Line #39 Literature/FireBringer


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-Fire-Bringer_8288.jpg]]
2
3	->''When the Lore is bruised and broken,''\
4	''Shattered like a blasted tree''\
5	''Then shall Herne be justly woken''\
6	''Born to set the Herla free.''
7	-->--Herla Prophecy
8
9	''Fire Bringer'' is a {{xenofiction}} novel written very much in the vein of ''Literature/WatershipDown'', but Creator/DavidClementDavies's tale features red deer in Scotland during the Dark Ages.
10
11	The story begins with the birth of the fawn Rannoch on the night his father is murdered by the forces of Drail and Sgorr, a tyrannical pair of deer who have forbidden the yearly play of antlers that ensure a change of leadership. A prophecy surrounds Rannoch's birth: he will become the savior of the deer. If he survives the insane dystopian army in pursuit of him...
12
13	Dark, beautiful, and rich in AnyoneCanDie, the story's more fantastic elements, namely the epic clash between good and evil, are firmly rooted in the nature of deer.
14
15	The [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual sequels]], ''Literature/TheSight'' and ''Fell'', feature wolves, but are set in the same world as Rannoch's story (albeit in Transylvania).
16
17	Not to be mistaken for the [[Literature/TheFirebringerTrilogy other xenofiction series about bringing fire]].
18
19	----
20	!!Provides Examples Of:
21	* ActualPacifist: Rannoch is this for a while, refusing to fight Sgorr. [[spoiler:It doesn't last.]]
22	* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Pretty much subverted; the deer are deer. [[spoiler: Sgorr's knowledge of sharpening antlers and the like is the one real exception; Rannoch's own advanced aptitude might be justified by his PhysicalGod excuse; see below.]]
23	** That said, all the deer do appear to form human-like societies, and to understand the concept of death.
24	* AndroclesLion: Basically applies in reverse; [[spoiler:after Rannoch spends some time as a human's 'pet' before he is released, years later the human 'fawn' who helped him kills Sgorr but spares Rannoch after recognising him]].
25	* AnimalTalk: At first, this trope appears to be {{averted}}, and the deer can only understand other deer. Rannoch is able to converse with any animal, but at first it seems to just be because he's special. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that any animal can learn to do this; the art was just lost.]] That said, humans are still LockedOutOfTheLoop.
26	* AnyoneCanDie: Based on this book and others, the author seems to be freaking ''made'' of this trope. If any character does something remotely kindhearted, expect them to die... soon, horribly, and with much anguish.
27	* AppealToNature: The {{Aesop}} appears to be that creatures shouldn't try to use reason to overcome their natural instincts, because this will inevitably lead to violence.
28	* ArcVillain: Herne's Herd, when the heroes first enter the High Land. For a time, they actually come off as ''worse than Sgorr'' [[spoiler:though this isn't actually true]]. However, [[spoiler:they are defeated easily]].
29	* AscendedToCarnivorism: [[spoiler: Sgorr once killed and ate a human child]].
30	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: As he dies, Rannoch is called up into the clouds by Herne.]]
31	* AuthorTract: When [[spoiler:Rannoch is cared for by the humans]], they drop a whole bunch of exposition about the symbolism of deer.
32	* AxCrazy: Sgorr. A ruthless psychopathic deer who enjoy pointless violence and mass murderer.
33	* BigBad: Drail. [[spoiler:Then Sgorr kills him, takes his place, and turns out to be ''much, much worse.'']]
34	* BewareTheNiceOnes: After Bracken is seriously injured, Rannoch viciously attacks the assassin that did it. He actually wounds him badly enough that despite the assassin escaping, he won't make it back to the herd.
35	* BittersweetEnding: Could also be interpreted as a DownerEnding. [[spoiler: Rannoch defeats Sgorr but loses several of his closest friends in the final battle. At the very end, his bloodline runs strong through the herd but he wanders alone and old before laying down and dying. But Herne talks to him and draws him into the clouds! That's good ... right?]]
36	* CannotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: If Bracken would have told Rannoch he was a changeling child about halfway through the book, it might have saved a LOT of lives.]]
37	* ChekhovsGunman: Liam, the token non-evil human in the book. He first appears as a child, caring for an injured Rannoch. [[spoiler:He's the one to kill Sgorr]], but has no idea of the significance of the act.
38	%%zce* TheChos enOne: Rannoch.
39	* ContinuityNod: In ''The Sight'', Rannoch appears briefly as a vision to one of the main characters.
40	* CruelMercy: Done to [[spoiler:Colquhar]].
41	* DecoyProtagonist: For the first chapter, it looks like Brechin is the main character. [[spoiler:Then he dies...]]
42	* DistinguishingMark: Rannoch's oak leaf. Willow's twin sister Peppa also has a black mark on her ear that helps tell her apart from Willow.
43	* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:Sgorr, after he kills Drail.]]
44	* {{Dystopia}}: Sgorr's building one, all right.
45	* EmpathicHealer: Rannoch.
46	* EnemyMine: [[spoiler: The wolves save the Outriders in the ending battle.]]
47	* EnragedByIdiocy: Sgorr is a very, ''very'' dark version.
48	* EyeScream: Sgorr engineers the death of an enemy deer by having him get a antler through the eye during a marking ceremony.
49	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Rannoch gets this in spades, because even the deer are after him. Also subverted when Sgorr's forces start killing all the other forest animals en masse via "The Cleansing."
50	* FantasyPantheon: Herne the forest god, and Starbuck the FolkHero.
51	* {{Fictionary}}: The Herla are deer, the Lera are all other animals, a brailah is a hedgehog (and an insult), and so on.
52	* AGodIAmNot: Rannoch refuses to believe that he and Herne are one and the same.
53	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Everyone's got 'em, but Sgorr's is the most pronounced, because his invokes EyepatchOfPower.
54	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:When Bracken tells Rannoch that he's a changeling, he realizes the Prophecy is true. He gives himself over to fate and starts setting the last parts of the Prophecy in motion.]]
55	** [[spoiler:Colquhar starts out as one of LesCollaborateurs, offering his herd's freedom in exchange for the continued existence of the Outriders. Once he realizes that Sgorr will not stop until he has conquered every herd, he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and becomes a DeathSeeker.]]
56	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Bracken.]]
57	* HollywoodAtheist: Sgorr, who wants to obliterate the superstition of Herne, and is also a complete and total psychopath. After most of the prophecy has been fulfilled, he edges into FlatEarthAtheist territory. (But see MaybeMagicMaybeMundane.)
58	* HumansAreCthulhu: The deer are routinely horrified and baffled by the weird ways of man. [[spoiler:Sgorr wants to be just like them, which is what makes him so dangerous.]]
59	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: A lot of the story and Rannoch's visions parallel real-life Scottish history and warfare, but the Prophecy's most outrageous line claims that Rannoch shall summon man to fight for him. [[spoiler: It's right.]]
60	* HumansKillWantonly: What the animals all but universally believe. Of course, Sgorr kills just as wantonly as even the most sadistic human being.
61	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Just barely qualifies.
62	* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Sgorr is killed by the human who cared for Rannoch as a fawn, proving the last part of the Prophecy super-right.]]
63	* TheMagicGoesAway: [[spoiler:After he defeats Sgorr, Rannoch slowly begins to lose his powers to understand other animals and to heal.]]
64	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Apart from the AmplifiedAnimalAptitude and AnimalTalk typical of the xenofiction genre, it is never made entirely clear if Herne is real or not. [[spoiler: Given that the book ends with Herne summoning Rannoch, it's most likely that Herne is very real.]]
65	* {{Mythopoeia}}: Starbuck's stories abound, but by the end of the book the reindeer have a story about Santa Claus.
66	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Drail and Sgorr, anyone? There's even a youth army for the fawns...
67	** ...that are encouraged to spy on their parents, no less! Sgorr also embarks on a "cleansing" that involves slaughtering any animal that isn't a deer.
68	* NoNameGiven: The assassin sent to kill Rannoch.
69	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions - In Sgorr's herd, if you haven't, you're probably dead.
70	* PerspectiveFlip: The reindeer tale of Santa Claus has the real hero be a reindeer, of course, and Santa is just his assistant.
71	* PhysicalGod: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Rannoch is the living incarnation of Herne.]]
72	* PoorCommunicationKills: So much grief would have been averted if Bracken had just told Rannoch she wasn't really his mother sooner...
73	* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Rannoch himself resists the Prophecy for about 3/4ths of the book, namely because some of the more ambiguous lines like "Sacrifice shall be his meaning" freak him out. Sgorr, on the other hand, dismisses the Prophecy outright because he's dead set on driving all superstition out of his followers.
74	* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: ''When the Lore is bruised and broken'', ''shattered like a blasted tree''...
75	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Ostensibly Sgorr wants to eradicate the belief in Herne for this reason, but it's actually just because [[spoiler:Herne's Herd kicked him out after he did something [[EvenEvilHasStandards so evil even they could not tolerate it]].]] Later on, Rannoch is frustrated by the fact that the deer seem doomed to endless violence, and claims that Herne is even crueler than [[BigBad Sgorr]] and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters human beings]]. [[spoiler:But after Bracken is killed and he learns that he really is a changeling and the fulfillment of the prophecy, he comes to believe that Herne is completely right and just after all, for no adequately explained reason.]]
76	* RedRightHand: Sgorr is a stag with no antlers (a "hummel" in deer parlance), and has only one eye.
77	* RedShirt: Sometimes it seems like even the characters who get development are this. See AnyoneCanDie.
78	* SceneryPorn: You ''will'' live, breathe, and walk ancient Scotland.
79	* ShoutOut: [[Literature/WatershipDown Richard Adams's]] review of the book is on the back cover.
80	** Don't forget Crak the raven, who repeated "Nevermore" several times.
81	* ShownTheirWork: Something fierce. The author lived in a cabin in a park for a couple of winters, watching the red deer and the wolves that populated the park the cabin was in.
82	* SomewhereAMammalogistIsCrying: Most of the information the author gives about deer is correct, but he does swing seemingly at random between using the correct names for male, female and young red deer (stag, hind and calf) and the terms buck, doe and fawn, which apply to different species. The deer also seem to form one-on-one relationships more often than is natural (e.g. Rannoch and Willow, and Bankfoot and Peppa).
83	* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:Sgorr]].
84	* ThemeNaming: Several characters (Rannoch, Brechin, Tain and Bankfoot, for example) are named after places in Scotland.
85	* TookALevelInBadass: Bankfoot, the previously weak, stuttering fawn. By the end of the book he's an Outrider.
86	* TownWithADarkSecret: The Park, and the Slave Herd.
87	* TheTrickster: Starbuck.
88	* TrueCompanions: Rannoch and his friends.
89	* TwinSwitch: Adult Willow and Peppa use this to great effect to rescue Bankfoot.
90	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: A good bunch of the Sgorrla believe this, but not really Sgorr himself.
91	* TheVoiceless: The Assassin, who never speaks throughout the entire book.
92	* WackyWaysideTribe: {{Subverted}}; ''every single one'' of the groups the heroes encounter proves important by the end.
93	* WaifProphet: Rannoch, when he's little.
94	* WhatTheHellHero: Willow does this to Rannoch right before his HeelFaceTurn because he won't fight to help stop Sgorr.
95	* {{Xenofiction}}: Eat your heart out, WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}!
96	* YouCantFightFate: Rannoch ''really'' tries, though.
97	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Sgorr does this to Drail.]]

Context Literature / FireBringer