[[quoteright:287:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/first_book_of_swords.png]]
A series of fantasy novels written by Creator/FredSaberhagen between 1984 and 1999. A distant sequel to his ''Literature/EmpireOfTheEast'' trilogy. The novels are as follows:

* ''1st Book of Swords'', 1984
* ''2nd Book of Swords'', 1985
* ''3rd Book of Swords'', 1985
** Each of these were complied into the ''Complete Book of Swords'', 1985.

* ''1st Book of Lost Swords: Woundhealer's Story'', 1988
* ''2nd Book of Lost Swords: Sightblinder's Story'', 1988
* ''3rd Book of Lost Swords: Stonecutter's Story'', 1988
* ''4th Book of Lost Swords: Farslayer's Story'', 1989
* ''5th Book of Lost Swords: Coinspinner's Story'', 1989
* ''6th Book of Lost Swords: Mindsword's Story'', 1990
* ''7th Book of Lost Swords: Wayfinder's Story'', 1992
* ''Last Book of Lost Swords: Shieldbreaker's Story'', 1993


The Gods decide to have a game. The playing pieces are humans, armed with twelve nigh-indestructible swords forged by Vulcan, imbued with unique powers.

Each sword is surgically sharp, perfectly crafted, and, as mentioned, nigh-invulnerable. Each also possesses a special ability unique to the sword. They may be identified by a symbol engraved in white upon their otherwise black hilt, or in the case of Soulcutter, a lack thereof.
----
[[folder:The Swords]]

* '''Coinspinner''', the Sword of Chance.
** ''Symbol:'' A pair of dice.
** ''Pros:'' Provides unnaturally good luck to its bearer, and bad luck to his or her foes. Can also be used as a less-powerful version of Wayfinder (presumably by steering its bearer away from "unlucky" routes).
** ''Cons:'' If the bearer takes his eyes off Coinspinner, even for one second, it can disappear and reappear anywhere in the world, even into a rival's hands. It often inflicts bad luck on the former bearer before it goes, especially if the bearer tried to keep the sword from leaving.
* '''Doomgiver''', the Sword of Justice.
** ''Symbol:'' A hollow circle.
** ''Pros:'' Turns any attack upon its bearer back onto the attacker, including attacks that do not necessarily damage the bearer. (e.g. one of the Goddesses attempted to use magic to make a bearer fall in love with her to the point of being her slave -- and ended up enslaved herself).
** ''Cons:'' Doesn't protect against self-inflicted wounds. One villain in-story believed that if he took Doomgiver it would punish him for his evil deeds, so theoretically it may pay back the ''wielder's'' attacks as well.
* '''Dragonslicer''', the Sword of Heroes.
** ''Symbol:'' A stylized dragon.
** ''Pros:'' [[WeaponOfXSlaying When used against a dragon it automatically guides its bearer to the most fatal spot, cutting though scales and limbs like butter.]]
** ''Cons:'' Provides no protection to the bearer. [[CripplingOverSpecialization When used against anything non-dragon, it's just a very well-crafted sword]].
* '''Farslayer''', the Sword of Vengeance.
** ''Symbol:'' Concentric circles, similar to a bull's-eye.
** ''Pros:'' Swing the blade in a circle and wish to kill someone and the sword will shriek through the air, sending a rainbow trail behind, on a direct and unstoppable journey straight into its target's heart (or its equivalent).
** ''Cons:'' ... where it will stay. Which means that anyone nearby, say a distraught loved one, can use it. [[CycleOfRevenge Usually against the person who used it last]]. It will even work if the distraught loved one has no idea who sent the blade and just says "kill whoever did this".
* '''Mindsword''', the Sword of Glory (Or, pejoratively, "Skulltwister, the Sword of Madness")
** ''Symbol:'' A flying banner. The blade itself is impossibly beautiful.
** ''Pros:'' Unsheathed, it emits the sound of a cheering crowd, and compels fanatical devotion toward its bearer upon all who can see or hear it. Even sheathed, it works on some level. Wounds caused by its edge also fester horribly.
** ''Cons:'' This devotion can go to the user's head, and the effects start wearing off after three days away from its influence. Also, the Sword makes its victims fanatically devoted to the wielder but not obedient, which means they may choose to do something other than what the wielder wants if they think it's in their "lord's" best interest. And said fanaticism does not yield the clearest judgments.
* '''Shieldbreaker''', the Sword of Force (also, "The Widowmaker").
** ''Symbol:'' A hammer.
** ''Pros:'' Confers immunity to all weapons, claws, teeth, and other Swords. Substitutes its own abilities for the bearer's skill, blocking attacks and striking with superhuman strength and speed. Anything blocked or struck by Shieldbreaker will ''explode'', generally severely harming or killing the opponent. This is the only way to destroy another Sword. Any opposing magic is negated harmlessly.
** ''Cons:'' "No weapon" can stand up to it, [[ExactWords literally]]; Shieldbreaker can't harm unarmed opponents, or protect against unarmed attacks. Once drawn, Shieldbreaker can't be dropped when enemies are nearby, whom it will kill even if the user wants to show mercy. It also drains its wielder's stamina, eventually causing death by exhaustion, and making unarmed attacks even harder to stop. [[note]]On a number of occasions, this has resulted in clever wielders and opponents essentially playing a game of "Musical Swords" where the opponent of Shieldbreaker's wielder will drop their Sword, forcing Shieldbreaker's wielder to drop it to avoid this weakness, and both try to get the non-Shieldbreaker sword in hand when the other isn't close enough to Shieldbreaker to pick it up.[[/note]]
* '''Sightblinder''', the Sword of Stealth (or Deception).
** ''Symbol:'' A stylized human eye.
** ''Pros:'' People perceive the bearer as the person or entity they love and trust the most, or as the one they fear the most. The bearer's senses are sharpened, and they gain the ability to see through illusions (providing some protection from the Mindsword and Soulcutter).
** ''Cons:'' The bearer has no control over how he appears, and since he often appears to be [[RefugeInAudacity something fearsome or wonderful]], the Sword is [[WithCatlikeTread not particularly stealthy]]; its wielder is better off trying to brazen it out.
* '''Soulcutter''', the Sword of Despair (also, the Tyrant's Blade)
** ''Symbol:'' None. The blade lacks any luster.
** ''Pros:'' When unsheathed, the sword projects a field of total despair and apathy so pervasive that anything caught in its range can do nothing except lie down and wait to die...
** ''Cons:'' ''... including the bearer.'' Therefore, drawing the sword is generally the last decision anyone makes, and the mere threat of someone ''possessing'' it is often a big deal. Also causes RapidAging in its wielder, likely because they're at the focal point of its effect.
* '''Stonecutter''', the Sword of Siege.
** ''Symbol:'' A wedge driving into a block.
** ''Pros:'' Stonecutter [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cuts through stone and earth like it was soft cheese]]. Useful for toppling castles, making tunnels and cutting statues and gemstones.
** ''Cons:'' [[CripplingOverSpecialization Against anything not made of stone or earth, it's just a very well-crafted sword]].
* '''Townsaver''', the Sword of Fury.
** ''Symbol:'' A sword raised a stylized segment of castle wall.
** ''Pros:'' When defending unarmed people in a fixed position, Townsaver turns its bearer into a OneManArmy, striking with inhuman strength and speed, and keeps him from succumbing to his wounds until the end of battle.
** ''Cons:'' Besides that last bit, Townsaver does ''nothing'' to protect its bearer. It will even place its bearer ''between'' an attack and the people he's protecting. As with Shieldbreaker, the user is also compelled to finish a battle once entered, and will ignore any wound other than a killing blow. With all of this, it's not uncommon for the wielder to draw it, fight off an army single-handedly, and then [[CriticalExistenceFailure instantly die of exhaustion or their wounds]] once the battle is over.
* '''Wayfinder''', the Sword of Wisdom.
** ''Symbol:'' Arrow.
** ''Pros:'' Wayfinder may guide its bearer to any goal they want, and takes into account anything they need to reach it. It may also be used for divinatory purposes (e.g. "Which person is lying to me?").
** ''Cons:'' Wayfinder picks the swiftest path... but the swiftest is not the safest. In fact, it seems to deliberately choose [[InHarmsWay the worst and riskiest way possible to get there]].
* '''Woundhealer''', the Sword of Mercy (Or Love, or Healing).
** ''Symbol:'' An open human hand.
** ''Pros:'' Will cure any living thing whose flesh it pierces of any malady or injury short of death, including mental or genetic disorders. (This later serves as a DeusExMachina when combined with [[ThePowerOfLove The Power Of]] [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower Heart]].) [[spoiler: It's also the only weapon that can stand up to and destroy Shieldbreaker.]]
** ''Cons:'' [[HealingShiv It heals anything it cuts, so it's nigh-useless as a weapon]]. On the upside, [[RunningGag when not used against living flesh, it behaves like an extremely well-crafted sword]].
[[/folder]]
----
Vulcan enlists a few humans to help with his creating, and when he's done, he uses the bodies of all his helpers, save one, to quench the blades. The one he spares, he cuts off his arm and leaves him with Townsaver. Life proceeds as normal, until the local lord decides he wants to have a look at this commoner's God-Forged sword.

At this point, the War for the Swords begins in earnest. All the high and mighty, rich and powerful people seek the various swords for themselves.

A commonly-known song describes the Swords, providing hints as to their powers and weaknesses, and goes thus:

THE SONG OF SWORDS

->Who holds Coinspinner knows good odds\\
Whichever move he make\\
But the Sword of Chance, to please the gods\\
Slips from him like a snake.\\
\\
The Sword of Justice balances the pans\\
Of right and wrong, and foul and fair.\\
Eye for an eye, Doomgiver scans\\
The fate of all folk everywhere.\\
\\
Dragonslicer, Dragonslicer, how d'you slay?\\
Reaching for the heart in behind the scales.\\
Dragonslicer, Dragonslicer, where do you stay?\\
In the belly of the giant that my blade impales.\\
\\
Farslayer howls across the world\\
For thy heart, for thy heart, who hast wronged me!\\
Vengeance is his who casts the blade\\
Yet he will in the end no triumph see.\\
\\
Whose flesh the Sword of Mercy hurts has drawn no breath;\\
Whose soul it heals has wandered in the night,\\
Has paid the summing of all debts in death\\
Has turned to see returning light.\\
\\
The Mindsword spun in the dawn's gray light\\
And men and demons knelt down before.\\
The Mindsword flashed in the midday bright\\
Gods joined the dance, and the march to war.\\
It spun in the twilight dim as well\\
And gods and men marched off to hell.\\
\\
I shatter Swords and splinter spears;\\
None stands to Shieldbreaker.\\
My point's the fount of orphans' tears\\
My edge the widowmaker.\\
\\
The Sword of Stealth is given to\\
One lonely and despised.\\
Sightblinder's gifts: his eyes are keen\\
His nature is disguised.\\
\\
The Tyrant's Blade no blood hath spilled\\
But doth the spirit carve\\
Soulcutter hath no body killed\\
But many left to starve.\\
\\
The Sword of Siege struck a hammer's blow\\
With a crash, and a smash, and a tumbled wall.\\
Stonecutter laid a castle low\\
With a groan, and a roar, and a tower's fall.\\
\\
Long roads the Sword of Fury makes\\
Hard walls it builds around the soft\\
The fighter who Townsaver takes\\
Can bid farewell to home and croft.\\
\\
Who holds Wayfinder finds good roads\\
Its master's step is brisk.\\
The Sword of Wisdom lightens loads\\
But adds unto their risk.

----
!!This series provides examples of:

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Several of the Swords inside their specialties and to a lesser degree outside of them, with the sole exception of Woundhealer, which is a HealingShiv, and cannot harm a living creature. Bear in mind that Woundhealer is still very sharp, and will cut through non-living matter just fine.
* AfterTheEnd: The novels are set around 50,000 years after a nuclear apocalypse destroyed our civilization sometime in our Third Millennium. Among other things, demons were created by nuclear explosions.
* AGodAmI:
** Anyone who uses the Mindsword. Its ability is to turn everyone within a couple hundred yards into mindlessly devoted slaves to the wielder. A few days with the hangers-on, and the wielder starts to believe the hype.
** Baron Doon, when he finds a cache of four swords. Given that it included both Doomgiver and Shieldbreaker, the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Swords]] even among the twelve, he may have had a point.
* AerithAndBob: The names of the main characters include ones like Mark, Ben on one hand and Vilkata and Yambu on the other.
* TheAlmightyDollar: The Blue Temple worships money and wealth.
* AntiClimax: The main series (the first three books) spends the whole time building up and building up [[spoiler: to a somewhat weak ending that ends more on a whimper]].
* ArtifactOfDoom: The whole purpose of Soulcutter, and the other swords have traits of this. Mark in particular has a few choice things to say about Townsaver shortly after he gets it.
* AttackReflector: Doomgiver. It understands the attacker's intent and will reflect any threat. A dropped boulder? Doomgiver will send it flying right back up to hit the dropper, even if it has to turn corners. A demon threatens to turn your body inside out, eat you, and digest you for a million years? We'll just say that being turned inside out and forced into your own stomach is not comfortable. A succubus tries to make you fall in love with her? She falls in love with ''you''. A few Gods are planning to deprive you of your Sword? [[spoiler: They lose ''theirs''.]]
* BadassBoast: Shieldbreaker's verse in the Song of Swords, the only one from a Sword's own perspective, boasts of its ability to destroy any foe or weapon raised against it.
* BigBad: Several -- Vilkata and Yambu in the first trilogy, the immortal wizard Wood for most of the Lost Swords iterations.
%%* BlackMagic
%%* TheBlacksmith
* BlatantLies: The name of the country of Tasavalta literally means "republic" in Finnish. Tasavalta is a hereditary monarchy, the exact opposite of a republic.
* BlessedWithSuck: Most people who get one of these swords. Sure, they are awesome, but they have cons and so many other people want to take it away from you.
* BookEnds: The main story begins and ends with Vulcan crawling along the same mountainside looking for fire.
%%* BornLucky: Whoever holds Coinspinner, obviously.%%ZCE -- how?
%%* TheCaper
* CallARabbitASmeerp: Ridingbeasts, woolbeasts, milkbeasts, etc. Are they horses/sheep/cows?
* TheCatchphraseCatchesOn: Whenever someone uses Farslayer, they recite the second line of its verse in the poem. Since the water sprite in Farslayer's Story simply threw it and it worked anyway to kill a demon, the catch phrase doesn't appear to be more than a tradition.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The source of the Gods' power, much to their surprise. Humanity's beliefs change so much [[spoiler: that the third of the original books ends with Vulcan dying from exposure on the same mountain he had no trouble forging the swords on at the start of the series]].
* ClingyMacGuffin: Once the battle starts, the wielder of Shieldbreaker cannot let it go. And it can only harm armed opponents. So, one man can take on an army of soldiers armed to the teeth, demons, even the Gods themselves, but don't let the [[IncrediblyLamePun unarmed man]] get a stranglehold. Townsaver and Dragonslicer exhibit similar clinginess to a slightly lesser degree.
* CoolMask: The Emperor is said to wear masks from time to time.
* CoolSword: All twelve swords naturally qualify, with powers ranging from killing anyone anywhere in the world to cutting through stone like butter to instantly beating any other weapon, ''including the other swords''.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Several of the Swords fall under this:
** Stonecutter, which can [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin slice through stone as though it were butter]], but has no other powers.
** Dragonslicer, which can kill dragons. Since pretty much ''all'' dragons have been killed by the end of series, the Sword of Heroes is out of a job.
** Wayfinder is a lesser example as it can be used to find almost anything, but its use tends to be a matter of risk/reward consideration.
** Shieldbreaker, although it's not obvious at first because "beats any other weapon" seems at a glance to be unbelievably broad... but it ''forces'' the wielder to keep fighting, and is completely ineffective against anyone unarmed.
* CycleOfRevenge: Farslayer remains in the body of the last person it killed until somebody removes it, commonly a friend of the last victim, who then orders Farslayer to kill the person who threw it at their friend -- and vague instructions to kill the party responsible without the wielder knowing their identity will suffice. One of ''his'' friends can then pick up Farslayer and send it back, and so on until one side runs out of vengeance-minded friends and family in the immediate vicinity.
%%* TheDarkSide
* DealWithTheDevil: Vilkata cuts out his own eyes as a sacrifice in order to curse an enemy. Thereafter, various demons provide vision for him. Vilkata throws his pet demons a bone every now and then in fresh human flesh to torture.
* DeusExMachina: Swords just randomly appear in the weirdest places... which, since the whole thing is a game run by the gods anyway, [[JustifiedTrope makes a fair bit of sense]]. This is also explicitly Coinspinner's stated power -- it does not like being tied to any one owner, and will take any chance it has to vanish from their possession and reappear randomly elsewhere in the world.
* {{Determinator}}:
** Baron Doon, who goes three rounds against Shieldbreaker by using sheer cussedness (and dropping his destroyed weapons before the Sword can finish the job).
** A man wielding Shieldbreaker or Townsaver in a battle literally ''cannot'' stop fighting so long as the conditions that activate the sword (an opponent to fight or an innocent to protect) hold true. Wielders of Townsaver have even ignored mortal wounds to keep fighting (and then drop dead moments after the battle ends).
* DualWielding: Difficult for most people to do with Swords. Causes intense nausea, but some people can handle it. However, the major drawback is that this significantly amplifies the stamina drain of wielding just one Sword, causing even people that can pull it off to tire ''very'' quickly. Dual-wielding Swords can have its advantages if the powers complement each other. For instance, dual wielding Shieldbreaker and Soulcutter prevents one from being affected by Soulcutter's life-draining power.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Gender-flipped. [[spoiler: Kristin has sex with Mark while he's unconscious with fever in order to summon Aphrodite and save him.]]
%%* EarthAllAlong
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Blue Temple's underground vault complex.
%%* EmpathicWeapon: Coinspinner, arguably.%%ZCE -- how?
* EvilVersusEvil: Yambu, the Silver Queen, is the BigBad of the first two books. Then Vilkata, the Dark King, shows up in the third book, and Yambu makes an [[EnemyMine alliance with her former enemies]] against him.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The names of the swords are usually pretty clear about what the sword will do, though Soulcutter's power is a mystery for a while and given its ominous name and appearance Queen Yambu is understandably hesitant to draw it until she absolutely needs to.
* FlamingSword: Vilkata's demonic eyesight presents the Mindsword as a spear of fire.
* ForgedByTheGods: The titular Swords, crafted by the Smith God to sow discord among mortals for divine amusement.
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Mark and Kristin, courtesy of being simultaneously ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by Woundhealer. The actual marriage is delayed a bit, though, until Mark becomes a SuddenlySuitableSuitor.]]
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The gods are birthed and sustained from human reverence and belief. As a result of changing human opinions about them, the gods start to actually change.
* GoldFever: One of the barriers to success in robbing the Blue Temple. It causes several soldiers turned thieves Mark was working with to stupidly murder an ally ''before'' he can show them the way out, even though there was plenty of treasure there for all of them.
* HappilyMarried: Played straight and averted. Mark and Kristin are happily married, except when she is under the spell of the Mindsword. In the latter half of the series, Ben spends most of his time adventuring specifically to avoid his wife and child. Jord and Mala seem to get along well despite their marriage having been arranged without much input by them.
* HealingShiv: Woundhealer's power is to heal any injury short of death, including inborn physical and mental disabilities, in anyone cut by its blade. At one point someone rams it through his own heart and jumps off a cliff to escape.
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: The power of the human heart combined with Woundhealer [[spoiler:destroys Shieldbreaker]].
* HereThereWereDragons: By the end of the series, Dragonslicer has proven so effective at killing dragons that it has almost made itself obsolete.
%%* HeroicBastard: Mark.
%%* HighHeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Queen Yambu]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Several times, most notably the gods [[spoiler: getting brainwashed, cursed and/or killed by the swords they had Vulcan create]].
* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Doomgiver renders its user practically invulnerable to anyone or anything not called Shieldbreaker, but the characters who get it rarely seem to realize how useful it is.
%%* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Certain Swords grant their users this ability.
%%* InfinityPlusOneSword: All of them. Shieldbreaker, Doomgiver, and the Mindsword especially.%%ZCE -- how?
%%* InstantMessengerPigeon: And Instant Messenger Lizards.%%ZCE
* IntimateHealing: [[spoiler: Kristin gives Mark her virginity in order to summon Aphrodite, in the hopes that the goddess can heal the poisoned wound Mark had received from the Mindsword. It works.]]
* {{Irony}}: The gods create the Swords and start the Game of Swords to amuse themselves at humanity's expense. However, the influence of the Swords on the world causes humanity to turn their focus away from the gods, [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly bringing about their end]].
* JerkassGods: At their nicest the gods are often meddlesome and serious effort has to be made to get their attention to do something nice. At their worst they can be incredibly petty and cruel, and they're always scheming against each other.
* KillItThroughItsStomach: In ''Woundhealer's Story'', an enormous dragon swallows Zoltan whole. Fortunately, Zoltan has Dragonslicer with him, and is able to cut his way out with it.
* LargeHam: A Large Ham? Hahaha! Ask the mighty Mars, the War God, and none other, why this trope appears here! And gods and demons, Baron Doon as well, who will defy all the gods to be named the true god of ham! Kneel down and acknowledge him now, demons blast you, or he'll spit you on the end of a meter of god-forged steel, which is ''doubly'' magic!
* LastOfHisKind: By the end of the last book, [[spoiler: Woundhealer is the last Sword left]].
* LegendFadesToMyth: By the time the series takes place, the people only have very vague stories of what actually happened in ''Empire of the East''.
* LostTechnology: Earth, 50,000 years in the future. Technology is replaced by magic. Nuclear explosions have become demons. [[spoiler: ARDNEH = [[strike:[[DeusEstMachina God]]]] = a computer program designed by the United States.]]
* LukeNounverber: All of the Swords, with the exception of the Mindsword. Of course, its alternate name, "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Skulltwister]]" does fit the pattern.
* MermaidProblem: Pops up, with sad results, in ''Farslayer's Story''. A wizard is able to temporarily transform a mermaid(who are girls under a curse here) back into a human so he can sleep with her. Unfortunately the wizard is dead at the end of the book and the mermaid in question is now pregnant...
* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay : The Swords are described, in a setting fifty millennia and change in the future, as "a full meter of god-forged steel".
* MutuallyAssuredDestruction:
** Soulcutter is roughly as dangerous as a nuclear weapon that you have to detonate by hand, being an almost inescapably fatal EmotionBomb.
** Heavily implied to be the inevitable outcome when a conflict involves Farslayer: Going back and forth until there's no one left on either side to pick Farslayer up.
* NakedFirstImpression: Mark's first encounter with Kristin. Given the circumstances--that they were in the middle of an enemy camp, that Mark needed all of his willpower even with Sightblinder not to give in to the Mindsword, and that Kristin was going to be tortured to death if he didn't get her out quickly -- Mark paid hardly any attention to her nudity, save for grabbing an extra cloak on the way out.
* NamedWeapons: The swords each have their own unique names.
* NoHonorAmongThieves: The Seventh Seal of Benambra's Gold -- the greed of thieves. Once the party reaches the vault, they all turn on each other over the gold, despite there being more than all of them combined could possibly take. Mark and Ben (Who take all the Swords they find and what cash they can conveniently carry without bickering over individual pieces of treasure) are the only ones to make it out alive.
* OddballInTheSeries: ''Stonecutter's Story''. Its a [[GenreShift detective story]] with no connection to the larger plotlines of the ''Lost Swords'' series and with none of the regular characters.
* OnlySaneMan: Apollo seems to be this, at least part of the time, for the gods. He's the only one who seems be trying to make a real effort to convince the rest to abandon the game they've been playing and just get rid of the swords once it's clear that [[spoiler: the swords can actually kill them]].
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: These ones were somehow formed from nuclear explosions and for Shieldbreaker's purposes every demon counts as a weapon.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Their growth is actually a bit like tadpoles. They're almost completely impervious to regular weapons and incredibly dangerous, but someone armed with the Sword Dragonslicer can kill them with ease, something that has rendered them nearly extinct by the end of the series.
%%* PenultimateWeapon
* PoisonedWeapons: The Mindsword. The wounds it causes fester horribly.
* PuffOfLogic: This is how [[spoiler: Shieldbreaker]] is destroyed. The main character [[spoiler:is stabbed by Shieldbreaker while Woundhealer is jammed through his heart. Shieldbreaker doesn't regard Woundhealer as a weapon since it's a HealingShiv, but he grabs at Shieldbreaker as he's hit, so he is armed -- with Shieldbreaker. And Shieldbreaker destroys any weapon its target is armed with.]]
* RapidAging: When Soulcutter is drawn it causes its wielder to age at a highly accelerated rate.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Sir Andrew. He even has the word 'kind' usually added to his name. Unfortunately he's a relatively small fish surrounded by unpleasant and powerful nobles.
%%* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
* RuleOfSeven: The seven sealings of Benambra's Gold. They are: The concealed location of the facility guarding it, the dragon guarding the gate, a maze, a garrison of guards, a magical barrier, a demon guarding the vault proper, and the greed of any thieves who make it that far causing them to turn upon themselves.
* SoulJar: Demon's hearts are tied to mundane objects. Farslayer can instinctively identify what they are and go for that rather than harmlessly impaling the demon's physical body, which could be a long way off.
* StoutStrength: Ben, one of the main characters, is a tall, broad guy with a stupid-looking face. If he's wearing something that shows his general outline, he looks fat, and his arms and legs are so thick in proportion to their length they look stubby. Almost none of it is fat, though; Ben is much, much stronger than carnival strongmen, and gifted with above-average intelligence to boot.
* SuddenlySuitableSuitor: [[spoiler: Mark for Kristin, once the identity of his father is revealed.]]
%%* SwordFight
* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: All of the Twelve Swords, even in-universe. They were made by the Gods to facilitate the Game.
* ThunderboltIron: Vulcan used a highly magical form of this material as the first ingredient in all of the swords.
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: This is Farslayer's power, and we mean it ''always'' works. Even if the target is halfway around the world, underground, defended by powerful magic, and [[spoiler: one of the Gods]]. The difficulty being that it's not {{Mjolnir}}, it doesn't come back and it has no particular loyalty to the thrower. Once thrown, the magical sniper sword is now sitting in your enemy's camp and through your enemy's heart, yes, but also in easy reach of any of his allies or grief-stricken family members with a motive to avenge their fallen loved one.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Soulcutter in particular has an extreme life-draining effect on everyone nearby, including the wielder. As such it's often used only as a last resort. Likewise Doomgiver can repel any and all attacks (except from Shieldbreaker), yet is destroyed early on in the series so its full might is rarely used.
* TreacherousAdvisor: The Sword of Wisdom can guide its bearer to absolutely anything. But unless you remember to specify a ''safe'' path to your goal, it will always choose the most dangerous road that will lead to your ultimate destination. And even then, there's no guarantee you won't die immediately after getting there, and thus are no longer being guided to safety.
* TreacherousSpiritChase: In Woundhealer's Story, one of the main characters keeps seeing tantalizing hints of a specific girl he vaguely recognizes. Every time he comes across evidence of her, it mysteriously turns into a mundane material that has reason to be there already. Hair caught in a rough bush turns to spiderweb in his hands, fabric turns to moss, etc, and each time he is drawn further into the forest. [[spoiler: Only after he's magically paralyzed by an enemy does he realize the entire thing had been an evil enchantment designed to lure him there.]]
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Swords work against the Gods, too. [[spoiler: By the end of the third book, all the gods have either been killed, or faded away from lack of belief.]]
* UnbreakableWeapons: The Swords are invulnerable to everything except each other. This means that even when their powers aren't useful to the current situation, they're still a good weapon to have in hand (among other things, being invulnerable means not only that they can't be broken, but they don't lose their edge - staying sharp forever).
* UltimateBlacksmith: Vulcan, who made the Swords. Played with, however, in that he could only do it once and came to forget how he did it.
%%* VirginPower
* VirginSacrifice: [[spoiler: Baron Doon]] attempts to do this out of desperation when cornered by a demon, but thankfully he's interrupted before he can go through with it. Kristin, meanwhile, uses her own virginity for a [[IntimateHealing different sort of sacrifice]] in a situation that's almost as bad.
* WeaponOfXSlaying: Dragonslicer exists to bring dragons down, and can slice through their scales, flesh and bones with ease.
* WeaponsBreakingWeapons: Any weapon struck by Shieldbreaker, the Sword of Force, will instantly explode. This makes its wielders almost invincible in melee combat and is the only way to destroy the other enchanted Swords.
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