History VideoGame / ChzoMythos

* CloningBlues: [[spoiler: Subverted. One of the Trilby clones runs into some of the other clones, but the existential crisis fails to appear. The Trilby clone even [[LampshadeHanging states that he had already thought of the scenario as one of the more plausible explanations]] of how he could be alive so far into the future]].

* DeathAsAGameMechanic: In ''Trilby's Notes'' [[spoiler:the "die" command, normally just a PressXToDie feature, must be entered during the final scene of gameplay right when a mortally-wounded Trilby is about to be sacrificed in a ritual, which foils the villain's plan because the ritual requires the sacrifice to be alive. The game will also warn you with a "Not yet" if you enter the command too early in the scene, hinting that you must do so later]].

* ControllableHelplessness: In the climax of ''Trilby's Notes'', Trilby is unable to move, only alive by his own resolve, and being used for a summoning ritual. The solution is to [[spoiler:to command "die" in the text parser and deprive the cult of a living sacrifice]].

* DeathAsGameMechanic: In ''Trilby's Notes'', you can kill yourself by typing the command "die". For most of the game, it's nothing more than a particularly stupid way to get a game over. However, there's a specific point in the plot where the villain needs you alive for their plan, so at that point you have to type "die" to foil them and win the game.

* PressXToDie: Something of a brilliant subversion in ''Trilby's Notes''. [[spoiler:At the very end of the game, when Trilby is severely injured and barely holding onto life, you can decide to just stop trying and enter 'Die'. However, this is actually the CORRECT solution (as your life was needed for a sacrifice).]]

%%* MindScrew: ''6 Days''.

* SexIsEvil: In ''6 Days,'' [[spoiler:the two main characters have sex, and Janine is turned into a monster]]. Note that this isn't something Yahtzee actually believes, mind you. He meant to use it as a way to symbolize that both main characters had sunk so low as to embrace their animalistic side in the midst of all this MindScrew.

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The captain override code in ''7 Days'' [[spoiler:is Barry's birthday. At least the game forces the player to do some digging to figure out just what day that is.]]

* CatapultNightmare: The protagonist wakes and suddenly jumps up about three times in ''5 Days a Stranger'', twice in ''7 Days a Skeptic'', and is scripted to happen twice in ''6 Days'', but it also happens if you die -- your death inexplicably becomes a dream, and you just wake up quickly in your bed with a minor [[ScareChord scare note.]]

* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Delia Reneaux, the main character in the second part of Countdown series, is asked to kill her ex-boyfriend, Jason, in order to [[spoiler:suffer the Blessed Agony of the Soul and become a fully accepted member of the Order of Blessed Agonies.]] This literally the first action you're forced to perform in that episode, and [[spoiler:Delia regrets it almost immediately.]]

** [[ReleasedToElsewhere "... and X knew the Name of the King"]].

* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Delia Reneaux, the main character in the second part of Countdown series, is asked to kill her ex-boyfriend, Jason, in order to [[spoiler:suffer the Blessed Agony of the Soul and become a fully accepted member of the Order of Blessed Agonies.]]

* UnwittingPawn: ''Everyone''. Except Chzo, of course.

* PowerFloats: [[spoiler: The New Prince, [=DaCabe=],]] seems to float everywhere, despite the fact that his predecessor did no such thing.

* ActionSurvivor: While Trilby is a straight up action hero in ''5 Days A Stranger'', his return in ''Trilby's Notes'' dials back his skill and his courage to the point that he becomes closer to this trope. Somerset in ''7 Days A Skeptic'' and Theo Dacabe in ''6 Days A Sacrifice'' fit even better, being people with no fighting skills out of their depth against an enemy they know nothing about.

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: At the end of ''6 Days A Sacrifice'', [[spoiler: the hero, Theo Dacabe, is turned into yet another one of Chzo's [[EldritchAbomination weird-ass]] minions.]]

* BittersweetEnding: At the end of the final installment, it eventually turns out that [[spoiler: Chzo actually ''can't'' get into the non-magic universe]], most of the Order of Blessed Agonies is put under police investigation after they nuked the English countryside, the Tall Man is [[spoiler: killed or permanently incapacitated by his replacement]], and John [=DeFoe=] is reduced to a mindless, bodiless soul trapped in an idol in space which we know will float around harmlessly for two centuries and eventually be destroyed for good (albeit after killing a handful more people, but it certainly could have gone a lot worse). ''Most'' of the threats to humanity are thus neutralised. The world survives, and we've seen that the human race is still doing pretty well a couple of centuries on, too. Trilby - the nearest thing the series has to a main hero - is mentioned to have lived long enough to die from old age and been immortalised as a figure of legend after a successful career. [[spoiler:Malcolm Somerset]] eventually escapes his wrongful imprisonment and lives on [[spoiler: as the immortal Caretaker]]. So far as we can tell, Jim and Siobhan from the previous games also lived out their natural lifespans without going insane (even although the last we'd heard from Jim he'd dropped out of school). But literally every other major character in the series gets murdered or worse. [[spoiler: The last surviving Trilby clone]] gets tortured inside Chzo for some time before being put out of his misery. Theo Dacabe gets [[spoiler: blown up and brainwashed into the New Prince]]. And there's still one big threat out there in the form of [[spoiler: the New Prince, who can move between the worlds and wants nothing more that to keep Chzo - a being that lives on the pain of others - alive.]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Happens three times in Chzo Mythos; chronologically, the first is [[spoiler:Cabadath becoming the Prince]], then [[spoiler:John [=DeFoe=], on his death]], and finally [[spoiler:Theo Dacabe becoming the New Prince]].

* GeneticMemory: [[spoiler: the Trilby clones, to a degree. Their memories are only jogged by Cabadath and Samantha's ID card, respectively, and they [[RedShirtArmy clearly]] haven't inherited the [[BadassNormal original's abilities]].]]

** [[spoiler:Actively a plot point in ''6 Days'', as it foreshadows Theo [=DaCabe's=] eventual destiny.]]

* PowerFloats: [[spoiler: The New Prince Theo Dacabe]] seems to float everywhere, despite the fact that his predecessor did no such thing.

* WindowLove: Used oddly in ''6 Days A Sacrifice''. Dacabe does the rare "through an opaque wall" variation, trying to reach Janine. [[spoiler:She's actually ''inside'' the wall, dead.]]

** [[spoiler:in ''5 Days'', Trilby gets possessed and ends up killing a fellow prisoner. There was foreshadowing earlier in the game]].

* SuperStrength - The Tall Man can, among other things, gut people alive with his ''bare hands''.
* TenLittleMurderVictims : The premise of all four games, to a certain extent, but since they have the largest casts ''5 Days A Stranger'' and ''7 Days A Skeptic'' fit it best. In the former, you're locked in a manor; in the latter, you are on a spaceship, which obviously prevents you from leaving it, save adrift in a vacuum.

** ''6 Days'' adds to the above with a Past/Present/Future trio and, specifically, how the two events in ''5 Days'' (Past) and ''7 Days'' (Future) created ripples across the timeline that collide in the Present in which ''6 Days'' takes place. It also expands a little more on the Blessed Agonies and in the Special Edition, Yahtzee suggests that Canning, Samantha and Janine were abandoned alive in order to provide Blessed Agonies to tempt Chzo.

** Also, the series as a whole has three protagonists: Trilby, [[spoiler:Malcolm Somerset]] and Theo [=DaCabe=]. The end of the credits in ''6 Days'' shows three illustrations side by side, one for each of them.

* AFateWorseThanDeath: The name of the game for [[spoiler: Cabadath, Theo, Trilby... At least Trilby eventually gets put out of his misery when the man in the red robe comes by and [[MercyKill kills him]]. Also, it ''probably'' isn't really Trilby, but a clone. Probably.]]

** Also, to the great shock of the player, the very first puzzle of "6 Days" results in [[spoiler:the very gory death of an inexplicably present Trilby.]]