Line #18 Literature/TheWardedMan


1	The first book in Peter V. Brett's pentalogy, the ''Demon Cycle''. ''The Warded Man'' (also known as ''The Painted Man'' in the United Kingdom) is the story of mankind's struggle to survive in a world where demons materialize out of the ground each night to attack and kill anyone not protected behind magical wards. Society has crumbled and humans survive in isolated settlements, ranging from a few remaining cities to small hamlets. Few are willing and able to brave the roads to travel between settlements. The first book uses rotating points of view to tell the tales of three children, born in different hamlets, who manage to overcome tragedies and leave the safety of their homes to find their destinies.
2
3	Later books in the series begin to follow other characters as well, providing backstories and POV chapters from characters on multiple sides of each conflict. The series as a whole is now complete and made up of 5 books:
4	* ''The Warded Man'' (published 2008 in the UK, 2009 elsewhere)
5	* ''The Desert Spear'' (April 2010)
6	* ''The Daylight War'' (February 2013)
7	* ''The Skull Throne'' (March 2015)
8	* ''The Core'' (October 2017)
9
10	Brett is working on a next generation sequel series:
11	* ''The Desert Prince'' (2021)
12	* ''The Unseen Queen'' (2024)
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14	Brett has also released ''The Great Bazaar and Other Stories'', a collection of short stories set in the same universe. Creator/PaulWSAnderson is currently planning to make TheFilmOfTheBook.
15	----
16	!!This series provides examples of:
17	* AbusiveParents: Leesha's mom (physical and emotional abuse), and Harl Tanner (sexual abuse)
18	* ActionGirl: Wonda [[spoiler: and Renna]]. Also, Ashia, Shanvah and [[spoiler: Sikvah]] who are arguably the most skilled non-magically-enhanced combatants in the entire series.
19	* AdaptiveAbility: Using combat wards allows the humans to gain power by siphoning off the magic of the demons. This can grant strength, speed, and a HealingFactor, but excess power typically burns off in the sunlight. The titular warded man is somehow immune to this loss. He has a noticeable healing factor, is able to run on foot alongside his trotting warhorse all day without any signs of exhaustion or even breathing hard, and [[spoiler:starts to get pulled down into the Core with a demon he's pinning]]. He theorizes that this is at least in part due to him occasionally [[spoiler:eating demons]].
20	* AdultsAreUseless: Widespread in the first book.
21	** Arlen's father's inaction leads to the death of Arlen's mother and eventually leads Arlen to go down a dark path of vengeance.
22	** Leesha's dad is a cuckold who allows his wife to walk over him and his daughter. Eventually though, he gets better.
23	** Rojer's master is a non-functional alcoholic who may have turned to drink in order to cope with the memory of surviving when everyone else in Rojer's hometown died.
24	* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Anoch Sun, buried beneath the sands, is the location of Kaji (The First Deliverer)'s tomb, crown, and spear.
25	* AffablyEvil: Ahmann Jardir lays on the "affable" extra-thick when he visits Deliverer's Hollow. In general, he has excellent manners for a KnightTemplar warlord; it's sometimes easy to forget during his POV sections that he's the bad guy.
26	* AfterTheEnd - According to legend, three hundred years prior to the start of the events of the series, the world went through what was essentially a Biblical apocalypse, as an invasion of demons destroyed the nations of man and wiped away the accumulated knowledge of the "Age of Science".
27	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The corelings.
28	** To be fair, the [[spoiler: drone]] corelings appear to have the same level of intelligence (and personality) as a rabid wild animal - they're smart enough to figure things out (they can find weaknesses in wards, through trial-and-error, but they either can't or don't just look at ward-nets and see where the best spot to attack is) but they'll attack ''anything'' that seems weaker than themselves - including nominal "allies", like other demons.
29	** The third book makes it plain that the rank-and-file corelings are simply too dumb to make moral choices, acting entirely on instinct with some low cunning to bolster it. [[spoiler: The mind demons, on the other hand, play this very straight]].
30	* AnachronicOrder: The first book does this a lot with Rojer's sections. It alternates between Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer relatively evenly until they meet up, but because Rojer is more than a decade younger than the other two, checking in on him often means jumping ahead in time. The later books also feature extended flashbacks to provide backstories for other characters like those three received in the first novel.
31	* AndManGrewProud: After the Deliverer helped mankind defeat the corelings, man went to war with himself and the corelings rose up again to destroy civilization.
32	* AntiVillain: Jardir, when left to his own devices [[spoiler: rather than trying to fulfil Inevera's prophecies]] is generally a Type III. He's very determined to save the world from the corelings, and decent enough company if you hold to his warrior's ideas- and Everam help you if he thinks you're in his way.
33	** Even though she is much less fixated on honor and more pragmatic in her ruthlessness, Inevera counts too.
34	* AnyoneCanDie: If you're a parent or mentor to the main characters, your prospects are bleak, especially in book one. After that, PlotArmor kicks in for a while, but then it falls off hard in book four. The last third or so is a bloodbath, taking out [[spoiler: Count Thamos]] and [[spoiler: Rojer]], among other important characters.
35	* BabiesEverAfter: Just about every main character is a parent by the end of the series. [[spoiler: Even the ones who don't survive.]]
36	* BabyOfTheBunch: Rojer to Arlen and Leesha.
37	* BadassArmy: Definitely Krasian dal'Sharum (warrior caste), especially Jardir's personal bodyguards.
38	** The Cutters of the Hollow are swiftly becoming legendary for their demon-killing prowess.
39	* BareFistedMonk: Krasian ''dama'' and ''dama'ting'' (male and female clerics, respectively) are forbidden to use bladed weapons. Since they're the clergy of a ProudWarriorRace they don't let this stop them, and are extremely skilled at unarmed martial arts.
40	* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Arlen and Renna]].
41	* BerserkButton: Nearly every character has one of these.
42	** Arlen is generally a nice person. Just don't call him the Deliverer.
43	** Jardir has lots of things that set him off, but never ever disrespect Inevera in his presence.
44	** Renna Tanner is one giant berserk button. Pretty much everything sets her off, especially anyone who disrespects Arlen.
45	* BigBad: [[spoiler: The Coreling Queen is ultimately responsible for the demons' actions, and killing her to end the threat is Arlen and Jardir's ultimate goal in the final book. However, she's [[TheGhost almost always off-page]], so [[TheDragon Alagai Ka/The Consort]], the most powerful of the mind demons, serves as TheHeavy]].
46	%%* BrainFood: [[spoiler: The mind demons favor the taste of grey matter.]]
47	%%* ChurchMilitant: Krasia's entire society is one.
48	%%* TheConsigliere: Abban for Jardir.
49	* CoolHorse:
50	** Twilight Dancer, the Warded Man's warhorse. His horseshoes and the horns on his barding are warded enabling him to fight corelings.
51	** The Krasians get their own when they start breaking and taming wild Angerian Mustangs, the same species of horse as Twilight Dancer.
52	* CrapsackWorld: Demons have decimated the human population over the course of 300 years, to the point where human society is at genuine risk of dying out. The two people with the power to fight the demons are a borderline AntiHero and an out-an-out villain. The villain is the one the demons are truly afraid of.
53	* CripplingCastration: Abban does this to [[spoiler: Hasik in ''The Daylight War'', to avenge the rapes of his wives and daughters]].
54	** In ''The Skull Throne'', [[spoiler: Hasik does the same to Abban in revenge. Unlike Abban, who had one of his servants use RazorFloss, Hasik [[NowThatsUsingYourTeeth uses his teeth]] to perform the deed]].
55	* DarkerAndEdgier: ...than ''Literature/TheRunelords'', which the plot shares a number of similarities with.
56	* DeadGuyJunior: Arlen discovers a lot of this when touring Thesa as the Warded Man. [[spoiler:Jeph and his second wife Ilain]] have had more children, two of whom they named Silvy and Cholie after characters who died in the first book. Subverted by [[spoiler:Ragen and Elissa]], who named their son after Arlen when he was assumed dead by the Messenger's Guild after abandoning his former name and profession.
57	* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: The mind demons. [[spoiler: And the Queen whom they serve.]]
58	* DepopulationBomb: The resurgence of demons 300 years before the story starts acted as one for humans, and they've been struggling to maintain numbers ever since. It forms a justification for some DeliberateValuesDissonance, particularly in regard to the misogynistic, polygamous culture of Krasia.
59	* {{Determinator}}: Arlen.
60	** Every Krasian warrior is trained to become one of these.
61	** Also the one-handed rock demon from The Warded Man. It followed Arlen to the Free City of Miln where he was apprenticing, emerging each night outside the walls to walk around the fortifications and test the multi-layered, impenetrable wards over and over again. Every night. For nearly one and a half years. And in the end [[OhCrap it actually succeeds!]]
62	* DevouredByTheHorde: This happens to a few minor characters in the first book, at the hands of multiple demons.
63	* DisneyVillainDeath: Played with. At the end of book three, [[spoiler: Jardir goes over a cliff and definitely hits bottom.]] Then the book ends right there, leaving the outcome of this unknown. The next book reveals [[spoiler: he survived.]]
64	* TheDragon: Mimic demons serve this role for the SquishyWizard mind demons. Jardir also likes to surround himself with a few, despite being very physically capable himself. He lampshades it in his first encounter with a mind demon and its mimic, making a mental comparison between the demons' relationship and his own with his lackey Hasik.
65	** [[spoiler:In the third book, we meet the coreling Consort, the oldest and most powerful mind demon, who is the mate and enforcer for the as-yet-unseen coreling Queen]].
66	* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Arlen and Renna. [[spoiler: Eating demon flesh has altered their biology, allowing them to store magic within themselves while still not being affected by sunlight.]]
67	** Jardir, after learning to use the Spear and Crown to their full potential, is arguably even more powerful.
68	** This may be applied to the Dama as a whole, who are an order of priests trained in lethal [[BareFistedMonk martial arts]]. [[spoiler: Then they steal the secrets of demon bone magic from the Dama'ting]]
69	* EngagementChallenge: Leesha gives one to Jardir that he fails miserably after he demands she wed her because [[spoiler:she's carrying his child]] - to name the birthdates of all the children he's already got (all seventy of them) from his earlier wives.
70	* EunuchsAreEvil: The eunuchs who serve the dama'ting are antiheroic at best, considering Inevera has command of them. [[spoiler: Hasik]] qualifies once Abban gives him his comeuppance. Enkido is a subversion, at least to the sharum'ting who consider him like a father.
71	* EyeScream: Jayan, courtesy of a Docktown leader who doesn't take well to his AndNowYouMustMarryMe diplomacy.
72	* ExoticExtendedMarriage: In addition to regularly practicing polygamy, in Krasia each tribe maintains a harem of ''jiwah'sharum'', meaning warrior wives, who are available to any of that tribe's warriors (even if they have personal wives of their own). These are made up of poor but attractive girls who wouldn't otherwise have good marriage prospects, who are sold into the harem so their families can make some money off them instead of having to pay a dowry. It's considered the warriors' duty to keep the jiwah'sharum constantly pregnant to provide more potential warriors for their tribe.
73	* FantasticMetals: Minor example, but electrum (a real-life alloy of gold and silver) becomes very important in later books due to being the only thing that can perfectly conduct magic.
74	* FantasyContraception: Pomm leaves, made into pomm tea. Used extensively by Elona in her younger years, by the women in the Angierian brothels, and by [[spoiler: Leesha after she is raped]]. May not be all that fantastical, since the author consulted with an expert on herb lore and based most of the Herb Gatherer's curatives on actual remedies.
75	* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Krasia is clearly based on Arabic/Islamic culture, including requiring that women wear heavy concealing clothing, but with a good dose of ancient Sparta thrown in. The Thesan duchies have a more clearly medieval European feel to them.
76	* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:As of the end of the second book, it's not Leesha who finally captures Arlen's heart. As part of Arlen dealing with his past, he goes back to the place of his birth and ends up saving [[ArrangedMarriage Renna]]. They end up renewing their ChildhoodMarriagePromise. Oddly enough, Arlen's dad is married to, and has children by, Renna's older sister.]]
77	* FunctionalMagic: Corelings draw their magic from the earth, which can be used for specific abilities [[spoiler: or a wide range of them in the mind demons' case]]. Wards are special symbols that can be used by humans to leach demon magic from them and turn it against them. Initially we only see wards that are purely defensive, designed to repel demons, but wards that do a variety of other things are (re-)discovered over the course of the series. Eventually, the main characters are able to use ward magic for everything from strengthening glass to healing otherwise mortal wounds. Demon bone stores residual magic, and when properly warded it can be used in unusual ways, such as Inevera's future-predicting dice and other implements of magic. [[spoiler: The third book shows that mind demons can also use wards when they want to channel their power more precisely or wield it on a grander scale than is normally possible]].
78	* GenerationXerox: Notably averted in the sequel series. A major part of the story is that the children of the main characters are not like their parents (or at least, the parents of the same gender) at all, and are chafe at being raised with the expectation that they would be.
79	* GeniusBruiser: Arlen and Jardir are probably the two greatest warriors alive, but both men are also highly educated and quite well-read. This also applies to both the dama and dama'ting as a whole. They are, by virtue of their training, both highly educated in a wide range of subjects and capable of killing in the blink of an eye with their bare hands.
80	* GeometricMagic: The wards. In the backstory, mankind had access to both offensive and defensive wards to battle the corelings. The offensive wards were lost. [[spoiler: Until Arlen finds them again.]]
81	* GlassCannon: Flame demons can breathe fire, which lets them pack quite a wallop, but the actual demon is only about the size of a dog and not physically all that powerful, making them one of the easiest corelings to deal with at close range. This also applies to the minds, who, despite their magical powers and intelligence are rather fragile in close combat.
82	* HeroicBSOD: Happens to several characters.
83	** Renna in the second book [[spoiler: kills her own father in self-defense after watching him kill a boy who intended to marry her and take her away from him.]] She has a BSOD so bad that she's nearly comatose for days.
84	** Inevera, in her backstory in book three, has an antiheroic one when she learns that the city walls haven't been breached in 300 years, so the Krasians let demons into the maze ''on purpose'' for their nightly battles.
85	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Warded Man, big time. To the extent that he frightens most people who meet him and he questions whether or not he's human any longer. In the end [[spoiler: he begins to get better... maybe.]]
86	** The Krasians devote their entire society to waging war on the corelings. Consequently, everyone but warriors and priests are treated as sub-human. [[spoiler: By the end of the series, they too start to get better.]]
87	* HiveQueen: [[spoiler:The corelings have one. She hasn't shown up in person yet but is stated to be more powerful than even the strongest mind demon]].
88	* HumanNotepad: The Warded Man himself. The wards tattooed on his body allow him to fight and kill corelings with his bare hands.
89	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The chapter names are typical, but the headings for each chapter feature different images to denote which character the chapter follows, and when the stories begin to intertwine, they appear together. Some chapters get quite crowded. Characters don't get a header image until they are considered "Point of View" characters, so some of these don't appear until later books of the series.
90	** Arlen/The Warded Man: a tattooed palm
91	** Leesha: a mortar and pestle
92	** Rojer: a fiddle
93	** Jardir: the Spear of Kaji
94	** Renna: her father's knife
95	** For a few chapters that follow Renna's story, but for which she's indisposed, her sister Ilain (a crib) and Jeph Bales (a sheaf of wheat) take over. They reappear in book 5, and Jeph's taken a level in badass, so his symbol is replaced with an adze.
96	** Inevera: a set of ''alagai hora'' (dice)
97	** The [[spoiler:mind demons]] appear as themselves
98	** Abban: his camel crutch
99	** Ashia: crossed spears supporting a baby in a sling
100	** Ragen: a banner
101	** Briar: a burning house
102	* ImplacableMan: The rock demon from the first book. After Arlen took its arm, it followed him for years, all the way to Krasia, until he finally killed it.
103	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Bruna, is a cranky old woman who is devoted to her work as a healer and shows compassion for Leesha when she needs it most.
104	* KeystoneArmy: Several:
105	** The Krasians are the strongest human army in the world, but their BloodKnight tendencies cause clan to hate clan and individual to hate individual, often in pointless CycleOfRevenge situations caused by people [[RevengeBeforeReason holding their personal egos above the laws or the needs of the war]]. Only Jardir's status as Shar'Dama Ka holds them together. [[spoiler: Once Arlen separates him from his people, they turn against each other over the course of a few months.]]
106	** Arlen is trying desperately not to be a keystone for the Hollowers and other armies of the north.
107	** The [[spoiler: mind demons]] are this in the most literal sense. When one is killed, any demons they are influencing at the time are so affected by the psychic backlash that they drop dead.
108	* LadyMacbeth: Inevera, so very much.
109	** The third book goes into her backstory and reveals that she was every bit the scheming, treacherous, murdering bitch she was portrayed as in the second book, almost from the very beginning.
110	** At the same time we learn that unlike most of her contemporaries, she is motivated not by a lust for power and politics but by a deep desire to save her people and all of humanity from what she sees as (and in Krasia's case probably is) a slow, certain destruction. In the end, she is every bit the Anti-villain/Knight-Templar Jardir is.
111	* MagicKnight: Anyone who gets charged up enough on coreling magic, particularly Arlen, Jardir [[spoiler: and Renna]].
112	* MagicMusic: Rojer's fiddling has the power to soothe corelings and stop them from attacking. The moment he stops playing, they'll try to kill him again. His music also has the ability to enrage them further, to the extent that they'll throw themselves against wards again and again to stop his playing. [[spoiler: It's hinted in the third book that this ability triggers the ordinary corelings the same way as the mind demons' telepathy]].
113	* MandatoryMotherhood: Due to the heavy population losses from demons, each of the various cultures in Thesa places high expectations on their women to produce children. The Speaker of Tibbet's Brook earned the sobriquet "Selia the Barren" and doesn't seem to appreciate it. Leesha also angsts about it a bit.
114	** In Krasia, ''Hannu Pash'' ("Life's Path," a sort of coming of age ceremony) for boys takes place over years of intensive combat training. For girls, it's a single foretelling that's basically a fertility test. Girls who are barren are outcasts, forced to wear tan in shame like children and non-warrior men for the rest of their lives.
115	** Miln takes a comparatively progressive approach, allowing women much more status than would typically be expected in a medieval European analogue, like access to a special school and positions on the Duke's council--but only once they've produced children. Mothers are revered and referred to with a capital M.
116	* MaritalRapeLicense: Common in Krasia, where wives must swear to be obedient to their husbands.
117	* MassivelyNumberedSiblings: Jardir's fourteen wives have borne him fifty-two sons and at least eighteen daughters. Only a handful of them (his oldest sons Jayan and Asome, and oldest daughter Amanvah) actually make non-trivial appearances.
118	* MasterRace: The Krasians see themselves as this, with a horrifying twist: Instead of seeking to simply dominate the rest of the world, when they embark on their war of conquest they deliberately, methodically seek out and rape all the foreign women they can in the hopes of siring more children with Krasian blood.
119	* MessianicArchetype: The Deliverer, prophesied to return to save humanity from the demons in both the Northern and Krasian religions. Most of the conflict between the human characters comes from arguing over which, if any, of the main characters might be the Deliverer.
120	** Jardir betrayed Arlen in the first novel, because his manipulative wife has been grooming him to be the Deliverer, and takes control of Krasia. He is a descendant of the first Deliverer and embraces the role fully. The [[spoiler: mind demons]] seem to agree, and focus their retaliatory efforts on him.
121	** The people of Deliverer's Hollow, on the other hand, believe that Arlen is the Deliverer, because he taught them how to fight and brought the offensive wards. The Northern nobility is less than enthused about allowing Arlen to call himself the Deliverer because it cuts into their power base. For his part, Arlen doesn't care and flat-out tells people he's not the Deliverer; no one listens.
122	** There are hints in the middle books that [[spoiler: they both could be]]. Especially since [[spoiler: the title of Deliverer is later suggested to refer to anyone who organizes the fight against demons, rather than one single figure]].
123	** In the end, however, [[spoiler: Arlen is one who defeats the demon queen and her spawn by ascending to a higher plane of existence and wiping out a majority of the race. Jardir toasts "to the Deliverer" in his memory, so he seems to have conceded.]]
124	* MightyWhitey: Subverted in a particularly mean-spirited fashion in the first book.
125	* MindRape: It's how [[spoiler:the mind demons]] assault their victims.
126	* MyNaymeIs: Most Thesan names are recognizable, but unconventionally spelt: Arrick, Rojer, Erny, Wonda, Benn...
127	* NeverMessWithGranny: Bruna doesn't put up with any shit from anyone, up to and including giant demons.
128	* NiceDayDeadlyNight: the entire premise of the series. Demons are allergic to sunlight and rise every night to maim and kill.
129	* OldMaid: Leesha constantly has to tell people that she's not too old. Of course when you consider that one of her childhood friends (who's not much older) has a daughter who's about to be married... Their culture - due to a scarcity of women - encourages women to start trying for children as soon as they start menstruating, just so that the corelings don't wipe humanity out. Given that Leesha's almost thirty, she is old by their standards - at least for someone who hasn't had any kids yet; even she mentions that she's starting to get to the point where "[her] best childbearing years are more behind [her] than ahead".
130	* OneGenderRace: Corelings. [[spoiler: Ordinary corelings are all neuter. Mind demons are all male. Coreling queens are always female, though its unknown if more than one of those exists at a time]].
131	* OneSteveLimit: Averted - there sure are a lot of female characters whose name is a variation on "Mary," but played with in that no two are spelt the same. There are also several examples of DeadGuyJunior, and of sons named after their fathers.
132	* OurDemonsAreDifferent: The corelings rise up out of the Core at night and are destroyed by the sun. Wards repel them and unless a weapon is warded, it has almost no effect on them. The corelings are also elementally aligned and opposing elements weaken them.
133	* OutsideContextProblem: Old One-Arm was one for the Krasians: their wards were specialized for dealing with the types of corelings found in a desert - sand, wind, and fire. The arrival of a fairly large rock coreling, which the wards weren't tuned for and could use some of their traps against them, that had followed Arlen to Krasia devastated their ranks until Jardir rallied the survivors and Arlen broke out his personal set of wards, which included wards designed for Old One-Arm.
134	* TheParagon: Arlen is a variation on this. "Folk start looking to me to solve all their problems, they'll never learn to solve their own."
135	* ParentalSubstitute: Ragen's wife tries to become this for Arlen. He's less than thrilled about it and it damages their relationship until she finally stops. Arrick, who's at least partly responsible for allowing Rojer's mom to die, tries to be one for Rojer, but his drinking and jealousy of Rojer's talent [[spoiler: is part of what leads to his death.]]
136	* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: In ''The Desert Spear'', Rojer is offered a pair of Krasian brides. He waffles over accepting them because of cultural differences, primarily regarding polygamy. Eventually, he accepts and they end up as this, even arranging him an additional match with [[spoiler: Kendall]].
137	* PowerTattoo: What happens when people start to tattoo wards on their flesh instead of painting them on wood or carving them in stone.
138	* {{Pride}}: Jardir's major flaw. Sure, he's about as decent a guy as you get out of the [[TheSpartanWay Krasian military training]] and genuinely wants to save the world from the demons- but he also truly buys into his role as [[TheChosenOne the Deliverer]] and its attendant OmniscientMoralityLicense.
139	* ProudWarriorRace: The Krasian culture is based on combat, primarily against the corelings. A man is either a warrior, which includes the ranged tribes, the warders, and the clerics, or he's nothing. The ''khaffit'' (non-warrior) caste are seen as honorless and are abused and raped by the warrior caste for kicks. The third book deconstructs this, as it's made increasingly clear that the Krasians are teetering on the verge of becoming a culture of straight-up {{Blood Knight}}s rather than the honorable demon-killers they're supposed to be. [[spoiler:Ironically, it's ''Inevera'' who first comes to this conclusion, full-on LadyMacbeth though she is]].
140	* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Leesha]] , [[spoiler:Jardir]] , [[spoiler:Reena Tanner and her sisters]].
141	* RapePillageAndBurn: Krasians consider it a tradition and therefore do it after their breaking into Rizon. Abban and Jardir actually disapprove of it to varying degrees due to pragmatism: They want to conquer the north, not just sack it, and the tendency of the men to rape women who have influence among the people they are trying to subjugate and to burn stuff that they needed to be taken intact are making things harder.
142	* RescueIntroduction: How Leesha and Rojer meet the Warded Man
143	* RevengeBeforeReason: A major part of Krasian culture. Some Northern lords also take winning personal feuds (which they often started for no real reason) to be more important than defeating the corelings.
144	* SilkHidingSteel: Inevera is portrayed as subtle and delicate, but she proves to be a skilled fighter. Jardir notes (being the only one able to defeat her) that she could kill any of the ''Damaji'' (leaders of clerics, who have spent decades on combat training) before he even realized that he was attacked. And then there is the fact that she is a deadly skilled magician.
145	* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler:Rojer]] in book four and [[spoiler: Arlen]] in the final book both leave pregnant wives behind.
146	* StartOfDarkness: The first part of the second book is devoted to Jardir's backstory. The third book does the same for Inevera.
147	* StrawMisogynist: Nearly all Krasians. By the third book, [[spoiler:their society has begun to grow somewhat more progressive after Jardir decides he can't just throw away willing warriors because of their gender. In the fourth and fifth, the sheer badassness of Ashia and her spear sisters convinces them even further]].
148	* TheSpartanWay: Krasian system of military training.
149	* SquishyWizard: [[spoiler:The mind demons aren't all that tough physically. Unfortunately, they have vast PsychicPowers, knowledge of magic to put any human to shame, and the ability to call up any kind of Coreling they want]].
150	* ThouShallNotKill: [[spoiler:Leesha is raped by three men just because she cannot bring herself to kill them, which she could easily do.]]
151	* TrainingFromHell: Jardir's (and supposedly all Krasian boys') experience from ''sharaj'' (the training area). During his training they are abused, bullied and even raped by both Masters and older trainees, have to fight for food, are encouraged to fight against each other and are allowed to see their families only once a month.
152	* UniverseChronology: The chapter headings include the year that each chapter takes place, especially helpful in the first book and the first section of each sequel, which cover wider spans. Time is measured in years since the resurgence of the demons, i.e. 291 AR (After Return).
153	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Often appears in its inverted form, so if the characters lay out elaborate and well-reasoned plans (whether in regard to battle strategy, political intrigue, or even romantic entanglements), you can bet they'll quickly be dashed by a new twist.
154	* UnusualEuphemism: Various forms of Core take the place of most of the typical four-letter words, what with the Core being where the demons come from and all. Since corelings pretty much only exist to brutally kill people, telling someone to go get Cored is serious business indeed. Arlen also uses "ripping" a lot.
155	** In Krasia, the ''dama'ting'' (female clerics) are instructed in "the art of pillow dancing."
156	* WeakenedByTheLight: Sunlight disrupts magic. For demons, this makes sunlight lethal to them. For humans, it means that any magic they're holding burns off at dawn.
157	** {{Averted}} for Arlen and Renna. Eating demon flesh has altered their bodies to make them capable of retaining magic even during the day. Also for Jardir to a lesser extent, since the Spear and Crown of the Deliverer can retain magic in much the same way, and he can use that magic as long as he's touching the artefacts.
158	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Jardir believes all the murder, enslavement and rape his army does serves a good purpose. Particularly the rape: he intentionally "breeds" any physically mature woman to his soldiers in the hopes of raising up a new generation of children of Krasian blood, [[MasterRace which will of course make them superior to ordinary Northerners.]] The same goes for [[spoiler:Inevera]], who helped mastermind his rise.
159	* WorthyOpponent: Jardir and Arlen. Their relationship is described using the Krasian word ''zhaven'', which depending on context can mean "brother" or "nemesis," or both at the same time.
160	** Inevera, grudgingly, begins to think of Leesha this way after the climax of The Desert Spear. Later her Dice outright describe Leesha as her zahven.

Context Literature / TheWardedMan