Orid Xem tropes

Tropes present in Orid Xem:

• The Ahab: Prince Jeha Sanaquemer of Mong Uthros, youngest son of Naquuv Ukordopod, goes after the female giant grizzly bear Equofatáb three times who, for the rest of her life was minding her own business. He brands her an enemy of his civilization for having the temerity to survive him (and possibly even names her). The fourth time however she slays him, then lives the rest of her life peacefully, dying of old age.
  • Many adventurers go after goblins because of Malladang's massacres.
  • Lurker Onecbehal is a dual example of this: aside from the his goblin rage, he also went after Uja Kusutbepa after she first escaped him; he admits he wanted her dead firstly because she was a plague god worshiper rather than because she was a vampire.
• All There In The Manual: Bralbaard tries his best to update the cliffnotes in the front page of the Museum thread, as well as the map of the player forts.
  • The Historians Guild attempt to collect information, though we mostly see that of the Museum and the adventurers.
  • Dwarf Fortress Legends Wiki aims to become this... yeaaaaaah, it'll take a long time.
  • The Supersources.
  • Inverted with The Great Black Tome of Everything, that was mysteriously wiped out, intentionally or not (out-of-universe, Bralbaard generated the world with "Hidden History", forcing players to discover the past by adventuring and searching clues, which only then appear in Legends Mode).
• Alternate Timeline: There are several instances of Alternate Orid Xems, some varying wildly:
  • GameMaster Bralbaard suggests alternate timelines must not be canonical as they would confuse the main world more than he is willing to stomach.
  • Orid Xem Elsewhere is the umbrella term used by this wiki.
  • Orid Xem Arban Nitig is a generated world that has attracted attention by both its similarity in history and the wild divergences that occur there. One of those is that Oddom gains an epithet from which the world itself is named, Oddom Thobmunèst Arban Nitig and her history is wildly different, becoming for almost a century (in the 200s) a respected scholar in Odiuse before being discovered as unaging, banished and going completely insane, rampaging as a megabeast and no longer retaining her sapience.
  • In a throw-away save made by kesperan, shortly before canonically moving to Eskôn and being bound as a Broker there, Moldath had instead moved to Nomal Alis and became its General.
• Amnesiac Hero: Ehhu Kenomreko.
• Anyone Can Die: Adventuring is hardly a safe profession, and PC deaths are a common occurrence.
• Apocalyptic Log: Most adventurers who die before reaching the Museum have their tales told in this format, with an oft-unnamed reader perusing their diaries or similar records.
• Artifact Of Doom: Necromancer slabs.
• Ax Crazy: Raki Shedoshgabat‏‎, after seeing the Museum's inside.
  • Moldath Leshaltölún: Sometimes he'll kill a whole warband, sometimes he'll kill megabeasts, sometimes he'll kill the last living roc, sometimes he'll kill allies as collateral damage, he'll kill his own worshipers, he'll kill undead... and sometimes he'll just raise undead because he feels like it.
• Badass Normal: Many adventurers become this over the course of their story... assuming they don't die first.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Many of the above eventually become this, whether by accident or design.
• Bears Are Bad News: Well, bear people are, as Arcturus Enmucuthroz's rampage can certainly attest, earning him the name "Apocalypse Bear".
• Breather Episode: In between the short tragedies and grand adventures, a few of these can be found. Such as the turn of of Maloy Rigòthumåm, in which a Wolf Man and his pet dog (and a magical ear) explore the world.
  • Yufluggus Nunòremabo.
• The Cassandra:
  • Lurker, on two occasions, though both were wild guesses:
    • He told Bralbaard the GM that unretiring Bralbaard Nilthatlosh would lose him his kingship.
    • He noted Moldath was still part of Tosid Doren even as he was retired in the other dwarven civilization, Nomal Alis; in-game-years later, Moldath (as an NPC) returns to Eskôn without a care in the world.
• Child Soldiers:
  • The youngest participant in Okgush Irka as part of the offensive against the undead was the 4 year old goblin Snamoz Amxudunosp. Two more 5 year old goblins were recorded participating, as well as two 7 year old human and five more 8 year old humans. See the whole list by sorting the birth date and subtracting their birth date from 345. Most of them survived.
  • Prince Jeha Sanaquemer of Mong Uthros becomes a monster hunter at age eight.
  • Medtob Dakondegël, third General of Adilatír, rose to his position during the first battles of the upcoming zombie apocalypse at age thirteen.
• Death Is Cheap: Heavily downplayed; while there are plenty of necromancers capable of resurrecting dead characters and several adventurers have been brought Back from the Dead as intelligent undead, actually finding the corpse of a dead adventurer is a task in its own right and there's no guarantee that the body will be in good enough condition to resurrect.
• Decoy Protagonist: The story of Ehhu Kenomreko appears to be that of Aril Emegape at the end of the first chapter, then a few chapters later the Reveal happens and we're left with a completely different perspective. The trope ends up double subverted in that the protagonist ends up being Ehhu all along.
• Demonic Possession: Tharamacuquimo Thadaroÿìnathi‏‎'s soul does this to a goblin acolyte, giving itself a new body after being struck down in a necromancer siege.
  • Ear of Bralbaard.
  • Urus Tacnuomsos zig-zags through this, as well as Ehhu Kenomreko and in a general sense, the blighted thralls.
  • In-story, immortality slab have effects that are a water-down version of this.
• Determinator:
  • Galka Linarad. Despite finding out that the Realm of Silver's glory was a lie to justify enslaving others, being badly injured by aggressive wildlife, and facing offf against murderous hordes of Blighted Thralls, he refuses to give up.
  • Moldath Leshaltölún: He's been to Hell and back, sometimes quite literally, is cursed by various affections (if being a necromancer needing to drink blood isn't bad enough, he caught a contagion that slowly rots his body. His very immortal body). By his third turn in the 850s, he's an ambulatory corpse suffering constant physical torture going forward on grit alone.
• Doomed Hometown:
  • Jas Anthad's Ganuhusel claimed by blighted thralls.
  • Zig-zagged with Señamatem. Despite Lurker Onecbehal's attempt to arm the citizens during his lifetime, the town was on the brink of collapse from regular incursions by the blight. Then Jas started a renovation project that saw its return to glory and prosperity.
  • Datanthol, the first player fortress, fell merely 2 years after it was founded in the 703 siege; though through the desperate but ultimately well-timed actions of the Overseer, many of its inhabitants survived in exile and ascended to titles of Barons of Adilatír.
  • Subverted/averted with Mabkor: During the 8th century, Law-Giver of Sastpesor Dubmith Uñirfanu sent an army led by Commander Duto Memimledir to take Mabkor. However, for some reason, Duto never made it there, and indeed never participated in any battles during Dubmith's rule, though he would survive the Law-Giver and would go on to take Abepuc from Malladang in 813. Despite this, after both these figures' deaths, news continued to travel into the 10th century that Mabkor would be invaded by this particular Commander. Lord Maloy Rigòthumåm especially was plagued by visions of the town's massacre, being convinced for half his life that this was an imminent threat. Maloy continues to have these visions, though at least he knows they are but a quirk of living in Mabkor rather than something that will actually happen.
• Dying Race: The kobolds of Orid Xem number a few dozen at best, and that number has only been dropping since the game started.
  • The dwarves are arguably a downplayed case of this; while Oddom Thobmunèst's wars royally wrecked their empire and greatly reduced their population, the creation of new player fortresses and adventurers has been keeping their population at least somewhat stable.
  • The dwarves, especially of Adilatír, have taken a huge plunge by the end of the 9th century due to various (adventurer-spearheaded) disasters. At the start of the 10th century, there were around 600 dwarves left whereas after the Revival Era the population had risen to over 1000.
  • The elves are in the 850s down to 500.
• Eldritch Location: Multiple fortresses were rendered inaccessible by FPS issues or bugs with the save; these are explained In-Universe as becoming these, with the paths to the fortress looping back on themselves or time slowing to a crawl whenever an adventurer endeavors to approach the settlement.
• End Of An Age: Double-subverted. Orid Xem actually switched between the Age of Myth and the Age of Legends three separate times prior to Lonelythrall's adventure, after which the game shifted to the Age of Heroes and remained as such.
• Famed In Story: Owing to the setting and premise of the game, several adventurers have become this.
  • Bralbaard Nilthatlosh has become this following his ascent to the position of King of Adilatír and subsequent deposing/decision to return to adventuring.
  • Bil Ongunithim is indicated to be this, having slain Oddom Thobmunèst and destroyed her slab.
  • Lonelythrall is famous In-Universe for clearing a vault, killing several megabeasts and night trolls, and being the first adventurer in Orid Xem to enter Hell and kill several of the HFS.
  • Raki Shedoshgabat‏‎ has a reputation for setting off a series of werebeast outbreaks (and for his Undignified Death).
• Forced Transformation: Necromancer experiments.
• Game Master: Bralbaard... the thread starter, not the King of Adilatír, that is.
• Ghost City: The larger abandoned (or destroyed) player-made fortresses often come off as this, prior to some unlucky adventurer or reclaim party running into whatever doomed the fortress.
• God of Evil: Some consider Ala this. Others look even higher, towards Armok.
• Good Is Not Nice: Some of the adventurers, but especially Moldath Leshaltölún.
• The Great Offscreen War: The Great War of Orid Xem began in 90 and functionally ended with Okgush Irka in 345. It pitted an alliance of living nations against rampaging undead hordes under the command of an Omnicidal Maniac and played a huge role in the shaping of pre-Adventurer Orid Xem, with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides, several nations destroyed entirely, and dozens of Necromancer Experiments left to wander the world's wilds.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "We wanted a story about archeologists, and instead got one about archeologists spreading plague wherever they go. Seems legit." Comment initially referring to the Silver Plague, but made much harsher by the much later Omon blight.
• Heroic Willpower: When it appears Ehhu Kenomreko has succumbed to the Omon blight and will either be part of the fall of Señamatem or die like a rabid tool for sinister purposes, he regains enough free will to turn against his evil companion, Citoj Mesaban and slay him before dying in battle.
• Holy City: A number of them, though most of the world doesn't know about them.
• Ignored Epiphany: Towards the end of their journey together, Galka Linarad more or less offhandedly admits to Jas Anthad that he participated in events 70 years before even as he looks Jas' and his companions' age. This revelation is not touched upon, nor commented by Jas, despite this, added to Galka's often show of capability at the edge of human possibility leads to the conclusion that Galka is more than he seems ("spoiler": by this time, he's a century-old vampire).
  • Justified by several factors: Galka has proven a loyal and helpful companion to Jas' group and Jas has proved to be most interested in culling the Omon blight, as when one of his original companions lay dying, he sought to save his life even if the companion admitted to be infected by a werebeast curse. Thus, even if he believes Galka afflicted with some dark curse such as vampirism or necromancy, he would keep silent unless Galka showed untrustworthy. This is added to the fact that Galka confessed after several life and death situations they help each other pull through, cementing their connection and making Jas even more reluctant to ask pointed questions.
  • Another interpretation is that Galka used some vampire-specific hypnosis, as is implied when he does a positive Wormtongue impression in convincing Jas into accepting the mantle of the Law-Giver of Omon Obin.
• Improbable Weapon User: Avolition Holyblood the Autumnal Kingdoms beat at least a thousand goblins to death with the tube agate book Common Sense Goblins.
• Irrational Hatred: Goblin rage, a strange mental condition that affects multiple adventurers. Those who are affected display an extreme hatred of goblins, which frequently manifests as sudden homicidal aggression toward any goblin unlucky enough to be in the sufferer’s vicinity.
• It's Personal: Lurker Onecbehal is a twofold example of this: aside from his Goblin Rage, he also went after Uja Kusutbepaafter she first escaped him; he even admits he wanted her dead firstly because she was a plague god worshiper (and because she played a role in his exile) rather than because she was a vampire.
• Kill Them All: Malladang was fond of this... until it happened to them.
• Knight In Sour Armor: Galka Linarad becomes this by the end of his story; while he's much more world-weary and cynical, compared to his bright-eyed self at the start, his last appearance has him helping a young boy to achieve his dream and he's implied to be watching over a group of dwarves as a protector of sorts.
  • Moldath Leshaltolun.
  • Zig-zagged with Jas Anthad. Though he starts as this, as a lowly blight hunter and self-called "ruffian", he ascends by the wishes of the people as Law-Giver of Omon Obin, has a happy family and is generally recognized as a just ruler and knight of the Realm.
• Last of His/Her Kind:
  • The dragon Fací Fonecaci Nifi was the last dragon surviving World Generation; she was slayed just 6 years after by the AotM human ♂ Doñas Udulono.
  • The last roc Ngomstu Stasnostrobnod slayed by Moldath in 859.
  • The death of the last titan led to the permanent end of the ages of myth and legend.
• Leave No Survivors: Okgush Irka, the most bloody battle in the world, ended only with the death of all the undead in the living's way, even if some of them were intelligent.
• Made Of Iron: Moldath Leshaltölún. He claims having endured being shot repeatedly with arrows and getting his limbs broken, having his entire body rot, having most of his rotten flesh flayed off by a amateur surgeon, and being beaten fifty times with a hammer (twice) as part of a judicial sentence. Granted, being a vampire dulls the impact a little, but still... However, Eskôn's records dispute this gravely.
• The Magnificent: Everyone who gains an epithet. It'd take half this page just to name everyone with one. See List of adventurers and Category:Creatures with epithets.
• Meaningful Name: Ehhu Kenomreko starts the story believing his is named Arkur "Knowinglost" Ícenalena. His true name is Ehhu "Futureghouls" Kenomrek. This impacts the story and the future greatly.
• Meatgrinder Surgery: Hannibal Womohe's specialty; he refers to a scimitar as a scalpel, his story opens with him citing a 'successful' operation (a goblin with an injury list amounting to "his everything is gone") then "dissecting" (read: dismembering) a hostile blighted thrall. Just to really cap it off: he's indicated to be a butcher by profession rather than a surgeon.
  • Moldath went through this in a fortress where the dwarves there attempted to remove his affliction. Not only did it fail, but Moldath often vividly remembers it as Cold Blooded Torture.
• Mentor Archetype: Galka Linarad becomes this to future Law-Giver Jas Anthad. Galka looks Jas' and his companions' age and is a one-legged cripple to boot, but through their journey he shows his prowess and wisdom. It is implied by the end of their adventure, there's a measure of wilful ignorance as to his nature, as Galka has been a loyal and fair companion, though manipulative at times. He even pulls a positive Wormtongue where he convinces Jas to become Law-Giver, even as Jas was uncertain on doing it.
• Mythology Gag: Moldath's name and origin is one; the original Museum had an amulet (Mournsaints the Fire-Ruler of Rewards) which would randomly teleport about from site to site. He's heavily implied to be the amulet, having travelled from one universe to another.
• Museum Of The Strange And Unusual: The eponymous Museum; since there are no real restrictions on what can be submitted (or where they need to be put), exhibits range from the corpses of titanic beasts and priceless articles of jewellery to bags of husk-creating dust and collections of dice. Overlaps with Mishmash Museum, as the vast majority of the exhibits are located in one area with little regard for categories.
• Necromancer: Surprisingly common throughout Orid Xem, with numerous adventurers and historical figures alike learning the secrets of life and death.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Oddom Thobmunèst, the dwarf responsible for launching several wars against every other civilization in Orid Xem. She managed to drive the elves and dwarves to near-extinction before being stopped, with the overall death toll from her wars being in the thousands.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons in Dwarf Fortress are just megabeasts that live in the underworld, can be civilized and rule a goblin civilization. See also Orid Xem demons.
  • Shoveth Nåzomgenlath Sar is different even by his kind's measure: it went on to competitions and festivals of Adilatír while attacking it with its civilization, it worships deities, it joined a religion.
  • In an interesting difference to those, Egu Odanez Exzas Otsmor has several domains that you wouldn't usually associate with demons, such as birth, crafts, creation and rebirth.
• Overpopulation Crisis: A strange case of an In-Universe crisis having an out-of-game effect - a bug lead to ridiculous numbersnote of necromancer experiments spawning in a few hamlets, to the point of crashing the game if someone tried to enter the settlements and rendering the popular Legends Viewer utility unusable.
  • Istrakathroc, the castle in where all the surviving refugees of the bloodiest war in Orid Xem went, Okgush Irka. Somewhat subverted in that those who went there lived the rest of their lives in hedonism.
• Rags to Royalty:
  • A very literal example: Bralbaard Nilthatlosh goes from a rag-clad walking corpse to the King of Adilatír. Later subverted, as a coup occurs during an attack by blighted thralls that sees Bralbaard deposed, causing him to return to (un)life as an adventurer of the Museum.
  • Jas Anthad goes from a rough, countryside-born Hunter of Monsters to the Law-Giver of Omon Obin, having overthrown the corrupt former government and been elected to the position by a jubilant populace.
• Religion Is Magic: Most, if not all, of the magic in the world comes from deities.
• Sanity Slippage: Raki didn't take too well to reading the past journals of the Museum's adventurers, to say the least.
  • Whatever Ezif Aroirum found in the ruins of Gor and Duskhome is implied to have not been kind to his sanity.
• Scenery Porn: Torishiton Ineth Lam, The Abyssal Sanctuary, Gor (The Pit) and Tathbom... pretty much any fortress made by Imic qualifies for this in terms of layout and architecture, even if DF's graphics limit the effect somewhat.
• The Plague: The early days of the game had the Silver Plague, a disease which killed at least 40% of the human population note .
  • Much later on, the Omon blight, which turns anyone infected by it into blighted thralls.
  • The first plague discovered was the Thranan blight during the Bad Old Days of The Great War of Orid Xem.
• Shrines And Temples: Don't let that fool you, they're full of monsters.
• Suppressed History: An interesting variation. Out-of-universe, the Game Master Bralbaard generated the world with "Hidden history" so the players may discover the world without Legends.
• Undignified Death: Overlapping with Disney Villain Death. Raki Shedoshgabat‏‎, having been resurrected as a powerful form of undead, gets knocked into a Bottomless Pit by a Devil of Steam, permakilling him in something of an ignoble end for a previous Villan Protagonist.
• Unreliable Narrator: Moldath, in part thanks to his brain rotting and his self-confessed sadism. For an example of this, he considers the efforts of Adilatír’s dwarves to heal him from his debilitating rot little more than Cold-Blooded Torture and his later No-Holds-Barred Beatdown unjustified (which is completely incorrect; it was prompted by his murder of several dwarves to sate his vampiric thirst). In contrast, Eskôn records show that the original expedition leader who made his own headway into immortality, Kikrost Órnomal protected him from the punishment, healed his wounds and only imprisoned him for the good of his people. Kikrost expressed his admiration for Moldath and the only way he took advantage of the vampire was to ask him questions about his nature.
  • King Bralbaard Nilthatlosh's departure from the capital Ilrallenod is controversial: while in his official memoires, he comments that he left on a diplomatic mission, in some less-publicized notes, he admits to have heard the screams of battle of his people and ignored them.
  • According to GameMaster Bralbaard, any interpretation of the events in Orid Xem may be considered correct of false, only dependent on the reader's preference. This very wiki has some interpretations that may clash with the (more) canonical depiction by the characters or forum thread themselves.
• Vanishing Village: Gor (The Pit) and Tathbom both vanished due to a bug which erased any trace of the fortresses made there.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Three of the five ascended adventurer monarchs of the 9th century do so by killing their predecessor.
  • Further described by Maloy Rigòthumåm: "The Blight victim. He was the leader of a local cult as well, and the thresher who killed him in my group immediately took his job upon killing him and even kept it after we left and moved back to Mabkor."
• Zombie Apocalypse: A number of them, both minor and major:
  • The first (and by far the biggest) would be the wars set off by Mishthemdeduk in the 4th century, which were waged with the intent of destroying all that lived and all that opposed The Undead. This resulted in tens of thousands of deaths as the undead hordes swept across The Universes of Myth, before being narrowly fought off by a desperate alliance between the surviving civilizations (aided, in part, by the undead hordes abruptly beginning to dissipate during the early 4th century).
  • Cog Omristducim, another dwarven necromancer, managed to destroy her home civilization with one of these.
  • The Omon blight is a downplayed example of this; the blighted thralls involved in spreading the Blight are mostly confined to Omon Obin and a few settlements outside of it, but their ability to migrate from settlement to settlement and create new thralls through their bites gives them the potential to spread elsewhere and begin causing havoc.

Notes and references

• This page contains text from TV Tropes licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).