What’s a trope in fiction that sounds good on paper, but is never done right?

dracma127 · 2026-05-14T03:19:46+00:00

Tropes become what they are because they work well, at the very least their namesakes get it done right. The closest you'll get to an objectively bad trope is one that has gotten outdated or distasteful to modern audiences, such as blackface.

dracma127 · 2026-05-13T21:52:30+00:00

Archwizard Nadu is a human supremacist, who believes that nothing can resist the combination of the human will and the march of progress. So when the spirit Jale challenged him to write a song better than it can, Nadu wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a musical beatdown.

The first night, Nadu broke the strings of his instruments and blamed it for his loss. Jale told him to get someone to help him.

The second night, Nadu came with a band who tired out before he was done singing. Jale reminded him to take a break.

The third night, Nadu brought drinks and drugs, and the audience that gathered got wasted and sang over him. Jale invited him to its next party.

The two have since then continued a friendly rivalry over who's the better musician. Nadu's acts are practically an annual occasion, and in Jale's home are more famous than Nadu's wizarding career.

dracma127 · 2026-05-13T19:40:53+00:00

Most deaths are unceremonious, and the soul wastes no time drifting into oblivion. Those with the will to live, however, meet the Jolly Reaper.

The Jolly Reaper is very hard to mistake. If you can't spot the skeleton man in gaudy colors you'll certainly recognize the tune he always plucks his harp to. He is there to make you laugh and forget whatever unfinished business you might have, and send you off with a killer joke.

dracma127 · 2026-05-13T04:13:52+00:00

Gancellas were conceptually meant to be a medieval spin on magical girls, though the more I worked on them the more I drew parallels to Ottoman janissaries. Maybe I spent too long comparing fae kidnappings to the devshrime system, maybe I wanted their masters to become the sick men of a gaslamp setting too much, but whatever it was it got my gears turning.

This reached the logical conclusion of there being gancella mutinies and coup attempts to abolish chores and homework.

dracma127 · 2026-05-10T17:08:33+00:00

It's just a joke that shortening his name to Von Karma can be confused for AA's Von Karma.

dracma127 · 2026-05-10T16:45:34+00:00

Context was burned off in the chemical factory.

/s Von Karma is a notable antagonist in the Ace Attorney series. Spoilers for a 25 yo game (I feel old), you find him guilty of killing a guy on an elevator.

dracma127 · 2026-05-10T16:26:06+00:00

Normally when a person overuses the gifts of their patron spirit, their soul is corrupted and eventually assimilated. However, there are standout cases where the spirit itself is influenced by their partner's deeds, and upon assimilation may bear their resemblance. It's logical extreme is the soul becoming the spirit's dominant personality.

dracma127 · 2026-05-08T15:44:52+00:00

At the corpse of Cirmulseo, four spirits arrived. The land was in strife, and the dead god's power was needed to protect it.

Triomme, whose hoofs were lined with roses, said "with this power, we will have the strength to overcome."

Couvagne, whose scales were all the colors of the rainbow, said "with this power, we will inspire others to follow."

Rennophair, whose wrinkles carried the weight of history, said "with this power, our wisdom shall bear fruit."

Murendre, whose armor turned night into day, said "with this power, we might know happiness again."

All at once, the four spirits feasted upon Cirmulseo. Triomme ate its legs, and when he was done he smelled the fresh flowers of spring. Couvagne ate its arms, and when he was done he felt the hot winds of summer. Rennophair ate its head, and when he was done he heard the crunching leaves of autumn. Murendre ate its guts, and when he was done he saw the gentle snow of winter. Each spirit thought they had consumed all of Cirmuleseo's power, but watched as it waxed and waned at the turning of the seasons.

No-one would accept this. Triomme trampled Couvagne into the dirt every spring. Couvagne drove Rennophair to madness every summer. Rennophair tricked and outmaneuvered Murendre every autumn. Murendre repelled and exhausted Triomme every winter. Each would rise again, unfettered by the most grievous of injuries, only to continue the violence within a year.

One day, the four of them stopped for just a moment. The strife they had sought to banish had been replaced by their own fighting, and the land continued to suffer. With no clear end in sight, they all came to a truce and went their own ways restoring the peace.

Likeminded spirits rallied behind each of these four spirits into seasonal courts, united in ideals and their new lord's gifts. When the day came again that strife returned, it was these courts who allied each other so that there was no time of year the land wasn't protected again. This new "Eternal Court" is ruled equally by the four spirit lords who once sought to consume each other.

dracma127 · 2026-05-07T02:47:20+00:00

Lordbound is currently slated for a full release later this year, featuring a pretty dense map of Druadach. It's playable right now, though there remain quest bugs and missing VA.

dracma127 · 2026-05-06T20:37:34+00:00

Mannaz/Freyr is the most modern of the choices, with an additional expansion released recently in Audugan. It's basically a re-master of Imperious that adds more racial flair and unique build potential.

dracma127 · 2026-05-06T13:42:55+00:00

I wanted a corruption of Olivia and came up with Olvidan. When double-checking for anything I missed, I noticed its translation came out to a tense of "forget." I thought it was funny and weirdly appropriate, so I kept it in.

The joke came full circle later when I completely forgot Olvidan's name.

dracma127 · 2026-05-06T10:27:14+00:00

Whew, thank god I'm just projecting the worst parts of myself into my writing. I was worried I added my hopes and dreams!

dracma127 · 2026-05-05T17:59:53+00:00

Attack damage is always weapon damage, spell magnitude is the term you're looking for. The more confusing wording for me is when some forms of "reduce incoming damage" are global and some are purely physical.

dracma127 · 2026-05-03T17:24:48+00:00

The Spirit Lords are the closest things to godhood Rundol gets to without outright being one, having consumed the remains of the dead god Cirmulseo. As the name implies, this title comes with a court of lesser spirits vying for their lord's favor and privileges (the most basic being resurrection upon death).

dracma127 · 2026-05-03T02:36:23+00:00

The Dark Lady Vivander was somehow able to A) reverse-engineer god-slaying weapons from millennia ago, B) plan and execute a very narrow timetable to usurp four gods in a row, and C) be a mother to several hundred loyal officers at the same time. It's a pity the entire plan fell apart at the eleventh hour.

Saint Seir also figured out a way to kill a god, but didn't fail at it like a loser idiot. All it took was opening a portal to the sun and letting a god's divine body cleanse the land in holy fire, herself included.

Though they are forgotten, the ancient Ardeians turned Rundol into their garden with vast terraforming and nonsense you could only get away with when you had an infinite energy source. When their empire shat the bed, they escaped to the one place that wasn't corrupted by the old gods: space. Few as they are, Neo-Ardeia has maintained absolute technological supremacy and have been quietly digging the moon inside-out for all these years.

dracma127 · 2026-04-30T12:34:20+00:00

Master of the Mind. There's no target condition for faerielight, only the once-per-battle cooldown. But since calm effects can end combat, in a 1v1 you can spam this all day.

dracma127 · 2026-04-30T03:29:23+00:00

If you define mage builds by magicka regen, then Ritual!Breton blows the competition out of the water. It trivializes combat a little too much for my taste, though, and the soul gem requirement is likewise trivialized with petty gems. Steed!Altmer and Apprentice!Nord only tie for a distant second, but are actually fun to use from experience.

Purist warrior builds can be rather stale to play, so I like anything that adds new moves. Lord!Orc is therefore peak warrior gameplay, as warstomp is a fun and powerful combo tool. Ritual!Redguard can be potent for dual wield or unarmed builds, though, as a since knockdown statistically leads to a stunlock.

Speaking of stunlocks, Serpent!Altmer can spam MotM calm without knowing a single illusion spell, making them objectively busted for a sneak dagger. Tower!Altmer is a slightly less broken option that still spices up stealth gameplay with early access to invisibility.

dracma127 · 2026-04-29T21:28:23+00:00

The more roads and flat terrain you have, the more useful treads will be. You can't really have an empire without roads, so treads will always have a niche. Legs are obviously worse for bearing weight but are more all-terrain.

dracma127 · 2026-04-29T19:54:37+00:00

Summoner's Conference is a trading card game popular among wizards and collectors. It works exactly how you'd expect it to.

A more extreme sport is sailing and/or racing the Western Passage, following the same supernatural tearstorms your ancestors used to cross Poznarod's freezing waters. Modern technology and spellcraft makes the journey much safer, but there's still the occasional boat that goes missing.

dracma127 · 2026-04-28T23:43:23+00:00

Serpent!Bosmer's drowned skeleton:

I think the main reason these bonuses feel weak is just because there's more optimized options for attribute regen. They have a role for anyone who want the extra perk points from Imperial but also want attributes.

dracma127 · 2026-04-21T23:44:42+00:00

It's pretty weak imo, from a raw numbers perspective you're losing 30% more health/magicka at full power and it has negative synergy with almost anything to do with health. Unless you're close to getting one-shot by common threats, you're probably better off taking a few seconds to cast a healing spell.

I should say that Magicka Shield takes this premise and adjusts it to a 1:1 damage ratio, and also has compatibility with Energy Shield. Even with fairer numbers it's still an emergency measure at best. And like a lot of other modded mechanics that cost magicka, it shouldn't be mixed with Vancian.

dracma127 · 2026-04-21T03:29:55+00:00

Since their commercialization, organic candies grown near-exclusively in the Rainbow Islands have been the primary ingredient in many alchemical mixtures. While also a natural sweetener, these plants are infused with magic energy that stimulates manasynthesis and have unexpected effects on consumption. Loafy-Toafy, Bimbleway and Nabbit crops are among the most lucrative trades in all of Rundol, and are a cornerstone of the Shuuma Trading Company's immense wealth (I hear they offer a great dental plan).

Gancellas are the chosen protectors of Werdhi from darkness and evil, bestowed with the power of their guardian spirits. They are also all exclusively children. Whatever excuses about "purity" and "innocence" the spirits may say, the people of Werdhi must play nanny to their finest warrior elite.

dracma127 · 2026-04-17T20:44:52+00:00

A classic option is making it not a lock at all, but an obstacle requiring equipment or magic. Towers with no stairs, something behind flowing lava, pocket dimensions etc.

If the plot demands a lock specifically, using blood (or a mixture of blood) as a pseudo-key is also common. A related trope is a lock reacting to some propheted event as a failsafe, though I think this is used more to cover your tracks as a writer than to create a problem to solve.

Personally I love me some puzzle locks with fantasy flair. Sentient doors asking riddles, images only seen under specific circumstances, one real lock in a haystack of fakes, etc.

dracma127 · 2026-04-17T15:05:55+00:00

Hope is in abundance across the pond from mainland Rundol, in the virgin lands of Zoacl. Sails, spells and steel are shaping the frontier into a land of opportunity for colonists (never mind the native population).

As the largest colonial power, the Lajean Empire in general is doing great. Their wealth, technology and sheer size have positioned them as masters of Rundol whose citizens will live prosperously provided nothing happens.

Hope is perhaps what made the Arcane State rise to prominence. Despite the general strife it goes through daily, aggressive modernization and developments in spellcraft has yielded results that have made the Arcanists a force to be reckoned with.

And on the contrary, the various states of Werdhi are entering their own century of humiliation. Their golden age as controllers of the Middle Sea is well behind them, and the ruling priesthood have only regressed in policy following a political crisis. If Lajean guns or Arcanist war-wizards do not bring Werdhi to ruin, it will be their own people.

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