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DragonFable is a single-player RPG taking place in the fantastic world of Lore. The player has to fight to protect the world from the forces of evil and solve the strangely confused prophecy of the White and Black Dragon Boxes. He/she battles the strangest creatures ever to spawn in Lore, including Sneevils, Chickencows and the dreaded Sepulchure, a Fallen Hero corrupted by The Virus!
It also chronicles the life of a noob knight called Ash Dragonblade as he journeys to save his Damsel in Distress (because we all know Everything's Better with Princesses).
See also Adventure Quest, to which it is a Prequel, and the other games by Artix Entertainment: Mechquest, Adventure Quest Worlds, Warp Force, Epic Duel and Hero Smash.
Located HERE.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Ravenloss has one. Giant skeletons float in its water.
- Abusive Parents: Trey Surehunter uses Valencia to get the Earth Orb, then hits her with the Blade of Awe.
- Action Girl: Female player characters are this by default.
- Actually Four Mooks: This happens all the time, mostly with Bandits.
- Aerith and Bob: All over the place.
- Affectionate Parody: Just as with AdventureQuest, the staff like these. But, being themselves, they once felt obliged to lampshade/parody the fact that they were doing a parody.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Parodied by this Hand Wave from the end of the Dragesvard quest chain:
Your character: Well, I suppose this is the best time to tell you. Galanoth... I am a dragonlord! |
- All Powerful Bystander: Warlic, and to a lesser extent, Nythera. They cannot aid too much without unleashing their full power... which is difficult to control. Even when they succeed at controlling it, it upsets the very balance of Lore.
- All There in the Manual: The design notes, which are updated almost every week and are full of stuff you'd never know about if you didn't read them, as well as previews for upcoming quests and wars.
- Allegedly Free Game: Sure the game's free. Unless you want to do anything useful with your dragon, go on Titan missions, have the other half of your class skills, equip any of the purple (read: decent) weapons you find, purchase anything requiring Dragon Coins, enter half the dungeons, have your character not be stuck with only class armor and a default weapon in the PvP option... this can go on quite a while.
- Alternate Continuity: DragonFable appears to be in a different timeline from AdventureQuest, since in DragonFable the Great Fire War started before Battleon was founded.
- Animal Motifs:
- The Chickencow Lord has the motif of a Chickencow.
- Fae's motif is a cat.
- Galanoth, Frostscythe, the DragonLords and Sepulchure have a dragon motif.
- Animesque
- Annoying Arrows: Can be part of your attire.
- Anti-Villain: The Necromantress (a.k.a. Lady Vayle) seeks to truly revive her brother Edgar — who died during the destruction of Artix's hometown and subsequently spent many years trapped within her magic gemstone — through necromancy. The Necropolis Arc's main villain, Noxus, had other plans for her as she effectively became the Darkness Orb, which he had wanted to use to strengthen Sepulchure's army.
- Arm Cannon: This is the Technomancer default attack.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The travelling button to Lady Celestia states that "she is an expert on dragons, dragon magic, and tea."
- Artifact of Doom: The Doom weapons, of course.
- As Himself: George Lowe in Falconreach Idle.
- Ascended Fanboy:
- Nythera's main goal is to replace Warlic as his assistant by poisoning him. She winds up stealing his powers and challenging the Elemental Avatars, which quickly proved to be a really bad idea. Warlic had to be resurrected to save her sorry ass.
- A lot of the game's staff are ascended AdventureQuest fans.
- The Great Cysero Rebellion. That is all.
- Aside Comment: You can't even keep track of how often this happens.
- Audience Shift: It seems to do this a lot. While most of the game is cheery and meant for the younger audiences, the orb sagas are more mature and serious. And then there's Chapter 1's climactic war where Grams is supposedly killed by Sepulchure, the Dracolich fortress slams through the Guardian Tower killing many Guardians, Sepulchure killing Lady Celestia to take Akriloth's son, and Sepulchure giving The Hero a grand beatdown, demoralising many players. And that's just the beginning of said war!
- Author Avatar: As with AdventureQuest, most of the major NPCs are based on staff members. This includes Artix, Cysero, Alina, Reens, Galanoth, Warlic, Nythera, Zhoom, and Rolith, just for starters.
- Ax Crazy:
- Xan. Well, fire-crazy, really.
- Artix becomes this when he gets anywhere near the undead.
- Bacon Addiction: Bacon has its own element and elemental orb.
- Badass Adorable: Lots and lots. Baby dragons and the Doomkitten, for example.
- Badass Longcoat: Tomix wears one. He weaved it himself using his headmaster's spirtlooms.
- Badbutt: Trey Surehunter. Justified in that he's a Captain Ersatz of Indiana Jones.
- Bag of Holding: The Hero's backpack.
- Bandit Mook: Whenever you exited a wave in one of the Lucky Week Wars, the Sneevils would steal some of your Gold.
- Bare Your Midriff: Valencia does this nicely.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Subverted; The Hero is concerned about how he/she'll breathe when facing a battle in space. The Gnomes then give him/her a re-breathealator.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: The Hero nearly pulls this off in the Necropolis arc, by combining Zorbak's Student ID (which has expired... and says he's expelled... and has a picture of a moglin on it) with A Wizard Did It. Only reason why it didn't work is because Artix couldn't keep it together for five minutes without slaying some undead.
- Beam Spam: The Technomancer's Bow and the Soul Weaver's Banishment skills.
- The Bechdel Test: Whether the game passes depends on whether your character is female, since most conversations are between The Hero and an NPC.
- Beehive Barrier: The Soul Weaver's defend skill takes the form of a shield and this.
- Better Than a Bare Bulb
- BFG: The Pirate Armor pulls one out in one of its skills. Lampshaded by the skill description.
- BFS: So many of these.
- Big Bad: Sepulchure. Sort of. Sepulchure is being controlled by the Necrotic Blade of Doom, and in the Chapter 1 finale we learn that the Necrotic Blade of Doom's master is the Mysterious Stranger.
- Big No:
- Drakath lets one out while being carried away by the Wind Orb.
- The Hero when Sepulchure's fortress crashes into the Guardian Tower.
- The Hero again when Sepulchure collects every Orb in a rapidly spinning ring to create the Ultimate Orb.
- Sepulchure as well when Fluffy merges with Drakath.
- Big "What?": Artix and Zhoom when they find out they didn't have to cram into the phone booth to travel.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Some items — like the Belts in the Time-Travel shop — have Latin names.
- "Dragesvard" is Danish for Dragonblade.
- Bishonen: Well... yeah. But especially Zhoom (that's him on the left). And Warlic who looks quite different from his Adventure Quest version. And then there's Tomix. Enough said.
- Bishonen Line: Greed. He goes from being a yellow blobby thing with a wicked evil smile to a kid with a wicked evil smile.
- Black Cloak
- Blob Monster: Lots and lots of them.
- A Boy and His X: A hero and his/her dragon.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Artix, by Drakonnan.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Like Aside Comment, there are countless examples of this.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Although a lot of the game is free, you need to pay a one-time fee to get full access to all the best equipment and quite a few quests. The "Dragon Coin" items in Cysero's shop also qualify.
- Brick Joke: You know how during the pirate quest chain, The Hero blows up a ship full of water-breathing potions? Yeah, they make passing references to that throughout the game. And in Adventure Quest as well.
- Brought Down to Normal: Xan lost his powers when Sepulchure used the Ice Orb on him.
- Brown Bag Mask: Can be part of your attire. Galanoth also dons one when the guard took his helmet in the quest "Not So Great Escape".
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Cysero. A good smith, but very weird. He's not called the Mad Weaponsmith for nothing.
- The Cameo: Artix pops up at the end of the first Hero's Heart Day quest from 2011. Lampshaded in the ending blurb.
- Captain Ersatz:
- Kathool Atchoo is a Captain Ersatz of Cthulhu.
- Lust looks somewhat similar to the character of the same name from Fullmetal Alchemist. Word of God says she's not supposed to be a Captain Ersatz, though.
- Trey Surehunter is a Captain Ersatz of Indiana Jones.
- A few of the shopkeepers in the Shadow of the Wind Village; Ayane is a Captain Ersatz of Ayane from Dead or Alive, and Snake Ears is a Captain Ersatz of Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe. Ayane even mentions Dead or Alive in one of her dialogues.
- Sir Stephan is a Captain Ersatz of Stephen Colbert.
- The Zard Hunter is a Captain Ersatz of Steve Irwin.
- Catgirl: Fae.
- Catch Phrase: Lim's is rather simplistic, yet tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him.
Lim: SCIENCE! |
- Cave Behind the Falls
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: Compare the orb sagas and the Chapter 1 finale to almost everything that isn't part of the main storyline. The Ravenloss saga is also fairly dark.
- Character Development: Nythera's second quest chain is basically about her becoming less of a Jerkass while learning to be more responsible with her powers. Also, she's The Chosen One.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Bacon Orb.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- The Necromantress appeared considerably before she had any impact on the plot.
- The Falconreach spy, a.k.a. Sabrina, the original owner of the Falconreach inn. Disappeared years ago when the Mysterious Stranger appeared, only to resurface (and be dealt with) as Grams in disguise.
- Chess with Death: Ash takes Death on with Tic-Tac-Toe.
- The Chew Toy: Twilly — literally, since the first thing your newly hatched Chaos dragon does is to try and eat him.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Pretty much par for the course.
- Circling Birdies: The Hero gets circling stars in "Pachelbel's Cannon" after he/she lands in Sepulchure's castle after getting shot out of the eponymous cannon. It's combined with Non Sequitor Thud, below.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Cysero. He tends to say the absolute silliest things and makes really weird inventions. He also wanted to destroy a force field with a sponge soaked in nitroglycerin. [1] In one quest, The Hero winds up saying something along the lines of "Perhaps an infarction in the green color matrix"? (in response to why the ground was losing its color). Robina immediately replied "Have you been talking to Cysero?"
- In The Clashening, the PC briefly discusses this with Lim.
You: The point is, [Cysero] doesn't think the way you do. Try to predict what he'll do and you'll be in for a surprise. |
- Colony Drop: "Sire, your fortress is going to crash!" "Then let it crash."
- Continuity Cavalcade: There's a quest in which you can get into Zorbak's attic, which includes all the items he has owned during the game.
- Continuity Nod: Many of them, usually in regard to Mechquest and Adventure Quest.
- Cosmetic Award: The Souvenir Tee, a rare drop from the second Boss Fight of the Friday the 13th War of 2011.
- Creepy Child: Sally and Thursday. In Thursday's case it's justified, seeing as she is part vampire.
- Cute Kitten: Subverted by the aptly named Doomkitten. Sure, it looks cute, but if you don't have a good water weapon you're screwed.
- Cute Witch: The Cauldron Sisters from Mogloween (most especially Bubble... the human Bubble). The Art Shift in year 5 was an exception.
- Cuteness Proximity:
- At the end of the Dragongrasp quest chain Vilmor gushes over Cryozen's newborn hatchling which immediately imprinted on her even after it sneezes frost snot all over her face.
- You need reminders from Warlic to get a hold of yourself when facing the incredibly cute Doomkitten.
- In Mogloween year 6, Andy causes this towards two girls he meets, who want to kiss him. Unfortunately, Andy is infected with the Z-Virus, causing anything that he kisses or bites (or that kisses him) to become a savage undead Zardbie.
- Dark Is Not Evil:
- At the end of the Dragon Egg quest chain, The Hero ends up with the Dragon of Chaos destined to destroy the world, while the Big Bad ends up with the Dragon of Order destined to save it. Despite this, the prophecy is fulfilled anyway when The Hero's Dragon destroys the planet-sized Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dracolich while Sepulchure's dragon sacrifices itself to save the world.
- There is also The Race of Dark Humanoids with horns.
- Darker and Edgier: The Chapter 1 finale.
- Day of the Week Name: Thursday and her great great great great great great great great grandfather, Lord Frydae XIII. Also, the host of the Amityvale meeting is named Wednesday.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: All the elemental Orbs in Chapter 1 combine into the Ultimate Orb which is absorbed by both Drakath and Fluffy... resulting in a Fusion Dance
- Dem Bones: Lots of undead mooks... and, of course, the dracolich babies.
- Fluffy!
- Depraved Dentist: Dr. Voltabolt, who is also a Mad Scientist. An Informed Ability of sorts, since he claims to be a dentist but is never actually seen doing anything related to dentistry.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
- Sepulchure isn't really an Eldritch Abomination so much as a Villainous God Mode Sue, but seeing Drakath impale him with his own sword definitely evokes this trope.
- You can kill the three headed hydra near the beginning with a dagger.
- In the Chapter 1 finale The Hero and his/her dragon destroy a dragon made of pure darkness that ate the sun.
- Disney Death: Drakath turns out to be alive and in an unknown location.
- The Dog Bites Back: Frostscythe blasts Circe for failing him. When she protests that she improvised and demands payment, he refuses, claiming he "doesn't pay for improvising". Circe later ditches Frostscythe when he asks her to help him fight against The Hero and Vilmor because that's "improvising".
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The DOOM blades, the DOOM axe, and the DOOM staff. The Mysterious Stranger tries to sell them to you... for a price (namely, 28000 gold). The creators are obviously aware of the trope, since the description of one of these is simply "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!" and another is "So much DOOM it hurts!"
- The Necrotic Sword of Doom.
- Dragon Rider: Those who own a Dragon Amulet, which allows customisation.
- Dungeon Crawl: There are a couple of hundred-room-plus megadungeons, just for the hell of it.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- The Cthulhu Captain Ersatz "Kathool Atchoo".
- The Yaga Sisters were trying to summon one, and while they did get a monster that would destroy the world, it turned out to be an Affably Evil, Punch Clock Villain, sheepdog-haired critter named Guffer.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Thursday and Nythera.
- Elemental Powers: They added several more: Metal, Nature, Wood, Silver, Bacon, Disease, Poison, Evil, and Good.
- Eleventh-Hour Superpower: In the Final Battle of Chapter 1 the Elemental Bacon Orb grants The Hero's Dragon its power, which comes with a Primal special that doubles the Dragon's attack power for 99 turns.
- Enemy Mine:
- Zorbak is on your side almost as often as not, in part because he's generally a Harmless Villain.
- The Necromantress helps The Hero take down Noxus.
- The Hero forms an alliance with Sepulchure to take down Drakath.
- Even Evil Has Standards: After Sepulchure turns Fluffy into a Dracolich Drakath pulls his Sword and shows Anger on what Sepulchure did and says "M... Master? What have you done?!"
- Everything's Better with Bob: Bob the Sneevil from "Resident Sneevil: Outbreak".
- Everything's Better with Penguins: Linus, the adorable king of the Killguins.
- Everything's Better with Plushies: The Plushie Cabinet, and also an entire War with Plushies as enemies during Frostval 2010.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: The Lucky Week War had a rainbow as a central plot device.
- Everything's Worse with Bears: Subverted with the Ursice Savages, which you befriend. Played straight with the bear that Zorbak sets on you on your way to Falconreach.
- Evil Counterpart:
- Sepulchure and Fluffy to The Hero and His/Her Dragon.
- Xan to Warlic.
- Evil Laugh:
- Captain Davey indulges in this.
- Xan is constantly laughing.
- The Doom Weapons laugh evilly whenever their special is activated. Bizarrely enough, so do their purified counterparts, the Destiny Weapons.
- Evil Weapon: The Doom Weapons. Including Sepulchre's Necrotic Blade of Doom, which is a manifestation of the Mysterious Stranger's a.k.a. the Master's will.
- Exact Words: The Hero's Dragon is destined to destroy a planet. Fortunately for Lore, that probably means you can get away with destroying a planet-sized Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dragon.
- Eyes of Gold: Circe.
- "Failure to Save" Murder: Konnan has a deep personal grudge against The Hero for getting pwned by Akriloth and not saving his family.
- Fantastic Voyage: You need to retrieve some Trobbles a whale swallowed for Captain Rhubarb.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink
- Fauxtivational Poster: There have been two forum contests to design these, and the Mayor of Falconreach has one in his office.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Your default classes.
- Filk Song: "Warcry of the Paladin" by theoutcrowd, which is all about the Necropolis chain.
- Fishing Minigame
- Fishing for Sole: In the Fishing Minigame. Your character also pulls out a boot during the Rummage Fail (see below).
- Fixed-Floor Fighting
- Flash Step: The Soul Weaver has an abundance of skills involving this, being the fastest class in the game hands down. The Chronomancer also does this when using Blink.
- Flash Back: Artix, Nythera and Vilmor have flashbacks as part of their quest chains.
- Floating Continent: Popsprocket, Aeris Battle-Spire, and Dragonsgrasp.
- Fluffy Tamer: Aria. In the quest where you have to rescue her from a cave full of Big Creepy-Crawlies, the Boss Fight is a Giant Spider that she wants to keep as a pet.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Sepulchure's Dracolich, which he names "Fluffy".
- Flunky Boss: Most of them.
- For Science!: Lim (and Cysero, in a Mad Scientist Magitek sort of way).
- Foregone Conclusion:
- For those familiar with Adventure Quest, it was blindingly obvious that Konnan would eventually become Drakonnan.
- And playing Alexander's Diary, which takes place in the past of Lore. Even without Word of God, it became obvious when the supporting cast showed up that Alexander becomes Xan.
- Freudian Excuse: Frostscythe claims that he was driven to evil because no Ice Dragon would bond with him supposedly due to him being half Ice Elf. The Hero blows the excuse out of the water by saying that the problem isn't his blood, it's his personality since he wants to control dragons rather than cooperate with them.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Lampshaded hilariously.
- Gadgeteer Genius: The gnomes. All of them.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The last fights in the Dragongrasp questline are both Anti-Climax Bosses. The ease of the first fight against Frostscythe while he's riding Cryozen compared to most Titan fights since Cryozen does pitiful damage illustrates that a) Cryozen is already at death's door thanks to Frostscythe's torture and b) Frostscythe is an incompetent Dragon Master. The second fight is also pretty easy since you have Vilmor on your side and Frostscythe "only" has two ice dragons since it's meant to show just how much The Hero and Vilmor outclass Frostscythe in every way.
- Gender Blender Name: Thomas, the female spider Aria was training.
- Genre Savvy: The Hero and the NPCs certainly have their moments.
Dragon: I really should just eat this adventurer, it will save me a lot of trouble in 30 levels or so. |
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: A humanoid shark warns his comrade that "Humans have natural means of defense! Stay away from the warm spots in the water!"
- They also got past a attempted suicide in the "Dying Light" quest. Even the name is a reference!
- Giant Spider: Thomas and other spiders.
- Good Cop, Bad Cop: Ash and The Hero in the "Dying Light" quest.
- Gotta Catch Em All: Part of the plan to resist Sepulchure is to collect all the elemental orbs before he can.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Danish, of all things.
- Gratuitous French: The Verteroche villagers.
- Gratuitous German: Cysero says "Tchuss" in "Cyseredux".
- Gratuitous Japanese: The Nekonomicon, anyone?
- Green-Eyed Monster: Frostscythe framed Vilmor for his crimes because he was jealous of her talent as a Dragonlord and her bond with the mightiest of the Ice Dragons.
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- Nythera is half dragon (Hot Skitty-On-Wailord Action seems to have been averted, since her mother can turn into a more human-ish form).
- Frostscythe is half Ice Elf.
- Zhoom is half sand-elf, and has pointy ears.
- Warlic is confirmed by Word of God to be half-infernal.
- Half the Man He Used To Be: Dave gets sliced in half vertically by Sepulchure.
- Hammerspace: The Hero's backpack. Lampshaded in the design notes [1]:
"Your backpack inventories are VERY spacious. Your pets are not at all crowded due to the compartmentalized nature of the backpack. A space for weapons, a drawer for trinkets, and a large fenced-in grassy area in the side pocket for your pets to frolic in. Gotta love Hammerspace!" |
- Also mentioned by your character during a quest. You are trying to help someone escape, so you offer to carry him in your backpack. It works fine.
- Have We Met Yet?: Zhoom asks whether the character knows him in "Titans of Battleon!"
- Hello, Insert Name Here: Everyone addresses you as this. Even Doom-Knight Sepulchure.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sha'Rae throws herself into a hole to destroy the Orb of Light, but Sepulchure captures the orb anyway.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Stone Orb was this, until it was merged with the Nature Orb and fused into the Blade of Awe.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: None of the ninjas seem to bother with stealth in any way, shape, or form (except for the ones in Shadow of the Wind village that appear only as text bubbles when you stand near them).
- Homemade Sweater From Hell: Can be obtained during Frostval. Lampshaded by its description.
- A Homeowner Is You / An Interior Designer Is You: Yes, you can get a House in this game for a small price, when you're a DA, but the good decorations cost Dragon Coins, and the lesser costs Gold.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: You can't beat Sepulchure, or, on a couple of occasions, Drakath, Xan, and Akriloth. [2]
- Hurricane of Puns: So many... Just for starters, all the names in Oaklore, the names of most quests, Artix's commentary about undead slaying in Amityvale, and — dear god — the quest featuring the Sand Witch. Special mention goes to the time in ArchKnight when Ash manages to really, really irritate a necromancer with one of these.
- Hybrid Monster: The appropriately-named "Spare Parts" monsters randomly select parts from about five models to give them a different appearance every time. Word of God says that it's made up of 16 different parts from 6 different monsters. That makes 2821109907456 possible forms for this one monster.
- The Hyena: Xan.
- Idiot Ball:
- Pretty much the case when you consider the numerous Amplifier Artifacts that both you and the Big Bad want, you not only have more, but you could likely beat him in a jiffy. Instead, you hide them all so he wont be able to get them. There was even a quest with the Blade of Awe.
- Cysero permanently holds the Idiot Ball whenever he makes a appearance in a quest. One could even go so far as to say Cysero is the physical manifestation of the Idiot Ball.
- Idiot Hero: The Hero is often a complete moron for the sake of the Rule of Funny. Artix von Krieger and Ash Dragonblade aren't exactly Mensa candidates either (this leads to a few instances of Strange Minds Think Alike in Artix's quest chain).
- Improbable Weapon User: There are weapons that look like screwdrivers, hockey sticks, candy canes, turkey legs, etc. The most memorable examples are definitely the bacon weapons, which are shaped like pigs and have an entire quest chain dedicated to explaining their origin. Then there is Cysero, who managed to slice a bar of steel in half... with a staff.
- In the Back: Sepulchure was stabbed in the back by Drakath, with his own sword, to boot.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Many of the Pactogonal Knight's names (Sir Vivor, Sir Prise, Sir Cull, Sir Pent, Sir Mise, etc.), Artix's constant puns on slaying the Undead, many of the monster names, and the list goes on... and on.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: The gnomes design a spy-camera to attach to one of Sepulchure's flying eyeballs... which is about the size of a dog. He only fails to notice it due to the Rule of Funny.
- Inn Security: A quest in the Locker is all about type 2 of this.
- Interspecies Romance: Nythera's father is a human wizard and her mother is a dragon. While her mother can take on human form, she seems to prefer eating in her natural dragon form. The only one who seems perturbed by the sight of a full-sized dragon crouching at a dinner table with her human husband is the soon-to-be-eaten Chickencow, for obvious reasons. Also, Zhoom's parents, presumably. And Frostscythe's.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Fae, whenever she sneezes.
- Just Ignore It: In the "Choose Your Own Adventure Quest", if you fail to ignore Zorbak, something WILL be destroyed. Doesn't stop you from getting rewards if the thing being destroyed is only Amityvale.
- Katanas Are Just Better: The Frozen Claymore is an extremely powerful ice weapon and it was reforged with added ice crystals later on to increase its killing potential. It takes the form of a katana in its improved state.
- Keet: Twig, when fed candy.
- Kids Prefer Boxes: One of the enemies are a species of goblins called Sneevils, who make a point of stealing boxes and discarding any of their contents. Sneevils were actually kids once; Nythera created them.
- Kill It with Fire:
- Killed Off for Real: Lady Celestia is killed by Sepulchure in the 2011 Friday the 13th war. Later on in the Chapter 1 finale, Sha'Rae dies attempting a Heroic Sacrifice and The Mysterious Stranger is killed by The Hero and The Hero's Dragon.
- Killer Rabbit: A lot of monsters in the game.
- It's possible to be killed by a wall. Yes, a wall.
- Zorbak. When you first meet him, he tries to maul you with a bear. Did we mention he knows Necromancy?
- Moglins, when they eat candy on Mogloween. They go from being small, cute little creatures to ravenous beasts bigger than the player character.
- The Doomkitten.
- King Mook: The Sneevil Box-Lord.
- Knight of Cerebus: Whenever Sepulchure shows up, you know things are about to get bad.
- Lampshade Hanging: Oh yeah.
- Last of His Kind: Zhoom and Aquella. At least until it's discovered that the rest of Aquella's people were just corrupted by Kathool.
- Laughing Mad: Xan, Captain Davey, and the Necrotic Blade of Doom.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Doom Knights.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Word of God says this is why the Scooby-Doo parody was called "Nooby Nooby Noob".
- Lethal Joke Character The Chickencow Armor, it has 9 skills (most classes have 14), 4 of which are run away, 1 of which is simply an attack which does regular damage but in nature (a useless element). Among the other 4, there is a basic shield, which nearly all classes have, and a few high damage moves. It seems useless, until you see that one of those moves has 12 hits, add a weapon which has a fairly low chance on hit of doing insane damage, and you go around killing everything in one attack. There are also weapons which heal on hit, and you can switch weapons in the middle of a battle. The end result is that you deal enough damage to kill most bosses in one attack, and can heal yourself whenever you want. Unsurprisingly, these are not easy to get.
- Lethal Joke Weapon: The Bacon Orb saves the world from the Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dracolich in the Chapter 1 finale, and now the Bacon element has it's own primal special.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Xan makes you fight Warlic, who inexplicably decides that though he was holding back against the bad guys, he can make his best effort to beat the crap out of you. Then there's the Blue Mage Rage from the Storm War. He was probably still holding back. Just not as much.
- Letters 2 Numbers: In "Bombs Away", Zank said "Chcikencow Scan 50UP, Emergency Protocol Or4ng3 Ju1c3 ..."
- Level Ate: The Necropolis cafeteria is full of undead food {including Bread Zombies that say "GRAIIIIIINSSS... GRAIIIIIINSSS...") . The Hero wonders why the necromancers thought this was a good idea.
- Light Is Not Good: Sek-Duat XV, who is later revealed to be Sek-Duat I, the lizard creatures from the SandSea, and those dang Minx fairies... although, they may just be defending their homes from the invaders that we are.
- During the Chapter 1 Epilogue, the depowered Xan laughs with glee when he realizes that focused Light can bring fiery destruction.
- Little Miss Badass: Aria. She trains giant spiders, commands beetles, and kicks Sneevil butt.
- Little No: Aquella, when she learns the fate of the Water Elves.
- Living Doll Collector: Snou the giant collects her own Pen-Pals.
- Loads and Loads of Characters
- Lotus Eater Machine: You're subjected to this as part of Katchool's Mindscrew.
- Lovecraft Lite: The Water Orb saga although The Hero ends up talking to themselves...
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Parodied in the ArchKnight finale. A necromancer tries to pull this on Ash, who responds by telling him that his father works on a farm west of Falconreach.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Voltabolt and Lim.
- The Man Behind the Man: The Mysterious Stranger.
- Mascot Mook: Sneevils and Togs.
- Meaningful Funeral: Warlic gets one in the Storm War. Of course he recovers.
- Meaningful Name: Sepulchure, which when spelled differently is a holy tomb (talk about ironic). Hey, in Adventure Quest Worlds, you meet his evil daughter, Gravelyn. See the connection?
- Medieval Stasis: Due to "The Reset".
- Mind Screw: The Water Orb quest chain, since a lot of it is an extended Cthulhu Mythos Homage. And you're one of the people getting a full dose of Mind Rape...
- Mini Game: Fishing, weapon crafting, cooking, and the ship-avoidance game in the ninja quest chain, to mention a few.
- Mirror Match: You fight yourself in one of the more Mind Screwy quests in the Water Orb saga.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Chickencows.
- Money Spider: Justified, since Robina the Hood stuns the forest monsters and leaves money on them.
- MST3K Mantra: In-Universe example — Rolith asks us to use this in the Code Monkey Challenge. The Hero then notes that the show has been off the air since most players birth. Which isn't true, as the legal age to play DragonFable is 13, and the show ended in 1999. Then again...
- Mundane Utility: Cysero used a black hole generator to... stretch spaghetti.
- My Grandson, Myself: Sek-Duat XV.
- NameTron: Vend-Tron 3000, a special shop in the Kordana quest.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast:
- It's worth noting that Sepulchure's name means "grave" or "tomb."
- Vaal's name is similar to a demon named Baal.
- Necromantic: Appropriately enough, the Necromantress. Also Xan, to a degree.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The Hero accidentally helps Nythera kill Warlic.
- Subverted in the Amityvillain quest chain. The villagers blame The Hero for the "invading" baby dracoliches, but no one gets hurt and the villagers adopt the "monsters".
- Shattering the Ultimate Orb in the Final Battle saved the world from eternal darkness, but it also throws the Elements into disarray. Chapter 2 is even titled "Elemental Distortion".
- Nightmare Fetishist: Sally, a ten-year-old girl who thinks The Undead are awesome playmates.
- Nintendo Hard: Rolith's challenges in the Lymcrest Labyrinth are patently impossible without cooperating with other players (which was the point). The fans solved all of them within days of their release.
- No Fourth Wall: "I'm the hero of the story. It's my job."
- No Indoor Voice: Ghost of Frostval Past, because his volume knob is broken.
- No Name Given: The Necromancer working with Klatu, Verata, and Nicto.
- No Sell: Most bosses (and a few mooks) have an annoying habit of being immune to stun and shrink abilities.
- Non Sequitur Thud: "Blatharg lithmpule moffub foop..."
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Konnan, although those who remembered a major plot arc of Adventure Quest saw this coming as soon as he was introduced. Later on in the game, Drakath.
- Oculothorax: Jimmy the Eye.
- Only Sane Man: Your character is either this or an Idiot Hero, depending on what the plot calls for. Reens, Alina and Warlic also seem relatively sane (but that last one is up for debate).
- Our Goblins Are Different: Sneevils.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Rosemary says that her Inn is Amityvale's best (and only) Inn.
- Panicky Expectant Father: The Hero freaks out upon learning that the Dragon Egg is about to hatch.
- Parasol of Pain: The Hero is able to obtain this in the boss fight of the Resident Evil parody.
- Pass the Popcorn: The Hero asks if there's any popcorn while watching Drakath's chase in "Sitcom".
- Planet Eris
- Playing with Fire: Xan. Does not mix well with his Ax Crazy-ness.
- Overlaps with An Ice Person when he gets the Eggnogonomicon during a Frostval.
- Poirot Speak: The Verteroche villagers, apparently.
- Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: The Hero to Drakath before the fight for the Wind Orb.
"You can either give me the orb and run away... or I can take it back, and you can CRAWL away." |
- Also:
Dragon: We can do this. We were meant for this. |
- Prophecy Twist: The world that The Hero's Dragon is destined to destroy isn't Lore; it's the planet-sized planet-sized Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dracolich.
- Pungeon Master: Artix.
- Punny Name:
- A punny name is required to be a Pactogonal Knight, apparently.
- A somewhat subtle example (well, subtler than the puns usually are anyway); the witch who runs the bakery is named Gretel.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Drakath is one all by himself.
- Rage Against the Mentor:
- Vayle was not pleased when she found out that Noxus wasn't actually planning to help her revive her brother.
- Drakonnan does this to Xan when he feels that Xan isn't allowing him to get his revenge on the player, and just wants to use him as a tool for his revenge against Warlic.
- Nythera against Warlic. She gets mad that Warlic won't unlock her dragon powers and tries to get rid of him and enrages declares war on the Elemental Avatars resulting in the Storm War.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old:
- Warlic survived the Reset, a catastrophe that changed Mechquest into DragonFable 4995 years ago.
- Also Fae. Justified because of the Nature Orb.
- And Sek-Duat XV.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Noxus in Hero Hearts Day.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Neatly summed up by one of the Fauxtivational Poster contest winners.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Moglins, mostly.
- Lampshaded by a Falconreach Guardian.
- Trobbles.
- The baby dragons.
- The Rival: Drakath to The Hero.
- Roar Before Beating: Dragon-Drakath.
- Rule of Fun / Rule of Funny: Don't expect a lot of logic in this game.
- Rummage Fail: When The Hero tries to find the Schnozzberries for the Queen of Tarts, he/she digs up a boot, an axe, a book collection, and his/her Dragon. The queen fell asleep during this because it took too long.
- Running Gag: Cysero and his love of left socks, Rolith's togs, Artix's painfully bad puns and tendency to smite first and ask questions later, Celestia's tea, Sneevils, Friday the 13th undead invasions, etc.
- Samus Is a Girl: Vilmor.
- Save the Villain: Inverted; when Circe buries the you in an avalanche, Vilmor shows up and pulls you out of the snow. You later find out that Vilmor isn't actually evil.
- Scaled Up: Aisha, Queen of the Ice Dragons does this when you break into her castle to steal her Ice Orb. Unfortunately for her, Galanoth expected it and rubbed powdered Dragonsbane ore into his armor, so when she tries to eat him she actually poisons herself.
- Scenery Porn: Some of the quests and cutscenes have very detailed backgrounds.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: Played straight in "Mysterious LCC" quest (which was a Scooby-Doo parody, appropriately enough).
- Screw Destiny: This was the main reason for Sepulchure turning Fluffy into a Dracolich. He was giving the prophecy a big middle finger. Which in turn Destiny gave him one since Fluffy actually gave the weakpoint to The Hero in order to defeat the Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dracolich.
- Self-Made Orphan: Xan is implied to have killed his parents in a fire. A flashback in an Alexander's Diary quest none-too-subtly implies it was entirely accidental.
- Senseless Sacrifice: In the "Dying Light" quest, when Sha'Rae throws herself into a hole to destroy the Orb of Light to stop Sepulchure getting it, Drakath just grabs it from her as she falls and gives it to Sepulchure.
- Seven Deadly Sins: In the Ravenloss saga, there appears to be a spirit for each of the Seven Deadly Sins.
- Shamu Fu: Several weapons, probably inspired by an Incredibly Lame Pun on "swordfish."
- Shout-Out: So many... for starters, Robin Hood, Scooby-Doo, Dragonball Z, Bleach, Inuyasha, Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Amityville Horror, Pac-Man, The Ring, Okami, Doctor Who, Dune, The Labors of Heracles, Spider-Man, Pinocchio, H.P. Lovecraft, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Peanuts, The Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Back to The Future, The Princess Bride, etc. Odds are, if it's not referenced in DragonFable, a quick look at another Artix Entertainment game should fix that. Especially if it's Shonen Anime or something else similarly geeky. A more comprehensive list of Shout-Outs in DragonFable can be found here.
- Sinister Scythe:
- You can claim Death's scythe as a weapon.
- There was a scythe that was considered the most powerful ice weapon ever forged. It got smashed to pieces, but was reforged into the Frozen Claymore.
- Frostscythe's weapon which players finally get for their own at the end of the Dragongrasp quest chain.
- Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Lim does not like Cysero.
- Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: For the most part, the game is pretty far on the silly end of the scale.
- Small Annoying Creature: Twilly and Zorbak especially. Twig, not so much. This is something of a change from Adventure Quest, where Twig is kind of The Scrappy.
- Spin-Off: Of AdventureQuest.
- Spy Catsuit: The basic rogue armor bears some similarities to this, particularly the female version.
- The Starscream: Okuchi no Okami and Drakath.
- Start of Darkness: The Fire War is this for Drakonnan.
- Steampunk: Popsprocket.
- Steal the Surroundings: Done in the Popsprocket quest chain to the storage facility containing the MacGuffin.
- Stop Copying Me: In one quest, The Hero and Artix keep repeating each other's sentences until it culminates in "SNICKERDOODLE!"
- Stop Helping Me!: Princess Victoria, when The Hero keeps hinting towards her double life as Robina. The Hero does not hesitate to lampshade this.
- Stripperific: Female pirate and ninja classes.
- Stunned Silence: Following the destruction of the Falconreach Guardian Tower and The Hero's Big No, even the music stops.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Nitroglycerin-soaked sponges launched out of a catapult. 'Nuff said.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Many of the machines in Popsprocket are repurposed Cyklons.
Yix: Occasionally, they short out and attack people. We really need to fix that. |
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the quest Escort to Verteroche the Guardian leader asks The Hero to leave the horse with them, justifying it with: "It's for it's own safety, <Class>, definitely not to use it for bait for anything."
- Swiss Army Weapon: The Cordemi Codex.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Every Pirate NPC in the game.
- Talking Weapon: The Necrotic Blade of Doom. Justified, as it got corrupted along with Sepulchure.
- Tap on the Head: Subverted; Gary the Ice Elf is really bad at this, and the character ends up doing it himself.
- Teleporting Keycard Squad: Any time you have to go to the end of a dungeon and turn around, this will happen.
- Tempting Fate:
"'What's the worst thing that could happen?' Seriously? That's like saying 'What dragon?' ASKING for trouble." |
- That Liar Lies: Vayle responded to the character and Artix trying to explain with "You lie!"
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: A DoomKnight vs. a Sneevil.
- Time Police: Doctor When intervenes when you and Cysero exploit Time Travel to gather eight copies of the Elemental Bacon Orb to save Lore. This isn't the first time Doctor When has run into Cysero either — turns out Cysero stole the phonebooth time machine from him and he's still holding a grudge.
- Time Stands Still: The Chronomancer.
- Time Travel Tense Trouble:
Cysero: See ya later. Or earlier. You know what I mean. |
- Toilet Humour:
- A couple of Guardians in the Dented Shield Inn took turns farting in another's helmet.
- Sir Prize's quest, especially the line "Oh my... oh man... it's everywhere."
- Trademark Favorite Food: Lady Celestia likes a Spot of Tea. Twig eats fish and ice cream. Lots of fish and ice cream.
- Tragic Keepsake:
- The Necromantress's crystal.
- The Stone of Falconreach Tower item that the player can obtain, in memory of the destruction of the Falconreach Guardian Tower by Sepulchure. You can reforge both this and a Shard of the Ultimate Orb to make the first Good elemental weapons in the game.
- Trauma Inn: Every Inn serves as this.
- Transforming Mecha: The town of Popsprocket. As seen in this quest.
- Troperiffic
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: There are a few examples of this, the most memorable one belonging to Artix in the Necropolis/Dark Orb
- 24-Hour Armor: Your character is always in his/her Armor, though he/she can change it.
- The Undead: Has pretty much all of the examples of the list, with measures of Lampshade Hanging toward them. A mentioned example of a Lich was instead called 'Liche' by Warlic, to which a character asks he really meant 'Lich' instead. Warlic merely noted that he was the powerful wizard and they weren't.
- Underground Monkey: Togs and Sneevils.
- Underwater Ruins: The city of Tethys, which was destroyed by Captain Davey.
- Unexplained Recovery: The phrase "He got better" is actually used word-for-word in-game as a Lampshade Hanging.
- Vile Villain Saccharine Show: Sepulchure is a very dark villain in a silly, light-hearted game. This trope also applies to Kathool, Captain Davey, Drakonnan, Xan, Sek-Duat XV, and the Mysterious Stranger.
- Villainous Breakdown: Sepulchure suffers this when Drakath becomes The Starscream to him and starts absorbing the Ultimate Orb's power and calls Fluffy to him.
- Weird Moon: The moon in Doomwood is always full according to Thursday.
- Welcome to Corneria: Lampshaded in the Clashening quest "Dimension Cat".
- Wham! Episode: The "Flying Fortress" cutscene. It starts out with the Guardians and heroes holding the line, but when Sepulchure's giant Dracolich-castle crashes into the Guardian Tower in Falconreach the music just stops and the characters stare in shock. The Boss Fight ended with Lady Celestia dying, Akriloth Jr. appearing, and Sepulchure sending in a bunch of Undeads just to show how evil he can be.
- What the Hell, Player?:
- You get this if you answer "Yes", when offered to join or aid the bad guy. One of them being "Excuse us, while we go rewrite Adventure Quest."
- When you first meet Twilly, you're given the option to kick him. If you do kick him, then you are promptly told that you're "the meanest player ever".
- And then there's "The Worst Prank Ever".
Sir Kuss: WHY... why would you DO this? You're not even getting any experience for this! You... you're just... you're MEAN. That's what you are. |
- Whatevermancy
- When All You Have Is a Hammer: At one point in the Fire War, you get to control Xan. His attacks are "Fire", "More Fire", "Even More Fire", "Lots of Fire", and "OMGBBQ!!"
- Where It All Began: Sepulchure's fortress in the "Badlands" where the war with the "darkness" took place a thousand years ago, and where the Orbs were first created.
- White-Haired Pretty Boy: Some time between his death and resurrection, Warlic goes from looking like this to looking like THIS. Which (if your character is male) leads to a brief moment of Ho Yay.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Xan, Drakonnan, the Kathool Adepts, possibly Sepulchure, definitely the Necrotic Blade of Doom, pretty much every other villain in the game, and Cysero.
- A Wizard Did It: Artix says all the bugs and plot holes are Handwaved in the game by saying "magic." You immediately use this in a Bavarian Fire Drill to get past the Necropolis Gatekeeper... which would have worked if Artix had resisted the urge to smite. Anyone that's been on other quests with Artix would have seen it coming though.
- The Wonka: Cysero (and Lim, to a lesser extent).
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
- Drakonnan, despite being astonishingly dark compared to quite a few AE Games villains, is still genuinely sympathetic for his troubles: his family is killed in a fire by Akriloth, prompting a What the Hell, Hero? moment because of your character's "Failure to Save" Murder. Followed by plotting pretty vengence, which leads to...
- The Necromantress/ Lady Vayle is an even better example. While she has sent several minions to kill your character, she has also witnessed the town where she lived as a child destroyed by a green mist that turned everyone (except her and Artix) into zombies, been tricked by Noxus into believing she could revive her brother with necromancy, seen Artix destroy Edgar and the crystal where she kept his soul, and then discovered Noxus had just been manipulating Vayle to create entire armies of undead and was planning to kill her to get the Darkness orb.
- World of Badass
- World of Snark
- A Worldwide Punomenon: The game loves this trope.
- You All Look Familiar
- You Didn't Ask:
- During Frostval, Cysero doesn't tell The Hero that he could change the Coal Moglins back because The Hero never asked. The quest is even called "You Never Asked".
- In the Chapter 1 finale, after The Hero has a near aneurysm and yells at Cyerso about not telling them that there's in fact nine orbs earlier. He just plainly states "You didn't ask..."
- You Gotta Have Purple Hair: Valencia Surehunter, who got it from her father, Trey. Elysia and Nythera have it too.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Sir Alteon killed the tyrant Slugwrath, and while reluctant at first, the people chose him to become the new King.
- You Killed My Father & This Is Unforgivable!: After The Hero and Artix destroy her Spirit Orb containing her brother Edgar's soul, Vayle both declares that she will never forgive them for destroying her only chance to supposedly bring back her brother by following Noxus' orders and vows vengeance against them out of belief that they killed him.
- You Mean "Xmas": As in AdventureQuest, Frostval.