History VideoGame / Exile

** Special encounters are always marked with a dot on the map, even if the event is something that you'd realistically detect, such as an ambush.

* GenderBender: The Dragons appear to change gender from game to game. Only Motrax and Pyrog are male in all three games. Khoth is female in ''Exile I'', but male in the sequels. Sulfras is male in ''Exile I'', but female in the sequels. Athron is clearly male in ''Exile I'', clearly female in ''Exile III'', but referred to using both male and female pronouns in ''Exile II''. It is unclear whether these are simply {{Retcon}}s, or do Dragons have a BizarreAlienBiology that allows them to shift their gender. To make things even more confusing, their genders are shifted again in Avernum, and yet again in the new Avernum series. In fact, the only dragon whose gender is consistent through all the games and the remakes is Motrax.

* GiantSpiders: They're also intelligent, friendly, talking and have cute, high pitched voices.
** In the third game, there are Giant Cockroaches, too. Some of them are also friendly.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: Features a ''lot'', especially for minor vendors. Because of how the game stored NPC conversations, it was a lot easier to have one conversation come up all the time. If a vendor or similar character ''wasn't'' inexplicably identical, it was a good, though by no means infallible, clue that they had special wares and/or plot significance.

*** There's a few other "generic" traders who are also justified in ridiculous and humorous ways in Exile III, such as a fletcher who apparently keeps forgetting everything except his trade, but has an inexplicable gift for "fitting in" wherever he goes. There's also a guy who owns a chain or near-identical shops, and who personally runs one of them every day - hilariously, it will always just happen to be the one you've just entered.

* NonStandardGameOver: Try opening a certain portal in Exile II and "forget" to close it before leaving. [[spoiler: The entire northwestern part of Exile will collapse, killing your party and many, many other people. On the bright side, most Empire troops were stationed in the northwest, which means Exile wins the war... at an enormous cost.]]
** There are a few more: For example, try killing King Micah or Erika.

* CityGuards: Most towns are defended by Guards who will turn hostile if you steal something, damage a non-hostile creature or tresspass in certain areas. They are much more powerful than one would expect, and resistant to most types of attacks, even magical ones. In fact, if a town isn't protected by Guards (for example, if it has the much weaker Soldiers instead) and you reach it in the early or early-mid-game, there is a good chance it will be attacked or turn hostile towards you. This is because Guards are so powerful that a fight involving them early in the game would be a CurpStompBattle.

* DifficultySpike: The Golem plague in ''Exile III''. They are much nastier than anything you faced before, being tough and having powerful magical projectiles that ignore armour. In addition, their lair is one of the nastiest dungeons in the entire series, being a giant maze of conveyor belts.

* GoodBadBugs: Earlier versions of Exile 2 and 3 didn't properly list some weapons or weapon artifacts as "magical" which meant one could augment them further.

* SoloCharacterRun: The maximum party size is six, but slots can be left empty as the player sees fit. (In fact, the [[AllThereInTheManual instructions]] suggest that you try making one "really powerful character" and seeing how far you can get.)

** Slith Mages and Priests use the same graphic.

* CityGuards: And extremely powerful ones to boot.

* DifficultySpike: The Golem plague in Exile III. They are much nastier than anything you faced before, being tough and having powerful magical projectiles that ignore armour. In addition, their lair is one of the nastiest dungeons in the entire series.

* EnemySummoner: Introduced in Exile II. Enemy spellcasters can summon additional creatures to help them.

* FlowerFromTheMountaintop: A quest given by a dryad in Exile III.

* OddlyShapedSword: Waveblades. And they're the most powerful 1-handed swords in the games.

* SealedEvilInACan: Grah-Hoth in ''Exile I''. There are also a few other demons you can release, the vast majority of which will immediately attack you.

* SealedEvilInADuel: In ''Exile I'', you can find what appears to be an ancient battle of human troops fighting demons, apparently frozen in time. If you touch any of the participants, the battle will suddenly come back to life, and the badly outmatched humans will be wiped out almost instantly, leaving you to fight the demons...

* SuicidalOverconfidence: Averted. Monsters can flee unwinnable battles, but they do so only rarely, usually when you hit them with a fear spell.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'', or a completely different ''[[VideoGame/ExileBBCMicro Exile]]'' created in 1988 for the UsefulNotes/BBCMicro, or an ActionRPG ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' which shares the premise of being exiled to the very inhospitable place.

* MageTower: The Tower of Magi.

* MinmaxersDelight: The Ambidextrous trait. It allows DualWielding without penalty. Incredibly powerful and the experience penalty for taking it is mild.

* StockSoundEffects

* PettingZooPeople: The Nephilim, Nepharim (both cat-people) and the Slithzerikai (lizard-people) to name a few.

* MageTower: The [[CaptainObvious Tower of]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Magi]].

* GenderBender: The Dragons appear to change gender from game to game. Only Motrax and Pyrog are male in all three games. Khoth is female in ''Exile I'', but male in the sequels. Sulfras is male in ''Exile I'', but female in the sequels. Athron is clearly male in ''Exile I'', clearly female in ''Exile III'', but referred to using both male and female pronouns in ''Exile II''. It is unclear whether these are simply {{Retcon}}s, or do Dragons have a BizarreAlienBiology that allows them to shift their gender. To make things even more confusing, their genders are shifted again in Avernum, and yet again in the new Avernum series. In fact, the only dragon whose gender is consistent through all the games is Motrax.

* GenderBender: The Dragons appear to change gender from game to game. Only Motrax and Pyrog are male in all three games. Khoth is female in ''Exile I'', but male in the sequels. Sulfras is male in ''Exile I'', but female in the sequels. Athron is clearly male in ''Exile I'', clearly female in ''Exile III'', but referred to using both male and female pronouns in ''Exile II''. It is unclear whether these are simply {{Retcon}}s, or do Dragons have a BizarreAlienBiology that allows them to shift their gender. To make things even more confusing, their genders are shifted again in Avernum, and yet again in the new Avernum series. In fact, the only dragon who's gender is consistent through all the games is Motrax.

* BonusBoss: In the first game, there are six dragons, and one of them has to be killed in order to beat the game. Each of the others tells or gives you something that is also necessary to beat the game. Once they've done that, though, you're free to kill them and take their loot. (Later in the series, [[spoiler:Motrax does die, but it wasn't the player who killed him.]])

* EventFlag: "Stuff Done Flags".

* MoonLogicPuzzle

* PettingZooPeople: The Nephilim, Nepharim and the Slithzerikai to name a few.

* RiverOfInsanity / InevitableWaterfall: ''Exile II'' has a section where your party must cross over a series of underground waterfalls, each one taking away some of your food. Eventually, a really big waterfall will make you lose ''all'' your remaining food, forcing you to scavenge (usually fighting off monsters along the way) or face starvation. It's also worth mentioning that there are no shops or training avaliable along the way, and no way to identify the items you find (and you probably won't have enough space to take everything you find). Oh, and the caverns you pass are full of dangerous monsters...

* WarpWhistle: The Amulet of Returning.

** At one point in ''Exile III'', [[spoiler:you need to drop the name of a GIFT chief to get access to him. As mentioned, they're ''all'' named "Spider". This, depending largely on how fast it took you to twig to it, was either a [[CrowningMomentOfFunny brilliant]] or [[MoonLogicPuzzle horrid]] idea.]]

* AsteroidsMonster: Slimes and Doomguards.
* AutomatonHorses: Only appear in Exile III and Blades. They are utterly invincible and require no food. On the other hand, you can't take them indoors or into dungeons.

* CatFolk: The Nephilim. They're more nimble than humans and good archers, but not as organized, and thus serve as low-level antagonists in the first two games.

* TheEmpire: What the surface world is called.

* FantasticDrug: Skribbane.

* FirstTimeInTheSun: The beginning of ''Exile III''.

** In the third game, there are Giant Cockroaches, too.

* {{Sssssnaketalk}}: The majority of the Slithzerikai.

* SuperDrowningSkills: You can't swim, and if your five steps of hovering run out when you're above water, you drown. (But you can walk on lava!)

* UnSorcerer: The Magically Inept disadvantage.

** In Exile III, you can let the monsters ravage Valorim as much as you want - the game will never become unwinnable (though it will be harder as you lose access to certain quests, shops etc.).

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's mentioned in the first game that the Nephilim were sent down through another portal, but you can't find it in-game, and it's never explained what happened to it by the time Exile II starts. You'd think it would be important, since it's another potential entry point for the Empire.

* BuryYourGays: The Empire considers homosexuals to be "misfits" and sends them to Exile. The nation of Exile, however, is much more tolerant.

* {{Hellfire}}: Quickfire.

* OutrunTheFireball: Quickfire.

* WizardingSchool: The Tower of the Magi.

* TakeYourTime: Very, ''very'' averted in ''Exile III''.

* ThatOneDisadvantage: Pacifist in ''Exile II''. Such a character cannot attack the enemy in any way whatsoever, and can't even cast most spells that would indirectly lead to an enemy being harmed. Even worse when you realize that, since most experience is gained by killing stuff, your character will lag behind despite the massive experience bonus he gets by taking this disadvantage. Still, some players use it as a challenge.
** Also, Sluggish. It wasn't worth much in XP savings, and a game like this requires perfect rationing of action points to succeed. A character with less-than-stellar action points will easily be left behind when everyone else advances on the enemy, and also left to be ganged up on and eaten alive when everyone else is fleeing. Furthermore, the Haste spells (critical in the late game) only multiply action points; someone who can barely move before Haste can still only move a little better after it.