Webcomic / Magience

Magience is a webcomic about an online RPG that may be more than a game.

Magience provides examples of:

• Accidental Kiss: Rune accidentally kisses Tilly, and considers it to imply a relationship.
  Rune: Oh no. I have to take responsibility. I will marry you to make up for it! My name is Rune Winterspell, I will make you happy I promise!
• After-Action Healing Drama: The other characters desperately try to save the mortally poisoned Tilly.
• All There in the Manual: The setting is thoroughly documented in the Magience Omnia.
• Blackmail: Eoghan gives Rune a letter to blackmail Jae with.
• Bond Creatures: Mute bonds with Rune to share power and telepathy.
• Boss Room: The party reaches the boss room at the end of Sir Erran's.
• Brain/Computer Interface: Magience uses a “neuron entrainment” headset.
• Breath Weapon: Mute teaches Rune how to use an attack called Dragon's Roar, a precursor to Dragon's Breath.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: All the boys in the main party are pretty. All of em.
• Cat Folk: Kassilik have cat ears, tails, and insatiable curiosity.
• Character Customization: Character creation has so many options that there's an AI that helps the player through it.
• Checkpoint: The players are careful to touch a “Spawn Point” before entering Sir Erran's.
  Sev: Cuz if you die in its “Zone”, you'll just pop up up at the Spawn. Also, if ya revive at a Spawn Point, ya only lose 'alf a level when ya die. Ya corpse vanishes roight away too, so it also stops people from stealin' ya stuff.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Berc has a constant toothy smile.
  Cas: Do you have to work at being creepy or is it natural?
  Berc: I take lessons on the weekend.
  Cas: Lessons? From... from whom?
  Berc: Hannibal Lecter.
• Classical Antihero: Rune is the main protagonist, but often has to overcome self-doubt and impulsive tendencies. She also shoulders a lot of self-blame when it comes to hardships her party goes through, even though they are usually there by choice.
• Closeup on Head: There is a close up of Rune's face as she logs into the game, panning out to show the world in front of her as she opens her eyes.
• Color-Coded Characters: Rune has a pink gem, pink markings, pink clothes, pink ribbons, and pink Aurafire.
  Rune: Why is it always PINK?
• Coordinated Clothes: Rune and Mute have identical backup outfits.
• Clothing Damage: An exploding slime destroys the party's clothes. Tilly was prepared for this.
• The Cracker: False Eden is a guild that is trying to hack Magience.
• Crash-Into Hello: Rune meets Tilly by falling onto her.
• Cypher Language: The Herald speaks in a language that's displayed in symbols. It's words can be translated with a bit of work.
• Damsel out of Distress: Rune is kidnapped by the Plague Hunters, and immediately escapes.
• Day Inside, Hour Outside: Time in the game runs twenty-four times faster than in reality.
• Deep-Immersion Gaming: Most of the comic depicts events inside the game, as the characters see them.
• The Determinator: Captain Apollo is very persistent in his efforts to rescue Princess Rune, even if he's mistaken about why she's left.
  Apollo: I'll bring our gentle princess back to herself, or die trying!
• Dragon Rider: Rune rides Mute when they escape from the Plague Hunters.
• The Dragon Slayer: Raven slew a rogue dragon.
• Dramatic High Perching: Rune explores her unaccustomed agility by perching in trees.
  Tilly: Why the fuck do you keep chillin' in trees...
• Dramatic Spotlight: After finding out that Rune was made a dragoon, Sev proceeds to mope dramatically under a spotlight.
• Dude in Distress: Jae is captured and beaten by his former allies.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Jae is often mistaken for a woman.
• Dye or Die: Rune uses a potion to turn her hair white to hide from her family.
• Eating Establishments: The party convenes at a cafe for lunch after being reunited.
• Electronic Eye: Berc has a prosthetic eye. He sometimes removes it and plays with it.
• Elemental Powers: Magience's magic system is element-based. Each character has one element.
• Empty Nest: Three of Ariana's children have left home. She doesn't want to lose any more.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Jae doesn't understand why Rune and Shiloh didn't make him agree to help them before rescuing him.
• Exposition Diagram: Tilly uses a magipen to draw on the air so that she can easily explain the existence and functionality of pockets to Rune.
• Expressive Ears: Fae and Basir have long ears which indicate their emotions.
• Expressive Hair: Rune has a swirly hair that changes shape depending on her emotions, such as becoming jagged and zig-zagged during fear or disgust.
• Eye Colour Change: When Fae cast powerful magic, their eyes lose their sclera and become a solid color.
• Facial Markings: Yokai have markings on their faces and bodies.
• Fragile Speedster: Rune and Shiloh can't take hits, but they can dodge.
  Dagger: Ugh, you Agility types are so annoying!
  Dagger: STOP DODGING!
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Crystal spends a lot of time with Andrew even though he's consistently cruel to her, because they used to date and she still had complicated feelings for him, admitting she hated him for hurting her but didn't want to let him go.
• Funetik Aksent: Sev 'as a Strine accent or somethin' loik that.
• Fusion Dance: Several slimes merge into a giant Slime Golem.
• Future Food Is Artificial:
  Rune: The kind of food I can afford in real life is all synthetic. It's “nutritionally optimized” and rarely has any actual ingredients that weren't made in a lab. “Real” food is too expensive.
• Girly Bruiser: Dagger fights in a frilly dress.
• Giving Up the Ghost: After Rune accidentally kisses Tilly (and is subsequently rejected for marriage), her ghost exits her body due to dramatic shock.
• Hates Being Touched: Rune has an aversion to being touched by most people. She doesn't seem to mind it, though, when it's Shiloh or Tilly.
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest:
  Eoghan: Healing magic is extremely limited. It works on the caster's medical knowledge in addition to their actual magical ability. Even then, only minor wounds can be healed instantly. For everything else, it takes time.
• Healing Potion: Tilly buys a lot of healing potions to make up for lack of a healer.
• Hidden Eyes: Routinely used for surprised characters.
• Honorable Marriage Proposal: Rune accidentally kisses Tilly, and immediately declares that she'll marry the girl to make up for it, to the latter's confusion. Funnily enough, despite them both being straight, they have some fun with it; when Rune gets kidnapped a few minutes later, Tilly helps gather a group of adventurers to find her, with her stated goal being to rescue her wife.
• Human Hummingbird: While in Sir Erran's, Rune becomes so panicked while fighting a ghost that her punches are a blur of movement.
• I Kiss Your Foot: Ariana is delighted to see her daughter awake, even if she's holding her off with a foot to the face.
  Rune: Who's the spaz getting intimate with my foot?
  Ariana: My baaaaabyyyy~
• Important Haircut: Rune cuts off her hair and burns it after Andrew dies.
• Jerkass: Andrew/Raven is cruel to everyone, even Crystal who he claims is his best friend.
• Killed Off for Real: Andrew dies in real life.
• Kill It with Fire: Rune's usual modus operandi.
• Lady Land: Sothecia, the Drow territory, is dominated by women. Men are kept as slaves or very low-class citizens.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Tilly initially thinks Rune is male.
  Tilly: She's my husband. Apparently.
• Layered Metropolis: Romerus City is built on a layer of plates, with skyscrapers on top and an Under City below.
• Level Grinding: Tilly helps Raven level up so they can rescue Rune.
• Level Scaling: Monsters in Sir Erran's scale based on the average level of the party.
• Live Item: Shiloh's scarf is alive.
  Rune: It's the pissiest fashion accessory I have ever met.
• Magical Flutist: Tilly plays Magic Music on her ocarina.
• Magic Kiss: Ariana wants to try this to revive her comatose daughter.
  Ariana: We don't need the “hero's kiss” to try and wake her anymore...
• Magic Staff: Jae has one.
• Make Some Noise: Dragons (and Dragoons) have a “Dragon's Roar” sonic attack.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The Plague Hunters wear black cloaks and beaked rainbow masks.
• Marked Change: Inverted: Rune loses her markings when she becomes a Dragoon.
• Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game: Most of the story happens in the Magience game.
• Massive Race Selection: And these are just the ones Crystal can choose from. There are even more races that she wasn't offered.
  Cas: There are 7 races for you to choose from. Each of these can procreate with any other to create a hybrid, for a total of 28 options.
• The Most Dangerous Video Game: Players suffer their characters' pain, and sometimes other effects. Though this, according to Sev and Tilly, isn't meant to be the case. You're not supposed to feel pain, and death is not supposed to be permanent or kill you in real life.
• New First Comics: The first few chapters have been redrawn.
• The Nose Knows: After becoming a dragoon, Rune can smell types of magic and auras.
• This Is No Time to Panic: After Mute leaves with a badly injured Tilly, Rune smacks herself out of a panic so that she doesn't distract Mute and can think clearly enough to follow them on foot.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Rune's pretty silly sometimes and seems to play dumb, but a few moments here and there hint that it's all just one big act.
• Ominous Fog: The area around Sir Erran's is permanently foggy.
• Online Alias: Most of the action takes place in-game, so the characters are usually called by their handles.
• Party Scattering:
  Sev: Erran's place uses magic ta split up groups biggah than two.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Jae's former comrades plan to beat him up and worse because they did something stupid and blame Jae for it since he was their group's healer.
• Petite Pride: Crystal doesn't like having large breasts, so she deliberately gives Rune a flat chest.
  Hydra: Flat as a washboard. You're practically concave!
  Rune: Yes ma'am!
• Plague Doctor: The Plague Hunters are a guild who dress as plague doctors, with black cloaks and rainbow-colored beak masks.
• Playing with Fire: Rune's first spell is Fireball. Her second is the more malleable Aurafire. She tends to play with both before throwing them.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: When Rune is forced to wear a dress, it's pink. In fact, pink seems to follow her around, in both her clothes and her magic!
• Rebellious Princess: Crystal is not pleased to be playing a princess, so she escapes.
• Rescue Introduction: The protagonists meet (and recruit) Jae by rescuing him from a beating.
• Sacred First Kiss: Rune's Accidental Kiss with Tilly is her first.
  Rune: My virgin lips!
• Sadist: Jae enjoys other people's pain.
  Jae: Memories of your screams will be my lullaby for the next decade, at least.
• Scrapbook Story: Most of chapter 10 is narrated by Rune's journal.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Jae uses big words to make other people feel inferior.
• She Is the King: Ariana Winterspell, King of the Fae, is female. This is not unusual for Fae.
• Shout-Out: How To Train Your Dragoon, Sleeping Beauty.
• Sitting on the Roof: Rune and Mute have a private^note especially so since they're talking by telepathy conversation on a roof at night.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When Mute arrives to rescue Rune from the rebels, his "Mute-vision" shows his rather bizarre priorities. One rebel gets -999999 for standing too close to Rune, +9999 for protecting Rune, and +990000 for saving her earlier, and is listed as "judgment pending." Another rebel gets +999 for providing first-aid to Rune, and is listed as "no threat." The last one gets -99999999999999 for hurting Rune, -9999999999 for scaring Rune, -999 for unsettling Rune, another -99999999999999 for hitting Rune's Trauma Button, and -99999999 for being a passive-aggressive jerk to Rune.
  • Likewise, Rune is worried Mute is hurt and threatens to punch anyone who touched him. One of the rebels points out that the dragon is not the one in danger right now.
• Skill Scores and Perks: The game has an elaborate system of abilities and traits.
• Theme Naming: Ariana has five children: Ren, Rin, Roan, Rune and Rayne.
• Third Eye: Fae have Aura Gems in their foreheads.
• Villain Teleportation:
  • The Plague Hunters teleport home when they kidnap Rune, but the main characters have to walk everywhere (or ride Mute).
  • Mahieu also has a teleport.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mute can take a humanoid form.
• "Wanted!" Poster: The Winterspells put up wanted posters for Raven and (with a “DO NOT HARM” line) Rune.
• Weapon Specialization: Dagger's weapon of choice is an enormous hammer.
• When Trees Attack: The party fights against huge walking tree monsters called Treants.
• Wolverine Claws: Visitor fights with long, thin claws.