The DeviantArt Extended Universe is the brainchild of Deviantart user Doctor-of-W. In his spare time, he envisioned a new story told in a creative way. Described as a cross between "Dungeons & Dragons, Discworld, and Star Wars Expanded Universe", the idea was to create a story using his mutual followers and have those followers in turn contribute by adding fanart and storytelling to enrich the world. It got great praise and is off to a good start with some story already being written and many other users asking to be characters in the story.
There are rules for potential contributors
listed on the main author's page.
The author has himself written a prologue entitled Building a World, which tells how DA-Land came to be and the rise of the Big Bad Eschaton. He has also written a story about some of the main protagonists, the Gang of Four, and just recently completed "The Wanderer", a short story about a chance visit to DA-Land in the midst of a hurricane.
The full collection of all stories in the author's intended chronological order can be found here.
Tropes in the broader universe include:
- Aerith and Bob: sometimes the user's screen names will be used (MLP-vs-Capcom, AntiSapien, etc) and other times a normal sounding name will be used (Phoenix, Emerald).
- Applied Phlebotinum: Called Aura, is just magical energy that can service the plot as seen fit.
- Author Avatar: Most main characters are author avatars for certain deviants. The author's own avatar is Wesley the Wizard.
- Big Bad: Eschaton
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: A world with Funny Animals, dark overlords, classic fairytale tropes, but also a floating continent and several Magitek items makes for a hell of a setup.
- Floating Continent: The world of DA-Land is a land mass the size of France hovering inside of a force bubble called The Orb. This is meant to keep it safe should Eschaton ever go for the throat of the resistance.
- Government in Exile: A variation. MLP-vs-Capcom made a new one from scratch after his old one fell, placing Princess Emerald and Prince Antisapien in charge for the first time.
- La Résistance: The residents of DA-Land.
- Magitek: Phoenix raises a continent using a lot of it.
- Shown Their Work: The author really knows his stuff about geology, global structures, and geopolitics. He did some research on how much land was needed to sustain about a million people for a certain period of time.
- Worldbuilding: The author had to create a whole planet from scratch and divide it according to his will. On top of that, he had to build a microcosm of that called DA-Land, basically a downscaled version of the planet.
Building a World
- Ambition Is Evil: Basically how Eschaton came to power.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Sure the heroes escape, but Capitol is still burned to the ground and Eschaton likely rules most of Drodon right now.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: A giant nautilus horn is blown to signal the people of Drodon to unite against a common threat.
- Jaw Drop: The only appropriate reaction when MvC sees the completed DA-Land.
- Princesses Rule: Lampshaded and handwaved. DA-Land is expressly called a "principality" for this reason.
- Stop Worshipping Me: One of MLP-vs-Capcom's demands after he unites the workers with his economic platform.
Gang of Four
- Convection, Schmonvection: Averted. Emperor Volcan tells them to put on magic masks and armor to shield themselves from the lava heat and fumes.
- A Fool for a Client: Tory says the standard line almost word-for-word, but Wesley still pulls off a card trick to explain his case and indict the real culprit. Miraculously, he pulls it off
- Gender-Blender Name: Jaxon's male horse is given a feminine name, 'Sand-Dancer'.
- Likewise, "Alex" is left ambiguous as to what they actually are. The name gives no hints in either direction.
- Jaw Drop: AntiSapien does it here after an impressive Card Trick.
- Knighting: The Gang of Four gets an elaborate ceremony at the end similar to this.
- Pick a Card: One of Wesley's first tricks in the story is pulling one on AntiSapien. He says the standard line word-for-word, then gives a complex formula and reveals the Ace of Spades. No matter what he chose, the answer would always be one. The trick was not the card or the math, but having the Ace of Spades come from dead center of the deck each time.
- Shout-Out: The card trick Wesley pulls is based on one performed by Hisoka in Hunter × Hunter.
- The Emerald Palace has a sign saying "Bell out of order, please knock". Indeed, many a shout-out to Oz can be found here. From the palace being made of emeraldsnote to the line "off to see the wizard" at the end of Chapter 2.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Used by Wesley when he introduces himself to Alex.
The Wanderer
- Featureless Protagonist: Max-Ed, at least until the end.
- Second-Person Narration
- Shout-Out: Giovanni expresses interest in traveling fast by going slow.
Colonel Knight Rider and Friends' Short Stories
- Affectionate Parody:
- The hero's name and car are pretty obvious.
- "Cloudy with a Chance of Motorcars" was partially inspired by MacGyver and Scorpion.
- The merperson colony scene in "Library of the Sea Goddess" parodies Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
- Zahhak Industries in "Scorpion's Venom" is a throwback to Austin Powers' Virtucon Industries, a legitimate business front for Dr. Evil's underground Las Vegas headquarters.
- Anachronism Stew: Colonel Knight Rider himself wears Medieval knights' armor and drives a steampunk automobile, both of which are made of futuristic buckypaper and are capable of fantastic science fiction feats.
- "Library of the Sea Goddess" further adds to the multi-chronological melting pot. Sir Robert MacDiarmid and friends race against anthropomorphic piranhas who behave and speak like pirates to find a library named for a Norse sea goddess in a Greco-Roman colony guarded by Spartan/Centurion merpeople.
- Christmas Episode: "Elsie's First Mission".
- Double-Meaning Title: "Elsie Grows Up" refers to both the titular handmaid's becoming a legal adult and her achievement of body confidence.
- Everyone Laughs Ending: "Library of the Sea Goddess" ends this way when Elsie does an impression of the pirate Captain Shark-Eye.
- Shout-Out:
- The story "Cloudy with a Chance of Motorcars" is named for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
- Robert's entire Wham Line before confronting the Yellow Scorpion is a shoutout to The Princess Bride: "My name is Robert MacDiarmid. YOU KILLED MY GRANDFATHER!!"
- "We Are the Crystallines" is a pun on the first line of the Steven Universe theme, "We are the Crystal Gems", because of Elsie's hidden powers in her dress's brooch. There are even more shout-outs within the story itself.
- Egbert the gem sage prepares to tell the story of the Crystallines by saying "Let us start at the beginning." Elsie responds: "Sounds like a good place to start."
- Robert says of the northern elves he meets that "...these guys don't look at all like they represent the Butterscotch Foundry."
- COLT says, "Shall we play a game?" while trying to bait a giant, mutant elf-turned-undead Draugr (itself based on Sir Robert's creator's least favorite video game character) with a virtual chessboard.
- Underwater City: The merperson colony in "Library of the Sea Goddess".
