Video Game / Sorcery!

"What's my fate?"

Sorcery! is an adaptation of the original Sorcery! gamebook series; an interactive fiction RPG video game developed and published by Inkle for iOS, Android, Steam, and eventually Nintendo Switch.

Like the book series, four volumes were released to complete an overarching story.

• Sorcery!: The Shamutanti Hills (May 2, 2013)
• Sorcery! 2: Khare: Cityport of Traps (November 7, 2013)
• Sorcery! 3: The Seven Serpents (April 23, 2015)
• Sorcery! 4: The Crown of Kings (September 22, 2016)

Eventually, all four chapters are compiled for the Nintendo Switch and released as a single game on June 23, 2022.

The first two volumes are extremely faithful to the original books with some extra plot threads here and there, but the third and fourth deviate increasingly, rewriting the story into something altogether more complex.

The Kingdom of Analand is due to receive a magical crown, the Crown of Kings, that is passed around between kingdoms as it grants the power to rule wisely, as well as being a symbol of peace. But one night, Birdmen stole the Crown and took it to the city of Mampang, where the evil Archmage resides, who holds a nefarious rule over the land of Khakabad.

Analand decides to send a single warrior/sorcerer hero in order to retrieve the Crown.

Not to be confused with an unrelated PS3 game called Sorcery.

---

Sorcery! provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc: Several characters suggest they will appear again but don't.
  • Waking up and irritating a napping man just south of Tinpang reveals that he is an agent of the Archmage. He can rush away and claim he will inform the Archmage of your threat- jeopardising the entire goal of the third game! Yet letting him escape does not prevent the player from staying under the Archmage's radar in the fourth game so long as all the Serpents were killed, making him completely, mysteriously irrelevant.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: If you buy the Legendary Sword it easily slices through the animated statue that was impervious to your earlier weapons. Given that they equal or exceed the Legendary Sword, one can assume the Assassin's Sword and the Cutlass can match it.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Khare's teleporting portal traps lead to a maze-like sewer system that's big enough to hide Sansas and his goblin army.
• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: While all soft food and water-damageable items such as paper are destroyed upon being dunked into water, the spellbook stays miraculously intact. Justified because this is an incredibly rare item and losing it would be very annoying.
• Adaptational Expansion: Compared to the original source material, the Inkle games offers the player a lot more decision-making and choices of dialogue, as well as more backstories and personality for what were considered minor characters in the books. Where the original gamebooks could not achieve a lot during their time and medium, Inkle used modern technology to further improve the source material's story and interactivity.
• Adaptational Badass: In the books, Flanker begs for his life when you're about to kill him. In the Inkle adaptation, he admits defeat and asks to be killed with his own sword.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Alianna remains an insane witch, but she will not attack you if you act honourably and nice towards her when you first enter her house.
  • In the original game, every Red-Eye encounter is at best unfriendly and unhelpful, if not hostile. In the video game, while the majority of them are still hostile, there is a Red-Eye who can sell you fruit, another who would gamble with you (albeit kidnapping you if you lose), a group surrounding a portal trap won't attack without provocation.
  • In the original game, freeing the prisoner at the stocks will only lead to an instant failure where he traps you at the stocks in return for freeing him. In the video game, he will be grateful if you free him and will answer a few questions before running away.
  • In the original game, Cartoum is given little depth other than being a lackey of the Archmage. The Inkle adaptation showed that he's also a victim living under the tyranny of the Crown of Kings, and he wishes to end it by either stealing the crown, or failing that, sparking a rebellion after the Analander confronts the Archmage.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In Sorcery! 4, Inkle's incarnation of Cartoum isn't nearly as gullible as he was in the original. You need a bit more thinking to be in his good graces.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the book, the shopkeeper in Dwarftown of Khare is completely neutral and doesn't interact. In this game, the shopkeeper has an unpleasant personality and suggests you to buy the cursed leather gloves rather than the useful chainmail ones.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Vik in the book was an enigmatic but upstanding Nice Guy. In the video game, he's a slaver and trying to take over Kharé.
  • Depending on how you interpret him, this trope might also apply to the King of Analand, who could be peaceful or power-hungry.
  • Characters in The Crown of Kings paint the Archmage to be a crueller tyrant than the books ever portrayed him as, with many wishing for his death.
  • Lortag in the gamebooks is a wise scholar who teaches the beggar children of Kharé for free and sometimes gives you a useful item even if you fail to solve his puzzle. Lorag in the game, while arguably not a villain, asks you to help him in an experiment that will turn you into an animal if it works and only answers your questions if you sabotage the experiment without him realizing.
• Adaptational Wimp: For the sake of simplification, the weapons you find or buy will typically just increase your combat gauge to more often attack at high vigor (though silver weapons will harm enemies that are immune to your nonmagical weapons, at the expense of its wielder). So no special abilities like the Long Sword in Book 1 doing increased damage per attack.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • In the original books, Shadrack is a hermit who lived in the present time. In the video game adaptation of Sorcery! 3, it was changed such that Shadrack was a hermit from the distant past (1000 years ago). However, Sorcery! 4 did not appear to take this into account, and treated Shadrack's return as if he was from the present time.
  • The 3rd game gave out the clue "Do not eat from the Larder of Throg" which is directly lifted from the gamebook. In the original, the clue is relevant since eating from the larder of Throg will likely penalise you. However in the adaptation, this doesn't happen which means the clue was at best a red herring.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • In Sorcery! 4, the characters of Throg and Valignya are completely revamped. Both Throg and Valignya for starters, had their gender swapped. Inkle's Throg is portrayed with a fierce temper and harbors suspicion regarding any stranger trying to access his larder, as compared to the original Throg who was more trusting and is in fact insulted if the Analander refused to eat from her larder. Inkle's Valignya is less overtly greedy and gave much greater "uncaring rich person" vibes compared to the original who seemed nothing more than a greedy murderer.
• Adapted Out:
  • In the books, your original patron deity is Libra. In the video games, her role of providing divine aid is given first to your personal spirit animal, and later you're given the option to convert to other gods, but Libra isn't one of them. Subverted in the last volume, where you find out that your ability to rewind time was Libra's doing all along.
  • The Test your Luck mechanism from the books was left out, as having a computer generate a random number isn't as exciting as a dice roll. Scenes where success depended on random chance in the books have been rewritten so that you have to get a series of small choices right instead.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
  • In the inn in Mampang you can enjoy a few games of Swindlestones with a drunk merchant, who is very rich... a poor player who will cheerfully keep gambling no matter how badly she is losing. Given how dangerous Mampang is and how there is a monastery to Effe (goddess of Chance) nearby, it is a minor miracle she has any gold left.
  • Right after entering Mampang you can get yourself drunk and the guards will start questioning who you are. You can choose to reveal yourself as the Archmage's greatest enemy, the Analander and they will dismiss you as yet another drunkard.
• All There in the Manual: Throughout the entire Sorcery! epic Flanker has never revealed his true purpose in entering Mampang, and even the games do not explain it. It was only through the social media event "Flanker's Fate" (where the community got to choose Flanker's actions) that it was revealed that he was hired by a mysterious person to secure the Crown of Kings before the Analander does. It turned out that this mysterious person was the Archmage himself who proceeded to take control of Flanker's mind and send him off to attack the Analander.
• Ancient Artifact: The Crown of Kings.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: The Analander can give one to Flanker if he is killed in battle in Sorcery! 4 or begins to kill them under the Archmage's influence. Vice versa if the Analander asks him to kill them while realising they are still subject to the ZED curse.
• Anti-Frustration Features: All over the place. You can, at any point, rewind your progress back to any point on your journey or even pick a different path altogether, and you can retry any battle for a better outcome, even the ones you win. In the final game when you reach Mampang you are stripped of this ability and are no longer able to rewind to any point inside of the city. You can return to the outside upon death to try your luck again, or find refuge in one building.
• Anxiety Dreams: The Analander is plagued with dreams and visions throughout the games, but the most fearful ones come in the fourth game, where they spend every night towards the end dreaming of Analand burning should they not retrieve the Crown.
• Apocalyptic Log: Molka's husband leaves a final note in the College of Mampang in which he died, damning Valiquesh for sending him to such a place.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When the Archmage asks the Analander why they don't even know their own name.
• The Artifact: The monochrome illustrations in the video game are from the original books, and there are gamebook-relevant details which are ignored in the adaptation - especially for Sorcery! 4, which significantly deviated from the source material. Examples such as the Jib-jib cave illustration that showed a glass bottle that isn't present in the game, the Archmage-Demon illustration that also showed the corpse of Farren Whyde who is not the Archmage in the game, and the illustration of Throg angrily ordering her minions around which is used instead to show a lovestruck Filk.
• Ascended Extra: Flanker. He was a combat encounter in the first book who you could choose to spare and could encounter a couple of times in the second book for some minor help. In contrast, if you spare him in the games, he appears in every single part and plays a role in the climax of the last part.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The ZOB spell, which summons a kaiju-sized Rock Demon to curbstomp pretty much anything standing in your way, is certainly very satisfying to use (and does, in fact, almost always result in the complete obliteration of whatever poor bastard you set the resultant Rock Demon against), but can only be used in a scant few cases (assuming you've even learned of its existence in the first place), most of them being battles you could easily enough win on your own. To add insult to injury, it requires you to haul around a massive Rock Demon Tooth - an item so heavy it actually reduces your max Stamina while you're carrying it. Finally, there are a handful of cases where it poses this problem in-universe by virtue of simply doing too much too dramatically: trying to use it against the jaguars in Valigniya's dungeon, for example, will result in the entire building being destroyed due to being too small for the summon. While you do kill the jaguars, you also kill the people who'd have provided you some very useful rewards and hints for doing so. On the other hand, they were very evil and this is the only way to kill them.
• Bag of Spilling: Downplayed. In Seven Serpents, if you have to climb the broken bridge in the Forest of Snatta then you have to leave behind all your main swords except for your small starting Analander sword. When you get back, you'll find they've been stolen but you can recover one if you go to Alizee's hut (unfortunately the game prioritizes the Long Sword if you have one, so you'll lose the Legendary Sword). So if you have a Broadsword and Long Sword then you'd best sell to the Black Elves caravan before going to the Forest of Snatta.
  • In Seven Serpents, if you decide not to use the Beacons to manipulate time, you will have to escape from the top of a mountain by leaping into the ocean. This removes excess amounts of gold and provisions on your character.
• Battle Theme Music: A rigorous drum beat that gets louder or softer depending on how hard the fighters launch at each other.
• Being Evil Sucks: The dastardly Archmage of Mampang is actually having a pretty miserable time even with the Crown of Kings, considering he had to wait in terror for thousands of years for the Analander to launch a conquest against them as part of this scheme, becoming extremely paranoid only to ultimately be defeated anyway.
• Betting Mini-Game: Swindlestones, an in-universe dice game that the player can use to win (and lose) gold and other useful things.
• Big Bad: The Archmage, from the beginning. Your opinion on him worsens throughout the series, especially when you reach Mampang and hear out people who wish for his death.
• Bittersweet Ending: Destroying the Crown of Kings and saving the Old World is probably the best ending, but not when the Analander fails to escape the ZED curse and is doomed to die and relive forever, especially if they wasted their chance to break the curse with the sandtimer.
  • Another element of bittersweetness in this ending is the fate of Flanker. If the Analander killed him while he was under the Crown's influence, they can sadly wonder if he could have been saved somehow upon return to Analand.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Vik versus the Goblins in Cityport of Traps. Vik is a slaver, and runs his operation like The Mafia. (if you can pay him or prove you have connections with his old friend, he'll free you if he captured you); but he captures the homeless (or unlucky) and sends his werewolves on them. Most don't survive; the strongest become infected with lycanthropy and made part of his army. The Goblins, however, want to kill everyone who isn't a goblin. Both will ally with the Archmage, but Vik is rather lazy about it and gives the werewolves that he gave to the Archmage an armor with a weakspot (which he will share with you if you don't antagonise him).
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Flanker at the end of the fourth game (if you saved him), under the effect of the Crown of Kings.
• Bratty Half-Pint: There's a little boy in Seven Serpents who's job it is deliver Shadrack's message to you. But if you are in the past and off the designated road, he'll sometimes ambush you and randomly steal an item from you. When he gets caught up in a deadly magical vortex, the Analander has a chance to save him with magic. Not a lot of players do...
• But Thou Must!: On some occassions, usually when magic is involved that influences the mind, you can choose dialogue options and actions that resist mind-altering magic, but the Analander will instead behave in a way that plays into the magic's hands.
  • In Khare, a peddler will be selling hypnosis-inducing herbs. If you buy one off him, he'll ask you to pay him an extortionate amount of gold for no reason. You can choose to refuse, but the Analander will agree regardless, let the herb get stolen back off them, and then watch him wander off in confusion.
    • Can be averted, if you ask him to demonstrate the mind-control herb, then ask him to give a normal healing potion for free.
  • In the magical colleges to the west of Mempang, the Analander can end up in a room that causes severe depression and self-doubt. They ball up on the floor sadly, and whenever the player tries to choose an option to head towards the door, the Analander will inch forward and then stop and burst into tears. You need to choose the 'leave' option multiple times before you can actually go.
  • In the Archmage's tower, when the Analander initially confronts him, they eventually lose the ability to be resist him. You choose to demand the crown, and the Analander will delay and delay it, eventually thanking him humbly for his great generosity no matter what you try to say.
• Canon Foreigner: The Inkle Adaptations added a ton of characters that were not in the original books, but the most significant of them would be the Yb'ran, the God of Gods and Aliizi, the invisible girl.
• Cast from Hit Points: Like the books, some basic spells require a hefty amount of Stamina points to use but the game is very generous in comparison. The Stamina cost is reduced for non-combat spells to just 1 while spells that use ingredients don't cost any (making spells with non-consumable ingredients a Game-Breaker).
  • In Book 4, inhabitants of Mampang are afraid of Blood Candles and one person will even warn you about using them in a particular location. That's because Blood Candles are named that for consuming the user's blood as fuel, eventually killing them horribly.
• Caught in the Bad Part of Town: Everywhere in Khare is dangerous, but the Red Eyes' part of Khare is especially so.
• Checkpoint Starvation: The first 3 games (With the exception of Ca-oth's encounter) allows you to roll back your progress to whichever point you desire. The final game however, removed your rewinding ability as soon as you entered Mampang, only giving you a single checkpoint somewhere in the city. After you completed the game, there's even an option of a challenge mode for replaying, which completely prevent you from rewinding throughout all the 4 games.
• Chekhov's Gun: Several items that can be collected are not useful until much later, even across games. Possibly the biggest example of this is the Locket that can be picked up in the very first game. In the fourth game, offer it to Commander Cartoun when you realise it contains a photograph of his missing lover, making him immediately grateful.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: Most of the confrontations, even with non-aggressive people, boil down to choices of draw your sword/cast a spell, speak to them, or run/avoid them entirely.
• Cool Sword: An increasingly cool one each game. The broadsword of Sorcery 1, the legendary sword of 2, it's equal - the assassin's blade of 3 and finally the cutlass of Sorcery 4.
• Counterspell: A new addition in 3 and 4 that wasn't in the books. Any spell has another spell that, if cast, cancels each other out. Sometimes there's a theme, but not always. The dOC spell, for example, which enchants a Blimberry potion to cure disease, will cancel out a HOT spell; which summons a fireball. And vice-versa. This is (usually) the best way to get through the towers of the Magic College in 4, each dedicated to a particular spell. It is also the only way to save Flanker in 4 and the normal way for beating the Archmage. (The Crown of Kings is "grimalkin" (a construct constantly casting a spell) that simultaneously uses gOD (worship), TEL (telepathy) and KID (illusion). To beat it, one uses NAP (sleep), GAZ (invisibility) and dIM (lowered brain activity).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Pretty much any time you have the opportunity to cast ZOB; which summons a Rock Demon. This also happens with the secret spell SOB, which summons the deadly Snattacat.
• Cursed with Awesome: The Potion of Mystery which is bought from the Dwarftown store in Khare will make you go bald. However it also permanently increases your Attack Strength by 1. If you have Lorag send you back in time, you can drink this potion again to get more permanent increase.
  • If you refuse or fail to save Kharé, Lorag's ghost will possess you, replacing your god. While Lorag is certainly less helpful than, say, Courga or the Spirit Animal, he does have a personality many players find charming and ultimately winning his respect is such a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming many players will deliberately let themselves be "cursed" with him because it makes for a better story.
• Cutting the Knot: You can cut corners in the second game especially. The point of the journey across Khare is to find the spell lines to save it, but you can just head straight for the North Gate and leave when the goblins begin their invasion, letting Khare fall. Lorag will curse you, however, unless you've gathered a teleportation ring you can use to ignore him.
• Dance of Romance: Casting the JIG spell in the Archmage's fortress library to force Flanker to dance looks like a silly easter egg until the Analander is given the option to join in, and they dance together. One of the devs even suggested it was part of the true ending.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Analander can be this occasionally.
  • They can hand a gold coin to a man in the Baklands, watch him toss it away ungratefully and ask rhetorically "isn't falling wonderful?" and respond "you should try it too".
  • Indeed, the third game is full of sass. The Analander can undig a sleeping buried Elvin who, upon waking up, will accuse them of burying him. He will complain that it must have been them since it happened in his sleep, but remarks that he doesn't remember the river nearby being there either. The Analander can reply "presumably you think I put it there".
• Decomposite Character: In the original book version there is one inn in Kharé (at least that you can visit), The Wayfarers Rest. Not only does the innkeeper turns out to be mad enough to set up a guillotine trap over your bed while you are asleep the inn is also frequented by slavers who try and get you drunk and shanghai you. In the video game version The Wayfarers Rest is still present ( and still comes with the risk of slavers grabbing you if you are drunk) but the cityport now comes with two additional inns: The Meat and Cleaver ( now home to the mad innkeeper and his traps) and The Crooked Finger ( a harmless if shabby inn with no direct counterpart in the book.)
  • In the original books Throgg is a female Hobgoblin in charge of the kitchens in Mampang. In the video game version Throgg is a male Hobgoblin while his illustration is used for a kindly female Goblin.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Flanker's respect for the Analander stems from their initial victory over him in the Shamutanti Hills.
• Does Not Like Magic: Multiple characters can be apprehensive, disgusted or fearful of magic and sorcerers.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: In Khare, if you get over 300 Gold Pieces then when you start the Seven Serpents storyline, you find that a lot of your gold were actually Gold Bugs that fly off leaving you with only 143 Gold Pieces.
• The Dreaded: You, in the video game versions, to the Archmage and the people of the Ancient World, as it's foretold that one day the Annul-lander will destroy the countryside with powerful beams of magic and then kill the Archmage.
• Dream Sequence: The Analander has several, particularly when they are anxious. They are usually muddled and feature characters they have met, with the most frequent reoccurring event being the Crown of Kings being just out of reach.
• Dressing as the Enemy: The Analander can don several disguises in the fourth game, two being a Mampang guard and a guard Captain.
• Emerging from the Shadows: Flanker does this pretty much every appearance, to the point where you can accidentally kill him if you preemptively launch a spell at him in the third game before he reveals himself.
• Equipment-Based Progression: A lot of improvement is found in simply obtaining new magical items to perform spells with and new weapons.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Slangg is the God of Malice. At first sight he appears to be the complete reverse of Courga, in that he rewards the Analander's disgraceful/malicious actions and frowns on acts of kindness. However, the player who portrays a Slangg-worshiping Analander as a psychopath will realize there's a limit to the level of malice Slangg likes: He remained silent (As do most other gods except Courga) when the Analander commit acts of murder, and notably in Sorcery! 4, he is too appalled to reward the Analander if the latter chooses to cut out the tongue of a guard who surrendered and is at his/her mercy. Like most other gods, he also warns the Analander about Naggamenteh.
• Evil Virtues: If you destroyed the Goblins using the North Gate Spell in Sorcery! 2, thus indirectly helping Vik to become the First Noble of Khare, he will be grateful and offer to repay you a favour by answering a particular request of yours as long as you are not too antagonistic in your dialogue.
• Eye Beams: The power of the Red Eyes of Khare, who wander around with them shut until it's time to strike.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted. While nobody uses small arms, the ships in Kharé are all armed with broadsides of cannons and this is not considered remarkable or unusual, implying that cannons are common enough in the Old World.
• Fate Worse than Death: The Throben Spell is a curse. If you die with it, you go back to the exact moment when you cast the spell... anytime you die, even of old age decades after the adventure ended successfully.
  • Sansas did this to several of the other council members, if he didn't just order them killed. Theetah was given Harpies that tore his eyes out and constantly tormented him, Moulas was turned into a zombie, Shinva was turned into a ghost.
• Fission Mailed: When you open the Throben doors after completing all the correct spells your first choice after entering is restricted to asking "What's my fate?", a line of dialogue restricted to revealing a cause of death... under normal circumstances. In this case, the Analander realises that they're alive and well, and actually feel quite rejuvenated!
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the third game, Elthera discusses how all spells are can be countered and idly traces a letter Z in the air. Even the ZED spell can be undone.
  • If the Analander tries to cast a spell on Vangorn the Murderer, he threatens to chop their hands off, because a handless sorcerer would be useless. Trying to grasp a Crown-influenced Flanker's arm will result in him doing just that, rendering spells impossible.
• Funetik Aksent: The Swindlestones-playing sailor is near-unintelligible.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Not always averted:
  • You can act like an honour-less robber and murderer throughout the entire game, and yet the final outcome of interaction events such as that of Shadrack and Bria rarely change. You can also choose to act out of character at times.
• Genderbender: The pirate Ranni has Incompatible Orientation of whatever gender you originally are. If you are a follower of Y'Bran, he'll intervene to change you for an Optional Sexual Encounter.
  • Jann's gender also changes so that it is the opposite of the Analander's.
• Gender Flip: Nylock and Valignya from Sorcery! 4 were male in the books but are female here. Additionally many of the Archmage's guards are now female when they appeared to be all male in the original.
• The Great Wall: Two hard to penetrate and harder to leave ones surround Khare and Mampang.
• Golden Ending:
  • In Sorcery! 2, be able to open the North Gate yourself in a single run without time-travel aid from Lorag, escape Khare, destroy the invading Goblins using the power of the North Gate, and leave for the Baklands with Lorag's blessings.
  • In Sorcery! 3, the "No Beacon All Serpents" a.k.a. NBAS run. You don't use the beacons at all, and kill all the Serpents. It doesn't matter how long you take, because the Archmage expects that you have to use the beacons at least once to get to him.
  • In Sorcery! 4, either avoid the Throben Curse through an NBAS run, or remove it in the ZED Tower or have Y'Bran remove it at the end of the game. Pull Aliisi through time via the Tower of DOP, finding her in the alley house, then undoing the Throben Door, knowing the proper spells to Counterspell the effect of the Crown of Kings on Flanker (or use a properly made Potion of Dissolution), take the book with the former Archmage trapped inside the library. When you confront the Archmage, Aliizi will surprise him long enough for you to take the crown. Wear the Crown to command the Archmage to take the book and substitute himself for the former Archmage, she will then destroy it. You can then choose to stay and study magic or go home, but not before a send-off from a grateful Commander Cartoun.
• Good Is Not Soft: Courga is a benevolent god but he's also capable of great harshness, he has a booby trap to kill those who fail his ritual prayer and he'll execute or maim thieves in his shrine. In turn, the Analander can be very saintly in most ways but they can give enemies a cruel death during combat (or potential combat such as dropping some threatening young Red Eyes in magic quicksand) and Courga will accept them as a disciple, what he won't tolerate is outright murder or torture.
• Grail in the Garbage: But alas not for you. The amazing Cutlass with its unrivalled sharpness and balance...was found by the Weapons Dealer who said it washed up in the fountain of the merchant's yard. He quickly realized how wonderful it is and sells it for a large fortune.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: In the fourth game, the Analander experiences this whenever they use the ZED spell, which jumps them back in time to before their death. This is especially invoked in events in the Archmage's tower, in which plenty of dialogue with the Archmage, Flanker, Aliizi and Jann changes, with the Analander able to say and do things preemptively.
  • This can also be done in the second game if you don't get the entire spell to open the door; Lorag will send you back in time. Only certain items will be reset, not knowledge (like Slangg's riddle); allowing certain actions that were otherwise restricted to certain paths through the city.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Khare and Mampang guards are fairly incompetent and easy to avoid but often quick to anger.
• Guide Dang It!: Good luck navigating the magical college of Mampang unscathed or doing a No Beacon run. Additionally good luck getting every spell in the games, especially the Courga secret spells for the ziggurat in Khare. Succeeding in the Vaults of Mampang is also very non-intuitive as is entering the Brass Dome.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The video game adaption, besides adding more Svinn and Elvins in Kharé, adds a half-human half-Mantis Man farmer and suggests the population of the Cityport is more diverse still.
• Have a Nice Death: Whenever you die, you can only select the "What's my fate?" dialogue option to receive a one sentence summary of your cause of death, particularly biting if it was through something totally avoidable.
• Healing Spring: Clean or holy water springs recover stamina.
• Heart Container: The hidden spell Tuf can only be used at a particular location and requires a Yellow Feather. It does permanently increase your Stamina by 4, so it's something you'll want to learn. If you fight a battle in the Klattaman arena, you also get a Stamina increase and if you had gotten a scroll from a Flayer's kitchen, then you can get a Knightfin soup for another permanent Stamina increase. There's also a place you can use to get unlimited Stamina boost.
• Heroic BSoD: The Analander suffers this whenever they are overpowered by magical suggestion that their quest is useless. Most notably, when the Archmage uses the Crown of Kings to manipulate the Analander into not believing in themself, their quest and their King
• Hitman with a Heart: Flanker has a strong sense of honour, and is always coldly polite. And he softens up considerably by the fourth volume.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The special way to defeat the Time Serpent is to allow it to use its ritual to bind you to space-time. However, if you cast a magic protection spell just as its ritual begins, you have one chance to bind it and slay it, its own magic holding in one position in space and time.
  • There's a Red-Eye herbalist in Khare who tries to get you to smell a hypnotic drug and then rob you. If you don't smell it, he'll wind up smelling it. You can then rip him off by getting him to give you a blimberry ointment or essence of bark for free.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: If you are caught by the Archmage, even if you escape, you're going to be attacked by the "Goat Archmage", half of his soul sold to Hell; based on the Demon in the original book. There doesn't seem to be anyway to survive this; it's a Cutscene Boss and the only way see it and keep playing is to ZED back after he kills you.
• Hope Spot: A few before entering the dangerous Mampang in the fourth volume. The Analander can enter a village of friendly goat-people and meet Flanker once more.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: If you let the Goblins take over Khare in the 2nd game and encountered Vik in the final game, he will complain that he used to be someone great, and was also briefly in charge of Khare before the Goblins forced him out. Now that he is in Mampang, he is struggling to make a living as a trader.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: The old man in Khare might tell you he was a comrade of Vik and Glandragor back in the day. Whereas the others have retired quite nicely and are important members of their communities, the old man is a has-been sorcerer who had his arm smashed off by an Ogre's sledgehammer. Now he spends his days gambling and going in and out of jail as a sub-par thief.
• I Did What I Had to Do: The Analander may justify using the beacons over the Baklands this way.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The Analander and Flanker in the Archmage's tower. Talking is unfortunately completely fruitless no matter what tack you use, and trying to grab his arm will result in him chopping their hand off.
• Immortality Immorality: The Archmage is using the beacons to suck Time out of the Baklands, regardless of if you use them to cross or not; in order to extend his life.
• Impossible Task: At his shrine, Slangg promises to answer any question if one answers the Impossible Question. The question that has never been asked. Even upon knowing the answer via Recursive Reality casting fAR, you still don't know what the question is.
  • It is implied the question may have something to do with what caused the Council to descend into chaos since the problem has its roots in Sirisi, the answer to the question, giving Sansas a made-up fortune.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Cutlass is the mightiest weapon in the game, but good luck coming up with 600 Gold Pieces to buy it...
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Legendary Sword and Assassin's Sword are the 2nd mightiest weapons and are either much cheaper than the Cutlass or free to get. Plus they show up in earlier games than the Cutlass.
• Interrogating the Dead: The main purpose of the RES spell, as it can't bring the dead back to life for more than a few minutes.
• Invisibility with Drawbacks: Inverted, if you get a pearl ring then you can use the fairly useful Yaz spell for quite a number of situations including some unique assasinations. Snattacats also have invisibility which is one reason why they're so dangerous.
• It Was a Gift: The Assassin Sword is no better than the Legendary Sword, but because the first is a gift from Flanker you will use it exclusively over the latter. Until you find the supreme sword, the Cutlass.
• Jerkass Gods:
  • Slangg has this in his job description, he's the god of Malice. (Not Evil, it's constantly pointed out. That's too organised) Throff mostly ignores her followers, they're crazy and/or dead (which is rather surprising because in the Fighting Fantasy setting, she's one of the Gods of Good). Y'Bran is very self-centered, but will help you For the Lulz. Ca-Oth; god of Peaceful Death is a liar and general ass who tries to trick you into killing an innocent woman.
  • Averting this, Courga is decent, but is fully lawful and will expect behaviour to match. (Mostly being against murder). Effe is the goddess of chance (her monks are renowned gamblers) and is helpful if mercurial.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Just outside the south gate of Khare, you'll meet a very cantankerous beggar named Tomas who insists on having a fist fight with you. It turns out he is a officer in the Khar&eacute city guard whose regiment was slaughtered by goblins and who now has no way back home. If you are nice to him at all Tomas will turn out to be a very good friend, helping you get into the South Gate and avoiding the watch, even at the risk of his own skin. Later, if you end up captured by slavers you'll find him suffering the same fate but with the right methods you can lead a slave revolt that ends with turning your friend into captain of a pirate ship.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: To know what's actually happening, one must play each game more than once, and in many cases get a less-optimal ending. In the fourth game, this is revealed to be kind of happening in-universe: Libra is enabling the rewind mechanic and it's implied that the Analander is getting small amounts of knowledge from previous timelines. After you enter Mampang, and are relying on the ZED spell instead of rewinding, this becomes more explicitly in character.
• The Killer in Me: For most conventional playthroughs, the twist ending of Sorcery! 3 was that usage of the beacons would destroy the Baklands, and the Analander himself/herself is partly responsible for that.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Most players are often this, as it allows you to comfortably afford getting more useful artefacts. This temptation to steal shows up very often in Sorcery! 2. There are little to no consequences from stealing attempts besides lowering your Honour score, which is a hidden attribute in the game, that also determines your Spirit Guide.
• Lampshade Hanging: The ending of the final game when you chose to return to Analand together with Flanker and/or Jann on the Goldcrest Eagle. They will question the logic of you going on a long journey to Mampang when the Goldcrest Eagle could carry you over.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: Destroy, keep or return the Crown of Kings?
• Legendary Weapon: Subverted with the Legendary Sword of all things. It's the finest weapon made by the blacksmith of Khare and extraordinarily sharp and well-balanced. However this weapon is a legend only in its maker's head so far. That's because the smith was just finishing the weapon when you arrived, so there's no reputation to it yet.
• Lemony Narrator: Rare, but it does exist. The story is usually narrated in a neutral tone, but in exceptional times when the player makes weird, pointless, or seemingly stupid choices the narrator might make fun of the player.
  • For one instance, if you are in front of the door of Lorag's house, and you chose to cast a spell, the narrator may sarcastically comment that it's easier than knocking on a door. Casting the HOW spell which gave you the obvious answer of knocking on the door may have the narrator comment how obvious that course of action should be from the start.
  • In another instance, the narrator will comment that you are going against all common sense by searching the guards' latrine.
  • One line makes fun of Aliizi's attitude: "I am not a child!" said the child.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Fluff up the Moon Serpent confrontation in the third game and the Analander will find their leg trapped beneath a rock, being made to amputate it fast or lie there and accept death. Unfortunately, the implications this would have on the journey are left unexplored, because even gritting their teeth and removing the leg only gives them a while longer to live.
• Literal Disarming: Foreshadowed when the a Kharean casually comments that a one-handed sorcerer would be pretty useless, confronting Flanker in the Archmage's fortress and choosing to grab his arm will result in him chopping the Analander's hand off, leaving them unable to cast spells anymore.
• Mad Scientist: All those human/animal hybrids like the Flayer, Mantis Men and Hoofborn, they're the result of the Archmage experimenting on people.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Crucial to the plot. The Crown of Kings may be a very powerful object, but at the end it's still a magical item and obeys the exact same rules that all other instances of magic do. Defeating its power depands upon you being able to deduce precisely what spells are involved and how to counter them.
• Magitek: The Beacons are basically astronomy towers hooked up to a Power Crystal and designed to manipulate time.
• The Magocracy: It is outright stated that the Ancient World was ruled by sorcerers.
• The Many Deaths of You: The game has an absurd amount of ways for the Analander to die.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: The Archmage was revealed to be this all along. While the other characters' narratives of the Archmage indicate that he undoubtedly have some knowledge of sorcery, he is almost entirely reliant on the Crown of Kings to enforce his will on others. Once either Jann or a temporarily-immune Analander confronted him, he is left completely defenseless. In another possible ending, the Analander could free the previous Archmage Valiquesh, who would imply that the current Archmage gets his position and fearsome reputation from mere exploitation of magical items like the book used to trap her as well as the Crown of Kings itself.
• Meaningful Name: To flank someone is to follow them closely and secretively, which is exactly how Flanker keeps up with the Analander.
• Mirror Match: The KIN spell creates a complete duplicate of who its cast on. It usually results in Mutual Kill.
• More than Mind Control: The horror of the Crown of Kings. You don't even realize you are under control, you simply obey; as if you came up with the idea yourself.
• Multiple Endings: There are four main endings with slight variations on each one, mostly who lives and dies. The Analander returns the Crown of Kings to Analand, they retain it for themself to rule, they destroy it and go back home, or they release the old Archmage and stay on as her student of magic.
• Mushroom Samba: Eating some wild mushrooms in the Baklands gives the Analander a half day long trippy foresight experience, that is coincidentally the exact same vision they'd get from casting the future-seeing spell FAR.
• New Game Plus: Two, actually. Within Sorcery 2, if you screw up the spell-lines for the North Gate at the end, you have the option of going back in time to find them out, even all the way back to the beginning of 2. You will keep all your items and equipment, and your knowledge of the spell-lines you found out so far; as well as things like the answer to the Impossible Question. (You do, however, lose a permanent Stamina point each time.)
  • In December 2016 Inkle added this feature to the iOS game series, which is made accessible by completing Part 4 and then starting a new game in Part One. Notably it ups the difficulty of fights and makes certain spells available earlier.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: When you learn that the undead can only be harmed by silver weapons, the game really means it. Your magic won't affect them either (in the books, divine intervention will still kick undead ass). So if you have no silver, you won't do anything to do them barring the KIN spell, turns out undead can hurt undead. The Blessed Hardwood Spear is invulnerable to the point where it can pierce stone (unlike the Cutlass, which the Weapon Seller claims is unbreakable but that's false it's edges can blunted by use outside of combat).
• No Man Should Have This Power: The Analander can decide on this should they retrieve the Crown of Kings and decide to destroy it. Flanker and Jann seem to agree with it also.
• No Name Given: The Analander lacks a name, and is simply referred to as such by everyone. Lampshaded by the Archmage when he tried to evoke an existential crisis in them. The only person who the Analander can ever tell their name to is Aliizi, who will simply call it a strange name. The Archmage and King of Analand also lack names, perhaps to emphasise the lack of personal attachment the Analander has to their quest at first.
• No-Sell: Happens in Part 4, against an unnamed guard of all people. If you attempt to enter a certain building in the day she'll stop you, and is apparently skilled enough to both disarm you and disrupt your spellcasting if you try to force your way past her. Additionally, there's a Birdman that will recognize your face and slash your throat regardless if you try to fight him or not.
• Not His Sled:
  • Farren Whyde is also still around in Mampang even though he is not the Archmage in this version.
  • As for the spell lines to open Khare's North Gate, while each spell line can still be found with their respective characters, the order of the spell lines to recite is now different.
• Old Save Bonus: Tracked automatically in the video game version; playthroughs from the previous books are saved to Cloud and you can choose to load them when starting the next book. They also helpfully list all your possessions and any special knowledge you've gained.
• One-Hit Kill: Your magic can often accomplish this especially with spells like MUD, KIN, ROK, ZOB and SOB. Even your fireball and lightning spells, HOT and ZAP can often kill weaker enemies instantly.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: It can be inferred from the text that most werewolves only transform when the moon is full. Vik, however, wants to make his secret army out of werewolves because they have "the intelligence of humans but the obedience of animals", and so fits each one he forcibly infects with lycanthropy with something called an "armor of keeping", which not only provides excellent protection but also traps them in their wolf forms indefinitely. They do revert back into their human shape once killed, or at least brought near death.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: You can cast some bizzare spells to do away with enemies, most notably killing the Time Serpent by dancing it to death with 'JIG'.
• Player Personality Quiz: An internal one based on several factors like honour and impulsiveness decides the Analander's spirit guide based on their choices.
• Phony Psychic: Sirisi. She has read an awful lot of false fortunes and will only be caught out when confronted by the Analander.
• Player Character: The Analander is consistently controlled and shaped by the player.
• Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: A witch who offers the Analander a drink actually poisoned her own cup to test their trust.
• The Power of Hate: What powers the North Gate in Cityport of Traps, the accumulated hatred of a Wretched Hive over centuries. The Red-Eyes Eye Beams are powered by this at well. It must be used to destroy the Goblins to save Khare
• The Power of Love: It's implied this is what helps Flanker overcome the Crown of Kings in the Archmage's study, choosing to kill him instead of the Analander.
• Power Trio: The Analander, Flanker and Jann are portrayed as a trio when all three of them survive and overthrow the archmage.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Flanker, for both the male and female players. Digital interactive fiction regularly involves a bunch of hidden factors to note when you aim for that Golden Ending, so it makes sense that a love interest would be one of them.
• The Quest: The Analander's driving motivation is to retrieve the Crown of Kings.
• Random Event: One of the most frustrating elements of doing a "No Beacon, All Serpents" run. The Winds of Time appear randomly and in real-time. Unfortunately the one that shows up at the necessary beacon in the Klattamen Steppes happens only rarely and to make things even tougher, the wind is a small cloud and doesn't linger long. Good luck getting it!
• Red Herring: Farren Whyde appears in the fourth volume, in a nod to the original books. All the NPCs outside of his place talk him up, but unlike in the books, he's not the Archmage, and is in fact a completely optional (and seemingly not story relevant) encounter.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Flanker becoming loyal to the Analander doesn't mean he won't kill the Archmage if the Analander specifically chooses to spare them.
• Refuge in Audacity: In The Crown of Kings, you can sleep in one of the beds in the guards' barracks, and when you wake up the captain of the guards will ask who you are. You can give a honest reply that you are the Analander seeking to kill the Archmage and she will dismiss it as a joke and assume you are a guard. In another instance, at night you can get drunk from drinking too much ale and your replies can be such that the guards will dismiss you as a drunk and not the Analander.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The video game averts this by including an encounter with "Serpent Heads" in Khar&eacute in the second game. The game doesn't describe them but from context they are clearly snake-headed humanoids who otherwise appear to be just regular citizens going about their business.
• Resting Recovery: As long as the Analander ate that day, they recover stamina through sleeping.
• Riddle for the Ages: In The Crown of Kings, if you sleep in the Atheist Shrine; you'll be awoken by a mysterious figure. S / he will tell you that they were made to love you, but that they were made to kill you; as well as warn you about either Throben or the Goat Archmage. Who this figure is is unknown, and all Word of God says is that it isn't Aliizi.
• Schmuck Bait: You probably shouldn't wander into that ominous field of black roses... but you will anyway.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The Analander should probably return the Crown to the King of Analand... but they could always passionately destroy it and bring on a new era of change for the Old World.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Archmage stole the Crown of Kings to stop you from killing him for stealing the Crown of Kings.
  • Sirisi told Sansas and Shinva that they would betray each other. Causing them to do it intentionally.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Lorag gives you this option if you fail to control the Northern Gate and save Khare from the goblins. He gives you 3 chances to return back to time and set things right with the Northern Gate. If you're on your 3rd and final try, he gives you a warning how your soul is heavily damaged by all that time manipulation and there's no more chances.
• The Shangri-La: Averted. Building on the fact that, in the original books, the exotic place names in Khakhabad were inspired by the Nepalese language, the videogame's developers decided to go with a real Himalayan, Tibetan/Nepalese aesthetic for the entire setting. The UI is made out of colorful prayer flags (which feature in a certain encounter in Book 3), the map is decorated with Thankga and Buddhist style patterns, and Mampang is designed like a Tibetan monastery. Like the real region, far from being a paradaisical land of white-capped mountains and pacifist monks, Khakhabad has more than its share of rogues and barbarians, steppes and wastes, evil priests and ancient sorcerers.
• Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification: The developers for Inkle gradually become more daring in changing and venturing beyond the source material in the Sorcery! Series.
  • Sorcery! 1 is Type 4. The events, characters and their behaviour are generally the same as the book albeit expanded upon. The only really significant change is the absence of Libra as an overt patron deity.
  • Sorcery! 2 is Type 4/Type 3. New characters, side-plots, and a mini-game are added to increase the length of the game. Notably, Vik became far more antagonistic. Besides that, the game overall remains the same as that of the source material.
  • Sorcery! 3 is Type 3. The developers did took great liberties when adapting the source material in this case: Together with hunting/avoiding the serpents, time travel also became a major plot element that ties in with a twist ending continuing into Sorcery! 4. The Baklands (New characters such as Elthera and Bria, new events such as Kariamma, or further exploration of the Klattamen culture) and pantheon of Gods are very different from than what was canonically shown in Titan, the world where both the Sorcery! gamebook series are set. On an overall basis however, the original objective of overcoming the Seven Serpents and their encounters, with the exception of the Serpent of Time - remained largely the same.
  • Sorcery! 4 is Type 2/Type 3. The game began with the 3-caves event that readers of the original book will find familiar. From there onwards, the adaptation significantly deviated such that most of the events, characters, and encounters barely resemble the original. The area of Mampang is completely revamped, with the inclusion of the College of Magic, a completely different way to get past the Throben Doors, and the final confrontation with the Archmage was completely altered. The original game treated the Crown of Kings as nothing more than a MacGuffin while the Inkle adaptation made it an important aspect of the gameplay. Reading the book prior to playing the adaptation will offer very few, if not no advantages at all. This trope for Sorcery! 4 clearly shifts to Type 2 when one considers the original game's end-goal of returning the Crown of Kings to Analand - Starting from Inkle's Sorcery! 2, hints were dropped that the Crown was far from benign, and it becomes clear in Inkle's Sorcery! 4's various endings where it was shown that the supporting characters are happier with the destruction of the Crown.
• So Much for Stealth: Some events can be avoided with stealth, such as Vik's slave hunters or the Mampang guards, but eavesdropping on people for too long (who frequently have loud conversations with useful information) or scuttling away from them too fast or late can blow your cover.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • Lorag went back in time to find a way to save Khare from the invading Goblins, and in the process of doing so, he founded Khare and came up with the North Gate spell.
  • After the defeat of the Archmage, Aliizi returned to her original timeline to find her parents. By then Tinpang was in ruins and she returned to Mampang to serve the Archmage, and intentionally influenced the Archmage to steal the Crown of Kings so that the Analander would go to the Baklands to rescue her younger self.
• Star Power: A sorcerer's magic is said to come from the constellations, at one point the player's use of magic is described as "gathering starlight in your hands".
• Start of Darkness: The Analander evokes this when they take the Crown of Kings for themself and decide to establish a tyrannic rule.
• Steampunk: The beginnings of it in the Old World. The game expands on the bronze statue of Khare. Near the city council is the metalworkers guild, if you go there before night you'll find a genius troll and his gnome mechanic who created the statue and filled it with steam workings. Something that even an intelligent sorcerer like the Analander can't understand. Books later in the Old World setting, expand on the presence of steamworks and Magitek.
• Story Branching: The Analander can progress through the four maps as they wish, missing and visiting different areas to shape their journey uniquely in a story that otherwise remains fairly linear... until the end, where their choices send it spinning wildly in one of several directions.
• Take Your Time: Subverted, it'd be nice to be able to take your time but time actually moves while the Analander is walking. So even if you do reach a similar branch, the event that was taking place may be over. Such as trying to bet on a fight between a pixie and a sprite, if you take too long to arrive then the fight will be nearly finished and you won't be able to bet.
• Time Crash: The Baklands in The Seven Serpents. Parts are constantly shifting between present day and one thousand years ago. One can "nail down" a spot in the Ancient World using giant magical "beacons" to travel to, and this is obviously what is needed to travel through them, as the present along has too many obstacles like mountains in the way. However, it's these Beacons that are the reason why the Ancient World was pulled out of space-time into limbo.
• Timed Mission: The Seven Serpents, you have 5 days to kill all 7 Serpents and make it to Mampang. On Day 6, other agents will be on the road simultaneously with the Analander and on day 9 the surviving Serpents will have informed the Archmage.
• Time Travel: A big plot point in the third and fourth games.
  • There's your Rewind Ability, but this is explained to be more of a prophetic dream. Any time you rewind, this isn't what "really" happened; you were just Dreaming of Things to Come. When you do something without rewinding, that's not a dream.
  • The ZED spell, which in this game, is binding your soul to a single spot through death. Any time you die, you return to that point of time with all items intact, but all other events reset. Lorag in Cityport of Traps and Throben in The Crown of Kings both use this, and Throben will force you to learn it as well. Unless you complete the secret "No Beacons All Serpents Run" (NBAS) in The Seven Serpents. Both sorcerers seem to have more access to the spell than you do.
  • The "Winds of Time" can transport you back 1000 years in the Baklands, but they're somewhat fickle. The Beacons will force the past to be the present, for a time.
    • Aliizi becomes Bria aka Briarpatch who fell in love with The Archmage, she foretold his death at your hands. He killed her for it. But as a child, she gets pulled forward via the winds of time into present day. You can then pull Aliizi forward in time into the City of Mampang, and she'll help you defeat him, and declare that his past is her future. She then goes back in time to intentionally complete the Stable Time Loop.
• Top God: Y'bran, God of Gods. Can do anything, but unlikely to pay attention to you, heals much less than Courga or the Animal Spirit. When he does act, though, it's impressive.
• Too Awesome to Use: Some of the best spells rely on ingredients that are limited such as a Giant's Tooth. Also the Brass Dome is the only place where Libra can allow you to wind back time while inside Mampang. Unfortunately this building can only be used once
• Took a Shortcut: Flanker somehow manages to miraculously make it everywhere before the Analander.
• Trespassing Hero: The Analander has the choice to enter whatever house they notice, but the consequences can be dangerous.
• Tuckerization: Yb'ran is more than likely named after Bryan Henderson, the winner of the Curiosity Cube contest to become the "God of Gods" in Godus and get a cut of the prophets.... and profits. (This never happened) This fits with how the other gods (except Courga) tried to bind him out of reality; and he's not very fond of them, along with his seemingly random decision to become the Analander's guardian spirit by his/her offer of a broken promise of not making an offering.
• Turn-Based Combat: The combat system consists of one-on-one battles in which opponents swing at each other. The amount of Stamina put into an attack determines the strength of the attack, and the person with the most Stamina in their attack "wins" and inflicts damage. Stamina is drained with each attack, so that you can't just swing powerfully each turn, and the difference between Stamina determines the damage: a small difference inflicts minimal damage, while a large difference inflicts a lot of damage. As a result, the combat system is generally geared towards anticipating your opponents moves: if you can overpower their very strong attack, they'll be weakened for the next attack, which you can tank or block. Alternatively, if you put no Stamina into an attack, you instead parry, lessening the damage you receive while also recovering Stamina for your next strike. Timing is key.
• Unconventional Alignment: The Analander's spirit guide reflects their personality based on six secret factors. Each guide has both flaws and virtues.
• The Undead: Zombies have Resurrective Immortality, while ghosts can usually only be killed with silver.
• Useless Useful Spell: Averted in most situations. You can usually avoid direct combat if you can work out the right spell to use in a pinch. That being said, the video game adaptations do still have specific spells that rarely show up as an option, and therefore may see little to no use in the majority of game-plays.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sirisi is a Phony Psychic; one can piece together that she started the entire mess with the Council destroying itself by "predicting" to Sansas that the others would betray him. (She did the same thing with Shinva).
  • You, if you used the Beacons, as they destroyed the Ancient World. Subverted though that even if you don't, the Archmage is revealed to be using them anyways.
    • On a related note, if you meet Shadrack - he essentially dooms you to using Beacons because when he drags you and his cave into the past he traps the Winds of Time to that region. To avoid using the Beacons, the Analander requires randomly moving Winds.
  • Aliizi's "prophecy" of the Analander killing the Archmage was actually her attempt to influence the Archmage to steal the Crown of Kings so that the Analander will cross the Baklands to rescue her younger self from the Forest of Snatta. The Archmage did just that after killing Aliizi.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: And how! Crosses over with Black Comedy many times.
  • Sorcery! 1:
    • Kill a man with the ZAP spell for no other reason than him merely trying to question your purpose of crossing his village.
    • Cast a dancing spell on a pair of bandits and make them dance their way into a pit (And their deaths).
    • In a Kristatanti bar, show disrespect by refusing an old man's offer to pay for your drink, and pick a fight with the bar owner who wants you to pay up.
    • Leave Alianna trapped inside the cage while you search her house for the items she promised you if you free her.
    • Get into a bar fight in Dhumpus and summon a giant who will destroy the entire village.
  • Sorcery! 2:
    • Kill a little girl locked outside of her home using the ZAP spell.
    • Kill Lorag's beloved pet.
    • Kill the Flayer, Svinn Chainmaker, or any other character who are either defenseless or are just trying to make a living.
    • Start a fire in the Khare market.
    • Kick Tomas (whom you befriended earlier) in the face to ingratiate yourself with Vik.
    • Leave Khare to be overrun by goblins.
  • Sorcery! 3:
    • Force-feed a helpless man (who is buried up to his neck) poison, or stomp on him when you have grown to the size of a giant, or cast POP and put the enchanted pebble into his mouth and wait for his head to literally explode.
    • Kill the Butcher of Baddu-bak who was only trying to make a living.
    • Kill Flanker the assassin while he hides in the bushes and take his sword... which he would have given to you anyway.
    • Rob Mist the Dwarf of his remaining rations after he offered you one of them.
    • Stage a cruel sneak attack on a sleeping giant, who turned out to be just a human priest from Tinpang.
  • Sorcery! 4:
    • Slit the throat of a traitor Sightmaster, who poses absolutely no threat or danger to you.
    • Make fun of or killing a death-row prisoner who is on stocks and therefore helpless to do anything to you.
    • Murdering defenseless Mampang guards.
    • Kill Flanker (again) and inform him it should have happened long ago.
    • Cut out the tongue of a guard who surrendered and is at your mercy. Notably, Slangg the God of Malice will be too shocked to reward this particular act.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Despite the many choices and opportunities you can act like an absolute dick or psychopath, most players won't really go out of their way to do that outside of Black Comedy. Many tasks can be accomplished a lot easier without resorting to violence.
  • You could ask for Lorag's help by simply knocking on his door, but an option presents where you can blow up his door with the HOT spell, angering him into not helping you even if you asked him to.
  • Courga, the god who heals you the most for each healing prayer, will abandon you if you kill helpless or innocent characters. He will not allow you to worship him in the first place if you killed any innocent characters during your adventure in Khare. Slangg is the opposite who is pleased by any malicious acts you make, but any healing prayer made to him will come with a price of permanently reduced attack strength. Needless to say, Courga is the better option.
  • You can act reasonably nice to Alianna when rescuing her and she will give you 7 gold coins as a reward (Whether or not she will attack you afterwards depends on how nice you were). Alternatively you can act like a completely selfish jerk during the rescue, and she will still give you a reward, but only 5 gold coins and she will definitely attack you afterwards. The attack can only be avoided either by not accepting her reward, or by being in your absolute best behaviour.
  • Also, somewhat obviously, sparing Flanker would ensure that he is obligated to help you when you encounter him again.
  • In Sorcery! 4, if you killed or knocked out a couple of guards in the barracks during a fight, the remaining guard will surrender. You can either let her go or kill her. A 3rd option which is a Fate Worse than Death is to cut out the guard's tongue. If the Analander chooses to perform that act of extreme cruelty, he/she may no longer be able to sleep in peace - The guard will secretly stalk him/her and re-appear in most sleeping encounters to stab him/her to death.
• Violation of Common Sense: Many, but what stands out most is the secret of the NBAS run is to not talk to Shadrak, the old man who will explain what's going on the third game. Not doing so will keep the "Winds of Time" blowing, giving access to areas that normally require a Beacon.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Analander should they harness the power of the Crown of Kings in the hope that it will bring peace to the Old World.
• Wham Line: At the end of 3, in a non-NBAS run, you're told that the Beacons are destroying the Ancient World. Oops.
  • The Archmage confronting the Analander about their identity. Why don't you even know your own name?
• What the Hell, Player?: The Archmage's speech upon arriving in his study unprepared is a deliberate attempt to make the player themself feel confused about their motivation and the Archmage's morality. Spoiler alert: he's still pretty evil and his power of talk is complimented with the Crown of Kings.
• When All Else Fails, Go Right: The Analander heads directly east in the first three legs of their journey.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Analander's immortality from the ZED spell is a curse. They must relive Mampang and the events there over and over again forever eventually driving the Analander insane.
• With This Herring: The King of Analand is depending on the Analander to bring back the Crown and ensure peace in the kingdom. For the good of this quest he bestows upon them... a single sword and twenty four gold pieces. Oh yeah, and some bread and cheese... but only if you purchase it with said gold pieces.
• Would Hurt a Child: It could be...you!! Against kids, the Analander usually has non-destructive spell options only. But in Khare, if you meet the Turnip-Seller Girl and offer to help her back to her dad then one of the options is to use magic. And among the spells is ZAP which you can either aim at some boards or at her... Hmm, yet another little girl goes missing in Khare.
• Wretched Hive: Khare, of course, given its other name as the Cityport of Traps. The entire city is full of unsavory characters, including murderers, pickpockets and robbers. The ones that aren't criminals tend to be either unruly jerks or just plain unfriendly, the Red-eyes being the best example. The lack of law and order in this city are such that upstanding citizens such as the Nobles need to protect themselves with the portal traps, and the only friendly and helpful gentleman in the game is the Scholar Lorag, who proved to be not much better (He tried to use a mind control spell to turn the Analander into his slave). The Analander will have many tempting opportunities to steal to obtain more resources, and most players would chose to do that.
  • Khare doesn't just happen to be a Wretched Hive, it was designed to be one. In a convoluted plan involving time-travel, Lorag, who saw the city burned to the ground by an enormous army of goblins, went centuries back into the past to found the very city he once inhabited - designing its gates to tap into the accumulated hatred, rage and suffering the inhabitants in order to ultimately generate a magical attack powerful enough to destroy the entire army. To generate those in a sufficient amount, he's manipulated events throughout the city's history to ensure that it would become a haven for the vilest, cruelest scum of the land and a miserable place to live.

---