Clockwise from bottom: Cyrus, Trickster, Xisea, and Helene
Heroes of Thantopolis is a fantasy webcomic created by Strontium.
It follows the tale of a young boy named Cyrus who finds himself in the City of the Dead, which is odd due to the fact that Cyrus is 100% living.
Soon after his arrival, he meets Helene, Queen/Goddess of Ghosts and Ruler of the city. Helene thinks Cyrus coming to her is a good opportunity to take care of her rival factions outside and inside her city, and begins training him as her Champion.
Cyrus makes many friends in the city, including Trickster, the hipster ghost, and Xisea, the ghost spider.
The general style is quite colorful and cute despite it being set in the Afterlife.The comic has been made for all ages. It can be read on its own site
. Updates semi-weekly.
Tropes present in this work include:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Chapter 3 of the comic has Cyrus, Xisea, and Trickster climb into one of these. Not only does it provide cavernous room for the entire party, it has no evidence of stench as one would expect, since ghosts don’t excrete waste.
- All There in the Manual: The C Says segments, with the Author Avatar C giving information on the comic’s world.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Cyrus’s pendant, which apparently has a ghost in it.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The Zodiac Sisters, who embody the signs of the Zodiac.
- Author Avatar: C, the ghost from the C Says info bits at the end of chapters.
- Become a Real Boy: One of citizen ghosts attempts to regain life by trying to eat Cyrus, though that isn’t possible.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Helene has three enemies Cyrus has to fight, who don’t appear to have any allegiance to each other.
- Blinded by the Light: Trickster uses this technique to make a getaway with Cyrus at one point.
- Carry a Big Stick: Cyrus's weapon is a mace.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Cyrus is given a blue and yellow tunic made by Helene that allows his physical body to interact with the normally immaterial ghost world.
- Cute Bruiser: Cyrus is quite thin and young at 11 to be wielding such a large mace
- The Ditherer: Gemini, who voted twice on the issue of what the Zodiac sisters should do with their sister Aquarius (the two choices being forgiving her and standing against her) if they ever got out of the prison she stuffed them in, causing a tie.
- Eye Glasses: Trickster's lenses tend to widen and constrict depending on his expression.
- Fisher King: Thantopolis cannot exist if Helene isn't the queen.
- Hipster: Trickster, a cool ghost with shades, is one of these.
- Intangible Man: Ghosts have this power, though the buildings in Thantopolis are designed to keep it from happening. Cyrus can’t touch ghost stuff without a special shirt.
- Kid Hero: Cyrus, age 11 and champion of Queen Helene
- Mix-and-Match Critter: Xisea has the body of a spider and the head of a cat. Surprisingly adorable in practice.
- Myopic Architecture: While the overall security of the Age of Aquarius for is pretty good, with guards, a tower where Aquarius can see anyone approaching from, and an intercom system, the sewer grates for the fountains are unsecured.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: The Age of Aquarius has a bunch of them serving her.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Xisea and Trickster are Cyrus's best buds in the City of the Dead. Xisea is a cat-spider ghost, and Trickster is an anthropomorphic bird.
- Ontological Mystery: Cyrus wakes up in Helene’s palace with no memory of getting there (or of anything besides his name, really).
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts are quite different indeed, with information about them dropped in both the comic proper and All There in the Manual sessions.
- For one thing, not only can people become ghosts, but animals, buildings and objects can become ghosts as well. Everything in Thantopolis is a ghost, and the buildings are “ghost proofed” so ghosts can’t walk through walls there.
- Ghosts can only be seen by someone who witnessed their death, and can only move a small amount of mass.
- After dying, a ghost only has seven days before they disappear into the Orinthope unless they gain the protection of a powerful entity, bind themselves to a relic, an important artifact from their lives, or move to Thantopolis, where they can remain indefinitely (though they can only go to the Orinthope afterwards).
- Ghosts lose the memories of their lives over time, with how much they remember varying. Most ghosts will eventually forget almost everything save their death, and even that could be hazy, and they all eventually gain a love of pranks, regardless of their living personality.
- Ghostly appearances are based on the personalities they had in life.
- Our Spirits Are Different: They are distinct from normal ghosts, and the only ones seen so far are the embodiments of the Zodiac signs.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies are incredibly weak, and are penned up in a movie theater and have popcorn thrown at them, killing them instantly.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Helene's cautious chief adviser takes the form of an owl, complete with eyes shaped like round spectacles
- Personality Powers: The appearances (and likely powers) of ghosts are a result of their personalities when alive.
- Phantom Zone: The Orinthope has a few shades of this, especially since Helene can banish others there.
- Physical Goddess: Helene, the ruler of Thantopolis.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Xisea. Would you believe most folks scream and try to stomp on someone that looks like this?
- Ship Sinking: Strontium preemptively sinks a lot of ships by making Cyrus and the ghosts asexual.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Cyrus can summon a mace from his magic amulet.
- Sugar Bowl: The cute art-style and bright color palette certainly lend itself to this trope, but the city is actually a pretty cheerful (and clean) place considering that everyone is dead.
- There's No Place Like Home: Cyrus is helping Helene because she promised to bring him home.
- Time Dissonance: Mentioned by Sagittarius, who says that to her and her sisters, the forty years they spent as Aquarius's prisoners wasn't very long.
- Totally Radical: Trickster in a nutshell. This shades and backwards-cap wearing ghost's first three lines are "Yo!" (last panel), "'Sup, Dawg?" and "Hold the phone, Bro."
- Trash of the Titans: Helene is also apparently a goddess of hoarding, and has entire warehouses full of different items.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Cyrus says the plan for defeating Aquarius out loud, and things quickly start getting more complicated.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Cyrus wakes up in a castle, with no memory but his name.
