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* SureWhyNot: According to Ned's journal, the reason he named his horse Delirium is because, when [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] saw what horse Ned had purchased (everyone else had been unable to tame it), he said that Ned must be delirious to want a horse like that. Ned decided that he shouldn't argue with his king and gave his stallion the name.

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* SureWhyNot: SureLetsGoWithThat: According to Ned's journal, the reason he named his horse Delirium is because, when [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] saw what horse Ned had purchased (everyone else had been unable to tame it), he said that Ned must be delirious to want a horse like that. Ned decided that he shouldn't argue with his king and gave his stallion the name.
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* RockBeatsLaser: Averted. When the heroes find themselves on a WorldWarTwo battlefield, the black knights of Maldoror track them down and try to charge the Soviet artillery emplacement that is busy fighting off a Nazi tank advance. Not only do the Soviets manage to repel the German attack, but the black knights end up getting chewed up as well.

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* RockBeatsLaser: Averted. When the heroes find themselves on a WorldWarTwo UsefulNotes/WorldWarII battlefield, the black knights of Maldoror track them down and try to charge the Soviet artillery emplacement that is busy fighting off a Nazi tank advance. Not only do the Soviets manage to repel the German attack, but the black knights end up getting chewed up as well.



* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: As soon as the Knave tells Grosbeak that he is plotting to move against his mother the Queen, Grosbeak knows that his days are numbered. If he tells the Queen, the Knave (or his loyal servants and/or guards) will have him killed, if he goes along with Knave's plan, then either the Queen kills him after foiling it, or the Knave will kill him as a loose end after his services are no longer required. He then tries to TakeAThirdOption and find a way to survive.

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* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: As soon as the Knave tells Grosbeak that he is plotting to move against his mother the Queen, Grosbeak knows that his days are numbered. If he tells the Queen, the Knave (or his loyal servants and/or guards) will have him killed, if he goes along with Knave's plan, then either the Queen kills him after foiling it, or the Knave will kill him as a loose end after his services are no longer required. He then tries to TakeAThirdOption and find a way to survive.

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* AlternateSelf: When the heroes find themselves in an AlternateUniverse, they encounter a female [[LaResistance rebel fighter]] named Rada. After getting back to our world, they meet a girl named Dasha, who looks exactly like Rada, except more bookish. It's not clear if the two girls are actually duplicates, but they do look nearly identical.



* CampGay: Valery Lyustritsky is a typical example. Throughout the book, he keeps insisting that Ned and he share a mutual attraction. Ned, for his part, assumes that Valery is mentally ill.

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* CampGay: Valery Lyustritsky is a typical example. Throughout the book, he keeps insisting that Ned and he share a mutual attraction. Ned, for his part, assumes that Valery "Sir Lyustritsky" is mentally ill.ill.
* CosmicChessGame: The three heroes have no idea that they're merely pieces in a deadly game played by the Queen for her amusement. The game of the White Knight has been played by the Maldoror royalty for generations, but only as a table game. The Queen is the first one to try to bring it to life. Sir Ned Hamilton ends up getting cast as the White Knight, while Ilona is set to play the Beautiful Princess (despite not being even remotely princess-like), and the effeminate Valery Lyustritsky is the Brave Warrior.


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* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: Grosbeak uses a medallion made out of something called "black cast iron" to travel between dimensions. During his first encounter with Ilona, she ends up taking the medallion as a souvenir, unaware of its power. He is later forced to explain how to use it.
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* RockBeatsLaser: Averted. When the heroes find themselves on a WorldWarTwo battlefield, the black knights of Maldoror track them down and try to charge the Soviet artillery emplacement that is busy fighting off a Nazi tank advance. Not only do the Soviets manage to repel the German attack, but the black knights end up getting chewed up as well.


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* ThisIsMyBoomstick: A cowardly Soviet army officer tries to threaten the rulers and knights of Maldoror with his pistol. He manages to kill one of the knights, and no one is quite sure what it is he did that made the knight die. However, the Knave quickly figures out that the strange object the officer is holding (a Luger taken from a dead German officer in an earlier battle) must be a ranged weapon of some sort. He kills the officer with a thrown knife and pockets the gun when no one is looking. He later takes the weapon apart and puts it back together enough times to figure out how it works and plans to use it as his secret weapon against his mother.
** Partly played straight with a German Panzer that gets accidentally transported to the castle of Maldoror. While the knights are uncertain what this dreadful machine is, Grosbeak points out that it's merely a type of siege engine.
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* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: As soon as the Knave tells Grosbeak that he is plotting to move against his mother the Queen, Grosbeak knows that his days are numbered. If he tells the Queen, the Knave (or his loyal servants and/or guards) will have him killed, if he goes along with Knave's plan, then either the Queen kills him after foiling it, or the Knave will kill him as a loose end after his services are no longer required. He then tries to TakeAThirdOption and find a way to survive.
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* DepravedDwarf: Subverted with Grosbeak, the CourtMage of Maldoror. While he is a dwarf (as in "little person" not a fantasy dwarf), he's not as depraved or evil as some may think. In fact, he's required by his position to engage in various nefarious activities, as he would otherwise be executed and replaced with another mage.
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''The Auburn Knight'' (''Рыжий рыцарь'', Ryzhiy rytsar') is a humorous Russian fantasy novel by Creator/AndreiBelyanin. Typical of the author, it's a FishOutOfTemporalWater scenario full of adventure, AnachronismStew, and magic.

A twelfth century Crusader named Sir Ned Hamilton, AKA [[TitleDrop the Auburn Knight]] (even though [[NonindicativeName his hair is more dark blond than auburn]]), rides out into the Arabian Desert at the end of the Crusades in order to fulfill a promise made to Lady Roxolana, Baroness Sheffield, and bring her the head of a dragon. Then a NegativeSpaceWedgie transports him and his black stallion Delirium to a modern Russian city, where he meets the beautiful Lady Ilona.

Ilona Shcherbatova is a college student and an aspiring model. One day, on a way home from a photo shoot that never happened, she is accosted by a bunch of drunk fellas only to be rescued by a man dressed as a Medieval knight on a big black horse. At first, she thinks he's a member of some historical club who takes his role a little too seriously. Then strange things start happening, and monsters begin appearing and attacking them. Together, along with Valery Lyustritsky, Ilona's neighbor and GayBestFriend, the trio ([[AndZoidberg and Delirium]]) embark on an adventure across time and space, fighting evil men and monsters, unknowingly being pieces in a deadly game played by [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen an evil Queen]] and her ambitious son [[PlayingCardMotifs Knave]], the rulers of the dark kingdom of [[Literature/LesChantsDeMaldoror Maldoror]].

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!!''The Auburn Knight'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* AlternateUniverse: The heroes end up visiting an AfterTheEnd one, where Ilona and Valery's hometown is run by an oppressive Hindu-like cult after a nuclear war and dinosaurs roam the streets to be, occasionally, used as mounts.
* CampGay: Valery Lyustritsky is a typical example. Throughout the book, he keeps insisting that Ned and he share a mutual attraction. Ned, for his part, assumes that Valery is mentally ill.
* CourtMage: Grosbeak is the latest mage employed by the Queen of Maldoror. Apparently, it's a position with low job security, as the rulers of Maldoror have a tendency to dispose of mages who don't deliver on their promises. His kind of magic requires the use of magical artifacts and various ingredients of the EyeOfNewt variety (e.g. blood from the left butt cheek of a virgin girl).
* DarkIsEvil: Played straight with Maldoror. It's a dark castle, whose knights wear black armor and ride of black horses.
** [[DarkIsNotEvil Averted]] with Delirium, who may be black but is Ned's loyal companion and friend.
* DealWithTheDevil: As the legend goes, the kingdom of Maldoror was so evil that, eventually, its neighbors banded together and marched against it. In desperation, the king of Maldoror begged the dark forces to save his kingdom. And thus the Pact was signed between TheDevil himself and the king, sending the kingdom into a PocketDimension and granting unimaginable power to whoever holds the Pact in exchange for the immortal souls of everyone in the kingdom. [[spoiler:At the end of the novel, Valery accidentally uses the Pact as toilet paper. When the Queen summons a high-ranking demon to crush their enemies, the demon is disgusted and outraged when he finds out that the document that bears his master's signature has been sullied in such a manner, punishing the kingdom instead]].
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: A Medieval English knight finds himself in modern-day Russia. And this is just the beginning. The heroes will end up jumping across different time periods and even to alternate dimensions. Interestingly, Ned adapts fairly well to modern times.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: The Queen is the latest in a long line of evil rulers of Maldoror. In fact, her being female has nothing to do with her evilness, as many of her male ancestors were just as bad, if not worse, including the one who originally signed a DealWithTheDevil.
* KlingonPromotion: The Knave is constantly scheming to get rid of his mother and take over the rulership of Maldoror. The Queen is naturally aware of that, since it's not uncommon for this trope to be invoked among the long line of rulers of Maldoror, but the fact that she possesses the [[TheDealWithTheDevil Pact]] means that there is little the Knave can do, despite being in charge of all the knights of the kingdom. [[spoiler:He is implied to succeed in the epilogue, after the Pact is ruined]].
* {{Mummy}}: The heroes end up accidentally awakening a priest of [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Anubis]] named Arshubanapul, who turns out to have the ability to take other people's bodies, usually leaving behind the clean skeleton of his previous victim. He ends up being the secondary villain of the book.
* PlayingCardMotifs: The rulers of Maldoror are [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep only ever called]] the Queen and the Knave. This is never explained, and no one else's name fits the theme.
* SureWhyNot: According to Ned's journal, the reason he named his horse Delirium is because, when [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] saw what horse Ned had purchased (everyone else had been unable to tame it), he said that Ned must be delirious to want a horse like that. Ned decided that he shouldn't argue with his king and gave his stallion the name.
* TakeThat: When Ilona sends Ned to take a shower, she first suggests that he remove his armor and clothes, recalling a [[Film/LesVisiteurs movie about time-traveling French knight]] who tries to shower in full gear. Ned simply shrugs and says that [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys Franks were always dumb]].

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