History Webcomic / Erfworld

'''Slately:''' Evacuate? [[ShoutOut In our moment of triumph?]] [[StarWars I think you overestimate their chances]].\\

* IncrediblyLamePun: Yes, there is such a thing as a pun too lame for Erfworld. [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%202/193 "The doll's in your court now!"]]

** Dirtamancers, while considered nothing more than glorified janitors by most Warlords, are ''loved'' in the Magic Kingdom for quick, effortless construction talents. Sizemore intentionally works for [[IncrediblyLamePun dirt]] cheap but is still "filthy rich" among casters. Dirtamancer Digdoug in one of the side stories recalls the previous side he worked for, whose Chief Caster forbade him from entering the Magic Kingdom, and made a point of looking down his nose at Dirtamancy. Digdoug became convinced his discipline was regarded similarly to Croakamancy or Carnymancy, but astute readers will realize the Chief Caster didn't want Digdoug to discover he would be more respected than himself in the Magic Kingdom. According to Dove Barstool, however, Dirtamancers are often viewed as creeps. Probably due to social tensions outside of the Magic Kingdom that isolated them and because they live underground in the Magic Kingdom where no one but Dirtamancers can reach them[[note]]it also may be a factor that a lot of the high ranking Dirtamancers have signamancy tending toward "redneck" stereotypes[[/note]]. She is an UnreliableExpositor, though.

* DyingCurse: One of the powers of Croakamancy. If a unit intends to die fulfilling their goals and actually does so, it generates a form of Fate magic that tries to fulfill said goal. It is heavily implied that Queen Bea managed to leave behind a curse against Gobwin Knob in such a fashion, and outright stated that [[spoiler:Caesar's suicide did the same against Charlie]].

* CosmicRetcon: Retconjuration allows the Titans to do this. [[spoiler:And it turns out that they once did it InUniverse on a massive scale, changing the very nature of Erfworld from a SugarBowl to the CrapsaccharineWorld it is today.]]

* TranslatorMicrobes: English words Parson uses are immediately understood by erfworlders as soon as they hear them, but cultural references are not. Some words are confusing (why would someone have a word for a 365-day period of time?) Some are horrifying, such as concepts like death and rape (which are normal, common, unremarkable, and replaced with euphemisms). Some cause actual physical pain, like profanities that are supposed to be censored by the very fabric of reality. To some natives, these words make Parson seem like an EldritchAbomination from a realm where Erfworld's laws of reality do not apply (which is more or less true).

* {{Treants}}: Gumps are a type of forest-capable unit [[note]]meaning they can move in forest hexes without penalties, and also a pun on Film/ForrestGump[[/note]] used by the Royal Crown Coalition, shaped like giant, humanoid trees. There are also Tannenbaums, which seem to be pine tree-shaped, Christmas-themed Gumps.

** Predictamancers are the only kind of casters ashamed to live in the Magic Kingdom, as they are considered to have failed to prevent their side's fall. Their natural caginess when it comes to talking about their discipline doesn't help much.
** Dirtamancers, while considered nothing more than glorified janitors by most Warlords, are ''loved'' in the Magic Kingdom for quick, effortless construction talents. Sizemore intentionally works for [[IncrediblyLamePun dirt]] cheap but is still filthy rich among casters. Dirtamancer Digdoug in one of the side stories recalls the previous side he worked for, whose Chief Caster forbade him from entering the Magic Kingdom, and made a point of looking down his nose at Dirtamancy. Digdoug became convinced his discipline was regarded similarly to Croakamancy or Carnymancy, but astute readers will realize the Chief Caster didn't want Digdoug to discover he would be more respected than himself in the Magic Kingdom. According to Dove Barstool, however, Dirtamancers are often viewed as creeps. Probably due to social tensions outside of the Magic Kingdom that isolated them and because they live underground in the Magic Kingdom where no one but Dirtamancers can reach them[[note]]it also may be a factor that a lot of the high ranking Dirtamancers have signamancy tending toward "redneck" stereotypes[[/note]]. She is an UnreliableExpositor, though.

''[[https://archives.erfworld.com/ Erfworld]]'' is a {{webcomic}} written by Rob Balder (of ''[[http://www.partiallyclips.com/ Partially Clips]]'', and [[http://www.thefump.com/ The FuMP]]), with the first book ''The Battle for Gobwin Knob'' illustrated by Jamie Noguchi (of ''[[http://www.angryzenmaster.com/ Angry Zen Master]]'' and ''WebComic/YellowPeril''), and the second book, ''Love is a Battlefield'', illustrated by Xin Ye. The third book, ''Hamsterdance vs. the Charlie Foxtrot'', is being illustrated by David Hahn. As of October 2015, David Hahn has departed and the third book is now illustrated by Xin Ye once more, with Lauri Ahonen doing inking and colors.

As of October 12, 2019, [[https://www.erfworld.com/ the comic has been cancelled]] due to [[CreatorBreakdown a series of tragedies in the author's life]] over the last year and a half of its run. Archives are still available online. One of these archives is avalable [[https://archive.org/details/Erfworld here]]

* ComboPlatterPowers: The Arkenhammer (see DropTheHammer below).

* DeathGlare: [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%202/136 Don King's expression]] at his Warlords' rebellion against him is ''scary''. Not helped by the [[spoiler:fact Don may have tried to have gotten Caesar killed already.]]

* The end of Book 4, including its epilogue, is more or less back-to-back WHAMS! [[spoiler:Wanda is croaked, Caesar commits suicide and [=HueHue=] crosses all lines to make Skyy the new ruler of Transylvito]], and we've still barely ''begun...''

** In-universe, Don King is negotiating with a Ruler of an enemy side for a prisoner ransom. Silently observing, Caesar spends the entire conversation mentally admiring how skilled Don is at negotiations and how easily he's manipulating his opposite number. Finally, it comes time to issue their demand, a ransom of ''two million'' Schmuckers, which is, to Don and Caesar's knowledge, the full extent of [[spoiler:Gobwin Knob's]] treasury. The response?

** Prince Ossomer [[{{Superman}} just needs an "S" on his chest instead of the radish]].

%%* FiveManBand: They may disagree on the "bad" part, but Lord Stanley's best vassals seem to fit the trope fairly well.

* AggressiveNegotiations: One of Parson's favorite tactics is "attack during negotiations". In the more diplomacy-based Book 3 his reputation for it [[RealityEnsues bites his side in the ass hard.]]

* RealityEnsues: After all the dirty underhanded tricks Parson pulled in the first two books the other sides are extremely reluctant to negotiate with Gobwin Knob, considering them dishonorable and untrustworthy[[note]] the most relevant being that both of his major victories revolved around attacking during parley[[/note]]. It doesn't help that they're right. Parson seriously considered having Ansom assassinate Tremmannis during their negotiations, and was only was dissuaded when he realized that he'd probably only get a Dittomancy clone.
** Parson spends a good deal of the first and second books simply learning more about how Erfworld works, because not only does none of it make sense to him, he's very aware that he needs to know as much as he can to have any chance of success.
** At the beginning of the comic, Sizemore is relatively happy- sure, his side sucks and his Ruler doesn't care about him, but he hasn't been directly involved in the war and everyone in the Magic Kingdom likes him. As the comic rolls on, Sizemore becomes more and more unhappy- his side is now one of the most strong and formidable, but Parson is making him use his magic to kill people and the Magic Kingdom hates Gobwin Knob and him by association. He is ''not'' happy with Parson after all of this.

* UnreliableExpositor: Casters tend to have theories and insights into the nature of Erfworld, but those ideas inevitably feature the caster's personal discipline as the most important element of Erfworld. For example, the official Thinkamancer line is that Predictamancers don't predict the future, they subconciously use mental magic to impose their will upon the world and cause their prediction to occur. When [[spoiler:Maggie begins to branch out into Dateamancy, she finds the Great Minds' views on the discipline to be extremely simplistic when not outright false.]]

** Higher level units are assumed to be better strategists, which is sometimes true.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: many aspects of day-to-day life in Erfworld don't sit well with Parson.
** Probably the biggest is the attitude towards sex. A Warlord ordering a unit, or anyone else they have authority over, to have sex with them is considered perfectly acceptable (sex has nothing to do with reproduction in this world, it's a purely recreational activity). This means Parson is forced to remain celibate, since essentially nobody he might be interested in can meaningfully consent and he isn't willing to rape an underling. There are a number of solutions proposed, one is to pursue a relationship with a neutral party/ally outside his chain of command, the other being to order his subordinate to do what they'd do if he wasn't their commander. He has yet to apply these solutions.
*** '''However''', [[QuestionableConsent this specific type of consent]] is as far as the dissonance goes. Molestation and violent sexual assault are still seen as RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil (at least by those who aren't willingly blind to their existence) and cause long-term psychological damage.

* InformedAbility:
** Ansom's portrayed as a KnightInShiningArmor, leading a fractious coalition to deal decisively with a hated common foe. But for all his reputation as a legendary warlord, his plans for the war at large betray a severe "lack of tactical imagination" (according to Ossomer). Part of this may be his status as an UnreliableNarrator regarding his own tactical genius.
** It should be noted here that Ossomer believed Ansom was unimaginative for bringing infantry and siege to fight Jetstone as they predicted. But...
--->'''Ossomer:''' You made it easy! Bringing your usual siege-heavy infantry assault? Come now, Ansom. Someday you must develop some tactical imagination!\\
'''Ansom:''' [[IAmNotLeftHanded Dispel the veil]].
** Also, for his post-decryption performance, it's implied at several points that Decrypted leaders are less flexible than they were before due to the ironclad obsession that has been imposed on them -- several of Ansom's larger big-picture mistakes come from his fanatical devotion to Toolism (refusing to seek allies, parlaying with Queen Bea, etc.)

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: This principle is probably the reason why [[spoiler:Parson feels so guilty over defeating the Royal Army]].

** Just before the comic ended a plotline was revealed involving the Erfworld equivalent of {{Atlantis}}, named Archezoa. [[spoiler: It involved a [[RippleEffectProofMemory record that managed to survive a Titanic retcon,]] detailing a previous version of Erfworld that appeared to be a genuine SugarBowl before a DarkerAndEdgier reboot.]]

** Subverted at the end of Book One; while it appears [[spoiler:Parson has lost virtually his entire army and only city in the process of fighting off the invaders, they soon discover an artifact that allows them to reanimate the fallen from both sides to build a new army, and a large cache of gems to help them rebuild the city.]]

* EvilMakeover: After [[spoiler:being "decrypted", Ansom's outfit's radish decorations turned into skulls]].

* LesYay: [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%201/30 Wanda and Jillian]] [[invoked]]

As of October 12, 2019, [[https://www.erfworld.com/ the comic has been cancelled]] due to [[CreatorBreakdown a series of tragedies in the author's life]] over the last year and a half of its run. Archives are still available online.

* AbilityMixing: Casters can form a MentalFusion called a Caster Link. While linking users of the same magical discipline lets them take that discipline's powers UpToEleven, joining different disciplines lets them create entirely new effects, like [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%201/148 synthesizing]] {{Necromanc|er}}y and DishingOutDirt to [[spoiler:reawaken an extinct volcano]].
** This only works if there is a Thinkamancer.