groups but in North America some regional differences were ignored among Italian immigrants. Also, during and after Prohibition the vast organized crime network united by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky was half Jewish, and thus preferred the ethnically neutral term "Syndicate". - In the 1998 American Godzilla remake, the word "monster" is never used. Usually, it's "that thing" or "the creature" or "target" or, at one point, "a dinosaur". In fact, the name Godzilla is only used about twice. Godzilla fans and Toho Studios grew displeased with the creature and decided to rename the creature as just "Zilla" or even "Tuna Head", and director Ryuhei Kitamura decided to have the real Godzilla fight and kill "Zilla" to distinguish they're two different monsters. - The Hamiltons never uses the word \|\|vampire\|\|; through most of the movie, it isn't even clear that that's what the story is about. - In the trailers for Here Alone, the word "zombie" is never used. - Not a zombie example, but the 1943 OSS espionage training film How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (meant to show US intelligence agents how not to get killed while spying in Germany) bent over backwards not to say the "G" word, always identifying the place that the agents were being dispatched as "Enemy Area", even in the most ridiculous usages (an agent picking out clothes is told the suit he's wearing is "an Enemy Area cut"). At one point, when the agent is going over his cover story, actual footage of "Enemy Area" troops are shown. In another scene, the agent's personal effects are written in "Enemy Area", and he's in a photograph with his girl, wearing an "Enemy Area" uniform. Then an "Enemy Area" spy is actually identified as German. Go figure. - The Hunger never uses V-word, despite the fact that it centers around a nigh-immortal woman who drinks blood. - John Landis' Innocent Blood never uses the word vampire, but isn't merely an example of Genre Blindness as dialog and clips from classic horror movies hint that many of the characters are thinking it. - The Invitation (2022): Only once, at the very end of the film, is the word \|\|"vampire"\|\| used to describe the villains. In fact, the true nature of the villains is presented as a twist. Furthermore, the name \|\|"Dracula"\|\| is never given to the Big Bad, even if the film does all it can to imply that that's who he is, \|\|between his two vampire brides (which he hopes to make three), him originally being from Transylvania, and the fact that he says his real name means "Son of the Dragon"\|\|. He does refer to himself as one of the "strigoi" and "nosferatu", two other terms for them however. - In Juan of the Dead Juan and his friends refer to the zombies as "dissidents" or similar political malcontents, following an early news broadcast from the Cuban government labeling them as such. Dealing with their first zombie-kill, the gang first think the man is either a vampire or demonically possessed. - Averted with the aid-worker who calls them zombies. However, he is speaking English, so none of the other characters understand him. - The protagonists of Kick-Ass talk about superheroes all the time, but the Mafia-esque villains refuse to at first. The mob bosses don't believe an underling when he claims he didn't betray them, he was framed by some guy dressed like Batman. Since at this point there are no known superheroes in the world, we can't really blame the boss for his incredulity. It then becomes something of a running gag for the mob to refer to Big Daddy as Batman. To try to make it seem less ridiculous, the guy telling the story attempts to save face by saying he's not the actual Batman but someone who looks like him. - Legend of the Werewolf, a 1975 horror movie starring Peter Cushing about, you guessed it, a werewolf (not Cushing). Although Cushing and other characters talk about the probable cause of several murders, they never utter the word "werewolf" or "wolfman": "It could have been... (the other guy waits to hear the anticipated hypothesis) No, that's a preposterous idea". In addition, the wolfman's romantic interests works as a prostitute (which is an important part of the plot) and that word is not uttered either: "She told me she's a servant." "(Laughs) Yes, she does indeed serve". - In Leprechaun 4: In Space the Leprechaun is never referred to as such; the main characters just assume he's some kind of alien. - Living Dead Series: - Night of the Living Dead (1968) never calls its undead "zombies". It does call them "ghouls" in a newscast. According to The Other Wiki, George A. Romero never thought of them as zombies, despite the movie becoming the Trope Maker for the modern Zombie Apocalypse. It was made at a time when 'zombie' still referred to someone under the spell of a voodoo priest. Although there may have been some passing references to reanimated corpses as zombies in earlier films, it wasn't a general term for them yet. - Night of the Living Dead (1990) specifically avoids using the word as well, simply referring to the zombies as "those things" or "those people" since it is set in world where Romero films were never made. - The second movie, Dawn of the Dead (1978), uses the word "zombie" only once. A policeman who mentions his grandfather was a Trinidadian voodoo priest offhandedly calls them as such, but only in one scene. - In Day of the Dead (1985), zombies are given perhaps the greatest nickname in their history: Dumbfucks. - In Land of the Dead, where Dennis Hopper in particular uses it on a couple of occasions. Presumably, at this point in the series, everyone is sufficiently jaded about their situation to finally slap on a label. - But in Survival of the Dead, they call them "deadheads" or "assholes". - Not discussed, but the entire series of The Matrix has humans refer to the Machines, probably for similar reasons. - The vampires of Near Dark are never referred to as vampires, despite the blood-drinking, extra strength, lack of aging and general vampire-ness. - Nosferatu used — well, "nosferatu" to avoid saying "vampire." This was probably to disguise the fact that it was a wholesale Captain Ersatz rip-off of Dracula. It had copyright infringement problems as it was, considering that it was a more faithful adaptation of the book than any of the "official" filmed versions. - In Outpost, no one ever refers to the undead Nazi soldiers as zombies. - Perfect Creature: Not once during the story's spantime, the word "vampire" is used to describe the Brotherhood (who are super-strong and fast, have sharp fangs and drink blood) except for one instance during the opening narration which states they used to be called like that in older times when they were feared and reviled as abominations. - Planet Terror had "sickos", brain-eating bubbly-skinned not-quite-zombies. - The protagonists in Primer never refer to their time machine as a time machine, nor do they use the words time travel to describe their time travel. - Covered and named straight out in The Spoony One's review of Quarantine (2008), which apparently just thinks all of its zombies are "sick" and "need help". - In [REC], the 'zombies' are never acknowledged as such, even though it's acknowledged the fact that it's a virus. \|\|There's even the suggestion that the virus is from Hell.\|\| - Nobody in Requiem for a Dream ever says the word "heroin". Viewers are expected to realize on their own what it is three of the four main characters are addicted to. Which is kind of Truth in Television, because real life addicts and street hustlers almost always refer to illicit substances in slang terms. Walking around in the streets calling drugs exactly what they are, will at best make people suspect that you're working with the cops. - The Resident Evil Film Series never use the word zombie, instead opting for "infected". This doesn't make much sense because, although the games have a wide variety of non-zombie enemies, the movies only have zombies of various stages (except for Tyrants and Crows). - The novelization of the first movie also includes an in-universe example. Matt Addison, as a child, used to read comic books where, for censorship reasons, zombies were renamed as "zuvembies". Matt liked the name so much that the Hive zombies are referred to as such when a chapter is read from his POV. - Justified in-character example: In The Return of the Living Dead, a character who phones 911 doesn't admit that the attackers are animated corpses, realizing his pleas for help will be dismissed as a prank if he does. He claims that they're people who've gone Ax-Crazy ("It's a disease, it's like rabies, only it's faster, it's a lot faster...") instead. - Played with in the same movie, in that "zombies" is used to refer to the creatures from Night of the Living Dead, which exists in-Verse as fiction, but the actual reanimated corpses are mostly referred to as cadavers, corpses, or simply "things". - The word "vampire" is never uttered in Rise: Blood Hunter to describe the cult of undead blood drinkers. That's why most people who saw the trailer thought it was about some sort of Pushing Daisies-esque zombie or something. - Shaun of the Dead not only names the trope, but invokes it. Later in the film, when \|\|David says Barbara's "turning into one of those zombies"\|\|, Ed angrily shouts "We're not using the Z-word!" - The Sixth Sense avoids using the words "medium" and "psychic" although clearly the young Cole could be described as either. However, the ghosts of the film are called ghosts several times. - Sky Line does the same thing, with the characters never using the word "aliens" to describe the invaders. - Averted in Star Trek: First Contact. Lily Sloane, a mid-21st-century human, finds herself aboard the Enterprise as it's being assimilated by the Borg. Picard: ( reading terminal) Good, they haven't broken the encryption code yet. Picard: The Borg. Lily: Borg? Sounds Swedish. - The granddaddy of the "Don't use the 'R' word" subtrope: Back in 1977, the world knew mechanical/electronic automata as pretty much just one thing: Robots. To look different, we suppose, Star Wars referred to theirs as something (at the time) different, an abbreviation of "android" droid. Of course, nowadays the word is so common that non- Star Wars-based shows and movies have used it, even, and it's entirely possible that there are people out there who would recognize the word "droid" more quickly. Moreover, "droid" is more immediately recognizable as a term for sci-fi movie robots few people would think to refer to an automated arm that screws bolts onto cars, a thick frisbee that sucks your carpet clean, or a plastic velociraptor with stupid legs as "droids". This also contains irony. Abbreviated from "androids", the word "droid" should thus refer only to things that match the definition of "android". "Android", of course, means "artificial person" (and more precisely, male artificial people) only of the two most famous Star Wars droids, 50% aren't humanoid at all. According to source material, the word "droid" properly refers only to robots with full artificial intelligence, while less intelligent robots (like the aforementioned one's that folks in real would never think of referring to as "droids") are classified "robots", not "droids", although many characters refer to them colloquially as "droids" anyway. Robots aren't as common as droids, on account of being arguably inferior, which might also help explain the rarity of the term. However, the word "droid" is a (and has been for decades) a registered trademark of Lucasfilm. One only needs to watch a commercial for a Motorola Droid phone to see the "used with permission" fine print (the Motorola Droid was designed by George Lucas, himself; hence, why there is a Droid R2-D2). If the term "droid" has ever been used in a non-Lucasfilm movie, then the studio likely paid for the privilege. At one point in A New Hope, Luke explicitly refers to C-3PO and R2-D2 as robots. - The Stone Tape. The leader of the research team investigating the haunted house tells everyone not to use words like ghost or spook because the impulse is not to take them seriously. - Kind of Averted and not at the same time in Train to Busan; the word "zombie" is never spoken, but the hashtag #Zombie is use when a character checks his cellphone. - The word "Transformer" is only used twice in the Transformers series, once in each film and the first film is referring to the piece of electrical equipment. Granted, the terms "Autobot", "Decepticon", and "Cybertronian" are thrown around constantly, though this might have something to do with the trademark. This is probably because in most Transformers continuities, the title isn't a term Cybertronians use to describe themselves. - Ultraviolet (2006) directed by Kurt Wimmer, which is unrelated to the series but also features vampires, zig-zags the trope. Government agents refer to them as "hemophages". Civilian newspapers use the word "vampire" because it made for better headlines. Violet herself will use either one depending on the context. - In Unbreakable, the word "superhero" is used a grand total of once and in the context of describing a comicbook's plot. At one point, the protagonist's son says "You think my dad's a..." but is interrupted. However, it rather fits with the Deconstructionist aspect of the movie. - Justified in the zombie film Undead or Alive, as it takes place in the 1800's Wild West... well before the Z-word would come into regular use. - The Underworld (2003) films call their vampires vampires, but their werewolves are called lycans, which, while it makes sense as a shortening of 'lycanthrope', does make them sound like lichens, that thin layer of green moss and fungus that grows on rocks. That being said, most of the movies are from the perspective of a vampire and someone who was part of neither society. In the third film/prequel we learn that a lycan is a specific kind of werewolf. Though in the first film when Selene is telling Michael about the history, she refers to the lycans as werewolves briefly just to clear up confusion. Especially funny since the filmmakers state in the commentary for the first movie that they didn't want to use the word "werewolf" because it sounds corny. Because "vampire" and "lycan" lend it that touch of classic elegance. - In War of the Worlds (2005), the characters go out of their way to avoid describing the clearly alien invaders as "aliens", or even Martians, although it is reasonable that the characters couldn't figure they came from Mars. They are instead mistakenly referred to as "terrorists" or otherwise just "them". - We Are the Night focuses on a group of immortal blood-drinking women with fangs and supernatural powers who have no reflection and burn in the sunlight, but the word "vampire" is never spoken by anyone in the film. - In Willow, what would normally be called dwarves are called Nelwyns and humans are called Daikinis. Though The Making of... says that Daikini is a Nelwyn word meaning "tall person", implying that humans might call themselves human. - In the 1994 film Wolf the characters never use the word "werewolf", even though that is obviously what Jack Nicholson's character is turning into. Could be to avert expectations of a traditional Hollywood-style wolfman. Since the film tends to avoid standard horror tropes and was created with an older audience in mind than most horror films are made for, it's crucial to leave out anything which suggests that their werewolves are not different. - Done again in The World's End (which parodies Invasion of the Body Snatchers), where the group has a loopy drunken discussion about what to call the robots taking over the town. They ultimately settle on "Blanks", because they can't think of a better alternative to "robot", which they refuse to use. A couple of alternatives discussed were "blue bloods", "Foebots", and "smashy-smashy egg-man", all rejected for being semantically wrong. Notably, the cause of the discussion in the first place is that the robots insist on not being called "robots", because etymologically it means "slave", and "[they] are ''not'' slaves". - Exploited by Hidden. The deadly threat that the protagonists are hiding from are simply called "Breathers," and little is said that describes them, though flashbacks indicate the existence of a 28 Days Later style virus. \|\|Breathers are actually human soldiers wearing noisy rebreathers, who are tasked with hunting and killing zombies, such as the protagonists.\|\| - The Affinity Bridge contains revenants: Victorian zombies. - The vampiric narrator of Steven Brust's Agyar never once uses the word "vampire", nor does he ever explicitly describe himself feeding on blood, though he does so many times. Agyar tells the story simply to put his thoughts on paper, and therefore does not explain anything that would be second nature to himself. - Charlotte of Along The Winding Road really prefers "infecteds", though her love interest doesn't mind throwing the z-word around. - Kit Whitfield's Bareback ( Benighted in the US) is about a world where nearly everyone is a werewolf; they are referred to only as "lycanthropes" or "lycos". She discussed this in an interview, saying that B-Movies have rendered the word "werewolf" utterly unusable. - Bazil Broketail: Although they fit the common traits (mindless, ravenous former humans with a drive to bite the living, infecting them with the same condition), the infected are only called "ferals" instead (hence the title), never zombies. - Black Tide Rising: In Under a Graveyard Sky, given that zombies were previously regarded as purely fictional, the experts are initially reluctant to call the Technically Living Zombie victims of H7D3 "zombies", but eventually give in to the inevitable as everyone's thoughts gravitate that way anyhow. - Carmilla: The word "vampire" is not used up to Chapter 13 (of 16), when it is used by the woodman who relates how the village of Karnstein came to be deserted. Before that, there is only ominous talk of the "oupire", the equivalent of vampire in the North-Slavic languages. - In Cell, Stephen King has his protagonists calling the victims of the mystery brainwipe "phone-crazies", later "phoners". This is kind of mentioned in the main character's internal monologues; he finds himself thinking of them as zombies on one occasion, then decides that they aren't zombies because they are still alive. - The shambling undead created by the Deadly Gas in the Clockwork Century novels are called Rotters (Justified Trope due to time period). - Ganymede, set in New Orleans and including appearances by Marie Laveau, does refer to them as zombis. - The Cosmere: From Brandon Sanderson's works come a couple of examples. The Elantrians from Elantris and the Lifeless from Warbreaker are both pretty clearly zombies (albeit very different variations), but are never called such. Indeed, the word "undead" itself is almost never used. Also, the Koloss from Mistborn: The Original Trilogy aren't exactly orcs, but have a number of similarities and play a similar role in the story. Word of God has stated that the people in Elantris are not zombies. In fact, he wrote a long blog post explaining why he does not consider them to be zombies. He then concluded by saying "Having said that, I have always wanted to write a zombie story." He also refers to the Elantrians as "essentially zombies" in an Annotation so make of that what you will. - In The Dinosaur Lords, they're called hordelings, likely because the people of Paradise have never heard the word "zombie". - Terry Pratchett's Discworld: - Used for humor in Reaper Man. Windle Poons comes back as an undead, but almost any mention of the word "zombie" in describing his condition dissolves into a debate as to whether or not he actually is one. Because to really be a zombie, you need to eat a certain root and this specific kind of fish... - Some zombies prefer to be called the "Vitally Impaired." Or the "Differently Alive". - The Dresden Files: Explicitly parodied in Summer Knight. Harry is attacked by a fairy plant monster that he insists on calling a "Chlorofiend", a term he just made up because he'd feel silly saying he was attacked by a plant monster. He does call zombies as such though. - Invoked and justified in Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. It's evidently easier to accept that they're dead if they're called "Exes" as in "Ex-living" or "Ex-people". Later used as a plot point in Ex-Purgatory. Even though they don't use the word "zombie" people should still know what it is, and the fact that no one actually does is a sign that something is wrong. - In Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the zombies are called "The Unconsecrated" by the people of the village fenced in by the titular forest. They mostly shamble around in a Romero-esque fashion, but occasionally some smarter, faster ones appear. Her second book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, which takes place in another village, uses the term "Mudo", a morphing of the word "mute". The last book, The Dark and Hollow Places, in a third locale, switches back to "Unconsecrated" for most people, although the main character occasionally uses the term "plague rat" (more of a "street name" than a formal name). - Half lampshaded, half played straight in Daniel Waters' Generation Dead, where the term "zombie" is only used in the same way as words like "nigger" and "dyke" are in the real world: that is, it is occasionally used as a joke or jocular term of affection amongst those actually belonging to the subculture (undead kids obviously, in this case), but considered offensive for anybody else to use. In fact, one of the book's more amusing running gag concepts involves society's attempts to come up with a politically correct alternative, with them at first settling on "Living Impaired" and eventually leaning more towards "Differently Biotic". Of course, not that this really stops any of the people who are unsettled by them from calling them the Z word... Dead teenagers become non-deadly zombies and emo goes out of style. However, the insanely PC folks of the 'verse insist on calling the zombies "living-impaired" and don't get that zombies don't really care; they just want to live normal "lives", so to speak. - In "Genre Savvy", Edgar is discussing the Tropes of horror movies with Charlotte over breakfast. He complains that most zombie movies happen in universe without zombie movies; otherwise the common people would be Genre Savvy enough to beat them and since nobody uses the term "zombie". He specially calls out Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland for being exceptions. - Gone: In Lies, Brittney comes back from the dead with no pulse and no need to breathe or eat. She wasn't after anyone's brains, but other than that she basically was a zombie. The Town Council establishes that the other kids aren't allowed to call her a zombie, but the term is used anyway. When Brianna uses the term to her face, Brittney replies that she's not a zombie, she's an angel. As it turns out, \|\|she's a reanimated corpse possessed by the gaiaphage\|\|. In other words, a zombie. - One of the Goosebumps books, \|\|Jekyll and Heidi\|\|, features a monster that most likely is a werewolf or at least something very similar to one, although this is not immediately obvious because the protagonist incorrectly thinks it is a different kind of monster for most of the book, but even after The Reveal of the monster's true nature makes it obvious that the monster is a werewolf, the word "werewolf" is never used in the book. - Another example is Full Moon Fever, where the kids become creatures due to a full moon, and yet it goes out of its way to say they aren't werewolves. - The Gospel of Loki doesn't use the Norse names for the various realms and people of Norse Mythology (except Asgard) and doesn't use the traditional English translations either: the Frost Giants are Ice Folk, the dwarfs are the Tunnel Folk (or Maggots) and so on. - In Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, Silas is obviously a vampire, but the word is never used. - Green Rider and its sequels by Kristen Britain have the Eletians or Elt. They look, act, and speak like traditional Tolkienesque elves, but the author never calls them that (though considering her alternate name was "Elt", she might as well just have owned up to it). - In John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling the Undead, a large number of recently dead people suddenly and for unclear reasons comes back to life, sort of. After some debate, the authorities decide that the official term for these people should be "the Reliving". Not everyone obey this politically correct rule and many people keeps referring to the undead as Zombies. - Harry Potter: - "Inferi" are closely based on the zombies of Haitian folklore (bodies animated by magic, to do the magician's bidding). The name comes from Roman gods of the underworld, the Inferi Dei. Ironically, zombies are mentioned by name in the first book; Quirrell supposedly got rid of one and received his turban as a reward. Word of God has later clarified that Inferi and Zombie are two different species. - Being an undead wizard who uses a Soul Jar to gain immortality, Lord Voldemort is a textbook example of a lich, but the word is never uttered in the franchise. - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish contains a lampshade on this when discussing a real-life Rain God — "We can't call him supernatural, because people think they know what that means, and we can't really call him paranormal either for the same reason. So let's call him 'paranatural' or 'supernormal'..." - Hollow Kingdom (2019): The rotting people that are wandering around and lunging for anything alive or made of glass are only ever referred to as being "sick (insert term for humans here)". It's justified due to all of the characters being animals and the vast majority of them having no exposure to pop culture, so they'd have no realistic way of knowing the word "zombie". - In Hungry as a Wolf, the berserk, hungry undead are referred to as "screamers" rather than "zombies" or even "ghouls", mainly because of their distinctive, hellish screaming, and because neither of the other terms were in common usage in the setting to refer to hungry undead. - Defied in The Immortal Journey: the protagonist Emily first refuses to call the flesh eaters "zombies", making up all sorts of semantic excuses to claim that they're technically something else. Her military instructor Daisy calls bullshit on all of that and tells her straight up that yes, they're zombies and she should deal with it. - InCryptid: In Calculated Risks, Antimony objects to calling the \|\|mindwiped cuckoos\|\| "zombies", partially because it's culturally appropriative note : The term is from Haitian folklore, but none of the characters with her are Haitian or even black, so it seems a little performative, and partially because they don't turn their victims (of course, not all fictional zombies do either). - There was a Gamebook series where the reader's character was a Kid Sidekick to Indiana Jones. Like in the movies, there were a few where they fight Nazis, and in Dragon of Vengeance can even meet Hitler himself. They're always, without exception, called "Fascists", though. - Most humans in Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse have been reduced to shambling, moaning, Technically Living Zombies. They're generally referred to as "feral humans", which neatly helps indicate their fallen status and that they can be uplifted and partially cured by the Krakau, who treat them as a Servant Race. While the Krakau went through surviving archives of human media and this would have included the z-word, they found speculative fiction weird and confusing and didn't bother translating any to make available to cured humans. The word "zombie" only ever comes up once, in the mouth of one of the rare unmodified humans descended from those few immune to The Virus, but is apparently seen as disrespectful and dehumanizing. - In Barbara Hambly's novel The Ladies of Mandrigyn, the Big Bad \|\|(or, more accurately, The Dragon and the Eldritch Abomination that's powering him)\|\| has a nasty habit of turning people via a horrifically painful and disturbing supernatural process into ghouls, or Technically Living Flesh-Eating Zombies, or some sort of blind, slavering, mindlessly vicious freaks. However, the canon term for the process's victims is "nuuwa", and that's all that they're ever called. - Charles Stross' The Laundry Files: - The zombies used by the Laundry for jobs such as night guardians are called "Residual Human Resources"; there's also a bit of lampshade hanging about not calling them "zombies". - And don't dare call a Photogogic Hemophagic Anagathic Neurotropic... Guy a "vampire" unless you want to get on the wrong side of non-discrimination policies... - Legacy of the Dragokin: Being a life form that died and then cam back to life as something else, Kthonia's technically a zombie but no one uses that word. Then again, lots of people insist on calling what is obviously magic, 'science', despite the narration saying otherwise. - Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series has the Tiste races and the Jaghut, who are basically elves without the pointy ears and scholarly orcs, respectively. The K'Chain Che'Malle are the Verse's Lizard Folk. And the Imass are Neanderthals in everything but name, or were, since now they're undead Neanderthals. - Inverted in the Myth Adventures series, in which the word "human" is virtually never used. Sentient species are referred to by terms that reflect their dimensions of origin, and "people" is a catch-all for every known-to-be-sentient race. This has the effect of making the human characters sound just as fantastical as the nonhumans, as befits a Verse where a human in a nonhuman dimension is just as much a "demon" as vice versa. Well, not quite as "fantastical," as the "correct" term for denizens of the (human) protagonist's home dimension is "Klahds" (pronounced "clods" and that's definitely intentional on the author's part). Other races include Deveels, Perverts (who vehemently prefer "Pervects"), Trolls (and their female counterparts Trollops), Jahks (pronounced "jocks"), and more — the idea being that pretty much any sentient being you might encounter is probably just a native of a dimension where everyone looks like they do, and whatever name you know them by is probably just a species name (or a corruption of one) based on the name of their home dimension. - The Old Kingdom series is heavily concerned with the undead, but never uses the familiar word "zombie". Analogues to common forms of undead would be Dead Hands (zombies), Shadow Hands (ghosts or wraiths), Mordicants (think a golem possessed by an undead spirit) and Greater Dead (liches). In general, they are simply called the Dead. - The Parasite War has aliens that turn their victims into what are essentially zombies-they infect a human, then wander around blindly, looking for other humans to eat while they consume the body they're in. As their natural Blob Monster selves, they're "Colloids", and the infected humans are just "infected" or some such. - The vampires in Peeps by Scott Westerfield are pointedly not referred to as vampires, instead they're called "Peeps" which is short for Parasite-Positive. They're explicitly acknowledged to be the source of vampire legends, but the modern and scientifically literate vampires just feel self-conscious using it, probably because it sounds pretentious. - In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, while no effort is made by the author/narrator to not refer to the zombies as such, the characters occasionally call them "unmentionables" or "the afflicted". Apparently "zombies" isn't proper, though they sometimes use the word anyway— although the novel is set before the word "zombie" was known in English. The euphemism results in a bit of narm for readers to whom "unmentionables" means "underwear" or simply "trousers". - In The Radiant Dawn, the mook zombies are usually referred to as "undead" or "mindless". Elite Mooks are referred to as "cavaliers" or "necromancers". - In the Ravenloft novel I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin, Strahd doesn't actually know the word "zombie" until Azalin tells him what it means. Ironic, as both of these dark wizards are undead themselves, and Strahd had been casting Animate Dead spells for decades beforehand: his native language simply hadn't had a name for the results. - The "hyper-organisms" produced by birthing graves beneath "The Red Tower" are so-called because the narrator believes they are exaggerations of the two primary traits of living beings - vitality and decay. It's unclear whether they look like any conventional form of The Undead, however - the narrator hastily avoids describing them "in accord with a tradition of dumbstruck insanity", merely wondering vividly about their activities, life cycles, and anatomy. - The flesh-eating undead in Joan Frances Turner's Resurgam Trilogy regard "zombie" as a slur. There's a bit in the first book where the narrator explains that it's like how Inuit won't call themselves "Eskimo", and mentions that ironically, there is an undead gang in the Dakotas that call themselves the Eskimos. - When \|\|her brother\|\| finds her and tries to communicate, he calls her a zombie, but her vocal cords have rotted enough that she can't speak verbally anymore. She eventually just picks up a stick, draws a Z in the dirt, and scratches it out to get her point across. - Saturn's Children by Charles Stross justifies this in regard to its robots—the actual term robot is considered a Fantastic Slur. - C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters: - The word "God" is never used. Screwtape and Wormwood both only refer to him as "The Enemy". - Likewise, Satan is only ever referred to as "our father". - Shattered Continent doesn't have Zombies. It has Cultists. They're undead, like the taste of flesh, and even merit a lecture on how you need to remove the head or destroy the brain to deal with them, but the zed word is not used. - In the Sianim series by Patricia Briggs, shambling undead monsters that feed on human flesh are known as Uriah (both singular and plural). Since the series is set in a medieval fantasy world, "zombie" would have an Orphaned Etymology. - Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series centers around a secret society of Japanese assassins. The author never once drops the word Ninja. Similarly, the feudal warriors are never referred to as samurai. - Played with in This Book is Full of Spiders. The outbreak is caused by a sort of Puppeteer Parasite that can mutate humans in unpredictable ways, but isn't anywhere near contagious enough to cause a Zombie Apocalypse, and many of the infected retain their senses. In other words, not zombies. However, the government designates these infected individuals "Zulus" to encourage people to associate them with zombies, since that sort of black-and-white thinking will make it easier for the government to bomb the quarantined city once the rest of the country sees them as a lost cause. - In the Torchwood novel Bay of the Dead, Gwen and Ianto initially refuse to refer to the attackers as zombies. Jack, however, is practically gleeful about it: Jack: You know what I'm thinking, don't you? Ianto: No, Jack. It's ridiculous. You know it's ridiculous. Jack: On our way here we field a call from Gwen, who says that she and Rhys have been attacked by a walking corpse. And now here we are surrounded by evidence of an attack in which the perpetrators used their bare hands as murder weapons and then cannibalized their victims. What does that suggest to you, Ianto? Ianto: It's crazy, Jack. It's horror-movie hokum. You know it is. Jack: And you know what we're up against here, don't you? Ianto: No, I don't. Don't say it, Jack. Don't use the— Jack: Zombies! Ianto: —zed word. - This is something of a discussed trope in the fourth The Trials of Apollo book, The Tyrant's Tomb. Hordes of undead are a major threat to New Rome. At one point, Frank and Apollo discuss all the different names cultures have for the creatures, including zombies (what Hazel, who grew up around voodoo, would call them), immortuos, lamai, and several others in Latin, and vrykolakai in Greek (which Apollo calls them when he first references them, quickly mentioning that in "TV parlance" they would be considered zombies). note : Which is a great case of Shown Their Work on Rick Riordan's part. Since despite often being touted as Greek "vampires", vrykolakai aren't typically known for drinking blood, but rather eating human flesh, with a particular fondness for livers, which would categorize them as zombies in modern sensibilities. - The survivors of Undead on Arrival refer to the ravenous undead as "geeks". - The Vampire Diaries books, though having the V word in the title don't use at all in the first, or most of the 2nd, it doesn't start occurring even semi-regularly till book 3. - The Wheel of Time: Draghkar, despite having many classic vampire traits and in every appearance in the story so far have been in situations that nobody would bat an eyelash at having vampires in and only differing from classic vampires in classic stories in that they serve a darker power, are never referred to as vampires. Of course, given the nature of the world, it is reasonable to assume that Draghkar are supposed to be where we got our vampire myths from. - In John Green's unpublished novel Zombicorns Mia hates the word zombies being used for the "Z'd up", saying that they're not zombies any more than The Spanish Flu was Spanish. - The Zombie Knight calls its zombies Servants. Considering it takes place in a Constructed World, it's possible the word doesn't even exist in the setting. - Zomboy: When word gets out that Imre Lazar is undead and people start protesting his presence at the school, several Zombie Advocates decide to try and discourage the use of the word "zombie" around Imre, feeling it's become a Fantastic Slur. - Colson Whitehead's Zone One mostly refers to zombies as "skels" or "the dead". - The TV side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe likes to indulge in this occasionally. - In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., people with superhuman abilities are generally referred to as "Gifted", while words such as "superhero" or "supervillain" rarely come into play. This is a bit of an Enforced Trope, as the creators have mentioned that legal red tape bars them from using terms like "Mutants" (since Marvel didn't own film rights to the X-Men) to describe characters with powers. - In the Netflix tv shows, the attack on New York, as seen in The Avengers (2012), is a major part of the backstory. However, it is never once referred to as an "Alien Invasion", but more obliquely as "The Incident", and treated more akin to 9/11 than Pearl Harbor. Word of God states this was done intentionally, starting with Daredevil (2015), because the writers felt that overt references to an invasion by aliens would distract viewers from the plot, which occurs in a relatively grounded setting. - The Afflicted in American Horror Story: Hotel are contagious, feed on blood, are sensitive to light but otherwise nigh invulnerable and practically immortal. Despite being vampires in all but name, they are never named as such. - Cylons in Battlestar Galactica (2003) are called any number of names, from "Toaster" to "Skin Job", but never robots, except in "Pegasus", in which some of Pegasus's crew members call a Cylon just that. In the miniseries, Baltar says disparagingly to Number Six "You're a Cylon. A robot." - Lampshaded in S3E3 of Being Human (UK). "...or they were hiding a zombie." "Oh christ, are we really gonna call her that?" The USA/Canada version also makes this distinction \|\|in Season 3 when Sally and two of her ghostly friends are brought back to life. Sally also hates the idea that she is starting to decompose and refuses to call it that, as well\|\|. - Averted on The Bite. Once the characters recognize the physical nature and behavior of those infected with the virus, the word "zombie" is used regularly. At one point, it's discussed if they should be using it since that would be acknowledging that zombies now exist. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: - The Initiative insists on calling the various monsters they hunt "Hostile Sub-Terrestrials" or HSTs in a laughable effort to sound scientific about it, sounding suspiciously like "Aggressive Non-Terrestrials" from the Doctor Who story "Dragonfire". The Scoobies are not impressed. But then the Initiative are military. If they don't have a multiple-word phrase they can abbreviate, they wither and die. - This was also played for laughs in an early ep, with someone asking if vampires prefer to be called "Undead Americans" instead. - Charmed (1998): - While the show does actually refer to Leo and his kind as Guardian Angels on occasion, the preferred term is "Whitelighter", and their bosses are "the Elders". How often they use the A-word may vary Depending on the Writer. - The Source is the most powerful demon who rules the Underworld — don't call him "the Devil". To be fair it is a position rather than a single being, but then plenty of other works have used "the Devil" that way too. Though strangely, the sorcerer Tempus who was sent by the Source to help a demon kill the Charmed Ones by screwing with time in the Season 1 finale was titled "the Devil's Sorcerer". - In "Episode 5" of Dark Matter (2015), the crew are hired to salvage a supposedly abandoned space freighter whose inhabitants have been infected with a virus that runs them into slavering, cannibalistic Technically Living Zombies. Although they're clearly zombies, the Z word is never used. - Dead Set never uses the word zombie to describe its undead — writer Charlie Brooker wanted to distinguish it from more light-hearted zombie comedies like Shaun of the Dead where characters use the Z-word frequently. One character does however quote "They're coming to get you Barbara!" from Night of the Living Dead (1968), so at least they aren't completely genre blind. - Plus Patrick directly quotes the famous "choke on 'em" line, in a tributary recreation of the scene from Day of the Dead (1985). - Probably because calling him a zombie would be rather demeaning and would imply he's less than human. He retains his intelligence and reasoning, he's just dead. - Doctor Who: - The Event places bizarre importance on using the term "Eebies" (Extra Terrestrial Biological Entities) and not "Aliens". Because "Aliens" makes the series hard to take seriously, whereas Eebies naturally lends a sense of seriousness and significance to the proceedings. - The 2007 Flash Gordon series avoids referring to any of the Mongo peoples as the human-animal mashups or mythological constructs that they're based on, and by which they are known in most other adaptations. Thus, Hawkmen are "Dactyls", Lionmen are "Tuuren", Amazons are "Omadrians", and so forth. - Mocked in Ghosted, when Leeroy and Max get into an argument over which silly, made-up name they should use for the alien Big Bads; Leeroy thinks Zappers sounds cooler, while Max thinks Energons is more descriptive and doesnt downplay the danger. Both agree that Agent Checkers idea (the Luminescents) just sounds stupid. Otherwise, this trope is thoroughly averted; the characters always just call monsters what they are, such as using the word zombie to describe Technically Living Zombies because its a good enough descriptor and they see no real point in making up new names. - In Helix a CDC rapid response team of pathologists refers to infectees of The Virus NARVIK-B, who are super-strong, paranoid, aggressive and compelled to assault victims and vomit Bad Black Barf into their mouths, as "Vectors," repurposing an epidemiologically correct term for use in their research and containment efforts, instead of the word "Zombie". - Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: - In an episode, Herc visits his old friend Vlad, who lives in Transylvania, and learns that he's changed a bit since the old days... Apart from a couple of slips, however, the script resolutely uses the term "strigoi" to describe the bloodsucking monsters ("strigoi" being yet another East European term for a vampire, but is similar to the Classic Greek term "striga"). "Striga" is more likely to be interchangeable with "witch" than "vampire"... not, of course, that old folktales are super-careful about such distinctions. Fortunately, they're using the folklore version of Vlad and not drawing from the historical version. A "couple of slips" for Vlad Dracul would be pretty bad for anyone within a hundred miles that so much as looked at him funny. And certainly not be family-friendly Violence in the least. - Also of note are the Bacchae who show up in both Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess. Though in this case, it's more twisting the Bacchae from mythology into vampires than it is avoiding a term. - Heroes is to be commended for being well into its third season with no sign of planning to use the word "mutant". Or for that matter, "superhero" or "supervillain". No one has "powers"; they have "abilities". And no-one has "super strength"; they have "enhanced strength", because "super strength"... well that would be just silly. Of course, Ascended Fanboy Hiro does refer to himself as a "superhero", and the characters have swapped "abilities" with "special powers" and "powers" occasionally. Especially Sylar. He doesn't have abilities; he has powers. And considering how he can slice the top of your head off like it's a hard-boiled egg, it's best not to argue. - In In the Flesh, while "zombie" is said, the government prefers "Partially Deceased Syndrome", while the HVF uses the derogatory "Rotters". - Most Heisei Kamen Rider shows try as much as possible to not have the characters call themselves Kamen Riders, the only notable exceptions are Movies, specials, and seven series note : Ryuki, Blade, Decade, Double, Fourze, Drive, Ghost, Ex-Aid, Build and Zi-O. Ultimately, shows in the Reiwa era dropped this entirely. - Though Kamen Rider Kabuto skirts it by having them be called 'Riders', just not 'Kamen Rider'. Even the plan to make them was called the 'Masked Rider Project'. - Kamen Rider Gaim skirts around this. The Kamen Riders are called "Armored Riders", as they participate in a series of dance battles where all of the contestants (armored or not) are referred to as "Beat Riders". However, Gaim had the term "Kamen Rider" explained to him when he guest-starred in the Grand Finale of Kamen Rider Wizard. - Kamen Rider Double has a more literal use of this trope in The Movie, which introduces Necro-Overs, a team of rebellious Super Soldiers made from the dead. They shorten it to NEVER and make it their group name. Their leader does refer to himself as a corpse and an "undead monster", but that's as closes as it gets to the Z-word. - Kyle XY features a main character and another character who are clones, but follow almost no cloning cliches; possibly because of this, nobody ever uses the word "clone" in the show. Until the last episode comes and they \|\|are apparently not only not clones, but show no qualms about killing actual clones, even though the description of their origins (and their identical appearances to their parents in younger days) meant "clone"\|\|. - In the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Abominations", Professor Martin Stein is revealed to be DEADLY afraid of zombies, to the point he refuses to so much utter the word, and constantly begs the others not to say it in front of him. - In Midnight Mass (2021) no one ever says the word vampire, even to point out to the people treating the transformation like a holy blessing what they've obviously become. Were it not for a passing reference to "legends" about people burned by the sun and the presence of 'Salem's Lot on a bookshelf, it could be mistaken for an Alternate Universe where vampire fiction doesn't exist. Word of God states that this was intentional because the viewers assumptions about the narrative would instantly be altered if the townsfolk started openly discussing vampires. - Henry from Sanctuary doesn't like it when he's referred to as a werewolf. Henry: Yeah, we don't use the "W" word around here. Will: Oh, right, right. It's, uh, HAP. Henry: It's a hyper-accelerated protean, thank you very much. - Sheena, Queen of the Jungle contains an episode in which the title character faces off against some mindless people who walk like the dead. When her love-interest/straight man refers to them as "zombies", Sheena and her African matron are alternately shocked and amused; apparently "zombie" is some sort of sexual term in the tribe's language. - Star Trek: Enterprise: - In the episode "Regeneration", the Borg obviously can't be called the Borg, since it's 200 years before the official first contact in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But the writers seem to go out of their way to avoid even calling them cyborgs. Instead they're referred to as "cybernetic hybrids". The Borg themselves seem to be going out of their way to avoid the name, even changing their iconic greeting to exclude it (and rendering it nonsensical in the process). - Similarly, the episode "Acquisition" features the Enterprise being overrun by Ferengi. But the name of their species is never used. - Star Trek: The Original Series: Redjac from "Wolf in the Fold" is obviously intended to be a demon, but nobody ever uses the word in the episode. - The Studio C skit Zombies attack features all but one character explaining their various numbers for the undead creatures attacking them: walkers (because they think they can walk all over people), biters, scab-monsters, Them, orcs (sure! Let's just cross genres willy-nilly!), liberals, and Amy (after his ex-wife). Whitney: Have everyone besides me forgotten the last sixty years of popular culture? They're called zombies! - A more realistic version was Disney's late 60s The Swamp Fox series. It took place in South Carolina around the time of The American Revolution. Most people who know any American History at all know that most (though not all) African-Americans, particularly in southern states, were slaves at the time. And the character-slash-real person of Oscar definitely was. However, Disney never uses the "s" word, always calling them "servants" or "boy" in one or two cases. Most likely Disneyfication due to the target audience being kids. - Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles made a point of never ever saying the T-word out loud, despite it being the very title of the show. Then, at the climax of (possibly) the last episode, Sarah screamed it into her adversary's face. Good times. Although this was an issue over royalties; as in they didn't want to pay any more than necessary so the T-word use was extremely limited. - In That Mitchell and Webb Look no one in the quiz show broadcast uses the word zombie to describe Them. This may be because they've forgotten what it means. It helps that They are capable of speech, and are definitely intelligent, what with figuring out \|\|how to get inside\|\|, and apparently knowing more about the Event than anyone else. - Ultraviolet (1998) never used the word vampire. Instead, the government called them "Code 5" (that is, V). Also 'leeches' as a slang term. - The Walking Dead Television Universe: The characters never once refer to the undead as "zombies." This is a justified example, because, according to Robert Kirkman, the show exists in a timeline where "zombies" never became a pop-cultural phenomenon due to the lack of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), so people would not generally know the term (unless they had a trivial knowledge of voodoo). Because there's no easily recognizable equivalent in their universe, each group of survivors tends to call them different things. "Walkers" is the most commonly used term (and the one typically adapted by the revolving band of survivors in Rick's group), but we also have "geeks", "roamers", "lame-brains", "biters", "rotters", and "the infected". - Wellington Paranormal: Maaka tells O'Leary not to call the zombies "zombies" in front of Officer Parker. O'Leary resorts to "very unwell people". - In The West Wing, they don't like to use the word "recession" in the building, because the press might ask if they had been talking about a recession. Instead, they talk about bagels. President Bartlet: So where are we headed? Larry: Signs indicate we could be sliding toward... bagel. [off Bartlet's look] Josh: Sir, Larry doesn't need a vacation, that's the word we've agreed to use in-house to avoid using the "r" word. Bartlet: What I need is your recommendation for keeping us out... I really don't have to call it that do I?... For keeping us out of a... thing. - The "Wizards vs. Angels" arc of Wizards of Waverly Place features "Angels of Darkness" (demons), led by Gorog, an expy of Satan. - Wolf Like Me primarily dances around Mary's secret by only really using the words "\|\| turns into a wolf\|\|", which while meant to be literal easily gets Mistaken for Profound by an old woman Mary frequently visits. It becomes a form of zigzagging when episode 5 namedrops the word in a Wham Line. - The Creature Feature song "Aim For the Head" is based on the film Night of the Living Dead (1968), and as such uses the term "ghoul" instead of zombie. - The zombies in Chiodos' "Those Who Slay Together Stay Together" are only ever referred to as "the infected". - As with the television series, Stern Pinball's The Walking Dead refers to its undead hordes as "walkers". - In NBA, the Pinball word "Jackpot" is never used. Many have speculated that this was a requirement by the NBA to avoid accidentally associating basketball with gambling. - Dimension X: In episode two, adapted from Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands", Mr Underhill is very insistent that his wife call the machines "mechanicals", not "robots". She points out that there isn't any difference and he counters that it makes a lot of difference in advertising. - In The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, the people assimilated by the singing alien Hive Mind aren't really given any name at all. There's one line in which Ted calls them "singing zombie motherfuckers", but for the most part, the survivors simply refer to the assimilated as "them". - Boyfriend of the Dead: Most humans avoid the word zombie, since zombies aren't real. They prefer terms like "rotters," "biters," and "walkers." The zombies largely find this policy annoying, and N interrupts a human mob that is gearing up to tear him apart by insisting that they use the word zombie. - Lampshaded in Dead Metaphor, a 'zombie comedy' webcomic. People call the undead 'zombies', but it's considered a politically-incorrect term, on par with calling someone a retard. - Dead Winter has an interesting case of this trope. For some unknown reason, nobody seems to know what Zombies are (which also leads to some obvious Genre Blindness), possibly indicating the Zombie fiction never existed in the Dead Winter universe. The cast page even plays this for laughs by having the undead hordes be called "The Z-Words", it even seems adamant on not using the actual Z-word and to quote the page itself. - Parodied in a one-comic diversion from the NSFW webcomic Delve, as seen in the page image above. Bree then gives up and just ask for some water, to be informed that they only have "bottled sky juice". - Subverted in El Goonish Shive: Susan: You know what? Screw it. It was a vampire. [...] Not really, but it was a monster that used to be human, hypnotized young women, and sucked blood out of their necks. It doesn't matter what I say. You two are going to hear "vampire" . - Eventually, aberrations (the official term in-comic) become referred to as "vampires" frequently, even though none are as obviously vampiric as the one mentioned above. Instead, we get Body Surfers, beings that literally eat humans, and so forth as "vampires". - Girl Genius: - Robots are called "Clanks", never "robots". The real world owes the word "robot" solely to Czech author Karel Capek's play R.U.R. (from Slovak "robota" = "labor"), and Girl Genius is set before it was written. (Also, Capek's "robots" are apparently biological creations rather than mechanical, which would make them — in Girl Genius terminology — "Constructs" rather than "Clanks") Although the characters are all supposed to be speaking in German anyway, so Phil Foglio could "translate" it however he wanted. - And, naturally, Lucrezia's army of mind-controlled corpses are called revenants. They're not dead. Ironically, this means that "zombie" is technically the more accurate term. - In spite of the ever-present supernatural elements of the setting, Gunnerkrigg Court goes over 400 pages before the first use of the word "magic". The commentary below the comic lampshades this. - The orphaned Lacunae has photosensitive bloodsuckers that are called "haemophages" or just "phages", but never "vampires." - Linburger always has a different word for their Demihuman races. So thus the elves are called Cyll, the Cat Girls are called Mirrakae, and the orcs are called Trokks. Granted, Cat Girl would be a pretty silly name for a race. - The online furry comic/graphic novel Rework the Dead and its sequel, Rework the Dead II, by David Hopkins, has zombies referred to as "Reworks" — which makes sense as the dead are reanimated immensely stronger, faster, incredibly violent and with claws and razor-sharp fangs ( Warning: this "funny animal" comic is anything but cute and cuddly). - Sarilho: The deslusos. A wordplay on former-lusitanians. - Sluggy Freelance does this a couple of times with the "ghouls" \|\|who were revealed to be aliens who adopted human forms\|\|, and the "infected" (namely, infected with intelligence increasing insects that turn people into unusually feral geeks). Of course, it also includes straight-up, spelled-with-a-Z zombies on occasion, too, so the different names are probably to avoid confusion more than anything else. In one case, the Z-words are called "deadels" by the one who raised them. As one character argues, "Hey, when your world is ruled by an evil demon who wants to call its undead minions 'deadels', you call 'em 'deadels!'" - In Stand Still, Stay Silent, all the surviving nations being Scandinavian has lead to the general agreement that "troll" is a perfect name for a horribly mutated Plague Zombie. - In Unsounded non-sentient zombies are usually called plods, although the word zombie does appear. Sette initially insists on referring to Duane as her "attack zombie", while he maintains that he's a "galit". This is not a recognized term (since Duane's status is almost unique and unknown) and means approximately "damned one" in his language, reflecting his religious belief that the creation of zombies is blasphemous and by extension so is his existence. - In the universe of The Descendants, there's a sort of culture war going on over using the term 'superhero'. As comic books exist in that world and there are presumably legal issues involved in using it, the media calls the real super humans emerging 'prelates' even though many of them call themselves 'superheroes' and their enemies 'super villains'. It gets better when you note the extent the series goes to to call their mutants anything but. - To certain sects in the alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die USENET newsgroup and its sister website The Jihad to Destroy Barney on the Web, use of It Of The Ol' One Tooth's name is blasphemous and is believed to give him power. Thus many derogatory names were invented to label that Purple Pedophile in place of the monster's name. - The Editing Room's script for The Dark Knight Rises (or as Cracked put it: "If The Dark Knight Rises Was 10 Times Shorter and More Honest" to lampshade how the movie never mentions the villain from the film's predecessor. - How to Write Badly Well parodies it. - An example from this website: The page for Church of Happyology never explicitly states the name of the infamously litigious religion that is being lampooned by other creators. - Justified and used for Worldbuilding in Orion's Arm, where robots are referred to as "vecs" (named for an in-universe roboticist named Hans Moravec). This is because in the OA universe, the term robot has come to be considered a Fantastic Slur since it's definition implies that the machines in question are non-sentient, when they clearly are. Because of this, people who use the term robot within stories are treated as bigots. - The "Pallids" are the Chadam universes' equivalent to Zombies, being gray, bone-thinned monsters that have lost all semblance of sanity and just want to swarm and feed on the living. They, in fact, were once normal people, who became Pallid after losing their creativity glands. - Played for Laughs in Team Four Star's Dungeons & Dragons campaign. After Lanipator rolls a Natural 1 on a Knowledge check about the undead, he decides to play it for comedy by having his character Wake be a Flat-Earth Atheist who doesn't believe that the undead are real note : Specifically he thinks they're just corpses controlled by magic like a puppet on strings, rather than being sentient animated beings. He went through some amusing mental gymnastics to justify his attitude, especially considering that shortly after this "revelation", the party met a friendly lich sorcerer named Mr. Rattles. Later in the campaign it's explained that Wake is a Fanboy of the Ashdrakes, a family of Vampire Hunters who released their adventures as a series of novels. He initially assumed that the books were fiction, but the party ended up actually meeting one of the Ashdrakes, who told Wake that everything they wrote really happened — which finally leads to his realizing that the undead are real. - LA By Night: Much like it's source material, this is Enforced; one of the first things the other members of the Coterie drill into Annabelle's head is to never use the term "vampire" but "kindred" instead. - Left POOR Dead: The main characters are convinced that the zombies are actually poor people. - Many vlogs centered around The Slender Man Mythos very rarely have characters refer to the being as Slender Man, instead it's usually "it" or "that thing" or "the tall man". In Marble Hornets the creature isn't even named Slender Man, but "The Operator". His name is still never mentioned in the actual series. - Aladdin: The Series had a character that controlled what were obviously some form of Undead, but the words undead and zombie were never mentioned. Instead, they were always called Mamluks, which rather than being some kind of mythological creature, simply means "slave" in Arabic. While they were enslaved zombies. Historically, the mamluks were the soldiers of slave origin used by Muslim rulers to fight their wars. They became a powerful warrior caste, and some did reach the level of sultan (including one named Ala'a ad-Din (Aladdin)). Therefore, it would be correct to call them mamluks, which has nothing to do with their status of being undead. Strangely enough, one of the original sources of Arabian Nights was written down in the second half of the 13th century in the Mamluk kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. However, the undead of Persia/Arabia were typically referred to as "ghuls", or "ghouls". Iago does refer to them as zombies in the episode "Black Sands": "Big blue zombie at twelve oclock!" - Despite being excliptly animated entites living in a mostly live-action setting,the characters in The Amazing World of Gumball are never refered to as toons,the closest is the antagonist of the 6th season finale calling them out for their "cartoonish conduct". - For a sci-fi example, in The Bots Master, cybernetically enhanced humans are called "HumaBots" and not "cyborgs" or even any other commonly-used synonym. - In the Halloween episode of Bubble Guppies zombies are referred to as 'spooky monsters'. This is probably because the cartoon is aimed at preschoolers. - Apparently, ghosts do not possess people in the Danny Phantom universe. Rather, they "overshadow" people, which is... basically the same as possessing them. - Darkwing Duck: It's obvious that Paddywhack is meant to be a vampire, what with his fangs, gloomy color-scheme, Transylvanian accent, and how he says he never eats... pizza. Despite this, he's never called a vampire, although it's worth noting that he feeds on misery rather than blood, likely to keep the show kid-friendly. - In Gargoyles, The Fair Folk are important to the show's mythology, and are usually either called "the Third Race" or "Oberon's Children." Word of God noted that they avoided "fairies," "fey" or similar because they knew that most viewers wouldn't take them seriously. There was this bit when the concept is introduced, though: - In The Loud House, despite freaturing LGBTQ+ characters (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender), these are never refered with those names for strange reasons. - Played for Laughs in a Rugrats episode where Angelica convinces Chuckie he's going to turn into a rhinoceros. Tommy refuses to say the word and keeps saying "one of those things" instead. - In The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror XX" there is a 'muncher' outbreak started by eating infected hamburgers. Notably, the segment is mostly an extended parody of 28 Days Later, listed above. The Brazilian-Portuguese dub of that episode averted the trope and used the term 'zumbi' (zombie). - People fighting to end slavery usually refer to it as "Human Trafficking", because most people don't take the concept of modern-day slavery seriously. Part of the reason for that is that the word slavery tends to imply that it's legally sanctioned. Human trafficking emphasizes the fact that it's done by criminals, like drug trafficking. This is the cornerstone to the issue, though there are other points. At the start of the American Civil War, slaves that fled over to the Union side were referred to in official reports and newspapers as "contraband". Because prior to the 13th Amendment, slavery was still legal under the US Constitution note : and is still technically legal even today as a punishment for a crime. However, criminals resisting Federal authority (such raising an army against it!) could have their "property" confiscated as "contraband". Also, there are slaves who are not trafficked, and some forms of human trafficking which are thoroughly evil are not exactly slavery. One of the leading researchers in the field, Siddarth Kara, relates the story of meeting trafficked and sexually exploited women who — though technically freed — still worked the sex trade they had been trafficked into. Likewise, debt-bonded villagers in South Asia are slaves to the owners of their debts, but they are usually not trafficked into the area. Their young children, especially girls, may be trafficked out of the area. Whatever you imagine comes next, the reality is worse. Trafficking and slavery are highly related but not identical. - Writers of anything but media for DC and Marvel cannot use the term "Superhero" or derivative terms... on paper at least. In practice, the trademark is both relatively unenforceable and possibly illegal, but it does force people to use other terms for it in published media. See Differently Powered Individual for some examples; though that trope and this are not directly synonymous, they overlap. - In the post-World War II era, the US and European nations are often hesitant to describe the conflicts, emergencies, police actions, and stabilization missions that they are involved in as "wars", as that term implies a formal declaration of war against a foreign power, with all the sticky arguments and geopolitics that come from that. - Oddly enough, until the 1950s, there was a policy within the US National Weather Service forbidding the use of the word "tornado" fearing it would incite panic.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersAreDifferentlyNamed
Our Nudity Is Different - TV Tropes "Dude! Can you cover yourself up first?" "I hate to break it to you, but you're going to start panics going around with naked hands." This trope is for those characters that have a notably different definition of "private parts" than most of the audience. Different cultures have different ideas about what parts of the body can or cannot be shown, or even discussed. For some people on this Earth, even a woman's face or hair must not be exposed, while for others, you can be topless as long as you keep your shins covered (a girl has to have modesty, after all!), and in still others a small loincloth is all that's required. Then there's the characters in Fantasy/Sci Fi settings who may be outright scandalized if they discover their orthoblaxer (whatever that means) is showing. May overlap with Fantastic Arousal. A Super-Trope of Fully-Clothed Nudity, and Sub-Trope of Your Normal Is Our Taboo. See also Old-Timey Ankle Taboo, where it focuses on exposed ankles, and It's Not Porn, It's Art for when nudity in art causes differing ideas about which are explicit and which are not. Supertrope to Appropriate Animal Attire, which discusses what count as nudity for anthropomorphic animals. Please do not add real life examples unless historical or otherwise well-documented. ## Examples: - In Bladedance of Elementalers, the hero's contracted spirit, Est, considers her legs to be the only private regions of her body. She'll remove all her clothing without a second thought, but suggestions that she remove her knee-high stockings will bring immediate reprisal for perversion, and in some cases death threats. - In A Bride's Story, seeing a grown woman's hair uncovered by a headdress is shocking and provocative. - Mermaids in A Centaur's Life go around topless unless they are expecting visitors from the mountains or need to wear ritual garments. Otherwise the only thing they wear is a g-string tied at the sides over their bottom half. The manga even makes use of the Theiss Titillation Theory, as a pair of boys are more enthralled by a bikini model's picture than topless girls right in front of them. - In Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Kanoe Yuuko has no problem with her ghostly body being seen naked, but when her love interest finds her actual corpse she insists that he cover up the skeleton immediately and calls him a pervert for not doing so. Apparently a skeleton is as naked as you can get. - According to Otonashi-san's mother in High School Ninja Girl, Otonashi-san, taking off a kunoichi's mask is the same as taking off her underwear. This gets Arima into hot water when she walks in on an Accidental Pervert moment during which Otonashi's mask fell off (revealing a cold mask underneath). - In Let's Start An Inn On The Dungeon Island, true to the Victorian Era mores, but gender reversed, women see absolutely nothing wrong in giving the male protagonist Shirou an eyeful, but if they see his naked legs, it's scandalous. Worse, there's also a scene where Shirou has a female pirate captain recuperating from a stab wound unconscious in his bed, and he's at a mirror shaving his face while she's unconscious. For reference, his face is never covered and nobody has a problem with that. When she wakes up and sees it, she reacts as if she's been caught doing something extremely perverted. Shirou responds by saying "it's alright, you can watch if you want" which turns her red as a beet. - In Monster Musume, Miia is terribly embarrassed when Kimihito sees her shedding her skin. When Kimihito points out he's seen her naked and she was fine with that, Miia points out that for a Lamia, shedding your skin is more embarrassing than simple nudity. - Played With in My Hero Academia—Toru Hagakure is an Invisible Streaker who is usually somewhere between an Innocent or Shameless Fanservice Girl, but at one point asks Mashirao to not watch her actually take off her clothes... which at this point consisted of only shoes and gloves, anyway. - Seton Academy: Join the Pack!: Naked mole rats, as their name implies, prefer to be naked whenever possible and, in private, are regularly seen in just their underwear. Consequently, they view wearing clothing as humiliating as others would find being naked to the point where class president Miki Hadano sees other students' clothing in Pixellation and wonders how they can let themselves be seen in all their shame like that. - Allegory of the Four Seasons: As it was the standard in The Renaissance art, nudity holds no sexual appeal unless the artwork depicts the Grecorroman Goddess of love. It's instead, a way to distinguish preternatural beings from the common folk. The four seasons are partially nude because they are neither saints nor divine in nature (from the point of view of that era's canon), but still above normal humans. - The Birth of Venus (Cabanel): Nothing special for a Reclining Venus, portraying the Roman Goddess of Love as nude after having been born. The same goes for the putti hovering over her like seagulls. - Sandro Botticelli: Rennaissance art regards nudity as being of divine nature or, at least, nonhuman. Most of Botticelli's paintings follow this trend, although he often makes sure to cover his subject's genitalia. One example is his famous The Birth of Venus. - Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe: In a case of Your Normal Is Our Taboo, one of the reasons behind the painting's controversy is due to the figures in the painting were modern, the clothed figures wearing fashionable Parisian hinting at the painting being set in modern times. At the time, nude men and women depicted in paintings were normally goddesses and other mythical figures (see William-Adolphe Bouguereau's art for instance), so the fact that the nude woman is a regular human without the pretense of myth and time was considered scandalous for its day. Others followed in that trend, such as Gustave Courbet with L'Origine du monde. - In The Fallen Angel, nudity is not about sex appeal but about idealizing the painting's subject. Artistic idealism (one of the paradigms of the artistic movement Alexandre Cabanel belonged to) is the abstraction of reality through two filters: the artist's perception and a standard of perfection. Nakedness exalts the human's body natural beauty while, at the same time, conferring a supernatural aura to the subject. In Christian art, nudity is a symbol of shame. Overall, it makes Lucifer's simmering feelings appear rawer and helps distinguish the fallen Lucifer from the still divine angels in the background. - Nymphs and Satyr: Common for Classical Mythology art, not a single character is clothed, the only bit of textile being a bit of translucent fabric a nymph is playfully wrapping around the satyr's arm. While all of the genitalia is tastefully censored with said fabric and a tree branch, breasts and butts are on full display. - In All-Star Superman, the Kryptonian astronauts Bar-El and Lilo-El wear suits that cover their whole bodies, and Bar is disgusted when, in order to save Lilo from a fall that might have killed her, Superman catches her, touching her with his uncovered hands. - Archie Comics: - In one strip set in The Gay '90s, Archie has this reaction to a swimsuit that bares Veronica's... shoulders. - Another, set in the 1800s, has Betty and Veronica nearly arrested for wearing men's swimwear — a t-shirt and knee-length trunks combo. - When Betty and Veronica, in a story, meet their old version of the '50s (through the Memory Lane), Veronica is called out by the two girls for her "skimpy" outfit that bares her midriff. - When she first joins the Runaways, Klara, an immigrant from the 1900s, expresses shock at her female teammates baring their shoulders; throughout her early adventures with the team, her arms are frequently covered, either with full sleeves or a cape. Later, she adopts sleeveless dresses herself... but also spends a lot more time sulking. - In a "The Lighter Side of..." strip by MAD Magazine's Dave Berg, a young man is girl-watching at the beach when he starts musing on why certain body parts are 'sexy'. He begins wondering what a society that fetishized noses would be like, and gets so wrapped up in his 'what-if?' scenario that he starts ogling a woman with a bandage over the bridge of her nose, much to his friend's disgust. - In John Byrne's The Man of Steel, Kryptonian society near the end of the planet's life is so repressed that, when Lara views images of Earth, she freaks out when she sees a field worker (possibly Jonathan Kent) not wearing a shirt. - Back in the sixties, Mort Walker was told he wasn't allowed to show bellybuttons in Hi and Lois. He protested by featuring a box of navel oranges. - Changeling Courtship Rituals has Queen Chrysalis questioning the point of strippers when ponies are usually naked anyway. Pinkie Pie explains that "It's not what they're not wearing, but how they take it off." - Dungeon Keeper Ami has Keeper Mercury's outfit being too much for most people in the Dungeon Keeper world, since they consider her skirt to be too short for a girl her age. - In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, the Psyches view Smurfs as "savages" due to the male Smurfs constantly exposing their torsos, which is why the Psyches themselves wear bodysuits that cover everything but their heads. The Smurfs themselves see nakedness as simply not wearing a hat, which leads to their "getting under each other's hat" ritual that Empath and Smurfette engage in in "Empath's Honeymoon" when they consummate their marriage together, particularly since a male Smurf's bald head is considered an erogenous zone. - In Flag Flying High, Lan Sizhui is very flustered by the possibility of taking his headband off — since his sect only allows it in the strictest intimacy. He has the same reaction when he fantasizes about seeing his crush with his hair flowing free — something done in bed — and reacts to Harry wearing jeans and a t-shirt as if the other boy was wandering in his undergarments, only calming when Harry also puts robes on. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction occasionally sexualize certain outfits (socks, wet manes, themed costumes like maid dresses, actual lingerie) even though the ponies are otherwise completely naked by default. - In The Rise of Darth Vulcan, Vulcan in nonplussed by the concept of the usually-nudist ponies wearing lingere. He's met with the reply "what's the fun of a Hearts-and-Hooves present without the fancy wrapping to tear off?" - A surprisingly common bit of fanon for works centered around Sonic the Hedgehog with its furrier cast. Apparently pants, shirts and the like are optional, but an anthro is only considered naked if lacking shoes and gloves. A good example would Sonic Eggs where Sonic is horrified their human hosts remove Clone Shadow's gloves and shoes in the presence of ladies Amy and Cream. - In Splint, Orcs and Men of Gondor have very different views on nudity. Rukhash thinks nothing of walking about with only a loincloth on, which Cadoc is positively mortified about. When Rukhash figures out why he's embarrassed, she finds it both confusing and hilarious. - Star Trek: Phoenix: An early stumbling block when Sunset and Twilight are adapting to life on Earth is that the galaxy's humanoid societies are profoundly uncomfortable with nudity — Equestrian society has no such taboos, and it takes some effort to explain that their preferred way of going around in public would be considered indecent. - The War of the Masters: It's explained at least once (in The Burning Of Beruns World) that Orions consider it taboo for religious reasons to go about clothed beyond a Chainmail Bikini (for women; men are allowed to cover more skin but not by much) without life or death need (i.e. they make an exception for environment suits and body armor). Damojena "D'Moj" Massana, an Orion who adopted aspects of Klingon culture in rebellion against her own, deliberately wears clothing that covers her up to her neck at all times. - Chaos Walking (2021): Having been raised in a small, all-male community that emphasizes survival above everything, Todd thinks nothing of stripping off all his clothes in front of Viola - a girl he barely knows - to jump in a river. Viola can only stare at him in silent disbelief. - In The Great Race (set in 1908), Maggie DuBois daringly exposes her stockings to the newspaper editor, Mr. Goodbody. - The Hour of the Pig: It's accurately shown that Renaissance Europeans had a very casual attitude to nudity, even with the opposite sex. Men and women are seen bathing freely in the bathhouse. Courtois even discusses this with the village priest, who's in a tub with him, asking about its morality. The priest replies that it's only immoral if the person is your close relative, like a sister (he then gets distracted as a nude nun walks by). - Claudette Colbert famously pulled up her skirt to bare her knee and thigh in It Happened One Night (1934) as a way to hitch-hike a car. While not exactly nudity for the time, it was suggestive enough to stop traffic! - Ophelia removes all her clothes save for a long-sleeved shift that reaches her ankles to go swimming. By most modern Western standards she's overdressed to go swimming, but given this is medieval Denmark, she's essentially in her underwear and the characters react accordingly. When Hamlet and Horatio stumble across her, she and Horatio are quite embarrassed, while Hamlet becomes flirty with her; she chides him for staring and then starts flirting back by slowly rising out of the water. She refuses to get out of the water until they're not looking and then sprints away, clutching her gown over herself. - Pirates of the Caribbean - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: When Jack rescues Elizabeth from drowning and is trying to resuscitate her, he tears off her dress and he cuts off her corset, leaving her in just a chemise. Since her life is on the line, concerns like modesty go out the window. Once it's clear she's ok, though, modesty comes back. A chemise and corset are both underwear—she's wearing her underwear in front of a bunch of men in on a public pier. The man left holding the cut-off corset embarrassedly drops it, like one might drop a bra. Elizabeth's father holds out a jacket to bundle her into to cover her chemise. - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has a male character ecstatic at seeing a woman's ankles. Meanwhile, Jack is disappointed at not seeing more. Of course, having been with many women, he's presumably less impressed by ankles alone. - In Star Wars continuity, the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine have a taboo about showing any part of their unclothed bodies to anyone except their mates (and even then, it's done in private), or some midwives when they're born (parents don't even see their children naked). If anyone else ever sees a Tusken Raider's face, he will make it his lifelong quest to kill that person, and not stop until he has succeeded or he himself is dead. - Played for laughs in Topsy-Turvy, when one of the cast objects to wearing a kimono that leaves his ankles exposed, feeling this is an inappropriate level of nudity. - The French film Les Visiteurs starts with the King of France meeting his secret lover, an English noblewoman, in a barn, and begging her to show him something before they part. She lifts up her long skirt a bit... to show him her ankles. The king treats the sight as if she just flashed him. The American remake (with the two protagonists being played by the same actors) doesn't have this scene. Counterintuitively, there was no particular nudity taboo in the Middle Ages. Conduct was another matter. - In The Wrong Box set in the Victorian era, Michael Caine does some furniture-moving, rolling up his sleeve enough to reveal his wrist. Nanette Newman is so overcome by this that she faints on the sofa, revealing her stocking-clad ankle, which in turn sends Michael Caine's character into paroxysms of desire. - In the Ancillary Justice series, the Radchaai have a taboo regarding showing one's hands/arms in public and therefore go around in long gloves. Consequently, Radchaai find it erotic to watch performers playing string instruments either gloveless or wearing very thin gloves (essentially their equivalent of Vapor Wear). In a more intimate setting, walking around with one glove is like walking around in your underwear. - In Animorphs, Ax (a blue, four-legged alien) comments that humans use clothing to cover the parts they consider "inappropriate" but they hide the wrong bits. According to Ax, there is nothing as ugly as a human nose. - In the Apprentice Adept series, serfs on Proton are required to go naked at almost all times, and thus, for one serf to conceal their intimate regions from another is considered a racy act. Protective wear is allowed for the jobs that need it, and if it's part of one of the Games... but that's it. Once you're done, clothes off. - The Brightest Shadow: Used along the lines of real world variants. Some cultures consider pants wildly inappropriate for women, others insist on the torso being entirely covered, and the Rhen are considered scandalous by many despite their clothes seeming normal to most western readers. - In A Brother's Price people are somewhat relaxed about female nudity; for example the protagonist stripping off the wet clothes of an unconscious, injured woman seems to be no big deal. He has to be chaperoned, though, for which purpose a couple of female toddlers seem to be enough. Male nudity heavily depends on whether the man's sisters are present — in public, a man should be veiled, but a group of tailors are allowed to see him in his underwear, with his older sisters present at all times. - In Frederik Pohl's The Coming Of The Quantum Cats novel, which concerns the interaction of multiple alternate timelines, one such timeline involves the USA being dominated by extreme moral conservatives (due, it seems bizarrely, to the influence of the wealthy Arabs who dominate world affairs). In which even men are not allowed to wear topless bathing costumes — they must resort to the Old-Timey Bathing Suit, something which the main character only dares try to remove when no-one else is looking. - In Donald Kingsbury's Courtship Rite, Getans gradually decorate their skin with scars and tattoos. Scarred skin can be freely displayed in public, but showing unmodified skin is considered titillating and/or scandalous. The Liethe clan leave their skin unmodified, both for sex appeal, and to disguise the fact that they make heavy use of cloning. - In The Curse Workers trilogy, dangerous magic that requires direct contact between the magic user's hand and the target's skin has led to the custom of wearing gloves at all times. This custom has been in place for so long that bare hands are regarded as indecent and titillating even if their owner is not a magic user and baring one's hands in another person's presence is a show of supreme intimacy. - In the Darkness Series, the hot desert country of Zuwayza has no nudity taboo, its people usually going naked except for sandals and a wide-brimmed hat. Ambassadors of other countries there naturally find this a bit disquieting, though one from the kingdom of Algarve "goes native" and sometimes turns up to meetings naked... and the Zuwayzi find this disquieting because all Algarvians are circumcised, not a custom they have ever used. - In Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, women commonly wear their hair in butterfly clips so as not to expose the nape of the neck, which would be indecent. - In the Destroyermen series: - The Mi-anaaka deem toplessness for females acceptable. Actually, their sense of modesty is almost nonexistent, and the main indecency is going without a kilt after puberty. - After the Destroyermen reach \|\|New Britain\|\|, they see that it is the norm for those with "indentures" to have no clothing on, and is very rarely seen in a sexual light. - Discworld: - In The Last Hero, we're told there is a religion in Ankh-Morpork which prohibits women from showing their ears, lest they inflame the passions of men. - In Unseen Academicals, the wizards are adamant they can't wear shorts that expose their knees, for fear of the effect this might have on women. The one woman who hears this has trouble keeping a straight face. - This prudishness seems to be entirely confined to the presence of women, however — in Night Watch Discworld, the Archchancellor is completely oblivious as to why another wizard thinks he's "inappropriately dressed" after hurriedly getting out of the bath — he's wearing his hat, after all, and that's what matters. Although that's only around other (male) wizards — when an actual woman enters the scene, he hastily requisitions another hat to cover himself with. - In Making Money, the University's golem-expert is titillated by the prospect of relocating to a place where he'll actually be able to see women's ankles. Presumably it's lucky that he's already a ghost, else he'd have keeled over with heart failure upon actually entering the Pink Pussycat Club.... - Trolls consider near-nudity to be the norm; it's when a troll woman starts putting clothes on that she's singled out as provocatively-dressed. Troll "robers" from the Strippers' Guild actually put on layer after layer of clothing during their acts. (Their view on time also may play a small part: The past is 'ahead', since you can "see" it, and the future is 'behind' you, since you can't. So someone putting clothes on, from past to future, would be viewed in a future-to-past way as...) - In Hellspark by Janet Kagan, the Janisetti consider the feet to be a private part; walking around with no shoes on can get a person arrested for public indecency. - In Robert J. Sawyer's novel, Illegal Alien, the aliens are given a different view on the taboo than humans as to emphasize their otherness. One of the two groups of aliens which make first contact in the novel posses a taboo against internal anatomy, believing that the guts are not to be shown to the world because they are held within. By contrast, they hold no qualms about nudity or sexuality in any manner. This is emphasized greatly in a trial scene in which an alien is asked to explain their anatomy to the court, and they proceed to have great troubles bringing himself to do so, while he has no trouble explaining or demonstrating the nature of their sexuality and, in fact, expresses confusion over the human tendency to hide it. The latter stems from the fact that their females have four uteruses, and thus usually mate with four males in succession. - Famously John Carter of Mars has the Martians wear little to nothing save for harnesses to hang their weapons and pouches to carry other items, and the occasional jewelry. The artwork on covers and such that show them with loincloths and barely-there nipple coverings on women is adding clothing. Barsoom culture simply does not care. - Kris Longknife: - Defiant: Kris attends a festival on the Hikilan islands, which are ethnic Polynesian, in native garb. Which for her as a "virgin" (i.e. an unmarried woman) means lots of body paint, flower garlands around her waist to cover her privates, and nothing else. - The vacation of choice for the Alwan humans is a beachfront resort where no clothing is required at all. Except in the dinner pavilion, where there's a sign posted saying "no total nudity" (i.e. cover your genitals, anything else goes). - In addition to this, maneuvering at high gravities with clothes on tends to result in painful bruises from fasteners and medals, so ship crew at Alwa Station customarily enter their high- g stations nude. Consequently, after spending several years on Alwa, in the sequel series Kris, Abby, and various other people attached to the United Society mission to the Iteeche think very little of swimming nude with their various children in the embassy swimming pool. - In the Liaden Universe series, Liadens consider the face to be a private area; showing it in public is unavoidable, but touching it or drawing attention to it is impolite, as is looking too long at another person's. (Wearing a mask counts as drawing attention, in the same class as wearing decorative make-up.) The Liaden language has a lot of emphasis on hand gestures and other body language to convey the information that Terrans use facial expression for; showing any facial expression in public is another impoliteness. Touching another person's face is an extremely intimate act; there are several instances in the series of Liadens being surprised by how quickly Terrans escalate to kissing, which a Liaden couple wouldn't even consider before they were married (and possibly not even after.) - Memoirs of a Geisha: - Sayuri explains that geisha generally do not go out without their makeup on, so to leave just a little bit of bare skin unpainted at the hairline is a very suggestive thing indeed, hinting at what lies beneath. Additionally, necks are considered very attractive and a geisha will wear a kimono with a low collar in the back in the same way a Western woman would wear a short skirt. - Mameha teaches Sayuri that the same theory applies to wrists, when pulling the sleeve back slightly to pour tea. - In The Monster Baru Cormorant, about a century ago, when Falcrest was ruled by kings, there was a taboo on bare calves. Our Nudity Is Different is invoked, as this is brought up in comparison to contemporary Kyprananoke not attaching any obscenity to topless women: nudity is a matter of culture, and going around shirtless in the island heat and humidity of Kyprananoke is just sensible dress. - In one of AP Herbert's More Misleading Cases in the Common Law, when a man is charged with indecency for entering the sea wearing the "wrong" sort of swimsuit, a judge goes into a bit of a rant about this, contrasting the 19th century definition of "indecency" used by the municipal council with a more liberal 1920s definition: Mr Justice Wool: Stuff and nonsense, constable! The male torso is not indecent. If it is hairy it may be unattractive: but so is the male foot. So is your face; but the Council cannot compel you to drape it. A lady's back is not indecent: it may be attractive, but so are a lady's eyes. The act says "indecency" not "allure". My father wore nothing but drawers. So did I. - The Mr. Men rarely wear much clothing, being Living Polyhedrons, but Mr. Bump is embarrassed when Little Miss Naughty swipes his bandages. - The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov takes place on Solaria, a planet with such a small population that individuals rarely ever come into direct contact with another human and they communicate only by holographic messenger systems. While they consider nudity in person to be inappropriate, they have no problem with nudity over The Alternet. This causes some humorous misunderstandings when Earth detective Elijah Bailey comes to investigate a murder. - In The Night Angel Trilogy, Sethi consider showing ankles to be obscene but have no problem showing breasts. In fact, Sethi wedding dresses are almost more like wedding skirts from the description. Sethi who spend too long living away from home often have trouble readjusting their standards of modesty. - Played for Deliberate Values Dissonance in The Poisonwood Bible. Kilanga women hide their legs under long skirts and think nothing of going topless. Missionary Nathan Price is shocked by their indecency; the Kilanga are similarly shocked by Mrs. Price wearing pants. - In Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels, Maria and her mother host a dinner party for purposes of ensnaring Clement Hollis, whom Maria is in love with. Mamusia instructs her daughter to wear a low-cut top — they're Romani, so while their legs must be covered, cleavage is just fine. - In A Song of Ice and Fire, Qartheen women habitually wear gowns that leave one breast bare. - In Soulmate, Hannah Snow's Past-Life Memories provide a few examples: - When Hana first meets Thierry, or Theorn as he was known then, he's wearing nothing but a loincloth. It's mentioned that Hana is used to seeing people wear very little as her Stone Age tribe have few taboos around nudity, though she still gets a bit flustered seeing him nearly naked, underlining her growing attraction to him despite him supposedly being a demon. - Ha-nahkt is mentioned as wearing a long skirt, a jewelled necklace and absolutely nothing to cover her chest while performing her priestess duties, which she's unbothered by even when encountering strangers. It was common in Ancient Egypt for women to go topless. - In Stephen King's The Stand, 108-year-old Abagail Freemantle remembers appearing on a talent show back in 1902. Before her, a woman performed a "racy French dance", showing her ankles. - Star Carrier: It's not uncommon for holograms to be used in lieu of clothing at public events (presumably, nanoimplants control any leakage). In fact, it's equally acceptable for holographic uniforms to be used even in the military. Nudity is perfectly acceptable among friends, whether they want to have sex or not. The only people who feel weird about it are those born on the Periphery (former coastal cities that have been flooded by global warming and a Colony Drop). They still cling to "outdated" ideas like monogamy. - This is also seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Masks (not to be confused with the episode). The heroes had to improvise with Halloween masks. The part where the rebel leader shows her face to Picard is played as a romantically charged moment. - In the Star Trek Novel Verse, the Breen Confederacy consists of multiple races who wear identical environmental suits to ensure everyone is treated equally. As a result, any uncovered skin (or fur, or liquid surface, or whatever) is taboo. - As Hildy Johnson, the protagonist of John Varley's Steel Beach points out, nudity may be entirely practical in Luna's sealed environments but since it's the default human condition it's considered boring, conservative and unfashionable. Most people wear some clothing as a means of personal expression and all professions have some uniform, item, badge, or hat denoting guild membership. Some people just like having pockets to carry things in. - The Stormlight Archive: - The cultures based on the Vorin religion consider a woman with her left hand, called the "safehand" bare to be provocative. Commoner women wear a glove to cover it while noblewomen wear dresses with left sleeves that cover the entire arm and hand, buttoned shut. Using it for basically anything at all is considered a breach of propriety, and even touching someone with their clothed left hand is considered a very intimate gesture. Men have no such restrictions. Tyn: It's just a hand, Shallan. Storms, you Vorins are so prim. That hand looks exactly like your other hand. Shallan: And you can see the outline of my breasts under my dress, but that doesn't mean I'm going to display those. - The tradition is based on the concept that anything feminine can be done with one hand (such as writing, painting, and research/science). It's implied a few times that this tradition was created to keep women from using Shardblades, which impossibly lightweight for their size, but still require two hands to wield. However the book that established the official standards was written by a woman, and says that only women should read and write, resulting in women being in charge of basically all scholarship, communication and paperwork. Dalinar muses that he's not sure getting Shardblades was a good trade in the exchange. - In Robert A. Heinlein juvenile Time for the Stars written in 1956, the hero leaves for a decades-long relativity trip and when he returns is shocked to find that standards have changed: his father, late in the 20th Century, would never have allowed his sisters to appear, even at the breakfast table, without hats. - Jack Vance: - In his short story "The Moon Moth", everybody keeps their faces covered at all times by stylized masks that show the wearer's current social standing. Not even spouses ever see each other's naked faces. - Similarly, in his Marune: Alastor 933 the act of eating is considered taboo among the upper class: people will eat in private, and couples having an intimate dinner will barely conceal all of that intensely private stuffing of food into a facial orifice behind small table-mounted screens. - In Kilgore Trout's Venus on the Half-Shell note : "Kilgore Trout" was a fictional sci-fi writer invented by Kurt Vonnegut. However, Venus on the Half-Shell was actually ghostwritten by Philip José Farmer., an alien race known as the Shonks regard their faces as their private parts. Thus, they always wear masks in public, and arrest the space-travelling protagonist for indecent exposure. - The classic SF story The Wheels of If by L. Sprague de Camp has a scene on an alternate Earth where belly buttons are considered obscene... but nothing else is, resulting in Barely-There Swimwear of an unusual sort. The protagonist (who is from our Earth) doesn't realize this at first, he just notices that everyone seems to be walking around what he considers to be nude, so he takes his clothes off to fit in... and is promptly arrested for "Shameful Outputting" of his navel (the person explaining exactly what he's being charged with can barely bring himself to say it). - WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Lamia have no cultural nudity taboo, so Lin is initially confused when the human characters tell her to Please Put Some Clothes On. Her bottom half is a particular problem since she has no legs, so she ends up wearing a set of wraps in an x-shape over her breasts and a sarong around her hips to cover her genitals. - In World War, the Race wear no clothing (except in cold climates), but they are covered by intricate bodypaint from head to toe, which indicates their rank and position. The more intricate the pattern, the higher the rank. Naturally, bodypaint has to be reapplied daily (sometimes, more frequently). Fast-forward after the end of the hostilities, and the next generation of humans see nothing wrong with walking around in barely any clothing (sometimes, no clothing at all, females included), using bodypaint patterns as substitute. Naturally, the older generation finds this improper, but good luck telling teenagers that. In the final novel, the protagonists return to Earth in the 21st century and discover that there is now absolutely nothing wrong with a gameshow girl walking around with her breasts bare on live TV, while half the audience is likewise topless or completely nude (may or may not be covered in bodypaint). - In Young Wizards, an alien resembling a walking fir tree uses a decency field to cover his roots. - In "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for "Amish Paradise", two Amish boys are reading a Playboy-esque magazine for the Amish. The centerfold features a woman revealing... her shin. - The hooker-advertising-her-wares strip tease described by Nancy in Oliver!: "Pretty little Sally goes walking down the alley, displays her pretty ankles for all of the men. They can see her garters, but not for free and gratis — an inch or two, and then she knows when to say when!" - In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now God knows... Anything Goes. - The Kasatha are a minor alien race in Pathfinder and a more prominent one in Starfinder. Kasatha traditions of modesty require that the mouth be covered at all times. To date, no living Kasatha has been depicted with a bare mouth in either system's official art. The closest artwork has gotten was some reanimated Kasatha skeletons in the first part of the Iron Gods Adventure Path (and all that tells us is that they have human-like jaws). - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay mentions Bretonnians have a taboo against women showing uncovered hair and adds that if one was to accidentally catch a Bretonnian lady bathing naked her instinct would be to use her towel to cover her hair. - Reeves are a race of mercenaries and warriors in the Planescape setting who are averse to anyone seeing their faces, including other reeves, keeping their faces hidden by helmets or veils. If anyone sees a reeve's face, the reeve becomes obsessed with finding and killing that person. (Although, enough dead reeves have been examined for their looks to be documented; they have four eyes, no hair, and pebbly skin.) - In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones the L'Arachel/Ephraim support conversations have L'Arachel panic at the sight of Ephraim's bare shoulder (which he exposed so she could heal an injury to it). It should be noted that L'Arachel's own shoulders are constantly exposed. - Starlow of the Mario & Luigi games takes offence at being described as nude in Dream Team, pointing out that she's wearing shoes (which are the only things she's actually wearing). Given that she's a Star Sprite with no discernible 'parts' to speak of, it's not a stretch to assume that they must consider barefootedness to be nudity. - Star Control contains two examples. - The Utwig are a race that consider it highly inappropriate to show one's face, so much of their society's etiquette is revolved around wearing different masks for different occasions, including disposable ones for the bathroom. Masks that cover less are considered highly titilating, including the "infamous lewd monocle". - The Slylandro are a sort of example. They are gaseous beings whose visual sensors respond to different wavelengths than ours; we can see right through them, and note that they have "glowy bits" within their bodies. If asked about these, the Slylandro become very flustered and embarassed, as the glowy bits are apparently involved in reproduction and they can't see them. You are politely requested not to bring the matter up again. Especially around Sullen Plummet; she's shy. - Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Matilda helpfully explains Furcadian modesty standards in this bonus comic. - In Drowtales, drow usually wear high collars so that it became Fanon that they view the neck as a private part. Confirmed as Ascended Fanon at the bottom of this page. However it's apparently not strictly enforced. - Becky from Dumbing of Age had a very conservative and religious upbringing which drilled it into her that all of the body's naughty parts must always be covered up. When she starts dating the Never Bareheaded Dina, she discovers that her brain extrapolated this information into "any body part that is always covered up must be naughty", and develops a fetish for seeing the top of Dina's head. Cue multiple failed Zany Schemes to get that hat off her head. Of course, the whole time all Becky had to do was ask her to remove it. - In Earthsong, people of Weaver's species consider it obscene to show the mouth, and Weaver mentions that he had to get used to seeing other species go around unveiled. Justified since they communicate through Telepathy, only use their mouths to eat, and \|\|are hiding some seriously Scary Teeth behind those veils\|\|. - In Goblins, one of the alternate-universe adventuring parties in the Maze of Many came from a world where exposing one's nose is considered obscene. - Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy; Usaginarian females consider it indecent to be seen in public without their bunny-ear hats. Vanilla's crown is deemed close enough to count when she's on another planet. - This Hark! A Vagrant strip brilliantly invokes the Old-Timey Ankle Taboo. - In Hominids, with the exception of female Mountain-Dwellers it is considered appropriate for any hominid species to go topless due to the culture of Mountain-Dwellers. - In Housepets!, most notably "The Arc Specifically About Being Naked", domestic animals (but not wild animals living in civilisation) are considered naked if they're not wearing their collars. This is repeatedly lampshaded as making no sense whatsoever. - In Kaza's Mate Gwenna the naked jungle heroes were called by Dimensional Traveler Jenny Anywhere (A literal Jenny Everywhere clone) to go to the Alternate Universe of Earth-N. A world where almost everyone is naked, including the super heroes who fly around with nothing but masks on. - League of Super Redundant Heroes: Buckaress has such a Stripperiffic costume that she "feels naked" wearing an ordinary sweater and jeans. - In Humon's Love and Tentacles, Frida is embarrassed to discover she's been waving her smaller tentacles around in front of Tom's mother. - In Not Quite Daily Comic, the spheroid alien Bobbles (can) only wear clothing on their feet. After becoming humanoid through magic, they do use clothes yet don't consider themselves naked as long as their feet remain covered. - Bastin from TwoKinds always hide their feet, from the ball of their toes to their ankles. One can get away with Sarashi-like bandages, but the fashion seems to be an armored foot-sleeve dealie-o. Word of God is they have a species wide foot fetish, and thus consider bare feet nudity. Alaric's statue of Keith has only the feet covered. - This captioned picture plays with an internet meme. - The CollegeHumor page on "If the Internet Always Existed" has bare ankles on the 1900 version of a porn site. - In Tales of MU, a nymph's divine beauty is meant to be seen, and the act of wearing clothes in public, denying others the pleasure of seeing (and holding) such beauty, is indecent by nymph standards. Mack learns about this upon walking in on Amaranth trying on a bathrobe in her own room. - One online picture dealing with a succubus' mode of dress uses the "inverted" version. Everyday running around is stark nude, "Daring" is only a corset, and by the end she's incredibly embarrassed to be dressed in a parka and snow hat. - Throughout the Victorian Era, the sight of a woman's ankle was considered outright scandalous. The same was true of men without jackets - in modern-day Britain, it is perfectly respectable to go outside in just a shirt without a waistcoat and suit jacket, but in the 1800s a shirt was underwear and being 'stripped to your shirtsleeves' was nudity. According to The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London, "naked" could be used by the Victorians to mean anything from "clad only in underclothes" to "not wearing an overcoat". - An apocryphal story has a 17th-century Spanish queen note : Said to be Mariana of Austria, second wife of Philip IV passing through a town renowned for its silk production, where the merchants presented her with a gift of stockings. Since they were effectively lingerie in the time period, her scandalized attendant threw them aside, declaiming, "Know that a Queen of Spain has no legs.". The story ends with Mariana, who was around fourteen years old by then, crying as she feared her legs would be cut off once in Spain. - Professional Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested at Revere Beach, Massachusetts in 1907, for wearing an indecent bathing suit. Here it is,◊ covering her from neckline to mid thigh. - Kimono Fanservice mentions in passing a fetish for the nape of the neck. There was never a taboo against showing them, however. - The "CAP" Alert Christian movie review website frequently deprecates movies where females wear "form-revealing tops". - In some African cultures, thighs are considered indecent to show, yet breasts are A-OK, hence you'll see women wearing skirts long enough to cover their thighs and nothing on top. In fact, people of these cultures will find it hilarious when they are told of the Western fetishization of breasts, believing those who buy into this to be like babies. - The Mormons' idea of dressing modestly is that which will cover their temple garments, which are basically a white T-shirt and white shorts with special symbols embroidered on them. Showing any part of their temple garments in public (especially to a non-Mormon) is considered a taboo in the LDS Church. The idea is that if the garments can be seen, then the outfit is too revealing, so anything sleeveless or backless is automatically out, as well as anything that shows too much thigh. note : Note that there do seem to be exceptions for things like athletic wear, else Brigham Young University wouldn't have a Division I (and quite good) women's gymnastics team which dresses in the conventional manner, i.e. leotards. - Ancient Minoan artwork depicts women walking around in outfits that cover their legs, but upper body coverings leave their breasts exposed. - Men of the Kapauku tribes of Papua New Guinea often wear nothing but penis-shafts, which will cover the penis (while often being comically oversized) but leave the testicles, buttocks and rest of the body exposed. - In some modern Asian countries, it is considered somewhat risque for women to show their shoulders or neckline below the collarbone, but wearing extremely short shorts or skirts is perfectly fine. At the same time, men don't typically go topless as often as they do in the West. It is not uncommon to see t-shirts over swimsuits for both men and women. - In Korean spas, which are segregated by gender, the clients typically go completely nude, especially in the saunas. Margaret Cho was therefore quite shocked when, during a visit to one, she was asked to put on a robe because some of the older clients were uncomfortable with her tattoos. - This is essentially why nude or topless beaches are more common in Europe than the rest of the world (though opinions on nudity in other settings vary). - Australia has a European perspective on beach wear. This commercial from New Zealand was later reused there with a slightly different voice over, and demonstrates the setting specific standards by showing the transition from normal male beachwear of briefs (togs) into indecent exposure (undies!) just by walking inland and boarding a bus, elevator, etc. - One of the most enduring and widespread dress styles during the middle ages featured a rather low cut that showed off the breast (even nipples), and an extremely low cut on the back (often down to near the waist). At the same time these dresses tended to be ground length and would never have been shorter than knee length. In modern Europe, women in period dresses of the same style often add a (mostly) anachronistic cloth over the torso while those same re-enacters tend to comment on how their dresses show no leg. - Until the early 20th century, it was considered indecent for women to have their hair loose, and for men to go outside without a jacket or other profession-appropriate cover for their shirt. It was even considered inappropriate for men to remove their jackets when indoors, except for reasons like excessive heat. - As recently as the 1990s, one company in London was notorious for instantly firing any of its [male] employees caught in the main elevator without their jackets. - The English comedian Zoe Lyons has a stand-up routine about how she fell victim to this; her Dutch girlfriend, for whom nudity is no big deal, persuaded her with great difficulty to come to a nudist beach where they both stripped and lay down to sunbathe. Lyons fell asleep, and woke up to find her now fully-dressed girlfriend about to go off and find food for them. Lyons stood up to go with her, but then over the sand dune came two old and fully-clothed Swiss friends of Lyons' girlfriend who greeted her affectionately, not batting an eyelid at the fact that Lyons wasn't wearing anything, because after all it was a nude beach and they were being relaxed and European about it. Politeness obliged Lyons to stand around completely naked making small talk for several minutes with three fully-clothed people, including two complete strangers, to her own crippling embarrassment. The others weren't embarrassed at all. - "This film contains ethnographic nudity" is a warning message seen at the beginning of many anthropology and cultural tourism documentaries focused on tribal communities, usually of the South Pacific, Central Africa, or the Amazon, meaning that the native people will be shown in their normal state of (un)dress without post-processing blur and that their nudity will be treated as a non-issue rather than as embarrassing or titillating. - Many female specific variations begin as ways for upper class women to distinguish themselves and emphasize their status, then filter down as the economic conditions improve or modernize; more women no longer have to deal with physical labor considerations and begin emulating the wealthy. - In ancient (and even some modern) Asian cultures, a noblewoman's bare feet were considered almost as private as her genitals. Even now, in many parts of the world baring the soles of your feet is viewed as not just indecent, but insulting. - The degree of cover that is the norm in Islamic countries varies widely by history, geography, and economics. There is a general call to modesty in the Koran, but what meets that criteria is not defined (males are also instructed to be modest, but morality is typically not attached as it is for women). Most Muslim nations meet this with the hijab, a covering for the neck and hair, but several nations and cultures are more relaxed, such as Jordan and the Tuaregs. In the Ottoman and Persian Empires and for thousands of years before them, the higher a woman's status the more she covered herself; wearing a veil generally indicated that a woman was high-class, and hiding the eyes from view could indicate nobility. Some of their successor nations, particularly in the Gulf, have taken this to an extreme in part to emphasize their recent economic rise, in part due to conservative movements that have increased influence since the latter half of the 1900s. What is considered indecent continues to vary - one recent innovation is the burkini, which covers the hair, hands, and legs and includes a skirt to allow for modesty at the beach and in competitive swimming. - Other conservative religious groups also include modesty among their strictures, and also often attach indecency only to female compliance. Married Orthodox Jewish women wear head coverings, which can include wigs, while Christian groups often don't restrict headwear, but do generally emphasize form obscuring dresses. - Conversely, in the Tuareg culture of North Africa men wrap a fold of their trademark indigo turban (Tagelmust) across their faces at all times while in public (to the point where their faces become permanently blue as the dye leaches into their skin, which is why the Tuareg are sometimes called "The Blue People"), but women do not cover their faces at all. A man baring his face in public is seen as shameful, as the wearing of the veil is a rite of passage into manhood. - The Western attitude to showing female hair from about 1600-1850 flipped the general economic model. Mothers (or women who'd been married for long enough that they were expected to be mothers), widows, little girls (and little boys, who wore the same clothes as girls) and old maids (that is, single women over about twenty-five) wore caps. So did servants and nearly all working class women (being caught outside without one was a pretty sure indicator of a prostitute). But ladies — those who were daughters or wives of the landowning class, that is — didn't wear them with evening wear, and single young ladies who were 'out' — that is, available and looking for marriage — didn't wear them at all (Jane Austen's adoption of them at the age of twenty-three can probably be read as her giving up on men at this point). Over the 19th century they dwindled to being only for widows and servants, and that to only a kind of token headband by World War One. - As for going outdoors, both sexes were expected to wear hats whenever they left the house until quite recently (the reason people stopped is thought to be the advent of cars). Men, however, were supposed to take them off when they entered a building — especially a church — to show respect, and by extension to briefly raise their hat as a respectful greeting (though this might have come from the fact that they would bow slightly at such moments until the early 19th century — bowing would make your hat fall off). Women, however, would usually have their hat tied on or pinned to their hair, so they would only remove it when at home. (Hats also went on over the aforementioned caps.) - The painting Olympia by Édouard Manet depicts a nude woman on a bed. When it was exhibited in Paris in 1865, it was considered immoral and vulgar, not because of the nudity, but because the details of the painting imply that the woman is a prostitute, and also because the woman is staring directly at the viewer, unashamed of her nudity. His Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe is similar in this regard, with one of the women being nude and staring straight at the viewer. - Married Orthodox Jewish women, in addition to wearing conservative clothing, are also required to cover their hair, using a wig, a hat or sometimes both. In some sects women are only required to cover a part of their hair, while in others they are not allowed for a single strand of their actual hair to be visible. The Satmar Hasidic sect takes this to the point where married women have to shave their heads entirely. - While Modern Orthodox men often dress pretty "normally," save for a head covering, Haredi and Hasidic men would be considered under-dressed in anything but a suit. - A subversion: when the Spanish colonials tried to conquer the Araucanians in South America, the natives kidnapped many Spanish women; most were later returned in a peace deal, wearing native-made clothes and naked from the waist down. However, the Araucanians had the same understanding of nudity as Europeans; they were invoking this trope to mock the way the Spanish viewed their culture and assumed National Geographic Nudity. - Nudity in children has been more tolerated than in adults for most of history, not least because little kids grow so rapidly that keeping them fully clothed involves much more work and expense. Modern parents' Pedo Hunt fears did more to put an end to this than any amount of pressure from Moral Guardians; of course, part of the reason is that, until relatively recently, it was assumed that nobody would be sexually interested in children. The greatly reduced costs of clothes in the modern era is probably why nobody has really complained about this transition much. - Nude swimming was the norm in many boys' gym classes in schools up until the 1950s: another practice that fell away with the declining cost of clothing (swimwear included) and the prevalent homophobia of that highly-conservative era. - Japanese culture still has a fairly lax attitude toward boys being naked, which is why you'll sometimes see it uncensored in anime. Again, the assumption is just that people will just see it as kids being kids rather than something sexual. - In some parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, throughout most of China and Korea under the Confucian society, and earlier periods of Japan, for the men it was considered indecent for their hair or top of their head to be shown in public. Hence many fashionable headwear worn like the turban, the Korean gat, and many Chinese variations. Try looking for men without their headgear in Chinese, Ottoman, or Persian arts. Guaranteed it would extremely rare to stumble upon a single male character with their hair or head shown. - With Asian countries, this has something to do with under the Confucian custom, following Confucius' belief that it was considered barbaric for a man to not cover his head as the hair was sacred and should not be shown except at home. As for the Middle East, this links back to the modesty belief in Islam (see above) and the products of the pre-Islamic practices (like the Persians and Assyrians). - Surprisingly, higher class women in Ancient Greece were expected to cover themselves in veil except for their face when they went out outdoors, a custom that is very similar in the Middle East. This was explored in depth in Aphrodite's Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. - Some regions of the precolonial Philippines had a much different view on toplessness than Europeans did—wearing a shirt seemed to be more class-based than gender-based; as with many tropical climates, not wearing too many clothes is practical instead of titillating. Spanish accounts frequently complain that working-class men and women alike walked around shirtless, and the shirts they saw were often far too thin for Western-style modesty. - In late 18th and early 19th century Europe (corresponding to late Georgian and Regency era England), the most fashionable and daring upper class ladies wore necklines so low that their nipples were exposed (or could be exposed during a dramatically timed accidental wardrobe malfunction), but always made sure that their shoulders were covered (because only prostitutes walked around with their shoulders showing).	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurNudityIsDifferent
Our Titans Are Different - TV Tropes "Nothing tears us apart. In Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power. Well, that football field out there, that's our universe. Let's rule it like titans." In Classical Mythology, the Titans (and their Primordial parents before them) were ancient godly beings that had ruled reality, until they were overthrown by the Olympians in the Titanomachy. The Titans were originally considered true gods. Later Classical writers started confusing them with Giants, but this was not the usual representation. Also, the name Titan sometimes only refers to the first generation, though usually the non-nymph, non-Olympian children of Titans are also called Titans. Titans and primordials have since been featured in many works of fiction, and have several common traits among their varying depictions. These include: - Being incredibly huge. Usually even bigger than giants. - Having tremendous power, which often rivals, if not surpasses, the gods themselves. - Being extremely old. As in, they're the first things to ever exist, old. If this is the case, the Titans in question might be some kind of primordial entities, and may very well be Anthropomorphic Personifications or completely inhuman monsters. Due to their age, they often serve as Precursors to the gods. - As a consequence of the above two traits, the titans often have a rivalry/animosity/connection with the gods of the setting. This may have led to their doom. - They probably created the world/universe the setting takes place in. Or are the setting. - In many recent works they are often portrayed as Elemental Embodiments. This has basis in antiquity - they involved Okeanos, where we get the word 'ocean' came from, Gaia and Uranos. Many historians assume that the clash of Greek gods and Titans is a metaphor for the combat with pre-Hellene peoples of the region. - The biggest variable would be their appearance. They often range from looking human-ish (if somewhat larger than normal), to something that can't be described by mere words. - Their other big variable is their morality. This generally goes along with their appearance, for if they look human, they'll probably act human. If they look monstrous, they will act like monsters. And if they do look like Eldritch Abominations, they'll act accordingly. Occasionally, a writer may switch the traits around. Compare Our Giants Are Bigger, Our Gods Are Different, and The Old Gods. For the moon by that name, see The Moons of Saturn. See also Titanomachy, Round Two for a stock plot involving the Titans. Is not related to different versions of the Teen Titans. ## Examples: - The titular monsters in Attack on Titan are called Kyojin (lit. Giant People), which is usually translated "Giants", but the English version localizes it as "Titan". They are mysterious, giant (starting from 3 meters, to 60 meters tall), Nigh-Invulnerable note : save for their Achilles' Heel on their nape Humanoid Abominations with a powerful Healing Factor and varying intelligence who eat humans (despite gaining no sustenance from it) and have been attacking humanity for just over a century. - In Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade a Titan is buried beneath the town's stone circle; it gets woken up when the mayor tries to remove them, then powered up by the presence of the Shiny Rod. When it fully emerges it looks like a Rock Monster with exposed bits of skeleton, which it magically covers up with metal in the vicinity. Its powers include attacking the heroes with tendrils of darkness and bringing inanimate objects to life. - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: \|\|The Giant True Demon Lord Dagruel\|\| is known only to the oldest beings in the world as the great Titan whose duty was to protect the gates of Heaven itself. His duty was essentially superfluous once the angels themselves after Veldanava's death sealed off the gates, but he kept at his duty and so he chose to establish a dominion upon the earth \|\|because he needed to watch over one of his evil sealed brothers.\|\| - The Incredible Hercules — The Titans and Cronus are imprisoned behind sealed doors, and they break free when the Hulk accidentally breaks the seal. The exception is Atlas, who is placed at The Axis of the world (center of the world that sometimes moves, changing the political situation of the world, and can also serve as a nexus to all the mystical foundations of the world). - There are also Eternals that live on the moon of Titan, Thanos being the most famous of them. Eternals were always mistaken for the traditional pantheons and those on Titan are no different. - Another Marvel character who calls himself "the Titan" is Xemnu, a big white-furred alien with mind control powers. Admittedly, he originally used the epithet "the Hulk", which obviously won't do anymore. - The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The Titan that the gods (falsely) claim destroyed the world outside of Themyscira turns out to be a giant from outer space whose consciousness is formed from the souls of a dead world and is this universe's version of \|\|the Manhunters created by the Guardians of the Universe\|\|. - New Gods gives us the Source Titans or Promethean Giants. They're beings who tried to seek beyond the Source Wall and, for their trouble, wound up becoming part of it. They can't do anything but silently weep in humiliation. - The Titans from the New Titans story "Who Is Wonder Girl?" (one of the earlier attempts to give Donna Troy an actual origin) were absolutely indistinguishable from their Greek and Roman children, falling on the "nice" end of the morality scale as a result by abducting random orphan baby girls throughout the cosmos, raising them to have super powers, then rewriting their memories to forget this before sending them back to their homeworlds (which somehow atones for the whole "eating their offspring" bit from myth). This also subconsciously influenced Donna to suggest the name "Teen Titans" via retcon. - Titans in The Transformers: Robots in Disguise are the largest of all Cybertronians. In robot mode, they stand multiple miles tall, while their alt-modes are actual cities. Metroplex functions as the capital city for Cybertron, while Metrotitan is Autobot City on Earth. They're also Shrouded in Myth, playing heavily into Cybertronian religious religion and so old that not even Alpha Trion, one of the original Thirteen Primes, knows their true origin. - Codex Equus: - Deities who are between 100,000 and 1 million years old are classified as "Titans", and fits the definition by being older than recorded history and extremely powerful. Ispita, Luminiferous, Terraton, Pakak, Queen Mab II, and the Three Deaths are a few examples. - Older than Titans but still fitting the definition of 'primordial, immensely powerful deities' are Antecedent (1 million - 10 million years), Preeminent (10 million - 100 million years), and Primeval (anything older than that). These are typically extremely huge, extremely powerful, primordial entities. Golden Scepter, Isati, Mzazi, Canteros, Amarelthea, Ergaleía, Exosus, Skotádi, and the Shadowed Ones are a few examples. - The Grand Primevals are the oldest of the old deities on Equus, being as old as the world itself. They are also the largest, most eldritch, and most powerful deities on the planet. Amareros, Kaos, Ordos, Ourophion, Adversus, and Symvíosi are a few examples. - Paradoxus: Not only the Great Dragon is presented as being a wayward World of Warcraft Titan with all of it entails (being a creating entity rather than opposing some higher deities), but he's also lazier than should be allowed to a divine being. That's the true reason why nymphs and bearers of his power exist in the first place. He just won't bite the bullet and protect his creations nor care about their well-being beyond ensuring his Flame can only be wielded by non-malicious, non-power-hungry females. And that reincarnation won't spare his nymphs any suffering by amnesia if they happen to fail their assigned task. Unsurprisingly, people in Magix are all atheists or agnostics at best who can't bring themselves to profess faith in the Great Dragon. - Pony POV Series: Titans are, instead of primordial deities, mortals who have obtained the might and power of a God, but have not become true deities and lack the cosmic responsibility that comes with this. Lord Tirek, King Lavan, the Sirens, and Lilith the Witch Queen are all examples of Titans, being mortals who mutated into world threatening sapient cataclysms. However, there were also good Titans, with the Moochick and Queen Majesty seeming to fall into this category. The most powerful to ever exist was also good: \|\|Apple Bloom, after hijacking the Rumors to repair the damage Discord's endgame caused and for the duration of her time as one was The Omnipotent. According to Word of God, she was the most powerful who has ever or will ever exist.\|\| - Under the Northern Lights: The "aunts" and "uncles" (and, presumably, parents) of Luna and Celestia. They are vast elemental beings which created the world and its intelligent species (learning the latter from the much younger Luna and Celestia \|\|when their toys turned into the first ponies because the sisters loved them so much — so yeah, ponies originated as toys of two little girls\|\|). The one seen in the fic is the water being called Karhu-Akka by reindeer. She combines traits of bear, cow, squid and whale, and now sleeps in the shape of a huge glacier. If she awakes, horrible things will happen. \|\|Her rolling over in her sleep when Discord got free is one of the causes for the crisis in the fic, one which might kill all life in a country.\|\| Luna, however, remembers her as a kind aunt who played with her and Celestia by the sea and gave them wonderful toys. Their greatuncles and greataunts, however, are pure Eldritch Abomination, seen in a vision as "lights... sounds... patterns of magic in a black sphere that itched the brain and made the soul cry". Discord is one of them. - Uravitation uses " Titan" as a denomination for the 1% of the Quirk population, who are noted to have Quirks that are vastly stronger compared to the rest of the population. - In Clash of the Titans (1981), the last of the titans is the Kraken. note : Sai Kraken is actually a giant fish-man monster rather than a traditional kraken. To defeat it, the Fates advise "a titan vs a titan" by using the head of Medusa the gorgon to turn it into stone. - MonsterVerse — Emma Russell refers to the Kaiju as the Titans and completes the metaphor by declaring them the rightful rulers of the world. While searching for Godzilla, \|\|spoiler:some of the characters discover vast sunken ruins within the Hollow Earth much older than even Egypt, and carved onto the monolithic walls, Godzilla being worshipped by ancient men, confirming that kaiju were "the first gods".\|\| - An early concept for the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: Planet of The Titans would have focused on Starfleet and the Klingon Empire searching for the home planet of a race of Benevolent Precursors called the Titans. The end of the movie would have revealed that the Titans were Kirk's crew from the future. - Discworld's mix-and-match approach to mythology means that while the Gods are mostly Greco-Roman in nature, the Titan-like figures they overthrew are the Ice Giants. - The Dragon Crown War has the Oromise who fill the "titan" niche. The oldest intelligent beings in the universe, they were also the creators of many other races note : creators of everyone, to hear them tell it; the dragons, the second-oldest race, say otherwise and were in general beings of tremendous magical power to the point of being essentially gods. However, they had a falling-out with their closest peers, the dragons, that ended with them getting imprisoned beneath the earth. By the time of the series, barely anyone remembers they existed, and even the eldest dragons can no longer recall what they looked like \|\|although Big Bad Chytrine — and possibly her predecessor, Kirun — works to restore them to power, in exchange for magic and arcane knowledge no other mortal possesses\|\|. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: - The Titans look almost exactly like normal humans with a couple of exceptions. Kronos is \|\|possessing Luke\|\| and so looks just like him except for having solid gold eyes. The Titans are about as tough as the Olympians, and Kronos is apparently even more so at his original level of power. - Hyperion is also notably inhuman, possessing "eyes like miniature suns" and skin resembling "polished pennies" that is usually perpetually covered with fire. Oceanus is more of a sea serpent-man hybrid. - Percy Jackson's Greek Gods describes Kronos as being nine feet tall during ancient times, which is apparently quite short for a Titan. - In Charmed (1998), the Titans are a group of supernatural beings who terrorized ancient Greece and were then imprisoned until the present day. They are certainly powerful enough to be worthy of the myths of the Titans, enough so to scale the heavens and kill almost all of the Elders (angels), but they don't seem to have the kind of cosmic significance you might expect from a creation myth. - In Supernatural, an amnesiac \|\|Prometheus\|\| shows up in season eight. - In Xena: Warrior Princess, Gabrielle once read a scroll and woke up three Titans, 30 foot giants who repaired the town. The three Titans had a cunning plan to make Gabrielle read the second scroll which would awaken 1,000 other Titans and destroy the world. - Classical Mythology, of course, is the Trope Namer for Titans, and their Protogenoi/Primordial parents count as well. - It should be noted that there are a lot of common misconceptions about the Titans. First off, they were not the first generation of gods, that would be their parents the Primordials (of which Gaia and Ouranos are a part of. They aren't Titans either.) Second, the Titans were not gigantic. They were in fact about the same size as the gods. The reason that people continue to assume they were giant is because later writers started lumping them in with the giants (who actually were, you know, giant) which were an entirely different group of Olympian enemies. - The word 'Asura' in Indian Mythology (which includes Hinduism, Buddhism, and several other religions) is usually translated as demon, or "fighting fiend", but in actuality, "Titan" would be the closest equivalent. Their godly counterparts are the 'Devas'. - Inverted in Zoroastrianism, where the 'Ahuras' are the good guys and the 'Daeva' are 'false gods' . It helps to know that the two regions where they were worshiped are neighbors, so it's more a case of opposed cultures and pantheons, than direct succession. There's even etymological & behavioral links between the the Ahura/Asura and the Norse Aesir, further confusing the matter. - In Norse Mythology, the Vanir were a rival tribe of gods to the Aesir, and the two went to war that ended with the latter's triumph and ascendancy and the surviving Vanir joining the Aesir; the outcome evokes similarities to Greek mythology's Titanomachy, with the Vanir as the Titans to the Aesir's Olympians. Meanwhile, the Jotunn (often translated as "giants" despite some being fairly "normal" in proportions) are basically a mix of the Titans and Protogenoi. - Japanese Mythology: Izanagi, Izanami, and the obscure deities who appeared before them. The obscure deities no longer appear in the universe. Izanami died giving birth to god of fire Kagutsuchi, and Izanagi is too grief-stricken to have anything to do with the world. The current pantheon consists of Izanagi's three children (Amaterasu, Susano-o, and Tsukuyomi) and the rest of the gods in Takamagahara. - At 6'6, when FMW regulars Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, WING Kanemura, Koji Nakagawa, Mr. Pogo and others were usually under 6', Big Titan (Rick "The Fake Razor Ramon"/"Ric Titan" Bogner) was a definite Type 2. - In Ars Magica, the Greek titans and Norse jotnar are powerful beings of the Magic Realm. More generally, the Kosmokrators and Protogonoi are immensely powerful magical beings governing cosmic principles such as time, love, or night. Very few magi are powerful enough to get involved with them. - In Dungeons & Dragons, titans are a race of outsiders (creatures native to the outer planes) who happen to be about 25 feet tall, so they're not only celestial* giants, they are taller than the tallest "normal" giants. Every aspect of them is perfect. In addition, they can cast powerful spells and speak several languages as standard abilities for the race. At a starting CR of 21, a titan with no other skills is equal to an epic-level Player Character in battle. In contrast to their usual portrayals, they're also (slightly) weaker than the gods and act as their servants. They are traditionally Chaotic Good and live on the plane of Arborea (also known as Olympus), though the Greek titans (Cronus, et al) are imprisoned in Carceri (Tartarus). In 5th edition, they are renamed Empyreans and given the Titan tag. - There are also the Epic-Tier monsters known as Elder Titans, who have more Hit Dice than most deities, more spellcasting levels than most deities in both arcane and divine, have epic spellcasting as the rule rather than exception, and have all-round better stats. They lack the gods' divine salient abilities and maxed HP, but they could definitely throw down with the gods on a similar level, suggesting the above are the younger, weaker generation. - The Primordials (also known as Dawn Titans) of the 4th Edition are a mix of this trope and Elemental Embodiment. The class of creatures known as titans are the Primordials' first creations, who sided with their parents in the war against the gods and in turn created the various races of giants. - 5th edition lacks any proper Titan monster, but the Titan tag is given to creatures directly created by, or related to, gods. The Tarrasque and krakens (both weapons created by gods), atropals (undead god-fetuses), astral dreadnoughts (created by Tharizdun) and empyreans (equivelant to titans of previous editions) all have this tag. - Exalted has the Primordials, eldritch beings of vast power who built Creation and then created the gods as their slave janitors. The gods got fed up with their cruddy jobs and had the Exalted overthrow the Primordials (while they stole their bosses' crack stash), but it turns out that killing some of them broke the universe. - To elaborate, the death of several Primordials in the setting's equivalent of the Titanomachy is the reason The Underworld exists. And one of the Primordials who surrendered, as a parting shot before her imprisonment, erased, by some estimates, ninety percent of Creation from existence down to a conceptual level. - The two remaining Primordials, who sided with the gods, are: Gaia (the Earth Mother, creator of the Five Elemental Dragons, who is in some way connected to Creation) and Autochthon (the inventor of Exaltation and the patron of technology, who later fled to Elsewhere and became a planet made of Steampunk). Both of them also happen to be the kindest of the Primordials even prior to the war, with Gaia having an all-encompassing empathy and Autochthon being particularly fond of humans and their skill at technology. - In 2e you can become a Titan yourself, if you're a Green Sun Prince. This means you tie your personal legend into Creation, and exist forevermore barring serious disasters. Since one of the Titans destroyed 90% of Creation back then, the job vacancy of Titan-hood is always open. - Magic: The Gathering: Many creatures are referred to as Titans, typically Giants or Beasts, including a five-creature cycle from Magic 2011 — Sun Titan Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan — introduced in Magic 2011; the Titan of Eternal Fire, a direct homage to Prometheus; and certain large Giant creatures from the plane of Theros. - Pathfinder: The titans were the first creations of the gods, and were made to be tall, mighty and beautiful. They grew to covet their creators' power over life and matter, and plotted to take it for their own. Their first attempts ended in failure — they lacked the gods' inherent connection to the universe, and their attempts to replicate it only led them to create a few powerful but highly dangerous artifacts such as the Codex of the Infinite Planes. Eventually, driven by jealousy of the gods' worship by the mortal races, they rose in open rebellion and attempt to overthrow their creators and exterminate all mortals. The current titan kindreds are divided by what role they took in the war and what fate befell them afterwards. - Elysian titans are those who remained loyal to the gods. They fought against their cousins and eventually retreated to the depths of Elysium's wilderness, where they still live. They mostly resemble beautiful humanoids seventy feet high. - Thanatotic titans consist of the main bulk of the rebellious forces. They were thrown into the depths of the Abyss after their defeat, where they attempted to mimic the gods' creation of the mortal species. The result was the demodands, twisted and hideous mockeries of life who still serve and revere their thanatotic masters. These titans are still ruled by hatred of their makers, and believe themselves the only entities deserving of worship and adoration. - Fomorian titans were also rebels, but their beauty was so great that gods could not bring themselves to mar it or act against it, and so they shackled the fomorians in blackened armor and imprisoned them across the universe. - The hekatonkheires, resembling hulking humanoids with chests bristling with heads and arms, were even more powerful and dangerous than the other rebel titans and were imprisoned in the far corners of existence. The ones seen from time to time in the present are their descendants, who while only possessing a fraction of their progenitors' power are still immensely mighty beings. - Danavas, who did not take part in the other titans' rebellion, were created to uphold and defend the laws of existence. They proved too severe and uncompromising in this role, however, and when they went to war with their younger, chaotic cousins the gods chained them in the depths of "endless seas at the cruxes of worlds" — potentially at the bottom of the Maelstrom, potentially somewhere far stranger. - As the Elysian titans walked across the planes after the war, they left metaphysical footprints that became the gigas. Despite being far lesser in might than the titans, the gigas were still large and mighty beings. Each was also closely attuned in nature, powers and alignment to the plane that gave it birth. In time, the gigas would go on to produce their own lesser descendants, which would become the first true giants. - In the Role Aids supplement Giants, the Titans were the first giants. They had godlike abilities and powers, including the ability to cast any spell at will, and have artistic abilities that outmatch those of any other culture. - In Scarred Lands, the Titans held sway over the planet Scarn, treating it as their plaything, creating and destroying casually as they went. Their children, the major gods, objected to this, as the Titans were laying waste to the world and their worshippers, and went to war against them; since the Titans could not be truly killed, the gods imprisoned and/or crippled the Titans so they could no longer roam free. One Titan, Denev the Earth Mother, sided with the gods, and remained free after the war, bending her efforts towards restoring Scarn. The setting's present day is about 150 years after the war ended, and there's a long way to go before Scarn is healed. - In Scion, Titans are Eldritch Abominations, elemental embodiments of fundamental concepts such as Sky, Fire, Darkness, Time, and Chaos, who are free of human shaping, hard to comprehend, and shape reality simply by existing. The Titans spawned the earliest gods, who sought to avoid being devoured by their predatory parents by anchoring themselves to humanity. Doing so allowed the gods to rise up against the Titans and imprison them; unfortunately, in the last few decades, the Titans have broken free, and once more seek their children's destruction. - The Titan unit from Age of Mythology: The Titans. In-game, Titans serve as the Pantheon of the Atlantean civilization, with Kronos, Oranos and Gaia as main gods, and others serving as minor ones. Barring Oceanus (who is blue-skinned, but otherwise human-looking) and Kronos (who is a giant rock demon), all of them look like Olympians. Furthermore, it's possible for each civilization to summon a gargantuan, city-destroying Titan to fight for them: Greeks have Cerberus, Egyptians have Horus, Norse have Ymir and Atlantineans have Perses. Yes, they took a little artistic license here and there.... - Brütal Legend: The Titans were the second generation of living beings. Huge, tremendously powerful (party technological), long-lived (collectively) enough to have Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence before the story begins, substantially reshaped the world (specifically modifying the trees and spiders, among other things), human-looking with human morality \|\|due to being humanity's ancestors\|\|... the only box they don't check is a rivalry with the gods, because the gods were dead before these Titans came around. - In Deltarune, Titans are explained to be gigantic, multi-eyed world-ending creatures that will form in an event called the Roaring if too many Dark Fountains are created. - The world of Dota 2 was forged by vaguely bull-like Precursors called Titans. Elder Titan, a playable character, is one of these. It should be noted that they aren't gods themselves, simply the first creatures in the universe. - In the Dragon Age setting, there are stories about mysterious, possibly mythical beings called Titans that live underground. As it turns out, \|\|the Titans have most of the usual titan traits; they're the largest and possibly the most powerful beings in the setting, they're extremely old, and they were defeated in a war similar to the Titanomachy.\|\| What sets them apart from many other examples is that \|\|they seem to have a symbiotic relationship with dwarves, which live in cities inside of them and are linked to their Titans and each other through some kind of Hive Mind. It also is revealed that Lyrium is their blood.\|\| - Titans in Dwarf Fortress are, essentially, ginormous randomized creatures spewing things like fire or random disease carrying clouds which can literally be made of anything. They're usually a bitch to kill, as they're immune to traps, temperature (including magma), pain, hunger, drowning, and a lot of other things. This varies significantly with what material, though: ones made of metals rival Bronze Colossi for Nigh-Invulnerability, but you'll occasionally get one made of a liquid that breaks into pieces with a single strike. Forgotten Beasts are a similar class of creature except found underground instead of above-ground. - Final Fantasy: Titan is an Earth-elemental summon who originally caused a great earthquake to do damage to enemies, but in Final Fantasy VII, for example, he picks up the ground the enemies are standing on, flips it over, and smashes it down. This guy dwarfs half of said game's bosses. The other half aren't dwarfed per se, but they're still smaller. - In God of War, barring those who look like Olympians such as Helios, Prometheus and Rhea, all the other Titans are mountain-sized beings that look somewhat human-ish. Some also are Elemental Embodiment(s) like Perses (Lava), Oceanus (Water/Lightning), Epimetheus (Rock), Gaea (Nature) and Typhon (Wind), who wasn't even a Titan in the myths. note : In fact, he was the father of all the famous Greek monsters like the Hydra, and was described as a mountain-sized beast with a dragon's head, writhing serpents for fingers, and wings that stretched across the sky while his arms could scrape the stars. Also, he was the only thing Zeus was afraid of. - Similar to the original myths, the Titans in Hades are long gone, with the Olympians now dominating Greece. Those that met them describe them as essentially horribly abusive parents (keeping up with the depiction of the Greek gods as one Big, Screwed-Up Family), but not that different from the Olympian and Chthonic gods in terms of power. Of note is that, like the other gods, they possessed a form of resurrective immortality. As a result, unlike other depictions where they were simply killed or imprisoned, in this version of the tale they were chopped up into a red paste and spread all across the pits of Tartarus so they couldn't regenerate. The result, Titan Blood, is still alive and lusting for violence, so Zagreus can use it to awaken and improve his weapons. - And for the sequel, Hades II, Chronos has come back and is now the main antagonist. - Titans are powerful units, lightning-wielding-giants, on the Wizard/Academy side in the Heroes of Might and Magic games. - In the RPG games, Might and Magic, they are enemies inhabiting the toughest locations you should normally visit as the game draws near end. Their stats are high and their HP is usually a mile above that of an army of goblins. They still keep their air magic affinity, but some have supplementary effects to their attacks, such as the strongest variety can kill your party member in one hit. The initial setting's Titans are sentient, albeit violent and strange giants who are somehow coerced to serve the wizards of Bracada occasionally. In the RPG series, they are violent and cruel beings that like to hang around dragons and simply dominate a region and attack anything that comes near, and crumble to rock when killed. Heroes Of Might And Magic Ashan has them changed into mighty battle constructs similar to golems, albeit huge. - The Titans in Hyper Light Drifter are four massive biomechanical abominations that destroyed the Precursors and their ancient civilization in the past, and are basically depicted as Expies of the God Warriors from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The corpses of three of them now litter the ruined world in regions where they were defeated, which are the levels you visit. \|\|The fourth one is still alive, but pretty much on life support in an ancient facility in the southern region, which is supposedly where the Titans were created and started their rampage; apparently the fourth took severe damage in the initial battle of the apocalypse and stayed behind while its brethren went out to destroy everything.\|\| - Mortal Kombat 11: Kronika, the game's Big Bad, is a being older than the Elder Gods, seeing as she is mother of two of them: Cetrion and Shinnok. She is actually called "Titan" at one point. - The Titans in Ogre Battle March Of The Black Queen are upgraded Giants, who are large, club-wielders, and are Wind/Lightning-aligned, and Palette Swap(s) of the other Giant upgrade classes like Frost/Fire Giants and vice versa. - Rygar has Titans as the main enemies. Some of them are living statues - some of them are apparently little worm-monsters. - Smite: Titans generally serve as the main objective of the game that a team has to destroy to win the game, one side is called Order Titan and the other being Chaos Titan. Some famous Titan-like deities that existed before the current age of deities also eventually became playable, but they take a smaller, more manage-able form. Some examples include Terra (the Roman counterpart of Gaia) and Atlas. - Sonic Frontiers: The main bosses of the games are the Titans, a group of Mechanical Abominations built by the Ancients that absolutely tower over all the other robot enemies in the game, even the Guardians. Sonic is tasked with destroying them all to rescue his friends from Cyberspace, but they're so powerful that he can only beat them in his Super Mode from collecting all the Chaos Emeralds, and even then they can still kill him if he acts too careless \|\|which is because they were created from and drew their power from the Chaos Emeralds as well. Unfortunately, destroying them also ends up releasing The End, which the Titans were created to fight and imprison in the first place, and it takes a combination of Super Sonic and the last Titan (piloted by Sage) to destroy it for good.\|\| - Titan Quest: there are the Telkines, eldritch-looking sorcerers with tentacles instead of legs that are said to be remnants of the Titans. In the last part of the game \|\|you have to defeat Typhon, a huge four-armored behemoth with tons of attacks.\|\| - In Warcraft Titans are a race of Magitek-using demi-gods who have the self-imposed duty of bringing order to the cosmos. They travel from world to world, terraforming them and populating them with seed races, usually golems or mechanical in nature though they were corrupted by the Old Gods to be made of flesh. After their work is done they depart for new worlds, leaving behind Watchers to maintain any facilities. \|\|At least, that was how it was until their strongest champion Sargeras went crazy after he had to kill an unborn Titan to prevent a greater threat and the others shunned him for it, then started a universe-destroying crusade to destroy everything his kind built to (in his mind) save the universe from said greater threat... and ended up killing all of them when they tried to stop him\|\|. - A later retcon makes the Titans even bigger: they start out as ensouled planets that turn into humanoids of the same size when they awaken. That's why they mostly have to use servants to fight their enemies on a planet — for fear of breaking everything. According to World of Warcraft: Chronicle volume 2, the Titan Aggramar passed by Draenor at one point and noticed that all life on it was going to be choked out by the rampant, sentient plant life. To stop this, he needed to partially destroy the plants, so he created a servant much smaller than himself to fight them. It was made from the largest mountain on the planet. A great many of the giants and humanoids on the planet in later ages, including the orcs, were descendants of this being. - The Old Gods are also somewhat of a fit to this trope, chaotic beings who sowed the first forms of life on Azeroth, controlled the elements, and were eventually defeated by a new pantheon. Though defeated, the Old Gods are not gone and have been working to undermine the work of the Titans and reclaim Azeroth for themselves. - Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has the entire universe be composed of an endless sea where the two titans stand. These country-sized titans note : Word of God says that they are the size of the Japanese archipelago are the organic Bionis and the mechanical Mechonis. It is said that they waged battle ages ago, before eventually reaching a stand-still. As the years passed, this lead to life growing in them, and the growth of a conflict between the people of Bionis and the Mechon from Mechonis. \|\|In reality, while the titans' physical shells are dormant, their spirits are very much alive. Also, the soul of Mechonis is the benevolent one who would like for her people to eventually grow independent of her, while the soul of Bionis views the life growing on him as food to grow stronger and stay alive.\|\| - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 continues this tradition. Titans are massive creatures (sometimes flying, sometimes swimming, occasionally both) that people inhabit and build cities on. \|\|They're also the final evolution that Blades eventually reach after multiple cycles of incarnation and storing up data from their various lives.\|\| However, while exceptionally Long-Lived they're not immortal, and it's a plot point that imperialism and military tensions between various nations are rising because the Titans are slowly reaching the ends of their lifespans and dying off while fewer and fewer new Titans large enough to support life are being discovered. \|\|This is because Praetor Amalthus has been sabotaging the Core Crystal-Blade-Titan life-cycle by erasing the accumulated data within crystals "cleansed" by the Indoline Prateorium that would let them evolve. Also, the world the Titans inhabit is what's left of our Earth after the universe-shattering experiment that created the world from the first game. And The Architect is the good half of the man who started that experiment and now sought to reseed life on Earth/Alrest, while his evil half became the soul of Bionis in the new universe.\|\| - Erfworld was created by the Titans of Ark, who look like giant Elvis Impersonators. - Deep Rise: The 'Royals' are living eldritch mountains that can fire laser beams, excrete acid fog, bleed lava, defy the laws of physics, explode with the force of a hydrogen bomb, and in-universe nothing gets past their armor. Their one 'weakness' is that they're literally a suicidal species, so they intentionally let their guard down just so the protagonists can put them out of their misery, and it always results in mass destruction. \|\|And they're everywhere in the galaxy, especially space\|\|. - Despite the name, Class of the Titans isn't about a classroom of Titans. However, it does have Cronus as the Big Bad. He isn't depicted much different to the Olympians in terms of power; he's the same size as a human (most of the time), he's human-looking, and he's completely immortal just like them. Oh, and he's a Time Master too. - Final Space: \|\|The 12 Titans are ancient, eldritch and malevolent entities that were sealed away in Final Space because when let loose, they destroy everything in their path. Lord Commander's plan is to free them because he believes that will turn him into one of them. The only Titan who is non-malevolent is one named Bolo. The reason the other Titans are all malevolent is because a purely evil entity named Invictus corrupted them all, with Bolo being the exception.\|\| - The Hercules animated series has appearances by Prometheus and Atlas, who are more human-looking and considerably more benign than the Always Chaotic Evil Titans in the film, though Atlas is still a self-centered jerk.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPrimordialsAreDifferent
Nephilim - TV Tropes The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Nephilim ("Fallen Ones" or "Marvelous Ones") are referred to exactly twice in The Bible, the quote above just after an incident with a fruit tree, and once in the Book of Numbers, where Israel's terrified scouts compare the Canaanites to them. In addition, there are a few other places that may be indirect references to them. What exactly they were has been a matter of some discussion through the ages, since Biblical canon has so little detail other than they were strong, had great height, and devoured people. However, various non-canonical texts such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees flesh them out more. The specifics vary depending on which scroll you're reading, but the general outline runs thusly: After chasing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God set the Grigori (Watchers) to keep tabs on mankind. However, these angels quickly decided it was more fun watching womankind. Finally, a faction said "Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny", headed down to earth, and made with the baby-making, producing powerful half-angels, as well as teaching humans the arts and sciences in violation of God's decrees. Although the above is the more common version of their origins, some texts refer to them as the descendants of Seth, Adam and Eve's third child. There are many other variations, too, such as them being Lucifer's rebellious angels. Like with trolls, these guys are hard to pin down. At any rate, they were huge and powerful, and quickly began dominating the earth, becoming rulers and unstoppable warriors. Unfortunately, they generally tended toward evil. According to the Book of Genesis, and reinforced in the Book of Jubilees, one of the purposes of The Great Flood was to wipe them out. In some versions, not even this is enough, as although their bodies are killed, their spirits stay on the world to torment man. Like many things in The Bible and other Judeo-Christian literature, the Nephilim are handy when you're plundering for religious concepts. The lack of concrete detail lends them a certain mystique, and allows the name to be attached to almost anything, although they're commonly some sort of supernatural hybrid — often a mixture of angel and either human or demon. Sometimes they are also giants, sometimes not. Biblical researchers consider it likely that the references to Nephilim are a remnant of the polytheistic Mesopotamian and Canaanite Mythology that predated Judaism, and that they were originally considered demigods (similar to the likes of Hercules and Achilles in Classical Mythology). The myth of Utuabzu and the Apkallu is sometimes proposed as the inspiration of Enoch and the Watchers. When the Hebrew religion became monotheistic and decreed that all gods other than Yahweh were either fictional or demons falsely claiming to be divine, the Nephilim became half-angel instead of half-god since the latter had become impossible. Probably due to its inherent epicity, the story of the Nephilim remained popular even after being shunned by Jews and Christians alike, and was adapted by the syncretic religion of Manichaeism, which had the Nephilim being half-demon instead. Modern esotericists and conspiracy theorists would also get their hands full with it. See The Descendants of Cain for another group of Biblical descent. Compare Golem and Our Genies Are Different for other creatures in Abrahamic religions. See also Half-Human Hybrid, Human-Demon Hybrid, and Born of Heaven and Hell for what they usually are, and Our Angels Are Different and Our Demons Are Different, for their possible "parents". May overlap with Divine Parentage if they are part angel. (Note: the singular form of "Nephilim" would, linguistically, be "Nephil" or "Naphil". However, most modern works use "Nephilim" as both a singular and plural term.) For the tabletop game, see Nephilim. ## Examples: - High School D×D: While the term is never used specifically, Akeno is one (or was before becoming a re-incarnated devil). Her mother was human but her father Baraqiel is a fallen angel and a high-ranking member (\|\|and later leader after Azazel is sealed in the battle with Trihexa\|\|) of an organization of fallen angels named the Grigori, clearly using one of the possible definitions in the description. - Symphogear: In the second season, Nephilim is the only known Relic which takes the form of a living creature rather than a Public Domain Artifact. Specifically, it takes the form of a monster that eats other Relics to increase in size and power, with no apparent upper limit. According to a Keyword, the plural term "Nephilim" is used because it consists of a group of "Nephil" Relics which devoured each other until only one remained. Dr. Ver later infuses himself with Nephilim cells to become a Human-Relic Hybrid, giving him a monstrous left arm which can fuse with Relics to absorb or control them. - Momoko Hanasaki, the eponymous Wedding Peach is this in all but name as her mother was an angel and her father is human. - Like in most Biblical lore, Nephilim in The Goddamned are portrayed as monstrous giant men born from human women raped by angels. \|\|In "The Virgin Brides", it's revealed that the various Nephilim that roam the lands were cultivated by a Cult of women, breeding them using virgin girls they kidnap and raise as brood-mares.\|\| - Lady Death: Lady Death's father Matthias is descended of fallen angels, although the term Nephilim is never used. - Runaways: The Greater-Scope Villain are the Gibborim, six-toed giants who are the Half-Human Hybrid offspring of fallen angels. The sequel series introduces their children, the Seed of the Gibborim. - The Devil's Advocate: In the climax, Milton reveals that he's the Devil and that he's been traveling the Earth to impregnate human women against their will. \|\|Kevin and Christabella are his half-human offspring.\|\| - Eegah! attempts to call the title character one of these... by quoting a non-existent Bible verse as proof. Nonetheless, the basic idea of the Bible having giants seems to mean that they meant the character was a Nephilim. - Noah portrays the Nephilim as fallen angels in the form of rock monsters that aid the heroes hoping for redemption. - The Prophecy 3: The Ascent: Danyael Jr. is a human/angel Nephilim hybrid, conceived in the previous film as part of a prophecy to create the one destined to end the War in Heaven. - A Batalha do Apocalipse: Nephilim are the offspring of angels with humans, and usually inherit angelic powers from their parents. They were considered bastards and hunted down by witches because their blood and guts were used in unholy rituals. - Drinking Midnight Wine: One of these is imprisoned within a giant mound, something that proves pretty crucial to The Dragon of the Big Bad. - The Fallen: Aaron Corbet discovers that he is one. Moreover, he, and others like him, are being hunted by warrior angels known as the Powers, who believe that the Nephilim are an abomination that must be cleansed form the world. As a Nephilim, Aaron has some of the abilities of the angels, including wings, being able to speak any language (even animal languages), and emitting fire blasts (which also includes manifesting flaming swords). He also learns that he's not an ordinary Nephilim, but the prophesied Redeemer, a Nephilim with the ability to redeem Fallen Angels (those, who wish to return to Heaven, at least). He's also \|\|Lucifer's son\|\|. - Georgina Kincaid has Nephilim as major characters. This version follows mostly the origin from the Bible, although they are portrayed as human-looking and not particularly tall. They are powerful and capable of killing supernatural creatures, but always weaker than both demons and angels, and they don't stand a chance against either of the two unless they have superior number. While some of them are evil, and many resent demons and angels for banishing them, the large majority just want to be left alone, and live hidden amongst mortals. The main reason Nephilim are called "giants" is because of their supernatural origin. In ancient times, average height was a lot less than it is today with modern nutrition, so any supernatural hybrid would be taller than average (in Mead's setting, it's extremely unlikely a higher immortal would suffer from malnutrition). In addition, Roman is described as being very tall. To Georgina's default 5'2" form, he is much, much taller. - The Golgotha Series: Malachai Bick is the wealthiest man in town. He's actually an angel, Biqua, and has a number of extremely large and strong children, who's birthing inevitably killed their mothers. - A Lower Deep: A Nephilim is bound beneath Tel Megiddo. The end of the novel reveals that \|\|it's the embryonic form of the Beast of Revelations\|\|. - Many Waters: A time-travel novel which mostly takes place in the times leading up to Noah's flood, the Nephilim appear as Fallen Angels who each have a counterpart in the Seraphim who also walk the earth at the time. - Oddly Enough: In "The Hardest, Kindest Gift", the main character's grandmother, and by extension her ten sons and her grandson Geoffroi (the story's narrator) are Nephilim — said grandmother is Melusine, the daughter of a Fallen Angel. - The Relic Guild: A rogue Thaumaturgist known as the Progenitor and who's actually \|\|the Relic Guild's necromancer Hamir\|\| conned a hundred human women to come with him (his intention is to use them as vessels to reincarnate a hundred fallen Thaumaturgist souls). He used powerful High Magic and bits of unused reality known as "Dead Time" to impregnate them. The result are a hundred giant, higher magic-using beings that tear their mothers apart when they are born. - Relics: The leader of the surviving supernatural beings, the Kin, is an ancient, gigantic and very naked male nephilim, Mallian. He's usually a nice guy, but he gets Unstoppable Rage at the thought of his fellow Kin getting murdered for body parts to be sold to rich collectors. Later books reveal that Mallian was just pretending to be good and in fact hates humans, and his fury is actually a major part of his real personality and he's the Big Bad for Books 2 and 3. - Sandman Slim has James "Sandman Slim" Stark — angel father, human mother. In one of his occasional chats with Lucifer, they decide the reason Stark has survived for so long, compared to the other known Nephilim, is that they are born warriors (or berserkers), and the time Stark spent in Hell's Arena allowed him to "release steam" and come to terms with it without having to think too hard about what to do with his life. (He's still a bit of a berserker, but he can explain it away as PTSD from the arena, even to himself.) - The Shadowhunter Chronicles: - The Mortal Instruments, while keeping the angelic origin, has the Nephilim as essentially enhanced humans descended from angels who slay demons and look beautiful while doing it. This book series also has the fairies as the common descendants of angels and demons. However, it is explicitly emphasized that they are not Nephilim. - The Dark Artifices: Queen of Air and Darkness reveals that \|\|during the early days of the Shadowhunters, parabatai could channel their romantic feelings for each other to become the mythical Nephilim, allowing them to assume gigantic forms with the power comparable to angels. However, only one changed while the other became their anchor to the mortal realm; if they transformed together, they would descend into mindless monsters that would bring destruction to the world and they would die eventually. When too many parabatai did exactly that, the Clave issued a law forbidding all parabatai to love each other, even though there are ways for the transformation to be nonlethal. Near the end of the book, Emma and Julian transform into the mythical Nephilim, instantly turning the battle to their favor, but come close to destroying Alicante if not for The Power of Love\|\|. - Son Of Angels' follows several "Quarterlings", people who are the offspring of Nephilim and human beings. Nephilim and their children inherit special powers from their angel blood, but their heritage also draws the attention of evil Fallen Angels. - The Stress of Her Regard: The characters end up learning a good deal about Nephilim — and they are not in any way human. - Lucifer (2016): By the end of the series, Lucifer and Amenadiel have both fathered children with human women. Lucifer and Chloe's future daughter Rory is initially an antagonist but only towards her father who she believes abandoned them in a time of need. Amenadiel and Linda's son Charlie is completely neutral, mostly because he's an infant throughout his time on the show. Both children look like normal humans with easily-hidden wings, like their fathers, with Rory's having metallic tips due emotional trauma in the future. - Supernatural: Nephilim in the show, as a result of having angelic grace and a human soul at the same time, will in fact surpass their parent and uncles and aunts in power in time. It's for this reason that the birth of a Nephilim is punishable by death to the parent and the Nephilim. They were thought to be extinct, but some appear in the show: - "Clip Show": Jane, the last known Nephilim to exist on Earth, looks no different from any other human, but does have great strength and endurance that she demonstrates by being able to easily hold her own against two angels. She can also make her eyes glow similarly to angels, although her glow is a more dim and grayish color as opposed to the bright white or bluish-white glow of regular angels. - In the 12th season, Lucifer impregnates a human (Kelly Kline) by using the President of USA as his vessel. This nephilim poses a significantly higher threat as it is a spawn of a human and an archangel (they are much more stronger than regular angels). His birth causes a dimensional rift to open that is a gateway to another world where the Winchesters were never born. The nephilim has many feats under his belt even when he was in his mother's womb, and once born, is said to have the potential to become even stronger than his father. In following seasons, the child, Jack, eventually becomes a new part of Team Free Will after refusing Lucifer's offer of ruling the universe together. At the height of his power, Jack upstages even the Archangel Michael, Lucifer's older, more powerful brother. - Wynonna Earp: \|\|Waverly\|\| ends up being one of these as revealed in season three. It primarily comes with a combo of Healing Hands and Touch of Death; full angelic power and wings come with \|\|a complete personality change and apathy towards humans\|\|. - The X-Files: "All Souls" features Nephilim in the form of several grotesquely deformed young women, who are all being murdered by immolation. In the end, it's revealed that \|\|the killings were done by a seraph to bring them to Heaven before the devil could claim their souls\|\|. - Darkwell: The song "Metatron" mentions the rape of women by angels as well as the Nephilim as the "broad giants of morbid forms" following the Book of Enoch. - The demons exorcized by Jesus have been proposed to be narratively meant to be the spirits of the Nephilim killed in the Flood, as the Book of Enoch was still mainstream and popular as a Jewish religious text at the time of the New Testament (to the point that Jesus literally quotes Enoch a handful of times in all the four gospels). The Book of Jubilees states that those revenant spirits are led by Satan (here named Mastema), who might or might not be one of those spirits himself. - The story of the Watchers and the Nephilim eventually fell out of favor with the first Christian philosophers and their Jewish opponents, as all of them considered it bizarre and theologically wrong, but it remained in the religion of Manichaeism. One of the earliest Manichaean findings was the Book of Giants, which was first believed to be basically Manichaean fanfic before the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed it was actually an adaptation of an Enochic work, possibly even a lost chapter of the Book of Enoch (one that got switched by the chapter currently called the Book of Parables around the third century). - Nephilim are still accepted by the modern day Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Beta Israel, who regard Enoch and Jubilees as canonical. However, they consider them to be sons of humans (the disobedient sons of Seth) and not of angels. - Merlin of all people might be one of these, as well as an Anti-Anti-Christ. Many traditions maintain that one of his parents was a demon, and demons are often interpreted as fallen angels in Christian tradition. Fortunately, his human parent baptized him, freeing him from the power of evil — in other words, he un-fell and became a regular half-angel or Naphil (singular of Nephilim). His inhuman ancestry, be it demonic or angelic, gave him the supernatural abilities that we know him for today. - Anima: Beyond Fantasy: Nephilim are humans whose souls actually belong to a member of another race who died in the past and reincarnated as humans, sharing some of the traits of their former selves and even remembering more or less of their former lives. - Demon: The Fallen: The Nephilim were offspring of humans and fallen angels who combined traits of both races and were seen as abominations for this. More importantly, they were born near the close of the "Time of Babel", when the Ten Watchers (wisest among the fallen) forcefully advanced humanity's scientific progress at Lucifer's command. While some Nephilim were good-natured, most desired power and thus killed the Watchers and usurped their place. Lucifer had the Nephilim slaughtered but humanity's chance at divinity was already ruined and the fallen were ultimately defeated by Archangel Michael's Host. Thus the Nephilim were directly responsible for both the fall of the proverbial "Tower of Babel" and for the imprisonment of the fallen in hell. - Dungeons & Dragons: - In the 3rd-party sourcebook Anger of Angels, Nephilim are presented as a monster. They are the evil offspring of the Grigori (a type of angel) and mortals. - In the 3rd-party sourcebook Aasimar & Tiefing: A Guidebook to the Planetouched, half-celestials and half-fiends are given the names Nephilim and Cambion, respectively. - Halt Evil Doer!: There are two kinds of Nephilim, because there are two kinds of Grigori. - One set of Grigori are the classic Earth-based angels, and the Nephilim are their halfbreed children who have superpowers of different kinds, plus the ability to detect angels. The twist is that the Grigori were banished from Heaven, and the Nephilim are bred as footsoldiers in their war against their former comrades. (To avoid confusion, these Grigori were later renamed the Watchers.) - The other Grigori are the Captain Ersatz Guardians of the Universe, and their Nephilim are a "failed genetic experiment"; basically a non-robotic Captain Ersatz of the Manhunters. - In Nomine: The Grigori were the angels closest to humanity, so close that they could interbreed with mortals. All of their children had greater capacity for magic than normal humans, but some, called Nephallim, were monstrously deformed in body and/or mind. For the creation of the Nephallim, the Grigori were banished from Heaven, while the Nephallim were hunted down and destroyed. Modern celestials, both angels and demons, can still use the Songs of Fruition to have children with a mortal, with the same results as when the Grigori did it; both these celestials and their Nephallim children are shunned and hunted by both humanity and celestials. The spirits of the Marches can also breed with humans under the same conditions as celestials, and also have a chance of producing warped offspring of their own; these Ethereal counterparts to Nephallim are known as Gorgons, but are otherwise largely the same sort of beings. - Magic: The Gathering: Nephilim are a creature type in the Guildpact set, huge Eldritch Abominations created by the gods basically just to make mortals crap their pants. Due to the extreme resource requirements to play them, they don't see much use. - Nephilim: A player character is one of the eponymous spirits that keeps reincarnating through countless lives. They aren't hybrids of human and angel, but the inspiration for supernatural creatures and the gods of mythology. They named themselves Nephilim because one of its meanings is "fallen ones" and this refers to their fall from a higher state of spiritual being in the distant past. - Pathfinder features Nephilim in its third Bestiary. They're the offspring of demigods and humans, with giant-sized stature and an ability to invoke fear in their opponents. They're typically True Neutral, but their habitual secrecy leads some humans to distrust them, to the point of launching periodic (unsuccessful) crusades to wipe them out. - WitchCraft: Nephilim are the children of a human and an Angel. They have incredible strength, regenerative powers, and are almost completely immune to any kind of magical attack. - Assassin's Creed occasionally uses the term to refer to the Isu, otherwise known as the First Civilization. - Darksiders: The race that the Four Horsemen come from is called the Nephilim. They are half-angel and half-demon, created by the Queen of Hell Lilith. Angry at being denied a realm of their own, they started a universal slaughter across creation that threatened all of existence, and, when they attempted to take Eden from the yet-to-be-born humanity, the Four Horsemen having grown tired of the senseless slaughter betrayed their own and aided the angels in wiping out the Nephilim. The leader and oldest of the Horsemen, Death, personally slew the Nephilim progenitor and his "eldest brother" Absalom \|\|who ultimately became The Corruption and tried to destroy all of Creation again thousands of years later, forcing Death to kill him again\|\|. - Diablo III: "Nephalem" are the powerful descendants of angels and demons, with humans being their Nerfed descendants after a Power Limiter was put in place. The destruction of same at the end of the second game allowed new Nephalem to be born; your character is one such newborn Nephalem. - Disciples Liberation: \|\|The protagonist\|\| is revealed to be a nephilim, a hybrid of angel and demon \|\|due to being the daughter of the Angel Inoel and the Demon Haarhus from the third game\|\|. Their heritage grants the nephilim unique "Twilight" magic that is a Yin-Yang Bomb of divine and unholy power. - DmC: Devil May Cry: Nephilim refers to demon-angel hybrids who can harness both infernal and celestial power, sometimes also called "the third race". They aren't giants, but they are very powerful. Basically the opposite of Hybrid-Overkill Avoidance. Dante and Vergil, twin brothers, are the only two alive because the demon king Mundus wiped them out, fearing they'd overthrow him. - Dominions: The nation of Hinnom initially consisted of the gluttonous Nephilim giants ruling over the Avvim, whom the Grigori had fathered them with. Eventually, the Nephilim leave in search of purpose, leaving the nation in the hands of their own children by the Avvim, the Rephaim. - Drowned God: One of the many factions in the lore. One of your handlers, Malchut, claims to be part of them, and the closing speech at the end of the game refers to the Nephilim as the people of Isis. It's not entirely clear what they are, but they're most likely either the "manimals" that resulted from the genetic experimentation going on back when Osiris was around or they're the offspring of aliens, replacing angels, with humans, and if so then that would make Horus a Nephil if Isis is indeed a human. - Elsword: The Dark Nephilim is a monstrous figure worshipped by the Dark Elves. Their leader, Chloe, summons it on your party to ambush you. Advancing Boss of Doom ensues. - Exile and its Updated Re-release Avernum: The Nephilim are Cat Folk. - Monster Girl Quest!: \|\|Luka\|\| turns out to be the child of a human man and an angel (more specifically, \|\|the first fallen angel Lucifina\|\|). This allows him to use the holy powers of angels, but his human body means that using this power is bad for his health. - PAYDAY 2, a modern-day criminal heist game, began referencing Nephilim in its endgame lore when \|\|the Kataru secret society and their associated artifacts were being examined. Referenced in tablets, scribes, and apparently hidden in plain site within The Diamond heist museum artifacts, they are apparently giant figures of angelic-esque power, responsible for granting Kataru the powerful artifacts Bain and the Payday Gang end up seeking out. However, save for impossibly-sized mummies, they never appear ingame... unless one considers an Easter Egg in the Shacklethorne Auction heist wherein noclipping to walk up to stairs in the backyard triggers a lightning strike that reveals something in the skyline...◊ \|\| - El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron: The traditional idea of Nephilim as children of the Watchers and humans is given a unique spin. These Nephilim are squishy and adorable creatures that look nothing like humans, and are just so cute... until they start devouring each other in a despair-induced bid for death, leading to the last Nephilim standing becoming a gigantic, apocalyptic Fire Nephilim. - Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse reveals that \|\|Hallelujah, one of your party members, has a demon father and reveal his demonic powers against the angels in the infiltration of Mikado. Said demon father is Shemyaza, one of the fallen angels known as the Grigori and Lucifer's lieutinant who leads the Ashura-Kai under a human guise, Abe.\|\| - hololive: IRyS is an angel-demon hybrid that, in the MV for her debut single "Caesura of Despair", showcases control over both light and darkness great enough to blanket an entire city in either on a whim. Oddly enough, only her demonic aspects are an active part of her physical biology, with her wings being comprised of black and white crystals that simply float behind her when not concealed and her Holy Halo being... well, a halo, just made up of four-pointed stars that are, again, black and white. - Orion's Arm: Nephilim are a number of strains of posthumans descended from goliaths, themselves humans modified for greater height and strength, who over centuries of self-modification and selective breeding sought to further distance themselves from "the smalls". As a result, nephilim are between six to twelve meters in height, the highest size that a hominid body plan can physically reach. In order to support their immense heights, they're very thin and slender, with flat, elephant-like feet, and some have a third leg derived from the vestigial remnants of the human tail. They also lead very passive lifestyles, as any kind of strenuous physical activity would risk injuring their delicate bodies and, at their height, falls are almost always fatal.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurNephilimAreDifferent
Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future - TV Tropes Mind a pair of reading glasses? This trope is basically Zeerust applied to the digital era. The page image represents what a computer display in Star Trek looks like. Now look anywhere at your screen, and compare to what your computer can do. In a Science Fiction program, the graphics quality of whatever computer is used is that of what computers were available at the time. Therefore, there are no screens in 1960s shows and there are no GUIs in the 1970s and 1980s. In earlier eras, the writers probably didn't think computer graphics could improve. However, as the nature of computer advancements became more apparent, such limitations have become more about budget and imagination. Can be arguably justified in a scenario when functionality is preferable to looks. After all, the last thing you want to see on the screen of your spaceship's on-board computer in the middle of a crucial operation is a graphics driver error. This is Truth in Television in a surprising number of cases, where complex graphics are not only unnecessary, but are actually a hindrance, or even dangerous. Although in the future, our graphic cards will probably be way better and more reliable too. Often Invoked to avoid being a Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel. Cassette Futurism is when this is done deliberately to create a Retro Universe feel. See also Extreme Graphical Representation, Holographic Terminal, Magic Floppy Disk, The Aesthetics of Technology, and Cyber Green. Related to Science Marches On and Technology Marches On. ## Examples: - Bubblegum Crisis was made in the late 1980s and mostly used command line terminals. - Legend of the Galactic Heroes, apparently set in the late 3590s, also has bulky computers showing simplistic vector graphics. Not to mention floppy disks. - In an obvious stylistic choice, Kill la Kill is set at most 20 Minutes into the Future or possibly in a higher-tech alternate present, yet all the screens shown are low-res, grayscale LCD displays, even when they're attached to supercomputers or smartphones. - RahXephon, set in 2027, has computers with interfaces from Silicon Graphics' Irix,◊ whose UI has remained largely unchanged since 1991. - At least they did better than Mobile Suit Gundam, which doesn't even have GUIs who knows how many centuries in the future. Word of God has hinted that the "Universal Century" (the main timeline of Gundam) begins in the mid-2100s, putting the original series into the early 23rd century. Given that the first TV series was produced in 1979, five years before the Apple Macintosh debuted with a built in GUI, note : First experimental GUIs did already exist at the time, but they were created in the rarified world of bespectacled, bearded and lab-coated computer scientists working with Mainframes and Minicomputers, and had yet to enter the public consciousness. it's not surprise that they didn't show advanced GUIs beyond handrawn line images. - Ghost in the Shell (1995): Although there are very advanced-looking 3D monitors, the GPS system that Section 9 uses to track criminals is like a bare-bones Google Maps. - Aboard the starship Entreprise-2061 of Pouvoirpoint, all screens display geometric or wireframe graphics, and crappy screensavers. - Legion of Super-Heroes: As seen in The Great Darkness Saga, the Legion's computers, built by the greatest genius in the 30th century galaxy, have displays with very simple 2-D graphics, and plain green screensavers. - Star Wars: In Episode IV, the fighters' targeting computers had very plain graphics, note : The vector graphic Death Star trench animation used in the movie was done using a state-of-the-art (for the mid-1970s) system running a rendering system called GRASS and took hours per frame. as did the Rebels' displays at the Yavin base. In later (and "earlier") installations, Lucas and company apparently understood how computers were changing. note : As well they should; by 1980, when the second movie was released, there was a Star Wars arcade game with graphics similar to ones used in the Death Star trench animation from the first movie... except in color and in real time; this served as a pretty good object lesson in how rapidly graphics capabilities were advancing. For The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, they didn't put any graphics that would actually appear on a computer screen onscreen (though they continued to show holograms). Even for the prequels, they kept such visuals to a minimum, though they likely could have created any interface they liked with effects. Rule still applies, even if taking place "long ago". - Could be justified with the limited amounts of power the onboard computers of mass-produced (for the Empire's bloated war machine) ships could afford. - Even so, the holograms are black and white and flickery, not half as good an image as any video technology that would've existed when the first Star Wars movie was filmed. However, it does add Used Future appeal. - On the other hand in The Phantom Menace, Nute Gunray had a huge TV like transmitter that had very good graphics like a traditional TV. - The X-Wing video game actually used the Episode IV visuals for its targeting computers. Apparently deciding that they could do better, in TIE Fighter Lucasarts gave the TIEs a targeting computer that showed the target from the perspective of the pilot's ship, including orientation, though the viewpoint of the "camera" was always from the same distance. It might have been a decision to give the TIEs more advanced equipment, except that all future iterations gave player-controlled craft an identical targeting computer. - In the Rogue Squadron games, the targeting computer has the same color scheme as the films but puts a color overlay on top of the game's own graphics instead of using grids and dots. - Many of the displays in The Force Awakens look more updated....except for the targeting computer of the Falcon which has the exact same Atari looking graphics it had in 1977. - Downright enforced by Rogue One and Solo, which are set shortly before the original movie, and deliberately keep the displays with very simple graphics. - Compare the drab all-text computer graphics from Alien with the rudimentary graphics from Aliens. Seven years is a long time in computer science. - Also, check out the digital photo that briefly appears in the director's cut of Aliens. It looks to be about .001 megapixel resolution. - In fact, Alien did have wireframe 3D animation on some of the CRT monitors in the shuttle craft's bridge. The code for these was written in FORTRAN by British programmers on a Prime 400 microcomputer with 192 kB RAM. - Now contrast the graphics of Alien and Aliens with the state of the art-looking holograms, projections, and imagery present in Prometheus, theoretically set long before Alien. Possibly justified, since the Nostromo from Alien was a low-end old space tug and the Sulaco from Aliens was a rugged military transport, while the Prometheus was the shiny state-of-the-art Cool Starship - This was later retconned as a defence against industrial hacking. Using antiquated technology reduced the number of attack vectors a rival corporation could employ. - Alien: Isolation deliberately uses chunky, lo-fi graphical elements to mimic the outdated graphics from the first film (just see the image in our Zeerust Canon page) to evoke that sweet 80's nostalgia and heighten the feeling of trying to survive against a Nigh-Invulnerable enemy with technology that is outdated and unreliable even in-universe. - Averted (a bit) in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which used modified cel animation to depict computer readouts that would otherwise be difficult or impossible in 1968, such as David Bowman watching television on a paper-thin tablet aboard the Discovery, but played painfully straight in the sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact, with graphics and controls typical of 1984. On the other hand, the Soviet Alexei Leonov isn't nearly as advanced as the American Discovery despite the Leonov being several years younger. - In Star Trek: The Motion Picture their scientific advisor took a look at what the effects people had come up with for their viewing screen tactical displays, and told them "I can do better than that on my TRS-80," so what we see in the movie is what he did on his TRS-80. - Some of the displays in The Wrath of Khan and The Search For Spock are definitely low-grade computer graphics. Then Michael Okuda came along on The Voyage Home and vastly improved the look. It's particularly jarring, though, when one of the bridge displays in The Wrath Of Khan, set in 2285, is primitive compared to the display of a circa-1986 computer in The Voyage Home! - Then they did Star Trek V on a short timeframe and reduced budget, and the bridge displays became shockingly awful again. - Averted with the simulation of the Genesis Device, first seen in The Wrath of Khan. Done as a showpiece by what would later become Pixar, it was considered a high point for the field of computer graphics of the time, and remains believable as a simulation thirty years later. The Star Trek production team was so enamored with it that they incorporated the footage into the next two sequels. - The text we see when RoboCop is first activated in RoboCop (1987) shows that he is running under MS-DOS 3.3. - The Terminator's POV shots have 6502 assembly language code in the first two movies, and Macintosh ones (including "QuickTime Player"!) in the third. Also, said Robo Cam is not on full-color, but tinted in either red or blue (though it's implied they run just like Night-Vision Goggles). - In Gattaca, they can make DNA tests in seconds, but they have neither touchscreens nor high resolution. - Escape from New York is set in 1997, but is forced to use 1981 graphics. The effect helps create an Unintentional Period Piece. - The glider computer's green wireframe graphics were too expensive to do back then, so the model of Manhattan made for different scenes in the movie was painted black, outlined with green reflective tape and filmed. Truly, the past is another country. - Inexplicably done in Real Steel, with a Generation 2 controller that Bailey dug up for Max to use with Atom. Seeing that 2007 was a date mentioned where Charlie was still boxing, the monochrome low-res screen on the G2 controller should be more advanced than that. - Sex Mission, made in 1984: It is set in 2044, but computers still use wireframe 3-D green-lined graphics... and, at one point, what is clearly ZX Spectrum graphics. - Back to the Future Part II featured Marty getting scared by a hologram sprouting from a theater marquee for Jaws: 19. The hologram is shown with low-detail CGI and bug eyes,◊ which makes Marty's "The shark still looks fake." line that much funnier. - Space Mutiny simulates the fighting space ships in the beginning with very primitive vector graphics that only show a vague resemblance to their counterparts. - In Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress Luna City's Master Computer, "Mike" has no monitors, but he does have mic pickups and can access Video Phones. Eventually he is able to generate a CGI avatar for video calls that is indistinguishable from real life, after some adjustment, but it takes up the majority of his processing power, and he's a sentient AI. - Many a Trekkie has suffered brain damage trying to explain the dichotomy between the Viewer-Friendly Interface on computers in Star Trek: Enterprise and the flashy lights and hand-made slides in Star Trek: The Original Series — we get a little help from the fact that we almost never see the screens of video displays on TOS showing anything other than fullscreen video. We get a better look at a TOS-era display in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", where it appears to be a sort of art deco version of the TNG-era LCARS interface. - Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine suffered from the same problem mentioned in the trope description of frame rate refresh being visible on screen. For that reason, only specialised TV monitors whose refresh rate could be adjusted to match that of the cameras were used, which meant that there you rarely saw an animated display in the background, only the ones necessary for the plot. - While DS9 has considerably more animated displays than TNG, it makes it look like the Cardassians trashing the station on their way out replaced certain displays◊ with 377-year-old Macintoshes, if the Chicago font is any indication. At least some of us wouldn't put it past those Affably Evil Cardassians.... - Star Trek: Voyager retconned this by having a time traveler introduce computer technology to the 20th century. The result was an alternate timeline similar to our own. - In Knight Rider, all of KITT's "complex" displays are source listings of BASIC programs. Given that the software is non-commercial, intended for use by a single trained user, and designed by a very small team to interface with custom hardware at a time with a shortage of third-party cross-platform GUI libraries, a text display was quite realistic for the period, of course - but that doesn't mean it was chosen as a result of the staff doing their homework. - Even worse, in Timeslip, a futuristic (evil) computer can output directly as brainwaves or on a video screen. The video screen shows the image of a teletype printing out the computer's output. - The makers of the original Battlestar Galactica made an effort to avoid (well, delay) this trope by using the top-of-the-line graphics systems then available for the bridge display of incoming enemy fighters. They looked rather impressive for about five years. - Oddly enough, the re-imagined series made a point of this with the computers on Galactica, which have been described as being far below the specs of today's systems. The reason is that during the initial Cylon uprising, the robots were extremely good at hacking, so the Battlestars used no wireless communications and only standalone computers (no networking). Since the Cylons vanished, all the Battlestars have been upgraded; Galactica is the only old-style Battlestar left, as its commander stubbornly insists that the Cylons aren't gone forever. (Obvious spoiler alert: \|\|he's right\|\|). - It is presumably due to trying to avoid this trope that you don't really see the computer displays on the Pegasus (which is a more up to date battlestar) or any of the civilian ships, all of which would be running the "current day" (or at least more modern) colonial computers as opposed to the obsolete systems on the Galactica. - The spin-off Caprica used much more flashy looking displays and technology in general - for instance, the tablet device Zoe uses and then rolls up to put back in her pocket. - When the film Space Mutiny (which used classic Galactica scenes) was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike and the 'bots took notice of this easily. Tom Servo: Graphics made by Kenner . - In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles we learn that at least part of SkyNet is written in Visual Basic and that Terminator CPUs plug into small subsection of PCI bus. No wonder they want to kill humanity. - Look Around You, keeping with its Retraux theme, makes use of BBC Micros, using one in the first series opening titles to run a laughably simple BASIC program. The second series features a BBC Micro with glitchy voice software welcoming viewers to the future of "Look Around Yog", while a toaster with a BBC Micro attached is a "futuristic toasting system". - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) (BBC miniseries)'s producers looked at what the BBC's own effects department offered for the guide. It wasn't pretty. So they averted this by using very painstakingly detailed cel animation and clever rear projection tricks to show "advanced" computer displays (such as the tiny non-flat flatscreen of the guide, the gigantic widescreen display on the Heart of Gold, etc). - Played with in Bones where Angela has a holographic display, with amber graphics resembling some types of 80s CRT monitors. The resolution was way better, though. - Max Headroom. Everything is in wire frames. Then again, it was the Trope Namer for 20 Minutes into the Future.... - Doctor Who: - In the 1982 episode Castrovalva, it turns out that the fantastically advanced TARDIS computer has a display that is outperformed by a ZX Spectrum. Justified in that later it turns out that the whole interface was a phony produced by the Master so that Tegan and Nyssa would think they were piloting the TARDIS. - The other anachronisms in the TARDIS interface were later retroactively justified when the Doctor changes the TARDIS's "desktop theme" into a more organic, steampunk, retrotech look. Apparently, the Doctor is enough of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer to actually prefer that look over proper graphics. - Unlike their Hitchhiker's Guide counterparts, the Doctor Who creative team were quite happy to use BBC Micros to generate their on-set graphics for most of the Fifth and Sixth Doctors' runs. Sometimes they could get away with it if the stories were set in the present or near-future, but stories set further in the future ended up fitting this trope to a tee. - In "Warriors' Gate", the privateer's computer displays the TARDIS as a wireframe graphic. According to the DVD commentary, this wasn't even computer-generated — it was done by filming an actual wireframe model. - In the first series of Red Dwarf, Holly's appearance was very pixelated. - Moonbase 3: The computers were certainly more advanced looking than those used in 1973 - considering that they didn't take up a room - but there are no graphic interfaces. - Monitors of any sort are rarely seen in Warhammer 40,000 (it being a miniatures wargame, after all) but the graphical quality of what little we do see tends to vary. Often justified since most races, especially humans, are living in a Used Future. The most recent example (at time of writing) is the Cold Open in the tie-in video game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The Imperial command's monitor has a fully functional GUI and supports a click-and-zoom map of the galaxy, but can only display yellow, red, and black. - Crazy juxtapositions of high and low technology are a big part of 40k's design aesthetic, especially for the Imperium of Man. Sometimes advanced computer monitors are even lit up with tallow candles, lacking any kind of internal illumination of their own. - Completely averted with the Tau, whose tech is far more advanced than humans, to the point where it creeps them out to see holograms that don't require Percussive Maintenance every five minutes. - Varies heavily in BattleTech, set in the far off future of 3025 and beyond. Battlemech heads up displays and cockpit displays are often depicted as being fairly simple affairs, albeit more for readability in combat rather than a lack of processing power. Third-dimensional holographic displays exist with great graphical capacity, but are uncommon due to excessive costs versus standard flatscreens, and interstellar transmissions are always sent in the smaller flatscreen format to save bandwidth. The depiction of display graphics has varied heavily in the franchise, having run since 1984, with older works using trending towards simplistic displays while newer ones use flatscreens, tablets, and holograms. - Ansem's Computer in Kingdom Hearts II is supposed to be highly advanced and storing all of his and his students research data. Yet, it uses 8-bit graphics and a user-interface which looks like the most primitive form of Windows the world has ever seen. Not even a mouse is used. It's somehow justified by the fact that this computer is the gate to "Space Paranoids", a world based on the '80s movie TRON, and the fact that it is at least twenty years old already by the time KH2 takes place, and there hasn't exactly been anyone around to upgrade the hardware or software. - The computers in Grim Fandango appear to be teletypes hooked up to enormous amber-monochrome screens. It fits with the Art Deco theming everywhere. It's also never explicitly stated just when the game is set; if anything, it seems to be around the Forties or Fifties, which would make them advanced for their time. - In Mega Man X, the intro has Dr. Cain working on a circa-2114 machine with 8 petabytes of "real mem" (probably RAM) and 32 PB of "avail mem" (probably space in the swap partition of the hard drive) whose power-on self-test sequence still looks like this. (By contrast, a Mac Pro can be configured with 64 gigabytes of RAM (1/131,072th) of the fictional computer) and 8 terabytes drive space (1/4096th the fictional) and, well... - Used in Startopia. Most likely intentional given how the game is a love letter to 'classic' sci-fi. - In the Shadowrun SNES game (which takes place in the 2050s), office computers don't have any graphics at all! Whenever you use your cyberdeck to jack into the Matrix, you get a screen full of command lines in classic green-on-black monochrome scheme while the connection is established. - In the mid-90s Amiga adventure game Dream Web (taking place in the near future), home computers similarly have no graphics at all, and no user interface either. The user is stuck with a clumsy DOS-like interface to access everything from his e-mail to fetching the latest news broadcast (which consists purely of text, too). - In the Mass Effect series, we have whizzy holographic monitors with monochrome visuals (usually amber, sometimes blue). Even non-holograms tend to be grainy, full of static, or blurry. - The sequels justify this in-game by explaining that all of the important holographic conversations occur instantly across pan-galactic distances via quantum entanglement technology, which is still very much in its infancy. Quite literally, it looks crummy because only a tiny handful exist in the galaxy, and most of the ones used by the Alliance had to be reverse engineered from what they could steal from Cerberus and the Normandy SR-2. Getting it to run in 1080p before the Reapers arrived probably wasn't their highest priority. Given every other computer display in the series is just as bad, they did a pretty good job. - The regular work space holographic displays look like they were specifically made to cause seizures or otherwise injure their operators. They're pointlessly layered (making text illegible), out of focus, and flicker constantly. - In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines all the computers run on DOS in a game taking place in 2004. - Played with in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories with the advertisement for the Fruit LC personal computer, with features like 18 kilobytes of memory and a two-tone, 8-inch display. In 1984, when the game is set, this would still have been a rather respectable system. - Justified in the Fallout series. The transistor wasn't invented until 2067 - roughly a hundred years after the real-world silicon transistor - leading to the common computers just before the Great War of 2077 being very simplistic, equivalent to late 1970s' personal computers. Displays are massive monochromatic green/amber cathode ray tubes; even the Institute in Fallout 4 still uses CRTs despite having had two centuries to improve. Holograms were developed and the technology was in its infancy at the end of the world. The Sierra Madre Casino in Fallout: New Vegas has fairly realistic albeit monochromatic Hard Light holographic security drones and entertainers. - The Outer Worlds, being a spiritual successor to Fallout, very much do the same, despite humanity being in a space age. Unlike Fallout, no real attempt is made to explain why technology is backwards compared to the real world. It's just how the setting is. - In Superhot, the OS for the player's computer and most of the apps on it are made of ASCII art, but there are hints of Cyberpunk levels of technology available to \|\|the System\|\|, most prominently \|\|their Brain Uploading\|\|. - PlanetSide uses this for its virtual reality training areas for soldiers to experiment with new equipment before unlocking it. In the first game, objects in the VR had thick outlines and the terrain was super low-resolution and overlaid with wireframe. In the second game, objects look just like real life up close but beyond a few hundred meters the world fades away to black-and-white wireframe. - The intro for the Sega Master System version of Super Space Invaders, even if the game takes place in 2073, features CRT-like graphics and a Beeping Computer. - Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe has a text introduction about the history of the Speedball sport in the period around the turn of the 22nd century. This text is presented in monospaced all-caps with a blinking block cursor. - Embraced by Alien: Isolation as part of its beautifully-realized Retro Universe. The game itself has spectacular environmental graphics, particularly for 2014, but all the HUD elements, menus, and in-universe computer terminals are designed to look chunky and lo-fi. CA's art team really had their work cut out for them, considering this was the company's first first-person game: the team had access to original sound effects and high-quality assets from the original film, and even utilized early-80s video technology to provide another layer of authenticity, transferring some visual elements onto VHS tapes, introducing distortion with high-powered magnets, and scanning the result back into the game. Sevastopol station is littered with two-bit CRT computer monitors, punch-card slots, and massive mainframe computers making buzzing mechanical noises, much like those from the original Alien movie. - This happens frequently on Futurama, what with it being a parody of classic science fiction. Notably, in "War is the H-Word", a bad-graphics hologram of a planet shows up and Fry is actually impressed. - Displays for gem tech in Steven Universe tend to be simple shapes in few colors or monochrome (in whatever color the screen is). All of them seem capable of displaying photos and video, which have clear resolution but heavy tinting in the screen's color. - Mighty Orbots: In "The Wish World" Rob's playing a video game that fills up the whole room with its display but still looks like a bog-standard mid-80's spaceship shooting game, even though this cartoon is set in the 23rd Century. - Many processor and memory intensive tools, 3D art programs, for example, use extremely primitive interfaces. The fraction of a second of lag as a computer renders the high-res font and drop shadows of a typical program's interface can become several seconds when a computer has 90% of its resources dedicated to rendering a high-poly mesh or HD resolution image. Multiply that by an entire day's work of opening and closing menus and panels and you begin to see why the typical GUI in an art program looks typical of the early '90s. - Similarly, many business applications are extremely primitive, but in this case it's often for the comfort of employees who have been using the same program for decades and companies that don't want to lose work hours while they get used to a new interface- changes between versions tend to be "under the hood" and simply add new features without changing the familiar, outdated, look. If they do update the interface, there will often be an option to use the old look as a shell over the new interface. - If properly designed, a simple graphic can convey all necessary information in a glance. Compare the Heads-Up Display in a video game- simple icons and colored bars are used to represent large amounts of complex information quickly. - A similar example are the graphics used in sports broadcasts (a "score bug"), with baseball being a prime example. If someone walked by a television showing a Major League Baseball game with the sound off, they can, with a few numbers and some symbols located in the corner of the screen, immediately know who's playing, the score, what inning and what half of an inning the game is in, how many out, how many on base (and what bases are occupied), the count on the batter and (if a playoff) what the series standing is. - Interfaces for tasks like air traffic control◊ tend to be extremely primitive looking simply because it reduces the number of distractions, increases the speed at which the viewer can understand the information, and allows the screen to be updated in near real-time. This is critical when lag for either the operator or the computer can result in a fiery mid air collision! - AutoCAD programs use the same blueprint shorthand that has been used for nearly two centuries, in a standard format. This prevents mistakes which can lead to injuries and deaths, because it is familiar to anyone in the engineering and construction industry, regardless of language. An engineer from the 1800's could pick up a blueprint printed from an AutoCAD program and would only be moderately unfamiliar with the notations for advanced electrical wiring. - Many programs written for scientific research purposes tend to be simplistic in terms of graphics because they are written purely for utilitarian purposes, sometimes as a home-brew solution which may only be used a few times by the researcher for a single experiment. Even on high budget projects, more money tends to go toward hardware and staff than toward designing an aesthetically pleasing interface. - Even in programs explicitly designed to produce graphical output (such as realistically isometric renderings of complex molecules), the interface, such as it is, may be something that quite literally wouldn't have been at all out of place in the 1960s, with the only concession to modern technology being that the atom positions and rendering options are contained in a text file rather than a physical deck of punched cards. - The Voyager probes (and others), in one of the most epic dual-subversions/justifications in human history, as Ray Heacock, spacecraft systems manager for the Voyager program once explained, Any good... PC, today, will have several hundred thousand words of memory, and no one would think of buying a computer with the limited capabilities that the Voyager * systems have. And of course, today, no one would think of building for spaceflight computers with such limited capabilities. But the thing that these computers had was reliability. And being programmable from Ground Operations, we can still have them perform very complex and sophisticated operations.* — interview, The Infinite Voyage series, Sail On, Voyager!, 1990 - NASA engineers chose computer systems for the spacecraft that were not the absolute most advanced even in their own day (1977), in favor of systems that were intended to never have the slightest chance of failing while in-mission. 40 years later, the still-functioning first spacecraft to ever leave the solar system bear testament to their constructors' foresight of valuing proven endurance over cutting-edge yet uncertain technology. - There are also other concerns that keep computers in space slower as well. The first is the problem of cooling; while space is extremely cold (2.7K), the only cooling available is very slow thermal radiation (convective cooling, i.e. fans blowing cool air on the component, doesn't work in a vacuum for obvious reasons), so operating temperatures have to be minimized. The second is the sheer amount of radiation shielding and/or redundancy in design required to keep delicate electronics from being fried outside the natural protections we have on Earth (the atmosphere, magnetic field, etc). This also adds to the cooling problem - you can put your computer inside a lead box to prevent charged-particle radiation from scrambling the memory, but then the lead acts as a insulator... and finally, spacecraft components are expensive, as they're built at best in very small numbers (to have spares to test what has failed when something goes wrong up there), and to update a component, besides having to design said component, may even mean a more or less through redesign of the spacecraft to account for things that may differ as power consumption, mass, etc. - As of the mid-to-late 2010s, UI design languages are moving towards simpler, 'flatter' appearances from sleek, opulent appearance of late 2000s to the first half of 2010s, thanks to Microsoft's introduction of "Metro" (later renamed to "Modern" or "Microsoft Style" due to trademark issues) design language in 2012, though it sparks Broken Base among those who are used with the sleek, opulent appearance. Other software and IT companies such as Google (signified with the change of its iconic logo like how Microsoft and Windows changes their iconic almost 20-year old logo) follow suit due to the lack of design style patent, along with the overall UI design on both PC and mobile operating systems and web pages. - One theory posits that earlier, more visually complex UIs were designed to compensate for lower screen resolutions, and trying to scale these items up takes a lot of work or produces ugly results. - Many companies still use old software because it does what it needs to do, everyone is already trained on it, it's reliable and updating it would be a monumental undertaking. Often the code is cryptic, poorly documented, poorly understood and sometimes even written in some archaic language nobody programs for anymore. And the only ones who'd know how to migrate it to a newer architecture would be the original authors - who are now retired, too old to remember, or may even have left this plane of existence altogether. At that point you can pay a whole devteam big money to rewrite the whole damn thing from scratch, or you can get an undergrad to spin up a virtual machine and just run your old software on that. Hmm, tough choice. - Antiquated, reliable software, often written in antiquated, reliable languages (Ada in particular), is particularly common in militaries, making the Star Wars page header something close to Truth in Television. - Game tools not part of the game package, or primarily intended for internal use, normally use the default Windows interface; think of the difference between the Elder Scrolls games and the Elder Scrolls Creation Kit, or the average server-based game and the average server-based game-hosting interface. Tools like this are meant primarily for people who are used to the game and possibly bored by having worked on it for so long; they need the best performance they can get, and don't need to spend so much time and effort on graphics. - A lot of serious Linux users favor minimalistic window managers and the command line over fancy graphical interfaces. - Modern tactical displays honestly do look a lot like computer screens in the New Hope the lines are much thinner and overall picture is generally much sharper, but it's still the same spartan and simplistic vector graphics with purely functional look. If the video feed is featured, it's usually monochrome footage of thermal camera or image intensifier note : read night vision, or, if a map is displayed, it's a bare vector version, overlaid with targeting reticles, unit icons, attack vectors, fields of fire, projected trajectories etc., all stark and functional, with simple alphanumeric readouts for required data. The last thing a commanding officer needs is unnecessary bells and whistles that could introduce ambiguity or tax the performance of their not very powerful heavy-duty hardware. - There's a good reason for the command line interface's continued existence in spite of the advent of GUI and later touch interfaces. It consumes far less system resources than the latter and it's trivially easy to automate—just whip up a text file containing a bunch of commands and some flow control statements, and it's really light on network bandwidth when accessed remotely, since it's just sending a bunch of (hopefully encrypted) text instead of what amounts to a video feed of a desktop. But if even the crisp black background, 4k antialiased fonts, and eye-strain free flat panel displays of today's CLI just aren't retro enough, then there are "eye candy" terminal emulator programs like cathode and Cool Retro Term which attempt to recreate the hazy, flickering, amber-tinted cathode ray tubes of the terminals of yore, complete with incessant beeping on every key press. - On the dark web, web page design seems to have plateaued at some point between the late '90s and the mid-'00s. The anonymizing networks needed to access the dark web slow the speed at which pages load to a crawl, as requests are bounced around several servers to keep them from being tracked, and as such, dark web pages often have a minimum of ornamentation in order to get them to load as quickly as possible.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture
Our Pixies Are Different - TV Tropes Don't be fooled by their diminutive size, they can be devilishly tricky little blighters. Pixies are one of the many mystical creatures originating from Celtic folklore and typically believed to be found in Cornwall. Like many of The Fair Folk, their appearance and behavior can vary between mediums, however, pixies are among the most inconsistently depicted of all. Common characterizations include: - Being small in stature. This can vary anywhere between the size of children to being smaller than a human hand. Though one constant is that they are almost always shorter than elves. - Pointy Ears which is common among fairy races. - May or may not wear green outfits with pointed hats, like their elfish cousins. Though this is often discarded to avoid confusion. - Sometimes will possess wings enabling flight. - While they usually have flesh-colored skin, it's not uncommon for pixies to have more exotic skintones. - Commonly depicted as loving mischief and sometimes antagonistic. If they're called fairies, then they also count as Fairy Tricksters. Subtrope of Our Fairies Are Different. ## Examples: - Tweeny Witches: Piskey fairies are invisible to anyone without a four-leaf clover on the head, and their fangs are used by the witches to cast the hallucination spell. They do good things for good people but tend to play tricks on bad people. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Pixies are small, flying female humanoids that spawn in villages of Mushroom Houses within dark forests and will try to steal items from the player. They can be caught in jars, tamed by feeding them cake and healed with sugar. Tamed pixies will give gameplay boosts to allied players. They produce pixie dust which, if eaten, makes the player float and levitate and can be used to make a magic wand that will give the same status to enemies. - Artemis Fowl: Pixies are only about two feet tall, even smaller than the other fairy races, but other than that and the Pointy Ears look the most humanlike. They're implied to all be Evil Geniuses, with Opal Koboi, the Big Bad of half of the books, being a serious contender for World's Smartest Woman. The Fowl Twins Sequel Series says that pixies from Atlantis have aquamarine skin and elf crossbreeds called pixels exist that combine the pixies' shorter height with the elves' smaller heads. - Chronicles of the Emerged World: The pixies — folletti, in the original Italian — are diminutive winged humanoids very closely connected to magic and nature, and which make their homes in forests where other races do not go. They're a declining species in the series' time, as the Tyrant has destroyed most of the forests where they live and armies on both sides of the war are in the habit of systematically hunting them to force them to be scouts, jesters or mascots. - Discworld: The NacMacFeegle. Rowdy, foul of mouth (if anyone can interpret them), drunken, prone to violence and generally a four or five inches tall variant on a theme of the Violent Glaswegian. They tolerate being described as Pictsies, but Gods help anyone who calls them "fairies". Then again, fairies also exist in Terry Pratchett's Elf-realm. They may look like enchanting tiny women with wings — but the Fey are really an insectoid hive-creature akin to hornets and with a taste for meat. - In Harry Potter, pixies have Adaptational Non Sapience (as do a few other Standard Fantasy Races, including fairies). They are humanoid and can communicate with each other, but are small, electric blue and have wings. They're far stronger than their size would indicate (a few can lift up a human) and they love mischief. - In Modern Faerie Tales, Pixies are a group of immortal fae who have a pair of glass-stained wings on their backs. They are known to have abnormal and different then normal-looking skin colors such as green. The Protagonist of two of the books in the trilogy, Kaye Fierch is a pixie herself who ended up in the human realm as a baby after she was swapped with a human child by her faerie parents. - In October Daye, pixies are human-looking fae with wings who are about four inches tall and were created by Maeve in an attempt to have something to keep her happy. She created them by using drops of her own blood and infusing it into tiny stones which upon coming into contact with the blood, became the eggs of the first Pixies. Pixies have gone on since then to have their own society and customs away from the rest of the human-sized fae. - The Princess Series: Pixies are depicted as a type of fae which is small and has gossamer wings which give of colored sparks as they beat in a hummingbird-like manner. These wings also have the ability to change color depending on the emotion of the pixie at the time and are magical with the ability to carry twenty times their own weight. They also wear clothes made of flowers and have hair that is in exotic colors such as green. - The Spiderwick Chronicles: Pixies, also called piskies, are one of the various types of humanoid fairies present in the setting, being diminutive winged humanoids with clothing made out of leaves and seed pods. They range in size from two feet high to the size of a child, separating them from the much smaller brownies, sprites, and stray sods and the taller elves. They're highly mischievous beings, and enjoy playing mean-spirited tricks on humans (such as knotting their hair, or pinching skin black and blue) and making off with small objects. Due to their attraction to humans, they typically live in green areas close to human settlements, such as farmlands, parks, and suburban gardens. - In Sword Art Online, the world of Alfheim Online features Navigation pixies like Yui, who have the appearance of winged humans and are small enough to perch on one's hand. They also typically wear a flower dress. - Whateley Universe: The narration refers to anything elvish, tiny, and winged, as pixies, such Absinthe's hobgoblins, and Generator's psychokinetically controlled dolls: - Absinthe's hobgoblins: As described in Absinthe: about four inches tall and shaped like a sexy and very naked girl. She had delicate features with pointed ears, and her skin and hair were both green. A faint green glow surrounded her as she hovered in the air, apparently being held aloft by the dragonfly type wings that grew from her back. - Actual Pixies, as described in Absinthe: The pixie, like most of her kind, was small and fragile seeming. Because of this, most beings tended to underestimate them, though I had come to appreciate their talents. They were mischievous and playful, which often caused others to think them feeble-minded, but I had found them to be quite clever as well as greatly adept at avoiding attention when they chose. They made for natural scouts, as well as ideal spies and saboteurs. [...] she was clever, insightful, had a sharp tongue, and an almost complete lack of tact. - The Wishing Chair, by Enid Blyton, has Chinky. He's a traditional pixie in appearance, for the most looking like a smaller elf. He's the size of a small child, dresses in green with a pointy hat. However he lacks the more malicious aspects of pixies, being firmly on the side of good, albeit a bit cheeky at times. - Merlin (2008) features one of the most drastic portrayal of a pixie yet. The one that appears is a human-sized woman but with pink skin, pointed ears, a long nose, covered in warts, has a long extendable tongues like frogs, and are the servants of the Sidhe. - Changeling: The Dreaming has the Piskie Kith, distinguished by small build, long hair, and pointy ears. They're a Kith known to wander the world, but unlike the Eshu, who tend towards brash stories and great adventures, they're more humble homebodies who don't judge others, aid people in need, and make sure essential things get done. Their one main character flaw is they don't so much "steal" as "pick up things that they may need at some point." - Dungeons & Dragons has a few creatures which fit the mold, most of them Neutral Good. In 3rd Edition, they're notable for being some of the more practical and interesting choices for a monster Player Character (due to most other playable monsters being massively overpriced and/or only good at hitting things). - Pixies are child-sized fey, part of a family known as sprites (which also includes the aquatic Nixies and the tiny grasshopper-like Grigs). They have dragonfly wings and a number of magical abilities, including the ability to turn invisible (which doesn't turn off when they attack) and shoot magic arrows which send people to sleep or inflict total amnesia. One in ten pixies has the additional power of compelling other creatures to dance. - Petals are tiny fey with hair and wings resembling flower petals, who wear leaves as clothing. An individual petal can induce drowsiness by singing, while multiple petals working together can sing people to sleep. They love helping travelers through the forest get a good night's rest... but unfortunately they do this without warning, then leave the sleepers completely unguarded and dressed in unprotective Garden Garments, leaving them vulnerable to predators. - Thorns are child-sized, green-skinned warriors who serve as defenders of other pixie-like fey. They're a bit closer to the "elf" mold (actual D&D elves are more Tolkienian in style), wearing armor of rubbery leaves and wielding both longbows and distinctive thorned swords. They're capable of performing sneak attacks and using the same sleep arrows as pixies. - Fairy Meat revolves around an Urban Fantasy world in which fairies — small, androgynous elves with insectile antennae and wings — are very real, springing into life each spring. However, the once peaceful and playful fairies were corrupted by a plague into ravenous sadistic cannibals, and their culture fell apart into roving warbands looking to eat each other. Pixies are a subspecies of fairy. - Hack Master is home to pixie-fairies, which are a hybrid of pixie and fairy that appear as small, androgynous elves with insectile antennae and wings. These are actually a playable race, and a sourcebook dedicated to them reveals they have their own extensive family of Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid offshoots. The first edition of the game, having been created by the creators of Fairy Meat, incorporates Fairy Meat's fairies into its setting as Carnivorous Fairies, and even makes Merryzot, Fairy Meat's first-ever carnivorous fairy, into an evil pixie-fairy demigod. - Pathfinder: Pixies are diminutive fairies resembling humanoids with pointed ears, brightly patterned butterfly wings, and skin in a variety of colors — blue and yellow-brown are both known. They're endlessly curious, excitable beings fond of playing tricks and experiencing new things, and tend to speak extremely rapidly. They can coat their arrows with pixie dust, which may cause their targets to fall asleep, become charmed or experience short-termed amnesia. They're a type of sprite, a broad family of tiny, winged fairy that also includes sprites proper and the insect-bodied grigs. - Shadowrun: Pixies are a type of magical creature of unknown origins, as they're too physical to be spirits but can't be traced back to magically awakened animals or humans. They resemble miniature winged elves about half a meter tall; their wings are usually those of dragonflies, but can also resemble those of grasshoppers, butterflies, birds and bats. Regardless of their wings' nature, their flight is strictly magic-based. They typically live well away from cities, preferring to live in treehouse villages within forests; they're also rumored to have larger underground settlements, connected to their treehouses by tunnels within their trees. Most live in the Brocéliande Forest, an area in France home to and ruled by paranormal entities, but many are found in the elven nations of Tir Tairngire, Tir na nÓg and Pomoria, and in the Black Forest Troll Republic. - The Small Folk: All the Small Folk fit the trope definition, but one of the "cliques" actually call themselves Pixies. All the cliques parody human subcultures; theirs is the "crusty" radical environmentalist movement. - Digimon: Piximon is a small, round, pink Digimon with a pair of tattered, insect-like wings. It can perform magic — which, as with other magic-using Digimon, is explained as it using an extremely advanced programming language to modify the Digital World — and wields a spear named Fairy Tale. - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers introduces fae folk in the region of Il Mheg, including the Pixies, mischievous sprites that like to play games and pranks with any mortals that cross their path. - In Monster Rancher, pixies are regular sized human women in fur bikinis with horns, leathery wings, and a devil tail. Different pixie subspecies may wear different things and have different features, and one species in 3 even appears to be male, but they all still take the form of a winged humanoid. - Sable's Grimoire: Pixies are a One-Gender Race who need human males to reproduce. Helping with that, they have magic to grow to human size. - In Shin Megami Tensei, Pixie is a tiny humanoid with wings. She's usually one of the weakest and earliest demons you can encounter. In many games with demon negotiation system, the tutorial often includes trying to recruit a Pixie. In some games, she can be evolved into a High Pixie, a stronger demon. - In ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal, pixies as a common pest and the object of a lengthy Collection Sidequest. Pixies are small humanoid creatures with animal-like intellect and an annoying laugh, and although completely harmless, most residents of Zanzarah are scared witless of them. Early in the game, an aging pixie hunter tells the Player Character Amy that about 30 of them escaped captivity recently and tasks her with re-apprehending them for a bunch of rewards. - My Roommate Is an Elf features a pixie named Flint. He's very small and from a distance resembles a glowing shape with wings. Griswold, the elf, rescued him some time before the comic began and is very protective of him, threatening Dearg after Dearg tried to eat him. - In The Fairly OddParents!, pixies wear grey business suits and pointy hats, have square shaped wings, use magic phones rather than wands, and love all things dull and boring. These pixies are also fully antagonistic, constantly trying to take over Fairy World and turn all its fairy citizens into pixies. - In Winx Club, pixies serve as the titular Winx Club's companions. They are inhabitants of the magical dimension and are ridiculously cute small winged creatures who have fairly large heads in comparison to their baby-like bodies. They are able to bond with fairies in order to help them in their quest to become fully successful.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPixiesAreDifferent
Mummy - TV Tropes Dying is rough. All a pharaoh wants is a nice place to rest, surrounded by his (equivalent to) millions of dollars in loot and valuable ancient artifacts, but there's always some joker that wants his stuff. So, the Mummy's gotta get out of his cozy sarcophagus and open a can of curse-ass in his shambling, arms-straight-out, wrapped-in-bandages, way. He doesn't really care if he's attacking genuine grave robbers or archaeologists who want to put him in a museum. He just knows that they are defiling his tomb. He's not necessarily smart or powerful, but when his icy hand grips someone's shoulder, even the manliest of men will let out a girlish scream. Sometimes he can announce his entrance with "Who Dares? to disturb my sleep?!" or something similar. The mummy is one of The Undead, and typically a Sealed Evil in a Can. When active, its behavior is quite similar to the Zombie, Artificial or otherwise, but its embalmed flesh and ancient magic render it far sturdier than its rancid urban counterparts, to the extent that it is practically Implacable. Which is ironic, considering the opposite is true in real life; a real mummy will crumble to dust if you're not super careful with it. More recent examples (mostly inspired by the 1999 film and its sequels, though it's also a throwback to the original The Mummy (1932)) may make the Mummy closer to a lich or vampire, giving it more individuality and brain, as well ample magical powers (such as the ability to command "lesser" mummies and local Egyptian wildlife like scarab beetles). The Mummy completes the classic quartet of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolfman. The four are the famous villains of the 1930-40s Universal monster movies. When seen in kids' shows, brace yourself for a punnicane along the line of "I want my 'mummy'!", or for people pulling the linen and causing them to twirl like a top. For teen or adult audiences, expect a creep-out reference to how mummies' brains were extracted during the preservation process. The other stock Egyptian style villain alongside the Nepharious Pharaoh — there is a high chance the mummy was one of those before he died. See also Mummy Wrap; for the entirely different type of character, when the mummy is female, beautiful, and serves as a Love Interest, see Seductive Mummy. Compare the Curse of the Pharaoh — sometimes the mummy themselves may be the instrument of revenge against those who dare to disturb their tomb, but this is not required. If the (rare) chance the mummy is friendly, see Chummy Mummy. Also note that mummification rituals were not unique to Egypt. Thus, mummies may occasionally crop up from different necks of the woods, with Mayincatec mummies as probably the closest runner-up to the Egyptian variant in terms of popularity. The Human Popsicle can serve as a science fictional variant on the mummy concept, depending how dead they were when they were frozen and how normal they are when they're revived. Stock Monster Symbolism related to mummies include: The present being invaded by forgotten times of history dominated by superstition and brutal kings; the West's exploitation of Africa; and Medical Horror (both related to the embalming process itself, and the simple gag of mummies being covered in bandages). ## Examples: - The Monster Cereals has the lesser-used Fruity Yummy Mummy (his cereal is retired, but he is still used in non-food ad campaigns). He has rainbow wrappings, and his debut commercial saw him being introduced in his pyramid. - Mamoru Onodera of Deadline Summoner has one in his Battle Harem. She is remarkably well-preserved. - Mummymon from Digimon Adventure 02 is a mummy monster with Creepily Long Arms, wears a purple bandana and he wields a machine gun that shoots lightning. He has a human form which is a grey-skinned man with one eye and sharp teeth, carries a cane and wears a blue mantle and blue hat. - In Dragon Ball, one of Uranai Baba's 5 warriors is a rather muscular and fast mummy. - Hell's Angels (about an All-Ghouls School in hell) one of the students is a four arms mummy. - How to Keep a Mummy is all about taking care of an adorable Fun Size mummy. - Kekkaishi features an odd spin on the Mummy trope in major antagonist Kaguro, an Ayakashi (a variety of dangerous spirit) whose true appearance behind a human skin disguise is that of a fully burnt human wrapped in bandages. He's fixed on killing "interesting" warriors without warning. Kaguro further defies Mummy conventions by stalking rather than sleeping, being the fastest character in the entire anime, materializing swords, and having chosen to become undead to gain power. - According to the anime of Monster Musume (by the mangaka of Deadline Summoner), mummies in that setting are a zombie subspecies from desert environments, whose bodies are preserved by the climate. However, being preserved by the desert also means their skin has lost its moisture, requiring them to take long baths to replenish it. Many mummies also have difficult personalities, having been royalty or nobility in life. - Naruto has Dosu Kinuta of the Village Hidden in the Sound with this trope in mind, though he is still alive, until Gaara offs him and only fourteen years old. - Anubis in Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God makes mummies as a hobby on his off days. Though considering the light-hearted nature of the show, the mummies look like miniature dolls or figurines wrapped in bandages rather than shambling corpses. - In Princess Resurrection, the mansion is one night attacked by the mummy army of Pharaoh. They are weak but there are so damn many of them. And Hime is ill and went to sleep in the middle of the battle so Hiro, Riza and Flandre have to fight the whole army by themselves. - Rurouni Kenshin: Makoto Shishio is definitely a nod to this trope, despite being very alive. Another nod is in that he doesn't have a place in the current, peaceful era. - Soul Eater had a pyramid full of mummies in Death the Kid's introductory chapter/episode. - Mummies appears in Yaiba as part of the Ordeals of Ryuujin. Specifically, said mummies will keep spawning non-stop, and to win they have to find and kill the right one. They're also shown to be hollow inside. - Lamput: In "Thief in the Museum", the docs disguise as mummies to get back into the ancient Egyptian museum after they are thrown out due to being mistaken for thieves. When the two catch Lamput, he turns into a piece of jewelry, and the museum official assumes they are part of the exhibit and puts them on display. \|\|Later, an actual thief tries to snatch some precious jewels from the museum, but is scared away from it by the doc mummies.\|\| - Motu Patlu: There is an episode literally titled "Mummy", where Motu and Patlu find an ancient box containing an Egyptian mummy and her mummy dog. Both the mummy and the dog come to life after Motu grabs the mummy's bracelet. - Angel Catbird has Neferkitty \|\|(who is also Nefertiti)\|\|and her Mummykittens. - In Little Gloomy, Mummy, an aptly named bartender, speaks in hieroglyphics. Somehow. Other characters understand him, but the reader cannot. That's apparently just how it goes down in Mummytown, which is, naturally, where he comes from. - DC's Creature Commandos have occasionally had a mummy on the team. - The Goon once fought against Seti the South-Side Mummy, a brutal undead Implacable Man. The Egyptologist who discovered Seti's tomb was cursed that Seti would destroy everything he loved. When his life began to fall apart and his fortunes dwindle as a result, he reluctantly made a deal with a group of mobsters to use Seti as effectively a hitman, telling the mummy that he loved whoever the next target was to be and letting the curse take its course. When the gangsters want to horn in on The Goon's territory, they sic Seti on him. The Goon eventually figures out that Seti is terrified of cats, and the Egyptologist is able to circumvent the curse and keep Seti in his sarcophagus by adopting a whole pack of strays. - Green Lantern: One of the Orange Lanterns, Warp-Wrap, is an alien mummy whose tomb was robbed by Larfleeze. - In the Hellboy story "The House of Sebek" the villain, a madman who thinks he's the High Priest of Horus summons a bunch of mummies to attack Hellboy. They don't last long. - In "Makoma, or A Tale Told by a Mummy in the New York City Explorers Club on August 16, 1993", a sentient mummy tells Hellboy a version of the legend of Makoma, which has parallels to HB's own destiny. - The Hellboy In Mexico series had a one-off story called Hellboy vs. The Aztec Mummy which was extremely to-the-point. - In the Argentine horror comic Martin Hel, a story is about a mummy that revives at the end of the 20th century in the British museum and murders a night watchman. Later it also tears apart two other types, \|\|it happens that in reality the mummy is a good guy, and has revived to stop another female mummy who is the leader of an ancient demonic cult, and the other two men he murdered had mistreated one of her friends(although they never explain why he killed the security guard in the first place)\|\| - The Marvel Universe gives us N'Kantu, the Living Mummy, an African tribal warrior of the "Swarili" that was mummified alive through magic means as punishment for inciting a slave rebellion in ancient Egypt. Wakes up after 3000 years, and starts fighting magic egyptian themed crime. - In Marvel's pre-superhero monster comics, they did at least two unrelated stories about giant Egyptian mummies who turn out to be aliens (one drawn by Jack Kirby, the other by Don Heck). - King Yod in Megalex. - Momses in Minimonsters is a mummy and also Lovable Jock of the team. - Superman villain Xa-Du the Phantom King isn't a true mummy, but he is clearly designed with the intent, being a spectral entity possessing a suit that resembles the classic "bandage mummy" look, and debuting as part of a Halloween special. - The Tales from the Crypt story "Lower Berth", which was adapted into an episode of the live-action series mentioned below, established that the Crypt Keeper was the son of a preserved corpse with two heads named Enoch and an Ancient Egyptian mummy named Myrna. - Tintin: The story of the supposed curse of Tutankhamun inspired the plot of two albums: The Cigars of the Pharaoh, which takes place in Egypt \|\|where the curse is fake, and just a front for an opium smuggling ring led by Tintins future arch-enemy Rastapopulous\|\|, and The Seven Crystal Balls, in which seven archeologists who discovered the mummy of Rascarcarpac, an Inca king all fall victim to something that is suspected to be a curse. \|\|It's a curse, but not created by the mummy itself. The Sons Of the Sun, a hidden society consisting of the last survivors of the original Incan empire sent one of their priests to France, and he placed them in a kind of drugged hypnotic trance, trapping them in a suggestible state that allowed him to curse them with horrible nightmares. Tintin convinces them to break the curse at the end\|\| - Wonder Woman Vol 1: In issue 23 Wonder Woman, Etta Candy, Bobby Strong and Glamora Treat fight an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who claims to be immortal after entering his tomb, but after they defeat him he and his mooks all disappear, and his once empty sarcophagus suddenly has his ancient mummy inside. - Mummies frequently popped up in The Far Side. - One comic has a man suffer the mummy's wrath in a bathroom for mistaking funereal wrappings for toilet paper. - Another time, three guys open a mummy's sarcophagus and, instead of making a dramatic, ominous threat, the mummy casually says, "Ok, that's a curse on you, a curse on you and a curse on you." - A memorable Gahan Wilson cartoon in Playboy had Egyptian priests in a modern day hospital putting a patient in a full body cast into a sarcophagus while he says "I think you guys are making a mistake." - Hotel Transylvania has Murray, a fat, good-natured mummy with an American accent and Cee Lo Green's singing abilities (including autotuning). His wife is also a mummy, a tall, slender one with traditional Ancient Egyptian headgear. - In Monster Mash (2000), a mummy is Frank, Drac and Wolf's defense attorney during their trial. - A kid mummy appears among the denizens of Halloweentown in The Nightmare Before Christmas. - A mummy is also part of the attendants of Dr. Frankensteins (Boris Karloff) party in the Stop Motion Rankin/Bass Productions movie Mad Monster Party? as well as one of the invited guests for the Frankenstein monster's wedding in the prequel Mad Mad Mad Monsters. - Tad, the Lost Explorer: Incan mummies appear guarding an ancient temple in Peru, with one of them becoming one of the main characters by the third act of the first movie. He is actually a nice person \|\|who breaks the rules to save the protagonists' lifes in the end\|\|, if a bit eccentric. - Assault Of Darkness (also known as Legend Of The Bog) pits Vinnie Jones against a rare Irish mummy, preserved in the peat bogs near Dublin. - Bubba Ho Tep (2002) is a horror comedy about an Egyptian mummy that spent time in a traveling show in the Wild West, and as such, is dressed like a cowboy. After being reanimated as an undead monster, it stalks a nursing home, preying on the souls of the dying. Only two old men who claim to be Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy (played, respectively, by Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis) can stop it. - The Creeps: One of the classic monsters Dr. Berber brings to life with the Archetype Inducer is a mummy. However, because the process was interrupted by David freeing Anna before she could become a human sacrifice, the monsters are all three feet tall when they manifest. - Dawn of the Mummy (1981) features a mummy whose tomb is disturbed by grave robbers and American fashion models. After the mummy rises to enact vengeance on its tomb's desecrators, it is followed by its buried undead slaves that act more like traditional flesh-eating zombies that were in vogue in the eighties. - The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec) nicely subverts the villainous stereotype with benevolent, polite mummies, whose talents are of great importance to the plot. - Alongside with their Frankenstein and Dracula films, Hammer Horror put their spin on the genre with the 1959 release The Mummy, a Compressed Adaptation of Universal's '40s Mummy films in which Kharis (now played by Christopher Lee) was sent to avenge the desecration of an ancient tomb. Kharis was again guided by an Egyptian cultist, in this case named Mehemet Bey after the equivalent character (originally played by the similiarly-named actor Turhan Bey) in The Mummy's Tomb. It was followed by two other shroud-wrapped stranglethons ( The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and The Mummy's Shroud) of varying quality. - Santo's Spiritual Successor, Mil Mascaras, fought an Aztec mummy in the aptly-titled Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy. - One of the combatants in the Undead Confederate in Monster Brawl is Mummy named King Khafra. A ruthless dictator in life, he enters the ring with his past combat experience and a pendant that shoots solar energy, which is most fortunate as his opponent is a vampire. - Monster Mash (1995) featured Elvis Presley reincarnated as a mummy. - A mummy was one of the monsters in league with Count Dracula in The Monster Squad. He gets taken out rather easily when he unravels (admittedly, this happened while he was impressively clinging to the back of a speeding car to get at the passengers). - A Hungarian comedy, The Mummie Strikes Back, has a spy dress up as a mummy, and hide in a sarcophagus in the museum. He scares the living daylight out of a staff member the first time they meet. She gets used to it eventually, and even says hello to the bandaged man. - The Mummy Trilogy with Brendan Fraser: The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), set in Egypt, feature Imhotep once again as a intelligent, articulate sorcerer who is Cursed with Awesome, though there are other Mook-like mummies that fit the classic mode more. They also mix in some of the swashbuckling adventurous tone of The Mummy's Hand, and feature not one but two Egyptian cultists named Bey, brothers Terence and Ardeth Bey (Ardeth Bey was also an alias taken by the original Imhotep back in '32). In a further twist, these Beys are good guys trying to stop Imhotep. - The Mummy (2017) had a female mummy for once, a princess with quite the similarities with the 1999 Imhotep (she killed the pharaoh and had many supernatural abilities - though during life due to Deal with the Devil instead of once revived) while being as articulate and intimidating as the 1932 one. - In Night at the Museum a Mummy's magic tablet of stone brings all the statues and other displays to life at night. The Mummy himself is assumed to be evil because everyone knows Mummies are evil (plus the fact that he was banging on the sarcophagus cover and moaning)... \|\|turns out though he's actually a really Nice Guy and just wants to be let out of his sarcophagus. His tablet's magic has also kept him looking like a living Egyptian guy (Rami Malek, in fact) rather than a rotting ghoul.\|\| - Another mummy, played by Hank Azaria, shows up in the sequel, who turns out to be the first mummy's brother. \|\|Unlike his brother, he is evil.\|\| - The "Aztec Mummy" trilogy that ended with The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, where the title character was quite obviously based more on Egyptian mummies and kept having to protect his hidden treasure from a hammy mad scientist. - In Tale of the Mummy, the excavators of an ancient tomb are hunted by a mummy whose bones disintegrated long ago, so it manifests as a mass of CGI-animated bandages that enfold its victims. - Mexican superhero El Santo faced several Aztec mummies in the movie El Santo versus las momias de Guanajuato. Oh, and another one in Santo En La Venganza de la momia, too. - "Lot 249", the first part of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie features Steve Buscemi as an Insufferable Genius who uses an ancient mummy to wreak bloody revenge on his classmates. The sequence is adapted from a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the similarly-titled "Lot No. 249". - A strange mummy in Time Walker is found in Egypt and brought to California. It gets pelted with overdose of x-rays, which revives it and it gets up to find the crystals that were stolen from its sarcophagus. Late in the film, \|\|it is revealed to be an alien\|\|. - There was a Disney Channel Original Movie, Under Wraps (1997), starring Bill Fagerbakke as the mummy. It later had a remake in 2021. - Mummies are a staple of Universal's horror/adventure films. - The Mummy (1932), the original Universal Horror classic starring Boris Karloff as the mummy Imhotep. As the Trope Maker, this occurred before many of the common mummy plot elements were introduced, so the titular Mummy is intelligent and speaks (pretending to be a 20th century Egyptian), doesn't stay in wrappings after he wakes up, doesn't shamble, and generally acts like an ancient sorcerer rather than a creature. - The 1940s Mummy films (featuring a different mummy named Kharis, most frequently played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) really set up the trope standards, starting with The Mummy's Hand and continuing on through The Mummy's Tomb, ... Ghost, and ... Curse. These are the movies that really cemented the idea of the mummy as a shambling, silent Implacable Man, in contrast to the Karloff version above. These movies would also typically feature a sinister Egyptian cultist character (usually with the surname 'Bey') pulling the mummy's strings as the real villain of the story. - The comedy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), featuring a mummy named Klaris who is very much like Kharis. - Mummies are reoccurring enemies in the Fighting Fantasy series. In most books where you encounter them, you'll be able to collect either lanterns or fire spells, which can eliminate them in an instant. Especially notable in Return to Firetop Mountain and Curse of the Mummy, where fire is the only weapon that can save you from a Zerg Rush of mummies. - In Legend of Zagor from the same franchise, one of the last few bosses is against a Great Mummy, with impressively high stats. However players who have means of using a Fire Spell can decrease the Great Mummy's life making the battle much, much easier. - Mummies are the politicians in the Monster Mash City of Devils. The plot concerns finding a missing mummy city councilman of the 1st District of Los Angeles. - A conversational mummy by the name of Mistakeo appears in the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids story Conspiracy Exchanges Some Words With A Mummy, a riff on Edgar Allan Poe's above story. He claims to have been dead for "five-thousand two-hundred twenty-six years". Carter brings him back to the Homeworld from the Prime Earth and tries to revive him via electrical current, but doesn't stick around long enough to find that it worked. Mistakeo's first talk, as the title stats, end up being with Conspiracy, who of course doesn't believe in undead mummies. - In Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., mummies are one of the less-common types of "Unnatural" roused by the Big Uneasy. One recurring mummy character sued for his freedom from the museum at which he'd been displayed; another is the madam of an all-unnatural brothel. - One of the members of the titular group of extreme sports-playing monsters in the Extreme Monsters book series was a mummy named Mumford. - In the Franny K. Stein book The Fran With Four Brains, it is revealed that when Franny studied Ancient Egypt, she brought a mummy to life for extra credit. The mummy ate the custodian, but Franny was fortunately persuaded to help the custodian get out of the mummy. - An early cliffhanger in Galaxy of Fear: Planet of the Dead has our protagonists menaced by mummies! who are then revealed to be living people in costumes. The real undead that they face later are varied, some of them bandaged, others not. - Goosebumps: - In Tom B. Stone's Graveyard School series, "Don't Tell Mummy" features a delightfully sarcastic, enigmatic girl called Morton, who turns out to be a living mummy (she's a good character nonetheless). - Bram Stoker's book The Jewel of Seven Stars features a mummy in a long-lost tomb, and mysterious violent death for anyone who disturbs it. (Technically, the mysterious deaths are the work of the discorporate spirit of the mummified body's former inhabitant, and the mummy itself remains inanimate throughout.) - Louisa May Alcott, of all people, even wrote one, "Lost In a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse," about some folks who get cursed for disturbing a mummy. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot No. 249 tells the tale of ultimate nerd revenge in the form of an auction-bought mummy and an occultist student. It ends quite not so badly as the setup might lead to expect. As mentioned above, it was adapted into a segment of the anthology Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, with a young Steve Buscemi as the vengeful student. - The probable Ur-Example is Jane Loudon's 1827 book The Mummy! Oddly enough this is a sci-fi book set in the year 2126 and a marginal Frankenstein knock-off. - There is an Anne Rice novel called The Mummy: or Rameses the Damned. The titular mummy, like Imhotep above, doesn't fit the trope himself, but Cleopatra kinda-sorta does, at least at first. - The Mummy Monster Game: Naturally. The best example in book 1 is the crocodile-headed mummy monster, who chases after the characters when they seek the exit from the first chamber into the rest of the pyramid and later guards Harry, Amy and Spy's cell when Josh has to rescue them. - Many mummies rise in the Discworld book Pyramids. And they're pissed off not because people are violating their tombs, but because their tombs are actually the reason their souls can't pass on to the next life in the first place. That, and returning to your body to find your organs had been removed would make anyone crabby. - In Relativity, the villain Rune has powers he obtained from an Egyptian ring. However, everything he knows about Egypt he learned from TV shows and movies. He has mummy minions because that's what an Egyptian-themed villain is supposed to have. - Seven Stars: In the chapter "The Mummy's Heart", a mummy returns to life and chases down the Egyptologists who stole an impressive gemstone from his tomb — because the gemstone is an Artifact of Doom that was buried in the tomb in an attempt to keep it from doing any more harm. - Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 story "Some Words With a Mummy" presents another very, very early example of a reanimated mummy. In this case the mummy turned out not to be dead but in a kind of suspended animation. Despite the typically Gothic scenario, the story is a satirical farce that lampoons academia and Mighty Whitey style thinking. - One of the Recorded Attacks in The Zombie Survival Guide speculates that the threat of reanimation is why the ancient Egyptians removed the brains of their mummies. - Amazing Stories did an episode called "Mummy Daddy", where an actor in a highly-restricting mummy-suit tries to get to the hospital for the birth of his child, ending up in various slapstick adventures with a bloodthirsty band of southern hicks and a real mummy. - A pair of mummies in The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "Ladyfingers!" claim to be the guardians of the underworld. - One Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode featured a Mummy that was accidentally awakened during transport to a museum. After running away from it in the museum for most of the show, they eventually discover that it only wants a magical ring one of the characters got from its tomb (which, of course, the bad guy tries to use himself and ends up with a Raiders of the Lost Ark-style Karmic Death). When the mummy puts it on, it comes back to life as a pretty girl. - Beetleborgs has Mums, who has a close relationship with, yes, his mommy. - In Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Buck encounters a shambling, mummy-like creature on an alien planet. It turns out that its "wrapping" is natural, and it's actually the larval form of that planet's race of Human Aliens. - The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Inca Mummy Girl" (which is about Exactly What It Says on the Tin) is about a Meso-American mummy who absorbs Life Energy in order to look like a teenage girl. - Several episodes of El Chapulín Colorado have a mummy in it. As most of the cases, generally is a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax and the mummy is a guy in disguise. - Doctor Who: - "The Tomb of the Cybermen" offers up a science-fiction version of the Mummy's Curse. - "Pyramids of Mars" features robots disguised as mummies, serving pseudo-Egyptian God and actual alien being Sutekh. - In "The Rings of Akhaten", the theme is "Ancient Egypt in Space", with a pyramid, an alien marketplace, and a hokey religion based around a Pyramid and a god known as "Grandfather". When the Doctor and companion Clara arrive, the people of Akhaten appear to be worshipping an alien mummy as this "Grandfather." Turns out \|\|the mummy is in fact a complicated alarm clock system designed to waken the actual "Grandfather", a memory-draining star\|\|. - "Mummy on the Orient Express" has a mummified alien known as the Foretold attacking passengers on the titular train. The Foretold is the subject of a legend that portrays it of an omen of death, since anyone who sees it has exactly 66 seconds to live before it kills them. - "The Empress of Mars" is another sci-fi version of the traditional story: true, the titular Empress is cryogenically frozen, but she's encased in gold, lying on a sarcophagus-esque golden plinth, and gets awoken by Victorians pillaging her 'tomb', so the similarities are obvious. In a refreshing change from the usual "mummy's tomb", the story acknowledges she's justified in being angry at these random people showing up to rob her tomb. - The Ghost Busters once had to deal with a very dusty mummy, which served an Expy for Nefertiti. Its dust could block the Dematerializer's beam, but it was terrified of moths. - There was an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys where Herc takes a trip to Egypt and, naturally, has to deal with a mummy. It was tough enough to trade blows with him. - Used by the Leverage team in "The Second David Job". Sophie, pretending to be an Egyptologist, nonchalantly tells a museum curator with a newly acquired mummy that she's glad he doesn't believe all those silly rumors about a curse. He goes online and finds out that all the previous owners have mysteriously died... and, thanks to a little switcheroo with his allergy medication, he's not feeling so well either. The kicker, though, is when he goes to Nate's ex-wife Maggie, who's in on the con: Curator: Hey, Maggie, you don't believe in curses, do you? You know, mummies, curses, unexplained deaths around sarcophagi... Maggie: Don't be silly. Everyone knows it's a fungus. Curator: ...What? Maggie: Aspergillus flavus. Found on Egyptian artifacts. Gets in the eyes and nose, the infection spreads, and the next thing you know, another death from the curse. - Li'l Horrors has Cleo Patra, an Egyptian mummy based on modern pop culture. Uses a lot of Valley Girl filler in her speech. - The Monster Squad episode "The Skull" had the titular villain's plan involve reviving a mummy so he could use him as his minion. - Moon Knight (2022): - The Moon Knight outfit invokes the bandages of a mummy, with the strips of cloth wrapping around Marc's body to form the suit. - In the episode "The Tomb", the tomb in which Ammit is sealed is guarded by mummies who woke up when the entrance got breached, capturing and mummifying alive anyone on their sight. - Herman is mistaken for the mummy of Tuth IV in episode "Mummy Munster" of The Munsters. - A Special Unit 2 episode has a mummy being reanimated by lightning. The kicker is, the mummy's a great Japanese samurai with Voluntary Shapeshifting abilities and a plan to conduct a sacrificial ritual to make him even more powerful. They also don't know how to kill it. Bullets just pass through its decomposed corpse, and there's nothing left to burn. Eventually, after getting his ass handed to him by the karate-capable mummy, O'Malley figures out that \|\|another lightning strike\|\| can kill it. Prior to that, the mummy has kidnapped three women of different ethnicities for the ritual. - One episode of Tales from the Crypt recounted how the Cryptkeeper's parents — a living male carnival freak and a female mummy — got together. No, she wasn't animate when Crypty's dad got locked in a closet with her overnight. - An episode of Ultraman featured a strange-looking mummy being studied by Science Patrol that that suddenly came back to life and went on a rampage. However, he wasn't the main threat of the episode — his kaiju guardian was. - The cover of Rufus Rex by Curtix RX of Creature Feature depicts a mummy rising from its grave. - Before Eminem came up with the blond image for Slim Shady, he used to represent himself as a mummy, in album art and in his stage shows - at one show, the mummy on stage was played by Dustin Hoffman. The undead nature of the mummy seems to suit Slim's suicidal tendencies, the bandages seem to be representative of Slim's constant self-injury and abuse of medical supplies, and mummies also don't have brains, which fits Slim's intelligence level. - The video for Howard Jones' "Everlasting Love" has two mummies going about their daily business in the modern-day world in a romantic relationship with each other, emphasizing the theme of everlasting love. - The music video of "Die Summe der einzelnen Teile", best known song of Hamburg school band "Kante", has some pseudo mummys (de facto normal people with a lot of bandage) running around. - Amen◊ of the Finnish metal band Lordi is a mummy. In the moving Dark Floors, he also seems to have the power to create sandstorms out of thin air. - According to his backstory, he was an Egyptian Pharaoh who moonlighted as an assassin, killing his political rivals when they caused trouble, but one of them fought back and gave him a disfiguring scar that drove him to insanity. He had all his palace staff likewise disfigured and ate the hearts of all who resisted. Eventually he was entombed alive, and when he was dug up in the 1920s, he was really hungry. - "The Mummy" by Bob McFadden. - There have a been several Mummy gimmicks in wrestling. - Benny Ramirez in New Mexico and Los Angeles in the 1960s. - Eddie Marlin in Memphis. - Bobby Duncum (Sr.) in Southwest Championship Wrestling in 1985 for a short time, as the company was on its last legs. - La Momia from Argentina based Titanes En El Ring. - Prince Kharis, in SMW. - The Yeti (Ron Reis) of the Dungeon of Doom in WCW in October 1995. Yes, they called him the Yeti and had him in a Mummy outfit, and, yes, it made just as much sense in context. Though Actually... : It does somewhat make sense in context: the Yeti was originally going to be Jorge González, nee El Gigante and Giant Gonzales, but Jorge turned down the initial offer. Thinking it was just a matter of getting a better offer, WCW took the nearly-as-big Ron Reis and wrapped him in bandages so that when they assumingly did get Jorge, they could unwrap him to reveal he had 'been Jorge' all along (Never mind that Jorge would have been half a foot taller and considerably lankier...). Except Jorge never did take an offer, and in fact retired from wrestling at around the same time, forcing WCW to just drop the Yeti entirely. - Japanese indy wrestling has had Mummy gimmicks going back to the mid-1990s. - Call of Cthulhu: If the campaign involves Egypt in any way, expect these. Doubly so if Nyarlathotep is involved. Special mention goes to Masks of Nyarlathotep and its Cairo chapter — there, the mummies (known as Children of the Sphinx) aren't human, they're animal-headed monsters that are this trope mixed with Mix-and-Match Critters, Body Horror, and a dash of furry for good measure. - Dungeons & Dragons: Mummies often appear enemies to be killed. If the campaign happens to be set in pseudo-ancient Egypt, the mummy may be the final boss monster. Along with the usual tropes, the touch of a D&D mummy can infect the target with "mummy rot", the exact nature of this magical afflliction varies from version to version of the game, but as hinted by the name, all of them are unpleasant. - It's also an exception to the "nearly mindless" rule — a cleric (usually an evil one, but not always) can opt to become a "mummy lord" which, as the name might suggest, combine the powers of normal mummies with all of their living intelligence and Functional Magic. This is for a more Imhotep-style mummy than the Kharis-style default. - Ravenloft: Like the majority of spooky monsters, mummies got the upgrade-and-customization treatment for the setting. They're described in Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead, in which their name is changed on the grounds that "mummy" automatically calls to mind ancient Egypt, and not every such undead has to be from that style of culture. This didn't stick, and later editions went back to calling them mummies. - GURPS: The mummy template from GURPS: Magic is worth negative points because they're easy to kill and incapable of any real thought — Mummies are the same as Zombies and Skeletons, the only difference is the preservation of the corpse. The Whight template is similar and far more intimidating. - In Nomine: - Mummies are the most perfected kind of undead that Hell can create. They're essentially immortal humans with more supernatural clout, and are functionally straight-up upgrades on the human condition with one major downside — like all undead, their souls cannot survive their bodies' destruction. - Actual, Egyptian mummies were created specifically to avoid being turned into undead — the necromancy developed by Hell relies on using lingering motor memory in the physical brain to animate the body, and Egyptian funerary specialists took up the practice of extracting the brain from bodies specifically to avoid having their honored dead turned into puppets of the demons. - Magic: The Gathering: - Mummies have shown up as far back as the card Vengeful Pharaoh, although it counts as a regular zombie. - The plane of Amonkhet is home to a thriving mummification industry, much of it performed by other mummies. This is partially because the dead keep rising on Amonkhet, and rising as a docile mummified servant (represented by some of Magic's few mono-White Zombies) is better for everyone concerned than rising as a murderous decaying beast. The mummies (referred to as "the Anointed") perform all manual labor necessary to keep society running, so that the living only need to concern themselves with training for and competing in the often-deadly Trials their society revolves around. The numerous initiates that die during them serve as the chief source of new Anointed. - Munchkin has Mummies as a character class in Munchkin Bites, the set poking fun at Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness games. The funny bit, because Munchkin always has one, is that they're also mummies as in mothers. They're depicted wearing aprons or vacuuming, and have Clean Your Room as an ability. - Pathfinder has standard mummies as in D&D, as well as two separate templates to create your own: the "Mummified" template can turn monsters into mummies, while the "Mummy Lord" template is for "boss-level" mummies with more powerful abilities. There are also a few mummy-like monsters, such as Cursed Kings and Pharonic Guardians. All of these are most commonly found in the ancient tombs of Osirion, the setting's Egypt equivalent. The adventure path "Mummy's Mask", naturally, foregrounds Osirian history and mummies. - VOR The Maelstrom: The Pharon are an entire Always Chaotic Evil species of mummies, complete with zombie slaves from all manner of organic species... - Warhammer Fantasy: - The "Tomb Kings of Khemri" are an Egyptian-styled undead army, taking additional inspiration from The Mummy Trilogy and a bit of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most of them are skeletal, but the Tomb Kings themselves are mummified. While they will attack people who steal from them, some of them also want to restore their old kingdoms, and several of their necropolises have living populations under the protection of their mummy rulers. For the most part, they're portrayed as still fundamentally human — just very old and very set in their ways — and as much more amenable to diplomacy that other undead as long as you talk to them with respect and don't steal from them. - The Slann Mage-Priests of the Lizardmen are mummified batrachians, fitting in with the army's Mayincatec theme. In-universe, they're not strictly true undead, as they're not animated by dark magic, but are instead a form of Revenant Zombie — essentially, their spirits are so powerful and devoted to their tasks that death and mummification only inconvenience their ability to talk, move, and cast spells. - The World of Darkness: - Mummy: The Resurrection: Players are mummies, and don't seek eternal life except inasmuch as it assists them in perfecting their souls/humanity. The corebook has Egyptian-themed mummies as characters, with the player's guide adding South American mummies and Chinese immortals. Considering nearly every supernatural (and there are a lot of supernaturals in that world) would just as soon kill humans as look at them, they're as close as the setting gets to depicting nonhumans as good. Additionally, these mummies aren't bandage-wrapped zombies. Rather, the embalming process is part of the Spell of Life, which can fully resurrect the recently dead. - New World of Darkness: Mummies show up in three ways: - Immortals: The Purified are more Chinese than Egyptian (complete with using Chi as a power source), but attain immortality through ritualistic preparation and spend the rest of their lives as a part-spirit entity. - Mummy: The Curse deals with the Arisen, ancient scions of the Nameless Empire who are bound to an endless cycle of sleeping and waking in order to achieve some goal throughout the ages (be it on behalf of their mortal cult or the divine Judge that empowered them). - Promethean: The Created: The Osirians borrow a lot of the elements without all the gauze. Inspired by the myth of Osiris? Check. Ritualistically dismembered before being reconstituted? Check. Of lordly bearing? Check. Able to come back from the dead again and again and again? Check. - LEGO has released plenty of mummy minifigures over the years. Probably the most well known one is Pharaoh Hotep from the LEGO Adventurers Egypt set. - Cleo De Nile, Monster High's resident Alpha Bitch, is a rather drop dead gorgeous kind of mummy. - Her sister, Nefera, is even more attractive, but also is more of an Alpha Bitch. - Kingdom of Loathing: - Parodied. "Ooooh, no! I'll have to walk slightly faster if I want to escape!" - The Small Pyramid at the end of the Holy MacGuffin quest is filled with mummies. Among them are mummified bats, Iiti Kitty (the ancient Egyptian ancestor of Hello Kitty), and the quest boss, Ed the Undying, \|\|whom you must kill seven times to defeat — "Undying" isn't just a fancy title, kids\|\|. - The King of Dragons: Mummies attack the player in Level 10 (and maybe 15). They move slowly, use a grappling attack to sap the players' life and take a fair amount of damage before they die. - League of Legends: Amumu, the Sad Mummy. He differs from the classical mummy in a number of ways. Not physically powerful (partially due to being a child) he relies on magic to hurt people, with his otherwise ineffective headbutt being used to apply his Cursed Touch, which reduces magic resistance. He has no attachment to his tomb, isn't especially slow, and in fact can launch himself at enemies. His main motivation is loneliness. - Kirby: The Mumbies are recurring enemies that look like round things wrapped in Mummy bandages, which only let a single red eye peek from the bandages. They only move when Kirby is looking away from them. - The Legend of Zelda: - The Lost Vikings: The three vikings end up in a Shifting Sand Land / Build Like an Egyptian level in Ancient Egypt. The mummies here are capable of spreading The Corruption and turn one of your vikings into a mummy as well. Though seeing as they're dead, you'll have to restart the level anyway. - Luigi's Mansion: - Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: Mummies appear in the ruins section of the Old Clockworks. But unwrap them and it will reveal that the mummy was in fact a Greenie ghost impersonating one. - Luigi's Mansion 3: Mummies make a return in this game, being the primary threat in the Egyptian-themed Tomb Suites. They can be unwrapped, and their identities as Goobs or Slinkers exposed. - Magic Sword includes mummies among its variety of mooks, who are quite sturdy for a minor enemy and have a tendency to suddenly fall from the ceiling just above The Brave One/Alan's head. - MediEvil 2 introduced Princess Kiya, a mummified princess who becomes Sir Dan's love interest. - Metal Slug and Metal Slug Code J: The mummy's (and dog mummy's) purple breath turns the player himself into a mummy, instead of killing him. Ground speed, shooting speed, and grenade throwing speed is reduced, plus a mummified player can't pick up any weapons. If the player gets gassed a second time, he dies, but can return back to human by picking up a -literal- Magic Antidote. - Metal Slug Attack expands the Mummies into an entire sub-faction, with an ancient Pharaoh sleeping beneath the sands, his Cat-girl Queen Cleopatra preparing for his awakening, and their guardians and servants. - Mummies in Miitopia are wacky-looking creatures with the annoying habit of swallowing the Mii's weapons. - Millie And Molly: Mummies are one of the many enemies that Millie & Molly can defeat by touching them. - Minecraft: The Husks, which are a desert-themed and more dangerous variant of zombies. They inflict the hunger/food poisoning status effect upon dealing damage, and can survive in sunlight. - The Game Boy Advance game Monster Force featured a mummy named Mina as an unlockable character, who could be unlocked by beating the game once. - Monster Hunter (PC), being a Monster Mash of a game, have mummies as the last and most powerful enemy variant encountered, to the point of being a Bossin Mook Clothing. They can only be killed by two hits from a Magic Staff, and while the first hit is easy (since it's a slow-moving mummy at that point), upon being damaged the mummy turns into a fast-moving skeleton and starts pursuing the player. And since all weapons in the game, the staff included, are one-use only, the player will be forced to run like hell to collect a second staff to take down the mummy-turned-skeleton. - Mother 3 also has Mummy Cats as a minor enemy, with groovy music. Name? Cleocatra. - Ninja Commando have a trio of mummies in Ancient Egypt serving as a Wolfpack Boss. - The beautiful temple priestess Krom-Ha from The Next Big Thing is actually a living mummy. She and the main character even have a romantic encounter. - Pac-Man World has mummies as Elite Mooks in the cavern levels. They are invulnerable to the Goomba Stomp thanks to their pointy headgear, and can only be taken down by a rolling tackle or with Pac-dots. - In Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, the first area of the game is Ancient Egypt, which appropriately features Mummy Zombies (though according to the in-game Almanac, they're just zombies wrapped in toilet paper). One of the enemies is even a Pharaoh Zombie, a mummy who is protected by his sarcophagus. - The ghost-type Pokémon Dusclops◊ is designed with a Mummy in mind. As if being a ghostly cyclops isn't enough... - Black/White version introduces Yamask, a ghost type Pokémon that looks like a shadow-like thing with a golden mask attached to its tail and its evolution, Cofagrigus, a living sarcophagus with an evil face and shadowy hands. Both have the ability Mummy, which means that contact with that Pokémon will cause who ever touches it to gain the Mummy ability as well, leaving the opponent without its original ability and pretty much acting as a contagious "Mummy's Curse". - Mummy Cats are encountered inside the Pyramid in Secret of Evermore, and they either attack by either hopping around or opening their sarcophogi and taking a swipe at the player if he is standing still. - The Secret World features quite a few of these as traditional mindless enemies in the Egypt missions, twisted versions of traditional mummies that serve as mooks for the Cult of Aten. However, the game also reveals that there's a whole society of intelligent mummies in control of Egypt's criminal underworld. Known as the Kingdom, they're corrupt and greedy, but thankfully remain neutral in the conflict. One of them, Säid, acts as a quest-giver. - Shade: Wrath of Angels have it's second portion being set inside a cursed pyramid. Naturally most of your enemies are mummies, with some occasional undead priests, skeletons and scarabs thrown in. - Sett Ra, the final boss of Shaq Fu, is a mummy. - A few from the Shining Series - Shining the Holy Ark has mummies that appear in an Egyptian styled level and who attack by using sand storms. They're actually just a Palette Swap of a zombie. - Shining Wisdom has mummies that charge at the player; commonly found in crypts and the Earth Temple (read: lots of sand). - Your Sims can encounter mummies in the World Adventures pack for The Sims 3. These powerful and hostile creatures hide in sarcophagi, waiting for explorers to open them. The Sims better have a high martial art skills to defeat them, else might get cursed and die in a week. A player controlled Sim may also sleep in a cursed sarcophagus and become a mummy themself. Playable mummies are slow, sterile, and can be killed instantly by fire, but in exchange for that, have increased physical strength, immunity to electricity, and their lifepan is five times longer than a regular Sim. - One of the skulls from Skul: The Hero Slayer can turn him into one. - Mummies are a playable race in Soulcalibur VI's Libra of Soul mode. They are mummified corpses that were reanimated by astral fissure energies. - The video game Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is a Zelda-style adventure game, when you're playing as Sphinx. The Mummy's segments are puzzle-based platformer areas. The solutions to the puzzles almost always involve slapstick humor relating to the fact that the Mummy's already dead, and therefore can be, say, squished flat or lit on fire with no ill effects. There are also a few monsters who were mummified such as the Mummy Worm, Chihuahua, and Bird, among others. - In Stardew Valley mummies appear as enemies in Skull Cavern located in the Calico Desert, they must be killed twice (the second time with a bomb) for them to stay dead. - Super Mario Bros.: - Paper Mario has Pokey Mummies, a variation of the Super Mario Series' standard cactus enemy. They don't wear bandages, but are found in coffins inside the Dry Dry Ruins and are able to poison their enemies. - In New Super Mario Bros., there is Mummipokey, who actually wears bandages. He is the boss of World 2. - Mummies appear in Hardmode deserts in Terraria, with variants for Corrupted, Crimson, or Hallowed deserts. They drop anti-debuff items, the Light or Dark shards (depending on the variant), and the Mummy costume set which you can use to dress like a mummy yourself. - In Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, mummies are recurring enemies. They are extremely slow, but tend to crop up in confined areas, which can make evading them somewhat difficult, and there is no point in shooting at them, as they are indestructible.....unless you have the grenade launcher or crossbow with explosive arrrows - Valkyrie Profile: These are the standard adversaries in the Tombs of Amenti dungeon. - Zombies Ate My Neighbors has a level called "Pyramid of Fear", where you are chased through the halls of an Egyptian pyramid by mummies. - During the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog four-parter about the Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik visited a pyramid in which he encountered mummified ancestors of both himself and Sonic. - The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario" had Bowser sending his twin Koopalings to kidnap the mummified Prince Mushroomkhamen for a reason that is never given. In the process, they end up waking up his mother, who mistakes Mario for her son (and later Luigi for her husband) because they look exactly alike. - In an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a mummy is discovered to be living in the team's basement. This is why, as Carl explains, their rent was so cheap. The mummy continuously bullies Frylock into buying him expensive gifts and meals, threatening him with "CURSE!" if he refuses. After a visit to the local library, Frylock learns that plagues are just an "Old Wives' Tale," and that a mummy's true curse is that it is a selfish, spoiled brat devoid of any social skills. With no prospect of magical retribution, they toss him to the curb for the trash pick-up. - Dark Bunny and the Curse of the Moomies (giant cow mummies with Eye Beams) from Arthur. - Ben 10 features an alien mummy, amongst a group that also includes an alien werewolf and an alien Frankenstein's Monster. And an alien ghost. Leave it to Ben 10 to create a Monster Mash of aliens! - Casper's Scare School: Ra, one of Casper's friends, is a mummy. His familymembers also show up in several episodes. - The Centurions fight an army of the creatures in "The Mummy's Curse"—until their pharaoh revives and tells them to go back to sleep (in perfect, unaccented English). - The mummy in the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Throw Mummy From The Train" is actually portrayed as a good character, guarding a ring \|\|that, when plugged into the Sphinx, summons a demon into it, not diamonds as the legitimate archaeologist mistranslated it\|\|, so he and the titular Rescue Rangers try to stop the other archaeologist, who's only in it for the loot and hates the responsible bits like cataloging the treasures, from doing that with the ring. - A mummy is one of the monsters to appear in the Monster Mash episode of Count Duckula. - Courage the Cowardly Dog features the Mummy of King Ramses, who seems to be based on a cross between Tutankhamen and Moses — he looks like a greenish vampire and instead of acting like a zombie, he chooses to stand from afar and curse the house with floods, locusts and terrible music ("the man in gauze, the man in gauze. KING RAAAAMSES!"). He also has the power of possession. - There was another episode with a more traditional mummy, this one being a unfairly punished baker. This mummy's background is more Mayincatec but is still an Egyptian-style linen-wrapped mummy. - In Danny Phantom, a mummy ghost starts serving Tucker because of his resemblance to an Egyptian King. - In Dan Vs., Seth Green plays a mummy who leaves his sarcophagus at a museum to start hanging around Dan to an annoying degree. - In the short-lived Hanna-Barbera series Drak Pack, The Brute of the bad guys was the mumbling Mummy-Man who besides being strong and tough also could shoot away his bandages (but not losing any of them — he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of them) to bind his opponent, create grapple lines or tie things together, as a very weird variant of Spiderman's webshooters. - A mummy appears in two different and unrelated episodes of DuckTales (1987). Curiously, though, it seem to be the exact same mummy (a dogface Goofy-like version). The first episode "Sphinx for the Memories" is the classic Ancient Egypt adventure and the mummy at the end is released from the curse and travels to the afterlife in the form of a Fog Feet ghost. The episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show" had the mummy appear with other monsters in a Monster Mash setting, but Scrooge and his nephews do not seem to recognize him, nor does the mummy recognize Scrooge and his nephews. - In the Fangface episode "The Creep From The Deep", a shipwreck off the Mexican coast is haunted by the mummy of the Aztec emperor "Molazuma", who goes on a violent rampage after his sacred stone tablet is stolen by the episode's villain, a globetrotting criminal mastermind. When the tablet is returned to him, the mummy is content to return to his watery grave. - In the non-canon title sequence, Fangface is also seen grabbing onto the mummy's wrapping as it's chasing after Puggsy, causing it to unravel. - In Filmation's Ghostbusters, one of Prime Evil's henchmen was Airhead. He was actually more like a Bedsheet Ghost, with no body inside his wrappings. (In his first appearance, Tracy was able to inflate him with air until he exploded.) True to his name, he didn't seem to have much in his head! - Cleofatra in Gravedale High is the class token nerdy fat girl. One of the teachers is also a mummy with very bad breath named Mr. Tutner. - In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Irwin's mother is revealed to be a mummy named Judy, leading to this exchange: Dick: Yes, Irwin's mom is actually a mummy. Nobody can tell you who to fall in love with, but we've managed to make it work all these years. Leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered. Mandy: Eh, works for me. Grim: Me too. Billy: ...Yeeeeeaaah, but how did you and Irwin's mom... Dick: (in the exact same tone of voice) Leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered. - A later episode kinda answers this by revealing that Irwin's dad is actually a Dhampyr. - In Hotel Transylvania: The Series, one of Mavis's True Companions is a mummy named Pedro. - Not only is there a mummy in an episode of the original Jonny Quest series, it is featured in the Title Sequence. - Mary Shelley's Frankenhole: - There was one in "Robert Louis Stevenson's Belushi!" whose entire schtick is making 'wrapped up' puns. - In a later episode, we find out it's because Osiris is a huge fan of puns. Mummy: I'd go myself, but I'm all wrapped up! Osiris: HA HA HA! Yes, again you honor Osiris with your clever wit! - In the Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) episode "Night of the Living Monster Bots", a mummy is one of the titular bots◊. - The Men in Black: The Series episode "The I Want My Mummy Syndrome" had this mixed with Ancient Astronauts ideas. The episode featured a very aggressive specie of aliens from an Egypt-like planet named Hyperia. One of this aliens awakes from hibernation in modern times wrecking havoc, as it is blue-skinned and cover with wraps most people think it is a mummy. - Mummo, the resident mummy in Camp Mini-Mon of The Mini-Monsters for monster children. - Pharaoh from Miraculous Ladybug had the abilities to turn civilians into these to serve as his minions. - Naturally, one of these shows up in Monster Force. This version of the mummy, while appearing like a more human version of the typical bandage-wrapped shambler (separate fingers, visible facial fingers), is almost identical to the first movie version, being intelligent and a powerful sorcerer. - The animated series Mummies Alive! may be the only group of superheroic mummies on record. - The Mummy: an animated series based on the Brendan Frasier movie. - The New Adventures of Superman: Superman battles the mummy of an evil ancient Egyptian sorcerer in "The Malevolent Mummy." - In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Are You My Mummy?" the boys watch an Ancient Egypt movie and decide it would be fun to have a mummy as a playmate (complete with a musical number, "My Undead Mummy"). They explore the movie theater but are disappointed to discover that the only mummies around are promotional props. As it happens, however, events conspire to get Candace wrapped from head to toe in toilet paper and walking and moaning like a mummy. Naturally, she gets mistaken for the real article and hijinks ensue. - PJ Masks: Pharaoh Boy, a night time villain introduced in season 4, is a mummy, though his face is not covered in bandages. He is loosely based on Apophis, a villain from the books, who fit the trope even more. - One of Plastic Man's enemies is Disco Mummy... a disco-themed Aztec mummy. - Another Monster Mash episode; "Deadcon 1" of The Real Ghostbusters has a monster convention in New York, so the Ghostbusters must act as hotel personnel to keep things under control. A mummy checks in the hotel signing with hieroglyphics and it is up to bellhop Egon to carry his sarcophagus. - In one episode of Road Rovers ("Dawn of the Groomer") a villainess tries to resurrect three anthropomorphic dog mummies. - Mummies were among Scooby-Doo's most common adversaries, perhaps because it's such an easy Monster Suit of the Week to whip up in a pinch. - The Simpsons - Thought to be the culprit in a Treehouse of Horror IV story. Kent Brockman: Another local peasant has been found dead — drained of his blood with two teeth marks on his throat. This black cape was found on the scene. [Cape has "DRACULA" written on it] Police are baffled. Chief Wiggum: We think we're dealing with a supernatural being, most likely a mummy. As a precaution, I've ordered the Egyptian wing of the Springfield museum destroyed. - "Go, soccer mummy! You taught me to believe in myself!" - In the opening for "Treehouse of Horror XX", a mummy dresses up as Captain Jack Sparrow to attend the costume party but is attacked by his wife when she finds he was cheating on her. - The Smurfs had The Moon-Eyed Mummy in the Season 9 episode "Mummy Dearest". - The Spider-Woman episode "Pyramids of Terror" had Spider-Woman fight a race of alien mummies from the planet Hotep. - Super Friends face aztec mummies in one episode with El Dorado as protagonist. - In the SWAT Kats episode "The Deadly Pyramid", the Pastmaster takes control of an army of monster mummies (each is the size of a small building!) and goes on a rampage. - In the TaleSpin episode "In Search of Ancient Blunders", Baloo, Wildcat, and Adventurer Archaeologist Myra encounter a mummy who guards the upside-down pyramid of King Utmost. The mummy is revealed to be the foreman who was responsible for the pyramid being built upside down; King Utmost cursed him in retaliation. However, the mummy undoes the curse by preventing Don Karnage's Air Pirates from stealing the pyramid, which indirectly results in its being reinstalled on the original site rightside up. - The classic Big Bad of ThunderCats (1985) and ThunderCats (2011). "Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!" Ironically, in all but aesthetics, Mumm-Ra is more of a Lich. - Tutenstein features the undead child-pharaoh Tutankhensetamun awoken in the modern day. - The Venture Bros.: - In the episode "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II", is partially a send-up of this trope; in it, the family meets a 'good mummy,' but pretty much all of the shambling corpses, and the 'Cult of Osiris' that resurrected them, are profoundly ineffective. - In the pilot, a mummy falls out of their jet. Brock kicks its ass, kills it, and the urinates on it for good measure (you have to defile a mummy completely, or else it'll just get back up). Upon closer inspection, Rusty finds the mummy to be a fake. It's unknown who that guy really was, or why he dressed up as a mummy and climbed into the Venture jet. - Work It Out Wombats! referenced this trope by having Mr. E dress in a mummy costume in the Halloween Episode.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMummiesAreDifferent
Ouroboros - TV Tropes The serpent of eternity goes round an' round, round an' round, round an' round... The symbol of a serpent eating its own tail, making a circle. Dating back to Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and the cyclical nature of time and the universe. The fact that the serpent is eating itself is also indicative of the idea of self-consumption in the way we live. Sometimes it may even be two serpents each eating the other's tail, taking on similarities with the Yin Yang symbol. Another, more modern common variation is for the snake or snakes to have an additional knot which forms the infinity symbol, ∞. The ouroboros' primary Motif, found in ancient and medieval philosophical and alchemical texts, is a representation of eternity and cycles. In particular, it is associated with themes of death, rebirth, and renewal and with interpretations of history as a repeating cycle instead of a linear progression. In modern fiction, it is also often associated with Time Travel, and in particular with the concept of time loops, where the "final" parts of the sequence serve to set up the "starting" ones in a cycle with no beginning or end. Note the connection to The Phoenix and also the serpent as the shedder of skin and rejuvenator which acts much like the phoenix motif. Sometimes, the ouroboros is present as a physical being in its own right, and, in some versions, the serpent encircles the world or the World Tree, and is tied to its fate. Most often, however, the ouroboros appears as a symbol or motif instead of a living creature. See also Serpent of Immortality. ## Examples: - Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: The Eight Deadly Fists of Ragnarok have Ouroboros surrounding the Roman Numerals on their gloves. - Mon Colle Knights: Oroboros is the master of the seventh realm, time, and as such it is an inorganic lifeform. It "appears" through the center of a gate that is the mathematical infinity symbol, and the Big Bad intends to use it to make everything one. - Noein: This motif crops up a lot, usually signaling that the amount of crazy quantum time travel hax is about to get even worse. The giant one that occasionally appears by a nearby island even \|\|serves as a portal to (effectively) The Legions of Hell\|\| near the end of the series. - Ouroboros: The two main characters are in a team named Ouroboros, whose symbol is two dragons that bite each others' tails to form an infinity sign. This can also be found in one of Tatsuma's one-liners: "There are two dragons in Ouroboros". - Tiger & Bunny: A crime syndicate calls itself Ouroboros; members can be identified by ouroboros-symbol tattoos. For a while, Barnaby believed they were \|\|responsible for his parents' deaths, but they turned out to be a red herring\|\|. While it seems like it is unrelated to the motif of the Ouroboros, Ouroboros is in fact \|\|fed by Maverick, who essentially leads the heroes. His actions cause Ouroboros to become a real shadowy organization as well, and they are essentially unstoppable, vowing to return at the end of the series.\|\| - Souten Kouro, an adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms focusing on Cao Cao, starts with depiction of the Ton, a massive grotesque snake/dragon/crocodile-like beast that eats the world. When it runs out of things to eat, it begins devouring itself starting from the tail, and eventually it itself ceases to exist along with all that it ate. - Bone: Mim, the queen of the dragons and creator of the living and dreaming worlds, is based on the Ouroboros. As long as her tail remains in her mouth, the world is held in balance. When she gets possessed by the Lord of the Locusts, she lets go of her tail and the world is no longer safe. - G.I. Joe (Devil's Due): In the G.I. Joe Reloaded Alternate Continuity, an ouroboros is the symbol Cobra carved in the place of one of their first attacks. - Batman (Grant Morrison): Ouroboros is one of the themes of Dr. Dedalus and Leviathan \|\|and therefore of Talia al-Ghul\|\| in Batman Inc. - Mickey Mouse Comic Universe: In "The Dragon That Swallows Its Tail", the protagonists, during their journey, end up going to the past, and find the eponymous dragon, which is actually a cave formation. At its end turns out to be a portal to the modern day; they cross through and find out that their arrival caused a Stable Time Loop which made them go on their journey in the first place. - Thorgal: In "The Lord of the Mountains", a ring that allows time travel takes the form of an Ouroboros. It happens to represent the Stable Time Loop that will happen/has happened to one of the characters. - Tintin: In Tintin in the Congo, Tintin makes a snake swallow its own tail and eventually eat himself. - Apotheosis: Much like Celestia and Luna embody the sun and moon, the two dragon gods represent the ouroboros. In the physical world, this is symbolically represented through a cyclical pattern of usurpation and renewal — one brother rules for a time, but over time becomes corrupt and complacent; this drives the other to usurp him, bring initiative and leadership back to the dragons, and banishes the former ruler into the wilderness, where he broods and renews himself until it is time to repeat the cycle. In the spirit world, the two are represented by a physical ouroboros, a reclusive beast that embodies the brothers and their endless cycle. - Past Sins: In The Road Home, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Twilight are attacked by a lake serpent with A Head at Each End that Twilight identifies as an ouroboros. - Soul Eater: Troubled Souls: Medusa creates a curse called Ouroboros. A vector snake bites someone and strips them of an ability or personality trait that defines them as a fighter. The snake is actually wrapped around a limb, biting its own tail to create the image of an ouroboros. - The Ferryman involves an evil spirit that manages to escape death by possessing the bodies of the people on board a pleasure cruise. Every body it currently possesses bears a tattoo on its back depicting a snake biting its tail in figure of eight, an obvious symbol of eternity and immortality. - "—All You Zombies—": The bartender wears an ouroboros ring, symbolizing how the story's event make up a convoluted, self-contained Stable Time Loop, and how \|\|the main character's history is a closed looping system, as through time travel he's fated to have a one-night stand with himself to give birth to also himself, and then to go back again and make sure that the whole thing takes place properly\|\|. - The Chrysopoeaia of Cleopatra is an alchemical text that dates all the way back to 2nd century Alexandria. "Chrysopoeaia" means rather literally "Making Gold" or basically, since you're dealing with alchemists here, transmutation into gold i.e. a Philosopher's Stone. You can also see from the light-dark comparisons the similarity to the Taijitu. - Conan the Barbarian: In The Phoenix on the Sword, Thoth-amon's Ring of Power is shaped like a serpent coiled three times and holding its tail in its mouth. He triumphantly lifted a ring of curious make. It was of a metal like copper, and was made in the form of a scaled serpent, coiled in three loops, with its tail in its mouth. Its eyes were yellow gems which glittered balefully. - Discworld: - The Light Fantastic: Tethys, the water troll, landed on the Disc after falling off another world. One of the worlds he passed had a giant serpent eating its own tail around the disc, instead of the turtle/elephant arrangement of Discworld itself. This may be a reference or either the Norse mythology of Jörmungandr or, due to it also appearing in connection to the turtles-elephants-world model, Adisesha of Hindu tradition. - Pyramids: Dios carries a staff tipped with a pair of carved serpents. He doesn't actually notice that each one has its tail in its mouth until after \|\|he's flung 7000 years into the past, making him a Stable Time Loop.\|\| - Incarnations of Immortality: Sning the magical ring. It can come to life and it can answer yes or no questions by squeezing its wearer's finger. - The Neverending Story: AURYN takes the shape of a two-serpent ouroboros, one black and one white. Inside it is a pocket dimension where the Water of Life is guarded by the actual two giant serpents, whose strength would destroy the world if they let go of each other's tails. In the film, the two snakes also intertwine in the centre to make the infinity symbol variation. - Redwork is about alchemy, and there's a ring in the shape of a serpent eating its own tail. - That is All: John Hodgman explains that the ouroboros is not a symbol of eternity after all, but rather just a dumb snake that bit its own tail. Then it crushes Los Angeles. - The Wheel of Time: The Aes Sedai wear a ring shaped as the Great Serpent eating its tail. The most prominent symbol of the series is the Great Serpent looped in the shape of infinity, intertwined with the titular Wheel. - World Without End has it, not in the narrative itself, but rather in the cover (actually, it looks more like a basilisk). - The Worm Ouroboros is a story that is taken to be part of a wider conflict with an ill-defined beginning or end which casts an interesting light on the heroics of the main characters. To reflect this, they have the name and also the Book Ends of Here We Go Again!. - Altered Carbon: The Quellists, an anti-immortality extremist group, combine an ouroboros with a caduceus and an infinity symbol to create a pair of fighting serpents entwined in a figure eight formation. - Doctor Who: A Time Lord called the Corsair has an Ouroboros emblem tattooed on his (or sometimes her) body after every regeneration. - The Good Wife: Alluded to with regard to a convoluted piece of legislation based upon circular logic. Elsbeth: So let me get this straight — it allows for hearsay as long as a murder is established, and a murder is established here because there's a hearsay statement that establishes it? I mean, tell me when the snake actually devours its tail, okay? - The Heart, She Holler: Meemaw creates a Recursive Reality by telling a story to Hambrosia about herself telling a story to Hambrosia. In the appropriately-titled "Oralboros" Cutter the Vet dies from a Visual Pun the full effects of this Recursive Reality when he makes an Ouroboros out of himself. - The Invisible Man: Early on, Darien Fawkes gets a special Ouroboros tattoo that monitors the amount of counteragent in his blood via sections of the tattoo turning green or red. Once the entire tattoo turns red, Quicksilver Madness sets in. - Lost: In Mrs. Hawking's first appearance, she is wearing a brooch in the shape of an ouroboros. Appropriately enough, her role is to tell Desmond (who is in the past, but with memories of his future), to not deviate from the timeline he remembers. In Season Six, when Desmond meets her, she's wearing a different brooch that has two parallel lines on it. - Millennium (1996): Members of the Millennium group are identified by the Ouroboros symbol. - The Pretender: This is the symbol of a sect that practices cannibalism. Later, it's revealed that \|\|Mr. Lyle\|\| is a member. - Red Dwarf: "Ouroboros" reveals that Lister was discovered as a Doorstop Baby in a box with the word "Ouroboros" on it (originally misread as "Our Rob or Ross"). This turns out to be significant as \|\|Lister is his own father\|\|. The box originally contained Ouroboros-brand everlasting batteries. - The X-Files: In "Never Again", Scully got an Ouroboros tattoo. Then she did or did not hook up with a guy with a tattoo that talked to him. It's one of several hints from the series that Scully might be somehow immortal. - The Alan Parsons Project's 1985 album, Vulture Culture, has one of these on the cover. - Crass' logo is meant to draw from the swastika, the Ouroboros, a cross, and the Union Jack, suggesting that power will eventually destroy itself. - Gojira: The way of all flesh, the fourth album, opens with the track "Oroborus" which describes the motif and its relationship with life and death. The album itself is about coming to terms with mortality and dying. - The Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath, the fourth full-length album, contains a track named "Ouroborous" that loops back onto a pair of choruses and a series of guitar riffs that Word of God has declared to be a reference to this motif. Also fits in with the various weirdness that permeates the album, being as it is based around sayings and events that the band encountered while using an old ouija board they found in Jerusalem, and the string of unpleasant events that they thought were due to a curse from the board. - mothy: In the Vocaloid song "The Escape of Salmhofer the Witch" in the Evillious Chronicles, two ouroboros symbols are seen at the end, probably representing the "Twin Gods" of the series. - The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth album Machina featured a lot of artwork from Vasily Kafanov and a lot of other alchemy-inspired artwork. You can see quite a lot of it here and amongst the number, lies several of the Ouroboros. - Taylor Swift: The lyric video for "Look What You Made Me Do" features an ouroboros during the chorus. - Tears for Fears: There's an animated spinning ouroboros in the "Sowing the Seeds of Love" music video. - They Might Be Giants: "I Palindrome I" features the chorus: "And I am a snake head eating the head on the opposite side", in keeping with the song's theme of repetition and symmetry. - Trobar De Morte's album Ouroboros, which includes a song with that name. Its◊ artwork includes a woman with an ouroboros on her forehead. - Woven Hand has ouroboros artwork, from an Albrecht Dürer engraving, on the final page of Black of the Ink. - Hindu Mythology: Adisesha is a primordial being who coils and forms the seat of Vishnu. Adisesha does not actually consume itself and it in fact has thousands of heads but still Adisesha forms a symbol for infiniteness and the endlessness of time. - Hoop snakes, which are part of folklore in both North America and Australia supposedly bite their tail and roll downhill to escape danger. (There aren't any snakes that actually do this.) - Norse Mythology: Jörmungandr, the World Serpent, is the offspring of the giantess Angrboða and Loki who grew so large that he could encircle Midgard, the Earth, and grasp his own tail. When Jörmungandr lets go of his own tail, the world will end. - Drop Mix: One of the rock playlists is called Ouroboros. - Dungeons & Dragons: In the 3rd party supplement Creature Codex, there are stats for the Ouroboros, here interpreted as a snake with a white head and front body, and a black back half. Once slain, it is reborn with the colors switched. - In Nomine: The band symbol of the balseraphs — demons resembling winged serpents, known mainly for spinning extremely convoluted lies within lies within lies — is an ouroboros coiled in a double-layered figure eight. - Iron Kingdoms: The druids of Circle Orboros are named after Ouroboros (minus one o). They worship the Devourer Wurm, the embodiment of chaos. - Magic: The Gathering: Eternal Dragon and Evershrike are a dragon and winged snake, respectively, shown holding their tails in their mouths. Both can be returned to your hand from the graveyard for a price in mana, representing the ouroboros' association with immortality. - Pathfinder: - Stats for the ouroboros are included in Bestiary 6. They are described as being enormous serpents made from even tinier serpents (in turn made from even smaller ones, repeating to infinity) from the Astral Plane. Embodiments of the cycle of creation and destruction, they forever consume themselves and are reborn in an endless loop. They are among the most powerful beings in the cosmos, but are extremely aggressive and destructive, making them a favorite summon for extremely powerful but homicidally insane spellcasters. - Ragadahn, a demigod associated with dragons, secrets, and eternity, is fond of using this symbol, and his holy sign is a serpent biting its tail while curved in the shape of an infinity symbol. - Tarot Cards: In some tarot decks, the World (XXI), the last of the Major Arcana, has an ouroboros surrounding the chick (or whatever is) present in the center of the card. - Warhammer 40,000: The symbol of the Thousand Sons Chaos Marines is an Ouroboros, in keeping with the motifs of the Marines themselves, and their cities. - The World of Darkness: - If you pay close attention, the symbols for both Worlds of Darkness are ouroboroi. - Vampire: The Masquerade: The Tzimisce clan symbol is a sinister rendering of an ouroboros. Several theories abound as to the nature of this fact, but the best explanation is that the clan is very wise as to the cannibalistic nature of the Crapsack World they live in. - Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth discusses the Ouroboros as a symbol of the Wyrm. - BlazBlue: Hazama has a weapon called Ouroboros which grants him long-range attack options. To further the thematic 'cycle' in Ouroboros, \|\|this guy is responsible for creating the time loop that plagues the first game.\|\| To further the thematic 'autoconsumptive' theme in Ouroboros, \|\|his weapon exacerbates emotional vulnerabilities in his enemies\|\|. - Bravely Default: \|\|The Greater-Scope Villain and True Final Boss that Airy serves is called Ouroboros\|\|, and the ouroboros symbol appears around \|\|each world he consumes, allowing him to talk them into spiritually cannibalizing themselves\|\|. - Breath of Fire: Nina's strongest weapon in Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV is called Ouroboros. - Resident Evil 5: The apocalyptic Virus threat is named "Uroboros" (the Serbo-Croatian spelling), since it mutates its host into a giant mass of intertwining tentacles, slowly devouring the host so it must constantly seek more hosts to infect. - Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: The boss of Sector Eridanus is Ouroboros. You have to fight her twice over because, for the first time, five demons are giving her energy to survive indefinitely. She's beaten on the second try, but who said that it'll be easy? \|\|Then it turns out that defeating Ouroboros doesn't actually enable the Red Sprite to escape the Schwartzwelt...\|\| she appears as a silver serpent, her body in a vertical infinity symbol, tail in her mouth. - Snake (yes, that game) pulls a lethally straight example in which snakes die when biting their own tails, much like the real-life example noted below. - In Splatoon 3, there is a gigantic, eel-like flying King Salmonid named Horrorboros. While it never does eat its own tail, it always flies in a circle around the stage, and its being named after the ouroboros ties in well with the Salmonids' worship of both eating other sapient races and being eaten themselves. - Strider (Arcade): The first boss is called Ouroboros, a large centipede/serpent robot created by the merge of Kazakh's ruling party. In its second appearance during the final stage, it actually starts circling itself in place, making it look just like the symbol it is based on. Ouroboros Mk.III from the 2014 ''Strider'' is a Shout-Out to it. Ouroboros also just happens to be Hiryu's best-known Hyper Combo from Marvel vs. Capcom, though it was likely named due to the Hyper's nature (two bots constantly spinning around Hiryu) rather than as a callback to the boss. - Swarm Simulator: Evolution: The final and most powerful production unit is called the Endless, and it resembles a cosmic ouroboros made of ascended swarm units. - Xenoblade Chronicles 3: the six main characters gain a power early on that allows them to merge with each other into "Ouroboros forms", represented by a fiery image of an Ouroboros symbol in their eyes. Several characters say that "the will of Ouroboros" is the only thing that can fix the world. \|\|There have been multiple generations of Ouroboros across thousands of years fighting against Moebius, trying to break the stasis Moebius has kept the world trapped in. An eternal cycle created to combat another eternal cycle.\|\| - Xenogears: The Final Boss is \|\|a form of Miang\|\| called Ouroboros, and its defeat probably represents the end of \|\|the 10000-year cycle of death and rebirth Deus initiated in order to repair itself and fly off to destroy other planets\|\|. - Gunnerkrigg Court: In the third treatise, there's an ouroboros symbol in the sky. In a later page, a stylized depiction of Coyote appears to reference the ouroboros. - Homestuck: The two-snake symbol, specifically referencing The Neverending Story's use of it, is associated with the \|\|Cherubs\|\|. It turns out to be a part of their mating process; when mating, they transform into immense crocodile-headed snakes, and the act is consummated when they bite each other's tails and twist themselves into an infinity symbol. - Ker-Kyl's Watch: The ruler of 29XX is named Lord Ouroboros. - Ozy and Millie: In one strip, Lewellyn, a dragon, attempts to explain the symbol, and provide a visual reference by biting on his own tail. - In Rhapsodies the Circle Band's logo consists of the Chinese symbol "Fo" superimposed over an ouroboros - A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic posits that the symbol was initially conceived as a discreet signal to inform potential paying audiences of buildings containing autofellatio shows. - Unwinder's Tall Comics: In this strip, there's an ouroboros in the panel border art. It's the first hint that this metafictional webcomic is doing something amazing. - hololive: One half of Ouro Kronii's name is derived from this creature, as it represents time and infinity, so it's no surprise that snakes are one of her Animal Motifs. Her New Year's 2022 kimono reveal stream also introduces a white snake mascot named Boros, bringing this reference full circle. - Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email on mini-golf, the "Worm Hole" dodges Homestar's putt, after which the Worm himself pops up, shouts "Get Your Own!" and takes a bite out of the golf ball. Then another Worm pops out of the golf ball, bites the first Worm, and the two end up forming an endless loop. - Mortasheen: - The Grobbidile is a useless, wormlike by-product of monster creation most notable for a potent Healing Factor and insatiable hunger for the closest source of meat. As a result, most Grobbidiles spend their lives joyfully devouring their own tails. Rarely, it can evolve into the hydra-themed Grobbydrus. - Before Grobbydrus was revealed, someone came up with a fanmade creature called an Ourobbidile which would be created when a Grobbidile consumes a growth serum. Their backs are lined with hard plates and they are far more aggressive than their previous forms, and attack prey by rolling at them like massive wheels and flattening them. When they lack other targets, they revert to idly chewing on their own regenerating tails. - SCP Foundation: The Ouroboros Cycle is a long tale featuring four of the SCP-001 proposals. First is the Children, where the Foundation uses nine children to harness a dangerous power that can wipe anything out of reality. Second is the Broken God, where the Church of the Broken God revive their deity, who then goes on a rampage across Mexico, becoming bigger with each chunk of metal it gets. Third is Atonement, where a Foundation Scientist becomes like a humanoid black hole with the power to wipe out all but one world in the Multiverse and offers to do so after telling the O5 Council that the anomalies they work to contain come from other worlds and leak in. The last is The Way It Ends, which follows an elite group of Chaos Insurgency agents in a quest to kill all the O5s. The overall theme consists of the Foundation messing with power beyond their understanding and how, no matter what happens, the Foundation must remain. - Ninjago: The main city inhabited by the first season's villains, the Serpentine, is named after the Ouroboros, with the arena in the center having carvings on the walls depicting the symbol. This ends up being foreshadowing of sorts, as \|\|in the finale of season 1, the Ninja stop the Great Devourer by baiting it into running into and biting its own tail, causing it to resemble the symbol.\|\| - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The ouroboros is the symbol of Tung Lashor's gang of Snake People. - Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Queen Eclipsa casts an Ouroboros spell on Rhombulus's snake arms. She was apparently particularly proud of this spell. - Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz realized that the unusual properties of benzene could be explained if its carbon chain connected around in a hexagon. He claimed he got the idea after having a dream in which he saw a serpent eating its own tail. - Carl Jung, he of Jungian Archetypes, proto-troper, included this in his writings. - It is possible that the inspiration for the symbol is the view of the Milky Way in the night sky hence its appearances in astronomy-focused cultures. - It's possible for real snakes to bite their own tails. Usually, the real-world ouroboros dies when this happens. It's usually a result of heat delirium, where the snake can't tell that that tasty-looking moving thing is a part of it. - Armadillo Lizard, a little lizard whose defense tactic involves curling up and biting its own tail, protecting its soft underbelly with its hard back, and as such it is given the scientific name Ouroboros. - A Stimson's Python in the Alice Springs Reptile Centre somehow shed its skin inside itself, with the shredded tail ending in the mouth. It broke itself free after 3 hours.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ouroboros
Our Perytons Are Different - TV Tropes Perytons are chimeric creatures that combine the features of deer and birds; they are usually depicted with the forequarters and head of a deer and the hindquarters and wings of a bird, but the ratio of cervine to avian can vary between portrayals — perytons may range from deer with Pegasus-like wings to giant birds with deer heads. Perytons are rarely pleasant company — they are often depicted as rapacious, dangerous carnivores, and are often actively malevolent or alien beings. They also tend to be associated with shadows: often, they cast human shadows instead of their own and only begin to cast a peryton-shaped shadow after they kill a human being. Unlike many other fantasy creatures, perytons probably do not have any true mythological roots. Rather, they seem to originate from Jorge Luis Borges' 1957 Book of Imaginary Beings, where the author purports to have learned about them in a (fictitious) long-lost medieval document, although the corroboration of another creature once thought to have been fabricated by Borges complicates this. Over time, perytons percolated into broader popular culture to join more ancient myths in Western civilization's roster of fantastic beasts and monsters. Compare Pegasus, for another cross of birds and ungulates. Contrast The Marvelous Deer. Also see The Jersey Devil, which is often depicted as resembling a peryton. ## Examples: - Weird N Wild Creatures: The fact card for the Perytons states that they were formerly the human inhabitants of Atlantis. It also states that they only attack humans; with a preference towards Romans, and only have to kill once, with said kill putting their soul at ease. - A Man of Iron: In book 3, \|\|Shireen Baratheon\|\| has one as her mount. It is winged stag version. - Perytons show up from time to time in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction: - The Sun, the Moon, and the Hunt: Perytons are strange, immortal beings who cast no shadows until they take that of another creature in a coming-of-age ritual. In the ancient past, they were a powerful and arrogant people who cast their own shadows and lived in a vast forest to the south, and unlike all the other species cruelly rebuffed Luna and Celestia's offer of friendship. They possessed extremely powerful shadow magic until \|\|Luna burned their shadows away with moonlight in punishment for their humiliation of her sister\|\|, leaving them shadowless and forced to steal those of other beings. - To Perytonia: The perytons live in a collection of city-states across the ocean west of Equestria that Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are sent as ambassadors to. Rather than being malicious monsters, they are a civilized people with a very rich culture and a complex religious system that Rainbow and Rarity often struggle to understand. - Under the Northern Lights: Perytons are winged deer with the legs and tails of birds, and come from a distant archipelago far to the south. As a result, they're very rare in the lands around Equestria. They can transform their shadows as they please, and interact with the physical world using them; the one in the story is seen transforming his shadow into a mass of razor-edged tentacles during a fight, and later into a large web to hold on to his ship during a storm. - One fanmade map plotted on the outlines of real-life geography places a peryton nation on the northwestern shores of Africa. The description notes that, as flying carnivores, the perytons get along a lot better with the griffons than with their fellow ungulates. - Across the Green Grass Fields: Perytons are carnivorous, monstrous, skinless deer with wings like giant barn owls. - Book of Imaginary Beings: The Trope Maker; Jorge Luis Borges describes a medieval manuscript talking about the creatures, but both the source and the perytons are Borges' invention. According to the book, perytons originated in Atlantis and fled the island-nation's demise by flight, cast the shadow of a human being until they kill one, and were prophesized by a Sybil to someday cause the fall of Rome. - Fablehaven: Perytons with golden fur and poisonous antlers are among the creatures living in Wyrmroost, a Fantastic Nature Preserve home to creatures too powerful, dangerous or unruly for other preserves to house. - Forgotten Realms: In The Moonshae Trilogy, the Big Bad summons a flock of perytons — here described as enormous birds with deer skulls for heads and mouths full of fangs — to hound the protagonists. - Goblin Slayer: A peryton encountered by the characters is a mass of living smoke with the body of a giant bird and just the head of a stag. \|\|It's also actually a Living Shadow guise or projection of a demon or warlock.\|\| - My Little Pony: In the fourth book of the Ponyville Mysteries series, Peryton Panic, the Cutie Mark Crusaders track down a peryton described as an indistinct, shadowy deer-like creature with the wings of a bird, which was summoned by the Princesses to guard Nightmare Moon's helmet. As it is a creature of shadows, and actively shuns the light, it is never fully seen. - In The Unicorn Sonata, by Peter S. Beagle, perytons are cat-sized, fanged and winged deer that move in swarms and are the natural enemies of unicorns. - Whiskey And Water: A murderous peryton named Orfeo is one of the novel's main antagonists. - Dungeons & Dragons: Perytons resemble enormous eagles with the heads of stags and the fangs of predators. They're Chaotic Evil as a rule, and are gluttonous eaters of hearts — especially human ones. There's a great deal of in-universe debate about the nature of their shadows — some believe that a peryton casts the shadow of the last creature whose heart it ate, in a reversion of how Borges had it, while others say that they always cast human shadows and yet others that they only cast their own shadow after killing a victim but before devouring it. "Ecology of the Peryton", in Dragon #82, describes a colony of perytons having invaded an island-nation named Atlantis on a far-off world before it sank beneath the waves, and as being fated to some day bring about the fall of the great city of Roma. - In GURPS Fantasy Bestiary, perytons are winged deer that attack humans on sight, diving on them from the air in attempts to gore them with their antlers and fighting mercilessly and to the death. Because they cast human shadows, and because of their habit of only killing one human each in any given attack and wallowing in the remains, they are thought to be the souls of particularly bloodthirsty humans, and that killing a living human is the only way they can regain their previous forms. - Palladium Fantasy: Perytons, also known as demon deer, are winged deer of mysterious origins that cast human shadows instead of their own. They are vicious predators and particularly enjoy hunting intelligent humanoids — one of their favorite tactics is to attack a ship in numbers and destroy its masts and sails, crippling the vessel and allowing them to pick off the sailors at their leisure — although they go after unicorns, pegasi and other beautiful and benevolent creatures as well. - Pathfinder: Perytons are evil, ferocious monsters with the wings and hind legs of birds, the front legs and antlers of stags and the heads of wolves. They are fond of eating humanoid flesh, especially hearts. They are also known for their extremely violent mating rituals, which usually result in the male peryton's demise. - Shadowrun: Paranormal Animals of Europe has peryton as winged deer as tall as a man at the shoulder, and found throughout Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. They possess enlarged incisors and claw-like hooves and both sexes have antlers, although the males' are larger. They're omnivorous and take prey as large as sheep, goats and lone humans. They don't hunt smaller animals because their favored hunting strategy, a headlong antlers-first divebomb, doesn't work too well with prey below a certain size, but they're smart enough to experiment with alternative hunting methods. Most people in their range consider them dangerous livestock thieves and potential man-eaters and go out of their way to hunt them down. - Warhammer Fantasy has Preytons, monstrous bat-deer hybrids possibly born from Beastmen sacrificing Great Stags to Chaos. They possess bat wings instead of forelegs, and are savage meat-eaters — it's common for them to become distracted from their actual targets in battle as they stop to savage the corpses of the dead. - Final Fantasy: Perytons appear as enemies in Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy XI, although here they're simply recolored wyverns and rocs, respectively, in the games. Another peryton has a minor role as a boss enemy in Final Fantasy XIV. - Flight Rising has three different-colored peryton familiars that look like deer with wings that also have feathers elsewhere and which can bond with a user's dragons. They can be obtained by various means, but battling in the Coliseum is not one of them. Out of the three, only the flavor text for the Rosy Peryton acknowledges the dangerous part of their mythology, but states that "this species has learned to live harmoniously with dragonkind." - Kingdom Rush: Origins: Perythons resemble large black birds with the heads of stags. As flying enemies, they cannot engage most units in battle and instead try to reach the stage's exit as quickly as possible. Some of the airlift Gnoll warriors into battle. - La-Mulana: A peryton with the body of a bird and the head and legs of a deer serves as a miniboss in the Twin Labyrinths. It casts human-shaped shadows, and the game speculates that it might be tied to the downfall of Atlantis. - Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Perytons appear during the climax of the Russia arc and are described as a creature with the body of a bird and the head of a deer whose antlers are on fire. The bestiary claims that, every year, perytons flock from the Mediterranean Sea to Africa, inspiring terror on all that they meet. - World of Warcraft: The Hippogriffs of Warcraft resemble perytons far more than their namesakes: they are a hybrid of stags and ravens, with taloned forelimbs, wings and a raven's head, a feathered front-half of their body but antlers, a furry hindquarters, hooved hind legs and a bushy tail. They are relatively peaceful, fully self-aware creatures who work with the Night Elves to protect their forest homelands, often willingly acting as mounts for flying cavalry. - Skin Deep: Adelle Noir, a minor character, is a peryton resembling a roe deer with the wings and forelegs of a bird. Her son and husband are both white stags — cross-species couplings are not normally viable without the help of powerful magic, but their shared nature as primarily cervine creatures makes perytons and white stags close enough for it to work.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPerytonsAreDifferent
Our Monsters Are Weird - TV Tropes I know we like our tropes to have wicks , but this is * ridiculous* . "The rabbit is not just sitting there. The rabbit is part of the monster. So you're looking at an evil tree stump that has a cute bunny on the end of its tentacles so that it can lure people or other animals near it. While I understand the parallel to animals in the real world, I'm still stuck here looking at a googly-eyed tree stump with a rabbit glued to its head. Wow." These are the most unusual, insane and bizarre monsters around — but they're not necessarily Eldritch Abominations, nor are they generally "cryptids" in the usual sense, as even cryptozoology has its limits as to what might plausibly exist. No, these creatures are just "What the heck is that?" weird. They don't have to be from an acid trip either in-universe or as a meta-example. They just have to be unconventional and too strange to fit in any of the other categories. In fact, these can be some of the most popular monsters. It can be a result of the work in question going for Attack of the Killer Whatever. They are often found in Surreal Horror... or at times, Surreal Humor. See also Starfish Aliens and Starfish Robots. Eldritch Abomination can be considered a stronger version of this played for horror. Compare Cartoon Creature, also unusual critters of unidentifiable species but usually played for cuteness. Please put examples of Mix-and-Match Critters, Pun-Based Creature, Blob Monster, Tentacled Terror and Oculothorax in their own pages. This is for even stranger creatures than those. Given that monsters are by definition fictional, No Real Life Examples, Please! ## Examples: - Freakies cereal has the title mascots themselves. They are small and lumpy brightly-colored monsters. Despite being the same species, none of them look alike, with odd additions such as tentacles, trunks, and gigantic feet exclusive to a specific one. - The monsters from 3×3 Eyes are as variegated as they come, usually in the mold of Monstrous Humanoid with darker flesh and the signature Creepily Long Arms. Odd creatures include Yabaru, (a squid-like Cyclops with tusks on the sides of his mouth, a bunch of tentacles emerging from his shell-like shoulders and four axe blades embedded in his head that he can detach at will) and Quan Long (essentially a grotesque, hairless and eyeless wolf-like creatures with a humanoid nose and mouth). - Aratama Tribe: Most of the Oni (former human spirits who mutated into demons that eat negative emotions and produce even more malice) look like their mythological Japanese counterpart: horned heads, sharp teeth, muscled bodies, the usual. The Oni Otoshi, unlike the typical Oni, looks more human and is a pure blood oni that turns living humans into other Oni. One of those humans happened to be a pair of bullied high school students who, under the power of the Oni Otoshi, fused back-to-back into a bizarre two headed creature with two pairs of hands and legs. - The semester exam questions in Assassination Classroom are represented as monsters. Among these is the Social Studies exam, which in the first semester exam is represented as a metallic six-armed humanoid with a turret for a head. The "evolved" form in the second semester exam is a giant tank with arms instead of treads. - Berserk: - A lot of the Apostles' true forms are bizarre, especially Irvine's true form. Seriously, what centaur-shaped creature has their human torso on their monster's half's butt? - The ogres have bulbous torsos, spindly limbs, and a head that looks like a cross between a sperm whale and a vampire bat with creepily human eyes and a mouth that opens to the collarbones... - When \|\|the worlds start to merge with one-another\|\|, we see a plethora of fantastical creatures, including a small army of bizarre creatures akin to demons as portrayed by Hieronymus Bosch (see below under Mythology and Religion). - A lot of awakened beings in Claymore, especially the most powerful ones. - Among them Cassandra particularly stands out. She is a giant naked woman body without head. The human sized torso of Cassandra spawns between the boobs and there are tens of tentacles each terminated with a flesh-eating huge head of Cassandra. Oh, and it moves by crawling on its back. - On a similar note, the Heterodyne from Dai-Guard are similarly bizarre, but have some commonalities. No two are quite alike in design, shape and abilities, but are all based on the same basic composition which is equal parts fungus and octagon-shaped crystal. They then form a body out of surrounding matter, making no two quite alike. They can move freely (some even fly), are usually attracted to EM waves and often have odd powers to defend themselves. That's it. Everything else is up for grabs. - Most Shinigami of Death Note are designed in such a fashion. Ryuk and Rem are the most human looking and resemble a winged vampire and a mummy whose arms are vertebrae, respectively, but the others are downright freaky: - Sidoh looks like a mummified owl/moth hybrid. - Gelus is a Frankensteinian puppet made from...other monsters. - Armonia is a skeleton thing either covered or made of gold and gemstones. - Midora is a hominid salamander-y thing. - Nu is a giant rock covered with eyes. - The King of Death is a spherical Eldritch Abomination chained to various surfaces and covered in tree roots made of bone that lead to a skull-shaped structure whose "mouth" contains his actual head... also a skull, but with three eyes. - Many of the Mons in Digimon are based on real-life animals and mythological creatures and figures, but of course, there is an abundance of ones that are downright bizarre. Notable examples include Sukamon, a living yellow pile of dung with goofy teeth and skinny arms, Deramon, a peacock with a flowering bush in place of a train of feathers and Deputymon, a cowboy Digimon with a giant revolver for a body. - Hell Girl has the first antagonist of the third season get grabbed and thrown by a human-eyed elephant shaped like a two during his Afterlife Antechamber sequence. - Pick any youkai of the week in Inuyasha, and readers are bound to find this trope, including bird monsters with upper human bodies attached to giant furry balls of teeth with wings, a sickle armed white... thing with a Bishōnen head that is an offshoot of the Big Bad's body and lives inside the intestines of its human-looking younger brother like a parasite, a spider demon who masquerades as a kindly monk but whose form is actually a GIANT FLESHY SPIDER WEB, a hair demon whose true form is a red comb covered with hair entangled with skulls, two conjoined-at-the-waist youkai who fight for control of their body, and a giant dragon that would look indistinguishable from any other dragon if it were not for the talking mask on its forehead which is its real face. - The extracanonical Series Mascot of Lucky Star is Nyamo, a white ball with catlike features. - The Dragonosaurus from a Crossover movie featuring Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Getter Robo G, and UFO Robo Grendizer characters and Humongous Mecha was a... amorphous, gigantic, flying red-and-black blob with a huge face on the body and several grey-indigo, snake-like, crested heads sprouting from it. It was told it was a previously-thought-extinct Prehistoric Monster had mutated cause industrial waste spilled in the seas, but still what the heck that thing was? - Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of them takes a human form and a few of the others are vaguely humanoid; most of the others are as bizarre as they come. Examples range from giant flying shapeshifting octahedron to giant hovering phallus with laser tentacles to a living sea of negatively charged particles with a three-dimensional shadow. - The witches from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. On the normal end of the scale you have a human-shaped silhouette that attacks by growing a tree at its target. On the weird end there's a giant monster made of skirts and arms. The others fall somewhere between. - Bloodsuckers like Mosquito from Soul Eater have the power to shapeshift into their younger selves at various points in their life. Mosquito's own de-aging reveals that his life cycle has been full of bizarre shapeshifting, having gone from an amorphous Eldritch Abomination, to a humanoid vampire-esque figure, to an elongated insectoid, to a comically buff gorilla-esque figure with a massive upper torso and arms, to an extremely tiny old man. - Just like its parent series, SSSS.GRIDMAN has some strange kaiju lurking about. One of the stranger ones has to be a monster deliberately designed to look like a person in a cheap costume, only for it to be revealed that it is essentially a cheap, fleshy costume for a humanoid creature to hide inside. Said creature is also a bundle of nerve-like tentacles and absolutely Ax-Crazy. - Many of the creatures and plants in Toriko. Especially the ones based on normal foods. A crossover with One Piece briefly features the immeasurably strong Pig Inside A Fox Inside A Tiger, to give one example. - The hat of Ushio and Tora. Some Youkai are indeed base on folklore, others include a soul-sucking sea monster with a giant belly mouth, smoky tongue and a mishmash of limbs for a body, a Giant Enemy Crab with a living human-like face on his pincer and a colossal, hair-covered blob with a perpetual goofy grin and a set of eye-covered crab-like legs at the bottom of his body. - Doom Patrol: Grant Morrison's run. For evidence, just take a quick gander at John Dandy or The Candlemaker. - Monster Allergy features many types of monsters, most having the ability to become invisible to humans. There are harmless monsters like Bombo, and his species called Bombos. And there are dangerous monsters like Gorkas who can shapeshift into humans and mind control people, or the All-Eating Bonz, who look like purple Bombos with Fu Manchu-like mustache that, if provoked or you say their full name in their presence, go berserk and start eating everything they can catch. And then we have \|\|the Tamers, who have multiple powers including the signature abilities to force monsters to obey orders and lock them into boxes, who look like Humans\|\|. - In Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom, Kal and Kara travel to an alien world and find all kind of weird creatures, like a pair of beasts which seem an elephant-sized, grey-maned, grey-scaled, green-blooded mix between a wolf and a lizard. - Wonder Woman (1987): While some of the monsters beyond Doom's Doorway are fairly traditional, but the notable ones tend to be quite odd; there's Cottus whose spine can be mistaken for a large set of floating stairs when he lays just right, and other than the white boxes which make up his spine is a shadowy creature made of a hundred arms with glowing eyes and mouths peering out from the darkness at its center; and a spiral pillar of screaming faces which affects the minds of those who hear it among others. - In Monsters, Inc. and its prequel Monsters University, the Monster World is shown to be home to a wide variety of weird and wonderful monster species, each with different physical traits, such as tentacles, one or multiple eyes or even being large jawed heads on legs. - The Nightmare Before Christmas has a monster that has fingers like snakes and a spider for hair among more generic monsters and some even weirder creatures than the aforementioned example. - Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!. The name says it all. - Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. Born out of a love affair between a mortal woman and a demon, it consumes people with a soapy ectoplasm, and dissolves them in a Pocket Dimension of stomach acid. - The Golgothan from Dogma, a for real shit elemental. But what's truly weird is that they came up with a theologically sound reason for it! - Then there is Tabonga, the s-l-o-w-l-y walking killer tree-stump of From Hell It Came. - Better yet are the monsters from the Filipino "Blood Island" series, plant/human hybrid that take forms varying from a recognizably human "chlorophyll man" to a giant man-faced running tree who dismembers women out of frustration because...well, he's a tree now, so he can't do what he really wants to do with them. Maybe he needs to watch Evil Dead for a primer. - Gamera: There is a certain flying turtle who qualifies. - Guiron, as well. For Pete's sake, he's got a huge freakin' knife for a head (which he can also shoot ninja stars out of)! - Zigra is a giant goblin-shark monster from another planet. Oh, and he's one of the few monsters in the Gamera films that can talk. - Barugon (not to be confused with the Godzilla monster Bar agon) probably tops all the other Gamera monsters put together. He's a giant crocodile-chameleon monster that can spray a freezing mist out of his extendable tongue, bleeds purple, is vulnerable to freshwater, and can shoot a rainbow death beam from his back. - Ghostbusters, in all media. Although the trope doesn't really kick in until The Real Ghostbusters, signs of this still creep through in the original movie— the Squid Ghost is one, and there was another idea in which the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would become something truly monstrous in the final battle. - The Gingerdead Man, who gives a new meaning to Just Eat Him. - Several throughout the Godzilla mythos - The popular consciousness' conception of Mothra fits. As Big Creepy-Crawlies go, butterflies are pretty tame. Then you find out that she's a god or other supernatural being related to protective goodness, things make a whole lot more sense—or get even more confusing. Either / or? Not weird. Together: Weird. The fact that she's the only monster to have a consistent string of victories against Godzilla says volumes for her prowess. A lot of Japanese monsters tend to fit into the "weird" category. - Gabara of All Monsters Attack, however, certainly falls under this. He's an oni-like (Oni are essentially a Japanese equivalent to ogres) monster who basically exists to bully Godzilla's son Minya, and it's implied that he's nothing more than the result of some kid's overactive imagination. Also... he looks like a cross between a cat and a toad. - To the average American, King Caesar of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla makes no sense whatsoever. He's actually based on a Shisa; an Okinawan variant of the temple-guarding Chinese Fu-dog. Why he has scales is anyone's guess, though other parts such as the crystal, energy-beam-reflecting eyes hint at his golem-like nature. - Baragon, who is some sort of ancient reptile...thing with big floppy ears. Awww. Oh, and he's also the smallest monster in the Toho Universe. AND he's possibly the inspiration for the Nidoran line from Pokémon! Made even stranger in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! where he's a freakin' god. - The Dorats of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Cute foot-tall lizard-bat-cat things that are basically genetically engineered...things...created to be the "perfect pet". That is, \|\|until they are exposed to radiation from the SAME atomic bomb that creates Godzilla\|\| and become \|\|King Ghidorah\|\|. It's a case of three weird-looking small monsters \|\|merging into one HUGE weird monster\|\|. - Godzilla vs. Gigan has Gigan. With hooks for hands (chainsaws in one film) and a buzzsaw on his stomach. - Godzilla vs. Megalon: Megalon certainly counts. He's a giant bipedal beetle god-monster with drills for hands! He spits napalm and shoots beams from his antennae. - There's Destoroyah of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, who happens to be a giant demonic-looking creature who's also billions of tiny crab-like monsters merged into one entity of pure evil. Just like Hedorah, but made of little crabs instead of sludge. - Spacegodzilla of Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla, a giant alien clone of Godzilla with huge crystals growing out of his shoulders. Even weirder, one of his given origin stories is that he grew from cells of the titular plant monster of Godzilla vs. Biollante that went through a black hole and fused with some crystalline organism on the way out. - While neither of these monsters have appeared onscreen with Godzilla, Maguma and Bagan have found their way into the fans' consciousness. The final product in Super Godzilla was considerably different, but the original concept of Bagan was a dinosaur, a bird-monster, and a fish-monster that would then combine together in a final form. Maguma was a giant walrus that appeared out of absolutely nowhere in his sole appearance, the asteroid collision film Gorath. - The Green Slime: Alien monsters with rounded heads, no shoulders. Cyclopean, they have tentacle arms that end in pincers and 2 feet ending in tridactyle claws. They are Psycho Electro and eat energy. If cut, their blood can grow into new ones. Their touch is lethally electric and they can use that energy in their claws to seal any wounds. Strangely, regular fire kills them fine. - The Silicates from Island of Terror are some of the most bizarre monsters of all. Small, starfish-like creatures with mouth on the end of a long tube. They are covered in a thick calcium based shell which makes them well armored. They feed on calcium by injecting a dissolving fluid into a victim and sucking up the liquid goo leaving behind the flesh and organs untouched. Even better? They divide every 6 hours. - Behold, The Killer Sofa! - If you can believe it, there is such thing as a killer piñata movie, called Pinata Survival Island. Unfortunately, it does not contain candy, only murder. - Robot Monster: Ro-Man, a gorilla wearing a space-helmet. Notable especially for having somehow or another murdered all of humanity, save six people. - Troma Films is the filmic king of this trope, with the Killer Condom, Zombie Chickens (of Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead), and Harry Balls the Penis Monster (of Tromeo and Juliet) just three examples of their madness. - In Andre Norton's Catseye, Troy finds the hur-hur revolting and alien in appearance, even a wrongness in its form. Only the prospect of facing hunger and unemployment again lets him even stand carrying the case that holds it. Citizen Dragur, in contrast, is greatly enthusiastic and even calls it beautiful. - China Miéville, as one of the biggest talents in New Weird, it's fitting he has some strange creatures in his Baslag Cycle stories such as a race of mosquito-headed women who are scrawny when they haven't fed but turn buxom when they had some blood, or an otherdimensional monster dragging around a city in the sea. As a guest contributor for Legends Ofthe Red Sun he came up with the Mourning Wasp which was a docile giant insect with a human skull for a face. - The Cogno series has a massive array of these oddities, although it's somewhat justified since they're aliens. Just among the protagonists, pretty much all of them are utterly bizarre. It says something when the least strange one is a three-eyed cyborg (Volo). - Cogno, the eponymous character, is a Faceless Eye connected to an orange stalk with a small mouth and four tentacle-like feet. He also has two orange tendrils on top of his eye. - Scribo is a robot with a head shaped like a pen nib and a four-legged, trapezoidal base. - Phonica is a snakelike pink elephant with two trunks and three stalk eyes. She also has a photographic memory and can speak in dozens of languages at once. - Chrono is probably the strangest one- he's a bulky Armless Biped made of twisted red-and-blue tentacles that is capable of Time Travel. - Undula is the Last of Her Kind of a spacefaring race of bluegreen-and-yellow serpents capable of faster-than-light travel. - Quaestor has five legs and four eyes (one pair is large and the other pair is stalked), and is also the galaxy's best detective. - The Gemini Twins are a pair of orange seahorse-like Planimals with Psychic Powers. They also cannot talk, since they have evolved telepathy over anything else, so they rely on Cogno to speak. - Deltora Quest. Dear GOD, Deltora Quest. Where to begin? Lilies that eat your flesh, game-playing finger-biting mini-Yetis, giant snakes, the Kobb, a giant slug-thing, and worse... far, far worse. Did we mention that the author is Australian? - Discworld has the occasional one-off joke about some of the weird monsters that have evolved on the Disc, like the shadowing lemma, a two-dimensional creature that eats mathematicians, and the .303 bookworm, which is designed to burrow very quickly through magical tomes. Finally, the Luggage. Built out of sapient pear-wood, it looks like a normal traveling trunk, if normal traveling trunks had dozens of little legs, giant teeth, a tongue, and an apparently endless place to hold clothes and/or dead bodies. It cannot be killed, and once it's yours, it's yours for good. - In Hollow, the monsters, called "Woebegots" by the church and "Filthlings" by peasants, are the works of none other than Hieronymus Bosch brought to life and are absolutely bizzare. - In Chris Evans The Iron Elves trilogy among the Big Bad's minions are black, blood-sucking trees. In the third book a few of them feed from buried dragon eggs. Some of them learn to walk, grow arms and become explosive when shot. They also can throw fireballs. A pair grow wooden wings and claws and essentially become tree-dragons. That's right folks, flying trees. - John Dies at the End: Some of the creatures envisioned in this story are truly bizarre — such as the "Wig Monster" that looks like a dog-sized scorpion, with seven chubby babies' arms for legs, a parrot's beak for a mouth, an empty space where a waist should be (presumably this part of its anatomy is just invisible for some reason), and on its head is a toupee very obviously held on with a rubber band. Its body is randomly covered in different kinds of eyes, including roughly mammalian eyes as well as big compound eyes like you might find on an insect. Its scorpion tail injects a Psycho Serum that breaks down a human's natural Weirdness Censor, letting them see the supernatural, which usually ends with the human dying or going insane. It can also instantly teleport across the room and even through walls. And this thing is almost played for laughs; the ones that aren't truly bizarre, are bizarre and unbelievably horrific. The sequel This Book is Full of Spiders manages to take things even further with its titular spiders, a breed of Puppeteer Parasite that mutates its victims in unpredictable ways but generally starts by crawling into a person's mouth and then becoming their mouth. - Journey to Chaos: The source of all monster are the mutations by caused excessive exposure to mana. Mana comes from the goddess, Lady Chaos. Thus, the monsters spawned are very weird indeed. - A Mage's Power: boasts of a horse, that has a human head, and a snake tail, and thinks that Eric (a bog standard human) is the weirdo. Eric later sees monsters that look like they were "stitched together by a mad scientist". - Looming Shadow has a creature whose fur is permanently shaped into a question mark and a giant pelican that hosts a smaller monster in its beak. - Stephen King makes the killer cymbal-monkeys, killer chattering teeth, killer laundry presses, killer toy soldiers, killer word processors, the guy can come up with some really, really creepy monsters. The "shit-weasels" from Dreamcatcher probably take the cake. - Parodied in Family Guy when King pitches a lamp monster as the latest scary thing. - Parodied in Full Frontal Nerdity, with a bloodsucking radio. \|\|That has to be killed by singing "Achy Breaky Heart".\|\| - Parodied in Futurama where the Library of Congress has an entire wing to King's novels. One sign reads "Stephen King: A through Aardvark." - In Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, humans deal with an alien race that are a revolting, nightmarish combination of spider and wolf in appearance — all the more oddly in that their aesthetics, judging by the colors of their clothing and their elegant spaceships, are similar to human. Despite the impeccable graciousness of their behavior toward humanity, many humans are outraged that the fleet allied with them to fight against teddy-bear-like aliens, even though those aliens immediately attacked without responding to any hails. - H. P. Lovecraft: - The Mi-Go in "The Whisperer in Darkness'': They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membraneous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be. - The Shoggoth in At the Mountains of Madness: Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes — viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells — rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile — slaves of suggestion, builders of cities — more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative! - The Great Race of Yith in "The Shadow Out of Time" are cones of rubbery flesh with four appendages sprouting from the tip, one ending in a cluster of eyes, two in claws and the fourth in a set of organic "trumpets" of no visible purpose. These also weren't their original bodies, but a species that already existed on earth millions of years ago whom they all body swapped with to escape their world's destruction. ... were immense rugose cones ten feet high, and with head and other organs attached to foot-thick, distensible limbs spreading from the apexes. They spoke by the clicking or scraping of huge paws or claws attached to the end of two of their four limbs, and walked by the expansion and contraction of a viscous layer attached to their vast, ten-foot bases. - And the Flying Polyps from the same work. They're not even made of the same kind of matter as other life. - Monsters in My Mailbox: Not only do you get them in the mail; \|\|when wet, the monsters will shrink, then turn into harmless fireflies\|\|. - Oracle of Tao: There are creature (that is, living/created things), and there are Monsters (not creatures, because they are not created). Monsters are kinda like a baby Eldritch Abomination, they are composed mainly of the fear and negative feelings of people. These start as Shadows, which can possess animals (so a goldfish possessed by a Shadow becomes a giant deformed goldfish). After a Monster gets a reputation (for instance, Yog Sothoth), people fear it more, and it becomes stronger and stronger until finally becoming an Elder Being. - The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades appears to be a parody of zoological hoaxes and science journals. The number of ways these animals supposedly uses their snouts is staggering. - In Jasper Fforde's Song of the Quarkbeast the title creature, "a small hyena-like creature covered in shiny leathery scales and often described as one-tenth Labrador, six-tenths velociraptor and three-tenths kitchen food blender" which feeds on metal. - Kent J. Starrett does this constantly, dreaming up (and sometimes illustrating) surreal monsters like something from particularly disturbed/nervous child's bad dreams. - In The Taking by Dean Koontz, \|\|the devil\|\| is portrayed as a colossal organic spaceship with control over enormous storms tearing up the entire planet. There are also walking fungus monsters \|\|from Hell\|\|, and other, unseen monsters that seem pretty strange. - In The Traitor Son Cycle, while Miles Cameron put his own spin on traditional creatures like trolls and dragons, he has a pair of odd creatures unique to the setting. There's the hastenoch which are similar to giant elk if they had thick armor plates and a tentacle-fringed mouth, that said a dead hastenoch makes good eating. The same cannot be said of the eeeague. The eeeague are gelatinous blobs with a sharp beak inside of them that they can manifest outwards to eating humans. These sea serpent-riding raiders can also extend out tentacles and their flesh is full of a Hollywood Acid that'll quickly melt weapons used against them (they also exude this acid to cause extra-heavy damage from their already mighty tentacles). Luckily sea water will counteract the acid, but unless you can shoot the eeeague from a distance or have a magic weapon, you can expect heavy causalties or Total Party Kill during an eeeague raid. - Among the various monstrous creatures encountered by Máel Dúin and his crew in the medieval Irish romance The Voyage of Máel Dúin, the most bizarre is the "twisting beast" — a huge monster "with a hide like an elephant" that spends his time alternately running circles, then twisting his body inside its skin, twisting his skin around its body, and twisting his back against its belly. How a body that can do all of these things is actually built is up to your imagination. - Walter Moers's Zamonia books are filled with strange monsters. These include giant insectoids with a kazillion suckers, crystal scorpions, an army of cyborg robots and cyclops with spines in their tongues. - The thing on the cover of the first book on this page. It's like a cross between a porcupine, a hammer, and one-and-a-half people. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel use this trope more and more as time goes on. It gets to the point where you have demons that make you just want to yell "Why can they do that!?" or "Why do they look like that!?". Clem is a perfect example. Why does he have dog ears? Why the weird skin? What is his true form that we never really see? Does it have any real uses at all? Is there a point to his continued existence? Or, to sum it up, "Why?" - Doctor Who has a lot of these guys. - Two of the show's most iconic elements are pretty bizarre: - The TARDIS that the Doctor uses to travel around is a pandimensional Genius Loci, in the form of a blue police box with an infinite Pocket Dimension on the inside. TARDISes are apparently all female and grown from coral. - The Doctor's most persistent foes are the Daleks. A Dalek looks like a human-sized saltshaker with a single eyestalk and a pair of lightbulbs on its head, two appendages that resemble a toilet plunger and an egg beater, and round bumps studding its lower half. And that's just its armor; the creature inside is just a brain with tentacles and a single eye. - Everything in "The Web Planet": the Menoptera, bee-butterfly humanoids with AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle speech that communicate partially through hand gestures; the Zarbi, bipedal giant ants that communicate through synthesised beeping sounds and have a larval stage with a long nose that it can fire like a gun; the Optera, grunting troglodytic creatures that speak in barely comprehensible metaphor; and the Animus, a spider-like Eldritch Abomination that communicates through web tunnels. The surreal look of the serial is the point here. - The Yeti, which blogger El Sandifer called "a monument to insanity". They are actually robot yeti controlled by floating spheres that enter their backs and control them, these spheres being part of a Eldritch Abomination hive intelligence. They have glowing eyes and use pistol-like guns that allow them to shoot smoke that turns into malevolent web fungus. They are controlled by moving wooden figurines around on a board and can use these as homing devices. - The Krotons, which have a Tin-Can Robot appearance but are actually sapient tellurium crystals that are technically immortal, with the closest thing to death that they have being to 'exhaust' (turn into a gaseous state and leave their vessel). The implication (made explicit in the books) is that they can possess any machine and make it their body. They are blind, power their machines with mathematical aptitude, Mind Rape people in order to get the power, breathe fluid through hose lines in their chest, and have inexplicable accents. - "Terror of the Autons" featured murderous plastic daffodil monsters and an inflatable chair that eats people. - The Wirrn in "The Ark in Space" has a truly bizarre multigenerational life-cycle that functions as The Virus and parasitism simultaneously. Wirrn larva are created through fertilising the skin of another species (non-sapient animals are used for this purpose on the Wirrn homeworld, but humans and presumably Time Lords work just as well) and converting their body and brain into that of a larva. The larva then pupates and develops into a fully-fledged Wirrn, a huge wasp-like creature, which gains all the knowledge its host knew. It then lays eggs containing larvae that hatch under its direct control, and any hosts they fertilise transfer the knowledge back to the swarm leader as well. - The Swarm in "The Invisible Enemy" is a sentient brain parasite that transmits itself across space through a flashing pulse of light. Witnessing this light pattern causes the Swarm to be created in your brain. - Meglos. A dangerous and psychotic alien Diabolical Mastermind, technocrat and shapeshifter, who accomplished all this despite being a sessile cactus with no discernible sensory organs. - The Kandyman, a psychopathic torture robot made of candy. - The Empty Child is The Virus represented by a little boy wearing a gas mask. If he touches you, your skin and bone morphs into the shape of a gas mask. - The Adipose, Ugly Cute little monsters made from human fat. - Farscape managed quite a few of these as one of its goals was to showcase the work of the Jim Henson's Creature Shop. - The Masters of Horror episode "Deer Woman", about a vengeful Native American spirit who seduces men in the guise of a beautiful woman, then tramples them to death with her powerful deer legs. - Some creatures appearing on The Muppet Show qualify, like these dancing U-shaped thingies. - Special Unit 2 was all about this trope. Besides the basic creatures (gnomes for example), just about every Link is some weird, unconventional monster. Like the Barney the Dinosaur expy who was the inspiration for The Pied Piper (his plush felt "costume" is actually his body) and the creature made entirely of human fat. - A good deal of Tokusatsu monsters fall into this category. Many fit standard tropes, but every now and then something really WEIRD shows up. - The Ultra Series has lots of weird kaiju, but since Tropes Are Tools, many have become beloved by fans on both sides of the Pacific because they are weird. Some of the most iconic are: - Nova from Ultraman Leo is a big, red Teru-Teru Bōzu who can turn into a flying saucer, breathe insanity gas, and has a three-headed whip and a scythe in place of arms. - Every monster in Ultraman Ace is an example, but the crowner is probably Lunatyx, a Moon Rabbit kaiju that drinks magma and is able to launch its own regenerating eyeballs like missiles. - Bullton from the original Ultraman is about as far as you can get away with calling something a kaiju. It's a giant living meteor from the Fourth Dimension covered in tubes that allow it to manipulate time, space, and reality. Has spawned Expies in the franchise for its abstract appearance alone. - A good number of franchise aliens can fall under this category, bordering on Starfish Aliens. A good example is Metron from Ultraseven, whose design can only be described as some kind of shellfish that had evolved to walk upright like a human. - Another bizarre alien is Dada from the original series. He's more humanoid than Metron, but every bit as surreal as his namesake and a mascot of the movement in Japan. - Ultraman Gaia is another series where about 90% of the kaiju could be called weird. The most iconic of the bunch is the Gan Q, a giant eyeball with legs and arms that constantly cackles and giggles like a madman because it finds everything not from its native dimension to be hilarious, especially if said things are being destroyed. - The original Ultraman's final opponent Zetton is a humanoid alien kaiju with a beetle's shell and antennae, as well as a glowing orange patch for a face and two more on its chest (apparently, they're its eyes!). It can teleport, shoot fireballs from its face patch, create a force field, and catch energy beams to shoot them back at enemies, which it used to kill Ultraman. Oh yeah, it's also stated to be a dinosaur. - Kaiju with tails on the top of their bodies and heads at the bottom are a popular design in the Ultra Series, thanks to Return of Ultraman's Twin Tail, who looks a bit like a shrimp with a frog-like head, but standing upside down. It also influenced the iconic Twin Tails hairstyle in Japan. - STARFISH HITLER!, the most infamous monster from a series where some of the monster were clones of famous people combined with animals. Why they chose a starfish for Hitler is apparently just because "Starfish Hitler" sounds funny in Japanese note : Hitode Hitora. - Choujin Sentai Jetman specialized in turning objects into monsters—a pachinko machine, a hair-dryer, a drink machine— and later combined them randomly with animals, creating things like "Spotlight Armadillo" and "Hammer Chameleon." - In the original live action Giant Robo series they had some bizarre monsters, like a giant flying hairy eyeball — that grew legs, no less — and a giant robot hand. Just a hand. Maybe they wanted to give the good guys the finger. - Toho's Zone Fighter had these in most, if not all, episodes. For example, in Episode 4, the monster was Wargilgar, a huge, long necked alien insect creature that has comb-like wings, pincers, breathes fire, and has a double-barrel cannon in its mouth. Then again, Wargilgar is tame compared to some of the other monsters. Zandolla from Episode 15 had a friggin' drill for a head! - While the earlier monsters from Choujin Barom 1 are pretty standard humanoid creatures based on an animal or plant, the last ten monsters are all based on a single body part; for example, Kuchibiruge is a giant mouth, while Hyakumeruge is a walking mass of eyes. See Bogleech review them here. - Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger: all the Trinoids are fusions between an animal, a plant and a object. To name a few: a crow/mint/sniper rifle monster (Trinoid #5: Hakkarasniper), a bear/mushroom/bank cash machine monster (Trinoid #9: Bankumushroom) and a Bonito/Olive/Fishing Rod monster (Trinoid #15: Tsuribakatsuolive). - Billy the Mountain, title character of Frank Zappa's epic length song, a walking, talking mountain whose wife, named Ethel, is a tree growing off of his shoulder. He's also a draft dodger. - Aboriginal Australian Myths are full of creatures that might as well come from your worst high. We are talking about over 40,000 years of distorting megafauna accounts, adding new details from Southeast Asian traders and possibly literally drugs: - Yolngu lore is the Mecca note : Pun intended since Macassan trade did had Muslim elements to the region of weird creatures. Here we find the Nadubi (an echidna man thing with spines on its vagina), the infamous yara-ma-yha-who (a red frog creature that consumes children and regurgitates them, doing so multiple times until they're one of them), the Garkain (a bat/bird thing that kills its victims with its awful smell and leaves their souls to wander forever), the Malingee (an evil night spirit with rattling knees; arthritis must be a bitch) and a sun goddess with many pubic hair arms. - Gamilaraay lore is the source of Yowies and Bunyips, which are pretty tame in the source material but have been warped into pure weirdness in pop culture. - Ngarrindjeri have the Whowie, an evil six-legged gigantic reptile that eats people in their sleep. - The Yuin have the Dulagal, an evil hairy man who lives in the forests of Mount Gulaga and apparently can only walk sideways. - Tasmanian mythology has the "man's eye" ( buga nubrana) an eye that just watches you from the sky. Thankfully seems to be benevolent. - Christianity: Keep in mind that these creatures have no corporeal/earthly forms — what with being beyond the physical world and all — though angels did have the ability to appear in human form in the Bible, and demons had methods as well. - Angels. When they did not appear as ordinary humans they had 4 wings and the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (Cherubim); 6 wings and are covered in fire (Seraphim) or are giant glowing wheels covered in eyes (Thrones). Even when human in appearance the first thing someone did upon discovering they were with an angel was to freak out. When they showed up in one of the aforementioned appearances the greeting was usually "fear not". - Demons could also get pretty weird too. Try looking up Bael, Asmodeus (Not the D&D version) and Decarabia, who appears as just a floating pentagram. Look at any of Hieronymus Bosch's work dealing with demons, such as ''The Temptation of St.Anthony''◊ or the ''The Garden of Earthly Delights''◊. Little red chappies with pitchforks they ain't. - For many westerners, the Kappa (imp with a hollow space filled with water in its head) fits into this category, if just for the really dumb weakness (it loses its powers if the water falls out, it bows if you do, and it loves cucumbers). Also, Karakasa, the one-eyed, long-tongued umbrella spirits. - The Japanese were all over this: women with insatiable hungry mouths hidden on the backs of their heads ( futakuchi-onna); tapirs that eat dreams ( baku); invisible walls ( nurikabe); giant feet that crash through ceilings and rampage through the house if they're not cleaned ( ashiarai yashiki); even more giant skeletons made of regular-sized skeletons and powered by the collective hatred and misery of their souls ( gashadokuro); the angry little dude assembled out of a ceramic tea-set ( seto taisho); and inanimate objects, if not taken care of, become animate after a hundred years or so ( tsukumogami), with popular examples being the umbrella ( karakasa), the paper lantern ( chochin-obake), the straw sandal ( bakezori)(, the koto ( koto furunushi)... - And the one thing that most of these things have in common is their aversion to electricity. This is said to be the reason why objects in museums never come to life, and why tsukumogami literally can't exist anymore. - Tanuki qualify for this seeing as one of their defining characteristics is their massive nutsacks. Incidentally, the massive scrotums are an exaggeration of a property of real tanuki. - Aztec Mythology has a lot of strange creatures and gods. - The Aztec's Tzitzimitl, for example, were skeletal star goddesses with snakes sprouting from their groins that protected midwives but also attacked the Sun during a solar eclipse. If they would succeed in killing the sun, they would descend onto Earth and kill everyone. Their warrior-Queen Itzpapalotl,the Obsidian Butterfly, could take the form of a woman with a skull for a head and obsidian-tipped butterfly wings. She ruled over the paradise of still-born children and women who died in labor. - The ahuizotl is a dog-like monster from Aztec folklore with prehensile feet and a hand on its tail. It lived in rivers, where it liked to drown people, pluck out their eyes, teeth, and nails, and eat them. - Rabbit crossbreeds seem to be popular in world mythology, for some reason. A few examples: - The Jackalope, an alcoholic jackrabbit with antlers that can mimic human voices. - The Wolpertinger, a winged vampire jackalope with duck feet that faints when it sees breasts. - Al-mir'aj, a harmless-looking gold bunny with a unicorn horn... that kills and eats cattle. And cowherds. And suddenly Anya's fear of bunnies makes perfect sense. - In the Hindu epic Ramayana, one of the level bosses—come on, it might as well be a video game—was Kabanda ("Barrel"), a huge torso with a mouth on one end, ringed with sword-wielding arms. It turned out to just be a good-guy demigod that had been punched in the head so hard it got mushed into his torso and turned him evil; once the heroes defeat it, it returns to normal and joins their party. (See? Video game.) - Philippine Mythology features quite the Rogues Gallery of strange and almost always homicidal mythological beasties. The most famous is probably the Manananggal, a vampiric creature that Eats Babies and can fly by separating its torso from its legs. Additionally, there's the Tiyanak (a vampiric baby that died before it could be baptized), the Kapre (a Sasquatch-like figure that guards people but also likes to play tricks on them), the Alans (mischievous bird-humanoids that like to take care of lost or abandoned children and have backward facing hands and feet), the Bungisngis (cheerful but dimwitted cyclops-like giants) and the Aswang (a frightening, shapeshifting predator). - The ever popular Fearsome Critters. And not just the Squonk and the Hodag; we've got cyclops-vampire-dragons with tentacles for a tongue, birds and fish that only move backwards, wiener dogs that eat axe handles, birds with lassos for noses, killer fur coats, rubber-skinned bears that explode in fire, corgis that constantly whistle and spew steam from their mouths, funerary caskets on legs, mouthless crocodiles with club tails and giant nostrils..do we need to go on? - The Khara, or "Persian Three-Legged Ass", of ancient Persian myth certainly qualifies. Imagine a gigantic unicorn with six eyes and nine mouths. Also, it lives in the middle of the ocean and commands sea animals like Aquaman, while also using its horn to smite evildoers. - In the folklore of Devon, England, there's the Yeth Hound, the spirit of an unabptised child that takes the form of a giant headless dog that haunts the forest at night making wailing noises (somehow...). - Dash Two monsters from Find Us Alive, with their bizarre pseudo-mammalian biology, blood like quicksilver, and the apparent desire to immobilize people rather than kill them. Every time one is described, no one seems to know which part counts as the head. Harley: -mouth was just teeth. Rows and rows and rows of- Lancaster: -broken glass, just stuck all over its head. I dont know much about spiders, but I know their eyes are usually round and NOT supposed to look like- Love: -Mercury, or something, dripping out from where she shot it. - 13th Age: Every Iron Sea monster is unique. Some resemble grotesquely enlarged and malformed sea creatures, others are alien conglomerations of limbs and organs, and still others are partially elemental creatures, whose flesh melds into flowing water or cracking ice as they move. - Dreamblade includes a plethora of weird monsters, mixing and matching elements of fantasy, science fiction and horror in their designs. - Dungeons & Dragons: Hoo boy, D&D has a lot of them. - The flumph is infamous in Dungeons & Dragons circles. Its an intelligent, innately good, acid-dripping, psychic, floating, subterranean jellyfish-creature. - The 1988 module Castle Greyhawk had the Plane of Silly and Unused Monsters, a dimension filled with all of the bizarre and stupid monsters that TSR had created up to that point. It included the flumphs and modrons already mentioned, and many more. - Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons classics, Gelatinous Cube (yes, it's a moving cube of transparent gel), Cloaker (an intelligent manta ray-like animal that flies around in caves and in early editions would diguise itself as a cloak). - And don't forget about the Ascomoid, a gigantic fungal ball covered in holes that attacks by ramming you. - The tojanida sort of resembles a turtle, if turtles could stick out claws and eyestalks as well as flippers, and could rearrange which came out of which hole in its shell on a whim. - From Forgotten Realms: how you'd like the lichling: an Immune to Bullets undead skull-headed cockroach? - Then, there are Lava Children from 1E who were "immune" to metal (it just went right through them), sported chimpanzee-length arms with scything claws, and sported a permanent cheerful grin. - Nearly the entire monstrous cast of the classic "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" adventure was Gygax deliberately messing around with this trope. - The thesselmonster from 1E was entirely an excuse for this trope, being a genetically-unstable critter designed by a loony wizard to interbreed with whatever other monsters he happened to have in his menagerie. Luckily it died some time after having been crossed with a hydra, a chimera, a gorgon and a cockatrice ... otherwise, the world might be overrun with even more "thessel-whatever" creatures than the 2E Monstrous Compendium could cram in. - "Well, we've got five lion legs and two lion heads left... how about we make them into a wheel with a head on either side?"◊ - That's Buer, straight out of the Key of Solomon. - The Tome of Magic, which is the source of the above Roving Mauler, also includes a bear whose hair and eyes are replaced with teeth, a constantly dancing humanoid with blades instead of hands and feet, and an undead severed giant's head that walks upside-down on its Prehensile Hair. - A lot of the oldest D&D monsters were created by Gary Gygax trying to come up with identities for a collection of weird Japanese plastic monsters. These include the owlbear, the bullette, and the rust monster. - Spelljammer also has a ton of weird monsters. One of the is the Fractine, which are living mirrors that fly around in space. It was one of the monsters that was brought back to fifth edition in a D&D Beyond online supplement. - Pathfinder, being a Captain Ersatz to D&D, used as many classic weird monsters as it can get its hands on. Notably, it often came up with fairly sensible explanations for them. For instance, the aforementioned flumph is a Lawful Good Eldritch Abomination acting as a defense against more evil aligned ones, the carbuncle's signature attack of dying for no reason other than depriving players of loot became a deceptive teleportation effect that leaves behind a fake corpse, and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, who provides the page quote, had its lure changed from a part of its body to a puppeteered cadaver. - Exalted: - The game dives into this trope whenever dealing with the denizens of Malfeas. At the top of the food chain you have the Yozis, who take forms such as an endless silver desert, a constantly shifting multi-dimensional city that also serves as the dimension of Malfeas in which it is itself trapped, a silver forest, a carnivorous swamp, or a typhoon of emotionally-intoxicating rain. And then you have the demons under them — many of which are their own numerous souls — who take forms such as a brass forest, a quicksilver highway, or a contagious and eventually lethal emotion. - You can also get some very strange things coming out of the Wyld. - Gamma World has this trope nailed for most of its monsters, like the winged mandibled lion who has laser eyes and eats fabric, or the bunny-men who turn stuff to rubber. And let's not forget about the Pineto, AKA the cactus horse! - Genius: The Transgression: Leaving aside the ones you can grow in vats, the things a moderately inquisitive Genius can find include stuff like culturally Hispanic goblins made out of paper, and pixies spawned from failed equations. Then things get weirder. - Kingdom Death is purposely full of these for your settlement to kill. The Lion Knight which is a lion-headed demigod in plate armour, with a flaming mane and 3 foot-long claws for fingernails, is the most mundane creature of the game. - In Low-Life, most of the monsters fit into this category, but a special note goes to the Cremefillians who are basically freaking Twinkie-men brought to life by the pollution from the Apocalypse and bitter towards the long-dead hyoomanrace for eating them back when they were non-sentient. And the best part? They're a PC race! - Mage: The Awakening applies this tendency to creatures of the Abyss, on the general principle that if you think "monsters from outside reality" are just "squamous things with too many tentacles," you're not thinking big enough. A formula that represents the physical laws of hell and rewrites reality around it! A contagious form of aphasia that takes the hallucinatory form of an angel! An alternate history aborted by reality itself that has twisted inward and turned cannibalistic! - In fact, when the New World of Darkness wants to do wandering monsters, it does this a fair amount of the time. Some good examples include the things lurking in the Hedge (one piece of fiction has a changeling pursued by a ventriloquist's dummy with a few human parts, armed with a camping hatchet) and the entities of the Underworld (it says a lot that the Geist core book makes mention of one of the few Kerberoi that have anything approaching a humanoid shape, and even then it looks like something out of Hellraiser). - Magic: The Gathering has many strange creatures, but the elementals of Lorwyn are probably the most bizarre. - The kami from the Kamigawa block, which includes the picture at the top of this page (a Waxmane Baku), have them beat. The tame ones are faceless humanoids with elongated limbs. The really weird ones might take the form of a flying mass of coral covered in mouths. - Of course, if you really want your monsters to be Weird, just ask the Izzet. - The Fractals from Strixhaven are basically math-elementals created through Formulaic Magic by Quandrix mages. Despite their orderly and recursive appearance, most Fractals are also shaped like animals. - Steamlogic's Mechanical Dream indulges in its French-Canadian weirdness. It may not have the most extensive bestiary around, but it more than makes up for it in surreally designed creatures such as the Laudoling. These creatures have an extreme case of Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism, the males are upright human-sized creatures that look like a mosquito got crossbred with a satyr while the female is gigantic quadruped that looks a bit like a giant scorpion with no tail or pincers and a round helmet-like head. It's been speculated amongst academics, that the Laudoling were originally two different species (male Laudolings can mate with any living thing and the resulting offspring is almost always the mother's species, though some matings result in a male Laudoling offspring). - The "monster the GM made up himself" from Munchkin. It gets - 2 on a Saturday, among others. - Numenera has this as a core concept. Highlights include dinosaurs with internet access, super thin flexible discs that cut you with their sharp sides, hyper intelligent cats with energy spheres for heads, headless turkeys covered in vesicles that spit sharp seeds from their necks and more tentacled beasts than you can reasonably remember. And thats not even touching on the various Energy Beings and KillerRobots that might not count as monsters. - Reign has giant fleas made of earthen materials with hot mud for blood, that can destroy entire cities by landing on them, suck minerals out of the ground, and are full of precious metals, gems, and demons — as here, demons are natural and earthly magical creatures that hatch out of eggs that form in the soil. - There are some more traditional ones in Rocket Age, like giant spiders or dinosaurs, but then are some straight up weird ones, such as Fog Wolves, flying razor edged mollusks, and Mist Clingers, which are best explained as amoebic armoured starfish. As an interesting note, both come from within the mists of Venus. - RuneQuest: The game's intentionally unorthodox setting taking out most of the "normal" monsters you'd expect to find in a fantasy setting and going beyond DND stupidity levels instead. Highlights include: the Duruluz (duck-people), the Gorp (which amounts to an giant acidic living booger), the Jack-O-Bear (a bear... with a jack-o-lantern on its head), and the Walktapus (an octopus with legs). Even its version of the Standard Fantasy Races is weird: elves are a type of plant, dwarves are machine-like, trolls are an ancient and dying culture, and some humans are non-sapient and hunted for food by the tapir-like Morokanth. - The Splinter: Monsters in The Splinter are one part traditional fantasy creatures put through a weirdness filter (Living Avalanches instead of Earth Elementals), one part creatures that would make sense in other genres but are shockingly strange in a fantasy dungeon crawl (Cats of Ulthar, Robotic Attack Drones), and one part truly bizarre (humanoid, chitin-covered bio-weapons that can integrate found technology directly with their bodies; clockwork, parasitic hummingbirds.) - BIONICLE's wildlife. Just a few examples: Tarakava are said to be water-lizards, but they stand upright, have huge tusks, enormously long punching fists, and tank-treads for legs. Muaka and Kane-Ra are a tiger and a bull respectively, but they have dinosaur-heads, extending necks and also have treads. Nui-Rama are gigantic insects with large teeth and clawed arms. Manas are crabs that resemble tanks with pincers. The Rahi-Nui is made up of all of these, plus a scorpion. Gukko are large birds with four flipper-like wings and no legs. Just click through the galleries. Some are fairly familiar-looking, others are near indescribable. - This is the concept of Uglydolls. - DSBT InsaniT: Sand Snake. Snake puts it best. Snake: It doesn't even look like a snake, it looks like a lobster trap attached to some railroad tracks. - Screech has bird wings, blue-furred arms and legs, yellow claws and talons, red back spikes, a dark-blue spiked tail, a fireball-shaped head, and a body like a square rocket turbine. Wow. Autmn: Its like a harpie and a lizard got stuck in a rocket with a fireball for a head. - Most of browser game Flight Rising's creatures are fairly standard. The dragons are definitely dragons, and most familiars are either fairly familiar fantasy critters (naga, unicorn, etc.) and/or strongly resemble an existing species (cat, dog, etc.)- and then we have the familiar "Blue Vein Pansy", which is a flower that literally uproots itself and walks around to handle its various plant needs. "Fends for itself" indeed. - The titular strangers of Goodbye Strangers. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes but they generally resemble brightly colored worms with a varying number of arms or tentacles and some have No Mouth while others have crocodile-like mouths full of teeth. Instead of eyes, they have cartoony eye markings that somehow allow them to see. They also do not seem to be properly alive because they spawn from nothing when certain conditions are met and quickly disappear when they die and their bodies do not contain any functioning organs, with different strains being filled with different materials, which often appear to be inorganic or resemble human tissues. Why they exist is a mystery but it is hinted that they are a form of The Heartless. - Some varieties of strangers are especially weird. Many of them have bodies that are completely flat, such as the satsumon, which appears to be a living Chalk Outline. And the lume is always accompanied by a floating human head and dies if the head is destroyed or taken too far away from the lume. - Other strangers are relatively less weird in their design, but are extremely bizarre in the way that they behave. The mimitidrene is a quadruped with alternating stripes with no eyes or covered in eyes, similar to the condroni. It only appears in places with long hallways and all it does is walk along those halls, duplicating itself when it reaches a fork. If it travels a certain distance without duplicating, it announces the number of times it duplicated and then dies. It sounds frightened if the number is zero. - But the strangers are not the only bizarre creature native to the setting. Probably the weirdest creatures are the Alphabetarians, which are abstract entities that look like Anthropomorphic Typography, but that is only because You Cannot Grasp the True Form. They are described as vast higher dimensional tunnels that assimilate any thoughtform that they intersect with into themselves, which turns the victim into a Soulless Shell. And their servants are also abstract entities called Animalarians who look like childish drawings of animals. - Mystery Flesh Pit National Park has several examples, but the Abyssal Copepod takes the cake, being essentially a giant crustacean with human hands. - Virtually everything in Nightmare Beings, since the purpose of the site is to share creatures from the readers' dreams. - Picture a Pop Tart with the head, legs, and tail of a cat, flying through space while shitting rainbows...Okay, you probably already know where I'm going with this. Admittedly, Nyan Cat isn't monstrous, but it's still pretty bizarre, and this is almost certainly the main reason why it's gained so much popularity on the Internet. Lots of other memetic critters, such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster (who, incidentally, has his own TV Tropes page) and the Retarded Running Horse, fall under this trope as well. - The SCP Foundation has many weird creatures and monsters, including bipedal predators with bioluminescent heads that feed on drivers by hunting in pairs so as to mimick car headlights at night, creatures that look like costumed humans and must feed on emotions to avoid giving birth to horrible man-eating monsters, and a cow's heart with insect-like legs and razor-tipped tentacles that attacks people while spouting bizarre pseudo-philosophical nonsense. - The Elrich setting from The Wanderer's Library, and the Library as a whole, thrives on this. Goats that sweat butter and psychic cabbages that serve as royalty are just two examples. - The "fel-dogs" (black dog-lizard things with tentacles, which zap you with necromantic energy if you hit them) and the "fey-dragons" (tiny creatures that look like a cross between a dragon and a fairy, which are incorporeal, attack your mind with psychic zaps, and can possess sleeping people) of Tales From My D&D Campaign. - The narrator really has a taste for this trope. Further examples we encounter include a Blob Monster with one really big eye (which is important, because eyes from weird monsters are a valuable resource in this setting) which can shoot goo-spikes at people, possesses a strange ability that absorbs two damage per die and has goo-wings that let it fly (behind-the-scenes the DM reveals this was basically a Manticore statblock, reskinned and tweaked to fit the creature he wanted to portray), as well as a blob full of skulls that can shoot skull-headed tentacles to drag victims into it. - Pretty much everything that isn't a human in the Whateley Universe story "I Looked into the Abyss and It Winked" since Josie gets dragged into inter-dimensional nightmares and Lovecraft Country. Come to think of it, even some of the humans (like Ecila Mason) are pretty monstrous and freaky. And don't forget Josie's backpack or her so-called 'cat'. - Mortasheen is quite possibly the most triumphant example of this trope by far. There are faceless, headless giants whose amorphous eyeballs slither over and around their bodies like titanic protozoa and can shoot lasers, blood-sucking mutant clams, carnivorous flytrap sirens, transdimensional fishing lure-like entities that are only part of a far vaster being, and who knows what else. But that doesn't mean they're all bad, though. - The quasi-Eldritch Abomination and meme Zalgo. - Aaahh!!! Real Monsters had plenty of these. For the main Power Trio alone, you had: - A small, red, long-eared Ugly Cute Killer Rabbit who could balloon to horrifying heights as a sort of One-Winged Angel mode. - A squat, hairy Cephalothorax with blue lips and free-rolling eyes he normally carried in his hands who scared people with his overwhelming stench. - A black and white candy cane with spindly limbs, slit-pupil eyes on eyestalks and big, bloated lips whose primary method of scaring humans was ripping out her guts and showing them to her victims. - The series also revolved around how these three were students learning how to scare humans as part of finding their place in monster society. - Adventure Time is full of monsters that would not be out of place in the furthest corners of a Dungeons & Dragons monster manual. Examples include a Wall of Flesh, a Snake-Armed Ruby Brainbeast, a Crystal Guardian that copies your every action, and an unnamed monster that appears to be 2/3 giant heart and 1/3 electrified skeleton. - The old Bugs Bunny cartoon with Gossamer, the monster that looks like a giant furry red tooth. That wore tennis shoes! - Extreme Ghostbusters following the example of its predecessor series The Real Ghostbusters, some of the weirdest include; Cenobite-like demons that modify humans, living furniture, a monster with eyes in the tongue, and son on... - Gravity Falls: - The normal monsters get pretty out-there. Alongside zombies and gnomes, you have things like Multi-bear, a bear made of heads, the Gremloblin, a creature that looks like neither a goblin nor a gremlin and inflicts your deepest fear when you look into its eyes, or the Leprechorn, a unicorn with the head of a leprechaun. - Some of the monsters that show up in "Weirdmageddon" are as strange as it gets, including the giant, man-eating, disembodied head of Louis C.K. with a single beefy arm growing out of its forehead, a disembodied pair of teeth, and a knuckle-walking loaf of bread. - Men in Black: The Series did with aliens what The Real Ghostbusters did with ghosts. Every episode shows Starfish Aliens each as much surreal as the one before. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic loves this trope. While a good deal of the fantastic creatures in the show are from real-life myths, the creators enjoy coming up with their own wacky beasts too. The Parasprites, the Timberwolves, the Ursas (which are living constellations), the Cragadiles, and the show's version of changelings are all pretty strange. - The Expanded Universe is introducing even more bizarre beings and it seems that their creatures are getting weirder and weirder as new seasons show up. However, it is up to the fans to believe or not if the expanded material is canon. - The Disgustoids from Secret Mountain Fort Awesome: A purple monster wearing nothing but underwear, a monster made of nothing but butt cheeks, a hairy one with a huge nose, a giant pus ball and blue dog-ish monster. - The Secret Saturdays: The Rakshasa, a giant, purple feline-like cryptid that is able to copy its head and arms on its back to fend off enemies that try to get on top of it. And then there's Eterno, a thousand-year-old living mummy whose body is now composed of the salt he was preserved in. He can encase people in this substance by touching them. - Steven Universe delights in showing us strange and fantastical monsters, from giant eyeballs, to sentient buildings, to gems that cause clothing to come to life. The gem fusions can also tip over into freaky territory, such as Alexandrite (six arms, a second mouth in her jaw), Malachite (four arms that act as legs) and Fluorite (a caterpillar-like body with the head of an old woman). The artificial fusions that start appearing in season 2 are especially horrifying, being assemblages of various body parts stuck together seemingly at random. - Ugly Americans is this taken to an extreme extent, where weird miscellaneous creatures outnumber the "normal" monsters. - Wayne Barlowe is an artist who specializes in drawing the weirdest monsters possible. - Cyriak has many weird monsters as well. He animated the 'retarded running horse' above. - The Future Is Wild, as a demonstration of a possible future world, starts getting progressively bizarre as time goes on. - 5 million years in the future, nothing too strange has come up yet, although there are the Spinks, birds that look and act like prairie dogs with spade-like front feet, and the Gannetwhales, which are walrus-like seabirds. - Then 100 million years into the future, things start getting strange. The Ocean Glider looks like a giant floating red-and-transparent raft with small sails that is home to groups of defending sea spiders, and the Reefgliders are bulbous creatures with frilly tails. The Lurkfish is a swamp-dwelling electric anglerfish. - 200 million years on, and things just start going crazy. The series' Mascot Mook, Flish, are bird-like fish with telescopic jaws. Slickribbons are underground lake-dwellers that are basically giant worms with huge, folding-out jaws. Desert Hoppers are rabbit-sized snails that hop around on one foot. And then there are the squid monkeys and elephant squid, as well as predatory slime mold.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMonstersAreWeird
Our Ogres Are Hungrier - TV Tropes " After all, ogres appreciate succulent meat as much as the next ten-foot tall killing machine. " Ogres? Man, I've got a Description Of Our Ogres Are Hungrier Here! It's got a +9 against ogres! Ogres are a staple of fantasy and fairy tales, and so appear in many forms. Most have the following traits in common: Ogres in folklore were portrayed as child-eating monsters who sometimes had magical or otherwise supernatural powers (the ogre from "Puss-in-Boots" is a classic example). Unlike modern depictions of ogres as lumbering primitives, fairytale ogres often lived in castles, wore fine clothing and owned wondrous magical items... while still being unrepentantly evil monsters who ate children like popcorn. In fantasy works, ogres tend to occupy a mid-level spot on the Sorting Algorithm of Evil of evil humanoid foes, generally appearing after orcs but before giants. See also Our Orcs Are Different (their names share the same linguistic root — they are believed to stem from Orcus, a Roman god of the underworld), Our Giants Are Bigger, All Trolls Are Different, and Smash Mook. Not to be confused with trolls. Even though they can often be indistinguishable in fairy tales (when English/French tales reached Scandinavia, "ogre" would usually be translated as "troll"), Nordic-style trolls are generally a type of fae rather than a generic evil monster. Sometimes shares international space with oni. ## Examples - The Ogres of Berserk are bizarre mashups of human and sperm whale: extremely tall and lanky humans with a massive head with eyes on the front. - In Delicious in Dungeon, only female ogres have been seen so far. They're very tall and muscular Horned Humanoids that are based on Oni rather than Western ogres, and possess Super Toughness and strength. - Digimon has Ogremon! He's a Noble Demon, it turns out. There's also his Palette Swap versions, Fugamon (brown) and Hyogamon (blue, ice-themed.) - Hellsing: Referenced in the chapter titled, "Ogre Battle". - The Zentraedi from the Macross series have the characteristic Super Strength and large size in comparison to humans. - Monster Musume has Tionisha, a rather unorthodox example compared to ogres from other media: while she's certainly got the Super Strength part down, and has a colossal appetite one may expect from her species, she's a Cute Monster Girl and Gentle Giant with the most feminine personality of her MON teammates, showing a love of cute little animals and a passion for fashion and pop music. Doesn't inhibit her from stopping bad guys, though. - In Sword Art Online, Ogres featured in the Underworld resemble Wolf Men rather than traditional ogres. - Lucifer from The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots does retain the Super Strength and giant size of most ogres, but his true power lies within his magical capabilities. While he does shapeshift as told in the Fairy Tale, he also gains the ability to teleport, make money and feasts appear out of thin air, and can even make castles out of diamonds. That said, do not take his "King of Power" title lightly. - Magic: The Gathering: Ogres are a staple creature type for Red (the color of emotion, chaos and acting without too much thinking) and Black (the color of pragmatism, amorality and the willingness to do some pretty nasty stuff to benefit oneself) Mana, a combination that tends to result in violent, chaotic hedonists with little regard for the lives of others. Those that have special abilities tend to be able to harm their controller or other friendly creatures. They're typically hulking, muscular brutes fond of fighting and anywhere between barbarians and animals, depending on the ogre in question and their world of origin, but exceptions exist. - The ogres of Kamigawa, also called the o-bakemono, are as violent and cruel as other ogres but far more intelligent and cunning, and often worship the plane's demonic oni. - In Mirrodin, ogres are barely sapient brutes often used by goblins as beasts of burden, and physically resemble barely humanoid hulks with faces dominated by gnashing bear-trap maws full of big sharp teeth. When Mirrodin became New Phyrexia, they were mostly transformed into servants of the red Phyrexians, serving as guardians and stokers for their ever-burning furnaces. - In the city-plane of Ravnica, ogres are often used as muscle by the various Red-aligned guilds, although the constant stench they exude forces many out of the guild system and onto the fringes of society. At least one ogre, the chieftain Ruric Thar of the Gruul Clans, has two heads. - The now-exitnct Onakke ogres of Shandalar were far more intelligent than most and are known to have been skilled artificers and sorcerers, and were the creators of the Chain Veil. - The ogres of Tarkir are enormous, incredibly strong, aggressive and dim-witted brutes resembling giant, shaggy apes with huge horns. They're mostly kept by the Mardu Horde as war beasts and living siege engines that need to be kept chained up until they're unleashed on the enemy. Others live independently in the cold mountains of the Temur clans, and often come in conflict with them. After the timeline's alteration, they mostly live in the mountains of the Atarka dragons: their strength and ferocity make them very effective at gathering food for the ever-hungry dragons, but their size means that they're among the first to be hunted when the dragons go hungry. - The Commander Legends set introudces Obeka, Brute Chronologist, a female ogre mage. While she's much more presentable and presumably smarter than your average ogre, she apparently warps the fabric of time by punching it very hard! - The Black Moon Chronicles' ogres are gigantic fur-covered humanoids who raid isolated villages. One such raid resulting in the birth of Ghorghor Bey, a half-ogre warlord. - In Garulfo, the ogre is an enormous giant with No Indoor Voice... Unless he's around his collection of fine crystals. Woe to you if you break one. - In Top 10 we see an ogre being a solitary creature with a taste for brutality, murder and decorating its cave with body parts. It's too big and too ugly to fit in the panel, ridiculously strong and so hard to kill even its ashes will try to fight you. - In one Arabian Nights story, a prince (whose vizier is actually using an Uriah Gambit on him) encounters an "ogress" who appears at first as a beautiful woman, but then shapeshifts into a monster who tries to feed the prince to her children. The magical powers and ability to deceive seem incongruous for an ogre, but very much in keeping with a ghul, so ogress might just be a mistranslation. - In an Italian fairy tale from the '90, titled Gorgo the Ogre, there are three types of Ogres: Red Ogres are large and brutish, and must kill a monster to achieve adulthood and turn red but are otherwise good natured. Golden Ogres are beautiful, virtuous and only kill if they have no other choice to defend themselves. Finally, Black Ogres are Always Chaotic Evil monsters that come in all shapes and size. - A notable exception to the typical use of the trope is in the famous "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, where the giant's wife, who is usually portrayed as nice enough to try to get Jack to leave without harming him, is often described as an ogress. - Another notable aversion appears in The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch, where the ogre Buk Ettemsuch adopts the protagonist and treats her as his own daughter. He has several opportunities to eat her, but allows her to live instead. - In "Puss in Boots", the ogre is a shape-shifting brute, who owns a large amount of land. In order to get his poor master some land to trick a king into thinking he is royal, the eponymous cat tricks him to turn into a mouse so he can eat him. - In "Sleeping Beauty", the prince's mother is an evil ogress who tries to eat her own grandchildren. - In Madame d'Aulnoy's The Bee and the Orange Tree, the main character, Aimée, is a shipwrecked princess who is raised by ogres. These ogres not only eat humans, but each other as well. When Aimée steals crowns from the young ogres, the older ogres see them and eat them. The father ogre Ravagio plays this trope completely straight. The mother ogress Tourmentine does too, but is actually quite intelligent due to having fairy blood. - In many folk tales from Italy, the antagonist male Ogre is sometimes called "Nanni Orco" (John Ogre), and is a character which is either the classical child-eating monster or an overall nice guy who actually helps the hero (not without teaching him a lesson for his foolishness). Variations include the "Uomo Selvatico" (Savage Man) and in at least one istance "L'Orco con le Penne" (Feathered Ogre), a non-descript Ogre monster whose feathers are the MacGuffin the hero has to retrieve. Ogresses aren't unheard of too. - Shrek: - The eponymous hero is a green, seven-foot-tall humanoid with trumpet-shaped ears. He has a reputation for man-eating, but is actually well educated and merely wants to be left alone, though he does get a kick out of scaring people now and then. - Without the spell making her look like a regular human, Fiona looks just like an ogre. The second movie implies this was because \|\|her mother is human but her father is a frog in human form\|\|, leaving her relation to the ogre species unclear. - The fourth movie reveals that Shrek is actually a runt; other male ogres are even bigger. However, though soldiers fighting a rebellion, they're still not particularly brutish. Despite their fearsome reputation, no ogres have ever been known to eat humans, even if their actual diet is pretty disgusting. - In Ella Enchanted ogres are blue-skinned brutes slightly larger than humans, and with a habit of wearing low-riders that show their plumbers' butts. They eat people, but apparently lived in peace under the prior king's rule, before they were blamed for his death \|\|by the king's brother.\|\| - Ogres make an appearance in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and are shown as long-armed monsters half-way in size between the orcs and trolls, and serve as frontline soldiers among Azog's forces. They also appear to be intelligent to a certain extent, as shown in the extended edition where they coordinate in teams to destroy several dwarf war chariots. - The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth is a somewhat out-there take on this trope. He's not a giant, but he is a hideous Child Eater, and a return to the original folk lore of the ogre, rather than the fantasy story hulking oafs we've come to expect. - The film version of The Spiderwick Chronicles has the ogre Mulgarath. He's actually quite clever and menacing, but is tricked into turning into a bird near an otherwise harmless small creature that loves to eat them. - In Time Bandits, the protagonists are found by an ogre and his wife on the ogre's ship. The ogre is outwitted and left at sea after the protagonists commandeer the ship (don't feel too sorry for them - they were planning to eat the protagonists after all). - Doctor Who: - The evil Daleks use a race of large, unintelligent humanoid brutes called Ogrons as warrior-slaves. The Ogrons are featured in the stories "Day of the Daleks", "Frontier in Space", and very briefly in "Carnival of Monsters". - Aliens called Ogri, which resemble large rocks and feed on blood, appear in "The Stones of Blood". The Doctor suggests that Gog, Magog, and Ogre could derive from this. - Although his species' name is Androgum, Shockeye from "The Two Doctors" is essentially a big meat-hungry ogre, albeit one with a trained chef's vocabulary. - Ogres have been a threat to the Enchanted Forest more than once in Once Upon a Time; they're extremely tall, brutish and not very smart, with poor eyesight and a keen sense of hearing to make up for it. They're not, technically, Always Chaotic Evil, as Belle finds out when she attempts a spell to detect evil intent on one, but they're hard to reason with and too easily provoked into fighting. - Special Unit 2 features Jack the Ripper as an ogre who was compelled to devour humans. He tried to limit himself to hookers and prostitutes and developed a serum to control his instincts, but was losing control when SU2 tracked down and killed him. - The Wheel of Time (2021): Rand mistakenly calls Loial an ogre, which hints that Ogier inspired our concept of ogres. But Ogier invert or avert nearly every ogre-related trope. - English editions of the opera Hansel and Gretel (1893) often translate "Knusperhexe" as "gobbling ogress." It fits the rhythm but isn't quite appropriate for a character otherwise consistently described as a Wicked Witch. - Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura has playable half-ogres, and one subplot involves finding a half-ogre birthing factory, which then turns out to be unsolvable (due to a conspiracy). - Plague Eater Lords of Darkest Dungeon 2 invoke this. They are huge, fat, toothy fellows who ravenously eat anything they can get their paws on. - Dragon Age ogres are a type of darkspawn created from qunari. They have horns and look like wingless demons but are otherwise typical examples of The Ogre. - Enemy ogres in Dungeon Crawl are Glass Cannons who can't take damage quite as well as they can deal it due to lack of armor, and playable ogres are much the same. Of note, however, is that ogres make surprisingly good mages; an ogre mage is a fearsome foe, and a legitimate character build in the Magic Knight vein (In past versions, ogres and ogre mages were two different species, who were later merged, giving all ogres basic aptitude in magic). - In Dwarf Fortress, ogres are huge, powerful brutes that live in certain evil plains. They're highly aggressive, very powerful and tough, and will path to any building laying outside, wreck them, then proceed to find their way to the inside of the fortress. If you see a pack of ogres at the very beginning, you're better off restarting the game. Goblins sometimes bring them in sieges. Blind Cave Ogres found in caverns are eyeless (not that it holds them back in any way), outright feral in their aggression, toothier and even bigger, and can show up anywhere in the subterranean wilderness once you've breached far enough. - The Elder Scrolls series has Ogres who are nearly twice the size of the average playable races, while being Dumb Muscle Giant Smash Mooks. Considered a race of "Goblin-ken," meaning they are related to Goblins, Ogres typically have grayish-blue skin, pronounced teeth, and Pointed Ears, though Ogres in colder climates are known to have shaggy white hair covering their bodies as well. They live in primitive hunter-gatherer societies, most often inhabiting natural caves in remote areas. Like Goblins and Orcs, Ogres are known to revere Malacath, the Daedric Prince of the Spurned and Ostracized. Ogres can be found throughout most of mainland Tamriel, where they are feared as man-eaters and are known to raid settlements and attack travelers in remote wilderness areas. - In EverQuest, ogres are large, muscular, stupid humanoids who not speak too good. The stupidity came about as a result of being cursed by the Gods of good. In EverQuest II, the Gods had all left, and one of the effects was that the ogre's curse was lifted, turning them into a race of Genius Bruisers. - Fallout: The Super Mutants seem to fill this role in the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout 3 and 4, where they're big, hulking, brutish and fairly stupid, and very aggressive and warlike. Super mutants from the other games are more akin to "Blizzard" orcs than ogres. The art book for Fallout 3 puts even more emphasis on the "ogre" aspect, as they are shown to make their own cobbled-together armor and guns and forge melee weapons such as axes, swords, maces, and flails/ball-and-chains. - Final Fantasy Ogres are a staple monster that appears in most of the games. - In God of War (PS4), ogres are a type of enemy related to trolls who Kratos and Atreus run into on several points in their journey. In terms of appearance, they look like hairless massive gorillas with spiked skin. They have their own language, like trolls, but they're violent and fierce. Kratos can use them against other enemies by shoving his fingers into their eyes and subjecting them to a head-punching, then when he's done with them, he dispatches them by cutting through their jaw muscles with an axe in two goes. - Heroes of Might and Magic: Ogres have appeared in many of the games. - HoMM1's ogres are mid-tier (4 of 6) big, fairly slow moving club-wielders aligned with the barbarians, with a lot of hitpoints for their level. - HoMM2's ogres are mid-tier (4 of 6) big, fairly slow moving horned axe-wielders with a lot of hitpoints for their level. They upgrade into tougher and faster "ogre lords", and are aligned with the barbarians. - HoMM3's ogres are also mid-tier (4 of 7) big, strong humanoids that use clubs. They upgrade to ogre mages, who wear vaguely oriental armor and exchange their clubs for totem staffs. Again, they're aligned with the barbarians. - HoMM4 units don't upgrade. The Ogre Magi appear as the Tier 3 monsters for the Might faction, as an alternative to the Cyclops. Interestingly, they bear some resemblence to elderly Native American shamans. - Might and Magic VIII indicates that the Ogres of Might & Magic are not stupid child-eaters — while the intelligence of Zog's ogre army is not indicated beyond the Ogre Mage Zog himself (he's fairly clever) and being able to follow relatively complex instructions, Ravage Roaming features a peaceful village of ogres. They neither appear stupid, nor are indicated as being unusual for ogres. - Guild Wars: There are two definitions of Ogres: - In the first game, Ogre acts as a classification for large humanoids that do not qualify as a giants; this covered Jottuns, Ettins, and Yetis. - In the second game, a race identified as Ogres have invaded the Blazeridge Mountains. Their culture revolves around beasts and all members of their society tame beasts for use in battle. Their behavior varies by clan, with many being hostile to all other races and some being quite friendly. - The Jotun are actually a subversion of this, at least in their backstory. The jotun were an advanced magical civilization predating humanity and the human gods, but eventually their pride overcame them and they descended into constant civil wars that turned the once-great people into savage ogres. They are still the only ogres or giants to use magic in the Guild Wars universe. - King's Bounty: Ogres are the mightiest units for the Orc race and they're the cheapest of the Level 5 units (Levels are tiers of how powerful a creature is, with 1 the lowest and 5 the mightiest - so ogres are in the same power-class as a dragon). - The Legend of Zelda: The Hinoxes are massive, powerful, one-eyed creatures that appear to spend most of their time either sleeping or eating. - Neo ATLAS 1469: The "human eater" trope is played with in this game from Artdink, in a region near India approx. (maps are randomly shaped in this world) your merchant company encounters "red-mouthed ogres". This leads to a quest where a village is believed to be kidnapped by evil ogres but \|\|in actuality the ogres are friendly, kind and not cannibalistic. They took in the villagers to give them a nice vacation and feed them strawberries. It was ripe strawberries that made the ogres's mouths red and it's these ogres that introduce strawberries to the world\|\|. - Averted in the Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre games; instead of the usual big brutish humanoids, "ogre" seems to just be another word for "demon." - Okiku, Star Apprentice: Ogres battle Okiku with the help of orcs, and ogres are green, with possibly glowing yellow eyes, about twice as large as orcs, and are primitive due to wearing only a loincloth and and spiked pauldrons, while wielding Primitive Clubs. - Pillars of Eternity: Ogres are huge and carnivorous, but much more intelligent and reasonable than the usual depiction. The problem of an ogre stealing a farmer's pigs can be resolved by convincing the ogre he should go somewhere else before people get really angry, he can be hired to defend your stronghold, and ogres live alongside other races in Twin Elms. - Grimmsnarl from Pokémon Sword and Shield is a big, hairy Pokémon that resembles an ogre, although it also has features that make it resemble a troll as well. - Puzzle Quest has the hungriest ogre of all, Drong. He has a series of side quests, all revolving around getting him different things to eat. Things such as poisonous spiders, another ogre, diamonds and LAVA and the body of a slain god. - Quake: Ogres aren't as big as their classical fantasy family, but it doesn't make them any less brutal — you can see it from the spatters of blood on them. They just so happen to use chainsaws and grenade launchers to do their thing. Their skill with weapons is off-balanced by their penchant to attack blindly and causing monster infights. - RuneScape ogres are large dim-witted humanoids. They have a fairly human, yellowish skin colour and prominent bellies. They speak in a primitive manner. Some are aggressive, but most are not, and are in fact capable of holding a city with merchants. They also have something like a dozen varieties - actually green-skinned jungle ogres (Jogres), blue-skinned amphibious marine ogres (Mogres) and so on, even having zombie and skeletal varieties, aptly named. The now nearly extinct species known as Ourg, even larger than actual giants and more intelligent, might be a relative. Ogres also form a gender-separated society, with the ogresses living further south in an Australia-themed land. - Tales of Maj'Eyal: Ogres \|\|were created as soldiers and laborers for the Allure Wars-era Conclave (and, for the healer in charge of the program, as a personal means of getting revenge on the Nargol Empire by creating something that would haunt Halfling nightmares) by way of giving conventional humans an extensive array of magical and nature-powered enhancements, alongside some light mental alterations\|\|. It's made clear that they're actually pretty smart (physical dependence on the runes covering their skin has made them Maj'Eyal's finest runesmiths, for example), but they're awful at communication, uninterested in high culture, and prefer to seek out reliable solutions to their problems, like "hit it until it stops moving." It's implied in a few ways that they could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands - their runes are so ingrained into their physiology as to make them a blank slate for a functional equivalent to genetic engineering, and \|\|one alternate timeline shows Healer Astelrid could've organized them into a world-conquering New Conclave\|\|, but their gratitude to the Shaloren (who have been a very good influence) and utter lack of personal ambition have made them one of Eyal's nicest (if grumpiest) factions. (They fit the mold in most other ways - huge, ugly, \|\|used to eat Halflings alive mid-combat\|\|, and so on.) - Touhou Project: The Oni are somewhere between this and Orcs, with a heavy dose of Blood Knight. They would challenge everyone that will accept their challenge, usually of drinking and fighting (or drunken-fighting, natch). Too bad modern people refuse to acknowledge the existence of the supernaturals, so they retreated underground since they don't have anything fun to do with humans anymore. - Warcraft: Ogres are large, dim-witted humanoids that either attack with a club or their fists. In the first game, they were a random neutral threat, but the second one promoted them to underlings of The Horde. Oddly, World of Warcraft seldom shows any Horde-affiliated ogres and there is no playable Ogre race, while enemy ogres are very common. WC2 also presented the ogre-magi (inspired by Dungeons & Dragons Ogre Magi, which in turn are based on Japanese oni), which were even turned blue-skinned in the second sequel. Notably, the two-headed variants are freaks of nature magically created by an orc warlock to boost their intelligence. - In a small subversion there is a quest where you run into a two-headed ogre who's quite intelligent, and heckles you for thinking all Ogres speak in a You No Take Candle fashion. - There's also a whole faction of rather intelligent ogres in The Burning Crusade expansion. - In Warlords of Draenor, the ogres seem to be heavily based on the ancient Roman Empire, complete with coliseums, arenas, and gladiators and slaves. They also appear to be much more intelligent and cultured than their descendants on Azeroth will become. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: "Ogroid" is a classification for a wide variety of primitive, brutish humanoids, varying from the diminutive Nekkers to great Rock Trolls, mighty Cyclopses and even an enormous Ice Giant. - Beaches and Basilisks: An ogre teaches Monty that many of his people are intelligent and peaceful, contrary to popular stereotypes. - Homestuck: Ogres are the second type of underling — enemies spawned by the in-universe video game the main characters become drawn into — to be shown. They're huge, hulking humanoids with immense tusks, and while big and strong they only provide serious danger to inexperienced players — more aggressive ones are shown taking them down with ease. - The Order of the Stick: Ogres show up several times, usually as incredibly dim-witted cavemen stereotypes complete with animal-skin clothing and clubs. There's also a pair of green-skinned brutes whom nobody is sure whether they are ogres or trolls. - Tales of the Questor filler art describes ogres as particularly sadistic monsters. Ghouls are created when an ogre forces humans to eat meat it has eaten from, and presumably the ghouls turn into ogres when they eat an ogre's carcass. - Unsounded: The Ogres are all long dead, their bodies make up the continent, but Uaid was made using one of their bodies and it is theorized that him putting anything he's curious about, or which he sees as a problem in his mouth is an echo of the memories from his bodies previous life. Since he's been hollowed out throwing people and animals down his gullet just puts them in a protected room. - In Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, there is an army of villainous ogres residing in Castle Drekmore and led by Duke Igthorn, who attempt to conquer King Gregor and Dunwyn Castle. They are almost all hulking morons, with the exception of Igthorn's majordomo Toadwart (who is as tall as a human child and of average intelligence) and Toadwart's cousin Tadpole (who is a genius—and shorter still). - In Disenchantment, the ogres are recurring characters. They have a primitive little kingdom called Ogreland and an ongoing war with gnomes, with the pair killing each other whenever they meet. (And they're about equally matched, surprisingly.) Their queen, Grogda, turns out to be nicer than the others. \|\|She's also Elfo's mom, making him half-ogre and the heir to the throne\|\|. - Family Guy had that episode where a salesman tries to sell beachfront property terrorized by an ogre. "Beautiful beachfront property! No city noise! No flesh-eating ogres! No pollution!" - In The Smurfs animated series, an ogre named Bigmouth occasionally befriended the title characters while making life for the evil wizard Gargamel difficult. Subsequently introduced ogre characters, love interest Bignose, romantic rival Bigteeth, and baby Bigfeet, suggests having disproportionately large body parts on their already hulking bodies they're named after is their hat. SomeBODY once told me...	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOgresAreDifferent
Our Slashers Are Different - TV Tropes "The most common predator in the horror movie universe, slashers are named for their tendency to use sharp objects to violently kill or mutilate human prey. Like a shark's, a slasher's beauty lies in its simplicity. It's the perfect killing machine — an engine of death. Every molecule — every action — is devoted to extermination. And just as there are hammerheads, great whites, and nurse sharks, slashers come in different shapes and sizes." Sub-Trope of Our Monsters Are Different. This one deals with the sometimes Near-indestructible Serial Killers stalking teenagers, college students, or the people around a Final Girl. Even ridiculously cute critters aren't (at least not always) immune! This is further elaborated on in the Slasher Movie trope. Slashers are not traditionally thought of as a kind of monster, though many of them display seeming to outright supernatural powers. Most of them will be motivated by some sort of Revenge based motivation, are to some degree or another Made of Iron, and, despite being closer to indiscriminate, often stalk the young, which is the most universal trait among them (aside from the use of sharp weapons. They're called "slashers" for a reason). If there's a sequel, they usually possess some form of Resurrective Immortality. The majority of slashers never receive any sort of explanation for the source of their powers. While Freddy Krueger is a spirit turned demonic but still effectively a ghost, Jason Voorhees is simply a deformed serial killer living in the woods before he suddenly becomes a near-unkillable undead being with his own agenda intact, which deviates from a Romero-style zombie. The origins of their powers are less important than what they do with these powers, which is kill. However, slasher franchises that run long enough often do Retcon an explanation to the source of the killer's powers if there wasn't one before ( Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th). Despite this, some works of fiction have actually made it so slashers are their own distinct type of monster. They apply rules, a commonality of origin, or a category to their activities that does not normally apply to fiction. It also implies that there are many slashers in existence and not just a single unpleasant monster stalking the teenagers of whatever city they're in. Some of them expand on the supernatural elements while others do away with them entirely, revealing them to just be a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax. This trope is about works that take time to get into the worldbuilding of their slasher villains and how they might or might not be dealt with. For slasher antagonists that aren't different, see Stock Slasher. ## Examples - Kichikujima: Is based mostly on horror movies like slasher movies and religious horrors mixed together. Kaoru is the main killer of his family who wears a pig mask and uses a chainsaw,knife,and hammer not unlike Leatherface.Unlike Leatherface and his family however, Kaoru and his family actually have superpowers. - Killing Morph: Has the titular M aka Morph using the power of duplication to carry out his murders. - Pumpkin Night: Naoko Kirino has superhuman feats and uses a knife wearing a Pumpkin Mask. - Hack/Slash is set in a universe where slashers are a kind of Revenant Zombie that comes back from the dead after violent death. The possibility of becoming a slasher is genetic in nature and they eventually become compelled to kill in their normal lives, though they may be apparently normal people up to that point. Much of the protagonist's issues stem from the fact her mother was a slasher who she was forced to kill. Cassie Hack, herself, has the same urge to kill as her mother but expresses it against her fellow slashers. - The Sandman (1989) has the first Corinthian. He occupies a position as both an all-powerful supernatural slasher as well as the muse of other serial killers. He was created by Dream to be the embodiment of humanity's worst fears but, much to his master's disappointment, just became an immortal monster. The second is a more nuanced but still terrifying figure. - Jei in Usagi Yojimbo is basically an immortal slasher in a Medieval Japanese setting. Constant Slasher Smile, wielding a black-bladed spear, never stopping, slaying people for inscrutable reasons... It takes the legendary sword Kusanagi to kill him, and even then he just takes a new body. - The Alien movies take the Slasher Movie trope and apply it to a science fiction universe note : Being released in 1979, it does predate most slasher films, but Word of God (Ridley Scott) has admitted to being inspired by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. How is the alien able to stalk its prey so well? Because it moves around the ventilation system and tunnels. Why is it so dangerous? Because it's a predatory animal that evolved that way. Why is it so mindlessly hostile? Because it's territorial and reproduces via its prey. How is it almost invulnerable? Because it has natural armor and an exoskeleton - and if you shoot through it, it's been established that acid blood might annihilate its way through your ship's material. - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon takes place in a universe where slasher movie villains like Freddy Krueger, Chucky and Michael Myers are all real and well known enough that normal serial killers like the titular Leslie Vernon want to emulate them. - In The Cabin in the Woods, slashers and other horror movie monsters are captured and contained by the Organization, which uses them for the purpose of carrying out Human Sacrifices. It is mentioned that they are relics of an old world where magic reigned instead of science. - The Candyman deals with the concept of urban legends, one example being that the Candyman was created by people fearing him and making legends about his death. He is required to kill by the nature of their beliefs and wants to pass on his curse to make more of his kind. \|\|He succeeds with the film's protagonist.\|\| - Final Destination is essentially a Slasher Movie series with a twist: Death itself is hunting the protagonists and killing them off one by one after they survive a major freak accident or incident. Separate movies adopt slightly different attitudes towards the exact nature of the connection. - Final Destination 2 played this twice in separate ways: All of the protagonists previously survived events in their lives that were directly or tangentially related to the Flight 180 explosion in the first film. E.g. Eugene avoided getting stabbed to death by a student because he was subbing elsewhere for \|\|Ms Lewton\|\|, who was killed in the events of the first film, and Kimberly was watching a news report about \|\|Todd's\|\| suicide that prevented her from being with her mother when she was killed in a botched robbery. Then Kimberly appears to circumvent it altogether by \|\|dying and then being revived.\|\| However, \|\|this was ignored by the sequels, which show that she died offscreen between the sequels.\|\| - Final Destination 4 \|\|revealed that it was actually Death itself that sent these visions, meaning that Death was essentially just playing with the people who survived before killing them off the way they'd always intended.\|\| - Final Destination 5 introduced the element that \|\|if the survivors killed someone else, they would gain their years and survive much longer.\|\| However, \|\|the one person who gets killed like this (even if by accident) turns out to have had an enlarged blood vessel in his brain that gave him only a few weeks to live anyway. Nathan, who was responsible for his death, learns this just before he gets squashed.\|\| "Life's a bitch." - Friday the 13th: Jason Voorhees was a malformed, possibly mentally impaired serial killer who became an unstoppable 'zombie' thanks to a lightning bolt in Part VI and was said to have a Healing Factor even later. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday also made him a demon linked to the Evil Dead's Necronomicon. The Friday the 13th (2009) reboot actually attempts to explain away Jason Voorhees' abilities non-supernaturally. He is a self-trained survivalist who uses traps, knowledge of the land, and a series of underground mining tunnels to stalk his prey. He is not an immortal zombie but simply a terrifying woodsman that his victims are unaware of. - Halloween: Michael Myers was a chilling but still very human sociopath, a carrier of pure evil before he became an incarnation of mysterious, ancient power that was even sought after by a Religion of Evil, etc. Notably, his powers were inexplicable in the first movie, attributed to what was behind his eyes being "pure evil" by Doctor Loomis and the Boogeyman by Laurie Strode. Later ideas would be that he had a psychic connection to his niece Jamie and was tied to a Samhain-worshiping cult. Most of these were retconned away by Halloween (2018). - Pinhead from the Hellraiser franchise is a Zig-Zagged example. He starts out as a neutral entity, being a Demon of Human Origin like his fellow Cenobites who captures and tortures anyone who solves the Lament Configuration. In the first and second film, he sticks to this, with characters like Frank Cotton and Julia being the ones who fit more into the traditional Serial Killer mold. The only time where he can generously be called a "slasher" is in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, being freed of Leviathan's laws and his humanity leading to him going on a massacre, turning all of his victims into cenobites with aspirations of ruling the Earth on a throne of eternal human suffering. - It Follows is a slasher film using the Sex Equals Death principle. Teens are being stalked by an invisible, seemingly invincible killer only visible to them and eventually mercilessly kills them. The movie adds two major changes: it's a curse of unknown origin passed through sexual intercourse and it only targets teenagers who've been exposed to the curse. - The Jeepers Creepers franchise has the Creeper following carefully constructed rules. - Jeepers Creepers has the Creeper, which is a being of unknown origin who returns every 23 years to eat humans and to use their body parts to replenish his body. Unlike most slashers, though, he hunts boys or men as what can seem to be a preference for women/girls, although there are female victims. - Jeepers Creepers 3 also expands the mythology by demonstrating that the Creeper has been around for thousands of years and that he will apparently return to hunt anybody who is on the property where Kenny buried the Creature's hand. - A Nightmare on Elm Street: - Freddy Krueger came Back from the Dead after being subjected to a Vigilante Execution by the angry parents of the children he murdered, cursing the town by coming for their children through their dreams as a vengeful spirit. Later films revealed that he was also a Child by Rape after his mother, a nun who worked at an insane asylum, was accidentally locked inside late at night and gang-raped, and that the reason for his apparent immortality is because he's actually, as what seems to be his afterlife, serving three dream daemons. - The spinoff Wes Craven's New Nightmare proposes that slashers such as Freddy Krueger are in fact the avatars of an ancient entity of pure evil, whose essence can be captured by stories. Unfortunately, it liked being Freddy Krueger so much that it started to think it was him, and starts targeting Heather Langenkamp and her loved ones in the real world because he thinks she's really Nancy. It notably employs many of the metatextual ideas that Wes Craven would explore in greater depth in Scream. - In the remake, Freddy is now a child molester instead of a child killer. The film alludes to the idea that he might have been wrongly accused, and that his killing spree is vengeance against the parents who murdered an innocent man on the basis of suspicion, \|\|but it's later revealed that he did, in fact, abuse those children\|\|. - Reeker features a malodourous zombie cyborg slasher who is \|\|the embodiment of Death by Car Accident, who kills the people who enter his stretch of Limbo by giving them the injuries that killed them in Reality. Presumably, this lets them go to their actual Final Reward, whatever that may be. He still plays fair, though, pretending he'll be hurt/killed by being shot or run over, and if his victims can escape him, they get to survive their accident.\|\| - The Scream franchise is a deconstruction-reconstruction of slasher movies and clichés. The killers aren't supernatural monsters, but merely evil, mortal men and women wearing a basic Halloween costume, and their seemly supernatural abilities have mundane explanations. Offscreen Teleportation? \|\|There's more than one killer.\|\| Immune to Bullets? \|\|He's wearing a bulletproof vest underneath his cloak.\|\| The killer keeps returning for each sequel? \|\|Ghostface is a Legacy Character, and once the killers in the movie are killed, they don't come back for the sequel; somebody else puts on the mask and cloak.\|\| The creepy voice on the phone? They're using an electronic voice changer to mask their identity. However, the Ghostface killers are still dangerous enough to rack up a high body count, and while most everyone is Genre Savvy, people still get killed by being overpowered or by making poor decisions. - The Terminator films, specifically the first one, introduce a Science Fiction aspect to their Slasher, the T-800. It's an imposing, cold-blooded, and seemingly indestructible killer, with the twist being that it's actually a Killer Robot covered in artificial human flesh from a post-apocalyptic future who was sent back in time to assassinate the mother of a human resistance leader who will lead his army to victory against Skynet. Also, rather than use bladed weapons like other Slashers, T-800 prefers using ranged weapons (firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, etc.) but will also use its bare hands to kill its main target and those who remain its way. Ironically, it's the villain of the second one, a movie that played the slasher angle more low-key for a more purely action-focused approach, who preferred using bladed weapons. - Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is human, though heavily deformed, and a Psychopathic Manchild born to a cannibalistic hillbilly family who sends him out to cut people up with a chainsaw and make meat of them. - Benny Rose, the Cannibal King: Benny Rose is a supernatural slasher killer. He has a deformed face, ghoulish white skin and a touch that can corrode his victims. He also has a Hook Hand on his left wrist, which he uses to slash at his victims. Benny is cannibalistic and feeds on children. - Darkly Dreaming Dexter does a Doing in the Scientist version during one of its books where it states Serial Killer types like the protagonist are all possessed by demons. The author eventually backtracked from this and it was rarely mentioned thereafter. - The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix focuses more on the other side of the Slasher Movie, the Final Girl, but it does deconstruct this trope by having the slashers be ordinary human murderers whose crimes became enough of a trend in the '70s and '80s to spawn a wave of Based on a True Story horror movies. Heather DeLuca (the story's expy of Nancy Thompson) insists that the Dream King, the slasher who tried to kill her, had supernatural abilities, and Chrissy Mercer attempts to ascribe a higher philosophical/mythological meaning to slashers by connecting them to ancient Greek Dionysian cults, but both are extremely Unreliable Narrators; Heather is a strung-out junkie living in a halfway house whose ordeal is heavily implied to have been at least partly made up by the studio to hype their movie, and Chrissy is a Monster Fangirl of slasher killers who's deservedly called "Crazy Chrissy" by other characters. At the end, slashers are also explicitly compared to modern Spree Killers by the villains, who see the latter as more terrifying murderers due to their use of guns enabling much higher body counts, \|\|such that they stage their own slasher-style killing spree as a mass shooting instead of an '80s-style hack-and-slash\|\|. - Final Girls by Riley Sager is another deconstruction of the concept. The story is about how three serial killers are elevated by the media into "slashers" because their murder sprees were eerily similar to slasher movies. Their attacks each result in lone female survivors and spur a tasteless public interest in the titular Final Girl heroines. - How to Survive a Horror Movie groups slashers into five categories. - The Strong, Silent Type is the classic Stock Slasher: huge, silent, feels no pain, wears a mask and overalls to conceal their identity (possibly because they're disfigured or undead), can do a Menacing Stroll faster than you can run, prefers bladed weapons, stalks forests and small towns, and very hard to kill. Their main weakness is that they're single-minded to the point of stupidity, meaning that they're easily led into traps. - The Gamesman is more akin to Jigsaw, a killer who forces victims into Life or Limb Decisions and prefers overbuilt torture devices and surgical implements as weapons of choice. Beating them involves Bothering by the Book, constantly asking for instructions until they grow frustrated. - The Half-Retarded Hillbilly is precisely that, a backwoods redneck who stalks rural areas and kills people with farming implements out of a mix of boredom and the genetic damage of generations of inbreeding. You beat them by out-crazying them, regaling them with tales of the things you've seen on the internet. - The Wisecracker is a Faux Affably Evil killer with a Deadpan Snarker attitude, going for humor and creativity with their kills in order to get the audience on their side. To beat them, play to their insecurities or, if that fails, say the magic words: "I don't get it." - The Mama's Boy is emotionally crippled due to their relationship with their mother, and takes it out on everybody who reminds them of such. In short, you need to get them laid — take them out on the town and pay an attractive man to flirt with them (whether they're male or female, their mommy issues prevent them from being attracted to women). - I Hunt Killers initially appears to be a pretty archetypal serial killer novel, but by the end of the trilogy, it's revealed that all of the serial killers seen thus far have been \|\|members of a Crow King cult of serial killers, and have been participating in "games" to match up or exceed each other's crimes, ruled over by Jazz's parents Janice and Billy Dent.\|\| - Psycho Killers in Love by C.T. Phipps is set in the United States Of Monsters universe and has slashers as a kind of monster related to urban legends. It is an Urban Fantasy take that has them as both Antihero and Villain Protagonist. Slashers are all descendants of the original Nephilim and were once warriors that defended the world as long as they were worshiped by mortals. Becoming tainted by demons, they now derive their worship from the fear they generate in their victims. Apparently, the horror industry is controlled by demonic cultists who make movies similar enough to the crimes of the real-life slashers to empower them, with the Weinsteins being alluded to. - Despite actual slashers being a thing in-universe, the slasher in A Nightmare on Elk Street for the Bright Falls Mysteries set in the same universe is actually an indestructible spirit. It is the Boogeyman, the King of the Boggarts, and a literal god of fear invoking a movie slasher from the script they're working from. - The Web Serial Novel Pact has Bogeymen, who are slasher horror monsters from the Abyss, a magical realm that tortures inhabitants until they turn into killing machines strong enough to fight their way out. \|\|Blake becomes one after a Demon eats his connections, sending him to the Abyss. By the time he's out, he's a fear-eating tree-person monster.\|\| - Boy Meets World's "And Then There Was Shawn" has the Skullfaced Killer terrorizing the gang while they were trapped inside the school during detention. \|\|At the end of the episode, he is unmasked to be an evil double of Shawn. Luckily, it was All Just a Dream.\|\| - Tying in with the show's longtime affinity for horror plotlines, the Doctor Who episode "Dalek" takes the conventional slasher outline and transplants it to an American oligarch's private underground museum, with the killer being a Dalek that survived a Great Offscreen War that wiped out the rest of its species. The killer being an Implacable Man takes the form of the Dalek's self-defense mechanisms, and the relentless slaughter is motivated by the fact that the Daleks were deliberately engineered to be Absolute Xenophobes, with the Doctor describing them as "the ultimate in racial cleansing." - Zig-zagged and explored in Hannibal: The serial killers hunted by Will Graham vary widely in their methods of killing and personal reasons; his work always involves deducing their internal logic, motivations, and weaknesses. While no practical links are formed between them, the killers are all obsessed with committing various artistic/surrealist murders (and many can be traced, in one way or another, to Dr. Hannibal Lecter). - Eminem's Relapse concept album features a slasher incarnation of Slim Shady. - "My Darling" shows it as a case of Enemy Within following Demonic Possession, with the Monster — the demon responsible for Eminem's Split-Personality Takeover from way back on The Slim Shady EP — persuading Slim to go back on the drugs in order to revive his rap career. Loose Canon has it as a case of From Nobody to Nightmare: Apparently, the superstar rapper Marshall Mathers went to rehab for his prescription pill addiction, binged on a quantity of pharmaceuticals that should have killed him, and instead experienced a sudden increase in rage and superhuman physical strength that led to him slaughtering 13 staff members. A promotional game suggests Marshall's initial binge, and his physical response to it, was triggered by medical experimentation he experienced at the hands of the incompetent Mad Doctor running his rehab facility. - As a slasher, while he's Laughably Evil and often shows Dissonant Serenity, he doesn't seem aware of his own actions due to the Missing Time provided by his heavy abuse of benzos, and his extremely childish personality means it's not clear if he understands the consequences of his actions. He claims to hear voices in his head, with his voice and accent flickering around between these personas (weirdly, one of the voices appears to be Yoda). He also has a Freudian Excuse — his stepfather raped him as a child, and he acquired the taste for Valium due to his mother feeding it to him as a child to make him sick. As an adult, he sees himself as just like Mom, even dressing in her clothing. He tends to target women and gay men, seducing them into his clutches with a humble, mundane charm he has despite his celebrity. He also has an erotomanic obsession with any woman he sees on TV, especially if they are Tabloid Melodrama punchlines with drug problems, and is convinced they're all in love with him, viewing their real-life love interests as worthless rivals while also relating to his female icons to the point of believing they are exactly alike. When they reject him or can't be what he wants from them, he kills them. - Slim also loves to display how strong he is by assaulting other slashers and defeating them in a Curb-Stomp Battle, ranging from Malachi, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Hannibal Lecter, Leatherface, and Edward Scissorhands — wait, who? - Crimson Jack from the Betrayal at House on the Hill scenario Stacked Like Cordwood is a serial murderer with Resurrective Immortality. He has his Identical Grandson lure him more victims, since he went into hiding in the eponymous Haunted House. The scenario plays out much like the middle installment in a long-running slasher movie franchise. - The Implacable Stalker template from Pathfinder is based on this archetype, allowing for the creation of unkillable, inhuman murderers. The abilities granted even include a Shout-Out to A Nightmare on Elm Street, allowing them to be reborn from their victims' nightmares. - In the Ravenloft campaign setting, there is a template for human beings driven mad by horror called Broken Ones. A small number of these become murderous killers. The most famous of these is the Midnight Slasher that goes after couples due to her parents being murdered by Gabrielle of Invidia after seducing her father. - In the Vampire: The Masquerade setting for the Old World of Darkness, there is a group of Nosferatu vampires called Leatherfaces. These basically act like slashers in their indiscriminate stalking and murder of humans. They do it because their deformities and the Beast have driven them mad. - World of Darkness: Slasher is a supplement for Chronicles of Darkness by Chuck Wendig. It gives numerous types of slashers based on a variety of archetypes. They gain their supernatural powers as an inverse of the Vigil, becoming more obsessed with killing than protecting humans. One of them might start with a motive like stopping rapists after their child is assaulted but gradually will suffer Motive Decay until they're killing everyone with the slightest interest in sex. - Alien: Isolation takes the Slasher Movie tropes of Alien up to the eleven. The alien is completely indestructible for the majority of the game and stalks our protagonist relentlessly. Amanda Ripley must hide, run, and distract the stalker because she's quite disadvantaged compared to an evolved, towering killing machine that shrugs off forms of gunfire and has mastered the endless labyrinthine tunnels that are around the space station. It even explains why it seems to be stalking her, in particular. \|\|It's not. There's dozens of aliens on the station due to the original having had time to procreate. Amanda is possibly running into multiple ones versus being hunted by a single one.\|\| - Clock Tower 3 explains that vulnerable people are recruited by dark Entities and turned into serial killers. Once these killers are invariably executed for their crimes, the Entity resurrects them as immortal undead Subordinates to continue these sprees unimpeded. Both the Subordinates and Entities can only be truly stopped by the Rooders, a bloodline with supernatural, evil-fighting powers (although Entities are created by \|\|blood relatives sacrificing another Rooder\|\| at the peak of their power, creating a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario). - Dead by Daylight has slashers coming from a variety of supernatural and natural sources but all of them are recruited by the Entity. They are then forced to hunt a group of survivors over and over again in a "Groundhog Day" Loop. While some of the slashers resent this and how their powers have been altered, others relish the fact they can continue hunting their prey for all eternity. - Friday the 13th: The Game takes time to explain away Jason Voorhees' Offscreen Teleportation powers as well as other abilities. His abilities are further explained away as due to being a Child by Rape with an unknown (possibly supernatural) father. - The Mortal Kombat franchise has featured at least four slashers as Guest Fighters in the Continuity Reboot trilogy: Freddy Krueger in Mortal Kombat 9, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface in Mortal Kombat X, and (depending on whether you count him as a slasher) the Terminator in Mortal Kombat 11. They're as frightening as ever, but for gameplay purposes, they're as vulnerable to conventional weaponry and martial arts blows as any kombatant. - Resident Evil: - Resident Evil 2 (Remake) is a video game where the two primary enemies are variations on the slasher concept. Mr. X is an immortal regenerating bioweapon that is programmed to stalk the protagonists throughout the police station as well as Raccoon City. William Birkin is similarly also empowered by the G-Virus to be nearly indestructible as well as have an animal-like cunning. A humorous inversion is there's a stealth segment where the protagonist faces a much more powerful unkillable foe. It's just that said opponent is an adult male while you are temporarily playing an eight-year-old girl. - In both the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and its remake, the titular Nemesis is designed to invoke many of the tropes of a slasher. Nemesis is unkillable, possessed Offscreen Teleportation, and chasing a beautiful woman in a short skirt. Jill, notably, can defeat Nemesis but only temporarily \|\|until she blasts it to pieces with a rail gun.\|\| - Splatterhouse is a game series where the masked slasher is the protagonist. You take control of a man possessed by an evil mask (Not unlike that of Jason Vorhees') and you use its supernatural power to beat up, tear, and rip apart hordes of undead and monsters to save your girlfriend, hence the name Splatterhouse. - Until Dawn does a Bait-and-Switch with the initial setup being a traditional slasher stalking a group of teens at a ski lodge. The slasher is an escaped mental patient with a grudge against the family. POV shots indicate that the slasher has thermal vision and the lodge may be haunted too. \|\|It's actually their friend, Josh, who is the son of a special effects genius and has set up the house as a place to invoke Slasher Movie tropes. Only after he's unmasked do they discover there's a real supernatural threat; Josh's sister, Hannah, who was presumed dead when she vanished after being pranked by Josh's friends the year prior. Only now, she has transformed into a Wendigo hell-bent on killing that entire group.\|\| - Yoshi's Crafted World, an otherwise adorable game, has Shadowville, whose first level is home to \|\|several Creepy Dolls brandishing huge axes that emit hellish screams whenever they see Yoshi and chase after him. They cannot be defeated by any means\|\|. Even the hint-giving Message Boxes have been given a foreboding upgrade:	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSlashersAreDifferent
Our Sphinxes Are Different - TV Tropes Throughout the multiverse, sphinxes are enigmatic beings. Some are merely monsters with inscrutable motives, while others guide entire civilizations towards goals only they understand. No matter the world, a sphinx is a mystery given form. The sphinx (also spelled sphynx, pluralized sphinxes or sphinges) is a creature hailing from Mediterranean myths, and remains a common feature in modern fantasy worlds. Sphinxes originated in Egyptian and Classical Mythology, and are as such strongly connected with Greek and Egyptian settings and Fantasy Counterpart Cultures. Sphinxes are typically associated with knowledge in some form. They're often depicted as driven to ask riddles to others, often with dire consequences for those who won't or can't guess correctly. Associations with magical lore and oracular powers are also fairly common. They're usually powerful, rare and magical beings; regardless of their specific role in a story, sphinxes are rarely trivial creatures. A sphinx has the body of a lion, sometimes has the wings of a bird, and is most commonly depicted with the head of a human being; these are typically referred to as androsphinxes when male, or as gynosphinxes when female. Gynosphinxes may or may not be depicted with human breasts. Either type may be depicted wearing a nemes, the striped headcloth worn by Egyptian pharaohs. The most common alternative types are ram-headed sphinxes, called criosphinxes, and hawk- or falcon-headed ones, called hieracosphinxes. Sphinxes with other animals' heads are rare, but not entirely unheard of, and don't generally have universal names. All variants may or may not be winged. In general, human-headed sphinxes are more likely to be mystical and refined, while animal-headed ones are more likely to be bestial and aggressive. It's worth noting that the Greek and Egyptian sphinxes behaved differently. The Greek sphinx was a single one-of-a-kind monster and enemy of mankind sent as a plague by Hera to punish Thebes, and was the one that asked the infamous riddle and was bested by Oedipus. Egyptian sphinxes were a myriad of creatures and statues representing deities, protectors and pharaohs, and could be male, female and animal-headed note : It also should be noted that Egyptian sphinxes are much older — we're talking at least a full millennium — than the Greek version. As noted below, they obviously weren't called "sphinxes" but what they, especially the Great Sphinx, were called have been lost to time. The common image of a sphinx in modern-day media is a mix of the two, taking the Egyptian theme and appearance but the Greek behavior. See also Beast with a Human Face; Our Manticores Are Spinier, for another type of leonine creature which may or may not have human heads and/or wings; Our Gryphons Are Different, to which hieracosphinxes may sometimes be linked to and often resemble; and Shedu and Lammasu, for creatures with similar appearances, connotations and preferred stomping grounds. ## Examples - Digimon Adventure 02: Nefertimon, an Armor Digivolution of Gatomon, resembles a typical sphinx. - Fate/Prototype: In Fragments of Sky Silver, Ozymandias can summon sphinxes. One that fights Arthur can control fire, doing stuff like coating itself in flames, breathing out fire tornadoes and turning its claws into Hot Blades. The king of the sphinxes, Sphinx Wehem-Mesut, is a giant, faceless sphinx with a Celestial Body. It can spawn offspring called Sphinx Awlad which act like lion cubs when young. - One Piece: Sphinx is the King Mook of the Manticores of the Level 2: Beast Hell of Impel Down. It has a goofy-looking, almost apelike face, a giant lion body (as big as a house), and feathers along its forelimbs and shoulders. - Piro/Marusu from Osamu Tezuka's Unico is a young sphinx that Unico befriends in one of the manga's storylines. Marusu is very feisty and very short-tempered, but also very sweet. Along with the other young sphinxes, he/she is drawn more like a lion cub than a sphinx. Marusu ("Sphinx's daughter/son" in the English dub) makes an appearance in the 1983 film Unico in the Island of Magic where he/she helps Unico and Cheri confront Kuruku. - Magic: The Gathering: Sphinxes are the iconic large creatures for Blue, the color of knowledge and the mind, playing the same role for it that angels do for White or dragons for Red, and typically resemble giant winged lions with the heads of women or bearded human men. They often get mechanics related to knowing and guessing, usually rewarding players for guessing the nature of a card in their deck or in an opponent's hand. Culturally, they tend to be reclusive wizards and oracles and often highly skilled wielders of Blue schools of magic, such as prophecy and mentalism, and tend to sit at the top of hierarchies in Blue-aligned organizations. They're also said to be capable of telling lies from honesty and truth from falsity by the sound of one's speech alone. - On Alara, a world shattered into five shards aligned with each of the colors of mana, sphinxes are found exclusively on Esper, the Blue shard, where they're the leaders of the local technocratic civilization and are held in high esteem as embodiments of everything the Esperites seek to be — wise, magically skilled, enlightened and emotionless. - On Amonkhet, a plane inspired specifically by Egyptian Mythology, the sphinxes' impenetrable minds were the only things Nicol Bolas was unable to corrupt. He was however able to curse them to be unable to communicate with the plane's other natives, keeping them from warning them of his true intentions until it was too late. Amonkhet is also the only plane to be home to ram-headed criosphinxes, which tend to be more aggressive than the human-headed kind and to viciously attack servants of Bolas that they encounter on their silent wanderings. - On Ravnica, almost all sphinxes are part of the Azorius Senate, the local legislative body, and tend to be highly reclusive beings. - On Theros, inspired by Greek Mythology, sphinxes are ancient, primordial beings and possess ancient knowledge. Their thought patterns are highly abstract, rendering them enigmatic and difficult to understand regardless of whether they wish to be so or not. - Perhaps the most individually important sphinx of all is Azor the Lawgiver, a sphinx Planeswalker who traveled to many different planes and gave social structures and codes of law to many different civilizations. The cultural uniformity of the multiverse's sphinxes is believed to be due to Azorius' influence. Other notable sphinxes include Sharuum the Hegemon, leader of Esper's civilization, and Isperia the Inscrutable, the leader of the Azorius Senate. - Yu-Gi-Oh!: Sphinxes are an archetype of monsters with leonine bodies and usually humanoid heads. They include Andro Sphinx (a humanoid lion), Sphinx Teleia (a winged, woman-headed sphinx with a chain and collar around her neck), Theinen the Great Sphinx (a centauroid sphinx with Andro Sphinx's upper body and Sphinx Teleia's lower), Dimension Sphinx (an Egyptian sphinx statue), Criosphinx (another centauroid, but with blue skin and the horns and muzzle of a ram) and Hieracosphinx (lion body, wings and falcon head). - Dungeon Keeper Ami: Referenced in "No Wonder Cure" when Ami is talking with Keeper Midori, and sees a statue that she compares to an Egyptian sphinx with the body of a dragon. - Quizzical: In Quizzical Greystone and the Basements of Doom, the characters encounter a sphinx named Alexander with a lion body, the head and torso of an unidentified creature (implied to be human, with which the characters aren't familiar) and floor-length beard and hair among the creatures captured by the diamond dogs. Sphinxes are compelled to ask riddles before they give out information, and if their riddle is answered incorrectly they're magically bound to \|\|throw the answerer off the nearest cliff\|\|. However, they can choose how hard or easy to make a given riddle. There are also rumors of a potion that boosts intelligence but requires a sphinx's \|\|brain\|\|. However, \|\|it doesn't work\|\|. - The Riddle of Origin is an origin story of the sphinx of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, called "Catshepsut" in this story. She was one of many beings created by the Mad God Discord, who claims to have made her "out of a cat, a blue jay, and a book of brain teasers" as a prototype for griffins. She didn't turn out quite as he had hoped, being generally too orderly and too bound to her word for his own chaotic tastes, and he eventually sends her off to Anugypt on the reasoning that she would likely fit in there. - Return to the Falls: The third chapter features an aquatic variation, with the body of a sea lion, called the Sfinx (yes, with an "f". As in "fin", like a fish). She lives in lake Gravity Falls, challenges passersby to answer riddles and cooks and eats them if they mess up. Answering the riddle correctly only guarantees your own freedom — freeing existing captives requires a more direct approach. - Shadowchasers Series: Athentia is a sphinx of godlike power who grants oracular knowledge and powerful magical boons, on the condition that seekers answer her riddles correctly. - Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Tiger Prowess: Two sphinxes, one with a goat's head and one with a wolf's head, guard the temple of the totem and ask Weslie and Wolffy how many stars are in the sky. Weslie replies by saying there are as many stars in the sky as there are grains of sand in the desert, prompting the sphinxes to start counting the grains of sand. By the time Weslie and Wolffy make it out of the temple with the totem, the sphinxes are still counting the grains. - Mirrormask: Gryphons and sphinxes are similar catlike creatures with human heads, but have their properties mixed up. A gryphon guards the area known as Giants Orbiting, requiring Helena answer the classic Riddle (she succeeds by giving a literal answer) and stump him in return (she gives him something unsolvable and sneaks off while he's thinking about it). Meanwhile, the "sphinxes" are ravenous beasts which speak seldom and pounce on anyone who seems vulnerable. - The NeverEnding Story has the Southern Oracle. Though to what degree they are alive, the Southern Oracle consists out of two Gynosphinxes, whose very gaze destroys all life in front of them. - Oedipus Rex: The 1967 Italian film version puts an unusual spin on this by having a sphinx that doesn't ask a riddle. Instead, Oedipus defeats the sphinx in hand-to-hand combat. - Harry Potter: Sphinxes are classed as beasts (bestial or unintelligent creatures) rather than beings (intelligent magical entities), as they are highly instinct-driven and cannot truly function in societies — they only speak in riddles and puzzles and react violently if given the wrong answer. - The Mummy Monster Game: In book 1, in order to retrieve the second foot of Osiris, the player has to pick their way through a hall full of stone sphinxes on slabs, some of which are alive and will lash out at the player with their claws if they get too close. - Ology Series: Monsterology describes sphinxes as lions with either human, hawk or ram heads; any of these three varieties may have wings or be flightless. They greatly enjoy riddles, a trait they share with dragons. - Pyramids: When Pteppic is attempting to reenter Djelibeybi, he passes through a misty land not entirely in any dimension where he encounters the Sphinx, who asks her famous riddle (and a second less famous one note : "Here are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. What are they?" The answer is "Day and night") with the equally famous penalty, and will not let him pass unless he answer it. The creature's contradictory nature is noted to give it one hell of an identity crisis, and Pteppic is able to outwit it by getting it to tell him the answer. - The Stress of Her Regard features a race of ancient inhuman beings who are the inspiration for many of humanity's mythical creatures; one of the oldest and most powerful of them is the original of the sphinx of Greek legend. The Riddle of the Sphinx is revealed to have a true answer that is different from the one Oedipus came up with. - Classical Mythology: The Greek sphinx was a singular entity typically portrayed with wings and a woman's head, sometimes also with human breasts or a serpent-headed tail. She was a malicious and dangerous being who guarded the road to Thebes, killed all who could not answer her famous riddle and took her own life when Oedipus got it right. She was usually considered one of the many monstrous children of Echidna, making her a sister to the Chimera, Cerberus and other monsters, and to have lived in Ethiopia until Hera sent her to plague Thebes. The Greeks are generally thought to have gotten the sphinx motif from Egypt, as Egyptian depictions of sphinxes are older and the Greek version begins to turn up at about the same time as stable trade routes were formed between the two cultures. The word "sphinx" is believed to originate either from the Greek term for strangulation, as lionesses typically kill large prey by suffocating it, or from a corruption of the Egyptian term for "living image", as Egyptian sphinx statues were often carved from living rock. - Egyptian Mythology: The famous sphinx statues — the Egyptians raised several, in addition to the Great Sphinx of Giza — tended to be stationed as symbolic guards at the entrances to palaces, temples, and other important places, and typically bore the heads of the then-reigning pharaoh on the body of a lion (at least one has the head of Hatshepsut, for instance). As a consequence, they're believed by historians to have been meant to symbolize the link between pharaohs and the lion goddess Sekhmet. Of note is that Egyptian sphinxes never had wings and were likely not actually called sphinxes; the name was used for them by Greek historians, writing long after the statues were built. Ram-headed sphinxes were built as well, and were symbols of the god Amun; Thebes, the center of Amun's cult, has the highest concentration of ram-headed lion statues. Hawk-headed lions also appear in carvings as symbols of Horus. Herodotus later coined the terms criosphinx and hieracosphinx when describing these last two types. - Dungeons & Dragons: Sphinxes have been present in the game for most of its history. They're immortal, magical and extremely intelligent beings who resemble winged lions with the heads of various other creatures. The four most common variants are the androsphinx (male, with the head of a human man), the gynosphinx (female, with the head of a human woman), the criosphinx (male, with the head of a ram) and the hieracosphinx (male, with the head of a hawk). In practice, their art tends to depict human-headed sphinxes as still having very leonine faces. - While they, and gynosphinxes especially, have the usual association with riddles, they're most infamous for their mating habits — gynosphinxes want to mate with androsphinxes, androsphinxes have no interest in sex and need to be bribed or coerced into it, criosphinxes lust after gynosphinxes but the latter find them repulsive, and hieracosphinxes are evil, violent brutes who try to rape gynosphinxes. - A number of other sphinx types have been described over the game's history, including loquasphinxes (human-headed and come in both genders, known for their interest in arcane knowledge and truename magic), astrosphinxes (mad, evil, wingless sphinxes with goat skulls for heads, who pose answer-less riddles to everything they meet and kill them when they can't answer), threskisphinxes (ibis-headed sages and artisans), and a variety of evil sphinxes with the heads of various predatory animals. - Simplified in the Mystara setting, where heiracosphinxes and criosphinxes don't exist. Without them to confuse the issue, andro- and gynosphinxes are merely considered the male and female forms of a single sphinx race. - Monarchies of Mau: The Sphinx is the highest CR monster in the rulebook (10), said to have the body of a feline, wings of a bird, and a strange featureless head. If you solve one of its' riddles it'll answer any question you pose of it. - In Nomine: Sophronia the sphinx is an ethereal spirit in the form of a winged Greek sphinx; she claims to be the same one confronted by Oedipus. In the modern day she never leaves the Marches and acts as an information broker, selling interesting facts, secrets and insights in exchange for fresh information, riddles she hasn't yet heard, and essence. This puts her in a delicate position because numerous Ethereal spirits bear grudges against her for spilling their secrets, but her services are useful enough that the angels of Dreams and the demons of Nightmares have an informal agreement to protect her. - Palladium Fantasy: Sphinxes are the classic winged, human-headed lion version. They are obsessive scholars and greatly interested in the study of history, magic and cultures, and have a taste for expensive food and drink. They are sometimes enticed to take residence in temples with offers of rare texts and delicacies, and are often among the first creatures drawn to discoveries of ancient texts and ruins. - Pathfinder: - Sphinxes follow the Dungeons and Dragons mold with the four varieties and the infamous mating habits. They claim to be four distinct species, one Always Female and three Always Male, although other species' scholars generally consider them to be just have extreme sexual dimorphism (or tetramorphism, technically). They are held in high regard in the countries of northern Garund, which led the Osiriani people to mistakenly welcome manticores into their country due to a mistaken belief that their similarities meant some form of kinship. Like most other lion-like species, sphinxes can mate with manticores to birth children resembling their non-manticore parent with a tail tipped with poisonous spikes. - Gynosphinxes resembles lionesses with eagle wings and the head of a woman. They love riddles and logical puzzles, and offering one a tempting new riddle to ponder is a fairly efficient way to defuse a bad encounter with one. - Androsphinxes are intellectual and emotionally aloof; openly described as "prudish", they look down upon sex as messy, fleeting and incomparable to the true pleasures of mental stimulation and spiritual enlightenment. Unfortunately for them, the lustier gynosphinxes prefer androsphinxes as their mates and so seek androsphinxes out wherever they can. They're however the most likely males to father gynosphinxes in turn and, thusly, the survival of their species depends on their being brought to bed by gynosphinxes. - The criosphinx is another Always Male sphinx variety, being a comparatively dim-witted (though still above the average human) beast with the head of a ram. They lust ceaselessly after gynosphinxes and, whilst they don't value riddles themselves, they will trade knowledge of them in hopes of being able to use those rituals to help bribe or tempt a gynosphinx into submitting to their lusts. Despite their many flaws, they're the only male sphinx species that actually helps care for the cubs they father. - The hieracosphinx is the literally Always Chaotic Evil branch of the sphinx family. With eagle-like heads that make them resemble griffons, they are the most brutal, stupid (this time objectively rather than comparatively) and foul of their kind, hated and reviled by all others. This is especially because their sole method of propagation is to trap, subdue and rape gynosphinxes. - Cynosphinxes are a rarer variant of jackal-headed scavengers, and also always male. They're obsessive hoarders of secrets, and make use of their ability to innately cast speak with dead to tease out knowledge from every corpse they eat. They interact little with other sphinxes, as they detest all other kinds, and only seek out company to mate — a rare occurrence, as gynosphinxes detest them and cynosphinxes find sex repulsive. - Generally, the nature of a union determines the resulting offspring; couplings born of love or respect produce gynospinxes and androsphinxes, couplings born from selfish desires or simple carnal lust produce criosphinxes (which means that both a criosphinx trying to seduce a gynosphinx and a gynosphinx bedding an androsphinx both have to work to earn their paramour's respect if they want daughters), and hieracosphinxes are born from acts of hate and violence. However, a gynosphinx is always fiercely protective of her cubs, no matter who the father was or how they were conceived. Cynosphinxes are an exception — they always sire cynosphinx cubs, and gynosphinxes' disgust for their kind means that have no issues with the fathers taking their sons away. - 2nd edition drops the gyno/andro distinction and the mating conflicts, utilizing a basic sphinx species possessing both sexes in the manner of any other creature. - Sphinxes of any type and immense age become elder sphinxes, fantastically powerful beings who guard lore older than civilizations and spend centuries at a time as living statues, casting their minds across the planes or pondering great philosophical conundrums. - Pseudosphinxes are diminutive creatures thought to be related to true sphinxes through unclear means. They have the bodies of housecats, the wings of falcons and the heads of monkeys, and are sometimes taken as Familiars. - The Osiriani traditionally built statues modeled after living sphinxes, some of which were animated in the form of immense sphinx colossi that could pull themselves free of their bases to fight off would-be tomb robbers. - Areshkagal, the demon lord of portals, greed and riddles, takes the form of a giant, faceless sphinx with batlike wings, six legs and a snake for a tail. She is often worshipped by evil sphinxes, and her worship traditionally takes place inside giant sphinx statues. - Shadowrun: Hieraco- and criosphinxes are variants of griffins found only in the Serdarbulak Plateau in the Middle East, and are believed to have diverged from regular griffins in the surge of magical transformations that came with the passing of Halley's Comet. The hieracosphinx resembles a griffin with a falcon-like head and vestigial wings, while the criosphinx resembles a hieracosphinx with lion ears and ram horns. - Warhammer: - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: - As a realm of knowledge and hidden import Hysh, the Realm of Light, and the Lumineth Realm-lords who live there are strongly associated with sphinxes and sphinx-like creatures. The Hyshian moon spirit Celennar, for example, takes the form of a tawny sphinx-like beast with a face covered by a white mask adorned with a pair of large horns. - Mindstealer Sphiranxes are Chaos creatures resembling long-armed felines with a third eye in the middle of their foreheads and a large pair of horns on their heads. They were once an order of mystics who served Teclis, one of the twin aelven gods of Hysh, but made a pact with the Tzeentch, dark god of magic, in order to have direct access to arcane power; Tzeentch gave them their third eyes and the ability to pluck knowledge from the minds of their victims, at the cost of losing all other connections to sorcery. The rush of new knowledge drove them quite mad, and modern-day Sphyranxes revel in seizing vital knowledge from the minds of their foes before killing them. - Warhammer Fantasy: Sphinxes don't exist as a race of actual creatures, but in mythology of the setting's equivalent of Ancient Egypt, the death-obsessed civilisation of Nehekhara, sphinxes were the guardians of the Underworld and a popular motif in their architecture. The undead remains of the fallen kingdom, the Tomb Kings, consequently use two types of war constructs modeled after sphinxes. Khemrian Warsphinxes resemble enormous skeletal lions carved out of stone, and are used as both war monsters and steeds by Nehekharan rulers. Necropshinxes are centauroid statues with the bodies of lions, the upper bodies and heads of men, a pair of giant blades for arms and (non-functional) wings, and are used chiefly as monster-killers. - World Tree (RPG): Kaimiri, the god of time, is said to resemble a great sphinx locked in a state of sleep-like mediation, endlessly contemplating mysteries known only to itself. - Oedipus Rex: Oedipus frees Thebes from a sphinx who had trapped people inside by answering her riddle, thus saving the kingdom, which makes him the king out of gratitude. While the sphinx is not described in the play, and much of this occurs off-screen, the sphinx fits the Riddling Sphinx archetype and was likely a Greek-style sphinx. - Age of Mythology: Sphinxes, in the form of human-headed lions wearing pharaonic headdresses, are a myth unit available to worshippers of Bast. They can be upgraded with the Criosphinx and Hieracosphinx technologies, respectively boosting their health and speed. - Age of Wonders: Sphinxes resembling lions with human heads and pharaonic headdresses are a high-tier unit for the Tigrans, a faction of desert-dwelling Cat Folk. - Assassin's Creed: Odyssey: The Sphynx, a giant, woman-headed and winged lion, is one of the four legendary creatures of Greek myth that are fought as bosses alongside Brontes the cyclops, Medusa and the Minotaur. Like the others, she \|\|was a normal human who was corrupted by one of the Pieces of Eden, a remnant of an ancient project meant to create terror weapons to be used by the Isu to cow their human subjects\|\|. Unlike the others, she's an optional boss, not attacking on sight. She only attacks if the Eagle Bearer fails to solve her puzzle correctly. - Chrono Cross: The Criosphinx is an ancient, powerful being of unknown origin. It resents the damage humanity did to the world, and jumps you "to preserve the peace of the planet", trapping you in a game of riddles for trespassing in its lair. If you beat it with smarts, it lets you depart with your lives but gives you no other reward, while if you decide to just bash its face in, it gets pissed but drops a valuable item. - Fate/Grand Order has two main variety of sphinxes. The male Sphinx is a winged, muscular lion man with a golden mask covering their maned face. The female Malikah Sphinx have a more slender build, black fur instead of brown and completely human heads. Ozymandias has another as his Noble Phantasm, Abu El-Hol, which is a giant, featureless, starry sky-bodied sphinx. - Final Fantasy: Sphinxes appear from time to time as enemies and bosses, typically taking the shape of winged, human-headed lions. - God of War: Sphinxes resembling nothing so much as fire-breathing, winged saber-toothed cats appear as bestial enemies in Chains of Olympus. Statues scattered here and there depict the more traditional woman-headed version, as well as concept arts for the aforementioned enemies. - Kings Quest (2015) has a Sphinx appear in Chapter 4: Snow place like home. Its body is fully feline, built like a leopard but with the colouring of a lion or a cougar. It has a human face, but with big vast, steer like horns. It guards the Ice Palace, which is filled with block puzzles and instant freeze death traps, and is fond of riddles. \|\|It also isn't really a sphinx, it's Mannamon, a Goblin turned human (long story) who got turned into a cat, and the sphinx form is the end result of trying to turn from a cat into something more humanoid than just a housecat. The riddles and puzzles were all a facade\|\|. - Last Armageddon: A sphinx in a member of your party of monsters, called Androsphinx despite appearing female. In her default appearance she looks like a human woman wearing a nemesheaddress, though her evolutions as she levels up turns her more sphinx-like, and then into manticore and chimera-based forms. - Pipeworks ''Godzilla'' Trilogy: The Sphinx itself appears as the boss of the Egypt stage of Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash — wouldn't be a Kaiju game without some Monumental Damage, now would it? - Poseidon: Master of Atlantis: The Sphinx, as a winged female-headed lion, is a monster sent by Hera who can be defeated by summoning Atalanta. Her riddle is slightly easier to figure out than the classic one. What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, three legs at dusk, and screams in terror now? - Red Earth: Ravange (Secmeto in Japan), one of the boss monsters, is a cross between an Egyptian sphinx and the Greek Chimera. He was created by a follower of Scion, the priestess Clara Tantra (Arumana IV in Japan), and fuses the power of the lion, goat, eagle, dragon, and cobra together along with hers. - Kill Six Billion Demons: Praman Nand, a powerful gold devil, takes the form of a titanic feline beast with a human mask and is titled the Lord Androsphinx of the Gilded Cage. - Last Res0rt: Rei, the last purebred Celeste, looks like a large feline with a humanoid face and a pair of wings. - Paranatural: The sphinxes are spirits with varying powers, though they only resemble sphinxes in a very vague sense, looking closer to winged cats. The Sphinx of Games forces people to play games and answer riddles, with all rules he creates becoming laws of reality. The Sphinx of Truth, despite her semblance to a kitten, is more dangerous, able to turn her tail into blades and causing anyone in her presence, even herself, to be forced to tell the truth if they attempt to lie. - Skin Deep: Sphinxes are one of the most important species in the setting, as they're highly magically adept and were the ones to create the medallions that allow other creatures to take on human form and thus keep up The Masquerade. They're thought to be extinct after a ruinous war with the dragons that wiped both species out, but the main character turns out to be the last living sphinx left. Their magic, which includes oracular dreams and visions, is drawn from a shared pool of magical power shared among all living sphinxes — meaning that, as Michelle is the only one around, she has theoretical access to the totality of the sphinx species' magic. - They physically resemble lions with human faces (although in full form their faces are still very pronounced and muzzle-like), and come in two distinct types: Grecian sphinxes, who have wings, and Egyptian ones, who don't. They aren't however so distinct that a sphinx of one type can't be born to one of the other, and they generally think of themselves as two sides of a single species. Grecian sphinxes also tend to be female and Egyptian sphinxes male, although relatively small numbers of male Grecians and female Egyptians also existed. - There are also a number of similar creatures, some of which might be related to sphinxes and some of which just happen to look like them or be called the same, although the two main types consider them to be just stealing their name. These include purushamrigas, also called Indian sphinxes, which are thought to be related to true sphinxes; shedus, who have lion bodies, wings and human heads but are unrelated creatures; hawk-headed hieracosphinxes, which are essentially just a type of gryphon; and ram-headed criosphinxes, whose origin isn't known. - Slack Wyrm: The titular dragon's castle is home to a sphinx among its other fantasy creatures, who resembles a winged lion with human hair, ears and a beard and whose riddles are thinly veiled attempts to sort out his highly depressing life. - Subnormality: The Sphinx is about three thousand and four hundred years old, and around the size of a small elephant. She also eats people — she doesn't seem to eat anything else — and gets very prickly when people object. - Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: The Sphynx of Temshutep, a whale-sized female sphinx provided with breasts and a nemes headdress, guards the tomb of Temshutep and attacks whoever can't answer her riddles correctly. - Bosun's Journal: Sphinxes are a lineage of quadrupedal, feline-like, nonsapient posthuman predators native to the deserts and steppes of Habitat One. They originally evolved from tiny predators known as sandbiters, which themselves descend from genetically engineered pets. - One species, the changeling sphinxes, becomes adapted to preying on another sheep-like posthuman species through having its small, furry males infiltrate herds while pretending to be calves; this complex hunting strategy ultimately promotes the development of sapience. They eventually evolve into the civilized riddlesphinxes, a sexually dimorphic species where the tiny males ride on the backs of their much larger wives, and who select mates by using contests of riddles to test each other's cunning. - Another species, the great dragon sphinxes, remain nonsapient but become traincar-sized predators of megafauna, eventually establishing themselves as the apex predators of the Nebuan deserts, and develop the habit of hoarding shiny metal and glass with which to impress mates. - Codex Inversus: - The city-state of Mizani is ruled by Hekima, the Everlasting Wisdom and the Last Sphinx. She is the last surviving being, a millennium after the Collapse, to retain a spark of divinity and the immortality and magical power that go with it. - The explorer Tamil came back from one of her travels with a second sphinx, named M'zaha, which has a woman's head on a leopard body. Nobody knows where she came from, as neither Tamil or M'zaha will tell. Unlike Hekima, M'zaha is a wholly mortal being, and is infamous for her rotten attitude. - Beetlejuice: In "Brinkadoom", to escape from the eponymous disappearing village, Beetlejuice and Lydia must correctly answer the riddle posed by the Stinx, a giant sphinx-like skunk with the personality of a game show host. - Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: In "Throw Mummy From the Train", the Rangers encounter an Egyptian sphinx statue that can be brought to life by placing a magical ring into its forehead. - Class of the Titans: "Breathtaking Beauty" features a sphinx as the main antagonist. She spends most of the episode, disguised as a human girl, under the alias Josephine X. In her true form, she has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. In the episode, she has trapped an entire town, for being unable to solve her new riddle, and attempts to do the same to Odie. He is however able to solve the riddle, and together with his team, manage to defeat the Sphinx. - Danny Phantom: In "King Tuck", the mummy ghost Hotep Ra has Tucker's (who the former believes is King Duulaman reincarnated and has him hypnotized to believe such with the Scarab Scepter) servants build a large sphinx, which is later brought to life to attack Danny. - Extreme Ghostbusters: In "The Sphinx", the protagonists face a sphinx wearing a pharaonic headdress which asks them the famous Riddle of the Sphinx. Its human face is actually a mask hiding a mishmash mass of teeth, eyes and tentacles, which it only removes to drain the intelligence of those it deems to possess the brightest minds that fail to answer its riddle. - The Legend of Vox Machina: The two sphinxes seen in the series, Osysa and Kamaljiori, are huge, ancient, immortal servants of The Knowing Mistress. They are mates who were stationed far apart from each other in order to protect dangerous knowledge. Both of them put Vox Machina through a trial to test their worthiness for the information they keep, but neither of them ask riddles. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Daring Done?", an extended flashback sequence features a sphinx in the shape of an enormous, purple, winged catlike creature with a vaguely pony-like head (as all partly-human creatures in the setting have their humanoid body parts replaced with something else) and a stylized nemes headdress. It terrorized Somnambula's home in the distant past, kidnapping its prince when he tried to stand up to her and taking the crops of the people. When Somnambula came to rescue the kidnapped prince, the sphinx demanded that she solve a riddle before being permitted to do so, and after Somnambula did so further demanded that she rescue the prince from a prison in the middle of a pool of corrosive slime after having her ability to fly removed by the sphinx's magic.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSphinxesAreDifferent
Our Ogres Are Hungrier - TV Tropes " After all, ogres appreciate succulent meat as much as the next ten-foot tall killing machine. " Ogres? Man, I've got a Description Of Our Ogres Are Hungrier Here! It's got a +9 against ogres! Ogres are a staple of fantasy and fairy tales, and so appear in many forms. Most have the following traits in common: Ogres in folklore were portrayed as child-eating monsters who sometimes had magical or otherwise supernatural powers (the ogre from "Puss-in-Boots" is a classic example). Unlike modern depictions of ogres as lumbering primitives, fairytale ogres often lived in castles, wore fine clothing and owned wondrous magical items... while still being unrepentantly evil monsters who ate children like popcorn. In fantasy works, ogres tend to occupy a mid-level spot on the Sorting Algorithm of Evil of evil humanoid foes, generally appearing after orcs but before giants. See also Our Orcs Are Different (their names share the same linguistic root — they are believed to stem from Orcus, a Roman god of the underworld), Our Giants Are Bigger, All Trolls Are Different, and Smash Mook. Not to be confused with trolls. Even though they can often be indistinguishable in fairy tales (when English/French tales reached Scandinavia, "ogre" would usually be translated as "troll"), Nordic-style trolls are generally a type of fae rather than a generic evil monster. Sometimes shares international space with oni. ## Examples - The Ogres of Berserk are bizarre mashups of human and sperm whale: extremely tall and lanky humans with a massive head with eyes on the front. - In Delicious in Dungeon, only female ogres have been seen so far. They're very tall and muscular Horned Humanoids that are based on Oni rather than Western ogres, and possess Super Toughness and strength. - Digimon has Ogremon! He's a Noble Demon, it turns out. There's also his Palette Swap versions, Fugamon (brown) and Hyogamon (blue, ice-themed.) - Hellsing: Referenced in the chapter titled, "Ogre Battle". - The Zentraedi from the Macross series have the characteristic Super Strength and large size in comparison to humans. - Monster Musume has Tionisha, a rather unorthodox example compared to ogres from other media: while she's certainly got the Super Strength part down, and has a colossal appetite one may expect from her species, she's a Cute Monster Girl and Gentle Giant with the most feminine personality of her MON teammates, showing a love of cute little animals and a passion for fashion and pop music. Doesn't inhibit her from stopping bad guys, though. - In Sword Art Online, Ogres featured in the Underworld resemble Wolf Men rather than traditional ogres. - Lucifer from The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots does retain the Super Strength and giant size of most ogres, but his true power lies within his magical capabilities. While he does shapeshift as told in the Fairy Tale, he also gains the ability to teleport, make money and feasts appear out of thin air, and can even make castles out of diamonds. That said, do not take his "King of Power" title lightly. - Magic: The Gathering: Ogres are a staple creature type for Red (the color of emotion, chaos and acting without too much thinking) and Black (the color of pragmatism, amorality and the willingness to do some pretty nasty stuff to benefit oneself) Mana, a combination that tends to result in violent, chaotic hedonists with little regard for the lives of others. Those that have special abilities tend to be able to harm their controller or other friendly creatures. They're typically hulking, muscular brutes fond of fighting and anywhere between barbarians and animals, depending on the ogre in question and their world of origin, but exceptions exist. - The ogres of Kamigawa, also called the o-bakemono, are as violent and cruel as other ogres but far more intelligent and cunning, and often worship the plane's demonic oni. - In Mirrodin, ogres are barely sapient brutes often used by goblins as beasts of burden, and physically resemble barely humanoid hulks with faces dominated by gnashing bear-trap maws full of big sharp teeth. When Mirrodin became New Phyrexia, they were mostly transformed into servants of the red Phyrexians, serving as guardians and stokers for their ever-burning furnaces. - In the city-plane of Ravnica, ogres are often used as muscle by the various Red-aligned guilds, although the constant stench they exude forces many out of the guild system and onto the fringes of society. At least one ogre, the chieftain Ruric Thar of the Gruul Clans, has two heads. - The now-exitnct Onakke ogres of Shandalar were far more intelligent than most and are known to have been skilled artificers and sorcerers, and were the creators of the Chain Veil. - The ogres of Tarkir are enormous, incredibly strong, aggressive and dim-witted brutes resembling giant, shaggy apes with huge horns. They're mostly kept by the Mardu Horde as war beasts and living siege engines that need to be kept chained up until they're unleashed on the enemy. Others live independently in the cold mountains of the Temur clans, and often come in conflict with them. After the timeline's alteration, they mostly live in the mountains of the Atarka dragons: their strength and ferocity make them very effective at gathering food for the ever-hungry dragons, but their size means that they're among the first to be hunted when the dragons go hungry. - The Commander Legends set introudces Obeka, Brute Chronologist, a female ogre mage. While she's much more presentable and presumably smarter than your average ogre, she apparently warps the fabric of time by punching it very hard! - The Black Moon Chronicles' ogres are gigantic fur-covered humanoids who raid isolated villages. One such raid resulting in the birth of Ghorghor Bey, a half-ogre warlord. - In Garulfo, the ogre is an enormous giant with No Indoor Voice... Unless he's around his collection of fine crystals. Woe to you if you break one. - In Top 10 we see an ogre being a solitary creature with a taste for brutality, murder and decorating its cave with body parts. It's too big and too ugly to fit in the panel, ridiculously strong and so hard to kill even its ashes will try to fight you. - In one Arabian Nights story, a prince (whose vizier is actually using an Uriah Gambit on him) encounters an "ogress" who appears at first as a beautiful woman, but then shapeshifts into a monster who tries to feed the prince to her children. The magical powers and ability to deceive seem incongruous for an ogre, but very much in keeping with a ghul, so ogress might just be a mistranslation. - In an Italian fairy tale from the '90, titled Gorgo the Ogre, there are three types of Ogres: Red Ogres are large and brutish, and must kill a monster to achieve adulthood and turn red but are otherwise good natured. Golden Ogres are beautiful, virtuous and only kill if they have no other choice to defend themselves. Finally, Black Ogres are Always Chaotic Evil monsters that come in all shapes and size. - A notable exception to the typical use of the trope is in the famous "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, where the giant's wife, who is usually portrayed as nice enough to try to get Jack to leave without harming him, is often described as an ogress. - Another notable aversion appears in The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch, where the ogre Buk Ettemsuch adopts the protagonist and treats her as his own daughter. He has several opportunities to eat her, but allows her to live instead. - In "Puss in Boots", the ogre is a shape-shifting brute, who owns a large amount of land. In order to get his poor master some land to trick a king into thinking he is royal, the eponymous cat tricks him to turn into a mouse so he can eat him. - In "Sleeping Beauty", the prince's mother is an evil ogress who tries to eat her own grandchildren. - In Madame d'Aulnoy's The Bee and the Orange Tree, the main character, Aimée, is a shipwrecked princess who is raised by ogres. These ogres not only eat humans, but each other as well. When Aimée steals crowns from the young ogres, the older ogres see them and eat them. The father ogre Ravagio plays this trope completely straight. The mother ogress Tourmentine does too, but is actually quite intelligent due to having fairy blood. - In many folk tales from Italy, the antagonist male Ogre is sometimes called "Nanni Orco" (John Ogre), and is a character which is either the classical child-eating monster or an overall nice guy who actually helps the hero (not without teaching him a lesson for his foolishness). Variations include the "Uomo Selvatico" (Savage Man) and in at least one istance "L'Orco con le Penne" (Feathered Ogre), a non-descript Ogre monster whose feathers are the MacGuffin the hero has to retrieve. Ogresses aren't unheard of too. - Shrek: - The eponymous hero is a green, seven-foot-tall humanoid with trumpet-shaped ears. He has a reputation for man-eating, but is actually well educated and merely wants to be left alone, though he does get a kick out of scaring people now and then. - Without the spell making her look like a regular human, Fiona looks just like an ogre. The second movie implies this was because \|\|her mother is human but her father is a frog in human form\|\|, leaving her relation to the ogre species unclear. - The fourth movie reveals that Shrek is actually a runt; other male ogres are even bigger. However, though soldiers fighting a rebellion, they're still not particularly brutish. Despite their fearsome reputation, no ogres have ever been known to eat humans, even if their actual diet is pretty disgusting. - In Ella Enchanted ogres are blue-skinned brutes slightly larger than humans, and with a habit of wearing low-riders that show their plumbers' butts. They eat people, but apparently lived in peace under the prior king's rule, before they were blamed for his death \|\|by the king's brother.\|\| - Ogres make an appearance in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and are shown as long-armed monsters half-way in size between the orcs and trolls, and serve as frontline soldiers among Azog's forces. They also appear to be intelligent to a certain extent, as shown in the extended edition where they coordinate in teams to destroy several dwarf war chariots. - The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth is a somewhat out-there take on this trope. He's not a giant, but he is a hideous Child Eater, and a return to the original folk lore of the ogre, rather than the fantasy story hulking oafs we've come to expect. - The film version of The Spiderwick Chronicles has the ogre Mulgarath. He's actually quite clever and menacing, but is tricked into turning into a bird near an otherwise harmless small creature that loves to eat them. - In Time Bandits, the protagonists are found by an ogre and his wife on the ogre's ship. The ogre is outwitted and left at sea after the protagonists commandeer the ship (don't feel too sorry for them - they were planning to eat the protagonists after all). - Doctor Who: - The evil Daleks use a race of large, unintelligent humanoid brutes called Ogrons as warrior-slaves. The Ogrons are featured in the stories "Day of the Daleks", "Frontier in Space", and very briefly in "Carnival of Monsters". - Aliens called Ogri, which resemble large rocks and feed on blood, appear in "The Stones of Blood". The Doctor suggests that Gog, Magog, and Ogre could derive from this. - Although his species' name is Androgum, Shockeye from "The Two Doctors" is essentially a big meat-hungry ogre, albeit one with a trained chef's vocabulary. - Ogres have been a threat to the Enchanted Forest more than once in Once Upon a Time; they're extremely tall, brutish and not very smart, with poor eyesight and a keen sense of hearing to make up for it. They're not, technically, Always Chaotic Evil, as Belle finds out when she attempts a spell to detect evil intent on one, but they're hard to reason with and too easily provoked into fighting. - Special Unit 2 features Jack the Ripper as an ogre who was compelled to devour humans. He tried to limit himself to hookers and prostitutes and developed a serum to control his instincts, but was losing control when SU2 tracked down and killed him. - The Wheel of Time (2021): Rand mistakenly calls Loial an ogre, which hints that Ogier inspired our concept of ogres. But Ogier invert or avert nearly every ogre-related trope. - English editions of the opera Hansel and Gretel (1893) often translate "Knusperhexe" as "gobbling ogress." It fits the rhythm but isn't quite appropriate for a character otherwise consistently described as a Wicked Witch. - Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura has playable half-ogres, and one subplot involves finding a half-ogre birthing factory, which then turns out to be unsolvable (due to a conspiracy). - Plague Eater Lords of Darkest Dungeon 2 invoke this. They are huge, fat, toothy fellows who ravenously eat anything they can get their paws on. - Dragon Age ogres are a type of darkspawn created from qunari. They have horns and look like wingless demons but are otherwise typical examples of The Ogre. - Enemy ogres in Dungeon Crawl are Glass Cannons who can't take damage quite as well as they can deal it due to lack of armor, and playable ogres are much the same. Of note, however, is that ogres make surprisingly good mages; an ogre mage is a fearsome foe, and a legitimate character build in the Magic Knight vein (In past versions, ogres and ogre mages were two different species, who were later merged, giving all ogres basic aptitude in magic). - In Dwarf Fortress, ogres are huge, powerful brutes that live in certain evil plains. They're highly aggressive, very powerful and tough, and will path to any building laying outside, wreck them, then proceed to find their way to the inside of the fortress. If you see a pack of ogres at the very beginning, you're better off restarting the game. Goblins sometimes bring them in sieges. Blind Cave Ogres found in caverns are eyeless (not that it holds them back in any way), outright feral in their aggression, toothier and even bigger, and can show up anywhere in the subterranean wilderness once you've breached far enough. - The Elder Scrolls series has Ogres who are nearly twice the size of the average playable races, while being Dumb Muscle Giant Smash Mooks. Considered a race of "Goblin-ken," meaning they are related to Goblins, Ogres typically have grayish-blue skin, pronounced teeth, and Pointed Ears, though Ogres in colder climates are known to have shaggy white hair covering their bodies as well. They live in primitive hunter-gatherer societies, most often inhabiting natural caves in remote areas. Like Goblins and Orcs, Ogres are known to revere Malacath, the Daedric Prince of the Spurned and Ostracized. Ogres can be found throughout most of mainland Tamriel, where they are feared as man-eaters and are known to raid settlements and attack travelers in remote wilderness areas. - In EverQuest, ogres are large, muscular, stupid humanoids who not speak too good. The stupidity came about as a result of being cursed by the Gods of good. In EverQuest II, the Gods had all left, and one of the effects was that the ogre's curse was lifted, turning them into a race of Genius Bruisers. - Fallout: The Super Mutants seem to fill this role in the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout 3 and 4, where they're big, hulking, brutish and fairly stupid, and very aggressive and warlike. Super mutants from the other games are more akin to "Blizzard" orcs than ogres. The art book for Fallout 3 puts even more emphasis on the "ogre" aspect, as they are shown to make their own cobbled-together armor and guns and forge melee weapons such as axes, swords, maces, and flails/ball-and-chains. - Final Fantasy Ogres are a staple monster that appears in most of the games. - In God of War (PS4), ogres are a type of enemy related to trolls who Kratos and Atreus run into on several points in their journey. In terms of appearance, they look like hairless massive gorillas with spiked skin. They have their own language, like trolls, but they're violent and fierce. Kratos can use them against other enemies by shoving his fingers into their eyes and subjecting them to a head-punching, then when he's done with them, he dispatches them by cutting through their jaw muscles with an axe in two goes. - Heroes of Might and Magic: Ogres have appeared in many of the games. - HoMM1's ogres are mid-tier (4 of 6) big, fairly slow moving club-wielders aligned with the barbarians, with a lot of hitpoints for their level. - HoMM2's ogres are mid-tier (4 of 6) big, fairly slow moving horned axe-wielders with a lot of hitpoints for their level. They upgrade into tougher and faster "ogre lords", and are aligned with the barbarians. - HoMM3's ogres are also mid-tier (4 of 7) big, strong humanoids that use clubs. They upgrade to ogre mages, who wear vaguely oriental armor and exchange their clubs for totem staffs. Again, they're aligned with the barbarians. - HoMM4 units don't upgrade. The Ogre Magi appear as the Tier 3 monsters for the Might faction, as an alternative to the Cyclops. Interestingly, they bear some resemblence to elderly Native American shamans. - Might and Magic VIII indicates that the Ogres of Might & Magic are not stupid child-eaters — while the intelligence of Zog's ogre army is not indicated beyond the Ogre Mage Zog himself (he's fairly clever) and being able to follow relatively complex instructions, Ravage Roaming features a peaceful village of ogres. They neither appear stupid, nor are indicated as being unusual for ogres. - Guild Wars: There are two definitions of Ogres: - In the first game, Ogre acts as a classification for large humanoids that do not qualify as a giants; this covered Jottuns, Ettins, and Yetis. - In the second game, a race identified as Ogres have invaded the Blazeridge Mountains. Their culture revolves around beasts and all members of their society tame beasts for use in battle. Their behavior varies by clan, with many being hostile to all other races and some being quite friendly. - The Jotun are actually a subversion of this, at least in their backstory. The jotun were an advanced magical civilization predating humanity and the human gods, but eventually their pride overcame them and they descended into constant civil wars that turned the once-great people into savage ogres. They are still the only ogres or giants to use magic in the Guild Wars universe. - King's Bounty: Ogres are the mightiest units for the Orc race and they're the cheapest of the Level 5 units (Levels are tiers of how powerful a creature is, with 1 the lowest and 5 the mightiest - so ogres are in the same power-class as a dragon). - The Legend of Zelda: The Hinoxes are massive, powerful, one-eyed creatures that appear to spend most of their time either sleeping or eating. - Neo ATLAS 1469: The "human eater" trope is played with in this game from Artdink, in a region near India approx. (maps are randomly shaped in this world) your merchant company encounters "red-mouthed ogres". This leads to a quest where a village is believed to be kidnapped by evil ogres but \|\|in actuality the ogres are friendly, kind and not cannibalistic. They took in the villagers to give them a nice vacation and feed them strawberries. It was ripe strawberries that made the ogres's mouths red and it's these ogres that introduce strawberries to the world\|\|. - Averted in the Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre games; instead of the usual big brutish humanoids, "ogre" seems to just be another word for "demon." - Okiku, Star Apprentice: Ogres battle Okiku with the help of orcs, and ogres are green, with possibly glowing yellow eyes, about twice as large as orcs, and are primitive due to wearing only a loincloth and and spiked pauldrons, while wielding Primitive Clubs. - Pillars of Eternity: Ogres are huge and carnivorous, but much more intelligent and reasonable than the usual depiction. The problem of an ogre stealing a farmer's pigs can be resolved by convincing the ogre he should go somewhere else before people get really angry, he can be hired to defend your stronghold, and ogres live alongside other races in Twin Elms. - Grimmsnarl from Pokémon Sword and Shield is a big, hairy Pokémon that resembles an ogre, although it also has features that make it resemble a troll as well. - Puzzle Quest has the hungriest ogre of all, Drong. He has a series of side quests, all revolving around getting him different things to eat. Things such as poisonous spiders, another ogre, diamonds and LAVA and the body of a slain god. - Quake: Ogres aren't as big as their classical fantasy family, but it doesn't make them any less brutal — you can see it from the spatters of blood on them. They just so happen to use chainsaws and grenade launchers to do their thing. Their skill with weapons is off-balanced by their penchant to attack blindly and causing monster infights. - RuneScape ogres are large dim-witted humanoids. They have a fairly human, yellowish skin colour and prominent bellies. They speak in a primitive manner. Some are aggressive, but most are not, and are in fact capable of holding a city with merchants. They also have something like a dozen varieties - actually green-skinned jungle ogres (Jogres), blue-skinned amphibious marine ogres (Mogres) and so on, even having zombie and skeletal varieties, aptly named. The now nearly extinct species known as Ourg, even larger than actual giants and more intelligent, might be a relative. Ogres also form a gender-separated society, with the ogresses living further south in an Australia-themed land. - Tales of Maj'Eyal: Ogres \|\|were created as soldiers and laborers for the Allure Wars-era Conclave (and, for the healer in charge of the program, as a personal means of getting revenge on the Nargol Empire by creating something that would haunt Halfling nightmares) by way of giving conventional humans an extensive array of magical and nature-powered enhancements, alongside some light mental alterations\|\|. It's made clear that they're actually pretty smart (physical dependence on the runes covering their skin has made them Maj'Eyal's finest runesmiths, for example), but they're awful at communication, uninterested in high culture, and prefer to seek out reliable solutions to their problems, like "hit it until it stops moving." It's implied in a few ways that they could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands - their runes are so ingrained into their physiology as to make them a blank slate for a functional equivalent to genetic engineering, and \|\|one alternate timeline shows Healer Astelrid could've organized them into a world-conquering New Conclave\|\|, but their gratitude to the Shaloren (who have been a very good influence) and utter lack of personal ambition have made them one of Eyal's nicest (if grumpiest) factions. (They fit the mold in most other ways - huge, ugly, \|\|used to eat Halflings alive mid-combat\|\|, and so on.) - Touhou Project: The Oni are somewhere between this and Orcs, with a heavy dose of Blood Knight. They would challenge everyone that will accept their challenge, usually of drinking and fighting (or drunken-fighting, natch). Too bad modern people refuse to acknowledge the existence of the supernaturals, so they retreated underground since they don't have anything fun to do with humans anymore. - Warcraft: Ogres are large, dim-witted humanoids that either attack with a club or their fists. In the first game, they were a random neutral threat, but the second one promoted them to underlings of The Horde. Oddly, World of Warcraft seldom shows any Horde-affiliated ogres and there is no playable Ogre race, while enemy ogres are very common. WC2 also presented the ogre-magi (inspired by Dungeons & Dragons Ogre Magi, which in turn are based on Japanese oni), which were even turned blue-skinned in the second sequel. Notably, the two-headed variants are freaks of nature magically created by an orc warlock to boost their intelligence. - In a small subversion there is a quest where you run into a two-headed ogre who's quite intelligent, and heckles you for thinking all Ogres speak in a You No Take Candle fashion. - There's also a whole faction of rather intelligent ogres in The Burning Crusade expansion. - In Warlords of Draenor, the ogres seem to be heavily based on the ancient Roman Empire, complete with coliseums, arenas, and gladiators and slaves. They also appear to be much more intelligent and cultured than their descendants on Azeroth will become. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: "Ogroid" is a classification for a wide variety of primitive, brutish humanoids, varying from the diminutive Nekkers to great Rock Trolls, mighty Cyclopses and even an enormous Ice Giant. - Beaches and Basilisks: An ogre teaches Monty that many of his people are intelligent and peaceful, contrary to popular stereotypes. - Homestuck: Ogres are the second type of underling — enemies spawned by the in-universe video game the main characters become drawn into — to be shown. They're huge, hulking humanoids with immense tusks, and while big and strong they only provide serious danger to inexperienced players — more aggressive ones are shown taking them down with ease. - The Order of the Stick: Ogres show up several times, usually as incredibly dim-witted cavemen stereotypes complete with animal-skin clothing and clubs. There's also a pair of green-skinned brutes whom nobody is sure whether they are ogres or trolls. - Tales of the Questor filler art describes ogres as particularly sadistic monsters. Ghouls are created when an ogre forces humans to eat meat it has eaten from, and presumably the ghouls turn into ogres when they eat an ogre's carcass. - Unsounded: The Ogres are all long dead, their bodies make up the continent, but Uaid was made using one of their bodies and it is theorized that him putting anything he's curious about, or which he sees as a problem in his mouth is an echo of the memories from his bodies previous life. Since he's been hollowed out throwing people and animals down his gullet just puts them in a protected room. - In Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, there is an army of villainous ogres residing in Castle Drekmore and led by Duke Igthorn, who attempt to conquer King Gregor and Dunwyn Castle. They are almost all hulking morons, with the exception of Igthorn's majordomo Toadwart (who is as tall as a human child and of average intelligence) and Toadwart's cousin Tadpole (who is a genius—and shorter still). - In Disenchantment, the ogres are recurring characters. They have a primitive little kingdom called Ogreland and an ongoing war with gnomes, with the pair killing each other whenever they meet. (And they're about equally matched, surprisingly.) Their queen, Grogda, turns out to be nicer than the others. \|\|She's also Elfo's mom, making him half-ogre and the heir to the throne\|\|. - Family Guy had that episode where a salesman tries to sell beachfront property terrorized by an ogre. "Beautiful beachfront property! No city noise! No flesh-eating ogres! No pollution!" - In The Smurfs animated series, an ogre named Bigmouth occasionally befriended the title characters while making life for the evil wizard Gargamel difficult. Subsequently introduced ogre characters, love interest Bignose, romantic rival Bigteeth, and baby Bigfeet, suggests having disproportionately large body parts on their already hulking bodies they're named after is their hat. SomeBODY once told me...	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOgresAreHungrier
Pegasus - TV Tropes "Pegasus" is the name of the winged horse in Greek Mythology, born from the blood that flowed when Perseus slew Medusa. He was then used by Bellerophon to slay the Chimera. Since then, the image of a horse with wings has persisted in stories and culture, whether these horses are named Pegasus or another name. "Pterippi", a portmanteau of the Greek words "pteron" ("wing") and "hippos" ("horse"), is fairly common, and is in fact a redirect to this page. By far the common appearance these creatures have is that of an all-white horse with bird wings, following the original mythical incarnation, sometimes with colored highlights on their feathers for visual variety. These are typically noble and benevolent beings that live away from common society, but may serve as steeds for particularly good-hearted heroes. Less commonly, they may have batlike or draconic wings; these tend to have black fur and are more likely to be evil or "perverted" beasts. Such stories may turn Pegasus into a whole species, even though there was only ever one of them in legend — although descriptions of entire species of winged horses, termed "pegasi", turn up as early as Roman bestiaries and geographies. A Sub-Trope of Cool Horse; usually a White Stallion to boot. A Super-Trope to Winged Unicorn. A Sister Trope to Unicorn, Winged Humanoid and Our Hippocamps Are Different. Compare Our Perytons Are Different, for another type of bird/ungulate cross, and Our Angels Are Different. ## Examples: - In Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, has a twin brothers named Raul and Julia Fernandez, who both have a beys with pegasus as bit-beast (Raul Fernanzed with Torch Pegasus, and Julia Fernandez with Thunder Pegasus) - Digimon Adventure 02: Pegasusmon is Patamon's first Armor Evolution, and serves as T.K.'s main flying transportation. - Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan have Nobita getting his hands on Doraemon's Original Life Set to create any pets he wants, so he creates a trio of mythological animals, one of the being a Pegasus named Pega. - Fate/stay night: Bellerophon, the Noble Phantasm of the Servant Rider, can be used to control even the most powerful mythical beasts. Rider \|\|due to her part in the creation of Pegasus as his mother, Medusa,\|\| is able to summon Pegasus and perfectly control it in battle with Bellerophon. It should be noted that this isn't a magical construct, it's the actual Pegasus, which has survived to the modern age and comes when she calls. Due to Stronger with Age, it is now roughly on par with an elder dragon. - Kamigami no Asobi: Apollon (yes, the Greek God) flies on one. - In The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, the young Susano uses a small flying horse sent to him by Amaterasu to battle Orochi, though it doesn't have any wings. - In Mahou Shoujo Pretty Bell, one of the primary abilities of Pretty Bell is summoning spirit animals to fight. The Pegasus is popular for being all-around useful even though it's not the strongest fighter. Eri, the latest Pretty Bell, is so magically strong she summons a terrifyingly powerful Pegasus with Glowing Eyes of Doom that wipes the floor with an entire demon army. - Metal Fight Beyblade is about spinning tops that channel the power of constellations. The hero wields the one based on Pegasus. - One Piece has Pierre, a bird who has the ability to transform into a horse after eating the Horse-Horse Devil Fruit. Pierre's in-between form is effectively a pegasus. A rather ugly pegasus. - Pretty Cure: - Sailor Moon: Pegasus (a winged alicorn capable of taking human form — or, more accurately, his original form was human) is sought by the villains in one arc. - Saint Seiya is based around warriors who use constellations as their motif. The protagonist's constellation is Pegasus. - In Magic: The Gathering, pegasi are a lesser White creature race. White Shield Crusader also rides one. They are especially prominent in the Greek mythology-inspired Theros block, where they're prized as steeds by soldiers and heroes. - The Yu-Gi-Oh!: - The card Firewing Pegasus depicts a pegasus with flaming wings and fetlocks. - There is also the card ZW - Pegasus Twin Saber depicts a mechanical pegasus that is a ZEXAL Weapon, an archetype that is a combination of mythical creatures and weapons. - DC Comics: - All-Star Squadron has Shining Knight's steed Winged Victory, who was a normal horse changed into a pegasus by Merlin's magic, and Gudra the Valkyrie's winged steed. - Shining Knight: Both incarnations of the character have winged horses. Justin's was called Victory, Ystina's is Vanguard. Victory was a regular horse, before Merlin turned him into a pegasus. - Superman: The Pre-Crisis version of Terra-Man rode a winged, alien horse named Nova, which was officially called an Arguvian Space Steed. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman (1942): One of Wonder Woman's foes has Pegasus (the original one from Greek myth) as his personal steed. - Gundra, another villain, has a winged steed named Stormwind. - In Wonder Woman (1987), after Wonder Woman beheads Medusa, the original Pegasus rises ominously from the pool of blood. She then attacks the remaining gorgons to keep them from attacking Wondy and becomes Diana's loyal steed. - In Wonder Woman and the Star Riders, a promotional comic for a show and toy line which were never produced. Dolphine rides a winged horse named Cloudancer, with a white coat and light blue mane and tail. - Marvel Comics: - Black Knight: Dane Whitman first had Aragorn, a genetically engineered flying horse, and then eventually upgraded to Strider, a magic horse capable of flying faster than the speed of sound (which would lead to all sorts of other problems, but hey, it's magic, so that clears it all up). The less said about the mechanical "Atomic Steed" he rode for a while, the better. - The Mighty Thor: The Valkyries ride winged horses, one of which ended up in the possession of Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants. - New Mutants: Danielle Moonstar acquires a winged Valkyrie steed, Brightwind, on a trip to Asgard — or, more appropriately, Brightwind chose her. - A.A. Pessimal: Pegasi(i), long thought extinct, return to the Discworld after a gorgon policewoman is swiped across the face by a troll and gets a bad nosebleed. Lord Vetinari and Sir Samuel Vimes take advantage and upgrade the Air Watch with the resultant marvellous flying horses. These are placed in the care of the Air Witches. Later on it is discovered that whilst created by magical accident, they are capable of breeding with normal horses. Thus creating more Pegasi in the natural run of things, and as time passes, allowing the Service to expand and recruit more Witch-Pilots. Vetinari is in favour of this and makes the necessary funding and facilities available, including purpose-built air bases. note : He is, as is revealed across the stories, building Ankh-Morpork's Air Force, to mesh with its resurgent Army and Navy. Piloted by Witches and navigated by attendent Feegle, a Pegasus can get a rider plus load anywhere on the Disc via the Feegle magic of the craw-step... in a matter of minutes. This builds on the canonical use of the craw-step by the City Watch Air Police in Snuff. Pegasi appear in several stories by A.A. Pessimal, including Gap Year Adventures and The Price of Flight. - Tiny Sapient Ungulates reinterprets pegasi as having lobed, membranous and somewhat bat-like wings due to some x-rays in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic revealing that pegasi have bones in their wing feathers. - With Strings Attached: George becomes one twice. His doing so is the first indication that his shapeshifting ring is more powerful than it seems. - Barbie movies: - Disney: - Fantasia: The "Pastoral Symphony" segment features a whole Pegasus family: a white mother, black father, and foals that yellow, blue, and a black baby Pegasus who is always last. A few adult pegasi that are blue are seen as well. The manner in which they fly down to a pond, and then move around in the pond, is very reminiscent of swans. - Hercules: Pegasus is Hercules' ride in this film, despite the fact that this never happened in actual Greek Mythology, and was created by Zeus out of clouds. - The Three Caballeros has a segment about a flying donkey. - Pegasi are the focus of the sixth Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf film, Meet the Pegasus, where the goats must write a happy ending for a story starring the Pegasus Prince, who lives in a cloud city populated by humanoid pegasus people. - Clash of the Titans (1981) and Clash of the Titans (2010) both have Pegasus as only one of a species of flying horses. In the original, Pegasus is the only one to actually appear; most were said to have been killed off by Calibos. In the remake, Pegasus himself is marked by being bigger, Darker and Edgier, more aggressive and black. - In * The Thief of Bagdad (1924), the thief's quest for rare treasure brings him to the Abode of the Winged Horse, which he must ride to the Citadel of the Moon. - Thor: Ragnarok: The Valkyries are seen riding winged horses in a flashback. A pegasus shows up again during Avengers: Endgame* being ridden by Brunnhilde, the last surviving Valkyrie, in the final battle against Thanos. - Alex Verus: One of these shows up in the first book as the mount of an older diviner. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The horse Strawberry, originally from Earth, is given wings by Aslan and takes the name Fledge. Fledge deserves special mention since he began his life as a non-speaking cart-horse and was one of the first animals given speech by Aslan, and was then given wings to help Digory on his quest. He is also the only pegasus to appear in the series, although final book implies that, as revered and majestic as unicorns are considered, pegasi are even more so. - Discworld: In Snuff, the Amkh-Morpork City Watch makes the discovery that Air Watch pilots can use the Feegle magic of the "craw-step" to take a pilot from Ankh-Morpork to Howondaland in a matter of minutes. The Feegle magic is a close-guarded secret, but it is believed to exploit the ability to enter a parellel dimension of space-time and then to return to the "real world" at a location chosen by the navigating pilot — potentially crossing thousands of miles of real-world space within minutes. Feegle pilots navigating birds of prey — who are Air Policemen under Sam Vimes' command note : and ultimately, under Vetinari's command — use this for recconnaisance and communications flights. - Dracopedia: Pegasi are depict in Dracopedia: The Bestiary with feathers on their tail, mane, and legs to complement the wings. They resemble purebred horses, in contrast to the rangier mustang traits of hippogriffs. - Dragon Rider: Pegasi are intelligent and can talk. They are descended from the original Pegasus who sprung from the blood of a gorgon, and are now a critically endangered species, with an unusual life-cycle. They are oviparous, laying eggs which are initially no bigger than a hen's egg, which the mother pegasus has to lick to enable the eggs to grow (ultimately to ostrich-size), so that the foals within them can develop up to the point of hatching (when they are the size of a hen). - Everworld features the mythological Pegasus and his sons living on Olympus; as far as we're told there aren't any other winged horses in this world. They can also talk, and are used to firebomb the Hetwan. - Harry Potter: Winged horses are a common species of domesticated magical creatures, and several distinct breeds exist. - Abraxans are gigantic palomino pegasi, and the strongest breed. The Beauxbatons delegation to the Triwizard Tournament arrives at Hogwarts in a gigantic carriage drawn by a team of Abraxans that drink single-malt whiskey. - Aethonans have chestnut coats and are native to Britain and Ireland. - Granian are grey note : which in equestrian terms actually means a white coat, confusingly enough and incredibly fast. The legendary Pegasus was a Granian. - Thestrals, such as those that pull the Hogwarts coaches, are skeletal, black-furred and bat-winged, and are completely invisible to those who have not witnessed and accepted death. - The crest of Valdemar in Heralds of Valdemar is a rampant white pegasus trailing broken chains, which one character calls Windrider. Valdemar's best-known feature is its uncanny white horses called Companions. One in-universe song (since made into filk by the author) refers to Windrider as a winged Companion. All other Companions just look like beautiful white horses, so whether or not the wings are a metaphor is unknown. - The Neverending Story: In the story's second part, when Balthasar becomes ashamed of having a mule following him around but doesn't actually want to tell his faithful follower Yikka to get lost to her face, he plays on her desire to have children despite her sterility by imagining a beautiful, long-maned pegasus stallion into existence and convincing Yikka to go and meet him. The narration notes that they were rather happy together, and ended up having a winged mule child named Pataplan, who became a notable figure in his own right. - Ology Series: In Monsterology, winged horses are native to the eastern Mediterranean, can be used as steeds and are a favorite food of griffins. - In Pegasus (McKinley), there's an entire species of pegasi, who co-exist peacefully, though they can only communicate via specially trained Speaker magicians. Each member of the human royal family has a pegasus companion. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus: Percy, who is able to speak with horses due to being a son of Poseidon, befriends a winged horse named Blackjack, who is his Cool Horse during the big battles thereafter. The original Pegasus is said to exist as the immortal sire of all the rest. Uniquely, his brother Chrysaor shows up, jealous at being overlooked in favor of his brother, as a pirate. - The Spectral Chronicles: In addition to Moon Shadow, Demetrios' flying mustang, the Stone Cutters have flying horses of their own, which look like thoroughbreds with albatross wings. Some have pure white or pure gold coats, and others have coats resembling those of plains zebras. - Stravaganza: In City of Stars, winged horses are a mutation that occurs periodically among normal thoroughbreds. They are seen as a sign of good luck, especially in Remora (the fantasy counterpart of Siena). They grow much faster than normal horses, and are capable of flying with a rider by the age of a few months. - A Swiftly Tilting Planet: Gaudior. However, when he takes flight, he hardly ever moves in space, but only through time. (The movement of the planet Earth itself throughout time is not accounted for.) - Tortall Universe: A number of winged horses appear in the later books. They're never referred to as pegasi, and come in a variety of forms, including little insect-sized ones and the carnivorous hurroks. The herbivorous kind play a big role in the Trickster's Duet as the symbol of the raka royal family, the Haimings. All of them are explicitly stated to have bat-like wings because they're mammals. - In War of the Dreaming, they are called dreamcolts and serve as steeds to the Guardians of Everness. - The Witches of Eileanan, by Kate Forsyth, has a number of winged horses appear. - Xanadu (Storyverse): The serendipitously named Wynd is turned into a pegasus by the Change. Later, she turned into a winged centaur that's the closest to her original shape that the magic will allow her to get. - Xanth: Winged centaurs eventually became a viable species (a combination of love springs and people getting transformed as such). - Scientific American, in one of its Recreational Math columns (about the Goat-Goat-Car puzzle), has some Pigasi. - Asia: Winged horses appear on the cover of the Then & Now album. - African music group Osibisa took this motif a step further by using winged elephants as the band motif; the flying elephant mascot appears on all their album covers. - Classical Mythology is the Trope Namer and Trope Maker. Pegasus ( Pegasos, in Greek) was owned by Bellerophon, until Zeus struck them down. Far less famous than Pegasus was his brother, Chrysaor, who depending on the source is a giant or a winged boar. Later on, the Roman writer Pliny described a kind of winged horses with antelope-like horns that lived in mountain ranges south of the Sahara, which he named Pegasoi Aithiopikoi — "Aethiopian pegasi". These creatures would go on to feature in Medieval bestiaries for quite some time after that. - Hindu Mythology: Uchhaihshravas is a seven-headed flying horse. - Chinese Mythology: The longma, or dragon horse, is a kind of winged horse with dragon scales that typically appears an omen. The flying horse Tianma is also often translated as a pegasus, though it lacks wings and instead flies via magic. - In Arabic folklore, Al-Buraq ("lightning") was a magnificent winged white horse presented to the prophet Mohammed by the arch-angel Gabriel. - Chris Benoit used the names Wild Pegasus and the Pegasus Kid in Japan and Mexico. - Dungeons & Dragons: Pegasi are staples of the Monster Manual in most editions. They're portrayed as shy but intelligent Chaotic Good creatures that serve as steeds for those who can gain their trust; they're highly intelligent and often serve and revere good deities associated with nature. In early editions, despite being primarily mammals with a few bird parts tacked on, pegasi reproduce by laying eggs. 5th changes this to them giving live birth like normal horses. 5th Edition also establishes that nightmares — Hellish Horses with fiery manes, capable of flying without wings — are created from pegasi by means of an agonizing, humiliating ritual in which the pegasus' wings are amputated and its mind corrupted by evil. - GURPS Fantasy Bestiary describes pegasi chiefly based off of the Greek legend, noting that the effects of giving winged steeds to players mean that pegasi may be best introduced as very rare, difficult to tame and/or as a temporary asset for players. - Palladium Fantasy: - Pegasi are extremely rare creatures only found roosting on high mountains far from civilization. They used to be a lot more common and were often used as steeds by the elves, but they were almost completely exterminated during the great dwarf-elf war in the distant past. - There are also the dragondactyls, essentially pegasi with clawed feet and draconic tails and wings; additionally, male dragondactyls can breathe fire. They are more common than the nearly-extinct pegasi, although not particularly numerous in absolute terms, and despite their monstrous appearance are relatively even-tempered beasts and no more difficult to domesticate than most horses. - Pathfinder: Pegasi conform to the traits of their D&D counterparts in most respects. However, most rulebooks also make mention of a "champion" variety that is faster and stronger than the stock pegasus and also possesses resistance to fire, poison, and petrification — traits that would make it quite ideal as a steed for fighting legendary monsters like the Chimera. - Res Arcana: The Celestial Horse is a winged white horse. Its noble nature is hinted at by its ability, which can generate any basic essence except Death. - Shadowrun: Pegasus (singular and plural) appear in Paranormal Animals of Europe as winged horses native to the Balkans, Italy and southern France. They're not common, and extensive poaching for racing stock is rapidly wiping them out. - Warhammer: Pegasi appear in several armies. Empire and Bretonnian heroes and generals can ride them, and the Bretonnians can also field an entire unit of Pegasus Knights. In general, pegasi are stated to differ from true horses in several respects — they have hollow bones like birds, although their ability to fly is still assumed to be chiefly magical in nature, and are omnivorous as well. They prefer to live in mountains and along high plateaus and are very widespread, and a number of specific variants exist in various corners of the world. - Royal pegasi are found exclusively to Bretonnia and are famed for their extreme intelligence and loyalty. - Dark pegasi are highly aggressive creatures tainted by Chaos, and are marked by their batlike wings, jagged horns, sharp fangs and purely carnivorous diets. Most live in the mountains of Naggaroth, and are often taken by the Dark Elves to serve as flying mounts. - Radiant pegasi, described in the Storm of Magic supplement, live in the highlands of Araby and spend long periods of time basking in the sun and absorbing its light and heat. When attacked or threatened, they can release their stored energy in a blinding flash of light. - Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Pegasus is the tribal totem of the Black Furies, and demands that those who serve him protect females and their young. - Age of Mythology has both the ability to raise Pegasi ( Equus pegasus) and the hero Bellerophon, who rides Pegasus and has a special leaping attack allowed by his winged horse. - Balacera Brothers have hostile pegassi as airborne enemies, probably one of the very few examples of the pegasus being depicted in a negative light. - Fire Emblem has the recurring Pegasus Knight class. Pegasi are known to not like letting men ride them, making the class and its promotions female only. The only exception to this comes in Fire Emblem Fates, with the reason given being that the pegasi living in Hoshido are a different breed to others. - Digimon: Pegasusmon is an orange-furred, winged equine with a face-covering metal mask. - In Gems of War, one of the non-centaur troops from Divinion Fields (the centaur homeland) is the pegasus. Whether they're intelligent like the centaurs or are simply used by them (albeit not, presumably, as mounts) isn't stated. - God of War II gives Pegasus Hot Wings. - Hero of Sparta have you releasing the pegasus in one level in order to travel from Sparta to Egypt. The moment pegasus is released, you then hitch a ride on it to escape a Collapsing Lair. - Kingdom Hearts: - King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow: Nightmare , who is a black Pegasus owned by Death himself. She will be your bestest friend if you feed her a stink-bomb. Free trip to Hell! Woo! - Lords of Magic: Butterfly-winged pegasi are one of the Life faction's special units. - Master of Magic gives the High Men access to pegasi as a unique flying mounted unit. - Mega Man: - Minecraft: - While The Aether has no actual horses (flying or otherwise), there are flying cows and phygs (flying pigs), both of which have wings. - Mo' Creatures includes pegasi as one of the breedable horse types. They're obtained by giving an Essence of Light to a bat horse (itself a bat-winged example of this trope) above cloud level. Giving a pegasus an Essence of Darkness above cloud level will turn it into a fireproof dark pegasus. You can also make a zombie pegasus with an Essence of Undead, which will rot into a skeletal pegasus over time. It will still fly. - Phelios is an arcade shooter where your titular character, rather than piloting a spaceship, instead rides a winged horse and fire energy blasts at enemies like dragons, harpies, and other airborne fantasy monsters. - Quest for Glory V: There's only one Pegasus, which lives at the island's northern end. - Scribblenauts: Pegasus is one of the more useful summons, although it's somewhat skittish. - Six Ages: A priestess is trying to breed winged horses. If your own priestesses learn her secrets, you can gain a flying horse from a successfully completed ritual. - Tales of Phantasia: Halfway through, Cress rides a Sleipnir to tackle Dhaos' aerial forces, accompanied by Arche on her Flying Broomstick. - Total War: Warhammer: - Pegasi with feathered manes appear as flying steeds for Imperial and Bretonnian lords and heroes. Bretonnia also has access to units of pegasus-mounted flying knights, and pegasi appear as decorative flyers above Bretonnia instead of the birds found over most of the map. - In Total War: Warhammer II, the Dark Elves' lords can ride black-furred, bat-winged and horned dark pegasi, which also appear as environmental decorations wheeling and circling over the mountains of the Dark Elven starting areas. - Toy Commander: The Attic's commander, Peggy, is a wooden pegasus toy. - Nightbound: A premium scene with Nik in Chapter 13 has him say that not only do pegasi exist in the bayou, but he was hired to wrangle one. They have a much better disposition than unicorns do. - Codex Inversus: Pegasi are winged horses that fly thanks to a natural anti-gravity property in their bones. They descend from celestial horses that soared through Heaven before the Collapse. In the modern day, the Angelic Unison has spent a great deal of effort in maintaining careful breeding programs to prevent the pegasi's surviving bloodlines from being corrupted by the realities of earthly ecology like other heavenly animals were. - SCP Foundation: SCP-042 is a pegasus that somehow lost his wings, and, because of that, he is now suicidally depressed and tries to get Foundation personnel to put him out of his misery. - Thalia's Musings: Pegasus is featured as a gift from Athena to Thalia and the other Muses. "I created him to be used in battle, but I made him such a brilliant tactician that his riders can't get him to cooperate. He thinks he knows better, and he usually does. But he doesn't know anything about the arts or sciences. He'll get along great with you and your sisters." - Uni Creatures: Two of the creature families are pegasi. There is also a winged zebra. - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse: The eponymous foursome have been traveling through the forest for a while when the horse drops a surprise on the others out of nowhere: he can fly. Sure enough, he magically sprouts wings, then flies his companions to the village the boy has been searching for. - Corn & Peg: Of the two title characters, the latter is a Pegasus, with the former being a Unicorn. - The Mighty Hercules: Hercules has a pegasus that started out untamed until Herc tamed it and made it an ally. - My Little Pony: Pegasi have appeared throughout the history of the franchise as one of the "standard" variants of ponies alongside unicorns and unadorned earth ponies. - My Little Pony: The Movie (1986): The Flutter Ponies are an unusual example, as they have iridescent wings like those found on insects and not the feathered, birdlike wings of pegasi. - My Little Pony (G3) has both the regular Pegasus Ponies and the insectoid Breezies. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Pegasi are one of the main three races of ponies, along with unicorns and good old earth ponies. Aside from flight, pegasi possess a natural ability to control the weather and walk on clouds; they're consequently responsible for managing Equestria's day-to-day weather, and a large number of them live in the floating city of Cloudsdale, built entirely out of clouds. - Two of them, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, are part of the main cast. Rainbow Dash in particular is an incredibly talented flier, most notably being able to easily break what is depicted as the sound barrier, to the point of doing it as for Mundane Utility. Fluttershy, on the other hand, is (usually) a fairly poor flyer who happens to be deathly afraid of heights, though this is compensated by her great skill with animals (something more commonly found in earth ponies) and the powerful Stare. - Scootaloo is one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and an example of a flightless pegasus; her wings are seemingly underdeveloped, and she cannot manage more than a few seconds of hovering. However, she's also depicted as being able to use her wings to propel herself at very high speeds on her scooter. - The changelings are a rather creepy variation. They are vaguely equine, love-eating, shapeshifting monsters with fangs, bodies full of holes, and torn, insectoid wings. In other words, they are horseflies. - The breezies also reappear, although their insectoid wings, very small size and more stylized and slender bodies than their G3 incarnations had make them more like an equine take on fairies than anything else. - My Little Pony: Friends Forever: One comic includes a "pigasus", a green pig with feathered wings. - My Little Pony (Generation 5): The pegasi live in the mountaintop city of Zephyr Heights alongside a variety of animals resembling regular ones but with feathered wings, and are the only group with a significant military presence in the form of guards in Greco-Roman armor. They lost their ability to fly with the fading of magic from the world, with the exception of their royal family \|\|in theory; in practice, the royals also can't fly and use wires, staging and lighting to pretend in order to keep up morale\|\|. At the end of the movie, \|\|the return of magic restores their flight\|\|. - The Smurfs (1981) character Blue Eyes, who appears in a few episodes as Smurfette's friend, is a pegasus allegedly voiced by an uncredited Patty Maloney. - South Park: Pegasus appears as a character in the Imaginationland trilogy, among the fictional characters. - The famed Polish hussars, also known as Winged Hussars, wore wood-framed wings on their backs. They couldn't fly, of course, and several theories have been proposed for why the wings were used. Some geeky sport scientists think that the wing was used to slow the horses down and keep them from overexerting themselves on the first charge, so the Hussars could be used for repeated charges. Others believe that as the Hussars charged en masse, their wings collectively buzzed in the wind, so they came down on their enemies with a morale-shattering roar. - The northern constellation of Pegasus, which is also among the largest ones. Or rather half of Pegasus as only its fore section and wings appear in said constellation.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPegasiAreDifferent
Our Sirens Are Different - TV Tropes The Sirens and Ulysses (1837), William Etty And you sang, "Sail to me, sail to me, Let me enfold you, Here I am, here I am Waiting to hold you" Sirens are beings, usually female (male sirens did turn up in ancient artwork, but were very rare) and at least partly human, who use their enthralling voices to lure people to their doom. In appearance, they typically have one of three portrayals: some resemble regular human women in all physical aspects, some are mermaids with the lower bodies of fish, and some are part avian instead. This third type is further divided between two common appearances: feathered humanoids with wings as a third set of limbs, and giant birds with human heads. In Classical Mythology, they were strictly women-faced birds; fully humanoid portrayals date to Roman artwork, and the mermaid-like appearance first cropped up in the Middle Ages. Regardless of type, their human parts are typically extremely beautiful, ranging from being very attractive, to appearing very attractive to those who have been at sea for a long time, to using illusions to cover up a very unsavory reality. Their most iconic power is their enthralling voices. The precise nature of these voices can vary. In some cases, their singing is simply so beautiful that listeners want nothing other than to continue listening to it, potentially endangering themselves through this selective obliviousness. In other cases, it's actively hypnotic and forces listeners to follow or seek out the siren, and may be used for outright Mind Control. In addition, they may be able to actually change their form to something ideally perfect in the eyes of their victims or at least project a vision of the same, in which case they'll often have some form of Glamour or be Shapeshifting Seducers. In some versions, their powers only work on men. This detail is entirely Newer Than They Think (for example, Princess Ariadne is killed by sirens in some versions of the myth) and has no basis in the original myths. Sirens rarely have kindly motivations. The mythical Sirens fed on the bodies of shipwrecked sailors who crashed onto rocks while befuddled by their singing, and the modern successors typically follow suit. Sirens thus tend to be predators, literally or metaphorically, who use their singing to enthrall and control other beings. In a modernized Urban Fantasy setting, they may be depicted as Evil Divas. Sirens often overlap with two other types of female mythical beings. They are often equated with mermaids, who are typically depicted with the sirens' powers and behavior — indeed, many works and real-life languages make no distinction between the two. They also tend to overlap with harpies, Greek myth's other bird-women, and it's fairly common for harpies to be given siren characteristics such as the alluring voice (when they're not unpleasantly shrill instead). Supertrope to Sirens Are Mermaids. Usually overlaps with Siren Song. ## Examples: - Devilman: Sirene, Amon's paramour, resembles a young woman, but has talons for hands and feet, pure white wings on the sides of her head, and golden antennae rising from her forehead. - Sirenmon in Digimon Ghost Game resembles a harpy crossed with a fish and is famed for its melodious voice and sound-based attacks. However, when one ends up in the real world, it begins haunting karaoke booths and attempting to perform for people, unaware that its singing acts as a Brown Note to humans. - Gate: Myuute Luna Sires is a siren and a mage. She looks mostly human, but has feathers growing from her body. - Sirens in Restaurant to Another World are Winged Humanoids that possess harpy-like bird legs but otherwise human-like upper bodies and waists. In this case the Compelling Voice of the species is in place regardless of actual song quality, with representative sirens Arius and Iris being Dreadful Musicians that can still mesmerize nearby people despite the terrible sound. - John William Waterhouse: - * Ulysses and the Sirens* depicts them as bird-like creatures with the heads of women disturbing Ulysses and company. - The Siren depicts a beautiful woman (part sea-creature, indicated by her legs) holding a lyre as she watches a man drown beneath her. - Agents of Atlas: Venus is a rare heroic example of this trope, being retconned into being a siren instead of the actual Goddess of Love, and using her Charm Person powers for good. Even then, it's revealed that she used to be a soulless monster that lured sailors from their ships to devour them and racked up an large bodycount before being given a soul by a mystic and becoming the All-Loving Hero she is today. - The DCU: - Teen Titans: Siren is a mermaid with a hypnotic song and can turn her tail into legs. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman has faced off against sirens and those acting under their sway on multiple occasions. The first time is with Mona Menise in Sensation Comics, who is trouble on her own before she picks up a wooden bangle containing a vengeful siren that had been turned into a tree by Aphrodite in antiquity. - Wonder Woman (1942): Diana leads a coalition of female heroes to take down a group of android sirens created by Professor Ivo that are attacking the capitol. They only affect men, necessitating the quick gathering of a bunch of super-ladies. - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Sirens are a man-eating descendant of the Phorusrhacos, a prehistoric, flightless predatory bird, that use mimicry to fool drunken sailors into getting close enough to eat. They can imitate human voices like many other birds can, and they have markings on their beaks that look like human faces, plumage like flowing blonde hair and ornamentation on their chests resembling a woman's breasts. - The Bridge: When Mermares want to woo a stallion, they sometimes sing like this. The song isn't effective on stallions who are completely oblivious to love or celibate, and indeed sounds a bit silly. In this fic's continuity, the Sirens turn out to be Mermares born from Mermare mothers and an unknown father species. - Halloween Unspectacular: "Report", from the fourth installment, has a slightly different take on sirens. Rather than luring sailors to crash their ships, they're instead presented as creating illusions to lure people ashore and then killing them when they're on land. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Sirens are mermaids that sit on exposed rocks and use singing to lure players towards them, and then turn into monstrous forms to attack. Their tears can be used to make a flute that will briefly cause enemies to become friendly towards the player. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: One of the obstacles the Element Bearers face trying to get through the Everfree is a group of Sirens who live in a river and sing to lure food (such as ponies) in so they can eat. Or they would, if they weren't out of harmony with one another. Notably, the story predates the appearance of very similar sirens in canon by a good few years. - Sixes and Sevens: Anthea normally looks like a beautiful human woman, but can assume a half-bird form, that of a larger bird, or a small sparrow. She also has the hypnotic singing ability, and tells Michael Carter that he'll need to make sure he can barely hear it if he wants to avoid being taken out alongside the HYDRA forces they're facing. - Water Aerobics for the Aquaphobic: During a poorly-planned Hogwarts field trip to Jusenkyo that results in most of the students being cursed into various forms after falling in the enchanted springs, Theodore Nott ends up transformed into a Siren, portrayed as a magical creature resembling a beautiful, very naked woman with sharp teeth and fingernails and a taste for human flesh. When in Siren form, Theodore is less a seductress and more a vicious predator who tries to eat other students, with the seductive appearance being a way to lure humans close enough to strike. - Ice Age: Continental Drift: Sirens appear as giant prehistoric lungfish with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. They're also Masters of Illusion, appearing as the object of the beholder's desire... which backfires on them when Scrat goes up to one of them and promptly starts stomping its head into the ground, because he sees it as his acorn. At the end, \|\|they manage to take out the film's villain when he comes across them after his defeat in the final battle\|\|. - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks: The villains, the Dazzlings, were originally merhorse (hippocampi) versions of sirens in Equestria before being banished to the human world by Starswirl the Bearded. They managed to retain some of their magic in the human world, though, final battle aside, they are more-or-less human most of the time. More or less. Funnily enough, the sirens' one weakness in the film, a battle of the bands, actually does have basis in the original Greek myths. Orpheus managed to save Jason's crew by playing music better than theirs... - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: The sirens are water elementals. The crew only survives because a siren's song doesn't work on women and on animals. - The Twelve Tasks of Asterix: One of the titular Labors is simply crossing a particular lake. Halfway across the lake, the characters are lured to the Isle of Pleasure by the sirens' song, rowing so fast they smash their boat on the shore and dig themselves into the ground. Asterix and Obelix succumb to their charms, until Obelix discovers there's no wild boar on the island and leaves in indignation, dragging Asterix with him. - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: When the aquatic Talocanians sing in choir, any humans who hear it are enthralled to jump into the water and drown. - Mermaids: One of the sisters, Venus, is also a Siren. She's able to hypnotize men with her eyes rather than her voice; however, if they know she is a Siren, she has no power over them. - Siren (2010): Silka is a siren who lures men to their madness and doom upon the island. - O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Of the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane kind, the leads encounter three singing washerwomen. Conflating them with witches like Circe, it first appears they've turned a character into a toad, though this is later proven untrue. It turns out they're working for the local sheriff, who's a little Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane himself. - Blood Singer: Sirens are human-looking semi-immortal women with telepathic abilities that let them control heterosexual men and also have a strong affinity for the ocean and aquatic creatures. It is stated that when calling out to males, some sirens focus their summons through music, but most use telepathy. - The Divine Comedy: Dante has a dream about a siren just before he ascends to the top layers of Purgatory. She represents desire for things that are not ultimately satisfying. Like money, food, and sex, she presents herself as something beautiful, but the siren is covering her deathly stench. It is only when a saint and a wise poet reveal her true nature is Dante released from her spell. - Dream Girl: The mermaid Áine seduces rapists, abusers, and murderers by sneaking into their rooms at night and singing to them (basically hypnotizing them), then "accidentally" bumping into them on the street and causing them to fall in love with her and her "quirky" ways. Then she kills them and drinks their blood. - Dreamscape Voyager Trilogy: Sirens are a class of creature that include harpies and rivermaids. Their singing has a hypnotic effect, the strength of which is based on the victim's attraction to women. - InCryptid: In Singing the Comic-Con Blues, Antimony, Artie, Sarah, and Verity track down a siren who's been using her compulsive voice to make convention patrons drown themselves. - Magic University: Here, they can be male along with female, they're all bisexual and appear just like humans. They also have many more abilities than just alluring people, such as foretelling the future, projecting visions, mind reading and most plot-relevant, feeding on human sexual energy. - My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister: Sirens are physically identical to humans, save for their long hair which wraps around their arms to give the impression of wings. Although classified as marine, they are more associated with the sky due to their bird nature and can drown in water. - The Orphan's Tales: Catherynne M. Valente harkens to old school sirens with bird-women with beautiful voices — that is, they are birds from the waist up and human from the waist down. They live alone on their craggy island, and have no idea the effect their singing has on sailors — which is that the sailors hear the voices of the women that they love best, and almost always jump overboard to be with them. When the sirens learn what their songs have wrought, they vow to be silent forever. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians portrays sirens in a tweaked version of their Greek Mythology incarnation, as horrible giant condor-like creatures with long necks and the heads of women, faces dripping with the remains of their victims. Their song conjures visions of whatever the listener desires the most, compelling them to swim towards their islands and die on the sharp rocks surrounding it. - Siren: The title character is a monster who is mostly similar to the original Greek myth. Her true form is that of a monster with both avian and piscine traits, but her song projects a glamour that makes her look like a beautiful woman in addition to entrancing humans, and she prefers to seduce the human men she preys on before eating them. She also answers to the name of Ligeia, and implies that she is one of the original Greek sirens. - Septimus Heap: The Syren is an unseen monster who uses her call to lure and strand Nicko and the Cerys onto Syren island. - Watersong: The sirens can captivate men with their voices, luring them to be eaten. Their voices also work on women, though not as well; it merely clouds their minds rather than fully captivating them. - Xanth: In The Source of Magic, the Siren is the sister of the Gorgon and has a half-human body. While playing her dulcimer, she can sing an entrancing song that causes males to travel to her location. - Classical Mythology: - The Odyssey: Odysseus runs into an island home to the sirens, who are bird-women who lure sailors with their enchanting voices and music. His men stuff their ears with wax, but, true to form, Odysseus just has them tie him to the mast, because he wants to hear the songs and be able to say that he's the only man to have heard the song and lived. It's also noteworthy that in the original, their song tempts him with knowledge and fame rather than with sex. - In The Argonautica, the Argonauts also run into the Sirens. They survive thanks to Orpheus, who sings an even more beautiful song that drowns out their call. Some versions of this one say that the Sirens are so heartbroken at being defeated that they cry out in anguish and throw themselves off of their island. - According to some myths, the Sirens used to be friends with Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. After she was kidnapped by Hades to be his wife, the unfortunate handmaidens were transformed into bird women by Persephone's vengeful mother, Demeter, for failing to find her. - During an arc in FoxTrot where Peter's dreaming he's Odysseus, he encounters a siren (as portrayed by his sister Paige) who states that her singing drives men to crash their ships into rocks. As it turns out, this is less because of its hypnotic properties and more because the song she chooses is a medley of various Boy Band tunes — when Peter finds out, she doesn't even get to sing before he screams at his men to crash the ship so they can avoid listening to her. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Harpies are given the Sirens' trait of possessing an alluring voice that draws victims to their location. The 1st edition Monster Manual outright mentions that "those that dwell along seacoasts are generally known as sirens". - The sirine is a humanoid female with a voice that can charm all hostile creatures. - Magic: The Gathering: Sirens are an uncommon creature races, primarily Blue and occasionally Black, resembling winged and feathered humans with hypnotic voices and running the gamut from beautiful to hideous. - The Sirens of Theros, the first set and plane where they appeared, are fairly true to the Greek myth, outside of resembling feathered women with wings sprouting from their shoulders rather than woman-headed birds. They collect everything from jewels to bones and feed only on sapient species. Shipwrecked humans are their primary prey. - Ixalan has more avian sirens whose wings and arms are the same limbs, which also happen to be pirates. Notably, some are male, and there is a full inversion of Sirens Are Mermaids by showing one seducing a merfolk. - Pathfinder has both harpies and sirens, both of which are depicted as bird-women with beautiful singing voices that can hypnotize listeners. Harpies have a more humanoid appearance, but are vicious, cruel predators with a Usually Chaotic Evil Character Alignment and absolutely appalling hygiene. Sirens, meanwhile, are more monstrous (human-sized female raptorial birds with the heads of beautiful women), but also more benevolent (Usually Chaotic Neutral). The best illustration of the difference is how they treat their lovers since, as a One-Gender Race, they need to mate with humanoid men to procreate: harpies usually eat their lovers when they're finished, and this is so ingrained in their twisted "culture" that it's actually considered shameful to let a lover live, whilst sirens dote on their lovers (or those they want to claim as their lovers) to the point they are known to commit suicide, or straight-up die of heartbreak, if those lovers run away. - Shadowrun: Sirens, creatures of unknown origin and resembling small pterodactyls, possess hypnotic calls that evoke profound emotional trances and cause listeners to stand still in a daze or actively walk towards their sources. As sirens are aggressive predators, they are believed to use this ability to hunt. - Blue Planet: The stories say that if you hear eerie atonal music on an empty beach at night, that's the singer-in-the-dark waiting for you. Since nobody who encounters them rather than fleeing is ever seen again, that's all anyone knows, and all reports of singers-in-the-dark are at least secondhand. Everything about them sounds like folklore... except for the recently-discovered audio footage. - The Golden Apple represents the sirens as a group of singers in a waterfront dive who sing "Goona-Goona". In this tale, Ulysses doesn't think to plug his men's ears, and most of them end up shanghaied. - The Binding of Isaac: The Siren is a boss that can be encountered in the Mausoleum that can summon familiars to protect herself and even temporarily steal your familiars by singing. Aside from her mechanics, she's quite thematically different from a traditional siren. She's a black-skinned Horned Humanoid that doesn't have anything to do with water, making her appear more like a succubus. - Black & White 2: The Siren wonder is Exactly What It Says on the Tin — casting it upon an enemy civilization will summon an enthralling vision of the Siren, who uses her charms to turn everybody in her radius into your willing followers. - Cassette Beasts: Sirenade's second bio page says that the original sirens were bird-women, not mermaids. It's a humanoid, winged... thing that has an incredibly loud singing voice. - Darkest Dungeon features a Siren as one of the Cove's bosses. She resembles a horrid-looking mermaid and she has the ability to entrall one of your team members to fight at her side for a few turns. - Dragalia Lost has a humanoid dragon named Siren. Although she loves to sing like most depictions, she isnt malicious in the slightest, and just wants to share her voice with the world. There are rumors about her using her singing to lure sailors into sinking their ships, but Siren never means to harm anyone. - Dragon's Dogma: Sirens are a variant of Harpies found in Bitterblack Isles. Their song can heal nearby enemies. - Forbidden Siren: Referenced in the first game: no actual "Siren" creature is featured but there's a sound that lures the inhabitants of a town to their doom. The second game does feature an actual siren, which looks like a bizarre sort of mermaid when it's finally shown. - Gems of War: The Siren unit — here depicted as a winged purple humanoid — has Lure as its special ability, damaging a selected target. - Grandia: Played for laughs in the first game. During a voyage across the sea, Justin is suckered into making a stop at an island inhabited by identical-looking mermaids. The girls are actually a lure used by a giant angler fish to eat unwary seamen. - Final Fantasy: Siren sometimes appears, usually as a summon which causes a status ailment. - Final Fantasy V: Siren is a boss monster who nearly enthralls the party with images of their family members. Galuf's amnesia saves him, as he doesn't recognize the image shown to him. - Final Fantasy VI: Siren is a summon that randomly silences all enemies or does minor damage with an ability called Lunatic Voice. - Final Fantasy VIII: Siren is a summon who deals non-elemental damage and silences all enemies. - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings: Siren is the water summon. She can also cause the stop status ailment. - Final Fantasy XIV portrays sirens as Winged Humanoids who lure sailors to their deaths with their hypnotic music. Once dead, sirens raise their victims as undead servants. Sirens are also now an Endangered Species since the pirate lord Mistbeard led a purge against the dangerous creatures five years back. - Monster Hunter: Rise: The Somnacanth is an eerily beautiful leviathan with a prominent mermaid theme to its design: its humanlike face and long hair-like fins give it the image of a bestial mermaid, and along with singing haunting melodies, it can lull prey to sleep with an exhaled sedative it produces from a special organ before going in for the kill. - Path of Exile: The Act 1 final boss, Merveil, is a siren who causes shipwrecks and captures male sailors to produce monstrous "children" for her. Her first form is that of a beautiful sorceress, but hurt her enough and she reverts into a squid-like monster. Her den is also brimming with treasure from shipwrecks she caused, though ironically the player can't take any of it because the gold and jewels of her hoard are worthless in Wraeclast. - A Total War Saga: TROY: - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, the sirens are an all-female unit of scantily clad soldiers who "charm" enemies to approach them before opening fire. Combined with their high foot speed, this also allows them to do things like lure key units out of formation or into ambushes. - In Mythos mode, sirens are white-feathered women with bird wings and talons for hands and feet — unlike mythical sirens, but like the game's harpies, they have humanoid instead of wholly avian bodies. - Touhou: Mystia Lorelei isn't explicitly a siren but she's a bird-person who lures unsuspecting travelers to their deaths with a magic singing voice, so she's pretty obviously a siren. Although nowadays she's more likely to sell them food instead of eating them. Uniquely, her song also causes night blindness. Anyone who hears it has no choice but to follow the sound of Mystia's voice or else wander in complete darkness. Mystia tells the unfortunate one that the night blindness can be cured by the food she sells, but in reality she just lifts the curse while the 'customer' eats. Mystia scams people like this very frequently. - Warcraft III: Naga sirens are amphibious and four-armed snake women whose lines references singing but have no song-based abilities (instead they spawn parasites inside enemies, create icy armor, or cause tornadoes to lift enemies in the air. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has Sirens of the mermaid type with large wings as a monster commonly found around Skellige. This model type is shared with a stronger variation called an Ekhidna which actually bears a pretty close resemblance to its namesake. - The Sorceress War: Siren as Selphie's summon. Selphie summons her to fight the Elvoret in Dollet (the monster from whom she is Drawn in the game) and she seems to have powers more like a banshee as her voice deafens the monster long enough for Squall to kill it. - Free Spirit (2014): "Song of the Siren" alludes to these. When Winnie discovers that her singing can hypnotize mortals, Jessie reminds her about the Sirens of Classical Mythology, whose singing caused sailors to crash their boats against jagged rocks. Later, Winnie's singing unintentionally causes \|\|two instances of vehicles almost crashing, the second of which involves a boat and jagged rocks\|\|. - Val and Isaac: Sirens can only enthrall people attracted to women, so the asexual Isaac can safely sit by them harvesting their song, but he shouldn't call his lesbian sister while doing so. - Walking in the Dark: One story arc deals with a siren that's prowling near a lighthouse luring anyone unfortunate enough to hear its song toward the sea. - Wapsi Square: Atsali is a human-looking half-siren teenager (complete with wings), whose singing can cause uncontrollable desire in both males and females, and both human and supernatural creatures. A subversion, since she also believes that this is a terrible thing to do, akin to rape, and spends a good deal of time trying to fight against the assumptions that others at her school make about her, as a result of her lineage. The fact that she's a tall blonde beauty with large breasts doesn't help the matter. - Nix Of Nothing: The sirens of lakewood all have a Compelling Voice,look more elf than human and have sharp pointy teeth.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSirensAreLouder
Your Normal Is Our Taboo - TV Tropes Whoever you are, whatever you do, there will always be those who disapprove. Some people will start considering you too fat before others stop considering you too thin. There will always be someone who considers your sexuality (or lack thereof) to be plain wrong. And so on. In some settings, this is codified into entire cultures that disapprove of things that are mainstream for the intended audience (and vice versa). Sometimes dodged by the idea that Culture Justifies Anything. Sometimes Played for Laughs, other times as serious drama. Wagon Train to the Stars shows usually play it somewhere in between. Our Nudity Is Different is a subtrope. Often a side effect of Fetish-Fuel Future, used as a way of highlighting its Blue-and-Orange Morality or sometimes Bizarre Alien Reproduction. A form of Culture Clash. Can be a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance. Sometimes done by a Planet of Hats. For romantic examples, see True Love Is a Kink. If different cultures object to food and beverages of another culture, see Foreign Queasine. ## Examples: - Yaoi Genre Ai no Kusabi adapted from a sci-fi novel has the ruling class of Tanagura Elites that are genetically engineered Artificial Humans to fit their respective social classes. They also have to follow the strict Dystopian Edict of No Sex Allowed so any sexual contact with another being is taboo. This isn't so for the rest of the human population and the plot focuses on the relationship one particular Elite has with his Sex Slave. - In Chapter 20 of Beast Complex, which is the lesser-known sister series of Beastars and an anthology series set in the same universe, one of our protagonists for the evening note : Since even your average Beastars fan hasn't heard of this series, a brief summary of the formula is "two animals of radically different backgrounds learn they're not so different". is an Otter who was hired by a company on land because he's fluid in both Japanese and Seaspeak. However, he often brings in fish for lunch. While eating meat is seen as normal in the sea, it's heavily frowned upon on land to the point where Carnivores have to resort to eating black market meat supplied from hospitals and funeral homes or risk going mad with hunger and actually killing someone. His co-workers compare his favorite snack of dried sardines to an entire industry where babies are slaughtered en masse and sold for the public consumption but they're too scared of him to say anything. - The Zentradi of Macross, when they first encounter humankind in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, are initially confused and perturbed by the apparent fact that humans spend all of their time micloned (initially assuming that, like themselves, the default form of humans is gigantic and becoming smaller is an inconvenience) and live in mixed-gender communities (Zentradi of different genders are not so much as permitted to communicate without permission from a superior, and otherwise typically live on entirely different ships). This is long before they start encountering things they have no context for understanding or recognizing at all, such as music, love, or the concept of civilians. - Because their massive size makes finding a suitable body of water difficult, most dragons in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid consider it perfectly acceptable to lick each other clean. When Tohru admits that she's done it with Kanna before, Kobayashi points that it's really lewd by human standards. - Used in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, as \|\|the Synchro dimension\|\| considers slavery, poverty, and extreme prejudice normal and natural. The protagonist discovers this the hard way when he gets publicly mocked by a giant crowd for being understandably horrified. - Yuuutsu-kun to Succubus-san: Sakuma the Succubus has a very skewed idea of what is considered good and proper where sex is concerned. To her, displays of pure love are the height of perversion while watching porn is considered a wholesome family activity. When visiting a shrine with Yuu during New Years, she is absolutely shocked to see a young couple walk past them holding hands. Sakuma: There must be something wrong with their brain if they can simply walk outside while holding hands like that! (to herself) That's what two people holding hands look like... wow... it's the first time I've seen it... (out loud) In the Demon World, that kind of stuff would be rated R... they'd probably censor the hands with mosaics even... it's totally against the Demon Ethics Association... - Midnighter from The Authority is regarded in a friendly but odd manner by time-traveling allies from the future. Not because he is gay and they are straight, but because he is gay and they are all bisexual. - Similar to the TV examples below, one Star Trek: The Next Generation miniseries features a planet where there are three sexes, and it is therefore seen as perverse (by the more conservative elements at least) to have only one sexual partner. - Parodied in Kieron Gillen's Iron Man run. Tony Stark saves a planet from an alien invasion and gets invited back to bed by one of the planet's many princesses. However, once he removes his mask, she almost vomits in disgust at the abominably disgusting growth on his face: His beard. When she hears that he grew it intentionally, he ends up getting kicked out of the palace, with him sheepishly offering to shave. - Ratchet of the Red Lanterns was from a planet that practiced a religion that made it taboo for people to meet each other in person outside of special environmental suits. He was isolated and tortured for violating this taboo, and his anger attracted his Red Lantern Ring. - This Modern World: In one strip by Tom Tomorrow, centuries in the future, there are people known as "breeders". We see them chanting "We're straight / We mate / Get used to it." A mainstream man says "Perverts," shuddering. The former is a real term used this way in "childfree" communities and by some gay people for straight folk. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: This shows up here and there, in regards to both the real world and the original show, mostly as side effects of Corona's betrayal. - Gold is taboo. To mint coins from the stuff is borderline blasphemy (and possibly treason), nopony buys gold jewelry, and even to mention it in a complementary manner raises eyebrows. - Similarly, there is a kind of phobia of the Sun. Nopony will willingly be out of doors at high noon (and if you need shelter from the noonday sun, even a complete stranger will let you in), and having a sun-themed cutie mark is considered a sign of incredibly bad luck. - As you might expect, for ponies to eat meat is considered distinctly icky in most contexts, though the fact that there's a pretty well-known distinction between sapient and non-sapient species cuts down on the Carnivore Confusion. - Foundling: The youkai do find humans in some regards weird, as was shown by Ran and Suika's conversation about cows and, apparently, as we find out, youkai don't keep cows as their preferred food animals, however, they do keep chickens and or pigs, along with the fact that they don't understand why humans would keep cows. Earlier, apparently, youkai in this fic keep pets (or their equivalent) but they find the thought of keeping a human as a pet to be weird. - The Mission Stays the Same: This is one of the biggest sources of conflict. Captain Gallardi is from the Imperium of Man, and his Absolute Xenophobe outlook clashes heavily with the more optimistic and accepting Mass Effect universe — the idea of peaceful coexistence between humans and aliens is a difficult pill for him to swallow, let alone formal alliances and Interspecies Romances. He does his best to function in the environment, but begins having a crisis of faith as he starts adjusting to the norms of the new universe. - In one Tin Man fanfic, painting one's nails (particularly the toenails) is something only "disreputable" ladies do in Oz. DG is a little confused at the stares Cain gives her when she goes around barefoot — painted nails are not a big deal in Kansas, after all. - The Palaververse: The Corvids (giant sapient crows, ravens, magpies, and similar corvid birds) eat their dead, something they see as very honorable and respectful treatment of the deceased and as good use of resources (their homeland has persistent food shortage issues). The other (mostly herbivorous) species dont exactly share this view. - In a flashback in Natural Selection, Satsuki is shown to be fascinated at the concept of a justified parental argument between Ira and his mother, on the grounds that, should she have ever raised her voice to Ragyo, she would have earned the back of her hand at best and had it forced between her thighs at worst, such is Ragyo's disdain for being talked back to. The only circumstance in which she can imagine being able to truly shout Ragyo down is one where her mother is already defeated as a last act of gloating. - In What Tomorrow Brings, Mertil is shocked when Loren nonchalantly reveals that she knew Alloran before he was infested, as Alloran's name has become a curse for the Andalite fleet. - Violence and killing in An Outcast in Another World is somewhat normalized in Elatra, at least compared to Earth. Due to the RPG Mechanics the world is governed by, power is gained through killing, and that's trickled down to society at large. It takes Rob a while to come to grips with this. - In the alternate England in the Slave World novels, it's considered perverted and socially unacceptable to have sex as equals. Sex is supposed to be between an aristocrat and a slave who has legally been deprived of basic human rights. And the sex slave has to be tied up or similar; to have sex with an unrestrained person is also considered perverse. - In The Forever War, at one point homosexuality is required and heterosexuals are seen as freaks. At this point in the future Earth is suffering from an overpopulation problem, so uncontrolled birth is the real prejudice. This flip-flops back and forth as Time Dilation lets the main character experience many different portions of Earth's future culture. - The Brightest Shadow: Regularly occurs between different cultures, such as normal Rhen sexual relationships being considered appropriate by Corans. - Brave New World has something like this. While conventional sex is not outlawed, orgies are the norm and sleeping with the same partner multiple times is considered peculiar. - The dirtiest word, however, is "mother". "Father" is not exactly a regular term of endearment, either. - In The Player of Games, the hero, who is from a Free-Love Future, is perceived as odd because he's fairly monogamous, is strictly heterosexual, and has no interest in having a sex change. It should be noted that in The Culture novels, sex changes bear very little relationship to contemporary gender reassignment surgery. It isn't even really surgery, since you start it yourself and it's a from-the-ground-up-genes-and-all conversion into an opposite gender (in every sense) version of yourself. - In one Isaac Asimov story, it was considered odd to have more than one child with the same partner. Having kids with several different partners was normal. - In The Naked Sun, Gladia is psychotic by Solarian standards because she thinks sex should be enjoyable, rather than a painful duty (and even she had trouble taking it beyond theory). - The Solarians have a wider taboo forbidding physical presence of another human in the same room for all but the most utterly necessary occasions. They feel disgusted by breathing the air which just went through someone else's lungs. Compare it to our disgust at drinking water from a brook someone has just urinated into in our presence. - The Wheel of Time has several examples, but one of the most noted is the difference between Aiel and "Wetlanders". To Aiel, nakedness is not taboo, they use co-ed sweat tents as a fill-in for showers in their desert homeland—Wetlanders find this scandalous. And this trope occurs for both sides—to Aiel displaying affection in public is taboo. Kissing your spouse with others watching would apparently be viewed similar to how a Wetlander might view having sex with them in public. - In Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, the last human society's favorite pastime is highly refined eroticism of various stripes. However, food consumption is so surrounded by rituals and taboos you may be able to get away with drinking water in public provided the people around you are very liberal and you use a straw to distance yourself from the beverage. - In the Robert A. Heinlein novel, Space Cadet the Venusians consider it obscene to eat in public. - The Kingkiller Chronicle: In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe learns about the Adem culture, who has no sexual taboo or inhibitions. They screw so frequently that they've never figured out that sex causes pregnancy. On the other hand, they find any public display of emotion or even facial expression to be unseemly, to the point that they use Hand Signals rather than voice or facial cues to add subtext to their words. For related reasons, music is considered something done only with loved ones behind closed doors, which leaves The Bard Kvothe frustrated that they see his profession as akin to prostitution. - Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish universe: - The people of the planet O would never marry just one other person. Their marriage arrangement, called a sedoretu, involves four people, two women and two men, and both heterosexual and homosexual relations are expected. What's more, if you're a member of a sedoretu, there is always one other member whom you may not have sex with. That's because everyone on the planet belongs to one of two moieties, with moiety membership inherited from one's mother, and there is a strict taboo against having sex with anyone in the same moiety as you. A sedoretu contains two people from each moiety, so you have two spouses you can have sex with (one male, one female) but having sex with your third spouse is considered just wrong. No-one in any of the O stories is even tempted to do it. "Mountain Ways," one of the O stories, makes it clear that everyone is supposed to be bisexual. It's considered odd and shameful for someone to only like one gender. - In The Left Hand of Darkness, the entire story takes place on Gethen, an isolated planet. The near-humans there naturally shift from male to intersex to female to back in seemingly-monthly cycles. A small proportion of the population does not shift and are called "perverts". A human from Earth travels there, trying to establish a diplomatic connection with the rest of humanity; his mission is complicated because they all consider him a "pervert". One character, in an attempt to seduce another, used hormones to shift his/her cycle timing and ensure his/her gender is the opposite of the target's. The target's reaction shows they think the attempted seducer is also a pervert, though the word is not used there. - In The Number of the Beast, there's an alternate world where Christianity exists, but interpreted the role of nudity from Genesis rather differently: because Adam and Eve didn't start hiding their bodies until after they lost their innocence, it's standard practice to strip naked for Church services, symbolically reclaiming that innocent purity. - For the record, this is Truth in Television for a very small minority of Christians. - Until the High Middle Ages, it was considered obligatory for new converts to Christianity to strip naked for baptism, as a symbol of them being freed of their Original Sin. - In the Sword of Truth series, the Mud People have very different ideas from most others about what constitutes, say, an appropriate compliment—where most might consider it rude, to a Mud Person, telling a woman she has nice breasts just means they think she will make a good mother (whereas asking a Mud Person woman to clean the mud out of her hair is basically propositioning her). When one character is asked to help translate this for a Mud Person smitten with someone from another land, the translator instructs him that he should instead compliment things that aren't covered by clothes. - In the Spaceforce series, the culture of the Taysan Empire is very keen on chastity and in particular, has strict rules about who can marry whom and how. Marriage is only legal between people of the same 'degree' (social class, effectively), and only after a lengthy, highly ritualized courtship. Liaisons outside these boundaries are a criminal offence and punishable by causing the offender to be 'outcaste', which usually results in death. And asexuality of all things is considered a disgusting perversion. - In The Woman Who Dies A Lot, the main character needs to find a perfectly good person \|\|to save a bunch of criminals from smiting\|\| and she asks why her brother can't be that person. The answer is given that in hundreds of alternate universes, being gay is a sin. - In the prehistoric novel Behind The Footprints Of The Red Man, the worst insult you can make to the smiling Cro-Magnons is showing them your bare feet note : they take it as "I'm gonna stomp these on your face!", and the worst insult you can make to the barefoot Neanderthals is showing them your teeth note : they take it as "I'm gonna eat you!". Hilarity Ensues when they meet each other. - In the Discworld series, deep dwarf culture has a whole bunch of taboos (their sages, the grags, often find the mere idea of seeing sunlight repulsive) but even modern dwarfs are opposed to dwarf women expressing their femininity. Not just dressing for it, but unnecessarily admitting to having a gender identity differing from the default "probably male" (dwarf courtship consists mainly of very tactfully discerning if the object of your affection is of a compatible gender). Lately the dwarfs have undergone a sexual revolution of sorts, matching their chainmail with leather skirts, putting high heels on their iron boots, braiding their beards, and even making attempts at makeup. - The more traditional Dwarfs also consider writing of all kinds to be sacred (they believe their creator wrote the universe into existence), and the destruction of words to be a crime. When Vimes reveals that he was "blackboard monitor" at school and responsible for erasing the lesson at the end of class, he is met with some shock. Though the Low King of the dwarfs actually winds up using "Blackboard Monitor Vimes" as a respectful title, claiming that the duty must have been a great responsibility. - Trolls punch and throw rocks at each other as a friendly greeting (or, if it's a pretty rock, a romantic overture), and don't always remember there are good reasons not to do this to the squishy races. In Monstrous Regiment a bit of flirting between Troll soldiers serving with different sides during peace negotiations almost reignited the war. On the other hand, holding a hand out to a troll as in a human handshake is sign language for Your Mom. - For goblins, who often have long names such as Tears of the Mushroom or Of The Twilight The Darkness, a shortened name is considered a grave insult; Moist von Lipwig once called Of the Twilight The Darkness "Mr Twilight" and the goblin made it clear that he would allow that name to be used just the once because the two of them were alone and he recognises that Moist didn't know that would be offensive to him. The only exception to this rule is Stinky, the first goblin watchman, who accepts the nickname from his superior, Constable Feeny Upshot of the Shires, as they each recognised that Upshot needed to be able to call Stinky something that he could use quickly in the event of him either calling for help or to warn his colleague of danger. - In The Black Magician Trilogy, homosexuality is Deconstructed this way. One of the characters travels to a number of different countries in the first book and is treated to a variety of very open opinions on the topic: in one nation, everyone is pretty okay with it; in another nation, people mostly try to pretend it doesn't happen; in another nation, there's severe social stigma and potential legal ramifications attached to it; in another country, they execute anyone caught in any homosexual behavior. \|\|This is all pretty patent Foreshadowing that this character is himself gay.\|\| - The Humanoid Alien Hwarhath, as presented in "Holmes Sherlock: A Hwarhath Mystery", have a society that's strictly divided along gender lines, although neither men nor women seem to be seen as "superior" as such. Men and women do different jobs, don't normally socialize, and don't form romantic partnerships. The only acceptable heterosexual sex is a short-term formal arrangement intended for reproduction. In respectable society, all long-term romantic partnerships are between individuals of the same gender. - The Stormlight Archive: - Vorinism (the main religion of a number of cultures on Roshar, including the Alethi) is full of this. Its extremely rigid gender roles mean that men aren't allowed to be literate and women are forbidden from fighting. Jobs and even food are gender-segregated, while its taboo against telling the future forbids even guessing what's going to happen, meaning that gambling is limited to games based on hidden information, and people are deeply suspicious of weather forecasters (who also happen to be predominantly male, which, since women are expected to be the scholarly sex, makes it even worse). - Vorin culture holds that women have a "freehand" (right) and a "safehand" (left), and exposing the safehand is compared to going topless. Women of high birth basically aren't supposed to use it at all and keep it hidden in a sleeve, while common women wear a glove over it. Several non-Vorin lampshade the absurdity of the taboo. - When the staid, genteel Highlord Dalinar is reminded of the time he tasted his sister-in-law's food — and liked it! — he's as embarrassed as if he'd been caught trying on her underwear. - Also, like some real-world cultures, they consider in-laws to be blood relatives. When Dalinar's Brother's widow starts expressing interest in him, he acts as though they are actually related. - Shin culture has a strong taboo against walking on stone, which, as Shinovar is the only region on the planet with soil, is rather awkward for Shin traveling outside their homeland. In addition, simply picking up a weapon in Shinovar is grounds for being put into slavery. - Played somewhat for laughs in one issue of Perry Rhodan featuring aliens who refused to communicate with the humans who had settled on their planet because they considered standing upright a form of indecent exposure (clothing notwithstanding). They also somewhat more understandably had an issue with the human habit of baring one's teeth in obvious displays of aggression, a.k.a. smiling... - In the country of Adara in Gail Dayton's One Rose Trilogy, people marry into groups called "Ilians", which consist of no fewer than four (and no more than twelve) partners of any combination of sexes. The main character just can't figure out why a member of her Ilian from another country is so insecure and jealous until he explains the concept of monogamy. Earlier in the series, the protagonist herself had considered marrying another character, then rejected the idea because they had no one else to join them, and what kind of half-formed Ilian would that be? - In Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress there are a bunch of different varieties of marriage, but pretty much all of them involve multiple people due to the skewed gender ratio and general living conditions on the Moon. One of the main characters is arrested for polygamy while visiting Earth, but it's revealed that the polygamy might actually have been overlooked by the judge who issued the warrant if it hadn't been for the racial diversity shown in a picture of his family. However, it's also noted that not all of Earth is so judgmental, and this was actually a deliberate ploy to gain sympathy from the less prejudiced Earthlings. - Luna culture is also almost reversed from that of Earth in terms of sexism, again due to the gender ratio. Property within a marriage is almost always held in the women's name(s), and a man can't get divorced unless all of his wives agree. Outside of marriage, any aggression or abuse towards a woman is grounds for being thrown out of the nearest airlock, even for minor infractions that would be considered hardly worth a mention on Earth today, let alone when the book was written. - In the Dreamblood Duology, the use of magic is completely banned in Kisua, while it is part of the fabric of Gujaareen life. - In the Imperial Radch series, Radchaai always wear gloves in public and are moderately scandalized by people who go around bare-handed. At one point, Breq offers to buy a pair for a self-conscious acquaintance but is quickly told that it would be seen as inappropriately intimate to do so. - The narrator of Consider Her Ways time travels into the future, about a hundred and fifty years after a plague wiped out all men. She's nearly arrested for talking about sexual dimorphism. - This is a large part of the Thousand Cultures series, as every conceivable ethnic, religious, ideological and utopian concept culture get their own space colony, and then humanity figures out instantaneous interstellar transport via the springer, forcing all these disparate cultures to have to deal with each other after centuries of isolation. At one point, we see a group scorned as "starvers" because they practice agriculture as part of their traditions, despite food replicators existing, and sometimes due to poverty or a bad harvest, people do go hungry. - In Star Carrier, monogamy is no longer mainstream, at least in the USNA. It's still practiced on the Periphery (the flooded remains of coastal American cities), as two is seen as the optimal number for survival in such an environment. However, in the arcologies, it's standard to join a "sex circle" instead. Expecting your current sexual partner to be exclusive is also frowned upon. When Trevor Grey (who grew up on the Periphery) is forced to enlist in the Space Navy, the others alternative refer to him as Prim (short for "primitive", since he mistrusts nanotech) and Monogie (since he prefers monogamy) in a derogatory manner. He does, eventually, learn that having multiple partners isn't necessarily a bad thing, but, after 20-year Time Skip, he still hasn't quite gotten used to it and prefers to be a serial monogamist instead. - In Line of Delirium, one of the hundreds of planets in the Human Empire is Maretta. The Marettans are known for a cultural quirk, where they consider eating to be a repulsive and shameful (but, of course, necessary) act akin to defecation. As such, one never eats in front of others. A son typically serves his father the food and makes sure to stand behind him in order to avoid seeing the repulsive act. Only after the father is done, the son is allowed to clean up and eat any remains. Within the walls of his palace, The Emperor can pick and choose which laws he likes from among the planets in his empire. And those preferences can change at any moment. Currently, the Emperor is into prepubescent girls, using the mores of the planet Culthos as a justification. - Spinning Silver: The Staryk Fair Folk closely guard the secret of their names, whereas humans, who can't be magically bound by their names, are unaware of the practice. The Staryk King is honestly shocked when Miryem's grandfather introduces himself while inviting him inside. - This is discussed in The Chrysalids when David, who has begun to doubt his society's biblical-fueled all mutants are abominations sent by Satan beliefs after befriending the six-toed Sophie, confides in his Uncle Axel. Axel explains how "normal" tends to be different around the world and, having been a sailor, has seen all kinds of different "normals" such as one society that only let women who had more than two breasts be mothers. - In Hoshi and the Red City Circuit, visible technology is regarded as shocking because people associate it with Operators, who need a Brain/Computer Interface that's visible outside their bodies to function. When Hoshi finds a drawer full of gears and motors, she compares it to someone in the twentieth century finding a drawer full of dildos and pictures of sodomy. - In There Was No Secret Evil Fighting Organization, it's a cultural norm that elves always have some sort of branch woven through their hair. Going "branchless" is akin to nudity even when the elf is fully clothed, and elven women dream of wearing a branch from the oldest tree in the world (something only the elf queen is allowed to do) much as human women dream of wearing fancy gowns. - Star Trek: The Next Generation: - An early episode, "Coming of Age", finds Wesley testing for admittance to Starfleet Academy. He encounters a "pop quiz" where he encounters a Zaldan. But he knows enough to answer the Zaldan's accusations with hostility, which actually calms him down. This is because Zaldans believe in laying one's emotions bare; they view courtesy as a facade and consider it insulting. - The Tellarites are the same way. They are often abrasive and insulting. Courtesy is viewed as dishonest and an attempt to conceal something. But if you start insulting them back, they will immediately like you and even offer you a drink. - In "The Outcast", Riker falls in love with an alien from a species of androgynous hermaphrodites. This turns out to be taboo, not because he's human, but because he's male and she self-identifies as female. The whole thing is a rather Anvilicious allegory for homosexuality; several writers and cast members felt it would have been braver to have the "androgynous" alien played by a man rather than a woman, but Executive Meddling won out. - The very first encounter with the Ferengi in TNG reveals that they find females wearing clothes repulsive (or hell, doing anything that would make them anything much more than property). By the time it gets to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, while a good number of them do harbor these attitudes, most of the ones that handle matters off-Ferenginar have enough business savvy to keep it to themselves (not many Alpha Quadrant species/powers that we've seen share or tolerate this attitude to such a degree, especially the ones with more villainous tendencies...). It seems some of them secretly don't really mind some aspects of this so much, though, and later in DS9 more progressive minds among the Ferengi begin to give it a serious questioning. - Part of their repulsion to clothed women is yet another case of this trope. Until very late in the overall timeline of the series (somewhere between DS9 and Voyager), Ferengi women were considered property, and clothing them made it look like you were hiding something. Women weren't allowed to run a business, own property, or even make purchases on their male relatives' behalf. For the most part, they weren't supposed to leave the house. - Gets a hilarious gag in the DS9 episode "Family Business" when Quark and Rom return home to deal with their mother, who is quite the feminist. They find her in her house, clothed, and react as one would expect any human coming home to find their elderly mother naked. - In Ferengi culture, marriage isn't tied to procreation. A child is conceived with a contract and the womb is seen as a rental by the father. - Ferengi also can be baffled by the fact that most other societies aren't impressed by financial conquests, which they liken to military conquests. Most of the rest of the galaxy has a Post-Scarcity Economy, but the concept of scarcity is a deeply sacred part of Ferengi culture. Also, while most cultures do have some concept of money, most really do not care much about it. (Case in point, Klingons still have currency trade for goods and services, but they view using economics to ruin a rival to be underhanded and dishonorable. The accusation of such results in one offender being outcast from Klingon culture in "The House of Quark". Using economics to buy military might to ruin a rival is much more preferable.) - One of the reasons that the Star Trek: The Original Series Klingon/Romulan alliance fell apart was because, while both were warrior-based cultures, the Klingons viewed the Romulans as arrogant and chronic violators of Evil Has Standards, whereas Romulans felt that Klingons had Honor Before Reason to a fault and were backwards. The Human/Klingon Alliance formed out of the Klingon-Romulan conflict when the Klingons realized that humans may not have the same rules as they did, but they at least had rules, which was better than Romulans. - In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Trill marriages are "until death do us part" — only this is in a society where Joined Trill carry memories from the lives of multiple people by way of a symbiont (and it's the host's death, not the symbiont's, that ends the marriage). And it's not just that the previous host's marriage isn't binding on the new host (which would make sense); Joined Trill are expressly prohibited from resuming a past host's relationship note : this seems to apply only when both individuals are Trill, or possibly even when they're Joined Trill; other humanoid species are an apparent exception. Jadzia falls prey to this in "Rejoined", falling head over heels in love with another Joined Trill whose past host was married to her past host. Nobody even notices that they are of the same gender, suggesting that homosexuality is no longer taboo in the future — the ethical/cultural problem is all about them having been husband and wife in a previous life. Word of God explained the reasoning for this: if pairs where both partners were joined Trill could continue relationships across multiple host iterations, it would develop into an entrenched aristocratic class of symbiont families. - Star Trek: Discovery confirms the "no longer taboo" part, as it has a stable homosexual couple as major characters (both played by openly gay actors). \|\|And while one of them is killed halfway through the first season, this isn't shown as any less tragic than if a heterosexual character was killed, and his partner's grief is palpable.\|\| - In yet another Star Trek example, this time Star Trek: Enterprise, the B-plot of "Vox Sola" has delegates of a newly encountered alien race being offended after being given a tour of Enterprise, storming off after ten minutes. It ultimately turns out that what offended them was being shown the mess hall, as the thought of communal eating is repulsive to them. Eating and personal displays of affection should be conducted in private at all times, hence their declaration of "you eat like you mate!" - Averted in that race's second appearance in "A Night in Sickbay", however, because anyone with two functioning brain cells to bang together should have figured out that bringing a dog to a stand of sacred trees was not a good idea no matter what culture they come from. - An ongoing plot detail is that Dr. Phlox's race, the Denobulans, practice polygamy: he has three wives, each of whom also have two other husbands, and so on. They also have looser standards of "marital fidelity" than humans. When he notices that one of his wives is sexually attracted to Trip, he is openly encouraging about it, much to Trip's discomfort. That being said, Denobulans have fairly mature attitudes about sex, so he's not overtly promiscuous either. - In a similar case, the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Macrocosm" has Janeway accidentally pay a grave insult to a member of a race that relies on body language for a good chunk of their communication. How? By putting her hands on her hips, which is their equivalent of the finger. - Farscape: - Zhaan's people have no nudity taboo, and she finds it amusing that other cultures do. - The Peacekeepers are big fans of letting soldiers "recreate" to relieve tension and produce more soldiers, but forming emotional attachments to partners is strictly against the rules, as is interacting with your child, even once. - Babylon 5: - In the season two episode "Acts of Sacrifice", the race known as the Lumati treat sex as casually as they do handshakes (as noted by Dr. Stephen Franklin). - In the episode "Soul Mates", Minbari Ambassador Delenn reacts with some confusion at the concept of human bathing note : they do clean themselves, using a chemical that removes the upper layer of the epidermis (and frazzling Delenn's new hair); it's the immersion in water that is alien to them (in her words, Minbari do not perspire as humans do, albeit she couldn't finish the elaboration because it made Susan Ivanova uncomfortable). Similarly, after Ivanova washes and fixes Delenn's hair and puts clips on it, Delenn's aide Lennier reacts with restrained horror at the sight of Delenn in hair clips. He asks her if it's painful, and is told that it is "oddly relaxing". - Well, Minbari don't have head hair. At most, they have facial hair. As such, Lennier wouldn't know what it feels like to even have hair. Delenn has deliberately turned herself into a Half-Human Hybrid (it helps that \|\|one of her ancestors was one\|\|). - Dolls and action figures are expected to be anatomically correct in Centauri culture. Thus, in the episode "There All the Honor Lies", when the station opens a gift shop (selling such products as miniature dolls of the station's public figures), Ambassador Londo Mollari is outraged that the doll with his likeness doesn't have certain "attributes" i.e., genitalia (which, for Centauri males, are in the form of six prehensile tentacles protruding from the abdomen). From his perspective, the doll implied that he was a eunuch. Ivanova: So you feel as though you're being symbolically cast... in a bad light? - In season 3 of the show, Delenn reacts in horror when John Sheridan resorts to "thinking like the enemy" in order to guess the stratagem behind the Shadow rampage. - In the show, the seemingly harmless question of "What do you want?" is apparently taboo among the Vorlons (Kosh, at one point, berates Sheridan for asking him this). Similarly, the Shadows avoid answering the question "Who are you?" note : The taboos are because you're essentially asking the other side's formative question. Asking, "Who are you?" implies you're aligned with the Vorlons while "What do you want?" means you're on the Shadows' side. It's also an early clue that neither side actually remembers their own answers to either question, being consumed entirely by their conflict. - For the Narn, all books must be copied exactly from the original manuscript right down to every blemish on the page. Thus, it is considered blasphemy to create an English-language copy of the bible-esque Book of G'Quan — as G'Kar tells Garibaldi when he gives him the book to read, it must be read in the mother tongue or not at all (when Garibaldi protests that he can't read Narn, G'Kar responds, "Learn!"). Later, when G'Kar's writings unexpectedly become regarded as a new holy book by the Narns, every copy of the book includes a strange ring mark on one of the pages — which is actually a coffee stain accidentally left by Garibaldi on the original page (naturally, Garibaldi thinks that it adds character to the book). - Centauri Regent Milo Virini claims that his only vice is "strict sobriety." This is, however, explained. Centauri lives are defined by Duty. So much so that the Centauri made self-care a Duty, so it wouldn't be drowned out by the other duties that govern Centauri existence. Centauri culture is also quite big on recreational drugs. By exercising sobriety, Milo Virini is neglecting his duty to himself by refusing the pursuit of pleasure, and this is considered just as vile as if he had ignored another duty. - In "Believers", we are presented with the 'Children of Time', who do not believe in surgery since any incision of the skin will release the soul. A child whose life Dr. Franklin saves is treated as an abomination by his parents, \|\|who ritually kill the child to reunite him with his soul\|\|. The episode is focused on Sinclair's warnings to Franklin about infringing upon the parents' religious beliefs, followed by the parents petitioning the other alien ambassadors to intervene, highlighting the cultural differences among the various races — the Minbari overspiritualize the issue and never give a firm answer; the Narns hide behind bureaucracy; the Centauri are willing to intervene (but at a steep up-front price); and the Vorlons refuse to get involved for reasons known (at the time) only to them. These themes are revisited repeatedly in the series. - In Sliders, practically every world the main characters land on either considers something normal from 'our' world taboo, or something taboo on 'our' world being normal there. Examples consist of a world where all technology and science is banned, a world where "fair trial" means "fastest draw", a world where the "Hippy" lifestyle never died out and so is freely accepted by practically all age-groups, where fortune-telling is a politically-charged position, and where dinosaur-poaching is outlawed. And that's not even half of what they show before Season 3. - On Defiance, Castithans consider bathing a social and sensuous occasion for the whole family. Learning that his human daughter-in-law-to-be Christie bathes alone, an appalled Datak exclaims "What kind of person does that?" - Not to mention what they consider acceptable punishment for people who break social customs... - The Omec in Season 3 unabashedly practice Parental Incest (one father is embarrassed about getting caught cheating on his daughter), along with hunting and eating sentient beings, slavery, and breeding life forms to use their body parts for medical purposes. They're practically this trope incarnate. - In the season 8 episode "Ritual" of Law & Order, this trope is invoked when the protagonists attempt to talk an Egyptian woman out of making her daughter undergo a clitoridectomy; it is a religious act akin to male circumcision in her homeland, but regarded as a misogynistic act of surgical mutilation in America. Subverting Culture Justifies Anything, when she refuses to adhere to the American viewpoint, she is legally separated from her daughter and prohibited from ever speaking with her again. - Brave New World: In New London, things which "savages" (or people now) take for granted, like having families, monogamous relationships, or privacy are "selfish" and unacceptable. - In Feng Shui's 2056 juncture, people of different races getting together is the norm, as are homosexual relationships. Same-race relationships, on the other hand, are considered "racist" and are rather frowned upon. - In CthulhuTech, the Nazzadi have no nudity taboo, and the artists for the books will demonstrate their lack of modesty. - Dungeons & Dragons: - In the Nentir Vale setting, the Quom pride themselves on having perfectly symmetrical bodies. If they gain a scar in combat they will scar themselves on the other side to match it. Any Quom with an affliction such as a disease that renders him or her asymmetrical goes into hiding until healed. - The Wu Jen character class features this trope as a class feature. They must abide by various taboos to maintain their magic power. A lot of these can sound bizarre to others but are taken seriously by the Wu Jen. Examples of taboos can be no consumption of meat or any animal products, not wearing certain colors, not bathing at all (or bathing way too much) and so on. Penalties can vary for violating any taboo; in 2E, it was possible for a Wu Jen to die for breaking any taboo while 3E simply has them lose their magic for 24 hours. - A good way to mortally offend many Clan warriors in BattleTech is to suggest that they might have been born — the old-fashioned way, that is, rather than via the 'superior' Clan method involving the matching of donated genetic material from specific bloodlines and "iron wombs". On the other hand, the separation of sex and procreation in "trueborn" society means that recreational sex is considered just another activity, but concepts like romance and similar strong personal attachments are somewhat alien and confusing to them (at least in part because their first loyalty is of course supposed to be to their Clan). - In The Teahouse of the August Moon, Sakini notes that in Okinawa, things like nude statuary are quite taboo, but people of mixed-sex bathing together in public is no big deal, while in America it's exactly the opposite. - In Mass Effect, having the hots for a Green-Skinned Space Babe (or an armor-plated Proud Warrior Race guy, or the rasp of scales against your flesh, or wondering just what IS under that quarian environmental suit) is quite understandable, for the most part, though most permanent couples tend to be same-race for obvious reasons. Then we get the asari, who consider it a horrible taboo to actually get pregnant with another asari (not have sex, just a baby), and look down upon "purebloods", the children of such unions. During the first game and most of the second game, it seems like this is just a cultural thing, even having it explicitly stated that it's because they feel it "adds nothing to the mix" to not incorporate some alien DNA. Then you meet Morinth, an asari with a genetic defect that results in the death of anyone she has sex with, and it turns out that same-race breeding for them drastically ups the chances of things turning out very badly. In ancient times, the Ardat-Yakshi, asari with the aforementioned genetic defect, ruled Asari nations as god-queens, sacrifices and all. - The hanar are a minor example. In their entry in the codex, they are described as very polite and always talking in a formal manner, to the point that it is actually pretty easy to offend them in a conversation. In a variation of the trope, it's also stated that most Hanar who leave their planet need to be taught how the other races are more informal and that they need to overlook what normally could be considered offensive. - In World of Warcraft, the Pandaren in the third expansion, Mists of Pandaria, are all rather... large. That isn't to say they're unhealthy, in fact, they're a race of Acrofatics who are probably much healthier than the other races of Azeroth. And they seem to know! Upon reaching the village of Dawn's Blossom in the Jade Forest, a nearby noodle salesman will look at you and say, "That creature looks so thin, it must be starving!" Player Pandaren /silly jokes include similar, hilarious lines, like: "Hey! You look like you lost some weight! ... That's terrible. Have a dumpling!" and "Oh, I'm doing great! I mean, I could stand to gain a few pounds sure, but, who doesn't?" and finally, "Gotta store up some fat for the winter! ... I don't hibernate or nothin', I just like having it around." You can practically see the Pandaren holding his belly as he says that last one. - Culpa Innata: - Nuptial contracts (i.e. marriages) are seen as perversions and are illegal in the World Union. Only rogue states follow such barbaric customs. As for being with the same sexual partner for long periods of time, most people consider that strange. Families also don't exist, as children are sent off to Child Development Centers until they are adults. This leaves adults to make as much money and get as much sex as possible. Oh, and it is women who are expected to hit on men, ask them out, pay for dates, and initiate sex. This is often a problem for men who immigrate from rogue states, who still follow the old traditions. Their advances often put World Union women off, so they tend to go after women who have also emigrated, who also have trouble with this. Stoicism is also important to World Union citizens, and any candidate for citizenship must display a great degree of it. Anyone who panics or gets overly emotional during the interview is rejected. - In King of Dragon Pass, you play as a primeval Proud Warrior Race that has...odd...ideas about which parts of the body are sexy. One of their myths describes a successful seduction: "he showed her the soles of his feet, so she could not resist his sacred progenitive powers". - The sequel isn't much different. The Rider people regularly break horses for all sorts of purposes, including war and religious sacrifice...but they consider the Wheel people's "caging" of horses to chariots weird and cruel. - Ace Attorney: - Athena cannot 'turn off' her powers, which she's had since birth, and therefore barely understands the concept of privacy. - The Kurain clan marginalizes its men because only women can channel spirits. The discrimination has gotten so bad that functional heterosexual relationships are considered exotic. - The Order of the Stick: - Xykon refers to people sexually attracted to living humans as "disgusting biophiliacs". This may imply he'd be just as grossed out by living humans making out with each other as the average living human would be by the thought of two liches making out with each other. He was explicitly shown, however, only to be repeatedly grossed out by Tsukiko's necrophiliac advances aimed at him, one of which he was rebuffing this way. - There was a... little misunderstanding between Nale and his succubus girlfriend over the issue of jealousy. \|\|Which Elan managed to exploit later.\|\| - Homestuck: - A perfectly ordinary bucket in our culture has some... dirty connotations in Troll society. On the other hand, their reproduction system involves a centralized mother making each generation from the genetic material of all the previous one, making "one diabolical incestuous slurry" the standard, so they don't understand our taboo of incest. - A lesser example is that the trolls are surprised homosexuality "is even a thing" since any troll couple can contribute to the slurry as long as they really love or hate each other. - Another example is uu, who persistently pesters Dirk to draw filthy hardcore porn for him... of people acting out totally normal, nonsexual romantic actions such as kissing or hugging. In fact, one picture Dirk drew where one person was copping a feel was outright rejected. (\|\|This is because uu, a.k.a. Caliborn, is a Cherub, a race that usually tries to avoid each other except when mating.\|\|) And then after two pages of this, it's subverted right at the last minute: - In The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven, from the Paradox Space spin-off, Crowbar reacts with revulsion when he walks in on two of his fellow Felt dancing. This is because the Felt are leprechaun-like aliens whose reproduction system is established by two men engaging in jigs, riddles, pranks, and games of chance. - Drowtales: - Bisexuality and multiple partners is the norm for drow — pure heterosexuals like Zala'ess and her husband Sabrror and pure homosexuals like Mel'anarch are considered abnormal. In both cases, it mostly seems like the drow are puzzled as to why one would restrict their choice of partners to only one gender than any actual prejudice against the orientations. - Cannibalism is also acceptable. With so few resources, Drow eating Drow is the norm amongst the lower class. - On the other hand, Drow culture considers a bare neck to be a state of extreme undress. - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal plays the trope straight (well, mostly) but for imagined titillation rather than offense. - Slightly Damned: - After Kieri's brother was introduced as a character, it's been made increasingly obvious he is in love with another male angel. When Kieri point-blank tells him she realizes this, he's worried people will think he's a freak... because they're of opposing elements. The idea that a same-sex relationship might seem odd or objectionable to anyone doesn't even seem to occur to him. - The world of Medius also seems to no taboo against crossdressing. Kieri the angel seems to have never heard of crossdressing before. Because of how militaristic their society is, angels don't appear to even have different clothing for different genders, they instead are required to show their gender by how they dye their hair, with females dyeing most of their hair and males only dyeing the small part that females don't. - Outsider: - The Loroi have a cultural taboo toward casual physical contact since their telepathic ability is distance-variant, and skin-to-skin contact makes an extremely strong connection (and even works to some degree with non-telepathic species). The scientist Beryl, after seeing Ensign Jardin shaking hands with a Loroi pilot and hearing that it's a human custom, is eager to try it since humans are apparently immune to Loroi telepathy. - The Nissek are notable among the spacefaring cultures for having no taboos against eating carrion or the flesh of sapient creatures, including other Nissek. - Appropriately enough, it was depiction of normal, heterosexual sex in Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (which specializes in perversion and Crossing the Line Twice) which got their advertising pulled. Granted, the male in the pair was Jesus. - 4chan, home to all manner of horrific NSFW material, considers the single most heinous sexual practice to be... \|\|consensual sex in the missionary position\|\|. Definitely Played for Laughs. That shit gets even more horrifying when \|\|done for the purpose of reproduction.\|\| And it's ten times worse if \|\|they're happily married.\|\| The gag is most prominent on the /d/ ("alternative hentai") board where there are occasional \|\|"happy sex"\|\| threads that play on the joke. Scenes of a couple \|\|holding hands\|\| can make even the kinkiest of /a/nons blush profusely. - Artists on the net (both of the fan and original variety) tend to exaggerate this taboo: in works depicting two characters as a "pure" couple, the mere act of \|\|holding hands\|\| will cause the lovebirds to get nervous, especially if they're "unprotected" (read: \|\|have no gloves on\|\|). The only thing more scandalous is \|\|interlocking their fingers\|\| while they do it. - Similarly, \|\|consensual heterosexual sex between spouses\|\| is occasionally played as the strangest, rarest, most taboo kink ever on Kink Memes. Another "strange and unusual" request sometimes found on Kink Memes is \|\|gen fic, with no sex or romance at all\|\|! - A Hero's War: Cato, having come from Earth, is rather alarmed by the idea that the ancient Tsarians freely experimented with genetically modifying humans, resulting in two strains of "demihumans" that remain to the current day. Landar, and apparently Inath culture in general, is unbothered, treating it no differently from modifying cattle. - Tales of MU: - Played for Blue-and-Orange Morality, most notably with nymphs, who have been granted their humanoid bodies as a gift to those who created them from the great Mother Khaele. What this means is that they must expose themselves at all times, and wearing clothing is their taboo. They also are given these bodies (as opposed to their "other body," that is, the field that is also a physical part of them) to engage in frequent sexual activity with others, which causes their field and humanoid form to both become healthier and sustained. - Implying that an elf enjoys heterosexual intercourse is apparently a dire insult. - Played with regarding Dee's (dark) elf culture as well, where the heavily-matriarchal society in which she was raised gives Dee some less-than-humanizing views of men, resulting in some Deliberate Values Dissonance when she talks with surface-dwellers about their "fathers," a concept with significantly diminished importance in her society. - In Fallout: Nuka Break, Twig is a former resident of Vault 10, which was provided with ample amounts of fattening food and no exercise equipment. As a result, being fat became the norm. While anyone outside the vault would think that Twig is too fat, he was in fact bullied all his life for being the skinniest person in the vault (thus the nickname). In fact, when anyone tries to insult him for being fat, he takes it as a compliment. - Assuming it isn't just propaganda by mainstream Christians, the Borborite Gnostic sect would have hit this button to the extreme, since their version of the Eucharist included eating semen, menstrual blood, and abortions... - In ancient Greece love between grown men and teenage boys was considered not just normal, but desirable. - Many held that a "Real Man" would find his pleasure with teenage boys, since apparently, that was the macho thing to do. Women were mainly for procreation, and a man who preferred to sleep with them was considered something of a sissy, or just downright weird. - According to some sources, the man-boy love was supposed to be refined and spiritual. Actual physical intercourse sullied the relationship (women, on the other hand, were inferior creatures who could be used for physical pleasure). This was the view of Plato, hence the term "Platonic love". Although, to the Greeks, only penetrative sex was considered intercourse, mutual masturbation was fine. - They thought it transferred arete from the man to the boy. A similar thing is found in Papua New Guinea, where it's thought that boys will never become men if they don't eat a steady diet of semen. However, vaginas are considered "poisonous," so once a man has slept with a woman, he can't feed the boys anymore. - In ancient Greece being well endowed was considered comical and barbaric — real men didn't have big dicks (a resemblance to young boys' was preferred, hence the lack of endowment in Michelangelo's David, modeled on Greek statues). Furthermore, a publicly visible penis wasn't all that bad (and it was a common sight, since male athletes competed in the nude), but having an erection was considered shameful. - Modern military forces frown on sexual relations between soldiers. Thebes, on the other hand, encouraged them, creating the Sacred Band, composed of 150 pairs of lovers, which is often credited with a decisive role in Thebes' defeat of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra. Supposedly, this made soldiers more willing to die for their comrades/lovers. Of course, the Theban army was composed of men only... - In modern Western culture, premarital sex is accepted, and even considered normal. Couples can live together without being married, and even raise a family like that. One can go home from a nightclub with someone he/she has just met and have sex. But go to a conservative country or region with deeply-entrenched traditional values regarding marriage and sex, and such behavior is frowned upon at best, and (in some cases) a capital offense. - And this is a relatively recent development even in the West. Sex has been Serious Business in most cultures for most of written history. - And even within the West. Nearly everything mentioned above would be maligned in the more conservative areas of the US, while no-one would bat an eye in liberal cities like New York or Los Angeles. And even in New York or Los Angeles, there are numerous jokes about the so-called "walk of shame", referring to someone post-one-night stand heading home in the early morning, wearing the party clothes they wore the night before, making it obvious to most people what they've been up to. Whereas in somewhere like Paris, people will all but congratulate you on having gotten some good lovin' the night before. - This is inverted in some places in the US, such as college campuses. Seeing someone at the coffee shop in the morning wearing last night's mussed-up clothing barely merits a second glance. The joke being "we don't have the walk of shame, we have the stride of pride." Well, that, and the fact that the person is more likely still up from last night due to cramming or working on a project/paper that is due that day. - In Russia and other former Soviet countries, it is still considered strange for a couple to be dating for a long time before getting married (i.e. what is commonly accepted in the West). Any dating period lasting more than a few months starts getting looks. This was slowly changing, due to Western influences (with words like "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" being adopted by the Russians), but many traditional Slavic customs remain, especially in rural areas. - Can be mildly inverted in some crowds in the West — say you don't believe in sex before marriage, and they'll say something like "What? Seriously?" Especially in some circles where promiscuity is the expectation, such as athletes and musicians. Athletes who are forthright about their virginity, such as Tim Tebow or Lolo Jones, have been criticized on that basis. - Sex education in The Netherlands begins as early as primary school, for children as young as 4. This is certainly in stark contrast to conservative regions of the US that insist on abstinence-only teaching. Even the more liberal areas of the US don't start until 5th grade (age 10-11). - In some places, being openly LGBT (of whatever variety) is considered unacceptable, along with any kind of non-heterosexual/non-reproductive sex. In these places (and historically far more) this would only take place in secret, with these acts being illegal, even capital crimes. - The National Geographic show Taboo discusses things that are taboo in Western society, usually in non-Western cultures but it sometimes discusses various subcultures in Western society. - The Sioux don't even have taboo words. You'll find men named Penis or Testicles and women named Vagina with no trouble whatsoever. - Dietary law? Try having an interfaith dinner with the Hindu who can't eat beef (and may be a vegetarian), the Jew who has to eat food prepared ritually (and can't eat pork, shellfish, and meat-dairy combos), the Muslim who has to have food prepared ritually according to other rituals (also no pork, but no alcohol too; meat-dairy combos and shellfish are OK), and the Sikh who can't have any meat that has been prepared ritualistically. Oh, and the Muslim might have opinions on whether the Jewish rituals are "close enough"? Also, Mormons cannot have "hot drinks" (tea and coffee), often erroneously believed to be a complete caffeine taboo. The Muslims and, depending on the denomination, some of the Christians, can't drink alcohol. All meat is prohibited for the Catholics, but only if it's Friday during Lent. Not to mention, people who have strict dietary requirements for nonreligious morals, like vegans. - Order the salad! Oh, wait. You'll have a problem with the Jain who can't eat root vegetable (carrots, potatoes, radish, turnips, etc.), the Yazidi who can't have lettuce, the Buddhist or Krishna who can't eat onions, the Jew who can't eat any fruits or veggies without first examining every inch of them for bugs, and the Kashmiri Brahmin who won't eat strongly spiced food (so no pepper, garlic, or onion). - Note on Catholics: Good news and bad news. Bad news is there is a growing trend among more traditional Catholics to go back to the original rule of no meat on Fridays at all, which is officially the case in the UK. Good news is that the dietary laws don't consider fish to be meat. (Or several "canonically fish" meats, such as hippo or capybaras, the world's largest rodent.) - Eating dogs or cats is considered normal in parts of East Asia and West Africa (as long as they are dogs and cats you own and not stolen from others), but in places who value pets such as the West or even other parts of Asia or Africa, this is terrifying because how could you eat those pets?! And it should be noted that even though it's mainly older generations (people who were born pre-1990s) who still eat dogs due to Values Dissonance and the fact that many younger people find those animals unappetizing nowadays, it is still normal and not frowned upon in said regions. - Same with eating horse meat. Perfectly sensible in most of the world, but taboo in many English-speaking countries. - Not all younger people find it unappetizing. While the trend has been that fewer young people eat dog due to Western influence, it is still appetizing to some and basically just a normal meal like eating beef or pork. People's reaction to this and the closing of many dog-meat restaurants due to backdraft is a contentious topic. - And that's just how it stands, for the meat of domesticated animals. What types of wildlife it's acceptable to eat can be even more controversial between cultures, whether for ethical considerations (as with the many species threatened by the "bush meat" trade), traditional vs modern lifestyles (e.g. subsistence whaling by Arctic or island cultures), or just plain revulsion (like the distaste of Western diners for eating insects). - Ditto guinea pigs. In most of the world, guinea pigs are seen as pets, but in Peru and Ecuador, guinea pigs are food, where they are known as "cuy". - Similar to the dog/cat/horse taboo, Hindus consider cattle sacred and the idea of eating them is repulsive. Beef is a completely normal meat to most of the non-Hindu world. - Kissing. Not taboo per se, but its level of seriousness varies A LOT from culture to culture, as well as the kind of kiss — a warrant was put out for Richard Gere's arrest after he kissed an Indian actress on the cheek, and Natalie Portman and a co-star were chased away from the Western Wall after filming a kissing scene — behavior that wouldn't have batted an eye in the US. - This gets worse if it's a same-sex couple, of course: hence why about a decade or two ago (up until around the mid-2000s), gay kisses on TV were often controversial, if less so now in the West. Conversely, the taboo itself is considered a form of anti-LGBT discrimination by LGBT rights supporters, and as a result can even be against the law (a pub in the UK which threw out a gay couple for kissing was successfully prosecuted). - Relatedly, hugging. The "European Cheek Kiss" is much like a hug in the US, but hugging a stranger or a mild acquaintance in, say, France, runs into the same problems as kissing someone would have in the US. It's basically like the meanings of the two actions got switched somewhere over the ocean. - Any form of touching, for that matter. Even in the United States, there are cultures and societies that forbid even holding hands until marriage. - Islam almost forbids any form of (adult) male and female contact outside of the family. - Public displays of affection are (traditionally) more frowned upon in Japan than in the West. Being a touch-averse society, for instance, bowing instead of shaking hands, the Japanese traditionally reserve physical affection for close relatives, especially small children, and sex partners. Thus, what Americans would consider relatively innocent public displays of affection would, in Japan, be regarded as boasting that a lot more is going on behind closed doors. The taboo is such that Japanese children are unlikely to see so much as a chaste kiss between their parents. Meanwhile, while the Japanese have to an extent adopted Western attitudes toward nudity, the nudity taboo is not as strong as it is in the West. Thus, mixed bathing is permitted to a greater degree in Japan, and nudity can be found in works marketed toward children, and can even include children (in a non-sexual context). - In many Middle Eastern cultures, physical contact between friends, especially male ones, is much more common than in the West. Young men walking around holding hands or even hugging is completely normal and not in any way sexual. Similarly, most Middle Eastern societies have No Sense of Personal Space compared to Western ones, as people will happily converse mere inches from each other's face, while Western culture dictates that people should be at arm's length. - The Mosuo culture, a small group in China, have been described as a "world without husbands or fathers." Men and women never get formally married, but go through long courtship rituals competing with other guys, and it's wrong to feel jealous if a girl chooses someone else. The man will continue to visit the woman for the duration of their relationship, sometimes with months between visits. The fathers are not considered related to the children, only to the mother (there's no stigma when a woman doesn't know which man fathered them — although it's considered embarrassing — though most do not change partners frequently, although this may have been a more recent change under pressure from the majority Han Chinese, who disapproved of their promiscuity). Instead the children's uncle will care for them, doing household tasks, while women do the hard work and run the family. - An American teacher living in Japan was becoming annoyed that so many of his co-workers and students were commenting on-and complimenting/congratulating him on his recent weight gain. A colleague finally told him that they weren't trying to insult or ridicule him. Quite the opposite in fact — they had assumed that he had met a woman who was a good cook — a catch for a man from ANY country or culture — and were happy for him. - Not only Japan. James Herriot tells in his books that he received a number of such compliments from farmers once he married. - This is also the case in Africa and the Caribbean, where overweight women, particularly those with large rear ends, are traditionally considered more attractive than skinny women. Often heard in calypso and dancehall, but is sometimes present in American black culture too (Sir Mix-a-lot's classic "Baby Got Back" being a prominent example). In Mauritania, girls are even sent to so-called "fat camps" to gain weight and be seen as desirable. - Dress codes. What many people consider normal would be considered slutty in more conservative cultures. - Discordians will happily marry just about anyone to any combination of people or things but may have some reservations about joining a man and woman in holy matrimony (note that, like the image boards example, this is to poke fun at existing taboos). - Holding up your index finger and middle finger while spreading them apart. In some countries, this is a symbol for peace, in others, it represents "V for Victory", but in Britain, it depends on which way the hand is facing. Facing palm outwards, it's both a symbol of peace and of victory but if the palm is facing inwards it's a version of Flipping the Bird. - In Greece the "V" sign is considered offensive with the palm facing outwards, though it is not as obscene as holding up your hand with all fingers spread with the palm towards the other person. The "V" sign is considered a reduced form of the latter. - Breastfeeding in public. In some places it will be cheered on, in others will get you arrested for disorderly conduct, and in further others simply not paid attention at all for being considered the most normal thing ever. - And commenting on it as well. In some places, you so much as pull a face or look to see what they're doing, you'll be yelled at for being a misogynist with no respect for something so natural, in other places, all you have to do is mention it to the manager and you can have the mother and child thrown out and barred for life. - Also, the duration of breastfeeding. In India and the Philippines, mothers breastfeed their infants for two years or longer. In the US, Canada, and Great Britain breastfeeding after 6 months is unusual, and breastfeeding for a year or more is very taboo. Mothers who breastfeed longer than that typically hide the practice from others, known as "closet nursing". - Jesus is a common given name in Spanish and Arabic (particularly among Arab Christians). In English? Name your kid that and expect to be swarmed by cries of blasphemy. - The anglicization of Jesus (Yeshua) is actually Joshua, and there are plenty of American people called that. - Italy has some legal restriction on names that can be given to a child, including "Gesù" (the Italianization of Jesus), names considered ridiculous or linked to misfortune (such as "Venerdì", Friday in English. A couple actually had their child named by the registry officer for insisting on said name and was fined when they sued) or handicaps, most names linked to geography, a parent's name, a name of the opposite gender, and many others. This isn't exactly out of some cultural taboo but to protect the children: Italians mock everything and everyone, and a child with a name such as Benito would become a target for all the other kids. - Did Not Do the Bloody Research. Certain curse words are more or less offensive based on the country. - The United States: - Within the country, swearing mores vary wildly. Swearing, and religious swearing in particular, is considered more taboo in certain corners, such as the South, than the others, such as the coasts. - British curses, such as bloody, arse, wanker, and shag, are considered euphemisms for swear words rather than swear words themselves. - Germany and the Netherlands: - These countries consider religious cussing to be inoffensive. Even in first grade, one can get away with terms like "hell" and "damn" without so much as a judging glare. - Words such as "shit" aren't censored. The German equivalent of "shitty" is even less offensive; for instance, it made South Park's "It Hits the Fan" episode less poignant than it could have been), except maybe (obviously) in shows targeted at kids below the age of ten. It depends on where you look, however, and is not always consistent — [adult swim] will sometimes bleep the word, and sometimes they won't. - The Dutch word for "cunt" ("kut") is usually used as an adjective or an exclamation, and is nowhere near as offensive as in English - it's used more like "shit(ty)", to describe weather, behavior, situations, misbehaving appliances... More offensive if used on people. - France and Italy: Religious swear words aren't considered swearing. "Hell" is just the religious place, etc. - In Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, phrases like "¡maldición!" ("damn!"), "¿Qué diablos?" (roughly corresponds to "what the hell?"; literally means "what devils?") and even "(vete) al diablo!" and "vete al Infierno" (literally "(go) to the devil" and "go to hell"), can be heard in family-friendly media. The word "Infierno", used to refer to Hell as a place, is never censored or even avoided at all; "jokes" where characters can't say the word "hell" fall completely flat after dubbing. However, words like "estúpido" and "idiota" ("stupid" and "idiot") are much stronger than in English, and then there's "pendejo", (in some countries it refers to pubic hair, but in Mexico, it's more or less the equivalent of "dumb-ass" or "stupid-ass") which is considered much more offensive than "idiota" or "estupido"; "son of a bitch" is also much stronger than in American English; it's translated as "hijo de puta" (literally "son of a whore"). "Puta" is usually bleeped or not said at all on TV; its synonym, "ramera," won't get bleeped, but it's still considered a demeaning word, and hardly ever heard on TV as well. The literal translation of "son of a bitch", "hijo de perra", is also very strong; "Coger", in most Spanish-speaking countries means "to grab" or "to pick up," but in Mexico, coger means "to fuck." - Quebecois French: Swear words are all based on religion, to the point where they are referred to collectively as sacres. - Australia: Swearing in general is not considered as offensive here then in many other countries. For the most part; some radio stations are even fine with songs featuring the F-word being played mid-afternoon. Only racist epithets get outrage. - Country Matters: The word "cunt" is considered highly misogynistic in the United States, while in England and Australia, it has considerably less stigma and is generally just considered a bit coarse. The French equivalent is also pretty tame (generally meaning "dumbass") unless being used specifically to describe a woman's genitals. - Nudist culture. Played reversed if you should ever attempt to wear a swimsuit while inside a nudist retreat. It's all or nothing. (The thought is that if everyone is naked, it's normal; make exceptions and it will become sexualized.) - Applying this trope to animals is pretty much a given, as they do not have a set rule for how they should live like humans do. The simplest example would probably be the nature of poisonous animals being brightly colored; from a human standpoint, a creature like a poison dart frog is beautiful because of its bright, vibrant colors, and even people who know that the little critter could kill you with a single touch find them utterly adorable. Any predatory animal in the wild, however, would be terrified of all those colors, as they're a warning sign that this animal is not to be ingested. - There are many countries, most notably most of the ones in eastern Asia, where speaking ill of any political leader is blasphemous. Either you speak praise about him or her, or you just stay silent, as you are expected to have absolute loyalty to your country and prioritize their beliefs over your own. In more extreme cases, you pretend you like them. This can come across to westerners, who mock and insult their political leaders all the time, as My Country, Right or Wrong (and, depending on how you look at it, might actually be that). At the same time, people from these countries who travel to the west are often horrified at how everyone seems to treat their leaders as trash. - Calling someone a monkey in the USA has a history of racism; that goes without saying for Americans. However, in Spanish-speaking countries like Argentina, it's akin to being called a bear of a man. This caused an uproar when a Swedish clothing retailer produced a sweater reading "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle", and had a young black man modeling it in their catalog. Many Americans were outraged at the racial insensitivity, while the company maintained that no racial implications were intended. - In Australia and New Zealand, calling people monkeys is mostly a playful expression of affection, used to describe children or used between adult friends. It can be racist, but only when it's referring to Indian people; racists using the term against other races is very uncommon. When New Zealander-born NBA player Steven Adams referred to his mostly African-American opponents as "quick little monkeys" in one interview, it sparked widespread outrage in America with some calling for him to be fired, and utter confusion in his native country. - In May 1997, Danish actress Anete Sørenson left her infant daughter outside of a Manhattan restaurant while she had a drink. She was arrested for child endangerment, spent 36 hours in jail, and her daughter was placed in foster care for four days until the situation was resolved. There was outrage at her actions from Americans who found her behavior highly stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous... and outrage at her arrest from Danes, who repeatedly stated that such a practice is very common in Denmark. A recent TikTok article followed up on this. - This is such a common problem that Americans traveling to foreign countries (and vice versa) are actually given handbooks to warn them about how commonplace behavior in one place can be considered anywhere from rude to outright illegal elsewhere. - This New York Times article demonstrates it even further — most European and Asian parents think their American counterparts are far too clingy/uptight/overprotective. Indeed, many American expats have reported getting funny looks at their child-rearing habits. Most of the parenting practices described in the article wouldn't bat an eye in their respective countries, but a good chunk of them would get the police or CPS called on them in the US. - This article discusses how an American college professor in Italy stopped by the piazza of a local church where he saw some kids playing, and taught them to play baseball. He commented that the scene would be unthinkable here in the US, where his actions would have earned him a visit from the police. - To most Indians, the idea that American parents, no matter how wealthy, generally expect their children at some point to get jobs and move out of the house when they reach young adulthood seems counterintuitive at best and cruel at worst. And it boggles their imagination that parents visiting their grown children on good terms in the U.S. sometimes stay at hotels nearby rather than avail themselves of their children's hospitality and vice versa. But to Americans, those are simply expected demonstrations of self-reliance, and not imposing yourself on the support of others. - Likewise, it shocks some foreigners that Americans sometimes pay their own children for doing housework and that even within immediate families goods change hands for money (albeit at less than market price). To Americans, nothing in life should be seen as free. - Online communities with dedicated members like fans of a specific work or subculture develop their own system of what is and isn't okay, and these often clash wildly with each other or with "NORPs" (Normal Ordinary Responsible Person, pretty much the most flattering of slang words for passive internet users who aren't familiar with internet subculture). This can lead to anything from mockery to outright battles when someone unfamiliar with it comes in and takes offense to the term "Newfag", innocently drops a slur or trigger word, or when a NORP enters either of those sites and finds the denizens passively talking about Waifus, shipping, weird fetishes, etc. These are only a few of countless examples: they could easily fill the entire page. - Throughout the late 1980s to the mid-2000s, it was common for English dubbing companies to make changes to anime to try and make it more appealing to western viewers. These included changing character's names, changing their personalities, changing plot points, changing the soundtrack, editing foreign words and signs to English, and editing or cutting out scenes that could be considered offensive. This is rarely done today by these companies as fans at the time decried it as them forcefully "westernizing" Japanese shows and sullying the efforts of the original creators. However, Japanese dubbing companies frequently use similar tactics when bringing western shows to their country, often to great success and much less criticism from their fans for the changes they make. - A lot of cases of Misplaced Nationalism between countries usually boil down to violations of deep-seated cultural taboos on the part of another country. - The custom of tipping gets Americans and Europeans discombobulated when they travel abroad to each other's countries. In the former, it's expected, as wages for waitstaff are very low and they depend on tips to survive. In Europe and other places, service charges are tacked onto restaurant bills. In some places like Japan or South Korea, tipping is even an insult (order more food if you want to show your appreciation at a restaurant there). - The Japanese adult industry (particularly the hentai side of it) produces some of the most depraved, extreme, often sickening, sometimes even horrifying pornographic content in the history of mankind, much of which (particularly the Lolicon and Shotacon) is illegal in many other countries... but the genitals always have to be censored. Always. It doesn't matter if the material is like something out of a particularly extreme rendition of The Aristocrats, the penis and vagina have to have at least some token censorship over them to comply with the law, whether it be black bars or pixelization, otherwise it would be "obscene". It's a constant source of irritation for western hentai fans, and the first question usually asked whenever any hentai work is given a western release is "Is it uncensored?" This sometimes even extends to spoken words as well, leading to hilarious scenes where a woman is begging to have all sorts of excessively lewd and depraved things done to her, but the word "manko" ("pussy") will still be inexplicably bleeped out. Sometimes they even bleep out "chinpo" ("penis"), although that's less common. - Recreational drugs. It would take too long to go into any detail, but very generally, the same drugs that are socially acceptable or may only get you a slap on the wrist to take in Europe or the more liberal parts of North America might carry a significant penalty in the more conservative parts of America, and might be punishable with life imprisonment or death in many Asian countries. - As cited on the Eye Contact as Proof page, this is a mostly Western phenomenon. So someone from another country/culture might accidentally come across as dishonest because he/she won't make eye contact with someone, while a Westerner might accidentally come across as rude or aggressive to them because they do this.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurTabooIsYourNormal
Our Phlebotinum Child - TV Tropes You want two of your characters to have a child, but going through a normal pregnancy isn't an option. If the story is Speculative Fiction, the universe's Phlebotinum may be sensitive to the Power of Love or able to generate a new life form by using some kind of contribution from two different people, thus bringing their Phlebotinum child into existence. Often, the couple can get their child in a much shorter timespan, it can age much faster, or be born mostly grown. As an extra bonus, the child's nature can explain Plot-Relevant Age-Up, Absurdly Youthful Mother, Supernaturally Young Parent, the female variant of Luke, You Are My Father and Homosexual Reproduction. It can also bypass one of the obvious side effects of Can't Have Sex, Ever. An essential element of this trope is that the Phlebotinum child wouldn't have existed without something from each of its parents combining. The nature of what got combined can include anything that is not the natural conception means of the parents' species. If more than two people are involved in the child's conception, this trope can be the supernatural counterpart to Extra Parent Conception. Pregnancy will be either absent from the child's generation process or shorter than what would be normal for the mother. In the absence of pregnancy, the parents may have Doorstop Baby-like scenario with the child before finding out the truth. In the latter case, the child may or may not have been generated in a Uterine Replicator or something similar. These children tend to have a death rate much higher than that of naturally-born children for reasons including Fantastic Racism, being a Living MacGuffin, unable to exist for very long in the first place, or some dangerous form of Sentient Phlebotinum. This makes them a choice character to use in a Parents for a Day scenario. If they live, they will often become an important plot element. Specific cases can fall into: - Kid from the Future: You haven't had the child... yet, but they're around anyways. - Love Imbues Life: In cases where the love is given by two people or more. - Wonder Child: If natural conception is impossible due to the mother being too old. - Mix-and-Match Man: In cases where at least one of the parents exists as a separate entity from the child. - Mystical Pregnancy: The supernatural conception variation. - That Thing Is Not My Child!: When the parents themselves don't want anything to do with the child. - Whether Designer Babies and in general Phlebotinum using genetic material that is not sperm and egg can qualify is context-sensitive. If a child born of it is enough of a freak event to qualify as a Plot Point, it falls into this trope. If actual sperm and eggs are used and/or the Phlebotinum is routinely used to produce children, it doesn't qualify. Too much is when people born that way are so frequent that it's considered normal by at least some people In-Universe. Not to be confused with Bizarre Alien Reproduction, where the reproduction means is strange from a human point of view but normal for fictional beings. Compare Convenient Miscarriage that is the closest non-Speculative Fiction seems to be able to get if the child dies. Beware of unmarked spoilers. ## Examples: - Reinforce Zwei in Lyrical Nanoha is a Unison Device, a type of magitek Robot Girl, who was "born" from Hayate's Linker Core (magical "heart"). The "conception" part comes from the fact that Hayate's Linker Core previously merged with that of her late Unison Device, Reinforce Eins, so Zwei bears resemblance to both of her "parents". - In Sword Art Online, the child-like AI Yui was able to exist in the game's main world thanks to the love Kirito and Asuna have for each other, and considers them her parents. Kirito and Asuna consider her to be their child, but the plot kept her from lasting very long as \|\|she ended up making a heroic sacrifice to save them. Also a subversion of the death outcome as her data got saved and got to be restored later on\|\|. On an additional note, Kirito and Asuna are both in their mid-teens. - Technically \|\|Alas=Ramus\|\| from The Devil is a Part-Timer! is this for \|\|Maou and Emi. She was created from a fragment of Sephirah Yesod (the same thing that made Emi's holy sword) which was given to Maou by Lailah, an angel who was Maou's mentor (and is also Emi's mother).\|\| - All the Grey-Summers children in the XMen qualify as this: - Rachel's a Kid from the Future - now technically an alternate future, and while the claim by Chris Claremont that her real father is the Phoenix is quietly ignored by everyone else, there is something a bit unusual about her relationship to it thanks to Jean's history with the entity, and a 40th anniversary prequel to Days of Future Past had the Phoenix merged with Jean acknowledge Rachel as her child. This may be why she's explicitly unique in the multiverse, for whatever reason. - Cable's a borderline case, but his biological mother was specifically cloned from Jean to be his mother, and was animated by a piece of the Phoenix that may or may not have been part of Jean's soul. - Nate was genetically engineered from DNA samples of Scott and Jean and gestated in an artificial womb that accelerated his ageing. - In The Avengers Scarlet Witch used magic to get pregnant from her husband The Vision. The magic she had drawn on however turned out to be from a demon who decided to erase her twin sons from existence. - But now they exist again as Wiccan and Speed of the Young Avengers. Apparently. - In a Swamp Thing / Hellblazer Crossover, Alec (the Swamp Thing) possesses John Constantine so that he and Abby can have a child. However, Constantine, unbeknownst to Alec, has recently had \|\|a transfusion of demon blood\|\|. Although Rick Veitch left the title before he could explore the implications of that, the storyline does hint that Alec's and Abby's future child (eventually named Tefé) might end up \|\|demonic\|\|. The first Vertigo revival of Swamp Thing, centered on the teenaged Tefé, indeed portrays her as \|\|a threat to humankind\|\|. - In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic My Little Mommies, the mane six explore an old mansion that turns out to be an abandoned base of an ancient villain. A mirror enchanted to perform LEGO Genetics, which the villain used to create monstrous hybrids, activates in their presence, mixing genes from each pair of mares and creating 3 female foals for them. - In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Past Sins, an evil cult tries to bring back Nightmare Moon, but ended up giving life to a cute small black alicorn filly that ended on the care of Twilight Sparkle, who ends up adopting her. - In Frozen (2013), Snowlem Olaf was born from the childhood sisterly love of Elsa and Anna, who first built him together as little girls. He's later rebuilt and brought to life by An Ice Person Elsa's powers and memories of that love, and he's completed by Anna, who puts the finishing touch on him when she gives him his nose. - Miu from Cerberus High II is this to the two Overworld gods Shun Demdagos and Inugami, making her embody the strongest element of them all. It is said to be impossible for humans and canid breeds to procreate but the two gods' love was able to form a physical being. - In The Dresden Files, one way a spirit of intellect can be brought into the world is when a spiritual being and its human host \|\|get so close to each other that they experience pure love. Since true love is a force of creation, the remains of the spirit mix up with the host's psyche to produce a new spirit who inherits traits of both parents and is "born" from the host's mind after a few years. This happens to Harry Dresden himself in Skin Game, after Lash (a psychic copy of the Fallen Angel Lasciel who tried to possess him) sacrificed herself for him in White Night\|\|. - In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Athena has kids (most notably Annabeth) despite still being one of the virgin goddesses. Apparently her children are conceived through the union of her mind with a mortal's. The exact mechanics of this are something nobody much wants to consider, though there is an implication that she gives birth to them through her head, just like she was born. - In A Song of Ice and Fire \|\|Daenerys\|\| may have been invoking this trope when \|\|she decided to hatch her dragons on Drogo's pyre while she was also inside it\|\|. \|\|Mirri Maz Duur\|\| can be considered to be a "third parent" in the process. - In the Star Trek novel Spock's World, Sarek and Amanda have to rely on Vulcan science to create Spock because Vulcan and human biology are not naturally compatible. - In Rhythm of War, it is revealed that the Sibling, the Genius Loci of the Radiant stronghold of Urithiru, is the "child" of the Shards Honor and Cultivation and composed of a unique hybrid investiture called Towerlight that is compounded of Honor's Stormlight and Cultivation's Lifelight. Exactly how the Sibling was created is unclear, but Word of Brandon has confirmed that Honor and Cultivation (or rather their respective Vessels) were romantically involved. - Jesus Christ. Born from the Inmaculate Conception by God of the Virgin Mary. - Doctor Who: In "Journey's End", \|\|the hand the Doctor lost soon after regeneration\|\| produces a clone after it is touched by \|\|Donna Noble\|\|. This creates a clone of \|\|the Doctor that is half-human\|\|. - In Game of Thrones, \|\|Daenerys\|\| may have been invoking this trope when \|\|she decided to hatch her dragons on Drogo's pyre while she was also inside it\|\|. \|\|Mirri Maz Duur\|\| can be considered to be a "third parent" in the process. - In Star Trek: Voyager, the Droid "One" existed due to a combination of Seven's nanobots and the Doctor's mobile emitter and self-terminated to keep the Borg from assimilating him. Both the Doctor and Seven were more or less parenting him during his almost Overnight Age-Up. - Star Trek: Enterprise A hybrid clone child was produced using apparently stolen DNA (unspecified what kind) from Starfleet Commanders \|\|Trip Tucker and T'Pol\|\|. Neither parent was even aware of the child's conception, but once they found out they accepted her quickly enough. - In the final installment of Galaxy Angel II, Eigou Kaiki no Toki, the Rune Angels discover a nanomachine organism in Femto, and Nano-Nano gives it the name Cookie, deciding to take care of it. In Nano-Nano's route, Cookie absorbs Kazuya and Nano's DNA, essentially turning into their daughter (gaining Nano's hairstyle and Kazuya's eyes). - In Justice League Unlimited, Wonder Woman is apparently the phlebotinium child of her mother Hippolyta (as per her pre-New 52 comics origin) \|\|and her former lover Hades. According to Hades, he and Hippolyta sculpted Diana together. Hades taunts her by musing on whether Hippolyta brought Diana to life to have someone to remember him by when he was banished.\|\| It's never confirmed whether this was true or not, and Diana immediately decides it doesn't matter — Hippolyta is the only parent she has ever known and that's enough for her.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPhlebotinumChild
Our Titans Are Different - TV Tropes "Nothing tears us apart. In Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power. Well, that football field out there, that's our universe. Let's rule it like titans." In Classical Mythology, the Titans (and their Primordial parents before them) were ancient godly beings that had ruled reality, until they were overthrown by the Olympians in the Titanomachy. The Titans were originally considered true gods. Later Classical writers started confusing them with Giants, but this was not the usual representation. Also, the name Titan sometimes only refers to the first generation, though usually the non-nymph, non-Olympian children of Titans are also called Titans. Titans and primordials have since been featured in many works of fiction, and have several common traits among their varying depictions. These include: - Being incredibly huge. Usually even bigger than giants. - Having tremendous power, which often rivals, if not surpasses, the gods themselves. - Being extremely old. As in, they're the first things to ever exist, old. If this is the case, the Titans in question might be some kind of primordial entities, and may very well be Anthropomorphic Personifications or completely inhuman monsters. Due to their age, they often serve as Precursors to the gods. - As a consequence of the above two traits, the titans often have a rivalry/animosity/connection with the gods of the setting. This may have led to their doom. - They probably created the world/universe the setting takes place in. Or are the setting. - In many recent works they are often portrayed as Elemental Embodiments. This has basis in antiquity - they involved Okeanos, where we get the word 'ocean' came from, Gaia and Uranos. Many historians assume that the clash of Greek gods and Titans is a metaphor for the combat with pre-Hellene peoples of the region. - The biggest variable would be their appearance. They often range from looking human-ish (if somewhat larger than normal), to something that can't be described by mere words. - Their other big variable is their morality. This generally goes along with their appearance, for if they look human, they'll probably act human. If they look monstrous, they will act like monsters. And if they do look like Eldritch Abominations, they'll act accordingly. Occasionally, a writer may switch the traits around. Compare Our Giants Are Bigger, Our Gods Are Different, and The Old Gods. For the moon by that name, see The Moons of Saturn. See also Titanomachy, Round Two for a stock plot involving the Titans. Is not related to different versions of the Teen Titans. ## Examples: - The titular monsters in Attack on Titan are called Kyojin (lit. Giant People), which is usually translated "Giants", but the English version localizes it as "Titan". They are mysterious, giant (starting from 3 meters, to 60 meters tall), Nigh-Invulnerable note : save for their Achilles' Heel on their nape Humanoid Abominations with a powerful Healing Factor and varying intelligence who eat humans (despite gaining no sustenance from it) and have been attacking humanity for just over a century. - In Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade a Titan is buried beneath the town's stone circle; it gets woken up when the mayor tries to remove them, then powered up by the presence of the Shiny Rod. When it fully emerges it looks like a Rock Monster with exposed bits of skeleton, which it magically covers up with metal in the vicinity. Its powers include attacking the heroes with tendrils of darkness and bringing inanimate objects to life. - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: \|\|The Giant True Demon Lord Dagruel\|\| is known only to the oldest beings in the world as the great Titan whose duty was to protect the gates of Heaven itself. His duty was essentially superfluous once the angels themselves after Veldanava's death sealed off the gates, but he kept at his duty and so he chose to establish a dominion upon the earth \|\|because he needed to watch over one of his evil sealed brothers.\|\| - The Incredible Hercules — The Titans and Cronus are imprisoned behind sealed doors, and they break free when the Hulk accidentally breaks the seal. The exception is Atlas, who is placed at The Axis of the world (center of the world that sometimes moves, changing the political situation of the world, and can also serve as a nexus to all the mystical foundations of the world). - There are also Eternals that live on the moon of Titan, Thanos being the most famous of them. Eternals were always mistaken for the traditional pantheons and those on Titan are no different. - Another Marvel character who calls himself "the Titan" is Xemnu, a big white-furred alien with mind control powers. Admittedly, he originally used the epithet "the Hulk", which obviously won't do anymore. - The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The Titan that the gods (falsely) claim destroyed the world outside of Themyscira turns out to be a giant from outer space whose consciousness is formed from the souls of a dead world and is this universe's version of \|\|the Manhunters created by the Guardians of the Universe\|\|. - New Gods gives us the Source Titans or Promethean Giants. They're beings who tried to seek beyond the Source Wall and, for their trouble, wound up becoming part of it. They can't do anything but silently weep in humiliation. - The Titans from the New Titans story "Who Is Wonder Girl?" (one of the earlier attempts to give Donna Troy an actual origin) were absolutely indistinguishable from their Greek and Roman children, falling on the "nice" end of the morality scale as a result by abducting random orphan baby girls throughout the cosmos, raising them to have super powers, then rewriting their memories to forget this before sending them back to their homeworlds (which somehow atones for the whole "eating their offspring" bit from myth). This also subconsciously influenced Donna to suggest the name "Teen Titans" via retcon. - Titans in The Transformers: Robots in Disguise are the largest of all Cybertronians. In robot mode, they stand multiple miles tall, while their alt-modes are actual cities. Metroplex functions as the capital city for Cybertron, while Metrotitan is Autobot City on Earth. They're also Shrouded in Myth, playing heavily into Cybertronian religious religion and so old that not even Alpha Trion, one of the original Thirteen Primes, knows their true origin. - Codex Equus: - Deities who are between 100,000 and 1 million years old are classified as "Titans", and fits the definition by being older than recorded history and extremely powerful. Ispita, Luminiferous, Terraton, Pakak, Queen Mab II, and the Three Deaths are a few examples. - Older than Titans but still fitting the definition of 'primordial, immensely powerful deities' are Antecedent (1 million - 10 million years), Preeminent (10 million - 100 million years), and Primeval (anything older than that). These are typically extremely huge, extremely powerful, primordial entities. Golden Scepter, Isati, Mzazi, Canteros, Amarelthea, Ergaleía, Exosus, Skotádi, and the Shadowed Ones are a few examples. - The Grand Primevals are the oldest of the old deities on Equus, being as old as the world itself. They are also the largest, most eldritch, and most powerful deities on the planet. Amareros, Kaos, Ordos, Ourophion, Adversus, and Symvíosi are a few examples. - Paradoxus: Not only the Great Dragon is presented as being a wayward World of Warcraft Titan with all of it entails (being a creating entity rather than opposing some higher deities), but he's also lazier than should be allowed to a divine being. That's the true reason why nymphs and bearers of his power exist in the first place. He just won't bite the bullet and protect his creations nor care about their well-being beyond ensuring his Flame can only be wielded by non-malicious, non-power-hungry females. And that reincarnation won't spare his nymphs any suffering by amnesia if they happen to fail their assigned task. Unsurprisingly, people in Magix are all atheists or agnostics at best who can't bring themselves to profess faith in the Great Dragon. - Pony POV Series: Titans are, instead of primordial deities, mortals who have obtained the might and power of a God, but have not become true deities and lack the cosmic responsibility that comes with this. Lord Tirek, King Lavan, the Sirens, and Lilith the Witch Queen are all examples of Titans, being mortals who mutated into world threatening sapient cataclysms. However, there were also good Titans, with the Moochick and Queen Majesty seeming to fall into this category. The most powerful to ever exist was also good: \|\|Apple Bloom, after hijacking the Rumors to repair the damage Discord's endgame caused and for the duration of her time as one was The Omnipotent. According to Word of God, she was the most powerful who has ever or will ever exist.\|\| - Under the Northern Lights: The "aunts" and "uncles" (and, presumably, parents) of Luna and Celestia. They are vast elemental beings which created the world and its intelligent species (learning the latter from the much younger Luna and Celestia \|\|when their toys turned into the first ponies because the sisters loved them so much — so yeah, ponies originated as toys of two little girls\|\|). The one seen in the fic is the water being called Karhu-Akka by reindeer. She combines traits of bear, cow, squid and whale, and now sleeps in the shape of a huge glacier. If she awakes, horrible things will happen. \|\|Her rolling over in her sleep when Discord got free is one of the causes for the crisis in the fic, one which might kill all life in a country.\|\| Luna, however, remembers her as a kind aunt who played with her and Celestia by the sea and gave them wonderful toys. Their greatuncles and greataunts, however, are pure Eldritch Abomination, seen in a vision as "lights... sounds... patterns of magic in a black sphere that itched the brain and made the soul cry". Discord is one of them. - Uravitation uses " Titan" as a denomination for the 1% of the Quirk population, who are noted to have Quirks that are vastly stronger compared to the rest of the population. - In Clash of the Titans (1981), the last of the titans is the Kraken. note : Sai Kraken is actually a giant fish-man monster rather than a traditional kraken. To defeat it, the Fates advise "a titan vs a titan" by using the head of Medusa the gorgon to turn it into stone. - MonsterVerse — Emma Russell refers to the Kaiju as the Titans and completes the metaphor by declaring them the rightful rulers of the world. While searching for Godzilla, \|\|spoiler:some of the characters discover vast sunken ruins within the Hollow Earth much older than even Egypt, and carved onto the monolithic walls, Godzilla being worshipped by ancient men, confirming that kaiju were "the first gods".\|\| - An early concept for the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: Planet of The Titans would have focused on Starfleet and the Klingon Empire searching for the home planet of a race of Benevolent Precursors called the Titans. The end of the movie would have revealed that the Titans were Kirk's crew from the future. - Discworld's mix-and-match approach to mythology means that while the Gods are mostly Greco-Roman in nature, the Titan-like figures they overthrew are the Ice Giants. - The Dragon Crown War has the Oromise who fill the "titan" niche. The oldest intelligent beings in the universe, they were also the creators of many other races note : creators of everyone, to hear them tell it; the dragons, the second-oldest race, say otherwise and were in general beings of tremendous magical power to the point of being essentially gods. However, they had a falling-out with their closest peers, the dragons, that ended with them getting imprisoned beneath the earth. By the time of the series, barely anyone remembers they existed, and even the eldest dragons can no longer recall what they looked like \|\|although Big Bad Chytrine — and possibly her predecessor, Kirun — works to restore them to power, in exchange for magic and arcane knowledge no other mortal possesses\|\|. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: - The Titans look almost exactly like normal humans with a couple of exceptions. Kronos is \|\|possessing Luke\|\| and so looks just like him except for having solid gold eyes. The Titans are about as tough as the Olympians, and Kronos is apparently even more so at his original level of power. - Hyperion is also notably inhuman, possessing "eyes like miniature suns" and skin resembling "polished pennies" that is usually perpetually covered with fire. Oceanus is more of a sea serpent-man hybrid. - Percy Jackson's Greek Gods describes Kronos as being nine feet tall during ancient times, which is apparently quite short for a Titan. - In Charmed (1998), the Titans are a group of supernatural beings who terrorized ancient Greece and were then imprisoned until the present day. They are certainly powerful enough to be worthy of the myths of the Titans, enough so to scale the heavens and kill almost all of the Elders (angels), but they don't seem to have the kind of cosmic significance you might expect from a creation myth. - In Supernatural, an amnesiac \|\|Prometheus\|\| shows up in season eight. - In Xena: Warrior Princess, Gabrielle once read a scroll and woke up three Titans, 30 foot giants who repaired the town. The three Titans had a cunning plan to make Gabrielle read the second scroll which would awaken 1,000 other Titans and destroy the world. - Classical Mythology, of course, is the Trope Namer for Titans, and their Protogenoi/Primordial parents count as well. - It should be noted that there are a lot of common misconceptions about the Titans. First off, they were not the first generation of gods, that would be their parents the Primordials (of which Gaia and Ouranos are a part of. They aren't Titans either.) Second, the Titans were not gigantic. They were in fact about the same size as the gods. The reason that people continue to assume they were giant is because later writers started lumping them in with the giants (who actually were, you know, giant) which were an entirely different group of Olympian enemies. - The word 'Asura' in Indian Mythology (which includes Hinduism, Buddhism, and several other religions) is usually translated as demon, or "fighting fiend", but in actuality, "Titan" would be the closest equivalent. Their godly counterparts are the 'Devas'. - Inverted in Zoroastrianism, where the 'Ahuras' are the good guys and the 'Daeva' are 'false gods' . It helps to know that the two regions where they were worshiped are neighbors, so it's more a case of opposed cultures and pantheons, than direct succession. There's even etymological & behavioral links between the the Ahura/Asura and the Norse Aesir, further confusing the matter. - In Norse Mythology, the Vanir were a rival tribe of gods to the Aesir, and the two went to war that ended with the latter's triumph and ascendancy and the surviving Vanir joining the Aesir; the outcome evokes similarities to Greek mythology's Titanomachy, with the Vanir as the Titans to the Aesir's Olympians. Meanwhile, the Jotunn (often translated as "giants" despite some being fairly "normal" in proportions) are basically a mix of the Titans and Protogenoi. - Japanese Mythology: Izanagi, Izanami, and the obscure deities who appeared before them. The obscure deities no longer appear in the universe. Izanami died giving birth to god of fire Kagutsuchi, and Izanagi is too grief-stricken to have anything to do with the world. The current pantheon consists of Izanagi's three children (Amaterasu, Susano-o, and Tsukuyomi) and the rest of the gods in Takamagahara. - At 6'6, when FMW regulars Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, WING Kanemura, Koji Nakagawa, Mr. Pogo and others were usually under 6', Big Titan (Rick "The Fake Razor Ramon"/"Ric Titan" Bogner) was a definite Type 2. - In Ars Magica, the Greek titans and Norse jotnar are powerful beings of the Magic Realm. More generally, the Kosmokrators and Protogonoi are immensely powerful magical beings governing cosmic principles such as time, love, or night. Very few magi are powerful enough to get involved with them. - In Dungeons & Dragons, titans are a race of outsiders (creatures native to the outer planes) who happen to be about 25 feet tall, so they're not only celestial* giants, they are taller than the tallest "normal" giants. Every aspect of them is perfect. In addition, they can cast powerful spells and speak several languages as standard abilities for the race. At a starting CR of 21, a titan with no other skills is equal to an epic-level Player Character in battle. In contrast to their usual portrayals, they're also (slightly) weaker than the gods and act as their servants. They are traditionally Chaotic Good and live on the plane of Arborea (also known as Olympus), though the Greek titans (Cronus, et al) are imprisoned in Carceri (Tartarus). In 5th edition, they are renamed Empyreans and given the Titan tag. - There are also the Epic-Tier monsters known as Elder Titans, who have more Hit Dice than most deities, more spellcasting levels than most deities in both arcane and divine, have epic spellcasting as the rule rather than exception, and have all-round better stats. They lack the gods' divine salient abilities and maxed HP, but they could definitely throw down with the gods on a similar level, suggesting the above are the younger, weaker generation. - The Primordials (also known as Dawn Titans) of the 4th Edition are a mix of this trope and Elemental Embodiment. The class of creatures known as titans are the Primordials' first creations, who sided with their parents in the war against the gods and in turn created the various races of giants. - 5th edition lacks any proper Titan monster, but the Titan tag is given to creatures directly created by, or related to, gods. The Tarrasque and krakens (both weapons created by gods), atropals (undead god-fetuses), astral dreadnoughts (created by Tharizdun) and empyreans (equivelant to titans of previous editions) all have this tag. - Exalted has the Primordials, eldritch beings of vast power who built Creation and then created the gods as their slave janitors. The gods got fed up with their cruddy jobs and had the Exalted overthrow the Primordials (while they stole their bosses' crack stash), but it turns out that killing some of them broke the universe. - To elaborate, the death of several Primordials in the setting's equivalent of the Titanomachy is the reason The Underworld exists. And one of the Primordials who surrendered, as a parting shot before her imprisonment, erased, by some estimates, ninety percent of Creation from existence down to a conceptual level. - The two remaining Primordials, who sided with the gods, are: Gaia (the Earth Mother, creator of the Five Elemental Dragons, who is in some way connected to Creation) and Autochthon (the inventor of Exaltation and the patron of technology, who later fled to Elsewhere and became a planet made of Steampunk). Both of them also happen to be the kindest of the Primordials even prior to the war, with Gaia having an all-encompassing empathy and Autochthon being particularly fond of humans and their skill at technology. - In 2e you can become a Titan yourself, if you're a Green Sun Prince. This means you tie your personal legend into Creation, and exist forevermore barring serious disasters. Since one of the Titans destroyed 90% of Creation back then, the job vacancy of Titan-hood is always open. - Magic: The Gathering: Many creatures are referred to as Titans, typically Giants or Beasts, including a five-creature cycle from Magic 2011 — Sun Titan Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan — introduced in Magic 2011; the Titan of Eternal Fire, a direct homage to Prometheus; and certain large Giant creatures from the plane of Theros. - Pathfinder: The titans were the first creations of the gods, and were made to be tall, mighty and beautiful. They grew to covet their creators' power over life and matter, and plotted to take it for their own. Their first attempts ended in failure — they lacked the gods' inherent connection to the universe, and their attempts to replicate it only led them to create a few powerful but highly dangerous artifacts such as the Codex of the Infinite Planes. Eventually, driven by jealousy of the gods' worship by the mortal races, they rose in open rebellion and attempt to overthrow their creators and exterminate all mortals. The current titan kindreds are divided by what role they took in the war and what fate befell them afterwards. - Elysian titans are those who remained loyal to the gods. They fought against their cousins and eventually retreated to the depths of Elysium's wilderness, where they still live. They mostly resemble beautiful humanoids seventy feet high. - Thanatotic titans consist of the main bulk of the rebellious forces. They were thrown into the depths of the Abyss after their defeat, where they attempted to mimic the gods' creation of the mortal species. The result was the demodands, twisted and hideous mockeries of life who still serve and revere their thanatotic masters. These titans are still ruled by hatred of their makers, and believe themselves the only entities deserving of worship and adoration. - Fomorian titans were also rebels, but their beauty was so great that gods could not bring themselves to mar it or act against it, and so they shackled the fomorians in blackened armor and imprisoned them across the universe. - The hekatonkheires, resembling hulking humanoids with chests bristling with heads and arms, were even more powerful and dangerous than the other rebel titans and were imprisoned in the far corners of existence. The ones seen from time to time in the present are their descendants, who while only possessing a fraction of their progenitors' power are still immensely mighty beings. - Danavas, who did not take part in the other titans' rebellion, were created to uphold and defend the laws of existence. They proved too severe and uncompromising in this role, however, and when they went to war with their younger, chaotic cousins the gods chained them in the depths of "endless seas at the cruxes of worlds" — potentially at the bottom of the Maelstrom, potentially somewhere far stranger. - As the Elysian titans walked across the planes after the war, they left metaphysical footprints that became the gigas. Despite being far lesser in might than the titans, the gigas were still large and mighty beings. Each was also closely attuned in nature, powers and alignment to the plane that gave it birth. In time, the gigas would go on to produce their own lesser descendants, which would become the first true giants. - In the Role Aids supplement Giants, the Titans were the first giants. They had godlike abilities and powers, including the ability to cast any spell at will, and have artistic abilities that outmatch those of any other culture. - In Scarred Lands, the Titans held sway over the planet Scarn, treating it as their plaything, creating and destroying casually as they went. Their children, the major gods, objected to this, as the Titans were laying waste to the world and their worshippers, and went to war against them; since the Titans could not be truly killed, the gods imprisoned and/or crippled the Titans so they could no longer roam free. One Titan, Denev the Earth Mother, sided with the gods, and remained free after the war, bending her efforts towards restoring Scarn. The setting's present day is about 150 years after the war ended, and there's a long way to go before Scarn is healed. - In Scion, Titans are Eldritch Abominations, elemental embodiments of fundamental concepts such as Sky, Fire, Darkness, Time, and Chaos, who are free of human shaping, hard to comprehend, and shape reality simply by existing. The Titans spawned the earliest gods, who sought to avoid being devoured by their predatory parents by anchoring themselves to humanity. Doing so allowed the gods to rise up against the Titans and imprison them; unfortunately, in the last few decades, the Titans have broken free, and once more seek their children's destruction. - The Titan unit from Age of Mythology: The Titans. In-game, Titans serve as the Pantheon of the Atlantean civilization, with Kronos, Oranos and Gaia as main gods, and others serving as minor ones. Barring Oceanus (who is blue-skinned, but otherwise human-looking) and Kronos (who is a giant rock demon), all of them look like Olympians. Furthermore, it's possible for each civilization to summon a gargantuan, city-destroying Titan to fight for them: Greeks have Cerberus, Egyptians have Horus, Norse have Ymir and Atlantineans have Perses. Yes, they took a little artistic license here and there.... - Brütal Legend: The Titans were the second generation of living beings. Huge, tremendously powerful (party technological), long-lived (collectively) enough to have Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence before the story begins, substantially reshaped the world (specifically modifying the trees and spiders, among other things), human-looking with human morality \|\|due to being humanity's ancestors\|\|... the only box they don't check is a rivalry with the gods, because the gods were dead before these Titans came around. - In Deltarune, Titans are explained to be gigantic, multi-eyed world-ending creatures that will form in an event called the Roaring if too many Dark Fountains are created. - The world of Dota 2 was forged by vaguely bull-like Precursors called Titans. Elder Titan, a playable character, is one of these. It should be noted that they aren't gods themselves, simply the first creatures in the universe. - In the Dragon Age setting, there are stories about mysterious, possibly mythical beings called Titans that live underground. As it turns out, \|\|the Titans have most of the usual titan traits; they're the largest and possibly the most powerful beings in the setting, they're extremely old, and they were defeated in a war similar to the Titanomachy.\|\| What sets them apart from many other examples is that \|\|they seem to have a symbiotic relationship with dwarves, which live in cities inside of them and are linked to their Titans and each other through some kind of Hive Mind. It also is revealed that Lyrium is their blood.\|\| - Titans in Dwarf Fortress are, essentially, ginormous randomized creatures spewing things like fire or random disease carrying clouds which can literally be made of anything. They're usually a bitch to kill, as they're immune to traps, temperature (including magma), pain, hunger, drowning, and a lot of other things. This varies significantly with what material, though: ones made of metals rival Bronze Colossi for Nigh-Invulnerability, but you'll occasionally get one made of a liquid that breaks into pieces with a single strike. Forgotten Beasts are a similar class of creature except found underground instead of above-ground. - Final Fantasy: Titan is an Earth-elemental summon who originally caused a great earthquake to do damage to enemies, but in Final Fantasy VII, for example, he picks up the ground the enemies are standing on, flips it over, and smashes it down. This guy dwarfs half of said game's bosses. The other half aren't dwarfed per se, but they're still smaller. - In God of War, barring those who look like Olympians such as Helios, Prometheus and Rhea, all the other Titans are mountain-sized beings that look somewhat human-ish. Some also are Elemental Embodiment(s) like Perses (Lava), Oceanus (Water/Lightning), Epimetheus (Rock), Gaea (Nature) and Typhon (Wind), who wasn't even a Titan in the myths. note : In fact, he was the father of all the famous Greek monsters like the Hydra, and was described as a mountain-sized beast with a dragon's head, writhing serpents for fingers, and wings that stretched across the sky while his arms could scrape the stars. Also, he was the only thing Zeus was afraid of. - Similar to the original myths, the Titans in Hades are long gone, with the Olympians now dominating Greece. Those that met them describe them as essentially horribly abusive parents (keeping up with the depiction of the Greek gods as one Big, Screwed-Up Family), but not that different from the Olympian and Chthonic gods in terms of power. Of note is that, like the other gods, they possessed a form of resurrective immortality. As a result, unlike other depictions where they were simply killed or imprisoned, in this version of the tale they were chopped up into a red paste and spread all across the pits of Tartarus so they couldn't regenerate. The result, Titan Blood, is still alive and lusting for violence, so Zagreus can use it to awaken and improve his weapons. - And for the sequel, Hades II, Chronos has come back and is now the main antagonist. - Titans are powerful units, lightning-wielding-giants, on the Wizard/Academy side in the Heroes of Might and Magic games. - In the RPG games, Might and Magic, they are enemies inhabiting the toughest locations you should normally visit as the game draws near end. Their stats are high and their HP is usually a mile above that of an army of goblins. They still keep their air magic affinity, but some have supplementary effects to their attacks, such as the strongest variety can kill your party member in one hit. The initial setting's Titans are sentient, albeit violent and strange giants who are somehow coerced to serve the wizards of Bracada occasionally. In the RPG series, they are violent and cruel beings that like to hang around dragons and simply dominate a region and attack anything that comes near, and crumble to rock when killed. Heroes Of Might And Magic Ashan has them changed into mighty battle constructs similar to golems, albeit huge. - The Titans in Hyper Light Drifter are four massive biomechanical abominations that destroyed the Precursors and their ancient civilization in the past, and are basically depicted as Expies of the God Warriors from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The corpses of three of them now litter the ruined world in regions where they were defeated, which are the levels you visit. \|\|The fourth one is still alive, but pretty much on life support in an ancient facility in the southern region, which is supposedly where the Titans were created and started their rampage; apparently the fourth took severe damage in the initial battle of the apocalypse and stayed behind while its brethren went out to destroy everything.\|\| - Mortal Kombat 11: Kronika, the game's Big Bad, is a being older than the Elder Gods, seeing as she is mother of two of them: Cetrion and Shinnok. She is actually called "Titan" at one point. - The Titans in Ogre Battle March Of The Black Queen are upgraded Giants, who are large, club-wielders, and are Wind/Lightning-aligned, and Palette Swap(s) of the other Giant upgrade classes like Frost/Fire Giants and vice versa. - Rygar has Titans as the main enemies. Some of them are living statues - some of them are apparently little worm-monsters. - Smite: Titans generally serve as the main objective of the game that a team has to destroy to win the game, one side is called Order Titan and the other being Chaos Titan. Some famous Titan-like deities that existed before the current age of deities also eventually became playable, but they take a smaller, more manage-able form. Some examples include Terra (the Roman counterpart of Gaia) and Atlas. - Sonic Frontiers: The main bosses of the games are the Titans, a group of Mechanical Abominations built by the Ancients that absolutely tower over all the other robot enemies in the game, even the Guardians. Sonic is tasked with destroying them all to rescue his friends from Cyberspace, but they're so powerful that he can only beat them in his Super Mode from collecting all the Chaos Emeralds, and even then they can still kill him if he acts too careless \|\|which is because they were created from and drew their power from the Chaos Emeralds as well. Unfortunately, destroying them also ends up releasing The End, which the Titans were created to fight and imprison in the first place, and it takes a combination of Super Sonic and the last Titan (piloted by Sage) to destroy it for good.\|\| - Titan Quest: there are the Telkines, eldritch-looking sorcerers with tentacles instead of legs that are said to be remnants of the Titans. In the last part of the game \|\|you have to defeat Typhon, a huge four-armored behemoth with tons of attacks.\|\| - In Warcraft Titans are a race of Magitek-using demi-gods who have the self-imposed duty of bringing order to the cosmos. They travel from world to world, terraforming them and populating them with seed races, usually golems or mechanical in nature though they were corrupted by the Old Gods to be made of flesh. After their work is done they depart for new worlds, leaving behind Watchers to maintain any facilities. \|\|At least, that was how it was until their strongest champion Sargeras went crazy after he had to kill an unborn Titan to prevent a greater threat and the others shunned him for it, then started a universe-destroying crusade to destroy everything his kind built to (in his mind) save the universe from said greater threat... and ended up killing all of them when they tried to stop him\|\|. - A later retcon makes the Titans even bigger: they start out as ensouled planets that turn into humanoids of the same size when they awaken. That's why they mostly have to use servants to fight their enemies on a planet — for fear of breaking everything. According to World of Warcraft: Chronicle volume 2, the Titan Aggramar passed by Draenor at one point and noticed that all life on it was going to be choked out by the rampant, sentient plant life. To stop this, he needed to partially destroy the plants, so he created a servant much smaller than himself to fight them. It was made from the largest mountain on the planet. A great many of the giants and humanoids on the planet in later ages, including the orcs, were descendants of this being. - The Old Gods are also somewhat of a fit to this trope, chaotic beings who sowed the first forms of life on Azeroth, controlled the elements, and were eventually defeated by a new pantheon. Though defeated, the Old Gods are not gone and have been working to undermine the work of the Titans and reclaim Azeroth for themselves. - Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has the entire universe be composed of an endless sea where the two titans stand. These country-sized titans note : Word of God says that they are the size of the Japanese archipelago are the organic Bionis and the mechanical Mechonis. It is said that they waged battle ages ago, before eventually reaching a stand-still. As the years passed, this lead to life growing in them, and the growth of a conflict between the people of Bionis and the Mechon from Mechonis. \|\|In reality, while the titans' physical shells are dormant, their spirits are very much alive. Also, the soul of Mechonis is the benevolent one who would like for her people to eventually grow independent of her, while the soul of Bionis views the life growing on him as food to grow stronger and stay alive.\|\| - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 continues this tradition. Titans are massive creatures (sometimes flying, sometimes swimming, occasionally both) that people inhabit and build cities on. \|\|They're also the final evolution that Blades eventually reach after multiple cycles of incarnation and storing up data from their various lives.\|\| However, while exceptionally Long-Lived they're not immortal, and it's a plot point that imperialism and military tensions between various nations are rising because the Titans are slowly reaching the ends of their lifespans and dying off while fewer and fewer new Titans large enough to support life are being discovered. \|\|This is because Praetor Amalthus has been sabotaging the Core Crystal-Blade-Titan life-cycle by erasing the accumulated data within crystals "cleansed" by the Indoline Prateorium that would let them evolve. Also, the world the Titans inhabit is what's left of our Earth after the universe-shattering experiment that created the world from the first game. And The Architect is the good half of the man who started that experiment and now sought to reseed life on Earth/Alrest, while his evil half became the soul of Bionis in the new universe.\|\| - Erfworld was created by the Titans of Ark, who look like giant Elvis Impersonators. - Deep Rise: The 'Royals' are living eldritch mountains that can fire laser beams, excrete acid fog, bleed lava, defy the laws of physics, explode with the force of a hydrogen bomb, and in-universe nothing gets past their armor. Their one 'weakness' is that they're literally a suicidal species, so they intentionally let their guard down just so the protagonists can put them out of their misery, and it always results in mass destruction. \|\|And they're everywhere in the galaxy, especially space\|\|. - Despite the name, Class of the Titans isn't about a classroom of Titans. However, it does have Cronus as the Big Bad. He isn't depicted much different to the Olympians in terms of power; he's the same size as a human (most of the time), he's human-looking, and he's completely immortal just like them. Oh, and he's a Time Master too. - Final Space: \|\|The 12 Titans are ancient, eldritch and malevolent entities that were sealed away in Final Space because when let loose, they destroy everything in their path. Lord Commander's plan is to free them because he believes that will turn him into one of them. The only Titan who is non-malevolent is one named Bolo. The reason the other Titans are all malevolent is because a purely evil entity named Invictus corrupted them all, with Bolo being the exception.\|\| - The Hercules animated series has appearances by Prometheus and Atlas, who are more human-looking and considerably more benign than the Always Chaotic Evil Titans in the film, though Atlas is still a self-centered jerk.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurTitansAreDifferent
Our Product Sucks - TV Tropes "This game sucks and anyone who likes it sucks. Penny Arcade sucks and is as funny as something that's not funny at all." Don't buy our product. No really, don't. It costs a lot, looks like the back end of a geriatric warthog, guzzles fuel by the gallon, tastes of stale cardboard and will make you look like a fool in front of the ladies. This might well be the worst product ever. At least, that's what these people say. Do you agree? Perhaps you should try it for yourself and see what the controversy is about! Yes, while most commercials are based around making it look like the product is the best thing under the sun, a rare few accept that the thing they advertise is not universally loved. This can be done as a Take That! against their detractors, or to give the product that "lovable underdog" image, or the impression of genuine honesty - at least they're not lying about how good they are, right? May function as Schmuck Bait or Reverse Psychology. Compare with Commercial Switcheroo (where the crappiness of the product is only in contrast to the real thing being advertised), Never Needs Sharpening (where the flaw is spun into a supposed asset) and Our Slogan Is Terrible (fictional slogans that do little to advertise their product). If the product or service really is as bad as this trope is claiming, they may be trying to invoke No Such Thing as Bad Publicity. Contrast with We Don't Suck Anymore, where the advertiser admits that its product used to suck. Asbestos-Free Cereal is when they imply the competition's product sucks more than they do. Not to be confused with Reverse Psycho. Also contrast Strawman Product and Self-Deprecation. Inverted Trope of Abusive Advertising, where the marketer claims the product is so good that you suck if you don't use it. ## Examples: - The reviews on the Blu-ray of Ninja Slayer say it all. "I dare you to watch" indeed... - "LOL NO." - "Hot garbage." - "This is easily one of the worst shows Funimation has ever licensed, maybe even THE worst." - The official write-up printed on Discotek Media's DVD release of Chargeman Ken! makes no bones about the show's "strange artwork, clumsy animation, and fantastically inept stories...some of which have been banned from Japanese TV altogether". Ouch. Its Crunchyroll listing isn't much kinder. - The normalman omnibus collection features choice quotes from positive reviews on the back cover, as well as one from a bad review that derides the comic as "sophomoric and juvenile". - The cover of The Defenders #8 (the 2001 relaunch) proudly featured a quote from Comics International referring to the series as "The worst comic ever produced". - A commercial for Joe Dirt once consisted entirely of negative reviews. - A poster for David Lynch's Lost Highway referenced its bad reviews from Siskel and Ebert, stating, "Two Thumbs Down. Two more great reasons to see Lost Highway!" - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me came out in the same summer as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A trailer for the former announced, "If you see one movie this summer, see Star Wars. If you see two, see Austin Powers." It didn't continue when Goldmember and Attack of the Clones both came out three years later; the trailers for Goldmember announced "If you see one movie this summer, see Austin Powers. If you see two, see Austin Powers again." - An extra on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD consists entirely of bad reviews from newspapers. - The DVD insert of Freddy Got Fingered is covered with utterly horrible reviews and one okay one. - The Asylum openly admits to solely churning out DVD after DVD of mockbusters, and are quite cynical about it. A blog entry advertising a sale on their films: "You'd have to illegally download to get a better deal than that... but then you'd just be stooping to our level...". - Jesus, Bro! proudly boasts on one special edition cover that it received zero out of five doves from the Dove Foundation, though this is more of a Take That! at the Foundation. - Tom Lehrer's albums feature quotes from his worst reviews, under the banner "Critical disdain for Tom Lehrer!" - "Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste." - His first live album was called An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. The jacket included a narrative claiming that that the entire thing had been made up on the spot in a desperate and unsuccessful attempt to salvage a boring dinner party, and was accidentally recorded by a passing sound engineer. - Some of the album jackets (depending on when they were originally issued) also list his other albums, under the heading of "If you did not enjoy this album, you will almost certainly not enjoy..." - Depeche Mode's singles collections also include less-than-positive critical responses, such as "I have often wondered why God bothered with Depeche Mode" and "What do you expect from this bunch of lame dickheads?" - Reel Big Fish often sold simple black t-shirts with the slogan "I Hate Reel Big Fish." - Tim Booth, lead singer of James, can be seen proudly wearing a "James Suck" t-shirt in the Best Of inlay. They've sold plenty more at concerts. - KMFDM has at least one song per album brimming equally with arrogance and self-mockery, including "KMFDM Sucks!". "Intro" singles out each member by name to lampoon; the chorus says that their music is unoriginal and unlikely to change, but it's worked for so long that there's no point in changing. - Green Jellö began with the goal of becoming the World's Worst Band, and lampshaded it with the song, and fan-favorite chant, "Green Jellö Sucks!" After a lawsuit from Kraft over the brand name for their gelatin, the band changed the name to Green Jellÿ (the umlaut over the 'y' changes the pronunciation to 'O'). Now the original slogan doubles as a Take That! to Jell-O. - Primus had "Primus Sucks" as their slogan for many years. - The cd case for Metallica's single "Whiskey In The Jar" was slathered with the terrible reviews for the double Cover Album it came from, Garage Inc. - Limp Bizkit's Significant Other opens with a voice saying "You wanted the worst... you got the worst. The one... the only... Limp Bizkit." - The outro to the album adds: "You wanted the best? Then go get the fuckin' Backstreet Boys album!" And the rest of what the voice says is just insults to the listeners. - Not quite music, but the cover art for Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album is a white-label record in a dog-eared paper sleeve, with handwritten notations on it that read "Can T.G. do a nice eye-catching cover to help it sell? E.I." / "Not really worth it. -T.J." (Note that the title is accurate — this really wasn't something the Pythons were enthusiastic about.) - Brad Sucks is the stage name of indie musician Brad Turcotte. - The Great Luke Ski titled one of his CDs "Worst Album Ever", combining this trope with a Simpsons reference from one of its songs. - Mindless Self Indulgence, who are known for their quirky, self-deprecating humor. In their early concerts, they often played to hostile crowds that disliked them and would yell insults such as "MSI sucks!" The result? The band began selling official t-shirts with the slogan "MSI SUX!" - Insane Clown Posse are prone to this sometimes. They once aired a commercial on MTV that consisted entirely of them boasting about the fact that their music videos would never be acceptable to air on that channel. - Ivor Biggun's first compilation records of "Greatest Hits" was released as, among other titles, "The Wurst of Ivor Biggun". - The Worst of Jefferson Airplane. - The late 90s/early 2000s One-Hit Wonder Eve6 played across the nation on the "We Suck Live!" Tour. - And from Neil Young: People tell us that we play too loud They don't know what our music's about We never listened to the record company man He tried to screw us and ruin our band! - NSYNC owned shirts that said "Boy Bands Suck"◊, while Chris Kirkpatrick owned an "NSUCK" baseball cap◊. When Carson Daly slipped up and called the group "NSTINK," Chris insisted that the proper mockery of their name was the aforementioned "NSUCK." - NOFX titled their first live album I Heard They Suck Live!!; over a decade later, they followed it up with They've Actually Gotten Worse Live!, with a completely different setlist. - Comedian Henny Youngman's The Primitive Sounds of Henny Youngman and Sol Hurok Does Not Present...The Best of the Worst...of Henny Youngman. The back of the latter album contains quotes such as "This recording may be hazardous to your health" and "Double your money back if you like this album." - Many Pearls Before Swine books play with this. For example, the back of one of the book collections (50 Million Pearls Fans Can't Be Wrong) has some nasty comments from fellow comic artists about Pastis and his work, with a touch of Self-Deprecation as his own characters zing him about his ego. - In a Garfield strip, Garfield watches a TV ad for "Honest Arnie's Used Car Emporium". Arnie's cars are as bad as expected from this kind of dealership but Arnie is really honest about them. Honest Arnie: You want cars?! We've got cars!! Here's a sweet 2009 minivan... candy apple red, and only driven off a cliff twice! And how about this little beauty? Just 30,000 miles, and absolutely no, that's right... no brakes! Want an economy car? Look no further! It's a V-8, but only four of them work! Think of the gas savings! Like folks to know you're coming? The engine in this stunner shrieks like a debutant at a rat convention! So come on down to Honest Arnie's used car emporium, and push one of these bargains off our lot! Garfield: He never sells anything, but he is honest. - Car Talk does this frequently; among other examples, at the end of the show they announce, "Well, it's happened again: you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk." And if you listen via podcast, you also get interstitials letting you know you can download and listen to classic ("and by 'classic,' we mean..." "...old.") episodes via their website. They then mention one of a number of reasons why you might want to do such a thing. ("For example, if you're a dentist and you want to remind your patients that there are worse things than a root canal.") - Brazilian comedy program Graffite has "The worst program in radio" as its slogan, and the hosts' nickname for the show is "garbage dump". They even get guests to record soundbites criticizing the program. - Opie & Anthony ridicule their own show all the time, both on the air and in their promos. - When they asked guest Michael Madsen what was "the biggest piece of crap ever that he was a part of", he replied "This show!" The clip was used in many O&A promos. - Jim Norton suggested they title the show replays "Five Hours Of Complete Horseshit, Again". - One rejoin goes "See? Told you we had sponsors!" - An older promo has the tagline "Making the First Amendment seem like a bad idea". - I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue was punctuated by the host Humph commenting on horrible the programme was, both in concept and execution; implying that he wanted to be somewhere (indeed, anywhere) else; wondering why anyone would be listening to this; suggesting their listener numbers were in single figures; etc. The contestants often agreed. - An in-universe example occurs in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Mrs. Lovett, having noticed Todd walking in, immediately sits him down and offers him a meat pie, but freely admits (in song, no less) that her pies are "probably the worst pies in London." Judging by Todd's reaction, she's not wrong. - Nintendo Power's coverage of EarthBound (a game that Nintendo itself was releasing) revolved around the claim that the game is offensive and disgusting and you shouldn't play it. The part that's famous is the tagline "This Game Stinks!" Thing is, this was referring to the scratch-and-sniff cards Nintendo Power was distributing to promote the game. Sadly, this one backfired; the ads, along with a number of other factors, actually contributed to the game's low sales in America. Thankfully, Nintendo knuckled down by the time of the much-hyped Virtual Console release and released it with a new ad campaign that represents the game as a whole much more accurately. - Parodied with this promotional video for the PS3 downloadable game PAIN. "My kids are NOT playing this!" -Suzy Homemaker - Dwarf Fortress. "Losing is fun". This actually makes sense in context, as the meaning is less "this game isn't fun" and more "you'll enjoy yourself, but only if you accept that Failure Is the Only Option". - British video game publisher Firebird released in April 1985 a compilation for the ZX Spectrum called Don't Buy This: Five of the Worst Games Ever, featuring five otherwise-rejected games for the Spectrum that had been submitted to Firebird. Such was their contempt for the product that they actually encouraged users to copy or pirate Don't Buy This. - A borderline example: when DuckTales Remastered had a launch trailer, it started with quotes from several famous game designers about how the original game had influenced their designs, and how it was extremely well-designed and beloved when it was originally released. Then Tim Schafer "provided" the quote of "Please stop asking me for a quote." Which they gleefully used in the trailer. - The webpage for the Doom mod Reelism opens with this gem: The Doom mod that everyone vaguely pretends to tolerate has returned for another round, and this time we've somehow managed to pack in even more stupid! - WarioWare: - Goat Simulator. It's absolutely filled with bugs, but that was completely intentional, because it's funny as hell. The game absolutely revels in the fact that it's a hilariously buggy mess; there's even an achievement for crashing the game! - Crazy Earl in Borderlands 2 has shades of this when you first meet him. He describes the fuel cell you need to buy off of him as "crap" and tells you that just touching it made two of his fingers rot off. - The BattleBlock Theater trailer for the steam release is effectively this, with the narrator frequently taking stabs at the Behemoth for releasing a PC port with numerous trailers over a long wait. Narrator: (reading) "There's brand new cat-guard enemies." (flat) Probably implemented in order to sell more toys and t-shirts. [offscreen shouting] Narrator: You're on thin ice! I'm trying to be a professional, shut up! (reading) "Steam Workshop support for sharing and playing levels." (flat) Say, is that anything like Behemoth sweat-shop support? [thudding sound] Narrator: Ow! You are so lucky that I'm a coward! - Best Fiends has a Webby Award-winning commercial advising the players against their game, tilted "Don't Download Best Fiends". - The Outer Worlds: Everyone knows that Spacer's Choice products are cheaply-made crap, even Spacer's Choice, hence their slogan openly admitting, "It's not the best choice, it's Spacer's Choice!" - The Elder Scrolls: In-Universe examples: - Daggerfall: The in-universe play Fools' Ebony repeatedly gives tongue-in-cheek apologies about how bawdy and low-quality it is. " Our poor players will try and remember their lines and not trip over our meager set. I beg you, the audience, not to heckle, badger, or throw rotten foodstuffs. You will only make this short play last longer. The Guild of Playwrites, Actors, and Dramatists wish any of you who are sensitive or allergic to rambling dialogue, wooden acting, incomprehensible exposition, or unsatisfying endings that leave one confused and unhappy to exit the theatre immediately. Your gold will, alas, not be refunded. As a saving grace, this series of vignettes contains gratuitous references to all pleasures of the flesh. You may enjoy it." - Oblivion: Edgar Vautrine of Edgar's Discount Spells brags that the spells in his shop aren't the best, but they are cheap. NPCs in town sound dubious about the notion of a "discount spell", but the player character can use them without drawbacks. - 8-Bit Theater: An advertising slogan for the Nuklear Power store insults both the products and the consumers. "Buy some nerd clothes. On the Internet. Nerd." - Penny Arcade game was advertised with this endorsement: "Penny Arcade sucks and is unfunny. please murder penny arcade and then yourself if you disagree with me." The use of the quote is a Take That! against a flamer who repeatedly posted similar comments online. - Jesus and Mo has a "What They're Saying" section, the final quote being "...humor is humor and this cartoonist doesn't have it." - Karl Giberson. - The tagline for Our Little Adventure is: "Highest quality fantasy for the lowest common denominator." - Spamusement has a section called What they're saying about Spamusement! - representative quotes include "Who does he think he is? someone funny? nope" and "I would say Syphilis is funnier". - Awkward Zombie has the section on the site's forum dedicated to the webcomic itself adorned with the tagline "WHY DOES THIS COMIC SUCK". Yep, with no question mark. - Forest Hill has an In-Universe example. When the Locket family is driving to their new home, they stop at a fast food restaurant called "Wurst's" and the cashier says "Welcome to Wurst's, where our food is always the worst." Colin orders two Wurst kid's meals and a Wurst burger combo. - In BIGTOP BURGER, the titular food truck joint's main rival, Zomburger, prides itself on having the worst, most inedible food possible. Cesare, the business owner, proclaims that they're "practically selling charcoal on a bun". Their main draw comes from social media posts from customers sharing and promoting the kitschy zombie theme and how awful the food is, instead of the quality of the food itself. - The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada advertises that it exclusively serves extraordinarily unhealthy food. In addition to the already high-calorie menu, guests who weigh over 350 pounds eat for free, and if you aren't able to finish your meal, one of the waitresses (or "nurses") will spank you with a paddle while the rest of the customers enjoy the show. The restaurant's owner, Jon Basso, claims that his intentionally pro-fat gimmick serves a threefold purpose: One, to boil down what other fast-food chains eventually do to long-term customers in as honest a way as possible. Two, to weed out folks either too dumb or uncaring about their own health to avoid eating at the establishment. And three, simply because it makes money. - Brazilian comedian Tiririca ran for the Chamber of Deputies with the slogan "It can't get any worse." He was elected as the second most-voted congressman in the country's history. It's important to note, however that him being elected was a means of protesting against politicians in general. It went more or less "if the goverment thinks the people are clowns, then we'll put a clown in Congress". Even more surprising is the fact that he continues to serve after 11 years as of 2022, being reelected not once but twice. - Also from Brazil, football team Ibis describes itself as "The Worst Team in the World" ever since a rotten streak in the 70s where they spent 55 games across nearly 4 years without a win. Their mascot is named "Little Defeat" and they are very popular in social media by relying heavily on Self-Deprecation. - Kinky Friedman's slogans for his 2006 campaign for Texas governor included "Why The Hell Not?" and "How Hard Could It Be?". - Similarly, Jello Biafra's slogans for his 1979 campaign for mayor of San Francisco included "What If He Does Win?" and "There's always room for Jello" (the latter taken from a Jello advert). - Newgrounds used to have the ad slogan of "The Problems of the Future, Today." This has since been changed. - The motto of This Very Wiki is "TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life". - Bootleg DVDs and video games will sometimes feature negative reviews of the product on the packaging, where you'd expect to see positive reviews. Hooray for honesty? - Hulu: TV is rotting your brain, and Hulu speeds up the process. The sooner you're done, the sooner the TV industry (really aliens) can slurp out your brains and gobble them up. Hulu: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy! - Rob Liefeld has, in recent years, become well-aware that he is not the God-King of all Comic Artists as he once thought he was, and now refers to himself as the most hated man in comics. Which is still pretty egotistical when you think about it. - Doctor Steel fully admits that he's a mad scientist bent on ruling the world, and puts the label "Propaganda" on all his media. People are willing to support him anyway, because what he plans to do with the world once he's ruling it is awesome. - During the Cold War, several Eastern European resistance groups used this in the 60's to avoid government censorship. Instead of releasing propaganda directly, they distributed newspapers describing the treasonous publications their fine leaders had put down, refuted, or nipped in the bud. Those subversive publications were described in excruciating detail. - It's disappointingly not a real advertisement, but the parody Big Bill Hell's ad is a combination of this and Take That, Audience!. The place outright advertises itself as home to, among other things, the sport of "Challenge Pissing", the rudest car dealers in Baltimore, and Alleged Cars galore at terrible prices, but maintains that you'd be dumb enough to buy from them even after knowing this. If you think you're gonna find a bargain at Big Bill's, you can kiss my ass! It's our belief that you're such a stupid motherfucker, you'll fall for this bullshit, guaranteed! - The Alamo Draft House, a theater in Austin, Texas, put up a YouTube video featuring an angry, profane voicemail from a customer complaining after being kicked out for using her cellphone. Of course, the customer's ranting doesn't make her sound very pleasant, so the message is really "our no-cellphone policy helps keep jerks like this out of our theater". - British comedian Stewart Lee loves this trope. After coming 41st in a Channel 4 Top 100 list of "the best stand-up comedians", he launched a stand-up tour called the "41st Best Stand Up Ever!" He is also fond of telling people that the start of the show that they probably won't like it and is also constantly berating himself throughout most of his routines. - This has been a mainstay joke of MAD Magazine almost since its beginning. They refer to their artists and writers as "The Usual Gang of Idiots" and make frequent jabs at how awful the magazine is. They even go so far as to insult their readers, the point being that anyone who would actually read the magazine must be a moron. - Farrell's, a chain of old-time ice cream restaurants, had a huge banana-split sundae called the "Pig's Trough", served in a dish resembling a wooden trough. If one person could eat it all, they would receive a badge or banner reading "I made a pig of myself at Farrell's". - The World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta has a room where visitors can sample Coke products from all over the world. One such product, called Beverly, has gained a reputation as being exceptionally foul-tasting. Even the museum's intro video gets in on the joke, with the characters in the video mocking how awful it is. - An example where this went horribly right: Gerald Ratner was executive chairman of the major British jewellery company Ratners Group, which marketed inexpensive luxury items at reduced prices. The line was wildly successful with the public, despite being perceived as "tacky" by wealthier shoppers, until Ratner gave an infamous speech in which he declared: People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap." ...[We] sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a shrimp sandwich from Marks and Spencer, but probably wouldnt last as long." - Stephen Elop's "Burning Platform" memo wrecked Nokia much like Ratner's fiasco, but far worse. He painted Symbian (their immensely popular bread-and-butter) as hopelessly outdated, upcoming MeeGo as vaporware that would not be finished on time, and the whole company as lost against more agile rivals. It is speculated that Elop was a Microsoft trojan, and the memo's real purpose was to force a move to Windows Phone. Well, it did... but also caused Symbian's sales to crash almost overnight, and angered mobile carriers heavily invested on Nokia's ecosystem. When their WP-based devices finally came out ( after their only MeeGo device), sales were dismal, as their old customer base had moved on to Android and iOS by then.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurProductSucks
Your Princess Is in Another Castle! - TV Tropes "THIS ROOM IS AN ILLUSION AND IS A TRAP DEVISUT BY SATAN. GO AHEAD DAUNTLESSLY! MAKE RAPID PROGRES [sic]!" The plot has been resolved... but the work isn't actually over yet. Before long, there's a twist thrown in. Alternately the plot looks all resolved, and we've almost reached the end, so it actually seems like everything's working out... but then the writers pull a Cliffhanger situation to finish everything off. In terms of providing a genuine surprise, the trope works to varying degrees in different media, from being nearly unusable in books (the reader can tell how much is left by page count, but unexpected sequels can occasionally catch one by surprise) to completely effective in single-media computer games, particularly RPGs. For some reason, there has been a trend of including a segment which transparently pretends to be the climax or endgame when it obviously isn't, not just because there are vast expanses of the map you haven't explored yet or plot threads that haven't been tied up yet, but because you're still on Disc 1 of 4. Expect to see The Man Behind the Man make his first appearance, perhaps offing the guy you thought was the Big Bad, as well as a Climax Boss or two and maybe a traitor. The heroes may find that a minor crime has revealed a major plot. When done at the end of a movie, it is used as a tease for a sequel. Of course, that could depend on whether the movie is good/successful enough to warrant a sequel. A Sequel Reset or Happy Ending Override often invalidates previous accomplishments of the hero. In Crime and Punishment Series, this trope usually results in the detained suspect being Acquitted Too Late. In RPGs, this often takes the form of a Disc-One Final Dungeon. See also Snicket Warning Label, Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, "Shaggy Dog" Story and Hope Spot. Closely related to You Can't Thwart Stage One and Heads I Win, Tails You Lose; may also overlap with Failure Is the Only Option. May result from someone Moving the Goalposts. Compare Victory Fakeout and Trick Boss. If the twist never comes, Ending Fatigue awaits. Contrast Left Hanging and Spoiled by the Format. See also The Stinger. Derives its name from Super Mario Bros., where after all but the final castle level, a rescued Toad thanks Mario but tells him "Our Princess is in Another Castle." ## Examples: <!—index—> <!—/index—> - 20th Century Boys is all about a group of friends reuniting to stop a masked cult leader known only as ''Friend'' from taking over the world, based on a pretend evil plot that they dreamt up in their youth out of boredom. The first part of the series is all about them trying to uncover the cult's plot, which they learn involves destroying Tokyo with a giant mech on the final day of the Twentieth Century. Eventually the attack happens and they set out to stop it. Seeing as how everything so far's been building up to this moment, we must be at the climax of the series, right? Nope, you're only 5 volumes into a 24 volume series, buddy. Turns out that Friend was using the robot (which is actually a fake) so he could destroy it himself and make him and his cult look the hero, whilst framing the actual heroes. Suddenly, the story jumps forward 15 years and Friend is now the leader of an oppressive Japan, with most of the main characters scattered, in prison, or presumed dead. Oh crap. - Bakuman。: The main characters consistently come really close to accomplishing their dreams, only to have to restart from the beginning due to some unforeseen reason. - Black Cat leaves you in disbelief when it pulls this off in episode (if you are watching it on DVD and so realise that it has to end somehow at Episode 24). So, at Episode 20, Creed Diskenth is finally defeated, and carried off by Echidna Parass after Eve disables the nano-machines in his body, making him mortal, and then Mason suddenly turns up, accompanied by Doctor, Shiki and several Chrono numbers, announcing that they plan to shape a new world order, resulting in an arc that is even more extravagant than the Apostles of the Stars arc, but that lasts just 4 episodes. - In Code Geass R2 Episode 15, Charles pulls this on Lelouch. After Lelouch geasses Charles to die, which he does, he realizes that he didn't get any answers out of him and starts regretting killing him right off the bat. Wait, Charles is immortal?! Oh, Crap!. - Episode 22 of the first season: Wait, Euphemia's peace proposal is genuine, viable and she knows about Lelouch? My, this could not only solve the episode's issues, but the whole season's main conflict. All they need to do is to walk to the stage and announce it. But the episode is only halfway through... - Episode 11 of Cowboy Bebop has most of the cast in a position (suffering from an unknown poison and days away from coming into human contact) where we're left to assume they all died, apparently. Episode 12 begins with Spike waking up scared from a really bad nightmare. - Death Note: About two thirds of the way through the full story line, Light Yagami uses Misa and Rem to defeat L and then assumes his identity, becoming the 2nd L. L-Kira exalts in finally becoming the God of the New World... Five years later, Light is delighted to discover that 1st L had made provisions for his defeat; he has successors eager to avenge him and show their worth by defeating the one who killed their hero. - In Delicious in Dungeon the party finally slays the Red Dragon, gets Laios's sister back (with complications), and is preparing to return to the surface with the mission a success. All's well that ends well, right? But then a dark elf who is apparently the Lunatic Magician who rules the dungeon appears, drops most of the party through a hole in the ground to what is almost certain death, and takes Falin away, having plans for her as she is now half-dragon (due to being revived by Marcille using the red dragon's corpse as components. Now, Laios begrudgingly accepts that they have to return to the surface to restock on supplies so they can tackle the dungeon again and save his sister. Again. - In Digimon Frontier, after a long and fierce battle, the Legendary Warriors finally defeat Cherubimon, who has been seen as the Big Bad of the series. Then it's revealed that Cherubimon was actually an Unwitting Pawn, having been corrupted by the Man Behind the Man — Lucemon. - In Dragon Ball Z: Goku teleports himself and Cell, who is about to self destruct and take Earth with him, to King Kai's planet. Cell explodes, destroying the planetoid and killing Goku, King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory and Cell himself. It looks like the nightmare's finally over. Then Cell comes back, having managed to regenerate from nearly nothing and having received a massive power-up thanks to his Saiyan DNA (Saiyans receive a power-up after recovering from near-death), and gaining the ability to return to Earth via Goku's Instant Transmission because Cell can learn any technique he's exposed to. - Later, during the battle against Majin Buu, Vegeta, after a lengthy ride through the HeelFace Revolving Door, sacrifices himself in a final attempt to vaporize the Majin. It looks like he actually pulled it off... Then Buu regenerates. - This happens a lot with Buu. Vegeta thinks he's vaporized Buu with his suicide attack? Buu's regeneration can overpower that. Mr. Satan manages to befriend and talk down Buu? Cue a couple of moronic gunmen shooting him and unleashing Buu's Superpowered Evil Side. Super Buu is blown to bits and then burned in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber? His regen's got that covered. Trapped in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber? He can tear holes between dimensions by screaming. Gohan is now powerful enough to overpower Super Buu? Buu absorbs him. All the Z warriors plus Fat Buu are torn out of Super Buu, reducing him to a childlike form? This one's the worst of them all, because what he lacks in power he more than makes up for in sheer insanity. - This is practically Dragon Ball's hat. You defeated the evil green demon lord with a headbutt through the stomach! Hey, what was that coming out of his mouth? Oh well. You defeated your evil brother from space! ...His much more powerful friends will be along shortly. You defeated the alien warlords! ...But the Plot Coupons that can revive your fallen comrades are on another planet, being hunted by their boss. You defeated their boss and have an "Everybody Laughs" Ending! ...He rises up and kills your best friend. Okay, you DEFINITELY killed him this time! ...He comes back as a cyborg. This cool new guy killed the cyborg! ...Andro-what-now? Wait, these androids don't seem like much of a problem... turns out, these aren't the real androids, and the real ones are far more powerful. Okay, so the new androids have turned out to be pretty chill — now who's that mysterious green dude drinking people with his tail? - Zamasu in Dragon Ball Super continues the trend, having to be killed three times to finally put him down. Beerus atomizes him in the past? Because of time travel shenanigans, his future selves continue to be a problem. Being bisected from the groin up after enduring a brutal beatdown from \|\|Vegito\|\|? Hi there, Infinite Zamasu. In the end, after either \|\|merging his soul with the Future Trunks multiverse or cloning himself indefinitely with each clone having all the power of Fused Zamasu\|\|, it takes \|\|Future Zen'o causing a Apocalypse How Class X 5 to the timeline\|\| to finally put him down for good. - Fairy Tail: After everybody combines their strength to prevent the lacrima from crashing into Extalia, Erza Knightwalker shoots Pantherlily In the Back, and her army arrives to attack the heroes. - The end of the Tenrou Island arc. The group manage to fend off the dark guild Grimoire Heart and protect the island. All seems well and the only matter now is to have the heroes heal up... And then an evil dragon unintentionally summoned appears. - The Fist of the North Star TV series has a literal example of this trope as Kenshiro enters the hideout of his rival Shin to rescue his kidnapped fiance Yuria, only to be told by Shin's informant and Filler Villain Joker that Shin has moved his army to a new hideout. This also happens in The Movie, when Kenshiro arrives too late to Southern Cross after Raoh has beaten Shin and taken Yuria. - Well, Ed, after only a couple of volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist spanning a few years of misadventures and a recent attack by a serial alchemist-killer, you've finally found a guy who has the thing that will solve all your problems: the Philosopher's Stone. Wait, he won't give it to you? It's got a terrible secret? Well, crap. - Occurs in Fushigi Yuugi. Miaka's quest to summon the god Suzaku looks like it's on track to succeed, but when they finally get all the warriors together for the critical ceremony, it's sabotaged. This requires the good guys to go searching for the Cosmic Keystones that will allow them to try again, which takes up the second half of the series. And ironically, as a direct result of their efforts to sabotage the Suzaku ceremony, the Seiryuu warriors also are prevented from summoning their god, and have to go looking for the same magical items. - GaoGaiGar FINAL serves up a variation in the form of a battle with a bit of a Lensman Arms Race thrown in. Several times during the final battle between 3G and the Sol Masters, it looks as if one side or the other has won the fight only for the other side to come back and kick some more ass. First, all the good guys transform/combine and bust out their best moves, only for the Sol Masters to regenerate and "kill" the heroes. Then Mamoru gets a Determinator moment that kicks off a slew of My Name Is Inigo Montoya moments from the defeated heroes, coupled with more than a few Limit Breaks and Eleventh Hour Superpowers which seem to defeat the villains for real... only for the villains to regenerate in droves, and seemingly kill off any hope for the heroes to win... - In Higurashi: When They Cry, the main characters are all dead, there's a nice ending monologue, and everything looks wrapped up... in the fourth episode. Turns out it is over... Onikakushi-hen, anyway... - Towards the end of Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, Turiavita is destroyed, their island vaporized, and their attack on the city over. However, since all five idol cores were in the same area, Auryn appears where the moon once was and threatens the world, requiring the heroines to stop it in the next (and final) episode. - Inuyasha: Happens a lot to Team Inuyasha whenever they battle Naraku; by the time he goes down for good, they've been to as many castles and killed as many fake Big Bads as Mario himself. - Legend of the Galactic Heroes has 'invasions to end the war' happening near constantly. Given that the show is 110 episodes long, no one is really expecting invasions in Episodes 20 or 40 to really succeed. - Subverted in Magical Circle Guru-Guru. After our heroes have defeated their first boss, Kasegi Gold, the stage he appeared on lights up and the heroes freak because they think something worse is about to show up. The good news is, it's just the Old Kita Kita Man. The bad news is that, given Kita Kita Man is an old guy in a hula skirt who dances non-stop, he is arguably worse than Kasegi Gold. - Mazinger Z: Big Bad Dr. Hell is defeated before the final episode... and, needless to say, the final episode wasn't just a peaceful day. Basically, one of the Co-Dragons was a Dragon with an Agenda was working for a Greater-Scope Villain, and he sent several Robeasts to destroy Mazinger-Z, more powerful than anything Dr. Hell had ever built. They completely succeeded in destroying all Humongous Mecha of the heroes and their Home Base, but before Kouji got killed, he was saved by Tetsuya Tsurugi and his brand-new Humongous Mecha performing the first of his many Big Damn Heroes. All of it was done to set up the sequel, Great Mazinger. - The central plot of My-HiME seemingly gets resolved with the defeat of the Searrs Ancient Conspiracy. Even the end credits change... except that can't possibly be it, as it's only Episode 15 of 26. In the next episode, a rather cruel twist is promptly thrown in. - The manga version also throws this in halfway through, when the HiME unite to defeat Nagi and the Orphans. Right after their celebration, Searrs arrives on the scene and shoots everything to hell by deposing Mashiro as headmaster and effectively holding the entire school hostage, stating that she and the HiME have outgrown their purpose now that the Orphans are "no longer a threat". - Naruto: Well Sasuke, you finally killed your brother and avenged your clan... wait Itachi was doing it because higher-ups at Konoha told him to? Fuck. - In the Land of Birds filler arc, Naruto, Tenten and Neji seemingly prove that the Strategist impersonated the Cursed Warrior in order to plan a coup at the end of the second episode in the arc. The arc gets more complex from there. - One Piece: Well, Luffy, it seems you finally got to the Sixth Level of Impel Down to rescue your imprisoned older brother. Sure it literally took ten years off your life and you had to suffer eighteen hours of excruciating agony to be healed after being wiped off the floor by the head warden, but at least you got there in ti— Oh, Crap!, it looks like you just missed your brother being transferred to his execution site! Tough break, buddy. - Near the end of Pokémon the Series: XY, during the climax of Team Flare's plot, Ash, Alain, and Malva manage to defeat Lysandre (who seems to jump off Prism Tower) while Clemont shuts off the device controlling both Zygarde and Serena and Marian rescue Marian's Chespin, Chespie, meaning Team Flare has been stopped. WRONG! Chespie is then sucked into the Megalith at Lysandre Labs, which takes on the form of Zygarde and heads for the Anistar Sundial with the intent of consuming it and creating an energy wave that will end all life. However, Ash and Alain enter the Megalith and rescue Chespie, with the thing shutting down. All over, right? WRONG AGAIN! Lysandre is revealed to still be alive and is now controlling the Megalith, keeping it on its destination. - Happens in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion. Everything seems to be all neatly wrapped up and set for a moderately happy ending... when suddenly Homura decides that she's had enough of Madoka sacrificing her own life for everyone else's sake and uses The Power of Love to become the Satan to Madoka's God, forcibly seal her powers and creating a Lotus-Eater Machine world for her to live in. This is the "rebellion" the title was referring to, and it happens within the last 10-15 minutes or so of the movie. There were hints that this would happen, but they were so vague and subtle that the ending took almost everyone off guard. - At the end of Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0, Shinji apparently starts Third Impact, which those who have watched the original know marks the end of things. This early? Even those who haven't would guess that it's not over given that four films are intended. Well, nope. A lance impales Unit 01 and Kaworu descends in Unit 06. Time to wait for 3.0! - The trope actually pulled double-duty; way to stop Third Impact there, Kaworu, you saved the human race! \|\|Wrong, Third Impact happened in those ten or so seconds. More than 90% of the already barely surviving human race is dead and gone. Almost the entirety of 3.0 is one side or the other of the civil war between the remnants of NERV (Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Rei and Kaworu) and everyone else seemingly about to win only for enough plot twists to arise to make M. Night Shyamalan get dizzy!\|\| - 3.0 pulls this trope again: according to Kaworu, he and Shinji can use the two spears buried deep beneath NERV to undo the damage from (Near) Third Impact. But when they get there, there are two identical spears, instead of the two different ones Kaworu expected to find. Shinji tries to use them anyway, and ends up causing yet another Impact. Kaworu kills himself to stop it, thoroughly traumatizing Shinji and putting everyone else back to square one. - A couple of good examples from R.O.D the TV: In the first episode, a nameless villain tries to take out Nenene with a bomb. He gives a little speech and gets beaten up by the Paper Sisters. Nenene waves goodbye and boards her plane back to Japan. Cue credits? Nope, turns out the bomber's brother is waiting for her on the plane. Later in the series, the sisters are sent back home to Hong Kong and what follows is a sweet episode about Anita saying goodbye to her friends at school, and Hisa trying to work up the nerve to express her feelings to Anita. The girls have their positive moment, and just when you think it's over, Lee strolls in, reveals that he actually works for Dokusensha, and kidnaps Nenene with a group of armed guards. - Happens in many Magical Girl series, but notably in Sailor Moon S. The Dragon is cornered, Sailor Moon is powering up her attack, it's even playing the Moon Spiral Heart Attack stock footage — but it's way too early in the episode for it, the stock footage is intercut with the Dragon's reaction, and the background music hasn't segued into Sailor Moon's theme ... you're not even supposed to think this is going to work. - Episode 23 of SoltyRei ends with Ashley and Eunomia defeated, and the city rebuilding, complete with Hard-Work Montage. Unfortunately, Solty discovers that Eirene is about to pull a Colony Drop on the city. Not good. - In the 1980's Speed Racer episode "The Race for Life", Speed managed to have the antidote to save the mayor of a South American village from snakebite poison delivered on time, thwarting the local crime boss's plan to take the mayor's place and get the village's treasure while also exposing that the crime boss was the one behind the mayor's poisoning. Everything should be wrapped up, only for the crime boss to then declare that if he can't be in charge of the village, then there will BE no village, his henchmen setting the village on fire, releasing bulls to trample over it, and him taking the treasure during the chaos, prompting Speed to chase after him. - Happens in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Simon leads an army of rebels to destroy the evil king that's forcing humanity to live underground. The mission is a success, the empire is destroyed, and everyone lives happily ever after... until it's revealed years later that the king was keeping them underground to hold off a larger enemy in space. Guess what happens next? - Used in Voltes V, in regards to the whereabouts of Professor Kentarou Go. One of his sons' and disciples' main goals is to find him. And they do. But Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You guys... - In The World God Only Knows, great job, Vulcan! Thanks to you, the cursed knife is pulled out, and Kanon is saved! Huh? Why isn't she waking up...? Apollo put herself in magical stasis to survive the curse, and we need to find your sister Mercury to get through to her? Here We Go Again!. - In Yu-Gi-Oh!: - Just when Seto Kaiba is about to save his little brother, Pegasus traps Mokuba's soul in a trading card. Parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, when Pegasus actually says: "I'm afraid your Princess is in another castle, Kaiba-boy." - Also a common structure for individual episodes: if the hero's just played a game-winning combo, the victory music is swelling, and there's more than three minutes left in the episode, something's about to go wrong. - In one Captain Marvel story, Billy Batson is forced to storm a tower in his normal form to rescue his sister. (The tower was indestructible, and the openings and passages are really small because the villains were tiny aliens). After going through hell, when he finally reaches the top... Mary was in the next tower over all along. - The Ultimates: You would think that, once the Hulk has been defeated and the team had its baptism of fire, and some view over the consequences of said battle, the series would be done. Not Quite. Remember those aliens that Cap fought in WWII? They are back... and it's still the same miniseries, not a sequel one. - Requiem Vampire Knight: In Volume 7 "Le Couvent des soeurs de sang", Requiem has sneak in to the eponymous convent to rescue his love interest Rebecca, who was taken there to join Dracula's harem of brides. He ends up finding out from the women inside that she was taken somewhere else by another vampire. - Scott McCloud's Zot! featured a story dealing with a high school girl who is experiencing attraction to another girl. The second girl is known to her classmates to be a lesbian, and is tormented because of it. The first girl is trying to suppress her feelings. The story ends with the second girl passing the first in the hallway, and trying to be friendly. The first girl ignores her, looks very sad, and then the letters page appears, which traditionally is printed at the end of a comic. But after the letters page, the first girl calls back to the second girl, and a later issue shows them to have started a happy relationship. (In the collected edition, the letters page was replaced with commentary by McCloud, so it still works.) - Air Force One has been secured, the (surviving) hostages freed, the hijackers killed, and the evil general has been stopped from getting out of prison. Of course, they are still in the middle of hostile airspace, with enemy MiGs now closing in with the failure of the hijacking plot, and Halo Flight's F-15s still haven't had the chance to do anything really cool. Oh, and the traitor still hasn't been caught. - Aliens. Ripley rescues Newt from the Hive, they escape the planet along with Hicks and Bishop just before the fusion reactor explodes, and all seems well. Then it turns out that the Queen Alien hitched a ride. - American Dreamer has a fake out ending, where it turns out Cathy's antics under Easy Amnesia got her into trouble with drug lords. - In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Austin gets Dr. Evil arrested in the very beginning, making it clear that something will inevitably go wrong. Dr. Evil even does a musical number pointing this out ("Austin caught me in the first act/it's all backwards, what's with that"?). - In Big Game, the Pentagon quickly scrambles Navy SEAL teams to the location of the escape pod's homing beacon. Unfortunately, it fell off the pod during the crash and leads them to a farm in rural Norway instead. - Casino Royale (2006) featured a lovely ending: Le Chiffre has lost and died and James Bond gets the Bond Girl he's been eyeing for the entire movie. They kiss and begin a romance, with Bond deciding to quit MI6. Everything is hunky-dory ... then Vesper betrays Bond, running away with the cash to pay her fiancee's ransom. - In Clash of the Titans, Perseus frees the city of Joppa from its curse fairly early in the film, and the good guys throw a big party — only for a much worse crisis to then present itself before they're even through celebrating. - Happens in The Dark Knight — it looks like Dent is being set up for a Sequel Hook, then the other third of the movie happens. Or, arguably, even earlier. Joker's in the MCU and Batman can rest easy... then MCU blows sky-high, as does Rachel Dawes. - In Destroy All Monsters, after Godzilla and his friends barely manage to defeat King Ghidorah, they don't even have time to rest before the Kilaaks unveil their second trump card, the Fire Dragon. - In Doomsday, the protagonist has dealt with both Sol and Kane, and is on her way to the border with the MacGuffin. Sol shows up for round 2. - Dragonslayer. The villagers celebrate when Galen causes an avalanche to block the dragon Vermithrax's cave entrance, despite never seeing the dragon actually die or taking into consideration that there might be more caves leading out of its lair. All Galen did was piss it off. - In Edge of Tomorrow, William Cage's connection to the alien Hive Mind starts to give him visions of the Omega alien's location. Much of the movie is spent with him using his "Groundhog Day" Loop ability to try to find a survivable path to it. After numerous setbacks and failures, he finally reaches the location on his own only to discover that the visions were a trap, and that the Omega was never really there. - The Final Destination series do this constantly. There are even cases where it is done more than once. - The first film has the events after Alex saved Clear from being electrocuted. The movie cuts to Paris, where Alex, Clear, and Carter celebrate beating Death. A vehicle abruptly crashes on the restaurant, making it clear that Death is not giving up catching them. When Carter asks Alex who is going to die next, a neon sign swings to him from the back before it Smash to Black. - Final Destination 2 has two cases. The first is when Kimberly and Thomas see Isabella giving birth to her child, which apparently stops Death's List. Then a fire abruptly breaks out of Eugene's room, killing him and Clear. Kimberly realizes that Isabella was never meant to die in the pileup and has nothing to do with their predicament. Bludworth's "new life defeating Death" is not a literal new life coming out of someone, but someone being resuscitated after near death. She boards an ambulance and speeds into a nearby lake to drown herself before being resuscitated, which finally stops Death's List...until the very end, where a kid who was inadvertently put in Death's List gets blown to bits, hinting that Kim and Thomas might not be safe forever. - Final Destination 3: With Wendy, Kevin, and Julie saving each other from their near-deaths in the Fourth of July fair, it seems that Death's plan is derailed. The movie cuts to three months later, where they reunite while boarding a subway. Wendy suddenly remembers something crucial which puts everyone in danger. The subway crashes, killing everyone on board. Oh wait, that was just Wendy's premonition. The trio try to stop the subway before it Smash to Black and the sound of the crash is heard, leaving their fate unknown. - Final Destination 4: Nick and Lori successfully save Janet and George from being killed. Lori and Janet celebrate by watching a movie. However, Nick remembers that there is a survivor unaccounted for from the stadium collapse and tries to save him, but fails. George is then killed, leaving Nick racing to save Lori and Janet, but he fails again. Oh wait, that was his premonition. He is unable to save George, but manages to save Lori and Janet. They celebrate several months later in a restaurant. Nick suddenly comes to a realization that since having a premonition is what's putting people to Death's List, this means Death is really the one behind the premonitions. A vehicle crashes through the restaurant and kills all three of them. The end. - Final Destination 5: Sam kills Peter before he is able to murder Molly, which Bludworth predicted would add Peter's lifespan to his. The movie cuts to the JFK airport, where Sam is scheduled to move to Paris to work at a restaurant, with Molly tagging along. The two watch a ruckus going on nearby, where a high schooler named Alex Browning is escorted out of the plane, followed by a few of his friends and teacher. It is Flight 180 and the year is 2000. - In Godzilla (1998), the military blows up Madison Square Garden just after Nick and the others manage to escape, destroying Godzilla's offspring and ending his species, Nick and Audrey have reconciled, triumphant music is playing and it looks like the movie is over...but then Godzilla bursts out of the ground, having survived his Disney Death from earlier and, enraged over the death of his children, pursues the group in a final Chase Scene. - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: After successfully breaking into Orgocorp and getting the information they need to deactivate the kill-switch, it looks like the The Guardians have won... Only to find out the High Evolutionary is two steps ahead of them and has removed the code needed to save Rocket, meaning they now have to go to Counter-Earth, and into and obvious trap. - In The Haunting in Connecticut, after Reverend Popescu finds Jonah's remains and removes them from the house, he assures the Campbells that the house should now be safe, and drives away. As it turns out, this only makes things worse — Jonah wasn't a malevolent spirit, but was trying to protect the family from the real evil force in the house, the angry ghosts of the people Aickman desecrated with his necromancy. - Like the musical, the halfway point of Into the Woods serves as a sort of fake out "happy ending"; Cinderella and her Prince get married (as do Rapunzel and her Prince), Jack and his Mother become wealthy, the Witch regains her youth and beauty, and the Baker and his Wife finally get the child they've always wanted. Right in the middle of the royal wedding, everyone (including the narrating Baker) is interrupted by the quaking stomps of the Giantess, and it is then that the darker second half begins. - In Jack Reacher, the titular hero takes out the bad guys guarding a building where he assumes a hostage is being kept, only to find out the building is empty and the hostage is in another building close by. - Jack the Giant Slayer: Roderick is dead, the princess is saved, the beanstalk has been chopped down, stranding the giants in their land... Shame on you if you expected the movie to end at this point. - John Wick. Did you really think John would be able to bag Iosef at the nightclub? Or that it would be over once John gets his man, \|\|with an irate and not quite rationally-thinking papa wolf of a mob boss\|\|? - L.A. Confidential, Lt. Det. Edmund Exley has killed the runaway culprits of the Nite Owl massacre, he is condecorated by the Chief of Police and considered a hero... But there's something off. Bud White feels something in the resolving of the Nite Owl that is really wrong. - Letters to Juliet: Sophie's boss wonders this about her article. - In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and Sam initially think their journey is over after they get the Ring to Rivendell for safekeeping at around halfway through the movie. Unfortunately, Elrond realizes that they cannot keep it there, and Frodo accepts the task of destroying it. - There is another moment around this time, after the council of Elrond, when the Fellowship is formed. The nine stand in a pretty line, Elrond pronounces "you shall be the Fellowship... of the Ring!", the theme swells and half the audience start to retrieve coats, finish off drinks and generally make ready to leave. Then find out there's another hour and a half to go. And, in some cases, hadn't realised that even then there were two more films before ring meets lava. - Also, Sam thinks his journey is over when the fellowship reaches Redhorn Mountain, which he confuses with Mount Doom. Not that it isn't a mountain of doom by itself. - In the book you would think everything is done once the Ring is destroyed, but then we have the Scouring of the Shire, which was left out of the movie for both this reason and lack of time. - Toward the end of The Lost World: Jurassic Park the main characters have escaped the raptors, they're on the helicopter, and all seems right with the world. Oh wait, we have a half hour left? Time for the T. rex to romp through the city. - Mortal Kombat: The Movie (which set up a sordid sequel). Shang Tsung is dead and Liu Kang won the tournament, preventing the forces of Outworld from invading the Earth Realm. Everyone is about to leave the island and head home when the Emperor, Shao Khan, appears and announces his plans to invade anyway. Raiden says "I don't think so," and everyone enters an Ass Kicking Pose as the credits roll. - In Poltergeist, Tangina Barrons successfully tells the malevolent ghosts to cross over, sends Diane in after Carol Anne, declares "This house is clean", and departs. The next scene feels like you should be reaching for your coat and gathering up your empty popcorn buckets; the family is happily reunited and getting ready to leave the house forever. But then all hell breaks loose, the "Beast" attacks again, the sinister clown you've been waiting all movie to go berserk finally does, coffins erupt out of a swimming pool, and the entire house implodes. THEN the movie is over. - The Ring movies lead to a (seemingly) climactic scene in which the heroine goes inside the well to find the earthly remains of the Cursed Video's creator. These scenes are filled with dread and anticipation, as the heroine is minutes away from the 7-day deadline (and so, it's a race against her own death.) When they do find the body, the movies release the tension as though the whole plot had been a "give the ghost a proper burial and give her peace." The American remake is particularly blatant about this angle. Cue the heroine returning home, having defeated the curse... only to find out her ex-husband didn't, finding the body did nothing, and the terror comes back full-force. "You weren't supposed to help her." Gee, thanks, Aiden, you could have told us that half an hour ago. - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World does this multiple times. Scott defeats the Big Bad who turns out to be Not Quite Dead and then kills Scott. Scott has an extra life, though, so he comes back and defeats the Big Bad again, who turns out to be Not Quite Dead again, but this time Scott is prepared and defeats him once and for all. Then it turns out Scott has to defeat his evil alter ego, Nega-Scott, but this "battle" takes place off-screen rather than becoming Ending Fatigue. - Se7en. You think the movie is about catching the serial killer, do you? Well, he gives himself up when there's half an hour of movie left. - In Species, the protagonists prematurely celebrate when the creature apparently dies in a car crash, but in fact she faked the whole thing. - Speed did this multiple times. First it appears that the Big Bad will be caught when they figured out who he is. It turns out it was a trap. Then later they managed to get all the passengers out of the bus safely without the villain knowing and sets a trap to capture him. But he caught on and the movie still goes on. Then the villain is finally killed. Yet there's still a couple more minutes of movie time left. - Happened in Spy Game. Robert Redford thinks he's successfully plotted to rescue Brad Pitt, starts walking out of the building, hands his tag to the security guard, jubilant music plays... and we're only an hour into the movie. - The Star Wars saga became this as of December 18th 2015....That big Ewok dance party/Pan-Galactic celebration montage and the triumphant defeat of The Empire in Return of the Jedi now feels like Tangina in Poltergeist saying "The house is clean". note : It may have taken 30 or so years but, still.... - Taking Lives, in which a police chief says, "Ah, it's over", after about 70 minutes. Naturally, it isn't. - In 12 Monkeys, James Cole finally figures out who the Army of the Twelve Monkeys are: Relatively harmless pranksters. Convinced that the Bad Future was just a figment of his imagination, he books a flight to the tropics with Kathryn. But before he can board the plane he receives another message from the future: The End of the World as We Know It is at hand and he can still stop it. - At around the two-hour mark of Vertigo, Judy's makeover into Madeleine is complete, Scottie is happy (the same can't be said for Judy), and they have an Orbital Kiss, then we fade to black. So, movie's over, right? But wait a minute: Scottie never \|\|found out that Judy was Madeleine\|\|. Hitchcock even holds it in black a couple of seconds longer than a typical transition, to turn it into a Fake-Out Fade-Out. But we fade back up to Judy and Scottie, then \|\|Scottie recognizes her necklace\|\| and the real climax begins. - WarGames: Deciding to ride out the second strike, the military officials at NORAD realize there was no Soviet threat, so it's over, right? Wrong. JOSHUA is trying to find the password to launch the missiles himself. - In Zardoz, the scene where Zed reveals how he learned Zardoz was actually The Wi makes you think the movie's wrapping up when, in fact, there's still almost an hour to go. Zard of Oz - Subverted in the final book of the Sorcery! series, The Crown of Kings - it turns out you were in the right castle in the first place. - Agent Angel does this in the second book, "Losing The Plot". Mel and her friends think the Elizabethan mission is over, but they get back to Heaven, and they can tell something is wrong. They realize they weren't finished after all, go back down in the middle of the night and have another try at their mission. - David Eddings' The Belgariad has a very bad case of this. We're repeatedly told that the fight between Garion and Torak is going to be the end of all the fighting, the war between dark and light, all of it. And then suddenly the Malloreon comes along and tells us that no, the fight was a big event, but actually there's another thing that has to happen, and then it's going to be over. - Or, to be more accurate, then it will begin as the world will finally be released from the recursive loop it's been in since 'the Prophecy' split two for one. - Used in Binary by "John Lange" (a then pen-name of Michael Crichton, not to be confused with "John Norman", a pen name used by Dr. John Frederick Lange, Jr. to write his Gor novels). The Big Bad, John Wright, \|\|plans to release nerve gas in San Diego, killing the President and a few hundred thousand bystanders. When Wright finds out that federal agent John Graves is investigating him, and that Graves is likely to stop at the obvious solution, he devises two release mechanisms for the nerve gas, one obvious, one invisible\|\|. - Agatha Christie is the queen of this trope. If there are more than twenty pages left to go, there's a twist on the way. - Discworld: - In Dora Wilk Series, a large chunk of the final novel is devoted to dismantling the organization of a man who's said to be holding Varg prisoner for Bruno. When Dora finally raids his compound, it turns out Varg was never among the trapped shifters and the search has to start anew. - Jim Butcher does this on the last page of Changes. And it's a doozy. - In H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, the Old Man Whateley prophesied a grandson of him will cry the name of his father on the mountaintop. Not many paragraphs later Wilbur Whateley screams the name of Yog-Sothoth on the top of the mountain... but the story still has six chapters to go. Turns out Lavinia Whateley had another son. - The Armageddon Inheritance makes good use of this. You've destroyed the enemy vanguard with a supernova, you've successfully lured the main body of their fleet into a trap and what's left is running away with their tails between their legs. Wait, what do you mean they've still got another quarter of a million ships, which just happen to be their largest and most powerful designs? But we've not even got two dozen ships left! And our flagship has engine damage! - In the third Fablehaven book it turns out that one of the artifacts has been moved. When Kendra and her allies attempt to retrieve the artifact hidden in the Lost Mesa, it turns out that Patton Burgess, a previous Fablehaven caretaker, had long ago moved the artifact to a new location in Fablehave for safekeeping... shame that three people had already died getting in before they found that out. - In Fengshen Yanyi: the protagonist Jiang Ziya knows very well that before the western domain of King Wu can move against the corrupt emperor, King Zhou, the land of Xiqi must first survive 36 invasions from various enemies. After the defeat of general Hong Jin, Jiang Ziya is promoted to Commander of the counter attack and leads the forces eastwards to start the campaign, but faces an incredibly strong resistence from yet another general, Kong Xuan. At this point he does the math and realizes that Hong Jin was the 35th invasion, which means that he must overcome the seemingly-invincible Kong Xuan before he can actually begin the counterattack. - In John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman there are not two but three endings, the first of which comes about halfway through the book. - Halfway to the Grave, the first Night Huntress book, is drawing to a conclusion when 30 pages from the end a new plot twist develops for a Cliffhanger / Downer Ending. - Harry Potter: - In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and friends capture Peter Pettigrew, the traitor who caused the death of Harry's parents, and seem set to hand him over to the authorities and clear Sirius' name. Then Pettigrew escapes, Sirius is forced to go on the run and Harry realises a prophecy he heard means Pettigrew is going to bring back Voldemort... - In Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Dumbledore risk life and limb, and give Draco the opportunity to invade the school, to get their hands on one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Dumbledore dies, Snape betrays them all, Neville is seriously hurt, and Bill is permanently scarred. And then the Horcrux turns out to be a fake; the real one was stolen years ago. Sorry Harry, but your Horcrux is in another castle. - In Deathly Hallows, when they go to Godric's Hollow because they think Gryffindor's sword is there, they end up being ambushed by Nagini disguised as Bathilda Bagshot, and as it eventually turns out, the sword was never there after all — Snape had it all along. - At the start of the H.I.V.E. Series, we're under the impression that the first major villain, \|\|Overlord\|\|, is dead. In book three, we find out he was never actually dead, but \|\|Otto and H.I.V.E.mind kill him,\|\| only for him to return two books later. He apparently is defeated again in book five by \|\|Laura,\|\| but then he returns in book six, when he is finally killed. We think. - In the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, Kate sacrifices herself to the goblin King, Marak, and becomes his wife in order to save her sister, Emily. Sad ending, right? Nope. The story then skips ahead more than a year for the last few chapters and introduces a new sorcerer villain who is out to enslave the goblins. - The Soviet fleet carrying out The Hunt for Red October has withdrawn after the eponymous sub's apparent scuttling and the defectors seem home free about 80% into the book. Cue one lingering Soviet attack sub and its attempt to take the October down. - In the first Kate Daniels novel, Kate finds the bad guy right where they were supposed to be, foils the evil plot and the evil back up plot, and even manages to go on a semi-successful date. Only something keeps nagging her — catching the bad guy was too easy and there are too many loose ends. None of the other characters believe her, but the reader does because we're only 75% through the book. And sure enough, the next chapter has another body turn up. - Every Lensman book that stars Kimball Kinnison ( Galactic Patrol, Grey Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and possibly Children of the Lens) end with him and the rest of Civilization thinking that they've finally for real this time finished off the Boskonian empire. - There's a fairly nasty use of this in Tad Williams' epic fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Near the end, as the heroes are fighting their way into Green Angel Tower for the final confrontation with the Storm King, they encounter Evil Sorcerer Pryrates finishing off the last of the heroic army's decoy soldiers. Miriamele catches him by surprise and apparently kills him with a Norn arrow. Of course, it's not that easy, as he proceeds to get up a moment later, complete with Evil Gloating. - Near the end of Mr. Wrong, Mr. Wrong feels happy that Mr. Right made him smart. He lived happily, and right, ever after, right? WRONG. Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong both became the opposite of each other. - Done superbly in Laurens Van Der Post's "A Story Like the Wind." It initially seems like a story about a French boy growing up in Africa, coming of age, dealing with the death of his father, and falling in love. The book winds down with most of the plotlines reasonably tied up... then in the last eleven pages, revolutionaries show up and kill almost everyone. Then you realize that the entire first book was there to convince the reader that Francois really is awesome enough to pull off all the crazy stuff he does in the second book, beginning with him sneaking past enemy lines back to his house and blowing it up. - In Warrior Cats: Omen of the Stars book The Fourth Apprentice, the heroes are about to have their confrontation with the beavers, but there is still a quarter of the book left. Cue the heroes being on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle and having to find a different way to defeat the beavers. - Also in Warrior Cats, during the Graystripe's Adventure spinoff, the plot was about getting home to the Clans. At the end of Warrior's Refuge, Graystripe and Millie finally manage to reach Graystripe's forest, but as everyone who was following the series knows, the forest was destroyed and the Clans left to find a new home. This led to the events of the final book in the spinoff, Warrior's Return. - By the end of Part 3 of The Wild Ones, Kit has successfully retrieved the Bone of Contention. Ankle Snap City can now be saved, Titus and the Flealess will back off, and then — NOPE. Turns out Basil betrayed the Wild Ones, and he immediately devours the bone and slithers away. - In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the story should end once the Wizard has been exposed, all the companions have what they were looking for, and he can take Dorothy home, right? However, when the Wizard leaves, there's still another third of the book where Dorothy has to get help by asking Glinda, the Witch of the South, and has more adventures on the way to finding her. - The Fake-Out Fade-Out is the music world's version of this. A famous example would be the one in "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles. Sometimes it's just a little postscript riff, like in "Wonderwall" by Oasis. Also, "Mr Slator's Parrot" by The Bonzo Dog Band... - Encores at concerts. Although audiences usually expect them (especially if a band hasn't played its biggest hit yet), bands will typically pretend the show is over at the end of the main set, maybe even thanking the audience and saying good night. - The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" also does this. Twice. Which turns into a video games example when songs containing one show up in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. - Used to superb effect in "Over The Hills And Far Away" by Led Zeppelin, as well as "Anne's Song" by Faith No More. - Rob Cantor's "Shia LaBeouf" tells the story of survival against the eponymous actors attempts to eat you. Halfway through the song, the narrator describes killing Shia LaBeouf with a stab to the kidneys. But the song isn't over yet... - The video for Tupac Shakur's "Changes", the first song released after his death, does this very impactfully. For two verses Tupac raps about social issues and the problems of the black underclass over clips from his previous videos and from rare home videos. At the end of the second verse, we see a collage of video and audio clips from Tupac's life, while in the background Tupac speaks over a fading chorus. It ends with the collage resolving into a mosaic depicting Tupac's face, a fitting memorial to his life and work... and then the third verse starts up with the words, "And still I see no changes; Can't a brother get a little peace?" - A few years before Tupac's death, Oingo Boingo recorded a song called "Change" that glides to a comfortable ending after 15 minutes, only to return for the final verse and chorus. - Subverted in one version of the children's song "Be Kind To Your Fine Feathered Friends," which cuts off — much earlier than you'd expect it to — with the words "You may think that this is the end...and it is." The other version ends "You may think that this is the end...and it is, but there is another ending. This is it." - Could also be the 'hidden tracks' on some albums as well. Jay Z did this on his album The Blueprint, with the final song 'Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)' ending, then two more full songs, 'Lyrical Exercise' and 'Girls Girls Girls Remix' playing on the same song number of the CD. - Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra" has a fake ending somewhere about halfway through, where a thrilling double fugue culminates in the entire orchestra blasting out the opening theme in a seemingly triumphant manner, pipe organ and all. After a moment of silence, the orchestra resumes playing what it had been, only much more slowly and faintly. (The actual ending is quiet and deliberately anticlimactic.) - The Monty Python's Flying Circus song I'm So Worried has three verses that could be the last verse in succession, with the latter two being about the singer's concerns that he should have ended the song with the previous verse. - Stone Temple Pilots' Plush seems to end about 3/4 of the way through, for only about half a second, when it picks up again. - An alternate recording The Beach Boys made of "Help Me, Rhonda" has the repetition of the refrain and the end with alternating stanzas fading out then slamming in at normal range on the ensuing stanzas. - They Might Be Giants' "Everything Right is Wrong Again" halfway through has the repeated lyric, "And now the song is over now, the song is over now," but the song continues for another minute or so after that. - the Mountain Goats have a song by the name "Thank You Mario, But Our Princess Is In Another Castle!", with a bit of a Perspective Flip — it's from Toad's viewpoint. - This happens in Carpenters' "I Believe You". The first time you hear what appears to be the final verse that slows down and stops a bit, you think it's over but then, BAM! A repeat of the bridge and the final verse again, this time once more. - Shane McMahon pulled this on Triple H when he faced Mideon and Viscera in a handicap casket match. Triple H had put Mideon in the casket and thought he had won, but Shane, who had been assaulted by Triple H not long ago, clarified the ruling that he had to put BOTH Mideon (nearly 300lbs) and Viscera (nearly 500lbs) in the casket at the same time. Obviously, Triple H didn't stand a chance. - After Low Ki had clearly beat Xavier for the Impact Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Title, perched atop him and two ladders holding the title belt high, Xavier slipped off and the both of them crashed down, the belt landing on Xavier and the referee, in a particularly jarring instance of incompetence, declared Xavier the winner. When another referee disputed this, it led to the match being restarted. - The Black Birds were awarded the NWA Mid-South Tag Team Championships on October 14th 2005 only to then lose them to the New Bounty Hunters. - Any time Money in the Bank is cashed in right after the Champion had already won a hard-fought title match. Notable examples include Edge cashing in on John Cena after an Elimination Chamber, CM Punk cashing in on Jeff Hardy after a ladder match with Edge, and The Miz cashing in on Randy Orton after a title match with Wade Barrett. The last one is particularly notable because it happened on an episode of Raw and anyone who looked at the clock after Orton beat Barrett would have guessed that something like this would happen. - RoH's Glory by Honor VI: Night One, Chris Hero made Nigel McGuinness tap out, only to not be awarded the World Championship due to McGuinness being underneath the bottom rope at the time and then was forced to submit himself, giving Nigel another successful retention. - A double example: in 2009, CM Punk attempted to cash in on an exhausted Edge, only for Umaga to storm the ring and give Punk a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. - At Elimination Chamber 2010, Batista pulled this on John Cena after his grueling match by simply requesting an immediate title shot from Vince McMahon. - Averted at Money in the Bank 2011 by CM Punk, who kicked Alberto Del Rio in the head and fled the arena before Del Rio could cash in his contract following Punk's hard-fought WWE championship victory over John Cena. - Often, a wrestler will win a hard-fought match, only to be assaulted from behind by another wrestler whom they weren't feuding with (yet). For example, in 2011 TNA, Velvet Sky had just handily defeated Winter, Angelina Love, Jeff Jarrett, and Karen Jarrett. She had declared that she will put these rivalries behind her and get into the Knockouts Title hunt. She starts saluting the crowd and walking to the back... only to be assaulted by ODB, who hasn't been seen in about a year. A few weeks later, Velvet beats ODB in a street fight... only to be assaulted by Jackie Moore, who hadn't been seen for about two years. - Another instance, this time involving The Nexus. After months of tormenting WWE, attacking almost every single superstar on the roster, including The Undertaker, and even getting John Cena fired for a little while, leader Wade Barrett suffers a pretty decisive defeat from Cena, leading everyone to assume the group was done. However, two weeks later, CM Punk, one of the most talented, charismatic, but also one of the most ruthless wrestlers in WWE, decided to become Nexus' new leader after being fed up with Cena's attitude. Uh oh. - Probably one of the biggest examples of 2013 happened at SummerSlam. It was Daniel Bryan going up against then WWE Champion John Cena for the title. After a long, hard fought match, Bryan pulls off what people thought he never could when he entered the company, and defeats Cena with a new finisher to finally claim the WWE Championship. He's celebrating, Triple H is congratulating him (he was Special Ref for the match), the streamers are coming down. History has been made...then Randy Orton storms down with the Money in the Bank briefcase. The good news for Bryan at the time was that A) he still was healthy enough to at least attempt to fight off Orton and B) Orton had pretty much reminded everyone every week that he would probably cash in at SummerSlam. Orton seemed to agree and started to walk away, and thus Bryan resumed his celebration. THEN Triple H turns him around and Pedigrees him. Orton hands in the briefcase, pins Bryan, becomes the new Champion and thus a new Corporation-like faction was born. - In February and March 2019, Kofi Kingston was on a roll after replacing an injured Mustafa Ali in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship and lasting an hour in a Gauntlet match for the final entrance in that match. He was the final man eliminated in the Chamber match (won by defending champion Daniel Bryan), and then Shane McMahon names him #1 contender to the title at Fastlane. Only to be removed from the match by Vince McMahon and replaced by Mustafa Ali, while he gets promised a triple threat match, but instead gets a 2-on-1 match against Sheamus and Cesaro. And then Vince tells him on SmackDown that he'll get the match if he can win ANOTHER gauntlet match, this time against Sheamus, Cesaro, Randy Orton, Samoa Joe and Erick Rowan. Sure enough, Kofi wins the gauntlet, only to be told 30 seconds later by Vince that he must beat Bryan as well to earn his Wrestlemania match. Of course, Bryan defeats him easily. - During Nothing Is Sacred's Duelist Kingdom Arc, a successive series of obstacles continuously appears to prevent Stella from finding the perpetrator who took \|\|Abidos' soul\|\|. The action taken violates the rules of the Chosen, necessitating the Monarchs to step in and rectify the situation? \|\|The perpetrator has yet to accept their position as Chosen, meaning that they are not yet bound by the Monarchs' rules.\|\| You've successfully retrieved your \|\|friend's\|\| lost deck and can question the spirits inside on the culprit's identity? \|\|The Gadgets turn out to be both incapable of human speech and awful artists.\|\| You've discovered the location of and gained access to the server room containing information on both your suspect's identity and their deck composition? \|\|Your suspect used their administrative access to wipe all records of their battle from the system.\|\| You've gained entrance to the island's castle and confronted someone who perfectly matches the description of the assailant? \|\|Only the gadget most focused on physical appearance thinks he is the culprit, while the other two do not.\|\| - Dungeons & Dragons, Imagine magazine #5 adventure "The Taking of Siandabhair". The Player Characters are sent on a mission to rescue Princess Siandabhair from the underwater lair of the Old Woman of the Bay. When they search the lair, they find that the Princess has been moved to the home of the Old Woman of the Lough. And once they explore that place, they discover that she's been moved to a third location, that of the Old Woman of the Mountains. After they fight their way through that area, they can finally rescue her. - In The Fantasticks, the cast also appears to get their Happily Ever After at the end of Act 1. It doesn't work out the way everyone hoped. - This trope is the raison d'etre of the Sondheim musical Into the Woods. At the conclusion of the first act, all the subplots are resolved and every fairy tale character is literally singing Happy Ever After. After the intermission, of course, consequences of the first act unfold, and everything goes to hell. - Averted with Into The Woods Junior, a Bowdlerised version of the play for children's school and community theater productions that literally omits the entire second act. - At the end of Mamma Mia!, after what appears to be the final bow, the company reprise the title song, then Donna & The Dynamos come back on stage in ABBA-esque shiny outfits and perform "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo" beneath disco lighting, inviting the audience to dance along. - The Merchant of Venice. Shylock has been defeated! The eponymous Merchant is saved! Mercy's quality avoids straining! Everything the audience cares about is over! Meanwhile, in Act Five... - The Physicists by Dürrenmatt. The main conflict is resolved, all strings tied up, the scientific notes destroyed, Möbius, Einstein and Newton have agreed to remain locked away from the world for its safety. Then, in the final scene, the head nurse reenters, proves herself to be the only real insane in the asylum and declares her intentions to take over the world through the discoveries, she had already copied, with the protagonists helpless in their self-imposed prison. The End. Due to its brevity, the twist even works in book form. - Ace Attorney: - Case 1-4 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Despite a bit of interference, you manage to prove Edgeworth isn't the murderer... and then it turns out the whole trial was a Batman Gambit by Manfred von Karma to get Edgeworth to confess to his own father's murder 15 years ago. - In Case 2 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, after you prove your client innocent of theft by proving that he was in another place at the time. Right after the verdict, it is found that at the same time as the theft, there was a murder exactly where you proved he was. At which point you then have to prove that the guy that you've proven as the real thief is actually the real murderer, despite the fact that he did indeed pull off both crimes, which happened at the same time. Phoenix understandably freaks out several times. A very memorable case. - In the DLC case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, Phoenix proves that the orca isn't responsible for the aquarium owner's death on the first trial day, only for the prosecutor to immediately have her trainer arrested for murder. - Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Korekiyo invokes this when he admits that he killed Tenko and taunts Himiko that even though she hates him, she can't do anything to him because Monokuma states they're only looking for Angie's killer...unfortunately for Korekiyo, he left behind evidence that he did indeed kill Angie too. - Doki Doki Literature Club! seems to be about to reach its story's climax with the school festival — although things have got a little worrying by then — but then it suddenly gets derailed and you get what seems to be a Bad Ending. However, what is really happening is that to advance the story, you have to start the game again from the beginning, and this time it will be... different. Let's just say different. - Little Busters!: In a rare example where the revelation that the ending was fake is actually a good thing, at the end of Refrain Little Busters comes to an apparently conclusive (if extremely depressing) Downer Ending, and it's only after three minutes of credits (and, likely, sobbing on behalf of the player) that the game goes black...and then gives you one final choice, which leads to the epilogue and the true ending. (Or, if not the true one, at least a much happier one.) - Tsukihime: After killing Nero Chaos, Shiki assumes that all the vampire problems are over. Arcueid points out the obvious fact that Nero didn't leave corpses and couldn't have been the vampire responsible for most of the incidents. And the savvy reader realizes the story is way too short otherwise. - In the "To Thine Own Self" arc of General Protection Fault, the alliance between GPF, the UGA and La Résistance of the Nega-Verse manages to capture Emperor Nicholas, Duchess Ki and General Duncan, as well as freeing the captured Nick. At that moment, the aliens with whom Nicholas had been fighting a Hopeless War attack, and the heroes discover that they are unable to use the Mutex to get home or contact the people in their dimension. - The debut strip of It Sucks to Be Weegie! opens with Luigi having reached the end of a castle only to be told by a Toad, who identifies him as "skinny gay Mario", that the princess, well you know the rest. Luigi decides he doesn't really care to save a princess and just wants someone to talk to, but the Toad cruelly sends him away. Just another day in the unfair life of Luigi, the tall guy perpetually stuck in his shorter brother's shadow. - The Order of the Stick teaches us that people should not trust instructions given by a jerkass to a member of their group that they didn't get along with in the first place. It turned out that the coordinates Girard gave Soon for the location of his gate turned out to be a random spot in the middle of the world's largest desert. Because he didn't trust him. For a while, the Order of the Stick was stuck back at square ZERO because not only did they not have any idea where to go, this time they couldn't fall back on the Sapphire Guard for information. - The joke is lampshaded by the same guy in this strip. Although THAT is later revealed to be a subversion: the cube in the strip is actually a lead-lined container for the actual gate, and Girard was Genre Savvy enough to realize that the Genre Savvy adventurers looking for the gate would be successfully turned away by a lame joke and some magic-blocking lead. - Invoked in the 2005 installment of the annually-published Platypus Comix story "Keiki's Huge Christmas Epic". While trying to help Andrea escape government officials wanting to take advantage of her wish-granting powers, Beefer asks Keiki if they'll get to resolve the story "this year". Keiki, suspecting they'll have to add a chapter the following year, simply asks, "What do you think?" Indeed, on the very next page, Andrea gets trapped, and tries to escape by wishing she and her friends were the President (sic) of the United States, creating yet another Cliffhanger. - Return To Player begins with Sehan the only survivor of humanity. He has no reason to think this is anything except the of the world until offered a second playthrough of the game. - In the Square Root of Minus Garfield strip NESField 3, Garfield goes to a castle find frozen pudding pops only to find Jon has gotten there first. - Hilariously played with in Zero Effort, when the protagonists fought the dragon only to find out the reward is not what they wanted. - In Doctor Who: The Movie, the Doctor and Lucy spend most of the movie arriving just too late, defeating the monster left behind in this or that timezone by the Master only to realize that he has already moved on to the next one. Since two or three of the locations are in fact castles, the Doctor even gets to say "According to my time readings, he's in another castle", thus not only playing this trope straight, but even almost verbatim! - In Grandmaster of Theft, Cassidy has successfully won the challenge to steal Undine's Tear from Narcissa. Or so it seems, it turns out it was a fake and she lied about even bringing the real one in the first place. - Search for Sandvich: In "the Plot Thickens!", the mercs find a bakery with sandwiches... but they've lost the Medic, so they leave the bakery without a sandwich so they can start looking for the Medic too. - In Avatar: The Last Airbender - In "The Earth King", a couple of minutes before the end of the episode everything seems to be going well. The Earth King has granted his support for the invasion, the Evil Chancellor has been imprisoned, Sokka is about to meet his father for the first time in two years, Toph's just heard her own parents are in town and are willing to forgive her for running away, and the Kyoshi Warriors are on their way. Sokka, rather happily, announces "Everything is going to work out perfectly." Within the next minute and a half, it's revealed Dai Li agents are still taking orders from Long Feng. The "Kyoshi Warriors" are actually the Quirky Miniboss Squad in disguise, lead by Azula, and they now have the complete trust of the Earth King. Oh yeah, and the thing with Toph's parents was actually a trap set by people trying to kidnap her. - When Aang goes to the Royal Palace to fight the Fire Lord, he isn't there. When Team Avatar goes to the underground bunker, the Fire Lord's chamber, surprise! He still isn't there. Azula's there to stall them until their time window ends instead. Zuko finds and confronts the Fire Lord, though. - In Class of the Titans, the heroes actually defeat Cronus at least twice, but he always escapes before he can get thrown back into Tartarus. - Freakazoid! hilariously exaggerates this trope when an episode appears to be concluded in under two minutes. The show then cuts to a Warner Bros. board meeting: Steven Spielberg: I don't get this. What is this? Dexter gets eaten, then fade out? The end? Where's Freakazoid? Man at meeting: Well, he's not in this episode. Steven Spielberg: Not in it? He's the star of the show. What are you thinking? Second Man: Well, we were thinking of maybe ending the episode early today. Woman at meeting: And showing some Animaniacs reruns. Steven Spielberg: Oh. I like that. - Followed by the Animaniacs opening theme. Spielberg then has a change of heart and decides that the preceding segment was just a dream. - There was an episode of Garfield and Friends where Garfield cost the mailman his job. Garfield looks at the ex-mailman, who is sitting on the sidewalk and crying, and says "Gee, what a sad way to end a cartoon." and walks off. A U.S. Acres cartoon seems to start, but Garfield interrupts it and says "You didn't think I was really gonna let him stay fired, did you?" and the cartoon continues to show Garfield getting the mailman his job back. - Hey Arnold!, "Phoebe's Little Problem": The bit with Phoebe's teacher talking to her seems to have been written with this trope in mind. For a moment it seems that he's just talked her back into returning to school... until he accidentally makes a Freudian Slip and says "fart" when he meant to say "Let's make a brand new start". - The Season 2 finale of Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 has all the Big Bads defeated, the Red and Blue Sentients making peace, and the eons old interdimensional war has come to an end...then Rawkus reveals that the Ancient Ones have awakened and the battle is far from over. - Jumanji did this a lot. Anytime Judy and Pete got out of the board game with more than a few minutes left it meant one of a few things 1) Pete/Judy did something stupid/unethical and will spend the rest of the episode having to fix it 2) Something bad is going to happen. - The episode "Over the Moon" of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack had Flapjack and Captain K'Nuckles see and nearly touch Candied Island...but since it wasn't the Grand Finale, the moon's gravitational pull grabbed them back and they were forced to watch the sugar-coated island float off into the distance. At least Flap was able to taste it... - A Mighty Mouse cartoon does this with a To Be Continued... Right Now slant. The cartoon is coming to the climax when it starts irising out and the narrator telling patrons to watch for the conclusion next week. It suddenly freezes frame as the narrator suddenly says we can't wait till next week and pleads the cartoon's conclusion go on. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - The episode "Applebuck Season" has a great example. Applejack, stubbornly refusing help with the eponymous Applebuck Season, proudly shows off that's she's harvested the whole crop by herself. Only for her injured brother, Big Macintosh to point out, she hasn't even finished half. She finally collapses from exhaustion after the revelation. - Played in a more literal sense in "Twilight's Kingdom Part 2" when Lord Tirek attempts to steal magic from the three other princesses. He thinks he's all-but conquered Equestria after draining and disposing of them, until a stained glass window reveals there's a fourth princess. - An Al Brodax Popeye cartoon has Popeye and Brutus as competing farmers at a county fair. The final event is eating spinach and testing its strength. Brutus offers to shake hands with Popeye to make it fair, but he double crosses him and flings him across the field. Brutus: (to us) You didn't think I was gonna play fair with that runt and take a chance against his spinach! - In the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo episode about Daphne's room being stolen, they (of course) manage to catch and unmask who did the crime, a security guard, and the gang citing the "And you would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for us meddling kids." line for him. Suddenly, the guard says "What makes you think I still can't get away with it?!" and the robot dog (revealed to work for the guard), that was trying to usurp Scooby with solving the mystery captures the kids and Daphne's parents, forcing Scooby to now fight the robot dog. - The Simpsons: - There's a classic Lampshade Hanging on this in the "Homer and Apu" episode as, almost exactly halfway through the episode, Homer comments that everything has wrapped up "much quicker than usual." Cut to Apu (who's been fired from the Kwik-e-Mart) lamenting that he wants his job back. - In the episode "Brawl in the Family," the plot (a social worker being assigned to teach the family how to cooperate) appears to be resolved halfway through the episode, prompting Lisa to almost break the fourth wall by suggesting that now the family's getting along so well, this may be the "end of our series...of events". Then Homer's and Ned's Vegas wives from a previous episode turn up... - In "Lisa's Sax", Homer's story of how Lisa got her saxophone turned into a story about Bart starting kindergarten, which ends early in the episode. Homer: And that my children, is the story of Bart's first day of school. Bart: Very nice. Homer: Yeah. Lisa: Yeah. Except you were supposed to be telling the story of how I got my saxophone! Homer: ( Beat ) D'oh! - Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), "The Doomsday Project", has a season-ending Cliffhanger version. You see that the main characters have defeated Robotnik, and are celebrating... and then you see that Robotnik's nephew Snively has a new mystery villain. It ended up being the final episode, so the new mystery villain remained that way. The writers said it was intended to be Naugus, however. - One SpacePOP episode leads the viewers to believe the princesses are finally going to rescue their parents only for the parents to be taken away to another dungeon, resulting in the quest having to continue. - In one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants it is King Neptune's Birthday, except he's depressed because his son Triton is not there to celebrate with him. He was locked in a cage on the Island in the Sky thousands of years ago. So SpongeBob and Patrick, feeling sorry for Triton, go off to free him and reunite him with his father, even after learning that he was he was locked away for a reason... although not as good a reason as Neptune thought at the time. It turned out, Neptune was actually depressed because of traumatic memories of having to seal away his son for showing interest in the affairs of mortals, which he himself saw as un-godlike behavior, and the 1,000 years Triton spent in that cage had left him bitter, which SpongeBob did not know until it was too late. Cue Triton causing destruction throughout Bikini Bottom as revenge against his father. - Totally Spies!, "A Spy Is Born", has a similar Cliffhanger. You see that the girls have captured a rogue filmmaker, and that he's been put on a plane... and then you see in the final scene that he's escaped and captured Alex. Cue part two of the season finale...Which comes after a truckload of episodes before that (which confused a lot a fans). - The second season finale of Transformers: Animated seemed like it was going this way. Decepticons defeated, day saved, Sumdac rescued, status quo restored...and then Sari is revealed to be cybernetic. Roll credits (and bickering). - A distaff version happened in 1238 when assassins tried to kill King Henry III of England by stabbing him to death in his chamber. They broke in to find he wasn't there. He was actually in the separate chamber of his Queen, Eleanor of Provence, having sex with her. note : The timing of this incident suggests this might also have been when they conceived his successor, King Edward I. - When Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Tsarist Russia, he made it all the way to Moscow and seized the city, and expected the war to be over and the Russians to surrender. However neither the Tsar nor most of the city's population and resources were there and the Russians didn't even dream of giving up. Faced with the onset of winter and exhausted troops, Napoleon had no choice but to return to France, as continuing the war was out of the question. - ESPN College Football analyst Lee Corso's Catchphrase is "Not so fast, my friend!" He usually says it to one of his co-hosts who has made a pick in an upcoming game he disagrees with. It is typically lampshaded with graphics or some other way to call special attention to it when he says it. - Most of religions eschatologies are like this: the Judaism is waiting for the coming of the Messiah since 4 000 years ago. Jesus appeared in the first century but eventually left, saying he would come a second time for the Judgment Day to truly establish the Kingdom of God, and thus the Christians are also waiting since the time. In 622, Muhammad told the same more or less, adding "corrections" and notably details about the Mahdi, so Muslims are also waiting for somebody. In 1844, an Iranian called "the Bab" pretended to be the Mahdi, announcing the cycle of Apocalypse as foretold by the (Islamically corrected) Scriptures. He was eventually shot for blasphemy, and his adepts funded a new religion (the Bahaism) to continue his prophetism, but anyway, the Apocalypse looks stalled since the time. The Hinduism too got a lot of gods' avatars, but is still waiting for the "Krta Yuga" (the Golden Age). Same for the Buddhism, that 27 Buddhas taught to the World before the last we know, Siddhartha Gautama, and is still waiting for the great collapse of the world to begin a new cycle (which is not exactly the definitive end, however, just from our point of view). Whichever is true, anyway, everybody is still waiting in the meanwhile. - World History is like this, notably about the coming of an everlasting peace. After World War I ended, people told it was the "war to end all wars" and the League of Nations was created to prevent this to ever happen again. Cue World War II which started two decades later, and after this one, everybody created the United Nations, swearing never, ever, ever, ever again. Then the Cold War began, yet less disastrous because the great confrontation was divided and relocated in lot of smaller wars in third countries. After the Cold War ended, and the fall of the Berlin Wall and USSR in 1989-91, Francis Fukuyama predicted that it was the end of History, and Capitalism would expand all over the World to bring prosperity and peace to everybody. After a not so peaceful decade (Yugoslavian War, The Gulf War, Rwanda), The War on Terror began... - Parallel to this is the question of economic growth and whether or not the pattern of boom and bust will ever end. Every few decades the idea that a permanent high of economic productivity has been reached will gain traction, so far none have stuck. However, people have steadily gotten vastly wealthier over time. - This is inverted in The Beautiful Game: What people consider to be the FIFA World Cup for association football/soccer is referred to as "the final tournament". FIFA considers the entire four-year cycle of qualifications leading up to the "Finals" to be part of the actual FIFA World Cup.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurPrincessIsInAnotherCastle
Robot - TV Tropes Mechanical beings brought to life to serve humanity and hopefully not enslave them: Robots. Robots are one of the staples of science fiction literature, though they have spread beyond it into multiple other genres. So what is a robot? In fiction, a robot is usually a mechanical being that has been built in order to complete some task. The occasional use of the nonfictional variety of robots, which are basically complex machines, can also be seen in fiction in the form of non sentient devices such as a Surveillance Drone. See also Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence. The word's origin lies with Josef Čapek, a Czech writer, playwright and painter, who coined the term in 1921 for his brother Karel's play R.U.R.; the word often gets erroneously credited to the more famous Karel. Ironically, Čapek's robots were Artificial Humans, not mechanical beings. The name is derived from the Czech word robota, meaning serf labour. The concept of the "mechanical human" itself is much older; in memory of the tale from Classical Mythology that Hephaestus, the God of smithcraft, had built machines that moved of their own accord and worked for him, such a being was called an automaton before the word "robot" came into use. Since a clear distinction between technology and magic is a fairly modern convention, the automaton has originally an inherent relationship to the Golem. In early fiction revolving around robots, they were generally labourers or workers who Turned Against Their Masters in a Robot War. However, the author Isaac Asimov found this idea to be absurd: A robot would be designed to work for humans and would never be given the capacity to work against them, thus codifying the Three Laws of Robotics. Over the century, the use of robots in fiction has gone in multiple different directions, leading to a very widespread trope that is difficult to pin down exactly. As a very common supertrope, Robot lists its subtropes below in index format. For an even more comprehensive list noting related tropes, see also Robot Roll Call. Compare Artificial Human, Spaceship Girl and the various Cyborgs. And of course, beware the Robot War.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurRobotsAreNonstandard
Our Slogan Is Terrible - TV Tropes "Buy 'Mr. Dog' for small yappy-type dogs, and maybe they'll shut the fuck up." Slogans used by fictional businesses tend to be bad. By that we mean, of course, very, very bad. They come in many flavors, including: Compare and contrast What Were They Selling Again?, when a slogan or ad is so good that it fails by detracting from the more important message "Buy our product." See also Our Product Sucks, when this is invoked intentionally for Reverse Psychology, and Asbestos-Free Cereal, when they try to imply the competition's product sucks. ## Examples: - The Far Side: I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus! - Marvel's Roxxon Oil corporation, in the 1989 "Marvel: A Year in Review" (which was written as an in-universe magazine), had a big ad where in parody of the Exxon Valdez spill, their slogan was "There's plenty more where that came from." - Walter Moers has an entire strip about a creative company owner losing his knack for catchy slogans as he grows old and senile, to the point that everyone is hugely relieved when he finally dies. Unfortunately he has willed that all of his remaining slogans must stay in use... or all the money goes into the Invented Just To Annoy My Inheritors trust. The marketing department is forced to run each slogan above a foot-high disclaimer asking the reader to consider the mental state of its author. - "America's Best Comics! Where 'quality' isn't just a motto — it's a slogan!" - In Batman: Dark Detective by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, The Joker ran for Gotham City Mayor under the slogan, "Vote for Me or I'll Kill You!" Given that this was the Joker, at least he was being honest. - In one Judge Dredd Megazine strip, a character's run-down apartment includes a box of cereal with Not Tony the Tiger saying "It's okay!" - The Bolt Chronicles: Played with in "The Coffee Shop." Penny's mom jokingly refers to a pair of coffee shop franchises with slogans that are clearly not official in-universe. She much preferred [Queequeg's] to their chief rivals, Dippy Donuts ("Their motto should be 'Our coffee's stronger than a brown crayon dipped in hot water — but not much stronger'," she liked to joke) and Joe Orton's (a brew she thought best suited to the Jolt Cola crowd, or as she would quip, "Hammer down a cup of Joe's"). - Turnabout Storm has Phoenix blaming the slow business on the stupid slogan his assistant Maya came up with for his law office: "Wright & Co. Office: Defending you like it's nuttin' baby!". Later on this becomes the least of his problems. Phoenix: That silly slogan Maya came up with must be what's making business this slow. I should really have it revised... Scratch that, I NEED to have it revised! Who are we trying to attract, grade-school students? - After Phoenix returns home, he tells Maya about her silly slogan, but Maya just thinks Phoenix isn't telling it with enough "oomph!". - The slogan they used at the end of the trailer for Bébé's Kids was "It's animation..." Yes, it even sounds like it trails off. Apparently not even the trailer had faith on the movie. - The Dudley Moore vehicle Crazy People concerned Moore as an adman who went a bit crazy, telling people "the truth". Real products were used, such as: "Metamucil. It helps you go to the toilet. If you don't use it, you'll get cancer and die." "Jaguar — sleek and smart. For men who'd like handjobs from beautiful women they hardly know." "Volvo — they're boxy but they're good." and finally "Sony: Because Caucasians are just too damn tall." A scene that features a slew of the aforementioned slogans and others features a rather blunt slogan in a campaign for the Greek tourism bureau: "Forget France. The French can be annoying. Come to Greece — we're nicer!" - Idiocracy: "Brawndo. It's got electrolytes!" Also: "Carl's Jr. Fuck you, I'm eating." - In Kicking & Screaming, Buck's sporting goods store uses the slogan "He's Got Balls!" \|\|It adds "...and vitamins!" at the end when Phil joins his father's business.\|\| - The "Ocean Breeze Soap" slogans in The Muppets Take Manhattan — "Ocean Breeze Soap: For People Who Don't Want to Stink"; "Ocean Breeze Soap: It's Just Like Taking an Ocean Cruise Except There's No Boat and You Don't Actually Go Anywhere" and the winner "Ocean Breeze Soap Will Get You Clean". It gets funnier when one of the other frogs says, "You mean, just tell people what the product does? No ones ever tried that." - In Bill Murray's Scrooged, his television network has the cringe-inducing Christmas slogan "Yule love it!" ABC's slogan during the 1985-1986 season (when Scrooged was being filmed) was "You'll Love it!" - Cult film Putney Swope is this and then some, showing an advertising firm after the Token Black gets control and steers the entire company into most unusual waters. - Hellzapoppin' includes a film studio called Miracle Pictures. Slogan: "If it's a good picture, it's a Miracle!" (This gag was later reused by ¡Three Amigos!, Joe Dante's Hollywood Boulevard, and a Real Life record label.) - In 30 Rock, the Sheinhardt Wig company has the slogan "Not Poisoning Rivers Since 1997", as well as "You Can Always Tell A Sheinhardt" (a terrible slogan for a wig manufacturer, specifically). - On Better Off Ted, a running gag was commercials for the company. They would always end with a slogan. Some were only funny in context, but others fit this trope, including: - "Teamwork — it keeps our employees gruntled" - "Virtual Dynamics — because you can't spell INDIVIDUAL without VIRIDIAN. And U.(pause) And an L." - "Food. Yum." - And, after the show was preempted for a Presidential Address — "When presidents talk, Americans get hurt." - The Wesayso Corporation on Dinosaurs: "WESAYSO: We'll do what's right, if you leave us alone," "WESAYSO: We don't like to have our feelings hurt" and "WESAYSO: We know where you live." - Dinosaurs also featured parody of the then-current Bud Dry commercials, whose slogan was "Why ask why? Drink Bud Dry." The Dinosaurs version: "Why ask why? Drink...alcohol." - The Goodies: - Monty Python's Flying Circus: - The "Conquistador Coffee" sketch. An ad writer comes up with campaign slogans such as "Conquistador Coffee brings a new meaning to the word vomit" and "The tingling fresh coffee which brings you exciting new cholera, mange, Singapore ear, dropsy, the clap, hard pad and athlete's head. From the House of Conquistador". - The Whizzo Butter animated segment: Uncle Sam: Yes, mothers! New Whizzo Butter, with 10% more less, is completely indistinguishable from a dead crab! Remember, buy Whizzo Butter, and go to Heaven! - My Name Is Earl: In the backstory Earl and Randy went to the Right Choice Ranch for troubled youth, which went through a series of Accidental Innuendo slogans that imply pedophilia: "Touching Bad Boys Since 1963", "Bringing Boys to Their Knees Since 1963", and "Forcing Boys to Turn Around Since 1963". In the present day they appear to have given up and settled on outright stating "We Don't Do Anything Inappropriate to the Boys", which itself just sounds like Suspiciously Specific Denial. - Saturday Night Live: - The Thin Blue Line's town had the slogan "It's not as bad as you think". - That Mitchell and Webb Look: - One featured an advertising company which specialized in creating slogans that simply described what a company did in a slightly irritating way. Problems arise when the slogans being produced aren't up to spec. And it turns out all the workers are evil bastards who enjoy how terrible their work is. - This gets called back to in a later Captain Todger sketch that episode, where it turns out this company has given the police the slogan "The people who arrest people". - The fake ad for Cressps, an apparently healthy deep fried crisp/chip substitute. Robert: Once you cressp, you just can't splessp! David: That doesn't make any sense! Robert: (spits crisps out) Oh, GOD, they're horrid! - WKRP in Cincinnati: - Most businesses that advertise on the title radio station have hilariously bad slogans. Standouts include "Hutchins' Community Hospital: Where malpractice is rapidly becoming a thing of the past!" and the bait-selling business "Red Wigglers: the Cadillac of worms!" - They did an entire episode about trying to get rid of a sponsor (Ferriman Funeral Home). They attempted to do a commercial so outrageous that he'd tear up his contract in disgust (a singing commercial with a bouncy tune: "It ain't no use to deny it / one day you're gonna buy it"). The client loved it. - The Colbert Report's fake medicine company "Prescott Pharmaceuticals": - "What doesn't kill you makes you part of our class-action settlement." - "Now with more side effects! Collect 'em all!" - "We have a medicine for any ailment caused by our previous medicine." - "You might have gone blind even without taking our product." - "See what everyone's suing about." - "We'll put a smile on your face. And sometimes your spine." - "Your body will thank you, because your torso has grown a mouth." - "If you've never heard of us, we may have caused your memory loss." - "One man's medical malpractice is another man's anatomical skeleton." - "Quality pharmaceuticals since 1989. Established 1910." - "We never settle for less. We settle out of court." - Colbert also does this with parodies of Enforced Plugs for real companies, such as "Mazda: It's not your father's Oldsmobile. (Beat) Because it's a Mazda." - The Daily Show often used terrible slogans to comedic effect when titling segments. Often they have a joke about pedophilia. - For a children's interest segment: "Jon Stewart Looks at Children's Things." - A segment with cartoons: "Jon Stewart's Story Hole! Remember, it's our little secret." - A segment on the negative influence of Twitter: "Jon Stewart Looks at Kid's Junk." - For a segment on finding a job, the writers hit an increasingly exasperated Jon with more and more overtly sexual slogans. It goes from "Jon Stewart Fills the Openings" to "Jon Stewart Puts You in Unusual Positions" to "Jon Stewart Gives You a HAND and a JOB." - The League of Gentlemen's Legz Akimbo theatre troupe display their slogan on their van: "Put yourself inside a child". The town of Royston Vasey itself is "You'll Never Leave!" which has omninous undertones. - Home Improvement had a couple of these with Tim plugging Binford Tools on his Show Within a Show. "If it doesn't say Binford on it, somebody else makes it." "If your tool says 'Binford' — GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! TOOLS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO TALK TO YA!" - On The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Reggie puts together a company to make and sell useless items. In keeping with this theme, he hires his incompetent son-in-law to create slogans for the firm. Tom:: "Go to Grot Shops and get an eyeful/of Perrin's products with a wide range of goods that are really pretty awful." Reggie: It almost rhymes and scans properly, that's the important thing. This is exactly what I'm paying you for. Tom:: Thank you. Well, I'll just give you one more, perhaps: 'Grot is the ideal place for gifts/ because they're all on one floor/ so there aren't any lifts.' They aren't all of that standard, of course. - On April Fools' Day 1975, most of the products in The Price Is Right's gag Showcase were described in a satirical manner. The cheap "organ" note : the actual prop used was an early electronic keyboard built in an organ-style case was described as "Guaranteed to make you popular... unless people don't like you!" - In an episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie that was supposedly Product Placement for "Tidyman's Carpets," Hugh delivered their slogan: "The deep shag that really satisfies." - Parks and Recreation being a mockumentary about a town in Indiana, had a whole collection of bad slogans that were used throughout the history of the town. Highlights include: 1974-1976 slogan "Entering Pawnee, Engage with Zorp" after the town was taken over by a cult, the 1977-1985 slogan "It's Safe to be Here Now", and their current slogan "Pawnee: First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity". Find them here. - Dalton Humphrey's less than inspiring "We got stuff...maybe buy some" on The Red Green Show. - Starbix in The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy 1981 (the breakfast cereal that the Guide cribbed all that "Space" stuff from the back of) has the slogan "Nasty ... but nourishing", a parody of the National Dairy Council's contemporary cream cake adverts, which had the slogan "Naughty. But nice". - Corner Gas: The talent show in the episode "Cousin Carl" is sponsored by Chuck Dragner's Pre-Owned Farm Equipment. Wanda, acting as MC, reads his slogan, "If you can't trust the Chuck you're talking to, you're talking to the wrong guy named Chuck," then tells Chuck that he needs a better slogan. - Los Espookys: Renaldo's business card for Los Espookys, a group that uses special effects to fake supernatural phenomena, features the slogan "We're not ghostbusters... It's different." - The Annals of Improbable Research ran fake ads for HMO Black (later HMO-NO), which advertised its avaricious health care plans with the too-honest slogan: "Because we care about you, and your pocketbook." - In a Capitol Steps pre-song sketch, Pat Buchanan invites the audience to chant his new campaign slogan: "We Can't Stand Pat!" - French Canadian Francois Perusse's radio skits Les Deux Minutes du Peuple frequently feature those. Notable example includes community radio CDKC (loosely translates from french to "broken CD") that uses a different one with every station ID and the man calling various businesses over the phone, each one answering with their slogan. - "CDKC, one antenna, one listener. And sometimes just one antenna." - The D Generation's spoof radio ads usually ended with one of these, such as "The Slag Club! Not just a nightclub, but a cheap hotel someone slapped a coat of paint on and renamed!". - John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: One sketch has a school trying to come up with a motto. They don't have a lot of luck. - According to The News Quiz, Leicester now plays on its royal connotations with the slogan "Leicester: We found a skeleton in a carpark once". This replaces the previous slogan "Leicester: At least it's not Derby". - Tom Petty claimed his SiriusXM Buried Treasures show was recorded at Rick's Airport Recorders, offering the best sound in the Los Angeles Airport area. - In Of Thee I Sing, the various campaign slogans waved in "Wintergreen for President" range from basic ("Win With Wintergreen") to idiotic ("A Vote for Wintergreen Is a Vote for Wintergreen") to dubious ("Wintergreen — The Flavor Lasts") to cynical ("He Kept Us Out of Jail"). - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: When Todd first enters Ms. Lovett's business she sings a whole song that works as a terrible slogan: "The Worst Pies in London". - The products advertised on GTA Radio have this come up a lot. For example, one of the taglines for Giggle Cream: "It's completely legal thanks to a loophole at the FDA!" - In the Zork universe, Frobozz Electric, the evil technology conglomerate which replaced Frobozz Magic in the wake of the Magic Inquisition, has numerous such slogans in their public address announcements in Zork: Grand Inquisitor. Among these: - "Frobozz Electric: We are the boss of you" - "Frobozz Electric: We bring bad things to life" note : A parody of General Electric (GE)'s former slogan, "We bring good things to life". - "Frobozz Electric: We bring good things to ourselves" note : This one too. - You will see those often in the first two Oddworld games. Scrab cakes: it will cost you an arm and a leg! Soulstorm Brew, new recipe: twice the bones, twice the taste, twice the price! - In Megatraveller, SMIRC (The Spinward Marches Interplanetary Raiding Corporation, aka organized space pirates) have the slogan "We have what it takes to take what you have!" - The default slogan for the Liberal cause in Liberal Crime Squad is "We Need A Slogan!" Squad members can intimidate Conservatives by shouting the slogan or use the slogan as their last words. - All over the place as flavor text in Penny Arcade Adventures: - "Jim's Unguents: We Mix'Em Thick" - "Perceival's Paints Can Be Applied To Surfaces" - "Mediocre Pies: They're Just Alright" - "Hats Now!" - "What Makes It Grandma's Best Tea? All The Crushed Beetles" - Mann Co. "We sell products and get in fights!" - Later expanded to "We make Hats, Guns, Bats, Bombs, Bazookas, Camera Beards, Comics, Magazines, Portable Baccarat Detectors, Banners, Swords, Shields and get in fights! Non-employees welcome for gorilla-wrestling Fridays." - Mann Co Corpse-Grade Quicklime "Just Add Body!" - The slogan for EarthBound (the actual one, used for marketing) is "This Game Stinks," as part of an odd campaign involving scratch-and-sniff cards sold alongside the game. They were aiming for Toilet Humor, despite the game itself not having much of that. Yeah, that's probably why the sales went badly. - The sponsors' advertisements from the beginning of Runner2: "Schlörtz Premium Malt Fluid: It's wet!" "Shorty's Milk Brine: It could be worse!" - Fallen London: - The Echo Bazaar has some normal-sounding slogans, but the one for Nikolas Pawnbrokers is a little unsettling: - In Wario: Master of Disguise, one of the antagonists is a Corrupt Corporate Executive named Carpaccio. His company's slogan is "We're hard at work watching your back... That way it's easier to pick your pocket!" - In Undertale, the slogan for the Spider Bake Sale: - According to a commercial in Resident Evil: Revelations 2, TerraSave's slogan is "Because 'Terr' doesn't have to end with 'rist.'" - Mass Effect 2 has Tupari Sports Drink, whose bizarre slogans include "Tupari, brings your ancestors back from the grave" note : This refers to an urban legend about a hilariously mistranslated Pepsi slogan, which Snopes categorizes as "Undetermined". and "I knew a man who didn't drink Tupari sports drink for three days, he got hit by a shuttle!" - The Outer Worlds has a number of examples. You get the feeling that marketing is one of many places where the shoddily-run corporate dystopia that is the Halcyon system has cut corners: - The Spacer's Choice company, whose product line is deeply unreliable, poorly made knockoffs sold at discount. Their slogan "It's not the best choice, it's Spacer's Choice!" pretty much admits this. - C&P Boarst Wurst. "It's not the wurst unless it's boarst wurst." Boarst wurst is actually pretty decent by most accounts, if you can get past it being made from cysts that slough off genetically engineered pigs. - Rizzo's, a manufacturer of candy, soft-drinks, and other foods, produces such gems as "Rizzo's Lemon Slapp! Slapp your whole family tonight!" - Paper Mario: The Origami King: Overlook Tower's slogan is "The tower with a gift shop." The Toad who tells Mario about it assures him it's still being worked on. - The Jackbox Party Pack: Predatory Loans in Bidiots is a loan company with a number of musical jingles that tend to be about what a bad idea it is to borrow from them. - Saints Row 2 has some of the radio ads you can hear while driving. - Barn Finders: The slogan for the company M.I.K.K.O. is "M.I.K.K.O.! It should work!". - Evil Genius: The slogan of De Laager's Diamond Mining Corporation is "We turn rocks into gold, metaphorically speaking." - Cragne Manor: According to real estate agent Bethany, the slogan of the town of Backwater is "Backwater: You Get Used To It." - For a surprisingly long time, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, had the slogan "The land of rape and honey"; referring to "rapeseed", the original name of canola plants. They eventually changed it to "Opportunity Grows Here". - An inordinate number of car dealers who got the short stick on locations away from a visible highway try to make the best of it by mentioning they're 'cleverly located behind the mall' or 'a little gem hidden four blocks from the highway'. - Buffalo, NY car dealer "Mike Barney Nissan" has the slogan "Awesome Cars, Great Dealership... Lousy Jingle". - Slogan of 105.9 WCKG, then a classic rock radio station in Chicago: "Of all the radio stations in Chicago... we're one of them." (during a time when it was a confused hot talk/classic rock/sports hybrid). It's now a simulcast of all-news WBBM, so you can see how well that worked. - The webpage banner for the Pokémon fansite The PokéCommunity commonly displays a sentence (or a slight variation of it) above the forums, which states "We Are STILL Working On A Better Slogan." The website's FAQ states that this is the official slogan. - The launch ad campaign for the 2012 Toyota Yaris: "It's a car!" (To be fair, that's pretty much the vehicle's best selling point.) - A local Atlanta furniture dealer, Sofa King, has billboards touting "Our prices are Sofa King low." (Think about that a second.) The campaign got banned in one country, and an SNL parody. - Atlanta sports talk radio station WCNN (680 "The Fan") had a series of spots for morning host Christopher Rude's show "The Rude Awakening" which touted him as "the least interesting man in Atlanta radio" (apeing Dos Equis beer's The Most Interesting Man in the World). Among the attributes: "He doesn't look for Waldo...Waldo looks for him," "When he takes his shirt off, kittens die" and "His vomit is used as soup in fine French restaurants." - Carlton & United Beverages ran an advertising campaign for Carlton Draught lager, with the slogan "Made From Beer". The ad campaign parodied old-fashioned Australian beer advertising of the '70's and '80's, using cliche images such as draught horses working in golden fields and phrases such as "Pulled By Horses". - Also from the '70's in Australia, the prosaic slogan from a famous ad for a non-alcoholic beverage called Clayton's — "The drink you have when you're not having a drink". This became so popular (the ad and slogan, not the drink) that "Clayton's" became a standard colloquialism for "ersatz", "fake", or "inauthentic". - A Pittsburgh-area restaurant chain used this ambiguous slogan: "Winky's makes you happy to be hungry!" - The New Orleans-area River Parish Disposal (a garbage collection service) has had the same slogan for years. "River Parish Disposal: Our business stinks, but it's picking up!" - In Kansas City there's a local gardening business called The Grass Pad. Their slogan is "The Grass Pad is high on grass." - Some septic system and pet waste-removal companies claim to be "#1 In The #2 Business." - Various plumbing companies also have "You Dump It, We Pump It." - "You shit it, we git it." - "Septic tanks emptied. Swimming pools filled. Not same truck." - Spokane Pump Incorprated, a company in Spokane, Washington that specializes in repairing industrial pumps, has the knowingly outrageous slogan, "We fix things that suck!" - The Beer Store in Ontario used to have the slogan, "The Beer Store. It's where the beers are." - In a similar vein from Hobart, Australia we have The Paint Shop "It's where you buy paint." - Fluke, makers of electrical measuring instruments, used to use the slogan "If it's a good measurement, it must be a Fluke." - Similarly, Fluke Transportation, a Canadian trucking company, uses "If it's on time, it's a Fluke". - Like the above example, CHARM Scientific makes various testing instruments for the food production industry. Their slogan is "Nothing works like a CHARM", which kind of accidentally implies that their instruments don't work very well at all... - In the 1970s, radio station KOME in San Jose, CA (98.5 FM, now KUFX) had slogans which played with the sexual connotations of its call letters, such as "Don't touch that dial, it's got KOME on it!", "KOME all over your radio dial", "You've got KOME oozing out of your speakers", "Wake up with KOME in your ear" and "The KOME spot on your dial". How they got these past the FCC is a Riddle for the Ages. - A photograph◊ that has gone viral in spanish-speaking communities shows a window repairing service that reads "Bidrios" instead of "Vidrios". The slogan underneath says "We wrote it wrong, but we place them right!" - Des Moines-based automechanic shop Bill's Whitewall's radio jingle is, "We got tires and shit," (with the shit bleeped) to suggest the business is more interested in auto repairs than catchy advertising. - All of the Canadian provinces and territories have different slogans on their licence plates note : Minus Newfoundland & Labrador, who used to have a slogan, but dropped it in the mid-90's, and Nunavut, but they print their name in both English and Inuktitut. Most of these brag about some part of the province ( Friendly Manitoba, Beautiful British Columbia), a reference to their history or culture (Prince Edward Island's Birthplace of Confederation, Quebec's Je me souviens note : I remember. It is also the provincial motto on their coat-of-arms. Taken from a remark by Étienne-Paschal Taché, one of the Fathers of Confederation. While he never specified what he meant, one can guess based on another famous remark of his: "we will never forget our allegiance till the last cannon which is shot on this continent in defence of Great Britain is fired by the hand of a French-Canadian", Alberta's Wild Rose Country note : The wild rose is Alberta's provincial flower), or are inviting to visitors (Ontario's Yours to Discover). All of them are quite good... except for New Brunswick, who decided to go with Be...In This Place. To make things worse, since New Brunswick is the only province that has both English and French as their official language, they write it in both languages, "Be... in this place ᐧ Être... ici on le peut", apparently just so they can confuse people in two languages instead of just one. - The short-lived Miracle Records label, one of the more obscure Motown imprints, had for slogan "If it's a hit, it's a Miracle!", reportedly coined as a joke by Motown publicist Al Abrams. It ended up being prophetic, as the label only had one hit ("Greetings [This Is Uncle Sam]" by the Valadiers, a #98 hit) in its single year of operation in 1961. - The Rax restaurant chain adopted the slogan, "You Can Eat Here". Alongside this was the introduction of Mr. Delicious, an aggressively off-putting and unlikable mascot that uttered baffling and sometimes disturbing non-sequiturs that were somehow intended to be enticements to eat at Rax. This attempt at hipster-like irony did Rax's dwindling profits no favors, and the chain went bankrupt only three months later. - "HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead." Eventually, The Powers That Be realized how annoying it was and started running commercials where someone would interrupt the slogan to complain about it. - Philadelphia-area car dealership Barbera Autoland had a wide-ranging radio commercial campaign with the slogan, "Is Barbera's the best? Yeah, I guess!" It was intended to be I guess! as in, "Yes, indeed" (that very current slang), but when read with insufficient pep, it becomes a verbal shrug of mediocrity. Later they changed it to the slightly more enthusiastic "Boy, I guess!", but it's not much of an improvement. - Schaefer Beer's slogan "Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one" has prompted a lot of jokes over the years — most of them about the implicit suggestion that Schaefer is what you drink if you mainly just want to get blitzed and taste is unimportant. - "Weird Al" Yankovic's Jackson Park Espresso coffee bears the slogan "Our coffee's so good you'll want to drink it!" - A foam rubber seller in Lynchburg, Virgina, which has an entrance at the back of the building, features a large sign out front that reads, "Shepphard's Foam Rubber: Cut to size. Apply in rear."	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSloganIsTerrible
All Trolls Are Different - TV Tropes Thor: I think trolls should be hardworking blacksmiths, toiling away underground forging magical weapons. Hades: No! Trolls should be vile monsters, living under bridges and harassing goats! Pig: You're both wrong! Trolls should be tiny wrinkled men with big poofy hair that are collected by old women! Elves have Pointy Ears and live for a very long time out in the magical forest. Dwarves live underground, dig up jewels, and are short and like to grow long beards. Merpeople live underwater, have sea-creature features, and sing. And Trolls... Err? Well, they're always big, ugly, brutal, and stupid, right? Except when they're small, Ugly Cute and friendly. Should they be giants with scaly green skin that rapidly heal from any injury except fire or acid? Or something that's literally made of rock and gets smarter when it's in the cold? Or are they grey-skinned aliens from another universe that can use computers and wear glasses? Tusked and mohawked practitioners of Hollywood Voodoo? Or perhaps something that guards bridges from errant goats? Or could they simply be beings who entertain themselves at the expense of others? All right, let's admit it. Trolls, despite being one of the Standard Fantasy Races, are diverse. It's not even a matter of everyone wanting them to be different; there are so many clashing ideas of trolls in mythology itself that it's hard to decide what they are. Pretty much the only standard thing about trolls is that they are ugly — or at least Ugly Cute. So, really, you can't blame modern creators for putting their own spin on trolls. If there is any consistency, it is that the less cute the troll, the meaner the troll, but even that tends to be subverted. Quite a few depictions of trolls have them as being vulnerable to fire. Some fictional interpretations give them ridiculously fast regenerative powers, such that they can heal themselves even as you're cutting them down, making them seemingly invincible. In these interpretations, fire is the only way to prevent their injuries from healing and thus the only way to defeat them. Others have them harmed or petrified by sunlight. In some fantasy settings, trolls also tend to have a habit of allying themselves with orcs, goblins or both. Many of the differences stem from language barriers. When translating a myth from another culture, it was common habit for a previously unknown creature to be stamped as a troll. The terms "ogre", "giant" and "troll" were also interchangeable for many storytellers, resulting in further confusion. Even within Scandinavian folklore trolls are extremely diverse, and range from magical mischievous goblins to huge dumb giants who roamed the forest and could sniff out a Christian man's blood. Part of this comes from the isolated nature of Scandinavian communities; localized versions of monsters destroying crops and eating your porridge appeared. The word troll in Norse languages, similar to trolleri/trylleri which means magic, is basically a blanket term for any creature that's strange, unusual, poorly understood, seemingly supernatural or vaguely inhuman, similar to the Japanese concept of youkai. Has nothing to do with trolling (which is actually named after a method of bait-fishing), except when it does. See also Our Orcs Are Different, Our Goblins Are Different, Our Pixies Are Different, Our Giants Are Bigger, and Our Ogres Are Hungrier. Compare Our Ghouls Are Creepier, another fantasy creature with inconsistent portrayals. ## Example Subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other Examples: - Berserk: Trolls are nasty, nasty predatory monsters straight out of the Qliphoth, a nightmare realm connected to the astral world, essentially making them Made of Evil. They have taken to kidnapping children and carrying women off from villages for Eating and breeding purposes, respectively. Like many of Kentaro Miura's monsters, Berserk's trolls are Mix-and-Match Critters, and in their case look like a hairy cross between a star-nosed mole and a monkey. - Dororo: One of the friendlier youkai is called a troll, at least in the English version. Here it's a green-skinned humanoid with a swollen head that points the way to buried treasure. - In Hetalia: Axis Powers, one of Norway's mystical friends is a gigantic green troll that protects him. - In Saint Seiya, one of Hades' Specters is Troll Ivan. His armor represents the troll as a humanoid being with pointy ears, claws and a tail. - Slayers: Trolls (likely based on the ones in Dungeons & Dragons) are rather primal creatures, around twice the height of the average human and come in a large array of colors. They posses an incredible Healing Factor that allows them to recover lost limbs in a matter of seconds. Some people are capable of making deals with them, but most avoid them; a rather good idea, seeing as they go in a ravenous frenzy of pillaging and destruction the second Shabranigdu is unleashed into the world, which happens quite often, it would seem. A minor character is part troll and part werewolf — he has human-level intelligence and apparently stronger regenerative abilities than a normal troll. Obviously a Munchkin... - Sorcerer Stabber Orphen: Volkan and Dortin are explicitly described as trolls but don't seem to bear any of the monstrous/gigantic traits associated with mythological trolls. In fact, if they weren't given the label of being trolls, one would more likely assume they were dwarves, midgets, or a pair of naughty children who get into trouble constantly. - In Toriko there's a creature called Troll Kong, a massive four-armed gorilla known for being dangerous, and the Troll Cheese, an incredibly stinky but delicious cheese. Later on, \|\|Taste Hermit Kaka reveals that the Nitro are actually a type of Troll, in this case being the incarnation of Gourmet Cells and appetite. Though we are told that there are several types of trolls, most of them looking like the typical portrayal, Nitro themselves do not look the part, being furry humanoid lizards\|\|. - WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?: Trolls are almost indistinguishable from normal humans and are usually pretty attractive by human standards as well. However, their behavior was anything but human, with many unfortunate travelers being lured into spending the night at the home of an attractive stranger only to be devoured by their host. They stopped this practice after humanity went extinct and most trolls now focus on catering to guests rather than eating them. Still, this doesn't stop Nygglatho from expressing a desire to eat certain characters. The main character, Willem, is a frequent target of her "affection" given that he's the last living human and therefore a rare delicacy in her eyes. - Astro City: "The trolls of Glittertind" are shown to be one of the factions that rise up to repel the Enelsian invaders. The trolls essentially look like large (in the 15 ft-range) big-nosed and coarse-featured humans who dress in stereotypical 19th-century Norwegian clothes and are strong enough to bodily hurl alien tanks into the ocean. - Black Moon Chronicles: In this case, similar in abilities and weaknesses to both D&D and Warhammer trolls, but 20+ feet tall, with a more-or-less caucasian skin tone, giant noses, and they look a bit like they came out of Jim Henson's creature shop. - Bodie Troll: The titular character is small, furry and absolutely cute. Something he hates because he wants to be scary. Oh and he has a taste for dried roots and moldy bread. - ElfQuest trolls are short, stocky, warty, grey-green, ugly and materialistic. They are also more technologically advanced than most of the rest of the world, live underground, and have beards, making them stand-ins for Dwarves. Naturally, the elves and trolls don't get along well. And when you cross an elf with a troll you apparently get a dwarf who's a Trickster with a major Freudian Excuse. - At the climax of the graphic novel Foiled, this is revealed to be \|\|Avery\|\|'s true form. - Gold Digger Trolls are green-skinned tall and strong humanoids who heal fast and grow larger and stronger with age. Young ones of both sexes are often quite attractive. They've got something of a reputation as being less civilized, but that's largely because of prolonged wars with the elves that wrecked a lot of their old civilization; there are plenty of smart trolls including martial artists and archmages and as a species they come off no worse than the other humanoids. They have a grudge against elves, but that goes both ways and isn't universal. There's some evidence trolls and elves are even distant relatives. - Hellboy: Due to its policy that All Myths Are True, the comic ends up with more types of troll than you can shake a Red Right Hand at. - The trolls of Lanfeust are 7-8 feet tall fur-covered humanoids that live in their own villages. They're known for being extremely strong and tough, have a cultural love of filth (their inability to cross water isn't supernatural, they just really don't like being clean) and usually have a jovial, friendly temper with a major love of food and drink. The problem being that they also have a general disregard for the life of things that are more fragile than them, and are near-Extreme Omnivore who aren't adverse to hunting and eating humans, pets, or really anything that isn't a rock. They can get used to life in society (and even then they can be bloodily clumsy), and human sages know rituals to "enchant" them (a pacifying kind of mind control). Darshan, Troy's totally-not-Asia country, has its own subspecies of trolls; they're smaller and have panda-like fur patterns, but unlike the standard trolls they're pretty much fully feral. - At least two different kinds of trolls have appeared in the Marvel Universe. The first are Asgardian trolls, exemplified by Thor-villains Ullik and Geirrodur. Asgardian trolls very much resemble the Scandinavian trolls mentioned below, but are superhumanly strong — Ullik is on par with Thor, for example. The second kind were a group of myriad-seeming humanoid creatures of various colors who, among other things, hunted a young mutant for his ability to transmute elements; this group has had two story appearances to date spanning four comics. - A third "troll" type exists, but he is an alien, not a mythical creature. Pip Gofern (aka Pip the Troll) is minor royalty of the Laxadazian race, and more resembles a short, hornless, potbellied satyr than a troll — including in his appetites. Laxadazian trolls aren't a species, however. Normally, Laxadazians are more standard humanoid in appearance. Trollism is a side-effect of abusing a particular mind-altering alcoholic beverage, although once triggered, the change is permanent. - One-time Thunderbolts member Troll is half-Asgardian, half-Asgardian troll, and looks like a teenage human girl with Wild Hair. - Finnish comic book Ontot Kukkulat ("Hollow Hills") features trolls who used to be Neanderthals until their Eldritch Abomination god transformed them to save them as a species. They are seven-foot tall humanoids with jet-black skin, wild mane and wolf-like jaws and claws. They can use illusions to appear like humans or anything else they want, or even turn invisible, but any reflection or shadow reveals their true form. They are practically immortal unless killed, in which case they dissolve into crude oil ("black blood of Mother Earth"). They have a fairly civilized society in danger of being wiped out by modern humanity, but they have fair helpings of Blue-and-Orange Morality, for example being obliged to ritually mutilate and eat all humans who end up in their underground homes. - Poison Elves: Trolls are like taller, uglier elves with horns and the ability to reproduce by bleeding. In the case of Dark Trolls they are also 15 feet tall. They were created to destroy all life. Elves were made from trolls with the evil burned off by mystic flames to make a counter force. - In Golden Age Captain Marvel Jr. comics, trolls were a race of cute, tiny magical people. The guys were just funny-looking, but the girl, Ny-O, was very pretty, albeit having a head the size of a bobble-head doll relative to her body. - Sojourn features Trolls who look more than a little like the Uruk-Hai from The Lord of the Rings films, being human-height but bulky, green- or brown-skinned, with glowing green eyes and often with massive horns. They were first an Always Chaotic Evil mook army, and eventually became a Proud Warrior Race who were more attuned to nature than humans. - Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) portrays trolls as a mostly human-like race of wizards with lizard-like tails. - Valhalla, being based on Norse Mythology, has plenty and plenty of examples: first and foremost, it considers Jotuns as a subrace of Trolls, usually having an ample variety of physical traits: they're usually ugly, large humanoids slightly bigger than humans and Aesirs and tend to look like orcs/Ogres of sort, while actual Trolls tend to be hairy and tailed. All Jotuns have Pointy Ears, a trait which is retained by those Jotuns who became Aesirs such as Skadi, Tyr and Magni (who all look perfectly human safe for the pointy ears). A volume has a human villain who had two Jotun daughters (appearing as tailed, feral-looking women with muzzle-like mouths and talons) and also \|\|was so corrupt he became a Troll himself, causing him to turn to stone as he dies\|\|. - Though he's not actually a troll the fear god Phobos manifests as a large, brutish red-eyed troll in Wonder Woman (1987). - In "A Beautiful Tale", a story in the adult comic XXXenophile, trolls are a species possessed of superhuman strength and glaring sexual dimorphism. We only ever see the females (called "huldra") who are sharp-toothed Cute Monster Girls with long tufted tails. - Youngblood includes a short, scrappy member with Wolverine-inspired hair named Bartholomew J. Troll, or simply Troll. Alan Moore later established via Retcon that Troll literally is an ancient magical troll. - In Dilbert, trolls are human-sized creatures who work in the accounting department, which for some reason resembles a castle dungeon. It's stated several times that the trolls were once humans who slowly mutated. This partially happened to Dilbert once. - One regular character in Broom Hilda was Irwin Troll, a Cloud Cuckoolander Friend to All Living Things who looked like a human-sized hairball with arms, legs, and a face. - One series of FoxTrot has Paige creating a fairy tale-themed comic strip of her own. In one strip, the hero encounters a troll tied to a tree that looks like her brother Jason with goat legs and fangs. The hero wonders if he should free the creature or leave it tied up, knowing that a boar would eventually come along and kill it. When the actual Jason insults Paige in the last panel, she asks him if he knows whether or not "boar whistles" are a thing. - In "The Cat on the Dovrefell", they invade the home at Christmas time. Same thing in "Tatterhood". - In "Soria Moria Castle", they have three, or six, or nine heads, own swords and magic potions because the swords are too heavy for anyone to lift without the potion, and live in castles with no one in the lands about except the princesses they hold captive. - In Asbjørnsen and Moe's "The Old Dame and her Hen", the Man o' the Hill is sometimes called an ogre, but he has all the traits of a Norwegian troll: he is a member of the "hill-folk", he is big and ugly, he lives underground, he is harmed by sunlight, he hoards riches, he is amazingly strong and just as dumb. - Alexandra Quick: Like in its source work Harry Potter, Trolls are none too possessed of smarts, making them ideal for dull, monotonous work. Hence Wizarding America employs them in tollbooths for the Automagicka. - Dungeon Keeper Ami: The focus of the "Strange Trolls" chapter. They're green-skinned humanoids. - The Freeport Venture: In Freeport Venture: Come and See, Heritor Azurite's palace is guarded by enormous ice trolls. Going by the description, they resemble fairly typical mythological trolls, with shaggy hair and thick fat to ward off the cold. - A Future of Friendship, a History of Hate: The second challenge Twilight has to pass in order to rescue her friends from Ruinate is a bridge guarded by Craggle, a troll made out of rock — specifically, a mineral that blocks magic (keeping her from just teleporting past him). He's rather dimwitted, but also seems to have an honor code, as he not only gives her a fair chance to get past him, but \|\|when she saves him falling to his death upon his defeat, he not only lets her pass, but saves her from a pack of shalehounds\|\|. - Harry Potter and the Guardian's Light: Hogwarts is subjected to a mountain troll attack on Halloween, as per canon. This time, however, there's more than one troll. A subsequent search party by the BPRD uncovers the trolls' leaders, Orikal and Ulik, both from Marvel Comics. Orikal is an ugly clawed grey creature who mainly appears masked, and can magically combine living entities, while Ulik is a yellow-skinned, brown-haired thug, but more intelligent than he appears, and speaks with the Funetik Aksent of an Ork from Warhammer. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Trolls are huge, grey-skinned, tusked humanoids that live in caves, and are always hostile. Frost, forest and mountain trolls, with different colorations, spawn beneath different biomes. They fight with huge, crude clubs and turn to stone when in direct daylight. Troll hide can be used to make armor that repels projectiles. - Under the Northern Lights: Tarandroland is home to trolls called Stalu (after a Sami myth in real life). They are huge, misshapen cervines who live deep in forests and use forest lakes for gardens. They are infamous for eating reindeer. \|\|They are actually moose, driven to hiding after the genocidal efforts of the reindeer. While they might be hostile in self-defense, they most certainly don't eat people.\|\| - George knows this in With Strings Attached and The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, as he observes one kind in the former and becomes a second kind (the classic Dungeons & Dragons kind) twice in the latter. - The Boxtrolls are short, Ugly Cute scavengers who wear discarded cardboard boxes (to the point of living in them, like a turtle's shell), live in the Absurdly-Spacious Sewer beneath the town of Cheesebridge, and love to tinker. The citizens of Cheesebridge see them as a menace (mostly thanks to the propaganda spread by Mr. Snatcher), but they're Not Evil, Just Misunderstood. - Frozen: The trolls are small, have rock bodies, and are very friendly to people going as far as to use their magic to help them. They, however actually like trolling (pun intended) when they try to get Kristoff and Anna married the first time they see them together. - My Neighbor Totoro: Would you believe that "Totoro" is actually a mispronunciation of "troll"? Totoro is the leader of a family of friendly forest monsters, and he looks like a big, furry cat-owl-rabbit thing. - Shrek: - In the Norwegian dub, the word "ogre" is replaced with the word "troll". Apart from being green and lacking a tail, Shrek looks like the Scandinavian idea of a troll, anyway. - In the Swedish dub (a closely related language), Shrek is a "swamp troll". - In the fourth movie, a troll is seen briefly, being mistaken for Shrek. They're slightly taller and bulkier than ogres. Or at least, that particular one was anyway. This is interesting because the tie-in video games had already brought in trolls as a type of enemy. Of course, they looked completely different. - A Troll in Central Park had a friendly troll who was tiny with big ears, a tail that ends in a tuft of fur, and a literal "Green Thumb" that could make plants grow. He's the only troll that looked and acted like this in the movie though, and all the other trolls are ugly human-sized flower-hating monsters with warts, large thick tails, and a thumb that turns objects into stone. - Trolls: The title characters are small, colorful, cheery Ugly Cute beings, deliberately designed after the Troll dolls. They can also freely move, stretch and shape their hair and change its color any way they want as a form of defense and camouflage, even making it glow to imitate fire. - Discussed in Trolls: World Tour, when Peppy tells Poppy about the other troll tribes that are different from them, she asks if she means different like the trolls in their village; Legsly, who can stretch her legs instead of her hair, Fuzzbert who's covered entirely in hair, or Skyscraper who is multiple troll heads and arms stacked on top of a single body. What he means by different are how trolls from the other tribes center their culture around different genres of music and don't understand or like that of the Pop trolls. The trolls of the other tribes have physical differences that allude to other mythical creatures. - Rock trolls are most similar to Pop trolls, but with messier hair, angular features and muted colors in grey tones that make them look like they're literally carved out of stone. Their music is aggressively defiant. - Country trolls are like centaurs in body structure. Their music is mournful and low-key. - Classical trolls are small, glittery and winged, resembling cherubs. Their music has no lyrics as they follow a conductor in an orchestra. - Techno trolls live underwater and are like mermaids, but they can also float through the air. They have features and markings so angular as to resemble pixels, most signified by a pixelated heart on their chests, with bodies that can move as smoothly as a synth or as erratic as a dubstep mix. Their bodies also glow in bright neon colors, with their hair resembling fiber optic wire. Their music is centered around the long setup of a vibe before dropping the beat. - Funk Trolls are the most open to other types of music as their princes are respectively also into Hip-Hop \|\|and Pop\|\|, showing their appreciation of highly eclectic sources. They're also the most alien compared to every other kind of troll, as they're modeled after the Troll giraffe toys; they have long limbs and long legs in a quadruped body structure and are covered in fur. Following this their tribe has the most advanced, sci-fi like technology, their entire kingdom housed in what's basically a terrestrial spaceship with futuristic devices like tractor beams and floating platforms. - There are other, smaller tribes of trolls for different kinds of music, but physically they all resemble Pop trolls. - In Absentia trolls are huge insect creatures which live beneath tunnels and bridges. They abduct humans who enter their territory and trap them in their dimension. It's possible to barter with them, though you'll have to figure out the rules on your own, but it's ill-advised as it also attracts their attention to those around you. - Border: In this Swedish film, Tina is a rather ugly woman who works as a customs agent, and can smell peoples' emotions. She learns that she is a troll, and that there are small numbers of other trolls out there. - Cat's Eye: The troll is a vicious, small creature who emerges out of children's bedroom walls to kill them by stealing their breath. While intelligent, it can't talk, but does have humanlike clothing and a small knife for defense. - In Ernest Scared Stupid, Ernest faces off against a troll named Trantor who his ancestor Phineas Worrell sealed under a great oak tree long ago. Trantor was big and ugly and liked to go after children, who he turned into little wooden dolls which gave him his power and who could use the voice of anyone he turned into a doll. He could only be stopped by "the heart of a child and a mother's care," which turned out to be unconditional love and... milk. - In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, creatures of every shape and size are seen at the Troll Market. At least some of them aren't trolls, but the one creature explicitly identified as a troll was spindly-limbed and hairless, casting a glamour to make her look like an old human woman. She also eats cats (which our cat-loving half-demon protagonist takes some serious issue with) and is terrified of canaries. - The Lord of the Rings: Trolls are about twelve feet tall, with thick, doughy physiques and brutish faces with widely set eyes and very flat noses. They are extremely stupid and violent. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the cave troll fought by the Fellowship in Moria is a somewhat pitiful figure; Word of God is that it was being forced to fight by the goblins, and its club has to be chained to a collar around its neck, as it might otherwise lose it. The Return of the King features far more fearsome Mordor trolls who wear heavy armor and wield great war hammers, and Aragorn's last foe is an elite Olog-hai, a relatively intelligent troll who wields a sword with some dexterity. - The Troll "series" of films. - Troll: The troll in this movie is the villain of the film. It's a small, ugly, hairy creature that used to be an elf. He turns people into mythological creatures and causes other mischief. - The trolls in the infamous Troll 2 aren't trolls at all, but goblins. There are no trolls whatsoever in the movie, and it has nothing to do with the original. - As if to prove a point or something, there are two different films called Troll 3 and a Troll 4, and not a one of the sequels has anything to do with the original Troll film. Truly, All Trolls are different. - The Troll Hunter shows off this trope like a peacock displaying his feathers. Let's see, you've got a very large three-headed forest troll, a big aquatic brutish troll that lives under a bridge and has a taste for small woolly hoofed mammals, a whole pack of large furry cave trolls, and a colossal mountain troll who looks like what would happen if Clover was romantically involved with Gaius. All of them react badly to sunlight (or, more specifically, UV radiation) and can smell Christians. - Willow: Trolls are smelly, vicious apelike brutes who hate Nelwyns. - Trolls originate in Nordic folklore, but there is some variation based on country. - The Norwegian trolls are the one most are familiar with. Hairy giants with tails and large noses and ears that live in forests and mountains and eat humans. Some of them also have multiple heads and a taste for kidnapping maidens (especially princesses), either to eat or as slaves. While they usually don't turn to stone during the day, they are prone to being tricked to their death by a Guile Hero like the Ashlad. - Huldra (the Hulder), found in Norway and Sweden, blur the line between trolls and The Fair Folk. They live in caves and often seduce men to lure them into the mountains, but have prodigious strength and a few troll-like traits, like a cow's tail and a "hollow" back, which is often interpreted akin to a rotten tree. - Icelandic trolls are much the same as Norwegian, but live only in mountains (there aren't many forests in Iceland to live in) and turn to stone during the day. - All of Trollfest's music is about trolls, which are somewhat goblin-like, love mead and eat Christians. They also speak some weird combination of German and Norwegian, but some also speak English. There are many individual Trolls like the hunter Jeger Meister, the beekeeper Brumlebassen or Brakebein, the hero of their second album, who is searching for the Legendary beer. - In a significant number of legends from the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, trolls ( trowe, from the Scots word) are explicitly described as shorter than humans, or even really small. They are also both shy and mischievous, as well as possessing a fondness for music. Hypothesizing, this may be due to cultural cross-pollination between the British goblin and the Scandinavian troll. Also, the word "trowe" is thought to be synonymous with old Norse's "svartalv", as they are depicted in nearly the same way. - As pointed out at the top of the page, a lot of myths paint contradictory pictures of trolls. Hence the trope name. Depending on the myth, they range from well-meaning and friendly, but terribly dim-witted and sometimes inadvertently harmful creatures to cruel man-eating monsters that abduct and devour children. And that's just their disposition. Getting started on ranges in size, ability, and other attributes would take up the whole page. - Even the etymology of the word "troll" has numerous meanings. Originally, the word in Old Norse seemed to serve as a catch-all term referring to any being or creature who was generally malicious, and could translate to anything from "fiend" to "demon," to "werewolf". - In some Scandinavian myths, trolls are pictured as roughly man-sized, hairy, swarthy and ugly beings who dwell in the mysterious forest. Trolls usually possess great mineral wealth, to the point that "rich as a troll" is still a figure of speech. Sometimes they switch one of our babies for one of their own, so they can use the human baby as a worker; the changeling doesn't really fit with human society, so it returns to the forest at some point. Plus, the worse the troll baby is treated, the worse the real baby gets it. If you treat it good enough, you might even get your baby back. And even this part varies. Some changeling stories instead say you should abuse the child, so that the troll will realize it made a bad trade and take its child back. - Icelandic trolls are considered the same as ogres and range from being about double the size of humans to being taller then mountains. They also eat children. Icelandic folklore is fairly consistent in that its trolls usually turn to stone if they are exposed to sunlight. There is also a version that turns to stone at the ringing of church bells, which would explain why trolls are so rare nowadays. - When it comes to mythological trolls, Kaja Foglio's adaptation of The Cat on the Dovrefjell actually hit the nail on the head. Certain legends even described the males of the species as being hideously ugly, but the females (tails and occasional other weird features notwithstanding) as quite attractive by human standards. (For an example of this in modern media, do a Google search for "Cutefase.") The beautiful troll females described in the story above (as well as in the Foglios' XXXenophile story, see the comic books folder) are known as Huldra. To further complicate matters, Huldra are considered to be related to both trolls and The Fair Folk. They prefer human men, though. This is consistent with actual Norse Mythology, in which a huldra (or huldre) is generally speaking a beautiful, if temperamental woman with a cow tail and unusual strength; they're both trolls, The Fair Folk, and confusingly, also a type of "Alf" (Elf, that is). - Little known fact, the Jotnar are also sometimes referred to as "trolls". - Another mythological creature comparable to trolls in their vagueness is the Bunyip, a creature in Aboriginal and Australian folklore. About the only common feature any rendition of the bunyip has is that it lives in swamps, and sometimes it's basically an Unseen Evil. - Most traditional Norwegian trolls are very large — ranging from slightly taller than a man to twice as tall as a tree. They live in the mountains, generally near large forests. Some may seem moss-grown; most are dimwitted. Certain trolls also burst and turn to stone in the sunlight, which kills them. All trolls can be killed like any other creature, they are just very hard to kill because of their size and strength. - Besides these general characteristics, few fairy tales portray the trolls the same way as another. The most famous might be the one who lived under a bridge and tried to capture goats. One story has trolls with multiple heads. Another tells of a very stupid troll who was tricked into cutting his own belly open. Yet another troll kidnapped girls and took them into his own to marry them. (If they wouldn't he tore their heads off. Somehow everyone got better.) Trolls are truly diverse creatures. - In Skáldskaparmál a troll describes her kind as dwelling on the moon, sucking up the wealth of jotnars, destroying a sun, serving seers, guarding graves and swallowing a wheel of heaven. Given that previous paragraphs were about Thor spending all day crushing trolls with a hammer, little of this was likely true but does suggest they are extremely arrogant. - To make matters worse, in Norwegian myth the word troll can be applied to almost any member of The Fair Folk, of which some are more obviously troll-like then others, but when it comes to naming and separating those creatures it is actually rather consistent: - Plain "Troll" or "Rise": Large, often evil, humanoids living in mountains. Often have pieces of landscape (like moss or trees) growing on them, multiple heads and other deformations. Are more prone to be vulnerable to sunlight than other variants. - "Skogstroll" (Forest Troll): Similar to the above, but forest-dwelling and often smaller (still larger than a human though). Often considered the same as the English Ogre. - "Havtroll" (Sea Troll): Similar to those above, but lives in the sea. Its body is covered in seaweed and its face is like that of a fish. Stories about this variant are increasingly rare. - "Nisse" or "Tomte"(depending on region): Small and friendly—thought somewhat mischievous—creature living in and near farms. Can be compared to more traditional depictions of Leprechauns. It's important to note that a "Nisse" or "Tomte" is considered to the personification of a farm or the spirit of the farm's original owner. - "De underjordiske" (the subterraneans): Small, usually evil creatures that live underground. Steal children either by swapping infants with one of their own (a "bytting"/changeling) or abducting lone children in the forest at night. - "Hulder" (hidden) or "Skogsrå (forest lady): Beautiful women with cow-tails (and in some stories, a hole in their back. Somehow). Giving in to their seduction is usually not a good idea. Note however that "hulderfolk" is also used to refer to The Fair Folk in general. - "Nøkk": Shape-shifting water-dweller that lures people to lakes or rivers and drowns them. Always male. Usually sings too, but is not a siren. - A reoccurring plot point in the Icelandic sagas where some of the lesser known gods are called trolls by people who do not recognize them but can clearly tell they are not human. The men that know better are sometimes able to get these gods on their side. - In Sami mythology, trolls are evil spirit invaders from another realm or basically another name for demons. - Irish mythology holds that humans had to fight a long bitter war to wrest control of the land of Ireland from a race of foul, lumpen, mis-shapen, not especially intelligent, creatures with no table manners called the Fomorians — trolls by any other name. Given the cultural interplay between Ireland and Scandinavia, it is possible ideas concerning trolls cross-fertilised each other's folklore and mythology. - Lithuanian Snow Troll of Chikara, who is very small and purple. - Peer Gynt: According to Peer, the only difference between trolls and men is that men say "be yourself" and trolls say "be yourself enough". - LEGO brand building bricks depict trolls as either green men with tusks and red eyes that you'd be forgiven for mistaking for Orcs, or traditional troll-sized dumb brutes. Some of the giant trolls are tan, but they're still called trolls. - A number of years ago, it was something of a fad to collect small plastic humanoid toys that had large, brightly-coloured hair and were referred to as Trolls. And even then, they brought out a toyline aimed at MEN. MANLY MEN. with muscular, barbaric trolls who (according to the wrapping) were the enemies of the cutesy girly ones. Though they still sported the same hairdos. Original Scandinavian troll dolls were more Ugly Cute, and lacked the Anime Hair. They were created by a Danish fisherman in the 1950s. - AdventureQuest Worlds: The trolls rule one half of the Bloodtusk Ravine (the other half being Horc territory). They have a love of literature and art, are quite adept in the use of magic, and in the art of combat are unparalleled strategists. Physically, they're not much larger than regular humans and have skin coloration ranging from a greenish blue to dark blue, with males having big ears and differently-sized noses and tusks depending on the troll, and females being Cute Monster Girls. - Age of Mythology, followers of Forseti can summon Trolls from the Temple. Trolls are depicted as rotund, long-armed gray humanoids wearing belts and pouches full of stones, which they use to attack from far away at a decent rate. Forseti's unique technology turns them into Hamarrtroll (adding a second head and increasing their stats). They do not have a Healing Factor per se, but they recover health equivent to the damage they do ala Life Drain and Forseti's God Power does allow you to create a healing spring... - Ancient Domains of Mystery: Trolls come in two distinct flavors, the standard hostile trolls and "civilized" trolls, the latter of which are a playable race. Hostile trolls are basically garden-variety, while player trolls start off considerably chaotic (though not as much as orcs), suffer massive price penalties with dwarf, elf and gnome shopkeepers, and have the lowest maximum hunger and second-lowest lifespan of any of the player races. That said, their Healing Factor can make them borderline game breaking if playing as a Healer. - The Bard's Tale: Trow (what people called trolls on the Orkney Islands) are short, goblin-like creatures that are an annoyance in the beginning. That is, until your average enemy becomes Clock-Work Knights and ten-foot tall undead Vikings. Even then there are two varieties of Trow: Kunal Trow are the bigger, more violent type, while Peerie Trow are the smaller, cunning variety. A Kunal Trow'll rip your guts out, a Peerie will sing about it later. - Trolls in Battle for Wesnoth are mixture of the "rocky" trolls of the Discworld and the regenerating giants of Dungeons & Dragons. - Trolls in Castle Crashers are huge-eyed black humanoidish stick-wielding forest creatures possibly made of hair. They are produced from the mouth of an insane crying black fuzzy square face with legs called a Big Troll. Ostensibly, these are hairballs of the "Giant Troll," a weeping cat-like monster of immense proportions and questionable motivation has hair that resembles its supposed progeny's "fuzzy" make up. You can (with a bomb) unlock a "Troll Orb" as one of many circular "animal" spirits. It does allows you to slowly regenerate health, so there's that. - City of Heroes: The Trolls are a street gang who all have green skin and grow horns and super strength as they move up in rank. These are all side-effects of a super steroid that they abuse called Superadine. They also tend to have stunted speech, but this is just an extremely limited side effect of the Superadine — a Troll retains their basic level of intelligence, even if they do start talking like a stereotypical caveman. Since the players can have green skin, horns, and the same superpowers, there are quite a few Troll heroes and villains out there. A lot of the player-made ones are cute monster girls since The Trolls are an all-male street gang. - Dark Age of Camelot: Trolls were a playable race in the Midgard realm who looked like hunchbacked, gray-skinned versions of The Thing. - Drakensang: Trolls are large humanoid giants full of hair who likes to eat "sweet stuff", especially honey and "sweet dust" (sugar). Other than this, they're quite likeable. In the second game you can fight a two trio of troll, but they're very dangerous. - Dungeon Keeper has trolls as one of the types of recruitable monsters. They are green, man-sized humanoids who are mediocre combatants, but are fantastic at Item Crafting in the workshop, especially at high levels. - Dungeons 2 features Trolls as the strongest type of creature recruitable by the Horde faction, which they serve as The Blacksmith, manning the Forge to create upgrades for other creatures and rooms. Standard Trolls are tall, green lanky creatures with clubs and oversized hands, feet and heads, and they can evolve into either a Rockthrower (muscular two-headed blue Troll with a mohawk and tusks who attacks from afar by throwing boulders) or a Juggernaut (humongous pink Trolls with horns, nearly as fat as they're tall and armed with a club made from a giant fang). - Dungeon Crawl: Trolls come in a few different varieties of fast-healing unarmed melee brutality, each one nastier than the last: trolls, deep trolls, rock trolls, and iron trolls. Trolls are also a playable race, notable for being able to eat everything, needing to eat everything due to lightning-fast metabolism, and not being very good at any class or role except for aforementioned unarmed melee brutality. To their credit, though, they are amazing at it. - Dwarf Fortress features two types of trolls: - The common "troll", a basically sentient but slow-witted beast which Goblins sometimes use as living battering rams to break fortress doors and cause havoc. Description text tells that trolls are "huge humanoid monsters with coarse fur, large tusks and horns." Now that shearing has been implemented, they are also goblins' source of wool which combined with their gray fur and black skin may mean they look quite a lot like giant, monstrous, humanoid sheep. They also have cyan-coloured blood, for some reason. These trolls are slow learners, but over their 800-1000 year lifespans can acquire a skilled trade, leading to butchers/bakers/candlestick makers accompanying a goblin invasion. Though they function the same in gameplay, individual members are about as different as any other sentient race. - The "night trolls" are a type of Night Creature (night troll is the common term, but each variant has a procedurally generated name like "moon hag", "shadow ogre", etc.) They are inherently hideous humanoids, but randomly generated and ergo completely different from even each other. The main consistency is that they butcher and eat sentients and steal mates of the opposite sex from nearby villages to breed with, turning their stolen mates into lesser versions of themselves. - The Trolls of Elden Ring are descendants of the extinct Fire Giants. They are huge, emanciated-looking humanoid with frizzy, branch-like hair and huge holes on their chest where vine-like things are wrapped around a huge stone. They are sentient beings and don't have any of the traits usually associated with trolls, such as man-eating, but despite this most Trolls are used as slaves; either as beasts of burden, miners or living siege engines in war. The wilder Snow Trolls located in the Mountaintops of the Giants share the basic look, but have white fur covering their bodies that make them less unhealthy-looking than common trolls, and makes them look more like Yetis. - The Elder Scrolls: - The series' standard trolls are big ape-like beasts with green, moss-like fur and three eyes. They have low-level health regeneration and can be killed by normal means, but are especially vulnerable to fire. Skyrim also has Frost Trolls, generally appearing in snowier regions. - Arena straight up has Dungeons & Dragons-style trolls. Unlike some of the other inconsistencies between Arena and later titles, this is never really addressed, beyond the trolls' more dramatic regenerative capabilities being written off as a myth. - Morrowind does not have trolls, but it does have Trollbone Armor. The helmet is a troll skull with a third eye socket, foreshadowing their codified appearance in Oblivion. - In EverQuest and EverQuest II, Trolls are a playable race based heavily on the Dungeons and Dragons version of trolls. They're the ugliest and stupidest of the playable races, but the second strongest (behind ogres), the highest base regeneration by far, and have a racial weakness to fire. Their skin is also usually a shade of green, from emerald green to an almost brown olive. EQ1 trolls are stout and burly like ogres, EQ2 trolls are tall, lanky, and have a wider range of skin tones (but still just shades of green and greenish-brown). - Trolls in Fable are huge golem-like creatures made of earth, rock or ice, and have high attack power, defense and health, but are immobile and very slow with their attacks. - Final Fantasy XI: Trolls are large, bulky, plate armor-wearing mercenaries. They, in the past, were allies of the player-friendly Empire of Aht Urhgan, but turned against them and are now in the employ of Moblins (Goblins with fancy armor). - In The Frostrune, an app adventure game in a Norse setting, a troll is the main and only antagonist: also called Jotunn, the Troll is a spirit of frost and ice from Hel itself, who has seemingly killed all the warriors of the island and frozen solid several sacred locations and places. Your quest is to find a way to bind the Troll to a dolmen and then banish it to Hel with the titular rune. This Troll can only be seen in the spiritual realm, and appears as a tall, highly-stylized spirit with horns, a long beard and a Nightmare Face with gaping eyes and rows of teeth. - God of War (PS4): Trolls are a roaming enemy that Kratos and Atreus run into, starting early on in the game when one of them grabs a deer Atreus had just killed and attacks father and son. They're massive humanoids, with mainly grey skin and wide, heavyset legs, they wear simple kilts, have huge curved horns on either side of their heads, and have their own language. They also carry massive stone totems as weapons, which Kratos can use as bludgeons to squash their own heads, apart from the first troll you meet in the game, or \|\|the Bridgekeeper of Helheim\|\|. - Gears of War: The Locust are arguably a Not Using the "Z" Word or Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" version of trolls, given some of the parallels to the "repulsive underground dweller hostile to man" version of trolls — including being considered legendary monsters. They vary from diminutive humanoids to enormous pseudo-arthropods, using teeth, claws, or guns — either scavenged from humans, or their own designs — and seem to actually be fairly intelligent. - Golden Sun: Trolls appear as big hulking ogres with clubs in Imil Cave, and are the first truly difficult regular enemy you will face in the game. - Gothic: Trolls are huge ape-like creatures with massive arms and short legs, brown fur and incredibly tough skin, but no regeneration. A young troll is a tough fight for two skilled warriors, a fully grown troll requires the main character to be up to borderline-demigod prowess or competent at circle strafing, and the even bigger and scarier-looking black troll is stronger yet. Their punches will also send you flying. Luckily, there is a spell called "shrink monster" that will — well, you figure it out. - Guild Wars: Trolls are largely confined to the continent of Tyria. They appear somewhat reptilian with a single eye and tusks. They're roughly humanoid but possess no neck and have bony spurs along their shoulders. While they are all warriors, many have the healing ability "Troll Unguent" usually reserved for rangers. In Guild Wars 2, trolls appear to be an entirely different species, having a classic slouch caveman posture, digitigrade feet, and bat-like features. They have some rudimentary intelligence as they wear loinclothes, craft basic shelters, and display tribal markings. - Heroine's Quest, being based on Norse mythology, uses the classic trolls who are big green-skinned brutes, who are none too bright, fight with a club, and turn to stone in the daylight. As a nod to D&D, they also regenerate in combat. Their leader is the two-headed Thrivaldi who fancies himself The Chessmaster (and is really, really too stupid for that). - Kameo: Trolls are what most would consider to be "standard" trolls, to the point of being generic. Brutish, violent, fairly dim and always spoiling for a rumble. However, there are some sub-species that are encountered along the way, some lethal (Fire Trolls, Ice Trolls and Shadow Trolls) and some not so lethal (small Trolls who hide in metal balls, Trolls that are part plant). The "normal" Trolls stand out from the magical folk of the game by having a unique affinity with machines; a trait which forged the foundation of a shaky truce until Thorn (a "cunning Troll") took control of the entire race and began yet another war. - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Trolls show up as a form of Giant Mook. They're big, hairy monsters with stone-like skin who use tree trunks as clubs. - In many game universes, trolls are at best a mid-tier threat (or lower, depending on how big a bestiary the game system has). In King's Bounty, trolls are Level 5 creatures. This tier is for the most powerful creatures in the game. This puts a troll on the same threat level as a dragon. In terms of abilities, these trolls have hardened fire-resistant skin in the morning and regeneration when it's night. These trolls also become more powerful as they witness someone die (friend or foe). - The Legend of Spyro: - The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: According to extra material, Trolls are the undead ghouls infesting Dante's Freezer, skeletal monsters in Viking armor and armed with axes. They have a larger and more armored counterpart which turns into a floating wraith when defeated called "Ogre". Reskinned versions of these enemies called "Stone Trolls" appear in the sequel, guarding the ruins on the White Island. - The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon has humongous ape-like Trolls seemingly made of earth, stones and vegetation as the strongest troops under Malefor's control. They're impossible to flinch and hit very very hard, but thankfully are rare. - Legend (1994) has a troll as a boss, but this troll is a shaggy, yeti-like humanoid who spends the whole battle pouncing up and down a collapsing platform while trying to claw at you. - In Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, we have Pizza Trolls. They resemble animated dead trees, and love pizza. Unfortunately for the Zoombinis, they are also extremely picky about the toppings they will eat. - In Magicka, Trolls appear as large brutish giants with a small healing factor which can be counteracted by fire, but can still be killed with other elements. they also come in various Underground Monkey varieties, each with increasing levels of strength and speed. Their intelligence is debatable, as some varieties seem little more than animals, others use weapons advanced as BFGs, and the impressive ruins explored in the second to last chapter (which includes doors with magick based locks, some electronic equipment, and copius amounts of lava) was created by the trolls, leaving them as potential genius bruisers. - Majesty took the regeneration of trolls very literally, having them ooze together in the middle of the city to wreak havoc and then melt into a green puddle when defeated. Their appearance clearly points to Dungeons & Dragons as inspiration. - Might and Magic: About the only consistent thing with trolls is them being large humanoids with non-human skin colours, although pointy ears and noses are common. The game that gives the most focus to them is Day of the Destroyer, in which they are both a player and NPC race, presenting them as a somewhat primitive but not dumb, hard to kill through sheer toughness and healing note : mechanically, trolls as a playable race starts out with high Endurance, the ability score that influences hit points, and is the only one that can take both the Bodymaster (adds to hit points) and Regeneration (adds hit point healing) skills to Grandmaster, but can't wear heavier armour than leather and with poor luck in their homes (their current home got hit by a storm of fire that left a lake of fire as a result of the event that start off the game, and they accurately say they had to flee from their old home several generations ago... because, as it turns out, it got infested with basilisks. \|\|And then the entire world gets destroyed a few years after the game.\|\| - The trolls from Monster Sanctuary are greyish-green humanoids with fur on their backs that live underground and eat rocks. - In Myth, there are the Trow (an alternate spelling of "troll"), twelve-foot-tall giants with bodies like stone. They're are immortal unless killed, and incapable of reproduction (all existing Trow were directly created by the god Nyx at the beginning of the world according to the Trow's own legends). They're capable of surviving anything short of dismemberment, and wear belts of skulls about their waists. When fighting creatures smaller than they are (which is to say, most creatures) their combat techniques generally involve kicking those creatures across the landscape with messy results. - Nethack: Trolls have a large chance of spontaneously reviving if their corpse isn't taken care of in some way, like \|\|being eaten, disintegrated, or thrown underwater (fire does NOT, by the way, really help in this case)\|\|. However, they lose a level every time and have a chance of not coming back anyways. They tend to make decent pets for the careless. - The original Nexus War had a giant mutated troll-golem created by the Sand Witch of Galmath, which roamed the ruins of its creator's desert fortress. It was one of the few wandering monsters that wasn't That One Boss, but it still regenerated health so quickly that trying to kill it was usually futile. - Ori and the Will of the Wisps has the Gorleks, a race of stocky four-armed three-eyed humanoids with lion-like manes and ears, who were once widespread in Niwen but driven underground by The Corruption. Most individuals are hostile Smash Mooks, but a few friendly NPC's remain, such as Grom in Wellspring Glades. - Pillars of Eternity: Trolls are huge humanoids absolutely covered with fungus and lichen. Their regenerative ability is represented as them getting one usage of the Second Chance ability when they would be killed the first time. - Pokémon Sword and Shield introduces Grimmsnarl, a big, ugly, hairy Pokémon that is Dark/Fairy type and resembles common depictions of trolls and ogres. Its evolutionary relatives, Impidimp and Morgrem, are trolls in the other sense of the word, being mischievous creatures who annoy humans. - In Puzzle Quest, trolls are large, grayish creatures with the annoying habit of regenerating health, though they are still perfectly killable. During a sidequest, however, you are told something that basically amounts to them being able to regenerate even after being eaten, which can be prevented by ingesting poison. - In RIFT, trolls are fairly standard hulking, stony-skinned brutes. What makes them different is that \|\|they are former servants of an ancient race of titans, who are not intelligent enough to form language, but can understand psychic messages left behind by the titans. Some of them have chosen to obey the giants, who used to be the middle managers between the titans and the trolls\|\|. Also, Asha Catari has one for a bodyguard. - In RuneScape, trolls are a diverse and wide-ranging group. The most common breed are mountain trolls, which have stony skin, are incredibly stupid, will eat literally anything and live in caves inside mountains. Occasionally trolls will raid human settlements for food. However, trolls are not always hostile and just don't seem to understand that humans would rather not be eaten. Trolls are named after the first thing they attempt to eat, leading to names like "My Arm" and "Dad". There are also sea trolls, river trolls, and ice trolls, with respective adaptations to their environment like fins or fur, although they are generally aggressive and none too bright. - In Sacred, Trolls are ape-like lanky creatures. - Sacrifice: Trolls are large, green humanoids with a Healing Factor that lack heads and have their faces on their chests instead. They serve the goddess of life, Persephone, and are as such benign. Pyro has a creature known as a firefist, which is a troll with flamethrowers attached to its fists — due to the resulting burns, they do not regenerate. Both variants communicate purely through Hulk Speak. - Spellforce trolls are large, grey-skinned humanoids who speak entirely in "whine", can do marvellous things with rocks, and are about the only Dark race with decent missile attacks that don't count as magical. Their turrets are also ludicrously overpowered. - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! has two kind of trolls: - The Electrolls of Hurricos who look vaguely rodent-like. Also, they don't have eyes. - The Cloud Temples trolls who are waddling heads. - Stonekeep: Trolls are corrupted faeriefolk, and look as such (kind of like evil hobbits). They cannot cross iron spikes driven into the ground and have an aversion to faerie garb — if you equip yourself entirely in faerie clothing, you become completely immune to the attacks of trolls, even though you look very stupid doing so. - Broccoblin, Broccorc, and Broccolem from Temtem are anthropomorphic trees that live in symbiosis with the forests they call home. Broccolem is believed to have inspired legends of forest trolls. - In Tibia, trolls are a weak race of hominids with no special powers, but with an apparent appetite for dogs. A clan of swamp trolls are seen worshipping a soccer ball. The Swamp Trolls are green, and can poison the player, regular Trolls are brown as are Island Trolls, which wield Marlins as swords. There's also a blue race called Ice Trolls. - Total Annihilation: Kingdoms: The trolls are generic monster men from Zhon, slightly stronger than most humans. - Total War: Warhammer: Trolls, as hulking, primitive humanoids with Healing Factors, appear as units for a number of factions. Their regeneration can make them very survivable in melee, especially if they can disengage for a bit before wading back in, but also makes them vulnerable to fire damage. - The Greenskins have basic, scaly trolls, who wield clubs and vomit acidic bile on their enemies. The Warden and the Paunch added river trolls, with fishlike fins and stench bad enough to drop the melee attack of enemies near them; stone trolls, bigger versions of the basic kind wielding huge two-handed mauls; and the river troll hag, a hero character in the form of an unusually big and smart river troll who can cast spells from the Lore of Death. - The Warriors of Chaos have chaos trolls, trolls mutated by the influence of Chaos into savage, horned and red-skinned monsters. - The Norscan Tribes have access to both chaos trolls and ice trolls, an ice-blue reskin of the first kind with a gelid aura that cuts the speed of enemies they engage in melee. There's also Throgg, the King of the Trolls, a gigantic troll with genius-level intellect, a burning hatred for humanity and a desire to plunge the world into a monster-ruled ice age, who serves as a general and faction leader for the Wintertooth Tribe sub-faction. - Troll And I revolves around the friendship of a young Scandinavian boy and his troll post-Second World War, where the whole game have you controlling said troll in battling ruthless hunters and various monsters. - Valheim: Trolls are giant blue-skinned creatures living in the Black Forest biomes, functioning as a kind of Beef Gate to players who haven't invested in bows, knives or spears. They come in barehanded and club (read: uprooted pine tree)-wielding varieties, can deal huge amounts of area damage (especially to buildings and structures- they can reduce several hours' worth of work to kindling in seconds) and are famous in the fandom for their Not the Intended Use quirk: the aforementioned area damage makes them able to clear out trees and metal deposits far quicker than you can. They drop coins and their lairs usually contain treasure, and their skin can be used to craft stealth-boosting clothes. - World of Warcraft: Trolls are almost as varied as the other examples on this page due to being split into several subraces. They live in tribal societies, are tall with short blue or grey fur, have three fingers and toes, often speak with an Afro-Caribbean or Cuban accent, practice Hollywood Voodoo, and have varied regenerative powers. Males have long ears, big noses, large tusks, and walk with a hunch. Females have slightly pointed ears, normal noses, small tusks, and walk upright. They live in all climes, usually adapting to the environment and forming distinct clans of Frost Trolls, Jungle Trolls, Desert Trolls, etc. Trolls were once the great superpower of Azeroth, with ancient civilizations spanning the major continents, but they're generally in decline these days, displaced by being on the losing end of many, many wars with other races. - Trolls are also typically savage, cannibalistic, and almost universally antagonistic, both against other races (particularly humans and PARTICULARLY elves of all stripes) and against different tribes of trolls. The Forest Trolls had a brief alliance of convenience with the Horde during Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, but after the war effort faltered they quickly reverted back to a sense of general hostility toward Horde peoples. There are notable exceptions: The Darkspears are a small tribe of jungle trolls long persecuted by their own kind who allied with the new Horde when the orc leader Thrall saved their lives. Two other troll tribes ally with the Horde much later, though they don't seem to be very extensively assimilated into the larger faction. A few years back a great many troll tribes banded together in an unprecedented campaign of cooperation to reassert their authority in the world, but these efforts failed. The Vestigial Empire that attempted this would later simply join the Jungle Trolls in the Horde. And due to recent changes in the Character Creation screen for the Shadowlands Expansion, it seems that individuals of other Troll tribes have begun to join the Horde as well. - In general, trolls seem a big genetically unstable. Indeed, Night Elves, and by extension all derivative Elven subraces, were originally a band of Dark Trolls who changed after exposure to the Well of Eternity (the other Elf types tend to spring up every time they find a new power source), although this point is still somewhat controversial, as the elves themselves don't really like the notion. Dire trolls are a genetic anomaly that causes some trolls to grow to gargantuan proportions. - The Witcher: - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings gives a nod to the mythological notion of trolls being made of stone and petrify in sunlight. In reality, trolls are giant, butt-ugly humanoids, but made of flesh and blood all the same. According to the lore, they have a penchant for construction and alcoholism, and will often build bridges and charge travelers toll to cross them. The toll is always quickly blown on booze. Their relationship with humans residing in the area is often positive, as it is cheaper to pay the troll to maintain the bridge than to have other humans do it. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt changes it up. Trolls are smaller and far less humanoid than their Assassins of Kings variants. Instead, they are rotund creatures with bodies made primarily of stone, with the exception of a soft, fleshy abdomen. Their man-eating tendencies are also played up quite a bit. However, just like in the previous game there are many that are reasonable (if dim), and even friendly to humans and other races. A couple of examples include a troll who served the Redanian army by guarding their boats (by ripping them apart and building a barricade around where they used to be. At least he tried.), and another who \|\|reigns as the Champion of Champions among fist fighters\|\|. - Nearly every folkloric Troll makes an appearance in this Kaja Foglio illustrated story — at least, every nice one. - Charby the Vampirate: The first one introduced is pointy eared, horned and green with a Funetik Aksent with a design inspired by John Bauer's illustrations. There are also some that are visually inspired by Brian Froud's work. - Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures doesn't have trolls as such, but does have the 'Mythos', which is a catch-all term for any Creature race that doesn't fit into any other category. - Ursula Vernon's work features trolls that look like really rather adorable pudgy frog/goat things. Their eyes get huge at night, as the protagonist of Digger finds out. In Vernon's taxonomy, trolls and goats are actually descended from a common ancestor, which is why they're very embarrassed about that whole "billy goats" thing, and it's impolite to bring it up. Furthermore, the word "troll" also serves as a job title — meaning that the first "troll" we meet is actually a shrew. - Dungeon Damage had a number biological handwaves for their regenerating trolls— body parts designed to survive disembowelment and dismemberment, including primitive auxiliary "lungs" in the sinus cavities to keep the decapitated head alive, an oxygen-absorbing fluid throughout the body that seals wounds and prevents infection and blood loss, arteries with peristaltic pumping action, and a nervous system that produces bioelectrical pulses to control limbs physically separated from the body. The author likes to show his work. - Erfworld doesn't exactly have trolls. It does, however, have twolls (along with dwagons, gobwins, and spidews). They're large compared to Erfworld "humans", but Parson (the protagonist, a human from Earth) is approximately the same size as a twoll. This is a source of some humor in the early strips. Twolls are ugly, strong, and not very bright. Parson is ... well, certaily not attractive, strong by Erfworld standards, and extremely bright but also very much a fish out of water, so guess what a lot of people meeting him for the first time assume? The similarity is close enough to facilitate a Foolamancy trick to disguise a twoll as Parson at a key moment. - In Errant Story the trolls were one of the original species (possibly the second after the dwarves) to inhabit the world, though their civilization was destroyed and their numbers devastated once the various elven races got together and launched a long, though ultimately unsuccessful, campaign to exterminate them. They were likely created by Anilis and Senilis, the elven creator gods, though the elves believe that the mortal (albeit long-lived) trolls were failures and sought to wipe their creators' "failure" from existence. Humans and elves tend to have very little contact with them, considering trolls to be violent, unintelligent monsters. From what the audience has actually seen of the trolls they are large, strong, and matriarchal (as apparently only the women are able to use magic). They are cannibalistic, though it is more of a religious ritual than a survival mechanism — trolls don't believe in an afterlife and deceased individuals are thus eaten by their tribes so they may live on in another sense. Having your remains eaten after you die seems to be something of a compliment (they do it to humans only if suitably impressed). In fact, their culture's capital punishment specifically requires that the criminal's corpse be left for the worms. They consider cremation very offensive, and burning a troll's corpse will royally piss them off. Also, despite the cannibalism, they seem to have an Only Sane Man thing going compared to the other powers. Their reaction to the Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds approaching them and asking for an alliance is to peacefully but loudly decline, then immediately decide to uproot their settlement and move to a place with less crazy. - Guilded Age: Trolls are a prominent part of the World's Rebellion. They have regenerative abilities, and it's mentioned that troll blood is a potential treatment for minor wounds and that in order to ensure they stay dead, they have to be decapitated. However, other than that they seem closer to Blizzard-style orcs than the general depiction of trolls. - In Hereville, Mirka \|\|dreams about\|\| a troll which is a large bearded biped with too many eyes. Later she encounters \|\|the real one, which has a blob for a body, six stick-thin limbs, carries a handbag, and likes knitting\|\|. - Homestuck plays with the dual meaning by having Internet trolls turn out to be actual grey-skinned creatures with horns. They're Humanoid Aliens, with Bizarre Alien Biology implying that they're closer to insects than humans, divided into varieties with different blood colors that to some extent determine traits, abilities, and lifespan. Their horns can come in any number of unusual shapes, from short nubs to long, waving spires, and adorned with several types of forks and prongs. They begin life as colorful insectoid grubs and pupate to become humanoid adolescents; younger trolls have light grey skin, but as adults their skin is black as coal. They're a Higher-Tech Species whose society runs on Blue-and-Orange Morality and lots of violence. They're almost all bisexual (their genders are vestigial and play no role in reproduction) and have weird forms of romance (troll reproduction requires this), and many are either psychic, psychotic, or both. \|\|Most of the less-savory aspects of their culture are not natural, but were engineered by malevolent outside forces. Prior to the pressing of an in-universe Reset Button, trolls were a peaceful species (though it's implied that their society had its own problems).\|\| Personality-wise, there's a great deal of variation within the twelve trolls in the cast (and their ancestors): from Anti Heroes to Anti Villains, Woobies to Smug Snakes, monsters to Messianic Archetypes. However, they are similar to mythological trolls in that they are nocturnal and sensitive to sunlight. As in, sunlight can blind them permanently. Only rainbow drinkers (analogous to troll vampires) can withstand the sun. - Played with in Looking for Group. Since the comic started as a World of Warcraft parody, it was assumed that Cute Monster Girl Benny was a troll since she resembles the ones in the game (three fingers, two toes, small tusks, pointed ears). But once the comic developed its own universe, its own trolls appeared and she looks nothing like them. Here, they're a warrior race of greenish/yellowish-skinned humanoids with glowing reddish eyes and humanoid (albeit large) hands and feet, live in a tribal culture and possess shamanic magic, and are as intelligent as any other humanoid race (except Tim, who's...special). They are initially introduced as antagonists, \|\|until Cale helps recruit them into the Kingdom of Kethenecia\|\|. As for Benny, she is later revealed to be \|\|half-elf half-minotaur\|\|. - In MK's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde is a troll. He has yellow sharp teeth, a large ape like build, small pointed ears, very tall, has black spots on his back like a toad and he has a short stubby tail. - My Roommate Is an Elf features a troll named Dearg. He has green skin, yellow eyes, and ears similar to an elf's. He turns to stone when exposed to sunlight (but turns to flesh again as soon as he gets out of sunlight), and had to wear a cloak to attend a parade. - No Rest for the Wicked gives a troll a cameo under the bridge. - Lampshaded in The Order of the Stick, where the gods argue at creation what elves, dwarves, and trolls should be like (see page quote), with the massive disagreement creating the Snarl, which eventually forces them to remake the world from scratch. The only trolls we have seen in the strip itself are aquatic trolls called "scrags": Lord Hinjo and Lien discuss the differences between these and land trolls. - Pibgorn: Troll? Hardly! Bridge substructure symbiont. - Trolls in Prague Race are horned with tails which will just keep growing and lose their sense of self over time without taking the "changeling option". - PvP: Skull. Blue, horned, fat, farts a lot, genuinely nice and dorky. He's been with Scott Kurtz's work for a long time, serving as a mascot, comic relief and semi-Author Avatar since his Everquest-based comic Samwise in the 90's. His status in the comic as a mythical creature is subject to some Magic Realism restrictions; he was apparently assigned to Brent Sienna as an imaginary friend when Brent was a kid and just stuck around. Has recently struck up a friendship with The Freemont Troll (see below) since the comic moved to Seattle. - In Scandinavia and the World this comic shows that Norway's troll is giant, monstrous, and mostly used to draw in tourists, while Denmark's is a 'designer' troll small enough to fit in his arms and that if you touch him 'you better have a good lawyer'. - In Serenity Rose, trolls are big hairy creatures with almost completely featureless faces[1], conjured by witches to defend the Inconsolable Wood from intruders, and are specifically designed to take orders from any witch. - In Stand Still, Stay Silent, trolls are former humans who got infected by a plague. Now they look like blobs of mutated body parts that attack the main characters even as their last shreds of human consciousness beg for help. They seem to be vulnerable to fire, just like in Scandinavian mythology. - It's actually stated in-story that the term "Troll" was used simply because because people were already used to it meaning "big scary thing that wants to eat you". - In Swiftriver, trolls are blue skinned, hairy, and sport horns. They tend to be over six feet tall (not counting their horns) and have two rows of teeth. They are always of Norse or Scandinavian heritage and can project a glamour to make them appear human. - In Tales of the Questor, Trolls are a type of toadstool, which live centuries, can eat nearly anything, and are capable of turning the average human warrior into a small red streak across the ground. They're usually too stupid to be good or evil, but they do tend to make good guards for the treasures of bad people. - In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic it's used as one of Fantastic Slurs... or, y'know, as a reference to the actual (monstrous) trolls. - The trolls in Arcana Magi work for a Evil Corporation. One troll is on the Board of Directors while another troll works as their technology tester. - A variation on this shows up in the Metafictional wiki based on Tycho's Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs. In the entry on Orcs it is mentioned that no-one can agree what on what an orc actually looks like. - Frederik KT Andersson's trolls suffer from "thick blood": pure trolls will degenerate into slavering monsters in only a few generations. Thus they try to breed with humans every now and then. - Trolls have made cameo appearances on Gaia Online in various promo art, even having special troll items released. As Gaia relies a lot on Internet culture for inspiration, Gaian Trolls are a bizarre combination of the bridge dwelling troll, and the Internet kind. - The troll in The Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M.'s webisode "Big Trouble" is of the big, dumb, lumbering kind. Also rather blind. - Animated troll dolls appear in the lonelygirl15 episode My Mom's A Freak!. - Looming Gaia: Looming Gaia's trolls are a little over five feet tall and have green skin and tusks, and some also have horns. - In The Midgaheim Bestiary, trolls are a type of boogeyman, a family of The Fair Folk which also includes orcs, bugbears and goblins and specializes in forming connections between Fairyland and the mortal world, allowing the fairy world to consume small portions of mundane reality to maintain some measure of internal stability. Trolls themselves resemble giant, apelike, trunked amphibians, and are distantly related to the likewise amphibious goblins. They originate from the country of Germanor, and have fought hundreds of wars with their human neighbors for territory. - The online Spec Evo project A Scientific Fantasy trolls are descended from the extinct primate Gigantopithecus, many different species are members of the Troll family: Satyrs, Minotaurs, Alpine Hunchbacks, Yetis and Sasquatches. Most species of Troll are semi-intelligent and Alpine Hunchbacks in particular will be found working in factories in what can essentially be called legalised slave labour. - Trolls in Tales From My D&D Campaign are mostly standard D&D trolls, but as a result of some meddling by a dark god, they can eventually regrow their bodies from nothing more than their jawbone, even if they were killed by fire or acid. Since the jawbone itself cannot be destroyed by any known force, this makes trolls true immortals. - Trolls in Tales of MU are said to have been made by the gods out of leftovers, as they come in many different heights, limb arrangements, and numbers of heads. - The Wanderer's Library: - Trollhood seems to be treated like a profession in The Troll's Introductory Handbook, where trolls appear to be creatures manifested from and residing in the human collective subconscious and apparently employed in keeping popular stories, motifs and storytelling symbology running. - In The Journal of Aframos Longjourney, trolls are hairy, horned humanoids who live in the mountains north of the protagonist's desert homeland and stand a good six to seven feet tall. Aframos' offhand comment that one particularly large troll stands almost as tall as he does is one of the first clues that he is not, in fact, a human. - Adventures of the Gummi Bears have also trolls as recurring villains, presented as a kind of Always Chaotic Evil small greenish humanoid. - The Amazing World of Gumball once featured a troll who (as a joke on Internet trolling) derived all his strength from insulting people and getting them upset. Unlike the Wander Over Yonder example below, this troll also ate the people. - Barbie & The Diamond Castle featured a troll that looked just like a short, bald guy that happened to have greenish-brown skin, carried a scimitar, and threatened to eat anyone who couldn't answer his riddle. - Trolls in Disenchantment are nearly identical to elves but with slightly shorter ears. They're also renowned scam artists, which may be a reference to the other kind of troll. - Even Dora the Explorer has a troll. He is a short, hairy humanoid with a huge beard who lives under a bridge. He claims to be grumpy, but it seems like he really just likes to sing a song that says he's grumpy. He also asks Dora riddles every time she tries to cross his bridge. - Fangbone! depicts trolls as green-skinned humanoids who serve as Venomous Drool's mooks. - Trolls appear in The Real Ghostbusters episode "Troll Bridge" as Always Chaotic Evil beings who take control of the New York bridge, and are more similar to the folkloric depiction. In Extreme Ghostbusters, trolls eat metal and multiply by mitosis. - On Goldie & Bear, the troll is a cranky toddler equivalent who throws a tantrum and blocks the bridge because he was woken up from his nap. Fortunately, Bear's Mama Bear is a master troll tamer and knows that the troll can be dealt with by using a firm tone, giving him a blankie and teddy bear, and redirecting him back below the bridge to curl up to finish his nap. Alternatively, giving him a balloon will also work, if you extract a promise from him to go back and finish the nap in exchange for it. - Hilda has trolls that turn into stone in sunlight (but return to life once in darkness), and are assumed to be Always Chaotic Evil by humans, although every one seen in the series had a good reason for its actions. They're smart enough to exchange items for favours, and to recognise a statue of someone they don't like. Appearance-wise, they have stony, rounded bodies, tiny glowing eyes, and massive noses. - A pair of trolls appear as Fantastic Drug dealers in an episode of Little Wizards. They resemble goblins, with simian builds, elongated muzzles, exaggerated tusks jutting from their underjaws, and clothing and paraphenalia meant to evoke 80s stereotypes of drug dealers and gangbangers, including a hip-hop dance routine. They attempt to coax Boo into providing them with magical fertilizer for their Fantastic Drug of choice, puffpods, by playing on his anxiety and promising him that the puffpods can help him deal with his constant worries. - In The Little Troll Prince trolls are small, ugly underground dwelling and Always Chaotic Evil but the title character gains redemption and is turned into a gnome. - The '90s cartoon Magical Super Trolls features trolls who live like humans Beneath the Earth. Some of them possess magic powers, and three of them are granted super powers. - Mustakrakish the Lake Troll from Metalocalypse is several stories tall with red skin, gangly limbs, claws, and fangs. It appears to hate (or enjoy destroying) modern technology, or at least high-tension electrical lines, and its only weaknesses seem to be lullabies (which put it to sleep in the bottom of a lake) and sharp objects lodged in its throat. And it's summoned with The Power of Rock. Do note that the Scandinavian members of Dethklok recognize it. - Trolls in Mike the Knight are friendly, purple, vaguely monstrous humanoids, who live in small family groups in caves. The trolls seen in the series are Mike's friend Trollee and his parents, Ma and Pa Troll. - My Little Pony 'n Friends: - The Grundles are a species of short, squat humanoids who live underground. Beyond this, they are themselves very diverse in appearance. All of them are varying degrees of Ugly Cute, with long ears, wide mouths and no visible noses, and they all have very sweet personalities, but otherwise vary widely in height, build, and coloration — they range from grey to brown in skin color, some are short and some tall, and most are stout and hairless but one is thin with a full head of hair. - Niblik, from "The Magic Coins", resembles an ugly human a little shorter than Megan, with long arms, a large mouth and heavy brows. He also wields magical powers, and is the only one who can undo wishes made with coins from his treasure. - Ned's Newt: Trolls are pretty much Mole Men. Scheming, smart, small ugly humanoids living Beneath the Earth, who wish to Take Over the World. - The Simpsons: - Homer, Bart, and a few others group write a children's novel about orphan troll twins who attend a magical school under the Brooklyn Bridge called Underbridge Academy. - The rather odd episode "Saddlesore Galactica" has Homer become a jockey, only to discover that all the other jockeys are inhuman creatures that have various traits of elves and leprechauns, except that they are also evil and cannibalistic. Homer refers to them as "murderous trolls." - Trolls from Slugterra are blue skinned, large, and renowned for their engineering skills. - The trolls in Sofia the First are a race of benevolent but poor-reputationed small, green, hairy apes with pointy ears who live underground, like to make music with their clubs, and sometimes come outside to look at the stars. They are smart, friendly, love music and were banned from the castle due to a simple, knee-jerk misunderstanding. The show being what it is, it's up to Sofia to fix this mistake and introduce the trolls to polite society. - In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Star accidentally (and permanently!) transforms her high school math teacher Miss Skullnick into a troll. Skullnick ends up with green skin, fangs, a huge nose, long red hair and a red gem in the place of her belly button. She's understandably upset by this, until a few episodes later when she learns that trolls live for over 400 years, can lift over 100 times their own body weight and are virtually indestructible. - One of the best variations we've found are the Stone Protectors. They were a toy line and short-lived cartoon series released on the heels of the troll doll revival in the mid-90s. These trolls were a literal Five-Man Band who protected the Stones of Power from an evil troll using The Power of Rock. - We can only assume that The TroubleMakers from Team Umizoomi are these creatures. - Trolls from Trollhunters are the most common breed of magical creature present in the series. They come in various shapes and sizes throughout the series, commonly seen for their tusks, stone skin, horns and large noses. Should they touch sun-light, their bodies turn to stone (with a few exceptions like the half-breed Changelings, and the flying Stalkling). - Trollz, as in the cartoon of the same name, are magic beings who resemble troll dolls that lean slightly more towards cute side of Ugly Cute. Also, Xtreme Kool Letterz! - Trolls in Ugly Americans are big, green, not very bright, live under bridges and really, REALLY like telling riddles. There's some sexual dimorphism evident. Males have long noses, jutting tusks and are bald, females have snub noses, blunt tusks and hair (or they get nose jobs, file down their tusks and wear wigs). - On Uncle Grandpa, the troll has a monstrous appearance and the weakness of turning to stone. It also harasses people anonymously over the Internet. - Wander over Yonder: In "The Troll", Wander and Sylvia are recruited to help the Baa-hallans defend their food stores from a troll. The troll starts out as an ugly little humanoid, but as he angers Sylvia and the Baa-hallans with his insults he gets bigger, stronger, and uglier. However, Wander realizes the source of the monster's power and convinces everyone to stop fighting and Just Ignore It, causing the troll to shrink back to its original, harmless size. - The Trolls from The World of David the Gnome are based on the Scandinavian troll myths: hairy, ugly, man-sized creatures who turn to stone in sunlight, and are extremely greedy. "Trololololol!"	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurTrollsAreAllDifferent
Our Sirens Are Different - TV Tropes The Sirens and Ulysses (1837), William Etty And you sang, "Sail to me, sail to me, Let me enfold you, Here I am, here I am Waiting to hold you" Sirens are beings, usually female (male sirens did turn up in ancient artwork, but were very rare) and at least partly human, who use their enthralling voices to lure people to their doom. In appearance, they typically have one of three portrayals: some resemble regular human women in all physical aspects, some are mermaids with the lower bodies of fish, and some are part avian instead. This third type is further divided between two common appearances: feathered humanoids with wings as a third set of limbs, and giant birds with human heads. In Classical Mythology, they were strictly women-faced birds; fully humanoid portrayals date to Roman artwork, and the mermaid-like appearance first cropped up in the Middle Ages. Regardless of type, their human parts are typically extremely beautiful, ranging from being very attractive, to appearing very attractive to those who have been at sea for a long time, to using illusions to cover up a very unsavory reality. Their most iconic power is their enthralling voices. The precise nature of these voices can vary. In some cases, their singing is simply so beautiful that listeners want nothing other than to continue listening to it, potentially endangering themselves through this selective obliviousness. In other cases, it's actively hypnotic and forces listeners to follow or seek out the siren, and may be used for outright Mind Control. In addition, they may be able to actually change their form to something ideally perfect in the eyes of their victims or at least project a vision of the same, in which case they'll often have some form of Glamour or be Shapeshifting Seducers. In some versions, their powers only work on men. This detail is entirely Newer Than They Think (for example, Princess Ariadne is killed by sirens in some versions of the myth) and has no basis in the original myths. Sirens rarely have kindly motivations. The mythical Sirens fed on the bodies of shipwrecked sailors who crashed onto rocks while befuddled by their singing, and the modern successors typically follow suit. Sirens thus tend to be predators, literally or metaphorically, who use their singing to enthrall and control other beings. In a modernized Urban Fantasy setting, they may be depicted as Evil Divas. Sirens often overlap with two other types of female mythical beings. They are often equated with mermaids, who are typically depicted with the sirens' powers and behavior — indeed, many works and real-life languages make no distinction between the two. They also tend to overlap with harpies, Greek myth's other bird-women, and it's fairly common for harpies to be given siren characteristics such as the alluring voice (when they're not unpleasantly shrill instead). Supertrope to Sirens Are Mermaids. Usually overlaps with Siren Song. ## Examples: - Devilman: Sirene, Amon's paramour, resembles a young woman, but has talons for hands and feet, pure white wings on the sides of her head, and golden antennae rising from her forehead. - Sirenmon in Digimon Ghost Game resembles a harpy crossed with a fish and is famed for its melodious voice and sound-based attacks. However, when one ends up in the real world, it begins haunting karaoke booths and attempting to perform for people, unaware that its singing acts as a Brown Note to humans. - Gate: Myuute Luna Sires is a siren and a mage. She looks mostly human, but has feathers growing from her body. - Sirens in Restaurant to Another World are Winged Humanoids that possess harpy-like bird legs but otherwise human-like upper bodies and waists. In this case the Compelling Voice of the species is in place regardless of actual song quality, with representative sirens Arius and Iris being Dreadful Musicians that can still mesmerize nearby people despite the terrible sound. - John William Waterhouse: - * Ulysses and the Sirens* depicts them as bird-like creatures with the heads of women disturbing Ulysses and company. - The Siren depicts a beautiful woman (part sea-creature, indicated by her legs) holding a lyre as she watches a man drown beneath her. - Agents of Atlas: Venus is a rare heroic example of this trope, being retconned into being a siren instead of the actual Goddess of Love, and using her Charm Person powers for good. Even then, it's revealed that she used to be a soulless monster that lured sailors from their ships to devour them and racked up an large bodycount before being given a soul by a mystic and becoming the All-Loving Hero she is today. - The DCU: - Teen Titans: Siren is a mermaid with a hypnotic song and can turn her tail into legs. - Wonder Woman: - Wonder Woman has faced off against sirens and those acting under their sway on multiple occasions. The first time is with Mona Menise in Sensation Comics, who is trouble on her own before she picks up a wooden bangle containing a vengeful siren that had been turned into a tree by Aphrodite in antiquity. - Wonder Woman (1942): Diana leads a coalition of female heroes to take down a group of android sirens created by Professor Ivo that are attacking the capitol. They only affect men, necessitating the quick gathering of a bunch of super-ladies. - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Sirens are a man-eating descendant of the Phorusrhacos, a prehistoric, flightless predatory bird, that use mimicry to fool drunken sailors into getting close enough to eat. They can imitate human voices like many other birds can, and they have markings on their beaks that look like human faces, plumage like flowing blonde hair and ornamentation on their chests resembling a woman's breasts. - The Bridge: When Mermares want to woo a stallion, they sometimes sing like this. The song isn't effective on stallions who are completely oblivious to love or celibate, and indeed sounds a bit silly. In this fic's continuity, the Sirens turn out to be Mermares born from Mermare mothers and an unknown father species. - Halloween Unspectacular: "Report", from the fourth installment, has a slightly different take on sirens. Rather than luring sailors to crash their ships, they're instead presented as creating illusions to lure people ashore and then killing them when they're on land. - Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Sirens are mermaids that sit on exposed rocks and use singing to lure players towards them, and then turn into monstrous forms to attack. Their tears can be used to make a flute that will briefly cause enemies to become friendly towards the player. - RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: One of the obstacles the Element Bearers face trying to get through the Everfree is a group of Sirens who live in a river and sing to lure food (such as ponies) in so they can eat. Or they would, if they weren't out of harmony with one another. Notably, the story predates the appearance of very similar sirens in canon by a good few years. - Sixes and Sevens: Anthea normally looks like a beautiful human woman, but can assume a half-bird form, that of a larger bird, or a small sparrow. She also has the hypnotic singing ability, and tells Michael Carter that he'll need to make sure he can barely hear it if he wants to avoid being taken out alongside the HYDRA forces they're facing. - Water Aerobics for the Aquaphobic: During a poorly-planned Hogwarts field trip to Jusenkyo that results in most of the students being cursed into various forms after falling in the enchanted springs, Theodore Nott ends up transformed into a Siren, portrayed as a magical creature resembling a beautiful, very naked woman with sharp teeth and fingernails and a taste for human flesh. When in Siren form, Theodore is less a seductress and more a vicious predator who tries to eat other students, with the seductive appearance being a way to lure humans close enough to strike. - Ice Age: Continental Drift: Sirens appear as giant prehistoric lungfish with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. They're also Masters of Illusion, appearing as the object of the beholder's desire... which backfires on them when Scrat goes up to one of them and promptly starts stomping its head into the ground, because he sees it as his acorn. At the end, \|\|they manage to take out the film's villain when he comes across them after his defeat in the final battle\|\|. - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks: The villains, the Dazzlings, were originally merhorse (hippocampi) versions of sirens in Equestria before being banished to the human world by Starswirl the Bearded. They managed to retain some of their magic in the human world, though, final battle aside, they are more-or-less human most of the time. More or less. Funnily enough, the sirens' one weakness in the film, a battle of the bands, actually does have basis in the original Greek myths. Orpheus managed to save Jason's crew by playing music better than theirs... - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: The sirens are water elementals. The crew only survives because a siren's song doesn't work on women and on animals. - The Twelve Tasks of Asterix: One of the titular Labors is simply crossing a particular lake. Halfway across the lake, the characters are lured to the Isle of Pleasure by the sirens' song, rowing so fast they smash their boat on the shore and dig themselves into the ground. Asterix and Obelix succumb to their charms, until Obelix discovers there's no wild boar on the island and leaves in indignation, dragging Asterix with him. - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: When the aquatic Talocanians sing in choir, any humans who hear it are enthralled to jump into the water and drown. - Mermaids: One of the sisters, Venus, is also a Siren. She's able to hypnotize men with her eyes rather than her voice; however, if they know she is a Siren, she has no power over them. - Siren (2010): Silka is a siren who lures men to their madness and doom upon the island. - O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Of the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane kind, the leads encounter three singing washerwomen. Conflating them with witches like Circe, it first appears they've turned a character into a toad, though this is later proven untrue. It turns out they're working for the local sheriff, who's a little Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane himself. - Blood Singer: Sirens are human-looking semi-immortal women with telepathic abilities that let them control heterosexual men and also have a strong affinity for the ocean and aquatic creatures. It is stated that when calling out to males, some sirens focus their summons through music, but most use telepathy. - The Divine Comedy: Dante has a dream about a siren just before he ascends to the top layers of Purgatory. She represents desire for things that are not ultimately satisfying. Like money, food, and sex, she presents herself as something beautiful, but the siren is covering her deathly stench. It is only when a saint and a wise poet reveal her true nature is Dante released from her spell. - Dream Girl: The mermaid Áine seduces rapists, abusers, and murderers by sneaking into their rooms at night and singing to them (basically hypnotizing them), then "accidentally" bumping into them on the street and causing them to fall in love with her and her "quirky" ways. Then she kills them and drinks their blood. - Dreamscape Voyager Trilogy: Sirens are a class of creature that include harpies and rivermaids. Their singing has a hypnotic effect, the strength of which is based on the victim's attraction to women. - InCryptid: In Singing the Comic-Con Blues, Antimony, Artie, Sarah, and Verity track down a siren who's been using her compulsive voice to make convention patrons drown themselves. - Magic University: Here, they can be male along with female, they're all bisexual and appear just like humans. They also have many more abilities than just alluring people, such as foretelling the future, projecting visions, mind reading and most plot-relevant, feeding on human sexual energy. - My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister: Sirens are physically identical to humans, save for their long hair which wraps around their arms to give the impression of wings. Although classified as marine, they are more associated with the sky due to their bird nature and can drown in water. - The Orphan's Tales: Catherynne M. Valente harkens to old school sirens with bird-women with beautiful voices — that is, they are birds from the waist up and human from the waist down. They live alone on their craggy island, and have no idea the effect their singing has on sailors — which is that the sailors hear the voices of the women that they love best, and almost always jump overboard to be with them. When the sirens learn what their songs have wrought, they vow to be silent forever. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians portrays sirens in a tweaked version of their Greek Mythology incarnation, as horrible giant condor-like creatures with long necks and the heads of women, faces dripping with the remains of their victims. Their song conjures visions of whatever the listener desires the most, compelling them to swim towards their islands and die on the sharp rocks surrounding it. - Siren: The title character is a monster who is mostly similar to the original Greek myth. Her true form is that of a monster with both avian and piscine traits, but her song projects a glamour that makes her look like a beautiful woman in addition to entrancing humans, and she prefers to seduce the human men she preys on before eating them. She also answers to the name of Ligeia, and implies that she is one of the original Greek sirens. - Septimus Heap: The Syren is an unseen monster who uses her call to lure and strand Nicko and the Cerys onto Syren island. - Watersong: The sirens can captivate men with their voices, luring them to be eaten. Their voices also work on women, though not as well; it merely clouds their minds rather than fully captivating them. - Xanth: In The Source of Magic, the Siren is the sister of the Gorgon and has a half-human body. While playing her dulcimer, she can sing an entrancing song that causes males to travel to her location. - Classical Mythology: - The Odyssey: Odysseus runs into an island home to the sirens, who are bird-women who lure sailors with their enchanting voices and music. His men stuff their ears with wax, but, true to form, Odysseus just has them tie him to the mast, because he wants to hear the songs and be able to say that he's the only man to have heard the song and lived. It's also noteworthy that in the original, their song tempts him with knowledge and fame rather than with sex. - In The Argonautica, the Argonauts also run into the Sirens. They survive thanks to Orpheus, who sings an even more beautiful song that drowns out their call. Some versions of this one say that the Sirens are so heartbroken at being defeated that they cry out in anguish and throw themselves off of their island. - According to some myths, the Sirens used to be friends with Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. After she was kidnapped by Hades to be his wife, the unfortunate handmaidens were transformed into bird women by Persephone's vengeful mother, Demeter, for failing to find her. - During an arc in FoxTrot where Peter's dreaming he's Odysseus, he encounters a siren (as portrayed by his sister Paige) who states that her singing drives men to crash their ships into rocks. As it turns out, this is less because of its hypnotic properties and more because the song she chooses is a medley of various Boy Band tunes — when Peter finds out, she doesn't even get to sing before he screams at his men to crash the ship so they can avoid listening to her. - Dungeons & Dragons: - Harpies are given the Sirens' trait of possessing an alluring voice that draws victims to their location. The 1st edition Monster Manual outright mentions that "those that dwell along seacoasts are generally known as sirens". - The sirine is a humanoid female with a voice that can charm all hostile creatures. - Magic: The Gathering: Sirens are an uncommon creature races, primarily Blue and occasionally Black, resembling winged and feathered humans with hypnotic voices and running the gamut from beautiful to hideous. - The Sirens of Theros, the first set and plane where they appeared, are fairly true to the Greek myth, outside of resembling feathered women with wings sprouting from their shoulders rather than woman-headed birds. They collect everything from jewels to bones and feed only on sapient species. Shipwrecked humans are their primary prey. - Ixalan has more avian sirens whose wings and arms are the same limbs, which also happen to be pirates. Notably, some are male, and there is a full inversion of Sirens Are Mermaids by showing one seducing a merfolk. - Pathfinder has both harpies and sirens, both of which are depicted as bird-women with beautiful singing voices that can hypnotize listeners. Harpies have a more humanoid appearance, but are vicious, cruel predators with a Usually Chaotic Evil Character Alignment and absolutely appalling hygiene. Sirens, meanwhile, are more monstrous (human-sized female raptorial birds with the heads of beautiful women), but also more benevolent (Usually Chaotic Neutral). The best illustration of the difference is how they treat their lovers since, as a One-Gender Race, they need to mate with humanoid men to procreate: harpies usually eat their lovers when they're finished, and this is so ingrained in their twisted "culture" that it's actually considered shameful to let a lover live, whilst sirens dote on their lovers (or those they want to claim as their lovers) to the point they are known to commit suicide, or straight-up die of heartbreak, if those lovers run away. - Shadowrun: Sirens, creatures of unknown origin and resembling small pterodactyls, possess hypnotic calls that evoke profound emotional trances and cause listeners to stand still in a daze or actively walk towards their sources. As sirens are aggressive predators, they are believed to use this ability to hunt. - Blue Planet: The stories say that if you hear eerie atonal music on an empty beach at night, that's the singer-in-the-dark waiting for you. Since nobody who encounters them rather than fleeing is ever seen again, that's all anyone knows, and all reports of singers-in-the-dark are at least secondhand. Everything about them sounds like folklore... except for the recently-discovered audio footage. - The Golden Apple represents the sirens as a group of singers in a waterfront dive who sing "Goona-Goona". In this tale, Ulysses doesn't think to plug his men's ears, and most of them end up shanghaied. - The Binding of Isaac: The Siren is a boss that can be encountered in the Mausoleum that can summon familiars to protect herself and even temporarily steal your familiars by singing. Aside from her mechanics, she's quite thematically different from a traditional siren. She's a black-skinned Horned Humanoid that doesn't have anything to do with water, making her appear more like a succubus. - Black & White 2: The Siren wonder is Exactly What It Says on the Tin — casting it upon an enemy civilization will summon an enthralling vision of the Siren, who uses her charms to turn everybody in her radius into your willing followers. - Cassette Beasts: Sirenade's second bio page says that the original sirens were bird-women, not mermaids. It's a humanoid, winged... thing that has an incredibly loud singing voice. - Darkest Dungeon features a Siren as one of the Cove's bosses. She resembles a horrid-looking mermaid and she has the ability to entrall one of your team members to fight at her side for a few turns. - Dragalia Lost has a humanoid dragon named Siren. Although she loves to sing like most depictions, she isnt malicious in the slightest, and just wants to share her voice with the world. There are rumors about her using her singing to lure sailors into sinking their ships, but Siren never means to harm anyone. - Dragon's Dogma: Sirens are a variant of Harpies found in Bitterblack Isles. Their song can heal nearby enemies. - Forbidden Siren: Referenced in the first game: no actual "Siren" creature is featured but there's a sound that lures the inhabitants of a town to their doom. The second game does feature an actual siren, which looks like a bizarre sort of mermaid when it's finally shown. - Gems of War: The Siren unit — here depicted as a winged purple humanoid — has Lure as its special ability, damaging a selected target. - Grandia: Played for laughs in the first game. During a voyage across the sea, Justin is suckered into making a stop at an island inhabited by identical-looking mermaids. The girls are actually a lure used by a giant angler fish to eat unwary seamen. - Final Fantasy: Siren sometimes appears, usually as a summon which causes a status ailment. - Final Fantasy V: Siren is a boss monster who nearly enthralls the party with images of their family members. Galuf's amnesia saves him, as he doesn't recognize the image shown to him. - Final Fantasy VI: Siren is a summon that randomly silences all enemies or does minor damage with an ability called Lunatic Voice. - Final Fantasy VIII: Siren is a summon who deals non-elemental damage and silences all enemies. - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings: Siren is the water summon. She can also cause the stop status ailment. - Final Fantasy XIV portrays sirens as Winged Humanoids who lure sailors to their deaths with their hypnotic music. Once dead, sirens raise their victims as undead servants. Sirens are also now an Endangered Species since the pirate lord Mistbeard led a purge against the dangerous creatures five years back. - Monster Hunter: Rise: The Somnacanth is an eerily beautiful leviathan with a prominent mermaid theme to its design: its humanlike face and long hair-like fins give it the image of a bestial mermaid, and along with singing haunting melodies, it can lull prey to sleep with an exhaled sedative it produces from a special organ before going in for the kill. - Path of Exile: The Act 1 final boss, Merveil, is a siren who causes shipwrecks and captures male sailors to produce monstrous "children" for her. Her first form is that of a beautiful sorceress, but hurt her enough and she reverts into a squid-like monster. Her den is also brimming with treasure from shipwrecks she caused, though ironically the player can't take any of it because the gold and jewels of her hoard are worthless in Wraeclast. - A Total War Saga: TROY: - In Truth Behind the Myth mode, the sirens are an all-female unit of scantily clad soldiers who "charm" enemies to approach them before opening fire. Combined with their high foot speed, this also allows them to do things like lure key units out of formation or into ambushes. - In Mythos mode, sirens are white-feathered women with bird wings and talons for hands and feet — unlike mythical sirens, but like the game's harpies, they have humanoid instead of wholly avian bodies. - Touhou: Mystia Lorelei isn't explicitly a siren but she's a bird-person who lures unsuspecting travelers to their deaths with a magic singing voice, so she's pretty obviously a siren. Although nowadays she's more likely to sell them food instead of eating them. Uniquely, her song also causes night blindness. Anyone who hears it has no choice but to follow the sound of Mystia's voice or else wander in complete darkness. Mystia tells the unfortunate one that the night blindness can be cured by the food she sells, but in reality she just lifts the curse while the 'customer' eats. Mystia scams people like this very frequently. - Warcraft III: Naga sirens are amphibious and four-armed snake women whose lines references singing but have no song-based abilities (instead they spawn parasites inside enemies, create icy armor, or cause tornadoes to lift enemies in the air. - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has Sirens of the mermaid type with large wings as a monster commonly found around Skellige. This model type is shared with a stronger variation called an Ekhidna which actually bears a pretty close resemblance to its namesake. - The Sorceress War: Siren as Selphie's summon. Selphie summons her to fight the Elvoret in Dollet (the monster from whom she is Drawn in the game) and she seems to have powers more like a banshee as her voice deafens the monster long enough for Squall to kill it. - Free Spirit (2014): "Song of the Siren" alludes to these. When Winnie discovers that her singing can hypnotize mortals, Jessie reminds her about the Sirens of Classical Mythology, whose singing caused sailors to crash their boats against jagged rocks. Later, Winnie's singing unintentionally causes \|\|two instances of vehicles almost crashing, the second of which involves a boat and jagged rocks\|\|. - Val and Isaac: Sirens can only enthrall people attracted to women, so the asexual Isaac can safely sit by them harvesting their song, but he shouldn't call his lesbian sister while doing so. - Walking in the Dark: One story arc deals with a siren that's prowling near a lighthouse luring anyone unfortunate enough to hear its song toward the sea. - Wapsi Square: Atsali is a human-looking half-siren teenager (complete with wings), whose singing can cause uncontrollable desire in both males and females, and both human and supernatural creatures. A subversion, since she also believes that this is a terrible thing to do, akin to rape, and spends a good deal of time trying to fight against the assumptions that others at her school make about her, as a result of her lineage. The fact that she's a tall blonde beauty with large breasts doesn't help the matter. - Nix Of Nothing: The sirens of lakewood all have a Compelling Voice,look more elf than human and have sharp pointy teeth.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSirensAreDifferent
Our Showers Are Different - TV Tropes Nothin' rinses off the trail dust like some nice refreshin'... dust?! A trope of science fiction, if aliens (or humans in the future) bathe at all, you can bet that they will use something completely different from soap and water. This is usually not because of any Bizarre Alien Biology, but rather just something to show more advanced technology and/or how different the aliens or future humans are. It can also, depending on how sensitive the Moral Guardians are being, have the secondary advantage of letting characters have a shower without showing skin. Note that this can be Fridge Logic when you realize that since water is recycled on spaceships and stations, there is no reason they can't spend the additional energy and equipment to have as much pure water as they want. If they don't clean the dirty water (and urine, etc.), they still have to store it (or throw it into space). It makes more sense to clean it and reuse it. Humans actually "make" water (oxygen plus glucose equals carbon dioxide and water). Although if you do allow water showers you probably have to provide more water storage space. Of course, depending on the level of technology (or how grimy your setting is), you can justify this by having the recycling process be time-consuming compared to how quickly you would use the water by washing everything with it. ## Examples: - AKB0048: The Katyusha has what looks like futuristic pod showers for the girls to refresh themselves after a hard day of practice, but then it turns out they A) dispense water just like regular showers and B) are all broken and spew out rust until you screw around with the handles a bit. Apparently plumbing maintenance isn't high on Tsubasa's budget list. - In Transmetropolitan, it takes less than a second for a "Voice-Keyed Physical Cleaning Unit" to strip Spider Jerusalem of all of his plentiful body hair. Given that he Screams Like a Little Girl while it emits a blinding flash of light, it apparently does so with lasers. It also appears to have been permanent, as he is never again shown with a single strand of hair anywhere on his body. Not as crazy as it sounds — Laser hair removal was developed in The '90s. - Superman: One diagram of Superman's Fortress of Solitude showed a "shower" that consisted of a giant plasma torch intended to burn off his invulnerable body and suit of any dirt accumulated from his adventures. - Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Enterprise has sonic showers (Lieutenant Ilia's robot form appears in one). - Tank Girl. The title character takes a shower with what appears to be dust falling on her. - Forbidden World. Two women share a shower that appears to consist of flashes of orange light, but perhaps they just didn't want to distract the audience from the T&A. Earlier one of the women is shown taking a steam bath, naked except for a pair of sunglasses. - Oblivion. The bottom level of the Sky Tower includes a swimming pool with a transparent bottom underneath it, thousands of feet above the ground. Clearly fear of heights was not a concern. - Robert A. Heinlein's article "Where To" mentions a futuristic shower which not only pours water on you but can also do the following: "warm air drying, a short massage, spraying with scent, and dusting with powder". He mentions "freshers" (a.k.a. "refreshers") similar to this one in several of his other stories, including "Coventry", "Methuselah's Children", Farmer in the Sky, Friday, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, The Number of the Beast and Time Enough for Love. - In Priest-Kings of Gor, Cabot is in the realm of the Priest-Kings (the gods of the planet) and like all humans is required to shower several times a day because the Priest-Kings are Terrified of (Human) Germs. One time he fills his water bowl from the shower and discovers that that ain't water! I had naturally supposed the fluid to be simply water which it closely resembled in appearance, and once had tried to fill my bowl for the morning meal there, rather than ladling the water out of the water pan. Choking, my mouth burning, I spat it out in the booth. "It is fortunate," said Misk, "that you did not swallow it for the washing fluid contains a cleansing additive that is highly toxic to human physiology." - In the Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Shatterpoint, Mace Windu gets a water shower upon arrival at the local space port, but also goes through a pro-biotic spray. On that specific planet, ships take off and land in a weak energy field that kills microscopic life-forms to counter-act a ubiquitous airborne metal-eating fungus. The spray (as well as a couple of orally-taken tablets) replace the beneficial bacteria most living creatures have on their skins and in their digestive systems. - In Wicked, Elphaba sidesteps her water allergy by cleaning herself with mineral oil, poured over herself from a jug and then carefully scraped off. - In the Vorkosigan Saga sonic showers, toothbrushes, and other cleaning devices are frequently mentioned. Though they're not as good as "real" showers — in Komarr, Ekaterin comments that you can't clean a baby's bottom in one! - In Gunner Cade by Cyril M. Kornbluth and Judith Merril, the entire barracks is a shower, and one soldier who is Not a Morning Person barely gets his bedding shoved in his locker before the water vents open up. - Boojumverse. In "Boojum", the female captain of the Lavinia Whateley is bathing nude amidst her reveling Space Pirates. Black Alice is envious, as she hasn't even seen a bathtub in seven years. - In a story in the science fiction anthology "The Year After Tomorrow", a stranded spaceman tries out a Martian shower, which dispenses a caustic chemical. - In Isaac Asimov's novel The Stars, Like Dust the protagonist at one point uses a "detergent mist", described as "fine, suspended droplets that shot past him forcefully in a warm air stream". A "momentary passage" through this mist leaves him not only clean, but dry as well, without any "separate drying chamber". - The Star Wars Legends novel Han Solo and the Lost Legacy by Brian Daley features a spa with such amenities as an "omniron" which at "maximum treatment" includes fifteen-second cycles of icy water, "sonics" that vibrate the skin, waves of heat, streams of detergent, foam, air nozzles, and emollients applied by "autoapplicators". Chewbacca uses another room dedicated to "more hirsute clientele"; while he floats in a zero-gee field, an electrostatic charge separates each of his individual hairs so that old oils and other dirt can be removed, before new oils and conditioners are applied. Other areas in the spa provide a wide variety of other services for many other species (such as "gill-flushes" for "piscine or amphibian life forms"). - Star Trek: - Star Trek: The Next Generation and the series that follow it chronologically usually have the Federation using sonic showers. - While generally playing this trope straight, bathtubs do crop up from time to time aboard the Enterprise-D+, usually when Deanna Troi is involved. - Star Trek: Voyager averted this in the pilot episode, with Neelix taking a soap and water bath (though there was a plot reason — to shown the abundance of water Voyager had). Janeway also has a bath in her quarters as a Captain's privilege. Later it is subverted with an alien race whose strict rules call for purified water to be used. Fridge Logic ensues once you realize just how bad water is at cleaning if the contaminants don't happen to be water-soluble or are dangerous microorganisms. The rest of the time it is played straight with sonic showers. One is eventually shown on-screen being used by B'Elanna Torres (though for some reason it has a Video Phone inside. Maybe Starfleet was hoping more hot robot babes would turn up in them?) - Star Trek: Enterprise shows that 22nd century Earth ships still have conventional showers. This is actually serving the Rule of Cool in one scene, in which the artificial gravity fails just while Captain Archer is taking a shower, and all the water drops start hovering in the air. - Babylon 5: - Water conservation is important on the station so only the executive suites and command quarters get showers with running water; everybody else has to make do with "vibe showers". When this first comes up, it's explicitly mentioned that the station does recycle water, but showers for everybody would be more than the system could cope with. - Earth's space ships don't have water showers even in the command quarters; when Captain Sheridan is transferred to Babylon 5, he is seriously happy when he learns his quarters include "a real live honest-to-god shower with running water". - The Minbari use a chemical that removes the outermost layer of skin; it symbolizes rebirth, at least to the Religious Caste. As you'd imagine, it does absolutely horrific things to hair, as Delenn discovers when she becomes a Half-Human Hybrid (as an ordinary Minbari, of course, she had no problem with this, since the Minbari have little or no hair). She ends up calling on Ivanova to teach her about hair curlers — and later, "odd cramps." - Stargate Universe has a sort of mist shower onboard the Destiny. - The Girl from Tomorrow has a "shower" in the year 3000 that consists of a band of light running up the body. It even removes 20th-century permanent hair dye because it is recognized as dirt. - Most showers aboard the SeaQuest DSV are of the ionic kind (whatever that means). When a woman from the past appears and tries to take a shower aboard the sub, she turns it on. When no water comes out, she cranks up the dial, only for the woman in the next stall to come in and crank it back down, telling her to leave some ions for the rest of them. Apparently, officers can use water showers, but they're rationed. The woman lets the newcomer use one of her shower rations. The strange thing is, they're underwater, which means they should be able to get fresh water through desalination. Then again, with hundreds of crewmembers, it would probably be too much for any system, hence the rations. - Pandora: Jax has a Shower Scene in her room in the first episode, with the shower spraying mist against her body. It also has a door made of Hard Light that shows her Sexy Silhouette as she showers. She still appears wet after and uses a regular Modesty Towel when getting out. - The Eastern RPG Opoona for the Wii has the Air Shower, which seem to be sprays of energy bubbles. In addition to appearing the world's many bathrooms, they're also a battle item that can be used to heal allies or damage enemies. - The Tardisian Well Sonic Shower in The Sims 3: Into the Future. - In Alien Dice Lexx is used to sonic showers and synthetic foods, having lived in space most of his life. He allows himself to indulge in a real shower at Chel's house. - Big Head Press regularly has "Clean-branes" appear in its sci-fi comics such as Timepeeper and Quantum Vibe — membranes of memory plastic that one simply steps through to strip all detritus from one's body, leaving the user not only clean as a whistle but bone-dry. In some cases it's implied to even work through and on clothes. - Current spaceships and stations either offer no bathing (for ships) or limited bathing (stations). - The International Space Station (ISS) does not feature a shower, although it was planned as part of the now cancelled Habitation Module. Instead, crewmembers wash using a water jet and wet wipes, with soap dispensed from a toothpaste tube-like container. Water is recycled on the ISS, the system collects, processes, and stores waste and water produced and used by the crew — a process that recycles fluid from the sink, toilet, and condensation from the air. - However, ISS's predecessor Skylab did feature a shower. It consisted of tube-shaped container where water sprayed from the top and was pulled towards the bottom for collection by exhaust fans. Showers were strictly limited due to limited storage and processing capacity. - By Islamic tradition, clean sand or dust may be used as a cleanser for ritual ablutions ( tayammum) if pure water is unavailable, or if there's a valid medical reason why the person cannot wash with water. - Dust bathing is a typical self-grooming behavior for many birds and some mammals. Other mammals, particularly those with little hair such as elephants, prefer mud baths to dust — the mud both cools the animal in hot weather, it also protects their skin from the sun. - Cetaceans and some rays invert the usual "cleanse with water" approach, as they "air bathe" to dislodge parasites and dead skin by leaping out of the water and crashing down into it. Some dolphins and small whales will also "bathe" by traveling to shallow bays with pebble bottoms. Rubbing against the pebbles helps clean their skin like a giant loofah.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurShowersAreDifferent
Our Time Machine Is Different - TV Tropes Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean? Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? Sure, we may have a device that causes us to travel through time as if it were a VHS, or maybe it opens up a wormhole, but that isn't the important part. What really matters is the MacGyver factor, and well, we have that. We aren't cool with just travelling through time in a device that is explicitly meant for time travel, we need to make something that is already cool into a time machine, which makes it better. This page is merely the vehicle. Compare Our Time Travel Is Different, for the different visual effects that can result, and Temporal Mutability, for the differing results of changing the past. ## Examples: - Steins;Gate: Features a time-travelling microwave. Useful for sending texts back in time to your cell-phone or turning bananas (and other organic material) into bright green mush. - Mortadelo y Filemón: Professor Bacterio's shabby time machine looks mostly like a phone booth. Justified, as it is a prototype he just jury-rigged in his lab. - The Flash can travel in time using the Cosmic Treadmill, which is only usable for people with superspeed, or in some incarnations, people with powers gained from the Speed Force. - Zipi y Zape: The story El tonel del tiempo (The Barrel of Time) is about the protagonist twins time-traveling on a machine they jury-rigged out of a barrel and a clock. - In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin makes a time machine of a cardboard box, the same box that serves as his duplicator and transmogrifier. It's function depends on what position it's in; upright for time machine (so you can sit in it), on the side for duplication, and upside down for transformation. - Back to the Future - The first film's DeLorean, which is the inspiration for this trope. The film's creators justify this by saying that it makes more sense to have a time machine that you can take with you, rather than one that just sits at your destination. Plus the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal work that much better. - In an early draft of the script, it was actually a fridge. - The time-traveling steam locomotive at the end of Back to the Future Part III. It can fly! - The phone booth from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. And it's smaller on the inside! Nyaah! - The Hot Tub in Hot Tub Time Machine. Seems obvious, right? - Timecop has a pod that accelerates on rails through a tunnel and jumps right before hitting the wall. Strangely, the time traveler shows up at the destination without the pod. When they come back (using a wrist device), they come back in the same pod. - The... thing from The Science of Sleep... maybe. - In Les Visiteurs, it's a potion made by a wizard accompanied by a Magical Incantation. To send someone who drank the potion back or forward in time, the following words must be pronounced: "Per Horus et per Ra et per Solem Invictus duceres". It turns time travellers into something that represents their true self then sends them to another era. Godefroy de Montmirail gets turned into crystal, presumably because he's pure of heart, then shatters. His smelly, rascally and moronic squire Jacquouille gets turned into a big pile of dung. Jacquouille's descendant, Jacquart, gets turn into... a small pile of dung, presumably because he's a petty jerk. And Jean-Pierre Goulard gets turned into golf balls because he loves golf. - In Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man the time traveler floats in a spherical, fluid-filled capsule, which rolls to a bumpy stop on arrival. It's apparently a one-way trip. - The Space/Time Nexus of Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars is a sentient toilet that speaks with a British accent. It is also the earliest known example of a time-travelling toilet, pre-dating Day of the Tentacle by several years. - The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov has "kettles", which are elevator-like pods, allowing Eternals (people who have been taken outside of Time) to travel "upwhen" and "downwhen" along the timestream. Similar to elevators, the kettles can't travel before and after the existence of Eternity, as massive temporal field was created in the 27th century. However, a special one-way kettle is created that can used to send a person to a century prior to that. - Isaac Asimov and Janet Asimov's The Norby Chronicles: One of Norby's talents is to travel in time. Somehow, this is part of the same device that allows him to travel into hyperspace, so he can extend his "bubble" to take passengers that are in physical contact with him. This includes unwanted passengers, as established in Norby's Other Secret. - The titular stairwell in The Impossible Stairwell looks like an ordinary stairwell, but going up- or downstairs takes you forward or backward in time. - The time machine in The Time Machine has a good deal of quartz in it and just a touch of alien geometry. - Other time machines are built on the same principles in The Time Ships. They are much less sophisticated and elegant, making the original a sort-of Super Prototype. - Sergey Lukyanenko's novel Today, Mom! has the Sibling Team protagonists discover a time pod inside an Ancient Egyptian artifact. When they start pressing buttons, they find themselves in the future (supposedly, where the pod originally came from). However, the future humans refuse to let them go back, as they fear time travel. A cat-like alien named Shidla helps the boys travel back in time. However, they jump too far and end up in Ancient Egypt. Eventually, Shidla drops them off at home and jumps into his own time. - Will of Heaven has the "pheasant god," a moon-powered alien device shaped like a rock. It gets its name from the pheasant-like noises it makes when it distorts time, and also causes meteor-like streaks of light to appear in the sky. - In Cylinder Van Troffa by Janusz Zajdel the titular device manipulates space-time using gravity and is essentially a glorified stasis chamber \|\|until you figure out the fineries of how to use it - it's implied the device can take you both ways in time\|\|. - The Licanius Trilogy features the Jha'vett, a city-sized device that opens a rift through time that will spit the user out at any point they choose. The catch is the rift instantly kills anyone who tries to use it unless they've already died. - Time Warp Trio uses a book, simply called "The Book" as its time machine. It has other time based powers in it as well such stopping time. The animated series takes it a step further by having The Book literally be time itself, meaning if it gets destroyed, everything goes with it. - Played with in the Nightside series, in which one recurring character collects time machines and has a particular fondness for the weirder designs. - Double the Fist season 2 had the Timesaw, a chainsaw which saws holes in spacetime. - Doctor Who: - The Doctor's own TARDIS itself is hardly what one expects a time machine to look like, its exterior camouflage being stuck in the form of an early 1960s British police box for most of the show's history. The Doctor's resistance to fixing the chameleon circuit comes from his fondness for the iconic nature of the exterior, since he knows a TARDIS in the guise of a police box will most probably be his own. (As revealed in a 2013 episode, his "Type 40, Mk 3" TARDIS's default exterior◊ was originally a sleek, silvery, unadorned cylinder of roughly the same size.) The association between the Doctor and his particular TARDIS is so strong that her characteristic outside appearance has become a symbol of hope to some (usually those in need of saving), and a symbol of dread to others (usually his adversaries). Ironically, though the vast interiors of his ship are filled with all sorts of super-advanced technological wonders that frequently astonish other people, the Doctor himself admits on occasion that his TARDIS would be considered an outdated, almost quaint model of timeship by his fellow Time Lords. He still loves his jalopy of a time machine regardless, and even considers her a friend on par with his companions. - The series has also used Time Rings to travel through time, and in the revival, also introduced the vortex manipulator, a time-travelling wrist strap. Neither device is a comfortable way to travel (which is something of a verbal running gag for the vortex manipulator, often getting called a "cheap and nasty" way to travel). - Played with in The Librarians 2014, where we see a room in the Library that contains dozens of different time machines (including a DeLorean and a blue police box), each of which works on a different principle, which means that, if you use one to go back in time, you can't use another to return. Later on, a special type of time machine, known as the \|\|Toaster of Albuquerque\|\|, is revealed, which tracks people instead of years. \|\|Flynn uses it to time-jump to Nicole just prior to her Start of Darkness and convince her to stay on the good side. This ends up undoing the events of Season 4\|\|. - Spanish sci-fi show The Ministry of Time uses time catacombs: under the Ministry's headquarters there is an indeterminate number of underground galleries connected by a giant spiral stairwell, each containing a set of Portal Doors. - Odisea Burbujas has El Tobogán del Tiempo (the time slide) and yes, is a literal slide. - Red Dwarf: The episode "Timeslides" had the cast travel back in time using photographs developed by mutated developing fluid. - "Lemons" also had them travel back in time using an improperly built rejuvenation shower. The shower itself ends up working as the Time Cop type, staying in the future while the time travellers have a remote that gets them back to the present. - The show Seven Days has the Sphere, a device built by the government based on the Roswell crash that can allow a person to go back seven days in the past, no more no less. In the show, it's used to prevent bad things from happening, which occur almost weekly. It's not entirely clear how the Sphere moves through time. Sometimes, it appears exactly where it was. Other times, it appears in space and falls to Earth (which would actually make more sense, given that Earth wasn't in the same position seven days ago. As explained in the pilot episodes, the chrononaut must compensate for the movement of Earth through manual controls, which Frank rarely manages to do perfectly). The time limitation is caused by the fact that the scientists still don't know much about the technology, only using it out of necessity and the fact that the alien fuel (which is in short supply) takes exactly 7 days to recharge. Several other Spheres are shown throughout the show, including the previous Sphere which was lost in the jungle after a failed "backstep" and a Sphere from a few centuries in the future with an enlarged fuel tank. - Stargate-verse: - An Ancient named Janus has managed to create a working time machine out of a Puddle Jumper. While his superiors forced him not to create one after Elizabeth Weir travels to the past, he does it anyway, just in another galaxy. Conveniently, both devices are lost in the past. - The Stargate has been used several times as an impromptu time machine — opening a wormhole during a solar flare results in it folding on itself but in a different time. The film Stargate: Continuum has Ba'al create a time machine of sorts using the solar flare method. He has put up monitoring satellites in hundreds (if not thousands) of star systems, looking for solar flares with the instantaneous data being fed into a powerful computer that calculates how far into the past he will go if he gates to the star. - Timeless has two spherical time machines, developed by Mason Industries. The original prototype (later nicknamed "Lifeboat") is an industrial-looking cramped pod with enough room for only three travelers (including the pilot). It has two cris-crossing bands of treads that start spinning, presumably warping space/time, until it vanishes in a rush of displaced air and appears about a minute later in another time and space. The second version (nicknamed "Mothership") is a sleek white sphere of a much larger diameter, capable of carrying almost a dozen travelers. The spinning bands look like stripes of black and are much more aesthetically pleasing than the original ones. The computers of both time machines are in sync across space/time, which means each always knows when the other is, although not where. Since time travel here operates on San Dimas Time (as indicated by the mission clock above the control center). Interestingly, only the inside of the pod is ever shown during a time jump (presumably, to save on special effects), so we have no idea how the wormhole itself looks, although one computer diagram uses the standard "tunnel through folded space" visualization. One episode also makes it a plot point that spacial navigation is just as crucial as temporal navigation. As Rufus puts it, Earth is 70% water. Without proper navigation, the Lifeboat could easily end up in water, in a mountain, or 600 feet in the air. As it is, both time machines usually pop in exactly where intended. - Legends of Tomorrow uses timeships for this. The first timeships we're shown belong to the Time Masters. Each of them is equipped with an AI derived from Gideon, which is supposed to be created by Barry Allen at some point. Timeships also come equipped with a jump ship, a shuttle equally capable of space/time travel. Later on, we're shown a Time Bureau timeship, which is much larger in size and power. The Dominators also have their own timeships, and Abra Kadabra builds one that looks like a jump ship at one point. Notably, speedsters have no need of such vehicles, as they use the Speed Force to travel through time, although that has the potential of attracting Time Wraiths. - In one of the Bottom stage shows Eddie invents a time-travelling toilet (naturally the old-fashioned kind, with an overhead cistern and chain). It's called the TURDIS, after Doctor Who's TARDIS. - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages uses a lyre. - In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the time machine is not the titular ocarina, but the Master Sword, combined with its pedestal in the Temple of Time. The ocarina's only role in the process is to open the door in the temple that leads to the Master Sword. It's only in the sequel that the Ocarina of Time serves as your time machine, allowing you to reset the game's "Groundhog Day" Loop via the Song of Time. - Day of the Tentacle has the "Chron-O-John", a contraption that includes a car, a huge diamond, traffic lights and three portable toilet cubicles. - LAst WEEK has a calender-operated time controlling machine, which \|\|normally used to regulate the flow of time that is distorted thanks to the ritual, but it can be used as a Time Machine by changing the date on the calender into the desired date.\|\| - There are two types of time machines in The Journeyman Project games. The first game features the Pegasus device, the original time machine invented by Dr. Sinclair, which is fairly large and static. The time travelers' suits are fitted with recall biochips, which signal the Pegasus to pull them back. The second game has miniaturized versions placed in Powered Armor suits. This allows time travelers to jump to any time period from any time period without the need to constantly return to the "present". In the third game, the miniaturized device is also installed in a chameleon suit, which creates a holographic image of any scanned person in order to be able to interact with people in the past. - In the "Timegate Traveler" movie series in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the time machine can be stored in a capsule that fits in the palm of your hand—in other words, a Poke Ball. - Red Alert 3: The Soviet time machine has a space capsule-esque design with the onion-bulb shape of St. Basil's Cathedral roofs (the building that's always mistaken for the Kremlin). - In Timelapse, Time Gates are placed in four ancient civilizations, and the player has to follow Professor Alxander Nichols' trail through them, in search of locating Atlantis. \|\|Time Gates aren't foolproof, though, as Atlantean metals can break them, and a hostile Guardian robot imprisoned Nichols in one without setting the destination, leaving him stranded in a void between time periods. \|\| - In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince uses a dagger to rewind time. - Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers has time pods used by the Sequel Police of Space Quest XII and a hairdryer-looking device used by La Résistance. - TimeShift has Timesuits that transport you through time and space and prevent you from causing paradoxes. - Breakpoint City has given us two cars, a Stargate-esque portal, and a brain swapper, so far. - As noted by Irregular Webcomic!, time machines appear in all sorts of weird forms... mainly because, while we have some sort of general understanding about how other vehicles' shapes affect how useful they are (aircraft need wings or rotors or envelopes, boats need hulls, etc), no-one has the slightest idea what shape makes a more efficient time machine. (They use the Doctor Who model.) - Times Like This packs all the time-machine schematics into a small package, made out of a stylish medallion-style pendant and a tiny cell phone. - In The Annoying Orange episode "The Microwave Effect", apparently putting a burrito wrapped in tinfoil in a microwave results in time travel.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurTimeMachineIsDifferent
Our Spirits Are Different - TV Tropes "Now the spirits come!! Come, spirits of power, come spirits of sight! Show to me the awful things occurring here tonight!" Ah, spirits. Perhaps no other fantastic beings in all of fictiondom can be so vague as to what they are. There are several questions you have to ask, though, if you wish to have them in your story: Are they immaterial/incorporeal, and if so, to what degree? - Some are immaterial, but they can take material form if they choose to. - Some are often seen in a material or semi-material form, but still don't seem to completely follow the laws of physics one would expect them to. - Others exist inside of or are bound to a physical vessel (such as a tree, lake or stone, a pile of garbage, etc.), which may be either treated as their home, or as their body, although in either case the spirit will usually be capable of manifesting or affecting the world beyond without making its vessel into an Animate Inanimate Object. - Regardless of anything else, they can often turn invisible. Can they possess humans or other corporeal beings? Alternatively, can they form permanent bonds with them (a la Spirit Advisor)? - Sometimes they can't, usually they can (which doesn't mean they will). Sometimes they will only possess a willing host, other times they're not so benevolent. Where do they live/come from? - As one might expect, spirits often come from the Spirit World, but any generic Magical Land will do in a pinch. - The relationship between the Spirit World and the mundane can vary though, sometimes being a wholly separate place, sometimes being an overlay on the normal world. - Sometimes they don't come from anywhere "other" at all, being a natural (if frequently invisible, or often remote) part of the world. Are they mortal/ageless/invulnerable/killable? - The majority of them are killable, usually through one of their specific weaknesses, occasionally via more mundane means. You may only be Fighting a Shadow, however. - Almost all of them are Immortal, barring a few exceptions. - Sometimes spirits are closely tied to the health of a particular region (a town say, or a forest). Damaging or destroying that region will often destroy or at least weaken them... unless it just pisses them off instead. Are they capable of evolution/change? Can they be consumed/deformed by other beings? What powers do they have? - Some type of magic is almost mandatory for all of them (most are Made of Magic in some way or another, after all). However, spirits can be any power level, from less potent than a human (despite their magic) all the way to, for all practical purposes, being gods. They tend to be on the mid-weight-to-moderately-high end of the spectrum, though. What weaknesses do they have? - They're often able to be sent back to wherever they came from (or barring that possibility, still sent running). - Magical items (and magic in general) are usually able to hurt them (and sometimes are the only things that can). If spirits are treated as free-floating souls, expect magics capable of manipulating or damaging souls to be particularly devastating. What is their relationship to the natural world? - Sometimes spirits are associated with, a part of, or even representatives of the natural world. Sometimes they are wholly alien beings beyond the comprehension of normal reality. Sometimes they're both. ...And to humanity? - Sometimes spirits and humans get along swimmingly. Sometimes they don't, for whatever reason. Sometimes, even if they only get along uneasily, humans will seek them out for power. Sometimes it varies by the variety of spirit (or even just the individual spirit in question). What is their relation to... note : In general, the answer to any of these questions may be "they are a type of spirit", "that's what spirits are", or "no, spirits are a completely different type of being". Its a safe bet that the spirits of any given setting will demonstrate at least some of the traits of one or more of these beings, though. - ...angels? - The "good" (usually) spirits. - ...demons? - The "bad" (usually) spirits. - ...fairies? - Fae spirits come in two flavors; - ...genies? - ... youkai? - Sometimes "youkai" is used to be mean "spirits that come from Japan" (not to be confused with Japanese Spirit), or just as a Japanese language term for spirits from any location, though traditionally it's been used for completely corporeal beings. The terms "ayakashi" or "mononoke" may be used similarly. - ...The Undead, particularly ghosts? - Ghosts and similar entities tend to be the souls of beings that haven't moved on, and thus become spirits. - ...gods? - ...embodiments of the elements and concepts? - ...abominations? - ...and any number of other mythological beings. - Vampires, werewolves, mortal magicians, and other mortal/reality-based creatures generally tend to be exempt from this classification. Although sometimes even these creatures are the result of spiritual possession. Are they good? Bad? Whatever? - Their morality is mostly based on what type of spirit they are, and sometimes it varies from individual to individual. Are they alcoholic? note : Surprisingly the answer is sometimes "yes", whether that means that the spirits make a good sauce, or that they love getting sauced. Miscellaneous Needless to say, they're almost guaranteed to be Made of Magic. Their Sci-Fi equivalent can be found in Energy Beings. Super-Trope of Nature Spirit. Compare Our Souls Are Different. ## Examples: - Ayakashi Triangle refers to many different kinds of spirits as ayakashi * : Which traditionally referred specifically to spirits that appeared above bodies of water.. Some are created by human actions (often negative emotions in the case of malicious ayakashi, or belief that they already exist), others are Nature Spirits created by animals and plants. They may also resemble specific traditional youkai, even if they aren't explicitly identified as such * : Shirogane actually called himself a "youkai" in the first chapter while explaining what ayakashi are. It's unclear if this means there are youkai/spirits besides the ayakashi, or they're just alternate terms for the same beings.. The main thing they have in common is that they are Invisible to Normals, composed entirely of haku (unlike humans, who have physical bodies, haku, and kon/spiritual energy), and are drawn to humans with very large amounts of haku (who are known as "ayakashi mediums"). There are also ayakashi in countries besides Japan, which resembles figures of their native folklore (even if the same Japanese term is arbitrarily applied to all of them). - In Bleach, ordinary human spirits are called "Pluses," usually created when someone dies with Unfinished Business. Pluses tend to stick near places or people that were important to them in life (tethered to the location by a long chain), and sometimes might even realize that they're dead. However, since they're Invisible to Normals, they slowly grow resentful and insane through isolation and/or neglect. When this begins, they turn into spirits called "demi-Hollows", which are still normal Pluses with a hole slowly growing on the spot where their chain is connected, symbolizing their decaying connection to their humanity. When the chain has eroded all the way (or when external factors prompt a change), they become full Hollow with an unquenchable thirst for souls. If a shinigami sends the soul off to Soul Society (the afterlife), they'll be safe from transforming into a hollow, but will now begin a second life living in a poor, destitute city based roughly on feudal Japan. The lucky few qualify to become shinigami themselves (although, given the average life expectancy of a shinigami, how "lucky" this is can be disputed). The shinigami and Hollow also have their own hierarchy and ranking, and despite being the "good guys", the shinigami are essentially nobility and treat normal Pluses at best with indifference and at worst with contempt. - Jujutsu Kaisen's Cursed Spirits are sapient concentrations of Cursed Energy (a power sourced generated from negative human emotion). They are all instinctively hostile towards humanity and come in all manner of shapes, sizes and levels of intelligence. Cursed Spirits are usually invisible to regular humans ((barring incredibly stressful circumstances or during near-death experiences) but all of them are corporeal and take up real space, even if most can shapeshift and alter their appearance to various degrees. Jujutsu Sorcerers grade Cursed Spirits from Grade 4 to Grade 1, with sixteen registered (and four unregistered) Special Grade Spirits active during the main storyline. Though regular Curses are usually small, animalistic and can easily be exorcised using regular equipment, Grade 1s and Special Grades can eat tank shells and tear down skyscrapers and usually have human or near-human level intelligence, making them exceedingly dangerous. It is stated that Cursed Spirits not only account for the majority of annual mysterious deaths and disappearances nation-wide, but are also historically responsible for inspiring the tales of Yōkai and most supernatural entities. - Magic: The Gathering: Spirits are a creature type, essentially representing all disembodied creatures — from ghosts to nature spirits to some pretty weird things — that are't claimed by another creature type already, such as Elementals, Demons, Angels and Gods. With some exceptions, they aren't generally associated with any one color of mana. Their exact nature and importance varies from plane to plane: - In Kamigawa (which is based on Japanese Mythology), they are known as Kami, and warred against the mortal races. They are for all intents and purposes gods (Mark Rosewater in facts has said they'd be typed gods if the creature type had existed back when the first Kamigawa block was made), and some are pretty unusual looking, being designed to look incompatible with the human world. They are just about material enough to be killed (though this is naturally pretty hard to do), leaving behind black ash. - In Ravnica, they're primarily ghosts, due to the plane being trapped in its own little bubble in The Multiverse and not allowing the spirits of the dead to escape, forcing them to manifest on the physical plane. They are heavily associated with the Orzhov Syndicate, which uses them as guards and enforcers and is ruled by a ghost council, the Obzedat. That said, some spirits are known to be part of other guilds. - In the Gothic Horror-inspired Innistrad, geists — the spirits of the dead — form one of the set's five gameplay tribes (alongside humans, werewolves, vampires and corporeal undead) and are chiefly associated with White and Blue mana — Black, Red and Green geists also occur, but arent common. White geists are traditional ghosts returned to watch over their families or fulfill duties or obligations; Blue geists are poltergeists born from compulsive behaviors, cause mental afflictions in people they torment and are attracted to water, fog and storms; Black geists return as predatory haunts and are very dangerous; Red geists are obsessed with revenge and failures from their mortal lives and are the most aggressive spirits; and Green geists are especially attracted to nature, often becoming the spirits of landforms, copses and so on. - In the Classical Mythology-inspired Theros, the eidolon separate from their bodies upon death. While the corpses become the memory-less, shade-like zombies known as nostron, the eidolon also forget their past lives and wander around aimlessly, often drawn to the magic of the nymphs. They are generally represented by enchantment creature cards. - The Passengers of Revival are explicitly the souls of revivers. They are persistently visible to humans and cameras, can move like a gas, cannot cross salt, can be physically restrained, and can be killed by drowning. - Grim Grinning Ghosts: When Harry is killed at seven he "splits" into a spirit and a zombie, with the ability for the former to possess the latter, giving an illusion of life. - Lost Cities: The great boreal forest in the north is haunted by ghosts and spirits. Most are indistinct things, little more than floating lights bobbing among the trees or a half-seen glow in the sockets of empty skulls, but others are vast and powerful, like a great winged shape whose wheeling form covers the sky from one horizon to the other. - Under the Northern Lights: Spirits are incorporeal beings common throughout Tarandroland; they can be helpful or dangerous depending on their nature, and dealing with and calling on spirits forms a major part of reindeer magic. They are almost impossible to harm with physical means, but are vulnerable to magic. - Hraesvalgs are flying spirits resembling a cross between eagles and maggots. They possess and animate corpses and are driven by a constant ravenous hunger, and are among the monsters faced by the reindeer every winter. - Ratatosks, or gossip spirits, resemble squirrels covered in eyes and ears. They are naturally attracted to places where gossip and news can be found, and are often used as spies and scouts. - In Turning Red, the red panda spirits that possess the women of Mei's family when they come of age are immaterial but can appear to touch objects during the brief time they are outside of their hosts or talismans. In the astral realm, where they come from, they are semi-material as they can interact with the bamboo stalks that fill the realm. - Masquerades in Akata Witch, which are not to be confused with The Masquerade or Masquerade Ball. They are spirit creatures, and they will hurt you. - The high spirits of Adam R. Brown's Astral Dawn series are very different from the average spook found haunting houses. The high spirits were once mortal humans before they died and ascended to Averya (Heaven) or Nazyra (Hell). They evolved to become so powerful, they gained total dominion over their created worlds and even revisited Earth to become the gods and legends of ancient mythologies. - The spirits of The Bartimaeus Trilogy are usually referred to as "demons", though Bart at least prefers the term "spirits" (or the more accurate ranks of imp, foliot, djinni, afrit, and marid). - All come from the Other Place and prolonged exposure to the Earthly realm (such as what happens to Bart in the third book) weakens them, while returning home replenishes their power. - They can be controlled by their True Names, though they can reverse most magical attacks and punishments on a magician if they know their true name. - They can be consumed by stronger spirits, usually ones of higher rank, though lower-ranked ones can pose a threat if the spirit is severely weakened. They can also consume humans and other animals, though the reverse isn't usually true. - All are vulnerable to silver, and to a lesser extent to iron and certain herbs. - All of the ones we've seen can shapeshift note : Some of the really weak ones like mites (weaker than imps) might not be able to, but none of those are named characters. Meanwhile, absurdly powerful Eldritch Abominations like Ramuthra appear as a hole in reality., but always show their true form on the seventh plane. Djinn and higher-ranked spirits can see all seven planes, while foliots and imps usually can't, and most humans can only see the first. - Brother Eagle Sister Sky: Seattle says that he was taught to see his ancestors in the waters of streams and rivers, that "each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of the memories in the life of our people". - City of Bones (1995): People rightly fear air spirits and evil ghosts, since they're invisible and can freeze a person to death with a touch. \|\|They're later revealed to be the faded remnants of Inhabitants of the West who got trapped in the physical world, which are much nastier.\|\| - Date A Live's Spirits are beings which are occasionally sucked into this world, causing "spacequakes" (a phenomenon that destroys everything within a spherical area of effect) in the process. And they happen to be top class Bishojo as well. To stop them from wreaking havoc on this world by accident, without killing them? The main character Shido has to date them. \|\|The real kicker? It's revealed later in the light novels that all Spirits used to be normal humans until they were transformed via the Sephira crystal.\|\| - The souls of the dead in The Divine Comedy are referred to as "shades" because while they may appear to have bodies, they cannot interact with physical people like Dante or project shadows. The shades only appear to have bodies that feel pain and pleasure so they can experience some of what eternal life will be like while not having to wait until the Last Judgement. - In The Dresden Files, Humans are made of three things: Body, Spirit, and Soul. Ghosts and some creatures from the Nevernever are made of only Spirits and other creatures from the Nevernever (such as Fae) are made of both Body and Spirit. Finally, some very special kinds of ghosts can have both Spirit and Soul. - Beings from the Nevernever can be summoned or cross over on their own. For those without bodies they can create material bodies for themselves made of ectoplasm, which dissipates without a trace if they are killed or leave (or no longer have enough magic to maintain the body). - Certain kinds of spirits (ghosts, demons) can possess humans and animals (e.g. cats) but not all of them, apparently. Permanent bonds are possible via mutual pledges of loyalty. - All spirits seem ageless, but they're not invulnerable. - Spirits always stay the way they are. - They can be consumed/deformed by other beings, usually by bigger and meaner spirits, though mortal wizards can feed on them, too. - Since spirits are incapable of evolution, their True Names never change, and whoever knows it can force them to do their bidding. - Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle has spirits as one of the many intelligent species in the setting. They are described as being hovering orbs of light constantly changing in size and color, but very little else is understood about them. One of the disciplines of magic involves summoning spirits and using them as mana batteries, which is never really shown in action but is presumably extremely powerful since spirits that we do see are capable of no-selling mental defenses and pulling off feats of magic that even dragons would consider impossible. The user of spirit magic has to be careful not to summon spirits more powerful than they can control, however, since spirits can take control of a human body and form a Shade. Even though one of spirits' few established likes or dislikes is the fact that they absolutely despise sharing a human body, they will always try to do this when summoned and can only leave a possessed human when the Shade is killed. Perhaps because of this, despite spirits' typical Blue-and-Orange Morality, Shades are universally Always Chaotic Evil. - In Lord of the Rings and the rest of Tolkien's verse ( The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Children of Húrin), there are basically two kinds of spirits. The first, Ainur (Valar and Maiar) are the local version of angels and demons (ie. Valar and Maiar begin as angels, but can become corrupted and turn into demons); they exist simultaneously in two worlds (wraith-world and the real world), can change shape and become immaterial at will (unless they are in Mode Lock like Gandalf and Sauron), are immortal and happy about it, come from Valinor and are the source of most Functional Magic in the verse. The second type (Nazgûl, Wraiths, ghosts etc) are spirits who were once souls of Men (or Elves), they live mostly in the wraith-world and have problems interacting with the real world, are usually immaterial, immortal but remarkably not happy about their condition and have less powerful magical abilities; they are also likely to be evil, because souls of good people obediently go to the halls of Mandos to reach the afterlife (though the Nazgûl, at least, are actually victims of The Corruption). - Spirits in The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses are supernatural beings that live in the other world. They dwell in everything, including the air, earth, water and plants. Low level Spirits have the forms of animals, while Deities have human forms. Humans can make contracts with them to use their power. - The Stormlight Archive has the spren, which are associated with various phenomena. Whether they're drawn to said phenomena, created by them, or cause them is not clear to most people in universe. These phenomenon include wind, rain and fire, natural processes like rot, emotions like fear and passion, and even more esoteric things like music, creation, and honour. Some spren can move small objects and give small pinches of energy, as well as mimic voices. - The nature of spren has been expanded upon gradually over the course of the series. They are essentially pieces of power given a kind of life by people's ideas about various phenomena. They exist naturally in the Cognitive Realm and are drawn partially into the Physical Realm by the phenomena they are associated with. Most spren are essentially the Cognitive Realm equivalent of animals, whereas others are intelligent enough to form societies. \|\|Some of the kinds of intelligent spren are able to form bonds with humans that grant the human magical powers, while allowing the spren to think while in the Physical Realm (without a bond they are nearly mindless outside the Cognitive Realm)\|\|. - Henrik Wergeland developed an entire spirit lore, which surfaced in his own mythology pretty early. Essentially, he imagined a kind of "elementary spirits" roaming the heavens (like swans swimming on the "Milky way river"). Those spirits could "lay eggs" in the human souls. Now that is one way to explain it. Furthermore, one spirit could actually split in two, to harbor more than one soul (or more). In this way he explained his sense of companionship with his muse, Stella (actually a quite physical girl he was madly in love with). Only from time to time would a spirit enter a single soul without splitting up. The result would be a person with great historical impact, like, for instance, William Shakespeare... - Religion... as in all of them. Trinitarian Christianity has the Holy Ghost, Buddhism has Hungry Ghosts (although they're more like ghouls than conventional spirits), various religions and mythologies have regular ghosts and fairies/Nature Spirits/Little People, and of course Shinto and Animism have everyone. And every thing. - Suffice it to say, just about everything in mythology that wasn't human or a corporeal undead was either a spirit or descended from one. - Pathfinder has beings like kami, oni and other native outsiders that are referred to as spirits, though what exactly that means varies from creature to creature. Oni, for example, are formless ethereal beings that take forms resembling humanoid races, while kami are guardian entities that bind themselves to a particular charge. There are also occult spirits, the remnants of souls and minds for those too weak to manifest as undead but strong enough to communicate with and assist the properly attuned. - Summerland: Drifters who travel through the deeper parts of the woods occasionally claim to have seen spirits and apparitions, which can range from living shadows to whispering trees to golden stags leaping through the woods. Not everybody believes these claims, but among those who do there's a great deal of worry about what this may signify. - The World of Darkness: - The Book of Spirits is a New World of Darkness sourcebook concerning spirits. They're generally the domain of werewolves and mages with the spirit arcana, but they can be dealt with by vampires and mortals as well. More specifically, nWoD spirits are incorporeal beings associated with concepts, Anthropomorphic Personification but usually without the anthropomorphic part. They sustain themselves by hanging around places associated with their concept; river spirits with rivers, grief spirits with funeral parlors, spirits of mugging with back alleys, etc. They can also try to encourage or nurture the concept that feeds them, which is obviously bad news when dealing with a spirit of murder or something similar... but less-obviously bad news when it's (for instance) a spirit of euphoria hanging around a drug den, encouraging people to take more and more and ... MORE - Both Worlds of Darkness also give spirits a hierarchical structure, organizing them into courts with various ranks, but with different twists. In nWoD, each spirit is technically an independent actor that shares a Choir with like types - for instance, each dove spirit gets along with other dove spirits and is a member of the Choir of Birds. In cWoD, each spirit is effectively a "representative" of a greater totem, which may itself fall in with the brood of a totem more powerful than itself - for instance, each dove spirit is actually an aspect/representative of Dove, who is herself allied with the brood of Unicorn, and so forth. - In Curse of the Assassin by Tin Man Games, an evil mercenary is attempting to undergo apotheosis. This has thrown the balance of the world of mankind and the spirit world out of whack. As such, beings of folklore collectively known as the Sleeping Ones (most are nature spirits) have manifested in the land of Orlandes and are now preying on people. A wise coyote spirit seeks you as a champion and if you defeat it in a trial by combat, it will grant you all the knowledge of folklore and these creatures. This gives you a greatly increased chance of doing damage against them in battle. These Sleeping Ones range from the fictional White Ape of Orlandes, which is an omen of natural disaster and turns into a boulder when slain, to the Duende and La Llorona from actual Latin American folklore. - In the Dragon Age series, spirits and demons are the same thing. They inhabit the Dream Land called the Fade but can be summoned into the material world (or enter it on their own in certain locations). They seem to be ageless but can be killed, whether in the material world or in the Fade. Both demons and benevolent spirits can possess humans, though the former tend to turn them into Humanoid Abominations. Each demon is associated with one of five sins (corresponding to the negative emotion it feeds upon); benevolent spirits seem to be associated with virtues but because encounters with them are so rare, no established classification exists. - It also implies that spirits become demons by the perceptions of people. Or by a mage using blood magic to bind them. Or by being pulled out of the Fade through tears in reality. It's also establishes that they have a different way of viewing things and they're just as freaked out by the mortal world as mortals are freaked out by the Fade. - Some spirits might even be able to "become somebody else", which is never really elaborated on too heavily. \|\|Cole and possibly Leliana (based on the player's choices in previous games) are two such examples.\|\| - The Legend of Zelda: - The games have numerous ghost-like spirits. The most famous ones are the Poes, who haunt graveyards and abandoned buildings and carry lanterns which hold their souls, which can broken open to collect the Poe's soul in certain games. Other spirits exist, such as the cyclopean Ghinis, which can turn invisible, and the Hyu, similar to Poes but not as aggressive, and likelier to be found haunting ghost towns and deep forests. - In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, humans trapped in the Twilight are turned into spirits, appearing as floating, greenish flames unless Wolf Link uses his enhanced senses, at which point they show as ghostly apparitions. - In Shining the Holy Ark three good spirits are in charge of magical floating spaceship, the titular Ark. However the Ark gets destroyed so they escape in a pod, crash onto our heroes and possess them. This heals our three main heroes (as they were squashed by the escape pod) and makes sure they can never die, gives them additional powers and allows themselves to heal up while they inhabit their bodies. Meanwhile an evil spirit possesses the King and his advisers in an attempt to revive the 1000 year kingdom and bring fourth an age of darkness. - Soma Union: Unlike the previous game, which only has two spirits of emotion, this game has more spirits, and each one represents different concepts. These can be emotions or more mundane things like pointy hats. However, Zero has no idea what emotion or concept they represent. \|\|All spirits are actually created by using Absolution's power to infuse life. The Sun King created Heart and Soul from the souls of his deceased friends while Professor M infused life into several robot and cyborg bodies.\|\| - Fire Emblem Engage revolves around object-bound spirits named the Emblems, resembling various characters from past Fire Emblem games, but aren't actually them. With the exception of one, \|\|Alear,\|\| all Emblems lack physical bodies, are immortal, and unable to eat. When summoned through \|\|a prayer, and in Alear's case, also invocation\|\|, they're practically good spirits, but when \|\|invoked\|\|, they are simply soulless husks known as Dark Emblems, \|\|though the only truly evil spirits of this game are all of the Dark Emblems summoned by Sombron\|\|. They are also capable of fusing with their bearers by engaging with them. - In Nasuverse, there are many types of spirits, but they all share common characteristics. Spirits are immaterial existences that "exist with a shape, but without physical properties". Their bodies are described as "Elementals" ( Seirei, in the original Japanese), meaning they are conceptual and thus are able travel without physical interference (passing through walls and people, for example). - Spirits who came from Alaya (collective human unconscious). Mythical beings that exist in human imagination, called "Phantasmal Species". They lack the capability to interact with physical bodies (immaterial) and can't be perceived by humans unless enough people believe in them. If enough humans believe in them, Phantasmal Beasts can become "Divine Spirits", capable of taking material forms and influencing the World around them with their Authority. - Spirits who came from Gaia ("Will" of the Earth). Nature Spirits that serve as Gaia's extension of will. These can influence physical bodies as they please, and usually packs enough power to wreck reality around them apart at will. The only known example of this are the "True Ancestors". - The Lower-Class Spirits, or better said, ghosts. Remnants of dead living beings (human, animal, or even plants) that remain attached to the world for some reason. These are immaterial, unstable, temporary existences that have to consume life-force from living beings to continue existing. They can, however, grow so powerful to the point of being able of materializing themselves. - Finally, there are the Heroic Spirits. Humans who manage to imprint themselves inside Alaya due to their fame as "heroes" in human history (either actual or made-up). Their souls are recorded in the so-called "Throne of Heroes", and their souls can be summoned as Heroic Spirits by Holy Grail, powerful artifact of True Magic capable of manipulating and materializing souls. Heroic Spirits can take material or immaterial form at will, but they need living being's life-force to exist in the world. - The spirits of Scourosi in No Evil are flesh-and-blood beings with the souls of fallen stars. They have both a human form and a naugal form and are partially composed of magic. Also, they are named for figures from Native American legends, post-colonial folklore, and/or Aztec gods. - In Jreg's Centricide, a human's spirit can linger around only if their will is strong enough. This resulted in the souls of many political extremists lingering around after they passed. Spirits are also able to combine into "mega-spirits." Ghosts can only possess blood relatives, which is how Che Guevara was able to possess Greg Guevara, also allowing Kim Il Sung, Julius Evola, and Ayn Rand to possess him too by combining into one mega-spirit. - In Champions of Far'aus, spirits are immortal, and range from fire spirits, which are more like elementals of a sort that can fly, to Terrabnds, which are more animalistic and crawl around on the ground, to Ghosts. - In Oceanfalls, Spirits are a major danger in the monster world due to their illusory abilities, and mostly survive off of the negative emotions of those they torment, but can and will consume souls if they believe a great danger is coming. Thankfully, spirits can be killed by physical attacks like any other creature. They also mostly talk in Black Speech that is represented in the comic by Morse Code, but nobody In-Universe can understand. \|\|It's later revealed that Kotori is able to understand them somehow, and even commands them to go after the main party\|\|. - In Yokoka's Quest, spirits come in a variety of forms: - Spirit: Yin, Yang, and the four members of the Poker Gang are all spirits. Yin and Yang appear to live relatively normal lives, despite being spirits, as a seamstress and merchant respectively. Yfa could feel that a spirit was "still deciding what it wants to be" within Grace's lucky deck, and later they would "need the final touch", for Grace "to call out to them", before the Poker Gang would be born. Grace then forms a pact with the Poker Gang, making her their summoner. Blinky explains that "emotions, intent, mixed with the energy of the planet [are] what the spirits feed off of". Spirits have no age. - Spirit bird: Copycat, Kagi, and Yfa's father are spirit birds. Mao refers to Copycat as "some kind of lesser spirit". Kagi was previously only part bird note : (as shown in an old photo and more clearly in a Side-Story Bonus Art wallpaper) but became "a full bird" by the time the story takes place. Spirit birds are noted to be able to shapeshift into anything they can imagine. There are also birds who aren't spirits, such as Chirpy. - Beast/Spirit: Yfa, Raya, and Tomo are all beast/spirits, sharing a beast mother and a spirit bird father. Yfa is able to shapeshift into anything he can imagine due to being part spirit bird. It's not been shown whether other mixes exist, such as human/spirit or demon/spirit. - Tunnel dweller: Three tunnel dwellers, resembling a mole, axolotl, and pangolin, caused tremors around the underground village, before emerging and being fought on two occasions. After being beaten and bound in chains of light, Blinky banishes them with a spell; its incantation implies they're angry spirits being sent back where they belong, which Yokoka later describes as "back to the Spirit World or whatever". Yin also refers to them as beasts. - In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the spirits inhabit a Spirit World, but many of them have the ability to take form in the 'real' world, as well. In terms of vulnerability, it varies from spirit to spirit. On the whole, taking form in the real world leaves them vulnerable to attacks, and if they take on a permanent living body, such as the moon and ocean spirits, or the eponymous avatar, they can be permanently killed. Powers also vary: some are a Anthropomorphic Personifications and have abilities linked to that, while others are random assortments. - Captain Planet and the Planeteers features four of them: Gaia (the Spirit of Earth), the eponymous Captain Planet, and their Evil Counterparts Zarm (the Spirit of Destruction) and Captain Pollution, respectively. What they all have in common, is having human forms, and Immortality, at least when speaking of natural causes note : It is an Incredibly Lame Pun in Captain Pollution's case, though.; otherwise, they can be killed. Nobody ever tried to do this to Zarm, however. - Speaking of Zarm, he and Gaia may be polar opposites when it comes to their alignment (she's good, he's evil), but they do share some traits and skills, even though Gaia seems to be less willing to use them to the extent Zarm does. They both are Masters of Illusion, can create and control weather phenomena (see their battle in "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1"), and their powers are part of them. - The two Captains share super-strength, the ability to fly, hamminess and, uh... specific type of humor. Other than that, they're as different as they can be, even working as each other's Kryptonite Factor. - Some of the "ghosts" in Danny Phantom do not appear to be humans experiencing the afterlife, but spectral lifeforms born entirely in the Ghost Zone. One of them is even the Kid from the Future of two formerly-human ghosts. - Many of the entities call "ghosts" in The Real Ghostbusters and its sequel Extreme Ghostbusters are not exactly disembodied souls of the dead as the traditional depiction of ghosts, but Spirits; entities from another dimension that, as Egon puts it in one episode, "have always been ghosts". Some episodes even show these dimensions. And some of the most dangerous (and of the very few recurrent) villains like Samhain and the Boogie Man are Spirits. In general, Spirits in the Ghostbusters animated universe are basically some sort of normally evil chaotic creature made of ectoplasm and with certain magical powers.	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSpiritsAreDifferent
Dem Bones - TV Tropes "A walking skeleton, the basic frame of the human body, can inspire more fear in the common man than an excessively armed soldier or knight." Animate beings constructed from ossific material in their entirety are a very common form of The Undead in video games, but much rarer in other media, to the point where, as an object of fear, they have become slightly camp. They're cousins to the Zombie in spirit, but remain explicitly separated in the public consciousness by the lack of flesh and other juicy bits. A likely explanation for their ability to see and hear, not to mention move without any muscles, and indeed their status as Perpetual Motion Monsters is a necromancer used Functional Magic to raise and operate them. Thus, these creatures are firmly inhabitants of Fantasy works. You might know them as skeletons. We call 'em "Dem Bones". And wouldn't you know... There's a skeleton inside you right now! ... Of course you don't actually count, 'cuz you have flesh and organs over those bones. Anyway... There are human, non-human, and weirder variants, and in 99% of their appearances, they're enemy Mooks. Their prevalence in Role Playing Games is owed to Dungeons & Dragons, which established them as the slaves of necromancers. When they aren't Mooks, they're usually liches, which are much nastier, because they tend to be powerful mages. Skeletal spellcasters who are not liches are rare (in cases where "skeletal spellcaster" isn't the outright ''definition'' of a lich, that is), but not nonexistent. Often enough, Dem Bones are reused in the same game à la Underground Monkey. Expect, in the spirit of a Zombie Minotaur, to find double-category monsters, like a skeletal mammoth or dragon. Many games have even tougher skeletons that are colored red. This could be because the red ones are a little more skilled and covered in the blood of hapless adventurers who couldn't best them. A prominent variation is a being composed of just a skull without a body. In this case, their ability to attack may be a simple bite, or through magic spells. They may or may not also have the power to defy gravity to compensate for the lack of legs. As trope examples indicate, there are a noticeably greater number of friendly talking skulls compared to the rare Friendly Skeleton. In video games, skeletal foes will often attack by throwing bones. One cannot help but wonder where they get dem bones from. Some versions are difficult to harm with ordinary swords or arrows, but can be dealt with using blunt weapons or magic. But be warned: many have the ability to pull themselves back together after you knock them apart. In Mexico, Dem Bones are called Calacas and are associated with the Day of the Dead holiday much the same way bunnies are associated with Easter, making them less common as stock spooky elements (they tend to be more comedic). It helps that said calacas are made of sugar and chocolate. See also Skull for a Head and Stripped to the Bone. May or may not be prone to dancing. A unique example is The Grim Reaper, so ubiquitous it's its own trope. If the Skeleton is friendly and/or comical, it's a Friendly Skeleton. See also Bad with the Bone if bones are used as Improvised Weapons, and Ballistic Bone if they're used as Abnormal Ammo. A Walking Ossuary is when bits from multiple skeletons are assembled into a single chimeric whole. If the skeleton is really a robot, see SkeleBot 9000. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples - As Bones Coffee would imply, every label has a depiction of at least one human skeleton on it. Apparently, they are all the same skeleton, aptly named "Bones." - An advertisement for Pillow Cube features a talking skeleton that is used to demonstrate how the product supports side sleepers better than a normal pillow. - Berserk: In Episode 2 of the Black Swordsman Arc, "The Brand", the evil spirits attracted to Guts' Brand Of Sacrifice possess the skeletal corpses of warriors who died at an old battlefield and use them to attack. The Skull Knight also appears to be an armor-wearing undead skeleton, although since he is the most powerful known being opposing the Godhand, he is actually the closest thing the series has to a Big Good. - Bleach: Barragan Luisenbarn turns into a skeleton dressed in a crown and robes upon releasing his zanpakuto, and his original form before becoming an Arrancar was a mighty Hollow, possibly even a Vasto Lorde level, in the form of a similar skeleton. This is to symbolize \|\|his power over old age and decay, which lets him rot other people into skeletons. The dead kind\|\|. - Buster Keel! has the skeletal army summoned by Jack Bone. - In Delicious in Dungeon, walking skeletons are a type of monster that can be found in the titular dungeon. They occur when a dead body is possessed by a wandering spirit and, because the ghost inhabiting it isn't the right one, the flesh rots off. - Digimon Adventure: SkullGreymon is giant, freakily shaped dinosaur skeleton that launches fish-looking rockets from its back. SkullGreymon is one of Greymon's evolutions and it returns in Digimon Adventure 02. - Fairy Tail ZERØ: The dragon skeleton of Blue Skull is an example of this. Once under the Sirius Orb's influence, it ultimately becomes a Dracolich. - Horohoro from Galaxy Express 999 episode "The Skeleton's Song"; after having his heart broken by the woman he was in love with, he slowly lost one part of his body every time she betrayed him until he was reduced to a living skeleton with a hole in place of his ribcage. - The Keeper Wants to Build a Zoo in Another World, so He Tames Monsters: Two kids, Mensh and Gwena, accidentally awaken a bunch of murderous skeleton warriors, only to be saved by Merou, Ikuhara, and Cerberus. According to Merou, they're manifestations of magic rather than animated human bodies. A Gashadokuro appears as well. - Docky from Midnight Horror School, while not a real skeleton, is a plastic skeleton. Also a majority of the school's faculty are living skeletons. - Morborgran of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, the massive, Multi-Armed and Dangerous, skeletal demon member of the Canis Niger bounty hunters in the Magic World. He's actually a pretty friendly guy, though with a bit of a complex about his appearance. - One Piece: In the Thriller Bark arc, the Straw Hats meet Brook, who's eaten a Devil Fruit that lets him come back to life once. But due to the fog in the area he was in, he got lost on his way back to his mortal body. By the time he found it, it was nothing but bones. Although initially freaked out by his own appearance, he eventually adapted and grew a habit of making puns about it. Constantly. He also came to discover that being a skeleton has surprising advantages over being made of flesh, such as making him a lot faster and lighter. He eventually joins the crew as their musician and second swordsman. - In RWBY (2015), the body of the Cephalopod looks like a giant horned skull. - Shiro from Shakugan no Shana. His true form, though, is a Bishōnen. - Used by a Faust VII in Shaman King, quite drastically - in his fight against the main character, he insisted it be held on a Western (Christian) graveyard, where the dead were not cremated, so he could use their skeletons to launch a mass attack at our protagonist. On top of it, he carried his deceased wife's skeleton under his clothes and used it as a secret weapon. - Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke: As she keeps exhausting her powers against Sasuke during the final battle, Yakusha transforms from someone who at least appears human into a decrepit old woman and then into an animated skeleton that ultimately falls to pieces when she gets a dagger in the skull. - Similar to the above, we have the title character from the Manhwa Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the Dungeon. - The title character from Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san is drawn as a skeleton (an entire one, not just a Skull for a Head like the title indicates). He isn't literally a skeleton though, he's a human in an entirely mundane setting. - Admiral Perry, the Big Bad of Space☆Dandy. He first appears as a flaming skull with a body composed of stars, though later episodes show that he has bony arms as well. - Skeldon from The☆Ultraman is a skeletal carnivorous dinosaur kaiju. - Dokuro Skull of The World God Only Knows is this after having cast away her flesh to create New Hell. - In Yu-Gi-Oh! Ryuji Otogi used a few skeletal monsters in his Dungeon Dice Monsters game, including The 13th Grave and Dark Assailant. (Unfortunately, the card game equivalents of these cards are pretty bad.) - In the Motu Patlu episode "Bhoot Bangla", Motu and Patlu go to a mansion that is said to be haunted and, sure enough, among the things they find in it are walking, talking skeletons. \|\|They're actually being controlled by Jon the Don in an attempt to scare the duo.\|\| - In Magic: The Gathering, skeletons are closely tied to the "regenerate" mechanic. Most creatures with the Skeleton creature type have an ability that allows them to keep fighting after they've been destroyed, a tradition that began in the very first expansion with Drudge Skeletons. (Ordinary undead minions that don't regenerate are typically classified as regular Zombies instead.) Skeletal Grimace has a ghoulcaller pointing out that everyone has a skeleton inside them already...and there's no real need to wait for someone to die first before controlling it. The card grants a minor power and toughness boost to the enchanted creature and a "regenerate" mechanic just like that of skeleton creatures'. - In Yu-Gi-Oh!, there is the Wight archetype. Originally, this was nothing more than Skull Servant, a Joke Item at best, as it was weak and had no real function (aside from a few Fusion Monsters who were equally bad) but eventually, cards were introduced to make it playable, like King of the Skull Servants, The Lady in Wight, Wightmare, and Wightprince. - Fairly common in pre-Comics Code horror, to the point where David Hajdu's The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read! contains an entire essay on their usage and associated tropes. Hajdu's observation is that they typically appear to avenge their own deaths with as much poetic justice as possible. Unlike the zombie, skeletons are neither "natural" (staggering like a living person) nor "unnatural" (staggering despite mortal wounds), but are abstractions from a body. They are, in fact, traditional allegorical images — from the medieval memento mori. They are symbols sprung to life and strangely able to manipulate the material world. The uncanniness of the skeleton in this regard is not to be underestimated. - In Agents of Atlas, the organization fights mobile skeletons so much it borders on a Running Gag. - Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book: Death is a skeleton because Evan Dorkin didn't see any stills from the Bill & Ted movies until he was a third of the way through the comic and it was too late to redraw. - In Bizarrogirl, Supergirl suffers several nightmares where her enemy Superwoman, her parents and all deceased Kryptonians turn into walking, rag-wearing skeletons and try to drag her down into Hell. - Zigzagged with Ghost Rider, whose skeleton form is largely Depending on the Artist. In more than a few comics, only the head is a burning skull and rest is normal, see 1,000,000 BC Ghost Rider. Yet the majority of the time the riders e.g Johnny Blaze have their bodies become skeletons as well as revealed by Clothing Damage or the Marvel Swimsuit Special. - In the Superman story The Jungle Line, the Man of Steel is attacked by the skeletons of some species of mammoth-like Kryptonian beast during one hallucination. - In The DCU event Blackest Night event, black power rings re-animate dead characters, typically making them look like slightly-decayed versions of their former selves. The body of Boston Brand, aka Deadman, however, had been dead so long that his Black Lantern version is little more than a skeleton with a black version of his costume stretched over it. In some stories (most notably, Kingdom Come), Deadman's ghostly form also appears significantly more skeletal than usual. - Conan the Barbarian: In "The Valley of the Howling Shadows" (The Savage Sword of Conan #118, November 1985), Conan and his followers meet a group of talking and walking skeletons. The skeletons are the nicest and friendliest characters in the entire story, but their dialogue creeps Conan out. They claim that Conan looks familiar to them, suspect that they have seen him before, and ask him whether he is related to them through their families. They also indicate that they would like to know him better. Conan retreats quickly. Notably, for most of the scene, the skeletons pay no attention to the other characters present. - The Crawling King contains plenty of illustrations of living skeletons. From one of a frog riding a dog skeleton, to a story of a woman whose skeleton leaves her body. - In The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #33-34, an Evil Sorcerer raises a skeletal army of Viking warriors to kill Indy, or—at the very least—keep him occupied until the soccer's evil ritual is completed. - Mr. Bones, a man whose body is invisible except for his skeleton, has been a recurring Infinity, Inc. villain, before his HeelFace Turn, at which time he briefly joined Infinity Inc. Currently he's the morally grey Director of the Department of Extranormal Operations. - In the Alternate History of The Manhattan Projects, the Freak Lab Accident that killed physicist Harry Daghlian in our timeline instead turned him into an irradiated skeleton stuck in a radiation suit. \|\|It also wasn't an accident.\|\| - Mr. Crypt is a comedic example. He is a sentient skeleton who gets into various mishaps from dealing with vampires to running away from angry villagers to facing island natives. - Pierre Tombal: In this Black Comedy comic book about a gravedigger at his local cemetery all dead bodies are living skeletons who spent their afterlife on the cemetery and are treated as residents. Usually they spent their activities underground. - In Pretty Deadly, the entire story is being narrated by Bones Bunny, a skeletal bunny. In addition, Death is a skeleton (not with a human skull, but rather an animal one). - In Seconds, \|\|the Seconds restaurant employs some walking, talking skeletons when reality starts to break apart\|\|. - In one crossover, Savage Dragon and Hellboy fought the undead skeletons of pirates while inside of a giant sea monster. - Similarly to Mr. Bones, Tom Strong had a minor villain named Charlie Bones, a gangster with invisible flesh who was supposedly the first villain Tom fought after coming to the USA. - In Tragg and the Sky Gods #9, the Necromancer Ostellon, Master of the Living Bones reanimates the skeletons of the tribe that used to inhabit the caves that Tragg's tribe have just moved into and uses them to attack Keera - Wonder Woman: - Vol 1: - When Artemis, Diana's predecessor as the Amazon's champion, is "revived" by Circe she comes back as a vengeful walking skeleton clad only in the scraps remaining of her armor. - The henchmen the Adjudicator created as manifestations of his will modeled after the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Judgment In Infinity were each skeletal figures wearing cloaks. - Vol 2: When Hippolyta is confronted by her guilty conscience she faces a skeletal Diana accusing her of killing her by siphoning her power to Artemis in order to ensure Diana didn't win The Contest. This did end up getting Diana killed, which was precisely what Polly was trying to prevent after having a premonition that Wonder Woman would die. - Yorick And Bones: Yorick, one of the protagonists of the comic, is a magically-resurrected skeleton who was dug up by Bones. - Crowns of the Kingdom has the skeletons on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which come to life and attack the heroes. - The Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Smurphony Of The Night" has Empath and Smurfette dealing with an army of Smurf skeletons brought to life in order to stop them from escaping Castle Smurfenstein. - Key antagonists in the battle on the Plains of Death in With Strings Attached. Paul loves them because destroying them doesn't compromise his Actual Pacifism]. - The vampiress Velanna from Sixes and Sevens uses halberd-wielding skeletons reanimated from the bones of her meals in one of her attacks against van Helsing and Victoria. - The Cauldron Born in The Black Cauldron. In the book, they were more like zombie bodybuilders. - In The Book of Life, both La Muerte and the Spirits of the Dead are based on calacas, skeleton figures which are decorated on The Day of the Dead, specifically the ones made out of candy. In particular, La Muertes overall design in particular is inspired by the iconic La Calavera Catrina of Mexican culture. - Similarly, in Coco, the inhabitants of the Land of the Dead are walking, talking, clothed skeletons with colorful facial markings like those found on sugar skulls. They can detach their bones from their bodies with no ill effects and their body parts can move independently even when not attached to their bodies. - Corpse Bride. The inhabitants of the Underworld are either zombie-like or skeletal. Not that that makes them any less fun to hang around. - The B-17 segment of Heavy Metal has the Loc-Nar reanimate dead crew of the B-17 as skeletons, melting away the flesh in the process, which have Super Strength and crave human flesh. Its influence spreads to a Derelict Graveyard on an island, reanimating the pilots' bodies to corner the B-17's pilot in a Bolivian Army Ending. - A Gashadokuro appears in Kubo and the Two Strings. It guards the Sword Unbreakable, \|\|which is embedded in his skull, along with dozens of regular swords. Removing it causes the Gashadokuro to fall apart\|\|. - The Last Unicorn: A talking, wise-cracking skeleton appears. - A lot of animate skeletons appear in Monster Mash (2000). - Jack Skellington, of The Nightmare Before Christmas is, well, a skeleton. He's the hero, so that's OK. - The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Luigi gets chased by a horde Dry Bones shortly after he lands in the Dark Lands. And later, when Bowser reveals to his troops his plans to marry Peach, one Koopa soldier makes the unfortunate mistake of asking "What if she says no?" He gets roasted by Bowser's fire breath and turned into a Dry Bones for his trouble. - Extraordinarily common in early cinema. Sprightly, dancing and otherwise animated skeletons appear with great regularity in the trick films of Georges Méliès and his contemporaries. - The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. The Skeleton was later re-used in Jason and the Argonauts. - Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion has Lou hallucinating a talking skeleton while in the desert. - Most of the "Deadite" army in Army of Darkness. \|\|Evil Ash ends up this way (sans his eyes) after Ash sets him on fire.\|\| - Tim Burton examples, which in addition to the aforementioned Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas shows the extent of his inspiration in Gothic Horror and German Expressionism. - In Death Ship, Nick lunges at Capt. Ashland, only to fall into a trap and find himself in a net holding the skeletal remains of the eponymous ship's former crew. - Halloweentown has a wisecracking skeleton, Benny, drive the local taxi. - Many of the zombies that attack the Evers in The Haunted Mansion (2003). - In a memorable film example, Ray Harryhausen's animated skeletons make up half of a Chroma Key battle scene in Jason and the Argonauts, after they sprout from the earth where hydra teeth are sown. However in the original myths, they were instead flesh-and-blood warriors called spartoi. - Such a skeleton appears at the climax of House on Haunted Hill (1959). It's less elaborate than the above examples though, which is ultimately justified because \|\|it's a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax, operated by Vincent Price's character\|\|. In theaters, it was originally set up to have a plastic skeleton on wires fly over the audience, but it posed a tempting target to kids with slingshots and other projectiles. - The ghostly skeletal army in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. - The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra has this. Of course, since it's an Affectionate Parody of cheesy movies from The '50s, there's probably a number of straight examples from that era that no one really remembers. - In The Mummy (2017), the titular Mummy, Princess Ahmanet, turns her victims into her skeletal followers with a Kiss of Death. - Night at the Museum features a skeletal T-rex, which was reanimated with the Egyptian tablet like everything else in the movie. - In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Freddy's bones come to life when the characters try to give him a proper burial. - At the beginning of The Phantom, one of the bad guys gets killed by a skeleton that comes to life and chokes him. - In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the crew of the Black Pearl are revealed as being skeletons when exposed to moonlight, primarily to provide the most contrast from their normal appearance as ordinary (but immortal) people. - An army of skeletons appears at the end of big budget porno film Pirates XXX. - The Return of the Living Dead features a brief but memorable scene where a reanimated skeleton rises from a grave. It's never seen again after that. There is also Tarman, a prominently-featured zombie so decayed he's a skeleton held together with rotting muscle tissue and a thick black substance (hence the word tar in his name) ; unlike the skeleton, different Tarman zombies show up in two more films, albeit with designs of lesser quality compared to the original. - Parodied in Scary Movie 2, when Cindy is being chased by a skeleton, only to be reprimanded by Brenda for being afraid. To illustrate her point, Brenda pulls the skeleton apart and reassembles him badly. Brenda: Cindy this is a skeleton. This is bones. Would you run from Calista Flockhart ? - The skeleton warriors from Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, a deliberate homage to the Harryhausen example above. - The Three Stooges encounter one of these in The Ghost Talks. - In the prologue to Wishmaster, one of the Persians has his skeleton erupt out of his body and then go on a killing spree. - In Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, the titular mountain's entrance is guarded by flying skeletons of dead soldiers, achieved by some impressive wire-work effects. - Medieval and early Renaissance artwork often featured images of skeletons dancing with the living, known as a danse macabre or "the triumph of death". Belgian painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted a landscape◊ with an army of skeletons attacking a country village. - José Guadalupe Posadas is the man who started the "calavera" trend in Mexico. What is often confused by people as Dia de los Muertos symbolism is actually a harsh social critique against the higher social classes that seem to not realize that they're going to die. Eventually this art form evolved and merged with Dia de los Muertos itself, portraying more than just rich skulls but also every Mexican out there. - During the Halloween season, Cheetos has their white cheddar flavored "Bag of Bones", whose four shapes are a straight bone, skull, rib cage, and hand/foot. - A skeleton could be assembled with 15 interlocking pieces of Fleer's "Mr. Bones" candy. - A skeleton walks into a bar and says "Give me a beer and a mop." - Horrorman and Horako from Anpanman. Horrorman's a pretty nice guy (at least, when he's on the heroes' side) and Horako's a sweet little girl... even though her imagination has a tendency to go over the top \|\|and she's actually a sea princess\|\|. - The Asterisk War: Gustave Malraux, an Enemy Summoner who specializes in beasts out of Classical Mythology, uses "dragons' teeth" to summon the Spartoi as they were depicted in the film Jason and the Argonauts. \|\|They're no match whatsoever for Kirin Toudou, who has added techniques to deal with multiple enemies to her repertoire.\|\| - The Bartimaeus Trilogy has Honorius, a powerful and murderously insane Afrit. \|\|Instead of manifesting himself in a physical form like most magical creatures, Honorius' essence is instead infused into the skeleton of the long-dead magician president Gladstone. He basically acts as a "living" security system against people trying to pilfer the mage's tomb, who open it up only to see the skeleton spring up and brutally obliterate them.\|\| - The hermit's ghost in The Castle of Otranto. - Bruce Coville's Book of... Monsters: The title character of Kokolimalayas, the Bone Man is a giant skeleton. - In "Clubland Heroes", one of the Splendid Six's adventures involves an army of skeletal warriors animated by a geas. - The Osteomechs from Dark World Detective. They use advanced computers stored in their skulls and micro tractor/pressor beams as muscles. Strong as hell, but very light. - The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time: The appropriately named Bone Man is one of the first undead our protagonist creates, and while at first he's not much stronger than the average skeleton, in time he grows to be one of the deadlier fighters under Vandalieu's command. Funny thing is his skeleton was possessed by mice spirits who were given human-level sentience. - There's a "very old zombie" in Terry Pratchett's Discworld book The Last Hero who is basically a skeleton. Additionally, Death uses a living horse because he hates having to keep wiring the skeletal one together. - Not to mention, Death (and by extension, the Death of Rats) is a skeleton. Thankfully, he's a pretty nice chap. - And now there's Charlie, the Department of Necr- Post-Mortem Communications' resident skeleton, who's been there "forever". - In Reaper Man, the New Death rides a skeletal horse. After Bill Door defeats this upstart and reclaims his position as Death, Miss Flitworth decides to keep it, because any hay it "eats" just falls through its ribs to the stable floor, making it cheap to feed. - In Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm Queen of the Dead, Francis starts terrorizing L.A. with his undead army of empowered skeletons. - The Dresden Files is borderline - there's Bob the Skull, a spirit who lives inside a skull, but it is merely a casing, and Bob leaves it when he needs mobility. When a \|\|Tyrannosaurus Rex\|\| skeleton was reanimated in book 7 "Dead Beat"; the higher quality a reanimated being, the more life-like they appear. (broadly) - Sid is a walking, talking skeleton in Family Skeleton Mysteries. - Inverted in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories: "Lankhmar Ghouls" are perfectly normal, living, breathing humanoids who just happen to have invisible body tissues—except for their bones. - Forest Kingdom: In book 2 ( Blood and Honor), early on, Jordan and his escorts are confronted by Bloody Bones, a Transient Being in the form of a nine-foot, bloody (and blood-drinking) skeleton. Luckily, the knight Gawaine has an Anti-Magic axe that allows him to dispatch the monster, and they plan to dump the skull in a body of water some distance away to ensure he can't come back. - De Griezelbus: The driver of the Griezelbus is a skeleton named Beentjes. While initially he appeared to be a creation of Onnoval, he is later revealed to be his formerly living best friend. - One of the most infamous monsters encountered by Sun Wukong and company in Journey to the West was the White Bone Demon, a living skeleton creature who impersonates innocent humans. Wukong sees through each disguise easily thanks to his powers, but Xuanzang is fooled and eventually banishes Wukong after one too many "innocents" are killed. - Kingdom's Disdain: Mad Crossbone's "bone boys". He and Cardinal achieve infamy by having them pull their chariot. - In the first book of The Kingdom Keepers series, one of Maleficent's tricks is bringing the fake T-Rex fossil at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to life in an attempt to do away with Finn and Philby. - Bone constructs are everywhere in the Empire of necromancers of The Locked Tomb series, but are the Ninth House's specialty. - A Mage's Power: There are many skeletons in the sewers beneath Roalt and they are animated by a combination of ambient mana and lingering spiritual power. Dengel suggests that they are the remains of past adventurers, and stupid people on dares. Eric has to blow them up to stop them. - Nine Goblins: The cervidians, magical creatures which resemble animate deer skeletons, are very similar to this. Except they're specifically noted to still be ALIVE somehow, the bones held together with a fine organic webbing. They're not actually evil, but are distinctly sinister and are drawn to magical disturbances. - In Overlord, main character Ainz Ooal Gown is a skeleton — a Lich, to be more exact. Well, to be even more exact, he is a regular guy permanently stuck in the body and world of his video game character, but that's beside the point. Of course, as a godlike Necromancer Sorcerous Overlord, he also has legions of skeletal minions at his beck and call. - During the maybe-maybe not Dream Sequence in Pet Sematary, the deadfall separating the sematery from Little God Swamp becomes a huge mass of writhing, tangled skeletons. - A number of animated skeletons, including a skeletal dragon, appear in Pillars Of Pentagarn, the first D&D-based gamebook. - The Andre Norton novel Quag Keep, which was based on Dungeons & Dragons. - The Rifter: The walls at the convent of Umbhraibaye are strung with bones who are issushaim: women whove been stripped of their flesh but kept alive, with charms carved on the bones. This somehow gives them the power to see through time, seeing multiple possible futures as well as (maddeningly) the lives that they might have lived if they hadnt been turned into issushaim. The Payshmura use the issushaims soothsaying to avert future events that they dont want. Its a Fate Worse than Death, but at least its possible for them to take on flesh again, which is a considerable improvement, if they escape Umbhraibaye. Ji, a talking dog, is an issusha who took the body of a dog and is now a leader of the Faidaum. Shes centuries old and has very powerful magic as well as soothsaying abilities. \|\|Laurie was taken partway through the issusha-making process and they used the blood of her own baby to create the enchantment. Shes now part-flesh, part-walking skeleton. Understandably mentally unstable, shes been using those enchantments herself, but only managing to create "hungry bones", monstrosities patched together from human and animal bones which thirst for blood.\|\| - Roys Bedoys: Maker dresses as a skeleton for Halloween in Lets Go Trick-or-Treating, Roys Bedoys!. - In the first installment of Samhain Island it is revealed that \|\|Vanessa Vargas\|\| is a skeleton, more specifically the esteemed Santa Muerte. - From Skeleton Knight in Another World, we have Arc, a gamer whose avatar is an armored knight who happens to be a skeleton. - Al Sarrantonio's Skeletons involves a post-apocalyptic story where all of the dead (including the newly and antique dead) rise as skeletons surrounded by ghostly flesh and clothing. - The titular character of the Skulduggery Pleasant books is a centuries old living skeleton. The secondary protagonist, when being introduced to the supernatural for the first time, actually points out that he has no muscles to move with or lungs to speak with and asks how he works. He is rather disgruntled and gives the simple answer "it's magic". Later on, she wonders if he can whistle without lungs (he can). He's also entirely unique, with how he ended up like that being a long running question. The answer is that \|\|Skulduggery was naturally magically ambidextrous, with vast potential as a Necromancer as well as an Elemental. The necromancer who discovered that potential took the chance to install a failsafe in the Red Right Hand of Skulduggery's arch-enemy so it wouldn't quite kill him, because he was curious to see what would happen. The answer was an extremely angry living skeleton turned necromancer better known as 'Lord Vile'\|\|. - The eponymous character of Bruce Coville's "Young Adult" novel The Skull of Truth is completely immobile, but telepathic. He's also Yorick from Hamlet. For real, yo. - Solomon Kane: In "Rattle of Bones", the skeleton of a murdered sorcerer returns to exact vengeance on the man who murdered him. - Mary in Trash of the Count's Family uses non-human bones to create Mix-and-Match Critters for use in battle. - In User Unfriendly, one of the enemies the heroes face is a giant rat skeleton. - In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, Togandais has an animated skull — with glowing eyes — bringing him books in the library. - The Boneys in Warm Bodies are zombie skeletons. - There are living skeletons in Xanth. Some are the spirits of people who starved to death while their minds were trapped in the Gourd Realm. Others are their descendants. All of them need to acquire a part of a soul to spend much time in Xanth proper. - All That had Dead Spice in the "Spice Boys" skits. He was literally just a skeleton in clothing that never did or said anything, although he does move his arms a few times and it's implied he really is alive. At one point the fans are happy when they manage to steal one of his arms. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: - In "Tabula Rasa" a spell causes the Scooby Gang to lose their memories. Anya begins to try various spells in the hopes of reversing it, at one point conjuring up a skeletal swordsman which Giles fences with, all while shouting at Anya to 'try another book'. - In "Gone" after Buffy reveals to her friends that she's been turned invisible, she picks up a skull and works the jaw to mimic what she's saying. - Pierce hallucinates these during a Mushroom Samba in the Community episode "Introduction to Statistics". Pierce: "Those floating Mexican skeletons are right! My life is over!" Jeff: "Well, when we go to floating skeletons with our problems, we get what we pay for, don't we?" - In the fourth season finale of Game of Thrones, The Children, the Wights that attack \|\|Bran & his party beyond the Wall\|\| have only their bones left. - The Goodies. In one episode the Goodies are operating their own hospital. Graham gets a patient to step behind an X-Ray screen, which naturally displays his skeleton. The skeleton then walks out from the other side of the screen, causing Graham to flee in terror (this scene is included in Title Sequence). - In Living Color!. Jim Carrey riffs how the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series are getting too old for the movies. Captain Kirk calls for Bones to come to the bridge, only to find he really lives up to his name this time. - One of Jeff Dunham's more popular characters is Achmed the Dead Terrorist, an incompetent terrorist who was blown up by his own bomb. This reduced him to little more than a cranky, complaining skeleton, with his only surviving human features being angry yellow eyes, Big Ol' Eyebrows, a scraggly goatee, and a disheveled turban. - Geoff Peterson of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, clad in a suit, mohawk, and The Price Is Right name-tag. - For Halloween in 2006, Late Night with Conan O'Brien broadcast an already-aired episode in 'skelevision', with Conan, the band, the guests and the audience all appearing as skeletons operated by puppeteers. - In the Merlin episode "The Tears of Uther Pendragon", \|\|Morgana\|\| raises skeleton warriors to fight Arthur and the Knights of Camelot, who are already in battle against (human) invading forces. - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Season 1 gives us Bones, who was the first monster the Rangers fought. Season 3 gives us Rita Repulsa's halfwit brother Rito Revolto note : One might say, he was a real bonehead., who's based on Gasha Dokuro from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, who's in turn based on an actual creature in Japanese folklore described in the Mythology and Religion folder. - Monster Warriors: Von Steinhauer unleashes a gang of animate skeletons upon Capital City in "Last Ride of the Skeleton Crew" and "The Skeleton Crew Rides Again". - A segment from Mr. Wizard's World has him turn himself into a skeleton...\|\|through what is called a Pepper's Ghost, an image created in a dark room by switching the lights over from himself onto a skeleton seen reflected on a large pane of glass.\|\| - Bonapart the skeleton from Owl/TV. - Readalong: One of the characters introduced during the show's run was Mr. Bones, a skeleton who would sing songs in the style of "Dem Bones". - St. Bear's Dolls Hospital: In one episode, Nurse Penny found a living skeleton in a closet at the hospital, and assumed it was a patient that the staff had been ignoring. She became very concerned about the visiting inspector seeing it and assuming that the staff haven't been doing their job properly. When the inspector does see the skeleton, however, she clears up that the skeleton's a piece of teaching equipment. - In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" of Supernatural, the monster for the horror movie being filmed is a skeleton in a suit holding a fraternity paddle surrounded by a chainsaw blade. - Zelda from the original Svengoolie and Zalman T. Tombstone in Son of Svengoolie. Both are floating skulls. Zelda had '80s Hair (despite being from the early 1970s). - Ultra Series examples: - One episode of Ultraman had a Monster of the Week named Seabozu, a skeletal dinosaur-like creature that accidentally ended up on Earth when a rocket passing through the Monster Graveyard brought it back. Unlike most, it was completely harmless as it only sought to return to its grave and eternal rest, so Science Patrol had to help it get back into space. - Return of Ultraman had Stegon, the animated skeleton of a sauropod-like kaiju from the Mesozoic that went on a rampage after its grave was disturbed by construction workers. - Mudon from Ultraman Cosmos was an animated dinosaur skeleton that sought to reunite with its lost child after millions of years of separation. - Ultraman R/B: The first monster of the show is Grigrio Bone, a red skeletal kaiju. Unlike the other three mentioned above, this one is a hostile and dangerous monster. - Alice in Chains's song "Them Bones". - The song "Spooky Scary Skeletons" by Andrew Gold, best known for its association with the "2spooky" meme, is about how the eponymous skeletons will torment you. The song is a very good example of the erosion of the skeleton as a source of horror. - Camille Saint Saens' well-known Danse Macabre (1874), a symphonic poem describing skeletons rising from their tomb to dance. Notable for having introduced the xylophone in European Music, to imitate the rattling of the bones. - The children's song "Ghost of John" describes the titular ghost as a skeleton: ♬ Have you seen the ghost of John? Long white bones and the rest all gone Ooooooooooooh Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin? ♬ - Chiodos' Bone Palace Ballet (and the subsequent re-release The Grand Coda) features two of these on the cover. - A visual example in the video for Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey", where the band are portrayed by skeletons up until near the end. - Another one with some dancing (and even moonwalking) ones toward the end of the Jacksons' "Torture". - A skeleton does the "rap" in Rush's "Roll the Bones". - Parts of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" have some skeletons with helmets and shields. - The Trope Namer is the spiritual song "Dem Bones." - Creature Feature's song in American Gothic called 'Dem Bones' - no, it is not a joke. - "Bones" by The Killers. - Megadeth's mascot Vic Rattlehead is a skeleton who sees no evil (blindfolded), hears no evil (ears are closed with metal caps) and speaks no evil (mouth clamped shut). - Pet Sematary by The Ramones mentions dancing skeletons and rattling bones as some of the many graveyard horrors the singer wishes to avoid becoming. - One interpretation of "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" by They Might Be Giants is that it refers to your skeleton. - Averted by The Axis of Awesome with "Skeleton Man" who is part man, part skeleton. Like everyone. Benny: Right and which part's the skeleton part? Benny: What, you mean like inside him?! - In The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, the eponymous parade contains some of these among their number. - The Bible had the story of Ezekiel and the Valley of the Dry Bones that came to life and inspired the Trope Namer "Dry Bones"/"Dem Bones" song. The trope-naming song is based on a Biblical incident involving Ezekiel, who was told by God to create an army of these things with a prophecy. The Bible is surprisingly metal, in places. The bones are immediately given flesh and souls during their resurrections, instead of being a literal skeleton army like those created by Ray Harryhausen. - The Gashadokuro from Japanese Mythology is a super sized version of this. This monster is created from collecting the skeletons of people who have died en masse without getting a proper burial (usually from famine, disease, or warfare). It is known to bite the heads off humans it encounters and to be forewarned of by a ringing in the ears. They often grow up to 15 times larger than a man. - The Hone-onna note : literally "Bone Woman" creates a look of a beautiful woman, based on how she looked when she was alive, to get close to her chosen lover and drain him of life so they can be together forever. The problem is it only works on him and everyone else sees a man flirting and caressing a rotting corpse. - Another skeleton youkai is the Kyokotsu, a spectral skeleton formed from the spirits of those whose remains were simply thrown into wells instead of receiving a proper burial or committed suicide by throwing themselves into a well. They like to leap out of wells to scare people or place curses on them. - The Bakekujira is the animated skeleton of a whale feared as a harbinger of disaster for coastal villages, forever seeking vengeance against the humans that killed it. - The Pakahk from Cree mythology, similar to the Gashadokuro, are the animate bones of people who died from starvation. They have a chilling cackle, but sometimes they will help people with healing or hunting. - The Pauguk from Ojibway mythology, is a phantom with a skeletal appearance and eye sockets filled with balls of fire. It hunts people, often warriors, with invisible arrows or clubs. - Kokolimalayas from Modoc myth is the Bone Man, a giant skeleton who destroyed a village, drank of the river and left the earth barren, then went to sleep for a time. Eventually, after reawakening, he is destroyed by Nulwee, the boy who inadvertently revived him, and the rains return, allowing the people to return as well. - Fesxis from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues is an otherwordly being whose appearance is noted to be similar to a human skeleton with a doe skull. The actual composition of her body seems closer to chitin than bone. - Exploited in Nan Quest. \|\|The Pilgrim\|\| looks like an example of this, but is actually just a squishy human wearing a costume — precisely because it makes people assume they're an invincible skeleton. It works, too — players occasionally made suggestions that would have actually worked, such as \|\|strangling him with his own noose\|\|, only to be shot down by other players saying something to the effect of "He's a skeleton, are you crazy?" - Captain Bones Gold is a boardgame in which you have to acquire gold doubloons while avoiding having it stolen by Captain Bones, a skeletal pirate who lives inside a treasure chest. - The Dark Eye: Skeletons are a very common type of undead, routinely created by necromancers who want cheap, plentiful troops without having to put up with the decomposition, clumsiness and bad smell of zombies. They are quicker and more agile than the walking corpses, although they're vulnerable to blunt weapons as these can shatter their bones. - Dragon Dice: Skeletons are one of the basic undead troop types — they move faster than zombies, but do less damage and are less capable of absorbing damage. - Dungeons & Dragons: - A variety of skeletons exist, displaying different levels of power and intelligence. They're usually the result of spellcasters using necromancy, but a few have been known to spontaneously awaken in places of evil. Usually. Of course, there are also liches and their variants (archlich, baelnorn, banelich, master lich). - The Basic Set of the first version of D&D had 4 kinds of golems, one of these was the Bone Golem which was a skeleton with 4 arms. - The Dracolich is an undead evil dragon that has combines the powers of a dragon and a lich. While their description does not specifically say they have to be skeletal, most are depicted as such. - While most settings are full of undead, Forgotten Realms is especially fond of this theme and has the remarkable collection of unusual bones. For example, there lived — until she tried to raid a big temple of the god of wizardry, that is — Tashara of the Seven Skulls, who seduced and tricked into becoming spellcasting flying skulls (under her control) seven archmages, one after another. There's even one city openly ruled by floating skulls (no, not Tashara's seven). Realms is also the origin of the baelnorn and banelich. - Eberron: The setting's "evil, schmevil" attitude (it subverts the Always Chaotic Evil trope hard) means that a nation like Karrnath can have a significant portion of its army composed entirely of skeletons, and nobody thinks any differently about them because of it. - Planescape has "mimirs", recording devices shaped like metallic skulls. - Ravenloft: The original products had a number of variants of this trope, such as archer skeletons whose ammo turns into more skeletons, or giant skeletons (enlarged human bones) that toss fireballs from the green flames ablaze inside their ribcages. Arthaus's Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead has guidelines for customizing the Obedient Dead with all sorts of creepy abilities. - The Demilich is a lich who had decided to leave his/her phylactery and use astral projection to learn from other realms. All that's left is a weathered skull or skeletal hand that skill can dish out a world of hurt by sucking the souls of anyone who bothers them or summoning Demiliches, six inch tall/long magic roaches with Skull for a Head. By the thousands. - Apart from the lich, D&D featured many other skeletal sentient undead, like the Death Knight (skeletal warrior), the Huecuva (skeletal divine spellcaster), or skeletal Ancient Dead (variant of the Mummy from the Ravenloft setting). - It should also be noted that, in 3rd edition anyway, just about anything with bones that isn't already dead can be turned into Dem Bones through application of the Skeleton template. This includes everything from normal humanoids, to dragons, to bizarre aberrations with bone structures such have never been seen by mortal eyes. - Kings of War uses skeletons in much the same role, in much the same army, alongside the slightly less expendable, slightly better-dressed skeletons known as Revenants. - Mage: The Awakening has these as a variation on the standard Animate Dead spell. The corpse's connective tissue and some of its flesh is transmuted into razor-edged metal plated around the bones (giving it damage resistance and a better attack) and it rips its way out of the rest of the flesh. It was invented by a member of a Black Metal band whose bandmates promptly declared the spell to be metal as hell. - Mazes and Minotaurs: Skeletons serve as mooks. - Rattle Me Bones, a game where you must remove accessories from a pirate's skeleton in a way that doesn't move its limbs too much, otherwise he'll RATTLE AND SHAKE! - Warhammer 40,000: - Floating servo-skulls — although they're robotic rather than undead. - Not to mention the Necrons. No really, don't mention them, they aren't this trope. They are robots shaped like skeletons that function as Soul Jars for an ancient alien race. - Warhammer Fantasy: Skeletons are the basic grunt troops of the undead armies, serving the factions of Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. The Vampire Counts use skeletons as expendable meat(bone?)shields, and that's about it. The Tomb Kings are an army of nothing but skeletons, with some mummies, animated statues and ancient, immortal priests to taste. - These are seen in several of these at attractions in Disney Theme Parks, including in Phantom Manor, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure, and The Great Movie Ride. More cheerful versions are in the Mexico pavilion at EPCOT. The skeletons in the original Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland were real (arguably adding to their creepiness if you knew this), as replica skeletons at the time were not advanced enough to look realistic and old. They were obtained from a medical center and later received burials, with replicas taking their place in the ride. Supposedly, one real human skull still exists in the ride (attached to the headboard, above the skeletal pirate captain, in the grotto sequence), but Disney will neither confirm nor deny this. - LEGO features skeleton minifigures in various series, primarily in LEGO Castle, LEGO The Lord of the Rings and Ninjago. - Pose Skeleton created by Re-Ment is a series of miniature skeletons along with various accessories, they're far smaller than Revolectech Skeletons, however they're as flexible as the latter, capable of wielding LEGO weapons and they're so lightweighted that they can be lifted by Figma at ease. - Revoltech once made the action figures of Skeleton Warrior from Jason and the Argonauts, the Revoltect joints on them are perfect for making stop motion movie, exactly what Ray Harryhausen made. It Makes Sense in Context, certainly. The Takeya series also has Japanese skeleton and its brother, Skeleton Samurai. - A majority of the characters in the Treasure X toyline are skeleton treasure hunters that need to be unearthed from a sandstone and pieced together, along with a buried treasure. - Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. note : Highly Articulated Character Kit System series created by Boss Fight Studio features several skeletons warrior figures with Greek motif. - The Black Cat's Lair: Skelly is a walking skeleton wearing only a bonnet. - Dreamscape: - Tricky from Madness Combat become a giant dragon-skeleton thing in Expurgation, he also spawn an army of black skeletons who later sports his clown haircut. Tricky himself looks like one of these skeletons mook while in Auditor's hell except he wears the halo and has glowing eyes. - Lewis from Mystery Skulls Animated is a suit wearing skeleton ghost with magenta fire for hair. - The Sock series features a gigantic skeletal hell being that walks on its two arms. In Empire of Sock, we see there are multiple of them. - In True Tail, Eldritch the Necromancer has an army of skeletons that are on green fire! - El Goonish Shive: Grace encounters some skeleton NPCs during the "Fantasy Wasteland" storyline. - Endstone: Grave Robbing rouses one. - Girl Genius: A group of Martellus' knights are stripped to the bone by an attack which animates their remains to be loyal servants to the user. - Helvetica's entire cast is this, although none of them are sure why. - Homestuck: In the Alpha kids' void sessions, the Underlings — normally living fantasy monsters — take the form of animated skeletons that haunt the session's graveyard planets. After they're killed, the bones just reassemble, making them almost impossible to permanently kill. Monster in the Darkness: How did you get them to look exactly like Xykon? Redcloak: I didn't. They're human skeletons, I put a blue robe on them and called it a night. Heck, I had to put those colored pendants on them just to tell them apart. - Our Little Adventure is set in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse and has both regular mindless skeleton minions and the Bone, skeletal undead who retain the minds and skills they had in life. Some of them are extremely unhappy about this. - Talk With Monsters, based on D&D, features a hero that scoffs at having to fight skeletons, maintaining that skeletons are not dangerous—they're what you get when you take a normal guy and remove things. In the dungeon, however, he sees the error of his ways: "Gaah! Super-pointy elbows!" - Unsounded's Duane Adelier is a rare heroic example: a former rector and family man who died six years before the story begins and continues to inhabit his body via unknown means, which he hides with heavy clothing and glamours. His mind and his formidable magical skill are intact but his body decomposes at the normal rate; his tongue and eyes are magical prostheses and he scavenges pieces from cadavers to replace limbs that get too damaged. He strips the meat off those pieces for his own comfort: feeling them rot is really unpleasant for him. - Shows up a few times throughout the course of The Adventure Zone: Balance: - Kravitz's skeletal form, which is supposedly what inspired The Grim Reaper mythos throughout the planar system \|\|which includes our world, as well\|\|. - The Red Robe is a spectral skeleton that stalks the Tres Horny Boys throughout their adventures, from "Petals to the Metal" to "The Suffering Game". \|\|This is actually Barry Bluejeans's lich form, see below.\|\| - All liches have a spectral, skeletal form that appears when they are killed or otherwise removed from their bodies, such as via the Animus Bell. It is also visible in the Ethereal Plane. Edward and Lydia both show theirs off in "The Suffering Game", and \|\|Lup\|\| is in hers when she returns in "Story and Song". \|\|Barry's is shown throughout most of the series as the "Red Robe".\|\| - The skeletal pirates that the Tres Horny Boys, Davenport, and Kravitz, \|\|Barry, and Lup\|\| team up to take down in the San Francisco Live Show. - On the virtual pets game Neopets, the old Pirate Kiko◊ was one of these. - YouTube Pooper Ricesnot specializes in making videos about skeletons, especially the skeleton from the advertisement for the '80s board game "Rattle Me Bones". - SCP Foundation has several skeletons, including the sad and scary case of SCP-3114. It's an animated skeleton and kills and skins any human or humanoid creature it comes into contact with and tries to wear it. When exposed to a simple border collie, 3114 was friendly to the dog and they played together for two hours before the dog was removed without incident. When exposed to an articulated skeleton for medical teaching, 3114 approaches and seems hopeful for a moment and then dejected when it realises the skeleton isn't alive. Finally, when it obtains a cadaver that fits perfectly and attempts to interact with a D-Class prisoner, it reacts with no hostility and even tries to hug him; when the (very disturbed) D-Class is recalled, 3114 stares at the door for a moment and then tears the skin off and kicks it into the corner and then lies down to "sleep" for several days before returning to its old behaviour. 3114 is just a confused and frustrated creature desperate to belong. - The Tumblr Skeleton War. - Skull Trumpet. Doot doot! - In Episode 5 of Jemjammer (aptly titled "Ghost Ship"), The Kestrel encounters a ship crewed by animated skeletons. - The Onion depicts some Stupid Archaeologists believing that they have uncovered a village of skeleton people. - What is a Skeleton's favorite snack? note : Ribs! Spare Ribs! Fuck! AND THEN A SKELETON POPPED OUT!	https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurSkeletonsAreDifferent

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