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Sura Realm
Suras and Sura Clans in General
The enemies of the gods and by extension humankind. They are ageless monsters that develop in stages and possess many powerful and dangerous abilities.
- Abusive Parents: It's becoming increasingly clear that this is the norm in the sura world, at least as far as nastikas are concerned. Nastikas' relationships with their rakshasas are guided by the relationship they have with the lovers with whom they had said children; if the daughter resembles the mother, for instance, chances are she will have a good relationship with her father (such as Shakuntala and Gandharva). If it is not the case, such as Maruna, who is said to resemble Garuda, too bad - sura fathers have been known to kill their sons if they take too much attention from their mothers. As far as mothers go, however, it's not all flowers either; it seems that those like Shess, who has an absolute demon for a mother, are those that have it lucky. According to Pingara in chapter 3-126/411, once a nastika's affection for their partner fades, their child is as good as a stranger. In other words, it wouldn't be out of place for a nastika to completely abandon their kid in the very dangerous sura world to fend for themselves. The person Pingara is talking to, Riagara, is, like them, one of Sagara's children, and the older of the pair, born before Sagara broke up with Vasuki. As seen in a flashback in chapter 1-51/52, Vasuki and Sagara hadn't been together for at least a whole century when Ananta died. It's possible that Riagara would have been abandonned by both parents if Vasuki hadn't remained in love with Sagara as she grew up. She was first stage back then.
- Action Girl: A sura that isn't Action Something doesn't last. Notable cases, however, are a few nastikas that go against the general rule of their kind and are stronger in female form: Shuri, Akasha and (formerly) Vritra.
- The Ageless: Sura can't die of age.
- Alien Blood: Some sura have normal red blood, and all superior sura seem to as well in human form (with the exception of Yuta), but in sura form others bleed a variety of colours.
- Aliens Are Bastards: We don't know exactly what planet suras (or humans) are from; given that they were created when the universe began, it's not unlikely that they don't have a single planetary origin. It's undeniable that the vast majority of them are assholes - not only to humans, but also to gods, and also to themselves.
- Animalistic Abomination: The lesser sura may actually fit this trope better by virtue of looking rather similar to various members of the animal kingdoms (and dragons). The exception to the rule appears to be the Taraka clan, which definitely is on the more eldritch side of things aesthetics-wise.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Downplayed; this only applies to those of the same clan, and even then there are exceptions. Case in point, Maruna argues with Samphati that most Garuda nastikas were against Akasha's plan of killing Garuda's children to wake him up. The exception here being not only Akasha but Samphati herself, whose sole obsession in life is to make Yuta suffer, with death if necessary.
- Arch-Enemy: Some sura clans have this dynamic between them, such as the Anantas and the Garudas. The Tarakas are this to pretty much everyone.
- Armor Is Useless: There are enough transcendentals that ignore armor that it's practically worthless.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: How the sura run their clans. If a King dies, the strongest sura (a Nastika) will succeed him/her.
- Being Evil Sucks:
- Saying they are evil is very much an undeserved generalization and simplification of a very complicated reality. However, most of them normally partake in things that are very questionable, and it comes at a price. They are the most powerful species in the universe. As a whole, however, they cannot avoid the fact that they must devour each other to survive, they're despised by pretty much everyone else because of their antics, and to top it off, when Visnu separated the realms at the Cataclysm, they got the short end of the stick, while the puny, insignificant humans they screwed over and over again remained in their much less hostile realm. Billions of years of doing whatever they wanted and what they got out of it? Their numbers are dwindling, the few remaining are getting weaker and weaker over time, their clans are being destroyed, and their realm is the one most affected by the Taraka attack. And those billions of years weren't flowers, either. Losing children, friends and partners - or even one's own life - are every day things. One can die simply by angering the wrong foe, and even if they are killed for no reason at all, unless one is strong enough to seek vengeance, there is literally nothing to be done. In short, suras operate under a very different set of morals and rules, which generally put them at odds with everyone else, and makes life in their society in general utterly suck.
- Shess lampshades it when he points out that the clans most likely to survive the Taraka attacks are those whom the gods are willing to personally help—that is, the clans who didn't go around slaughtering humans simply for forsaking fiendish magic.Shess: He who has done less wrong has less to fear.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Sura are (with rare exceptions) carnivores. All sura are descended from the Nastikas and are weaker the more distant the line of descent. Sura with human forms do not actually wear clothing, but parts of their sura form that take the form of clothing. Their brains are built to resist change and lack the need for stimulation and change the way humans’ do. There is also the fact that each generation they grow apart from their Nastika ancestor the more their heritage degenerates and weakens:
- Nastika were born as adults at the dawn of the universe. They have a human form and a sura form. They can switch genders at will (except for the Vritra) and have a degree of control over their appearance.
- Rakshasa are sura with at least one Nastika parent. Like the Nastika, they have a human form and a sura form. However, their gender is determined by the amount of time their parents spent as male or female. They age in a series of five stages with only the first resembling conventional growth. They have to be in their human form to grow into their next stage, which requires the Rakshasa to accumulate a certain level of experience and a trigger of some sort. The growth is abrupt, lasting seconds at most, and can cause dramatic shifts in the Rakshasa's personality.
- Upani are sura with at least one Rakshasa parent. Like the Rakshasa, they grow in a series of five stages, but they do not gain a human form until they reach their third stage.
- Mara are sura with Upani parents. Like their parents and grandparents, they grow in a series of five stages, but only obtain human form when in 5th stage. However, 5th stage maras are extremely rare.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Sura place no value on life itself. They think nothing of murder for food or fun and only bother learning not to kill fellow clan members or allies.
- Born as an Adult: The Nastika.
- Butt-Monkey: Suras are powerful, numerous, immortal, can't be held accountable for their actions... Must be great to be one of them, right? As it turns out, no. Not only there are the several reasons listed under Being Evil Sucks for one not to wish to be one of them, there is also the fact that they are taking the lion's share of the Taraka attack. Several clans have been stated to be close to extinction, such as the Gandharvas, the Anantas and the Garudas, and even if the Tarakas are pushed back for good due to the gods also fighting them, these losses included several high-rank suras of all clans, and thus will be felt for a long time.
- Conflict Killer: Ancient humans were this billions of years ago. Like today, suras and gods banded together to end what was seen as a common threat. According to Brilith, however, humans were never as dangerous as the Taraka or as the nastikas themselves. Still, this stands.
- Daddy's Girl: The relationship of a sura with his/her father. A male sura will usually compete with his father for his mother's affection, and the father can even kill the son for that. In contrast, a female Sura is usually loved and spoiled by her father, even more if she resembles her mother.
- Die or Fly: The most common way for a sura to advance to the next stage, as survival instinct is a relatively standard key and virtually every sura will be in danger at numerous points in their lives. If it isn't this, it's a Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
- The Dreaded: To humans, a sura is an immense danger and an object of hatred and fear. Asha, who is quite possibly the strongest magician on Willarv, states that she can defeat any Upani easily so long as they aren't fifth stage. Upani are far weaker than Rakshasa and Nastika.
- Some suras are this to other suras, too. In his prime, Gandharva was feared even by members of his own clan. No sura in their right mind will go around provoking Vritra or Taksaka, even today. You can say that all of the first generation kings were this at some point, given how powerful they are.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Kings in particular. They are immortal and powerful beings who have existed since the start of this universe that can kill even gods. Gandharva, even at his smallest size, dwarfs Kalibloom.
- Elective Monarchy: Zig-Zagged. The throne in sura clans is not passed from parent to child, but from the strongest sura to the next strongest sura. Shuri of the Yaksha clan, for instance, inherited the throne from Yaksha himself after his passing not because of any connections to him, but because she was the strongest nastika left. However, not unlike the traditional monarchy, this is very much a hit or miss thing: some make good kings, others do not. Shuri herself seems to have been a good ruler; Gandharva, on the other hand, is a terrible one.
- Enemy Mine: Gods and suras have allied to defeat the Taraka clan. Yes, things are that bad.
- Not the first time it happened, however. The two races also fought together to extinguish the first human race eons in the past.
- Explosive Breeder: At the dawn of the universe all the Nastika from all clans were... ehem, busy, popping out as many rakshasa as they could, not for pleasure but because all clans had the common interest of strengthening their numbers, this actually being the reason why the Vritra clan struck a deal with Visnu given how their reproduction works. (See the clan's folder for details)
- Gender Bender: The nastikas can change their gender at will (the male forms are generally stronger than female). And a Rakshasa's gender is determined by the time each parent (if they are both Nastika) has spent as each gender, which means there are more males than females.
- The Vritra clan used to have both male and female nastikas, but after the deal with Visnu, they all changed to male and lost their gender-bender ability.
- The Golden Rule: Averted to hell and back. The fact that suras don't uphold this is the root of many, many problems.
- Healing Factor: They can regenerate very quickly, and it's one of their primary defenses. The other is DODGE!!!.
- Humanoid Abomination: All superior sura have human forms, but all retain at least one sura trait they can't change.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: 5th stage (full grown) rakshasa look like young adults.
- Immortal Ruler: The nastikas don't ever age and can only die if they are killed, so most kings end up being this. However, a few clans avert this; the Yakshas and Anantas in particular seem to have a high king turnover rate. Others play it straight, like the Asuras and the Garudas, for instance, whose king has always been the same.
- Little Bit Beastly: Even in human form, every sura has a few non-human traits. Some have fur on their arms and legs, others have fangs or Unusual Ears like bird wings, fish fins, animals ears, and so on. The lower the sura's rank, the more traits are retained from their sura form.
- Lord Country: The sura clans derive their names from their first generation kings. So, the first king of the Garuda clan is Garuda, the first king of the Vritra clan is Vritra, the first king of the Yaksha clan was Yaksha and so on.
- Subverted with the Taraka clan; the first king of the clan was Kali, and Taraka herself was never a true king anyway. Double subverted in that "Taraka clan" is not their true name, as that is forbidden knowledge. If they too follow the pattern, their true name is Yuta's true name, given by Kali.
- Massively Numbered Siblings: The nastikas were alive when the universe began, and haven't gotten sterile since then. Do the math.
- Might Makes Right: The sura society begins and ends on this belief. The king is always the strongest sura of the clan at any given moment. The weak have no rights - if the strong devour them or simply kill them for amusement, no one's likely to bat an eyelash.
- Monster Progenitor: The Nastika.
- The Needless: The nastika don't need to eat at all, they recover vigor by resting, which can be as simple as lounging about for a while. Rakshasa only need to eat to replenish vigor, and even that goes away once they reach their fifth stage. Sura don't sleep.
- No Nudity Taboo: So it would seem. Although usually dressed, suras don't seem to hold nudity in the same way as humankind. Four examples may confirm this:
- Yuta. In one of his flashbacks from his childhood, especifically the time he spent with Taraka, he's naked while in first stage. He's also naked in sura form (at least in second stage).
- Kali. Yes, she's a primeval goddess alright, but remember that she adopted a nastika name and ruled over the Taraka clan as its first king. When God Kubera approaches her in a flashback, she's completely naked.
- Sagara. When fighting God Kubera at the Temple of Chaos during the Test of the Sword, she takes male form and uses her "King of Toxic Mist" transcendental, which leaves her naked. Yuta later shows up, but no one even bothers to point her nudity out.
- Samphati. Her sura form is completely naked except for the chest area.
- One Degree of Separation: Justified. All nastika were born at the dawn of the universe and the rakshasa are their kids. It would be stranger if they didn't all know each other somehow.
- One Name Only: Sura don't seem to use any sort of family name. They do re-use names, though.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Most if not all nastikas experienced the deaths of several of their children. Those like Shess, that belongs to one of the first generations of rakshasa and is still around, are said to be extremely rare. Given the power gap between generations and how the sura have a dog-eat-dog society, it's possible that most suras suffered this at least once.
- Promotion to Parent: Very, very common. Since nastikas seldom raise their own kids, most rakshasas are raised by their elder siblings. According to Riagara's letter in News, a nastika personally raising their child is something rare enough that she felt the need to thank Vasuki for sticking with her.
- The Right of a Superior Species: Played as straight as possible. Some of the nastikas have kill counts right up there in the millions (and some in the billions, and Gandharva in special in the trillions).
- Sapient Eat Sapient: Suras, except for nastikas and Fifth Stage rakshasas, need to eat to recover vigor - but not just any kind of food. The main staple of their diets is other suras. As Yuta explains to Asha, murder is so commonplace in the sura realm in great part because of this trope, as suras that refuse to kill other beings would almost certainly just starve to death. This may explain a great deal of why they have much less moral restraints regarding murder.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Sura with human forms only take their sura forms to hunt or fight.
- She Is the King: The leader of the clan is called the king regardless of their preferred gender.
- Smug Super: They tend to view themselves as inherently superior to humans—a mindset Brilith feels is undeserved, as it stems more from being Born Winners than any real effort on their part.
- Teen Pregnancy: Well, sort of. Fourth stage rakshasas are normally hundreds of years old, but look like humans in their late teens. Since developing to fifth stage is so rare, most of them remain stuck in that state for most of their lives, and begin having children at around that time.
- The Social Darwinist: Is it really necessary to explain this?
- Time Abyss: The Nastika were born at the beginning of the universe.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: It doesn't pay to be kind as a sura. Notably, nearly every single named nastika or rakshasa who was known to be nice in general or sympathetic towards humans is dead or MIA, typically because of that very kindness.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: A particularly stressful event is generally needed for a sura to trigger their next development, though the severity can wildly vary—suras who've lived mostly uneventful lives will find it easier to advance. Maruna contrasts Samphati and Shess in this regard: the former having had a fairly decent life and unremarkable progression to 4th stage, while the latter is this trope played completely straight, with his trigger to 4th stage having been the death of a loved one.
- Vocal Dissonance: A rakshasa's voice doesn't drop a la puberty until they reach their fourth stage, meaning that even in their third stage (the sura equivalent of early teens), they still sound fairly young.
