History VideoGame / Unavowed

* EvolvingTitleScreen: The title screen changes as the player progresses through the game, showing all the members of the Unavowed as they either met or recruited. That even includes the first game the is started up, where only Mandana and Eli are visible; the PlayerCharacter first appears once the prologue is completed.
** After completing the game, the title screen reflects [[spoiler: which characters survived your chosen ending.]]

Unfortunately, your old life is in tatters. You have no home, no friends, and are wanted by the police for all the gristly crimes the demon did while wearing your skin. The Unavowed, desperate for support in a time where hostile supernatural actively is sharply on the rise for unknown reasons, and seeing your potential after the up-close look you have had at what lies beyond, decides to recruit you into their organization, putting their trust in you to help turn the tide.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Demons are said to operate on this, causing havoc by dealing with humans. The one that posessed your character however appears to have done so with a purpose, making it a subversion. [[spoiler:Further subverted when it turns out you were playing as the demon (or rather, ''daimon'') the whole time, who didn't exactly approve of the bloodshed, meaning that not all of them are inherently evil. Though whether a knowledge spirit counts as a demon is somewhat unclear.]]
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Mandana's father, Kalash, being a full-blooded Jinn, has blue skin.

* RedSkyTakeWarning: A pink sky which might be just be a stylistic choice to represent the supernatural world. [[spoiler:The sunrise over the city in the ice realm over Wall Street is a hellish red.]]

* UngratefulBastard: Galene was defeated by the Unavowed some centuries in the past, but Kalash decided to spare her life, referring to the fact that Unavowed's mission is ostensibly to pacify supernatural treats, not to act as butchers and exterminators of supernatural creatures, and instead had her agree to a treaty that banished her to the North Woods in Central Park. Galene was, however, not appreciative at all of the mercy she was shown, and while she has been adhering to the treaty, she has been plotting ever since to find a way subvert it and kill Kalash for the her humiliating defeat and subsequent entrapment, and an opportunity would show up in the form of the demon-possessed Player Character... And true to form, [[spoiler:should the Player Character decide to extend the same mercy to her as Kalash did, even in spite of everything she has done, by using his wish to wish for peace rather than the alternatives ([[TakenForGranite transforming her to stone]] or [[KillItWithFire outright burning her to death]]), she will spitefully declare that she will find a new way to subvert the old deal, even if it takes her millennia]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:When Roy Fellows threatens to drop baby Elijah Cook unless the Unavowed promise to
stop pursuing him while he takes the boy to raise as his own son (promises and contracts being very powerful magic among the Fae), Elijah activates his Fire Mage powers and begins immolating a hapless Roy. The Player can then respond to Roy's cries for help by saying that there is a contract not to come into contact with the child]].

* RecessiveSuperGenes: Apparently being a Fire Mage skips one or two generations at a time. [[spoiler:Eli's great-grandfather was [[TheDreaded Aldin]], a Fire Mage so evil that the group which formed to kill him, the Hunters of Aldin, has gone on to dedicate themselves to [[VanHelsingHateCrimes wiping out all Fire Mages]]. Meanwhile, shortly after meeting his grandson for the first time, Eli also discovers that the baby boy is also a Fire Mage, and a prodigy at that, able to burst into flames before he can even walk.]]

** Rosangela Blackwell was an {{Adorkable}}, skinny white woman without much in the way of a physical presence, who was [[SociallyAwkwardHero socially awkward]], worked alone, and had ''very'' limited contact with the other parts of the supernatural community. Logan is a soft-spoken but confident, physically-fit black man who becomes a member of a organisation dealing with all kinds of supernatural activity. And where Rosa helping a ghost to move beyond always resulted in her collapsing to ground, Logan instead calmly sits down in a dignified meditation pose.

* DevelopersForesight: [[spoiler:At the game's start, if you attempt to name your character "Melkhiresa" (AKA the name of the demon supposedly possessing the protagonist), Eli will exclaim "No CHEATING!" and give you another shock, while Mandana will comment on how you are making things deliberately difficult.]]

* BiTheWay:
** During the ending, if Calliope is summoned to help she'll mention she's in line at a concert. And her date is another woman.
** In the Bronx mission, this applies to [[spoiler:Art]] if the PlayerCharacter is male.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Playwright Zack hangs a big lampshade on [[spoiler:the death of the heroine's father in the first act]] in his play. Guess what happens [[spoiler:to Mandana's father Kalash]] in the game?

* BiTheWay: During the ending, if Calliope is summoned to help she'll mention she's in line at a concert. And her date is another woman.

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Par for the course in an adventure game, but stands out because of the number of cues the game takes from Bioware-style [=RPGs=]. [[spoiler:The final confrontation with the BigBad boils down to this, since the Melkhiresa has no combat abilities of their own and the summoner renders all your other teammates unconscious with a spell (assuming they made it to the end).]]

* TokenHuman: Seemingly the PlayerCharacter at first -- the other members of the Unavowed include a BenevolentGenie, his [[HalfHumanHybrid half-human daughter]], a [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] [[WitchSpecies Mage]], and a guy who [[ISeeDeadPeople can talk to the spirits of the departed]]. Eventually, however, having been possessed by a demon has left its mark and the PC is more unusual than it first appears, especially with TheReveal that [[spoiler:you were playing as the demon rather than the possessee the whole time]]. Hotheaded Staten Island cop Vicki actually fits the bill better -- the only supernatural things about her are being void-touched (which just means anyone who's seen through the WeirdnessCensor that protects most mundanes) and, after being recruited, having a veil placed on her gun which lets her fire it without most mundanes paying the noise any mind.

** Eli can sling fireballs, summon forth flames of various sizes, and drain heat from any source. He's also fireproof, can read any text which was ever burned, and is a capable and well-read ritual magician, a long-time native New Yorker with extensive (if somewhat outdated) knowledge of the city, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an accountant with thirty years' experience under his belt]].

* OurGeniesAreDifferent: As Mandana explains, the correct term is "Jinn", not "genie", and she might live in a bottle and have access to certain magic powers, but she doesn't fulfil wishes, [[spoiler:though her father, Kalash, a full-blooded Jinn, can indeed do so]]. Jinns are also unable to tell outright lies and can always sense when people are lying to them.

* NoodleIncident: One subway conversation has Vicki questioning why the New York Unavowed chapter always see to use the subway, as it could be a problem if the supernatural activity was of an urgent nature, like a monster assaulting City Hall, pointing out that a slow response in that hypothetical situation could mean that the mayor might lose an arm or something like that. Both Mandana and Eli are nonplussed at this, responding that it wouldn't be a problem as the mayor could easily grow himself a new arm. Vicki is rather disturbed at the implications of this, and a worried Mandana and Eli realise that they might have said too much and drop the subject.

** [[spoiler:[[MadArtist Stan Bates]]]] is a deconstruction of [[spoiler:the idea of DoingItForTheArt being treated as an unimpeachable defense]], indifferent to the chaos and violence being stirred up in the neighborhood and several grisly deaths inspired by their words.

** [[spoiler:If you agree on the terms of your summoner, the two of you merge. With a newfound power, your summoner keeps their words, not hurting your friends as the two of you resume work on building the pocket dimension.]]

* NonActionGuy: Logan and the Player Character -- any magic the both of you have is more on the ethereal, intangible side of things. As a standard adventure game protagonist, the Player Character is unarmed and has no real combat ability. GameplayAndStorySegregation if you chose the Cop background, though of course when fighting the supernatural, hand-to-hand skills aren't the most useful anyway -- your contribution mostly comes through your wits and connection to the BigBad. Logan is in a similar position -- despite being outwardly the buffest member of the team, his powers as a spirit medium lend themselves more to investigation and talking his way through puzzles rather than fighting monsters.
* NoodleIncident: One subway conversation has Vicki questioning why the New York Unavowed chapter always see to use the subway, as it could be a problem if the supernatural activity was of an urgent nature, like a monster assaulting City Hall, pointing out that a slow response in that hypothetical situation could mean that the mayor might lose an arm or something like that. Both Mandana and Eli are nonplussed at this, responding that it wouldn't be a problem as the mayor could easily grow himself a new arm. Vicki is rather disturbed at the implications of this, and a worried Mandana and Eli realise that they might have said too much and drops the subject.

* MadArtist: Stan Bates and the depowered [[TheMuse Calliope]] aren't (though the latter is a GiftedlyBad poet), but playwright Zack from the Actor's prologue has gone completely off the deep end, and in Brooklyn, artists seem to be succumbing to the "artistic temperament" in droves, to the point where a local beat cop claims they're worse than gangs or drugs. [[spoiler:It turns out that the latter is the result of your demon-self stealing Calliope's powers and giving them to Stan without the latter's knowledge, spreading the creative force across Brooklyn with no regard for whether or not the artists are ready to channel it into anything constructive.]] Stan, for his part, believes that any art is good -- the game sets out to deconstruct this with a sculptor who [[SelfImmolation immolates himself]] in front of Prospect Park bandshell.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: You're forced to kill Kalash halfway through the game.]]

* YouDidntAsk: Actually a limitation in [[spoiler:Melkhiresa]]'s powers. [[spoiler:As a knowledge demon (or rather ''daimon''), it possesses practically limitless knowledge, but it cannot recall any of it of its own volition. It has to be asked a direct question before it can divulge what it knows.]]

* YouDidntAsk: Actually a limitation in [[spoiler:Melkhiresa]]'s powers. [[spoiler:As a knowledge demon (or rather ''dai''mon), it possesses practically limitless knowledge, but it cannot recall any of it of its own volition. It has to be asked a direct question before it can divulge what it knows.]]

* YouDidntAsk: Actually a limitation in [[spoiler:Melkhiresa]]'s powers. [[spoiler:As a knowledge demon, it possesses practically limitless knowledge, but it cannot recall any of it of its own volition. It has to be asked a direct question before it can divulge what it knows.]]

* WhenTreesAttack: Galene, a dryad, can command vines and branches to do her bidding, and form her body out of any plants in her grove, effectively allowing her to teleport. [[spoiler:She wants to cover the whole of Manhattan in trees and fights and very nearly wins a duel with Kalash for [[MakeAWish one of his wishes]] that would allow her to fulfil that goal.]]

* YouDidntAsk: Actually a limitation in [[spoiler:Melkhiresa]]'s powers. [[spoiler:As a knowledge demon, it possesses pratically limitless knowledge, but it cannot share or even recall any of this wast ammount of information by its own volition. It has to be asked a direct question before it can devulge any of it.]]

* SenseFreak: A muse's powers allow them inspire others to create great works of art by simply spending time in their presence, but the muse is also unable to feel any emotions, and therefore rendered unable to appreciate the resulting art, or any art at all -- nor [[CreativeSterility create anything]] oneself. Calliope, after being BroughtDownToNormal, is downright ''amazed'' at being able to respond emotionally to her every sensory input, even the most mundane things, as she hasn't been able to do that in all the three-thousand years of her existence.

* SenseFreak: Being a muse gives you powers that makes you able to inspire others to create great works of art by spending time in their presence, but you also become unable to feel any emotions, and you there rendered unable to appreciate the resulting art, or any art at all, and you cannot create anything yourself. Calliope, after being BroughtDownToNormal, is therefore down right amazed at being able to respond emotionally to her every sensory input, as she haven't been able to do it in centuries since she was made a muse in the first place.

** Dave Gilbert openly admitted that the game, at least in the story structure department, was heavily inspired by Creator/BioWare's modern titles, such ''Franchise/MassEffect'' and ''Franchise/DragonAge''. You similarly choose either a male or female protagonist and then choose their origin story (like in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', it is actually playable). You also have a cast of companions to join you on missions, with you starting out with two, but then you recruit some more and then get to choose which of them join you on your missions, with the different choices resulting in different dialogue and interaction options during said mission; ''Unavowed'' can even be said to take this idea a logical step further, as different companions offer different solutions to some of the puzzles encountered along the way.

* SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: Mandana's mother was one, as seen in the portrait of her in the study where she can be seen in full [[PirateKing pirate queen]] regalia, carrying Mandana as a baby.

** Kalash comes along in Central Park [[spoiler:when either his daughter or Eli are kidnapped by Galene.]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: Mandana is [[OurGeniesAreDifferent half-Jinn]].

* LastSecondEndingChoice: Downplayed. [[spoiler:The ending itself is entirely determined by how the player chooses to handle the final confrontation with the Summoner. Getting the Good or the Best ending triggers a ModularEpilogue where the choices the player made throughout the game is reflected, but getting the Bad or Worst ending instead means that the epilogue is entirely skipped.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: A Jinn's rules of engagement specify the combatants, but not the ones to deal the deathblow. [[spoiler:Kalash ends up [[InvokedTrope exploiting this]] once he realises that his battle against Galene for one of his wishes is hopeless. He quickly shares a written copy of the rules with the Player Character in the hopes that they will figure out the loophole and deal him the killing blow, thereby snatching the victory away from Galene.]]

* MakeAWish: Kalash isn't the kind of genie who grants wishes. [[spoiler:Which [[ExactWords isn't the same as saying he can't]], just that unless circumstances demand it, he won't. Galene the dryad's wish is to return Manhattan to the vast forest of its past; upon defeating her, the Player Character gets a wish of their own, which they can use to either trap Galene, destroy her, or [[TakenForGranite turn her to stone]].]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: Mandana is half-Jinn.