Slayers

Has nothing to do with the Dwarf Slayers or the Halatu, the House of the Second World.

The Slayers is an animu about a sorceress and her adventuring party of murderhobos. The Slayers traces it roots back to the 80's with some short stories which rumors hold were based on some Japanese dude's AD&D games (though in all likelihood it was Sword World). Those short stories got converted into comics, then later into animu, in series, minis series and movie formats.

The main character is an absurdly overpowered sorceress Lina Inverse and her companions. In the series this is the idiot Gourry, the chimera Zelgadis and the princess Amelia. There is another shrine maiden Sylphiel and in the third season the dragon priestess Filia. In the movies, her companion is the battleslut wizardess, Naga the white serpent (notable for her huge tits and annoying laughter). One cannot speak of Slayers without mentioning Xelloss, the mysterious priest. Son of the demon-goddess of beasts and most powerful demon outside the ranks of the demon-gods, he is a trickster and ~~a liar~~ fiercely loyal to his mother's plans. The anime looks and feels like a dream version of Dungeons and Dragons, without the LAWL RANDUM Chaotic Neutral players, the jackasses and the rule lawyers.

Through the series there were a collection of interesting villains that any DM should learn from, either from what to do, or what not to do. Rezo the Red Priest, a multiclassed priest/wizard and the BBEG from the first season, is a prime example of a character who was once Lawful Good, but due to circumstances had to walk the path that leads directly to Lawful Evil. As it turns out, his body contained a fragment of the demon-god of fire/king of the demon-gods. A clone of him reappears in season 2; this incarnation seeks only to destroy the heroes to prove he is more powerful than the original, a pretty good example of Neutral Evil. Another wizard villain shows up in season two: Halcyform, a man who sold his soul to the Mazoku for immortality. Again, he's a sympathetic villain who will stop at nothing to resurrect his dead wife. Sad problem is, without the interference of Hellmaster Phibrizzo (demon god of death) or Lord of Nightmares, all deaths are final in the Slayers-verse. Season two also introduces Demon Dragon King Gaav, a rebellious demon-god who, due to a rebellion in the past, had his form locked into that of a human. He wears a badass anachronistic gold trench coat. Later in the season a string-pulling Phibrizzo shows up in the form of a shota, Lina goes into god-mode (summoning the Lord of Nightmares into herself) to kill him. The third season introduces a new part of the world to explore, and what's the first they find? That's right, Gaav's head lackey and gay lover Valgaav waiting to get revenge! He has aligned himself with lesser gods from an adjacent material world. Well, suffice it to say, there is a happy ending.

Introduced in season 2 is an interesting foil for Gourry; Zangulus a mercenary obsessed with proving he is more powerful than the mindless oaf. Using a magic sword and near equal fighting skill he holds his own, and shows to be useful to the heroes now and again, but never stealing the spotlight. A good example of how a DMPC can be used in a game without actually hurting the game.

Cast of Characters

Whilst the precise cast of characters and more importantly details on those characters varies between the light novel and anime continuities, there's still a pretty solid core set.

Lina Inverse is our star, a Chaotic Neutral Black Mage who has an uncanny aptitude for the most destructive spells in her setting, most famously the Dragon Slave, which is pretty much THE biggest boom in the canon. Vain, arrogant, greedy and gluttonous, she mostly travels to gain loot, see new places and make herself famous. Her big sister is a famous archmage and hero, and her twitching inferiority complex over being essentially the less-powerful, less-attractive, less-successful version of her is at the root of many of her personal issues.

Gourry Gabriev is Lina's dumb-as-a-stump meatshield and longest traveling companion. There are hints of a romantic attraction between the two, but it usually goes nowhere, save in the odd season finale. Pretty good at swordfighting, actually, and wields the setting equivalent of a lightsaber, but, well, is ultimately stuck being the sole single-classed fighter in a series where everyone else at least dips something a bit more... world-smash-y. His ability to kill a man with a thrown acorn is a bit less impressive when his partner's go-to attack spell is the magical equivalent of a tactical nuke, ya feel me? Has a surprisingly tragic backstory that never gets mentioned or brought up.

Zelgadis is a cursed sorcerer-swordsman whose great-grandfather, the famous Red Priest Rezo, magically fused him with two different kinds of monsters to make him stronger. From a Blue Demon, he gained increased magical aptitude and superhuman speed and reflexes, whilst a Stone Golem gave him super-tough rocky skin and metallic wire for hair. He hates looking like a freak and is always out to find a cure for his condition. Has kind of a thing for Amelia that is a bit more explicit than the other main romantic couple in the series.

Amelia is a well-meaning, cheerful, good-hearted white mage princess who thinks she's in an old-school magical girl-style series, and conducts herself accordingly. (Ironically, she predates many of the cliches of the genre she's a spot-on parody of.) Has a big heart and a flair for drama that causes her to serve as the moral compass of the party, despite being the youngest. Is probably Naga the Serpent's younger sister, though nobody can prove anything.

Xellos is the enigmatic trickster priest of the Mazoku race, who specializes in trolling Lina's group and playing them like puppets. Is an evil jerk, but he's funny and charming enough to also be a fan favorite.

Naga the Serpent is Lina's original traveling partner, before she finally managed to ditch her. An incredibly arrogant ditz with a laugh that can crack glass, she infuriated Lina as much for her bungling stupidity as for her incessant wearing of super-skimpy clothing to show off her ridiculously oversized rack, which made Lina feel quite inadequate.

Filia is a Gold Dragon priestess who recruits Lina's party to help her save the world in the third season of the anime. She knows some white magic, and tends to whip out the mace she keeps under her skirt to beat on Xellos whenever he shows up.

Pokota is a prince whose people were experimented upon by Rezo, resulting in him being ripped out of his body and stuck in the body of a living doll.

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Plot

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Lost Universe

The Slayer's own science fiction spin off. According to the creator, Lost Universe may or may not be part of Slayer's universe, or even its prequel, but shit is complicated so here's the plot:

Background

Slayer and Lost Universe are similar in a lot of ways; the deity Vorfreed and Dark Star Dugradigdu from Slayer exist in this series as well, but in the form of an ancient eldritch starships known as "The Lost Ships". The Lost Ship are suppose to be space ships created by the ancient ayyy lmao to wage war. But the truth is that Vorfreed and Dark Star Dugradigdu got tired of each others shit so they fuck off to a planet and turn into starships. Then came Alicia shon Stargazer and Albert von Stargazer, the brother and sister that found these ships. Albert von Stargazer choose the ship Dark Star, but he was corrupt by its influence and was turned evil. He turned so evil that he started a galactic crime syndicate. To stop him, Alicia boarded her ship The Swordbreaker (Vorfreed), hoping to fight against her brother in order to restore him, but lost her life in the process, leaving that that task to her grandson Kane Blueriver. It is also noted that these lost ships have AI that can project their human forms via hologram.

The Plot

Kane Blueriver, a luke skywalker wannabe going around the galaxy doing mercenary work a trouble contractor.

Slayers and Gaming

Guardians of Order has, on two occasions, failed to make a good RPG out of the license. First was a series of three splatbooks for their BESM tristat game, each book represents a single season of the series. These books did nothing a veteran gamemaster couldn't already do. But they did present playable stats of all of the main characters from the season they covered. Their second failure was the Slayers d20 book, which was one of many hanger-ons to the d20 OGL. Unlike most copycats though, this system did try to rebalance the classes, but ended up making a shit-ton of crap, such as the man-at-arms, shrine-maiden and sorcerer classes. One good feature was its innovative magic system; it allowed a caster to know a level dependent number of spell level worth of spells. This was also capped in that there wasn't a spells per day system, but instead a caster roll based on the arcana skill.