History Literature / CodexAlera

* WedLocking: Discussed in ''First Lord's Fury, when [[spoiler:Tavi]] discovers that [[spoiler:Kitai]] is pregnant. He suggests that they could [[AltarTheSpeed get married]] right now so their child won't be seen as a bastard, but they ultimately decide to wait and get properly married when the war is over.

** Senator Arnos orders [[spoiler:an entire town of innocent civilians executed "for conspiring with the enemy" (read: not essentially committing mass suicide by fighting a hopeless battle against a vastly superior enemy) after the town is liberated]]. He does it for the sole purpose of having an excuse to remove Tavi from command of his Legion when Tavi balks at the order. He also fully intends to carry through with the order even when Tavi gives him a better reason to remove the captain from command, because he's just that kind of asshole.

** [[spoiler:High Lord Kalarus]] is killed by not only [[spoiler:the father of the man he murdered, but by the enraged Great Fury he had previously leashed to his will as part of a bid to [[TakingYouWithMe take as many innocent people with him when he was killed]].

** High Lord Kalarus, in his bid to overthrow the throne and take it for himself, demonstrated that such petty things as "morals" or "humanity" do not concern him. When he [[IHaveYourWife kidnaps the wife and daughter of two High Lords in order to blackmail them into non-action]] he puts one of them in the same room as the five year old daughter of his spymaster and explains to her that, should she try to escape, his security systems will kill the child first and ''then'' try to stop her.
** Senator Arnos [[spoiler: orders an entire town of civilians executed "for conspiring with the enemy" after the town is liberated. He does it for the sole purpose of having an excuse to remove Tavi from command of his Legion when Tavi balks at the order. He fully intends to carry through with the order even when Tavi gives him a better reason to remove the captain from command, because he's just that kind of asshole. He's also responsible for alaes of mercenary cavalry in the Senatorial Guard slaughtering innocent steadholts throughout the region so as to draw the Free Aleran Legion into a fight and get credit for ending a slave revolt. Notably, even the '''Canim''' are revolted by the latter actions, with them fully planning on wiping out all of the remaining Aleran Legions in the Amaranth Vale so as to avenge the dead civilians]].

* SequelHook: In the epilogue, [[spoiler:Alera reveals to Tavi that the Vord Queen in Canea will be ready to cross the sea in one-hundred and fifty years, and he - or rather his descendants - had better be well prepared.]]

* ShoottheMedicFirst: A favored tactic among the vord is to primarily go after the watercrafters first.

* YouAreNotAlone: Tavi's reassurance to Kitai in Academ’s Fury [[spoiler:when he figures out that he has been bound to her as her ''chala'', her totem and [[BondCreatures Bond Creature]]. Marat tribes are based on having the same totem, and since no other Marat has an Aleran as a ''chala'', Kitai has no tribe and she feels utterly miserable and alone as consequence]]. She takes this to heart, as when Isana later tries to comfort her for being alone in Captain’s Fury, a smiling Kitai retorts that she is not.

** The highly advanced and massive crossbows created by the Canim are referred to as “balests.” Additionally, the [[spoiler:catapults]] re-invented by Octavian and Bernard in ''First Lord’s Fury'' are called “mules” since [[spoiler:the force of their released payloads causes one end of their structure to leap up in a manner reminiscent of a donkey kicking out its hind legs]].

** The first book portrays Furies as more akin to Pokemon; each Crafter has command of two elements at most, and gains access through an individual Fury that they have a personal relationship with. From the second book on, most Crafters have an aptitude for one or two elements but can command at least five to some degree, and are able to call on any Fury in the environment around them rather than using a specific one that follows them around. This is addressed as being a cultural difference, with rural Crafters opting for depth and urban Crafters preferring breadth, but runs into issues with many characters introduced early on fitting into the wrong category of Furycrafting for their backstory.

%% Soldiers in this setting are referred to as "legionare", plural "legionari", not "legionnaire" or "legionnaires". Keep this in mind when spelling.%%

** All Legions have the standard merchant, vagabond and prostitute followers. Women have a mandatory term of service in the followers during their late-teens/early-twenties where they serve as cooks, seamstresses, etc. for the Legions. There is the implicit instruction to also serve as a dating pool for the Legions, with dialogue indicating that the real purpose young women are assigned is to make sure that ''legionari'' reproduce and have available wives; Isana says that when she had a miscarriage during her term of service the Legion commander said she had fulfilled her duty and sent her home.

** Mistress Cymnea's ladies are well practiced in earthcrafting, to better stir the loins of weary ''legionari''. [[spoiler:Tavi conscripts them as combat engineers to be ready to destroy a key bridge if need be, given their many years of practice with earthcrafting]].

** When the Vord first attack Aricholt, Amara draws a sword and manages to save several ''legionari'' and the holders that they were protecting. When Giraldi says that she did good "for a, uh..." she asks if he meant good for "a woman", and he responds that she did good for a ''civilian''. Bernard cannot help but laugh.

* RedShirt: Tons of people without names die, from legionaries to civilians, as situations spiral increasingly out of control.

* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The Aleran legions were so successful in crushing all their enemies early in their history that in the story's present day it was possible for someone to serve an entire three-year tour of duty in a legion and not fight a single battle unless they were from an area near the Shieldwall (the only remaining border that sees combat on a regular basis). As a result, most of the legions are green and unprepared for a Canim invasion, a civil war, and the Vord attack happening in rapid succession. Isana's arc in the fifth book is to negotiate a ceasefire on the Shieldwall so that all the northern legions, which contain the bulk of the country's elite ''legionari'', can be freed up to fight the Vord.

** Kitai, as one of the Marat, does not have any furies to lend her super-human strength or speed [[spoiler: (well, not until book 3, at least)]], but her life as a "barbarian" has given her the martial prowess of a legionnaire nonetheless.

** All Legions have the standard merchant, vagabond and prostitute followers. Women have a mandatory term of service in the followers during their late-teens/early-twenties where they serve as cooks, seamstresses, etc. for the Legions. There is the implicit instruction to also serve as a dating pool for the Legions, with dialogue indicating that the real purpose young women are assigned is to make sure that ''legionnaires'' reproduce and have available wives; Isana says that when she had a miscarriage during her term of service the Legion commander said she had fulfilled her duty and sent her home.

** Mistress Cymnea's ladies are well practiced in earthcrafting, to better stir the loins of weary legionnaires. [[spoiler:Tavi conscripts them as combat engineers to be ready to destroy a key bridge if need be, given their many years of practice with earthcrafting]].

* DeathByOriginStory: Tavi's father was a member of the Crown Legion and his mother was a member of the camp followers, both of whom were killed by the Marat at the First Battle of Calderon. As a result, Tavi was raised by his Aunt Isana and Uncle Bernard, his mother's older siblings. [[spoiler: Except it turns out that his father was not a ''legionnare'' in the Crown Legion, but rather the Princeps Gaius Septimus, and his mother is actually Isana, who claimed to be his aunt in order to obscure his heritage.]]

** When the Vord first attack Aricholt, Amara draws a sword and manages to save several ''legionnares'' and the holders that they were protecting. When Giraldi says that she did good "for a, uh..." she asks if he meant good for "a woman", and he responds that she did good for a ''civilian''. Bernard cannot help but laugh.

* MinoredInAsskicking: Magnus. Archeologist-professor-butler by day, spymaster by night, and retired legionnaire.

* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The Aleran legions were so successful in crushing all their enemies early in their history that in the story's present day it was possible for someone to serve an entire three-year tour of duty in a legion and not fight a single battle unless they were from an area near the Shieldwall (the only remaining border that sees combat on a regular basis). As a result, most of the legions are green and unprepared for a Canim invasion, a civil war, and the Vord attack happening in rapid succession. Isana's arc in the fifth book is to negotiate a ceasefire on the Shieldwall so that all the northern legions, which contain the bulk of the country's elite legionnaires, can be freed up to fight the Vord.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Realm of Alera is a society very similar to Rome at the peak of its empire. Justified since it was founded by a LostRomanLegion.
** Invidia after her [[spoiler:fight with Attis in First Lord’s Fury. The fact that the narration often refers to her as “the burned woman” should serve as a good indicator of how far she’s fallen in terms of physical beauty]].

** All of the ancient enemies the Alerans fought several hundred years ago - at the ''least'' - before the start of the series are only mentioned by Amara in passing by name[[note]][[/note]] in ''Princeps' Fury'', and all other details are completely left up in the air.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: The series's main couples (Tavi and Kitai, Amara and Bernard) get it on explicitly, frequently, and enthusiastically.

** [[spoiler:Gaius Desiderius Tavarus, born of Tavi and Kitai]].

** Lord and Lady Placida. When Aria has been kidnapped, her husband specifies that he knows that many of the Lords of Alera marry for political reasons, but he married her for love.

* HappinessInSlavery: What eventually happens to people with discipline collars on them. Considering the [[MindRape methods employed]], this is not necessarily a good thing.

** In ''Academ's Fury''

** In ''Princeps Fury'', [[spoiler:First Lord Gaius draws in the Vord host before detonating the Great Fury beneath Alera Imperia. Less than a tenth of the Vord manage to escape]].
** ''First Lord's Fury''

*** [[spoiler:Lord Cereus, in full PapaWolf mode, flies himself into the last vordbulk's mouth and blows himself up, killing the mammoth monster to save his surviving daughter and his dead sons' children]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Phrygius Cyricus is the second son of High Lord Phrygius, only sixteen years old and described as being painfully thin and speaking with a stammer. Despite this, he is left in command of Phrygia in his father's absence and has apparently gained the respect of the ''legionares'' and leaders of Phrygia through his past actions. When he shows his competence, forethought, and initiative, Varg, Tavi, and Kitai speak of how he reminds them of a young Tavi and they banter over which of them will get to hire him after the crisis.

* HiveQueen: The Vord Queen mentally controls her swarm, but only to a certain range. One can tell if the Queen is close based on the effectiveness of the vord in battle.

* HorseOfADifferentColor

* HugeHolographicHead: The most powerful watercrafters can create life-size, full-color images of themselves in water to communicate at a distance. In the last book, [[spoiler:Tavi and the Vord Queen]] figure out that if you do not bother to make it two-way, you can project copies of the image to ''every body of water in the country''.
* HumanityIsInfectious: [[spoiler:The Vord Queen is more human-like than her predecesors or her offspring because of Tavi and Kitai's blood mingling with her larva form]].

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: This is the Canims' viewpoint, given how much they kill each other over leadership and other reasons. The series itself mostly shows humans as no better and no worse than the other races, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality just different.]]]]

* IgnoredExpert: Nobody believes Bernard about the threat the Vord pose. He eventually just gives up on trying to convince [[ObstructiveBureaucrat the idiots]] and starts fortifying the Calderon Valley instead, but Ehren believes that Bernard ''had'' convinced the First Lord and had been operating under secret orders to prepare for an invasion.

** The Vord Mantis-Warriors in ''First Lord's Fury'' tend to do this. [[spoiler:One almost kills Ehren such, pinning him to a fortress wall in the process.]]

* InterspeciesRomance: Tavi, a human, and Kitai, a Marat. The two species are [[HumanAliens almost identical]], with the only physical difference being that Marat have a higher body temperature and a shorter gestation period for fetuses. They can also [[spoiler: interbreed with humans]], though mutual longstanding hostility between them means no one knows this is possible.

* InvisibilityCloak: [[spoiler:Far from its intended use, Amara and Bernard use fury-infused cloth that can change color to the wear's liking as invisibility cloaks]].

* ItCanThink: The Vord, when commanded by a queen. This is especially evident the first time they show up as a major threat, when they have not yet built up a truly absurd numerical advantage and fight a guerilla war instead.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Amara and Aria [[spoiler:as dawn arrives on the first day of the final stand in Calderon.]]

** In the sixth book, after Invidia's [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder sudden but inevitable betrayal]] of [[spoiler:the Vord Queen, the Vord queen]] isn't even particularly mad about it because it's just what Invidia does.

* IUhYouTo: Of the platonic variety - In First Lord’s Fury, the Awakened Vord Queen quietly tells [[spoiler:[[TheQuisling Invidia]]]] that “You are not replaceable,” and then adds as she is about to leave for battle “I will therefore sacrifice you the most reluctantly. I would prefer it if you took whatever action you could to avoid becoming the victory of chance.” Considering how the Vord are a HiveMind HordeOfAlienLocusts, it serves as a pretty startling example both InUniverse and out of just how IntriguedByHumanity the Awakened Queen has become.

* JoinTheArmyTheySaid: A variation. Gaius promotes Count Gram of Calderon Valley to a Lordship and gives him a place to relax in relative retirement in the lovely Aramanth Vale, plains of good fields and easy work. Gram later calls Gaius a confidence man because [[spoiler:the Vord have taken over the domain and ruined his retirement, forcing him to act once more]].

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Invidia]] died by being stabbed in the back.

** Senator Arnos [[spoiler: orders an entire town of civilians executed "for conspiring with the enemy" after the town is liberated. He does it for the sole purpose of having an excuse to remove Tavi from command of his Legion when Tavi balks at the order. He fully intends to carry through with the order even when Tavi gives him a better reason to remove the captain from command, because he's just that kind of asshole.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Lady Aquitaine's ultimate fate. She was offered a choice between helping her fellow Alerans against the Vord Queen or follow the Queen's command to kill the remaining High Lords and Ladies. Not seconds after she chose to side with the Vord Queen, Amara rams a stone-tipped spear through her chest from behind and with a stone dagger she cuts her throat]].

* LawOfInverseFertility: Amara was rendered infertile in her youth due to the blight, and toward the end of the series finally reconciles herself to having no children and adopting wayward orphans. [[spoiler: It is after she accepts this that the blight damage to her womb is healed by the Blessing of the Night, and she becomes pregnant]].

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: PlayedForLaughs in ''First Lord’s Fury'' when the [[spoiler:Alerans literally ride the Canim piggy-back style to take advantage of the remaining furycrafted causeways since Tavi needs both the Canim army and his own forces to do a quick march to Riva and the Canim cannot use furycrafting]]. While it proves to be surprisingly effective, neither the Canim nor the Alerans involved are happy with the plan, and everyone essentially resolves to never talk about it again.

* LightningBruiser: The Vord. They are fast, come in [[ZergRush huge numbers]], are almost impossible to kill, and if directed by a Queen, are smart. The Vord Queen also qualifies, seeing as [[ImmuneToBullets balest bolts bounce off her skin]], she can craft better than any Aleran, is faster than any windcrafter and stronger than the Canim. It takes the efforts of Tavi, Kitai, [[spoiler:and two great furies]] to put her out of commission.

** Kitai [[spoiler:first gains Tavi's green eyes as a result of their bonding]]. Tavi doesn't understand what that really means until two books later.

** When the First and Second Senatorial Legions are introduced in "Captain's Fury", it is revealed that the officer originally slated for command of the First suffered a fatal accident before they could march. In a [[PlayingWithATrope play]] on the trope, it was not his replacement doing the killing in order to advance his career, but Senator Arnos seeking to make sure that he had somebody in the position he could control.

* MamaBear: Do not make Isana angry.
* ManipulativeBastard: Gaius Sextus is legendary throughout Alera for his skill and abilities in pitting his enemies against one another. Unfortunately, this is also his downfall, as many of his enemies ''became'' his enemies when they saw how preoccupied he was with keeping his ''other'' enemies at one anothers throats instead of planning for his succession.

* MasterSwordsman: Any Knight Ferrous is this by definition. Araris Valerian, Aldrick ex Gladius, and Phrygiar Navaris are the three most significant to the story, and each of them has a deserved reputation as one of the top blades in Alera. Araris is ''probably'' the best, though Aldrick once famously dueled him to a draw, and he admits himself that it could go either way between him and Navaris.
* MathematiciansAnswer: In Princeps’ Fury, when Kitai asks if Tavi is studying the Vord or the Canim while overlooking Shuar’s battle plans, Tavi simply replies with "Yes."

** Amara and Bernard. Bernard is approaching middle age, whereas Amara is just entering adulthood.

* MistakenForGay: [[DownplayedTrope Briefly]], when Max notices that Tavi has stopped complaining about being separated from Kitai, he says that it is good Tavi finally got himself a woman to take his mind off things. When Tavi explains that he has not gotten himself a woman, Max asks if it was a boy instead. Tavi has to explain that he has not had ''any'' kind of sexual partner.

* MrFanservice: Max and Bernard, along with Tavi and Araris in the later novels.
* MsFanservice: Kitai in the later novels.

* MundaneUtility: All of the different types of furies and their crafters have some form of mundane utility; wind-crafting allows for flight, earth-crafting increases strength to the point that loads in the hundreds of kilograms are no issue and active earth-crafting can be used to make buildings or drag minerals up to the surface (either ore for mining or nutrients for farming plants, though the latter is usually an emergency measure and is mentioned as making the soil unusable for farming after a few seasons worth of growth), water-crafters are healers, metal-crafters are smiths and have endurance that allows them to block out pain or keep going for days, wood-crafters can manipulate any form of plant life, making them excellent farmers--and archers--and firecrafters create the equivalent of both lightbulbs and refrigeration. The economy is so based on fury-crafting that most forms of technological development have completely stagnated.
* MyGodYouAreSerious: When Tavi suggests that Ehren attempt to make contact with Nasaug, the war leader of the Canim, Ehren burts out laughing before he realizes that Tavi is not joking.

** Tavi and Kitai are inadvertently responsible for the awakening of the Vord. They do fix it, however, though it takes a while.
** In the final battle, Tavi leads the Vord Queen to the Great Furies of the Calderon Valley, and accidentally gives her the idea of claiming them, which would make her unstoppable. Kitai is appropriately exasperated.
* NighInvulnerable: The Vord Queens are ''far'' more durable than anything made of flesh and bone (and chitin) ought to be.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Lady Aquitaine, conspirator extraordinaire, gets shot with a poisoned crossbow bolt while [[VoluntaryShapeshifting in disguise as a washerwoman]]. The combination of the two highly deadly poisons on the bolt plus the fact that the bolt went through her back and out through her chest reportedly kills her within minutes despite the best efforts of the healers. But her [[NeverFoundTheBody body was not in the morgue]] when the guy who shot her went to make sure.]] The fifth book reveals that [[spoiler: she was indeed mortally wounded, but was able to heal enough to get away... where she was found by a Vord Queen who offered to keep her alive in exchange for her loyalty.]]

* NotNowKiddo: Bernard to Frederic, regarding the vord parasite he has captured in a cup.

* OffhandBackhand: Walker provides the Gargant equivalent when charged by a mantis Vord in ''First Lords Fury''. The creature charges with berserk fury until Walker squashes it while paying next to no attention to it.
* OfficialCouple: Tavi and Kitai, Bernard and Amara, and [[spoiler:Isana and Araris]].

** MassOhCrap: Also common, but especially notable when [[spoiler: the Vord Queen pulls a OneHitKO on a High Lord.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In her first chapters, Amara finds herself and Fidelias captured by Aldrick and Odiana. Fidelias gives her a cynical and defeated line before being carried off to "be killed." Through her grief, Amara reviews the facts and realizes while the mission was hers to plan, Fidelias should have noticed the trap and gave her some warning, should have given her different words before being carried off. The fact he fails clues her in on his having betrayed the Crown and that he is actually working with these mercenaries.
* OpenSecret: The Cursors are officially the messengers of the First Lord, but everyone knows that they are also the First Lord's spies and special operatives. It gets to the point that some people are actually surprised when they are reminded of their official job.

** In ''First Lord's Fury'' Gaius set things up against Lord Aquitaine. [[spoiler:He adopts the man to be Tavi's younger brother, giving the country a good leader until Tavi returns. Knowing Attis isn't likely to give up this seat of power, Gaius gives him Ehren, one of the weakest crafters in the story, as his personal valet. Gaius also gave Ehren secret orders to kill Lord Aquitaine if he doesn't give up the position. Ehren wins and kills the man in such a way, Lord Aquitaine is this trope twice over by this point]].

* RealityEnsues: As powerful as the High Lords and Ladies are, [[OneManArmy with the ability to destroy small armies on their own when they unleash their furycrafting,]] they are not invincible. Indeed, the most common way they end up being killed is by sneak attacks or being surprised in combat. Invidia is nearly killed in ''Academ's Fury'' when several Vord sneak up on her, and in ''Captain's Fury'' she is [[spoiler:nearly fatally-wounded by a balest bolt shot by Fidelias, and only saved by the Vord Queen]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Bernard, Giraldi, Lord and Lady Placida, Lord Ceres and Gaius Sextus.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Amara gives one to Invidia ''First Lord's Fury'', then Isana to Invidia and the Vord Queen later in the same novel.

** Tavi needs to get Kitai to [[spoiler:the citadel to help protect Gaius from some Taken Cane. When the second set of guards see Kitai, Tavi stops them from killing her by claiming she is the Ambassador of the Marat. It works and they get in]].
** In general, this is one of Tavi's most common techniques. Other highlights include [[spoiler:crossing an entire continent in a couple of days, breaking into the setting's most impregnable prison ''twice'', and allying centuries-old enemies of Alera. Twice.]]

* RescueRomance: After Bernad pulls Amara out of the frozen, flooding Rillwater river, the two of them warm by the fire and Amara leans in to kiss Bernard. [[SubvertedTrope He pulls away]], [[AboveTheInfluence pointing out that she is cold and injured and it would be taking advantage to pursue the matter]]. [[DoubleSubverted They get together later on anyway]].

** Valiar Marcus was in retirement for many years after his time at the Shieldwall. As far as anyone knew, he was living quietly on a steadholt. He is still a dangerous and capable fighter who lost little step when he came back into service of the First Aleran.
* RiddleForTheAges: When Aldrick ex Gladius explains to Fidelias why it is that he hates Gaius Sextus, Fidelias claims that there is something more that Aldrick is not telling him. Aldrick admits that there ''is'' something more, but refuses to say what. Though later books do delve into Aldrick's history, including how he and Odiana became a couple and his relationship with Princeps Septimus, the series never does explain just what it is that makes Aldrick ''really'' hate Gaius.

* RogueDrone: Played interestingly with the Vord, where it's one of their Hive Queens who starts developing her own personality (leading the other queens to try to kill her to prevent her from "infecting" the rest of their race). She stays a villain even while developing increasingly humanlike personality traits although [[spoiler:her death scene is [[AlasPoorVillain surprisingly moving.]]]] Additionally, since Tavi and Kitai accidentally awakened the Vord Queen in the first place,

* AlasPoorVillain: Twice.
** [[spoiler: Lord Acquitaine dies a slow, lingering death, having executed the duties of his office with great dignity and relatively conscientious, selfless regard.]]
** And the second time is: [[spoiler: the final Vord Queen herself, having shown an increasing fascination with human customs and mockingly called Tavi and Kitai her parents, admits before her certain death that she learned much from humans, that they were stronger than the Vord, and that her battle against them was never personal; she was just trying to do what she was supposed to do as a queen. She also asks if Tavi will make her suffer; he says no.]]

* AlienInvasion: It's not explicitly discussed since none of the characters have the proper frame of reference, but there are hints that the Vord are an alien species (Possibly engineered for terraforming) who crashed on Carna in the crater that became the Wax Forest.
-->'''Jim Butcher''': [[WordOfGod No one in Alera has the phrase "impact crater" in his vocabulary, but if they did...]]

** Averted for humans as arrows are just as much a threat to flesh as the more powerful fury attacks. Stone-headed arrows are the bane of metalcrafters as the lack of any metal makes them impossible to track with their metalcrafting powers.

* AnotherDimension: [[WordOfGod According to Jim Butcher]], Carna is another dimension that has wormholes pop up in other dimensions and suck beings in. This is why there are so many different species of intelligent being (humans, Icemen, Canim, Marat, Vord) on the planet, as well as why some descendants of extinct Earth animals (Megatherium and Terror Birds) are roaming around. The most well known tear leading to Carna from the "real world" appears intermittently in TheBermudaTriangle.

* AntiVillain: Lord Aquitaine feels that Gaius is going to lead the country into a bloody civil war with his political machinations and refusal to name an heir, which is why he is planning to overthrow him and seize the throne for himself.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Alera is saved from the Vord and has crafted a new Alliance with all of its former enemies. Tavi takes the throne with his newly wedded wife Kitai and their son Desiderius and already has set plans into motion regarding the reconstruction of Alera, to make it stronger than ever before. However, nearly half of the Aleran people were killed in the war. Weather patterns are thrown into flux by the eruptions of Mount Kalus and the volcano Gaius created beneath Alera Imperia, along with the icy weather Tavi brought down from the north for his ship-sleds. The great fury Alera's death will cause more chaos: furycrafting may become unpredictable, wild furies will become more prevalent, random surges of plant growth and death will occur, and the weather will become even more turbulent. Also, the Vord still control Canea, having killed most of the population - Tavi and crew were only in time to save about sixty thousand Canim - and will spend the next few centuries fortifying and consolidating the continent. They will be ready to attack Alera again within two hundred years, and Alera ''needs'' to be ready to meet them. On the other hand, the Vord controlling Canea does provide sufficient motive for the peoples of Carna to maintain their EnemyMine situation, which Tavi fully intends to leverage as much as possible.]]

* CallARabbitASmeerp: "Grass lions" are (by WordOfGod) sabertooth cats. Gargants are descended from the Giant Ground Sloth, and herdbane are Terror Birds. Of course, their ancestors went extinct long before the Romans even existed, so the Alerans would have no idea what their proper names are.

** The Grey Tower is supposedly impregnable. Tavi breaks two characters out of it, the first with only a couple hours' preparation, the second after the prison's defenses had been redesigned ''by Tavi himself''. [[note]] And no, Tavi did not deliberately leave a weakness in the defenses in case he ever needed to stage another jailbreak.[[/note]]

** High Lord Aquitaine is introduced in the first novel as an unsubtle drunkard who needs to be guided by his wife and more capable subordinates down the avenues to take the throne, and prone to [[YouHaveFailedMe lethal punishments for failure]]. Later books establish that he is a clever and insightful manipulator, skilled in both legion strategy and politics, and disinclined to pointless violence (Not that he won't kill people if they get in his way, [[PragmaticVillainy but he's not cavalier about it]]).

** See Tavi learning/demonstrating some new skill? There is a pretty good chance he is going to use it for something absurdly badass by the end of the book.

** Furycrafted roads allow legions to move quickly on them and crafters can even give their horses a boost of speed from the roads. Later [[spoiler:Tavi supplements "horses" with "Cane" when he needs both the Canim army and his army to do a quick march and the Canim cannot use furycrafting. Carrying the Alerans allows them the usage of the furycrafting roads to all their power]].

** In ''First Lord's Fury'' Fidelias remembers as part of his Cursor training developing the skill to sneak up behind a person in absolute silence and be able to stab them in the neck at the top of the spine, a guarantee one-hit kill even on a powerful Citizen. [[spoiler:Amara uses this exact technique to finally kill Invidia using a stone weapon, as her Metalcrafting would have noticed anything metal]].

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Invidia, so much so that nearly ''every'' character that has extensive dealings with her tries to take her sudden but inevitable betrayal into account. When she tries to turn on [[spoiler:the Vord Queen, the queen]] is not even upset and sees no reason to punish her for it, since that is just what Invidia ''does''.

* TheDragon
** Fidelias to Invidia. [[spoiler: Until he {{Heel Face Turn}}s at the end of Book 4.]]
** Navaris is the Dragon to Senator Arnos.

** Demos, a scrupulously unscrupulous man, has his crew of thugs rescue as many women and children as they can when fleeing the island of Westmiston. He frames it as a slave raid, and he probably ''will'' sell them all into slavery, but he truly did not want to leave them for the Canim.

* FantasticCasteSystem
** The social classes of Alera are: Slaves, Freemen, Citizens, and Lords/Ladies, with several different ranks of nobility somewhere at the level of Citizens and higher. There is a strong but not perfect correlation between strength in furycrafting and social rank, and strength in furycrafting is at least partially heritable ([[spoiler: until Tavi is implied to alter it at the end so it can be earned]]), so while many characters have moved their way up in rank over their lives, the caste one is born into is still very determinative.
** The Canim castes are the Makers (farmers, workers, and artisans), Ritualists (doctors, priests, and sorcerers) and Warriors (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin). The Warriors and the Ritualists are continually at odds as to which caste is higher, though they both claim to serve the Makers.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Alera is a society very similar to Rome at the peak of its empire.
* FantasticNuke: Many smaller versions, but [[spoiler: Gaius wiping out Kalare by unleashing a volcanic Great Fury and then slowing the Vord by destroying the remnants of Alera Imperia with another volcano]] probably take the cake.

** Thematically lampshaded: Everything in the series is kicked off by a serving girl wanting some pretty flowers.

** If Tavi hadn't stolen High Lady Antillus's purse [[spoiler: and found the bloodstone Sarl gave her, the First Aleran would have been destroyed and the realm plunged into utter warfare and entirely unprepared for when the Vord struck.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Her poor relationship with her father is why Navaris is [[AxCrazy the way she is]]. [[spoiler: Exploiting it is how Tavi beats her in a duel to the death.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: At one point in ''Princeps Fury'' Tavi needs to have a private conversation, and Max starts berating his Taurga as a distraction. When the conversation finishes, he's still going at it. [[MoodWhiplash "And not even SHE would do that with YOU, no matter how much gold or how many burlap sacks were involved."]]

* GenderEqualsBreed: [[PlayingWithATrope Of a sort]]. Though background Marat characters are of both genders, all named characters of any tribe are the same gender. All named members of Gargant, Wolf, and Herdbane tribe are male, all named members of Horse tribe are female.

* IHaveYourWife: One of Kalarus's favorite tactics. It backfires in several instances.

* ImAHumanitarian: Marat believe that, once you have defeated your foe, you must 'partake of their strength' - which means eating bits of them, usually the heart. And yes, this includes Alerans and other Marat.

** When fighting the Vord Queen, [[spoiler:Tavi was pinned to a rock with a razor-edged, poisoned vord-chitin sword. He almost cut his fingers off trying to get himself free.]]

** [[spoiler:Invidia is impaled by a stone-headed spear from behind]].

** Gaius does this a few times. However, Tavi and [[spoiler:Fidelias]] can spot him in short time.

* LavaAddsAwesome: Twice.

* MathematiciansAnswer: When Kitai asks if Tavi is studying the Vord or the Canim, Tavi simply replies "yes."

** Serai and Nedus from ''Academ's Fury'', the former a courtesan Cursor and a friend of Amara, the latter a [[RetiredBadass retired Knight Captain]]. They spend their time trying to help Isana get in contact with the First Lord. Isana even notes to Serai that Nedus [[LikeASonToMe adores Serai like a daughter]], to which she responds with a sad smile that she knows this, after Serai tries to tell Nedus to not come along and guard them as they go out into the city. [[spoiler:They both die defending Isana from assassins.]]

** [[spoiler:Nihilus Invidia]] earned hers for her treachery.

* NeuralImplanting: From First Lord's Fury, [[spoiler:Alera]] teaching Tavi how to bond with a fury:

** In the final battle, Tavi leads the Vord Queen to the Great Furies, and accidentally gives her the idea of claiming them, which would make her unstoppable. Kitai is not amused.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: When Kestus and Ivarus are fleeing from the Vord, Ivarus' horse is killed and Kestus turns around to assist him and bring him to safety on his own horse, [[BringNewsBack even though Ivarus says it is more important that he escape with the news]]. [[spoiler: Kestus himself is killed immediately after he turns back for Ivarus, leaving Ivarus to continue the journey alone]].

* NotSoDifferent: Senator Arnos tries to reject Tavi's moral condemnation by saying that Tavi would have done the exact same thing, and in fact ''had'' done the same thing during his rise to command the First Aleran. Tavi, for his part, just realizes that Arnos is so blind as to not even be worth talking to.

** Kitai has a kind of Obfuscating Savagery: She is entirely frank about many things Alerans prefer not to discuss openly, but Isana realises soon after talking to her that she grasps the subtler things quite easily.
** Ehren seems like a smart, young, cursor with weak furycrafting. And he is. He also kills [[spoiler:Attis Aquitaine by manipulating the man to going into mortal peril]] with barely any effort.

* OddNameOut: Isana, Amara, Fidelias, Maximus, Araris, Invidia... Tavi? [[spoiler:Which is {{foreshadowing}}, as it happens. "Gaius Oc'''tavi'''an" fits right in with the rest of those [[AwesomeMcCoolname awesome]] Latin-derived names.]]

* OfficialCouple: Tavi and Kitai, Bernard and Amara, [[spoiler:Isana and Araris]].

* OhMyGods: Many variants on "crows" and "furies" seem to take the place of traditional oaths.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In her first chapters, Amara finds herself and Fidelias captured by Aldrick and Odiana. Fidelias gives her a cynical and defeated line before being carried off to "be killed." Through her grief, Amara reviews the facts and realizes while the mission was hers to plan, Fidelias should have noticed the trap and gave her some warning, should have given her different words before being carried off. The fact he fails clues her in on his having betrayed the Crown and is working with these mercenaries.

* OutsideContextProblem: The Vord, which do not behave like any of the other species which inhabit the world of Carna and have been encountered only in vague legends of the Marat. WordOfGod states that they are alien invaders.

* PortalCrossroadWorld: [[WordOfGod According to Jim Butcher]], Carna is AnotherDimension that has wormholes pop up in other dimensions and suck beings in.

* PragmaticVillainy: Lady Aquitaine gives Isana an impassioned (for her, anyway) speech about how she can be trusted to honor loyalty, oppose violence and protect the people she has sworn to protect. Not because she feels some sort of moral duty to do so, but because she knows that that is how she gains loyal servants, preserves Alera as a prosperous whole and sways others to her cause.

* ProudWarriorRace: The Marat and the Canim.

** ''First Lord's Fury'' finally reveals just what it was that caused the infamous duel between Araris Valerian and Aldrick ex Gladius: Aldrick had slept with Odiana after Septimus and his ''singulares'' rescued her from sex slavery, and Araris comments that that given just how traumatized she had been there was no way she could have consented or rationally dealt with the situation. Aldrick was wrong to take advantage even if it did comfort her, and despite being sword-brothers Araris could not let it pass.

* RedShirt: Tons of people without names die, from legionaries to civilians, as situations spiral out of control.

* RogueDrone: Played interestingly with the Vord, where it's one of their Hive Queens who starts developing her own personality (leading the other queens to try to kill her to prevent her from "infecting" the rest of their race). She stays a villain even while developing increasingly humanlike personality traits although [[spoiler:her death scene is [[AlasPoorVillain surprisingly moving.]]]]

* SanityHasAdvantages: Phrygiar Navaris may be a swordsman on par with Araris, but her AxCrazy nature ultimately leads to [[spoiler:her death at Tavi's hands.]]

* SequelHook: In the epilogue, [[spoiler:Alera reveals to Tavi that the Vord Queen in Canea will be ready to cross the sea in about one-hundred and fifty years, and he - or rather his descendants - had better be well prepared.]]

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Kitai's people are established in the first novel to literally cook Alerans alive before eating them, and even ''she'' finds their institution of slavery to be the worst, most [[HumansThroughAlienEyes inexplicable]] thing about them.

* SlouchOfVillainy: Lord Aquitaine is sitting this way during his first appearance in the series, during ''Furies of Calderon''.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Or the local eqivalent, ''ludus''. It has two boards, one on top of the other, so you can fight on both the earth and in the sky. This is probably based on the Ancient Roman game ''ludus latrunculorum'', which is said to be similar to chess or draughts.

* YouAreNotAlone: Tavi's reassurance to Kitai, [[spoiler:when he figures out that he has been bound to her as her ''chala'', her totem. Marat tribes are based on having the same totem, and since no other Marat has an Aleran as a ''chala'', Kitai has no tribe]]. She takes this to heart, as when Isana later tries to comfort her for being alone, Kitai retorts that she is not.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Watercrafters are healers, and almost all of them can alter their features to make themselves look younger. If they are ''really'' skilled they can make themselves look like someone else, including changing their voice as well. It is really uncomfortable, though, to imitate someone larger or smaller.

** ''Juris macto'' is thrown down many of times with few people actually accepting the challenge.

** Even better: [[spoiler:Once you realise that Tavi attains each rank in the final chapters of the book before (i.e.: becoming a captain towards the end of ''Cursor's Fury''), it's easy to time Sextus' death almost to the page.]]

* OutsideContextProblem: The Vord, which do not behave like any of the other species which inhabit the world of Carna and have been encountered only in vague legends of the Marat.

* MugglesDoItBetter: One of the most devastating weapons the Canim use against Alerans is an enormous crossbow. There is nothing magical about it, beyond the fact that it is scaled to a Canim warrior, making it somewhere between a ballista and a man-portable crossbow.
* MundaneSolution: A whole lot, mostly courtesy of Tavi. Earthcrafting makes someone super strong, but it does not increase weight and you have to be touching the ground to use it. Throwing an earthcrafter on a wooden deck cuts off their strength, and salt injures wind furies, disrupting fliers. Metalcrafters can sense blades or arrowheads coming at them, but not flint or stone weapons.

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Despite being good friends and having been part of the same "group" at the Academy, Ehren and Max are never together without Tavi being with them as well.

* "Tavi" takes on a new meaning when it's revealed that it's short for [[spoiler:"Oc'''tavi'''an"]], representing the fact that he is HiddenInPlainSight, by appearing to be less than he truly is.