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[[quoteright:293:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secrettexts.jpg]]

A HeroicFantasy series of three books by Creator/HollyLisle (''Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons'', and ''Courage of Falcons''), and a {{Prequel}}, ''Vincalis the Agitator.''

Once upon a time, TheEmpire of Hars Ticlarim was a place of beauty. The world of Matrin was [[TerminallyDependentSociety run on magic.]] There were [[UnderwaterCity underwater cities]], [[CoolAirship cool airships]], and [[FloatingContinent floating cities.]]

All [[LifeEnergy powered by]] [[PoweredByAForsakenChild a gazillion billion jillion]] [[SlaveRace forsaken people.]] But UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, right?

''Vincalis the Agitator'' is what happens when a few people (and a deity) decide to stop this process...leading to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

The trilogy takes place [[AfterTheEnd a thousand years later]], where most people have been Scarred into looking like very random animal mixes via magic, MagicIsEvil (but some still do it anyway), FantasticRacism abounds, and the souls of the Dragons from the first book are trying to take over the world again. But this time there's a secret society dedicated to stopping them, and a prophesied Messiah is supposed to come and save them all...

Warning: this series plays straight ''and'' subverts the entire FateAndProphecyTropes page.

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!!Provides Examples Of:

* AfterTheEnd: well, a thousand years later after it for the trilogy
* AllMenArePerverts: cited by Yanth and Jain in a conversation about how the first thing any man notices about any woman is if he'd nail her.
* AncientTradition: the Falcons, though they aren't so much passive so much as they don't believe in offensive magic.
* AnimalMotifs: Dragons for the really really evil magic users, Wolves for the evil magic users that come after them, Falcons for those who don't abuse others in order to do magic.
%%* AntiMagic: Wraith, from the prequel.
* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: the Festival. HOO BOY. Weeklong anonymous orgy party where anything goes.
%%* AristocratsAreEvil
%%* ArrangedMarriage: Luercas and Velyn. Goes ''horribly'' (see below).
%%* BackFromTheDead: Solander and the Dragons
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Hasmal is fated to have a horrific end that leads to good things for everyone else.
* BestServedCold: Any character who thinks s/he's going to get revenge on all who screwed them over is brutally thwarted. Especially [[spoiler: Danya, who kills her own kid and basically gives up ''everything'' to be able to go home and slaughter her rapists and any Family members she can find...but by the time she gets home, they're all dead already.]]
%%* BigBrotherIsWatching
* BigScrewedUpFamily and TheClan: The Sabirs and Galweighs, probably all of the other great Families as well.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Velyn
%%* BittersweetEnding
* BlackMagic: oh, so very very much. Heck, there's black magic and REALLY black magic. The Wolves (regular black) operate under NecessaryDrawback, causing MagicMisfire that turns parts of/your entire body monstrous, while the Dragons (REALLY black) practice HumanSacrifice and PoweredByAForsakenChild, only it's millions of sacrifices and forsakens.
* BlueBlood: the stolti and the Families seem to be this, or at least equivalent.
%%* BodyguardBetrayal
* BreakTheCutie: Danya's story ''starts out'' with being kidnapped, tortured, raped, impregnated, magically changed beyond recognition and thrown out into the cold. And it only gets worse from there.
* TheCaptain: Ian. [[spoiler: Rrru-eeth steals his ship and takes over the title later.]]
* CassandraTruth: by the time Wraith finally confesses the truth, nobody cares in the slighest.
* TheChessmaster: most characters, though Luercas particularly stands out.
* ChickMagnet: part of the power of Karnee is giving off a yummy scent that turns on most of the opposite sex and makes your own gender pretty friendly to you as well. Kait finds being liked for this rather than for her personality to be a BlessedWithSuck sort of thing. Hasmal is immune to it, though.
%%* ConflictingLoyalty
%%* CoolAirship
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath
* {{Curse}}: The Karnee curse. Which would mostly be a CursedWithAwesome (much better chances of survival, and they don't get further cursed in appearance by magical rehwah) if not for the fact that being caught as a Scarred is not only an automatic death sentence for you, but for your entire family as well.
* DanceOfRomance: done repeatedly in Kait and Ry's dreams.
%%* DecidedByOneVote: totally subverted.
%%* DeflectorShields
* DemonicPossession: well, wizard possession
* DisguisedInDrag: Wraith has to get dressed up as a woman (by his cheerful crossdresser employees) to get out the door without attracting attention.
%%* DomesticAbuse: what Luercas does to Velyn
%%* DoomedByCanon
* DoomedHometown: Oel Marinias, Oel Artis, and eventually almost all towns in the Hars Ticlarim. Calimekka isn't totally gone, but it pretty much gets magically mowed over by a new magical city being formed on top of it.
* DoomedProtagonist: Hasmal
%%* DownerEnding: ''Vincalis''
* {{Ephebophile}}: Faregan, though later on he's revealed as a paedophile too. And a StalkerWithACrush for Jess. What a creep.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt
%%* EvilMatriarch: Imogene
* ExactWords: Ry uses this when he's forced to [[MagicallyBindingContract swear loyalty]] to [[spoiler: Rrru-eeth. He swears loyalty to "the true captain of this ship" to get around the spell, since he plans to bust her and turn her over to Ian anyway.]]
%%* FakeDefector: [[spoiler: Ian]]
* FantasticRacism: in Ibera, anyone who doesn't look 100% human is executed publically and horribly, along with their families. Doesn't matter if the fact that you look like a giant beast is due to magical rebound forced upon you.
* FateWorseThanDeath: soul annihilation happens. Frequently. Constantly.
%%* FemmeFatalons: Danya
%%* FeudingFamilies: the Sabirs and the Galweighs
%%* FieryRedhead: Velyn
%%* FiveManBand: Ry's friends
* FloatingContinent: Oel Artis Trevia is a floating city.
%%* ForbiddenZone
%%* ForTheEvulz
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Brotherly, anyway. Crispin is the pretty one and Anwyn is the smart one. In a huge state of confusion, you will find yourself cheering for the pretty one before his end.
%%* GodhoodSeeker: The goal of many characters.
%%* GooGooGodlike: Solander
%%* GovernmentConspiracy
%%* GrandTheftMe: Luercas
* GreatBigBookOfEverything: Vincalis's Secret Texts that prophesize everything that happens a thousand years after they were written. Supposedly.
* TheGrotesque: pretty much anyone Scarred by magic that they didn't do.
* GuiltByAssociationGag: thousands of people who got rounded up for public execution by the Hars Ticlarim.
%%* HeelFaceTurn: Patr (see below for why)
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: the Falcons in general go through this after Solander's death.]]
%%* HeroicSacrifice: many of 'em.
%%* InnocentProdigy: Ulwe
%%* InLoveWithTheMark: Patr
* InvertedTrope: Wraith is TheManInFrontOfTheMan rather than TheManBehindTheMan. Even after he's honest about this, nobody seems to really believe him about it.
* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Luercas and Danya's entire relationship in books 2 and 3.
%%* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled: [[spoiler: Rrru-eeth]]
%%* LaResistance
* LaserGuidedKarma: Velyn. When she saves Jess's life for Wraith, she ends up falling in love with him. When she refuses to marry and have children with him because he's not a real BlueBlood, the BlueBlood she marries beats the crap out of her and refuses to let her carry any pregnancies to term. When Wraith gets her away from Luercas (but refuses to get back together with her), she throws a shit fit and squeals on him to everyone she can, and gets RewardedAsATraitorDeserves.
%%* LastKiss
%%* LikesOlderWomen: Hasmal
* LongLostSibling: [[spoiler: Ian]] Though played with in that the characters in question know they're related all along, but the reader and everyone else in the story is surprised.
%%* LostTechnology: and how.
* LovableSexManiac: Dughall is personally responsible for drastically upping the birth rate in the Imumbarran islands. No, really, he has hundreds of kids and got declared a fertility god.
%%* LoveAtFirstSight: Wraith and Velyn, Kait and Ry
* LoveDodecahedron: Solander loves Jess. Jess loves Wraith, but settles for Solander for awhile. Wraith loves Velyn. Velyn loves Wraith but boinks pretty much every male in her vicinity too. And then won't even marry him when he proposes.
%%* LotusEaterMachine: Wraith's birthplace.
* MagicIsEvil: presumably the rule of Matrin after the Wizards' war, but that doesn't stop people from practicing it in secret anyway. And the Falcons's magic isn't.
%%* MagicMirror and SealedEvilInACan: the Mirror of Souls
%%* TheMagocracy: the Dragons
* MarkedToDie: Hasmal, [[spoiler: Dughall, Kait, Ry, though the latter two end up not having to. Solander is originally MarkedToDie in ''Vincalis'', the second time it's a surprise to everybody.]]
* MeaningfulName: Wraith likes them, but then again, he named himself.
* [[spoiler: MentorOccupationalHazard (combined with HeroicSacrifice)]]
* MindlinkMates: Ry and Kait can sense each other and share dreams. The Falcons seem to have their own version of this among the group in general.
%%* TheMole: done frequently
%%* MoralMyopia
* MortonsFork: Wraith's dilemma is that he wants to save the Warreners from soul annihilation...but doing so will destroy the entire setup of the world and kill even more innocent people. In the execution, thanks to the other side's PhlebotinumOverdose, it gets ''even worse'' than planned.
%%* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning
%%* NightmareFace: Imogene
* NoSell: Wraith is the only magical immune in a magical society, which enables him to stay alive and conscious enough to survive the place of his birth.
%%* TheNothingAfterDeath
%%* ObviouslyEvil: again, about 60% of the characters.
%%* OffingTheOffspring: Imogene wants to, [[spoiler: Danya succeeds.]]
%%* OldMaster: Dughall
* OptOut: the top two Dragons quit in disgust over the use of human souls for fuel.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Karnee mostly turn into werewolves, but can develop fins or [[WingedHumanoid wings]] under duress (i.e. drowning or jumping off something high).
* OverlyLongName: Kait's full name is a mouthful. Ulwe's isn't all that short either.
%%* PenName: Vincalis, Gellas Tomasin
* PlatonicLifePartners: Hasmal and Kait are genuinely Just Friends, as Hasmal has no interest in her like that (see LikesOlderWomen).
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: both played straight and subverted [[spoiler: when Solander is unexpectedly murdered by his mother]].
* PsychicPowers: Ulwe has an odd variation of this, as she can read the thoughts of anyone traveling on the road.
%%* PyrrhicVictory
* RapeAsDrama: Danya. The Hellspawn Trio love to rape pretty much any male or female that gets near them.
* RapidAging: [[spoiler: Alarista after giving her life energy to Dughall]]
%%* ReallyGetsAround: Velyn
%%* RebelLeader: Wraith
* RedRightHand: [[spoiler: Danya gets an equivalent of this after murdering her son.]]
%%* TheReveal
* RevengeBeforeReason: Danya is so set on getting revenge for what she has had done to her that she [[spoiler: murders her own son because he'd make the world peaceful and thus she couldn't get revenge]].
* UsefulNotes/{{Roma|ni}}:: The Gyru-nalles. They also believe in WordsCanBreakMyBones and don't give out their true names.
* ScarsAreForever: played straight and subverted.
* ScrewDestiny: Kait takes this attitude after [[spoiler: Solander's death, figuring that since ALL prophecies have been proven wrong, they still have a shot.]]
%%* SecretPolice
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Hasmal runs away to avoid meeting up with Kait again. After a random series of events leading him farther away from Halles, she finds him again on a ship they're both on heading for another continent.
%%* ShapeshifterShowdown
%%* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Danya, oh so much]]
%%* ShroudedInMyth: Vincalis, also HeWhoMustNotBeSeen
%%* SlaveRace: the population of the Warrens
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Most of the time, Kait is the only female in the group of male characters. Subverted on Ian's ship (where Rrru-eeth is the TokenGirl until Kait arrives) and later on when Alarista joins the group.
%%* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Luercas
%%* SphereOfDestruction
%%* SpikesOfVillainy: played straight and subverted
%%* StarCrossedLovers: Hasmal and Alarista, Kait and Ry to a lesser extent.
* StrawTraitor: Rrru-eeth is a Scarred who hates Kait once she finds out that Kait is also Scarred. (Well, that and Kait's boinking the guy she loves.)
%%* TakeOverTheWorld
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Dughall has to do this in order to kill Luercas]]
* TechnicolorEyes: Velyn has copper
* TechnoBabble: Dragons indulge in this a lot when talking about magic.
%%* TerribleTrio: Anwyn, Crispin, and Andrew.
%%* TogetherInDeath
%%* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Ry, Kait, and Ian
* TheUnfavourite: Ry seems to have been this even before he pissed off his mother.
* TheUnpronounceable: Rrru-eeth's name sounds like a bird tweet.
%%* UnderwaterCity
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Jess [[spoiler: though she seems to become the victorious version of this by the end]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: many of them, but several are cited for the fall of the Hars Ticlarim for being too distracted by a cheating girlfriend, etc. and not checking out the magic thoroughly before using a deadly spell.
%%* VoluntaryShapeshifting: the Karnee and [[spoiler: Luercas]]
%%* WhatIsEvil
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Danya runs into this after getting heavily Scarred and forced to live with other Scarred.
* WhiteMagic: the Falcons's sort is based on EquivalentExchange, CastFromHitPoints, CastFromLifespan, BloodMagic (a rare non-evil version). Compared to the other magical practices, this one is WillfullyWeak.
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