"It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, not fit for man or beast, when someone who was neither of these slunk out of the woods."
Emelind is a changeling, a stranger to the world she’s been cast into – and she desperately wants to go home. However, as she works towards her goal, it becomes apparent that everyone cherishes a wish for something… and every one of those wishes has its cost.
A story of mangled folklore, broken promises, and belonging, Whither is an Urban Fantasy webcomic by Danie. Its current version launched in January 2010.
It can be read here
or on the author's DeviantArt page.
Spoilers ahoy!
Within Wither the following tropes are hidden:
- Anger Born of Worry: Well, vanishing for the entire day is bound to make your doting friend a bit angry, right? Especially if she has Tsundere tendencies and is distraught already.
- An Ice Person: Some faries are these. So is Finn, as he discovers a couple of chapters into the story.
- Artificial Human: Of the magically-created by the guardian witch sort. We meet two of them, both are very nice (presumably until the witch tells them to end you).
- Later on, it turns out the entirety of Finn's world, him included, has been created - written - by the original Winnifred, who was Nora's mentor, not grandmother. Also, she threatens him with a rewrite if he doesn't do her bidding (as in, she'll rewrite him into someone who does)...
- Awful Truth: The dark secret about Emelind is given to her freely enough - after she's bound herself with a promise to not use it until a condition has been fulfilled.
- Badass Bookworm: Finn has his moments (like rushing at a (were)wolf with a knife). He's much less of a pushover than he seems at the first glance. Of course, since he had been written as a guardian of his world...
- Beware the Quiet Ones: And now in chapter 16 he decides to fight.
Finn: I'm not helpless anymore. - Bad Vibrations: The arachnid-ish creeps destroy Celia's building.
- Beneath Notice: What better cover for a shrewd, experienced magic user (who might be the mastermind behind quite a chunk of the plot) than the guise of a little girl?
- Best Served Cold: Frost is of this opinion. Surprised?
- Big Damn Heroes: If you doubted the usefulness of having a werewolf friend, Darcy would like to point at this page.
- Also the elves in chapter 15. We hope.
- Big Friendly Wolf: Darcy's wolf form.
- Blank Book: "The Fair Folk" becomes one, but only for Emelind. So she has to have Finn read it to her. Then the book goes blank for him, too.
- Blood Knight: The one elf who actually befriends the group has shades of this - she collects worms' heads.
- Bookends: For chapter four, "If you keep making a face like this, it will stuck."
- Cannot Cross Running Water: The Fair Folk can't, or so Finn thinks. Darcy has no more problems dragging Emelind across a stream than he would have with a regular girl.
- Cassandra Truth: Emelind sums up the story so far.Celia: Ems, honey... You know I love you, right? If you don't want to tell me the truth, you don't have to.
- Changeling Tale: Emelind is at The Fair Folk end of this trope, although she has misplaced her human family whom she loves and wants back.
- Child Mage: Nora. But she's Really 700 Years Old and the guardian of Finn's hometown.
- Clever Crows: One is a (speaking) character. Less spooky than he should be. And able to turn into a humanoid.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Emelind is given a cloak imbued with knowledge (she already got a magical ability-imbued hoodie, but now she'll know what she's doing).
- Cold Iron: The people of Finn's hometown use it for anti-The Fair Folk barriers.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Emelind has a heart-to-heart with the real Emelind, who tells her that declaring herself a monster and quitting would solve nothing.
- Creepy Crows: And creepy things that resemble arachnid legs attached to a scorpion sting. Probably Frost's minions.
- Creepy Changing Book: In a Magical Library, apparently following Emelind, entitled "The Fair Folk". Yup, a creepy book all right.
- Curse: There is one on Finn, although we don't know precisely what it does. Or if it is an actual curse. It might be just him being a construct.. Emelind knows quite a lot about how to break them.
- Deal with the Devil: Offered and rejected here and here. But the messenger doesn't get the hint. Or is having a Mook–Face Turn.
- Dracolich: A genuine dragon skeleton, used as framework for a magical train in Finn's world.
- Endless Winter: Winter is fairies time, and they can make it last very long.
- The End of the World as We Know It: As of chapter 20, it's still looming over Emelind's world. Finn's world is, apparently, doomed no matter what they do, but Emelind refuses to admit this.
- Equivalent Exchange: There's a lot of trading in this setting's magic. Experienced magic users are quite cynical about prices and cheating, while the young protagonists quickly grow wary of any deals.
- Evil Doppelgänger: The frosty-looking fairy swaps himself for Emelind to keep Finn's curse in place. Darcy isn't fooled.
- The Fair Folk: Several varieties.
- Fake Memories: Elves can give you those. Unless you've been smart and not given them your real name.
- Fantastic Light Source: Frequent use of Emelind's magic.
- Flashback Effects: Green tint. Rounded corners.
- Golem: The guards of Finn's hometown. Witch's creation - they're made of "pages" (literal, written on book pages), and losing some loses them traits like details of their appearance of memories.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: It's possible for the paper golems, like Finn, who had no idea he was one.
- Heart Trauma: The thing Nora stole from Frost is his heart, which she needed to maintain Winifred's world. And she might have done it the old-fashioned way, too.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: Surprisingly, it's only when Emelind tells him the entire truth (which isn't either very believable or reassuring) that Finn trusts her.
- I Know Your True Name: The basis for at least some magic. Emelind's was taken from the human Emelind and given to the changeling by Frost who needed a nameless child for trade with the guardian witch.
- Alex is too Genre Savvy to reveal his or Celia's, though.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Used completely straight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Emelind puts on a flighty, snarky, not-giving-a-damn façade, but she does care when it gets serious.
- Land of Faerie: The town where Emelind and Finn meet might be part of it's border area. It's certainly more fantasy-land than the town she was raised in, but Finn talks about the hills and hill-folk. Actual elves appear later.
- Literal Genie: Pink, as specified! It's the best he could do, and it's good, right?Crow: Hey! I'm just the messenger! Don't shoot the messenger-
- Literal Metaphor: Bookworms, quite a problem in the library where Finn works, are tiny dragons.
- Living MacGuffin: Rare Male Example - both the town's guardian and Frost want Finn, very very badly because he has something of Frost in him that Nora stole.The town's guardian: It doesn't matter what he wants.
- Magical Barefooter: Emelind, sometimes. The real Emelind, for as long as she's trapped in the Pocket Dimension. After leaving, she's given a slightly victorian dress and a pair of boots to go with it, and she loves the boots .
- Magic Librarian: Finn is one at the beginning of the story.
- Magic Mirror: Actually, it seems that any reflective surface may be used by The Fair Folk for communication. And by the real Emelind - a nameless child is necessary for the making of a magic mirror, since it involves creating a Pocket Dimension of nameless things.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Only in the next chapter do we learn that Frost has injured Finn, quite badly at that. The Secret Stab Wound makes them pass out half a chapter later.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Here, but it's All Just a Dream.
- The Multiverse: It appears there are many worlds, and Emelind has unwittingly crossed into the one Finn lives in, right before the story started. Also, there are "worms" in the space between them that eat dead or decaying worlds. Sometimes they eat through good ones, if they stand in the way.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Even a magical, shapeshifting corvid is still a bird and likes digging in trash for snacks.
- The Nameless: The place mirrors lead to is where nameless things reside. Which is why a nameless child is necessary to create one of these. When Emelind finally gives the real Emelind's name back, she turns into a nameless elf. But she's still herself and part of the plot.
- Nice Guy: Darcy really goes out of his way to be helpful. He probably was written that way.
- The Nicknamer: Emelind calls Finn "Specs" (to be fair, she didn't know his name back when she started, but she still does after he introduces himself).
- Night of the Living Mooks: The witch's revenants.
- No Body Left Behind: Winnifred turns into a pile of paper, because she was a construct made by the guardian witch.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: The real Emelind looks and acts at most eight (she should be sixteen, if not nineteen).
- Our Dragons Are Different: Bookworms. They're tiny, nest in paper and mimic sounds. All the others are extinct, according to Finn.
- Our Fairies Are Different: They have a wintry theme - Emelind doesn't feel the cold, for example.
- In chapter fifteen we get introduced to elves with plant powers, though.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: They can change forms at will, but only in the woods. Out of them, it's always wolf.
- Parental Substitute: Winnifred the sweet old librarian for Finn.
- Parting-Words Regret: Emelind's last words to her parents was coldly chewing them out for When You Coming Home, Dad?. Obviously, she's not proud of this.
- Playing Pictionary: Real Emelind's only way of communicating with most characters is miming and drawing.Finn: ...It looks like a sort of wobbly chicken.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Magical for the real Emelind, once she regains her name and leaves the mirror dimension, she grows up all at once.
- Pocket Dimension: Either that or The Space Between Worlds is where the real (human) Emelind is imprisoned - she can look out into the real world(s) through any reflective surface.
- Also, Finn's world. All of it.
- Portal Door: Vital for worlds' health. Portal let the magic flow in and out, preventing stagnation - and if magic stagnates, the world begins to rot and attract worms.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Nora used to be the real Winnifred's (a powerful witch in a setting where witchery means Rewriting Reality) apprentice. But it seems her mentor's death drove her over the edge.
- Rewriting Reality: The guardian witch's power seems to be based on creative writing. Probably why she resides in Magical Library.
- Salt Solution: Finn tries to use it as ward from the arachnid-ish monsters.
- Sarcasm-Blind: The crow guy takes Celia's snarky comments at face value.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Inverted Trope. The crow guy, who comes into the story rather late, provides more comic relief than anybody else.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: While at the first glance Finn seems quite bishy, he really is a phlegmatic, lovable nerd, so fits this trope better. Though he's not particularly short.
- Spooky Silent Library: Finn's workplace, a little.
- Sticky Fingers: Running Gag - Emelind keeps pilfering Finn's accessories. It's a fairy thing.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Finn is not an elf, it's a curse making him seem like one, now move along, the library is closing, there's a good troper!
- Take Away Their Name: Emelind. The girl we know by that name is a changeling, and the original owner has been used by Nora to create a Pocket Dimension of The Nameless.
- Technicolor Magic: Both magical cloaks we see are purple, whatever form they take ( Emelind's original hoodie is actually one), although they are also made by the same person for the same person, so this may or may not be a trait of all magical clothing.
- Tsundere: Emelind and Finn, for each other.
- Unfazed Everyman: Alex remains unfazed by Celia's weird guests. Yes, even the crow guy. He seems like a hobbyist Occult Detective, really.
- Un-person: Seems to have happened to Emelind's Muggle Foster Parents - until they are found in chapter 23, hidden within trees and in a magical sleep. So it's probably Weirdness Censor at play.
- Weirdness Censor: Fairies wreak mayhem. The Muggles say it's a freak storm.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nora, the witch, for a given value of well-intentioned. She'll do anything it takes to preserve Finn's world including theft of a fae's heart and of a child's name. But the motive of this devotion may be inability to cope with her mentor's - who created Finn's world in the first place - death, which, while tragic, is missing some important points. Winnifred's ghost seems to see Nora's Excessive Mourning - flavoured preservation of Winifred's work as squandering her potential.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Besides Darcy, we have the crow guy. He gets a huge dose of Morphic Resonance, though.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside
