Fanfic / The World of the Creatures

The World of the Creatures is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a crossover fic, Real-Person Fic, Meta Fic, and Self-Insert Fic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings , The Witcher , and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The story centers around Patrick Murphy, an interpretive guide at a dinosaur museum with a passion for animals of all kinds, be they real or fictional, extinct or extant, or any variation thereof. Murphy awakes one day to find himself in a strange, mysterious world, very unlike the one he is form originally. After exploring for a while, and encountering numerous fictional characters, prehistoric creatures, and people from his personal life, Patrick comes to believe that this world is a physical manifestation of his own mind, a fact that becomes clearer as the story progresses. While initially concerned with trying to figure out how this happened, and how to get back home, Patrick get caught up in the plans and motives of sinister forces that have more planned for him than he can imagine.

There are currently 15 chapters available to read; the story was last updated in December 2019.

---

The World of the Creatures contains examples of

• Abstract Eater: The phrenovore feeds on thoughts but must first turn them into physical objects/beings.
• Achilles' Heel: The phrenovore is all but invincible to everything in the world, except the person whose mind formed the world's template.
• Action Girl: Ciri is the primary example. Her monster hunting skills come in extremely handy in the world. Later in the story, Buffy Summers joins the cast of main characters.
• Action Girlfriend: Once Brendan and Ciri start dating, she retains her action girl status, taking on monster contracts and joining the quest to save Patrick. .
• Active Royalty: Again, Ciri, as she is also officially the Princess of Cintra. Her realm is never mentioned , so she is free to be a witcher without having to worry about her royal responsibilities.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: The Angry Oliphant, the favorite haunt of Patrick, Brendan, Ciri, and many others.
• Alchemic Elementals: When Patrick creates the fortress in the Mons Longomore, he also creates ice golems to work it.
• Alien Animals: From numerous different worlds, including Pandora, Darwin IV, and Snaiad.
• All Myths Are True: If Patrick has heard of a given myth, it will be present in the world, and will be just as real and solid as anything else.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife:
  • The creature of Pandora have their typical showiness.
  • Many different dinosaurs are presented this way, alongside more conservative reconstructions.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: This applies to representative creatures, who have no trouble understanding the thoughts and feelings of their human companions. Does not apply to other wild animals.
• Amazon Chaser: Patrick shows an inclination toward multiple musulcar women in the story. Given that Hope appears as one, it's heavily implied that she chose that form to appeal more to Patrick.
• Amazonian Beauty:
  • Zoe is described as well-toned with gorgeous blue-gray eyes.
  • Ciri is described as more athletic and toned than her Witcher III counterpart, which makes sense given her lifestyle.
  • A more literal example — Wonder Woman shows up toward the beginning and in the final battle.
  • Hope is also described as being quite muscular.
• Amphibian at Large: The beginning of Part 2 sees Darren and Patrick dissect a Benthosuchus
• Anachronism Stew: Modern day animals coexist with extinct ones. Justified as this all takes place in someone's mind.
• Ancient Artifact:
  • The Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon in the Buffy/Evil Dead arc qualify. The latter has the ability to summon evil, while the former is the key to fighting it
  • Sauron eventually regains possession of the One Ring, which brings him back to his full strength.
  • The Twelve Talismans of the Chinese Zodiac are used by Brendan and Ciri in the final battle. Brendan uses the Horse, Rabbit, and Dragon to obtain healing, speed, and combustion, while Ciri uses the Ox, Dog, and Pig to gain strength, immortality, and heat-beam eyes.
• And I Must Scream: This is how Patrick describe the fate of anyone touched by the Black Bile. Their bodies are completely broken and their minds are trapped in an unending cycle of horrible pain.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Chapter 12 begins with Brendan taking over the role of narrator from Patrick.
• Animal Espionage: Jack Sparrow uses his... well, sparrow to spy on the Thanagarians.
• Animal Stampede: One made of Megacerops, Amebelodon, and Bramatherium stampedes through the Udonga mountains.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: At least to Patrick, this is what Gaunter O'Dimm is to the concept of evil.
• Artifact of Doom: The Necronomicon, which Ruby and the Master use to create a race of half-vampires/half-deadite monsters.
• Artificial Zombie: The Doctor uses 2-4-5 Trioxyn to reanimate a freezer full of dead animals at one point.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: played with.
  • Old, inaccurate depictions of dinosaurs, such as the featherless raptors of Jurassic Park appear side-by-side with more accurate, up-to-date versions. Murphy will often go into detail to highlight the accuracy (or lacktherof) of these portrayals.
  • Murphy indulges in some informed speculation. For example, T. rex is portrayed as having evolved a highly-derived, novel larynx that can make a combination of low-frequency booms and howling chortles. There's no evidence of such a larynx known from T. rex, but it's not impossible either.
• Badass Crew: The company. Becomes more pronounced as the story goes on as the number of members increase during each chapter.
• Badass Normal: The non-famous, nonfictional characters. Brendan is the most "normal" of the bunch, but over the course of the story, he's leading armies into battle astride a six-legged alien predator.
• Baddie Flattery: Hope talks up how special Patrick is for being able to achieve ultimate power through moments of self-actualization. In reality, she's just trying to ingratiate herself to Patrick so that he will trust her.
• Bait the Dog: Hope/the phrenovore. She acts kindly to Patrick, making him feel better, buts it's all to lure him into a false sense of security.
• Bat People:
  • Many of the vampires, but special mention to Thuringwethil, who is a beautiful woman from the shoulders down, while everything else is a giant vampire bat.
  • Dracula and his brides appear this way, mostly likely inspired by Van Helsing.
• Battle Couple: Ciri and Brendan were fighting side by side even before they started dating.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The main plot. Though initially the war is waged by Morgoth commanding an army of antagonistic forces from across fiction, the focus of the main threat shifts over the course of the story to Patrick himself, and to the phrenovore.
• Behemoth Battle: In the final confrontation between Patrick's 'good' side and his 'bad' side, each one takes the form of a stupidly gigantic winged creature, and the two titans battle one another on the ground, in the air, and even in space.
• Best Friend:
  • Patrick and Brendan. They'd been friends for a decade by the time the story begins. They have similar interests and personality traits, they support one another and listen to each other's problems, and they aren't afraid to express their friendships through things like hugs or holding hands.
  • This is how Patrick thinks of his relationship to Gabi, Zoe, and Sam, which makes their eventual abandoment all the more painful.
• Beyond Redemption: Disucssed multiple times with regards to Patrick after he splits. Brendan is firmly on the side that he can be redeemed, but even his conviction is shaken by his confrontation with the First Evil
• Big Bad: At first, this appears to be Morgoth Bauglir, but in time we learn that the real big bad is the Phrenovore. Her ultimate goal is to weaken Patrick so that he can no longer present a threat, and then consume his mind for sustenance.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies:
  • Chapter Three features giant ants attacking the area around the Great Tree. Giant Spiders appear in the Battle of the Three Cities. The origin of these are unknown.
  • There are also casual references to extinct genera such as Arthropleura (a giant millipede) and Meganeura (a giant relative of dragonflies)
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: A sasquatch shows up in the game devised by O'Dimm.
• Bird People: The intelligent dinosaurs of the UA could best be described as these.
• Black Cloak: Brendan provides a rare non-villainous example. Brendan owns a black cloak that he wears both during times of celebration, and also in times when he needs reassurance in himself and his beliefs. It is no coincidence that Brendan's cloak is ripped to shreds during the story arc that sees him question everything he believes in.
• Bigger on the Inside: The Tardis.
• Buffy Speak: Buffy herself, unsurprisingly.
• Bright Is Not Good: Some of the instances in which Patrick achieves omnipotence are accompanied by him glowing with a powerful golden light. The gold light is an indicator that Patrick is being motivated by fear.
• Call-Forward: The story is stated to begin in 2018, but through some nonsense about quantum entanglement, we are told that the powers that transcribed the world can reach either backwards and forwards in time to realize certain aspects of it.
  • At the time of the story, Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor was the most recent incarnation. However, later in the story, we get appearances by the 13th and 14th Doctors as well.
  • Some of the dinosaurs' appearances are direct references to Prehistoric Planet, released in 2022
  • Some dinosaurs that were only published after the time of the story are referenced, such as Maip.
  • The epilogue heavily implies that Patrick's trip to Entabeni ^note  which is the name of a real game reserve in South Africa was this in real life
• Celeb Crush: Patrick states that he has one on both Karen Gillan and Lupita Nyong'o.
• Celebrity Paradox: Alluded to. Karen Gillan and Amelia Pond both exist in this universe, but never meet, so the exact issue never comes up. Brendan also thinks about it briefly during Patrick's party after seeing Ian Mckellen, having previously interacted with Gandalf the Grey.
• The Chess Master: Hope is this, and her two most notable pawns are Morgoth and Patrick. She plays Morgoth and his forces against those of the UA, while Patrick is her King - the one piece she needs to take out in order to succeed.
• Classical Chimera: One of the monsters in O'Dimm's game, where various monsters appear to distract Brendan and Ciri from their goal.
• The Corrupter: Hope is this to Patrick, exacerbating his insecurities and causing him to lose trust in his friends.
• The Corruption: The ultimate effect of Hope's influence is to feed Patrick's more negative attributes to the point where they can take on a life of their own.
• Crossover-Exclusive Villain: The phrenovore doesn't exist in any of the intellectual properties that make an appearance, and its presence is directly related to the in-universe mechanism that allows the crossover to happen.
• Crossover Villain-in-Chief: Morgoth beats down the various other evil overlords to become the dominant antagonistic force. So it seems at least — in reality, even Morgoth is just another pawn of the phrenovore, and his power is nothing next to Patrick's.
• Crapsack World: While the territories overseen by the UA are almost a paradise, as Patrick's mental state deteriorates, so too does the UA's ability to hold things together. As he gets worse, so does the world.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Patrick is shown to have struggled with depression, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation in the past, before the world was formed. As things get worse for him ,these begin to surface once more.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Brendan is a huge example. He dresses in all black clothes all the time, but is generally cheerful, friendly, and well-meaning. He explains this as an attempt to define himself in an uncontrollable external world.
• Davy Jones: The iteration from Pirates of the Caribbean. He intercepts the company on the Black Pearl and takes them prisoner.
• Death World: While the parts of the world overseen by the UA are okay (for the most part), there are still vast wildernesses and territories populated by extremely dangerous predators, and unforgiving climates. And that's not even counting those beings that are actively malicious...
• Decoy Protagonist: Given this is a self insert fic, one would expect Patrick to be the main protagonist, and while he does fulfill this role early in the story, the story begins to split focus between him and Brendan about half way, and then shifts entirely to Brendan.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Turns out, defeating Morgoth was the easy part...
• Draconic Abomination: The final form of Patrick's "bad" side is a huge black dragon with massive horns, spiked wings, and a deadly breath whose touch leads to a fate worse than death. It is said to a have a wingspan measured in miles.
• Dracula: He leads the vampires in the Battle of the Three Cities.
• The Dragon: Patrick becomes this to the phrenovore when his "bad" side takes on a life of its own. He may be all powerful, but she's the one directing the plans.
• Dream Sequence: Brendan starts having these later in the stories, both during the Buffy arc and the Lancelot arc. The first is implied to be a vision from the First Evil, while the second one foreshadows the conflict between Darren and Lancelot.
• Eldritch Abomination: The phrenovore is a creature that exists only in the so called 'world of thought.' We never get a clear idea of what its true form looks like - if it even has a true form at all — but it doesn't seem to follow any known biological Bauplan.
• Eldritch Location: Patrick's mind comes off as this sometimes. It's mostly covered in dense jungle and home to - more or less - every living thing from any variation of time, space, or imagination. Things get even weirder if you leave the planet.
• Elves vs. Dwarves : Averted. Elves and dwarves are allies under the Universal Alliance.
• Enchanted Forest: In addition to normal animals both extinct and extant, the jungles of the world are populated by supernatural creatures.
• Enemy Without: Patrick's 'bad' side eventually grows so powerful that it splits from him and becomes its own autonomous entity.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Brendan refuses to give up on Patrick, even in spite of all the horrible things he's done, and how selfish and malicious he's become.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Invoked by Brendan, who reasons that if Patrick's 'bad' side wanted them dead, he could simply will them to be so. The fact that he hasn't means that Patrick still values them to some degree.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hope successfully cuts Patrick off from his friends, and after his deplorable actions, believes that this will be enough to keep him weak and isolated. It never occurs to her that Brendan might still want to save him after the split.
• Evil Former Friend: Patrick becomes this to Brendan, and to Ciri as well to a lesser extent.
• Evil Is Petty: Hope is able to bring out Patrick's 'evil' side by stroking his petty insecurities.
• Evil Overlord: Morgoth Bauglir, the first great evil of Tolkien's Legendarium, beats out all the other evil overlords to become their ruler, taking command of all their forces. However Morgoth is quickly and unceremoniously disposed of about midway through the story to make way for the real villains.
• Evil Sorcerer: A group of these — including Saruman of Many Colors and Vilgefortz of Roggeveen — show up at the City of the UA to neutralize its defenses.
• Face–Heel Turn: In a sense. It's not so much that Patrick becomes evil, so much that his negative attributes gain a life of their own. Still, the story makes it very clear that these attributes are Patrick's - when they look at the 'bad' Patrick their minds process it as Patrick, regardless of what shape it takes.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Hope. She appears to Patrick in an attractive form specifically made to appeal to him, but in reality, she is a phrenovore whose only motivation is to weaken Patrick so that she can more easily devour him.
• False Friend: Hope appears to Patrick as a kind heart, willing to be there for him and listen to him when he's having problems. In truth, this is to make him more trusting and dependent on her, which allows her to cut him off from true friends.
• Fantastic Livestock: Mahmoud says he used to herd goats in Tunisia, but since moving to the world, he's switched to herding Secernosaurus.
• Fantastic Terrorists: The members of the Remain Pary, who don't want Patrick's world to be undone and go back to their places of origin. During the resolution to decide on the world's ultimate fate, they storm the palace.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The eponymous world, filled all manner of elements from various works of popular fantasy as well as folkore and mythology.
• Fat Best Friend: Patrick is this to Brendan during the parts of the story in which he is overweight.
• Friend Versus Lover: Brendan is caught between his devotion to his friend, and his desire to see Patrick get better, and Ciri, who has mostly given up on him.
• Flying Face: Brendan, Ciri, Yennefer, and Geralt are tasked with killing a Leyak (or Penanggalan) in "An Act of Rebellion."
• Generic Doomsday Villain: This is how Morgoth comes across. Being removed from Arda fundamentally changes his motivation. No one ever elaborates on what he hopes to gain from attacking the UA, and of course he isn't around to do so himself. This is intentional - the real Big Bad is the phrenovore, along with Patrick's 'evil' side.
• Genius Loci: It is very heavily implied that the world itself is aware to some degree, and is influencing the movements of the company.
• Ghost Pirate: Davy Jones' crew. In this world, many of these tortured souls have been corrupted into prehistoric sea creatures such as trilobites, ammonites, and lobopods.
• Giant Flyer: Quite a few
  • The numerous flying creatures of Pandora, such as the Banshees and the Great Leonopteryx
  • Many giant pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus, Arambourgiania, and Hatzegopteryx appear.
  • The giant pseudo-toothed Pelagornis is seen along the coasts.
  • Flying creatures from Darwin IV, such as the ebony blisterwing.
  • Tolkien's Eagles are associates of the UA.
  • Both Patrick's "good" and "bad" sides eventually take the form of gigantic winged monsters.
• Giant Spider: A whole army of them aids the forces of Morgoth in the Battle of the Three Cities.
• A God Am I: The more Patrick indulges in his powers, the more he begins to feel this way (and it' not as if he's entirely wrong...)
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Hope comes across as this at first, but it's part of a ruse. She's really a horrible monster beyond comprehension trying to weaken Patrick so that she can eat his mind.
• Green Aesop: Not the main theme, but there is definitely an undercurrent of environmentalism. Those who value and protect nature (such as Darren, the Na'vi, the Elves, and others) are presented as good, and villainous characters will destroy nature as part of their dirty deeds.
• Hair-Trigger Avalanche: To escape the xenomorphs, Brendan has his thanator roar loudly to trigger an avalanche. Ciri points out that that's not how avalances work, but since Patrick apparently doesn't know that, it does work in the world of his mind.
• Has a Type: Patrick definitely has one, and Hope uses that to her advantage.
• The Heartless: This happens to Patrick about halfway through the story. The phrenovore pokes and prods Patrick's inherent insecurities and vanity to the point where all of his negative attributes split off to become their own, autonomous entity.
• Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted a fair few times. Herbivores are often portrayed as belligerent and aggressive.
• Hero Protagonist: Between the two protagonists, Brendan is the one comes across as more traditionally heroic (Though Patrick does have his moments toward the end).
• Heroes Prefer Swords:
  • Brendan has a sword. Brendan owns a sword specifically because it symbolizes heroism. In other words, he invokes this trope in real life.
  • Brendan's sword is destroyed at the exact moment he is forced to accept the evil of humanity, of Patrick, and of himself.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Hope is in an extremely advantageous position. Only she knows how the world formed, how it can be returned to normal, and what a phrenovore is. This makes it very easy for her to hide her true intentions.
• Hobbits: One of the member species of the UA. They tend to avoid the City for the most part, but they have a say in affairs, and are afforded protection. Interestingly, the Doctor claims that hobbits are phylogentically nested within Homo sapiens.
• Horse of a Different Color: Applies to all the R Cs that have riders, such as Brendan's thanator.
  • Also applies to the Na'vi and their direhorses, which the author describes as being, "horses of more than just a different color."
  • During the Lancelot storyline, we learn that people in the desert ride Gallimimus instead of horses because they can go for longer without water.
• Hot in Human Form: When Hope takes human form, she specifically chooses one that Patrick will find attractive.
• Human Aliens: The Doctor is the most prominent example, but there's passing references to others, such as Nova Prime and the Kree.
• Humanoid Aliens: The Na'vi and Predators count.
• Hungry Jungle: The vast jungles that cover great swaths of the continent, especially in the equatorial regions. A good number of the animal species are more than happy to eat you, and the rest aren't exactly friendly either.
• I Need You Stronger: Hope's plan for Patrick is to make it easier and easier for him to access his incredible power by tapping into his negative personality traits. The ultimate goal is have him indulge those traits so much that they develop a mind of their own, retaining the awesome power that Patrick uses them to channel.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • Brendan experiences these feelings when he first considers his attraction to Ciri, but is able to overcome them through a strong mutual trust. However, that trust is corroded by the First Evil later in the story, and Brendan begins to feel this way again.
  • This is how Patrick feels toward Sam.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Hope deliberately exploits Patrick's deep insecurities about himself to weaken him while growing stronger.
• Interim Villain: Basically what Morgoth is before Patrick and the phrenovore become more active.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: A less abstract version than usual. Murphy's mind is a more or less straightforward world populated by thoughts that physically manifest themselves as the people/places/things from Patrick's life. The phrenovore — who never explains her powers in any detail — is responsible for the formation of the setting.
• Kaiju:
  • Traditional Japanese Kaiju such as Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra show up at various points. The evil King Ghidorah appears in the Final Battle being ridden by Sauron.
  • Both Patrick's 'good' and 'bad' sides eventually manifest as gigantic winged monsters so huge, they could send Godzilla flying with a sneeze.
• Lady Macbeth: Hope plays this role to Patrick, working behind the scenes to drive him further and further toward greater power.
• Land of Faerie: Brendan's first guess about where he is is this, and not without reason.
• Last Villain Stand: When Patrick's 'good' and 'bad' sides are reunited, Hope knows that her days are numbered, and prepares for the coming assault.
• Lead You Can Relate To: Both Patrick and Brendan are pretty idiosyncratic, but you're much more likely to relate to them than the wizards, aliens, and lizard folk who make up the rest of the cast.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During the quest for Patrick, Brendan makes choices depending on what kind of story he believes himself to be in
• Legion of Doom:
  • After Morgoth wins the arm's race of Evil Overlords, he gathers numerous villainous characters under his command.
  • After Patrick's 'bad' side takes on a life of its own, it basically inherits these forces from Morgoth.
• Limited Social Circle:
  • Played straight with Patrick, who claims that Brendan and Ciri are his only real friends. This is why Patrck is so elated when he meets Sam, Zoe, and Gabi, and why he's so distraught when they disappear.
  • Ambiguous with Brendan. We only see him hanging with Patrick and Ciri, but he doesn't appear to think of himself as socially limited.
  • Averted with Ciri, who is also shown to hang out with her roller derby team.
• Lizard Folk:
  • The Silurians of Doctor Who. They look more or less like humans with three crests on their heads, green scaly skin, and without noses.
  • The Saurosapients from All Tomorrows. these are very different from the Silurians, looking more like outdated, tripodal depcitions of dinosaurs.
• Looks Like Orlock:
  • Vampires like these are identified in the horde that attacks the City.
  • The Master is one of the main antagonists of "Evil."
• Loser Protagonist: This is how Patrick begins to see himself about midway through the story, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (for a while at least).
• Mad God: What Patrick's 'bad' side becomes after it splits off
• Made of Evil: The First Evil appears in the Buffy storyline as it had in the show, but Brendan realizes that the concept of 'Evil Incarnate' has existed in many different forms, and is able to convince the First to take the shape of another evil being - Gaunter O'Dimm.
• Magical Girlfriend: Ciri is this to Brendan after they start dating, since he has no magical abilities to speak of while she's a Child of the Elder Blood.
• Manipulative Bastard: Hope's ultimate plan is to manipulate Patrick into isolating himself from his friends and weaken him by preying on his insecurities and mental health problems.
• Martians: Different races from Mars exist in this world, notably the Ice Warriors from Doctor Who, and the Martians from The War of the Worlds
• The Master: The Master from Buffy is an antagonist during that story arc. Since the Doctor is present, there is some initial confusion.
• Mental Monster: The less admirable aspects of Patrick's personality- fear, anger, hatred - disassociate from him entirely and become their own, singular entity.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Many creatures that don't live in a rain forest biome show up in the jungle.
• Multiple Protagonists: Patrick, whose mind forms the basis of the entire world, and Brendan,his best friend.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: Brendan has no supernatural abilities whatsoever, while Ciri has all kinds of powers, most notably teleportation.
• Narcissist: Patrick becomes one in the months leading up to his split. Brendan can see this is a deliberate attempt to hide his growing insecurities and self-loathing.
• Nature Hero: Darren becomes this when he tries to stop Lancelot from killing the Tarbosaurus.
• Nature Lover: Applies to many, including Patrick, but Darren especially. He delights in identifying the many species they encounter on the quest, and is willing to stand between a furious Lancelot and a helpless Tarbosaurus.
• Nature Is Not Nice: While many characters love nature, and the work itself definitely treats the natural world with reverence, it also never forgets that natural disasters and wild animals can be very dangerous.
• Near-Villain Victory: Hope's plan was very close to succeeding. She had already begun to feast on the world, and she had an unstoppable servant in the form of Patrick's 'bad' side. She just didn't account for The Power of Friendship.
• No Biochemical Barriers: The various creatures from disparate planets are shown feeding on plants and animals from other worlds, such as Pandroan sturmbeests being able to feed on grass from Earth.
• The Nth Doctor: Not surprising considering who's in it. This story first introduces us to the 12th Doctor, though he is later replaced by the 11th.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: Gaunter O'Dimm seems downright delighted after he seemingly lost the game to Brendan and Ciri...
• Omnicidal Maniac:
  • Morgoth is described using these exact words.
  • The phrenovore is a more literal example. It will eat every living organisms, as well as all other forms of matter and energy.
• The Only One I Trust: Brendan is this to Patrick, but Hope is able to use this against him.
• Opposites Attract:
  • Brendan is thoughtful, methodical, and humble while Ciri is blunt, impulsive, and occasionally bratty.
  • Patrick is timid and in secure while Sam is extorverted and outgoing (although in that case, the attraction isn't recipricol)
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Tarbosaurus possesses this quality in the story.
• Paradox Person: The phrenovore is this because it's the only thing in the world that didn't come from Patrick's mind.
• People Puppets: The Symbiotes from All Tomorrows. A rare, non-villainous example, the Symbiotes and their hosts are members of the UA, and as far as we can tell, are productive members of society.
• Pirate: Both the lovable rogue variety as seen with Captain Jack Sparrow, and the dangerous type in the form of Davy Jones and his crew
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Brendan worries that he's falling into this when he contemplates his attraction to Ciri.
• Place Beyond Time: When Patrick returns home, he finds that no time has passed since his arrival, although several years had passed in the world of his mind.
• Planet Eater: The phrenovore. Not just the living creatures, but the rocks and minerals, the water, the air...
• Princess Protagonist: Ciri
• Predation Is Natural: Played straight with the many wild predators of the story. For example, Patrick and his classmates are excited at the prospect of witnessing a hunt during their trip, and Darren refuses to let Lancelot hurt the Tarbosaurus because they are just animals following their instincts.
• Predators Are Mean: While most of the predators in the story simply act on their survival instincts, the phrenovore takes active enjoyment from the pain it causes as a result of its feeding strategy.
• Proud Warrior Race: The various creature allies tend to fall under this category, but it's particularly noticeable in the Yautja, the Na'vi, and the Ice Warriors.
• Public Domain Character: Count Dracula appears in the Battle of the Three Cities, leading the vampire horde.
• Rage Against the Author: Buffy muses on what she would do to Joss Whedon if she ever met him. (Technically this is the First Evil under the guise of Buffy, but it's not hard to imagine that the real Buffy would have the same complaints)
• Raising the Steaks: When captured by the cybermen, the company finds a giant, industrial freezer full of dead bodies from the local wildlife, which the cybermen keep for spare parts. As part of a gambit to escape the ship, the Doctor contaminates the bodies using barrels filled with 2-4-5 Trioxyn, which brings them back to life and craving the brains inside the cybermen.
• Raptor Attack:
  • Averted with Patrick's dromaeosaur which is described has being fat with feathers.
  • Played straight with the Jurassic Park III raptors that appear in the Buffy arc.
• Remember That You Trust Me: Brendan tries to do this with Patrick after the latter starts to become famous. Brendan can sense that something is wrong, but ultimately fails to remind Patrick of their bond.
• Resurrect the Villain: The Wendigo from Chapter 15 is brought back by the 'bad' Patrick.
• Revenant Zombie: Those brought back the cursed burial ground in, "The Contract."
• Rhino Rampage: There's a stampeding herd of brontotheres that shows up toward the beginning of Chapter 6.
• Sadist: The phrenovre actively enjoys the suffering it causes to others. It claims that sadism is an effective trait for a predator.
• Shown Their Work: One of the characters is Dr. Darren Naish, author of the extremely well-researched Tetrapod Zoology. Murphy makes it painfully apparent how well-informed he is on the subject of Paleontology.
• Slave Mooks: Most of those fighting on the side of Morgoth and/or the phrenovore are doing so because they have no choice- either they fight or die. The Daleks were nearly driven to extinction trying to avoid becoming this trope.
• Snowlems: The Ice Golems that Patrick creates in the Mons Longomare.
• Solar Punk: The City of the Universal Alliance is this. Many UA members, such as the Na'vi and the Ents, are strongly devoted to the environment, so the UA had to build a settlement that was as eco-friendly as possible. It runs entirely on renewable energy, doesn't create or release pollutants, and resources are harvested sustainably. We're told that a big reason this is possible is because uses magic as part of its infrastructure.
• Spider Swarm: One attacks the City of the UA during the Battle of the Three Cities.
• The Spymaster: Sigismund Dijkstra is this for the UA, hand picked by Patrick himself for his cunning and ruthlessness, but also his aversion to war.
• Starfish Aliens:
  • There are a few references to creatures from the planet Darwin IV and from C. M. Koseman's Snaiad.
  • The so-called "creatures of the abstract" don't exist in the physical world, yet there are apparently thousands of species. They feed on thoughts, dreams, and even entire minds, and can move through the world by the spread and transmission of certain memes. How they do this is never explained, and indeed may not even be explicable to us.
• Stock Slasher: Jason Vorhees attacks Brendan and Ciri while they are attempting to win O'Dimm's game.
• Switching P.O.V.: Starts with Patrick, then bounces back and forth between him and Brendan, then Brendan takes over on his own for a while, and then Patrick comes back as the climax approaches.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The phrenovore is not only persistent, but patient, spending years on its plan to weaken Patrick and devour his mind.
• The Swarm: An apparent favorite of Murphy's given their frequency:
  • The Battle of the Three Cities features four separate swarms — one of werewolves, one of vampires, one of outriders, and one of giant spiders.
  • The UA uses a swarm of nanobots that consume inorganic matter to defend themselves against the first assault.
  • A swarm of xenomorphs attacks Brendan and Ciri during their date night in the Mons Longomare.
  • A swarm of giant ants is one of the first threats that Patrick and the others encounter after the world forms.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: This is the subtext of what Brendan says to Patrick during the final battle between Patrick's two halves. The 'bad' half has the 'good' half pinned down, and is about to deliver the killing blow, but Brendan intercedes with an impassioned plea begging him not to do this.
• Third Wheel: Patrick is afraid that he will become this after Ciri and Brendan start dating. Hope uses this fear to her advantage.
• Thirsty Desert: "The Knight's Tale," sees Brendan venture in a dry, arid wasteland.
• Title Drop: The title comes to Patrick's mind as he contemplates the future he wants with his new friends:

Patrick: ...these were my people, and here we were in my world - a world of creatures of all kinds

• Toothy Bird: Enantiornithine birds are confirmed to be present in the world.
• Translator Microbes: Courtesy of the Tardis. Even the apes' sign language is translated.
• True Companions: Despite all they go through, this ultimately proves true for Patrick and Brendan.
• The Undead: Many different varieties ranging from hideous abominations that seek only to cause misery and woe, to fully-fledged productive members of society.
• Undead Child: One appears in "The Contract," either heavily-inspired by Gage Creed, or Gage himself.
• Unique Protagonist Asset:
  • The fact that this entire world is Patrick's mind means that he will always be at the center of events, and it gives him a unique kind of power.
  • The fact that Brendan is Patrick's best friend also means that the responsibility to act to save the world falls more heavily on his shoulders.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Spoken verbatim by John Vhole with regards to Patrick.
• Vertebrate with Extra Limbs:
  • The Pandoran fauna, with their characteristic two hind limbs and four forelimbs.
  • Murphy definitely has a preference for dragons with forelimbs, hindlimbs, and wings.
• Villain of the Detour: The Crones of Crookback Bog are this in, "An Act of Rebellion". Once the chapter is complete, they are never seen again
• Walking Spoiler: Hope/the phrenovore. She is the reason the world formed in the first place, and her secret plan is the main driver of conflict.
• Wicked Witch: The Crones, as the company is forced to journey through Crookback Bog. The three sisters are hideous humanoid monsters who use their power to terrorize their subjects.
• Wild Wilderness: Step outside the outposts of the UA, and you'll find yourself in harsh conditions, at the mercy of wild creatures.
• The World Is Just Awesome: There is no shortage of descriptions of vast, natural landscapes teaming with a variety of weird and wonderful creatures. Even amid all of the fantastical imagery, Darren stresses the fact that it is all inspired by the real beauty of the real world.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: At first, Brendan thinks they're in Faerie, the world of fantasy talked about by J.R.R. Tolkien in his essay, On Faerie Stories
• Xanatos Gambit: A minor one by Gaunter O'Dimm. The deal he makes with Brendan will either result in Brendan and Ciri losing their souls to him, or having their conviction in themselves and in each other shattered. Either way, he's done what he set out to do - break up the company
• You Wake Up in a Room: Or in this case, in the middle of a dark cave.

---