'''WARNING: This is a work still in progress. All concepts not yet published are considered spoilers.'''

A fantasy series by @/NotSoBadassLongcoat. Bjorn Westlander, a failed magic student (but not by his own fault), becomes a [[AdventurerArchaeologist retriever agent]] for the Royal College of Magic, searching for artifacts from a previous era in a world shaken up by a [[ApocalypseHow large-scale magical disaster]]. Jokingly described as a crossover between Franchise/IndianaJones and [[VideoGame/TheWitcher Geralt]], Bjorn is a witty, dashing rogue with both fighting abilities and basic magic powers.
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!!Includes examples of:

* AdventurerArchaeologist: Bjorn. "Retriever Agent", because his (low paid and dangerous) job is based on retrieving ancient artifacts from ancient ruins for the Royal College of Magic.
* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: It came out purely by accident, with the exception of Enis, who was renamed from "Anis" to fit better.
* ApocalypseHow: Class 1 - roughly six centuries earlier, the [[AristocratsAreEvil Duke of Ascaron]] and his EvilChancellor used a magical equivalent of a WMD to [[TheTokyoFireball nuke the Imperial capital of Cair Olanna]]. Disturbances in the BackgroundMagicField caused [[SoiledCityOnAHill magical feedback of proportional size to tear the whole province apart]], destroyed or severely damaged human {{Magitek}} devices, caused a deadly illness among the elves and threw the magic-dependent human society into disorder.
* AnArmAndALeg: Enis loses her right arm and eye to a malfunctioning firelance wand.
* BackgroundMagicField - the world's magic runs on this, allowing for less-skilled spellcasters called adepts. The protagonist is an adept himself.
* BrainyBrunette: [[spoiler:Dianthe Auvert/Annathea Vico. A self-taught adept, who patched up Bjorn when he was injured in an avalanche.]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Dianthe Auvert/Annathea Vico. Trying to save her from a mortal wound, Bjorn [[DamagedSoul accidentally absorbed part of her soul]] (thing that often happens to necromancers trying to raise the dead), [[HeroicBSOD going mad]] for some time (he got better, though) and sending her into a state of FauxDeath. A real necromancer, Sartorius Vico, brings her to life later, amnesiac and subconsciously seeking Bjorn to get the missing shard of her soul back and with it, her memories.]]
* {{Conlang}} - boy howdy. Haernian, used for surnames and some geographical names, sounds like a mixture of Dutch, German and some English. Elven is mostly English made to sound like Gaelic, although with some references thrown in (ie. "saim" means "snake" and "hann" means "home", so [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Saim-]][[OurElvesAreDifferent Hann]] means roughly "home of the snake"). Imperial is based on Latin and Greek - Angelo's name is derived from "''an celos''", meaning "of the skies", with "c" being pronounced "tch". Also, most of this stuff gets improvised as the writing goes along and then edited for consistency.
* DarkAndTroubledPast - Enis is afraid of using magic after a malfunctioning wand blew off her whole right arm and damaged her right eye. This doesn't stop her from unleashing a telekinetic storm around when scared. Also, when first introduced, she's a beggar.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight - [[spoiler:Dianthe. It gives Bjorn a HeroicBSOD, made worse by his botched attempt to save her. She comes back, though.]]
* DiscontinuityNod - at one point, Bjorn finds the katana Literature/SarrissFromTheBlackHarbor acquired halfway through her story.
--> "From what I've heard they're pretty damn sharp and pretty damn rare, because no living Sung man is going to give his away. And, what's funnier, this one resonates."
* DrGenericius - [[spoiler: Sartorius Vico. An officially-trained mage, which makes him a doctor of magic.]]
* EmbarrassingTattoo: [[spoiler: Annathea Vico has a necromantic seal (the Sigil of Scoran Daith) tattooed around the spear wound on her back by Sartorius Vico as a failsafe should she ever try to get away from him. Bjorn "disarms" it when he gives the missing part of Dianthe's soul back, but the symbol itself stays.]]
* FullContactMagic: Whenever Bjorn needs to rip a chunk of magic out of the environment and hurl it somewhere, he does so with a wide swing.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Angelo, being a paladin and a [[CircuitJudge Royal Assessor]]. Befriends Bjorn during one of his investigations.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: [[spoiler:Dianthe Auvert/Annathea Vico. After being [[BrokenBird messed up big time]] by her two lovers, she decides she'll do best on her own.]]
* LossOfIdentity: [[spoiler:Annathea Vico. After Bjorn accidentally absorbs her memories, Dianthe is manipulated by Sartorius Vico's attempt of "restoring" her memories (in fact, feeding her with FakeMemories) and assumes the identity of Vico's student and lover.]]
* MagicKnight: In addition to his archaeological knowledge and mechanical skills (mostly based around lockpicking), Bjorn can handle a sword and some simple spells (night vision, [[ElementalPunch instant KO punch]], braking the fall with a magical salvo directed straight downwards, etc).
** GroundShatteringLanding - in ''The Black Tower'', Bjorn causes this by launching a telekinetic salvo right under his feet just before he lands on the bottom of the magic node.
* {{Magitek}} - mostly broken and decayed after six centuries of not being used. Ruins of old magical network towers litter the countryside (becoming convenient lairs for people who don't fear the anomalies that can do funny things to them) and ancient enchanted items either work properly or they don't - with sometimes disastrous results (see Enis' case above).
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot - [[spoiler: the Grave Wurm from (yet another) reboot story of the same title. It's a huge demonic zombie construct serpent. As in, made of corpses, bones and graveyard earth, powered by a summoned rampaging demon and looking like a snake the size of a subway train.]]
* OurDemonsAreDifferent - first, [[CallARabbitASmeerp they're called the Condemned Souls]], second, they can't do much on their own unless they [[DemonicPossession possess someone]] - or are really powerful. And they have no bodies of their own, they're noticeable only as characteristic distortions in the BackgroundMagicField and communicate with people via telepathy.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame - played with. Dwarven women don't have beards, instead of underground lairs dwarves live in stone-walled forts (although usually with a sizable underground part), but they're still {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s who have issues with goblins.
* OurElvesAreDifferent - there are five elven tribes: dark-skinned High Elves who live on a large tropical island south of the Black Harbor, Dark Elves who look identical to High Elves but are [[EvilCounterpart way nastier]] and were exiled east to the fantasy counterpart of Africa, noticeably paler Sea Elves who live near or together with humans and are known as skilled sailors and traders, Wood Elves who live in forests and Snow Elves - living in stone fortresses in the mountains. With Dwarves.
* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: They're a [[FantasyCounterpartCulture fantasy equivalent]] of your typical [[TheHorde barbarian horde]] - they raid or, if they're not numerous enough, steal.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: close to the Blizzard version, dark-skinned {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s from the South, often falling victim to human and dark elven slavers.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: They come in two kinds: [[DemonicPossession demonically possessed]] Revenants (type R) and mindless, automaton-like Servants (type V). And then, there's [[spoiler: Dianthe]] [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong...]]
* PsychicNosebleed: Happens to Bjorn if he overtaxes himself using magic. In "The Black Tower" he gets one casting a haste spell.
* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Angelo's surname, "van Logenswaard" means "Lakesword" in the fictional Haernian language and is a reference to the [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian myth]]. His name is actually less symbolic.
* {{Retcon}}: of ''Literature/SarrissFromTheBlackHarbor''. A lot of things is taken from there, then hammered into new things.
* TheRightHandOfDoom: Bjorn's armored gauntlet (actually, the LEFT hand of doom). He uses it to deflect sword strikes and as a filter for magical energy for casting his spells.
* ShoutOut - one of the scholars responsible for modern theory of magic is named [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Varsuvius of Boerloo]].
* TakeThatMe - author's low-paid government job is way more boring and doesn't allow any extra income "on the side".
* {{Tuckerization}}: the first four are named after the author and his friends. Angelo and Bjorn are named after Pete The Paladin's and @/NotSoBadassLongcoat's old D&D characters (although Angelo's surname is changed from the original). Collech derives from Dan The Barrel's surname. [[spoiler:Dianthe Auvert is named after Blue Oni's old blog title (Green Carnation - "carnation" in Latin is "dianthus", and "au vert" is French for "in green")]].
* ThunderboltIron: Bjorn's sword is made from starsteel, an alloy of meteoric iron and trace amounts of mithril. Yes, magically crafted. No, not an InfinityPlusOneSword.
* WizardingSchool: The Haern Royal College Of Magic.

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