History VideoGame / Thief

!!!The installments in the series so far:

* AerithAndBob: The character names (and surnames) in the series' universe run the whole gamut. From common-sounding names of European or Asian origin and more rare RealLife historical names to more fantasyish MyNaymeIs variations or outright abstract, figurative or descriptive names.

** Public signs in the [[VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows third game]] also hint at the world of the series using a different script to any real world one, even though all in-game texts and readables are rendered in Latin script, [[TranslationConvention for the player's convenience]].

* BackStab: Mooks tend to react negatively to corpses they find, though. It should be pointed out that this game series does not encourage backstabbing, sometimes to the point of initiating a NonstandardGameOver for killing of any kind, unlike pretty much any other StealthBasedGame. ''Usually'' that's only if you're playing on the highest difficulty setting -- although there are some levels where you auto-fail the mission if you're detected even once, or leave behind ''any'' trace of your having been there. Dead bodies count as traces.
* BadassNormal: Garrett. Gods, monsters, and many far more heavily-armed and better trained soldiers fall prey to his razor-sharp cunning.

** This was a deliberate decision made by the designers in order to encourage players to buy lots of equipment and then go ahead and use it during missions instead of hoarding it for later, or alternatively having such a large stockpile that they never need to fear running out. No justification given, just an attempt to invoke RuleOfFun.

* BeastlyBloodsports: You can eavesdrop on a conversation between two guards discussing bear fighting; one will lament that he remembers fighting bears being more savage when he was younger, and the pit owners didn't need to give the bears paw hooks or razor collars to keep the fights interesting.
* BeastMan: Quite literally - the animal-descended fantasy humanoids in the game's universe are referred to as "beastmen". Most of them are in allegiance with the Pagans and often even live amongst them and serve in the Trickster's army.
* BerserkButton: Though Garrett is the epitome of a cynical and seemingly self-centered DeadpanSnarker AntiHero, he often displays shock and outrage when confronted with violence against innocents or the helpless. Cue TranquilFury.
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Constantine's mansion in the mission "The Sword". The first floor and forward area of the mansion appears normal but the further you go, the more weird it gets.
* BittersweetEnding: These seem to be the standard. But then again, Garrett apparently [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns his happy ending]] at the end of the third installment. [[AndTheAdventureContinues Sort of]].
* BlindedByTheLight: Flashbombs and flashmines available to thieves, though we only see Garrett using them. They're useful for temporarily incapacitating civilians, guards or even certain kinds of monsters/creatures, allowing Garrett enough time to flee and avoid getting caught. However, if you throw them clumsily, you can [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blind yourself as well]], though only very briefly.

** Well, there are the zombies, in all three games. But particularly the first.

* BreakingLecture: The villains of the series, mostly towards Garrett. [[ShutUpHannibal He doesn't give a damn.]] But they usually don't know of his exact location when he's hidden, so [[FilibusterFreefall they just keep on ranting]], hoping to unsettle him... In a rare aversion, the BigBad of the first game managed to briefly "lecture" Garrett face-to-face.

* CentralTheme: Several, but the main overarching theme of all three installments so far was the "fall from grace" motif of the three major factions of the setting. Each installment explores what happens when one particular faction gains too much power or becomes too corrupt or too decadent for their own good and the good of the rest of the world. In each installment, Garrett needs to help defeat the extremist part of a faction or stop the spread of corruption within a faction. This goes hand-in-hand with the [[CharacterDevelopment gradually built-up theme]] of Garrett as a relatively TrueNeutral hero in a world full of opposites and divided loyalties.

** On the score screen of each mission in the first two games, you receive separate bonus points ''[[TapOnTheHead for blackjacking people]] [[RuleOfCool while in mid air]].'' It's actually easier to achieve than it sounds. Just prepare your blackjack for a swing and leap towards your unsuspecting victim from behind.
** The Blackjack inflicts lethal damage, and thus can kill a guard if he's somehow on the last hit point.

* TheCityNarrows: Several of the poorer burroughs and quarters.

* ClingyMacguffin: [[spoiler:Once again, The Eye (especially after it reappears in the third game). Are you seeing a pattern here?]]
* ColorCodedEyes: Garrett. His eyes are naturally gray (befitting a snarky, noir-esque loner) and [[spoiler:his mechanical eye is bright green, which also matches right up with his sneaky, untrustworthy nature, what with him being a professional criminal and all.]]
* CoolOldGuy: Artemus, the Keeper Elder who brought Garrett into the order and served the role of his teacher and father-like figure. Apparently the only Keeper who can still top Garrett in stealth. Overlaps a little with MrExposition in nearly every cutscene or location he appears in.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Garrett has no trouble delving in caves half-filled with lava as long as he remains on solid ground. But should even his little toe actually touch lava, he drops dead instantly.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Garrett. We know nothing of his earliest past or who his parents were. Nor does he. When we first see him, he's already a ten or twelve year old street urchin, and there is no hint whatsoever who he may have been before that.

* CoolButInefficient: The grenade-launching robots seen in the second game can be tricked into destroying themselves by firing their grenades into the wall they are pressed against. Also, they can be disabled by water arrows in the ''open boiler on their back''. This weakness is mentioned within the game; apparently the smith just never got around to fixing it. What's more strange is that those big ugly death machines can be broken easily by StuffBlowingUp (if you have enough), but the annoying "steel cherubs" cannot.
* CoolSword: Subverted with Garrett's standard sword (or, in the third game, his dagger). It's a completely average, not very flashy weapon, though a useful and competent one for certain situations. Played straight a bit more by [[spoiler:Constantine's Sword]], which Garrett acquires (for a time) during the events of the first game. It deals more damage and while it has more dim colours, this is actually an advantage - unlike Garrett's classic sword, it doesn't shine when exposed to light sources. This makes it stealthier when unsheathed, even while hiding in shadows.
* ConspicuouslySelectivePerception: The entire game mechanic is built around {{NPC}}s failing to notice the player character if he is in shadow, while being extraordinarily sensitive to noises he makes himself and oblivious to noises made by machines set in motion by the protagonist. The Keepers, and Garrett, as an ex-Keeper, have quasi-mystical ninja powers, and [[spoiler:the loss of all Glyph magic later]] implies that the stealth powers are non-magical, as well as the fact that young Garrett [[spoiler:(and later, the young girl)]] can see Keepers. Not to mention the fact that Garrett continues to possess his stealth capabilities even while [[spoiler:hiding in the Cradle's Memory (the past) while carrying a Toy.]] The Keepers' ability to hide buildings is magical. The Keeper Tower [[spoiler:was invisible to the city until it lost its glyph protection]].

* ContinuityNod: Lots within the entire series, often with a MythologyGag or two. They're a common part of the series - so much, that the fans were actually pretty annoyed when the third installment didn't reference some major aspects of the second one (i.e. the Mechanists) as much as they were expecting. There are two main nods to ''Thief II'' in ''Deadly Shadows''. First, the viktrolas in the Wieldstrom Museum play recordings of Karras' voice which contain screaming and Karras repeatedly saying "repent." The other is a readable in the Hammer cathedral that, to the annoyance of the player, says that the Master Builder was responsible for [[spoiler:taking down Karras in the last game.]]

* CreateYourOwnHero: In the climax of the first game [[spoiler:Constantine could have simply paid Garrett for the Eye, take someone else's eye to activate it, and proceed with his plan mostly unopposed. His decision to betray and mutilate Garrett spelled his own doom when Garrett turned vengeful on him]]. In the second game [[spoiler:Karras is from the very start after Garrett's hide for some reason (the best guess being, ironically: "Deal with the hero who defeated the Trickster before he has a chance to defeat me too") and what motivates Garrett to eventually find out about Karras's evil plan is the simple will to get him off his back (as he himself says at one point), even though the thing assumes a decisively more personal slant when Viktoria decides to sacrifice herself to try and save the City]].

** The Hammerites are essentially your typical medieval Christian church [[{{Expy}} Expys]], but with a few twists on their mythology: The belief that the Builder (the one god) led humanity out of savagery by the gift of fire and more advanced tools like the first hammer, slightly mirrors the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus. It's also the reason why Hammerite rituals and worship are centered around human work, handicrafts and industry... And a possible explanation for the whole steampunk feel of the world.

** The Mechanists in the second game. Essentially a [[EvilCounterpart much darker]] and [[KnightTemplar even more self-righteous version]] of the Hammers (of whom they are an offshoot). [[CrystalDragonJesus The Mechs are partly based on some of the progressive, yet at the same time dogmatic Calvinist sects of Protestantism]]. Mechanist [[MachineWorship worship of technology]] and the leader figure of the church (Karras) borders the fanatical, and gradually goes off the rails... On the other hand, they seem to be progressive in things like gender equality (owing to their quasi-Protestant nature) and "donate" their technology to a number of major institutions and noble families in exchange for favor, including the Watch [[spoiler:which is all part of the plan]].
* CuteGhostGirl: [[spoiler:Lauryl from the infamously haunted Shalebridge Cradle isn't all that scary once you get to know her in ''Thief: Deadly Shadows''. She's a subversion of sorts, since she appears as a ghostly blob of light with the shadow of a small girl. She's helpful and kindly, showing Garrett various clues about the Cradle's dark past and guiding him out. After both of them leave the Cradle and enter the alleys of Old Quarter, the guards start fleeing in terror at the sight of Lauryl's ghostly appearance. For once, Garrett can take it easy with stealth in the City's streets. [[RuleOfFunny Funny stuff]].]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Garrett, who is known for his cynical, sarcastic view on life among over-serious and righteous people.

** If you never [[spoiler:sell the Kurshok Crown]] in ''Deadly Shadows'', you won't have to [[spoiler:steal it in the final level]]. But they don't make it easy for you: [[spoiler:if you didn't sell the Crown, but head for the fence who buys stolen jewelry after exiting the Museum with all the other loot, you can accidentally sell the Kurshok Crown and break the ending because you cannot buy back the Crown.]] So the seemingly hard way is actually the easier way: [[spoiler:If you do sell the Crown, and have to steal it from the Museum, the Crown becomes a protected item and you will be unable to accidentally sell it, a handy feature in the chaos and confusion at the end of the game.]]
** In some levels, you can steal every key from a guard, have them chase you into a locked room, then quickly leave and close the door. Doing so will ''lock the guards into the room so they can't leave'', giving you free reign over the house. In fact, this is the best way to deal with the [[spoiler:golden baby]] in ''Thief II''.
** In level 5 of ''Thief II'', the intended method of beating the level is to listen in on Karras's conversation and learn where the safety deposit key is located. If you happen to find the key and make the wax mold first and then listen on the conversation, Garrett will say this:
--> '''Garrett:''' I wonder how I knew I was going to need this wax key press?

* DifficultButAwesome: The gameplay of the series in general, particularly if you choose to play all three games in a StealthRun style as much as possible ([[PacifistRun to the extent of not even knocking out enemies even if you would have the opportunity]]). If you beat a tough mission on Expert level without getting caught and stealing all the loot or getting all the needed information/macguffins, you can congratulate yourself - you'll pretty much be ready to handle most stealth games in existence (at least the more flexible ones, without UselessUsefulStealth and FakeDifficulty).
** A more specific version being the bow and arrow. The awesome part is that it's Garrett's most useful and versatile tool. [[NoArcInArchery The difficult part is]] [[AvertedTrope compensating for the drop over long distances]] - and that different types of arrow have different flight paths.

* DoubleCaper: A several layered one in ''The Dark Project'': someone hires Garrett to steal stuff from Constantine. Surprise! Constantine hired Garrett to steal stuff from himself (as a test). Constantine gives you a real mission. Surprise! [[spoiler:Constantine turns out to be the BigBad, and Garrett just stole the ArtifactOfDoom for him. Garrett then performs several more missions to stop Constantine/get revenge.]]
* DroneOfDread: Used commonly throughout all three installments, in certain segments of the ambient/atmospheric music. Particularly in scary missions. Though it is also common in some bits of non-supernatural missions, in order to build tension.

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Viktoria, Lauryl, and Gamall from the original trilogy. Erin from the 2014 reboot. From what little we actually see of him, Garrett may be this as well.

** In ''Deadly Shadows'', Garrett can team-up with these groups despite his history in targeting both of them and [[spoiler:killing the Pagans' god while he was trying to destroy the City they hate]]. Hell, it happens right after he's robbed both of them of some pretty valuable loot. It's possible they've realised he's a dangerous enemy to have.

* ExactWords: Sometimes the mission briefings will give details about the mission away. On Hard mode, the game normally says "Don't kill anyone", but two missions have different goals which tease towards their content: [[spoiler:"Trace the Courier", which says "Don't kill any '''humans'''", has you entering the Maw and running into some of the Chaos Beasts, while "Precious Cargo" says "Don't kill any '''Mechanists'''" because you have to MercyKill one of Viktoria's agents in order to progress.]]

* FamedInStory[=/=]ShroudedInMyth: By the third game, Garrett's name is pretty famous in the city as ''the'' pre-eminent thief, "rarely seen and never caught" -- you can listen in on snippets of gossip (both accurate and exaggerated) about his exploits, and other lower-caliber criminals bragging about being as good as him or out-and-out claiming to ''be'' him to bolster their own reputations.

** In one mission, you can eavesdrop on a "conversation" between a Mechanist and servant. The servant repeatedly asks to be killed, but the Mechanist continues on as if he doesn't hear it.

* GenreBusting[=/=]GenrePopularizer: Game critics had a hard time pigeon-holing the first ''Thief'' into any recognisable genre when it came out in November 1998. It played from a first person perspective, yet wasn't an {{FPS}} ([[AvertedTrope nor did it reward killing]] [[LudicrousGibs everything in sight]]). It featured lots of various puzzles, yet wasn't an AdventureGame. It had vaguely {{RPG}} elements, yet wasn't an {{RPG}} at all. Along with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''Thief'' practically [[TropeMaker defined]] the [[StealthBasedGame stealth game]] genre as we know it today.

* GhostShip: The "Abysmal Gale" from ''Deadly Shadows'', owned and commanded by the wealthy naval merchant Robert Moira. It sailed back into harbour, but the crew didn't come out or attempt any communication with the outside world. Since the ship becomes relevant to the main plot, [[FetchQuest Garrett has to sneak aboard, search for the ship's log and investigate what happened to Moira and his sailors]].

* GoodIsNotNice: Garrett usually acts ignorant or dismissive of the evils threatening his world, but his {{Jerkass}} behavior hides a character with strict personal standards, who dislikes seeing pain inflicted upon those who were already given a bad hand by life.
* GrapplingHookPistol: The (slightly magical) rope arrows in the first and second game are essentially a medieval version of this. They can stick into any wooden or earthy materials and provide new routes to otherwise inaccessible areas. The vine arrows from the second game are a full-blown magic version of the ordinary ones and can also stick into surfaces with metal grating. [[spoiler:Garrett obtains them after teaming up with the Pagans.]]
* GreenThumb: The Pagans, who can manipulate plants and use them to either help allies or harm enemies. [[spoiler:Viktoria]] from the first two games and the Pagan Shamans from the third game in particular use plant-based attacks, [[spoiler:Viktoria]] extending vines to pin or impale enemies and the Shamans firing blasts of natural energy at enemies and using it to speed up allies. The Earth Mages in the first game can also fire a projectile which will entangle Garret in vines if it hits and gradually sap his health until he shakes free.
** The moss arrows create patches of vegetation that muffle any movement you made on them, and in the third game can choke enemies it is fired at, rendering them temporarily helpless. The vine arrows in the second game create a vine down from any surface that it they are fired at which you can use to climb up high areas, unlike the similar rope arrows which can only create ropes down from wooden or grass surfaces.

** Noticeably, the guards fluctuate between absurd incompetence and absurd ''hyper''competence. Douse a torch five feet away from them? They won't suspect a thing. So much as brush past them in a pitch-black room? They'll instantly know it's an intruder and go straight to trying to murder you. They won't notice if every other guard on their patrol mysteriously disappears, or a door is mysteriously open that wasn't 5 minutes ago, but they'll sure as hell notice if you so much as ''breathe'' on a metal surface even if there's 3 other guards noisily clomping all over the metal floor in the same room.

** The Dark Engine (used in TDP and TMA) was first developed for an Arthurian-themed game which never saw the light of day because the swordplay was far too complex, so they gave the complex swordplay to a character who wasn't meant to be good at sword fighting. They made ''Thief'' and the rest is history. ''Thief: Deadly Shadows'' used the [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Unreal Engine]], so they finally replaced the sword.

* HufflepuffHouse: Various readables and some conversations mention the outlying city states of Blackbrook, Bohn and Cyric and The City's relations to them. [[LawOfConservationOfDetail We never get to see them though.]]

* InsecurityCamera: The Mechanist surveillance cameras from ''The Metal Age'' can be shut down easily by finding their fuse boxes and pulling a lever or two. However, if there's one central generator room for all of them, then it's usually well guarded or pretty hard to sneak into. An alternative, much noisier way of disabling the cameras, is to simply blow the cameras up with your fire arrows or by placing an explosive mine under them and triggering it with your broadhead arrows.

* IronicEcho: When Garrett tried to pickpocket Artemus in his youth, Artemus caught him and told him he had talent for being able to see a Keeper, especially when he doesn't want to be seen. [[spoiler:At the end of the third game, when a little girl tries to pickpocket Garrett, he says the same thing and smiles at the memory.]]

* {{Irony}}: Constantine awards Garrett a magic sword for a successful mission - however, players who are experts at the game ''will never use it''. Which is a shame, because it's excellent for clearing out most undead without wasting other resources, especially if you get the drop on them.

** The fire arrow is one of the most damaging weapons in Garret's arsenal, is one of the few weapons that can kill undead (Except fire based enemies, for obvious reasons) and can be used to light torches, but lights Garret up like a Christmas tree when readied and makes a ton of noise on impact with enemies/objects.
** At one instance, in the factory of St. Edgar's Church, a Hammerite Priests kills a bunch of [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies zombies]] in an incinerator room.

* LandOfOneCity: You visit the outskirts, but that's as close as you get to seeing if that City has limits.

* LowFantasy: Definitely. Some omni-present examples of this trope in the series' setting:

** The fight between good and evil is a more internal than physical affair.

* LimitedSoundEffects: Averted big time. Nearly every type of surface imaginable has an expansive and context-sensitive set of sound effects. Listening to your surroundings is even part of the gameplay (you can guess the distance between you and any NPC and also the direction from which the sound is coming). Thief was probably the first game to use the concept of sound FX being more than just a background decoration to its full degree.

* TheMagicGoesAway: In the ''Deadly Shadows'' finale, [[spoiler:Garrett activates the "Final Glyph", which causes all other glyphs to lose their power. This puts an end to Gamall's rampage, as well as exposing the Keepers to the world, and burning a non-magical "key" symbol into the back of Garrett's hand. Loss of the glyphs leaves the fate of the Keepers uncertain. Loss of the Glyphs also seems to indicate that the stealth powers of the Keepers are non-magical, as Garrett retains them and is surprised when a talented young girl is still able to see him, much as he did in the first game with Artemus.]]

* MovingTheGoalposts: Multiple missions in each game have cases of the mission objectives change mid mission. Usually this is justified as some development makes the original objective unattainable (such as being told to meet someone for information, getting to said person, and finding they've been murdered). One case that stands out, however, is in the Thief Gold mission "The Opera House". At first you are trying to find the Water Talisman in the caves under the opera house and also have to get 200 gold worth of loot. You later find out the tablet has already been taken and is being stored somewhere inside the opera house itself, at which point the game ups your quota to 700 gold. While this is probably due to the opera house being likely to have a lot more valuables than a cave it still seems kind of unfair.

** [[spoiler:The "''necrotic mutox''", a.k.a. "rust gas" - a SteamPunk biochemical weapon of mass destruction created by the Mechanists. It wipes out biological matter. Take three guesses on what they wanted to use it for.]]

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Applies to certain characters and factions.

* NoOntologicalInertia: There are several levels in the game which treat completing all the main objectives as an InstantWinCondition. As such, you can set off all the alarms and have five enemies after you, only for the level to abruptly end and Garrett to seemingly have [[DeusExMachina magically escaped.]] In some levels this can be handwaved by the final objective being to get out of the place your stealing from, meaning Garret could have just outrun all the people chasing him offscreen.
* NothingIsScarier[=/=]HellIsThatNoise: Many of the creepiest levels use this to great effect [[spoiler:,the first half of the Cradle mission being a textbook example]]. Granted, there may be some real threat lurking in the shadows or eerie spaces, too. Maybe.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Burricks - wingless reptiles with the size of a pony and the outward appearance of a chubby theropod dinosaur - are apparently the closest thing to a dragon in the Thiefverse. Expectable in such a down-to-earth LowFantasy setting. Burricks aren't actually ferocious (being herbivores), but they can still be dangerous. No, they don't breathe fire - instead, they burp cloud after cloud of some sort of highly concentrated fumes created in their digestive system. The fumes are corrosive and you'll suffocate in them almost immediately. It's implied they have slightly explosive properties -- Garrett makes a snappy remark in the second game about how ''"infiltrating Shoalsgate is like looking down a burrick's throat with a lit match"''. Burricks appear up-close-and-personal in several levels of the first game and in the form of hunting trophies and occasional references in the second and third game.

* PardonMyKlingon[=/=]UnusualEuphemism: Taffer, to taff, taffing taff... The most common and versatile curseword in the series' universe. The various guards are its most prominent users. "Taffin' cripes, I knew I smelt trouble! Where are you, you taffer? Aah, you're taffing me. Who's gonna clean up all this taff?" The word "taffer" seems to be a general term for a criminal, low-life or annoying person. [[ClusterFBomb And some other things.]] Other cursewords uttered by various characters are fairly standard or slightly archaic. A cut piece of dialogue in ''The Dark Project'' alludes to the notion that "taffer" is yet another named for [[IHaveManyNames The Trickster]].
* PerpetualPoverty: Uh, Garrett? Over the course of three games you've stolen thousands and thousands of gold. ''Why'' do you still have trouble paying the rent? Are you throwing it all away between each caper? Ale and whores? Seriously, hire an accountant or something, man.

** His life as an independent thief also costs him, figuratively and literally. Ultimately he can only steal enough on a job to afford to set up the next job, especially since as an independent he gets awful rates from fences and merchants willing to deal with him. He's living heist to heist just like someone living paycheck to paycheck, spending a lot of money on just being able to continue working.
** It's not known how much time elapses between jobs, however, and a few comments Garrett makes during briefings hints that considerable periods pass between jobs. He says at one point that a rather paltry score (as Thief missions go) will give him enough cash to lay low for a while. It's quite possible that he does jobs only every so often, then lives off of his earnings for a while, only setting out for his next job once he burns through his savings.

** While he steals for a living, he also turned to it to get out from under the self-imposed (and self-righteous) restrictions of the nigh-invisible Keepers. Many of his capers are clearly done as ''ars gratia artis''. In one first-game mission Garrett decides that the best revenge against a crimelord's assassination attempt is, instead of killing him, to sneak in and remove every valuable object from said crimelord's house. Granted, you also have the option of doing that ''and'' (depending on difficulty level) killing him. Also subverted in that Garrett's single most frequent recurring complaint is 'I have to do this job because the rent is due'.
** Garrett has robbed from castles, mansions, patrician houses, taverns, shops, museums, city guard stations, abandoned haunted parts of the city, ancient ruins, ''[[EldritchLocation places defying the very laws of physics]]'' [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the office of his landlord]]. Hell, he's even managed to snatch a few trinkets from the heart of the well-guarded and nearly impenetrable Keeper Compound. He's busted out the imprisoned fiancee of his old pal from a heavily guarded manor. He routinely stops by to rob banks and establishments clean, while en route to fullfill a more crucial mission objective.

* RedGreenContrast: The Hammerite's wear red and silver while the (human) Pagans (who are their enemies) wear green and brown.

** The Lost City. Appears in two different versions in the first and second game.
** The Hammerite Cathedral in the first game, within that installment only.
* RenegadeSplinterFaction: The Mechanists became one to the Hammerites.

* RobbingTheDead: Garrett is not above stooping to this if it's necessary. He prefers robbing the living, though, because the undead that tend to inhabit crypts and graveyards are generally a lot more dangerous.

** The second game contains a conversation between a guard and a warehouse worker in the second mission that makes clear reference to the movie ''Film/{{Clerks}}''. The worker is named Dante, and is exhausted due to the fact that his boss unexpectedly went away and left him in charge. During the conversation, the guard drops the line "''bunch of taffers in this city''", echoing the film's repeated "''bunch of savages in this town''".

* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker The Pagans, as well as the various Trickster affiliated monsters capable of speech, all talk in a very strange dialect which involves (among other things) adding -sie to the end of random words, using the "word" "bes" in the place of "be" (pronounced just like "bees"), Fantastic Slurs such as "manfools" for "humans" [[BoomerangBigot (even when the speaker himself is human)]], and removing pronouns from the beginning of sentences while adding an s after the verb (e.g "You build your house" becomes "Builds your house".)
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: The entire plot of the first game is driven by this. What ''idiot'' would possibly think that unsealing the ancient Hammerite Cathedral and freeing the Eye from its confinement would be a good idea, after the Eye ''talks to him in his head'' and visibly manifests its obvious evil on several occasions? For that matter, what idiot would think that Constantine had any intention of actually paying him that ridiculously oversized a fee for delivering the Eye, when he could simply mug Garrett and take it from him? Garrett didn't even get half the money up front. Apparently his streetwise instincts and common sense ''completely'' evaporate if you wave a bag of gold under his nose... which is in character for Garrett, at least.
** This is especially true considering the cathedral is in a part of the City that was walled off. Garrett's tone in describing the abandoned part of the City seemed fairly skeptical of the actual danger. If the Hammerites were comfortable with leaving such an important artifact in a sealed cathedral in a ''sealed'' part of the City, it's fairly safe to assume the Hammers know something Garrett doesn't.
** Constantine did pay Garrett with his magic sword, and kept stroking Garrett's ego while challenging him at the same time.

** In the first two games Garrett can swim, but in the third one he drowns instantly upon contact with nose-deep water. The need for swimming is avoided in the last game.
** In the third game, guards take pratfalls on oil slicks, and it's even more funny when they slip right off a pier in the docks. Thanks to their Super Drowning Skills, it's a useful tactic, too.

* SwissArmyWeapon: Garrett's ([[BoringButPractical perfectly ordinary]]) bow, when combined with the use of various arrow types (including {{trick arrow}}s), is by far the most versatile weapon and tool he has at his disposal.
* TapOnTheHead: With a [[CarryABigStick blackjack]]. Hitting an unaware target with the blackjack will knock him/her out quickly and quietly. (If they're alerted, they cannot be knocked unconscious but can take damage, although the attack is less effective than if they were unaware.) Though even if you use the blackjack (at least in the first game) when a guard finds an "unconscious" person they'll loudly announce that someone's been murdered. The intention might be to render them unconscious but for all you know you are delivering a lethal blow more often than not.

* TitleDrop: Of course the main title gets a lot of use, but the subtitles of each game each get only a single mention.

** Averted by BagOfSpilling in the first two games: Not only can't you keep items you don't use, you can't even keep the extra cash if you don't buy them.

** Many players even have a pointless, yet heartwarming habit of leaving the knocked-out {{NPC}}s on softer surfaces (beds, carpets, sofas), [[PetTheDog as a sort of compensation for the inconvenience of being knocked unconscious]].
** The third game has a specifically scripted instance of this: You find out the place you're robbing is home to a blind, grieving widow. If you fetch her a glass of wine like she asks, don't kill her guests, and DON'T steal the sizeable inheritance her husband left for her, she'll reward your kindness a couple of missions later by sending you an expensive bottle of wine. (If you DO steal her inheritance, she sends a loyal servant to try and kill Garrett.) Unfortunately, the mission's loot requirement on the highest difficulty level is impossible to meet without stealing from her, though the issue can be fixed with a mod.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: On Expert difficulty, killing human civilians and guards is an automatic mission failure. This doesn't apply to animals, monsters, machines, undead or humanoid beasts. One exception is the Servants, [[spoiler:who are people who've been kidnapped, vivisected and turned into cyborgs/living weapons]]. Killing them on Expert difficulty also grants you a mission failure. A notable exception occurs in the [[spoiler:last mission of ''The Metal Age''. The Masked Guards are apparently Mechanists who started questioning Karras' increasingly unstable behavior and methods, earning them a hasty conversion into Servants (as evidenced by the blood on their chestplates). They'll actually [[ICannotSelfTerminate beg you to kill them]] and [[MercyKill thank you if you do]]]].

* WouldHitAGirl: Being an UnscrupulousHero, Garret has no moral qualms about knocking out female [=NPCs=], wether they are guards or civilians.

* ArtEvolution: Many [=FMs=] use custom resources for object, items and textures, making a fan-mission look like a completely different game!

** ''The Dark Mod'', built in the idTech 4 engine also used by ''VideoGame/Doom3'', has been under continuous development since summer 2004 and became a fully standalone freeware game in October 2013. Part of the reason behind its existence was a craving for remaking the first two games in a more modern and more flexible engine, while another motivation was the lack of a more accessible level editor for ''Thief: Deadly Shadows''. Though ''The Dark Mod'' doesn't use any copyrighted terminology from the series, it uses the same general art style, storytelling methods and gameplay approach. It's basically a freeware AdaptationDistillation of the three ''Thief'' games.
* GuideDangIt: Fan missions tend to be harder, with trickier clues, better hidden keys and switches, almost to the point of absurdity, leading to multi-page threads on the official forums asking for assistance.
* KillScreen: The default number of polygons that the first two Thief games can render on screen at any given time is 1024. Any higher than that and you get a "hall of mirrors" effect, and then the game crashes. Several ambitious fan missions skirt carefully close to this number at all times due to level of detail! Some even come with warnings saying "Don't look here or there at this point" to avoid a crash.
* ShoutOut: To many other games, TV shows, movies, and even other mission authors.

* WouldNotShootACivilian: While in the main game this only applies on Hard or Expert, many fan missions make you automatically fail if you kill anyone unarmed by default.

''Not to be confused with the [[http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10086 1981 arcade game]] [[NamesTheSame of the same name]].''

* SelfImposedChallenge: One popular challenge is to complete a mission without not only killing anyone, but not even knocking anyone out and going ''completely'' undetected. This is referred to as "ghosting". There are various other StealthRun and SpeedRun playstyle challenges thought up by the fandom.

* VitriolicBestBuds: [[TheFool "Dumb Guard"]] (a.k.a. Benny) and [[TheSmartGuy "Smart Guard"]] (a.k.a. Hal, Nick or Jored). [[OddCouple As different as night and day]], but [[BuddyCopShow good pals]] and [[TheyFightCrime co-workers]]. A lot of their conversations turn into pure SugarWiki/FunnyMoments.

* CreateYourOwnHero: In the climax of the first game [[spoiler: Constantine could have simply paid Garrett for the Eye, take someone else's eye to activate it, and proceed with his plan mostly unopposed. His decision to betray and mutilate Garrett spelled his own doom when Garrett turned vengeful on him]]. In the second game [[spoiler: Karras is from the very start after Garrett's hide for some reason (the best guess being, ironically: "Deal with the hero who defeated the Trickster before he has a chance to defeat me too") and what motivates Garrett to eventually find out about Karras's evil plan is the simple will to get him off his back (as he himself says at one point), even though the thing assumes a decisively more personal slant when Viktoria decides to sacrifice herself to try and save the City]].

This devotion eventually led to the creation of ''[[http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod]]'', a total conversion for ''VideoGame/Doom3'', turning it into a stealth-based game like ''Thief'' with even more fan-made missions.

[[TheWikiRule The series also has its own]] [[http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Thief:_The_Dark_Wiki Wiki]].

The first three games can be found on GOG and Steam, so you [[AvertedTrope don't]] [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes have to fret about finding physical copies anymore.]]

* TapOnTheHead: With a [[CarryABigStick blackjack]]. Hitting an unaware target with the blackjack will knock him/her out quickly and quietly. (If they're alerted, they cannot be knocked unconscious but can take damage, although the attack is less effective than if they were unaware.) Though even if you use the blackjack (at least in the first game) when a guard finds an "unconscious" person they'll loudly announce that someone's been murdered. The intention * TechnicalPacifist: Garrett, surprisingly enough. He's a thief, not a murderer. In the first two games, the medium difficulty level consistently forbids killing unarmed civilians, while the hardest difficulty does not allow you to kill any humans.

* HannibalLecture: The villains of the series, mostly towards Garrett. [[ShutUpHannibal He doesn't give a damn.]] But they usually don't know of his exact location when he's hidden, so [[FilibusterFreefall they just keep on ranting]], hoping to unsettle him... In a rare aversion, the BigBad of the first game managed to briefly "lecture" Garrett face-to-face.

might be to render them unconscious but for all you know you are delivering a lethal blow more often than not.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: In the games, grass is quiet while marble is noisy. In RealLife, the opposite couldn't be more true. In order to make noise on marble, someone would need to have tap dance shoes, while grass is crunchy no matter what footwear (or lack of) someone has.

* BadassBookworm[=/=]MinoredInAsskicking: The Keepers.

* [[TapOnTheHead Bop On The Bonce]]: With a [[CarryABigStick blackjack]]. Hitting an unaware target with the blackjack will knock him/her out quickly and quietly. (If they're alerted, they cannot be knocked unconscious but can take damage, although the attack is less effective than if they were unaware.) Though even if you use the blackjack (at least in the first game) when a guard finds an "unconscious" person they'll loudly announce that someone's been murdered. The intention might be to render them unconscious but for all you know you are delivering a lethal blow more often than not.

* [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Did You Just Rob Cthulhu]]? He did.
-->'''Garrett:''' I've never robbed a god before. It'll be a challenge.
** Also a more straightforward DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu for the {{BigBad}}s of the first and third game. Garrett being a stealthy bastard, [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu he achieves victory not by brute force, but through cunning and preparation.]]

* [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies Everything's Worse With Zombies]]: One of the few bigger criticisms of the first game was the fact that it had too many levels populated by various undead creatures and monsters. Zombies were chiefly removed from ''The Metal Age'' along with burricks and most other monsters because players preferred to concentrate on, you know, pure thievery. The third game generally took the middle route, with mostly realistic missions interspersed by more supernatural and undead/monster-heavy ones.

* [[IsThisThingOn Is This Functioning?]]: Karras, in one of his more humorous moments, asks this when he records his messages for his party.
* [[ItsProbablyNothing It's Probably Just Rats]]: No, guards. It is a thief about to blackjack you.

* TechnicalPacifist: Garrett, surprisingly enough. He's a thief, not a murderer. In the first two games, the medium difficulty level consistently forbids killing unarmed civilians, while the hardest difficulty does not allow you to kill any humans.

* NatureVersusTechnology: This dichotomy is present in the conflict between the two main religions of the city, the Pagans worship nature, chaos and magic while the [[CrystalDragonJesus Hammerites]] use construction and technology to advance civilization. The {{Big Bad}}s of the first two games have a ContrastingSequelAntagonist relationship with each other from taking these two positions to dangerous extremes. In the first game, [[spoiler:The Trickster, a NatureSpirit the pagans worship as a god]] wants to use a magic ritual to return the city to its natural state, destroying all trace of human civilization, while in the second, [[spoiler:Father Karras]] plans to use a robot army to flood the city with poison gas and wipe out all organic life that doesn't meet his ideals.

** The fire arrow is one of the most damaging weapons in Garret's arsenal, is one of the few weapons that can kill undead (Except Fire Shadows, for obvious reasons) and can be used to light torches, but lights Garret up like a Christmas tree when readied and makes a ton of noise on impact with enemies/objects.

For an overview of the series' [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many characters]] [[FactionCalculus and factions]], go [[Characters/{{Thief}} here]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Though most of them are just a supporting one-shot cast.

* TheAlcoholic: A [[ComplainingAboutComplaining grumpy]], [[TooDumbToLive naive]] and [[PluckyComicRelief overall hilarious]] guard [[FanNickname nicknamed]] Benny (a.k.a. "Dumb guard") in practically ''all'' his incarnations. [[RuleOfFunny Played for laughs.]]

* TheVerse: [[FanNickname Thiefverse]]
* ViceCity: Especially in its criminal underworld and in the households of some more excessive nobles.

-->'''Garrett''': Show me.

* VitriolicBestBuds: [[TheFool "Dumb Guard"]] (a.k.a. Benny) and [[SmartGuy "Smart Guard"]] (a.k.a. Hal, Nick or Jored). [[OddCouple As different as night and day]], but [[BuddyCopShow good pals]] and [[TheyFightCrime co-workers]]. A lot of their conversations turn into pure SugarWiki/FunnyMoments.

* CherryTapping: On the score screen of each mission in the first two games, you receive separate bonus points ''[[TapOnTheHead for blackjacking people]] [[RuleOfCool while in mid air]].'' It's actually easier to achieve than it sounds. Just prepare your blackjack for a swing and leap towards your unsuspecting victim from behind.

** The Mechanists in the second game. Essentially a [[EvilCounterpart much darker]] and [[KnightTemplar even more self-righteous version]] of [[NotSoDifferent the Hammers]] (of whom they are an offshoot). [[CrystalDragonJesus The Mechs are partly based on some of the progressive, yet at the same time dogmatic Calvinist sects of Protestantism]]. Mechanist [[MachineWorship worship of technology]] and the leader figure of the church (Karras) borders the fanatical, and gradually goes off the rails... On the other hand, they seem to be progressive in things like gender equality (owing to their quasi-Protestant nature) and "donate" their technology to a number of major institutions and noble families in exchange for favor, including the Watch [[spoiler:which is all part of the plan]].

* GreyAndGreyMorality: ''Everyone'' in the setting, including the [[OrderVersusChaos forever-locked-in-conflict]] [[NotSoDifferent Hammerites and Pagans]]. Each faction and character have their moments of nobleness and humanity, as well as KickTheDog and WhatTheHellHero ones. The only apparent exception to this trope would be the major villains, and even then, they may simply have [[DrunkWithPower taken their faction's dogma too far]] or have [[WellIntentionedExtremist sympathetic motives buried somewhere deep in the past]].

* CherryTapping: On the score screen of each mission in the first two games, you receive separate bonus points ''[[TapOnTheHead for blackjacking people]] [[CrazyAwesome while in mid air]].'' It's actually easier to achieve than it sounds. Just prepare your blackjack for a swing and leap towards your unsuspecting victim from behind.

** The third game has a specifically scripted instance of this: You find out the place you're robbing is home to a blind, grieving widow. If you fetch her a glass of wine like she asks, don't kill her guests, and DON'T steal the sizeable inheritance her husband left for her, she'll reward your kindness a couple of missions later by sending you an expensive bottle of wine. (If you DO steal her inheritance, she sends a loyal servant to try and kill Garrett.)

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: See VitriolicBestBuds below. There are two guards in every game who change employers often, and for some reason anyone who hires them soon gets a visit from Garrett. And they ''still'' [[GenreBlindness haven't learned not to talk loudly about where the keys are hidden and the secret doors are...]]

* CreateYourOwnHero: In the climax of first game [[spoiler: Constantine could have simply paid Garrett for the Eye, take someone else's eye to activate it, and proceed with his plan mostly unopposed. His decision to betray and mutilate Garrett spelled his own doom when Garrett turned vengeful on him]]. In the second game [[spoiler: Karras is from the very start after Garrett's hide for some reason (the best guess being, ironically: "Deal with the hero who defetead the Trickster before he has a chance to defeat me too") and what motivates Garrett to eventually find out about Karras's evil plan is the simple will to get him off his back (as he himself says at one point), even tho the thing assumes a decisively more personal slant when Viktoria decides to sacrifice herself to try and save the City]].

* ContinuityNod: Lots within the entire series, often with a MythologyGag or two. They're a common part of the series - so much, that the fans were actually pretty annoyed when the third installment didn't reference some major aspects of the second one (i.e. the Mechanists) as much as they were expecting. There are two main nods to ''Thief II'' in ''Deadly Shadows''. First, the viktrolas in the Wieldstrom Museum the play recordings of Karras' voice which contain screaming and Karras repeatedly saying "repent." The other is a readable in the Hammer cathedral that, to the annoyance of the player, says that the Master Builder was responsible for [[spoiler:taking down Karras in the last game.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: GrayAndGreyMorality. Light's just not any ''better''. In a more literal sense, most games condition players to be nervous around very dark rooms and more comfortable in well-lit areas. In this game, it's the opposite: darkness is very ''good'', and light is to avoided whenever possible.

** [[spoiler:Subverted in the case of Gamall. She just wants to live forever. The fact that the Keepers all got an eyeful of her true from, and thus need to be eliminated is ancillary.]]

** Garrett does not want to be a Keeper or to be involved in their plots. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive This doesn't stop The Keepers from seeking Garrett out.]]

** This is especially true considering the cathedral is in a part of the City that was walled off. Garrett's tone in describing the abandoned part of city seemed fairly skeptical of the actual danger. If the Hammerites were comfortable with leaving such an important artifact in a sealed cathedral in a ''sealed'' part of the City, it's fairly safe to assume the Hammers know something Garrett doesn't.

** Garrett loses [[spoiler:Constantine's Sword]] between the first and second games, but this doesn't seem to be an issue since all it did was let you kill undead and his regular sword does that just fine in ''The Metal Age''. Alternately, it ''is'' the same sword, Garrett just stopped calling it by its full name since [[spoiler:it belonged to the guy who ripped his eye out and tried to kill him.]]

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Averted with the undead, as you meet one [[spoiler: Brother Murus]] who is rather nice. Played straight with the Trickster's monsters and Karras's robots.

This devotion eventually led to the creation of ''[[http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod]]'', a total conversion for ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'', turning it into a stealth-based game like ''Thief'' with even more fan-made missions.

** ''The Dark Mod'', built in the idTech 4 engine also used by ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'', has been under continuous development since summer 2004 and became a fully standalone freeware game in October 2013. Part of the reason behind its existence was a craving for remaking the first two games in a more modern and more flexible engine, while another motivation was the lack of a more accessible level editor for ''Thief: Deadly Shadows''. Though ''The Dark Mod'' doesn't use any copyrighted terminology from the series, it uses the same general art style, storytelling methods and gameplay approach. It's basically a freeware AdaptationDistillation of the three ''Thief'' games.