History Literature / ThePurifyingFire

* WhipItGood: Gideon's signature weapon is a ''sural'', a three-tailed whip-blade-thingy.

* LightIsNotGood: This is evil!White at its finest. White's [[LightFireJuxtaposition conflict]] with Red is pretty much a thematic thesis, its association with oppressive order at severe odds with the freedom-loving peoples.

* SacredFlames: The Purifying Fire is a constant font of pure White mana found on the plane of Regatha. It probes the soul of all who enter is flames, and destroys anyone in which it detects sin or evil.

* PlotHole: Chandra is suddenly able to use fire magic again in the last scene on Diraden, even though they haven't broken the curse yet. This is never explained or justified in the story. WordOfGod says this was due to ExecutiveMeddling -- Wizards of the Coast rewrote a couple chapters from Resnick's manuscript.

* EarlyBirdCameo: While at Keral Keep Chandra meets with the Monastery's Matriarch, Mother Luti, to tell her the truth about being a planeswalker. [[Foreshadowing Along with hints that Mother Luti is a bit more familiar with planeswalkers than she lets on.]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: While at Keral Keep Chandra meets with the Monastery's Matriarch, Mother Luti, to tell her the truth about being a planeswalker.

* LightIsNotGood: This is evil!White at its finest.

%%* TheOrder: Of Heliud.
%%* OrderVsChaos

* CanonForeigner[=/=]CanonImmigrant: The character of Gideon was originally created for ''The Purifying Fire'', and the creative team at Wizards of the Coast liked him enough to print a planeswalker card for him in the ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' expansion.

* FieryRedhead: Chandra. She has FlamingHair as well.
* FlamingHair: Chandra, a literal FieryRedhead.

* ILetGwenStacyDie: Chandra's backstory. She explains how soldiers burnt down her village after a display of her powers caused them to think the villagers were illegally training pyromancers to fight the empire. The trauma of seeing all her friends and family burn [[DieOrFly caused her planeswalker spark to ignite]], and she's carried the guilt with her ever since.

* MyGreatestFailure: See ILetGwenStacyDie.
* NeckLift: Jace does it to the illusion of Brannon.

* TheOrder: Of Heliud.
* OrderVsChaos

* PsychicPowers: Jace
* UnskilledButStrong: Chandra. She came to Keral Keep to fix it.

* BroughtDownToNormal: On Diraden, where the flow of non-black mana is blocked and Chandra and Gideon can't access their magic.

* BroadStrokes: While it's still canon that Gideon and Chandra met and came into conflict over the Order of Heliud on Regatha, then parted ways (after which Gideon realized he'd been wrong and sought Chandra out to reconcile with her), several aspects of their backstories from this novel are contradicted by later canon entries. For example, here Chandra says she had a "mother who was strict, father who was gentle, two sisters who [she] hated, and an older brother who she adored". Her story in ''Magic Origins'' establishes that she was an only child and close to both her parents. As well, in this novel it was the Order of Heluid who burned Chandra's village because she was a pyromancer. In ''Magic Origins'' it was Consul soldiers who did it, and their attempt to execute her took place at an arena she was taken to, rather than at the site of the burned village.

* BroadStrokes: While it's still canon that Gideon and Chandra met and came into conflict over the Order of Heluid in Regatha, then parted ways (after which Gideon realized he'd been wrong and sought Chandra out to reconcile with her), several aspects of their backstories from this novel are contradicted by later canon entries. For example, here Chandra says she had a "mother who was strict, father who was gentle, two sisters who [she] hated, and an older brother who she adored". Her story in ''Magic Origins'' establishes that she was an only child and close to both her parents. As well, in this novel it was the Order of Heluid who burned Chandra's village because she was a pyromancer. In ''Magic Origins'' it was Consul soldiers who did it, and their attempt to execute her took place at an arena she was taken to, rather than at the site of the burned village.

* BroadStrokes: While it's still canon that Gideon and Chandra met and came into conflict over the Order of Heluid in Regatha, then parted ways (after which Gideon realized he'd been wrong and sought Chandra out to reconcile with her), several aspects of their backstories from this novel are contradicted by later canon entries. For example, here Chandra says she had a "mother who was strict, father who was gentle, two sisters who [she] hated, and an older brother who she adored". Her story in ''Magic Origins'' establishes that she was an only child and close to both her parents.

'''''The Purifying Fire''''', by Creator/LauraResnick, is a ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel and the second in the ''Planeswalker'' novel series (although it's a standalone with no direct connection to the others), focusing on the red-aligned planeswalker [[http://magiccards.info/m11/en/127.html Chandra Nalaar]].

* CanonForeigner / CanonImmigrant: The character of Gideon was originally created for ''The Purifying Fire'', and the creative team at Wizards of the Coast liked him enough to print a planeswalker card for him in the ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' expansion.

* LightIsNotGood: This is evil!White at it's finest.

* PlotHole: Chandra is suddenly able to use fire magic again in the last scene on Diraden, even though they haven't broken the curse yet. This is never explained or justified in the story. WordOfGod says this was due to ExecutiveMeddling--Wizards of the Coast rewrote a couple chapters from Resnick's manuscript.

* UnskilledButStrong: Chandra. She came to Keral Keep to fix this.

* PassionIsEvil: Adressed, as it's stated Gideon was trained to divorce emotions from magic. Otherwise very much averted, however, given that the passionate magic users are the good guys and the Order is evil.

* FieryRedhead: Chandra. BonusPoints for FlamingHair as well.