History Fanfic / TheSecondArchonWar

** Thomas Calvert is mentioned to have gone down during the Nilbog mission, though whether fatally is unconfirmed.

* AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: With a black-ops team of Japanese Vision-holders killing the heck out of Nilbog before he could truly rampage, Piggot finds her opinions on superpowered people noticeably softening and keeps her kidneys fully functional.

** Then her daughter Tsukuyomi widens the gap by publically apoligizing for Japan's war crimes in the Pacific theater as she's in a diplomatic venture in Singapore. Her advisers grimly brace themselves for a tremendous backlash at home, while foreign countries appear quite happy for some acknowledgement of their past distress.

** As the Archon upholding the divine ideal of Freedom, Barbatos doesn't take kindly to the homophobic and racist rhetoric of Gesselhaft. How ''dare'' they forbid people to love whoever they choose, or deny them the right to be themselves?

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Venti is a ditzy bard who preaches love and freedom and enjoys playing music and bar-diving, but when he's well and truly pissed off, he's often compared to an angel -- from the ''Old'' Testament chapters. The ones with the Flood and the Ten Plagues.

** Nikos Vasil, better known as Heartbreaker, decides to enthrall the Endslayer when she's on a diplomatic venture in Canada because he can only focus on her beauty and not her very high threat level. Results: all his victims freed, him catching a nasty case of bullet in the head courtesy of his former plaything having a gun, and the Canadians apologizing to Raiden for the inconvenience.

* DeathByAdaptation: Daniel Hebert sacrifices himself to save Hero from the Siberian.

* EmbarrassingNickname: What Kenta thinks of Raiden naming him "Mushu". Yes, just like Mulan's dragon -- he personally dislikes the movie as gaijin children's entertainment, but Raiden insists the character is brave and faithful and so it's appropriate.

** The Archons as a rule cannot help deeming Parahumans repulsive since they are able to see the Shard latched on their soul and feeding off their sanity, so they will tinker with the Shard to mellow it and lessen the conflict drive.
** The Middle East doesn't care about the distinction between Parahumans and Vision Holders -- anyone manifesting powers will be slapped with the label of demon.
* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: Well, obviously when horrendously powerful people start making claims to divinity and validate their claims with outright miracles, it's going to cause a great deal of waves on the religious level.
** Japan is unsure about Raiden Ei being an avatar of Amaterasu or some other deity, but they nonetheless acknowledge her as the Spirit of their land embodied to protect them in their darkest hour. On the other hand, the Catholic Church swiftly declares her an Antichrist -- she's rather nonplussed by the move, as she's not interested in antagonizing the Vatican.
** The Jewish Naomi Cohen is rather uneasy with the idea of someone else than Yehovah calling themselves divine, so Venti reassuring her that he's not craving worship soothes her anxiety and she ultimately concludes he's ''not'' a god but an angel.

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: The author has noticed Venti and Ei's conspicuous lack of interaction in the canon game. It's alluded when they finally meet face to face, with Venti admitting he never knew how to speak with her.
* GirlfriendFromCanada: Of course, Itul has a girlfriend, you just never met her because she's living in Japan! Cookie is quite flustered when introduced to Sarah, proving that no, Itul wasn't trying to save face.

* HaveYouSeenMyGod: When the Archons naturally inquire about Earth Bet's native deities, people answer they don't exist or are dead. After reading about the Holocaust, Venti concludes the Terran gods likely are asleep or worse, they just ''don't care''.
* HonestAdvisor: Raiden likes having attendants bluntly pointing the flaws in her reasoning, to the point that she promoted Nakamura as a Minister in spite of him sending assassins after her, because he wasn't afraid to tell her how her intended policy would negatively impact Japan.

* TheMagicComesBack: It's unclear if Earth Bet ever had native deities before Scion's landing, but now that the Archons are popping out, it causes Elemental Energy to slowly flood the planet -- barely a few weeks after Raiden's arrival, slimes and mutated flowers are starting to develop. Nahida meets a woman wearing a genuine good luck charm, but due to the context it's unclear if it's a product of elemental energy or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talisman#Islam a scroll of the Qur'an.]]

* PlaceOfPower: An Archon is bonded with their land. The downside to that is a ''major'' loss of strength if they want to leave for another country -- that's the main reason why Raiden Ei builds a BodyDouble to send on diplomatic ventures, as she doesn't want to be vulnerable.

** Nahida's influence will be the lands formerly making UsefulNotes/TheAchaemenidEmpire (said to stretch from the Northern Balkans to Pakistan, will involve Iran, Syria, Lybia and Egypt)

** After Tsukuyomi's public apology to Singapore for Japan's war crimes in the Second World War, several aged officials commit suicide as they cannot bear to deal with their fathers, brothers and other relatives being exposed as criminals. Kenta's wife is also horrified by the prospect of her beloved grandpa being secretly a monster, and because Japan kept everything quiet to save face for so long.
* PowerCrystal: The underwater trench caused by the Musou-no-Hitotachi slaying Leviathan is revealed to be filled with Electro crystals by a scientific vessel. Japan immediately claims mining rights to the new clean power energy source, giving them a major leg on recovering economic prosperity.

* RulingFamilyMassacre: [[spoiler:The ultranationalists launch an attack against the government at the Wisteria Wedding, attended by Ei and her adopted daughter. If Ami survives, the day nonetheless sees the Imperial family slaughtered for being too tolerant of the Shogun's policies -- considering the Yamato dynasty is the longest surviving royal lineage in the world, it showcases the complete fanatism of the ultranationalists as they have no qualms destroying a fundamental pillar of the Japanese cultural identity.]]

* StopWorshippingMe: Venti has no need nor want for servants or devotees, he just craves friends. Now quit bowing your head, won't you?

* UnequalRites: With more and more Vision Holders appearing all over the world, it starts to emerge they are ''not'' Parahumans. As pointed by Bashir, a Vision Holder needs a totem to channel Elemental Energy, while a Parahuman has a parasite Shard latched on their brain and wrecking their sanity for more power.

* PowerMisidentification: Unlike Shards, Visions can appear without their holder suffering a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening, but since Earth-Bet lacks more context their scientists think they're one and the same.

* TheMagicComesBack: It's unclear if Earth Bet ever had native deities before Scion's landing, but now that the Archons are popping out, it causes Elemental Energy to slowly flood the planet -- barely a few weeks after Raiden's arrival, slimes and mutated flowers are starting to develop and Nahida meets a woman wearing a genuine good luck charm.

* TheMagicComesBack: It's unclear if Earth Bet ever had native deities before Scion's landing, but now that the Archons are popping out, it causes Elemental Energy to slowly flood the planet -- barely a few weeks after Raiden's arrival, slimes and mutated flowers are starting to develop and Nahida meets a woman wearing a genuine good luch charm.

* RulingFamilyMassacre: [[spoiler:The ultranationalists launch an attack against the government at the Wisteria Wedding, attended by Ei and her adopted daughter. If Ami survives, the day nonetheless sees the Imperial family slaughtered for being too tolerant of the Shigun's policies -- considering the Yamato dynasty is the longest surviving royal lineage in the world, it showcases the complete fanatism of the ultranationalists as they have no qualms destroying a fundamental pillar of the Japanese cultural identity.]]

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The story can be read on [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14248922/1/The-Second-Archon-War/ ff.net]] and [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/49897021/chapters/125966779/ Ao3]] as well.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Venti is a ditzy bard who preaches love and freedom and enjoys playing music and bar-diving, but when he's well and truly pissed off, he's often compared to an angel -- from the Ancient Testament chapters. The ones with the Flood and the Ten Plagues.

** The Gesselschaft gets constantly kicked down by Venti and his rising Knights of Favonius, with their main training camp exploding, their lab for cap experimentation destroyed, and two of their brainwashed attack dogs thoroughly deprogrammed and joining the new Archon. So they decide the answer isn't to quietly slink off in a corner and admit defeat, it's to assault a gay bar whose owners are friendly with Venti to provoke him. [[BewareTheNiceOnes He was ticked off alright.]]

* DemotedToExtra: ''Worm'' mostly unfolded in the United States, but the current story is unfolding several years before canon and in other countries so there's an extremely different cast.
* DivineDate: Firmly averted by Ei since a god ultimately has too divergent a mindset to make the relationship work very long, and being unable to reproduce. Venti's opinion on the subject is fuzzier, as he seems open to flirting with both genders but the feelings he expresses about MayflyDecemberFriendship hint he won't get beyond casual.

*** Sara Tengen, in a fit of misunderstanding, proceeds to [[GossipEvolution also misinterpret those orders ]] and somehow winds up following Raiden's original mission.
** Venti suspects the Endbringers from being shards of a Dead God wrecking havoc on Earth Bet as revenge for said god's untimely demise. Anyone having read the web novel will know [[spoiler:the Endbringers were brought to life by Eidolon's craving for worthy opponents.]]

** The Middle East doesn't care about the distinction between Parahumans and Vision Holders, anyone manifesting powers will be slapped with the label of demon.

** Japan is unsure about Raiden Ei being an avatar of Amaterasu or some other deity, but they nonetheless acknowledge her as the Spirit of their land embodied to protect them in their greatest hour. On the other hand, the Catholic Church swiftly declares her an Antichrist -- she's rather nonplussed by the move as she's not interested in antagonizing the Vatican.

** On the other side of the debate, Archons as a rule are floored by the very idea of monotheism as they originate from a world in which the existence of multiple gods is a fact of life. Venti casually acknowledges Yahweh as "Israel's god" and seems to consider Jesus as the equivalent for Catholics, while Nahida deems Allah an extremely jealous deity.

* {{Foil}}: Farasha and Bashir become this to the Akademiya's Sages when their reaction to a disoriented, panicked Nahida who's reeling from being in an unfamiliar world is analyzed. The Sages saw their weakened god and locked her away to waste in sheer neglect, Farasha and Bashir saw a lost little girl and acted to protect her.

* GodEmperor: Technically, Raiden is merely the Shogun and acting with the Emperor's agreement but everybody knows she's the true ruler while the Emperor is more of a High Priest.

* HonestAdvisor: Raiden likes having attendants bluntly pointing the flaws in her reasoning, to the point that she promoted Nakamura as a Minister in spite of him sending assassins after her because he wasn't afraid to tell her how her intended policy would negatively impact Japan.

* KindheartedSimpleton: The author and readers often joke that Itul's power run on "unlimited himbo energy", as he will run to fight a Nazi cape in spite of knowing his powers are a very bad match up to hers but cheerfully help a bartender to clean his place and gets merely disappointed instead of angry when his flirting gets nowhere courtesy of IncompatibleOrientation.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: In order to slay Leviathan, Raiden had to cause a worldwide power outage for ten seconds. It caused several millions of deaths from failing machinery and car or airplane crashes, but the American President deems it spared the island of Kyushu and all the other places Leviathan would have targeted in the future so that's an acceptable price to pay.

** Capri and Naomi take Venti to the library for books about the Holocaust to explain him why Nazis are the bad guys. The happy-go-lucky bard is ''reduced to tears'' when he learns just how low this land so similar to Mondstadt sunk.

* PowerCrystals: The underwater trench caused by the Musou-no-Hitotachi slaying Leviathan is revealed to be filled with Electro crystals by a scientific vessel. Japan immediately claims mining rights to the new clean power energy source, giving them a major leg on recovering economic prosperity.

** Ei and Venti's inquiries about Earth's native gods only led them to dead ends, and they concluded these deities were sleeping, uncaring or disappeared for some reason or another. However, Nahida thinks she hears ''crying'' as she's within a mosque.