Characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, that are associated with the Duel Terminal/Hidden Arsenal storyline.

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Archetypes

Part One Archetypes

Worms

Worm Zero

While there are some Worm cards based on actual worms, when most people refer to the Worm archetype they're referring to the ones originating from the Duel Terminals. These are a group of alien beings that usually have flip effects.

Alphabetical Theme Naming: There are 26 Worms in total, each beginning with a different English letter. Interestingly, the effects of the monsters increase in length with each respective entry, Worm Apocalypse's effect is only a few words long while Worm Zero's is an entire paragraph that reaches the bottom of the card.
Ambiguously Related: The W Nebula Meteorite and Worm Zero; both are mysterious space entities shaped like skulls that are attached to the Worm archetype, and the Meteorite's draw effect can help set up the fusion summon of Worm Zero, but no direct connection has been drawn.
Arc Villain: They're the Big Bads for the first Duel Terminal storyline.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Worm King, Queen, Prince and Noble are all amongst the strongest monsters of the archetype.
Blob Monster: Almost every single one of them is coated in a transparent slime, with some cases being more apparent than others. Straighter examples are Worm Rakuyeh, Worm Solid. Worm Zero, and Evilswarm Azzathoth. (Worm Call features a Worm monster descending to earth via interdimensional loogie).
Body Horror: Worm Apocalypse & Worm Noble both look like they're skinless, complete with visible veins and arteries. The latter even has some visibly wrapped around its own head.
Body of Bodies:
- Worm Zero appears to be one, on closer inspection.
- Worm Solid is implied to be melted worm bodies condensed into a prism.
- Evilswarm Azzathoth is a conglomeration of several Worms, with Worm King's lower half as the "main face."
Bowdlerise: Worm King, and by extension, Evilswarm Azzathoth have the lower mouth removed in the TCG, due to.. rather obvious reasons.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Worm King has a large, vaginal looking opening on his crotch with rows of teeth on either side. Worm Queen on the other hand has a large phallic codpiece. This lead to Worm King's second mouth being up and removed for the TCG.
Eldritch Abomination: Worm Zero is a huge mass of combined Worms that warped time and space just by existing and devoured absolutely everything on its path to grow, including its own ranks.
Evil Counterpart: Evilswarm Azzathoth somehow manages to be one to Worm Zero, the ultimate form of the Worms. Azzathoth is a mass of Worms fused with armor, with various members seen wriggling, while Zero is a massive, planet-sized Worm of condensed with one form of white.
Evil Evolves: The continual onslaught against the "Worms" actually served as a catalyst for their evolution, and new forms like "Worm Illidan" that could withstand the continual attacks began to appear.
Hidden Villain: Their play style seems to try to invoke this - they focus a lot on using Flip Effects, meaning their monsters will remain hidden most of the time.
Homage: Worm Zero appears similar to a recurring boss, 'Legion', in the game series 'Castlevania', which is also produced by Konami.
Horde of Alien Locusts: According to the lore, they devour everything on a planet, then turn it into a new Worm Zero to seek out new worlds to eat.
Kubrick Stare: Worm Noble is giving the viewer an intense one.
Letter Motif: A variation, in that there's a member for each letter in the alphabet, and have it as the first letter in their names.
Light Is Not Good: They're LIGHT, but are the main antagonists of part 1 of the Duel Terminal series.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: To varying degrees, and often with varying numbers of mouths.
Mutual Kill: Worm Zero and Ally of Justice Decisive Armor inflict this on one another, ending the Worm threat.
Reptilesare Abhorrent: The entire archetype is Reptile-type.
Starfish Aliens: Only a select few of them actually look like worms; most of them are just plain weird.
That's No Moon: Worm Zero bears a strong resemblance to the Earth's Moon; this is further supported by the fact that the front face of Zero (shown in this card's artwork) has a look that alludes to the so-called 'Old Man of the Moon face' that can be seen in its full moon phase.
Vagina Dentata: A fair amount of them have this. Worm King deserves special mention, as it was removed in the TCG.
V-Sign: Worm Victory is giving the "V for Victory" with all six of its hands.

Flamvell

The Ancient Flamvell Deity

Flamvell monsters are a series of FIRE monsters that rely on burn damage and power through battle. In the backstory of the cards, they were one of four elemental tribes that formed the Ally of Justice to fight the Worm invasion. There is a sub-archetype called Neo Flamvell, born when the Jurracs destroyed the land of the Fabled with a flaming meteor.

Cavalry of the Dead: Their key card is Rekindling, which brings back all of them at once for a turn, before they are banished.
Demoted to Extra: They are supposed to be one of the four main tribes that formed the Ally of Justice (with one member blatantly supports "Ally of Justice" cards by name), alongside the Ice Barrier, Mist Valley and X-Sabers. However, compared to Ice Barrier's and Mist Valley's very crucial involvement to the plot that transcends the seasons and the X-Sabers' many mentions and sub-plot regarding their missing leader Souza, the Flamvells barely got any further mention. It gets worse as they get a Suspiciously Similar Substitute near the end of season one, in the form of the Neo Flamvells.
Hell Hound: Flamvell Firedog is meant to give off this vibe; he even has two fins on his shoulders evocative of the two other heads Cerberus has.
Proud Warrior Race: Although they seem to be more level-headed and civilized than their season 2 successor, the Lavals.
What Happened to the Mouse?: They get no clear mention at the end of season one. Although, it is highly implied that both went extinct when Trishula froze the world.
The Worf Effect: Ancient Flamvell Deity fought against Trishula. As "After the Storm" shows, it didn't win. (Trishula out-muscles it by two hundred attack points.)

X-Sabers

Commander Gottoms, Swordmaster

X-Saber is an archetype of EARTH Warrior-Type and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters that come from the Duel Terminal sets. As the name would imply, they usually use swords. They are used by Yaiba Todo in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

Artificial Limbs: Many X-Saber warriors like Pashul lost parts of their body in the war, but they remained undeterred and continued fighting using artificial parts.
Badass Cape: All of the XX-Saber monsters sport some variant of a red cape.
Bad Boss: Souza is this, according to supplementary material and his card effects that require you to sacrifice X-sabers to activate.
Benevolent Boss: Gottoms, compared to Souza. His effect as commander supports X-Sabers instead of sacrificing them. However, once the XX-Sabers come around, he starts sacrificing his team as well.
Continuity Cameo: XX-Saber Boggart Knight seems to be a retrain of Vorse Raider, having the same design and stats.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- The X-Saber archetype is composed of two distinct groups, each with 10 members, hence the X (roman numeral for 10) being part of their name.
- Pashul's protheses are mentioned to be falling apart on the Master Duel storylines, which reflects on him dealing 1000 damage to his owner every opponent's Standby Phase.
- Souza is prominently described as being very gung-ho in battle and not caring how many of his men are sacrificed to achieve victory. This is mirrored through his effect to tribute X-Saber allies in order to allow him to break through the opponent's board.
- While Gottoms seemingly starts to pull off the same tactics as Souza did after becoming XX-Saber Gottoms, there's a key difference; he can sacrifice himself too.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Commander Gottoms Swordmaster is seemingly part of the first generation X-Saber, yet he's not actually part of the archetype.
General Ripper: X-Saber Souza was a general of the X-Sabers, but he was renowned for his disregard of his troops and his willingness to sacrifice them if need be.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The new M-X-Saber Invoker who suddenly joined the clan? He's actually Souza, but he lost most of his memories.
Not Quite Dead: According to the storyline, the whole clan thought Souza was killed in the Worm War. He's not.
The Power of Friendship: Against the overwhelming mass of the Worms, they changed their strategy around to using Teamwork and cooperation tactics. This is why they became XX-Saber, two X's denoting teamwork.
Tron Lines: The XX-Saber are depicted with these prominently, showing their willingness to use technology to improve their swordsmanship skills and battle prowess.
What Happened to the Mouse?: They just disappear from the storyline around the time Trishula appears.

Ice Barrier

Grunard (top), Gentala (bottom-left), and Raiho (bottom-right), the generals of the Ice Barrier.

Ice Barrier are WATER monsters rely on freezing the opponent, metaphorically speaking. They have effects that restrict the opponent's actions and protect your cards, but only while multiple Ice Barrier monsters are in place. Their leaders are the Dragons of the Ice Barrier, Brionac, Gungnir, and Trishula.

An actual Trap Card named Ice Barrier exists, though ironically enough, it has nothing to do with the Ice Barrier archetypes lore wise.

Aerith and Bob: They have a lineup of Generals named Gantala, Grunard, Raiho... and Wayne.
Ambiguously Related: There's a General Wayne of the Ice Barrier and X-Saber Wayne, but what relation, if any, the two have is unclear.
Apocalypse How: Unleashing Trishula along with the other Ice Dragons at the end of the first age causes a Class 0, freezing nearly the entire continent and wiping out the Fabled, X-Sabers, Flameveil, Mist Valley and nearly all of the Ice Barrier tribe. It's implied the dragons' rampage would have ended up causing a Class 6, freezing the entire world, if not for the spirit of Prior managing to seal them away again. Decades later in the second and third ages, it's implied that the lands of the first age tribes are still frozen over by the glaciers created by the dragons.
Arms and Armor Theme Naming: Brionac, Gungnir and Trishula, the dragons of this archetype, are named after famous mythological spears used by Gods.
Big Good: Prior of the Ice Barrier is the tribe's founder, having crafted the Mirror to reflect the Dragons powers back at them and seal them away, the current tribe tasked with maintaining their seals. While long dead by time of the war, his spirit continues to protect the tribe as the Sacred Spirit, and he gives up his existance to power the Mirror again and seal away the Dragons once more.
Book Ends: The artwork for Winds Over the Ice Barrier features younger versions of Gishki Emilia and Gishki Avance, mirroring the aftermath of the Duel Terminal sections as seen in Sacred Serpent's Wake and Zefra Providence.
Breakout Character: Because of its popularity, Trishula would receive two counterparts. One would be a Fusion retrain and a Synchro retrain. The Synchro retrain would gain the ability to let its user float into the original and cripple their opponents' monsters at the same time.
Continuity Nod: In the card lore, Gishki Noelia was part of the Ice Barrier before she defected; her younger form, Revealer of the Ice Barrier, was added in a later wave of support to show what Noellia appeared like in the past. Likewise, Speaker for the Ice Barriers is a younger Ariel, Mirror Judge of the Ice Barrier is a younger Natalia and Hexa Spirit of the Ice Barrier is a younger Exa.
The Corruption: Evilswarm Bahamut, Evilswarm Ophion and Evilswarm Ouroboros are the dragons of the Ice Barrier archetype infected by the Evilswarm virus. To make matters worse, they've gained insectoid parts according to their concept arts.
Culture Chop Suey: The Ice Barrier archetype resembles for the most part famous concept, figures, warriors, and mythological beings of different Asian cultures.
Dual Wielding: Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier is carrying two giant icicle-themed chakrams.
Fantastic Foxes: Defender of the Ice Barrier is a fox (or fox like creature) with pathetic attack stats (a mere 200), but provided there's another Ice Barrier monster on the field, the enemy can't attack them.
Godzilla Threshold: The Ice Barrier tribe fought against the invading Worms and Fabled by progressively unlocking seals on a series of powerful Ice Barrier monsters. Eventually, they wound up pushed so far back against the wall that they released Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. In its berserk rampage, Trishula wiped out nearly everybody, friend and foe alike, including most of the Ice Barrier tribe themselves. There's also Lancea, Dragonic Ancestor of the Ice Spirit Mountain. Judging by this name, this beast is the ancestor of the Ice Barrier dragons and can even special summon them with its effects.
Harping on About Harpies: Georgius, Swordman of the Ice Barrier, is among few odd ones out among the Ice Barrier tribe. He has a Mist Valley and Ice Barrier hybrid aesthetic to him and he's classified as a Winged Beast just like a majority of Mist Valley monsters.
Healing Hands: Gantala can revive another member of the Ice Barrier with his effect. Since his left hand is glowing, it is implied he has these.
Hidden Elf Village: The Ice Barrier monsters play this role, choosing to stay back and protect said barrier rather than help fight the Worm invasion.
Ice Magic Is Water: The Ice Barrier monsters are all WATER attribute but their names and abilities are themed around ice. Brioniac is even classified as Sea Serpent, a type meant for ocean-dwelling monsters in general, despite being an ice-themed dragon.
It Only Works Once: The Mirror of the Ice Barrier was originally crafted by the Prior to reflect the Dragons powers back at them and seal them away. When the tribe tries to use it again after the Dragons were released to fight the Worm and Fabled, they prove too powerful and the Mirror fails. This required the Sacred Spirit returning and giving up his existance to be able to seal them away again.
The Juggernaut: All three of the dragons, but Trishula is the strongest and most dangerous of the three, implicitly wiping out pretty much everyone when she gets loose, and only being stopped by the Sage of the Ice Barrier shoving her back in the can. She's ultimately only gotten rid of by Rasalhague merging with her.
Magic Mirror: Mirror Magic Master of the Ice Barrier specializes in this type of magic, given how they have three Ice Barrier token mirrors in their background. Given their effect, these mirrors are used to call upon the power of the Ice Barrier Synchros.
Meaningful Name: Georgius is based on the wielder of the blade Ascalon, hinting at a connection between Georgius, Swordman of the Ice Barrier, and the Dragunity.
Multiple Headcase: Trishula has three heads.
Mystical White Hair: Several of their tribespeople have this.
Opposing Combat Philosophies: While the Prior of the Ice Barrier established the tribe to maintain the seals on the Dragons, when the war with the Worm and the Fabled began, a schism was formed in the tribe over what to do. The more traditionalistic military wanted to adhere to the Prior's mission and keep the Dragons sealed, believeing their might be more than enough, and that if they really needed to, they could call upon Dewloren for aid. The mystics however did not believe in Dewloren's power, and felt only the Dragons could help them, proceeding to release them one by one hoping they would protect the tribe in their time of need.
Panthera Awesome: Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier. As the name suggests, he's a giant tiger covered in armor, and is revered by the military faction of the tribe as much as the Dragons. And while it's believed his might is enough to seal the Dragons again, he proves unable to stand up against Trishula.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Turns out there was a reason the dragons were locked up - they're uncontrollable, and when let lose, they tend to attack everything in sight. Void Trap Hole shows the moment that Prior/Sacred Spirit sealed away the dragons, if you look at the very top of the picture closely you can see him.
Seppuku: When a Samurai of the Ice Barrier on the field is changed from face-up Attack Position to face-up Defense Position, destroy it and draw 1 card. This particular effect is most likely a reference to Seppuku.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Trishula, Zero Dragon of the Ice Barrier, has an effect that lets it bring out the original Trishula with 3300 ATK if it's destroyed, while halving the opponent's monsters by half and negating their effects. 3300 ATK is chosen because Trishula is supposed be a match for Dragunity Knight - Ascalon.
Sole Survivor: After Trishula's rampage and subsequent death, the tribe was all but annihilated, the only survivors being the Revealer, the Mirror Judge, their children, the Speaker, and the Hexa Spirit, the majority forming the Gishki tribe. Mirror Judge would later be killed by Steelswarm Hercules and become Gishki Natalia, her son would become Gishki Avance, Revealer would be driven mad by the lswarm virus and become Gishki Noellia, her daughter would become Gishki Emilia, and the Speaker would grow up into Gishki Ariel. Where Hexa Spirit was during this period is unknown, but he would later grown up and rejoin Avance and Emilia in forming the Nekroz tribe as Exa, Enforcer of the Nekroz.
Taking You with Me: Unwittingly Inverted to devestating effect. Unleashing Trishula does succeed in wiping out the Fabled for good... along with the Ice Barrier tribe themselves and nearly ALL of the other tribes of the First Age.
We ARE Struggling Together: The official "Hidden Arsenal Storyline Insert" elaborated that the decision to release the Dragons was not unanimous. Rather, there was constant infighting in the tribe between the traditionalist military and the mystics, the former adhering to their values in keeping the Dragons sealed and thinking their military might was more than enough, the latter believing the Dragons would gladly help them in this time of crisis. Both sides ended up being wrong, as the military was facing pushback from the Worm invasion and the Fabled armada, and the mystics' faith in the Dragons proved unfounded when they went on a rampage.

Mist Valley

Mist Valley Thunder Lord

Mist Valley are a series of WIND monsters themed after birds and winged humanoids. They rely on bouncing themselves to the hand or bouncing other cards to the hand. Their leader is Mist Valley Apex Avian, who can negate card effects by bouncing other Mist Valley cards.

In the storyline, the Mist Valleys were among the tribes threatened by the Worm invasion, but when the Allies of Justice began to capture the Worms for study rather than fight them, they went off on their own and allied with the Dragunity tribe to defend themselves. After Trishula almost destroyed the world, the descendants of the Mist Valley and Dragunity tribes came to power in their territory as the Gusto tribe. Due to this, it can be said that they're indirect ancestors of the Ritual Beast Tamers.

Anti-Magic: When Mist Valley Executor is Normal Summoned, all face-up Spell and Trap Cards on the field are returned to their owners' hands.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: Mist Wurm. Several of them are summoned in the ensuing fight against Trishula.
Bowdlerise: The international version of Mist Valley Shaman has her bust size reduced and covered along with other areas of her body, to make the card less revealing. Her clothing is altered to remove any sexual references, and her expression to look more she's meditating rather than possessed.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the artwork for Mist Valley Thunder Lord, it is carrying the head of Catastor, implying that it defeated Catastor. In the context of the actual card game, this would be impossible as Mist Valley Thunder Lord cannot beat Catastor due to the effect of Catastor that automatically destroys any non-DARK monster. However, the artwork of Mind Pollutant, which depicts Fabled Raven taking control of Mist Valley Thunder Lord, forcing it to destroy Ally of Justice Catastor.
Harping on About Harpies: The Winged Humanoid members allude this appearance.
Homage: Mist Valley Falcon's appearance resembles that of Haseo, the main protagonist from the .hack//G.U. Games.
Lady Looks Like a Dude: Don't be fooled by the Boyish Short Hair and muscles, Mist Valley Falcon is indeed a female.
Power Nullifier: Mist Bird Clausolas can turn an opposing monster's ATK to 0 while negating their effect.
Took a Level in Badass: Mist Valley Apex Avian appears to be an upgraded version of Mist Valley Thunderbird. Mist Valley Apex Avian has the highest ATK of all Duel Terminal WIND monsters, second to Mist Valley Thunder Lord and Daigusto Eguls, both of 2600 ATK.
Unwilling Roboticization: Mist Bird Clausolas is, in fact, the same monster as Ally of Justice Clausolas, before being turned into a Machine. This is especially evident by the flavor text of Ally of Justice Clausolas, which mentions that it is "the ultimate weapon designed from Claiomh Solais." and considering it's very likely that Clausolas is a wild creature, this is very likely the case.

Genex

Genex Controller

Genex is an archetype of Machine-Type monsters with various effects. It is difficult to explain their theme without knowing their backstory. The Genex monsters were originally mysterious robots that tended to the planet's environment, but they later joined the Allies of Justice in fighting the Worm invasion, and were eventually adapted to aid the four elemental tribes in defending themselves. Thus, the Genexes rely on supporting other Attribute-themed archetypes, and combining with them to power them up. Their strongest cards include Genex Ally Triarm and Genex Ally Triforce, Synchro Monsters that gain different effects depending on the Attributes of the Synchro Materials used to summon them.

Heroic Sacrifice: Genex Spare goes out with a bang while controlling Ally of Justice Field Marshall.
Homage: Many of the "Genex Ally" monsters have a resemblance to characters from the Megaman series. Also, they all have similar poses to the Robot Masters. "Genex Ally Duradark" resembles Megaman, while "Genex Ally Remote" has resembles Galaxy Man, etc.
Meaningful Name:
- The "Ally" part of "Genex Ally" may refer to the fact that some of them can be used in conjunction with other archetypes (like Bellflame with Neo Flamvell, Reliever with Naturia and "Triforce" with Worm). The compatibility of some depends on the Attribute of the Synchro Material Monsters used to Summon them.
- Genex Ally Triforce and Genex Ally Triarm have 3 special effects and they gain one, depending on which monsters you used for their Synchro Summons.
- Thermal Genex's effect reflects on its name. Thermal energy heats things up but can give off harmful radition which explains its burn damage effect.
- Hydro Genex's reflects on its name. Hydro meaning water is used to rehydrate the body which explains its healing effect.
- In the OCG, the Flamvell archetype is called Frembell. Genex Ally Bellflame's name is a play on the Frembell archetype.
- R-Genex Turing is based on Alan Turing, one of the founders of computer science.
Mechanical Lifeforms: All Genex monsters are machines, although only a small number of them are Machine-type. They could even be sentient, as Genex Spare hands Genex Controller a flower (a sentimental gesture) after its sacrifice to stop the Worms in the artwork Final Gesture. The archetype's Master Duel solo gate reveals they existed long before the Worms invaded, but the other tribes consider their origins a mystery.
Punny Name: Vindikite R-Genex is a play on the words "Vindicate" and "Kite". Kite makes sense as it is a WIND monster and its body shape resembles that of a kite.
Theme Naming: Genex monster names resemble several forms of energy development (hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, etc).
We Can Rebuild Him:
- Arms of Genex Return Zero is a rebuilt version of Ally of Justice Decisive Armor.
- Repair Genex Controller is a rebuilt Genex Controller free from the Evilswarm corruption with the corrupted parts being replaced with Genex Spare's parts.
Unwitting Pawn: Tierra used the Genex as pawns. They all have a special program that orders them to kill Sophia and scorch the land for Tierra's return.

Ally of Justice

Ally of Justice Catastor

The Ally Of Justice are a series of DARK Machine-Type monsters that arrived to stop the invasion of the LIGHT Worms. As such their effects center on crippling enemy LIGHT monsters. They're lead by Ally of Justice Decisive Armor. In 5D's, they are used by the Diablo, an army of Ghosts (which are Riding Roids).

Dark Is Not Evil:
- Despite being DARK monsters, the Allies of Justice are ironically a heroic faction, fighting to protect the DT world against the LIGHT-Attribute Worm invasion.
- Subverted in the anime, where the Allies of Justice are used by the Diablo, a Mecha Mook army of Yliaster.
Evil Counterpart: Inverted: Searcher seems to be made to specifically counter "Worm Barses". "Worm Barses" flips monsters face-down, while "A.O.J. Searcher" flips monsters face-up without triggering their Flip Effects. Besides, they have similiar stretching-arms posture, same ATK and Level, with opposite Attributes (LIGHT vs DARK).
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the artwork for Mist Valley Thunder Lord, Thunder Lord is carrying the head of Catastor, implying that it defeated Catastor. However, in the actual card game, Thunder Lord can't beat Catastor in a battle, since Catastor will automatically destroy it with its effect.
Giant Squid: Ally of Justice Enemy Catcher. The tentacles it uses when it is summoned indicates that this particular Ally of Justice specializes in capturing and temporarily enslaving the Worm menace.
He Who Fights Monsters: As the battle with the Worms went on, they go from fighting them to capturing them to use their power. This angered the Mist Valley enough they pulled out of the alliance.
"Instant Death" Radius:
- Ally of Justice Catastor destroys any non-DARK face-up monster at the start of the Damage Step, which lets it annihilate the vast majority of its possible opposition in straight combat. It enjoyed immense popularity for years because of this.
- Ally of Justice Core Destroyer likewise destroys any LIGHT monster it faces in battle at the start of the Damage Step; its effect, appearance, and stats suggest that it is a weaker copy or prototype of Catastor's.
Man of Kryptonite: Built specifically to counter the "Worm" archetype, gameplay-wise extending to all LIGHT monsters.
Meaningful Name:
- Ally of Justice Reverse Break is an "Ally of Justice" monster which gains a negative effect from a LIGHT monster on the field, likely referring to the "reverse" part of its name.
- Ally of Justice Cycle Reader's name is a reflection of its effect. It reads the cycle (cards being sent to the graveyard and then reused) and disrupts it by banishing them.
- "Catastor" could be a play on the word "catastrophe" considering its powerful destruction effect.
- It is implied that Ally of Justice Unlimiter is the "Limiter Removal" for "Allies of Justice" due to this card's name (Unlimiter has basically the same meaning as "Limiter Removal").
Multi-Armed and Dangerous:
- "Omni-Weapon" has eight arms equipped with weapons, only four of them can be determined from the artwork: hammer, drill, giant scissor/cutter and giant punch. These eight weaponized arms thus make "Omni-Weapon"'s name fitting.
- "Thousand Arms" has a BFS, an axe, a cutlass a halberd and a mace. The effect of attacking multiple times during the Battle Phase is a reference to its multiple weapons.
Noble Bird of Prey: Since the Ally of Justice monsters are adversaries of the LIGHT Worm archetype, Ally of Justice Clausolas's bird-like appearance makes sense because of the "stereotypical" (or part of) every bird's diet - they eat worms.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: According to the lore, after a while the Allies stopped asking the Genex for their cooperation, and just straight out lobotomized them so they'd work the Ally of Justice armors.
Power Nullifier: Any LIGHT monster that has battled Ally of Justice Nullfier has its effects negated (starting after damage calculation).

Naturia

Naturia, known as Naturu in the OCG, is an archetype of EARTH monsters themed after plants, animals and insects. Their specialty is countering the opponent's moves in various ways, highlighted by their Synchro monsters, Naturia Barkion, Naturia Landoise, and Naturia Beast, who can freely negate Trap Cards, Monster Effects, and Spell Cards, respectively. Barkion and Beast fuse into the leader of the archetype Naturia Exterio, who can negate Spell and Trap Cards at will.

Animate Inanimate Object: Some of their number include living rocks.
Anti-Magic: A well-constructed Naturia Deck can completely lock down an opponent, as there are Naturia monsters able to negate the effects of Spell Cards, Trap Cards, Normal Summons and Special Summons.
Badass Adorable: Some of their monsters pack a surprising punch for creatures that look so cute and cuddly.
The Cameo: Naturia Beans make an appearance outside of standard Duel Terminal lore in Mamemaki. They are encouraging the unlucky goblin who got picked as the oni during Setsubun alongside Jerry Beans Man and Bean Soldier.
The Four Gods: Three of their Synchro Monsters are based of this motif. Barkion is Seiryu, Beast is Byakko, and Landoise is Genbu.
Hidden Elf Village: The Naturia Forest is protected by its inhabitants, who fiercely guard the borders to stop anyone getting in. Given what's lying in the middle of the forest, there might be a reason for that.
Mythology Gag: Leo's vulnerability during Main Phase 2 is a nod toward the Duel Terminal, in which the Main Phase 2 was omitted from the game. The three kinds of monsters Leo is based on, "Naturia", "Constellar", and "Evilswarm", originated in the Duel Terminal series.
Nature Equals Plants: The archetype's name comes from Nature, and is strongly associated with plants and forests.
Planimal: Some of them, such as Naturia Leodrake.
Sole Survivor: Of all the First Age archetypes, the Naturia are the only ones to fully survive into the Second Age, with all of the other factions being almost if not entirely wiped out by Trishula's rampage.
Sugar Bowl: They're cutesy-looking creatures who inhabit a lovely, unspoiled forest. Turns into a Sugar Apocalypse by the time the Shaddolls and Infernoids turn up, as they raze the sacred forest to the ground to get at the Naturia Sacred Tree.
Tiger Versus Dragon: Beast is the Tiger and Barkion is the Dragon. However, they can get along and fuse into Naturia Exterio.
Took a Level in Badass: Leo, Protector Beast of the Sacred Tree, is an advanced version of Naturia Leodrake, enhanced with the armors worn by the "Constellar" and the "Evilswarm", respectively. Leo fused with Naturia Landoise and turn into Naturia Gaiasteleoh. Later, he fuses with Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio to become Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio, the boss monster of the Ritual Beast archetype.
Weak, but Skilled: Although the Naturia Synchro Monsters have high ATK, Naturia Main Deck monsters usually have low ATK, but they have effects that can control the field easily. Inverted with Naturia Leodrake, who has the highest ATK among the Naturia, but has no effects whatsoever.
World Tree: Naturia Sacred Tree, which is a gigantic tree that supports the Insects and Plants of the Naturia. It turns out to be a can from sealed evils, in this case the Infernoids.

(The) Fabled

Fabled Leviathan

Fabled cards, known as Demon Roar Gods (魔轟神 Magōshin) in the OCG, are a series of LIGHT Fiend- and Beast-Type monsters. They are ancient sealed entities released during the Worm invasion. They rely on discarding themselves from the hand to use their effects, which including swarming the field and retrieving other Fabled cards from the deck or hand. There is a sub-group called The Fabled. Their leader is Fabled Leviathan.

Adorable Evil Minions: A number of Fabled monsters have goofy-looking super-deformed minions on their card art.
All There in the Manual: Most of the story behind the Fabled monsters is referenced in the Duel Terminal manuals such as the Master Guide, like many other DT-related archetypes.
Authority Equals Asskicking: The most powerful of the Fabled monsters, Fabled Leviathan, sits on a throne.
Bowdlerize: Originally called the Magoshin (Demonic Roar Gods) and Magoshinju (Demonic Roar God Beasts), the archetypes are translated as "Fabled" and "The Fabled" respectively.
Black Magic: Implied through their card effects ^note, Fabled monsters command powerful sorcery. At least one type of sorcery lets them summon their "The Fabled" monsters.
Cool Mask: Many of them wear a masque.
Cute Is Evil: The Beast-Type Tuners, The Fabled Catsith, The Fabled Cerburrel, and The Fabled Chawa are downright adorable.
Dog Stereotype: Due to the look of The Fabled Chawa, it was most likely based on a Chihuahua. It is much weaker than most monsters in the game, which fits into the Chihuahua's reputation for taking on more than they can handle.
Fallen Angel:
- It should be noted that, although these creatures are "demonic", they are all LIGHT monsters believed to resemble the archetypal Fallen Angels from the Bible. However, they all have masks, which makes them more like the monsters of the Spanish legend that the Hollows of the Bleach series were created from.
- Fabled Leviathan shares its name with Leviathan, a demon and legendary creature of Hebrew folklore. Leviathan is also a fallen angel of the Seraphic Celestial class in Christian Theology of certain sects.
For the Evulz: They are this according to the Duel Terminal story, as they would randomly attack warring factions already in battle just for the hell of it. Fabled Leviathan takes it to the extreme as he would randomly appear during great battles and kill everyone there before disappearing again.
Gender-Blender Name: Fabled Dianaira might be named after Deianira in Greek mythology. The original Deianira is female while this card is obviously male.
The Grim Reaper: Fabled Urustos seems to represent the angel of death or death itself.
Hellhound: The Fabled Cerburrel's name and appearance derive from Cerberus; the three-headed dog of the Underworld in Greek myth.
Hellish Horse: The Fabled Unicore, a unicorn with demonic red eyes.
Hijacked by Ganon: Steelswarm Origin may be connected to the Fabled archetype as it has the same type and attribute to the Fabled Fiend-type monsters. It also has a smug grin similar to the Fabled Fiend monsters.
Killed Off for Real: According to the storyline as of Hidden Arsenal 4, the Ice Barrier archetype got sick and tired of the Fabled and Worms wreaking havoc everywhere, so they unleashed Trishula... who proceeded to plunge the entire planet into a new ice age. No Fabled has been printed until Blazing Vortex a decade later.
Light Is Not Good: They are not only LIGHT Fiend-Type monsters; they are evil to their cores.
Lost in Translation: Due to the name change, people outside of the OCG Regions are less likely to see the meaning behind their original name. See Meaningful Name below.
Meaningful Name:
- The world of the Fableds are divided into three realms: the lowest Makai, the middle Goukai, and the top Shinkai. When the three realms' names are combined, it turns into MaGouShinkai.
- Some of the Fabled monsters are named after different types of demons.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Marchosia is often depicted as a wolf with gryphon wings and a snake for tail. This form can be seen in Fabled Regicide.
The Starscream: In the artwork for Fabled Regicide, Andraith and Marchosia are about to overthrow Leviathan.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Fabled monsters rise up from a hidden realm within the Earth. The more conflict there is, the more of them can get out.
Slouch of Villainy: Leviathan is depicted like this on his card.
Spell My Name with a "The": "The Fabled" is considered to be a sub-archetype of Fabled cards (The difference is, they are Beast-Type monsters, while ones without a "The" are Fiend-Type monsters.)
Youkai:
- The Fabled Nozoochee's name is based off of the Nozuchi, which is another name for the tsuchinoko serpent.
- Also, The Fabled Kuddabi is based on the Kudan, a Youkai that has a human face with a calf's body. The Kudan is said to predict calamities, and dies within 3 days of being born. (The monster on the card resembles a fiendish horse with a shawl over its face.)

Jurrac

Jurrac Meteor

Jurrac is a series of FIRE Dinosaur cards. They rely on activating effects when they battle, and their effects mostly rely on field control and swarming. Their strongest monster, Jurrac Meteor, can destroy all cards on the field when it hits.

Cartoon Creature: Jurrac Meteor is a dinosaur based on the meteor that caused the K-T extinction rather than any extant species, and ends up resembling Bowser, rather than any real dinosaur species.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Being dinosaurs prominently themed around fire, though only Titano and Meteor are draconian.
Death from Above: Jurrac Impact's effect is similar to "Jurrac Meteor", as "Jurrac Meteor" appears in this artwork. Jurrac Meteor itself counts, as it enters the field by destroying everything (including itself).
Informed Species: Jurrac Tyrannus is named after Tyrannosaurus rex but more closely resembles a dromaeosaurid.
Irony: Jurrac Meteor is a dinosaur based off a meteor, even though historically, a meteor impact led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Odd Name Out: Jurrac Meteor's name doesn't come from a dinosaur, and it is the only "Jurrac", besides Jurrac Ptera, that is not based off a real dinosaur (though it may be based off of the meteor that was believed to have caused the dinosaurs' extinction, which explains the first part of its effect).
Taking You with Me: The Jurrac tried doing this with the Fabled. While they did wipe out a good chunk of them, they didn't get them all.

Dragunity

With the heart of a dragon we ride!

Dragunity is an archetype of WIND Dragon-Type and Winged-Beast-Type monsters that rely on equipping other members of their series in the Graveyard to themselves to power up.

The archetype is featured in the Structure Deck: Dragunity Legion and its Structure Deck R counterpart.

Armor-Piercing Attack: Zigzagged; Pilum can turn any monster it's equipped to into a direct attacker, although any battle damage it inflicts as a result is halved. Angusticlavii inflicts piercing battle damage if equipped with another Dragunity card.
Big Damn Heroes: The Dragunity for the Mist Valley archetype. Later cards have suggested they were this to the entire Duel Terminal world, with Ascalon in particular duking it out with Trishula. Cards such as "Dragunity Oubliette", "Ice Dragon Prison" and "Winds Over the Ice Barrier" imply that Ascalon and Areadbhair were both instrumental in resealing the Ice Barrier Dragons and stopping their rampage.
Bystander Syndrome: For whatever reason, they tended to generally stay out of the conflict most of the time, if their frequent absence from the storyline is any indication. That said, when they do get involved, they help a lot, since it was the Dragunity Divine Lance that destroyed Infernoid Devyaty.
Equippable Ally: Part and parcel of the archetype. Some of their Dragon-type Tuners give benefits to a monster equipped with them, while others can Special Summon themselves while they're being treated as equip cards to enable Synchro plays. Likewise, many of their support cards and non-Tuner monsters can equip other Dragunities to themselves.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Their armor, as well as the names of their Winged Beast-type members, are all heavily based on Ancient Rome.
Fusion Dance: Dragunity Knight Ascalon seems to be a combination of the eight Dragunity tuner dragons, ridden by Dragunity Dux.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Dragunity Knights Ascalon's and Areadbhair's ability to banish opponent's monsters reflects how the pair were pivotal in resealing the Ice Barrier Dragons.
Our Dragons Are Different: Averted with the Dragunity Knights, which are humanoids riding on dragons, but the Armas are Dragons that wield swords and have a second, feathered set of wings and the rest are used as weapons.
Theme Naming:
- The Dragon-Type Tuner Dragunity monsters are named after pole weapons (e.g. "Dragunity Darkspear").
- The Winged Beast-Type Dragunity monsters derive their names from ranks in the Roman Empire's hierarchy (Ex. - "Dragunity Legionnaire" is named after the common soldier, while Dragunity Senatus is based on a Roman senator).
- The Dragunity Knights and Dragunity Arma are named after weapons, often legendary ones (e.g. Dragunity Knight Ascalon is named after the lance used by St. George).
Winged Humanoid: All of the Winged Beasts in the archetype are humanoids in roman soldier themed bird costumes.

Part Two Archetypes

Vylon

The Vylon monsters are a group of LIGHT Fairy monsters, that work together with and as Equip cards. They seem to be some type of mechanical angels, with the Tuners being based on various shapes. Their "leader" is Vylon Omega.

Ambiguous Robot: They're artificial and look incredibly mechanical, but are all Fairy type monsters, and aren't treated as Machine type monsters either.
Big Good: The Vylon, who had merely observed the confrontations on the planet below, descend from the heavens to intervene in the war between the Laval and Gem-Knight tribes. At the same time, the Steelswarm awaken from underground near a battle between the Gusto and Gishki tribes due to the battle's ensuing chaos, seeking their revenge on the surface world and the Vylon that sealed them away in the first place. To fight against them, the four other tribes create an alliance under the direction of the Vylon.
Captain Ersatz: Vylon Disigma shares some similarities with Maverick Commander Sigma of Mega Man X:
- Both were once the Leader of an organization which sought good, Maverick Hunters and Vylon.
- During the final battle, when Vylon Tetra was used in a ritual by Noellia to merge into Tetrogre, the evil of the Evilswarm possessing Noellia touched the hive-mind of the Vylon. The resulting madness quickly spread through the Vylon ranks, warping them in a way that the swarm never could physically. The Vylon resolve to exterminate the other tribes to end their on-going feuds for good and create the perfect utopia. Sigma became corrupt after fighting Zero.
- After witnessing the endless conflict of the tribes in the planet and disheartened after losing the former Vylon commander, Vylon Omega, Disigma grew even more disillusioned with life on the planet and decidided only Vylon were fit to survive and only they could create a Utopia. Sigma grew disillusioned with humans; deciding Reploids had infinite potential, he tried to create a Reploid Utopia.
- Their name is similar to Sigma, Vylon Di-Sigma.
The Corruption: Their Hive Mind was corrupted by an Evilswarm infected Noelia/Tetrogre.
Equippable Ally: Quite a few of the Tuners, and two of the monsters (Tesseract & Pentachloro) are also Union monsters.
Gold and White Are Divine: They're white and golden Fairy monsters that are more or less actual angels within the Duel Terminal storyline.
Hero Killer: Disigma's rampage killed Evigishki Merrowgeist, Lavalval Ignis, Daigusto Phoenix, Evgishki Gustkrake, Lavalval Dragoon, and Daigusto Falcos.
Living Weapon: Were an arsenal of mechanical weapons created by the Constellars to keep watch over the duel terminal world.
Mutual Kill: Vylon Omega & Evilswarm Hercules kill off eachother at the same time.
Powered Armor: In their time of need, the Vylon send each of the tribes new power via Vylon Element.
- Vylon Sphere + Reeze, Whirlwind of Gusto = Daigusto Sphreez
- Vylon Tetra + Gishki Noellia = Evigishki Tetrogre
- Vylon Stella + Laval Cannon = Laval Stennon
- Vylon Prism + Gem-Knight Crystal = Gem-Knight Prismaura
Theme Naming: The Tuner monsters of this group are shaped and named after three-dimensional geometric figures ("Prism", "Cube", "Sphere", "Tetra[hedron]", "Stella [Octangula]", and the Union monsters are based on four-dimensional figures. The Synchro Monsters in this group are named with the phonetic pronunciation of a Greek letter and have bodies resembling that letter ("Vylon Epsilon", "Vylon Sigma", "Vylon Omega"), or something in their bodies that resembles that letter ("Vylon Alpha" and "Vylon Delta"). The Xyz Monster of this group is named after an archaic Greek letter ("Vylon Disigma").
Sigil Spam: Their team symbol is a golden orange orb, often with gold metal trim.

Laval

A deck boiling over with power.

Laval monsters are a series of FIRE Pyro and Warrior monsters. They rely on milling cards for various effects, including swarming and card destruction. In the storyline, they live for battle and warred with the Gem-Knights until they were forced to work with them to repel the Steelswarm invasion. Their normally strongest monster is Lavalval Dragon, but with the aid of Vylon Stella they created the stronger Laval Stennon.

Asskicking Leads to Leadership: According to the Master Guide, Judgement Lord seized control of the Laval by force, then pointed the rest of them in everyone else's direction.
Blood Knight: The reason they went to war with the Gem-Knights was their hunger for battle.
Homage: Lavalval Ignis looks like a combination of Dormammu and Ghost Rider.
Meaningful Name:
- Laval Phlogis's name is based on Phlogiston theory, which was first stated in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher; it's an obsolete scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called "phlogiston", which was contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion.
- Laval Stennon's name is the combination of Vylon Stella's and Laval Cannoneer's.
- Laval Coatl looks like a Quetzalcoatlus
Sole Survivor: ALL of the Lavals were sacrificed by the Gishki, but Phlogis, who worked as a lumberjack in the Laval Flame Volcano region, got away.
Visual Pun: "Laval Miller" is a pun, since it sends cards to the Graveyard, or "mills" them. It is also a reference to the wheel it is pushing, which can be used in a mill to grind wheat.

Gem-Knight

Perfectly fusion summoned, as all things should be.

Gem-Knights are an archetype of gemstone-themed Warriors that rely on Fusion Summoning via Gem-Knight Fusion to quickly swarm the field with powerful Fusion cards, their cards also recycling other Gem-Knights from the Graveyard. Their leader is Gem-Knight Master Diamond. They are used by Masumi Kotsu/Julia Krystal in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Anime. There are a few cards that support the Melodious cards and the Gem-Knight cards because of the bond between Yuzu Hiragi and Masumi Kotsu.

All Your Colors Combined: The background and sword of Master Diamond's give off this vibe.
All Your Powers Combined: Master Diamond has numerous gemstones embedded on his sword, can be summoned with any three Gem-Knights as Fusion materials, and can take on the powers of other Gem-Knight Fusion monsters in the Graveyard.
And I Must Scream: Lapis is grabbed by Cairngorgon early on, and used as a fuel source for the Shaddolls, then the Infernoids. By the time Tierra is defeated, there's not much of her left.
Big Damn Heroes: Following the above, the Gem-Knights show up and save the last few Gusto from death.
Big Good: Gem Knight Lazuli, as Constellar Sombre is basically the overall main heroic force of the Duel Terminal storyline, providing the protagonists with the means to combat the Shadolls. She even inherited the position of Gem-Knight leader as Gem-Knight Quartz.
Color-Coded Stones: With the exception of Lazuli, each of the knights are colored after their namesake gems. Even then the jewel on Lazuli's chest is as blue as you'd expect.
Dwindling Party: Between one thing and another thing, the Gem-Knights start losing a lot of members. The vast remainder of them merging into Master Diamond didn't help, so by the time Tierra makes an appearance, Lazuli and Diamond are all there is.
Fallen Hero: El Shaddoll Construct is a corrupted version of Gem-Knight Lapis and Cairngorgon/Shaddoll Core/El Shaddoll Grysta is a fallen version of Gem-Knight Crystal/Master Diamond.
Fusion Dance: This is their main gimmick. Gem Knights not only unleash their true power upon fusion, but they have many trap cards and alternative spell cards to enable fusion or, in the case of trap cards, keep up the assault with a brand new monster.
- Gem-Knight Lady Rose Diamond is a fusion between a Fairy-type Monster and a Gem-Knight. She's most likely a fusion of Gem-Knight Quartz and Brilliant Rose as both cards were released in the same set as Gem-Knight Lady Rose Diamond. This fusion can also be seen as the bond between Masumi and Yuzu.
- Gem-Knight Lazuli fused herself with most of the Constellar monsters, the exceptions being Castor and Rasalhague, to become Constellar Sombres in order to defeat Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth together with Evilswarm Kerykeion.
- Gem-Knight Master Diamond fused with the Stellarknights Sirius, Procyon, Capella and Rigel and the 2 Tellarings housing the souls of Constellar Aldebaran and Constellar Pollux to become Stellarknight Constellar Diamond. Then Stellarknight Constellar Diamond fused with Sombre and the remaining Stellarknights to become Tellarknight Ptolemaeus.
The Heavy: Gem Knight Crystal and Gem Knight Lapis, or rather their corrupted fallen version was pretty much the direct cause of every single conflict in the third act of Duel Terminal storyline. Following the former revival as Cairngorgon, and evolution into Shaddoll Core, almost everything bad that happened in the third act was directly a result of his action. Similarly Lapis, as El Shaddoll Construct was the longest lasting antagonist in the third act, with a good deal of the third act having the heroes fighting her various forms.
The Lancer: Gem-Knight Zirconia is second-in-command of the Gem-Knights after Master Diamond.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: They value honor above everything else, and only got into fighting after being attacked repeatedly by the Lavals. This is probably why they got so angry at the Evilswarm and Gishki as described above.
The Power of Friendship: Seraphinite's power, according to the lore, born from Lazuli fusing with one of the Constellar.
Rainbow Motif: As the archtype is partly a homage to the Crystal Beasts this is a given. Specifically in Master Diamond's sword and artwork.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When the Gishki attempt to wipe out the Gusto with chemical weapons of some sort, the Gem-Knights get very, very angry.
Shout-Out: Unintentional but, many have noted the similarities between the Gem-Knights and the Crystal Gems.
The Smurfette Principle: Gem-Knight Lazuli was the only female among the Main Deck monster group. However, in ARC-V, they introduced a new female member, Gem-Knight Lapis, who is said to be Lazuli's sibling, and they can even form a Fusion Monster, Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli. Gem-Knight Seraphinite was the only female Fusion Monster of the group (until ARC-V came with two new female Fusions).

Gishki

Noellia, leader of the Gishki. Not exactly in the running for a "mother of the year" award.

Gishki, called Ritua in the OCG, are a series of WATER monsters with a focus on Ritual Monsters, which was significantly underutilized at the time of the archetype's release. They search out their Ritual monsters and the universal Ritual card Gishki Aquamirror from the deck to quickly Ritual Summon them, and can recycle the Mirror and Ritual Monsters from the Graveyard.

Lore-wise, the Gishki are a society of practitioners of the forbidden arts that branched out from the Ice Barriers, led by Gishki Noellia, formerly Revealer of the Ice Barrier. Noellia was corrupted by the Evilswarm in an Ice Barrier ritual involving the Steelswarms during the first DT war. She triggered the second DT war as she invaded the Gusto tribe while under the control of Evilswarm, in order to take over their divine Shrine and unseal the Steelswarm.

Back from the Dead: Evigishki Zealgigas is Steelswarm Hercules brought back with a Gishki ritual.
The Corruption: Gishki Psychelone is an Verz/Evilswarm-infected Gishki Noelia.
Demonic Possession: According to the lore, this is how their rituals work - a demon is summoned and put in someone else's body, warping it to match the demon.
Dub Text: Interestingly when you compare the original OCG artwork to the censored TCG artwork of Aquamirror Cycle, the OCG artwork shows Gishki Emilia in pain but having survived the forced ritual summoning events of "Aquamirror Illusion", while the TCG artwork seems to show that she's dead from the neutral expression on her face.
Enemy Mine: In an attempt to fight the Steelswarm and Vylon; then a villainous variant when they join forces with the Verz/Evilswarm.
Furry Female Mane: Evigishki Levianima and Evigishki Tetrogre. It's supposed to indicate how the Gishki rituals has changed them into more powerful forms.
Fusion Dance: Lavalval Chain is a fusion of Gishki Chain and a Lvl. 4 Lavalval monster, Evigishki Levianima is a fusion between Gishki Avance and Gishki Beast, Evigishki Tetrogre is a fusion between Vylon Tetrah and Gishki Noelia, and Evigishki Merrowgeist is a fusion between Gishki Emilia and Musto, Priest of Gusto.
Gone Horribly Wrong:
- Natalia and Noellia summoned the Steelswarm to fight the Fabled, but that backfired as Natalia lost her life.
- When Avance tried to revive Emilia using the power of Photomirror/Soulmirror, his unstable mental state caused the power of the mirror to rebound onto himself, causing him to absorb Emilia's soul and transform into the mindless beast Levianima.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Exactly who's side they're on depends on whether Noellia's leading them and just how much she's being influenced by the Evilswarm. Without her, they're firmly on "Face", but otherwise... it can be a toss-up.
Keep It Foreign: Ritua (OCG) —> Gishki (TCG). The OCG name is a corruption of the English word Ritual, while the TCG name is a corruption of the Japanese word Gishiki, which means "Ritual". This was probably necessary so cards with 'Ritual' in their names wouldn't accidentally become part of the archetype.
Meaningful Name: Gishki Reliever's effect is somewhat analogous to its name. In baseball, you call relief pitchers to the field (Normal Summon this card), and then return the existing starter to the dugout (Return one monster you control back to your hand).
The Quisling: In the Duel Terminal storyline when the Verz/Evilswarm invaded, the Gishkis allied themselves with them.
Religion of Evil: Their evilness comes and goes throughout the Duel Terminal storyline, but thematically, they're an evil cult that summons Eldritch Abominations.
Sole Survivor: Much like their predecessors, the Ice Barrier tribe, the majority of the tribe would be annihilated following the fight with Sophia, with Avance and Emilia as the only survivors. Following their battle with Tierra, they would end up joined by a revived Ariel.

Gusto

Daigusto Eguls, their boss monster

Gusto, known as Gusta in the OCG, are a series of WIND monsters that rely on unions between tamer and beast. They lack power but can swarm the field to perform Synchro Summons. In the backstory the Gustos are a tribe that lives in the swamplands and fights alongside monsters to repel foreign enemies, and they aided the Vylons in fighting the Evilswarm. Their strongest card is Daigusto Eguls.

Back from the Dead:
- Falco and Winda came back as Shaddolls and then were purified after the defeat of Tierra.
- Many of their effects, spell and trap cards brings them back from the graveyard.
Cosmic Plaything: They are among the only inhabitants of the DT world who wish to live in peace, but are the worst victims of the ongoing wars, and especially the Gishki's plots. However, a few of the Gusto do survive the final battle in the DT world.
Determinator: When the chips were down, they proceeded with the ritual to summon the god of the DT world, Sophia. Too bad the best they got was a Pyrrhic Victory.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Twice for Kamui. He survived the death of the Gusto Clan with Reeze after the end of the Steelswarm/Gishki War and had Pilica. After the war with the Shaddoll and Infernoid, it turned out Winda and Falco were purified of the Shaddoll corruption, and they all had a happy reunion. As a result, Winda joined the Ritual Beast Tamers and Falco became Ulti-Kimunfalcos.
Exotic Eye Designs: Their pupils are in the shape of their clan symbol. It's supposed to indicate their dedication to the Gusto cause.
Friend to All Living Things: Since their Tuner monsters are animals, they can unite with them and perform a Synchro Summon with ease.
Fusion Dance: Daigusto Emeral and Daigusto Phoenix. The fusions are supposed to indicate the aliance with the other tribes.
Generation Xerox: Daigusto Synchro Monsters is similar to that of Dragunity Knights in terms of appearance, consisting of rider and its mounts (Winged Beast and Dragons for "Dragunity" and Psychic and Winged Beasts for "Gusto", respectively). "Daigusto Sphreez" is the only exception, since she does not have a mount. This is probably referencing to the partnership between "Mist Valley" and "Dragunity" in the past. According to the Duel Terminal story, Gusto tribe are the Mist Valley tribe's descendants who inhabited the region after Trishula's rampage. This relationship is later adopted by Lavals in the form of Lavalval Dragun.
Godzilla Threshold: The Evilswarm were threatening to defeat the Gem-Knights and Constellar, so what did the last few Gusto do? Summoned God to try and resolve things, of course! Unfortunately for them, Sophia wanted to destroy the world, although she did ultimately fail.
Horse of a Different Color: Daigusto Eguls, Daigusto Falcos, Daigusto Gulldos and Daigusto Raprampilica are ridden by Windaar, Kamui, Winda and Pilica respectively. These Synchros show how strong their bonds are with their animals.
Noble Bird of Prey: Egul, Falco and Gulldo become this when ridden upon. It's to show how strong their bonds are with their masters.
Powered Armor: Daigusto Sphreez is just Reeze wearing Vylon Sphere as a suit of armor. The transformation is portrayed in the artwork for Gusto Tailwind. The level 5 or higher effect for Gusto Tailwind even alludes to the Daigusto Sphreez summon.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: According to the artwork, Daigusto Sphreez is Reeze wearing Vylon Sphere. With Vylon Sphere being a Lv.1 Tuner, and Reeze being a Lv.5 non-Tuner "Gusto", they can be used to summon Sphreez.
Sole Survivor: The Gusto clan themselves are the only residents of Mist Valley to have survived the rampage of Trishula and the other Ice Barrier Dragons at the end of the first age. By the end of the second age, only Gusto Kamui and Reeze have survived the wars with the Gishki, Evilswarm and the releasing of Sophia.
Stone Wall:
- The Gusto archetype utilizes their spells and traps to bolster their monsters' defenses, and use their monster effects to Special Summon additional Gusto monsters to the field when one is destroyed, allowing them to continuously maintain a board of Gustos and block off any attempts at direct attacking.
- Gusto Squirro has 0 attack points but has the highest defense points with 1800.
Taking the Bullet: When Vylon Disigma went on a rampage, Falco sacrificed itself to save Kamui.

Steelswarm

Steelswarm cards, called Inverz in the OCG, are a series of DARK Fiends based on insects. They revive the idea of Tribute Summoning, activating powerful destruction effects when their stronger members are Tribute summoned as their lower-level members provide support. As a downside most of them have 0 DEF. Their leader is Steelswarm Hercules.

Attack Its Weak Point: The higher level Steelswarm monsters Hercules, Caucastag, Girastag and Longhorn have some sort of sphered organ in their chests, seeing how Hercules has its second pair of arms covering it, it could be assumed that is their weak point, taking into account most Steelswarm have 0 DEF.
Ax-Crazy: As expected from a species corrupted by the Evilswarm, but the storyline implies that even before coming in contact with the virus, the predators that make up the higher-ups of the Steelswarm were pretty destructive, since their evil thoughts were what made them susceptible to the Evilswarm in the first place.
Back from the Dead: Steelswarm Hercules was brought back as Evigishki Zealgigas. It was supposed to show how Noelia is dedicated to the Evilswarm cause.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: They are so creepy, they are not categorized under Insects and are categorized under Fiends instead.
Color-Coded Characters: A few of them have hints of colors.
- Caucastag is red.
- Girastag is orange.
- Hercules and Roach are yellow.
- Longhorn is white.
- Mantis is blue.
- Moth is green.
Dark Is Evil: They were the Big Bad for their arc.
Evolutionary Levels: with the exception of gatekeeper Card artwork of Steelswarm monsters look like the development stages of a beetle according to level from low to high: Steelswarm Cell -> Steelswarm Scout -> Steelswarm Genesoid -> Steelswarm Sentinel -> Steelswarm Caller -> Steelswarm Mantis -> Steelswarm Moth -> Steelswarm Girastag -> Steelswarm Caucastag -> Steelswarm Longhorn -> Steelswarm Hercules
Heel–Face Turn: In the artwork of "Advance Zone", it is suggested that Steelswarm Roach was purified by the Vylons. Later on, Steelswarm Roach becomes Evilswarm Exciton Knight, and then part of the Zefra archetype as "Stellarknight Zefraxciton"
Homage
- The Steelswarm's appearance in of itself is a homage to the Worms of Kamen Rider Kabuto (except for "Steelswarm Cell" which is a Zecter from the same series).
- Some of the "Steelswarm" look similar to Cell from the Dragon Ball series.
Light Is Not Good: Steelswarm Origin is a LIGHT monster and the source of the Evilswarm infection.
Meaningful Name: "Evilswarm Exciton Knight"'s name references the "Exciton", the electrically neutral state of an electron found in insulators and superconductors. These particles are formed by the absorption of photons by superconductive substances, and can transmit energy without also transporting an electrical charge. Fittingly, this monster represents a "neutral" character formed by a DARK monster absorbing "photon energy" to transform.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Steelswarm Hercules appears to have four arms.
Power Gives You Wings: Evilswarm Exciton Knight receives another helping of power and turns into a chosen warrior of Zefra.
Power Nullifier: Steelswarm Sentinel prevents all special summoned level 5 monsters from activating their effects.
The Virus: Turns out the Steelswarm were infected by the Evilswarm Virus and one of the carriers is the Steelswarm Cell. The virus itself is known as Steelswarm Origin.

Evilswarm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/infestationinfection_lod2_jp_vg_artwork.jpg

The swarm consumes all.

The Evilswarm monsters, known as Verz in the OCG, are a series of DARK monsters that embody corrupted versions of other Duel Terminal archetypes. They have varied effects and are lead by several powerful Xyz monsters, the strongest of which is Evilswarm Ouroboros.

Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Constellar Sombre and Evilswarm Kerykeion successfully defeated Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth and ascended to a higher plane of existence (as mentioned in the DT Story Guide), becoming the twin serpents pictured in Breath of the Divine Serpent. Later events show they did come back.
Black Knight: Evilswarm Nightmare, what with it being the corrupted XX-Saber Boggart.
Body of Bodies: Evilsawrm Azzathoth. Worm Apocalypse, Dimikles, Falco, King, Rakuyeh, Tentacles, Victory, Warlord, Xex and Yagan can be identified as being parts of the whole monster. While the merge of Worms to fuse into Zero is "clean and solid," the Worms merged to make this card are just jumbled up in a large group of mangled biomass.
Came Back Wrong: At least some Evilswarm monsters are previous creatures revived by the virus.
Combat Tentacles: Many Evilswarms gain these as a result of their corruption, best seen on Evilswarm Ouroboros and Evilswarm Thunderbird.
Cool Train: Evilswarm Coppelial resembles a demonic steam locomotive, due to being the corrupted R-Genex Locomotion.
The Corruption: The Evilswarm virus corrupts those it comes into contact with, infecting them and transforming them into a mindless member of the horde. It even gives them Steelswarm-like parts, according to
Cute Is Evil: Evilswarm Mandrago because it's an infected Naturia Cosmobeet.
Dark Is Evil: And how, what with being a DARK archetype named Evilswarm that is a zombie plague caused by the demonic Steelswarm.
Enfant Terrible: Evilswarm Obliviwisp, the corrupted Neo Flamvell Origin.
Evil Counterpart: The Archetype's theme is making these of former Duel Terminal Archetypes.
Expy: Aside from their Evil Counterpart theme being similar to the existing Dark Counterparts, the Evilswarm have quite a bit in common with the Phyrexians and/or Eldrazi in Magic: The Gathering.
Foreshadowing: Gishki Noellia was infected and corrupted by the Evilswarm virus pretty early into the Steelswarm storyline after crossing the Despair Event Horizon, but we aren't made privy to exactly what it is that corrupted her until the Steelswarm are defeated, with the force corrupting her simply referred to as "the thoughts of the Steelswarm."
Hellish Horse: Evilswarm Thanatos gets about on a corrupted Fabled Unicore, who was already an example as it was.
Multiple Head Case: Verz/Evilswarm Zah[h]ak, which is based on Zahhak. Zahhak was commonly depicted as a three-headed dragon in Iranian mythology.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
- Because "Evilswarm" is definitely a name that would be used by good guys.
- Evilswarm Hraesvelg is taken from Hraesvelgr, a giant eagle from Norse mythology whose name means "corpse swallower".
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Evilswarm came about when the DT tribes managed to destroy the Steelswarm, which ended up releasing the Evilswarm virus from its Steelswarm hosts, causing far, far more destruction than the Steelswarm ever did.
Our Dragons Are Different: Three of the Evilswarm Xyzs are the corrupted Ice Barrier Dragons, with Brionac becoming Evilswarm Bahamut, Gungnir becoming Evilswarm Ophion, and finally Trishula becoming Evilswarm Ouroboros.
Puppeteer Parasite:
- Judging from Evilswarm Heliolope, more than just being a virus born from the bodies of fallen Steelswarm monsters (Infestation Infection), it can be said that it is an infection that carries the soul and will of the Steelswarms, thus any monster infected by it, became a slave to their will.
- For example in Trial and Tribulation, we see Gishki Noellia mourning who seems to be Gishki Natalia before becoming a spirit, all these while the Evilswarm Infection lurks around her, with none other than Steelswarm Grez in the background, later the infection grows (Creeping Darkness) and she becomes half Evigishki half Evilswarm (Evigishki Psychelone).
- Another example is Constellar Meteor where we see Constellar Castor charging against Evigishki Psychelone while the same Evilswarm Infection (from Trial and Tribulation) seems to approach him. So, more than just being a self-defense mechanism in case of extermination, the Evilswarm Virus is actually an amalgamate of the Steelswarm souls searching for new bodies in order to fulfill their objectives.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Evilswarm somehow infected the three sealed Ice Barrier dragons, so when the Gishki tried to revive them to stop the Evilswarms... it didn't end well.
Sixth Ranger: Gameplay-wise, the Evilswarm are an extension of the Steelswarm archetype by the name "lswarm," as written in their support cards. This is due to their original names (Verz and Inverz, respectively) meaning that all Steelswarm monsters are, by default, Evilswarms.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Steelswarm managed to put some pressure on the tribes before being killed by Vylon Omega. The Evilswarm killed off two tribes, corrupted a third and were literally on the brink of destroying the last resistance to their conquest before God itself was summoned to push the Reset Button.
Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Evilswarm Salamandra, the revived Jurrac Tyranno.
The Man Behind the Man: The Evilswarm plague is the force behind all of the Steelswarm's destructive actions in the first place.
Theme Naming: The Evilswarms are named after various monsters and deities from a variety of mythologies. Some of them also have names based on the Theme Naming of the archtype they were in per-corruption. Some can overlap (Castor) or be the Odd Name Out (Heliotrope and Copellia. coincidentally the former is the archtype's only Normal Monster).
Zombie Apocalypse: The result of the Evilswarm virus once Noelia betrays the other tribes and joins the Evilswarm.

Constellar

Constellar Pleiades

Constellar monsters, called Sacred in the OCG, are a series of LIGHT monsters that are variably Beast, Beast-Warrior, Warrior, or Machine. Based on the constellations, they swarm the field to perform Xyz summons of their stronger members, the strongest of which is Constellar Ptolemy M7. They are used by Hokuto Shijima in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Anime.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Constellar Sombres and Evilswarm Kerykeion successfully defeated Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth and ascended to a higher plane of existence (as mentioned in the DT Story Guide), becoming the twin serpents pictured in "Breath of the Divine Serpent". Later developments show wherever it was they went, they did come back eventually.
Big Damn Heroes: They appeared to help the tribes fight against the Evilswarm horde.
Fusion Dance:
- In the lore, how Constellar Ptolemy M7 is formed, with all the Constellar save Rasalhague forming it. The concept art even describes what parts of the Constellar compose Ptolemy M7.
- Twelve of the Constellar merged with Gem-Knight Lazuli to become Constellar Sombre.
- 2 Constellar Xyz monsters (judging by the orbs around the 2 monsters), the two parts of Constellar Ptolemy M7's body and "Shrine of Mist Valley" appear in "XYZ Universe"'s artwork. It is possible that those Xyz Monsters are fusing together to form Ptolemy, prior to the fight above the Shrine, between Ptolemy and Evilswarm Ouroboros, as shown in Infestation Terminus.
Heroic Sacrifice: Constellar Castor gave his life to free Noellia from the Evilswarm's corruption... unfortunately, it also allowed the Evilswarm to just resurrect him, giving them a significant boost. Oops?
Our Dragons Are Different: Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7, a large mechanical dragon formed by Fusion Dance.
Screw Destiny: The artwork for "Break the Cycle" reflects the fact that Sombre and Kerykeion were born using the banished bodies of their members (Constellar and Evilswarm) and they are working together to end Sophia's cycles of destruction and creation by destroying her.
Shout-Out: Holy armored knights named after the Zodiac determined to fight evil? This seems familiar...
Theme Naming: The main deck monsters are named after stars in the Zodiac constellations and the Xyz monsters are named after various clusters of stars.
Western Zodiac: With the exception of Sombre, all of the main deck Constellar monsters are named after stars located in the constellations associated with the Zodiac. Additionally the corresponding sign feature in the background of their artworks.

Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goddessofrebirth.png

The universal Reset Button of the Duel Terminal storyline; Sophia. Good Luck summoning her!

Sophia is the Goddess of the Duel Terminal universe, and the main villain of Act 2 of the storyline. She wields the powers of creation and destruction, and she awakes near the end of Act 2 to reset the world she created, leading to a grand alliance of the DT inhabitants to stop her.

In gameplay, Sophia is an extremely powerful field nuke with extremely strict Summoning conditions, suiting her status as the final boss of the story arc. When summoned, she banishes all other cards in the hand, field and Graveyard in a board wipe that cannot be negated or reacted to, resetting the game world and leaving herself alone on the field.

All Your Powers Combined: The Special Summoning Conditions of Sophia might be refering to the powers of the "Gishki" (Ritual Monster), "Gem-Knight" (Fusion Monster), "Gusto", "Vylon", and "Laval" (Synchro Monster), "lswarm", and "Constellar" (Xyz Monster).
On close inspection, this card seems to have a representation of each of the elemental Duel Terminal archetypes in its artwork. Sophia has two "Gishki Aquamirrors" for a bra (Gishki), two armbands with differently colored gems (Gem-Knight), a pair of green wings sprouting from her head (Gusto), flaming hair (Laval), and balls of Light and Darkness held in either hand (Vylon and Constellar and Steelswarm and Evilswarm, respectively).
Bilingual Bonus: Sophia (Σοφία) is the Greek word for wisdom.
Cain and Abel: According to the lore, Sophia and Tierra are siblings, but long ago Sophia beat Tierra up, stole its power, and sealed it inside the Naturia Sacred Tree. Unlike most examples of this, however, they are both major antagonists.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Sophia was on the receiving end of this trope, courtesy of Sombre and Kerykeion.
Disc-One Final Boss: Sophia turns out to be this once the second half of the Duel Terminal storyline continues.
Foil: Sophia and Tierra are opposites in many ways. Sophia is a DARK Fairy-type monster and has an organic-looking appearance while Tierra is a LIGHT Fiend-type and mechanical in terms of appearence. Both have the same level as well as a mass removal effect but while Sophia's banishes cards, Tierra's returns them to the deck instead. Also, their ATK/DEF values are the opposite of each other.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Sophia's sudden appearance near the end of the first half of Duel Terminal can count as this, having gone without foreshadowing until then.
God Is Evil: Sophia was eventually revealed to have created the Vicious Cycle below.
Greater-Scope Paragon: Not now, obviously, but in the past, she took the powers of the Sephirot tree and sent them far away so Tierra couldn't get at them. These would become the pyroxenes of the Gem Knights, and eventually the power source of the Zefra.
Kill the God: The ultimate fate of Sophia at the hands of Sombres and Kerykeion.
Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Surprisingly though, it's Sophia that's the DARK monster, and Tierra is the LIGHT monster.
Meaningful Name: Sophia is named for the Aeon Sophia in Gnostic Mythology.
Order Versus Chaos: Compare and contrast Sophia's Vicious Cycle of death and rebirth, and later, her plans for a Reset Button, with Tierra's desire to destroy everything upon freedom.
Physical God: Sophia and Tierra are the gods of the Duel Terminal World.
Recurring Element:
- Sophia is like a counterpart of The Creator God of Light, Horakhty since this card requires several different card types, which most Decks don't have, and that this card's Summon and effect cannot be negated.
- Additionally, Sophia's effect is similar to that of the Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus and Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, as well as the anime-exclusive Chaos End Ruler -Ruler of the Beginning and the End-.
Reset Button: Attempted by Sophia, but failed. See below.
Vicious Cycle: Sophia created a never ending cycle of reincarnation of creation and destruction. To escape from this cycle, Sombre and Kerykeion were born.
Yin-Yang Bomb: Sophia can be seen holding a light orb and a dark orb in her hands, representing the Constellar and Evilswarm respectively.

Part Three Archetypes

Yang Zing

Yang Zing, known as Dracomet or Cosmic Dragon (竜星 Ryūsei) in the OCG, are an archetype of monsters based on the Nine Sons of the Dragon in Chinese Mythology, and are one of the first Wyrm archetypes in the game. Their playstyle revolves around summoning one another when they're destroyed by battle or card effect, and they can Synchro Summon during the opponent's turn. Lore-wise, the Yang Zings are protector dragons for the earth created by Constellar Sombre through the combination of the earth's Elemental Powers and the power of the stars.

All Your Powers Combined:
- Encouraged by Baxia, who can send a number of opposing cards back to the deck up to the number of different Attributes among the monsters used to summon him, and because each of the four non-tuner Yang Zings will bestow a different ability on him.
- Chaofeng's first effect acts as a Power Limiter, which prevents the opponent from activating monster effects whose Attribute is the same as of the Yang Zings used to summon Chaofeng.
Back from the Dead: Baxia can resurrect monsters from your Graveyard.
The Berserker: Yazi, implied in the artwork of Yang Zing Brutality.
Call-Back: Their OCG name Ryusei is very similar to Yusei's name, with both having similar meanings ("Dracomet" and "planetary", respectively). Yusei is a specialist in Synchro Summoning. The Archetype's main strategy is also literally "Gathering stars combined to form a new power." The Yang Zings' power to Synchro Summon during the opponent's turn is also very reminiscent of the Accel Synchro ability from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.
Dark Is Not Evil: Beyond having DARK members, the Archetype actually goes the extra mile in asserting this trope by having different members represent darkness (Jiaotu) and evil (Yazi).
Death-Activated Superpower: Except for Baxia, Zefraxi, and Zefraniu, Yang Zings replace themselves with another Yang Zing upon destruction.
Dub Name Change: They are called “Cosmic Dragons” or "Dracomet" in the OCG.
Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Yang Zings are based heavily on the Nine Sons of the Dragon of Chinese Mythology.
Fusion Dance: Although Yang Zings focuses on Synchro Summons, their Synchro Monsters aside from Chaofeng resemble a merger of the group's monsters and in most cases, can be summoned using those monsters.
- Chiwen + Bi'an + Suanni = Baxia
- Jiaotu + Taotie = Yazi
- Chiwen + Suanni = Denglong
Heel–Face Turn: After becoming Ritual Beast Extra Deck monsters, Taotie is purified into Ulti-Nochiudrago and Yazi is purified into Ulti-Reirautari.
Meaningful Name: "Yang" can mean "white", “sun”, or "light". "Zing" came from of "Xing", which means "star" in Chinese." Both words allude to their levels and the frame color of the Synchro Monsters. Even after joining the Ritual Beasts, the archetype's OCG name (Ryusei/Dragon Star) is still referenced in Ulti-Nochiudrago. Nochiu means

"star" in Ainu and drago is self-explanatory.

Mook Maker: Chaofeng's third effect allows the owner to Special Summon Wyrm-Type monsters when the opponent’s monster is destroyed once per turn.
No-Sell: Pulao gives immunity to Spell Cards, while Bixi grants Trap Card immunity to a Synchro Monster if used as a material for the Summon of that monster, and Bi'an grants battle destruction immunity.
Our Dragons Are Different: The Yang Zing are based heavily on Asian dragons, as opposed to the more Western designs of many Dragon-Types. They're classified under the Wrym-Type, as stated above.
Out-of-Turn Interaction: Yang Zing are able to Synchro Summon during the opponent's turn to potentially disrupt their plays.
Power at a Price: Exemplified with the Yang Zing Creation. This trap allows you to summon a Yang Zing from your deck if a monster you control is destroyed, but in exchange, you cannot Xyz, Fusion, or Pendulum Summon.
Status Buff: Each of the non-Tuner Yang Zings barring Zefraxi and Zefraniu gives extra abilities to the Synchro Monster in which they were used to Summon.
Stone Wall: Denglong has the highest original defense of all "Yang Zing" monsters, at a whopping 2800.
Super-Toughness: Bian prevents a Synchro Monster Summoned using it as a material from being destroyed by battle.
Thanatos Gambit: When a non-Synchro Yang Zing is destroyed (while on the field), it summons another one to take its place. Taken one step further with their trap Yang Zing Creation.
Undying Loyalty: Taotie prevents a Synchro Monster Summoned using it as a material from being controlled by your opponent.
Worf Effect: In the Duel Terminal storyline, they consistently lost to the Shaddolls and got corrupted by them.

Shaddoll

Shaddoll is an archetype released in the Series 9 Booster Packs, and are the initial antagonists of Act 3 of the DT storyline. The Shaddolls are reanimated puppet versions of deceased DT characters, formed when Evilswarm Kerykeion was defeated by and merged with Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight, the undead body of Gem-Knight Crystal. The Shaddolls are mindless puppets of Tierra; they seek to return to the Sacred Tree to complete their life cycle, but Tierra is manipulating them to have them destroy the Sacred Tree and revive itself.

The playstyle of Shaddoll revolves around Fusion Summoning. The lower-level Main Deck Shaddoll monsters each have two effects: a Flip effect, and an effect that triggers when they're sent to the GY by a card effect, including when being used in a Fusion Summon. Their Fusion boss monsters are the El Shaddoll monsters, who specialize in countering Special Summoning monsters.

All Your Colors Combined: A darker example than the usual use of this Trope. According to the lore from V-Jump, the Shaddolls are malevolent shadows that absorb all light. This might explain why they are so dark: all colors mixed together would result in black.
All Your Powers Combined: El Shaddoll Grysta has the acquired pyroxenes of all the Gem Knights, harvested from the Yang Zing and El Shaddoll Construct.
Animated Armor: Shaddoll Hound and Shaddoll Squamata are the armors of the Satellarknights Sirius and Unukalhai, respectively. El Shaddoll Grysta can also be considered this as well.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Construct is huge, big enough to sit on the not-exactly slight Apoqliphort Tower as a chair.
Back from the Dead: Most of the Shaddolls are the puppetized version of other monsters, brought back from the dead. Some examples include:
- Shaddoll Beast is Naturia Beast donning the Exterio armor.
- Shaddoll Falco is Gusto Falco. Similarly, El Shaddoll Winda is Daigusto Gulldos, though Winda is riding Pulao, Wind of the Yang Zing instead.
- El Shaddoll Grysta is Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight, which in turn was Gem-Knight Crystal brought back by the Evilswarm virus. Later on in the story, he's killed and brought back again and becomes Shaddoll Zefracore.
- Naelshaddoll Ariel is Gishki Ariel and El Shaddoll Apokalone is Evigishki Mind Augus.
Body Horror: The artwork of Curse of the Shadow Prison shows that some Shaddolls are converted straight from a living being instead of just Back from the Dead.
Came Back Wrong: The Shaddolls were beings removed from the cycle of reincarnation by the imprisoned Tierra and tainted by Tierra's power, causing them to be revived as zombie-like entities who obsessively try to return to the Naturia Sacred Tree in order to be reborn properly.
Cannibalism Superpower: To become the Shaddoll Core, Cairngorgon devoured Evilswarm Kerykeion.
The Corruption:
- The primary force of the Shaddolls is the corruption of Gem-Knight Crystal's fusion core, which absorbs dozens of light after the latter's death in the battle against The Planetforger. According to an issue of V-Jump, the force behind the Shaddolls are called "Shadow Strings", and Shaddoll Core is the root that induces the Shadow-Possession.
- The artwork for Shaddoll Construct shows Gem-Knight Lapis getting converted by Infernoid Sjette into El Shaddoll Construct.
Dark Is Evil: They are mainly DARK monsters, and they are generally evil monsters.
Disc-One Final Boss: Construct is the puppetmaster of the Shaddolls. The two El Shaddolls who have higher Levels than her are actually herself emerged with other monsters. Furthermore, those two El Shaddolls have less ATK than the original Construct.
Draconic Humanoid: Anoyatyllis, being a merger of Devayty and Shekinaga, has some dragon parts to its form, like wings and a tail.
The Dragon: Of the OCG storyline Duelist Advent onward, which is a continuation of the Duel Terminal story-line. They are portrayed as this to the Infernoids.
Dub Name Change:
- Nephilim —> Construct.
- Midrash —> Winda.
- Egrystal —> Grysta.
- Anomalilith —> Anoyatyllis.
Elemental Motifs: Each Fusion Monster represents the six most common Attributes in the game. Later support gave the Main Deck additional monsters with differing Attributes as well.
Evil Counterpart: While the entire archetype can be considered as this, El Shaddoll Construct, being originally Gem Knight Lapis is the most direct example, being one to the Big Good Gem Knight Lazuli with a lot of her forms having aesthetic and statisical nods to the various forms of Lazuli. Most apparent with Darktellarknight Batlamyus being a somewhat dark mirror of Tellarknight Ptolemaeus.
Fallen Hero: El Shaddoll Construct was a corrupted version of Gem-Knight Lapis.
Fighting a Shadow: The artwork of Sinister Shadow Games implies that the monsters that are turned into Shaddolls might have been sucked into the Shadow Prison to fight their shadow, and then got overtaken by them if they happen to lose. Considering Pulao and Suanni appear in this card's artwork, it doesn't end well for them. Compare with Ditto Fighter above.
Fighting Your Friend: As the Shaddoll are the friends and family of numerous characters in the third part of the narrative, both living and dead, it can be hard for those who knew certain Shaddoll to fight them. Evilswarm Kerykeion in particular has to deal with this, as many people he knew in the war against the lswarm Virus, like Gem-Knight Crystal, Ariel, and Winda, ended up being revived and/or corrupted in Caringorgan, Apkallone, and Winda respectively. His inability to go through with fighting them results in his defeat and subsequent capture by the Shaddolls and near corruption into Qadshaddoll Keios.
Fusion Dance: Their method of playing around.
- Construct has the most fusion forms of this archetype: Shekhinaga (with Apoqliphort Towers) and Anoyatyllis (with Infernoid Devyaty). When Construct became Tellarknight Vatlamyus, she fused with Infernoid Tierra and the Qliphort to become Tierra, Source of Destruction.
- Bixi, Water of the Yang Zing, is merged with Shaddoll Squamata to become Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing, who is then fused with Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing to become Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Fusion Summoning Shekhinaga with Construct and Apoqliphort Towers isn't as easy as the artwork suggests, as Towers' effect makes it immune to Spell/Trap effects while it is on the field.
Heel–Face Turn: After Tierra's destruction, Winda and Falco are purified and join the Ritual Beast archetype because they're the successors to the Gusto archetype. Ariel shares the same fate and joins the Nekroz archetype.
An Ice Person: Anoyatyllis has the power of the Ice Barrier dragons, having stolen them.
Light Is Not Good: Their puppet master Construct, is LIGHT.
Marionette Master:
- Construct, naturally, and Shekhinaga and Anoyatyllis by extension.
- Grysta has similar set of strings spawning from his back. Makes sense, as the Shaddoll Roots grows from his head.
Meaningful Name: The Archetype's name itself is a portmanteau of "Shadow" and "Doll", while the El Shaddoll sub-archetype's name might also came from the pun of "El-Shaddai", which roughly means God Almighty. See also Theme Naming below.
- The name of El Shaddoll Nephilim (Construct) came from the giant/half-angel/half-demon creatures in Jewish Mythology. Construct is the leader and the largest of the Shaddolls, thus the giant.
- The name of El Shaddoll Midrash (Winda) came from the body of homiletic Jewish stories in the same canon of the Hebrew Bible. The term Midrash itself came from the word darash, which means to seek or to study. In the artwork of El Shaddoll Fusion, Winda was seen seeking for the power of the Sacred Tree when Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree and Pilica confronts her.
- The name of El Shaddoll Grysta came from the rough term of "Guardian/Watcher Angel" in Jewish Mythology, referenced by his pose in his card artwork, which is similar to an angel spreading its wings and by its strings. It is also from the wordplay of Gem-Knight Garnet and Gem-Knight Crystal.
- The name of El Shaddoll Shekhinaga came from Shekhinah, the Judaism term used to denote God's presence when God settles or dwells on something, or as a feminine Hebrew name of God. This also denotes Construct sitting on Apoqliphort Towers, emphasizing her domination over it.
- The names of Rishaddoll Wendi and El-Shaddoll Wendigo is based on North American flesh eating monsters. One of the two monsters that were transformed into this card, Wen, the Ritual Beast Tamer is a case of this trope used as Foreshadowing as her name means "Evil" in the Ainu languages and is the first syllable for Wendigo.
- The name of El-Shaddoll Anomalilith is a combination of the words "Anomaly" and "Lilith", a female demon or spirit from Jewish Mythology.
- And Shaddoll Squamata's name comes from Squamata, a taxonomic order of lizards. Squamata itself seems to fit into the classifications.
- El Shaddoll Apkalone's name comes from Apkallu, fish/human demi-gods from the Mesopotamian mythology.
Nerf:
- A meta example. El Shaddoll Construct got banned in the April 1 2015 banlist, severely hampering their power. This turned into a Brick Joke later when the designers used this as a chance to turn her into an Evil Counterpart of Ptolemaeus, a Tellarknight monster with the same fate, as Tellarknight Vatlamyus.
- To rub salt on her banlist wounds, El Shaddoll Construct even got a Link-era counterpart in the form of Shaddoll Construct.
- This was ultimately reversed, as El Shaddoll Construct has been unbanned and the deck itself is currently a significant meta contender.
No-Sell: El Shaddoll Winda cannot be destroyed by card effects.
Power Armor: El Shaddol Anoyatyllis is Construct wearing the Infernoid Devyaty with the stats of Nekroz of Trishula.
Power Limiter:
- Winda's effect limits the amount of Special Summon a player can perform to only once per turn. (Not that it bother the Shaddolls themselves so much, since their Fusion cards can only be activated once per turn, anyway …)
- Anoyatyllis’ effect prevents either player from Special Summoning monsters from hand or Graveyard with Spell/Trap effects.
Purple Is Powerful:
- The El Shaddolls are Fusion Monsters, which are purple/violet colored cards.
- Winda and Construct in particular are purple-themed.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Shekhinaga was frozen by Shurit of the Nekroz, for a time. Then Infernoid Devyaty absorbed it.
Theme Naming:
- The lower Shaddoll monsters are named after their previous incarnations.
- The higher El Shaddoll monsters are named after Jewish Mythology.
Unwitting Pawn: The Shaddolls are the unwitting pawns of Tierra, being manipulated into becoming its minions so they can attack the Naturia Sacred Tree and release it.
Your Soul Is Mine!: How Shaddoll Core got started, stealing the souls of those he encountered, turning them into more Shaddolls.

tellarknight

The tellarknight is an archetype consisting of LIGHT monsters focusing on Xyz Summoning as quickly as possible and swarming the field. They are themed and named after stars and constellations. They fight against the Shaddolls in the Post-Sophia saga.

Back from the Dead: Satellarknight Altair's effect.
Devour the Dragon: Darktellarknight Batlamyus was revived by Tierra, who soon absorbs her to gain her powers and become Tierra, Source of Destruction.
Four Is Death: They are all Level 4 monsters. Their swarming strategy allows them to summon Rank 4 monsters.
Gold and White Are Divine: Their color-scheme, which is inherited from the Constellars.
Keep It Foreign: Interestingly, Triverr's official French name is a combination of the prefix tri- and winter.
Legacy Character: They're the successors to the Constellar, having been created by Constellar Sombres after the defeat of Sophia.
Light Is Good: Their appearance and implied role in the new OCG saga shows that they might be benevolent, or even heroic.
Man of Kryptonite: Diamond's effects seems to have been designed in order to counter the Shaddoll.
Meaningful Name: Tellarknight is a portmanteau of "Stellar"/"Constellation" and "Knight", considering they are the knight of the stars. For Darktellarknight Batlamyus, Tellar sounds a lot like Terror.
Our Centaurs Are Different: Darktellarknight Batlamyus looks like a demonic centaur.
Our Dragons Are Different: Stellarknight Constellar Diamond, unlike the other tellarknight, is a Wyrm-Type monster.
Sixth Ranger: Evilswarm Exciton Knight joins the Stellarknight group and calls himself Stellarknight Zefraxciton.
Stellar Name: They are named after stars. The first three to be revealed are named after the points of the Summer Triangle. The trio in the pack after their debut are named after the Winter Triangle and Capellia and Rigel are named after the stars in the Winter hexagon that wasn't already covered by their archetype or the Constellars.
Switch-Out Move: Skybridge functions as this, by swapping an on-field Satellarknight for another one from the Deck, at the cost of restricting your Summon to only "tellarknight" monsters. The artwork features a reference to Tanabata.

Ritual Beasts

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ritual20beast20ulti_cannahawk.jpg

Ritual Beast, known as Spirit Beast (霊獣 Reijū) in the OCG, is an archetype of WIND monsters focusing on Contact Fusion Summon that is comprised of three smaller groups of cards: the Ritual Beast Tamers, the Spiritual Beast, and their combined forms, the Ritual Beast Ulti.

Badass Adorable: Card artworks depicting Lara give her a surprising amount of badass cred: Not only does she command the two strongest Ultis, but one of them - Ulti-Gaiapelio - implies that she somehow managed to tame Naturia Gaiastrio. On top of that, Ultimate Providence's artwork shows her and Ulti-Gaiapelio protecting the Zefra from Infernoid Tierra.
The Beastmaster: The Ritual Beast Tamers can not only call on the Spiritual Beasts but also combine their own powers with those of the Beasts.
Big Sister Instinct: Lara has this to Zefrawendi and Zefrapilica, when she protects them from Infernoid Tierra, as seen on Ultimate Providence's artwork.
Continuity Nod:
- Elder of the Ritual Beast Tamers is an older Kamui, Hope of Gusto.
- The Ritual Beast Tamers are Psychic-Type, just like all of the human Gusto monsters.
- Just like the Dragunity and Gusto before them, their Extra Deck monsters consist of a rider and their mount.
- The Ultis are Pyro-Type, Thunder-Type, and Aqua-Type monsters like the first Gem-Knights Fusion Monsters.
- Gaiapelio seems to be a Fusion of Lara, Apelio, and Naturia Gaiastralio. Its ability to negate the activation of cards and effects is even similar to the effects possessed by the Extra Deck Naturia monsters.
- Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda is Winda, Priestess of Gusto after being purified of her Shaddoll corruption. She even wears her El Shaddoll outfit.
- Ulti-Kimunfalcos is Gusto Falco ridden by Winda after its rebirth in Zefra Return.
- Ulti-Nochiudrago is a purified Taotie and Ulti-Reirautari is a purified Yazi wearing Ulti-Gaiapelio's armor.
Dub Name Change: From Spirit Beast to Ritual Beast. Which does not make much sense and is done primarily so that "Ritual" can still refer to "Spiritual" due to the game's Exact Words requirements for archetype cards.
Foreshadowing: Rampengu being the grown-up version of Pilica's familiar and her appearing in the artwork of one of their cards both hinted that she would become part of the archetype.
Fusion Dance: They focus on Fusion Monsters that can be summoned through Contact Fusion.
- While each Fusion Monster in the archetype can be Summoned with any combination of one Tamer and one Spiritual Beast, each is visually a combination of two specific ones: Ulti-Cannahawk is Elder riding Cannahawk, Ulti-Apelio is Lara riding Apelio, and Ulti-Pettlephin is Wen with Pettlephin. Finally, Ulti-Gaiapelio is a Fusion between Lara, Apelio, and Naturia Gaiastrio (which, ironically enough, cannot be used as Fusion Material for this card in the actual game).
- Ulti-Kimunfalco, although a Link Monster, is essentialy a Contact Fusion between Gusto Falco and Spritual Beast Tamer Winda.
- Spiritual Beast Tamer Lara is a fusion between Gaiapelio's spirit and Lara, who has inherited Gaiapelio's life.
- Ulti-Nochiudrago is Lara riding upon a purified Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing.
- Ritual Beast Ulti-Reirautari is Lara, Wen, and Pilica riding upon a purified Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing.
Hero of Another Story: While Zefrath and Tierra were fighting to the death, Lara dealt with the 11th Servant of the Infernoids.
Horse of a Different Color: Apelio, Pettlefin, and Cannahawk are used as mounts by the tamer while in their Ulti forms. Pilica is riding on Rampengu's back in her Zefra form.
Ironic Name: The name change from Spirit Beasts to Ritual Beasts makes the TCG name ironic, since this archetype is focused on Contact Fusions and not Ritual Summonings.
Nature Hero: They live in touch with nature and have implied ties to the Naturia, and they fight disaster. Like the Infernoids.
Older Than They Look: Like Emilia, Winda managed to keep her youth over the years.
Panthera Awesome: Apelio and its evolutions are lions. In fact, Lara's bond with Apelio lets her become immune to the flame lion's powers, even as she's riding it.
Power Gives You Wings: With Pilica and Wen joining the Zefras, Pettlefin and Rampengu gain angel wings and can fly now. Lara gains Gaiapelio's wings after inheriting his life and becomes a Spritual Beast Tamer.
Sixth Ranger:
- Pilica, Descendant of Gusto can be considered one, seeing as she appear in the art of Cavalry with the Ritual Beasts, and Rampengu is hinted to be a grown-up version of her familiar. She eventually joins them as Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica.
- After getting purified, Winda joins as Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda and gets a LINK counterpart in the form of Ulti-Kimunfalco.
Stone Wall: Pettlefin has 0 ATK and 2000 DEF. His Ulti form has 200 ATK and 2800 DEF and cannot be destroyed by card effects. Lara is also one, having only 100 ATK but 2000 DEF.
Weak, but Skilled: Out of the three Fusions, Ulti-Cannahawk doesn't have Ulti-Apelio's power or Ulti-Pettlefin's defense, but its ability to add any Ritual Beast card from the deck to the hand more than makes up for it.

Nekroz

Nekroz, known as Necloth in the OCG, are the successors to the Gishki and the Ice Barriers, in both story and gameplay. Like Gishki, the archetype is focused around Ritual Summoning, with their Ritual Monsters being warriors clad in armor resembling iconic Duel Terminal monsters of the past, most notably the three Ice Barrier dragons. They have a focus on banishing from the Graveyard for certain effects, and their Ritual Monsters all have a discard-triggered effect, making them useful in the hand even without Ritual Spells.

Story-wise, the Nekroz is a new society set up by Gishki Avance and Gishki Emilia between the second and third DT wars, in order to protect the land from future threats. They have perfected their rituals and have mastered the ability to weave the powers of legendary DT world monsters into suits of armor.

Badass Family: With the exception of Exa and Ariel, the entire Archetype is composed of a single family: Avance, the father, Emilia, the mother, and Shurit, their child.
Cool Sword: The Nekroz of Trishula wields a sword made from the Nekroz Exomirror, as does The Nekroz of Brionac.
Continuity Nod:
- The Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz is clearly an aged Gishki Avance, with the same stats. Likewise, Dance Princess is an older Gishki Emilia.
- The Nekroz Ritual Monsters have the same stats as the monsters they're based on.^note Their effects are also similar.
- Ariel, Priestess of the Nekroz is Gishki Ariel.
- Exa would receive a younger version of himself in the form of Frost Spirit of the Ice Barrier.
Dub Name Change: From Necloth to Nekroz. Might also be a case of Spell My Name With An S.
Gratuitous Princess: Emilia is known as the Dance Princess of the Nekroz. Her special effect prevents the negation of Nekroz Ritual Spell Cards and protects Nekroz Ritual Monsters against card effects that target them. She also can turn into the Nekroz of Gungnir... and the Nekroz of Sophia.
Instant Armor: By using their magical mirrors, the Nekroz can don armor based on past Duel Terminal monsters.
Three Plus Two: The Nekroz have the family of Avance, Emilia, and Shurit as their core, with Exa and Ariel joining in.
Took a Level in Badass: The last time we saw Avance and Emilia, they had only barely survived the rampage of the Evilswarm, but now they've become incredible powerful mages who wield the power of such legendary beings as Trishula and Decisive Armor. Emilia takes another level by becoming the Nekroz of Sophia.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Dub Name Change from "Necloth" to "Nekroz" makes pretty liberal use of these.

Qliphort

Access violation at address 0x000000 in module qliphort.exe. The scourge has been unleashed.

Qliphort, or Qli for short, is an archetype of EARTH Machine monsters focused on Pendulum and Tribute Summoning. They consist of 10 main deck monsters: 2 Pendulum Normal Monsters, 6 Pendulum Effect Monsters, and 2 standard Effect Monsters. All Qliphort Pendulum Monsters have 1 or 9 Pendulum Scales. Their effects are as follows:

The Level 5 Pendulum Normal Monsters are their starters and supports. They have Pendulum Effects that provide draw and search power.
The Levels 6-8 Pendulum Effect Monsters are their main beaters. They can be Normal Summoned without Tributes, but have their Levels and ATK set to 4 and 1800 if they're Normal Summoned w/o Tributes or Special Summoned. If Normal Summoned, they're immune to the activated effects of monsters with a lower original Level/Rank than theirs. Their Pendulum Effects are simple ATK changing effects.
The Levels 9 and 10 Effect Monsters, the Apoqliphorts, are their nigh-invulnerable boss monsters. They cannot be Special Summoned, and require 3 tributes to be Tribute Summoned. They're immune to Spells and Traps in addition to lower-Level/Rank monster effects.

In story, the Qliphorts are the automated cyber-security system hidden beneath the Naturia Sacred Tree, sealing away Tierra. They were booted up as the Shaddolls attacked the Sacred Tree, and began eliminating or restraining the Shaddolls.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Though initially a neutral force, absorbing Winda caused a fatal error in their programming as they were not able to comprehend Winda's existence, in turn making them believe the solution to such an issue would be to start destroying everything else to "bugfix" the entire world out of existence.
Anti-Magic: Qliphort Helix can destroy one Spell or Trap card when it is used as a tribute.
Armor-Piercing Attack: If Tribute Summoned by using a Qli monster, Qliphort Shell can inflict Piercing Battle Damage and it can attack twice per turn.
As the Good Book Says...: The OCG flavor text for Qliphort Monolith is written alternating between Japanese characters (itself alternating between hiragana/kanji and katakana to obfuscate it) and English alphabets (and is also read from right to left). When disentangled, they show two references to the Old Testament:
- The English text reads "God is angry on your doing and want to bring the fire flood", a reference to Noah's Ark in the Old Testament.
- The Japanese text reads 「見よ人は我々の一人のようになり善悪を知るものとなった // 彼は手を伸べ命の木からも取って食べ永久に生きるかもしれない"」, ^Rōmaji which translates to "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:". This is a direct quote from the Biblical verse Genesis 3:22, and references the tree of life in the Old Testament.
Beam Spam: Apoqliphort Towers fires lasers from all of its spikes, as depicted in the artwork of Laser Qlip.
Brainwashed: Apoqliphort Skybase can take control of an opponent's monster for one turn.
Brought Down to Badass: Qlipper Launcher and Re-qliate can negate the effects of Normal (and Flip) Summoned (Level 4) Qli monsters, giving them their original ATK back.
Call-Back: Qliphort Scout's flavor text references Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth.
Cast from Hit Points: Qliphort Scout's Pendulum effect allows you to search for any Qli card (except Scout) in your deck at the cost of 800 Life Points.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the monsters has a Colored Sphere (Red/Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Gray, White, and two-tone). Each of these spheres are cased on the card frames (two-tone referencing pendulum, yellow for normal monsters, etc.) and they are all found on the Sephirot structure. These spheres were the Ball Joints of El-Shaddoll Grysta which were attracted to the structure as seen in Saqlifice. They also seem to be reflected by the Infernoid monsters.
Cyber Cyclops: If their eyes truly do function as eyes, at least. Their pupils are also capsules that can store creatures in the same fashion as the vacuum tubes of the Infernoids.
The Dragon: Apoqliphort Skybase is the second Apoqliphort, has 100 less ATK and DEF than Towers and it is one Level lower. Apoqliphort Skybase's effect is less powerful than Towers.
Dub Name Change:
- Qliphort Archive to Qliphort Carrier.
- Qliphort Genome to Qliphort Helix.
- Apoqliphort Killer to Apoqliphort Towers.
- Qliphort Tool to Qliphort Scout.
- Qliphort Alias to Qliphort Stealth.
- Qliphort Assembler to Qliphort Monolith.
- Qliphort Access to Qliphort Cephalopod.
- Apoqliphort Kernel to Apoqliphort Skybase.
- Saqliphort to Saqlifice.
- Qliphortress to Laser Qlip.
- Apoqliphort to Qlimate Change.
- Qliphortran to Qlipper Launcher.
- Re-Qliphort to Re-qliate.
- Apoqliphort Down to Qlife's End.
Energy Weapon: The artworks show the Qli monsters firing lasers.
Foreshadowing: Scout's text directly mentions Tierra, a good while before the Infernoids would appear in the story or the card game itself.
Eye Motifs: All of the Qliphort monsters have a large, singular eye emblazened somewhere on them. Interestingly, two Qliphort eyes are also present on the left arm and abdomen of Avida, itself the World Legacy counterpart to Sophia, and practically looks like a rejected boss monster of the archetype.
Fusion Dance:
- Apoqliphort Towers merged with El Shaddoll Construct to form El Shaddoll Shekinaga.
- Apoqliphort Towers and Apoqliphort Skybase merged with Infernoid Tierra and Darktellarknight Batlamyus to form Tierra, Source of Destruction.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: El Shaddoll Shekhinaga's artwork implies that it is a fusion between Apoqliphort Towers and El Shaddoll Construct, even though Towers cannot fuse with other cards (not counting the Contact Fusion method), since it is immune to Fusion cards, which are mostly Spell Cards.
Glass Cannon: They can easily summon incredibly powerful monsters, but due to being Cast from Hit Points, they can't afford to take much damage. Until the announcement of Qliphort Cephalopod.
Hollywood Hacking: The Qliphorts were hacked by Tierra (through Shaddoll Winda), and were used to release himself and the Infernoids.
The Juggernaut: Apoqliphort Towers is a monster with 3000 ATK and it is immune to Spell Cards, Trap Cards and activated effects of monsters that have a lower Level/Rank than Towers itself, which has 10. Its Permanent Effect decreases the ATK of any Special Summoned monster by 500 points, making it harder to summon a monster that could defeat it in battle. Towers can also force the opponent to send a monster card from his/her field or hand to the graveyard, an effect that can be activated once per turn.
Meaningful Name: The Qliphort name is derived from Qliphoth, a concept from Judaism, evil spirits that attempt to keep humanity away from God. Specifically they're the opposite to the Sephirot. The name is also a pun combining the phrase with the word fort. Individual Qliphort names are related to computing.
- Qliphort Alias (Stealth Plane): In computer graphics, antialiasing is a software technique for diminishing jaggies - stairstep-like lines that should be smooth.
- Qliphort Assembler: An assembly language is a low-level programming language for a computer, or other programmable device, in which there is a very strong (generally one-to-one) correspondence between the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Each assembly language is specific to a particular computer architecture, in contrast to most high-level programming languages, which are generally portable across multiple architectures, but require interpreting or compiling.
- Qliphort Monolith is based on the term monolithic system. A software system is called "monolithic" if it has a monolithic architecture, in which functionally distinguishable aspects (for example data input and output, data processing, error handling, and the user interface), are not architecturally separate components but are all interwoven. An electronic hardware system, such as a multi-core processor, is called "monolithic" if its components are integrated together in a single integrated circuit. Note that such a system may consist of architecturally separate components – in a multi-core system, each core forms a separate component – as long as they are realized on a single die.
- Qliphort Shell: A shell is a user interface for access to an operating system's services. In general, operating system shells use either a command-line interface (CLI) or a graphical user interface (GUI), depending on a computer's role and particular operation.
- Apoqliphort Towers: The term Tower refers to a computer in which the power supply, motherboard, and mass storage devices are stacked on top of each other in a cabinet. This is in contrast to desktop models, in which these components are housed in a more compact box. The main advantage of tower models is that there are fewer space constraints, which makes the installation of additional storage devices easier. The Japanese name "Killer" refers to killer applications - ones that serve as the main draw for a device or system, appropriately enough for the archetype's biggest boss monster.
- Qliphort Genius: A reference to the mythological concept of "Genius"^note. The card art shows a mysterious shadow climbing out of the Qliphort core. This shadow may be a fragment of Tierra's soul.
- Qliphort Cephalopod: Obviously named after Cephalopods. It's Japanese name "Access" refers to Access Controls in computing, which is the security technique that regulates who or what can view or use resources in a computing environment.
- Qliphort Scout: Its Japanese name "Tool" refers to a programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications.
- Qliphort Helix: Its name is a reference to the double-helix structure of DNA. Its Japanese name Genome refers to the genomes of biological organisms, as they bear resemblance to how computers store their data.
- Qliphort Carrier: It's Japanese name "Archive" refers to Archive files that are used to collect multiple data files together into a single file for easier portability and storage, or simply to compress files to use less storage space.
- Qliphort Disk: A disk is a round plate on which data can be encoded such as a floppy disk, the disk in your computer's hard drive, or an external hard drive.
- Apoqliphort Skybase: Its Japanese name Kernel is named after a kernel, a computer program at the core of a computer's operating system with complete control over everything in the system.
Mechanical Abomination: They're strange, shell-like robots constructed by Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth from the Sephirot itself, unfeeling and powerfully destructive automatons that can absorb lifeforms in their "eyes."
Mechanical Monster: The entire archetype due to being Machines. Especially Towers.
Nigh-Invulnerability: The Equip Spell Card Saqlifice not only increases the ATK of a Qli monster up by 300, it also makes it invincible in battle. And even if the opponents gets rid of the monster with an effect or destroys the Equip Spell Card directly, if Saqlifice is sent from the field to the graveyard, the owner can search for any Qli monster in his/her deck.
No-Sell: Most have the effect that, when Normal Summoned, are unaffected by the effects of monsters with a Lower Level/Rank. The Apoqliphorts have the aforementioned effect and are Level 9 and 10, respectively, as well as being immune to Spell/Trap cards. Towers has 3000 ATK and all Special Summoned monster lose 500 ATK by its effect.
Punny Name:
- Saqliphort/Saqlifice is a pun to "sacrifice".
- Qliphortress is a pun to "fortress". And Laser Qlip is a pun to "laser clip".
- Qliphortan is a pun to "fortran".
- Qlimate Change is pun to "climate change".
- Re-qliate is a pun to "recreate".
Spikes of Villainy:
- Apoqliphort Towers is full of spikes. It fires laser beams with them.
- Qliphort Shell has them.
Status Buff: The Scale 1 Qli Pendulum Effect Monsters (Carrier, Disk and Stealth) have a Pendulum Effect that increases the ATK of Qli monsters by 300. The Qli Pendulum Normal Monsters (Scout and Assembler) don't have effects that manipulate the ATK.
Status Effects:
- The Scale 9 Qli Pendulum Effect Monsters (Helix, Cephalopod and Shell) decrease the ATK of the opponent's monsters by 300.
- Apoqliphort Towers decrease the ATK and DEF of any Special Summoned monster on the field.
Stone Wall: Qliphort Scout has only 1000 ATK, but 2800 DEF. It's much more useful in the Pendulum Zone, though.
Unskilled, but Strong: One common way to play Qliphorts is to ignore all of their effects and use them with effect negating cards like Skill Drain, Qlipper Launch, and Re-qliate, turning them into normal summonable high ATK beatsticks.

Infernoid

Infernoids are an archetype of FIRE Fiend-Type monsters based on the demons associated with the Qliphorts. They can only be summoned by banishing other Infernoids monsters from the hand or graveyard while the combined Levels and Ranks of Effect Monsters the player controls is 8 or less.

Anti-Magic: Patrulea can destroy a Spell or Trap Card, while Devyaty destroys all non-Void Spell and Trap Cards when it's Summoned and has the ability to negate monster effects. Onuncu can negate the activations of Spell and Trap Cards.
Arm Cannon: Seitsemas' left arm is one of these pointed directly at the camera in it's artwork.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: They share the same colors as the spheres/irises of the corresponding Qliphort monster - which make sense, as both archetypes are based on the Qliphoth (the Infernoids moreso being the demons representing them) and their story connection - they were sealed within the Qliphort and later took their vacuum tubes from them upon freedom.
Continuity Nod: The Naturia Sacred Tree (And the Sephirot structure beneath), Qliphort Carrier and Stellarknight Constellar Diamond appear in the artwork for the archetype's support Spell and Trap cards. The Infernoids, by extension - and rather, just Devyaty/Decatron and Tierra, also appear in the artwork for other Duel Terminal cards.
Deader than Dead: The true defeat of the Infernoids - and the end of the Hidden Arsenal story - is hallmarked by the vacuum tubes possessed by Decatron, still intact even after the final battle between Zefraath and Tierra, being shattered, with those trapped inside finally being freed from their prison and the Infernoid being half buried in the ground.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: A good majority of what the Infernoids were named after in the OCG.
Dub Name Change: The archetype's name was left unchanged but the name of the monsters were - see Bilingual Bonus above.
Early-Bird Cameo: Tierra is first mentioned in the flavor text of Qliphort Scout, a year before being released.
Evil Counterpart: Tierra's ATK and DEF are the inverse of "Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth" and "Nekroz of Sophia", and like them is Level 11. This monster also possesses wings of two different colors, another trait shared with Sophia, and just like with the ATK and DEF stats, the color of the wings are also inverted. This is because Tierra is a divine being like Sophia, and regains its powers on top of inheriting Sophia's in the final battle.
Evil Is Bigger: They're absolutely massive, only beaten out by the Qliphort in terms of size among their members, who aren't necessarily evil themselves.
Evil Is Burning Hot: Another in the extensive list of villainous factions in the Duel Terminal storyline, and they're all FIRE monsters. Their primary form of attack is the Fire Flood, which is used to punish the supposed sinners.
Eye Lights Out: Decatron, Devyaty's decapitated head, no longer has glowing pink eyes - yet, it is still functional.
Fusion Dance:
- Devyaty combined with a frozen El Shaddoll Construct to form El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis. Tierra later merges with the Qliphort, Decatron (and the rest of what remained of the Infernoids) and Batlamyus to reattain it's status as a godly being - Tierra, Source of Destruction.
- Infernoid Evil is a Fusion of two Infernoid monsters (possibly Qliphort Genius after reclaiming its body). It upgrades to Infernoid Flood, hoping to bring the Fire Flood once more.
Glowing Mechanical Eyes: All of the Infernoids have these. However, just because they can fizzle out does not necessarily mean it's dead.
Godzilla Threshold: The combined forces of the Qliphort and especially the all-destroying Infernoids was enough for Emilia to combine both the powers of the Nekroz and the Gishki to revive Master Diamond, in turn empowered by the powers and memories of the Constellar/tellarknights to become Stellarknight Constellar Diamond, backed by allied forces - and even that wasn't enough to overcome Onuncu until Denglong arrived and Sombre fused with Diamond to become Tellarknight Ptolemaeus, or keep Devyaty down forever.
Gold-Colored Superiority: Tierra is primarily golden in color, and is the boss monster of the deck.
Heart Light: The vacuum tubes act like these, which they took from the Qliphort to regain their powers.
The Heavy:
- For Duel Terminal with the Qliphort. The Infernoids have varying degrees of relevancy throughout the story after Sophia's defeat, but are almost always highly important in several ways. By the time they're freed, the Qliphort had eradicated the Shaddolls (minus the Construct), making them both the last and most active batch of threats for the protagonist groups, especially with the Infernoids' goal of freeing Tierra.
- Devyaty in particular is the most plot relevant Infernoid, evading the defeat of it's peers and retrieving their vacuum tubes, absorbing the power of the Ice Barrier Dragons, freeing the Construct and fusing with it to become El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis, surviving as just a head after it's destruction, and eventually freeing Tierra. As all other threats have been handled up until then, it essentially serves as the final opponent before Tierra is freed.
Hellfire: The reawakening of the Infernoids is heralded by the Naturia Sacred Tree erupting into unearthly blue flames, present in almost all the cards that feature the demons.
Light Is Not Good:
- Tierra gains the powers of Light and Creation when it returns to its former glory as Tierra, Source of Destruction. Like the other Infernoids, it intends on cleansing the Earth by burning it to death.
- Infernoid Flood looks like Tierra, albeit now white, gold and blue. It's still a Fiend type monster.
Losing Your Head: Decatron is the still functioning and decapitated head of Devyaty.
Meaningful Name:
- In the OCG, the first ten Infernoid monsters are named after one of the ten demons that are associated with the ten Qliphoth. Their TCG names are instead foreign numbers, each of which correlate with their Levels.
- Decatron derives its name from the dekatron, a decade counting tube that was used in computers and calculators. The canisters that can be seen in its and the other Infernoid's artworks resemble dekatrons, and is itself Devyaty's head, holding onto said vacuum tubes for Tierra, said connection adding onto the parallels due to Tierra's own Meaningful Name.
- Tierra is named after a computer simulation designed to simulate artificial life, which can explicitly mutate, self replicate, and recombine. Tierra is already a mechanical counterpart to Sophia, and it ultimate achieves its goals by its heralds doing that exact process for it (the Shaddolls mutating from their victims before the Qliphort try to destroy them, who indirectly fulfill the replication of the aura of a God and thus unleashing the Infernoids due to the fatal error in their programming, and all three factions recombining with Tierra to bring it to full power).
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Antra has four arms, though this is a downplayed example: Antra lacks any ATK and is more focused on being defensive.
No-Sell: Void Seer can make a targeted Infernoid outright immune to card effects for a turn, and can banish itself from the GY to protect them from being destroyed by card effects.
Not Quite Dead: Devyaty was still alive by the time Onuncu was defeated, either by staying in hiding or feigning death. Devyaty is also a notable example in that it pulls this twice in a row, as El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis's defeat wasn't enough to destroy it either, still living on as Decatron.
Numerical Theme Naming: Instead of naming them directly after demons in the TCG, the main ten have their OCG names changed into numbers in different languages for the TCG, correlating with their respective Levels.
- Shaitan = Pirmais (First in Latvian)
- Beelzebul = Antra (Second in Lithuanian)
- Lucifugus = Harmadik (Third in Hungarian)
- Astaroth = Patrulea (Fourth in Romanian)
- Asmodai = Piaty (Fifth in Polish)
- Belphegor = Sjette (Sixth in Norwegian & Danish)
- Ba'al = Seitsemas (Seventh in Finnish)
- Adramelech = Attondel (Eighth in Swedish)
- Lilith = Devyaty (Ninth in Russian)
- Nehemoth = Onuncu (Tenth in Turkish & Azerbaijani)
Our Demons Are Different: These ones are a set of ten (later revealed to be eleven) massive, ancient androids themed after the qliphoth and associated with all-consuming blue flames.
Our Dragons Are Different: Infernoid Tierra resembles a giant demonic dragon, as do the rest of the Infernoids to a varying extent.
Physical God: Tierra used to be one - and it returns to this status by merging with the remains of the Qliphort, Darktellarknight Batlamyus/El Shaddoll Construct, and Decatron who absorbed the Ice Barrier Dragons' powers and has the vacuum tubes of every other Infernoid, and then inherited Sophia's powers as well.
Power of the Void: The Spells & Traps are Void Cards, which could extend to the power of Infernoids, destructive demons with Tierra itself having the motive of wanting to destroy all life. This gets added onto once Tierra gains both the powers of creation and destruction as Tierra, Source of Destruction.
Purple Is Powerful: Devyaty, the purple Infernoid representing Yesod on the Sefirot, has the second highest Level, ATK, DEF, and a devastating pair of effects, being a once per turn monster negation and Heavy Storm on legs. Canonically it's also incredibly durable and persistent, surviving destruction as Infernoid Decatron, itself an amazing playmaker for Infernoids.
Recurring Element: They're the second group of 10 monsters (later 11 and a half) themed around the Sefirot in the Duel Terminal plot, though it's less obvious with them compared to the Qliphort and especially the Zefra.
Sealed Evil in a Can: They were sealed inside the Naturia Sacred Tree, until El Shaddoll Winda opened it.
Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Their members get increasingly larger and more powerful the higher Level they are. Pirmais, the Level 1 Infernoid, lacks any stats and has a fairly specific to activate effect. Devyaty and Onuncu, the Level 9 and 10 Infernoids respectively, have incredible effects that can control the field and were the largest threats in the story. Tierra, their honorary Level 11, is the Big Bad of the entire story, and whose effects can make huge plays for the deck.
Stone Wall: Antra's the only Infernoid who has no ATK, but rather, has its stats in DEF - 2000, to be exact, and has a somewhat disruptive bouncing effect.

Zefra

The 10 chosen ones.

The Zefra, known as Sephira in the OCG, is an archetype of Pendulum Monsters. The members of this archetypes are angelic (and some purified) versions of other Archetypes' monsters. This archetype is unique for combining several archetypes together in a single deck. As such, they primarily use boss monsters from different archetypes, but also have their own boss in Zefraath. This archetype has access to the Shaddolls, Yang Zings, -tellarknights, Ritual Beasts and Nekroz Archetypes. In the third Duel Terminal story, the Zefras oppose the Infernoids and Qliphorts.

All Your Powers Combined:
- The Zefra monsters, barring Zefraath, are also part of another archetype such as Shaddoll and Yang Zing.
- Zefra Metaltron appears to be wielding various weapons of its fellow Zefra.
Ambiguous Situation: While the identities of the non-Yang Zing Zefra are readily apparent, and the Yang Zing have their identities revealed in "Master Guide 5", it's unclear who Zefrathuban is. The only clue is that his armor is based on that of Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing, but it's unclear if he's meant to be a humanized Chiwen, one of the existing tellarknight, or even one of the thought deceased tellarknight Back from the Dead.
The Chosen Many: Each of the Zefra was implicitly chosen by the Naturia Sacred Tree to receive their power, as referenced by the card showing all of them together.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Like the Qliphorts and the Infernoid, the Zefra also have a colored sphere somewhere on their body. Unlike those two, they represent the corresponding Sephirot instead of a Qliphoth.
Continuity Nod: The Zefra are all based on monsters from the Duel Terminal storyline.
- Zefrasaber is Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz, also known as Gishki Avance, who now wields the weapons of the XX-Saber.
- Evilswarm Exciton Knight has become Zefraxciton.
- The Yang Zing monsters, Zefraxi and Zefraniu are the purified forms of Jiaotu and Taotie respectively.
- Zefrathuban's armor resembles Chiwen.
- Zeframpilica is Pilica, descendant of Gusto riding on Rampengu in a similar manner to the Ritual Beast Ulti- monsters.
- Zefrawendi is Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin after being purified from their El Shaddoll Wendigo form.
- Zefraxa is Exa, Enforcer of the Nekroz who has gained fire powers.
- Zefranaga is Kerykeion but his ATK and DEF are the same as his previous form, Constellar Rasalhague. The golden snake-like objects on its body resembles Rasalhague's staff and appeared in the artwork of El Shaddoll Shekhinaga.
- Zefracore is Shaddoll Core, only now looking more like Gem-Knight Crystal.
- Their Field Spell depicts the Naturia Sacred Tree.
Dark Is Not Evil: Zefranaga and Zefracore. Both are members of the Shaddoll Archetype. The other four archetypes supported by this one are more heroic, especially notable with Naga who resembles Evilswarm Kerykeyion, one of the two monsters to have killed Sophia. Note that these two are the only Shaddoll monsters without any discernible strings.
Foil: To the Qliphort. Both archetypes are named after concepts from Judaism and focus on Pendulum Monsters. However, the Qliphort uses Pendulum Summon alongside Tribute Summon while the Zefra uses it with Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summon.
Foreshadowing: The Zefra were first mentioned as part of Qliphort Scout's flavor text.
Our Angels Are Different: The archetype consists of a winged giant penguin and dolphin with young girls as riders (Zeframpilica and Zefrawendi), a humanoid Dragon (Zefraxa), a knight with half bright and half dark armor and the wings to match (Zefracore) that can turn into a giant rock dragon (Zefraath), an old man with access to a Fountain of Youth (Zefrasaber), one of the 2 monsters responsible for the death of Sophia (and is now called Zefranaga), a humanoid bug that slightly got more humanoid (Zefraxition), a warrior that might be the human form of Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing (Zefrathuban), and two dragons created by the amalgamation of the Earth elemental and Stars (Zefrainu and Zefraxi). None of them are even Fairy-Type.
Power Gives You Wings: Each of them has wings. According to the lore, they received power from the Naturia Sacred Tree in order to fight the Infernoids.

Tierra, Source of Destruction

Tierra is the second god of the Duel Terminal universe alongside Sophia. It had been sealed inside the Naturia Sacred Tree by Sophia in ancient times, and plots for its own revival following Sophia's death in Act 2. The battle between the DT universe and Tierra served as a conclusion to the Duel Terminal storyline in general.

All Your Powers Combined: Tierra's body is made of parts from all of the Qliphort and Infernoids, wielding orbs of light & creation and darkness & destruction much like Sophia did.
Ambiguous Gender: Tierra is exclusively referred to as "it" throughout Duel Terminal, the most details pointing to it possibly being female is its feminine name and similar "hairstyle" to Sophia as Infernoid Tierra.
Bilingual Bonus: Tierra means earth in spanish.
Devour the Dragon: A willing example; Infernoid Tierra absorbs Darktellarknight Batlamyus to become Tierra, Source of Destruction.
Draconic Abomination: Tierra is a colossal, multi-eyed lindwurm made of machinery, an imprisoned God of creation wielding the powers of light and shadow.
Extra Eyes: Tierra has 3 pairs of them on the sides of its head.
Final Boss: Tierra is this for Duel Terminal as a whole.
Flaming Hair: Infernoid Tierra's "hair" becomes two flowing masses of flame as Tierra, Source of Destruction.
Fusion Dance: Even though it is no longer a Fusion monster, Tierra, Source of Destruction is Infernoid Tierra combined with the Qliphort and Batlamyus, empowered by the vacuum tubes of the Infernoids.
God Is Evil: Tierra is the one responsible for creating the Shaddolls, hacking the Qliphorts, and unleashing the Infernoids, all in an attempt to revive itself.
Greater-Scope Villain: As Tierra is sealed for the entirety of Duel Terminal until the final battle, it's El Shaddoll Construct who serves as the primary antagonist for the second half of Duel Terminal, carrying out its will along with the Qliphort and Infernoids.
Made of Iron: Tierra's inverted stats making it more defensive than Sophia alludes to this; it took Zefraath 1000 days to beat it, and even so, it resulted in a Mutual Kill.
Marathon Boss: Tierra's 1000 day battle with Zefraath and its earlier stint as Infernoid Tierra likely makes it the longest lasting foe in the entire Duel Terminal story.
Meaningful Name: Tierra is named after the eponymous computer simulation.
Mutual Kill: Tierra and Zefraath managed to do one another in.
Numerological Motif: Tierra is associated with the number 10. Its Infernoid form can uses all of its effects when summoned using at least 10 materials while its Source of Destruction form requires 10 or more cards to be shuffled into the deck for her to be summoned. Fittingly, it's connected to the Qli and Infernoid archetypes which are also connected to that number.
No Body Left Behind: Tierra & Zefraath's bodies were gone by the end of the battle, though Zefraath's components (or rather, their souls) show up sometime after.
Yin-Yang Bomb: Tierra gains its own light and dark orbs, just like Sophia, upon being freed.

Characters

Constellar

Rasalhague

Constellar Rasalhague

^{Evilswarm Kerykeion}

^{Qadshaddoll Keios}

^{Shaddoll Zefranaga}

^{Constellar Caduceus}

The "Constellar" of Ophiuchus. He provides logistical support, and wields a staff that controls healing and resurrection. He appears to have a somewhat different mission from the "Constellar" of the other 12 constellations.

Ascended Extra: Rasalhague was relatively a minor character in the grand scheme of the final part of Duel Terminal storyline. A good deal of cards released after the story have concluded featured him with Shaddoll supports being particularly notable with a lot of them potraying his time Fighting from the Inside in the Shaddoll Core.
Badass in Distress: Kerykeion is rather strong, being one of the two responsible for stopping Sophia once and for all. Despite this, he is still captured by Cairngorgon and consumed by the Shaddoll, due to being unable to put down his former friend.
Body Horror: Keios shows a more indepth look at the process in which the Shaddoll are created, and how their victim's bodies are slowly turned into puppets.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Yeshaddoll in Zefranaga's Japanese name is a reference to Yeshua, a word meaning salvation in Hebrew. It can be argued that Kerykeion/Zefranaga/Keios is a counterpart to Jesus because he ascended after beating Sophia with Constellar Sombre. Kerykeion's second coming was during the war against the Shaddoll and Infernoid, a time of great need for the Duel Terminal world.
Dark Is Not Evil: Evilswarm Kerykeion is not a true Evilswarm monster, as he is not corrupted by the lswarm virus. Rather, he has attained their power by fusing himself with the corrupted Ice Barrier Dragons, his own power as a Constellar and the Gishki Aquamirror being used for the fusion letting him retain control.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: Kerykeion lost against Cairngorgon because he held back. He simply couldn't use his full power against a former friend of his.
Fusion Dance:
- Constellar Rasalhague used the power of the "Gishki Aquamirror" to fuse itself with the 3 corrupted Ice Barrier Dragons to become Evilswarm Kerykeion in order to defeat Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth together with Constellar Sombres, which means that it is not a true "Evilswarm" monster, and is also not completely corrupted per se, as compared to the other Duel Terminal monsters infected by the virus of "Evilswarm", and thus explaining the "Constellar" symbol that can be seen on the Aquamirror staff that Evilswarm Kerykeion is holding.
- Tellarknight Sacred Caduceus is a fusion of Tellarknight Lyra, Tellarknight Altea, and Constellar Caduceus. This fusion is depicted in the artwork of Tellarknight Constellar.
Jagged Mouth: Most of Rasalhague's forms have no visible mouth, but Keios does, in the form of a jagged tear of his helmet.
Meaningful Name: "Caduceus" refers to a Greek symbol depicting a winged staff surrounded by two snakes, and has often been confused with the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine, when it's both a symbol of medicine and commerce. Asclepius in Greek Mythology is the origin of the Ophiuchus constellation, which Raselhauge represented as a Constellar, his staff even resembling the Rod of Asclepius. Being redubbed as "Caduceus" in that sense refers to how Rasalhauge has returned to being a Constellar, but is no longer just a Constellar at this point after his various trials, being just as much an lswarm, Shaddoll, and Zefra as he is a Constellar.
Nerf: Zefranaga has lost the power he had as Kerkyekion, which allowed him to help kill Sophia, because it was stolen while he was a Shaddoll.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Kerykeion actually fought back against Cairngorgon, none of the events of the third Duel Terminal storyline would come to pass.
Took a Level in Badass: After spending a long time in the Evilswarm and Shaddoll archetypes, Rasalhague/Kerykeion finally returns to the Constellar archetype in Blazing Vortex as Constellar Caduceus. Caduceus gives a Constellar XYZ Monster the ability to banish a monster if it is Light or Dark, hinting at Caduceus's Yin-Yang Bomb abilities.

Unukalhai

Satellarknight Unukalhai

^{Shaddoll Squamata}

^{Nehshaddoll Genius}

Body Horror: After being corrupted into a Shaddoll, he has his body rearranged into a more reptillian shape, looking more like a lizard made out of his armor than a humanoid anymore. Once Qliphort Genius possesses his body, he regains a more humanoid form, but looks like he's made of rock and metal rather than flesh.
Doomed by Canon: Satellarknight Unukalhai was revealed in the very same day as the Spell Card that depicts him pre-Shaddoll transfiguration.
History Repeats: Much like Crystal before him, Unukalhai ended up corrupted by a dark force, had his body warped into tool of the Shaddoll, and then became more akin to a walking corpse than anything alive.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Unukalhai's sensing and attempt at freeing Kerykeion not only resulted in his death and transformation into a Shaddoll, it gave the Shaddoll access to the tellarknight's "connection to the stars", allowing the Shaddoll to further corrupt the Yang Zing and turn them against the tellarknights.
Small Role, Big Impact: His only noteworthy moment as himself was attempting to save Kerykeion from the Shaddoll, but doing so and failing allows the Shaddoll to corrupt the Yang Zing, and forced both sides to take more drastic measures.

Gem-Knights

Crystal

Gem-Knight Crystal

^{Gem-Knight Master Diamond}

^{Cairngorgon, Antiluminiscent Knight}

^{El-Shaddoll Grysta}

^{Stellarknight Constellar Diamond}

^{Shaddoll Zefracore}

^Zefraath

11th-Hour Superpower: Zefraath is Shaddoll Zefracore empowered with the power of all nine Yang-Zing, which only happens when Tierra's on their rampage at the end of the story.
All Your Powers Combined: First as "Gem-Knight Master Diamond" for the rest of the "Gem-Knight", then for the remaining "tellarknights" as "Stellarknight Constellar Diamond", and finally one for the Zefra as "Zefraath".
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Crystal does this after the death of Tierra, Source of Destruction, as seen in "Zefra Providence", taking the exhausted Gem-Knight Lapis with him.
The Atoner: Gem-Knight Master Diamond atoned for his crimes as a Shaddoll by helping out the good guys.
Back from the Dead: During the third Duel Terminal storyline, Emilia brought Gem-Knight Master Diamond back from the dead by using the magic of the Gishki Aquamirror and the Nekroz Mirror on the corpse of El Shaddoll Grysta.
The Corruption: Cairngorgon the Anti-luminescent Knight is Master Diamond, after the fusion that created him began to fall apart. This corruption soon turns him into Shaddoll Core, the source of all the other Shaddolls.
Fallen Hero: Master Diamond came back as Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight, turning into Shaddoll Core after absorbing Kerykeion's power, then into El Shaddoll Grysta.
Fights Like a Normal: His only (initial) power is having the potential to combine the powers of others in his body. As such, when he reaches the limits of his natural powers as "Gem-Knight Zirconia", he doesn't gain any particular power and instead just becomes stronger.
Mutual Kill: Zefraath managed to kill Tierra, Source of Destruction, but died in the process.
Power Gives You Wings: Phantom Quartz is a Link counterpart of Crystal containing the power of the Zefra as seen by his wings in his card art.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Crystal's face is hidden behind his helmet, but as Cairngorgon it's cracked, revealing his eye is now glowing red.
Scaled Up: Using the power of the Yang-Zing, the hidden eleventh Zefra, and all ten cores of the Zefra, Shaddoll Zefracore turns into Zefraath, a massive dragon with 3450 ATK and 2950 DEF.

Lapis

Gem-Knight Lapis

^{Shaddoll Construct}

^{El Shaddoll Construct}

^{Darktellarknight Batlamyus}

And I Must Scream: Dying was just the beginning of Lapis' misfortunes. She was snatched up by Tierra, kept inside a vacuum tube and her body used to create Shadoll Construct, eventually getting transformed into Darktellarknight Batlaymus, who was devoured moments after being created by Tierra.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Once Tierra is destroyed, Crystal takes her off into the afterlife.
Came Back Wrong: After spending years inside a vacuum tube, there wasn't much of Lapis left when Tierra brought her back as Construct.
The Heavy: As El-Shaddoll Construct, she represents the villain side, though is largely a puppet with no will of her own.

Lazuli

Gem-Knight Lazuli

^{Constellar Sombre}

All Your Powers Combined: A recipient of this across the Duel Terminal storyline. By the end of the story Lazuli has held the combined power of the Gem-Knights, Constellar, Satellarknight, and the Yang Zing, and used it to great effect to strengthen her allies.
Badass Normal: When they were born, Lapis and Lazuli split apart. Lapis took the power of the pyroxene, leaving Lazuli without.
Big Good: After becoming Constellar Sombre, she became the closest figure to a leader among the various tribes of the story, creating not only the Yang Zing, but even returning and merging with the tellarknights to protect the world once again. After reverting to Lazuli, she retains this role for the Gem-Knight tribe as Gem-Knight Quartz.
Irony: Lazuli was born without a pyroxene. She ended up holding every single one of them after inheriting Master Diamond's Sword.
Yank the Dog's Chain: After a long, brutal, horrible war, it looks like Lazuli might finally be reunited with her sibling... nope! Lapis dies instead.

Pearl

Gem-Knight Pearl

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Following his death as a result of protecting Constellar Ptolemy M7, he is shown in the afterlife alongside Noellia and Natalia in the art of "Zefra Providence", ready to welcome the recently deceased Crystal and Lapis with open arms.
Big Damn Heroes: He comes in at the last second when Vylon Disigma proves too powerful to defeat even with the combined might of the allied tribes.
Heroic Sacrifice: During the final showdown with Ouroboros, Pearl sacrificed himself to protect Constellar Ptolemy M7, as depicted in "Xyz Soul".
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Pearl is unique amidst his tribe for lacking any form of negative emotion whatsoever, instead just possessing a noble heart. This lack of negative emotion makes him the perfect counter to the lswarm virus, as the virus thrives on negative emotions.
Man of Kryptonite: As depicted in Xyz Reversal, Pearl was this to Vylon Disigma. In addition to being 100 ATK stronger, Pearl is EARTH Attribute and has no effect, meaning Disigma couldn't absorb it, nor kill it using the already absorbed Evigishki Merrowgeist, Lavalval Ignis, and Daigusto Phoenix, being WATER, FIRE, and WIND Attributes respectively. The icing on the cake is that Disigma wasn't able to sense it's approach because Pearl lacks negative emotions.
Shout-Out: His Badass Armfold pose, pure white body, and being surrounded by seven floating orbs has drawn many comparisons to Fourth Form Freeza.
Signature Move: The Oni-Gami Combo, in which Pearl unleashes Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs on his enemy using his full strength. The shockwaves from the attack alone were enough to deactive Disigma, and all who witnessed it compared Pearl to a rampaging deity.
Small Role, Big Impact: Pearl's only real place in the narrative comes to his arrival during the fights with Vylon Disigma and Evilswarm Ouroboros, in both cases using his lack of negative emotions to his advantage against enemies that thrive on negative emotions. While he proves to be Disigma's undoing, he instead sacrifices himself protecting Constellar Ptolemy M7.

Ice Barrier Tribe & Gishki/Nekroz Descendants

Ariel

Gishki Ariel

^{Speaker for the Ice Barriers}

^{Evigishki Mind Augus}

^{Naelshaddoll Ariel}

^{El Shaddoll Apkallone}

^{Ariel, Priestess of the Nekroz}

Ambiguously Related: She's named "Erial" across all her forms in the OCG and she has a striking resemblance to "Eria, the Water Charmer". Whether she is her sister like Wynn is to Winda remains unknown to this day.
Child Prodigy: At a young age, Ariel could communicate with many beasts, earning her right to be called a child prodigy.
Identical Stranger: Gishki Ariel bears an uncanny resemblance to Eria the Water Charmer. However, there is no confirmation that they are the same character, and despite the presence of Wynn the Wind Charmer in the Gusto setting, the Charmer's storylines are pretty firmly separated from the Duel Terminal world.
It's Personal: As she was orphaned by Trishula in the past, Ariel confronts Evilswarm Ouroburos, the corrupted form of Trishula, in the artwork of "Aquamirror Focalization" as Evigishki Nereimanas.
Killed Offscreen: At some point during the battle with the Evilswarm, presumably after the events of "Aquamirror Focalization", she perished and was later revived as one of the Shaddoll. She similarly would end up perishing again offscreen, with her uncorrupted body being absorbed into a Qliphort vacuum tube, then later properly revived after the defeat of Tierra freed her and the others trapped in the vacuum tubes.
Took a Level in Badass: Most of her forms have supportive effects in nature and higher DEF than ATK. "Evigishki Nereimanas" finally sees her going into the offensive, with massive ATK and a potent monster negation effect.

Avance

Gishki Avance

^{Evigishki Levianima}

^{Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz}

^{Nekroz of Unicore}

^{Nekroz of Valkyrus}

^{Zefrasaber, Swordmaster of the Nekroz}

Son of Natalia, Judge of the Ice Barrier. Would inherit her sword and start a new family with Emilia in the form of the Nekroz Archetype.

Babies Ever After: Avance and Emilia go on to start their own family.
Continuity Nod: The artwork for "The Calm After the Ice Barrier's Storm" features younger versions of Gishki Emilia and Gishki Avance watching Ascalon off in the distance.
Fountain of Youth: Avance becomes younger when donning one of the Nekroz armor. He also does this as Zefrasaber, Swordmaster of the Nekroz.
Magic Knight: Despite being Spellcasters, Gishki Avance, his older Nekroz form Great Sorcerer, and his Ritual forms carry a sword on their sides, implying that they fight with it in addition to their magic if they need to. This sword originally belonged to his mother, Gishki Natalia, and he carried it on into his old age.
Our Angels Are Different: As Zefrasaber, Avance gains the power of the Zefra, making him a chosen angel.
Sole Survivor: Avance and Emilia are only survivors of the Gishki clan following their battle with Sophia.

Emilia

Gishki Emilia

^{Dance Princess of the Nekroz}

^{Nekroz of Gungnir}

^{Nekroz of Sophia}

Daughter of Noellia, Revealer of the Ice Barrier. While Noellia was corrupted by the Evilswarm, she was turned into powerful demons, both body and spirit, by her magic. She was revived by her mom after she was freed from the corruption.

Babies Ever After: Avance and Emilia go on to start their own family.
Came Back Wrong: Disigma absorbed a ton of people, and among them was both Emilia's spirit and her body, leading Avance to attempt to revive her, and discovering the Photomirror. He tried to use this to revive Emilia, but it failed. The failure rebounded in him turning into an unstable monster that fused with the incomplete spirit of Emilia that was called back, turning into Levianima. The Photomirror on the monster's chest shows Emilia's form.
Continuity Nod: The artwork for "The Calm After the Ice Barrier's Storm" features younger versions of Gishki Emilia and Gishki Avance watching Ascalon off in the distance.
Fusion Dance: Evigishki Merrowgeist is a fusion between Gishki Emilia and Musto, Priest of Gusto.
Literal Split Personality: Aquamirror Illusion is Emilia using its power to separate her spirit from her physical body. Her spirit eventually turned into Merrowgeist while her physical body became Gustkraken.
Lost in Translation: Going by Gustkraken's Japanese name, Ghastkraken is made of Ghast (an old English for Ghost) and Kraken. But when the English name came in, ghast become gust referring to wind instead of referring to soul or spirit like other Ritual monsters in the group.
Mom Looks Like a Sister: Emilia to Shurit. Made even more glaring by the fact that Avance, who is ostensibly around the same age as Emilia, looks very much like an old man in his Great Sorcerer form.
Purple Is Powerful: As Nekroz of Gungnir and Nekroz of Sophia, her outfits contain purple, and while Gungnir isn't too shabby, at a respectable 2500 ATK, Sophia is her borrowing the powers of an actual god, coming with a whopping 3600 ATK.
Sole Survivor: Avance and Emilia are only survivors of the Gishki clan following their battle with Sophia.

Exa

Exa, Enforcer of the Nekroz

^{Hexa Spirit of the Ice Barrier}

^{Nekroz of Catastor}

^{Nekroz of Decisive Armor}

^{Zefraxa, Flame Beast of the Nekroz}

Draconic Humanoid: Nekroz Warrior Exa is a humanoid dragon. He can wield the Dragunity Spear of Destiny and call upon the powers of Catastor and Decisive Armor.
Playing with Fire: Exa gets the ability to manipulate fire when he becomes the Flame Beast.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hexa, Spirit of the Ice Barrier, is a toddler version of Exa. He's an adorable looking lizard creature.
Wolverine Claws: Sports a pair of armored gauntlets as Exa, Enforcer of the Nekroz. On becoming Zefraxa, they get the addition of being on fire.

Natalia

Gishki Natalia

^{Judge of the Ice Barrier}

Noellia

Gishki Noellia

^{Revealer of the Ice Barrier}

^{Evigishki Tetrogre}

^{Gishki Psychelone}

Defector from Decadence: Noellia walked out on the Ice Barrier when they decided to release Trishula. However the Gishki, and Noellia in particular, go on to be far, far worse than the Ice Barrier tribe ever were.
Deflector Shields: In the artwork for "Spell Wall", Gishki Noellia is seen using her magic to protect Gishki Emilia and Gishki Avance (Those 3 are spellcasters) from Gishki Zeilgigas. Said magic shield that Noellia is using is similar to the symbol of "Ice Barrier".
Evil Makeover: Happens as a result of corruption by the Evilswarm. Side-effects include her skin becoming much paler. Her card artwork as Revealer of the Ice Barrier, before she got corrupted, and in "Spell Wall" after she breaks free shows her looking a lot healthier without them in her head.
Evil Matriarch: Noellia used Emilia, her own daughter, in a ritual and forced her to become Evigishki Gustkrake because she felt that her daughter wasn't productive enough for the Gishki cause. She also betrayed the other tribes and joined the Evilswarm. As in, she sacrificed the Lavals to revive Steelswarm Hercules as Evigishki Zealgigas, went on a genocidal purge of the Gusto which only got stopped by the Gem-Knights saving the last few Gusto, and in general joined the genocidal zombie virus bent on killing/corrupting all life on the planet. Eventually, she was purified of her corruption, leading her to sacrifice herself to revive her daughter.
Godhood Seeker: Noellia's goal while under the control of the Evilswarm was to get at the slumbering Sophia, hidden in the Mist Valley.
Redemption Equals Death: Breaking free from the control of the Evilswarm, Noellia regretted all that she had done, and broke the Photomirror's spell, freeing Avance. She then sacrificed herself to use the Aquamirror Cycle and revive Emilia. As she was doing this Zielgigas got attracted by the power of the Ritual and tried to attack them. Using the last of her power in Spell Wall, Noellia defeated him. Before finally passing on, she passed on the Aquamirror to Avance and Emilia.
Skeletons in the Coat Closet: As the leader of the Gishki, she takes to wearing the jaw of a creature as a sort of collar.
Start of Darkness: The incident that made Natalia die happened when Natalia and Noellia were researching for a way to defeat the Fabled without using Trishula. Natalia accidentally called out the Steelswarm, couldn't control them, and died. During Noellia's grief, she was consumed by the Steelswarm.

Shurit

Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz

^{Nekroz of Clausolas}

^{Nekroz of Brionac}

^{Nekroz of Trishula}

^{Nekroz of Areadbhair}

Dragon Knight: Shurit becomes one as Nekroz of Areadbhair. He channels the powers of all of the Dragunity in this form. This form was granted by Exa and the Dragunity Divine Lance, according to the lore.
Older Alter Ego: Shurit can become older and stronger with the help of the Nekroz armor. Basically, the Nekroz armor lets Shurit use the powers of powerful dragons.
Patchwork Kids: Shurit is the child of Avance and Emilia. Shurit's hair is a layered combination of Avance and Emilia (white and red, respectively), and has one blue eye– like Avance– and one red eye– like Emilia.
Playing with Fire: As Nekroz of Areadbhair, Shurit seems to be manipulating fire in his card artwork.

The Mist Valley

Kamui

Kamui, Hope of Gusto

^{Ritual Beast Tamer Elder}

^{Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk}

Babies Ever After: With Reeze, giving birth to "Pilica, Descendant of Gusto".
Lost Pet Grievance: He never really got over the death of his beloved ride, Gusto Falco, in the war against the Vylon. He carved out an image of it on his staff, which he later handed out to his daughter Pilica. After Tierra's death, he manages to be reunited with his friend.
Old Master: He became one in his old age, teaching the new generation of Ritual Beast Tamers.
Tears of Joy: Shown from and center after Tierra's death, [[spoiling:hugging the revived Falco]] and bawling his eyes out.
Weak, but Skilled: He has never been one for battles, having an ATK of 200. However, all his cards have potent swarming and searching effects that help him pull out his weight in a duel.

Pilica

Pilica, Descendant of Gusto

^{Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica}

^{Daigusto Laplampilica}

Kamui and Reeze's daughter in the storyline. A member of the Gusto Tribe who would go on to join the Ritual Beast Tamers.

Babies Ever After: According to Master Guide 4, Pilica is the daughter of Reeze and Kamui.
Generation Xerox: Pilica, Descendant of Gusto is the daughter of Reeze, Whirlwind of Gusto, and shares her hair color. She's also has an odd-numbered Level among the non-Synchro Psychic-Type Gusto monsters (being Level 3), while Reeze is Level 5. She even gets a Level 6 Synchro counterpart like her mom.
Took a Level in Badass: Eventually, Pilica becomes a part of the Zefra archetype and calls herself "Zefram Pilica, the Bold Ritual Beast Tamer" and sometime after that, Daigusto Laplampilica.

Wen

Ritual Beast Tamer Wen

^{Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin}

^{El Shaddoll Wendigo}

^{Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi}

^{Reeshaddoll Wendi}

Blow You Away: Most versions of Wen are of the WIND type. She uses her wind powers to grant Pettlephin and herself the ability to fly in many card artworks featuring them.
The Corruption: Wen and Pettlephin get corrupted by the Shaddoll and becomes El-Shaddoll Wendigo. In fact, this was hinted at by Wen's name, which means "evil" in the Ainu language, as well as being the first syllable of her corrupted form.
Eyes Always Shut: Before her Shaddoll corruption and subsequent purification into a Zefra, Wen is seen closing her eyes. This is to suppress her powers, which she detests.
Friendless Background: Her concept art states she chooses to distance herself away from people, but her family in the Ritual Beast archetype is always there for her.
Parental Abandonment: Wen was abandoned by her parents because of her powers. She was later adopted by Kamui.
Reforged into a Minion: As Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin, Wen was ambushed by the Shaddolls and turned into El Shaddoll Wendigo.
The Chosen Many: As Zefra Wendi.

Winda

Winda, Priestess of Gusto

^{El Shaddoll Winda}

^{Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda}

^{Ritual Beast Ulti-Kimunfalcos}

Horse of a Different Color: For her three incarnations in the Duel Terminal Storyline, Winda rides on Gusto Gulldo (Daigusto Gulldos), the Shaddoll version of Pulao, Wind of the Yang Zing (Elshaddoll Winda/Midrash), and Gusto Falco (Ritual Beast Ulti-Kimunfalcos)
Resurrected for a Job: Tierra revived her as a Shaddoll specifically because she had a portion of Sophia's power, and Tierra needed that to restore itself.
Sixth Ranger: She joins the Ritual Beast Tamers after her resurrection as "Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda", as seen in the artwork of "Ritual Beast Ulti-Kimunfalcos".
Wind Is Green: Like her sister Wynn, Winda has green hair and green eyes, which hint at her being a powerful wind spellcaster.

Other

Exciton Knight

Evilswarm Exciton Knight

^{Steelswarm Sentinel}

^{Steelswarm Roach}

^{Stellarknight Zefraxciton}

One of the most recurrent characters in the Duel Terminal storyline, he started out as a mere vanguard for the "Steelwarm", originally known as "Sentinel". He was captured, and after being experimented on by the "Vylon", transformed into the powerful "Steelswarm Roach". Since then, he has joined the side of good, becoming a valuable ally in the fight against "Tierra".

Last of Its Kind: The last "-lswarm" monster that survived after their extermination, likely referencing how cockroaches are one of the most resilient insects.
Noodle Incident: How "Steelswarm Roach" became "Evilswarm Exciton Knight" has never been revealed.
Token Heroic Orc: The only surviving member of the "-lswarm", he's also the only LIGHT-attribute member on the archetype and the only "Evilswarm" whose stats don't end on 50, reflecting how he was never corrupted by the virus.
Took a Level in Badass: He went from a lowly vanguard to a powerful Xyz monster and then a Pendulum monster. This is reflected by his effects and ATK values, going from a weak lockdown effect to a summon negation to a potent, massive nuke effect, and from 1100 ATK to 1900 ATK.

Leo

Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree

^{Naturia Leodrake}

^{Naturia Gaiastrio}

^{Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio}

Failure Knight: Leo was meant to protect the Sacred Tree, but the Shaddolls still managed to get to it, at which point all Hell broke lose.
Fusion Dance: Leo, Keeper of the Sacred Tree merges with Naturia Landoise to become Naturia Gaiastrio. Then Gaiastrio merges with Spiritual Beast Apelio to become Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio.
Heroic Sacrifice: The art of Ultimate Providence implies that Leo, along with Apelio as Gaiapelio, perish defending Lara, Wen and Pilica from Tierra. Though Ritual Beast Inheritence implies that their spirit(s) live on with Spiritual Beast Tamer Lara.
Panthera Awesome: He starts off as Naturia Leodrake, with a respectable 3000 ATK, and he only gets more powerful from there.

Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Terminal

Archetypes

Part One Archetypes

Part Two Archetypes

Part Three Archetypes

Characters

Constellar

Gem-Knights

Ice Barrier Tribe & Gishki/Nekroz Descendants

The Mist Valley

Other

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Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Terminal

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Archetypes

Part One Archetypes

Part Two Archetypes

Part Three Archetypes

Characters

Constellar

Gem-Knights

Ice Barrier Tribe & Gishki/Nekroz Descendants

The Mist Valley

Other

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Index

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