History Literature / HeWhoFightsWithMonsters

* BagOfHolding: Storage-space powers and BiggerOnTheInside bags are relatively rare and aren't cheap, but most adventurers have either one or the other. Jason's personal storage-space power gets a number of upgrades, including one that turns it into a full-on PocketDimension. [[spoiler: And due to the Transcendent-rank artifacts he stole from The Builder, Jason discovers that he is [[RealityWarper absolutely omnipotent]] within his pocket dimension, up to and including shutting out the all-seeing eyes of the gods and (theoretically) resurrecting the dead.]]

** The Red Table is a blood cult that is really into blood magic summoning. Jason ends up with the Blood essence, which mostly gives him affliction-type powers that make people bleed and lifesteal powers. Combine blood and death essences and you get a vampiric version of the undeath confluence which turns the user into a vampire. Vampires get blood magic "flavored" by the third essence used to create the undeath confluence.

** Jason has the Blood essence, and his powers include [[HealThyself draining life]] from the bodies of his enemies and removing diseases from others.

* BornAsAnAdult: [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Messengers]] are born as fully grown adults with imprinted knowledge, although they still need to go through indoctrination to turn them into [[ANaziByAnyOtherName zealots]]. In book eleven [[spoiler:Jason accidentally creates the first of a new species, who is born with Jason's cultural knowledge]].

** [[spoiler: In the Earth arc Jason gets [[ShooOutTheClowns put through the wringer]] and by the end of it his cheerful personality is increasingly [[StepfordSmiler a mask]] and [[SadClown that mask doesn't fit very well anymore.]]]]

* CameBackStrong: Outworlders are people who died, sometimes as a side-effect of a miscast summoning ritual in another universe, who gain a set of personalized racial abilities. Also they are entirely made of magic, meaning that they don't really need to breathe, don't have internal organs, and generally gain all the passive abilities of higher-rank bodies at far lower levels. By the time an outworlder reaches silver rank they can theoretically survive decapitation (although this would still be horribly damaging to most people).

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Rufus mentions his brother once or twice in the first book, but in later books he's an only child.

* EnemyMine: In book six Jason is trapped in [[spoiler:a transformation zone]] with a bunch of his more powerful enemies. They are forced to work together to save the world.

* GodOfEvil: Every god on Pallimustus has priests and temples, but those of dark gods are actively hunted by other churches and the Adventure Society. They are forced to save up their resources and can only act when the timing is right. Notably Death is one of the good gods, but ''Un''death is the worst of the dark gods, and is [[HatedByAll so hated]] that even [[EvenEvilHasStandards mortal enemies will band together to destroy his priests]]. Other dark gods include Pain,[[DestroyerDeity Destruction]], [[MasterOfDisguise Disguise, and Deception]].

* HouseboatHero: [[spoiler:Jason often keeps his [[SolidClouds cloud house/vehicle]] in the form of a houseboat.]]

** Particularly noticeable is the epic-rank dagger he received as a quest reward for killing the snake. Not only does the dagger come with its own sheath, it comes with a belt to hang the sheath on!

* IronWoobie: [[spoiler: Jason. Book 3 gets him tortured, body and soul using a star seed and then killed fighting [[PhysicalGod the Builder.]] Books 4 through 6 have him reconnect with his family and his old friends, only for them to come face to face with what he has to do to ensure their survival. The ones that survive that long that is. Book 7 gives him some hope of having a normal adventuring career... nope, instead he discovers that Storm Princess Zara used his name to get out of an arranged marriage, entangling him in that political mess. Book 8 leaves him firmly at the center of the political quagmire of the Storm Kingdom, to the point that any three star silver-rank mission in the local adventurer's guild starts with "figure out what Jason Asano is doing". [[BadNewsIrrelevantNews On the plus side, his adventurer's guild rating is three stars by default.]]]]

* NayTheist: Jason has a '''''very''''' low opinion of religion, even though there's absolute proof that gods exist in this new world. It doesn't help that most of the local religions, due to their remote location away from the main churches, tend towards the CorruptChurch. The God of Dominion finds him ''hilarious''.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Messengers are a race of [[WingedHumanoid winged humanoids]] who [[TooImportantToWalk rarely touch the ground with their feet]], and instead [[PowerFloats float around]] using their [[StationaryWings superior auras]]. They are [[BornAsAnAdult born fully grown]] from [[spoiler:[[BornFromPlants birthing trees]] with [[NeuralImplanting full cultural knowledge]], and are immediately sent to [[{{Brainwashed}} indoctrination]] to make them believe that they are the [[MasterRace superior species]] in the cosmos and all others should kneel to them --which keeps most of them from realizing that they themselves are a [[HenchmenRace slave race]] to their kings. If they even think about rebelling, [[RestrainingBolt their king can remotely kill them]]. Some of them have the ability to summon [[AngelicAbomination angelic abominations]] in battle.]]

** Planets with sufficient amounts of magic develop [[AnthropomorphicPersonification gods whom embody concepts]]. The ones associated with mortal things such as [[HealerGod Healer]], or [[WarGod War]], interact with mortals more than ones like [[LordOfTheOcean Ocean]]. They take whatever appearance is most appropriate at the moment, including changing [[SexShifter gender]] or race. They are unable to act outside of their scope or if it would interfere too much with another god's remit, have a limited amount of influence to expend, and "only" live as long as their world.

** Healing magic uses the soul as an blueprint, so ordinary wounds don't leave scars on essence users or people with access to healing magic. Some traumatic or live-changing events will leave marks on the soul though, [[PhysicalScarsPsychologicalScars which manifest as scars]]. After a couple of incidents in book three, Jason ends up [[CoveredWithScars covered in scars]]. Your personal identity can even be one of these marks: [[spoiler: when Taika accidentally becomes an outworlder, he finds that his new body still has his Maori tattoos.]]

** Greater vampires are individuals who volunteered to be turned and had their souls altered by the process. They can get a variety of powers depending on their bloodline, can create lesser vampires, are weakened/harmed and eventually driven insane by magical sunlight [[spoiler:(but the sunlight on Earth is usually too weak to harm them)]]. They also appear to be [[BurnTheUndead weak to fire]] and some BloodMagic.

** In book eight it is revealed that [[spoiler: The fires of purgation are a modified lesser vampiric curse used by an extremist branch of the church of "Purity"(actually the god of Disguise). It modifies the aura of the victim to read as human and makes them fanatically loyal to "Purity", to the point of actively ignoring any evidence that the god they serve is really Disguise. They retain their essence powers, but lose their racial abilities and don't appear to be able to rank up normally.]]

** Half-Transcendent Diamond Rank people like [[spoiler:Dawn]] can blow up cities with a single attack.
* PhysicalReligion: Gods not only exist, they talk to mortals very frequently, often in town squares and places of worship. Priests basically have a hot-line with a direct connection to their god installed in their souls; Arabella, Rufus' mother and priestess of Healer, describes it as Healer's presence always being there in the back of her mind. [[spoiler: Which is why she finds it very disconcerting that Jason's [[TempleOfDoom cloud flask]] and PocketDimension are powerful enough to cut off her connection as long as she is inside.]]

--->'''[[spoiler:[[ImmortalRuler Soramir Rimaros]]:''' What the fuck?]]

** Elspeth Arella, director of the Adventurer's Society in Greenstone, is dedicated to rooting out the corruption in the local branch no matter the cost. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she's been corrupt herself from the start. She merely decided excising corruption was a good platform to rise to power and eventually be promoted somewhere else. When a good deal turns up, she decides to sell a girl to a rapist without a blink]].

** After the recording of Jason going full TerrorHero in a simulation gets around, people tend to greet him with "aren't you that guy with the evil powers?" [[spoiler: This stops during the events of the Earth arc when CerebusSyndrome starts setting in]].

** Clive keeps complaining about how Jason killed Landemere Vane, the best astral magic specialist in the region. Jason keeps retorting that the guy was a ''cannibal'' who was planning to ''eat'' him. [[spoiler: This mostly drops off after it becomes clear that Landemere was plagiarizing information gained from the Builder cult]].

* ServileSnarker: Shade is quite fond of this behavior. His accent inexplicably sounds British, and becomes fascinated by [[TheJeeves the "quiet dignity of duty" associated with butlers]]. He even eventually takes a buttling course [[spoiler: via internet correspondence on Earth]]. [[NoHeroToHisValet Once he gets to know Jason]] he realizes that Jason would be decidedly uncomfortable if Shade didn't occasionally make jokes as his expense due to [[{{Familiar}} the nature of their relationship]].

** [[HumanAliens Outworlders]] are members of any species who have died and had their souls transported to another world, where they reconstitute a new body. Since this doesn't happen very often, they are extremely rare. Their racial gifts are all altered by the transformation, but they always gain the ability to speak and read any language, as well as some kind of guide ability that lets them adapt to their new world. Jason's gives him [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] popup windows with text explanations of his abilities, and the ability to [[UnknownItemIdentification identify enemies and objects]], etc. [[spoiler:When Farrah is resurrected as an Outworlder on Earth she gets the ability to have knowledge directly downloaded into her mind from someone who trusts her]]. They also tend to be [[WeirdnessMagnet weirdness magnets]].
** [[InhumanlyBeautifulRace Celestines]] have [[AnimeHair brightly colored or metallic hair]] with [[TechnicolorEyes matching eyes]]. Their racial gifts are quicker {{Mana}} recovery, affinities for [[UtilityMagic utility]], [[DimensionalTraveler dimensional]] and [[WhiteMagic holy]] magic, and they often gain SuperSpeed. They are born from [[spoiler:either two Outworlders or from their descendants.]]

* StarSpangledSpandex: One of Jason's first skills is Cloak of Shadows, a full-body hooded cloak that he can summon around himself. It appears to be made of the night sky, complete with stars. It can let him fade into shadows, reduce his falling speed, lets him walk on water, and later [[spoiler:allows him to fly]] and disguise his movements.
* SupervillainLair: After claiming one's first territory in a transformation zone, a fortress is created using the claimant's subconsciousness as a guide. In book 11 [[spoiler:in the third transformation zone, Jason's fortress takes the form of a mountain shaped like his head. It has a [[TheWarRoom war room]] with a [[FantasticLightSource lavafall]] on the back wall. His office has nine [[SecretPath secret exits]], there's a LavaPit with cages hanging over it to hold prisoners, an observation room looking out each of his eyes]], and an elaborate SelfDestructMechanism.

* TerrorHero: Jason's affliction spells and shadow teleportation make him perfectly suited to terrorizing his enemies. During a simulation match, he picks off his enemies one by one, strings up their corpses, mocks them loudly, and even throws in an EvilLaugh. He does not appreciate when the recording gets around the city. [[spoiler: In the Earth arc, Jason is confronted by a group the Engineers of Ascension's [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot magical clockwork cyborg superheroes]] and kills the lot of them by turning off their clockwork cybernetics using a soul attack. From the point of view of people watching it on the international television broadcast, the superheroes confront him and then all start bleeding from their eyes and drop dead]].

** [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim Miranda]] from the Global Defense Network is TheFriendNobodyLikes due to her ridiculously toxic personality. The only reason she survives as long as she does is because she has a desk job. And then she goes and joins a group that [[TheMole betrayed the Network]] and had no issues with killing Network personnel. When the traitors [[GravityIsAHarshMistress kill her]] for [[HoistByHerOwnPetard being annoying]] they comment that her [[MoreHateableMinorVillain personality]] is practically a [[KarmicDeath suicide note]] in its own right.]]
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Jason [[spoiler:rejects a [[RestrainingBolt star seed]] and gains powers that allow him to more effectively oppose the Builder from it]].
* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: To Jason, this is the worst kind of person, which makes working with the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Network]] [[spoiler:on Earth]] particularly difficult for him.

* TheWormThatWalks: Colin's upgraded Bronze-rank form is much different than his previous Iron-rank form. Instead of a rolling pile of leeches, he shapes himself into a roughly humanoid shape, complete with a "cloak" of bloody rags.

** Any mention of Outworlders other than Jason, particularly [[spoiler:Farrah since she dies in book one]].
** [[spoiler: Any mention of Earth. Jason dies after sacrificing himself to kill The Builder's mortal vessel, but his soul is sent back to Earth and he is reborn again, complete with absolutely no clothes or hair.]]
** [[spoiler: Noreth (aka Mr. North) the rune spider can't be discussed without talking about secrets regarding Earth's Global Defense Network and the Engineers of Ascension.]]
** [[spoiler: It is impossible to talk about the god of Disguise without revealing that Purity was sanctioned (or turned themselves into a MacGuffin) centuries prior to book one and secretly replaced by Disguise.]]

** Healing magic uses the soul as an blueprint, so ordinary wounds don't leave scars on essence users or people with access to healing magic. Some traumatic or live-changing events will leave marks on the soul though, [[PhysicalScarsPsychologicalScars which manifest as scars]]. After a couple of incidents in book three, Jason ends up [[CoveredWithScars covered in scars]].

It can be read on [[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26294/he-who-fights-with-monsters Royal Road]], [[https://www.patreon.com/Shirtaloon/posts Patreon]], and Amazon Kindle and audiobook.

* BornAsAnAdult: [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Messengers]] are born as fully grown adults with imprinted knowledge, although they still need to go through indoctrination to turn them into [[ANaziByAnyOtherName zealots]].

* DramaticIrony: [[spoiler: Danielle Geller talks about how bringing in the high priest of Purity will ensure that the victims of the Builder cultists are returned to their families intact. The church of Purity is working with the Builder cult and the high priest makes a point of ensuring that Jonah Geller dies in an extremely grotesque way.]]

* EatingOptional: Essence users no longer need to eat, drink, or [[NobodyPoops dispose of waste]]. All they need to survive is a dense enough source of magic (like spirit-coins) and breathable air (and high-rank users like Gold-rankers don't even need that). However, most essence users continue to eat food anyway because spirit coins are utterly tasteless and mildly unpleasant to eat (Jason describes the experience as being similar to licking a 9-volt battery). This comes in useful when [[spoiler:Earth is under rationing.]]
* EmptyQuiver: In book six Jason and [[spoiler:Farrah steal a magically enhanced nuke]] in order to blow up a bunch of vampires.

* GodOfEvil: Every god on Pallimustus has priests and temples, but those of dark gods are actively hunted by other churches and the Adventure Society. They are forced to save up their resources and can only act when the timing is right. Notably Death is one of the good gods, but ''Un''death is one of the worst of the dark gods. Other dark gods include Pain,[[DestroyerDeity Destruction]], [[GodOfChaos Disguise, and Deception]].

* MindControlDevice: Servants of [[OurGodsAreDifferent Great Astral Beings]] are implanted with star seeds that allow the Great Astral Being to impose their will on them, either through temporary direct possession or to give mental directions. They can also be imposed on an unwilling subject by first breaking their will, leaving them as [[MeatPuppet meat puppets]]. Most Great Astral Beings only give them to their highest servants, but the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Builder]] seems to give them out like candy.

** Planets with sufficient amounts of magic develop [[PhysicalReligion gods whom embody concepts]]. The ones associated with mortal things such as [[HealerGod Healer]], or [[WarGod War]], interact with mortals more than ones like [[LordOfTheOcean Ocean]]. They take whatever appearance is most appropriate at the moment, including changing [[SexShifter gender]] or race. They are unable to act outside of their scope or if it would interfere too much with another god's remit, have a limited amount of influence to expend, and "only" live as long as their world.

* PowerHigh: Ranking up is described as a euphoric experience, like the world's strongest adrenaline rush. When Jason absorbed his Essences and ranked up to Iron, he felt like he could run a marathon, up a mountain. And then he came down and started vomiting impurities out of every orifice in his body.

* LockedOutOfTheFight: Most messengers have a dueling power that isolates themselves and a single opponent, either in a PocketDimension or with an impenetrable barrier. The isolation lasts until one of them dies, and if the fight takes too long it kills both of them.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Messengers are a race of [[WingedHumanoid winged humanoids]] who [[TooImportantToWalk rarely touch the ground with their feet]], and instead [[PowerFloats float around]] using their [[StationaryWings superior auras]]. They are [[BornAsAnAdult born fully grown]] from [[spoiler:[[BornFromPlants birthing trees]] with [[NeuralImplanting full cultural knowledge]], and are immediately sent to [[{{Brainwashed}} indoctrination]] to make them believe that they are the [[MasterRace superior species]] in the cosmos and all others should kneel to them--which keeps most of them from realizing that they themselves are a [[HenchmenRace slave race]] to their kings. If they even think about rebelling, [[RestrainingBolt their king can remotely kill them]]. Some of them have the ability to summon [[AngelicAbomination angelic abominations]] in battle.]]

* PrecisionFStrike: Jason rarely swears, and swearwords from other people are usually hidden with NarrativeProfanityFilter. Occasionally no other words will do, however.

** After the recording of Jason going full TerrorHero in a simulation gets around, people tend to greet him with "aren't you that guy with the evil powers?" [[spoiler: This stops during the events of the Earth arc when CerebusSyndrome starts setting in]]

** Clive keeps complaining about how Jason killed Landemere Vane, the best astral magic specialist in the region. Jason keeps retorting that the guy was a ''cannibal'' who was planning to ''eat'' him. [[spoiler: This mostly drops off after it becomes clear that Landemere was plagiarizing information gained from the Builder cult]]

* SupervillainLair: After claiming one's first territory in a transformation zone, a fortress is created using the claimant's subconsciousness as a guide. In book 11 [[spoiler:in the third transformation zone, Jason's fortress takes the form of a mountain shaped like his head. It has a [[TheWarRoom war room]] with a [[FantasticLightSource lavafall]] on the back wall. His office has nine [[SecretPath secret exits]], there's a LavaPit with cages hanging over it to hold prisoners, and an observation room looking out each of his eyes]].

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Jason [[spoiler:rejects a star seed and gains powers that allow him to more effectively oppose the Builder from it]].

* {{SemiDivine}}: The god [[TheHero Hero]] only has one miracle: If someone accepts that they will die in defense of others, he can offer them a drink from the Cup of Heroes, which transforms them into an extremely powerful demigod... for a few hours, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique before it kills them]].

--->'''Asya:''' You're not a comic relief sidekick, Jason. You're a bunny-ears lawyer.

* FluffyTheTerrible: Jason decides to name him new familiar, a shambling pile of sentient blood and leeches, ''Colin''. He lampshades that naming his summoned apocalypse beast something more threatening would just make him look more evil. His third familiar resembles the God's Eye Nebula, and was summoned with the Avatar of Doom skill. Jason names it Gordon.
* FriendlyRivalry: Vitesse and Rimaros have opposing styles of training adventurers. Vitesse favors [[JackOfAllTrades versatility]], encouraging their students to have a wide variety of spells and attacks for almost any situation. Rimaros favors [[MasterOfOneMagic specialization]], aiming to be the best by honing a couple of spells to their absolute limit. Vitesse adventurers sometimes tease Rimaros adventurers for suffering from CripplingOverspecialization, but Rimaros adventurers fire right back by claiming that Vitesse adventurers are a whole crowd of MasterOfNone "do everything, poorly" fighters.

** [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim Miranda]] from the Global Defense Network is TheFriendNobodyLikes due to her ridiculously toxic personality. The only reason she survives as long as she does is because she has a desk job. And then she goes and joins a group that [[TheMole betrayed the Network]] and had no issues with killing Network personnel. When the traitors [[GravityIsAHarshMistress kill her]] for [[KickTheSonOfABitch being annoying]] they comment that her [[MoreHateableMinorVillain personality]] is practically a [[KarmicDeath suicide note]] in its own right.]]

* PowerLevels: Monsters, people, and some magical items a
re ranked normal/lesser, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond (the last semi-mortal rank), Half-Transcendent, and Transcendent.

* PowerLevels: Monsters, people, and some magical items are ranked normal/lesser, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond (the last semi-mortal rank), Half-Transcendent, and Transcendent.

** Greater vampires are individuals who volunteered to be turned and had their souls altered by the process. They can get a variety of powers depending on their bloodline, can create lesser vampires, are weakened/harmed and eventually driven insane by magical sunlight [[spoiler:(but the sunlight on Earth is usually too weak to harm them)]]. They also appear to be [[BurnTheUndead weak to fire]] and some blood magic.

* RealityWarper: Within their [[MentalWorld astral kingdoms]], astral kings can [[spoiler:control every aspect of reality, from reshaping space, to changing how light works, to [[NobodyCanDie turning off death]] or [[ForcedTransformation changing a person's species]]. However, if they do it wrong, the changed person is likely to immediately drop dead upon leaving the astral kingdom]].

* SexMagic: At higher levels, people mostly loose bodily desires, but they still can dual cultivate to mutual benefit.

* SneezeCut: During the battle of Yaresh, Jason sneezes (which shouldn't be possible, since Jason doesn't need to breathe anymore), and correctly guesses that it's because someone was thinking about him. Shade realizes that this is [[spoiler:a manifestation of the special sense that previously produced Jason's quest system]].

** [[InhumanlyBeautifulRace Celestines]] have [[AnimeHair brightly colored or metallic hair]] with [[TechnicolorEyes matching eyes]] and skin ranging from alabaster to dark chocolate. Their racial gifts are quicker {{Mana}} recovery, affinities for [[UtilityMagic utility]], [[DimensionalTraveler dimensional]] and [[WhiteMagic holy]] magic, and they often gain SuperSpeed. They are born from [[spoiler:either two Outworlders or from their descendants.]]

* StarSpangledSpandex: One of Jason's first skills is Cloak of Shadows, a full-body hooded cloak that he can summon around himself. It appears to be made of the night sky, complete with stars. It can let him fade into shadows, reduce his falling speed, lets him walk on water, and later [[spoiler:allows him to fly]].
* SupervillainLair: After claiming one's first territory in a transformation zone, a fortress is created using the claimant's subconsciousness as a guide. [[spoiler:In the third transformation zone, Jason's fortress takes the form of a mountain shaped like his head. It has a [[TheWarRoom war room]] with a [[FantasticLightSource lavafall]] on the back wall. His office has nine [[SecretPath secret exits]], there's a LavaPit with cages hanging over it to hold prisoners, and an observation room looking out each of his eyes]].

* TerrorHero: Jason's affliction spells and shadow teleportation make him perfectly suited to terrorizing his enemies. During a simulation match, he picks off his enemies one by one, strings up their corpses, mocks them loudly, and even throws in an EvilLaugh. He does not appreciate when the recording gets around the city. [[spoiler: In the Earth arc, Jason is confronted by a group the Engineers of Ascension's [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot magical clockwork cyborg superheroes]] and kills the lot of them by turning off their clockwork cybernetics using his aura. From the point of view of people watching it on the international television broadcast, the superheroes confront him and then all start bleeding from their eyes and drop dead]].

* TooDumbToLive: Thadwick. The only reason he continued to survive was because his mother found two of the most competent adventurers in Greenstone to keep his stupidity from killing him. [[spoiler: And then he goes and joins the Builder cult. Later books make a joke about how he managed to screw up being a HumanSacrifice.]]

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[spoiler: Jason rejects a star seed and gains powers that allow him to more effectively oppose the Builder from it.]]

* UncannyVillage: The team is sent to a remote village in book 9 that at first appears fine, until they notice that everyone is moving the exact same way. [[spoiler: the entire town has been killed and infested with [[PuppeteerParasite brain worms.]]]]

** [[spoiler: Any mention of Farrah from the fourth book onwards, given that she was resurrected as an outworlder in that book.]]

** [[spoiler: Dawn of the Cult of the World Phoenix may count as one for similar reasons to Farrah]]

* BornAsAnAdult:
** [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Messengers]] are born as fully grown adults with imprinted knowledge, although they still need to go through indoctrination to turn them into [[ANaziByAnyOtherName zealots]].
** In book 11, Jason accidentally [[spoiler:creates the first member of a new species, his equivalent to Messengers. Of course he's a foulmouthed anthropomorphic rabbit.]]

* EatingOptional: Essence users no longer need to eat, drink, or [[NobodyPoops dispose of waste.]] All they need to survive is a dense enough source of magic (like spirit-coins) and breathable air (and high-rank users like Gold-rankers don't even need that). However, most essence users continue to eat food anyway because spirit coins are utterly tasteless and mildly unpleasant to eat (Jason describes the experience as being similar to licking a 9-volt battery). This comes in useful when [[spoiler:the entire Earth is under rationing.]]

* EnemyMine: In book six he is trapped in [[spoiler:a transformation zone]] with a bunch of his more powerful enemies. They are forced to work together to save the world.

** Shade calls almost everyone by their title and last name (with the exception of a few women whom he likes and/or who have the same last name, though he still uses their titles). When he says Jason instead of Mr. Asano, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness you know things are dire]].

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Swear words are seldom used in the text, both because Jason doesn't normally swear and because the dialog that does contain them isn't spelled out. In book 11, when Jason [[spoiler:accidentally creates the first member of a new species (see BornAsAnAdult), he is extremely foulmouthed, but has all his swearwords bleeped out.]]
* NayTheist: Jason has a '''''very''''' low opinion of religion, even though there's absolute proof that gods exist in this new world. It doesn't help that most of the local religions, due to their remote location away from the main churches, tend towards the CorruptChurch. He repeatedly tells the Goddess of Knowledge to her face that he doesn't think she deserves worship (which she mostly thinks is funny until she manipulates him too much and he cuts off all ties), and the God of Dominion finds him ''hilarious''.

** Planets with sufficient amounts of magic develop [[PhysicalReligion gods whom embody concepts]]. The ones associated with mortal things such as [[HealerGod Healer]], or [[WarGod War]], interact with mortals more than ones like [[LordOfTheOcean Ocean]]. They take whatever appearance is most appropriate, including changing [[SexShifter gender]] or race. They are unable to act outside of their scope or if it would interfere too much with another god's remit, have a limited amount of influence to expend, and "only" live as long as their world.
** Great Astral Beings exist [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds in the deep astral]] and are so vast that they need humanoid vessels to even approach thinking on a mortal scale, but aren't gods and do not have any interest in worship ([[DeityOfHumanOrigin with one exception]]). Most have no gender identity, but may be referred to as she/it or he/it.

** Greater vampires are individuals who volunteered to be turned and had their souls altered by the process. They can get a variety of powers depending on their bloodline, can create lesser vampires, are weakened/harmed and eventually driven insane by magical sunlight [[spoiler:(the sunlight on Earth is usually too weak to harm them)]]. They also appear to be [[BurnTheUndead weak to fire]].

** Lesser vampires are created by greater vampires and some types of monsters (possibly some death essence powers as well). They are basically fast zombies and have whatever powers they used to have suppressed while under the curse. It can be cured if the victim is cleansed before their body is altered too much by the curse.

** [[spoiler: The fires of purgation are a modified lesser vampiric curse used by an extremist branch of the church of "Purity"(actually the god of Disguise). It modifies the aura of the victim to read as human and makes them fanatically loyal to "Purity", to the point of actively ignoring any evidence that the god they serve is really Disguise. They retain their essence powers, but lose their racial abilities.]]

* PhysicalReligion: Gods not only exist, they talk to mortals very frequently, often in town squares and places of worship. Priests basically have a hot-line with a direct connection to their god installed in their souls; Arabella, Rufus' mother and priestess of Healer, describes it as Healer's presence always being there in the back of her mind. [[spoiler: Which is why she finds it very disconcerting that Jason's PocketDimension is powerful enough to cut off her connection as long as she is inside.]]

* PocketDimension: Astral spaces and their variations are small semi-physical regions attached to worlds, often accessible via a portal. These can be as small as a city or as large as a country. Most of the water in the Greenstone region comes from continually open portals to an Astral space that is an island chain in a freshwater ocean.

** Sapient species not native to Pallimustus or Earth include angelic [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Messengers]], [[BeastMan Chihuahua-headed]] Valash, and as of book eleven, [[spoiler:the [[RascallyRabbit Lehenik]]]].

* FunctionalMagic: Most magic comes in two broad categories; essence magic and ritual magic. Essence magic is internal and comes directly from the user, making it powerful and difficult to counter, but it's expensive to get the powers in the first place and improve them. Ritual magic is external, relying on ambient magic, circles of power, and material components. The advantage is that anyone can learn to use it, including non essence-users. People often learn one or two rituals related to their jobs.

* MonsterMash: The Cabal is the faction [[spoiler:on Earth]] representing "old" magic, primarily made up of supernatural beings such as [[CouncilOfVampires vampires]], [[ClassicalCyclops cyclopes]], and [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent werebeasts]].

** [[DimensionLord Astral Kings]] are [[CompleteImmortality completely immortal]] beings that each contain a universe in their soul wherein they are [[TheOmnipotent completely omnipotent]], limited only by their understanding of reality. Outside their kingdoms their power varies.