[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lockedwithin_2490.jpg]]


->''"He must remember the warrior he was, to become the hero he was born to be. His name is Nathan Shepherd, and he remembers."''
-->-- '''Locked Within'''

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.

Creator/PaulAnthonyShortt's urban fantasy trilogy, telling the story of Nathan Shepherd, a man who has been reincarnated throughout history, always drawn into conflict with supernatural forces. His journey brings him up against Dorian, the ruler of the supernatural society of New York, and Athamar, an enemy who has hunted Nathan throughout countless lifetimes.

Aiding Nathan in his fight are Cynthia Keller, Cadence Brooke, Sam Kinnon, and the reincarnation of Nathan's lost love, Elena De Santis.

Books in the series:
[[index]]
# Locked Within
# Silent Oath
# Memory War

There are also two short stories:
[[index]]
# Taking Sides: Cynthia, set between Locked Within and Silent Oath
# Taking Sides: Elena, set between Silent Oath and Memory War

----
!!''The Memory Wars'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Gods, such as Athena and Morrigan, do this, having been interpreted as different mythological figures by different cultures throughout history.
* AfterActionPatchUp: Several times for Nathan, though not always by a love interest.
* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: While the reborn and their enemies use firearms, they often favour close combat weapons such as swords and axes.
* BadassLongcoat: Nathan graduates to this by the end of ''Locked Within''.
* BandOfBrothers: Nathan and his friends.
* BattleCouple: Nathan and Elena.
* BetterAsFriends: Nathan and Cynthia dated briefly in college, but even after breaking up, they remained [[AmicableExes close friends]].
* BigApplesauce: Although past-life flashbacks show different places, the modern-day setting for the series is New York, and there is a lot of focus on the city's importance in the supernatural world.
--->'''Mike Shepherd:''' "You'll always have New York, and your old man."
--->'''Cadence Brooke:''' "The fact is that New York is a vast reservoir of emotional power. That energy can be tapped to fuel large-scale magic. Few cities so young have such power."
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Locked Within: [[spoiler: Nathan crashes an SUV into a construction site, saving Cadence from the soul eater and taking down several Council agents without taking a scratch]].
** Silent Oath: [[spoiler: Nathan and Elena storm Morrigan's ritual, stopping her from creating her demon army, and saving (most of) her prisoners]].
* TheBigRottenApple: How things are before Nathan begins to remember his past lives and starts to fight back against the Council of Chains.
--->'''Cadence Brooke:''' "New York is... heavy. Like it's wrapped in chains. Do you know how much strength it takes to change that? To stand up and fight with such force that the city itself, and everyone in it, feels the difference?"
* TheCommissionerGordon: Lt. Frank Powell
* DamagedSoul: Athamar, not to mention Nathan and Elena...
* DareToBeBadass: Inverted in ''Locked Within'' as [[spoiler: both Roland and Libby tell Nathan not to bother trying to help the people of New York, because they've already been let down enough]]. A possible case of reverse psychology, however.
* DealWithTheDevil: Dorian achieved immortality this way, and [[spoiler: Nathan cut a similar deal in exchange for a chance to kill Athamar before he came after him and Varia]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: In the course of the first two books, Nathan [[spoiler: loses his job, his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend, his father is killed, he learns that his best friend is the reincarnation of his greatest enemy, Athamar, and the woman he has loved throughout his previous incarnations is so hurt by the things he has done to stop Athamar that she decides she can't be with him]]. Of course, Elena hasn't had it easy, either, since [[spoiler: her lover left her because she can't have children, her friends and family were massacred, and when she finally found Nathan, she remembered that in their most recent incarnations, he ritually murdered a 17 year-old Athamar and allowed her to kill him to trick Morrigan out of a host body]].
* TheEpic: Nathan's story [[spoiler: begins in ancient Greece, taking him through the fall of Troy, all of human history, culminating in a battle between the people of New York and an army of gods and demons bent on conquering the world.]]
* FalseSoulmate: [[spoiler: Nathan and Laura]]
* FightsLikeANormal: Although access to past-life memories gives Nathan, and all reborn, knowledge of previously-learned skills, such as fighting styles, he must still train so that he's physically able to apply what he knows.
* FinalBattle: The author is particularly fond of these.
* FiveManBand:
** Nathan - TheHero / TheLeader
** Elena - TheLancer
** Cadence - TheSmartGuy
** Sam - TheBigGuy
** Cynthia - TheHeart
* FlirtingUnderFire: Multiple occasions between Nathan and Elena.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: The general attitude of the Council of Chains
* LoveAtFirstSight: [[JustifiedTrope Justified among reborn]], who often run into former lovers in later incarnations.
* HumansAreSpecial: Gods and other supernatural creatures are obsessed with humans because of their ability to die and be reborn, while gods and spirits remain ageless and unchanging.
* ImmortalityImmorality: The Conclaves see attempts to break the cycle of death and rebirth as a violation of the natural order. It doesn't help that most paths to immortality involve killing or preying on innocent victims.
* IndyPloy: Nathan's approach to most situations.
** ''Locked Within:'' [[spoiler: After the Council has killed his father, and is about to take control of a soul eater, a powerful creature that's nearly impossible to kill, Roland asks Nathan what he's going to do about it. His response? "I'm gonna fuck their shit up."]]
* {{Masquerade}}: Partly by design, but also through humanity's instinct to [[BystanderSyndrome ignore what it can't understand]].
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: "My name is Nathan Shepherd."
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Silent Oath'', we learn that [[spoiler: in one of his past lives, Nathan broke the Common Laws that govern the reborn, not only making a deal with Morrigan to kill in her name so he could find and kill Athamar before he came after him and Elena/Varia again, but wound up killing the teenage Athamar's parents in front of him, and resorted to a ritual to lock away Athamar's past-life memories forever. When Morrigan released all those memories at once in the modern day, it drove Athamar insane, [[CreateYourOwnVillain turning him into an even more dangerous enemy]] than ever before]].
* OneMythToExplainThemAll: Pretty much every god and monster [[spoiler: is actually a being from another realm which has bonded with a human host.]]
* OurSoulsAreDifferent
* PastLifeMemories: All humans have the potential for this. Those that become good at it are known as reborn, and can use their past-life memories to boost their strength, speed, and stamina, as well as re-learn previously-known skills faster.
* PhotographicMemory: Nathan possesses this trait, and uses it in his investigations.
* ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex: Several characters have explicitly lived some lives as genders other than their current one. In fact, one of Nathan's memories in ''Locked Within'' involves [[spoiler: re-living having sex with Varia, at a time when Nathan was a woman and Varia was a man]].
* {{Reincarnation}}: A key theme and plot element of the series, and the source of the conflict between the Reborn Conclaves, who believe that the soul should be allowed to pass on and return in another life, and the Council of Chains, who fear what lies between death and rebirth, and instead pursue various paths to immortality.
* ReincarnationRomance
* TakeUpMySword: Reborn often leave weapons, information, and valuables in places their later incarnations will find. Indeed, simply remembering their past lives often drives a reborn to carry on the goals of their past selves.
* UrbanFantasy
* WeHelpTheHelpless: The purpose of the Conclaves, and Nathan's driving motivation after [[spoiler: he loses his job, his father is killed, and his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend after revealing she is pregnant with said best friend's baby]].
* YourSoulIsMine: A soul eater's primary motivation.