History Fanfic / MonstrousCompendiumOnline

On Opening Day, when Kayaba tells the players they are all trapped, he does not do so gently or even calmly. He does so by unleashing lycanthropic terrors, forcing the players to confront their new reality as their friends are torn apart around them. As the players advance and discover more of Aincrad's story, they find that they can be adopted by the youkai clans, transforming into more powerful monstrous forms. The only problem is, the new bodies come with new sensations and instincts than should be possible. And those youkai adopting the players seem far more intelligent than simple [=AIs=]...

* NoPlaceForMeThere: [[spoiler: A good many of the players who became Youkai in the game feel this way about Earth since the magic left them permanently changed, even allowing them limited access to their power. However, a combination of personal reasons (like Yui for Kirito and Asuna), pressure from the Japanese government to join black ops groups, the public backlash due to the above, and feeling out of place due to the lack of natural magic means many choose to move permanently to the real Aincrad.]]

* NoPlaceForMeThere: [[A good many of the players who became Youkai in the game feel this way about Earth since the magic left them permanently changed, even allowing them limited access to their power. However, a combination of personal reasons (like Yui for Kirito and Asuna), pressure from the Japanese government to join black ops groups, the public backlash due to the above, and feeling out of place due to the lack of natural magic means many choose to move permanently to the real Aincrad.]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: Kayaba is ''much'' worse than in canon, because instead of a human game designer with a bizarre dream for another world, he's an ancient dragon with a very specific goal to fulfill a prophecy. It's noted several times that the only reason the game is technically fair is because it has to be for his plan to work, and [[spoiler:Kirito forces him into the final duel by trapping him with the boss mechanics. Kayaba would have left without a care in the world if he had been capable]].
* BizarreAlienReproduction: Most youkai races can reproduce by use of a "bloodstone," adopting a human into their clan and changing them into a new member of their species. Most of the front-line SAO players end up doing this to gain a boost in their combat prowess, with Kirito being one of the few holdouts. They can also reproduce the traditional way, but many youkai clans have been reduced to the point where that's not an option.

** [[spoiler:The entire SAO deathgame is a curse ritual building up to forcing the players into Eberron to fight for the real Aincrad. It's pointed out that even for an ancient dragon, cursing twenty thousand people takes a ''lot'' of power, which is why the game is fair. Beniryuu had to use every trick to lower the cost of the curse]].
* CurseEscapeClause: Putting an escape clause into a curse makes it significantly easier to cast, and putting in an escape clause that the victim ''knows about'' makes it ten times easier on top of that. [[spoiler:The WinToExit challenge was the escape clause; Kayaba told the players about it, but knew they'd never be able to take advantage because the curse would be completed immediately before the win condition activated]].
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: [[spoiler:Kirito is able to trick Kayaba/Beniryuu, a powerful dragon, into thinking that he'd become a medusa, allowing him to outmaneuver him]].

* LastOfTheirKind: Stheno and Euryale are supposedly the last medusas left, and they only survived because they're both immortal. This is why multiple people are shocked that Stheno doesn't pressure Kirito into accepting a bloodstone. People with the aptitude to be transformed into medusas are rare, and her species ''needs'' them. [[spoiler:Yui is a young medusa refugee from Riedra; no one is sure how she survived. Argo eventually takes a bloodstone]].

** Kirito and Argo are good at these, finding loopholes and exploits in the game rules--and, though they don't realize it, in the rules of real magic. Stheno is shocked at some of the things they manage to pull off. [[spoiler:Eventually she realizes she can give Kirito a quest to send him to his sister through the Astral Plane. He appears in ALO and gives her one of his grafted feathers]].

** [[spoiler:When it comes time to travel to Eberron for real, Kirito's parents first make younger avatars in ALO. When they cross over, anyone who has played ALO gets their ALO avatar, meaning they're suddenly several decades younger. Stheno notes that it's clear where Kirito got it from]].

* SayingTooMuch: Lady Stheno says "we are trapped," which confirms for Kirito that she isn't just an AI.

A crossover between ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vathara/pseuds/Vathara Vathara.]]

* BizarreAlienReproduction: Most youkai races can reproduce by use of a "bloodstone," adopting a human into their clan and changing them into a new member of their species. Most of the front-line SAO players end up doing this to gain a boost in their combat prowess. They can also reproduce the traditional way, but many youkai clans have been reduced to the point where that's not an option.

* TransformationHorror: Many of the still-human players, including Kirito, are very worried about how the transformed players act. It certainly doesn't help that they were first introduced to the concept by the worst examples of the lycanthropic curse.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: In addition to Kirito's canon ZeroPercentApprovalGambit with the whole "Beater" thing, [[spoiler:he becomes mildly famous for appearing in ALO before SAO was cleared. While there, he killed a number of players threatening his sister. Once SAO is cleared, people begin grumbling that maybe he's murdered people for ''real'' before]].

* CurseEscapeClause: Putting an escape clause into a curse makes it significantly easier to cast, and putting in an escape clause that the victim ''knows about'' makes it ten times easier on top of that. [[spoiler:The WinToExit challenge was the escape clause; Kayaba told the players about it, but knew they'd never be able to take advantage because the curse would be completely immediately before the win condition activated]].

* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: Part of the deal the youkai lords made with the ancient dragon Beniryuu was that the kidnapped players would not be in real danger. Beniryuu promised that if they died in the game, they would be returned to their proper world. After the players are trapped, the lords realize that "returned to their proper world" doesn't necessarily mean returned ''alive''. [[spoiler:Tae Mistfeather]], secretly a youkai who managed to get in the game as a player, says her father refuses to tell her one way or another.
-->'''Stheno:''' Dragons lie with truth. And it is lies, all the same. They may be truly dead.