Sláine

Hard bony limbs covered in leathered skin
Behind his eyes with the rage of ten warped men
Without a sound he steals right through the night
The sign of death to him brings grim delight
Those marked for death can feel him coming near
Some stand in fight and some just cry in fear
On a horse black, the dark lord takes to flight
But no one forgets the Highlander rode tonight

— "Highlander", The Lord Weird Slough Feg ^note Their first three albums are basically Sláine concept albums.

Sláine is one of the titles published in 2000 AD by Pat Mills, focused on the fantastical adventures of Sláine mac Roth, an Irish Celt who can best be described as as a cross between Conan the Barbarian and Cúchulainn, the mythological Irish hero from the Ulster Cycle.

Initially an outcast exile for his seduction and impregnation of the intended future bride of the Sessair tribe's king, the strong-willed Niamh, Sláine roamed the Land of the Young with only his axe to defend him and the perverse dwarf Ukko for company. Rescuing a maiden doomed to sacrifice in a Wicker Man earned him her eternal enmity, for she was the witch Medb, disciple of the Lord Weird Slough Fegh, and devotee of Crom Cruach. When he returned to his tribe, Sláine became their king and the High King of the Tuatha de Danaan, leading wars against the demonic Formorians and Golahms, and traveling through time at the behest of Danu to interfere with the prehuman alien gods known as the Cythrons.

After nearly 40 years of publication, Sláine finally came to an end in 2021 with the Dragontamer story arc.

In 2022, the Horned God storyline was adapted as an audioplay by Penguin Books, featuring the voices of Colin Morgan as Sláine and Gerry O'Brien as Ukko.

This series contains examples of

• Aborted Arc: The Brutania Chronicles indicates that the Cosmic Horror entities known as the Archons have taken a renewed interest in Sláine and might start intervening directly in the series' events. This isn't followed up on, and the series' final arc is a fairly mundane rebellion story.
• Action Girl: Quite a few, Niamh being the most prominent. The fact that Celtic people didn't have quite as many hang-ups about assertive warrior-women as most others is milked for all it's worth.
• Alien Space Bats: a Time Travel arc has Danu using Sláine to champion her cause through the ages, which has him helping out Boudicca and William Wallace (an amusingly closer to history version than the one from Braveheart) and being the actual Robin Goodfellow.
• Always Accurate Attack: One of the Four Treasures of Danu is the Sun Spear, which never misses and always returns when thrown, and constantly thirsts for blood.
• Anti-Hero: Sláine on a bad day, he's the "good guy" pretty much only because he kills even worse people stone dead.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: About halfway through the Book of Invasions arc, most of Sláine's tribe are sent to live in the realm of the Earth Goddess to protect them from the Fomorians - it isn't so much a higher plane as a parallel one; it resembles our own world, but everything is just a little bit 'off'. Sláine himself goes there and notes that it's quite dangerous - what with the El-Women and tempermental Earth Goddess wandering around - but reckons that it's probably better than certain death, enslavement or torture at the hands of the Fomorians.
• Author Tract: The comic is not subtle about Pat Mills' strong Neo-Pagan and anti-Christian beliefs, such as the importance of a sacred matriarchy, and the exultation of a nature-worshiping tribal state over civilization. The collected edition of the "Demon Killer" storyline also features a short rant about Pat Mills about the idea that Romans brought civilization to Great Britain and the Celts were uncivilized. Mills is also a staunch anti-imperialist, and when later stories introduce the Trojans as a stand-in for the British Empire, much of their characterisation is anachronistically lifted from real 19th century British Empire figures, rather than anything appropriate to the setting.
• Big Bad: The Lord Weird Slough Feg himself is the closest thing the series comes to one. He is Killed Off for Real at the end of the Horned God story arc, although makes subsequent appearences in flashbacks and as a spirit in the afterlife.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The villains in the series are monstrous, but the morality of the "heroes" is pretty twisted sometimes, adhering as it does to primeval Celtic codes. For example, to celebrate the victorious conclusion of the first war against the Formorians, King Gann mac Dela's own tribe sacrifice and eat him. In the first time traveling arc, Sláine allies with Boudicca and leads the massacre of Roman civilian settlers and collaborators — Ukko even comments how surprised he is that Nest doesn't want him to excise that from the records, given how it clashes with her efforts to portray Sláine as a noble Celtic hero. The Cythron girl Oeahoo sums it up when Sláine kills her in an especially callous and cruel manner:
  Oeahoo : I...I thought humans were meant to be good and noble...maybe some are...but not you. You really are an animal, Sláine Mac Roth...
• Blood Sport: The Fianna play a game called Murderball; a kind of fusion of hurling and soccer played with a human head. The game has no real rules, and warriors are permitted to use weapons and even kill each other in an attempt to get the head into the opposing team's goal. It's generally played before battle in front of an enemy army to intimidate them.
• Boring, but Practical: When the Atlantean-Fomorian force invades Ireland during the Book of Invasions arc, their weapons of choice are the Serpent Staffs, essentially magical flamethrowers. While the Tuatha de Danan have the Treasures of the Earth Goddess on their side - like the Sword of the Moon, which inflicts wounds that never heal, or the Sun Spear, which always returns to its master’s hand when thrown - the Fomorians completely outstrip them in a pitched battle, and the Tuatha are quickly forced to sue for peace. Sláine quickly realises that if they’re to have any hope of fighting back, they have to start using Serpent Staffs themselves.
• Call-Back:
  • Slough Feg's Madness Mantra in the Horned God arc is a variation on an off the cuff remark he made in the Tomb of Terror arc.
  Slough Feg: Eyes without life, sundered heads, piles of carcasses; these are pleasing words to me.
  • During the climactic fight of Dragontamer, Sláine’s axe Brainbiter fails him during a fight against a dragon, unable to penetrate its scales, echoing the last time he fought a dragon, where the stone version of Brainbiter outright shattered.
• Catch Phrase: "He/I didn't think it too many." after either Ukko or Sláine recounts some tale in which he slaughters people in large quantities.
  • Also, "Kiss my axe!"
• Cerebus Retcon: The story of Sláine's mother being killed in a chariot race was initially introduced as nothing more than a quirky bit of backstory to explain why Sláine didn't like his father or enjoy participating in chariot races. When the event is revisited a few arcs later, it's revealed that it's actually an enormous source of grief for him, and he thinks about his mother constantly. It's also revealed that Roth deliberately engineered Macha's death, rather than it just being spur-of-the-moment carelessness.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The Book of Scars 30th anniversary special sees Sláine imprisoned in an alternate timeline by the the Guledig, God of the Cyth. He is forced to relive his deadliest encounters against old foes like Medb, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and Moloch, only this time they have been warned of his coming and are better-prepared. In most cases, the original artists returned to redraw these encounters, trying to emulate their older style as closely as possible.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When dismissing the Fomorian tax collector Quagslime, Niamh states she "doesn't speak to fish". Years later, Sláine repeats the phrase and frames it as "something someone very dear to me used to say."
  • When meeting Sláine for the first time in years, Niamh scolds him for having an affair with a "trollop called Hen or Chicken or something", names the character Nest has been called before.
  • During the Sláine the Wanderer arc, Nest shows up again after many years and she and Sláine briefly reminisce about their time in the Tomb of Terror.
  • In the Dragontamer arc, Sláine comes across a village of farmers who have had their noses removed, a signature practice of the Fomorian tax collectors who Sláine had previously defeated.
• Death by Woman Scorned: Inverted; Sláine's father Roth has his wife Macha murdered as revenge for her constant infidelity. He boasts that she's so athletic that she could even outrun the King's chariot. The King, taking offence, challenges her to a race, and runs her over to drive the point home. Later, he regrets it, and turns to alcohol to try and forget.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • As noted by Pat Mills himself, every artist who worked on the series seems to have a different conception of Sláine's 'hero harness' - the item of clothing that somewhat reduces the power of his Warp Spasm but allows him to retain his humanoid shape while he uses it. In the earliest stories, it was a simple leather belt, before it later became a kind of one-armed leather catsuit that didn't really fit the aesthetic of the world, before being reimagined as a gigantic belt-buckle shaped like a boar's head, before being abandoned altogether as a concept, justified in-universe as Sláine having mastered the power of the warp and no longer needing it, although other characters with similar powers still wear one.
  • Sláine's age is seldom mentioned by the narrative and is largely left up to the artist's interpretation, which means he's Older Than They Look in some arcs and Younger Than They Look in others. He is introduced in the first couple of issues as being 19, despite looking like he could be in his mid to late 30s, and closes out the series looking like he's in his mid 20s despite probably being in his late 40s.
• Depraved Bisexual: The Sea-Devils are an entire race of these, as they don't distinguish between male and female. Right after raping and murdering Niamh, Moloch gleefully informs Sláine that he plans to do the same to him.
• Did Not Get the Girl: A rare example of the hero not getting the girl he previously did get. Years after seeing her last, Sláine encounters Nest again as a prisoner of the Fianna, who intend to execute her and use her head as a football to intimidate the enemy army. In order to save her, Sláine produces the head of a Villain of the Week he'd previously slain instead, and kills the entire enemy army with the warp energy he accrued from playing Murderball with the Fianna. He uses the opportunity to propose to Nest, who flatly turns him down, stating that she'd always felt indebted to him for saving her during their earlier adventures and doesn't want to increase her debt to him any further. The normally grim and stoic Sláine looks genuinely upset by this.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Usually once per story arc, sometimes more.
• The Ditz / Too Dumb to Live: Avaggdu. So terminally stupid that when tricked into biting his hands, he doesn't notice they're his and starts devouring himself until there's literally nothing left.
• Dying Reconciliation: Downplayed. When it seems that Sláine has been killed by Slough Feg, his abusive father Roth flies into a rage and tries to strike Feg down with his sword, but is killed in the attempt. Sláine isn't too cut up about it, but remarks that Roth "died better than he lived" and promises to one day avenge him.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Sláine is almost unrecognisable in his first few appearences, being a more straightforward Conan expy with a simpler character design to match; his personality is similar but distinct, being less intelligent and more willing to cooperate with Ukko. The world the stories take place in is a more traditional 2000AD Crapsack World instead of a fantastical iron age Ireland, and though some elements of the world, such as Sky Chariots, Sea Demons and Slough Feg would remain, others like Time Monsters, Leyser weapons and the Macrocosm were phased out.
  • In some cases, certain elements of the earlier stories were changed to better fit the world. Leyser Weapons, mentioned as getting their power from channelling the "Earth-Serpent", became "Serpent Staffs", now functioning more like flamethrowers than lasers. The Macrocosm became a seldom-referenced home of old Gods instead of a Sci-Fi alternate dimension, and the Cythrons that inhabited it changed from a race of Klingon-like aliens into fantasy demons renamed 'the Cyth'.
  • Slough Feg speaks in antiquated, poetic language throughout most of the comic - apart from his first few appearances, where he speaks identically to the rest of the cast.
  • Ukko lampshades the series' Early Installment Weirdness towards the end of the run, suggesting that a broke Sláine earn some money by using his Warp Spasm to do party tricks as he did in the series' first few issues. Sláine is appalled by the suggestion and proclaims that he would never use a sacred gift of the Earth Goddess so frivolously.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Archons, Avaggdu, Crom Cruach, Cythrons, Fomorians, the Guledig, Golamhs, and Els all count to differing degrees.
• Evil Counterpart: Sláine's blood-brother Gort becomes this late in the series; the Drunes having imbued him with the power of the Cyth to give him a Warp Spasm power similar to Sláine's.
• Evil Smells Bad: The Lord Weird Slough Feg, essentially being a living corpse with perpetually rotting flesh, smells absolutely dreadful, to the point where his mooks adorn themselves with primitive gas masks made of straw and plant stems.
• Excrement Statement: When the leader of the Fomorians is dying, he begs Slàine to bring him to the water, as his is a sea bound species. Slàine promptly complies by pissing on him.
• The Fair Folk: The Els, mostly. Sláine's people have bit of this going on as well, despite being human, seeing as they're the Tuatha de Danaan of Irish myth.
• Fanservice: Appart form the copious bloodshed, there's also the fact that many if not most female characters are scantily-clad über-babes. And for those who prefer beefcake to cheesecake, ripped and bare-chested Sláine almost certainly counts.
• Fat Bastard: Sláine's father Roth, who is both a bloated alcoholic and an underhanded schemer who pulls a Batman Gambit that sees his wife killed just because she cheated on him. Although later in a flashback we see that he was quite handsome and athletic in his youth.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • The Cythron girl Oeahoo is tossed to a group of Shadow Demons as a distraction: her physical form is melted away and she is cursed to spend an eternity of agony as nothing more than a shadow.
  • Sláine's second wife Aeife is punished for transforming his foster children into swans by being turned into a living cloud.
• Faux Affably Evil: Odacon, King of the Fomorians, at first presents himself as a Reasonable Authority Figure who is merely looking out for the Atlanteans that his people have enslaved. He frames his orders and demands as mere suggestions and relents if they outright refuse to obey, seems content to share Ireland with the Tribes of the Earth Goddess, and is respectful of his host Gael's privacy; forcing himself into a slumber so Gael can enjoy a moment of intimacy with his wife Scotia. Of course, it's eventually revealed that Odacon will only tolerate dissent for so long, and eventually resorts to torturing and mutilating his hosts in order to force them into obeying him, plans to betray the people of the Earth Goddess and take Ireland for himself, and was only pretending to be asleep so that he could secretly watch Gael and Scotia having sex.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: In an early story, it's mentioned that Sláine and Ukko originally had a third member of their party named Blathnaid, a beautiful thief who would pretend to be a helpless Damsel in Distress, luring would-be good samaritans to Sláine and Ukko who would then rob them blind. It's then revealed that the "Blathnaid" the two reunite with was actually a monstrous serpent who had killed the real Blathnaid and worn her skin as a disguise. After they defeat the serpent, Blathnaid is never mentioned again.
• Frazetta Man: The Avanc from the Horned God arc, though he turns out to be a Last of His Kind Woobie.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Protagonists and antagonists both do this on a regular basis.
• Funny Foreigner: Ukko, the series' resident comic relief, is originally from Karelia.
• Gender-Blender Name: "Sláine" is technically a unisex name in real life but is far more common amongst women.
• Gladiator Revolt: Sláine orchestrated a revolt amongst the Cythrons' human gladiators.
• Good Old Ways: Early on, Sláine prefers stone weapons to bronze or iron; his main complaint being that metal weapons must be straightened when frequently used, and "you know where you stand with stone". He eventually swaps out Brainbiter's stone head for an iron one when he shatters it fighting a dragon, although it maintains an archaic look, leading the Guledig to derisively refer to it as "a clumsy antique".
  • He is also supportive of the ancient idea of a divine matriarchy, which is opposed by both the good Druids and the evil Drunes.
• Gorn: Lots and lots of people and things are splattered all over the place.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Not usually a good thing here, as they tend to take after their more monstrous parent - Elfric, the most prominent, is a thoroughly depraved Humanoid Abomination. Brutus' half-dragon son Alban is another prominent example; he inherits his father's cruelty, but is born too stunted and weak to have power over anyone. Sláine himself is completely disgusted when he finds out he may be the son of an Dev-El who raped his mother, but thankfully this turns out not to be the case.
  • One notable exception is Myrddin, the half-Cythron magician who protects the earth from the machinations of the Cythrons. He is still dark and cruel, as befitting of a Cython, but he's generally pleasant to other humans and his intentions are ultimately good.
• The Hecate Sisters: Danu appears here also as a triple goddess, with her three aspects being Morrigu ^note the Morrigan, for those who know about Celtic mythology as Maiden, Blodeuwedd as Mother, and Cerridwen as Crone.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: In the Macrocosm, Sláine and friends rescue Nest from a Cythron slaver named Oeahoo. Oeahoo pleads ignorance, claiming that she genuinely thought humans were just animals with no higher brain functions, and offers to act as the group's guide on the condition they spare her life. None of them really believe her, and make it clear they would still very much like to kill her, but they take her up on it anyway as they don't have any other option. They end up throwing her to her death to distract a group of Shadow Demons, even as she pleads that she really has reformed and that she's sorry for what she's done. Myrddin claims that "her demonic nature would eventually have reasserted itself", and none of them shed any tears for her, despite there being no indication that her attempt to change her ways was anything but genuine.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Unusually for a Barbarian Hero, Sláine is quite romantically sentimental. He pines for Niamh the entire time they're separated, and is genuinely hurt that she rejects him and remains with her new husband when they reunite. When they do eventually get back together, he takes a second wife as tribal law requires, but feels nothing for her, and remains wholly devoted to Niamh. When Niamh is killed, he is utterly distraught, and never quite gets over it. He also developed a crush on Nest during their time together in his earlier adventures, and tries to propose to her when they see each other again, and once again the normally unflappable Sláine is quite disarmed and upset when she turns him down.
  • Ukko, for all his faults, is shown to be quite a talented writer. The Ever-Living Ones put him in charge of writing a chronicle detailing Sláine’s life, and they enjoy it so much that when he dies of old age before he can complete it, they expend some of their precious life-giving elixir to revive him, despite Nest offering to finish it herself.
• Historical Domain Character: Sláine is technically inspired by the account of Sláine mac Dela, the legendary first High King of Ireland (although the ‘historical’ Sláine is almost certainly a fictional character as well).
• Human Sacrifice: Used by both protagonists and antagonists alike.
• I Call It "Vera": Sláine's axe goes by the charmingly apt name of "Brainbiter".
• Insanity Immunity: In the Cythron realm, the heroes come across a room used by the high priests of the Cythrons to commune with their dark god, which they do by indulging in the Seven Deadly Sins, and the room has some sort of evil enchantment which encourages sinful behaviour. Sláine starts fighting without provocation (Wrath), Nest begins gorging herself on the priests' pantry (Gluttony), Murdach begins hoarding their treasure (Greed), etc. The only people not effected by the enchanted are Myrddin and Ukko. Myrddin because his immense magical powers allow him to overpower the enchantment, and, as Myrddin speculates, Ukko is already so unpleasant that the room encouraging him to be more sinful doesn't really change his personality at all.
  • In a similar vein, a later story shows Ukko being possessed by dozens of demons; while one was enough to drive Sláine himself to the brink of insanity, Ukko is mostly unbothered, treating it as a minor inconvenience.
• Jerkass: Ukko manages to be a little bastard by both modern and in-story moral standards. He tends to remain mostly loyal to Slaine throughout, probably due to having a good sense of self-preservation.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ukko is fairly conniving and cowardly, but when Sláine is in trouble, he toughens up and makes genuine effort to help him. When they finally part ways after many years of travelling together, he starts to cry when Sláine refers to him as his friend.
• Lovecraftian Superpower/One-Winged Angel: Sláine's "warp-spasm" causes him to mutate into grotesquely ugly forms while gaining incredible strength, resilience and bloodlust.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Towards the end of the comic's run, Sláine is revealed to be the biological son of the rogue druid Duban, rather than Roth. However, he still thinks of Roth as his father, and integrates both of them into his ancestor worship, from which he derives part of his magical battle prowess.
• Malicious Misnaming:
  • Gododin calls Sláine "Sláine Mac Nothing", a derisive reference to Roth not actually being his biological father.
  • The Trojans call Britannia 'Brutania', in reference to its conquest by their king, Brutus.
• No Ending: In the final issue, Sláine is shown to be gathering an army of monsters, low-lifes and criminals to start a rebellion against Brutus and the Trojans. He carries out a daring raid on Brutus' personal fortress and humiliates Brutus by revealing his half-dragon son Alban to his subjects, before stealing a dragon for himself, and then...it ends, with all plot threads left dangling and all living characters apart from Sláine and Brutus unaccounted for.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Brutania Chronicles story arc doesn't actually have very much to do with Brutus' conquest of Britannia, which occurs almost entirely off-screen. Brutus does make an appearance, but only in the final few pages.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Invoked by the "good" guys with the cauldron-born undead, who are used for the greatest battles (mostly against the Fomorians).
• One-Man Army: Sláine regularly takes on whole armies and eldritch abominations (even whole armies of eldritch abominations at times) and comes out on top, mostly through raw brutality - or supernatural powers that push that raw brutality up to eleven.
• Our Demons Are Different:
  • The Fomorians, or Sea-Devils, are a race of amphibious Always Chaotic Evil reptillian humanoids who are said to come from a northern land of ice and snow called Lochlann, and they desire to take the (relatively) warmer climes of Britain and Ireland for themselves. In earlier portrayals, they were generic Fish People mooks who functioned a bit like typical fantasy orcs. They had green skin, dressed in fur and wielded axes, spoke in broken English, ate from communal feeding pits full of gruel, and their lust for money was their primary motivation; working as mercenaries and exacting harsh taxes on the human populations they controlled by cutting off the noses of any who couldn't pay them. Later stories would drastically redesign them into Body Horror monstrosities, looking more like skinless lizard-men with oversized anglerfish-like teeth who reproduce by raping human women and having their montsrous offspring chew their way out of the womb. Their culture and motivations were also changed to be more inhuman and eldritch; they feed on the fear and anger of lesser beings and eat their souls to sustain themselves, with human tears being analogous to seasoning and also functioning as their currency. According to Moloch, they don't really distinguish between positive and negative sensations or emotions, and so are just as happy to torture and murder as they are to be tortured and murdered themselves.
    • They also seem to have some sort of blood purity hierarchy amongst themselves; after their battle, Sláine sarcastically asks Moloch if he wants to mourn the deaths of his fellows and Moloch scoffs in response, saying that he feels nothing for the death of "half-breeds", but admits he does feel a pang of sadness for the "fullbloods" like Balor. Moloch himself is said to be an "Albino White", the most high-ranking of all Fomorians. Higher-Ranking Fomorians like Moloch can shapeshift and take on a human form, but they don't tend to use the ability very often, as people find them totally repulsive no matter what they look like.
    • There exists a sub-race of Fomorians called 'Quinotaurs' who originate in the southern parts of the world. Unlike their northernly cousins, they are entirely aquatic, and are helpless on land. In order to circumvent this, they attach themselves to humans (their preference, but any sufficiently large mammal will do in a pinch) and act as puppeteer parasites. In return, the human host is granted superhuman strength and the ability to breathe underwater and swim at incredible speeds, but the Quinotaur can exert control over their body, they come down with an unbearable itching sensation if they go too long without swimming, and they will die if the Quinotaur is ever removed or voluntarily detaches themselves (they can survive a short time without a host, but are pretty helpless when doing so).
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Averted. Dwarves in Sláine are ugly, rude, mostly hairless, lecherous, greedy, goblin-like creatures. They're thieves and scavengers, not warriors; and while they do have a fondness for gold, they don't use it for artistic or economic purposes like most fantasy Dwarves, instead just hoarding it and sleeping on it, not unlike Smaug. A dwarf in the early stories does have the ability to create enchanted weapons by quenching them in the blood of heroes.
  • Titan dwarves, seen in the d20 roleplaying game, are closer to the standard dwarf, and are able to craft magical items or brew magical beers.
• Our Elves Are Different: They're alien beings from the "Els-Where", dimensions that exist at right angles to our own. Malevolent ones are called "Dev-Els", while relatively neutral ones are called "Ang-Els".
• Out-of-Genre Experience: The Time Killer arc saw Sláine venture into the realm of science fiction, fighting against a horde of warlike aliens who conducted genetic experiments on humans and exploring other worlds and dimensions with the aid of allies plucked from different points in time. Although it introduced many concepts and characters that would be important for Sláine's future, it was only the second major arc, and was written before the series had really established its identity as being firmly rooted in Celtic Mythology, which led to much of it being retconned or changed to better fit the more fantastical setting of the series going forward.
• Path of Inspiration: It's strongly implied most monotheistic religions as we know them are fronts for Cosmic Horror gods.
• Religion of Evil: The cult of the Drunes estabished by the Lord Weird Slough Feg; any religion that has anything to do with the Cythrons.
• Retcon: The Horned God arc begins with the framing device of an elderly Ukko writing a chronicle detailing Sláine's life, with the narration explicitly stating that Sláine has died. Later on in the arc, it's established that Sláine will be executed after he has reigned as High King of Ireland for seven years, as is the Sessair tribe's custom. However, in a later arc, Sláine abdicates his position as High King and the Sessair are sent to live in the realm of the Earth Goddess, apparently letting him off the hook.
• The Role-Playing Game: A "D20 System" adaptation was released by Mongoose Publishing in 2002, and replaced with a Traveller based adaptation in 2007. The d20 version benefited from several expansions in Mongoose Publishing's "Signs & Portents" magazine.
• Serial Adulterer: Sláine's mother Macha turns out to have been one; having cheated on her husband Roth with no less than three men. Unusually, while Macha is for the most part portrayed as a very positive example of a Spirited Young Lady, she isn't really shown to have any excuse for cheating, as Roth was (at the time) a courageous warrior and fairly good looking to boot. Sinead remarks that she "lived for adventure, even at other women's expense."
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Sláine sends Ukko away before he goes to confront the Fomorian general Moloch, giving him some money to start a new life for himself in Albion. The series took a more serious tone from this point on, although Ukko usually shows up at least once per arc to dole out some comic relief.
• Sidekick: Ukko the dwarf to Sláine, mostly a mix of Sarcastic Devotee, Servile Snarker and (not so) Lovable Traitor. They eventually part ways, although Sláine still comes around to check on him from time to time, and despite all their bickering the two are clearly quite fond of one another.
• Stripperific: While none of the series' prominent female characters leave much to the imagination, Sinead is probably the most traditional example of this; her wardrobe consists entirely of a narrow strip of leather covering her nipples, some skintight stockings covering her shins, and a very, very short leather miniskirt.
• Time Travel: The Mother Goddess sent Sláine on several cross-time adventures (to the future, from his point of view) so he could influence events in favor of Celtic ways — he ended up helping Boudicca's rebellion against the Romans, being the inspiration for Robin Goodfellow and ensuring Celtic traditions wouldn't be completely wiped out by Christianity, even lending a hand to William Wallace (who is amusingly enough portrayed in a more historically accurate way than in Braveheart).
• Too Kinky to Torture: When Sláine travels back to post-Arthurian times, Sir Lancelot has taken refuge in a monastery. Slaine's rival and his mooks take the place over and proceed to torture Lancelot to discover the location of a magical chessboard. Problem is, Lancelot feels he should be punished for his affair with Guinevere and even offers the mooks his own equipment to torture him with.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Quinotaur possessing Fais, Gael’s obsessive ex-lover, voluntarily detaches itself from her, risking both their lives, because it finds her incessant rambling about how much she loves Gael to be utterly unbearable. To solve the problem, it chooses a headless corpse as its next host.
  Fais: You can’t choose him! He hasn’t got any eyes!
  Quinotaur: He hasn’t got a tongue, either.
• Turbulent Priest: Cathbad the Druid is this to Sláine during his time as High King of the Sessair. Although he respects Sláine's right to rule, he is irritated by his constant shirking of his kingly duties and his deference to the Earth Goddess, who Cathbad thinks of as being fickle and dangerous.
• Unequal Rites: During the Fomorian invasion of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danan’s sacred weapons like the Sun Spear, the Sword of the Moon and Cauldron of Blood - deriving their power from the Earth Goddess Danu - are brought to bear against the Serpent Staffs of the Fomorians, which are fuelled by a magical connection to their dark god Aten. While Danu’s weapons are certainly effective, with the Fomorian king Odacon even admiring their craftsmanship, they simply can’t compete with the raw killing potential of the Serpent Staffs. The Tuatha de Danan are almost immediately forced to surrender, and Sláine’s first act of rebellion is to acquire a stockpile of Serpent Staffs for his own people to use.
• The Vamp: Medb really enjoys using her feminine charms to get her way.
• Villainous Legacy: The Lord Weird Slough Feg's son Gododin takes up his mantle as Lord Weird, and seeks to avenge his father by killing Sláine. He's so sure of himself that he summons Slough Feg's spirit to watch him achieve his victory, but when he fails, Slough Feg scorns him as a pathetic failure, which only angers Gododin further.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Sláine usually dresses that way. Sometimes he doesn't bother dressing, period.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The abrupt No Ending and the choice to make the final arc somewhat of a Soft Reboot with no major returning characters means that many plotlines were left hanging by the series' end. Villains like the Guledig and Gododin are still kicking around both last seen swearing revenge against Sláine, the Fomorians and the Cyth still have a presence in Britain and the cosmic Eldritch Abomination Archons are not shown intervening in the world directly, as the penultimate arc suggested they would.
  • The half-Cythron wizard Myrddin is dropped off at the Eternal Fortress with Nest and Murchad at the end of the Tomb of Terror arc, and even delivers some ominous parting words to Sláine. While Nest, Murchad and the Eternal Fortress all later reappear, Myrddin is never seen again.
• Xenafication:
  • Nest is introduced as a helpless Damsel in Distress type, but starts to become more comfortable with rough travelling and violence during her time with Sláine. The last time we see her, she's taken a gap year from her druidic college to be a mercenary (although she unfortunately ends up on the losing side).
  • Niamh is similarly introduced as a Girl in the Tower who Sláine angers his tribe by eloping with. By the time we see her in the present, she's cut her hair short, adorned herself in tattoos, and handily defeats a group of Fomorian bandits without even using a weapon.
• You Don't Look Like You: The earth goddess Danu appears in the flesh a few times over the course of the comic’s run, and looks and acts dramatically different each time. In her first appearance, she’s something of a playful but fickle Yandere tomboy with a lean, brawny physique, exaggerated cartoonish facial expressions, and long, voluminous red hair. Her next appearance kept the red hair, but altered her features to be more conventionally attractive and gave her a heavy-set voluptuous figure, which she now doesn’t hide beneath a robe, with her personality being kinder and less abrasive. Her fickleness was brought back and dialled up to 11 for her next appearance, where she’s introduced hunting down Sláine with a crossbow while riding on the back of a giant boar. This time around, her red hair is replaced with white-hot spiky Flaming Hair from which she emits a golden aura, and has more of a slender, petite build, although she remains naked. Her final appearance is the most dramatically different, taking the form of a Plant Person made of flowers and mushrooms with hammerhead shark-like protrusions on the sides of her head, and again has a kinder, more benevolent personality.