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The map of the Eloa continent. The two shaded countries are Atreya and Sair, which are important enough to get dedicated maps.
"A dark serial novel about blood, valor, superpowers, and... crippling social anxiety?"

The Zombie Knight Saga is a Dark Fantasy Web Serial Novel written by George M. Frost.

After meeting his untimely death, Hector is restored back to (un)life by the reaper Garovel as his servant. Armed with supernatural strength, newfound abilities and crippling social anxiety, they set out to save those in danger of dying violent deaths.

The scope of the story begins fairly small and grows steadily over time, eventually following many more characters than just Hector. It also takes place in a modern Constructed World with some medieval themes. Praise for the story usually brings up its characters, worldbuilding, action scenes, and/or sense of humor.

The story is an ongoing serial and is being updated by ~400 words every night at midnight PST. To get a feel for its current length, see the Table of Contents here.

Obligatory spoiler warning.


This story provides examples of:

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    A - D 
  • Acid Attack: Moss and Stoker can use their powers to create super-concentrated, soul-strengthened acid which will eat through almost anything. Without soul power, it would still take minutes or hours, but with it it takes mere seconds.
  • Action Girl: Lynnette. To a lesser extent, Helen.
  • Aerith and Bob:
    • Generally speaking, the human characters have names that you might encounter somewhere in the real world. The reapers' names sound entirely made-up though.
    • The human characters' names vary wildly. It's justified though because the story covers an entire Constructed World with several different cultures.
      • Atreya seems to be based on Britain or the USA and the characters from Atreya have names to reflect this. note 
      • The Rainlords of Sair tend to have names that might be Italian or Spanish in our world. note 
      • The Sandlords of Sair seem to be based on middle-eastern culture with corresponding names. note 
      • The Morgunov branch of Abolish includes many members with Slavic-sounding names. note 
    • The two youngest Atreyan princes are named rather differently than their siblings. See here.
      In order of age, they were Gabriel IV, Nathaniel II, Charles III, David III, Martin V, Luther, and Meriwether.
      David remembered asking his mother why the two youngest had such different names.
      "Because mercifully, your grandmother was dead by then, and I no longer had to listen to her."
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: Reapers are basically imaginary. They don't have a "true" form and those who can see them perceive them exactly as they expect a reaper to look. (Hector sees them as skeletons, Roman as crows, Geoffrey as basically human, Helen as ghosts.) Garovel explains this very early in the story:
    Hector: You look... you look just like I imagined you would. [...]
    Garovel: Ah, right. My appearance. Whatever you're seeing, right now, it's not really what I look like. In truth, I don't actually look like anything.
    Hector: ..What?
    Garovel: Your brain forms an image of what I should look like and projects it onto my presence. Appearance is something for your physical reality, where I do not exist.
  • Amplifier Artifact: Haqq's shield. When used by a servant, it boosts their passive defense to match that of Abbas Saqqaf, a powerful Sandlord servant who helped make the thing. The more powerful you are, the longer you can safely use it per day.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: When Hector returns to talk to his mother after killing Geoffrey, this conversation ensues:
    Hector: Geoffrey was a... he was a criminal... he and I fought before... a-and, ah... he, uh—
    Vanessa Goffe: During one of your outings, is that it? One of your little adventures fighting crime, right? It came back to bite us. You went and got involved in something you shouldn't, and now your father is dead because of it. My husband... Because of you! You got him killed, didn't you?! That's what happened, isn't it?! [...] Answer me! You didn't kill him yourself, but you're still responsible for it, aren't you?! Well?! Just tell me!
  • Asleep for Days: After the major fights, Hector usually sleeps through several days. After he had to regenerate his whole body from his head, he slept for two weeks straight.
  • Ax-Crazy:
    • Geoffrey likes killing. A lot. Made worse by the fact that he keeps "souvenirs" of his victims. And that he turns their dead bodies into soulless puppets For the Evulz.
    • Desmond is very similar to Geoffrey in his utter disregard for life. There is a very disturbingly hilarious page where they casually chat about murder and destruction.
    • Nola Pauls also seems sort of unstable and violent. Then again, it probably applies to most Abolish servants.
  • Badass Bookworm: Gohvis is one of the most feared servants in the world, yet he spends almost all his non-combat time doing scholarly research.
  • Badass Creed:
    • The Rainlord motto, mentioned here:
      Zeff: But you are an Elroy. A Rainlord. And what do the Rainlords say? What have we always said?
      Marcos: ‘The rain fears not the torch.’
      Zeff: Yes. And what does that mean?
      Marcos: It means we don’t run from danger. We destroy it.
    • The Sandlord motto as well: The sand endures.
  • Badass Normal: Lynnette and Colt, though he becomes a servant later and she gets an aberration item.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished:
    • Averted with Lynnette. She lost an eye early on in the story and is mentioned to wear an eye patch now. There's also the fact that she has an aberration artifact attached permanently to her arm. The only way to get rid of it would be to cut off the arm in question, and since Lynn isn't a servant and can't just regrow her arm, the damage would be permanent.
    • Averted with Emiliana. When her servant powers kick in, it turns out she's a mutation user. Mutation is very hard to control and her first involuntary bout of power has grown her several horns on her head. She keeps wearing a mask now because she's ashamed of the horns. However, with enough training, she might be able to undo the mutation again.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Abolish is founded on such a bizarrely illogical premise that the most of the adherents it attracts either weren't all there in the first place, or are just Ax Crazies looking for a home. Voreese puts it like this:
    Voreese: It's Abolish. Odds are about fifty-fifty that any given member is one of the stupidest motherfuckers on the planet.
    • Averted, however, with Axiolis and a few others.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The terms for the different flavors of hyper states; pan-forma, pan-moc, pan-rozum and pan-wzrost. As per Word of God, "wzrost" is Polish and the others have similar meanings in several different Slavic languages. (forma meaning form, moc power, rozum reason or mind, and wzrost growth)
  • Black Comedy: The story's main source of humor.
  • Blatant Lies: During a phone call with Gina, Roman tells several of these, probably so she doesn't get worried. However, it's not very successful.
    • About his phone:
      Gina: Master Roman! Where are you? You haven't contacted me for weeks.
      Roman: Yeah, my phone kind of blew up. It's no big deal. I've got a new one now.
      Gina: How did your phone get destroyed?
      Roman: Oh, um. I dropped it.
      Gina: You dropped your phone, and it exploded.
      Roman: Yeah. That's a thing that can happen. I don't see what's weird about it.
      Gina: Master Roman, why are you lying to me? And moreover, why are you sucking at it?
    • About the jet:
      Gina: Wait. What happened to your private jet?
      Roman: Oh, um. Yeah, don't worry about the private jet. It's fine.
      Gina: It's not fine at all, is it?
      Roman: It's at the bottom of a swamp.
    • ... which may both be related to this:
      Gina: They attacked you?
      Roman: No.
      Gina: Master Roman...
      Roman: Okay, maybe a little.
  • Bloody Hilarious: See the example under Major Injury Underreaction. Also, from the same fight:
    "Your attacks hurt," said Geoffrey, "but they do not wound. Not like this." He speared Hector through the chest with a red-coated hand. Blood flew everywhere. Geoffrey’s hand stuck out of Hector’s back, clutching an extracted heart.
    Bleeding from the mouth, Hector did not move. "...You were saying?" He headbutted him, reared back, and kicked Geoffrey through the wall.
  • Bond Creatures: Reaper-servant teams are a form of this, with the odd twist that both ends of the bond are dead humans. Reapers, who were once humans with a particular gene, can take one person who's just died as their servant. The servant protects the intangible and helpless reaper and acts on the material world for them, and in return they get immunity to death, Super-Strength, one other superpower and an invisible friend who's really there.
  • Break Them by Talking: Happens during the showdown between Hector and Geoffrey, starting here. Highlights:
    Geoffrey: You have always been a difficult person to read, haven't you? Even your father—well, your previous father—even he never really felt like he understood you. But then, he did not take a very active role in your life, did he? I am honestly curious as to what you thought of him. The whole reason I took his body was because I thought the two of you were close, but according to his memories, that does not seem to be the case. [...]
    Did you know that your father suffered from quite vivid hallucinations? Your parents never told you, right? [...] See, your father used this condition of his as an excuse to keep you at arm's length, under the pretense that he was afraid of hurting you or some such nonsense. He convinced himself that this was the case. But really, the truth of the matter—the thing he would never admit—was that you simply did not interest him. Because he didn't love you. Isn't that something? [...]
    I may not be human, but even I know what love feels like. And your father never felt it. Well, not for you, at least. Your mother, sure. He was fiercely in love with her. But you. You were always just. Sort of. There. [...]
    So that is why I'm curious. Was this mutual? Did I just waste my time? Or did you actually love him? Or maybe you hated him! Perhaps I did you a favor in killing him! How fantastic would that be?! [...]
    Still refusing to answer me, I see. I will take that to mean you really did love your father, after all. Honestly, though, I cannot understand why. You know what the funniest thing is? I actually care more about you than he did.
    • The sad thing is that, judging from what we know about Hector's parents, Geoffrey wasn't even lying.
  • Broken Tears: See Heroic BSoD.
  • Cannot Talk to Women: While Hector's always shy and tends to stammer a lot, it's especially bad around females.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The story started out a lot more lighthearted (as far as possible for a story about death), but especially after the end of the Third Oath, the tone has grown more serious.
    • Played With: This comes and goes, depending on the arc. According to Word of God, the story is that way by design, wanting to be both extremely light AND dark.
  • Chrome Champion:
    • Lord Melchor Blackburn is capable of turning into a living mass of mercury (or several such masses) by combining the pan-rozum hyper state with his native mercury transfiguration.
    • General Lawrence can do the same, except with radium.
    • Other servants with metallic transfiguration abilities can also invoke the trope, but not to the same extent.
  • Comically Invincible Hero: Hector's invincibility is played this way in the first few chapters. See examples under Bloody Hilarious. However, later in the story, there are servants around who are a lot more powerful than Hector, so he isn't invincible anymore.
  • Constructed World: The story is set in a fictional world called Eleg. From the description:
    The setting of the story is a modern fantasy world called Eleg, which is culturally and technologically similar to present day Earth in many ways, yet also divergent in many others. It's not an alternate timeline, as Eleg has its own geography and political systems, but there are still some historical parallels.
  • Crapsack World: Stoker's flashback of his life in Vaeland reveals all the horrors of a country torn apart by years of war. Atreya is downright pleasant in comparison, although Abolish is trying to spread the war as much as possible.
  • Chronically Crashed Car: Any bike Hector lays hands on ends up getting destroyed. To be fair, he doesn't have a license and the only training he ever received was from Garovel. Which doesn't stop Garovel from making fun of Hector:
    Garovel: Hector, look. A Revenant cruiser. And look! A wall you can crash it into!
    Hector: Hey, I didn't wreck the last bike. Um. Much.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • The goons in the first few chapters are really no match for Hector. Though he makes sure not to kill them.
    • After Harper goes into a hyper state during the Battle at Rathmore, he is able to kill everyone in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, he can't fully control his behavior during the hyper state yet, so even his allies are in danger.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: About every character has one. Really, if they appear in the story, it's probably safe to assume a troubled past. Notable examples include:
    • Hector. Driven to Suicide by his loneliness and uncaring parents.
    • Colt. Grew up in a foster family, never exactly bullied, but still beat up by the other kids. Later lived with a woman who was abusive towards him and their children, nearly got thrown in jail for the attempted murder of their children that she commited, only to be "rescued" by Joseph Rofal and subsequently forced to work for the Rofal family because his children were being held hostage by Rofal.
    • Stoker. Grew up in a poor country, though his family was rich. That is, until the wars started. His family had to flee and lost everything, only for everyone but him to be killed. For years, he and a bunch of other kids lived as bandits in the woods, until they tried robbing the wrong guy who turned out to be the co-leader of Abolish. More or less ended up as a servant for Abolish without conviction. Also implied to have been raped by the captain of a slaver ship.
    • Roman. Orphaned at a young age, homeless for many years. Ended up as a thief, though apparently a pretty good one considering the wealth he accumulated.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Garovel is a Grim Reaper, but a case of Don't Fear the Reaper is soon established. Also, Hector himself may qualify, as he uses gruesome powers of zombification to help people in serious danger.
  • Deader than Dead: A servant can recover from normal death in a matter of minutes, but if their reaper dies it's game over. And if their head is removed and frozen, the reaper will be unable to resurrect them until the head is either recovered or destroyed.
  • Deadly Doctor: Fen Frederick, the Surgeon Saint. It's unknown whether he makes extensive use of his medical knowledge in combat, but he's a Captain General of the Vanguard while also being possibly the greatest doctor in the world.
  • Deadly Force Field:
    • Roman kills Hanjir's reaper by surrounding him with an inward-facing spherical shockwave.
    • Ivan's favorite killing technique is to catch the opponent in a cage of his odd weak-force fields, and then collapse the cage and disintegrate them.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Servants are already very powerful in fighting mode, but the sixth Oath introduced the concept of hyper states. When a reaper and their servant have achieved high enough soul synchronization, they might be able to merge their souls and become temporarily nigh-unstoppable. Their power reaches Game-Breaker levels and they can use other abilities the servant usually doesn't have. However, the hyper state is very hard to control and takes such a high toll on their bodies and minds that they might even die.
  • Dead to Begin With: The story opens right after Hector's death.
  • Death is Cheap:
    • Servants are basically immortal. Sure, they may get killed, but they're usually alive and kicking a little while later.
    • Averted with the reapers: They can die, and permanently so. They also take a lot longer to recover from injury.
    • Played straight with Colt. After Geoffrey kills him, he stays dead for about one chapter until a reaper who just so happens to be close by revives him.
    • Averted, so far, with Geoffrey. He is still dead, but we'll see how this plays out.
    • Lampshaded here by Colt after killing Zombie Stoker. Though the trope is actually (probably?) averted with Stoker since he's dead and staying dead according to Garovel.
    Colt: He’s really dead, right? I never can tell anymore.
  • Death World: The dead continent of Exoltha. Covered in a Perpetual Storm, prowled by raging feldeaths, and with some imaginary property that makes its natural hazards affect reapers, it's not a healthy place to visit. And Gohvis lives there.
  • Demonic Possession: Geoffrey's control over his fetchers might be this, of the Empty Shell variety. He removes their souls and consumes them. What's left of them is basically a mindless zombie waiting to be controlled by him.
  • Democracy Is Bad: Helen believes so apparently. See Hobbes Was right.
  • Dirty Cop: Colt is one, though involuntarily. His kids where kidnapped by local Mob Boss Joseph Rofal, granting him leverage over Colt.
  • Disintegrator Ray: Destruction users throw a beam of expanding space that obliterates any matter caught inside, forcing its atoms apart until the bonds between them fail.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Invoked. Hector is far too shy to shout and snarl in typical action-hero fashion, so instead Garovel teaches him to frighten people by speaking in whispers and being incongruously polite.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: Garovel is really nice and gentle towards wandering souls. Though you probably wouldn't want anyone from Abolish to ferry your soul.
  • The Dreaded: Any high-level servant can be this to a low-level ones.
    Gerald: Imagine if they send Ivan or Dunhouser or Jercash or any of a dozen others. Forget about causing trouble. We wouldn’t even be able to run away.
  • Driven to Suicide: The reasons for Hector's suicide only gradually become clear since Hector is reluctant to talk about it. It's a mixture of loneliness and depression after being rejected by those he thought of as friends.
  • Dying Deal Upgrade: Every servant started this way; they died, and then a Grim Reaper offered them eternal life and superpowers in exchange for becoming the reaper's servant. Most of them are non-villainous examples, unless the reaper is a member of Abolish.

    E - I 
  • Eldritch Abomination: Feldeaths. They're what happens when a huge number of dead souls left unferried for many years gradually merge into one vast, immensely powerful being filled with rage and pain. They attack anyone who enters their teritory, and hunt anyone who retaliates (as opposed to just fleeing) to the ends of the earth.
  • Elemental Powers:
    • Transmutation and materialization users. Unusually, these powers use actual elements like iron, fluorine and sodium.
    • Some alteration abilities fit here too. For instance, Roman can use fire and shockwaves
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: An odd example with Hector and Karkash. Hector's iron can largely neutralize Karkash's lightning (with lightning rods and such), but in turn Karkash's magnetism can wreck or manipulate the iron.
  • Elemental Shapeshifter: Transfiguration powers. The pan-rozum hyper state provides a much more powerful version.
  • Elite Four: Non-villainous example: The Rainlords of Sair have four members that are tied for strongest: Rayen Merlo, Melchor "Darktide" Blackburn, Xuan "Seadevil" Sebolt and Octavia "Red Lady" Redwater.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Lynnette. She starts out as just a girl with a sword, but later on she gets a gauntlet made from the bones of an aberration, which grants her the same powers. Quite a while later, she also gets a pair of ardor-infused goggles that allow her to see reapers
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Even the lesbian wants Field Marshal Jackson.
  • The Evil Prince: Several of them, actually. They didn't take well to their younger sister Helen being made Queen and subsequently try to murder her. They actually succeed, but Helen gets recruited by her own reaper.
  • Explosion Propulsion: Stoker learns to use his ability this way.
  • Extra-ore-dinary: Hector's servant ability. The metal power is categorized under "materialization," which is described in-story as "the ability to create something from nothing." The power gradually develops in a variety of ways as the story progresses.
    • Desmond's sodium transfiguration technically counts, but it plays out as Having a Blast.
  • Fake Static: Roman to Gina here.
  • Faking the Dead:
    • After Colt's Heel–Face Turn, he and Hector devise a plan to infiltrate Rofal Mansion and rescue Colt's children. Colt kills Hector and presents his corpse to Rofal, who sends the body to be examined. Hector regenerates and wakes up during his autopsy and starts to knock out Rofal's guards, allowing Colt a chance to kill Rofal and save his children.
    • This is also how Colt manages to evade law enforcement. After letting the police kill him, he manages to leave the country because the police have stopped looking for him. As of Oath Eight, he hasn't been seen since, so his new quiet life with his children seems to be working out for him.
  • Fantasy World Map: The map of Atreya and Sair can be found here.
  • Feel No Pain: The reapers can make their servants temporarily immune to pain, though this boost doesn't come for free. "Feel that in the morning" indeed.
  • Friendless Background: Hector, because of his shyness.
  • From Bad to Worse: The Third Oath is this for Hector.
  • Gambit Pileup: The debacle with Nathanial, Luther, David and Meriwether leading to...
  • Get Out!: Hector's mom to Hector after his father's death.
  • Girl Friday: Gina to Roman.
  • Glad He's On Our Side:
    • Joseph Rofal in regards to Geoffrey:
      Rofal downed the rest of his whiskey and rested the glass in front of him. "There are very few people in this world who frighten me," he said. "I am all too glad to have that monster's favor."
    • Hector thinks this about Xuan Sebolt.
  • The Good Kingdom: Atreya is a monarchy, currently ruled by Queen Helen. It's a rather small country and hasn't been all that important up to this point. It stays out of the waging wars and doesn't allow practices like slavery that are still common in other parts of the world. However, Abolish try to draw Atreya into the war by forcing (or replacing) the King and Queen. At the end of the second Oath, Helen is on the run and Abolish try to torture her husband into obedience. With the seventh Oath, Abolish has been driven out of Atreya for the time being, Helen has returned into power and the war with the neighboring country has been averted.
  • Gorn: With a cast full of undead servants with kickass abilities, that is to be expected.
  • Government in Exile: After fleeing from Sescoria, Queen Helen tries to find allies abroad. She later returns to Atreya and reclaims the throne after driving out Abolish.
  • Grand Theft Me: Geoffrey learns to use his body-switching ability and switches into Hector's father's body, almost certainly consuming his soul in the process.
  • Gravity Master: Dimas Sebolt has the servant power to manipulate gravity to some extent.
  • The Gods Must Be Lazy: Malast is referred to as The Idle God (though he prefers to be called the God of Boredom).
  • The Grim Reaper: Well, duh.
  • Healing Factor: The servants regenerate so quickly that a lost limb or three barely slows them down.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Colt. He used to be a dirty cop working for the crime boss Joseph Rofal, but after meeting Hector and rescuing his children from Rofal, he switches sides and works with Hector.
    • It's even possible to say that he went through a Face–Heel Turn before that. As a young man, he was fairly idealistic and became a cop in order to do good. Due to Colt's personal problems, Rofal gained leverage over Colt and forced him into working for the Rofal family. Colt lost his idealistic outlook on life and stopped caring for anyone but his children.
  • Heroic BSoD: After the ordeal at the end of the Third Oath where Hector had to kill Geoffrey who had taken over Hector's father's body and killed most of Hector's friends, only to be rejected and wanted for murder by the general public:
    And it was finally quiet. He finally had space to breathe. To think. He got off the bike. He pulled off the helm and let it drop from his fingers while he looked out, Brighton in the distance.
    He collapsed. Unconsciousness embraced him then and there.
    When he awoke, his face was in the dirt. Blue sky and white clouds greeted him. The sun had only just begun to wane.
    Hector shut his eyes. "...Garovel?"
    "Hector! Where are you?! What the fuck happened?!"
    He started sobbing.
    • The trauma also seems to have a lasting effect on his temper. Later, when chased by the police, he is so frustrated that he deliberately breaks a cop's arm. He's pretty horrified when he realizes what he's done.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: The final fight against Geoffrey results in Hector being accused of murdering all the people Geoffrey had turned into puppets. Hector still tries his best to save people, but everyone is so terrified of him now that they immediately call the police when he shows up. This is finally remedied at the beginning of the seventh Oath when Helen returns to Atreya and announces that Hector has been working for her all along and was framed by her adversaries.
  • Hidden Depths: Turns out that rude, loud-mouthed Voreese has a very soft center.
    Roman: She wants to make the world a better place. And not just in a good-deed-for-the-day kind of way. She wants me to obtain so much strength and influence that I can at least try to fix some of the really fucked up things in the world. Like slavery and widespread famine and institutionalized poverty — y'know, the things that no one's been able to fix in centuries.
  • Hobbes Was Right: Helen believes this and believes democracy to be an illusion. Ironically her evil brother Luther does not believe this.
    Helen: Do you honestly believe such governments can last in earnest? They can be founded on such idealism, perhaps, but it is inevitable that they will give rise to new royalty and be ruled by it. The only difference is that the kings of democracy can hide themselves behind a veil of elected figureheads.
    Luther: Did you know she was this cynical?
    David: Yes, I did. You would have known as well, if you had ever bothered to get to know her the way a brother should.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Geoffrey. Things like him are called Aberrations. Even those not involved with the supernatural can't help but notice that something about Geoffrey just isn't right.
  • I Have Your Wife: Rofal had Colt's children kidnapped in order to make him do his bidding.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Basically the story of Hector's life. It's really heartwarming when he starts to bond with Garovel, and finally with some of his fellow students.
  • Immortality Begins at Twenty: Played with. Reapers can stop and start their servants' aging pretty much as they please, limited only by how old the servant was when they died. Captain Erickson is 30 but looks and acts 10, Octavia Redwater (who became a servant at 14) looks her real age of about 80, and Harper looks 30 but is over twice that. Hector (currently 16) plans to wait until he's in his fifties before having Garovel stop him, assuming he gets that old.
    Garovel: That’s actually a pretty common sentiment, though. You’d think more servants would want to be eternally young, but as it turns out, most sixty-year-olds don’t want strangers treating them like they’re twenty-year-olds.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Played completely straight. During the Battle at Rathmore's Gate, Voreese deliberately (and successfully) taunts an enemy reaper/servant pair who are flying a plane full of hostages in order to make them land the plane.
    Voreese: DUMB SHIT! HOW'D HE EVEN LEARN TO FLY A PLANE?!
    Jupard: Shut up and die, already!
    Voreese: LAND THE PLANE SO WE CAN HAVE A REAL FIGHT!
  • I Should Have Been Better: Not being able to save someone causes Hector a lot of grief and guilt.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Unusually, invoked by a good guy. When Geoffry first meets the Pancake House Five, Vincent refers to him as "he", while Roman refers to him as "it".

    J - O 
  • Just Like Robin Hood: If Voreese is to be believed, this applies to Roman.
    Voreese: Roman only steals from the super wealthy! And nobody knows it, but he takes care of the poor, too! He's a great guy!
  • Kill All Humans: Apparently, this is Abolish's goal. They try to create as much destruction as possible, killing every last human being in the process. Their preferred method seems to be to start wars, but they are definitely not opposed to killing humans directly. Their reasons for this aren't particularly clear, but Garovel thinks it's because the reapers want to move on to the afterlife, too. As long as there are humans, the reapers have to fulfill their duty of ferrying their souls. So for the reapers to be able to pass on, all human life has to be destroyed. Yes, this logic is as bad (in both senses of the word) as it sounds.
  • Killed Off for Real: Seeing as reapers can revive anyone as their servant, all deaths have the possibility of not being permanent. However, some characters do stay dead.
    • Melissa Mallory. The first death in the story. Killed by Colt on Rofal's orders, despite Hector's best efforts to protect her.
    • Samuel Goffe, Hector's father. Killed by Geoffrey at some point in the process of switching bodies.
    • Most of Hector's friends from school. Killed by Geoffrey.
    • Geoffrey Rofal. Being trapped in an iron box and impaled with dozens of soul-empowered iron pillars should kill anything. Probably. Killed by Hector, obviously.
    • Stoker. His reaper Nize was killed and he became an insane soulless husk, forcing Hector and Colt to kill him.
    • Nola, Andres and Tessa. Killed in the Battle of Rathmore.
    • Mariana Elroy. She allowed her reaper to release her soul so her deceased son Marcos could be revived as a servant.
    • Socorro Garza and her reaper. Killed by Parson when confronting the Rainlords.
    • Ismael Blackburn and his reaper Rholtam. Killed by Ivan.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Parson and Overra arrange for both house Blackburn and Sanko to fight against the other nine Rainlord families.
  • Made of Iron: Unusually for a fighting series, entirely averted. Characters are physically no tougher than normal people, and attacks do exactly as much damage as you'd expect. Instead, survivability comes from the fact that servants can regenerate and Feel No Pain, leading to...
  • Magical Library: The Library of Erudition, a vast and semi-living compendium of knowledge, still standing despite being in the death continent of Exoltha. It has books on every subject, but has been known to devour the souls and knowledge of those who take any of them without the magically bound Keeper's permission.
  • Magic Librarian: The Library of Erudition maintains a mystically bound Keeper of the Library who controls access to it. The current Keeper is Gohvis, who got the position after he resisted the Library's attempts to absorb him and killed the previous Keeper for trying to restrict his reading. Scary Librarian indeed.
  • Magic Pants: Very much averted. Servants can regenerate their flesh, but the clothes remain in tatters and often enough, involuntary striptease ensues. Funnily enough, it only seems to happen to guys. Hector ends up pantsless quite often.
    Hector’s own pants had been shredded, of course, along with his shirt. The left leg was completely gone, and Hector didn’t need to look down in order to tell that half his junk was hanging out.
  • Magnetism Manipulation: One aspect of Karkash's power. He has the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields. See also above under Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Hector and the other servants can shrug of incredible amounts of damage. Justified, but still hilarious. See this example:
    In an instant, something red flashed across Hector’s vision, and suddenly, his forearm was gone, flesh and bone cut so cleanly off that it took a moment to start bleeding. Geoffrey held the severed limb by the wrist.
    Hector remained unfazed.
    Geoffrey tossed the meat over his shoulder and stared. "Did that not hurt?" he asked.
    Hector clocked him in the mouth, and Geoffrey flew back, toppling over the sofa. "Did that?"
  • Mama Bear: Isabelle Edith (Lynnette's mother) and Mariana Elroy.
  • Metaphorgotten: Deliberately used by Roman when Hector asks him about Gina:
    Hector: Er, what is your relationship, exactly? I-if that's not too personal, I mean.
    Hector: One of those things doesn't—
    Roman: She's the glue that keeps my boat in the air.
    Hector: That's definitely not a thing people say...
    Hector: ...I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.
    Roman: She's the giraffe to my peanut butter—
    Hector: If you don't want to tell me, you can just say so.
  • Mr. Exposition/ Exposition Fairy: Every reaper is this to their servant, but it's usually Garovel we see doing the explaining. Lampshaded here:
    Hector: You love explaining things.
    Garovel: Hell yeah, I do.
  • Multistage Teleport: A couple of examples:
    • "Light-wielders" (alteration users with power over electromagnetic waves) capable of pan-rozum can teleport by turning into a beam of light and back, but they have to take very long distances in a series of discrete jumps, because if they go too far in a single hop they can go out of focus and die.
    • The aberration Ibai Blackburn has the power of true pathless teleportation, but as of his first appearance his maximum range is only a few dozen feet, so he has to jump repeatedly to go any great distance. He seems to prefer this method anyway, as it lets him enjoy the view.
  • My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In his dying moments, Stoker reflects on his life.
  • My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: Voreese and Hanjir's reaper at one point have a round of "My Servant Can Beat Up Your Servant."
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:more or less any servant with a title, such as: Darktide, The Seadevil, the Blue Bear, the Gargoyle, the Living Void, the Mad Demon, the Salesman of Death, the Monster of the East, and the Crystal Titan.
  • Nebulous Evil Organisation: Several.
    • The Rofal family. Under Joseph Rofal the family business was basically The Syndicate, controlling all of the criminal underworld of Brighton. Geoffrey only wanted to cause harm and destruction and nearly killed the organization. Damian Rofal's goals are as of yet unknown, but he is definitely more dangerous than he seems. Even Abolish seem to fear him.
    • The Pancake House Five seem to be this at first. Their true goals are still unknown, but Roman at least is willing to do anything to protect his country and teams up with Hector.
    • Abolish. Waging and starting wars in order to obliterate the human race is pretty evil. The Vanguard are portrayed in a more positive light, but they are just as dangerous.
    • As of the seventh Oath, we might just as well add the Vanguard to this list. They might not be evil, but no-one can tell anymore and their goals are definitely nebulous.
  • Nerves of Steel: Roman's secretary Gina. Without even being able to fight, she waltzed into a castle overrun with superpowered psychos from Abolish and riddled it with eavesdropping devices, then spent weeks holed up listening to the bug feeds (which often include the sounds of Abolishers gruesomely killing people) and feeding info to her allies. All while knowing that at any time a curious Abolish reaper might spot her soul and bring the supervillains down on her.
  • Never Going Back to Prison: At one point Lynette runs into a crazed hermit who assumes she is a cop and breaks out his shotgun while telling her that he won't let her take him alive. Currently the page quote for that trope.
  • Never Mess with Granny: One can safely assume that any elderly member of a servant dynasty is pretty badass, since servants grow Stronger with Age. Special mention goes to Octavia "The Red Lady" Redwater, who's one of the four strongest Rainlords, chose to look her real age, and once pulled out a terrifyingly powerful sword that her grandson had given her after his own attempt to use it nearly killed him.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hector spends the first few weeks of being a servant fighting crime in his hometown because he tries to do good. However, due to his fighting crime, Geoffrey targets Hector and kills Hector's father and most of his friends. It's not really Hector's fault, but it's probably still true that Geoffrey wouldn't have done that if Hector hadn't started fighting the Rofals.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability:
    • The servants. While they definitely can be harmed, it's usually only a minor inconvenience. Their reaper can make them temporarily Feel No Pain and their regeneration takes care of all wounds. Many abilities can also be used to strengthen their user's body.
    • Very old servants with high synchronization take this even further, their powerful soul-strengthening making weaker attacks bounce off them or even fizzle uncast.
    • Geoffrey. When Hector first meets him, he is completely unable to harm him in any way because he is protected by his shadow. Geoffrey is actually surprised (and delighted) when someone finally does manage to harm him.
  • Noodle Incident: Whatever Hector did while hiding out in Klein that had him return home with tons of bullets.
    • But in a bigger way whatever it was that caused Hector to fall off a twenty floor building more than once and have three helicopters and an army of cops chasing him, while he's on foot.
  • No-Sell: Hector (and the other servants as well) can shrug of ridiculous amounts of damage without even batting an eye. See Bloody Hilarious and Major Injury Underreaction on this page for examples.
  • Not Quite Flight: Many servants can do this. For instance, Karkash can magnetically levitate iron armor worn under his clothes, Stoker can use Explosion Propulsion, Asad creates hurtling masses with handles for him to grab, and Parson can turn part of his body into animate oxygen and propel himself with winds and vortices.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Parson and Overra see Obfuscating Stupidity below.
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: Despite the name of the story the word zombie has never been used whether it was relating to Servants or not.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Parson and Overra. Their career is riddled with boneheaded mistakes and failed missions, but on closer examination those "mistakes" of theirs often conceal highly successful black ops.
  • Obliviously Evil: This might apply to Geoffrey. He never shows any remorse for killing or even acknowledges that most people consider murder wrong. Moreover, he's usually so utterly cheerful and nice in a crazy kind of way that he might actually be a nice guy if not for the whole killing people thing. Considering that his grandfather is apparently mentally ill, Geoffrey might have some mental problems of his own.
  • Older Than They Look: The reapers are able to stop their servants from aging, so any given servant can be a lot older than they look. As the quote under Immortality Begins at Twenty states, most servants choose to age well into middle age so they get taken seriously. However, Parson Miles is a notable exception. He looks like a young man, but is in fact one of the oldest and most powerful servants around.
  • Our Souls Are Different: The exact properties of a soul aren't clear yet, but it's definitely complex.
    • Aside from developing their ability, a servant can grow stronger by something called "Soul-strengthening." It's explained here
      Garovel: It's basically just enhancing physical qualities through the application of mental force. It's something you can only do when your imaginary power grows stronger.
      Hector: I'm guessing it's not as easy as that first step was.
      Garovel: It's not easy or hard, actually. And unlike your iron ability, it can't grow in sudden bursts through mental stress. Imaginary power is based upon the manipulation of your soul. [...] After the first step is taken, the only way to increase your imaginary power is time. [...] See, I have control of your soul. In order for you to manipulate it, too, you and I have to spend more time together. Gradually, your soul and mine will become more synchronized.
    • The sixth Oath introduced the concept of hyper states. If a servant-reaper-pair becomes synchronized enough, they can temporarily merge their souls and become incredibly strong. However, it is very difficult to achieve and even harder to control and not unlikely to kill them both.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: All servants are technically undead. They died, and the only thing keeping their soul attached to their bodies is their reaper. They don't exhibit any of the usual signs of zombieism, though: No craving human flesh or mindlessness.
    • Though it is hinted at that should a reaper be seriously injured, the servant's mind might take damage.
    • Also, the Abolish reapers seem to prefer their servants mentally disturbed to the point of mindlessness.
    • In chapter 42, we get to see what happens to a servant after their reaper is killed. What remains of them seems to act like very fast, very strong zombies.
      [Hector] tried to coat it in metal, but the creature was much too fast. And just like that, there it was, right in Hector’s face. It lunged for his neck, biting and drooling. Its teeth hit metal and chewed ineffectually. He pulled back, and Stoker grabbed him by the gauntlet, trying to bite through that, too.
  • Out of Focus: With the ever-growing scope of the story, it's only natural that some characters disappear for a while.
    • Hector hasn't appeared in chapters 77 through 81, more than one month in real time.
    • Colt has been gone for quite a while (chapter 48, posted in December of 2013), presumably spending most of his time with his children and not being bothered by Abolish.
    • Damian Rofal was last seen disappearing with Geoffrey's corpse (chapter 34). Damian pops up again in chapter 113, nearly one and a half years later in real time. And he disappears again almost immediately along with Dunstan Rofal. Geoffrey's corpse still hasn't been seen again.

    P - S 
  • Papa Wolf:
    • Probably the driving force behind Colt's every action. He would do anything to protect his children.
    • Zeff Elroy. He even fought a bunch of Abolishers who threatened his children — while he was still unconscious.
  • Parental Neglect: It's hinted at early on that Hector's parents aren't very interested in his life.
    • Starting with the fact that he had been lying dead in the bathroom for a few hours and they didn't even notice his absence. Or the fact that his clothes were bloody when he did show up again.
    • It only gets worse from here on out: When the school called his mother about his absence from school, she offers him a stack of pre-written excuses and doctor's notes with this comment:
      Hector's mom: You'll be eighteen in a couple years, and then you'll be on your own. It's best you learn to start being responsible for yourself now. Goddess knows you've been a burden on your father and I long enough, already.
    • When he was ten years old, the familiy moved towns and they sort of forgot to take Hector with them. He stayed behind and his parents called the police only after a week of his absence.
    • After Geoffrey takes Hector's father's body, he taunts Hector by telling him that his father never loved him anyway. It's unclear whether Geoffrey just wanted to get a reaction out of Hector though.
      Geoffrey: I may not be human, but even I know what love feels like. And your father never felt it. Well, not for you, at least. Your mother, sure. He was fiercely in love with her. But you. You were always just. Sort of. There.
  • Perpetual Storm: Western Sair (Rainlord territory), which is filled with constant pouring rains, and whose capital city is built on top of giant pylons and still floods occasionally. Unlike most examples of this trope, it isn't supernatural in origin; it's just the wet side of an extreme but ordinary rain shadow.
    • The eternal storm cover over the dead continent of Exoltha, however, is probably decidedly less mundane in nature.
  • Personality Powers: Each servant that gets enough characterization to recognize it will have at least one major piece of symbolism each for the power that they have and the way that they use it.
  • Please, Don't Leave Me: Shortly after becoming Garovel's servant, Hector is terrified of the thought of him leaving. This dialogue unfolds:
    Hector: Um... please... um...
    Garovel: Hmm?
    Hector: Please... don't leave me alone...
    Garovel: Don't you remember? When you talk to me in your head, I'll hear you no matter where I am. So don't frown like that. You understand? You're never alone, Hector. Not anymore.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: Hector's death sets the whole story in motion.
  • Poverty Food: Colt's cooking is like this, although it actually tastes okay.
    Hector: What's in this?
    Colt: Gravy.
    Hector: And?
    Colt: And some other stuff.
    Hector: What other stuff?
    Colt: Just be glad I'm good at making gravy.
  • Power of Friendship: Defied. Garovel says that a servant's imaginary power increases based on the reaper and servant's souls coming in sync. Hector asks if it's like the power of friendship.
    Hector: You mean, like... through the power of friendship or some shit?
    Garovel: No. Friendship doesn’t really factor in, unfortunately. It’s just a kind of natural osmosis that happens over time.
  • Power of the Void: Aberrations like Geoffrey are created in the name of the Void and wield its power. It allows them to withstand any kind of attack that wasn't soul-empowered. It's also very harmful for reapers.
  • Power Tattoo: Asad has a full-body set of black, abstract tattoos that seem to damp out any hits he takes, flashing yellow as they do.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Pretty common among servants of Abolish.
    • Desmond. As mentioned under Ax-Crazy, he has no qualms about ending lives, yet his behavior is very child-like and innocent at all times. There might be Values Dissonance at work, or he might just be crazy.
      "Everyone! Hello! My name is Desmond, and my friends and I will be kidnapping you today!"
    • As mentioned above, Geoffrey is very similar to Desmond in his attitude towards violence. He's not human though.
    • Moss, of the Dumb Muscle variety. He is mute and, considering Abolish's preferred servants, probably mentally challenged. He is mostly controlled by his reaper Ozmere.
  • Psychopomp: The reapers serve as guides for the dead between this world and the next, though not even the reapers know if there is an afterlife at all.
  • Punny Name: Eleg, the name of the story's Constructed World, is a play on "elegy". Word of God says:
    George M. Frost: Aha, that's silly! Surely, that's just a coincidence! What kind of shoddy author would name something as important as the entire planet by just removing the letter "y" from a death-related word?! What a hack that guy would be! [Beat] Yeah. That was really my whole thought process. Haha, I've actually been wondering if someone would ever notice. Well, it was that, and I just thought "Eleg" sounded good—which is the only thing that matters, I suppose. I like it 'cuz it's short and simple. Not overly fantastic.
  • Puppet King: As Ezmortig puts it when they come for Helen:
    Ezmortig: We don't care who's on the throne, just so long as they're ours.
    • After Helen leaves, power falls to King William. Abolish promptly ensure his cooperation by ripping off his left arm and threatening torture on everyone he cares about should he refuse them.
  • The Quiet One: Hector, though because of shyness, not stoicism.
  • Raised Hand of Survival: after the Battle of Rathmore's Gate Hector doesn't have enough of his body left to do this, but responds to Roman's shouts by raising a pillar of materialized iron in a very similar way.
  • Red Baron: Many stronger servants have nicknames like this. The full list:
    Abbas Saqqaf: Sunsmith
    Asad Najir: Lion of the Desert
    Caster Egmond: Marauder of Calthos
    Dozer: Living Void
    Gohvis: Black Scourge, Monster of the East
    Germal: Gentleman of Paleinote 
    Hector Goffe: Darksteel Soldiernote 
    Ivan: Salesman of Death
    Jackson: Radiant Sentinel, Star of the West
    Kane: Hammer of Steccat
    Lamont: Iceheart
    Lynnette Edith: White Sword
    Melchor Blackburn: Darktide
    Morgunov: Mad Demon
    Octavia Redwater: Red Lady
    Sai-hee: Peacemaker
    Sanko: Gargoyle of Korgum
    Sermung: Crystal Titan
    Xavier Lawrence: Blue Bear
    Xuan Sebolt: Seadevil
    Zeff Elroy: Water Dragon
  • Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: In super-powered mode, nothing can stop a servant — except destroying their brain. They can regenerate any injury on the fly, but destroying their brain actually kills them temporarily and their reapers have to revive them, costing them several crucial moments in battle.
    • Interestingly enough, to actually get rid of a servant, you have to avert this trope. No matter how thoroughly you kill them, as long as their reaper is alive, a servant can always regenerate. Aside from taking out the reaper, the only way to disable a servant permanently is to put the servant's Brain in a Jar so the reaper can't regrow their body or respawn them someplace else.
  • Resurrective Immortality: The servants can heal nearly any injury thanks to their reapers. If they do happen to be killed, their reaper can just revive them again.
  • Rule-Abiding Rebel: Hector in his backstory. For a while, he tried to be a delinquent. He didn't do very well.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Hector acquires one in Chapter 164. It allows him to sense the air around himself, granting him Hyper-Awareness.
  • Shipper on Deck: Helen towards Lynnette and Hector, although she stated that she was just joking about deliberately pairing them up.
  • Shrinking Violet: Hector. He can't even speak a single sentence in the presence of strangers. Worse still in the presence of girls.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: While most characters in the story aren't particularly shy about swearing, Voreese stands out. In her very first appearance, she calls her opponents "shitheads" and ends up trading insults with her own servant. See the exchange under Vitriolic Best Buds below.
  • Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: The servants are all Type IV, thanks to their reaper companions. Having their brains destroyed will only prove a temporary setback as long as their reapers are still kicking.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: Hector. Save someone from a serial killer; destroy a crime empire? No problem. Sit with a few people in the school cafeteria? Big problem.
  • Some Call Me "Tim": Octavia's reaper Wendissofigelroc has a really strange name and prefers a shortened version. Unfortunately for him, the name "Wendy" kind of stuck.
    Octavia: Just call him Wendy.
    Wendissofigelroc: Please don't. I hate that name.
    Octavia: He never learns. No one is ever going to call him Wednesdaywafflerocks.
  • Starts with a Suicide: Hector actually tried and succeeded to kill himself. Made even more tragic when Garovel later observes that Hector never wanted to die in the first place but wanted someone to notice his pain.
  • Stronger with Age: A servant's soul power increases almost linearly as they age and their synchronization increases, and their ability grows too if they put any effort into it. Older servants also get better hyper states and a few other perks.
  • Super Mode: A reaper can give their servant a temporary boost, making them stronger, faster, immune to pain, and trigger the ability to regenerate. One boost lasts for about thirty minutes until it needs to be renewed. This is the reason why a servant can only regenerate when their reaper is present (or has given them the boost beforehand). The sixth Oath introduced the concept of hyper states, which are even more superpowered than normal servant fighting mode. See above under Deadly Upgrade. It basically allows a servant to use different types of abilities such as: transfiguration+materialization/alteration+integration combo allows a servant to become a Elemental Embodiment, and the materialization/alteration part can be neglected entirely, as demonstrated by Sanko. Then again, there are limits to that, too, such as compatibility and the fact that a servant doesn't really "gain" another ability, it's just the limits of their existing ability that are broadened.
  • Super Smoke: Xuan Sebolt's pan-rozum form is a cloud of phosphorus-oxide smoke that also wields fire and acid powers. Presumably other servants with gaseous elements could do the same, although Xuan gets extra credit for achieving the effect with a compound of his normally-solid element.
  • Superweapon Surprise: Historical example in the Armans, who repelled the invading Lyzakks dozens of times by riddling their eternally-flooding lands with disguised dams and then breaking them at the opportune moment.

    T - Z 
  • Take Care of the Kids: Colt asks Hector to do this when he knows that he's about to be killed.
  • Take That!: Ibai sees no reason not to play board games with people he knows are waiting for a reason to kill him, but even he knows the dangers of Monopoly.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The servants gain special abilities that can grow over time, either through meditation or danger. It's explained here:
    Garovel: The first [method] is meditative training, just like you’ve already been doing. It takes a while, but it's the more reliable of the two.
    Hector: The other way is faster?
    Garovel: Very much so, yeah. The second method is to throw yourself into an incredibly dangerous situation, almost get us both killed, and hope that the desperation and rush of adrenaline are enough to force a breakthrough.
    Hector: What the fuck? That sounds...
    Garovel: Reckless and stupid? Yeah. We won’t be attempting that one. The almost-getting-killed part is a dealbreaker for me.
    • Unsurprisingly, they end up in the second situation a lot.
    • A couple of pages in chapter 34 go into more detail about the process, starting here.
    • This level up is called Emergence and can happen to both the heroes and the villains, as demonstrated by Karkash.
    • Zeff Elroy does a triple level up against Parson Miles. By the end of it, he still cannot defeat Miles, but he can propel himself with a geyser with enough force to break the sound barrier.
  • Touch the Intangible: Only soul-empowered objects (meaning only servant and aberration powers) can touch or harm reapers.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Parson Miles really likes ice cream.
  • Trapped in Villainy
    • Colt, sort of. He has very compelling reasons to obey Joseph Rofal, but he wasn't exactly a good guy to begin with. After teaming up with Hector, Colt's lack of obvious remorse for killing innocent people still serves as a point of conflict between them.
    • Lawrence doesn't want to go along with the traitor Vanguard's plans, but his reaper Dergoz forces him to and threatens to release him if he doesn't.
    • All of House Blackburn. After Ibai Blackburn, the long-awaited heir, turned out to be an aberration, Parson Miles started blackmailing the Blackburns. If Ibai's existence should become known, he would certainly be killed by the Vanguard, so his parents did as Miles told them. Thirty years later, they're in so deep that there's no chance for peacefully resolving the conflict.
  • Unexpected Successor: Nobody expected Princess Helen, the youngest child of the royal family and a girl to boot, to succeed her father to the crown. Her older brothers are not amused and try to have her killed.
  • Vegetarian Vampire: Ibai Blackburn is an aberration who has never eaten a human soul, only animals (and he even put the animals' bodies to productive use). During the Marshrock battle, he was deliberately offered several captured reapers to eat and a promise that no one would know, and refused.
  • Vigilante Man: Hector really doesn't like criminals. The media call him the Darksteel Soldier.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • Roman and Voreese. Voreese is perhaps the more vocal of the two, but Roman has no trouble returning the favor, even in the midst of battle. See here:
      Roman: I'm Roman. And you fuckers aren't welcome in my country.
      Voreese: And I'm Voreese. This is our land, you shitheads.
      Roman: Oh, shut up. No one cares what you have to say.
      Voreese: Fucking brat! I'm the important one here! You're just my servant!
      Roman: You'd be dead if it wasn't for me!
      Voreese: No, you would! I'd have found a different servant! One who didn't give me so much lip, you four-eyed fuckwit!
      Roman: Imaginary bitch!
    • Hector and Garovel are perhaps a more mild example. While they don't generally try to conceal their true feelings behind insults, they do end up throwing friendly insults around quite often.
    • Salvador Delaguna (a Rainlord) and Asad Najir (a Sandlord) seem to have this. It's not clear if they have any actual ill will, but probably not.
      Asad: [on speakerphone] Ah, is that you I hear, oaf?
      Salvador: It is! Answer my question, desert rat!
  • Void Between the Worlds: The featureless nothingness between life and afterlife is called the Void in-story. It is the reapers' duty to safely ferry the souls over to whichever afterlife awaits them.
    • Desmond and Ezmortig try to explain the Void to Geoffrey:
      Geoffrey: The Void? What are you talking about?
      Desmond: It's a place. The Void is what we call the space between this life and the next. It straddles the line between realities. Ezmortig here, he always has one foot in the Void, so to speak.
      Ezmortig: But it's also a consciousness. People might tell you otherwise, but don't you believe them. The Void has a silent will of its own, and it spawned you and all your kin. With a little help from Abolish, of course.
    • Abolish seems to have a certain reverence for the Void. In a flashback we see Stoker thinking about the Void shortly after being initiated into Abolish.
      And this "Void" is also puzzling. It is supposedly a realm of nothingness, yet everyone speaks of its "will" or of its "consciousness." He does not understand how nothingness could "be" anything, let alone sentient. But they take it very seriously.
    • When Ibai teleports, he can see ''something'' that he calls the void.
      And for an instant, he could see.
      The infinite void.
      Everything and nothing. Life and death. A trillion burning stars in the sky and all around him. Souls suspended in space. Eleg, too, spinning and breathing and alive.
      And all of them, ethereal. Massless shadows of reality. The universe of zero weight, where space itself was of no consequence.
  • Wham Episode: Every Oath (major plot arc) contains wham of differing levels.
    • The end of the third Oath deserves special mention: Hector's wanted for murder, his father is dead, his mother never wants to see him again, most of his friends were killed and the rest are terrified of him, and he has to leave his hometown for good. The fact that the story's major Big Bad so far is dead is relatively minor in comparison.
    • The seventh Oath basically changes the whole balance of the story. It turns out that the Vanguard aren't actually good people. For some reason, they are hunting Gema Elroy (who is barely more than a child) and are ready and willing to kill her whole family — who happen to be Vanguard themselves, but what's a little betrayal among friends?
    • Oh, and did we mention there's a whole different civilization living under the earth?
  • What the Hell Are You?: The Mobs' reaction when Hector keeps going after sustaining lethal injuries.
  • Would Not Shoot a Good Guy: Hector goes to great pains to avoid killing any of the police chasing after him. It pays off, as his caution make it much easier for Helen to clear his name later.
  • Worldbuilding: The story takes place in a Constructed World called Eleg. The author has created a Fantasy World Map for Atreya (where the story has taken place so far) and worked plenty of details about its political system into the story. As the story progresses, more information about other countries and Eleg's history have been revealed.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Generally speaking, the gender is completely irrelevant to anyone in a fight. Servants are never shown to be treated any differently based on their gender. Even protagonist and resident good guy Hector has no qualms about hitting girls as can be seen when he punched Nola Pauls.
  • You Are Not Alone: Said by Garovel to Hector. See above under Please, Don't Leave Me.
  • You Can See Me?: The reapers, usually invisible to anyone but servants, react this way when Geoffrey is able to see them.
    Geoffrey: Hmm. If you will not tell me your name, then what about these two here?
    Hector: What?
    Bohwanox: He can see us!
    Geoffrey: [grins] Why, yes, I can. Am I not supposed to?
  • You Did Everything You Could: Hector often blames himself when he can't save someone. Garovel tries to comfort him.
    Garovel: Do you remember what I said before? Sometimes there won’t be a good option left to choose.
    Hector: ...Is that supposed to be comforting?
    Garovel: No. It’s not. Because we’re not supposed to be comfortable. Being comfortable makes us complacent. Sloppy.
    Hector: Then... what are you saying?
    Garovel: I’m saying we did our best. And we don’t respond to failure with depression. We respond by becoming better. Until our best is good enough.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: Geoffrey would very much like to eat your soul. He fantasizes about eating an entire city and the strength he would gain by it. His victims are more or less Killed Too — their body is definitely dead, but Geoffrey can take over and use them as puppets.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: A major step in Abolish's plans for Atreya was destroying a small town called Harold and making it look like a neighboring country was responsible. It all had to be carefully choreographed and stage-managed. So it put a pretty big crimp in the plan when the terrible Darksteel Soldier appeared on the news, saying that he was coming to level Harold (while the Abolishers were still hours away) and warning the townspeople to Run or Die.


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