History VideoGame / TalesOfMajEyal

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Chief Councillor of the Steam Giants isn't directly elected; the voters choose the competition that the candidates will participate in to decide the Chief. Chief Councillor Tantalos was elected by a contest of fisticuffs. His opposing candidate didn't campaign, but one group campaigned for a Tabletop Wargaming platform. This is generally a negative portrayal and a perversion of how the Atmos Tribe's elections were supposed to go.

* HumanSubspecies: The Highers are the purebred descendants of humans who were experimented on by The Conclave during the Age of Allure. They're longer-lived and gifted with great magical potential, but don't advance as quickly as Cornacs and lack their versatility.

* PerceptionFilter: Lore-wise, this is a RequiredSecondaryPower of the [[HumanoidAbomination Writhing One]] class from ''Forbidden Cults'' as a HandWave to explain why plot-critical [=NPCs=] arn't running away from you screaming.

** Madness: The HarderThanHard difficulty level. Basically, it's NintendoHard taken UpToEleven and beyond. Compare Insane to Nightmare and apply the result to Insane. At one point it wasn't even considered beatable. Even today, it's so difficult that even given all the knowledge and resourcefulness of the most veteran players, only ''thirty'' Madness wins (out of over 19000 attempts!) were ever recorded since the introduction of this difficulty in 1.1.0 (as of July 2 2015). And of them at least 11 was with a custum race and/or Class which might not count due to being overpowered.

** Taken UpToEleven if you play with a lot of optional quests. These generate out of level monsters who have either kidnapped a princess or stolen an adventurers sword and you have to hunt down and kill them to proceed to the next level. Warriors and other "physical" classes will find they are unable to even scratch them, but magic using classes will find their attack spells ''are'' effective as spells such as magic missile deal irresistible damage. It's not uncommon for a level one mage to get lucky and get a princess surrounded by powerful but immobile enemies such as blue jellies that are death up close but have no ranged attacks and plinking just one to death with magic missiles can advance them several levels due to way the game handles ExperiencePoints when a monster of a much higher level / out of level for the dungeon is killed. Gaining ten levels from the first group of these is not unheard of.

* TokenAquaticRace: The only known aquatic race are the Nalore, an offshoot of the elves who lived on the coasts, and who were apparently wiped out by the Spellblaze.

* DummiedOut: The Orc Pits, presumably due to how {{Squick}}y TheReveal is.
** And almost immediately recreated as an add-on.

* OneBadMother: [[spoiler: Tragic example in the (now-DummiedOut) Orc Breeding Pit. After the Orc Pride was nearly obliterated at the close of the Age of Pyre, the last remaining orcish medical sciences expert came up with the idea of turning a good chunk of the remaining orcish women into comatose baby generators. Which involved imbuing them with blight-corrupted blood, causing them to generate ''multiple'' generative/sexual organs, and produce and bear young at a frankly ridiculous rate. When the clinician put one of the Orc Mothers out of her coma to check on her mental situation, her sheer agony, from both her [[BodyHorror monstrified form]] and the pain of the new generative organs squashing up all her ''other'' organs, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone brought home the enormity of the act to him]], and he was DrivenToSuicide. The military captain who came to check up on him, sadly, failed to understand what had horrified him--the plan was an astounding success for the Pride, after all. And as for the Mothers' pain...well, [[AndIMustScream a doping infusion should fix that, right?]]]]

* FinalDeath: There is a rare one shot item called the Blood of Life that will bring you back to life -- once -- if you die; and ultra-high level Necromancy can do this, but other than that, once you die, you're dead.

* FinalDeath: Averted in some of the difficulty modes, but those lock out Achievements. Also, unlike most Roguelikes, ''Maj'Eyal'' allows you to immediately restart the game upon death, either as your original character with the same initial stat allocations, or as a new character.

* PhlebotinumRebel: [[spoiler: Doombringers start by breaking away from their brainwashing when they realize they are about to be used to invade their former home. After killing the demons in their way using their dark powers they return to Eeyal to begin adventuring like everyone else.]]

* CastFromHitPoints: Corruptors can use a talent to do this temporarily, while Solipsists invert this: their resource bar also doubles as a second health bar, and they take damage to it based on their Solipsism talent.

* RegeneratingMana: The game has a number of different resources. Stamina and psi points always regenerate on their own, albeit slowly. Mana points, however, only regenerate naturally for certain classes; otherwise, you need to get [[RandomlyDrops lucky with equipment drops]] or rely on the LevelUpFillUp. The other resources don't regenerate; you have to fulfill their particular esoteric requirements to get more of them.

** In many different types - about one for each of the (numerous) power types. Arcane Blades channel regular old magic though their melee attacks, Wyrmics use the power of nature to emulate dragons to things like [[BreathWeapon breath fire/sand/ice/lightning]], Reavers use [[BlackMagic corrupting magic]] to strengthen their own bodies, give people diseases and then hack them apart, Sun Paladins sustain themselves through the power of the Sun, Cursed sap their enemies' will to fight with their [[ThePowerOfHate hate]], Temporal Wardens use [[TimeMaster Chronomancy]] to achieve a high-speed, high-mobility combat style, and Mindslayers use PsychicPowers to enhance their abilities and fight with telekinetically-wielded weapons. ''Ashes of Uhr'Rok'' adds Doombringers and Demonologists, who use various demonic energies to empower themselves. With ''Forbidden Cults'', you get Writhing Ones, who turn their off-hands into CombatTentacles.

''Tales of Maj'Eyal'' is a {{Roguelike}} with a long history, stretching back at least 10 years. Originally titled ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern Pernband]]'', it was a variant of the classic Roguelike ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'' with Pern influences -- although all Pern influences were removed following a Cease and Desist letter in the late 90s. It was then renamed ''Tales of Middle Earth'', the various Tolkien elements refined and perfected, and development continued on it off and on for a decade.

* TheWormThatWalks: A Writhing One ability let's you summon one of these as a traveling companion, complete with his own inventory equipment slots.

* SwordAndFist: The Flexible Combat "prodigy" gives you a free unarmed attack after every strike.

** Writhing Ones ''love'' doing this, devouring and slowly digesting weakened enemies.

* AntimagicalFaction: The Ziguranth oppose the use of arcane forces (though not other sources of power).

** In many different types - about one for each of the (numerous) power types. Arcane Blades channel regular old magic though their melee attacks, Wyrmics use the power of nature to emulate dragons to things like [[BreathWeapon breath fire/sand/ice/lightning]], Reavers use [[BlackMagic corrupting magic]] to strengthen their own bodies, give people diseases and then hack them apart, Sun Paladins sustain themselves through the power of the Sun, Cursed sap their enemies' will to fight with their [[ThePowerOfHate hate]], Temporal Wardens use [[TimeMaster Chronomancy]] to achieve a high-speed, high-mobility combat style, and Mindslayers use PsychicPowers to enhance their abilities and fight with telekinetically-wielded weapons. With ''Forbidden Cults'', you get Writhing Ones, who turn their off-hands into CombatTentacles.

* ShoutOut: The name of the final quest is another [[Series/BabylonFive]] reference. This time it's Deconstruction of Falling Stars.

** Madness: Basically, it's NintendoHard taken UpToEleven and beyond. Compare Insane to Nightmare and apply the result to Insane. It's so difficult that even given all the knowledge and resourcefulness of the most veteran players, only ''thirty'' Madness wins (out of over 19000 attempts!) were ever recorded since the introduction of this difficulty in 1.1.0 (as of July 2 2015). And of them at least 11 was with a custum race and/or Class which might not count due to being overpowered.

* CharacterTiers: The monster tiers. You have Critter, which is basically cannon fodder, Normal, which is your average enemy, Elite, which is fairly dangerous and has similar stats to you, Boss, which is a seriously major enemy you need to be prepared for, and Elite Boss, which is limited to the most powerful, important and dangerous characters in the game. Your PC is Elite, by the way. [invoked]

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Solipism is the idea that only your own mind exists. The solipist class operates under the Dream Argument, the idea that reality is a dream.

However, in 2010 development was restarted after [=DarkGod=] returned, resulting in the 4.x line - a complete rewrite of the game. Moving away from ''Tales of Middle Earth'' to ''Tales Of Maj'Eyal'' to avoid the possibility of a second Cease and Desist letter, as well as making the HighFantasy elements (fireballs and teleportation spells) make more sense, the game is currently going through a development version of WikiMagic.