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1->''"Death lies at the end of every journey. What matters is how we travel the road."''
2-->-- '''Dathne''', ''Awakened Mage''
3
4''Kingmaker, Kingbreaker'' is a series of adult {{Fantasy}} novels by Creator/KarenMiller. As of 2011, there are five[[note]]the first two are a duology; the second two are a sequel duology, but are under the title "Fisherman's Children"[[/note]] books in the series proper:
5
6* Kingmaker, Kingbreaker
7** ''The Innocent Mage'' (2005)
8** ''The Awakened Mage''[[note]]also known as ''Innocence Lost'' in countries outside of North America and the UK.[[/note]] (2007)
9* Fisherman's Children
10** ''The Prodigal Mage'' (2009)
11** ''The Reluctant Mage'' (2010)
12* Prequel
13** ''A Blight of Mages'' (2011)
14
15The first two books follow Asher of Resthaven, an Olken fisherman looking to make his fortune, and his unlikely friend, the Doranen Prince Gar. The second books follow Asher's children, [[spoiler: Rafel and Deenie, as they go to save Lur once again, beyond the mountains, some time after the fall of Barl's Wall.]]
16
17In this world, the people of Dorana possess the ability to perform magic, believing that it is their right alone. The most important type of magic is known as "[[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows WeatherWorking]]," which controls the weather precisely for the entire kingdom, as well as the magical force supporting Barl's Wall, and keeping it up. It is the right of the Doranen king alone to learn it, and his duty to maintain his kingdom's agriculture with it. With such power at their command, it is a widespread belief that they are fundamentally better than others. Dorana has subjugated the Olken people, who have been relegated to traditionally difficult ways of life such as fishing, farming, and blacksmithy. The Olken people are perceived as simple, brutish, and most damning of all, ''magicless''. Olken are legally forbidden to be taught or use magic in any way on pain of death.
18
19Asher of Resthaven is a simple Olken fisherman looking to escape his seven brothers by buying his own boat, and using it to spend more time with his father. To try and make enough money to buy such a boat, he leaves and goes to Dorana, the capital city of the Doran kingdom. Shortly after arriving, he somehow manages to end up in the service of the young Royal, Prince Gar. The two eventually warm to each other, and become close friends and confidants.
20
21----
22!!Examples
23
24* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Conroyd Jarralt. A decade after his death, he's still a hated figure by most of Lur during the second duology. The very few defenders he still has try to paint him as a victim of Morg's possession, but Asher (who got a good look at the FusionDance and knows better) firmly opposes this attempted historical revisionism.]]
25* AxCrazy: [[spoiler: Morg, full stop.]]
26* [[BarrierMaiden Barrier Maiden]]: Barl, in a sense, though her death happens during her wall's creation. The {{WeatherWorkers}} would be more of a match to this trope, as they support Barl's Wall with the use of their magic.
27* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: A recurring theme of all five books.
28* BodySurf: [[spoiler: Morg]], via DemonicPossession.
29* ElementalHairColors: The Olken have dark hair [[spoiler: which kind of fits in with their magic, which is quiet and bound to the natural rhythms of the land.]]
30* EvilSorceror: Morg
31* FantasticRacism: Mutual bigotry and hatred between the Doranens and the Olken. The second duology deconstructs it, showing that a mere decade or two realistically isn't enough to begin overcoming half a millennia of institutional racism.
32* [[spoiler: GrandTheftMe]]: [[spoiler: Durm and Conroyd, by Morg.]]
33* [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold]]: All Doranen have blonde hair, but Gar fits this trope particularly well. He's kind to everyone, Doranen or Olken, and probably the only Doranen that respects the Olken as equals. [[spoiler: He takes his vow to protect his people seriously, even after he is deposed by Conroyd/Morg.]]
34* [[HeroicSacrifice Heroic Sacrifice]]: [[spoiler: Rafel, Matt and Gar in "The Awakened Mage". Rafel takes Asher's place during the latter's execution. Matt distracts a demon attacking Dathne in the final confrontation with Morg and is torn apart. Gar changes the Unmaking spell so that he will die in Asher's place (since the spell was designed to kill the caster and the target).]]
35* HopeSpot: Towards the end of ''A Blight of Mages'', Barl and the Doranen refugees initially hope to settle in Lur temporarily and then wait several decades for Old Doran's magic to return to pre-calamity levels. [[spoiler: Then Morgan starts getting loose from his bindings, Remmie's attempt to kill him backfires, Doran is further corrupted, and Barl's forced to seal her surviving people inside Lur indefinitely to protect them and the Olkens.]]
36* [[JerkAss Jerkass]]: Conroyd Jarralt. Most of his speaking lines involve either disparaging Gar and/or the Olken (for being a cripple and for being unsophisticated peasants, respectively) or accusing the King of being an incompetent. He's arrogant, egotistical and ambitious to a fault.
37** Also, Fane. Despite Gar's constant attempts to get along with her, Fane is constantly snide and rude to him. She belittles him as often as possible, rubbing his nose in the fact that he is magickless.
38* [[JerkAssWithAHeartOfGold Jerkass With a Heart of Gold]]: Darran is initially introduced as a snooty, uptight stickler obssessed with propriety and pomp. He constantly looks down on Asher as a ruffian and a bumpkin. Darran also cares for Gar and the royal family like they were his own family. In fact, he's the only one to stick around to support Gar after [[spoiler: Conroyd/Morg reveals to everyone that Gar has lost his magic and Asher was covering up for him by taking over the WeatherWorking.]]
39* LostTechnology: A magical variation. The Doranens fled their homeland with little more than the clothes on their backs and what few magical tomes they could carry. Between this and the loss of most of their mages (due to the mage-mists, Morg's hands, or during the exodus), much of their accumulated magical knowledge was lost by the time the refugees reached Lur (with the most dangerous surviving spells being sealed away and hidden to prevent another Morg). The Present Day Doranens are ''still'' powerful mages, but are a shadow of what their ancestors were -- and they know it. [[spoiler: The discovery of Barl's Library (and the eventual collapse of her Wall) incites greedy longing for their cultural birthright and advanced magics long denied and lost -- an avarice that results in catastrophic consequences over the course of the two duologies.]]
40* [[TheMagocracy The Magocracy]]: The Doranen live in this manner in A Blight of Mages, with two separate councils for ranked and unranked mages.
41* {{Mordor}}: The lands that lie north of the Wall.
42* [[MundaneUtility Mundane Utility]]: The Doranen use magic for everything: manipulating the weather, instantly drying hair, making light, binding books, teleporting coats from the closet when cold...
43* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
44** ''The Reluctant Mage'': [[spoiler: Gar's heroic sacrifice at the end of the first duology is why Morg's essence survived the Unmaking spell. Yes, Gar prevented Asher from having to personally sacrifice himself to stop Morg. But as it turns out, Gar's reworking of the Unmaking spell also diluted its purpose and effectiveness. Morg's essence was thus only seriously damaged and ''not'' Unmade as it would have been had Asher cast the original spell. This bought Lur and all nations 10-20 years of peace before Morg's essence pulled enough to itself back together to start things all over again.]]
45** ''A Blight of Mages'': [[spoiler: Remmie's desperate, last-ditch return to Old Dorana to try and kill Morgan is responsible for Morg's essence surviving death and corrupting their homeland for the next 600 years. Yes, Morgan was already on the cusp of breaking free from Barl's bindings and was coming for her and the surviving Doranens. But he was still mortal and would've died in the coming decades (and Old Dorana's magic would've slowly healed from the damage). Remmie trying kill to himself while being transmuted forces a desperate Morgan (who was linked to Remmie through the spell and was also mortally wounded) to draw on even darker magics -- thus leading to the blight and his own immortality into the Present Day.]]
46* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Played with [[spoiler: after Morg takes possession of Conroyd Jarralt's body. 'Conroyd' becomes much more cruel and ruthless than he was in the first book and the early parts of the second book (and bear in mind he was ''already'' an unpleasant, despicable asshole). While Conroyd's enemies and even his own allies are mutually taken aback by this uncharacteristic behavior, everybody mistakenly chalks it up to his longstanding animosity towards Gar's family. They all think it's decades of Conroyd's resentment, rage, and ambition all finally coming out at once at the hour of his political and personal triumph. It's not until Asher's execution that Gar finally considers (let alone has the context to deduce) that someone else is in the driver's seat.]]
47* OneNightStandPregnancy: [[spoiler: ''Blight'' reveals this is the origin of the Innocent Mage's mysterious hybrid bloodline. Upon learning of Barl's planned sacrifice to protect Lur. Remmie gets drunk and becomes intimate with an Olken woman who fancied him. This Westwailing woman, of coruse, is Asher's distant ancestor and the joining of Doranen and Olken genetics and magic is ''why'' the Innocent Mage can do what he does.]]
48* PrequelInTheLostAge: ''A Blight of Mages'', being set over 600 years before the events of the main narrative and exploring the twilight of Old Dorana (and Barl and Morg's roles in their nation's downfall and the founding of Lur).
49* [[SmugSnake Smug Snake]]: Willer.
50* [[TerminallyDependentSociety Terminally Dependent Society]]: The country of Lur in general in the first two books, as they need {{WeatherWorkers}} to keep Barl's wall in check, as well as allow rainfall on crops. This also applies to the Doranen in general, as their magic is used for even the most mundane of tasks, such as using glimfire for lighting.
51* [[TheChosenOne The Chosen One]]: Asher is the prophesied Innocent Mage, destined to save the realm from destruction.
52* [[TheProphecy The Prophecy]]: Jervale's Prophecy.
53* YouCantGoHomeAgain:
54** Old Dorana is this for the Doranens, as they're unable to leave Lur and return to their homeland thanks to Barl's Wall (and the devastation wrought by Morg on their ancestral homeland). [[spoiler: A driving force of the second duology is growing sentiment among the Doranens that with the Wall having fallen and Morg dead (as far as they know at the time), they finally have a chance, if not an arrogant imperative, to reclaim their homeland and want to abandon Lur.]]
55** [[spoiler: By the end of the second duology, and despite Morg's final defeat, Lur is left too devastated to ever fully recover from the blight and storm damages. The Doranens and most of the Olkens ultimately agree to abandon the country and relocate to Old Dorana and Ewen's kingdom. Only about a thousand Olken remain behind in what's left of Lur, in denial about their chances or unwilling to abandon their own ancestral homeland.]]
56* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Morg]] to [[spoiler: Willer]], before throwing him by a window.
57* YouKilledMyFather: In the second duology, [[spoiler: Arlin Garrick holds Asher and Rafel responsible for his father's death. He can't accept it was an accident (and a self-inflicted one) out of a combination of his own grief and ingrained bigotry against the Olken (and ''especially'' Asher and Rafel for being 'abominations'). While he never forgives Asher or Rafel, Arlin ''does'' at least end up abandoning his intended retribution after his horrific experiences with Morg in Old Doranen.]]

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