History YMMV / TheCityOfNever

* CompleteMonster: "[[DragonInChief The Consultant]]", real name [[TheChessmaster Lucia]], is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the imprisoned being, [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, manipulating endless bloodshed and pain so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.

** Alessa is a spunky, energetic girl who has her mother murdered half a year ago, loses her family over the course of the novel and is forced to live with her father's despairing suicide by the end, despite her still being alive. Oh, and a sadistic fallen goddess singles her out for special torture treatment. At the end? [[spoiler: Alessa has lost everything she ever had, except for Katrina, with nothing but an uncertain future ahead.]]

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* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler: The death of Lucia.]] After all the Consultant has done, seeing it lose control and put itself at risk out of sadistic rage only to be [[spoiler: outmaneuvered and defeated by two teenage girls, left to die in hideous agony and fear? Is incredibly satisfying.]]
* CompleteMonster: "[[DragonInChief The Consultant]]", real name [[TheChessmaster Lucia]], is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the imprisoned being, [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, manipulating endless bloodshed and pain so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.
* HilariousInHindsight: Michael references the Lovecraftian deities towards the end when discussing his newfound idealism even in a hopeless cosmos, also mentioning Nyarlathotep who "embodies loyalty to the Outer Gods" with 'perhaps' a bit of a sadistic drive. Due to the Never Mythos taking place in the same universe as ''Literature/TheKindnessOfDevils'', the Lovecraftian deities all exist, especially Nyarlathotep. Who is [[TheStarscream not loyal to the Outer Gods anymore]] and [[{{Sadist}} there is no 'perhaps' about the rest.]]
* IronWoobie: Eliza has lived ''centuries'', isolated from most people, without even the comforts of friendship, trying to help as many Seers as she can. Many, many of them have been killed by the Consultant. Despite all the pain she's been through, Eliza steadfastly refuses to give in to despair.
* NightmareFuel:
** Lucia is this on steroids. She's a sadistic, depraved ''beast'' who was cast out of her former position as a Daydreamer goddess because of that sadism, and has taken to [[NeverMyFault blaming everyone but herself for it.]] Lucia serves Draynak with her own agenda and takes horrific joy in devising the most monstrous tortures she can think of, especially with horrific leeches that painfully suck the life from their victims. Lucia cannot be bargained with, swayed or reasoned with. If she wants you dead (and she will), she will do everything she can to make your demise as agonizing as she can think of. The way she torments Alessa after slaughtering her entire family, even inflicting every violation upon Alessa's sister imaginable, really stands out.
** The City itself is just full of some pretty horrific beasties that can swoop in and devour everything you ever loved. And you'll never see them coming. Especially the Mollusc- a throbbing pile of flesh covered in sickening growths.
** The Emperor of Ashen Rain is an EldritchAbomination that is just pure malevolence. An expy of Lovecraft's Azathoth, but replace sheer mindlessness with utter spite and evil. The emperor traverses the cosmos, devouring and assimilating everything it finds. Want a way to stop it? You don't have one. Simply pray it never, ever notices you.
** The fates Lucia inflicts on innocent people to make them potential hosts for Draynak...it involves rape on a spiritual level and utter violations of their physical beings, torturing them endlessly to make them a suitable hosts. What makes it even worse? [[spoiler: Lucia is ''personally sabotaging it'', doing this horrible torture for fun so she can double cross Draynak for the purpose of murdering all that lives for fun herself.]]
** Faye turns out to be utterly ''terrifying''...there's something frightening about a man who's a chaos-obsessed anarchist, hellbent on bringing about destruction and evil just for the sheer fun of it, and he'll do it all with a manic smile on his face. With all this in mind, any humor in Faye just compounds how insane and frightening he truly is.
* {{Tearjerker}}
** The energetic Alessa [[spoiler: collapsing into BrokenTears when her father dies]]
** Eddie's entire story. A normal guy who saw everything he loved destroyed and murdered, with an innocent girl he befriended tortured to death by Lucia. And what does he get? [[spoiler: Violently murdered by Lucia who treats it a bit like smacking a particularly insignificant mosquito.]]
** Michael's rather painful backstory, thanks to his abusive father and the resulting traumas that have ended in him being an egotistical nihilist.
** A broken Daniel begging Draynak for death. [[spoiler: And Draynak obliging.]] After all he's suffered at that point, with the unbelievable trauma of losing his wife, and two of his kids, who can blame him?
** The near death of the town of Onolo with so many lives wiped out so awfully.
** Even Draynak evokes some pity. He's not malicious or overly cruel. He's just been horribly imprisoned and just wants to go home. It just so happens he's so far above normal beings that their concerns can barely even register to him, and he's genuinely sorry he ever trusted Lucia to help him by the end.
** Eliza's life is a tearjerker all in itself. Eliza is a remarkably kind person subjected to horrendous loneliness who has devoted herself to saving Seers. Time and time again, Eliza has watched the Consultant arrived to rend apart everyone in the near vicinity, exterminating entire towns and massacring the people she wanted to protect. Elzia has been left with ''nothing,'' utterly isolated from the world at large and with nothing but the hope she can make a difference before the Consultant strikes first.
** The deaths of Crystal and Mark Hopper. Crystal is violated body and soul by leeches, tortured in agony to become a vessel for Draynak. Mark is twisted and mutilated to become a horrific monstrosity, and with the mind of a baby, he can't understand what's happening to him. It's to the point his father has to ''euthanize'' him. And unlike Crystal, there's no ''pretext'' at a higher purpose. The Consultant did it entirely for fun.
* TheWoobie: Oh, let's count the ways...
** Katrina Summerwood is a timid teenager flung into a horrific situation. She's a gentle, shy little girl with a damaged leg and a speech impediment who finds herself at the heart of a horrific attack by eldritch nightmares. Katrina ends up traumatized, threatened and nearly sees her beloved best friend murdered by eldritch nightmares, and ends up [[spoiler: separated from her mother, maybe forever.]]
** The entire Hopper family. Let's start with Daniel. A kind, ordinary man who lost his wife and is raising three children himself. Over the course of the story, his home is torn apart, he's driven insane and attacks his eldest daughter, he learns his youngest daughter has been killed horrifically, has to euthanize his infant son and is so broken he [[spoiler: begs an eldritch abomination for death at the end, thinking he's a failure as a father to his last daughter Alessa]]
** Alessa is a spunky, energetic girl who has her mother murdered half a year ago, loses her family over the course of the novel and is forced to live with her father's despairing suicide by the end, despite her still being alive. Oh, and a sadistic fallen goddess singles her out for special torture treatment. At the end? [[spoiler: Alessa has lost everything she ever had, except for Katrina, with nothing but an uncertain future ahead.]]

* CompleteMonster: "[[BigBad The Consultant]]", real name [[TheChessmaster Lucia]], is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the imprisoned being, [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, manipulating endless bloodshed and pain so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.

* CompleteMonster: * "[[BigBad The Consultant]]", real name [[TheChessmaster Lucia]], is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the imprisoned being, [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, manipulating endless bloodshed and pain so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.

* CompleteMonster: The "Consultant", real name Lucia, is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned being]], [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, [[ManipulativeBitch manipulating endless bloodshed and pain]] so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.

** The deaths of Crystal and Mark Hopper. Crystal is violated body and soul by leeches, tortured in agony to become a vessel for Draynak. Mark is twisted and mutilated to become a horrific monstrosity, and with the mind of a baby, he can't understand what's happening to him. It's to the point his father has to ''euthanize'' him. And unlike Crystal, there's no ''pretext'' at a higher purpose. The Consultant did it entirely for fun.

** Eliza's life is a tearjerker all in itself. Eliza is a remarkably kind person subjected to horrendous loneliness who has devoted herself to saving Seers. Time and time again, Eliza has watched the Consultant arrived to rend apart everyone in the near vicinity, exterminating entire towns and massacring the people she wanted to protect. Elzia has been left with ''nothing,'' utterly isolated from the world at large and with nothing but the hope she can make a difference before the Consultant strikes first.

** Even Draynak evokes some pity. He's not malicious or overly cruel. He's just been horribly imprisoned and just wants to go home. It just so happens he's so far above normal beings that their concerns can barely even register to him, and he's genuinely sorry he ever trusted Lucia to help him by the end.

* AwesomeMoments:
** After suffering so much as the hands of Lucia, losing her entire family to the sadistic, depraved beast, Alessa driving a spike through the psycho former goddess's skull and leaving her to be [[spoiler: devoured by the Emperor of Ashen Rain in agony]] is sure pretty damn cathartic.
** Michael [[spoiler: convincing Lord Draynak, an EldritchAbomination whose consciousness spans out over the Teraverse itself, to merge with him and gamble on a new life, also throwing away his former nihilism in favor of taking on a role as a universal protector? Great example of TalkingTheMonsterToDeath]]
** Katrina, the shy, stuttering girl? Is ready to face off against Lucia for her mother's sake in an almost inhuman display of courage.
** Michael coming BackFromTheDead with [[EmpoweredBadassNormal brand new Seer powers]] to show he's a solid player in the game.

* HeartwarmingMoments:
** [[spoiler: Alessa and Katrina going into the unknown together, but admitting their love for one another to give them strength as they descend deeper into the City gives one great hope for them, even if their future is unknown.]]
** Michael throwing away his former nihilism and embracing heroism is a reminder that its not a cold, uncaring universe and good people can achieve great things, even convincing Draynak to take a chance on a new existence.
** Michael managing to reason with Draynak and convincing even an ancient EldritchAbomination that things can improve, and to join with him is oddly heartwarming.
** Michael's eventual overcoming of his horrific past and his genuine care for those around them, particularly the girls.

** A broken Daniel begging Draynak for death. [[spoiler: And Draynak obliging.]] After all he's suffered at that point, with the unbelievable trauma of losing his wife, and two of his kids, who can blame him?

** After suffering so much as the hands of Lucia,losing her entire family to the sadistic, depraved beast, Alessa driving a spike through the psycho former goddess's skull and leaving her to be [[spoiler: devoured by the Emperor of Ashen Rain in agony]] is sure pretty damn cathartic.

** Michael coming BackFromTheDead with [[EmpoweredBadassNormal brand new Seer powers to show he's a solid player in the game.

** A broken Daniel begging Draynak for death. [[spoiler: And Draynak obliging.]] After all he's suffered at that point, with the unbelievable trauma of losing his wife, and one of his kdis, who can blame him?

** Eddie's entire story. A normal guy who saw everything he loved destroyed and murdered, with an innocent girl he befriended tortured to death by Lucia. And what does he get? [[spoiler: Violently murdered by Lucia who treats it a bit like smacking a particularly insignificant mosquito.]]

** Faye turns out to be utterly ''terrifying''...there's something frightening about a man who's a chaos-obsessed anarchist, hellbent on bringing about destruction and evil just for the sheer fun of it, and he'll do it all with a manic smile on his face. With all this in mind, any humor in Faye just compounds how insane and frightening he truly is.

** The fates Lucia inflicts on innocent people to make them potential hosts for Draynak...it involves rape on a spiritual level and utter violations of their physical beings, torturing them endlessly to make them a suitable hosts. What makes it even worse? [[spoiler: Lucia is ''personally sabotaging it'', doing this horrible torture for fun so she can double cross Draynak for the purpose of murdering all that lives for fun herself.]]

** The Emperor of Ashen Rain is an EldritchAbomination that is just pure malevolence. An expy of Lovecraft's Azathoth, but replace sheer mindlessness with utter spite and evil. The emperor traverses the cosmos, devouring and assimilating everything it finds. Want a way to stop it? You don't have one. Simply pray it never, ever notices you.

** Michael [[spoiler: convincing Lord Draynak, an EldritchAbomination whose consciousness spans out over the Teraverse itself, to merge with him and gamble on a new life, also throwing away his former nihilism in favor of taking on a role as a universal protector? Great example of TalkingTheMonsterToDeath

** Lucia is this on steroids. She's a sadistic, depraved ''beast'' who was cast out of her former position as a Daydreamer goddess because of that sadism, and has taken to [[NeverMyFault blaming everyone but herself for it.]] Lucia serves Draynak with her own agenda and takes horrific joy in devising the most monstrous tortures she can think of, especially with horrific leeches that painfully suck the life from their victims. Lucia cannot be bargained with, swayed or reasoned with. If she wants you dead (and she will), she will do everything she can to make your demise as agonizing as she can think of. The way she torments Alessa after slaughtering her entire family, even inflicting every violation upon Alessa's sister, really stands out.
** The City itself is just full of some pretty horrific beasties that can swoop in and devour everything you ever loved. And you'll never see them coming.

* CompleteMonster: The "Consultant", real name Lucia, is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned being]], [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, [[ManipulativeBitch manipulating endless bloodshed and pain]] so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.

* 'CompleteMonster: The "Consultant", real name Lucia, is a member of the ancient, godlike race of Daydreamers who serves the [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned being]], [[EldritchAbomination Lord Draynak]]. Having been exiled by her own people for her cruelty and wickedness, Lucia allied with Draynak to use him as a way to get revenge. Seeking a child of the bloodline of the race of Seers, Lucia takes countless guises, [[ManipulativeBitch manipulating endless bloodshed and pain]] so she can find a necessary host for Draynak. Using monsters from the other worlds to annihilate entire towns and villages, Lucia takes potential hosts and infests them with leechlike creatures in a horrific violation that inevitably results in their deaths. When she found a suitable host, a 13-year-old girl, Lucia murdered her, intending on [[TheStarscream double-crossing Draynak]] the entire time. Having found a suitable host in one hero Daniel's daughter Crystal, Lucia took great delight in agonizingly infecting her, murdering their friend Christian when he attempted to attack her. Later attempting to torture Crystal's sister to death, Lucia reveals she has always intended to [[OmnicidalManiac annihilate all that lives]] as punishment for her humiliation, viewing everything below her as a toy to torture.