Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Literature / IronDruidChronicles

Go To

1[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hounded_7248.jpg]]
2
3-> ''"Woah. He had ghouls on speed dial. My lawyer kicks so much ass.''''
4
5An urban fantasy series by Kevin Hearne. Atticus O'Sullivan, a 21-century old Druid living in Tempe, Arizona just likes to peddle fake magic items to hippies. Unfortunately, his peaceful life keeps getting interrupted. Then he gets out his AbsurdlySharpBlade and his iron necklace and proceeds to take names, often with the assistance of his lawyers, a firm made up of a pack of werewolves and a vampire.
6
7The main series is:
8* ''Hounded'' (2011)
9* ''Hexed'' (2011)
10* ''Hammered'' (2011)
11* ''Tricked ''(2012)
12* ''Trapped'' (2012)
13* ''Hunted'' (2013)
14* ''Shattered'' (2014)
15* ''Staked'' (Jan 26, 2016)
16* ''Besieged'' (2017)
17* ''Scourged'' (2018)
18
19Additionally, there are several other stories available:
20* "Two Ravens and One Crow": A novella set between the events of ''Tricked'' and ''Trapped''. It is available on the Kindle or included with ''Hunted''.
21* "A Test of Mettle": A short story, found [[http://www.kevinhearne.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/A-Test-of-Mettle.pdf here]], that takes place during the events of ''Hammered''.
22* "Clan Rathskeller": Another short story, [[http://www.kevinhearne.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/ClanRathskeller.pdf also on Hearne's website]] that takes place about ten months before the beginning of ''Hounded''.
23* "Grimoire of the Lamb": A novella set four years before the start of ''Hounded''.
24* "The Chapel Perilous" Set around fifteen hundred years before the events of the main series.
25* "A Prelude to War": Set between ''Shattered'' and ''Staked'', found in the ''Three Slices'' anthology.
26
27----
28!!This series provides examples of:
29* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Fragarach is Atticus' primary sword and has the ability to cut through any armor. [[spoiler:The sole exception is Brighid's armor which was warded to counter it. It cuts enough to get stuck in the armor, but not through it]].
30* AliensInCardiff: For being a comparatively small city, Tempe Arizona has a druid, a pack of werewolves, a coven of witches, a powerful vampire, and occasional Celtic and Native American deities (among others) that show up from time to time. Justified: werewolves are all over the world, the witches and druid are specifically there because it’s unlikely to attract attention, and while some of them (like Coyote) tend to wander wherever their worshipers are (including Tempe) the deities tend to be drawn to the town by the druid, rather than anything specific about the town itself. [[spoiler: As was the vampire.]]
31* AllMythsAreTrue:
32** Thanks to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, anything that enough people believe in becomes real, though not necessarily to the point where they can appear on Earth. For example, Odin explains that the comic book version of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] can't manifest at all. There's supposedly several levels of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve in universe. Apparently plenty of people know about him, and spend time thinking about him, but because nobody ''worships'' (or believes in the existence of) Marvel's Thor he has so little power he can't even manifest a body. He may have one on his own plane, but he can't come to Earth.
33* AllThereInTheManual: As the series makes heavy use of Irish (and later, Old Norse) words and names which are not pronounced anything like they look to English-speakers (For instance, Atticus' original name is Siodhachan O'Suileabhain, pronounced roughly "Sheeyahan O'Sullivan.") the author provides a translation guide for most of the non-English names at the start of the book.
34* AmplifierArtifact: Laksha's ruby necklace can apparently enhance her powers enough that she can take on an entire coven of witches by herself.
35* AndIMustScream:
36** Played with in ''Trapped''. [[spoiler:Atticus traps Bacchus in]] an area of slow time. He's effectively trapped, but as far as he knows time is passing normally and not even a single second has passed.
37** A more straight example, Atticus does this to [[spoiler: Artemis, Diana and Mercury in ''Hunted''. He lops off their limbs and encases them in tar and has the local elemental bury their bodies. As they are immortal, they remain alive and fully aware during this.]]
38** A more positive example in Laksha. After she transferred her spirit into her ruby necklace she had nothing to do but reflect on her life and the circumstances of her death so she [[TheAtoner resolved to work on collecting as much good karma]] as possible if she was ever freed.
39* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
40** Atticus notes that the villain in "Grimoire of the Lamb" needs to die because he's messing around with really dark magic that could kill part of the Earth, and because he has a way of undoing Druidic bindings and because he punched Atticus.
41** When the witch Emily held Oberon and his lawyer hostage, Atticus cited he was going to kill her because she dognapped his friend, held him for ransom, and made Wizard of Oz jokes.
42* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
43** Elephant-headed Ganesha using his trunk as a straw[[note]]An elephant's trunk is, of course, it's nose - trying to drink through the trunk would be about as effective as a human trying to drink through their nostrils. What you see on nature programs (look closely) is the elephant picking up water in the trunk and then bringing it to their mouth to actually drink it[[/note]]. As Atticus observes, he's a PhysicalGod and they are talking in a dream, so it really doesn't matter if it shouldn't be possible.
44** Also Oberon (the Irish wolfhound) seems to think that poodles are an [[OneGenderRace all female dog breed]].
45* ArtisticLicenseGeology: This is invoked by Atticus when Coyote asks him to magically create a gold vein under some land where Coyote wants to build a mine. Atticus protests that this would be geologically impossible and will probably result in geologists all over the world questioning all they know about geology. Coyote doesn't care.
46* AssShove: Coyote shoots a demon in the butt [[ItAmusedMe because it's funny.]]
47* TheAtoner: Laksha Kulasekaran, an Indian witch who made bargains with Vedic demons and learned some really nasty magic and was generally evil...until LaserGuidedKarma happened to her. After getting a new body she decided to work on cultivating good karma to make up for all the bad things she'd done in her life.
48* AttackReflector: Coriander is warded to reflect attacks and do no harm which gives him free pass to travel through the Irish planes as a herald. In combat, he helpfully stands in the way, but other fae know to hit around him or use projectiles.
49* AuthorAvatar: Oberon, bizarre as it may sound. Hearne stated in an interview that most of Oberon's dialogue is not even planned, but simply comes from Hearne's own snarky thoughts on the scene as he is writing. Oberon's quips often contain numerous {{Shout Out}}s to Hearne's own geeky interests.
50* BadassNormal: For a certain definition of Normal. While [[{{Familiar}} Oberon]] is older than any other Irish Wolfhound thanks to Atticus sharing his [[ImmortalityInducer Immortali-Tea]] with the hound, and is smarter or at least more educated than normal dogs due to his Druid teaching him language, he is still merely a normal, albeit well-bred, Wolfhound. He regularly tangles with vampires, monsters, fae, and outright gods.
51* BatmanGambit:
52** The Morrigan told Aenghus Óg that she had promised not to take Atticus, knowing he would use his connections with Hell to summon the Christian Death, so that when Aenghus died the Morrigan wouldn't have to take him, just leave him for Death to take to Hell.
53** Turns out Ganesha's group has been [[spoiler: manipulating Atticus for years]], correctly predicting all of his actions and setting him up to follow the correct path.
54* BerserkButton:
55** Atticus tells Bacchus he's "a pale imitation of a better god" just to piss him off.
56** Granuaile gets really angry if you patronize her. Or threaten her dog. Or pollute. Or disagree with anything she says.
57* {{BFS}}: Brighid's huge sword looks like it came straight out of a manga.
58* BigBad: Aenghus Óg in the first book is really the only antagonist that fits the trope effectively. At least, until Loki [[spoiler: reveals that he has been faking his insanity all this time and is actually quite a schemer]].
59* BigBadEnsemble: Theophilus and Loki. Theophilus is pulling on a grudge against Druids (who tended to kill vampires on sight back in the day) while Loki is just an OmnicidalManiac.
60* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: Atticus thinks he killed the last two Bigfoots during his time in the Everglades. He also says he was the figure in the Patterson Film because he was bored at the time. Sasquatch and Yeti are still very much alive, though. To make a long story short, the Yeti [[spoiler:speak Old Irish and Old Norse and their mother had a penchant for saying [[ContinuityNod "Graah"]].]]
61* BlackAndGrayMorality: Hell is evil, most gods are jerks (if they don't cross the MoralEventHorizon), the viewpoint character is kind of a jerk, [[BystanderSyndrome who tends to not get involved unless he's forced to]] (though this is largely out of 2000 years of keeping a low profile to avoid the literal wrath of a god) until he gets CharacterDevelopment.
62* BlowYouAway: An ability of Fragarach is that it allows the control of wind so long as you have the power.
63* BodySurf: One of Laksha's primary abilities. She'd done this several times in her backstory before finally surfing into her ruby necklace to escape a LaserGuidedKarma based death. After she was exorcized from the ruby she took up residence in Granuaile's head and finally into the body of a comatose woman who didn't want to be revived.
64* BystanderSyndrome: As mentioned, Atticus doesn't like getting involved or trying to put down any sort of crime unless it affects him. He had to be blackmailed into helping Coyote kill a demon, and was willing to let the Bacchants do their thing before learning they were walking {{Emotion Bomb}}s that would have devastated the city. As he explains in ''Staked'', this is in large part due to 2000 years of dodging Aenghus Og, who would detect his use of magic, encouraging him to keep a low profile.
65* CanNotTellALie:
66** Anyone caught in the effect of Fragarach, the Answerer. It forces them to speak nothing but the truth. And to leave nothing out.
67** The goddess Brighid can speak in a powerful three-tiered voice, which not only has an aura of command, but she cannot lie while using it.
68* CareerEndingInjury: In ''Scourged'', [[spoiler: Atticus' right arm with all his tattoos is chopped off as recompense for his crimes against various pantheons and he's told not to regain the Druidic abilities he lost on penalty of death. He's humbled enough at that point to accept the punishment and live his remaining days as a weakened Druid in peace, though he calls in two favors from Ogma to have his arm restored in the future]].
69* CharacterDevelopment:
70** Compare the selfish (but entertaining) jerk Atticus was in the first couple of books to the guy who [[spoiler: crosses swords with freaking Brighid to stop her from killing the treacherous Fand and then continues to calmly give Brighid advice on how to proceed]].
71** Similarly, look at Brighid who, after that, realizes that [[spoiler: her obsession with the Morrigan made her blind to everything else and resolves to become a more deserving leader]].
72** Granuaile also has a bucket-load of this forced upon her after a humiliating encounter with/breaking speech from [[spoiler: Loki]].
73* CharmPerson: Melina, a witch, has a spell on her hair that gives her this ability.
74* ChekhovsGunman: Toward the beginning of ''Hunted'', the Morrigan gives Atticus the address of a Time Island where someone he may want to retrieve is frozen in time. Eventually, he does have the person pulled out of there, and on the very last page we find out who it is: [[spoiler:his old Archdruid]].
75* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: This is partly how gods work, though to what extent is kind of vague. When Atticus asks the widow [=MacDonagh=] to pray for Mary with a very specific image and place in mind, he mentions that it's up to Mary to choose to appear in that place with that image.
76* ColdIron:
77** Especially [[ThunderboltIron Meteorite Iron]]. It's antithetical to magic, so is the best imaginable [[AntiMagic protection against it]]. It's also outright poisonous to beings of pure magic (TheFairFolk). Makes spellcasting extremely hard, though. Atticus' mastery of ColdIron earned him the title of the [[TitleDrop Iron Druid]]. However, iron of any kind pretty much cancels out magic under normal circumstances, Atticus's own magic being the exception, (It is possible to combine the two if the smith is talented enough) resulting in the Iron Age pretty much bringing an end to magic in the world.
78** As a Druid, Atticus is able to communicate with iron elementals and ask them to eat away magic.
79* ContrivedCoincidence: By his own admission in ''Hunted'', [[spoiler: Atticus' Soul Catcher probably shouldn't have worked. It'd require that he die while in contact with the earth, that his body would fall in such a way that his tattoos were actually touching the ground, that his binding would actually keep his soul in place at all and a whole slew of other requirements that the odds of it saving him once were wildly improbable and unlikely to happen again.]]
80* CoolOldGuy: Manannán mac Lir lets Atticus keep Fragarach because it pisses off Aenghus Óg and helped Atticus get to North America long before that schmuck Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
81* CoolOldLady: The widow [=MacDonagh=] is a good example. Atticus sits and drinks with her fairly often.
82* CrazyPrepared:
83** Atticus has had twenty centuries to improve his magic and craft powerful defenses against his enemies. He resides in Tempe, Arizona specifically because it is the place in North America where a Tuatha Dé Danann would be at his/her weakest and thus least likely to look for him.
84** The Morrigan accurately predicted [[spoiler: her death at the hands of the Olympians ''two thousand years'' before it happened, and put Owen on a Time Island with a message for Brighid to ally herself with the dark elves against Loki]].
85* CrossoverCosmology: Gods from any mythos you can think of appear or are at least mentioned, including Mary and Jesus.
86* CrypticConversation: Jesus warned Atticus about going to Asgard with the Thor Revenge Squad, citing incomprehensible forces as a consequence. When pressed, he would only say that he can't tell Atticus what would actually happen because that would be cheating.
87* CulturedBadass:
88** Leif Helgarson, vampire, attorney at law, a match for Atticus in a Shakespearean quote duel, wears a tailored suit like he was born in it, and can tear you, witches, or other vampires limb from blood-pumping limb.
89** Atticus is no slouch either, being an {{Omniglot}} scholar with a habit of killing whichever supernatural creature decides to pick a fight with him.
90* DarkAndTroubledPast: Atticus' has a [[TheLostLenore dead wife]], children crazed with immortality and gods dicking around in his.
91* DayWalkingVampire: Theophilus is said to be so old he can not only stay awake during the day but even walk around outside if the weather is sufficiently overcast. For reference, Leif, who is a thousand years old and has the power to match a PhysicalGod, has great difficulty remaining awake after sunrise.
92* DeadlyScratch:
93** Moralltach is one of Atticus' swords that can instantly kill anything with just a scratch.
94** Granuaile obtains a whirling blade from the yetis, a SoulCuttingBlade that can instantly kill and take the soul of the target by stabbing them anywhere with the tip.
95* DeadpanSnarker: At the end of ''Tricked'' when the Morrigan shows up and calls Atticus Siodhachan (his real name), Granuaile asks if that's old Irish for "Dumbass".
96* DeityOfHumanOrigin: The Tuatha Dé Danann were originally regular druids whom the ancient Celts started worshipping as gods. Somehow this turned them into "real" gods, but they are basically just super druids.
97* DeliberateValuesDissonance: A lot. Lampshaded by Atticus' narration that literally describes the morality of the Tuatha Dé Danann as "[[MightMakesRight Bronze Age]]" and his own as "Iron Age". While he understands modern sensibilities, at times he's fairly transparently acting the part just to blend in, and consequently creeps out his young apprentice several times with his callous disregard of said sensibilities. One particular case of this [[spoiler: (Atticus being willing to let the Frost Giants have Freyja, in order to secure their aid in the raid on Asgard - mercifully, she escapes, and while he's somewhat relieved about that, he didn't particularly care one way or another beforehand)]], revealed to said apprentice (now graduated) in the last book, leads to her genuine horror, [[spoiler: the end of their romance and the two of them separating for the foreseeable future]]. In this case, though, he cops to it, and doesn't even hold the fact that [[spoiler: Freyja chops his arm off]] against the insulted party.
98* {{Depower}}: Atticus is able to take away [[spoiler:Werner's life-draining abilities]] by having Ferris feast on the magic in their tattoos. Unfortuantely for Atticus, [[BroughtDownToBadass they're still a badass familiar with modern weapons and tactics]].
99* DominoRevelation: Magic animals, witches, gods & goddesses, werewolves, vampires, ghouls, demons, angels, and so more!
100* DoomMagnet: Pretty much Atticus' raison d'etre. His actions have, directly or indirectly, caused most of the disasters that pop up in the series, most notably [[spoiler: Loki's being freed from imprisonment and trying to start Ragnarok.]] Only the vampires have no direct beef with his actions; they're working on a grudge against all Druids in general. As a result of this tendency, in ''Staked'' [[spoiler: Werner Drasche kills Hal Hauk and Hal's pack terminate Atticus' relationship with Magnusson and Hauk and threaten to kill him if he ever comes onto their land again.]]
101* DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Judging from her IntimateHealing stunt [[spoiler:the Morrigan]] seems to buy into this, even if her victim's reaction was less than [[ThisIsGonnaSuck enthusiastic]]. It's implied during her failed attempts at CharacterDevelopment that this is at least partly down to being locked into the personality that people imagined for her/she may have originally had back in the Bronze Age.
102* {{Druid}}: Atticus is the last remaining mortal Druid ([[spoiler:until ''Trapped'' where his apprentice graduates, and then ''Hunted'' where it's revealed his own Archdruid is still alive.]]), thanks to a Roman-led (and vampire-driven) pogrom against them back in the day.
103* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: The Morrigan. Death goddess natch.
104* ElementalEmbodiment: Atticus, as a druid, is friendly with several of these. He's friends with an iron elemental who is particularly useful to him whenever he goes up against the Fae.
105* EtTuBrute: After [[spoiler:Leif gives away Atticus' location to have a vampire rival killed]], Atticus considers it a grievous act of betrayal to the point that [[spoiler:he spares an evil, deadly vampire-alligned agent simply because Leif sent him on a silver platter to Atticus]]. Still, Atticus doesn't go hunt them down and there's some affection remaining to their relationship.
106* {{Expy}}: The Roman gods for the Greeks. Atticus even lampshades this when pushing Bacchus's BerserkButton, calling him "a feeble echo of Dionysos" and "a weak copy of a better god".
107* TheFairFolk: They're the children of the Tuatha Dé Danann. They're frequently mentioned, but rarely have any significant presence.
108* FakingTheDead: Atticus does this at the beginning of ''Tricked'', so as to disappear from the backlash of previous hijinks.
109* FallenAngel: They're the first and strongest demons from the Christian end of things.
110* FieryRedhead:
111** Brighid. Emphasis on fiery. She's a fire goddess after all.
112** Granuaile is also an excitable red head.
113* FirstPersonSmartass: Atticus, which has led to many comparisons to ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''.
114* {{Flanderization}}: In ''Hunted'', Zeus' sexual appetite. His first thought is to comment on an attraction to half-rotted Hel, has a constant erection, and has to be called out by Jupiter to focus on anything besides sex.
115* FromBadToWorse: And how! '''The bad:''' He agreed to transport an expedition to Asgard to avenge millennia of {{jerkass}}ery by Thor. Standing in his way? Only most of the Norse gods. '''The worse:''' Having succeeded in killing not only Thor but the Norns, Heimdall and Freyr, he's chased down by Thor's brothers and a bunch of other thunder gods. '''The shit that hits the fan:''' With the Norns dead, their prophecies are null, meaning Ragnarok can start early. With Thor dead there's no one to fight Jormungandr. With Heimdall dead there's no one to fight Loki. Who it just so happens has broken free and is bat-shit insane. NiceJobBreakingItHero!
116* FullFrontalAssault:
117** Druids can do all manner of things to metals and natural fabrics, like binding them to the ground, so nude is the only way one would want to face off with them before synthetic fabrics were invented.
118** Atticus does this himself from time to time, as shifting forms does not take his clothes with him, so he is nude when he shifts back into a human.
119* GaiasVengeance: In the direct sense, Atticus calling on Sonora as Gaia's champion when he's attacked by a demon at his house. Less directly, this is one of the primary shticks of Druids, but since Atticus was the only one for something in the area of two thousand years, he can't take a very active role in the whole avenging business.
120* GameOfNerds: Atticus, whose geek credentials are well and truly established early on, is a big baseball fan.
121* GodIsGood: In sharp contrast to most mythological figures who make appearances, there are a few who stand out for being good.
122** Jesus, notwithstanding his invocation of OmniscientMoralityLicense. His mother Mary even more so.
123** Coyote is a bit of a mix. He's definitely good towards the Diné ([[TricksterGod even if they don't believe it]]), but he's indicated a lack of compassion towards non-Diné, only intervening to stop a demon when it attacks one of ''his'' people.
124** Goibniu and Manannán mac Lir of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
125** Perun is depicted as being a pretty decent guy, thanks to a millennium or two of enforced humility.
126* GodsNeedPrayerBadly:
127** Well, not really prayer. The mere fact of knowing and thinking about them is sufficient, but active worship is needed for them to manifest, and how they do so depends on how those praying view them. Jesus notably dislikes manifesting because he almost always ends up looking pretty horrifying.
128** This can also cause multiple versions of the same god. There's several Coyotes running around Arizona, one for each of the native tribes, and Jesus mentions that the Christian God and the Jewish Yahweh are two separate beings.
129** The degree to which gods are shaped and empowered by believers is kind of inconsistent. In ''Hammered'', despite apparently having no believers, Perun's weather control powers rival Thor's while in Asgard of all places, who is explicitly described as being much stronger because his is still remembered thanks to the Prose and Poetic Eddas (though this is later implied to be because [[spoiler: Odin and Perun were part of the same cabal of gods that was manipulating Atticus]]). The Morrigan matches Freya effortlessly in ''Two Ravens and One Crow'' and outright kills Vidar in ''Tricked''. In the former case, it's pretty much a case of scale. A Goddess of death, even one that's largely forgotten, would still probably have more power than a goddess who is most frequently conflated with Frigg in modern minds. And in the latter, Vidar directly submitted himself to her sphere of influence by challenging her to a fight over the ownership of a weapon that belonged to the Tuatha Dé Danann.
130* GrandTheftMe: Laksha did this for a few hundred years. Since then she's gotten a lot more polite about it.
131* TheGrimReaper: Shows up on his pale horse and everything in the first book. He's a decidedly creepy person [[spoiler:and takes Aenghus Óg to Hell when he died.]]
132* GroinAttack: Owen is pissed off enough by a troll that followed him home demanding gold to punch him in the groin. Unfortunately for both of them, he didn't take into account how powerful his newly crafted brass knuckles were and finds himself elbow deep into the troll's nether regions which escalates things into a fight to the death.
133* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Challenging a death goddess to a sword fight turns out to be one of Vidar's less intelligent decisions in ''Tricked'' as he's bisected for his troubles.
134* HarmfulHealing: This is the reason why druids only practice healing magic on themselves. Healing magic can easily harm the subject before making them better and if you use druid magic to directly harm a living, sentient being the magic will kill you instantly. Only the druid's own body is an exception to the rule, so druids have a HealingFactor for themselves but cannot even try to heal even the simplest cut on someone else without risking death.
135* {{Hellfire}}: Aenghus Óg gained this through a DealWithTheDevil.
136* HeroicSacrifice: In ''Scourged'', [[spoiler:Laksha chooses to sacrifice herself by [[GrandTheftMe body-snatching]] Jörmungandr and drowning herself beneath the sea to make sure it can't take its body back and wreck havoc during Ragnarök as her final act of good karma]].
137* HiddenDepths: The Morrigan, while outwardly not too far off from your average {{Jerkass God|s}}, secretly hated being one and made numerous attempts to change that about herself. [[spoiler: When she finally decided she wasn't capable of change, she [[SuicideByCop allowed herself to be killed]] by Artemis and Diana]].
138* HolyGrail: "The Chapel Perilous" focuses on the "true" story behind the search for the Holy Grail, which is actually [[spoiler: Dagda's Cauldron]].
139* HomeFieldAdvantage: Druids are very clever about this. Atticus has some very powerful enemies looking for him so he spent at least a century setting up his defenses. He befriended all the local nature spirits, allied himself with the local vampire lord and the local werewolf pack and put multiple layers of magical and mundane protections on his home and workplace. His ultimate home field advantage comes from an arrangement he has with Morrigan, one of his pantheon's Death Gods. As long as any battle he is in takes place under the jurisdiction of that god, Atticus cannot die in it. Unfortunately Aenghus Óg was just as smart and went to extraordinary lengths to nullify all those advantages including making sure that the final battle happened where Morrigan has no jurisdiction and could not (officially) interfere.
140* HonorBeforeReason: Atticus insists on keeping his word to take part of an assassination attempt on Thor despite being told repeatedly from reliable sources that no good will come of it no matter how things turn out and his own personal judgement agreeing with them. And predictably, it comes back to bite him. Hard.
141* HotWitch: Nearly every witch in the series. Most of them are actually extremely old and ugly, but are magically altering their appearance.
142* HurricaneOfPuns:
143** Atticus [[PungeonMaster really likes puns]], so he uses them for names for various tea blends. There's Virus Immuni-tea, Humili-tea, Mobili-tea and Immortali-tea among others.
144** In ''Hammered'', Atticus and Leif rattle several pee-based puns back and forth.
145* ILetYouWin: [[spoiler: The Morrigan allowed herself to be killed by Artemis and Diana]]. Atticus taunts them about it.
146* {{Immortality}}: The various mythological figures cover almost every subtrope of immortality.
147* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Played with in Atticus' case. He was already an old man when he first came across Airmid, who taught him the recipe for his Immortali-tea, which reduced his age to how he looked in his mid-twenties. In ''Shattered'' it is implied that it's merely a matter of dosing, as [[spoiler: the archdruid Owen]] chooses to only reverse his age to about his 40's, with the logic that [[spoiler: he'd always been Atticus's elder so looking the same age would be weird]]. Subverted with witches, as they use magic to hide their real age.
148* ImmortalImmaturity:
149** Pretty much all the gods can come off as petty children or teenagers with few exceptions.
150** Atticus himself often acts immature for someone of his age and life experience. Part of it is an act to make people think he is really only twenty years old and to generally blend in. Often, though, it isn't - though in later books he undergoes significant CharacterDevelopment and starts actually acting like the immortal millennia old druid that he is.
151** Actually something of a plot point in ''Hounded'': Emily, one the of witches in a local coven acts like a spoiled teenager despite being over ninety years old. Atticus uses her as an example to Granuaile, advising her to think long and hard before becoming a magic user, because it's a risk inherent in having an extended life.
152* ImmortalityInducer: Atticus stays young thanks to drinking Immortali-tea, his IncrediblyLamePun for the Herblore of Airmid.
153* ImmortalRuler: Atticus played this role for a few centuries. Fleeing Europe, he joined an African tribe and after a while became its leader. He married and shared his Immortali-tea with his wife and children. The tribe prospered and his immortal family became the ruling elite of the nation that formed. However, after his wife was killed, he became disillusioned by how decadent and immoral his children became as a result of their immortality and left them and the country to fend for themselves.
154* ItsPersonal:
155** Aenghus Óg kidnapping Oberon and Hal, then drawing power from the Earth to open a portal to Hell, which killed the surrounding land for about twenty square miles. Both ''huge'' no-nos in Druidic law, and a personal blow for anyone intimately connected to the Earth (as all Druids are).
156** Atticus didn't take well to [[spoiler:Hel, the Norse goddess of the dead]] confronting him wearing the skin of [[spoiler:the widow Macdonagh]].
157** Similarly, Oberon being injured during the fight with [[spoiler:Zdenik]] is what turned Atticus completely against [[spoiler:Leif]], since the latter had orchestrated the whole thing.
158** [[spoiler: Fand, as self-declared queen of the Fae, takes Atticus' and Brighid's obsession with ColdIron personally, as it turns out]]
159** Granuaile considers [[spoiler:Loki]] to be her nemesis after [[spoiler:his machinations lead to the death of her father, her leading him straight to the Arrows of Vayu, and being branded with Loki's mark. During Ragnarök, she deals the finishing blow to him and claims the Arrows of Vayu as her own for it]].
160* JerkassGods: A few. Thor [[spoiler: (prior to his reincarnation)]] and Aenghus Óg stand out in particular. Most believe in MightMakesRight and would [[DisproportionateRetribution murder for rudeness]] (The Morrigan for example) if the culprit isn't on their power level. Lampshaded in the "Clan Rathskeller" short story, though in that case it was actually a subversion.
161--> '''Atticus''': Gods can screw anything and anybody. For reference, see history.
162* JerkJock: Thor pretty much personifies this. He is a bully who will do as he pleases and only seems to obey Odin. He likes to play cruel practical jokes and sees nothing wrong with killing humans and supernatural beings for petty reasons. [[spoiler: The reincarnated version averts this, and thanks Atticus for killing off his previous self, who'd veered into JerkWithAHeartOfJerk territory]].
163* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
164** Thor is this according to WordOfGod, not that you would know from looking, since the jerk part is all that is shown and talked about (and there is rather a lot of it) which makes Thor come across as a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk despite the tales of him being one of the friendlier gods to humanity. [[spoiler: The heart of gold becomes visible when he reappears, having been resurrected at Ragnarok, and thanks Atticus for killing off his previous incarnation, who'd veered into JerkWithAHeartOfJerk territory.]]
165** Atticus is often an immature, selfish, irresponsible, rude prick prone to petty abuses of power, prior to his CharacterDevelopment - and while a large chunk of it is an act, designed to make people underestimate him, a lot of it isn't. He's indicated to be somewhat aware of this, noting to Granuaile that ImmortalImmaturity is a risk and common side-effect of a magically extended life. But even before his CharacterDevelopment, he will sometimes stop truly vile things from happening and can be nice and caring to those close to him.
166* KansasCityShuffle: Coyote is working on pulling this off in ''Tricked'', after a fashion. He's actually being totally up front about wanting to help the Diné, but notes that no one will believe that he's being altruistic, so [[MindScrew the greatest trick of all is that he isn't tricking them when they think he is]].
167* KilledOffForReal: Subverted with [[spoiler: Thor and the other Norse who died in book 3. They're gods, and they're worshipped enough that they have the power to come back to life. The only reason they haven't is because Odin told them to lay low, just in case Loki can make Ragnarok happen, where they would really be KilledOffForReal.]]
168* KnightTemplar: The Hammers of God, a multi-religious military organization that targets Atticus because he was present when Aenghus Óg opened a portal to Hell. They later reel back on the more militant aspects and start focusing on explicit evils.
169* LaserGuidedKarma:
170** Aenghus Óg summoned the Christian Death for his fight with Atticus, because he knew that the Morrigan wouldn't come for him. When Atticus kills him, Death takes him to Hell instead of Tír na nÓg.
171** Laksha is Indian, so she explicitly believes in karma and works to subvert this. Having spent most of her life messing around with evil demons, she's working on collecting good karma to balance the scales.
172* LastOfHisKind: Atticus is the last of the ancient Celtic druids. Only the Tuatha Dé Danann still follow the ancient traditions and they're gods. Atticus can train new druids but the training takes years and over the centuries none of his apprentices lived to complete the final rituals. [[spoiler:Except Granuaile, who becomes a full druid in ''Trapped'', then Owen, who reappears from a time island and starts training apprentices of his own.]]
173* TheLegionsOfHell: Recurring bad guys and frequently show up in large numbers. They smell like ass.
174* LivingDistantAncestor: Atticus was patriarch of a large clan in Africa for a few centuries, though his attempts to share his immortality with his descendants didn't end well (they started seeing him as simply their ticket to immortality). This is indicated to have rather soured him on people in general for a long while.
175* LoopholeAbuse:
176** A druid's offensive magic is based on this. Druids cannot ''directly'' harm a living being using their magic or the magic will kill the druid on the spot. However, the rules of druid magic do not prohibit ''indirect'' harm. So while you cannot just stop an enemy's heart with magic, you can have a hole appear under him to trap his legs so you can cut his head off with a sword.
177** Atticus' discovery of a loophole in the interaction of magic and iron resulted in his creation of a powerful amulet that lets him resist many types of magic - though it took him several centuries to master it. This makes him way more powerful than a normal druid and able to fight gods.
178* MagicAIsMagicA:
179** Atticus' magic has very specific rules lined out, but most of the magic seen follows specific rules even if they aren't explicitly stated.
180** A big part of why Atticus is so powerful is because he experiments with the rules of druid magic and was able to [[BeyondTheImpossible find solutions to problems that seemed impossible to the much older and powerful]] Tuatha Dé Danann.
181** Averted by Jesus who's strong enough to do whatever the hell he wants with his miracles.
182* MagicMusic: Väinämöinen is capable of it when he shows up in the third book. Also, Frank's Blessing Way in the fourth book.
183* MasterOfYourDomain: Atticus has gotten very good at manipulating his body over the years. Morrigan teaches him a useful technique for raising his core temperature in the third book.
184* MemeticBadass: Atticus is this in-universe. As the "iron druid" his touch is deadly to the Fae, creatures composed entirely of magic. Not only that, but his mastery of ColdIron represents a direct challenge to Brighid's authority, even if he himself has no interest in usurping her, something attenuated when he agrees to at least give her a guiding hand (i.e. he won't tell her how, but he will tell her if she's going wrong). And then, after killing Aenghus Og, he pops up on the radar of a lot of deities as both a potential threat and a potential asset. All these things turn into serious problems later on.
185* MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication: {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{Subverted|Trope}}. Granuaille derides Atticus' tendency to resort to violence as "how men solve problems" then immediately goes straight to her step-father's office and beats the crap out of him and several security guards [[{{Hypocrite}} explicitly out of spite]].
186* MoralMyopia:
187** Atticus is part of a group that goes after Thor for his crimes against them like murdering their families, pets, making fools of them or just generally being a murderous thug who destroys innocent lives. Yet, they show no reservation at invading his home, killing his family and friends and their pets. One member, Leif, confessed that at least he himself to having killed innocents during his time as a vampire. None of them care. By the end of ''Hammered'' Atticus is a thief, having stolen golden apples from Idunn, and Odin's spear (which, to be fair, he did later return), a murderer, having killed several members of the Norse pantheon who had nothing to do with Thor's actions, and technically an animal abuser too, since he killed Sleipnir and one of Odin's ravens, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and a liar]], having claimed to have been sent by the dark elves and to be Bacchus, thereby risking a war between the Norse and Roman and Greek pantheons. He also willingly [[spoiler: agrees and allows the goddess Freyja (who has committed no crime) to be kidnapped by Frost Giants knowing full well they are going to rape her]] and blames the whole mess on Thor for not fighting the group despite said group not even announcing who they are or why they are attacking (although on that point, they assumed that Thor would remember. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday He didn't]]). All Atticus feels is a little bad about the whole mess and a little sorry for [[spoiler: Freyja]] - and pleased she escaped. That part with [[spoiler: Freyja]] is brought up later, at least - when Atticus cops to the fact that it was pretty awful in the face of Granuaile's horror and [[spoiler: Freyja's]] justified fury, and doesn't hold a grudge when [[spoiler: Freyja ends up lopping his arm off in exchange]].
188** In general, this seems to pop up an awful lot in magic users. Atticus said as much to Granuaile at the end of ''Hounded''; the world of magic isn't exactly filled with sunshine and rainbows, even the benign practitioners are often forced to make terrible choices, and tend to regard {{muggle}}s as an inconvenience to be exploited as necessary, and it sometimes smells as awful as it is and you better be damn sure you know what you're getting into before you join up.
189** Granuaille gets in on the action in ''Staked''. She attacks her step-father's business explicitly out of spite, rationalizing her actions as helping the Earth. She derides Atticus' tendency to resort to violence as "how men solve problems" then goes straight to her step-father's office and beats the crap out of him and several security guards. Despite acknowledging her hypocrisy in attacking him, she continues to beat him up anyway, once again trying to justify it as her striking back against a polluter. Afterwards, however, she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone worries about this being part of a potential]] StartOfDarkness.
190* MotherNature: The elemental spirit of the entire earth. Atticus communes with her every decade or so. Takes a few weeks because her concept of time is severely disproportionate to his (fondly reminisces about the time of the dinosaurs like it was just last week).
191* MugglesDoItBetter: It's shown that modern human technology can handily counter Druids. Synthetic material can't be unbinded, infrared vision can see heat signatures that camoflague magic doesn't cover, Druids don't have any particular defense against bullets, and recovering from bullet wounds necessitates some lengthy contact with the Earth in order to get back up. Most of the supernatural threats are old enough to not keep up with human weapons, but certain vampires do. For their part, Druids can counter by asking an iron elemental to easily break apart the guns and bullets if they agree to be called upon in time for the fight and get into range.
192** In ''Hunted'', [[spoiler:Atticus]] unceremoniously takes a sniper bullet to the head [[spoiler:and would have died then and there if his soulcatcher didn't have all the necessary conditions to trigger]]. [[spoiler: Granuaile]] manages to chase down the lone sniper in bird form, but they're told that if they hadn't listened to to the warning note and changed their route, they would have walked into a killzone surrounded by five snipers.
193** ''Staked'':
194*** Atticus is up against a lone gunman and isn't able to do anything himself in the encounter besides hide and bleed out on the floor from taking five gunshot wounds. His plan is to hope that his assailant is sufficiently tired out from an elemental draining his magic away. That doesn't work because the gunman drags himself over to execute Atticus. His backup plan is calling the police who show up in time to arrest the gunman.
195*** Atticus is about to take on a room of vampires when he's detected with infrared goggles and he runs the hell away once they pull out guns and fire.
196*** Owen has to sneak across his lawn in bird form to [[LiteralDisarming rip off a gunman's arm]], before identifying him as a vampire and unbinding him. There were seven more gunmen, but they're torn apart by the werewolves staying with him.
197*** During the climax, a sniper keeps Atticus pinned behind a marble pillar in the open with him too exhausted to counter it, but the vampires rush into melee range instead of circling around and shooting him. Once the main fight is over, Owen flies over to take out the distracted sniper and other gunmen off-screen.
198** "Blood Pudding"
199*** Granuaile takes three hollow-point rounds to the torso and immediately drops with the last of her stength used to impale the vampire with her staff and stop him from getting out of the sun. She's dragged over to a lawn to heal up and spends the next hour getting the bullets out of her.
200*** The human mercenaries Leif hired charges into the den and only takes a few casualties while wiping out the remaining eleven vampires and subduing the thralls non-lethally for Leif to charm over. According to Dirk, that makes twenty-one vampire nests they've cleared for Leif.
201* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Durga, who shows up in India armed with five different divine weapons to help Granuaile fight a sorcerer that's summoning a bunch of rakshasas.
202* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Laksha took the name Kulasekaran in honor of the king that ruled India when she was young.
203* NationalStereotypes: The widow [=MacDonagh=] is terrified when she sees Atticus kill a man but becomes quite accepting when Atticus [[BlatantLies tells her the man was British.]] She's old school Irish about such things.
204* NatureSpirit: The elementals that Atticus can talk to. They range from a local iron spirit to the Sonoran Desert to, about once a decade, ''Gaia herself.''
205* NestedStory: In the third book, the participants in the raid on the Norse plane tell their stories about why they hate Thor and want him to die.
206* NeverMyFault: Atticus usually tries to avoid any responsibility for his actions and only tries to fix things if strong-armed. He tries to skip town instead of dealing with the Maenads and only does when pressured to do so by the local coven. He blames the whole Asgard mess on the Norns and Thor, only admitting he handled things "poorly" when forced to confront Odin. He later grows out of this, accepting more responsibility for his actions and his duties (which he'd been neglecting for two thousand years on the grounds that Aenghus Og was trying to find and kill him).
207* NextSundayAD: A drive-by mention of the year in ''Shattered'' sets it in 2022.
208* NominalHero: Atticus fights because ItsPersonal, or because his [[MoralityPet loved ones]] are threatened, or because of mutual interests and old deals... and occasionally to deal out GaiasVengeance, but he makes no claim to being a hero. He spent two thousand years running away from a confrontation with Aenghus Óg, only finally deciding to fight after Brighid and Flidais conspired to force his hand, and even then he might not have gone through with it if Aenghus hadn't opened up a portal to Hell. Even ''that'' didn't do it; he only fought because opening the portal took so much power it killed a portion of the Earth outright. He eventually gets more proactive, though even then, he's largely manipulated into it.
209* NonIndicativeName: Theophilus, whose name means something to the effect of "loved by God", is a vampire, who are generally regarded as AlwaysChaoticEvil. It's suggested he may have intentionally named himself that as an IronicNickname.
210* NoodleImplements: Atticus never explains how he intends to use granny panties and a bag of marshmallows to punish Coyote for his duplicity. We do find out, however, that there was also some Icy Hot and a gopher snake to that recipe.
211* NoodleIncident:
212** "You never want to be a Nigel in Toronto." It eventually gets explained in ''Staked''.
213** "When I tell them about that one time with the goat and the Roman leather skirt stolen from Gaul..."
214* ObfuscatingInsanity: [[spoiler: Loki]] is much, much smarter and on the ball than he pretends to be.
215* OccultLawFirm: Leif and Gunnar with his pack run one. They are open 24/7 as [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Leif]] is in at nights and the werewolves can be reached when the sun is up.
216* TheOlderImmortal:
217** Pretty much every significant character has an extended lifespan. Some try to use this as a gauge for threat level (Atticus is probably X hundred years old, but I'm surely older, and therefore stronger!)
218** In the Thor Revenge Squad, Gunnar is the youngest, being around three hundred years old, while Atticus' 2100ish is the highest confirmed age with Leif being just over a thousand. Zhang Guo Lao's age is never specified, but he should be over 4000 years and Vainamoinen (Finish culture hero) and Perun (Russian god) are probably older.
219* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: Ganesha's group, a collection of gods from various pantheons. Ganesha is the only identified member. [[spoiler: In ''Shattered'', we get the entire list: Jesus, Ganesha, Odin, Inari, Buddha, Guanyin, Shango, Perun, and Brighid. We also find out that the reason they banded together was because Rebecca Dane prayed to them for Atticus' wellbeing.]]
220* OmniscientMoralityLicense:
221** By and large Atticus ascribes to the position that the Earth and her servants (i.e. Druids, i.e. Him) trump most other concerns; if it's a choice between his life and the life of Bob Q Somebody, then Bob better update his will because if Bob dies no big deal in the grand scheme of things. If Atticus dies there's no one to protect the Earth and various GeniusLoci from evil sorcerers and suchlike. And in fairness, later events prove that Atticus isn't totally wrong about this (even if he is somewhat prone to abusing it).
222** Jesus pulls one of these when he warns Atticus not to go to Asgard. He even goes out of his way to specify that he knows better than Atticus what a humongous mistake it would be, but refuses to elaborate, citing incomprehensible forces and his belief that "that would be cheating". He turns out to be right about this, but an explanation would have been helpful.
223* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're basically the standard medieval Christian demons, but they smell really, really bad.
224* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They're immune to most magic, communicate with telepathy, and can transform any time.
225* PalsWithJesus: In the third book, Atticus has lunch and drinks with Jesus. They briefly reminisce about [[Literature/TheDaVinciCode moving the treasure of the Templars and planting false clues.]] A couple of books later, they catch up in Mexico over some tequila.
226* PercussivePrevention: The Morrigan is not shy about using violence to remind Atticus not to do anything stupid. [[DoomMagnet Not that it helps much]] but...
227* PersonaNonGrata:
228** After the Kennedy's Grove incident, a couple of formerly friendly [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf packs]] finally got fed up with all the [[RevengeByProxy splashily vengeful]] enemies Atticus has been making lately, and banned him from their territories on pain of fanged death.
229** As a result of a heist Atticus pulled on the Egyptian pantheon, Druids are not welcome in Egypt.
230** Following Ragnarök, Atticus is told to stay away from [[spoiler:the Norse lands for all the crimes commited during the Norse raid with Leif]].
231* PhysicalGod: All of them, but the Irish and Norse, and to a lesser extent, the Romans, play the largest roles.
232* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything:
233** Malina and her coven are on the payroll of several companies as consultants. They mention that they don't actually ''do'' anything ([[TakeThat just like real consultants]]), but get paid very well for what they don't do. Justified since they're using magic to convince people to give them free stuff.
234** Atticus is a {{Druid}}, his job is being the protector of Earth. Outside of that one Aenghus Óg-caused catastrophe he doesn't seem to care or at least is never shown to do anything environmentally conscious (closest he comes is relegating his apprentice to do it as training), though he does mention a number of times where's he's intervened to save an Elemental (local NatureSpirit). In the general sense, he justifies his lack of action as pointless. He's just one guy and could spend days sabotaging mining equipment and things like that, but the mining companies would just replace the equipment and continue right along and he'd have to start all over again.
235*** On the other hand he does take his ''other'' canonical job as bookshop owner much more seriously.
236*** ''Tricked'' expands on this quite a bit: Atticus could spend all his time being environmentally active, but a) it wouldn't help and b) the earth will survive most any non-supernatural threats. ''Kaibab Unleashed'' and ''Grimoire of the Lamb'' show us what Atticus does when something supernatural threatens the earth. He isn't gentle about it...
237*** This is expanded on further in ''Staked'', when he points out that he spent two millennia using magic as little as possible to avoid Aenghus Og, and while Aenghus has now been dead for a decade or so, two millennia of habit is hard to break.
238* PoisonIsCorrosive: Manticore venom.
239* PoisonIsEvil: While Atticus has given up [[DeadlyScratch Moralltach]] by this point, Atticus swears off using any poison for all the pain he suffers after getting hit with a dose of manticore venom.
240* PoliceAreUseless: The police quickly zero in on Atticus as the suspect in the death of a park ranger but are in fact manipulated by his enemies. However, on their own they still prove to be a constant problem to Atticus who has to use his lawyers and various illusions to get them to back down. In the second book it is played straight because the police simply are not trained to handle rampaging supernatural beings that are immune to bullets.
241* PostModernMagik: Ghouls with refrigerated trucks, car chases with chariot riding gods, werewolf attorneys, handgun wielding Nazi witches and military weapon sporting Draugr.
242* PowerTattoo: The Druids' [[VoluntaryShapeshifting animal-shifting]] and [[DimensionalTraveler planeswalking]] abilites are granted to them by tatoos inked through Gaia. Disfiguring the tatoos will cause their abilities to not work anymore until reinked.
243* {{Psychopomp}}: Several show up, but the main one is the Morrigan who made a deal with Atticus that she will never choose him and take his soul beyond [[spoiler:which no longer applies after her death.]]
244* RageAgainstTheMentor: Granuaile gets angry at Atticus after she meets the Tuatha Dé Danann because they're mostly assholes that don't meet her ideal of a god, and she believed that being a Druid would require her to worship them. Atticus is quick to assure her that just because he worships them doesn't mean she has to; the only extra-human entity she is beholden to is the Earth itself.
245* RedShirt: Any {{muggle}} or [[NominalImportance unnamed supernatural]] character to run into the gods, vampires and other assorted supernatural threats, except the {{Morality Pet}}s, whose clothing is {{mauve|Shirt}} colored.
246* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler: Atticus and Granuaile, almost as soon as she is a full druid]]. They later break up.
247* ReligionIsMagic: Gods run on belief and magic runs on belief and deals. Atticus' is with MotherNature and for lesser extent with the Tuatha Dé Danann (as he is their last true priest/believer). Witches tend to make deals for power with less savoury types. Which is the very reason his apprentice chooses him.
248* RespawningEnemies: Coyote threatens to gather up all the other Coyotes and become this for Atticus if he doesn't do what he wants.
249* RevengeBeforeReason: In ''Hunted'', Atticus runs into Werner Drasche, a vampire-loyal agent who can drain the life of anything around him and the one responsible for [[spoiler:organizing the sniper ambush that put a lethal bullet through Atticus' head earlier]], and easily takes him down as he hadn't been briefed on Druid abilities. Despite Werner's attempts to kill him during the encounter, Atticus internally acknowledging that Werner is an evil abomination that should be killed, and the war he's waging against vampires, he opts to spare him for two reasons: to avoid JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope, something that rings hollow considering how much self-defense killing he does and how he only brings it up at that moment, and the main reason being simple spite against [[spoiler:Leif and a refusal to be used as a tool against his vampire rivals; Atticus outright tells him that Leif had warned Atticus about Werner and set him up to die.]] The consequences are seen in the two books after which show what a terrible idea it was:
250** ''Shattered'': [[spoiler:Werner kills Kodiak Black, Atticus' friend and the one handling Atticus' funds, thus preventing payment of the yewman mercenaries who were hunting vampires]].
251** ''Staked'':
252*** [[spoiler:The fight against Werner in Toranto has Atticus take five gunshot wounds in a CurbStompBattle and his plan amounts to {{Depower}}ing Werner and hoping that the police and ambalance get there before he bleeds out or is finished off. He's also dependant on Owen getting him out of the hospital before the vampires find him first]].
253*** [[spoiler:Leif is out of Theophilus' favor and unable to give better information to Atticus; the info he does give is leaked from Werner wiretapping Leif's phone which turns an assassination opportunity into an ambush Atticus is forced to flee from]].
254*** [[spoiler:Werner also leads the vampire assault on Owen's Grove which leads to Hal's death and [[PersonaNonGrata Atticus is no longer welcome among the Tempe and Flagstaff werewolves for it]]]].
255* RunningGag: "You know, X would be a great band name. Think of the merchandise possibilities!" So far, we have: The Algae Shirts, Handsome Phantoms, Emo Douchebags ([[TakeThat It's already the unofficial name of more bands than I can count]]) and Beefy Hairy Women. {{Subverted|Trope}} by Sasquatch on a Leash: Oberon thinks it makes a better name for a musky cologne. "Sasquatch on a Leash: Control your smelly beast."
256* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: The Morrigan]] is killed at the beginning of ''Hunted'' by Artemis and Diana - though [[spoiler: she]] chose to die so as to go out on [[spoiler: her]] own terms.
257* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Owen is not shy about exercising his vocabulary of curse words, usually aimed at Atticus for being a screw-up.
258* SelfFulfillingProphecy: The Norns [[spoiler: attacked Atticus the second he arrived in Asgard because they foresaw that he would kill them. Which he did, because they were trying to kill him.]] They really should have known better.
259* SeriesContinuityError: A number of these pop up with some being major and some minor. For example, Perun's lightning works fine in Asgard, but later Atticus doubts Zeus and Jupiter's lightning would work in another realm besides Olympus and Earth. While this might have something to do with the fact that [[spoiler: Perun and Odin were part of Ganesha's group that was looking to carefully handle Ragnarok, and Odin might have somehow allowed Perun to use his lightning on Asgard]], Atticus most definitely did not know that at the time.
260* ShapeshifterBaggage: According to the Morrigan, all the "Old Ways" have this, including druids, allowing them to disregard the Law of Conservation of Matter.
261* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Atticus clothes don't change with him, so ends up naked a lot, [[NakedPeopleAreFunny which is usually played for humor]]. At one point one of his friends demands him to put a ModestyTowel on before he gives him a car ride, not because of actual modesty, but because he doesn't want Atticus bare ass on the seat of his car.
262* ShootTheHostage: Atticus has [[spoiler:Diana]] held underground and in pieces because she won't stop hunting him and as a bargaining chip against the [[spoiler:Roman]] pantheon to ensure they remain peaceful. When she vows to stop hunting Atticus, she immediately breaks the vow and attempts to attack him which gets her smote by [[spoiler:Jupiter]]. Afterwards, Atticus realizes he got played since killing her would resurrect her at home and free her from the imprisonment.
263* ShoutOut: Numerous. Atticus and Oberon are both JustForFun/OneOfUs.
264* SnarkyNonhumanSidekick: Atticus' dog Oberon generally makes humorous remarks to him psychically; frequently while he's talking to someone who can't communicate with animals.
265* SoulCuttingBlade: Granuaile gets a whirling blade from the yetis that can instantly kill and absorb the soul of its target by stabbing them with the tip and the soul keeps the blade perpetually frozen. She is very uncomfortable about using it since all she wanted was an ice dagger.
266* SoulJar: Laksha used a Ruby Necklace as one for 160 years under the sea.
267* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles.'' While they share a similar premise, they approach this premise from different sides and in different ways, perhaps most notably in that while Harry Dresden is [[ChronicHeroSyndrome deeply]] [[WeHelpTheHelpless altruistic]], Atticus usually [[NominalHero only goes out of his way to help people if he's forced to]], otherwise he's perfectly content to let things go their own way.
268* {{Squee}}: We are treated to a somewhat extended discussion of this in ''Hexed'' when Atticus finds out that Leif is famous in the Vampire community. Atticus asks Leif if other vampires {{squee}} when they see him, and confesses that he has {{squee}}d over meeting "[[Creator/NeilGaiman Neil Fucking Gaiman]]". [[LiteralMinded And no, Leif, "Fucking" is not his middle name.]]
269* StrawMisogynist: The gate guard at Granuaile's mother's mansion, whom Granuaile arbitrarily designates as "casually sexist", despite his only words being "Can I help you?" because she for some reason imagines him appending "little lady" to the end.
270* SunkCostFallacy: After his first trip to Asgard resulted in the deaths of the Norns and Sleipnir, Atticus still decides to aid the others in the raid to kill Thor because he'd already traded one set of problems for a much larger set and didn't see any way to trade down for something more manageable without just [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere pulling up stakes and running away]].
271* SuperSpeed: The Skinwalkers
272* ThouShaltNotKill: Druid magic cannot be used to kill or harm directly. It ''is'' okay to give yourself super-strength and do it with a sword.
273* TimeDissonance: The spirit of the Earth fondly reminisces about the time of the dinosaurs as if it were just last week.
274* TimeSkip: A 12 year one between ''Tricked'' and ''Trapped''.
275* TooStupidToLive:
276** Vidar, big time. Challenged the Morrigan, a goddess who can ''choose who dies in battle'', to a sword fight. You can imagine how well that went - and even his fellow gods think it was pretty stupid, outright applauding the Morrigan's technique when she kills him, golf style.
277** Gods in general are plagued by this. Brighid tries to kill Atticus with magic despite knowing Atticus has an amulet that makes him immune to magic (well, she thought she was strong enough to overcome it, but still) and a [[AbsurdlySharpBlade sword that can cut through anything.]] According to Perun, Thor tricked virtually every other thunder god, and by extension nearly every other god on the planet, to not have their stories written down in print, but in stone statues or oral traditions that are worn away or lost, causing them to be largely forgotten in modern day compared to the gods whose stories were written down like the Greek and Norse. Thor himself is repeatedly stated to be a brutish thug and moron - though it's suggested that a) he's smarter than he acts, b) Odin put him up to it.
278** Atticus' horse in the ''Chapel Perilous'' has this opinion of Atticus.
279---> '''Apple Jack''': I don't understand why you're in charge when you are incapable of making decisions in your own self-interest. "Oh, look!" you say. "A slain human! Instead of running away from this obviously [[TitleDrop perilous chapel]], I think I'll stick my neck in and see if it gets chopped off!"
280* TricksterArchetype: Coyote plays shows up frequently and Loki is mentioned, [[spoiler: and is a major antagonist starting in ''Tricked''.]]
281* TricksterMentor: Atticus' old Archdruid was prone to smacking him with his staff when he wasn't paying attention or concealed something from him, and is mentioned to have thrown a pissed off rooster at Atticus. Nevertheless his tutelage allowed Atticus to survive for the last two thousand years, and it's implied that he himself may still be alive as well, as Atticus mentions never having seen him in Tír na nÓg. [[spoiler: At the very end of ''Hunted'', it's revealed that he ''is'' alive because the Morrigan preserved him on a Time Island and gave Atticus its location at the beginning of said book]].
282* TheUnseen: Thor until ''[[MeaningfulName Hammered.]]''
283* UnstoppableRage: Bacchus, being the Roman god of madness. Doesn't help that Atticus took a hammer to his BerserkButton by calling him a pale imitation of Dionysus.
284* {{Valkyries}}: They show up in the third book. Morrigan is apparently friends with some of them.
285* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Many characters can shapeshift.
286** All Druids have a different set of animals they can turn into: A hoofed animal for speed, a clawed predator for fighting, a bird to fly around as and an aquatic animal for swimming.
287*** Atticus can assume the form of a stag, a hound, an owl or an otter at will.
288*** [[spoiler:Granuaile]] can turn into a horse, a panther, a falcon and a sea lion.
289*** [[spoiler:Owen Kennedy]] can turn into a black bear, a ram, a red kite and a walrus.
290*** The Morrigan turns into a "battlecrow".
291*** Manannán mac Lir can turn into a killer whale or a great shearwater.
292*** Aenghus Óg is mentioned to be able to turn into a swan.
293** Werewolves are werewolves.
294** Coyote is Coyote.
295** Skinwalkers can change into different animals as long as they wear cloaks woven from that animal's skin. They take on the abilities of that animal, which is the main reason that [[PhysicalGod Coyote]] doesn't want to risk dealing with them himself.
296* WasItAllALie: Once [[spoiler:Leif Helgarson]] reveals he befriended Atticus for his abilities to take revenge on Thor, Atticus is left wondering how much of their friendship was genuine. After [[spoiler:Leif gives away Atticus' location to have a vampire rival killed by him]], Atticus calls him an untrustworthy, selfish ManipulativeBastard from that point on, though he remains affable towards Atticus.
297* WeirdBeard: The Hammers of God use magic to turn their beards into CombatTentacles.
298* WeirdnessCensor:
299** Atticus is very careful not to attract too much attention to himself so people are more likely to dismiss anything strange going on around him. It is a constant source of frustration that his neighbours are too inquisitive.
300** Leif, a thousand year old vampire, is very confident that people will dismiss the events at the stadium as just gang warfare. Considering that Leif killed over sixty rival vampires during one night and left all of their bodies for the police to find, Atticus is not so sure but does not have time to worry about it too much.
301* WeUsedToBeFriends: After [[spoiler:Leif Helgarson]] sends a vampire Atticus' way to get killed, which leads to him getting attacked in a motel bed and Oberon getting injured, Atticus cuts off ties with him and considers him an enemy from that point forward, though never to the point of [[spoiler:unbinding him on sight]]. For his part, the other party still considers Atticus a friend, thought he would have handled the fight just fine, and is open to giving warnings about the vampires.
302* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Druids like Atticus or the Tuatha Dé Danann can handle immortality fairly well due to their training and bond with nature. When Atticus tried to share his immortality potion with some of his children, after a few lifetimes they started going insane.
303* YearOutsideHourInside: The Time Islands in Tír na nÓg. People trapped in there experience time normally, but relative to the rest of the world it takes several millennia for them to so much as blink.
304* YouAreACreditToYourRace: The widow [=MacDonagh=], otherwise unlikely to give a British person the time of day in a clock shop (to put it mildly), considers Creator/WilliamShakespeare to be quite brilliant, being quite possibly "the only Brit [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior worth the milk he sucked out of his mother's tit."]]
305* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Atticus [[spoiler: killing Thor leads Odin to demand he take on Thor's role in Ragnarok, or at least find a suitable replacement.]]
306* YourVampiresSuck: After Jesus manages to convince the Hammers of God not to curbstomp Atticus, he tells them about Leif's impending absence, which would result in other vampires showing up to lay claim to his territory, so the Hammers can get their jollies killing vampires instead of him, saying:
307--> '''Jesus''': Now go and stake some vampires. Especially the [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga sparkly emo ones]].

Top