Warriors of the World: Flight of the Phoenix (FotP) is the second instalment in the Ragnarok Online fanfic trilogy Warriors of the World written by Century. First published in 2008 on FanFiction.Net shortly after the first instalment was completed, the 2.0 version began progress in 2016.
The story opens with a prophecy being told by the Kingdom's resident oracle, Devrion, speaking of a mysterious conflict that would shake the foundations of the Kingdom. The monarchy decided to respond to this by holding a friendly ladder tournament between the King's Mercenary Guilds, where guilds must prove both economic and combat ability against each other. The winner would take their place as the Kingdom's official guards during the prophesised conflict.
All this takes places three months after the Raulus party resolved the conflict in Soldiers of Fortune, and thanks to those events is now a King's Mercenary Guild. Valkron is less than amused at fighting other people, but grudgingly captures a castle for the guild's use while vowing to stay out of the tournament.
But then the sinister and powerful Black Cross guild tries to recruit the Raulus, and soon everything spirals out of control...
As with the first instalment, the rewritten version can be found on the official WotW tumblr
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Preceded by Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune and followed by Warriors Of The World The Legend Reborn.
As always, spoilers will be abound and not all of them are marked. Proceed with caution. Character tropes can be found on the character sheet.
This fanfic features the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Like the Glast Heim entry on the Soldiers of Fortune page, the Prontera Culverts are the same, including layout, because the first king of Rune-Midgard wanted to build Prontera in Glast Heim's image. The place is so labyrinthine and large that the Brotherhood of the Grey Wolves has stationed their Prontera headquarters deep within it.
- Adaptational Badass: Blizzardriss and the Gloomy Wizard in the game are responsible only for the Mage and Wizard job change tests. In the story they have reputations in magic that even the Junoan sages respect, and were commissioned in providing the various major spells that enchant entire guild castles for the tournament. When something goes wrong in the tournament due to a spell malfunctioning, they are the only ones powerful enough to restore the castle magic.
- The Alliance: Late in the story the final guilds in the competition are permitted to form alliances with the other defeated participants as additional economic and combat backup in the last leg. This leads to the formation of the Repherion Alliance Raulus, Defenders of Prontera, Exodus Faction, Apocalypse Ultima with Raulus in the lead and the Fire of Heaven Black Cross, Seven Eyes, Legionnaires with Black Cross in the lead. Though in this case they're not fighting against an evil, rather each other in order to win the competition.
- Army of Thieves and Whores: The entire Legionnaires guild, where convicts and criminals can redeem themselves by serving the kingdom for a specific amount of time. It is not a particularly nice guild.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
- Locke has been the guild leader of the Legionnaires for two years. The average lifespan of a Legionnaires guild leader is six months due to Klingon Promotion within the guild. It's implied that he rearranged the guild politics so that killing him would seriously inconvenience the entire guild.
- The reason why the Black Cross is the top-ranking guild is not just because they have a very organised castle economy - it's the only guild to conquer castles in three areas where the others only conquer one.
- Badass Family: During a time when peace is so prevalent that most of the noble families have put aside their militaristic and political leanings, Adiemus' family hasn't given up tradition. Instead the members of his family continue to take up positions as commanders and leaders of armies, even the women. Adiemus' and Alya's reign as guild leader gives some insight on how they've managed to do this at least twice every generation.
- Bar Brawl: Silas and Zak deliberately start a fight in a Morrocian tavern to an unfortunate thief they catch in the act. They get away with it because they're the closest to a neighbourhood watch in Morroc slums as anyone can get to.
- Big Bad: If his introduction and what others say about him don't clue you in, Vineis' ruthlessness pitches him as the villain everyone's looking to take down from the start. The truth is far from that.
- The Big Board: Adiemus has a large table that has the maps of each of the four guild realms and magically updates in real time to show the positions of guilds with their emblems and results of guild wars on terms of combat and economy points. It appears as a normal table, but pulling out the drawers reveals each guild realm map. It's located in his study in the Order.
- Blind Seer: Subverted with Devrion, who is said to have eyes as pale as moonstone (opal), and most people assume he's blind from that description. After discussing and joking about how most prophetic figures in Rune-Midgard history tend to be blind, Valkron gets a nasty shock when it turns out Devrion is not blind. That's his real eye colour.
- Bloodless Carnage: Invoked during the War of Emperium. It is against guild law to shed blood during the tournament since it's just supposed to be a friendly competition. In order to enforce this, all skills have had their effectiveness reduced, and weapons are blunted and made lighter. People just tend to get bruised or knocked out instead; if the latter they get warped to the gates of the castle they were knocked out in to recover. This eventually leads to arrows being mostly ineffectual compared to magic and melee weapons.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Valkron and Iruna's now-established relationship is this - Valkron, troubled by PTSD from his past and moody from being suddenly thrust into a more serious job as a leader, has Iruna, patient and caring, look out for him and ensure he isn't driving himself into depression. Because he can't talk to her about his problems since they are related to the Battle of Al'Zahur, an event that the Chivalry has banned any previous participant from disclosing information, she is unsure if his reluctance to tell her is because he doesn't trust her enough, but she tries to comfort him as best as she can.
- The Cameo: Aragan the Acolyte from the Ragnarok Wisdom webcomic makes a few appearances in the scenes with the Prontera Parish.
- Catapult Nightmare: Valkron's PTSD-induced nightmares occasionally do this to him.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- You may not remember Devrion because Emeth mentioned his name in one throwaway instance in SoF. He makes his full appearance and significance here.
- Hailing from SoF as well, Baphomet and his scythe.
- The Consigliere: Guild leaders require a second- and third-in-command upon guild registration, both of whom act as this to the leader. Some guild leaders act as this to other guild leaders as well.
- The Raulus: Emeth and Iruna are Valkron's in-commands.
- Raven keeps Adiemus grounded (and vice versa) despite having lost early on to the Black Cross.
- The Black Cross: Sheuth and Lucius are Vineis' in-commands.
- Continuity Nod: Many references are made to the events of SoF, and some of them have had effects that have carried over three months later.
- Covered in Scars:
- Valkron has multiple scars all over his body from his fourteen years of Chivalry fieldwork. He's lampshaded this himself, saying that for some reason he apparently became a lot more reckless during those fourteen years.
- Rogues Raven and Sheuth have many scars on their faces. It is unclear if they have any on their bodies.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Any guild battle where the Black Trident is present ends quickly and violently in the trio's favour.
- Downer Ending: Despite the optimistic name, Flight of the Phoenix sports the most depressing ending of the trilogy. No one wins, the Kingdom is without any real protection, the Black Cross disbanded due to sabotage and the Raulus completely broken up and having lost all of the reputation it had built over the duration of the competition. Seeing as this result is meant to benefit the Kingdom in The Legend Reborn, one can only imagine how dealing with the threat in the final story would require this conclusion be viable in the first place.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- No one seems to treat the Raulus any different for saving the world, or even show any gratitude despite having witnesses. This is justified in that about ninety percent of the Kingdom's inhabitants are suffering from Laser-Guided Amnesia. They still get a measly three million and an Emperium crystal, which can be easily found and bought anywhere.
- Never mind that Valkron has saved more lives than the personnel of the Mercenary Division combined and saved the Kingdom; he still gets punished by being banned from fieldwork and having to do audits for the Finance Division because he broke rules to do so and he's not a popular person in the Chivalry.
- Averted with Iruna. She is more respected in the Order, has regained her rank of sergeant-at-arms and is looking at a promotion to Captain by the time FotP rolls around.
- Every Scar Has a Story:
- Subverted with Valkron - Iruna guesses the backstory correctly, he just nods to affirm.
- Averted with Iruna, who has small scars on her face and arms, and never deigns to explain. Valkron only makes a guess.
- Also averted with Raven, who has so many scars that Valkron warns people not to ask about them because the rogue would simply launch into every single story on how he got them. Raven is unsurprisingly disappointed.
- Averted again with Sheuth, whose scars are always mentioned but never explained.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Vineis is very fond of the ice element and leads the most disliked guild in the Kingdom.
- A Father to His Men: Starting with Adiemus, who is always concerned with the welfare of all his troops and their families and commends those who do exceptional service. Valkron as a guild leader, Selvatinius, Raven and Locke as well; they respect their men and are respected in turn. So is, surprisingly, Vineis.
- Feet-First Introduction: When Ventus makes his appearance. A variant in that he is busy hopping around on one leg as he puts his shoes on, and the reason why the characters focus on this is because his back is to them.
- Fictional Document:
- The Guild Leader's Handbook to the War of Emperium, a guide for guild leaders new to the guild war, but also for the reader to have some insight into the rules of the War of Emperium.
- The Voice, the bimonthly periodical the Chivalry Information Division publishes. It's more of an editorial by the knights there, but because the knights also publish without embellishing any of their stories it serves as a reflection of actual feedback from the locals.
- And there's The Prontera Daily, the Kingdom's newspaper. Both The Voice and the Daily provide a view into the disparity between what the Kingdom wants to have their inhabitants know, and what really is going on.
- Samaroh and Emeth are seen reading a lot of books with their titles given, though little is known about them past the initial mention.
- Foil: Flight of the Phoenix introduces new characters who often act as foils to the existing ones.
- Noctune and Enira against Sheuth and Vineis. Both are incredibly close with each other, the older always looks out for the younger, they both have had non-typical childhoods and they're step-siblings. What sets them apart is how either set of siblings sees each other: Nocturne and Enira share a healthy familial relationship while Sheuth maintains an obsession with keeping Vineis close to him.
- Vineis and Valkron. Both are natural born leaders who gain followers because of their reputations, but whereas Valkron does so because his goal of looking out for commoners are shared by many, Vineis' purpose is to offer protection in exchange for submission to him. Their intentions are also different; Valkron recruits to help him further his cause and only out of necessity, while Vineis recruits as a show of power and control.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The final four guilds in the War of Emperium appear to have developed overall personalities with which people can characterise them easily, based on how they approached achieving their goals. Each personality fits within the temperaments.
- The Black Cross = Choleric. Regardless of their reputation, the guild has a streak of diligence and being very -goal-oriented, organised to a fault and actually responds to criticism well. Accused of being unemotional and vindictive.
- The Seven Eyes = Sanguine. The 'heart' of the group, with its members skilled in gaining favour and support from the people and being overall optimistic and inspiring. Sometimes derided for being too idealistic.
- The Exodus Faction = Phlegmatic. The calmest guild, possibly also considered the most humble despite its leader being of aristocracy, always keeping in mind the common people and well-mannered/honourable. Occasionally gets called out for being too much of a crowd-pleaser and their calm being mistaken for indifference.
- The Raulus = Melancholic. Won people over with their more dignified and organised manner of dealing with issues, good at rallying people behind excellent leadership. Detractors call it self-righteous, vengeful, and always seeing the worst in people.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: According to the timeline between SoF and FotP and then some, Valkron and Iruna get married despite having one very danger-wrought week of courtship and five months of trying out a relationship. This is apparently very common among mercenaries and justified - mercenaries spend most of their lives not knowing when their next job will come along or what it is, and either one could very well kick the bucket in the next mission before they finish courtship. Valkron and Iruna's courtship is in fact considered oddly long, as evidenced by Emeth calling Valkron out on this when Valkron points out a three-day courtship is not enough to know a woman.
- Freudian Trio: The leaders of the Exodus Faction, the Defenders of Prontera and Apocalypse Ultima is the archetypal type of this trope, with Adiemus as The Kirk always finding a common ground and balance between Raven's heart-on-sleeve as The McCoy, and the highly logical Selvatinius as The Spock.
- Good Is Not Soft: Exaggerated compared to the first instalment with multiple characters, and justified. Most of the characters in this instalment who get screentime are well-meaning guild leaders who have to be unforgiving or make unforgiving decisions in an intense competition. When they're not being guild leaders, they're either grizzled mercenaries or veterans at guild politics (or both, on occasion). For what it's worth, the guild leaders are entirely aware of this, and some of them are genuinely good people.
- Klingon Promotion: The Legionnaires guild. On average a Legionnaires guild leader has a survival period of two months due to the killing off to get the rank, which gives additional benefits (such as being paid monthly for just being a guild leader). This makes Locke's holding of the rank for over two years impressive, considering he was rumoured to have manipulated guild politics so that killing him off would cause a lot of inconvenience to the guild.
- Knight Templar: Zweihaender has diamond-hard faith in his religion and believes whatever he does in the name of his beliefs is always right, including forcing people to convert. No surprises that Iruna, who prefers to let people have a choice, dislikes him.
- Legion of Lost Souls: The Legionnaires guild is a mercenary guild styled in a very French Foreign Legion manner. It's the only guild where criminals, the exiled and the like can redeem their names by serving as mercenaries and giving up their former identities; at the end of their service they can be welcomed back into the Kingdom and regain citizenship. As you can expect, the guild is the least disciplined and the most brutal of all mercenary guilds. Anyone who leads the guild for more than six months without getting killed by their guild members or quitting is automatically a badass, but the guild is generally looked down upon by the other more disciplined guilds.
- Love Triangle: Iruna has the attention of two men: Valkron and Zweihaender. While she prefers Valkron over Zweihaender, this doesn't stop the latter from attempting to win her back due to his Sore Loser tendencies, even though Iruna makes it clear she's really not interested in him at all. This forms additional friction to the conflict between Valkron and Zweihaender.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Chivalry. Made even more obvious when both Valkron and Saladin note that the Brotherhood of the Grey Wolves (the rogues' organisation) is more of a Reasonable Authority Figure than the Chivalry.
- Only Smart People May Pass: The door to the Geffen Magic Academy staffroom requires answers to questions on highly advanced or restricted magic before allowing entry. This is to prevent students from entering the staffroom since wizards are on par with real-life distinguished professors. Not that you could tell with some of them.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Alya's tragic and untimely death essentially seals this for her father. He does not take this well.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: The Chivalry Superiors decide Valkron is a bit too dangerous to have him running about in the Kingdom post-SoF, so they assign him to an audit job in the Finance Department. It turns out that Valkron was the one who suggested it in the first place because what he really wanted to do was keep an eye on the internal corruption.
- The Reveal:
- Alya is Adiemus' daughter. While this has no bearing on the plot, the impact of what happens later lasts well up to the ending.
- Vineis is being manipulated by Sheuth to destroy the Black Cross from within out of a petty revenge. Valkron realises at the last minute that if this happens, multiple talented individuals will not be present for what comes after the War of Emperium. What it is we don't know, but it's strongly implied that this is a severe consequence that no one will benefit from in the future.
- And lastly, Sheuth is Vineis' older half-brother. Like the Alya example, this has no bearing on the plot but clears up the loose ends about people's motivations.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Valkron often grumbles that the financial reports he has to check tend to be filled with errors of this nature, knights not exactly being predisposed to literature as much as crusaders are. This may or may not be a secret Berserk Button for him considering his reactions to such instances.
- Scar Survey: Iruna gets the chance to do this with Valkron when she walks in on him half-naked after a shower in FotP. Unlike most of the examples on the page the scene has a distinct lack of UST as Iruna is mostly concerned about the subject of scars being a sensitive topic for Valkron. It also plays a key role in Iruna's resolution with her own body image issues.
- Seers: Devrion is the Kingdom's prophet. Of the two wizards allowed to live in the Academy, he's one of them by mutual agreement - in exchange for solitude and protection, he teaches there. According to him the Kingdom likes keeping him around because in the grand scheme of international relations a country that has its own Seer has a political advantage over the others. He only stays because he prefers not being nomadic and fought over.
- Serious Business: The War of Emperium. Originally conceived as a friendly mercenary guild competition, it eventually ended up as a very real war within the kingdom, including politics between rival guild leaders, councils of wars and alliances. It even has its own set of specialised laws, of which breaching one can range from the guild being suspended from the War to permanent disbanding and blacklisting the name.
- Smurfette Principle: Alya is the only female among the guild leaders who run the strongest guilds. This is lampshaded repeatedly by multiple guild leaders.
- Time Skip: FotP takes place three months after the events of SoF.
- Underdogs Never Lose: The story plays it straight for most of the way, and then ultimately subverted by two matters: the Black Cross collapsing due to infighting, which meant they'd become the underdogs, and Valkron giving up the victory to ensure a secure future. At the end the message was about losing the battle to win the war.
Characters introduced in Flight of the Phoenix
Guild Leaders
- Combat Pragmatist: If they see a chance of winning, no matter how underhanded, as long as it's within the tournament's laws there is a high chance that someone will take advantage of it.
- Good Is Not Soft: Many of the guild leaders are genuinely decent people, but do not hold themselves back when it comes to the competition. This appears to be out of necessity borne from experience since all of them are mercenaries and there's no guarantee that any non-allied guild leader would show any honour.
- Smurfette Principle: Though female guild leaders are just as appreciated as male guild leaders, most women prefer The Consigliere positions rather than leading. Alya being the only woman in the roster is therefore quite common.
Adiemus
- Blue Blood: In Flight of the Phoenix we learn more about him - specifically that he is a member of an aristocratic family that traces its lineage back into Pronteran royalty, and that family has served as the Kingdom's military leaders for generations.
- A Father to His Men: His guild members follow him because of how much he looks out for them and treats them as equally important and significant. If that isn't enough, Adiemus' gentle tone and stable personality gives him the air of a father looking for everyone he cares about. Valkron specifically states Adiemus has become a sort of a father figure to him, and Adiemus agrees that he unintentionally treats Valkron as a kind-of son frequently.
- The Kirk: Adiemus is wedged firmly in the middle of Raven and Selvatinius' opinions about the Black Cross. Though he finds it necessary to counter the guild by all means, he agrees with Selvatinius that as long as the Black Cross isn't doing anything illegal, they're not going to be disqualified or discounted from the scores. On the other hand, he honestly feels that ethics-wise the Black Cross is very much in the wrong, especially with his empathy for people. This constant conflict has made him very hesitant about acting on his opinions. Within the trio he's responsible for keeping Raven grounded and Selvatinius motivated - the two state that if it weren't for him they'd have lost the tournament a long time ago.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He doesn't remember the events of the Dark Portal at all, though this is unsurprising given the fact that most of the Kingdom's residents at the time of the event don't remember it either. However, he always has a feeling that some chunk of memory is missing and it clearly bothers him even though he's not sure he wants to know.
Raven
Often seen hanging around Adiemus, this rogue makes an odd pair with the aristocratic crusader due to his street rat background and rough mannerisms. He's Adiemus' closest friend. Though Raven is a good-natured chap, his rank as a Senior Rogue in the Brotherhood of the Grey Wolves indicates he's done some serious surviving and fighting in order to get promoted in the first place. He knows Valkron from the Battle of Al'Zahur and occasionally has conversations entirey in Morrocian with the knight to help maintain Valkron's use of the language. He leads the Defenders of Prontera guild, and states that he travels between Morroc and Prontera so much that he could have been born of both towns.
- Covered in Scars: Raven's days as a Morrocian guard and then a rogue seem to have marked his story in all sorts of scars all over his face and chest, from animal bites to weapon marks. A few hint at whipping as well.
- Every Scar Has a Story: Raven is more than willing to give a summary on almost every scar he has, to the point that Valkron makes it a habit of stepping in before the rogue can answer because "we'll be here all day and night if you get him started". Almost all of them; when asked about the whipping scars he simply laughs slightly uncomfortably and changes the subject.
- The McCoy: Raven passionately, deeply cares about others and has a clearly good-aligned moralistic core. It's no surprise that out of all the guild leaders he feels the most strongly about the Black Cross' actions despite the guild not breaking any laws. Between Adiemus and him, he gets tetchy about Selvatinius' logical approaches the most and usually ends up arguing with him over what's right versus what's correct. On the flip side, this is what cost him his place in the guild tournament and several guild leaders take it upon themselves to remind him on occasion.
- True Companions: Though he may not always agree with Selvatinius or Adiemus about certain topics, Vineis in particular, he is always concerned for them as much as a brother would for his siblings.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Raven's default attire includes a shirt hanging open and his bare chest, scars and all, on display.
Selvatinius
A battle priest leading the Apocalypse Ultima guild. Out of the trio - Adiemus, Raven and him - he's notably the most feared, even by the Black Cross. He carries an air of mystery around him as no one seems to know his background apart from vague details and rumours, but notes that he prefers the company of Adiemus and Raven because unlike everyone else they don't make it their main concern to find out where he's from and what he did in the past. Generally seen hanging around by himself, but will gravitate towards the aforementioned two if they are in the nearby vicinity.
- Eyes Always Shut: Selvatinius has a pronounced squint that is stated to make him look almost like a trickster, especially when he smiles.
- Good Is Not Soft: While this trope is applicable to nearly all the guild leaders, Selvatinius is notable as a guild leader who doesn't hesitate to unleash hell on those who challenge him, and then at the end heal everyone regardless of allegiance. The other guild leaders respect him, but when they end up being Apocalypse Ultima's opponent for the week they're more than willing to back down and let the guild win rather than face him in combat.
- The Spock: Selvatinius is logical to a fault, reminds everyone of the rules they have to follow and has a tendency to think in the long-term regarding the end-result. While this is a crucial skill as a guild leader, he butts heads with Raven often and occasionally Adiemus because he treats everything as expendable in the pursuit of the end goal, and almost has a detached approach to ethically complicated situations without showing empathy. Though his guild is one of the most powerful in the big league, he doesn't pursue the competitors as much as people expect him to due to slowly losing passion for the tournament.
- Older Than He Looks: His age is never clarified, but Raven states that though he looks around late twenties he's around the same age as the rogue. This puts him firmly in the minimum age range of late 30s to early 40s, though like with everything else about him no one is really sure.
- Remember When You Blew Up The Sun: Raven and Vineis occasionally remind Selvatinius that he once took out four emperium-breaking assassins on his own due to still being fairly impressed by the deed (that, and it was Vineis' men Selvatinius defeated). Played with in that the priest doesn't find it impressive, despite the act being part of his reputation that causes guild leaders to hesitate when they find out they've been assigned to oppose his guild.
Alya
A sage and leader of the Seven Eyes guild, Alya is known for her more humanistic and less impersonal approach to guild matters than her peers. Despite this she's no less ruthless, deploying military tactics to optimise her smaller numbers. She prefers strategy, knowledge and stealth over strength, and thus has many magic-users and thieves, rogues and assassins in her employ. Because she deals in information, her guild is essentially a vital participant of the tournament that every other guild wants to have on their side.
- Action Girl: Alya doesn't take a backseat during the tournament, oh no. She's usually on the frontline taking names and kicking asses, wizard ones in particular thanks to her Anti-Magic and Status-Buff Dispel.
- Lady of Black Magic: Mature and level-headed as is reflective of her aristocratic background. Though she's more utility-based than all-out damage, additionally her understanding and knowledge of magic makes her immensely powerful against any guild that has pure offensive-magic users. Since that includes all of the guilds, well...
- Neutral No Longer: A bit complicated given that no side in the tournament is truly 'good' or 'evil' apart from the character the general populace gives them, but Alya eventually joins Vineis and Locke during the tournament after spending half of it undecided on which alliance. Her main reason was that the alliance formed by the Black Cross and the Legionnaires was more efficient and appealed to her strategical plays. The side reason? She didn't want to be seen on the side of her father in case she was accused of favouritism.
- Spirited Young Lady: She is poised, well-mannered and ladylike, and at the same time free-spirited and independent, defying expectations of a member of a noble family. Alya thoroughly delights in being witty with the other guild leaders, and it was her intelligence that allowed her guild to be on par with the major guilds.
- Smurfette Principle: As stated prior, among the 'big league' guild leaders Alya is the only woman. Justified that it was Alya's leadership and sheer balls to go head to head with the bigger and far more experienced guilds when others didn't think they would be able to match them that saw her qualification into the league.
Vineis
The wizard leader of the Black Cross, considered one of the most ruthless participants of the tournament to date. He's renown for deploying military tactics and strategies, often executed with a frightening precision and fluidity that no other guild has ever deployed during any guild war, matching that of the Pronteran army rather than any mercenary warfare. This makes him a difficult opponent with a certain rigidity to organisation and discipline. Though his guild is the biggest, it is also the most well-managed and well-behaved guild - if you don't count the fact that the Black Cross will exploit any and every legal tactic to gain the upper hand, making it also possibly the least ethical.
- Curtains Match the Window: Purple hair, purple eyes - or purple eye since the other eye has a white iris. Possibly to denote his magical capabilities.
- Glass Cannon: Incredibly powerful when it comes to magic, but physically not fit for melee combat in any way.
- High-Class Glass: Whether intentional or not, Vineis wears a monocle that makes him look very high-class.
- An Ice Person: Vineis favours the ice element over all else and is particularly skilled in manipulating it. Ice spells are his signature.
- Orcus on His Throne: Though people usually expect Vineis to sit where he is in Skoegul and wait for other guilds to challenge him, it's subverted when we find out Vineis personally leads charges if his commanding elite unit isn't available.
- Red Right Hand: Vineis is said to be attractive - except for his mismatched eyes. He is the only person to have a physical defect this striking, especially because his left eye has a white iris that gives the impression of a very piercing and haughty gaze. The creepy look has not won favours with people.
- The Stoic: Receives news whether good or bad without so much of a blink, and generally unflappable even in battle. When challenged by minor guild leaders, Vineis looks them in the eye and accepts the offer, because he knows they will not go through with it.
- Not So Stoic: That said, there are flashes where he shows some emotion, usually in battle or private settings, and though he's a serious contender for the straightest face publicly he really can't compete with Locke.
- Visionary Villain: Though downplayed compared to the examples on the trope page, Vineis appears to be heading down this slope. He has a strong belief in unity being the key to defying the prophecy Devrion spoke of, and withstanding everything that the future may bring. How he's going about it is assimilating the guilds and selecting those he feels are worthy, along with their skills. He's good at spotting those people, but he hasn't considered actually asking them first if they want to join him, and feeling that if they don't stand with him, they are against him and therefore must be dealt with so that their guilds can be assimilated into one united force. Some of the guild leaders feel that making peace is not actually his strong point...
Locke
Possibly the Foil to Selvatinius in that Locke is a mostly silent mercenary whose reputation for brutality far exceeds him. People give him a wide berth. He leads the Legionnaires, the guild where all criminals and convicts go when they choose his guild over a life sentence in prison. It is also the only guild where members can work as mercenaries to be pardoned. The composition of this guild means that the Legionnaires is violent and immensely destructive, giving them The Dreaded status during the guild tournament - even moreso than the Black Cross.
Despite wearing an outfit similar to a knight's, he is not associated with the Chivalry or any other adventurer uniform.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Locke is just as silent, if not more than, Amaru, and it's mostly assumed that he is merely Vineis' attack dog. Not so much when an unwitting minor guild leader attempts to beat to death a trapped Legionnaire and Locke hit him so hard with the flat of his halberd the offender was sent flying into the opposite wall.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Throughout the story Locke is assumed to have little emotion for anything more than his own men (and possibly even less than that) - until he does a Heel–Face Turn in order to save the Black Cross from collapsing because he feels indebted to Vineis for being nice to him and sympathising with the younger man.
- Mysterious Past: Exactly what he did to land himself the offer of the Legionnaires is never known.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Members of the Legionnaires have their memories selectively wiped of their criminal life before joining the guild to prevent reverting, and Locke is no different. He doesn't remember anything, not even his old name. Part of the agreement for joining the Legionnaires involves being re-trained after having his memories wiped, so he doesn't even remember how he used to fight. In his opinion it was for the best that he doesn't know what crimes he committed, and personally looks forward to completing his sentence.
- Nerves of Steel: When the troops of the Exodus Faction were charging for his castle's gates after crushing his perimeter defence, his response was to stand right in front of the gates to block their way with his halberd raised. Alone. This was his first act as a guild leader two years ago after his predecessor perished, and since then his guild hasn't thought much of betraying him.
- The Stoic: Never, ever changes his expression, and remains completely calm even in battle. Every challenge to him is met with either unimpressed silence or a flat verbal refusal to rise to the provocation. Others' impressions of him range from terrifying due to never knowing what or how he's feeling, to being in absolute control of his mental state, to just not feeling anything. Given his possible background...
Other Characters
Devrion
The Kingdom's oracle is a wizard residing in the Geffen Academy of Magic. Originating from a nomadic tribe in Sograt Desert, he enjoys a fairly comfortable life studying magic, protected by the Kingdom since his presence within their borders gives them an edge in the grand scheme of political affairs between the three nations of the continent. Though somewhat minor in the grand scheme of things, his role in the story plays a greater part than he would have expected.
- Blind Seer: Subverted. Devrion is described as 'having really pale eyes', and though Valkron assumes that he's blind initially it just means he has nearly white irises.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He is mentioned in one throwaway sentence in Soldiers of Fortune having predicted a possible disaster to befall the Kingdom, of which he wasn't taken seriously. This time around, he appears in the flesh and is taken seriously. For most of the story, anyway...
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Valkron's initial impression of him, and is eventually subverted. Devrion doesn't seem to have any concept of personal space, dragging the knight around very quickly without asking him beforehand, spouting cryptic nonsense and staring in a disconcerting manner towards him. On the other hand Devrion explains later that people tend to swamp him with questions about their personal lives and the slightly off-kilter behaviour throws them off long enough for him to tell them what they need to know first. Once he's done being weird, Devrion turns out to just be a fairly intelligent and self-aware individual.
- Facial Markings: Devrion has gold tattoos on his cheeks and forehead, tribe markings to indicate his magical capabilities and future sight.
- Seers: Devrion's power works in such a way that someone has to ask him the questions that will trigger his ability. He can tap into it on his own, but he dislikes how overwhelming it can be if he isn't given a goal to focus on, and is quick to warn people that though what he sees may come true, his visions are merely multiple possible futures that lie outside any given context that could potentially alter those possibilities.
Sheuth
Vineis' second-in-command and a rogue. Described as looking like an alley tomcat, he's always seen accompanying Vineis.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: He may not fight or voice his opinions much, leaving that to facial expressions, but he's considered the Black Cross' second-best strategist and best spy. And he's the mastermind behind causing the Black Cross to collapse from within simply because he didn't want it to become Vineis' obsession.
- Freudian Excuse: Sheuth spent his life being ignored by his wealthy but neglectful father, and was taught never to make friends with others on the basis that people would take advantage of his father's wealth and him. It was this reason he jumped up at saving Vineis; being able to relate to someone who'd been equally neglected and just as paranoid, not to mention his own brother to take care of, that led to trying to keep Vineis to himself as much as possible.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: He kills his sister-in-law because he didn't want Vineis to leave him. That's just one of his many control issues.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Orchestrates the murder of Alya and immediately takes advantage of Vineis' increased paranoia and compromised emotions to speed his plans up.
- Manipulative Bastard: He is completely insignificant in the grand scheme of the tournament. Instead, he goes about emotionally manipulating and grooming Vineis to depend and trust him fully so that when Vineis is confronted with the truth, he trusts Sheuth over others. He implies that he went for this tactic because Vineis' relationships with his family previously were either abusive or neglectful and he's built up a close relationship with Vineis, who isn't going to be suspicious of Sheuth immediately. It's subtle enough that only on consecutive readings the meaning of his actions change once his real motivations are known.
- Motive Decay: Sheuth's motive is to be with Vineis and protecting him due to Vineis' abusive childhood and their father neglecting them, especially because he'd been lonely for a long time and having someone to look after is something he considers dear to him. However his dedication to Vineis' wellbeing slowly degraded prior to the story due to paranoia after seeing Vineis get into a relationship with Alya and wanting to not lose him. The result is the ugly mess that nearly screws up everything Vineis built.
- Non-Action Guy: Sheuth is never seen fighting on the frontlines with Vineis, serving as his tactician instead. He appears to dislike fighting given his expressions of disgust whenever it's suggested to him.
- The Reveal: Sheuth and Vineis are step-siblings, which explains a lot about Sheuth's protectiveness over Vineis.
- Tragic Villain: Sheuth growing up without attention from his father and nothing to do in the way of finding any meaning with his life is what made him into the way he was.
- True Companions: According to what little Valkron and co know of Vineis and Sheuth's partnership, the two are very close friends who look out for each other.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Not outright said or shown, but Baphomet notes that the person behind whatever is happening in the tournament is setting up the stage for the Kingdom to fail in the prophecy in the future by indirectly leading 'certain talented individuals who would have helped the Kingdom to victory' to premature ends. It seems that it's also setting up The Legend Reborn.
- Walking Spoiler: It is very hard to discuss Sheuth in-depth without mentioning it's him as the actual Big Bad.
Lucius
Vineis' third-in-command, but in reality solely a glorified bodyguard. An assassin who probably has seen better days, he is loyal to Vineis because the wizard didn't see him as useless due to his disillusionment with his job; rather instead of encouraging the assassin to keep killing for money, Vineis asked him to help out if neither he nor Sheuth were around for the sake of something other than money. Lucius took on the job, and since then has never left.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Vineis is known for his ice magic and immense power, but as he's a wizard he's considerably more squishy. Lucius serves to keep an eye out for anyone who tries to take advantage of long spellcasting times.
- Devious Daggers: Like Khan, Lucius prefers knives as a weapon. Unlike Khan, he will only ever use knives and calls other weapons "less elegant tools of bloodshed".
- Insistent Terminology: With regards to his previous stint as assassin for hire, he never calls his work murder, only bloodshed.
- Professional Killer: Was a popular choice for hire to eliminate highly dangerous criminals in the Morroc underworld before he quit, serving as a mob hitman to criminal rivals or the Morroc Night Watch for difficult targets. As to why he quit, he remained reticent on the topic.
- Undying Loyalty: Lucius is utterly dedicated to Vineis' protection as it gives him more meaning in his life than just killing in exchange for money. He's also not afraid to turn to people he's gauged as reasonable and helpful if his charge is ever in danger without being aware of it.
Zweihaender
The commander of the Black Trident, the Black Cross' elite troops, a formidable opponent on the battlefield and equally passionate in his field of work. Zweihaender is a crusader hailing from North Schwarzvald and has a strong accent as a result. Like the inner circle of the Black Cross, he is highly loyal to Vineis and seeks to help the Black Cross win.
- Awesome McCoolname: His name means 'two-hander' in German and refers specifically to a type of two-handed sword around 4 feet or 1.4 metres long. While In-Universe it's called out as a little narmy, especially by non-Schwarzvaldians, the majority of characters think it's really cool. It's implied this kind of naming is standard in the Republic.
- Character Development: When he realises he's given Iruna a reason to legitimately hate him for nearly killing Valkron unintentionally, Zweihaender has a long, deep think about it. In the end while he doesn't find any closure for his real issues, he has let her go on the basis that she's much happier with Valkron and that's more important than what he feels.
- In-Series Nickname: Zwei, usually by the Raulus as they find his name too long after Iruna lets it slip that this is what she addresses him as when he's out of hearing.
- Knight Templar: Zweihaender has a running record of successful conversions to his religion, but not necessarily in a good way. Patronises and treats anyone not of his religion like children, calling them 'uneducated heathens'. He feels uncomfortable and uneasy around people who do not share the same moral beliefs as he does and quickly sets about 'setting them onto the right path'. He genuinely believes that the only path to salvation is through the religion he was brought up with and now serves, and is quick to treat those who refuse as agents of demons spreading evil unto the world.
- Love Triangle: One between Zweihaender, Iruna and Valkron. Iruna knows that he still likes her and he knows that she's made her decision. He doesn't take this well and constantly hounds Iruna in a passive-aggressive manner, trying to prove himself as being better than Valkron who he considers an insolent ruffian and win her over. It doesn't work, seeing as Iruna is clearly in love with Valkron and isn't changing her mind anytime soon.
- Sore Loser: For all his gravitas and dignity whenever he shows up, he sulks like a petulant child when he figures out that Iruna won't change her mind and whenever he sees her after she firmly refused his invitations to the annual ball for the fifth time or so.
- Undying Loyalty: Zweihaender joined the Black Cross to help the guild be what he believed the Kingdom needed, a proactive defence force, for personal and political reasons that he declined to explain. He'd found Vineis a good leader and swore to at least stick with him and see the guild to victory.
- Working with the Ex: Ends up working alongside Iruna to help save Vineis. Zweihaender is clearly uncomfortable with this since Iruna keeps giving him Death Glares for his dirty shot at Valkron and giving him concussion.
Ventus
Silas
Zak
Albrecht
The Guild Liaison Officer
