Darkness Rising

File:Utopiao-1 2047.jpg

The end of the utopia is just the beginning.

A semi-lit demon apocalyptic role-play on Gaia Online. It was created by bakarashi (now Kannabyss) in the summer of 2009.

In 2012, the world is starting to reach its end when the Hell Gate is opened. A war goes between the humans and demons, being called The Cleansing by many. Over thousands of people have died, but have they allowed for easy defeat? No, the humans managed to keep their place on the top by 2013. The demons are coming out of hiding... With some new additions to their race among the way.

It's unbelievably cliche and doesn't always consist to a plot. OOC talk is often found among the regular posts. Some of the characters are prone to falling into love easily. Not like Twilight. A few of the writers are prone to constant typos, prose or fail, but the writing eventually gets better. (For the most part...) It still has some likable characters and features some deconstructions.

The original can be found here. Scorched Earth, its first sequel, is here The final canon installment, Trilogy of Hell is found here. (Which is the most literate one.) A prequel is being planned by one of its original posters. It will be called Utopia's End, and will be about their lives during The Cleansing. Whenever this will be canon or not however is not decided yet by the author.

Please don't confuse this with Transformers episode Darkness Rising. Or the game Scorched Earth. Blame the author for creating the names without knowing either exist.

The character sheet is here. Be sure to place any characters tropes in the appropriate folder.

Utopia role-players/readers, major spoilers in the other folder!

Tropes used in Darkness Rising include:

• Aerith and Bob: People named Allison and Jess are upon Zircon and Armageddon. Please note that these are their original names.
• After the End: The whole point of The Cleansing.
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: Kasou was in one that was both a "The" band and a punctuated title. It was called, "The Penalty for Treason is..."
• All There in the Manual: In the OOC and profiles, you can find information such as the characters’ theme songs, the whole truth about Hakumei’s past, and their personal interests.
• Anyone Can Die: By the end of Scorched Earth, the official dead list includes: Steam, Beatrice, Crow, Jaxon, Alex, Hero, Wren, and Kira.
• Back from the Dead: Pretty much every demon.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Laire and another unknown reaper.
• The Bechdel Test: Subverted many times, but eventually passed.
• Beige Prose: Some of the writers use this. Q and Kanna can pull it off.
• Bittersweet Ending: Mostly on the sweet side, but the bitter’s there. All life in the world goes into the afterlife, but at least Satan’s troops are defeated. Then it’s revealed that Armageddon exploded herself among with it, and will never be coming back. Odin gets depressed, because he says that it was supposed to be him instead. Then Neil finds out that he’s now death god, but he will never see his master ever again. Pike gets a romantic ending of her own with Neil. Then Laire, Hakumei and Laire’s old girlfriend meet, with Laire running off into the plains at the end. She then says, “Oh well.” Arkana is seen stomping into Hell to talk with his brother. Yoshida and Miharu end up getting married. Willow awakes to find her childhood friends Zircon and Yosuke, and now they‘re all happy friends again! The rest of the characters’ faith is pretty open-ended, so it’s mostly subject to your own interpretation.
• Bilingual Bonus: Most of the meaningful names. Most of them don't have translations, so knowing some basic Japanese while reading this is helpful.
  • In-universe example: Hakumei and Destiny speak in fluent Chinese, and no one else can understand them. There is a translation however and justified how the writer is Chinese herself.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "And then Neil took a smoke break as he waited for Suijouki to post."
• Child Soldiers: It's unknown if some members of the demon military qualifies are this. Allison joined the military when she was twelve.
  • Jaysen qualifies. He's seventeen and a professional demon hunter. This may be justified since his military probably accepts younger kids in need of people.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The main protagonist and most of other demons. Almost.
• Doomed Hometown: Neilville for Neil, Pike and possibly Laire. Funny how Neil thought he was the only survivor.
  • Athica for Keiki.
• Filler: So much.
  • The characters meeting the military demons.
  • The main female heroines going to the mall.
• Flipping the Bird: Neil does it to Hero.

Hero: And you're so scary. Neil: I try. *Middle finger*

• • Odin makes a giant one out of light.
• Flower Motifs: Roses. Mostly with Alex, but Neil and Pike has their black roses.
• God Job: Being a Reaper. Neil describes it as, "Being the assassins of god."
• Gratuitous Japanese: Pike, Yoshida and Miharu are this trope incarnate. Especially Pike, who picked it up for no reason at all.
• Honorifics: Pike picks up on using them with everyone, especially around higher authority. Yoshida and Miharu use them too.
• Ho Yay: One-sided on Aka Chi's part, but he tends to flirt with Yoshida and Satan. Satan actually petted him back once and treats him nicely!
• Immortal Immaturity: Yoshida still says things like, "___ has a boyfriend!" and acts like a teenager when he's over 200. Usually averted with the gods and the really old characters; they can act like teenagers at times.
• Incredibly Lame Pun:

Hero: "Neil down to me."

• Kill Em All: The trippy ending of Trilogy. Everyone ends up going to Hell, Heaven or the afterlife through a massive explosion
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Here you go.
• Love Dodecahedron: Oh boy. Names are spoilers if you haven't read Scorched Earth. Person A. (Jess) and B. (Hakumei) like C. Laire. C and B are currently dating. Person B is given a chance to run away with D (Alex). D and E Beatrice. have mutal love for each other. The result is: A is left alone, B and C continue to date, and D and E die. This wouldn't be put out of place in a high school harem anime.
• Love Triangle: Pike and Neil are dating, but Armageddon has a crush on Neil.
• Men Don't Cry: Averted, the male characters can cry whenever the hell they want. Neil doesn’t like seeing people cry, but that’s because he hates seeing people cry. Arkana though, thinks that “Crying never helped anyone.” after he cries. (Which Pike obliviously quotes to no end.)
  • It’s more of “Women Don’t Cry." Save for Pike, most of the girls aren’t seen crying. Well.. Pike tries to suppress, but she just explodes anyways.
• Opposites Attract: Violence-hating Pike is with remorseless Neil.
• Our Demons Are Different: They're humanoids with powers and lose most of their sanity.
• Purple Prose: Marshi's (Pike's) creators posts. Not the worst, but still pretty bad.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Everywhere.
  • Some examples, "Hot because she's fat." and "im his arms."
  • Most of Aka's and Zonbi's posts are this. This may be because the writer lives in a different country.
• Shout-Out: It's there. Sometimes they don't even try and direct use/refer to foreign material.
  • As said in Take That, they constantly refer to Twilight.
  • Hakumei sings songs like "It Ends Tonight", "Colorblind" and "Teenagers".
  • They constantly make Death Note references, too. "Kira" as a demon hunter? There’s even a monster that looks like Ryuk!
  • "Tell me, Neil. Do you dance with the devil in the moonlight?” Neil himself replies with, "Don't you think that quote is a bit overused?"
  • Pike thinks of Bakuretsu Tenshi when Angel mentions someone called “Bakuretsu.”
  • "Now see. You don't fuck with me. Why? Because, if you're squeezing me you're squeezing the Corleones. And its not a good idea to squeeze the Corleones. So like I said, don't fuck with me." No one else catches on in-universe.
  • "The gods shall destroy your soul." Vandal said as he grabbed Steam's soul and ate it.
  • Satan randomly plays "Vicarious by Tool on a guitar.
  • Odin's war form looks like it came from a video game..
• Sleep Cute: Laire and Haku fall asleep on each other in Scorched Earth.
  • Neil and Pike at the end of Scorched Earth.
• So Happy Together: Yoshida and Miharu before she's killed.
• Take That: They insult Twilight, and Hakumei could be possibly a parody/deconstruction of the Cullens.

Hakumei: The only thing we share is our diet.

• • Parody Twilight? Pike's a freaking Expy of Bella, used for a bad way! Ironic that most of the role-players liked her...
  • Alex flat out says, “God that book is awful.”
  • Even though it was a good anime, she made the romance look like fail. So much peppiness outside of the gothic clothing. Even though I'm not that dark too... Pike is thinking this about Misa. The original thought had to do with orgasms. Oh yeah, she insults Misa again during the story.
  • Laire and Pike don't like Abercrombie. Figures.
  • Zonbi the zombie thinks that Barney is horrifying and that the creator should get shot. He's only four.
• The End: These are the endings of each:
  • Darkness Rising: THE END… Or is it?
  • Scorched Earth: THE END.
  • Trilogy of Hell: The original creator posted: "And they all lived happy ever after… I guess. The end! Finally…"
    • The last IC post ends with Willow saying: “I didn’t really expect this ending, did you?”
• Time Skip: Scorched Earth skips by five years, Trilogy of Hell by one year.
• There Are No Therapists: Almost everyone is helplessly insane, but they only each other to spill their emotion too. Justified with the time and place.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: Neil: "You have to do better than that, bitch!"
  • Armageddon while crushing a demon's head.

You little bitch!

• • Michael to the Big Bad:

"You gave me your back, bitch!"

• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:

Hakumei I. need. to. find. mom. and. dad. and . my. life. and. the. things. they. are . hiding. from. me. (She didn't even bother to capitalize each word.}

• Time Skip: Five years for Scorched Earth, one year for Trilogy of Hell.
• Wham! Episode: Trilogy of Hell as a whole is this trope.
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: You need to kill six hundred sixty-six people to become the Angel of Death. And bow to her thirteen times.
  • The real Cleansing was supposed to be the revelation coming to life. Well... Until Satan ruined it and messed up all their lives.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Basically every character that disappears.
• What Could Have Been: Hakumei’s and Alison’s whole past was supposed to be showed in the story, but their creator never did. It did show up on the OOC.
  • Pike was supposed to find how Miku died to revive her, but she never did.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:

Willow: Who names their kid Apocalypse?

• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Boy, let's not even get started... Let's just say that they get worse and worse. There's only a fraction that avert this trope, and most of them are girls.