History Literature / TairenSoul

* FauxActionGirl: Ellysetta

In the distant past, a cataclysmic, continent-wide war later called the Mage Wars swept across the world of [[ConstructedWorld Eloran]], drawing the various races into an extended and bloody struggle. The primary combatants of the war were the Eld, a long-lived race of human-like mortals dedicated to [[AmbitionIsEvil mastering all magics and conquering the world]], and the Fey, a race of [[OurElvesAreBetter wonderful, beautiful, heroic, dedicated, proud, silvery luminescent-skinned]] humanoids who consider themselves the champions of light.

* HumansByAnyOtherName: The term ''human'' or even ''man'' is never used, instead they are called ''Celierian'', ''Eld'' and especially ''mortal''. The term "man" is occasionally even applied to male Fey. It should be noted, however, that the Eld are not truly humans, having unique traits such as their extended longevities.

* MentalAffair: Rain and Ellysetta, oh so many times.

* NotSoStoic: Gaelen has his moments too, despite being a two thousand year old man.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent

* OurElvesAreBetter: The race that are actually called Elves are most similar to Wood Elves. The Fey can be thought of as the High Elven equivalent.

* AntiVillain: Gaelen vel Serranis.

* AristocratsAreEvil

** SuetifulAllAlong

* ChristmasCake: Ellysetta at the beginning of the first book.

* DeadpanSnarker: Gaelen. In the last book, Rain also explicitly mentions that Ellysetta has a deadpan sense of humor.

* DealWithTheDevil

* EmpathicHealer

* FateWorseThanDeath: Becoming a Mharog.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: "Light Maiden" is used commonly as a euphemism.

* OrgasmicallyDelicious: Keflee.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Fey in general, Vadim Maur, Galad Hawksheart.

** And was it really necessary for a powerful magical immortal (Rain) to get physical with a powerless, nineteen year old girl (Kelissande) because she was arrogant to his girlfriend (Elysetta). It implies that he doesn't think Elysetta can stand up for herself even a little bit, and it shows that he is petty and abuses his powers.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Male Fey. Except when Rain thrown Kelissande into the water for daring to suggest Elysetta wasn't that great. He even tells her that he'll do worse if she doesn't leave them alone.

* ActionGirl: Melliandra

* AnatomicallyImpossibleSex: In several instances, characters have nonstop sex for several hours on end.

* CannotTellALie: Fey. The text seems to imply that although they are not honest, and do mislead, they are physically incapable of saying something technically not true. Like many other examples of the trope they love to formulate things they don't want to say as mistakably as possible.

* EternalLove: Typical for fey couples. Special mention to Shan and Elfeya who have been together a thousand years already when they're captured and spend a thousand years supporting each other in a TortureCellar.

* GoodIsDumb: Rain feels that the Eld are building strength, and goes to tell the mortals in Celieria that. All he has for prooof is...nothing. He is astounded when they don't just believe his gut instinct.

* HeroInsurance: Averted by Rain; after devouring some livestock that belong to the local ranchers, he repays them by using his magic to spin gold out of the earth.

* MedievalStasis: Not many advances in the thousand years since the Mage Wars, it seems.

* TheNicknamer: Kieran, both to people he likes and dislikes. Lorelle, for example, he calls, "little Fey'cha." (Fey'cha being the Feyan term for "knife.") After seeing Den Brodsen go StalkerWithACrush on Ellysetta, he calls him "sausage" at every opportunity.
* NotSoStoic: Gaelen has his moments too, despite being a thousand years old man.

* TheArchmage: The Tairen Souls are the greatest magic weavers among the Fey. For the Eld, the High Mage(Vadim Maur) is this.
* ArrangedMarriage: Between Ellysetta and Den Brodson. [[spoiler: Rain later threatens the Celierian royalty with national war if they don't dissolve the marriage contract, and pays Brodson's parents a huge sum to make sure they don't have any complaints.]]

* BeautifulAllAlong: [[spoiler: It turns out that Ellysetta's "plain" looks are merely an illusion, and she's actually incredibly gorgeous.]]

* BerserkButton: For most Fey, Azrahn; for the kitten Love, magic in general; for Rain, anything that has to do with the Eld; for Gaelen, anyone attempting to harm his sister; for Ellysetta, someone trying to harm ANYONE she cares about. Fey in general have a no-tolerance policy towards any slight or offense given to their mates.

* BlondesAreEvil: Kelissande Minset, [[PuritySue Ellysetta]]'s rival.

** The Feraz witch, when taking magically powerful male prisoners in payment for Chemaz, mentions that she will return them in no time when Maur grumbles about wanting to use those men for breeding purposes. She obviously never mentions the condition they will be returned in, but she does rattle a bag of Chemaz. Turns out that its made from their bones.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Whenever Rain is described from Ellysetta's perspective.

* TheEmpath: Fey women, [[spoiler: including Ellysetta.]] Those that can use magic are also . . .

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: What [[spoiler: Ellysetta]] finds out when she [[spoiler: probes the mind of one of the Mages of Eld.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Mharog are so bad that even the Eld won't go near them.

* EvilSorcerer: Vadim Maur eats, breathes, lives this trope... while cackling madly.

* GoodHurtsEvil: Love hurts the Mharog. The presence of dahl'reisen and especially Mharog cause pain to empathetic Fey women.
* GoodIsDumb: Rain feels that the Eld are building strength, and goes to tell the mortals in Celieria that. All he has for prooof is....nothing. He is astounded when they don't just believe his gut instinct.
** The Ruling Body of the Fey is so against using the forbidden soul magic, Azhran, that they refuse to use it even if doing so spells imminent destruction for the Fey and Tairen, and instant success for the Eld.

* HotWitch: Sheyl
* HowDoIShotWeb: When Ellysetta first starts using her power, her inexperience causes her to overdo things, often resulting in overly forceful and blunt weaves.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: The term ''human'' or even ''Man'' is never used, instead they are called ''Celierian'', ''Eld'' and especially ''mortal''. The term "man" is occasionally even applied to male Fey. It should be noted, however, that the Eld are not truly humans, having unique traits such as their extended longevities.

* MaleGaze: Rain's POV, especially when Ellysetta is present.

* MoustacheDePlume: "C.L. Wilson" is a woman.

** A non-Fey example is Dorian and Annoura's PerfectlyArrangedMarriage. [[spoiler:After his death]], Annoura finds a letter in which he describes his love and unwavering devotion to her- to the extent of calling her the Fey word for soulmate- and the narrative treats his feelings as valid.

* PowerPerversionPotential: Tairen Soul characters freely indulge in all the uses for magic that most of the time exist only in the readers' imagination. Some examples include: removing clothes by magic, using Spirit magic illusions to experience sexual fantasies, exciting others with magic, spinning a weave over a whole crowd of assembled nobles that sends them all into a mating frenzy with the closest person, etc.

* TheUnfettered: Many. Galad Hawksheart is willing to let anything happen - if only by proxy and manipulation - to make sure prophecies play out in the way they're supposed to, but he doesn't indulge or spare himself the slightest bit either. While Gaelen is able to feel all those things, he is fettered neither by Fey honor nor mercy, moral qualms or his own wellbeing in protecting the fading lands. Vadim Maur is pure evil and to become ruler of the world he's afraid of neither pain, nor powerful foes nor eldritch beings and he knows no pity.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Male Fey. Except when Rain thrown Kelissande into the water for daring to suggest Elysetta wasn't that great.

During the war, the mages of Eld killed Sariel, the ''E'tani'' (mate) of Rainier vel'En Daris, a Tairen Soul (Fey who have the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transform]] into [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tairen]]), and the Feyreisen(Fey King). Rain, being quite put out over the death of his girlfriend, promptly went insane and decided to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge scorch all life from the face of the world]]. After slaughtering millions in a mad blood frenzy, he was finally detained by the rest of the Fey. By this time, the Mage Wars had ended, with the Eld withdrawing and seemingly disappearing. Rain was brought back to the Fey homeland, the Fading Lands, and kept in quiet seclusion as his madness raged.

* DoubleStandard: At the beginning of ''Queen of Song and Souls'', Ellysetta complains about this when Rain repeatedly puts ''himself'' in danger but doesn't let ''her'' to do the same thing.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Fanir, an Elf who guides Elysetta turns out to be the son of one of the millions of good people Rain killed. He gets to forgive Rain in his dads place.
** Elysetta meeting Rain in the first place is a rather silly coincidence.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt

** The Ruling Body of the Fey is so against using the forbidden soul magic, Azhran, that they refuse to use it even if doing so spells imminent destruction for the Fey and Tairen, and instant and success for the Eld.

* GuiltyPleasures

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Zigzagged with Ellysetta's parentage.]] It is hinted at the end of the first book that [[spoiler: Vadim Maur is Ellysetta's father.]] In the second book, [[spoiler: Gaelen proves that Ellysetta does not have Eld blood, because she does not possess the Eld immunity to Sel'dor, meaning that she can't be Maur's daughter.]] At the end of that book, [[spoiler: Vadim Maur reveals to Ellysetta that he is not her biological parent, but rather, the "father of her soul" having engineered her spirit to be born into his controlled breeding program with Azrahn.]] In the third book, [[spoiler: it is confirmed that Ellysetta was born with her powers as a result of Maur binding a Tairen soul to her's in order to engineer a Tairen Soul.]]

During the war, the mages of Eld killed Sariel, the ''E'tani'' (mate) of Rainier vel'En Daris, a Tairen Soul(Fey who have the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transform]] into [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tairen]]), and the Feyreisen(Fey King). Rain, being quite put out over the death of his girlfriend, promptly went insane and decided to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge scorch all life from the face of the world]]. After slaughtering millions in a mad blood frenzy, he was finally detained by the rest of the Fey. By this time, the Mage Wars had ended, with the Eld withdrawing and seemingly disappearing. Rain was brought back to the Fey homeland, the Fading Lands, and kept in quiet seclusion as his madness raged.

1,000 years later, Rain, feeling much more calm after a centuries long cool-off, emerges from solitude and uses the immensely powerful Eye of Truth to try to deduce how to help the dying Tairen, and is sent to Celieria, the capital of the human kingdom, with a vague image of a woman with red hair and green eyes.

* FemmeFatale: Feraz women.

* ForTheEvulz: The Mharog. They have fallen so deep into darkness that there is utterly no goodness or light left in any part of their souls, and they live only to extinguish the life of others.

* {{God}}: Adelis.

* GoodIsDumb: Rain feels that the Eld are building strength, and goes to tell the mortals in Cilleria that. All he has for prooof is....nothing. He is astounded when they don't just believe his gut instinct.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Fey women stay out of combat, are protected by the male characters. Dying to defend a female is considered the ideal death for a Fey warrior. There are also legends of hundreds or thousands of male Fey dying to protect one female, and these are considered heroic and glorious. Justified to a degree by the fact that Fey women are completely unable to physically defend themselves due to their empathy, and are considerably fewer in number compared to Fey men, due to girls only being born to [[MindlinkMates Truemated]] couples.

** Rain is constantly annoyed with humans for wanting things like logical proof. he is also often crying over his difficult past.

* FunctionalMagic: Fey magic is Force Magic that works by Elemental Powers and Inherent Gift. There is also Device Magic(magical items and ''Sel'dor''), Rule Magic(many of Vadim Maur's rituals), and Theurgy(drawing on and summoning demons from the Well of Souls).

* TheNicknamer: Kieran, both to people he likes and dislikes. Lorelle, for example, he calls, "little Fey'cha."(Fey'cha being the Feyan term for "knife.") After seeing Den Brodsen go StalkerWithACrush on Ellysetta, he calls him "sausage" at every opportunity.

* TimeAbyss: The Eye of Truth, the Grandfather tree and especially Galad Hawksheart(+10,000 years old), who has counted every soul who ever was born into his extended family and they number in the hundreds of thousands.

** And was it really necessary for a powerful magical immortal(Rain) to get physical with a powerless, nineteen year old girl( Kelissande) because she was arrogant to his girlfriend( Elysetta). It implies that he doesn't think Elysetta can stand up for herself even a little bit, and it shows that he is petty and abuses his powers.

* ArrangedMarriage: Between Ellysetta and Den Brodson. [[spoiler: Rain later threatens the Celierian royalty with national war if they don't dissolve the marriage contract, and bribes Brodson's parents to make sure they don't have any complaints.]]

* DoubleStandard: At the beginning of ''Queen of Song and Souls'', Ellysetta complains about the "double standard" of Rain repeatedly putting ''himself'' in danger but not allowing ''her'' to do the same thing.

* EscapistCharacter: Ellysetta is [[spoiler:secretly impossibly gorgeous]], the [[spoiler:daughter of one of the most legendary Fey couples of all time]], magically soul-bonded in Eternal Twu Wuv to the hottest, most badass guy in the series who would raze the world for her, earns the eternal devotion of hundreds more, is the [[spoiler:first female Tairen Soul ''ever'']], the first-ever truemate of a Tairen Soul, and is basically destined to save the world. Somehow, it works.

** In the second book, Talisa and [=DiSebourne=]

%% Dead Trope * BadassLolita: Melliandra.

* ActionGIrl: Melliandra

* ''The Crown of Crystal Flame'' (2010)

* WhatAnIdiot: Gaelen surrendering himself to the Celierian forces in the second book. [[spoiler: Until, that is, it turns out they only captured a phantom cast by Spirit magic, and the whole thing was a gambit by Gaelen to test if Ellysetta really had Eld blood.]]
** Rain in many cases. Especially in dealing with the Cilerian court.

* PuritySue: Ellysetta

* CuteKitten: The white kitten Love. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that she [[BerserkButton turns murderous]] when magic is used around her. Later [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Den Brodson, who finds a litter of kittens and uses them to lure Ellysetta's sisters out of hiding.

* MoralEventHorizon: It's better not to think too much about the Scorching of the World. It leaving Rain up there with the greatest mass murderers who ever existed...
** In-story, Fey consider choosing the Shadowed Path and becoming dahl'reisen to be this. [[spoiler: However, it later turns out that they are not beyond redemption, and that the true moral event horizon is becoming a Mharog.]]

* EvilIsSexy : The Feraz women are powerful sorcerers, and their sexuality makes them addictive to men. Plus they are hot, and have a good sense of humor!

* CanonSue: Rain and Ellysetta. Maybe it can be argued with Rain who did horrible things and no secret is made of it. Ellie ''is'' perfection personified.

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Vadim Maur.

* CannotTellALie: Fey. The text seems to imply that although they are not honest, and do mislead, but are physically incapable of saying something technically not true. Like many other examples of the trope they love to formulate things they don't want to say as mistakably as possible.

* HumansByAnyOtherName: The term ''human'' or even ''Man'' is never used, instead they are called ''Celierian'', ''Eld'' and especially ''mortal''. The term "man" is occasionally even applied to male Fey.

* PowerPerversionPotential: And how! Tairen Soul characters freely indulge in all the uses for magic that most of the time exist only in the readers' imagination. Some examples include: removing clothes by magic, using Spirit magic illusions to experience sexual fantasies, exciting others with magic, spinning a weave over a whole crowd of assembled nobles that sends them all into a mating frenzy with the closest person, etc.

* MoustacheDePlume: "C.L. Wilson" is actually a woman.
* NauseaFuel: See FanDisservice.

* FanDisservice: Do we ''really'' need detailed descriptions of the main characters' genitalia?