Literature / The Beginning After the End

The Beginning After the End is an epic fantasy starting from the rebirth of a king into a new life of magic and twisted fate, written by TurtleMe. King Grey has unrivaled strength, wealth, and prestige in a world governed through martial ability. However, solitude lingers closely behind those with great power. Beneath the glamorous exterior of a powerful king lurks the shell of a man, devoid of purpose and will. Reincarnated into a new world filled with magic and monsters, the king has a second chance to relive his life. Correcting the mistakes of his past will not be his only challenge, however. Underneath the peace and prosperity of the new world is an undercurrent threatening to destroy everything he has worked for, questioning his role and reason for being born again.

Volumes with Publication Dates

1. Early Years, January 24, 2016
2. New Heights, January 24, 2016
3. Beckoning Fates, April 2, 2016
4. Horizon's Edge, October 30, 2016
5. Convergence, September 2, 2017
6. Transcendence, June 5, 2019
7. Divergence, February 15, 2020
8. Ascension, March 19, 2021
9. Reckoning, May 25, 2022
10. Retribution, June 22, 2023

It can be found here. The novel has also been adapted into a web comic series, illustrated by Fuyuki23.

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Tropes include:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade:
  • Arhur's Dawn's Ballad, an Asuran-forged sword. Eventually destroyed.
  • Conjured Aether swords.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Any mention of Nico's parents or his last name is enough to send him in a rage.
  • Jasmine's father had great hopes for his daughter as a Fire Elementalist given how early she awakened, only for her to have an Air affinity. This leads him to neglect her until she leaves home.
• Adaptive Ability: Aether. Explicitly stated to be capable of literally anything.
• Adventure-Friendly World: Certainly appears as this at first, what with adventuring being an actual occuptation and entire swaths of the continent wild and untamed. That is until the Cosmic Horror Story kicks in.
• Affably Evil: Agrona is Polite, soft-spoken and even occasionally generous.
• Aerith and Bob: Ranging from Arthur, Sylvie and Alice, all the way to Alduin, Virion and Indrath.
• Armor Is Useless: Given how the most commonplace spells will punch through solid rock, most people favor speed over protection.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Many of the nobles houses of the three races refuse to go along with their respective kings wish for union, and dig in their heels in the face of impending change.
• Academy of Adventure: Xyrcus academy.
• Action Girl: Easier to list the girls who aren't.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: A distraught Tessia throws herself naked at Arthur in a moment of weakness, and laments that he still won't make a move. He admits it's taking all of his willpower not to.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Olfred's only sin was being loyal to a traitor.
• Always Save the Girl: Arthur to Tessia, to a terrible cost for Dicathen.
• Always Someone Better: Arthur to most of the cast. Lances to Arthur (at first). Lance Varay to the rest of the Lances. Retainers and Scythes to the Lances. And the Asura to everyone else.
• Anti-Climax: What Sylvia's message to Arthur ultimately amounts to. She does give him some previously unknown information about Agrona and how it came to be she ended up in Dicathen, but being mostly ignorant of his motives herself, she points Arthur towards the Relictombs to get more answers. It might've had more of an impact if Arthur himself hadn't just passed the Despair Event Horizon.
• Anti-Magic: The Aether edict of Destruction. Burns magic as easily as everything else.
• Anyone Can Die: By the time the war arc hits its stride, this comes into full effect, and the death toll is horrendous.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Played with. With the various crowned heads of Dicathen dead, the Lances assume a more proactive command role, but still defer to Virion, their de-facto supreme commander. With him crossing the Despair Event Horizon they turn to Arthur for leadership.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Grey and Caera during their stint in the Relictombs.
• Badass Army: The Wraiths, Agrona's trump card. Consisting of squads of five Demi-Vritra each. Trained from birth for battle against Asuran warriors.
  • To a lesser extent the Alacryian war machine is this: Highly-trained, disciplined and well-equipped. They make short work of their Dicathian opposition in a short few months.
• Badass Bookworm: Nico. A talented inventor and no slouch when things get hairy.
  • Wren Kain also qualifies, as a renowned Asuran artificer, whom even the likes of Aldir is wary of.
• Bag of Holding: Dimension rings. And later a rune for Arthur.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The Vritra are definitely evil and a real threat to all lesser races. But the motivations of Epheotus aren't any better, and the lengths they're willing to go to make sure Agrona doesn't get the upper hand over them are extreme. Making it that all races are basically pawns in a giant proxy war between the two Asuran factions.
• Benevolent Precursors: Played to its logical conclusion with the ancient mages, the Djinn, who were so committed to non-violence they allowed themselves to be hunted to extinction by the Indrath Clan, and never once considered fighting back.
• Big Bad Ensemble: As Arthur learns more about the world he's reborn into, it becomes clear that many of the major conflicts are a pissing contest between Kezess Indrath, ruler of Epheotus, and Agrona Vritra, overlord of Alacryia. Both hoping to end as the God King of the world.
• Blessed with Suck: Arthur inherits the immensely powerful will of Sylvia. Only to be told that being human, he can only barely tap into it without killing himself.
• Blood Magic: A specific floor of the Relictombs housing an armor relic requires Ascenders to offer the blood of the "enemies" of the Ancient Mages. With nothing else to go on, some Ascenders start performing blood sacrifices using freshly-arrived Ascenders, to no avail. It takes the blood of one who has harmed the "blood" of the Djinn to break the seal. The leader of the zone's trapped Ascenders gets tricked into spilling Arthur's blood. Since Arthur is a descendent of the Djinn, the leader himself then becomes the key to breaking the seal. Arthur kills him and gains access to the relic armor.
• Body Horror:
  • Arthur uses gravity manipulation to great effect to stomp on Lucas's limbs and nether regions.
  • Uto dismembers Lance Aya, pierces her Mana Core and plucks out her eyes, while making sure she will survive long enough to watch her men die.
  • Arthur again impales Retainer Jagrette with extreme prejudice on a giant ice lance.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Asuran children train in martial arts. Justified in that their most accomplished melee warriors, the Thyestes Clan, are noted to be deadly in battle thanks to their conditioning.
• Break the Cutie: Life is not kind to little Ellie.
• Breather Episode: Arthur and Tess have a date on the eve of the battle at the Wall.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Virion, a kindly and doting grandfather and also a war hero, an accomplished battle commander and deadly fighter.
  • Aldir is a calm, soft-spoken Asura, who very rarely resorts to intimidation and violence. But also one of the most powerful characters introduced, and wielder of the Fantastic Nuke World-Eater.
• Big Bad: Agrona of Vritra. Though he's slowly getting to share that spot with Kezess Indrath.
• Big Damn Heroes: Mostly, if not always involving Arthur:
  • As Grey, saves Cecilia from her own rampant Ki by knocking her out cold.
  • Arthur swooping down to save Tessia and other Xyrus Academy students.
  • Subverted during his showdown against Cadell and Nico, where he loses, badly.
• Boring, but Practical: An important lesson to elemental fighting: The most effective spells aren't necessarily the flashiest as Arthur comes to learn. Earth manipulation allows to diffuse shockwaves into the ground, reducing or outright cancelling damage received. While air allows for such moves as creating a vacuum between yourself and an incoming attack, to either pull it towards yourself or stop it in its tracks.
• Blood Oath: The reason why the Lances, being the physical gods they are don't simply overthrow the royal families to assume power themselves: They are groomed their entire lives for the use of an artifact bestowed by the Asura of Epheotus that instantly elevates them to White Core status. In exchange, they are bound in absolute obedience to their respective kings.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Dragoth.
• Bullet Time: Thunderclap Impulse.
• Bully Hunter: The calling of the disciplinary committee in Xyrcus academy.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Cynthia Goodsky has been in love with Virion her whole life, but knowing he had eyes only for his wife, she never quite manages to admit it. Even after the latter's death.
  • Heavily implied to be the case for Rinia as regards to Virion again.
• Cassandra Truth: When asked by Virion if rescuing a captured contigent of elves will be successful, Rinia answers yes, but that the price might prove to be more than Virion is willing to pay. He goes ahead anyway, and Tessia is captured during the assault.
• Cavalry Betrayal: Trodius Flamesworth decides to do away with the plan of having his troops retreat and collapsing parts of the Wall on the advancing horde, so he can get to keep his own small kingdom.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Phoenix Wyrm pendant Arthur gifts to Ellie very early on in the story. Meant to protect their wearer and teleport them to safety in case of mortal danger, but only once. They are never mentioned again until 9 whole volumes and years later, when Ellie fails to activate the teleporter medallion to escape Aldir's World-Eater technique along with a few hundred Dicathian prisoners. The pendant saves her, but only her, resulting in quite a bit of Survivor Guilt.
• Common Tongue: There is no language barrier in the world of TBATE. Justified as courtesy of the Asura, who uplifed all lesser races at one point or another, gifting them their language in the process.
• Create Your Own Villain: Grey's killing of Cecilia turns Nico from his most loyal friend into his most bitter enemy.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Averted in the case of Alacryian mages. Four main specializations: Striker^note a mage that fights on the offensive., Shield^note a mage that focuses solely on protecting the striker., Sentry^note a mage specializing in sensing and detection. and Caster^note a mage specializing in long range spell; they are similar to Conjurers. means that a single Dicathian mage stands much better odds against any type save a Striker. But a full unit of Alacryian can and will decimate an equal number of Dicathian mages, by virtue of their individual skills complementing each other so perfectly.
• Cooldown Hug: Tessia to Arthur after the death of his father.
• Cool Old Lady: Madam Astera, and old and grizzled Dicathian warrior, greatly respected for her combat skill and no-nonsense attitude.
• Companion Cube: Regis, a living weapon granted to Arthur by the Asura Wren.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: Dicathen and Alacryia and their mortal inhabitants are actually pawns in a giant power struggle between the in-universe gods, the Asura, of Epheotus and the Vritra clan. Neither care much what happens to the "lessers", and as one character puts it: "are willing to rebuild life from the ashes" if it means overcoming their adversary.
• Courtroom Episode: Two, once in the Floating Castle, another in Alacryia.
• Familiar: Most mages bond with monsters called mana beasts.
• Foreshadowing: While discussing the existence or absence of Gods with Arthur, Virion states that he is convinced that they exist, and points to Sylvie resting in Tess's lap, and for a moment Arthur is confused, thinking he meant Tess. The earliest clue as to her identity as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
• Darkest Hour: Multiple:
  • The kingdom of Darv switches side to the invaders. And Alacryians manage to reverse-engineer the Dicathen Steamship and are now able to ferry their entire army across the ocean.
  • The battle of Etistin Bay takes a turn for the worst in the absence of both Arthur and Bairon.
  • Alduin Eralith betrays the Council, surrendering the Floating Castle and thus dooming Dicathen, while Arthur is mortally wounded in battle.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Ellie infilitrates an Alacryian work camp disguised as a soldier.
• David Versus Goliath: Any instance of a human being fighting a Vritra-blooded opponent.
• Deadly Dodging: Kordri's battle style revolves around this. Arthur's as well to a lesser extent.
• Deal with the Devil: Anyone who makes a deal with Agrona Vritra.
  • And as it turns out, also anyone who makes a deal with his archnemesis, Kezess Indrath
• Declaration of Protection: Virion regrets that he cannot offer a use of the Asuran Artifact to Arthur as recompense for becoming the second Elven Lance. Arthur retorts that he would have chosen to serve him regardless.
• Divided We Fall: Defied at first by the ruling houses of Dicathen. Then played straight once Agrona starts playing each of them like a fiddle.
• Duel to the Death: During the Alacryian Victoriad festival, any sufficiently ambitious (or insane) individual may, with the assent of their overlord, challenge a Retainer, or in rarer cases, a Scythe for their position. The challenge may also occur between hopefuls if a position is left vacant. Slightly subverted when it's made clear that the whole thing is mostly for show, as a Scythe in need of a Retainer usually decides on a candidate beforehand, and the hopeful's opponents are expected to yield after giving a show to the crowd.
  • Arthur's challenge to Cadell however, is played straight.
• Dwindling Party: The Xyrus Academy council: One turns traitor, a couple die, one is captured by the enemy, one is crippled and forced into retiring and the last one is assumed dead.
  • The Twin Horns meanwhile lose Adam and Reynolds (after the latter rejoins them). Alice retires out of grief.
• Due to the Dead: The surviving Lances work together to craft a beautiful ice sarcophagus for Aya Gephin.
• Eldritch Abomination: Nearly all of the creatures populating the Relictombs qualify. Justified in-universe as the despair, anger and hatred of the Djinns at the ongoing genocide of their people seeping into what should've been peaceful repositories of knowledge.
• Eldritch Location: The Relictombs.
• Element No. 5: Mana is divided into five types of particles, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Aether. Aether is the most mysterious of these particles, the most difficult to control, and the most powerful. Most mages have been unaware that it even existed, only vaguely understanding that it is the power that allows some with Superpowerful Genetics to heal. Aether basically has the power to do anything. Its primary disciplines revolve around manipulating Time, Space, Existence, and even Fate.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Regis tries to christen the team composed of Arthur, Caera and himself as the "The Horny Trio" on account of the three of them sporting horns. Caera is horrified.
• Everyone Can See It: How Arthur and Tess are head over heels for each other.
• Evil Gloating: Agrona just can't help it when faced with Arthur. Though it comes back to bite him during the Victoriad.
• Evil Versus Evil: What the war between Kezess and Agrona essentially boils down to.
• Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: The Spatium aspect of Aether. Though this is only the least of what it makes possible.
• Forbidden Zone: The Beast Glades are noted to be so dangerous that even the likes of three Lances travelling together are careful not to draw attention, and dare not travel by night.
• Failure Gambit: Arthur specifically planned for his attending the Victoriad, and provoking Nico into a duel, to draw the attention of Agrona. It works, but he is left feeling defeated after he fails to deprive Agrona of his weapon by putting Tessia out of her misery.
• Fantastic Racism: Centuries of constant warring means hatred between the three races of Dicathen is deep-rooted. This prevents them from banding together effectively against the threat of Agrona, who ironically sees them all as expendable cannon fodder.
• Freudian Excuse: Lucas is a half-elf raised by a family of human supremacists constantly being compared to his over-achieving brother. He compensates by being an ass to everyone.
• Glamour Failure: Haedrig suffers one while crossing a Relictomb portal, and is revealed as Caera Denoir.
• Good Is Not Nice: Dicathians routinely resort to torture to extract information from captured Alacriyans. The latter consider the practice barbaric.
• Grave Robbing: What descents into the Relictombs essentially are.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Agrona considers both Alacryia and Dicathen as stepping stones. Footholds in which he plans to strengthen the lesser races to act as cannon-fodder in his ultimate war against Epheotus.
• Great Offscreen War: The human-elven war is often mentionned as the last major conflict to shake Dicathen. Its aftereffects can still be felt in the enduring resentment both sides feel for each other.
• Godzilla Threshold: With the war all but lost, Kezess Indrath decides he'd rather burn Dicathen to the ground rather than let Agrona have it, by having Aldir nuke the entire country of Elenoir, murdering millions in the process.
• Handicapped Badass: Varay is no less dangerous than she was before losing an arm.
  • Equally true for Mica losing an eye and being disfigured.
• Healing Factor: Arthur gains a powerful one, capable of regeneting anything short of instant death, so long as he has enough aether stored.
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Justified as contrary to most other magic, it doesn't rely on mana, but aether, which is infinitely more difficult to control.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Nico undergoes one across the entire series. He starts out as a genuine and loyal friend to Grey. But the latter's murder of Cecilia drives him over the edge. His resurrection and subsequent Mind Rape by Agrona amplifies these feelings, turning him into a hateful and bitter shell of a man. Up until the point where he manages to break free of the mind control. And while he still hasn't forgiven Grey, it seems the change reshuffled his priorities, with getting Cecilia as far away from Agrona as possible becoming his next goal.
• Hell Is That Noise: Jagrette's voice is noted to be the equivalent of nails on a blackboard, but worse.
• Heroic RRoD: Abusing Sylvia's Dragon Will causes this in Arthur.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sylvia Sacrifice herself to save Arthur and Sylvie.
  • Sylvie's apparent death to save Arthur though it is revealed she only lost her physical body.
  • Aldir sacrifices himself in the aether realm to bring Sylvie back.
• Hero Killer: Uto, Cadell and Taci.
• Hold the Line: The default strategy of Dicathen, by virtue of being the defending side.
• Honor Before Reason: Aya is appaled that Olfred would rather choose death over abandonning his traitorours master.
• Hopeless War: Is what you get when the other side has the setting's equivalent of a God, with the intellect and long-term vision to match, leading them. While your own side is supported by a guy who would rather obliterate you than see you loose. Either outcome works for him.
• Hope Spot: The battle of the Wall is going well enough that Arthur feels secure to leave to investigate the disturbance in Elshire forest. Right before Trodius decides to do away with the plan and have his troops Zerg Rush the oncoming horde, all to keep his shiny castle intact.
  • The defending Dicathian inflict horrific losses on the invading Alacryians in the first few hours of the battle of Etistin Bay. Then it turns out the people they were fighting were a decoy force, made of convicts, slaves and captured Dicathians. The real Alacryian force, supported by two Scythes, outflanks and obliterates the Dicathians.
• Hypocrite:
  • A fatal flaw of Arthur, who sees himself as expendable and more willing to commit to danger compared to his family, and so can't understand why they think of him as this, even though Dicathen is also their home.
  • Windsom berates Dicathen as a whole, and Virion in particular, for failing to stop the Alacryian invasion. When he himself- granted on the orders of Indrath, constantly undermined them and used the war as a distraction to attempt to assassinate Agrona. Resulting in a new, harsher treaty, where the Asura of Epheotus are forbidden from offering any help to Dicathen.
  • Agrona gleefully admits to this, but as he likes to point out: he is a god, and as such above such considerations.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Agrona and Kezess both justify their actions as necessary to defeat the other. They've made the world a miserable place rife with conflict, and Kezess outright resorts to genocide to make a point.
• Immortality Immorality: Most Asura seems to be afflicted with this, utterly unconcerned that their destructive power games are inflicting hell on every other mortal race.
• Inherent in the System: Seris is amused at Caera's outrage that the legal system could fail so badly, and remarks this is the only logical outcome when Highbloods have spent centuries bending the system to their benefit.
• Instant-Win Condition: Whoever first gains mastery of "Fate", whatever that is.
• Insistent Terminology: Tessia's hair is consistently referred to by the narration as "gunmetal", instead of silver, white, or simply gray.
• Invisible to Normals: Few people, save the Indrath clan, can perceive Arthur's Aether, and just assume his control over mana is perfect. Played with as he also can no longer perceive mana.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Regis, for all his faults, cares deeply about Arthur.
  • Alaric, a former ascender and hopeless drunk, sees something of his late son in Arthur, so he goes out of his way and takes incredible risks to assist him. Though he also gets obscenely rich in the process.
• Jerk With Aheart Of Jerk: Trodius Flamesworth, an efficient commander and all-around terrible father and human being.
• Karma Houdini: Kezess not only engineers the genocide of the Djinn, but still manages to come out of the whole bloody affair smelling like roses, while simultaneously toppling and driving into exile the only clan willing to oppose him on the issue.
• Mage Born of Muggles: What Lilia's parents are hoping will happen with her, as they want her to become a mage to attend a very high ranking school. Art is able to make her a mage with the techniques he used to become one at the age of three.
• Kneel Before Zod: Draneeve enjoys this trope.
• Kangaroo Court: Arthur is put on trial for the murder of Lucas, even though it was entirely justified. His judges simply plan to deliver him wholesale to Agrona.
  • Again as Ascender Grey in Alacriya, as Blood Granbehl holds him responsible for the death of their children. The court is bought and paid for and the Judges refuse to hear anything he has to say in his defense.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Justified in the case of Tessia/Cecilia coutersy of Agrona, all to makes sure she is compliant and pliable.
• Love Triangle: Nico being in love with Cecilia, who herself is in love with Grey causes the trio a lot of grief.
• Mad Scientist: Brilliant Gideon and Wren Kain.
• Medieval Stasis: Subverted. The only reason Dicathen is so technologically behind Alacryia, is that unlike their neighboring continent, they didn't have literal gods scouring every square inch of land of any threat to mankind, making them safe and livable. So while Dicathians were still mostly nomadic tribes focused on immediate survival, Alacryians were already establishing cities and continent-wide trade.
• Mook Horror Show: Arthur is ambushed by 30-ish Ascenders on the orders of the Granbehl patriarch. Unfortunately for them his patience is spent from his earlier sham trial, and he decides to throw subtletly to the wind.
• Mugging the Monster: An Ascender who makes a living by mugging fresh recruits decides that Arthur makes for a perfect target.
• No-Sell: Uto yawns while Arthur and Sylvie are throwing everything they have at him. Demonstrating the insurmountable gap between regular human beings, however gifted, and Vritra-blooded opponents.
  • Aldir doesn't even flinch in the face of Lances Olfred and Mica, and disables each with a single blow.
  • Windsom is amused by Nico and Cecilia's attempts to thwart him.
  • Mana-restrains no longer have an effect on Arthur, by virtue of lacking a mana core. As his would-be assassins in the Relictombs learn to their dismay.
  • Any instance of a human being attacking an Asura is the equivalent of a toddler punching a tank and hoping for the best.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Seris effortlessly and instantly knocking Uto out cold and snapping his horn like a twig.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: A beast tamer is a mage who has absorbed the "will" of a mana beast. This allows the mage to take on the inherent powers and traits of said beast.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Any sufficiently powerful mage qualifies. But Aldir stands out as both an Asura and wielder of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
• Praetorian Guard: The Lances serve as this to the royal families of Dicathen.
• Physical God: The Asuras.
• Reincarnation: Arthur was a king in his past life in a futuristic world, he incarnated into a medieval fantasy world after dying mysteriously in his bed.
• Recurring Dreams: Arthur keeps having these about his previous life for a time. Counts as Foreshadowing for Cecilia's introduction as the third reincarnate.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: A telltale sign, along with the protruding horns, that the individual is Vritra-blooded, and that you should be very, very afraid.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Scythes certainly enjoy this style, while sporting red eyes and ominous horns of doom for added effect.
• Refuge in Audacity: Arthur decides to remain in the Central Dominion under the guise of Professor Gray, because who would expect an enemy general to take up teaching a stone's throw away from Agrona's castle.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Played straight when the three royal houses of Dicathen actually band together to create a council, renouncing their individual kingships in the process, as they perceive a vastly more advanced continent as the more immediate threat. Then subverted when it is revealed that it took Agrona a few threats and promises to get the Dwarven and Elven kings to betray their continent.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Arthur develops this dynamic with Elijah Knight, a teenager raised by Dwarves in the Kingdom of Darv. Arthur is a smooth talker, hyper-confident and occasionally aggressive; Elijah is more meek, clumsy, and easily embarrassed.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Arthur was a king who died and got reincarnated in another world that was magical. He discovers the elemental Ki techniques practiced in his past life are similar to the Mana in the new world, except they can be manifested physically due to the surrounding ambient mana in this world. This allowed him to utilize his Ki knowledge to awaken his Mana core in the age of three, and make full use of his decades of sword fighting experience and ki arts trainings in this new life. He's also given a dragon beast will, along with a dragon bond early on, which makes him even closer to an Invincible Hero.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: With the power of Aether, Arthur starts instantly manifesting indestructible, absurdly sharp Aether swords.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: Any sufficiently powerful mage can induce this in his opponents. Kordri names this King's Force.
• Tears of Joy: This happens a lot in this series:
  • When Art is able to talk to his parents for the first time since they assumed he died.
  • When Art shows Lilia a way to become a Mage.
  • When the Twin Horns meet Art after they believed he was dead.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Arthur and Lucas. Again Arthur and Bairon. Mica, Aya and Varay. Grey and the Granbehl siblings.Nico and the rest of the Scythes.
• Training from Hell: Arthur's trip to the Asura homeland. Given a device that allows him to project his mind in an alternate dimension where he cannot be physically hurt. There his teacher, an Asura named Kordri, proceeds to inflicts worlds of pain on him for years in an effort to train him.
  • Once done with Kordri's training, he is tossed into the wilds with nothing but the clothes on his back and a bell to signal once he's done, and told to hunt for three types of monsters that would be dangerous to a child Asura.
  • The last leg of his training involves an Asura named Wren, capable of raising thousands of lifelike golems, who keep shifting the rules of engagement to keep him constantly on his toes, for weeks on end.
• The Ageless: Asura tend to live for millenia, and can retain their youthful appearance should they wish to. Though most just let time do its thing.
  • Kezess Indrath in particular is noted for indulging in this, forever appearing as a twenty-odd young man.
• The Alcoholic: The perpertually drunk Alaric, a former Ascender and high-functioning alcoholic.
• The Berserker: What overuse of the Edict of Destruction without Regis to act as a lightning rod seems to instill in Arthur.
• The Bus Came Back: The Twin Horns leave the story's focus by the time Arthur leaves for Epheotus and are only mentionned in passing. Reappear again at the battle of the Wall, except for Adam, who gets the bus dropped on him.
• The Chessmaster: Agrona of Vritra. Who in the span of a few centuries manages to forge the Alacryian society into a monolithic meritocracy centered around his clan members and himself. In it the Vritra are worshipped as Gods, while martial ability is prized over everything. That is to say nothing of how he also manages to rebuild the magic system from scratch and his multiple experiments on lesser races to increase the ratio of magically-abled, making his Alacryians a terribly effective combat force.
• The Chosen Many: While Agrona believe Cecilia to be the Chosen One and decides to label the other reincarnates as inconsequential, it's becoming increasingly clear that Fate had an important part to play for both Grey and Nico.
• The Corrupter: Agrona and Kezess. And he is very good at it.
• The Dragon: Scythe Cadell is this to Agrona, with Windsom as his counterpart for Kezess.
• The Dreaded:
  • To ordinary citizens, Lances are symbols of power and prestige. God-like beings who achieved the mythical White mana core status.
  • Alacryian Retainers and Scythes quickly prove how dangerous someone decended from the Asura can be. They hold immense political clout in Alacriya, second only to the Sovereigns themselves, and are enough of a threat in battle that it justifies having Lances stand back and engage only them.
  • The Asura as a whole are the setting's resident Physical Gods.
  • Aldir, an Asura and weilder of the Fantastic Nuke World Eater, is respected and feared even among the Asura.
• The Empire: The Alacryian Dominion.
• The Infiltration: Arthur as Professor Gray in the Central Dominion.
  • Ellie as a foot soldier in an Alacryian work camp.
• Villain Killer: The reason why the Lances don't take a more active part in the fighting, even though they are the setting's equivalent of a tactical nuke. They roam the battlefield to confront their equally powerful counterparts: Alacryian Retainers and Scythes.
• The Load: The fate of anyone willing to follow Arthur inside the Relictombs. This being a trial adjusted to the strength of the Ascenders present, and Arthur being vastly more powerful than anyone capable of entering the Relictombs, means everyone else is horribly outmatched right from the get-go.
• Younger Than They Look: You would think Art, Tess and the students around them were in their mid to late teens, but most are only 12.

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