History VideoGame / Sacrifice

* GutturalGrowler: Marduk speaks this way, as does the unique Scythe hero named Gangrel, especially after he is [[FusionDance merged with the demon Astaroth]].

** In the introduction, [[spoiler:Stratos' line "in any halfway-civilized world, I would be its ''only'' god" might at first come across as him [[JustForPun having his head in the clouds]], even by god standards... Then it's revealed that he was the one who summoned Marduk for the purpose of killing all other gods. Whether this plays out well for him or not is up to the player]].

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Naturally, nobody really trusts [[spoiler:Stratos. Both Persephone and James already keeps their suspicions towards him and act naturally when he betrays them. And when he turns towards the bad guys' side or trying to appeal to them, Pyro and Charnel are quick to voice on how much they don't trust him and that he's a liar.]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Both Pyro and Charnel predictably plan on doing this to each other. Charnel betrays Pyro earlier, while Pyro plans to kill off Charnel after he has Stratos slain.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Charnel is very jovial and cheerful for a GodOfEvil, especially compared to the odious and crude Pyro, but he nonetheless delights in wickedness and evil. In a less-evil example, Stratos seems charming and courteous but it soon becomes apparent he has an ItsAllAboutMe attitude.

* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: At the beginning, you are able to perform missions for any deity whenever you choose. As you accomplish these tasks and the plot progresses, you gradually fall out of favor with those you ignore, until the endgame leaves you permanently aligned with one of them and opposed to the four others.

* GutturalGrowler: Marduk speaks this way, as does the unique Scythe hero named Gangrel, especially after he is [[FusionDance merges with the demon Astaroth]].

* PaletteSwap: A lot of them, with nearly as many [[JustifiedTrope justifications.]]

* HealingHands: Persephone also has the best healing spells in the game, with two dedicated healing spells and a healing-only creature.

* TheLegionsOfHell: Charnel's minions are an amalgam of this and TheUndead.They are among some of the freakiest looking creatures in ''Sacrifice''

* LaughablyEvil: Charnel and Pyro.

** For example of the former: the gnome Faestus' name references the Greek god [[UltimateBlacksmith Hephaestus,]] drawing attention to Faestus' firey attacks and inventor nature, as well as [[Myth/{{Faust}} Faust]] which references Faestus making a deal with the[[DealWithTheDevil immoral and infernal Pyro.]]

* CharmPerson: Persephone's ultimate spell. Basically insta-gibbing on steroids; you get a new unit, *and* if it gets killed, its soul is now blue to you instead of its original owner's.

** A mild example, but still: See the big, creepy red-eyes thing on the cover? That's Charnel, not Marduk, and Charnel is not the BigBad or in any way as relevant to the story.

* FantasyPantheon: ''Sacrifice'' has a Pantheon of five gods -- James, Charnel, Stratos, Persephone and Pyro.

* GutturalGrowler: Marduk speaks this way, as does the unique Scythe hero named Gangrel, especially after he is [[FusionDance merged with the demon Astaroth]].

** Pyro's 7th mission.
** Charnel's 5th mission.

%%* ManaMeter
%%* MeaningfulName[=/=]PunnyName: Pretty much everyone with a name is either one or the other.

** There is also a spell called 'dragonfire' for Pyro, whose description hints at more 'traditional' fire-breathing greedy dragons. That variant appears to have gone extinct, however.

* TheStinger[=/=]SequelHook: "This is not over! I will have my revenge!". Sadly, sales of the game kept this from becoming a reality.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Pyro.

** Meanstalks don't do much except throw units in the air for a bit, doing surprisingly little damage and being little more than a glorified distraction.
** Bore is probably the most useful top-tier spell, but still falls under this. It can utterly destroy units but can't be used near manaliths and is relatively easy to avoid due to taking a while for the bore to actually create the hole.

* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Death. Insta-kills a certain number of creatures but won't harm wizards and has no Friend/Foe identification, so if you try to capitalize on the situation and move in (or your opponent runs out of creatures) he might go for your army instead. Mostly he just leads to your opponent having to collect a few souls and teleport away in irritation. Furthermore you can tell when your opponent is casting it, so a good human player will just teleport away and leave the caster footing the bill. He ''is'' good for cleaning up heavily guarded manaliths, but those are rare in multiplayer. And then there is the tactic of repeatedly summoning Manahores (1 mana when even a basic spell costs 300) and collecting their souls as they are killed. Repeat until the kill limit is reached and Death vanishes.
** All 5 top-tier spells have this a bit. Volcano is great against well-guarded manaliths but on the open battlefield your enemy can move out of the way before it erupts and the blast prevents you from taking any souls of creatures that do get killed. Meanstalks don't do much except throw units in the air for a bit. Bore can utterly destroy units but can't be used near manaliths and is relatively easy to avoid. And unless you get lucky and throw a few units of the edge of the map, tornado only delays the units it sucks up for a bit (though you can cast a cloudkill at the same position to do some more damage to the trapped enemies.)

* CigarChomper: Pyro.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Pyro seems to be styled after one.

** A mild example, but still: See the big, creepy red-eyes thing on the cover? That's Charnel, not Marduk, and Charnel is not the BigBad or in any way as relevant to the story. He just looks a lot cooler than Marduk.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Can happen if you stick with one god through all 9 levels. Persephone is probably the biggest offender, since she has creatures that heal fast by themselves AND a creature dedicated to healing others AND 2 additional healing spells... but hardly any offensive spells to speak of, mediocre ranged units, and either slow or fragile melee units. So while your units can survive long, you're not killing many enemies either if your opponent is any good. A level dip to get one of her healing abilities on the other hand is quite useful.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Zig-zagged... but not on Charnel. Pyro's introduction says that a lot of people are ''definitely'' going to label him the 'God of Destruction and Chaos' (and his personality doesn't help), but those aren't entirely true, Pyro actually encompasses some other positive traits than pure destruction and chaos, one of the things he's most proud of is progress. However, his attitude makes him more or less confirming that he's the bad guy.

* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: BigBad Marduk and Astaroth, 'demon lord of Tartarus' and one of Charnel's hero units.

* SurrealSymbolicHeads: Stratos' head is a helium balloon, complete with gas cylinder.

* UnwinnableByMistake: Or at least, not able to get OneHundredPercentCompletion by Mistake: In one of Charnel's missions, it's impossible to collect the boon. The bonus objective is to keep Gangrel alive. Too bad the mission can't be completed until Gangrel is possessed by a demon, turning him into Astaroth, causing the game to decide you no longer have Gangrel. Even should you banish Yogo before the channeling is complete (which is hard but doable), you still do not receive the boon as the condition is that Gangrel must be under the player's control. During the channeling Gangrel is held immobile and can't be controlled by the player.

* FamousLastWords: Nearly everyone has one. Except [[spoiler:the Gods you kill]], for some reason. Possibly justified in that they technically aren't dead, just put out of action for a few generations.