History Literature / BaptismOfFire

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skat_(card_game) skat]]

* {{Calvinball}}: Gwent is actually this, which might be some surprise to the game players. The rules aren't really described in any detail, and a round seems to consist mostly of shouting and threatening other players with wooden clubs (which aren't actually used too often but sure get waved around a lot).

* AxCrazy: Ciri starts becoming this more and more, to the point she's begun frightening the other rats.

* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: ...''liquid''... ''ichor''... ''[[UnusualEuphemism hemoglobin]]''...

* BadassCrew: Geralt's hanse is, quite possibly, the most dangerous group ever assembled on the Continent given they're all peers of him in combat [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg ...except for Dandelion]].

* FiveManBand: Geralt's hanse gets a start in here.
** TheLeader: Geralt
** TheLancer: Cahir
** TheBigGuy: Milva
** TheSmartGuy: Regis
** TheChick: Dandelion

* OverlyLongName: as revealed in this book, Geralt wanted to initially call himself Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde, but Vesemir explained to him how awful it sounds, so he picked a random city, becoming Geralt Of Rivia. He mentions that in the presence of [[BlackKnight Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach]] and [[TheMedic Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy]], who both felt insulted and start explaining the origins of their names. Well, them and Julian Alfred Pankratz, viscount de Lettenhove, but no one calls [[spoiler: Dandelion]] that, ''ever''.

* OverlyLongName: as revealed in this book, Geralt wanted to initially call himself Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde, but Vesemir explained to him how awful it sounds, so he picked a random city, becoming Geralt Of Rivia. He mentions that in the presence of [[BlackKnight Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach]] and [[TheMedic Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy]], who both felt insulted and start explaining the origins of their names.

* HitchhikerHeroes: Geralt insists on setting off to find Ciri alone, but finds no shortage of colorful characters who insist they come with him for one reason or another.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The entirety of the war is portrayed as a pointless waste of lives.

* XanatosGambit: Philippa Eilhart has one of these involving marrying Ciri to the ruler of Kovir to create a magocracy across the North.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: in description of Geralt's actions during the Thanedd coup. In loose transcription:

* BadassCrew: Geralt's hanse is, quite possibly, the most dangerous group ever assembled on the Continent given they're all peers of him in combat [[AndZoidberg ...except for Dandelion.]]
* BlindJump: a magical variety, involving teleportation to the place of origin of a random item.

* BurnTheWitch: the party stumbles upon a very burn-happy cleric just about to burn a woman for witchcraft.
* CerebusSyndrome: from this book, the cycle starts getting but darker and darker.

* GrayAndGrayMorality: The entirety of the war is portrayed as a pointless waste of lives.

* NobodyHereButUsBirds: played for laughs. When Zoltan Chivay tells the gang he'll signal them by making a sparrowhawk's call, they call him on not even knowing how a sparrowhawk sounds. So he points out that if they hear a weird, unidentifiable noise, they'll know it's him.

** TheLancer: Milva
** TheBigGuy: Cahir

* CoolSword: the Dwarven sihill.

While Geralt recuperates from the injuries he sustained at Thanedd, the Nilfgaard Empire conquers half of the Northern lands and scares the rest into submission. As soon as he can, he goes out searching for the disappeared Ciri and is joined by a [[spoiler:pregnant]] [[ActionGirl archer girl]] Milva, Dandelion the SpoonyBard, Cahir the Nilfgaardian knight who saved Ciri in Cintra, and a [[spoiler:VegetarianVampire]] scholar and healer named Regis. Along the way, they are accompanied by dwarf Zoltan Chivay and his gang. Yennefer is nowhere to be seen; as such, she is presumed to be one of the ringleaders of the Thanedd coup. The truth, however, is more complicated, being related to the machinations of a freshly started sorcerous secret society. Meanwhile, stranded in unfamiliar land, Ciri unexpectedly finds [[LipstickLesbian love]] and [[TrueCompanions family]] within a gang of teenage highwaymen, Rats.

* FriendlyEnemy: Fringella and Yennefer form this relationship given both make it abundantly clear they hate the other for their role at Sodden Hill. They do, however, share goals of opposing the Lodge's plans.

[[quoteright:333:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9781478934523_us.jpg]]

* BadassCrew: Geralt's hanse is, quite possibly, the most dangerous group ever assembled on the Continent given they're all peers of him [[AndZoidberg ...and Dandelion.]]

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Regis is this and indicates that it's mostly prejudice that makes higher vampires treated this way. Geralt is aware this a lies due to ''Literature/TheLastWish.'' However, it seems that vampires are certainly ''no worse'' than humanity.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Regis is this and indicates that it's mostly prejudice that makes higher vampires treated this way. Geralt is aware this a lies due to ''Literature/TheLastWitch.'' However, it seems that vampires are certainly ''no worse'' than humanity.