Characters from Lady of the Shard, by Gigi D.G.
Spoilers below.
open/close all folders
The Acolyte
"Your Radiance, I made you breakfast."
A sweet and devoted follower of the Radiant Goddess, whose feelings for her deity go somewhat beyond simple piety.
- All-Loving Hero: She is nice to everyone and seems incapable of holding a grudge for long. At first, she's rightfully angry at the Old God for killing the Phoenix and turning the Goddess into a monster, but instantly tries to cheer her up once she realizes what the Old God's issues are.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Her Brainwashed act shades heavily into this. The Old God does not fail to notice.
- Brainwashed: After she refuses to kneel with the others and accept serving the Old God, the Old God brainwashes the Acolyte to be devoted to her instead of the Goddess.
- Cannot Talk to Women: She becomes absolutely flustered at the slightest show of affection from her crush.
- Chick Magnet: A rare female example. Two goddesses remark on how adorable she is, and it's possible that the Phoenix developed feelings for her as well (possibly owing to the Florence Nightingale Effect).
- Cloud Cuckoolander: She makes bear-shaped pancakes for her Goddess. And then frets about whether or not it'll remind her of an animal sacrifice.
- Deity of Human Origin: The Acolyte later becomes one (or at least a demigoddess) when the Goddess shatters the shard to save her from the Old God's curse, and a piece embeds itself in her forehead.
- Fake Defector: After being snapped out her brainwashing by the Phoenix, she pretends to still be a devoted worshiper of the Old God so that she'll be able to go with the Titans on their mission to destroy the Goddess and hopefully figure out a way to save her. Of course, it's later revealed that the Old God knew she was faking it the whole time.
- Genki Girl: Nothing seems to daunt her cheerful spirits for long. She's enthusiastic about everything, even cleaning.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The Old God makes her delighted to serve her and live in 'paradise', which (as the other acolytes are faking it so that they won't be killed) makes her the only one who actually is happy to be there.
- Go-Go Enslavement: After being brainwashed by the Old God, her priestess outfit has distinct shades of "harem" to it.
- High Priestess: She becomes the high priestess for the Old God after being brainwashed. By the end of the comic, she's the high priestess for the All-Goddess instead.
- Prim and Proper Bun: In a charming semi-subversion, she's done her best to tame her hair into this style, but a single quirky curl still escapes - a nice visual nod to the struggle between her solemn religious vocation and her goofy personality and "inappropriate" romantic feelings.
- Stock Shoujo Heroine: A sapphic example. She's a bit clumsy and airheaded, but her love, devotion, and determination are her greatest strengths, the former of which is great enough to make a goddess want to be among humans again and the nigh-unstoppable Ancient One to give up her universal rampage. She attracts the attention of quite a few cool and charismatic love interests along the way, and she's a wonderful cook.
The Radiant Goddess
"There are boundaries between humans and gods that must be maintained."
The benevolent deity who freed the universe from the clutches of the Old God. She was once a human herself.
- Big Beautiful Woman
- Cool Sword: With a crossguard styled after the shard, no less. It appears on many statues of her.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It's strongly implied in her flashback conversations with the Old God that her human existence was not an easy one.
- Deity of Human Origin: She was one of the very few (if not the only) human worshipers of the Old God, who gifted her with divinity after she fell in love with her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Her first appearance in Gigideegee's material was as one of their Twitter icons.
- Hot God: She's a Statuesque Stunner goddess with long hair; her beauty certainly flusters the Acolyte.
- Lady of War: Statuesque, imposing, and often portrayed wielding a sword, which she actually uses more than once after awakening.
- Large and in Charge: Easily the tallest of the cast, aside from the Titans and the Old God's true form.
- Magical Accessory: The shard that she wears on her head is the source of her powers; when it's taken away, she becomes mortal again.
- Mayfly–December Romance: From both directions — she's been the mayfly herself in the past, as well as loved one herself as a goddess.
- Mysterious Past: We only ever get a few hints about her full backstory.
- Not So Stoic: Her attachment to the Acolyte has a way of showing up the cracks in her impassive facade.
- Statuesque Stunner: She towers over the rest of the cast.
The Phoenix
"It should be my duty as Phoenix to keep our people close to the Goddess."
The ruler of the Burning Star, who have become increasingly lax with sending tribute to the Radiant Goddess as the years passed. She sojourns at the Temple for some time after being struck with the Old God's curse.
- Forced Transformation: Transformed into a flaming bird-monster by the Old God. She gets better. Temporarily.
- Legacy Character: 'The Phoenix' is the title of the ruler of Burning Star; each new leader takes the title and abandons their name.
- Motivational Kiss: Seriously flusters the Acolyte with one. It turns out to have had another purpose, as well.
- No Body Left Behind: After the Old God's curse takes hold of her again and she dies, there's nothing left of her at all.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: And it's a good thing, too - who else could have snapped the Acolyte out of her trance?
- Reincarnation: A hybrid form thereof. Individual Phoenixes don't seem to traditionally reincarnate, so much as pass on their title and powers, and linger on as a Spirit Advisor for their successor. (Rather like the Avatars of Avatar: The Last Airbender, really.)
- Spirit Advisor: She becomes one to the Acolyte after her death, giving her advice and encouraging her to try and save the Goddess from the Old God. Post-story, she helps her in her new role as the Phoenix and High Priestess of the All-Goddess.
- Your Days Are Numbered: She realizes that the Old God's curse wasn't fully cleansed from her, and since the Goddess would be unable to cure it without shattering her shard, she marks the Acolyte as the successor of her spirit before it takes hold again.
The Elders
"Welcome to the temple of the Radiant One." "And shame on you, coming so late!"
The leaders and mentors of the Temple's acolytes...although they don't always see eye-to-eye on how best to lead and mentor.
- Deadpan Snarker: The shorter Elder is strongly given to this.
- Fat and Skinny: Though they flip the usual script by having the tall, skinny Elder be the good-natured idealist, and the short, stocky Elder be the grouchy cynic.
- Gag Nose: A real doozy on the shorter Elder.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It takes the shorter Elder a while to warm up to the Acolyte, but she always means well, and she comes around in the end.
- Stern Teacher & Hippie Teacher: The taller Elder would love to discuss the meaning of your dreams! The shorter Elder trusts you finished your chores before you went to sleep?
- Those Two Ladies: Usually seen together, although the shorter Elder is particularly given to rampaging around on her own.
Other Acolytes
"As devout followers of the Radiant One, it's expected that we always do our best to please her."
The flock of hooded maidens who render devotion and service to the Goddess.
- The Cavalry: When things look bleakest for the Goddess in her fight against the Old God, they rally the galaxy in support of her, allowing her to gain the upper hand in the fight.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: They lead humanity in praying for the Radiant One's victory over the Old God in the finale.
- Hollywood Nuns: Plenty of stylistic overlap with this trope, from the uniforms to the age grouping (lots of young novices and a few older mothers superior).
- In It for Life: Becoming an Acolyte involves giving up your own name, among other things. It's evidently a serious commitment.
- Physical Religion: Not at first or what they expected, but the beginning of the story has the Goddess take physical form and live among them.
- Taking the Veil: A rare genuine example of the Vocation version of this trope. We don't hear all their reasons for serving the Goddess, but they mostly seem to enjoy their lives in the Temple.
The Titans
"OUR DESIRE IS TO SERVE YOU ALWAYS."
A pair of powerful creatures who serve the divinity of the Shard and whoever currently commands it.
- Cyclops: One has a single eye-glow, although the other has a more standard pair.
- The Dividual: They're always together and have no distinctness in personality from each other.
- First Church of Mecha: An interesting variation, in which the mecha seem to be the "angels" that serve the actual goddess.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Their glowing eyes are the only facial features that can be seen.
- Humongous Mecha: They dwarf even the divine characters in terms of height.
- No Indoor Voice: Both of them speak only in ALL CAPS.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: After falling back under the Old God's control, their formerly-white eyes glow red.
- Shipper on Deck: They fully support the Goddess' crush on the Acolyte.
The Old God
"Welcome to Paradise."
The powerful being that the Radiant Goddess fought against and defended humanity from long ago. She's the creator of the universe, the former lover of the Radiant Goddess, and all-around unpleasant entity.
- Abusive Precursors: She either turns people into outright monsters, or brainwashes them into serving her. She's also the one who created the universe.
- Body Motifs: Strongly associated with hands, which conveys her grasping, manipulative, possessive nature very nicely. And of course, the more she tightens her grip, the more star systems slip through her fingers.
- Cute Is Evil: She's often cutesy and pink. At the same time, she's a terror. 'Paradise' is an tyranny awash in soft pink light.
- Dissonant Serenity: She has a propensity to keep a chirpy smile on her face even as she's crushing the Radiant Goddess in one hand.
- Eldritch Abomination: Her true form is a writhing nest of scarlet hands, and pretty unsettling to behold.
- Eye Scream: One of her eyes ends up shattered after her fight with the Goddess.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: The most traditionally "cute" character design in the entire story...until she smiles. Yeesh.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: She usually appears to humans as a cute young woman, which she implies is because she knows how disturbing her real form is to most people.
- Fusion Dance: In the end, she fuses with the Radiant One to form the All-Goddess.
- God Is Evil: She, not the Radiant Goddess, is the supreme creator-god in the setting, and it was only the Goddess' intervention that saved humanity from her last time.
- God Is Flawed: It turns out that she's an incredibly lonely person who does awful things to people in order to get any scrape of attention or affection, even if she knows it's only out of fear.
- Hot God: While she usually goes for 'cute' goddess more than 'hot', she switches to the latter when she decides to stop kidding around and get serious.
- Laughably Evil: Her flippancy and the sheer casualness of some of her remarks make for some humorous moments.
- Little Miss Almighty: Her everyday form falls right into this category, in a sharp subversion of the Grandpa God image that her name might initially evoke.
- Lonely at the Top: Her motivation for creating the galaxy, and for her attempts to connect with and/or rule her creations: she doesn't want to be alone.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Gets touchy-feely with both the Acolyte and the Radiant Goddess.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: She and her power are the only things shown as red in the comic, and she herself is often shown as a red figure with black negative space (depicted as pink and white if she's acting cutesy).
- Sexy Jester: One of her outfits pairs the jester-like hat with a leotard and thigh-high boots.
- Top God: As creator of the galaxy, she's not above reminding any lesser being who's acquired a scrap of her divinity exactly how pitiful they are in comparison to her.
- Villainous Harlequin: Befitting her cheeriness, her outfit is often evocative of a jester's, having a two-pointed hat with tassels.
