This subsection of the Heralds of Valdemar Character Sheet deals with the deities of the setting, as well as general character tropes shared by various groups within the series.
Kal'enel, the Star-eyed Goddess
The Goddess of all the Kaled'a'in clans, she has four aspects, the Maiden, the Warrior, the Mother and the Crone. It's mentioned in The Mage Storms that ancient Karse had a Goddess with an almost identical name, in addition to the God Vkandis. At least one other goddess is another face of Hers, and there used to be a pair of twin goddesses with names very similar to Hers.- Bargain with Heaven: The Kal'enedral sworn to her can, in a time of need, call out her Greater Name in order to pause time and try to trade something in exchange for Her saving someone's life.
- Divine Delegation: The souls of her Sworn continue to serve her after they die, acting as trainers and advisers to living Sworn (among other things). In the Mage Winds trilogy, she branches out a little further by selecting a pair of Avatars.
- Divine Intervention: She frequently interferes on behalf of the Shin'a'in, generally through her spirit Kal'enedral but also through omens and infrequent appearances. The Tayledras see her less often and the Kaled'a'in even less so.
- Ethnic Goddess: The parts of her who are the Star-Eyed take forms resembling Kaled'a'in and seem to be specific to that culture and ethnicity.
- God's Hands Are Tied: She'll act in her peoples' interest, but only so far. The Mage Winds books mention gods making some kind of agreement to not interfere very much in the world, and the Mage Storms books has characters speculate that it's so free will can exist.
- The Hecate Sisters: Her aspects are Maiden, Warrior, Mother, and Crone.
- I Have Many Names: In the Oath books the Star-Eyed confirms that the Goddess Kethry worships, the Windborn Soulshaper, is another of her faces. Kal'enel refers to Companions as "children of my other self". Additionally, somewhere in the pre-Mage Wars era certain people worshipped two sets of twins - one pair of which was Kerenal the Healer and Karanel the Fighter.
- Monochromatic Eyes: Her eyes look like a starry night sky, without discernible irises or pupils.
- Noble Bird of Prey: She's associated with birds and flying. Her avatars come in the form of hawks and falcons.
- The Omniscient: Averted, even She doesn't always know what's going to happen.
- Physical God: There is no doubt that She exists and She has interfered relatively often and unmistakably in the lives of her people over the years.
- Power at a Price: Her interventions aren't free. When she made the Plains livable, for example, she required an actual Human Sacrifice, which is remembered in its name (Dhorisha Shin'a, or Plains of Sacrifice). However, it's implied that she doesn't for ask anything the people would be unable or unwilling to give.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She is good to her people, but she doesn't baby them either.
- Shipper on Deck: She really likes Tarma and Kethry being together, in... whatever capacity that is, to the point of sending an omen to prove to the Shin'a'in that their bond is real. When Kethry has a mortal wound and Tarma cries over her and swears that even her clan is meaningless without Kethry to share it with, the Star-Eyed is so delighted that she asks no price to heal her beyond temporary exhaustion.
- Star Power: As implied by her title, the Star-Eyed is associated with stars, and her power and avatars come in the form of stars. She is also associated with night and the moon, in contrast to Vkandis' association with the sun.
Vkandis the Sun Lord
The God worshiped in Karse and Iftel.- Bolt of Divine Retribution: How he chose to start off his dramatic re-organization of the corrupt Karsite priesthood.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Doesn't allow Selenay, the queen of Valdemar, to think about her neigbbor Iftel when it's not directly relevant, and even then she's not able to remember that her country ever had any trouble with it.
- Divine Intervention: Meddles heavily in Iftel. He left Karse to its own devices for centuries, allowing Karsite priests to do great evil in his name, until he quite suddenly did not.
- Holy Is Not Safe: His goodness is represented as the actual sun, as in an overwhelming force that burns away anything impure. When he makes his presence felt, the Son of the Sun he deems corrupt is vaporized on the spot.
- I Have Many Names: V'kandis, Vkanda, Vykaendys. He also may be the seldom-mentioned partner to Kal'enal, mentioned only as "Hunter, Guardian, Rover, Guide." Before the Mage Wars certain people worshipped two sets of twin gods, one of whom was Dara the Hunter.
- Living Statue: At least twice in Solaris' reign he animated a statue of himself — once to crown her Son of the Sun and once to physically occupy her chair when she had to make an emergency state visit to Valdemar.
- Male Sun, Female Moon: Played half-straight. Evidently Karse used to honor a goddess-consort as well but dropped her when they went to monotheism.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's speculated that Vkandis gave the Karsite priests the ability to summon demons so they could protect themselves during the Cataclysm. Eventually the priests would corrupt that power.
- The Power of the Sun: Associated with the sun and fire, but also with daylight and plants. When he reorganizes the priesthood, the Sun-priests he approves are marked by flowers blooming on their staves, and the Karsite paradise is a verdant meadow.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He has the ability to distinguish the irredeemably evil from those who did wrong because it seemed like the right thing, or because they were simply mistaken. Ulrich, a priest of the demon-summoning rank, is one of the priests he marks out as righteous, and he later tactitly forgives King Tremane by sending a delegation from Iftel to ally with him.
- Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter: He's the mighty smiter in question. Unlike most cases of this trope, he actually does start smiting people. Namely, most of the upper ranks of his priesthood.
Heralds
The official agents of the Monarch of Valdemar, serving as judges, soldiers, diplomats... and, if required, spies, saboteurs, and assassins. Heralds wear white uniforms.- Artifact Title: In-universe — most Heralds aren't heralds; they're called that because the first three people Chosen were the king, the crown prince, and the royal herald. Since there can only be one monarch and one heir but any number of heralds, the name stuck.
- Changeling Fantasy: Not universally, but many Herald-Trainees are relieved to be Chosen and brought to the Collegium and their 'real' family. Some Heralds (Talia being an example) also have shades of Changeling Tale, being so different from the rest of their relatives that they don't fit in at all. (The general reincarnation theme of the 'verse may account for this.)
- The Chosen Many: Most Heralds are found by their Companions when their Puberty Superpower innate Gifts start to kick in. The Collegium not only trains them to use their abilities but gives them a sense of home and fellowship which they probably wouldn't find among the unGifted.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Heraldic devotion to duty is legendary; they can torment themselves over the 'weakness' of wanting a moment or two to just relax. In the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy Tylendel tries to explain it, but Vanyel doesn't understand until after he's chosen himself.It's, I don't know, a kind of hunger. I can't help it. I've got these abilities, these Gifts, and I can't not use them. I couldn't sit here, knowing that there were people out there who need exactly the kind of help I can give them and not make the effort to find them and take care of them. It's like backing Stavan - it's just something I could not even see myself not doing. I can't explain it, Van, I can't. I have to, or - I'm not me anymore.
- Circuit Judge: The main duty of a Herald riding circuit.
- The Confidant: All Heralds, whether in the general public or just among themselves, strive to be approachable and utterly trustworthy. There is even a Monarch's Own Herald who is specifically Chosen to be the King or Queen's most honest and reliable friend.
- Energy Donation: Depending on the book Heralds with Mind-gifts will donate energy to support Healers, as the Healing-Gift is in a similar category.
- Ethical Slut: Heralds off duty tend to be "hedonistic and anything but chaste," with casual dalliances among their fellows being the norm. Justified, since the demands of Duty are so compelling — and the job is so dangerous — that long-term bonds usually won't last.
- Fights Like a Normal: Particularly in the early books, the ability of Heralds to read minds, see at a distance, force others to tell the truth, etc. was secondary to perfectly mundane skills like stealth, diplomacy, and street boxing. That's part of the reason it stings so much when, in Vanyel's time, "plain Heralds" get less respect than Herald-Mages, even when the problem isn't magical in nature.
- Fish out of Water: New trainees often experience this.
- Good Feels Good: The call of duty aside, most Heralds do what they do because they enjoy it. The fellowship of a Companion and the Heraldic Circle are definitely a bonus.
- Good Is Not Soft: Heralds are chosen for their moral balance as well as their innate goodness. If they feel they must, they will deal with you so brutally and decisively that even "good" people will wince.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Easy to identify by their Heraldic Whites, which are entirely white, boots and all. Certain characters have a Running Gag of complaining about the "shoot me now" uniform (e.g. Kerowyn) and avoiding wearing them as much as possible — except in cases where being yet another Herald in white makes them less conspicuous.
- Honor Before Reason: Sometimes, though not always portrayed as a good thing. One non-Herald character muses that Companions must know how to look for someone who can balance morality and expediency.
- Hope Bringer: When a Herald and Companion show up, the situation is about to get much better or much worse.
- Horse Archer: Their main strength in combat. All Heralds are required to learn archery, and a Companion doesn't need to be reined or spurred.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Pretty much a requirement. It's mentioned that, theoretically, anyone can be corrupted, but that most evildoers wouldn't be able to figure out what would corrupt a Herald much less provide it. That doesn't mean they can't be tempted, but their consciences always reassert themselves when it comes time to make a decision.
- The major exception is the unfortunate Heraldic Trainee Tylendel Frelennye. Heralds who had loving families continue caring about them but have to step back in involvement and not meddle in feuds. Tylendel's dedication to his twin brother was his strongest tie, the thing that he compared to his Heraldic compulsion to help others. When his twin was killed, Tylendel prioritized Revenge over anything else and went behind his own Companion's back. Just in general the Heralds of the Last Herald Mage Trilogy show more personality flaws and make more mistakes than is common elsewhere, while still on the main being solidly good.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: They usually stop at finding the guilty party, leaving the punishment in other hands. But they can and will deliver justice themselves if they feel they must.
- Living Lie Detector: Via the Truth Spell. Some can merely make a lie obvious; others can force a person to tell the truth.
- Married to the Job: Between Duty and a Companion, most Heralds don't have the time or emotional energy to spend on a significant other. While almost all of the focus Herald characters end up in long-term relationships, it's either with a Lifebond to keep them emotionally anchored or with another person just as duty-driven as they are, with goals that coincide.
- Mind over Manners: Heralds have a lot of codes, often self-imposed, against reading the minds or emotions of others 1) when not required by duty, 2) when there's time or means to find out some other way, or 3) without their informed consent.
- Mundane Utility: The majority of Heralds can talk with their Companions, even if they can't otherwise Mindspeak, and Companions can talk to other Companions within their range. This means that they can serve as a communication network, which is invaluable during battles and in other situations where being able to relay orders and intelligence over a great distance is a help.
- Mutant Draft Board: Most Chosen have latent or active Gifts, and being Chosen enhances those Gifts. With a few exceptions, the majority of Gifted people in Valdemar either become Heralds or end up going through the Healer's or Bardic College (both of which cater to a more limited range of Gifts). There doesn't seem to be any other system set up - in The Last Herald-Mage the only Valdemaran mages are Heralds, unlike in other countries where there are mages employed by the government and others teaching and operating independently. Arrow's Flight mentions a village woman with a weather-sensing Gift, but she gained it after a Traumatic Superpower Awakening, received no training at any point and was generally treated as a fluke. In the Owl books it's mentioned that a Mage's College is being set up in Haven for non-Chosen mages - they're still drafted, but they don't have to be Heralds.
- Oddly Common Rarity: See above for why so many Heralds have Gifts, which are quite rare in the general population, and often powerful Gifts at that. Heralds also seem to be much more inclined than the general population to have lifebonds.
- One Riot, One Ranger: Heralds ride circuit solo, and this is usually not problematic because they 1. enjoy a good reputation in most of Valdemar, 2. have a Companion as backup, and 3. have ways of summoning additional help. For special missions, they go in groups of two or three at most, and this is usually enough for anything short of a true catastrophe.
- The Order: A network of agents almost as old as Valdemar itself, beholden only to itself, and the Monarch must be a member. The whole system would be ripe for abuse if not for the Companions.
- Panicky Expectant Father: A Herald who's Chosen by a Companion mare who subsequently gets pregnant has to help with the birth, and it's noted that this often leads to frazzled, anxious Chosen. These Heralds also have to stay in Haven for the end stages of their Companions' gestation and for as long as it takes to wean the foal.
- Pragmatic Hero: A Herald would do anything in the service of Valdemar.
- Psychic Link: Beyond the Companion bond, most Heralds and Herald-Mages can temporarily link up with each other, allowing a pooling of abilities and resources that is quite effective. A Herald with FarSight, for example, can show an object's location to someone with Fetching, allowing her to retrieve it from a safe distance. Energy Donation (e.g. to a Healer) can also be done this way.
- Psychic Powers: Heraldic "Gifts" include MindMagic. After Vanyel's death there were no more Herald-Mages for centuries, so Heralds came to specialize in psychic Gifts instead.
- Samaritan Syndrome: People in danger draw Heralds like a lodestone.
- Recruiting the Criminal: In Magic's Promise Vanyel is confident that Companions don't Choose murderers, but this just isn't so. About a quarter of the Heralds have a noble background according to Cymry, but the rest can come from all walks of life. Thieves, murderers, mercenaries, and con artists included. They're Justified Criminals who have strong senses of morality, of course, and they largely reform after being Chosen, but their skills can be very useful.
- Slave to PR: They work hard to maintain the reputation of the Heraldic Circle, the training college, and the monarchy. A Herald on duty will never look anything but trustworthy, capable, and approachable... no matter how tired, angry, or scared they may be feeling.
- Training the Gift of Magic: All Heralds have at least one innate Gift. The Collegium — and prior to that, an apprentice/mentor system — exists to make sure trainees are comfortably in command of their abilities before they graduate, since an untrained or half-trained Gift is dangerous for everyone.
- True Companions: All Heralds are supposed to be this to each other, and barring the occasional interpersonal quarrel, they succeed. It helps that all of them share a commitment to Duty which few except other Heralds could understand.
- Undying Loyalty: A Herald is never too far from his or her Companion, especially on duty.
- White Is Pure: Both Heralds and their Companions. The all-white uniform, impractical as it is, marks a Herald as trustworthy — and official, since only the Crown could afford to keep its agents outfitted in white.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: The people who are Chosen are also the kind of people who feel that their Gifts carry an obligation to use them for the greater good. The more powerful the Gifts, the greater the obligation.
Companions
Magical creatures resembling horses. They determine who will or will not be a Herald, using their powers and experience to weed out any who might become corrupt, and partner with one such person for life.- Achilles' Heel: To Heralds. Because Companions are large, eye catching and fight in the main scrum like warhorses, they are easy targets for enemies. And their bond means that killing a Companion will at least incapacitate a Herald. Enemies of Valdemar have targeted Companions for that reason.
- The Ageless: The Monarch's Own Companion — the only Grove-born Companion most Heralds will ever see — does not age or die, though he can be killed. If he outlasts the current Monarch's Own Herald, he goes out and Chooses a new one.
- Aerith and Bob: Companions have names like Yfandes, Taver, and Sayvil... and Dancer and Silkswift. An early book explained that some Companions let their Heralds, particularly Heralds who can't Mindspeak with them, choose a name to call them by. One of the anthologies also has a Companion named Blackie thanks to a little black birthmark.
- Always Lawful Good: They are this, though they still can have prejudices and make mistakes.
- Angelic Beauty: In horse shape. They can tone it down a bit to draw less attention, when they have to.
- The Beautiful Elite: Vanity tends to be a Companion's vice. They like to look good for the general public, and for their fellow Companions (especially if they want a dalliance). And don't you dare call them horses.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Everyone a Companion meets — future Herald or not, foreigner or not —instinctively feels that a creature so ethereally beautiful must be trustworthy, which is one reason why perfect strangers are still willing to help Companions and/or follow them. The Karsite character Karal actually doesn't recognize Companions at first, because they're so different from the savage "demon-horses" described in his country's propaganda.
- Because Destiny Says So: Why they Choose whom they Choose. Some of them, like Yfandes, tell their Heralds they knew they would die because they Chose that Herald but have no regrets.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: A great downside to being shaped like horses and not making it too broadly known that they're even sentient is being treated like horses. In Magic's Promise, Yfandes is mildly amused by Vanyel's family being very slow to realize she's not an animal, and Van reflects that if she'd known that said family had wanted to breed her to one of their prized stallions she would be much less patient with them. Later in the book, travelling with one of them means keeping company with a horse too ornery and stupid to be easily dissuaded from interest in poor Yfandes, who despises him.
- Bling of War: In addition to their normal working kit, they have sets of show tack in blue and silver, with bells on the bridle and reins.
- Bond Creatures: Heralds and Companions are a single working unit. It's rare for one to outlive the other, and neither would want to. In books where a newly-Chosen character resists the idea of becoming a Herald, all their Companion has to say is "Do you really want to give me up?" to bring them back around; the Herald-Companion bond is as strong as death from the very first day.
- Born as an Adult: Grove-Born Companions come into the world like this. The Monarch's Own Companions seem to rotate in when they die, so Rolan and Taver have plenty of experience, but Gwena is on her very first incarnation and quite naive.
- Call to Adventure: They deliver it.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: And exactly where to find you. And will shanghai you from wherever you are and carry you off to the Collegium without so much as a by-your-leave. Even if you're being burned to death at the time.
- The Chooser of the One: Companions are the ones to say who is a Herald and who is not. Once they have Chosen a partner, no one is allowed to override their Choice; in some cases a person who would ordinarily have washed out of the Collegium is allowed to stay because their Companion supports them. Companions also ring the Death Bell for Heralds who have died, pronouncing at least one character a posthumous Herald.
- Cool Horse: They take the appearance of graceful, pure white horses with blue eyes. But their strength, stamina, and intelligence far exceeds any normal horse, without even going into their personalities and supernatural powers. Their silver hooves even make a musical chime when they strike the ground.
- Energy Donation: Companions provide a constant source of energy for their Chosen to draw upon, which they themselves draw from the innate magic in the earth.
- Fantastic Contraception: At least suggested, given how often Companions like to play around with their fellows and how relatively rarely a foal results. Rolan seems to have a way around this and is said to be extremely fertile and to cause pregnancy every time he pairs with a mare. Talia mentions this to Skif when Rolan and Cymry have a tryst. Skif is quite dismayed and protests that Cymry wouldn't get pregnant that easily, but she does indeed have a colt by the next book. Companion pregnancies "ground" Heralds and keep them in Haven for much of the gestation and rearing of the foal.
- Fights Like a Normal: Despite possessing mental or even magical powers, Companions fight with teeth and hooves like a warsteed, though the incredible coordination they have with their riders makes this very effective. They also have a tendency to trample the bodies of anyone who attacks them or their Heralds.
- The Four Loves: Primarily agape (pure and selfless), though philia and even a sense of storge come with a Companion bond (in the Arrows trilogy they call their Chosen "little brother/sister"). The bond between Lavan and Kalira crosses over into eros, which everyone recognizes as 1. a unique case and 2. more than a bit disturbing.
- Good Is Not Soft: As noted above, they fight like horses. If a Companion wants you dead, it won't be pretty, and it might not even be quick.
- Humanlike Animal Aging: To an extent! Most Companions are born to Companion mares and seem to take about as long to wean and become independent from their mothers as horses do (though the gestation period is only nine months). They live unpartnered in Companion's Field until they're about ten - this seems to be time spent physically growing and maturing, since Yfandes was notable for being the only unpartnered adult Companion present before picking Vanyel - before Choosing a human, and then they live as long as their Herald does.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Particularly in the early going, when a Herald is still a trainee; even then, they hold back the full extent of their power and experience so their Chosen develop the ability to rely on themselves and make their own decisions.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Even more so than Heralds, though this by no means makes them infallible.
- Inhumanly Beautiful Race: Again, they're astonishingly beautiful and striking.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: All Companions are incorruptible, and they all have blue eyes.
- Insistent Terminology: It's an insult to call them horses (except affectionately) and even worse to treat them like one.
- Intellectual Animal: Initially, they are thought of in terms of horse-like animals who are intellectually equal to their Heralds. Later, they are considered (more accurately) guardian spirits in a horse-like body.
- Irrational Hatred: Not immune to it (or at least not in later books). In Exile's Honor, a very young, very traumatized Companion convinced some of his fellows they should kill Alberich, solely because he was a Karsite captain and the Karsite army had killed friends (and possibly that Companion in a previous life). Alberich's own Companion and the current Grove-born Companion quickly arrived and made it clear they would defend him with lethal force if necessary.
- The Kindnapper: Thanks to Omniscient Morality License, Companions can and will abduct their future Chosen if circumstances demand it. (In Herald Talia's case, she made it all the way to Haven without a clue what was going on). But they are very good at identifying prospective Heralds: few if any Trainees refuse to sign on once they've been through Orientation and know all the facts.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Will sometimes use this on Heralds.
- Loved by All: You're hard pressed to find a heroic character who doesn't at least respect Companions, if they know anything about them. Children particularly.
- Magical Guide: While Companions are the gatekeepers of the Heraldic system as a whole, they are primarily one person's partner, advisor, and friend. The Companion bond is a Herald's most meaningful relationship, and other friends and lovers may not be able to accept that they will always be second best. On the other end of things, most Companions simply do not talk to (let alone carry) any human who is not their Chosen without a very good reason; the friendship is that exclusive.
- Masquerade: Companions have a lot of secrets (see Reincarnation below).
- Meaningful Look: A favorite form of non-verbal communication. It's common for non-Herald characters to start pondering what Companions must be and then realize that the 'horse' is looking at them with perfect understanding. Sometimes they'll even nod or wink to show that the other person is on the right track.
- Membership Token: The badge and sign of a Herald. Pure white horses with blue eyes are extremely rare to begin with, and the ringing silver hooves of a Companion can't be duplicated, so no one can just put on white clothes, bleach a horse, and pretend to be a Herald. Nor can a Companion be forced to carry someone against their will. The drawback is that Companions are all-but-impossible to conceal when stealth is needed.
- In one of the short stories, a con artist faked a Companion fairly successfully with a well trained, genuinely blue-eyed white horse; it took an outsider to point out to the investigating Heralds that it could be bogus, because it was too firmly in the Heralds' minds that Companions can't be counterfeited.
- Mind over Manners: Similar to Heralds, Companions generally stay out of others' minds and business unless duty requires it, the situation makes it the most expedient thing to do, or they have the other's consent. That said, they're a lot... freer about reading minds without consent than most Heralds are, and they can be rather cavalier about causing Laser-Guided Amnesia and the like. Shortly after being Chosen Skif realizes his new Companion monitors his thoughts all the time and is dismayed by the lack of privacy. She tells him it's not like that but doesn't clarify what "like that" means.
- Given that Gala completely failed to notice that her Chosen Tylendel was forgoing all his Heraldic ethics and going behind her back to use his power and training to seek Revenge, it may be that Companions after Vanyel's time keep a closer eye on their Chosen.
- They also sometimes don't allow people to talk or even think about certain topics - when Kero is about to refer to a Companion as a "spirit" in front of his Herald, she finds herself Tongue-Tied until she chooses another word.
- Morality Chain: Companions are the ultimate fail-safe against a Herald doing something truly unforgivable. The most extreme measure is to disown their Chosen and break the bond, which has only happened once.
- Mundane Utility: They are their Heralds' main transportation and occasional bodyguard. They can also facilitate a communications network when their Heralds don't have enough in the way of Mind-Gifts to talk to other Heralds themselves. Grove-Born Companions can talk to each other across hundreds of miles, much further than other Companions, meaning that when Elspeth is clear over across the Dhorisha Plains her mom can still get updates on her.
- Mystical White Hair: Pure white; later revealed to be because they innately channel magic to boost their endurance. They have Occult Blue Eyes for the same reason. In one short story a Companion goes by Blackie because they had a black birthmark when they were born, but by the time of the story it's almost entirely faded.
- Non-Human Sidekick: The simplest explanation of their role, though Companions are far more than just transportation and comic relief.
- Non P.O.V. Protagonist: Companions have become more 'human' over the course of the series — they have personalities, flaws, foibles, favorite foods, temptations, etc. But no book has ever been written from the perspective of a Companion, and their inner life remains a mystery.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: They keep their intelligence concealed from the public at large, even going so far as to wear saddle and bridle. This has two functions: it keeps them Beneath Suspicion — no one expects the 'horse' to do anything once his Herald is out of commission — and the tack is either for comfort or somehow functional (an injured Herald can pull herself to safety by grabbing her Companion's reins, for example).
- Oddly Common Rarity: It's a rule of the 'verse that Companions only speak to each other and their Chosen. Every time one breaks this taboo it's noted as being very unusual, but it happens rather often through the series. It happens in Arrow's Fall, Magic's Price, By the Sword, frequently in the Mage Winds trilogy and constantly in Mage Storms, in Brightly Burning, in Exile's Honor, and during the Mags books. Sometimes it's at a moment of dire need, sometimes especially when far from Valdemar they speak to people who know what they are, and then you have examples like Sayvil, who wants to share exposition about magic so badly that she'll just talk to anyone about it.
- Omniscient Morality License: Companions don't have to answer to anyone for what they do (except perhaps other Companions). Now and then Heralds are annoyed by, say, their Companions snooping in their heads all the time, but they always come around to not minding.
- Only the Chosen May Ride: Generally. Companions will carry riders other than their Chosen as a special favor — or in an emergency — but as a rule they won't carry anyone but their own Heralds. Needless to say, no one can stay on a Companion who isn't willing to be ridden, as Prince Thanel found out the hard way.
- Open Secret: The most open of them is that Companions are intelligent beings on par with the people who ride them. Some outsiders and even some Valdemarans believe they're just fancy horses, but that they're more than that is pretty widely known. Before ever meeting one, Kerowyn even knows they're some form of spirit, though the Companions themselves will not allow her to say so.
- By later books it's evident that Companions can speak to just about anyone that they want to, but "everyone knows" they only speak to their Chosen. It may be related to the Masquerade, since they relax the restriction considerably around non-Heralds (i.e. people who couldn't have known the person they are the reincarnation of.)
- Our Angels Are Different: Grove-born Companions are essentially archangels who have taken on a mortal form, while regular Companions are ordinary angels (or reincarnated spirits) in a mortal body. Some appear to be reincarnated Heralds, which is a secret the Companions do not want to get out, and Companions sometimes apparently go the other direction and return to life as Heralds.
In the Mage Storms trilogy, when in conversation with Karal about various Sons of the Sun being re-incarnated as Firecats, (the mystical companions and advisers to particularly favored or important priests) the Companion Florian (the somewhat self-appointed Valdemaran ambassador/cultural adviser to Karal) mentions absently that 'it depends on how many times you've been around'... which implies that many, if not all, of the souls concerned recycle fairly continuously (with a brief stop in the Havens to rest and recharge a bit) between Heralds — who don't remember their previous lives — and Companions — who do, and that's the source of their legendary wisdom... accumulated life experience! Florian dies as a Heroic Sacrifice during the final Mage Storm, and Karal (who was granted a brief vision of Florian's human form) resolves to keep an eye out among the Heraldic Trainees in about twenty years or so... - The Power of Love: The Herald-Companion bond is, at heart, a love bond. Some Heralds relate to them more on the level of solid friends or colleagues, but the level of sacrifice a Companion is willing to make for their Chosen can come only from love. The bond is so strong that it can push all other loves to the periphery, which has alienated lovers or even spouses who can't understand the place a Companion takes in a Herald's life.
- Proud Beauty: Companions are universally willing to let themselves get filthy and mussed up but they're also all fully aware of their beauty and are quite vain whenever they have the chance to be. They tend to take great pleasure in how they look when freshly brushed with decorative blue and silver tack on them and ribbons braided in their manes and tails. In the Storms trilogy, one reveals that they can use magic to clean themselves up and aren't dependent on the hands of their Chosen for it, to the outrage of a watching Herald.
- Reincarnation: Many Companions are reborn souls, often of former Heralds, who retain their old memories and experience. The Monarch's Own Companion is one of four recurring powerful spirits who would probably rank as archangels.
- Reincarnation Romance: Profoundly averted, and the desire to avoid this is at least part of the reason Companions don't reveal who or what they are. Sometimes Heralds who were previously lovers both reincarnate as Companions at the same time, like Savil and Jaysen reincarnating as Sayvil and Jasan, but whether Companions fall in love or simply enjoy one anothers' company hasn't been shared. They do form new familial bonds sometimes - Satiran and Kalira are father and daughter - but not between Monarch's Own and regular Companion.
- Sapient Steed: They are regarded as persons in every way. Injuring a Companion is treated the same as assaulting a Herald, and killing one is murder. However, there's also an enforced difficulty in them communicating with most people beyond nodding and horse noises. With few exceptions Companions aren't expected to talk to any humans but their Chosen, even other Heralds, unless the need is dire. It's some level of breach of protocol for others to even address them in Mindspeech.
- Screaming Birth: Giving birth is more difficult for Companions than it is for horses, with even an easy birth taking hours and often requiring help from people who have hands. "Foal watch" for unpartnered pregnant Companions is a common duty for Heraldic Trainees.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Most Heralds and Companions can share the other's physical senses, though this is not automatic; there are several instances in the books where Heralds invite their Companions to 'listen in' — and others where they explicitly request the opposite.
- Spirit Advisor: They are either embodied guardian spirits or reincarnated worthy souls, with the twist that they don't tell their Heralds that, nor do they advise much unless directly asked.
- Synchronization: Companions and their Chosen feel the other's pain as if it's their own. (Heralds with a truly strong bond will feel every strong sensation their Companions feel, wanted or not). When one dies, only the demands of Duty can keep the other from following... and even those who do have a compelling reason to live seem half alive at most. Usually if the Companion survives the Herald they will hang on for, at most, long enough to get their affairs in order and say farewell to their friends.
- Undying Loyalty: Companions keep their Chosen's secrets and always take their side. If a Herald is having personal problems, their Companion won't reveal it unless they feel that others absolutely have to know (e.g. when Princess Elspeth is about to be seduced by a man who intends to ruin her reputation). Nor will they go behind their Heralds' backs to resolve an interpersonal problem, even if that would be the simplest thing to do. They put themselves and all their resources at a Herald's disposal from the moment of Choosing, no explanations needed and no questions asked — and exactly why they do this has never fully been explained.
- Upgrade Artifact: A variant. Every Chosen has some level of Psychic Powers, and being Chosen enhances those powers. But this trope plays straighter when those powers are already 'on' and active; a Companion can provide a much-needed 'off' switch until their Chosen can get control of their Gifts.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Blue eyes. Between the color itself and the way they Choose new Heralds with a Held Gaze, looking a Companion in the eye is often a magic moment. On the covers of the books, Companion eyes have round pupils, usually in a darker shade of blue-purple than the rest of the eye, rather than rectangular pupils like horses.
- White Stallion: If they're not deliberately toning themselves down, Companions are unmistakeable symbols throughout Valdemar, marking their Heralds as apart from the rest and as carrying some level of the authority of the Crown. As for the 'stallion' part, while plenty of Companions even to quite important people like Vanyel or some of the Monarchs are mares, the first three that appeared to Baron Valdemar, his heir, and his herald friend were Grove Born stallions. The Monarch's Own Companion, who lives until killed (and returns after being rotated out for a while) and can Choose many Heralds across that long lifespan, is always a stallion. Being Chosen by him marks that particular Chosen as the Monarch's Own Herald.
Healers
The doctors and surgeons of Valdemar. Some can heal quickly through magic; others use drugs and surgery. All tend to be pragmatic and thrifty. Healers wear green uniforms.- Cast from Hit Points: Healing takes energy from the caster and the person being Healed — the more rapid the work, the faster the drain. Healers learn to put boundaries up very fast to avoid being pressured into going beyond their limits.
- Deprogram: MindHealers do a benevolent version to characters who have been traumatized, usually by implanting a mental association that brings up a calming memory or thought immediately after a painful one, hopefully breaking the cycle before a dark moment can feed on itself and become an obsession.
- The Empath: The ability to read emotions is often tied in with Healing Gift; there's a subdiscipline called MindHealing that uses projective Empathy to deal with emotional illnesses.
- Energy Donation: Since Healing uses energy from a Healer's personal reserves, they have developed techniques to link with other Gifted individuals and share the load. Understanding anatomy and physiology also makes them more efficient so the same work takes less out of them.
- Healing Hands: The Healing Gift. Not all Healers possess it, however; there is a place for Healers who use surgery and medicine, though they have to deal with the disappointment of those who expected a quick fix.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Valdemar's Healers, as an organization, wear a green uniform for the same reason that Heralds wear Whites, so that they can be quickly spotted and identified in an emergency.
- The Medic: Play the role, though they seldom go out with a party; they are more likely to be stationed in known locations in Valdemar where they can be reached in an emergency.
- Mercy Kill: They keep a powerful painkiller on hand called argonel, which they sometimes use for euthanasia when a patient cannot be saved.
- Mundane Utility: Zigzagged, depending on the Healer and the circumstances. The Healing Gift uses personal and mental energy, so many don't use it if the patient can be cured through other means, especially if there are no other Healers around. However, in the Collegium itself a Healer might casually address something as minor as a black eye, as one does with a newly Chosen Skif. After all, if there's an emergency there there will be plenty of people available to take care of it.
- Mutant Draft Board: It seems like everyone in Valdemar with a substantial degree of the Healing Gift is compelled - though they're always shown as being quite willing, at most reluctant to leave their communities without them - to attend Healer's College. A few with Empathy may be Chosen to be Heralds instead.
- Samaritan Syndrome: Not to the extent of Heralds, but Healers definitely have the temptation to wear themselves to a thread helping everyone. Learning how to avoid burnout and Heroic Fatigue is part of their training, and they believe a little honest selfishness is healthy. This shared focus on Duty means Healers and Heralds can make good pairings, as each understands that their spouse often can't come first.
- Shoot the Medic First: Yep. Dying in combat is a definite risk for field Healers, though smarter armies try to take Healers alive if possible and force them to Heal until they burn out.
- Training the Gift of Magic: While the Healing Gift can be used without training, training makes it more effective and efficient - in A Beautiful Day In Valdemar, there's a bit of exposition to the tune of it takes fifty times the power for an untrained person to get the same result as a trained one. Much of this training is in anatomy and learning the same general medical knowledge that's required for non-Gifted Healers, so they can be more targeted with their efforts.
Bards
Musicians who serve Valdemar by writing, singing, and performing songs, often with an eye to influencing public opinion. Some Bards have the ability to make their hearers experience their music. Bards wear red uniforms.- The Bard: Of course. Most Bards eventually find a place in a noble household, but some wander. Many have Magic Music and most have at least some self-defense training.
- Cultured Badass: Bards are expected to train at least a little in combat, as they often head into difficult situations. In Magic's Promise Vanyel relates offscreen the story of Bard Chadran allowing himself to be captured by bandits, then fighting himself and the bandits' other prisoners free.
- Charm Person: Good Bards have at least a touch of this, either from their Gift or their personal charisma.
- Diplomatic Impunity: Bardic immunity prevents anyone from punishing them for what they sing (they're sort of Valdemar's press, after all), but it has its limits.
- Gossipy Hens: A penchant for gossip seems to be the Bardic vice. If they know something juicy, they can't seem to avoid sharing it, and their facility with words and music means it'll catch on. Can be weaponized, as Herald Treven did in the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy: telling the Bards about his marriage to Jisa meant word would get out faster than anyone could shut it down.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Following the same trend as their Heralds and Healers, Valdemaran Bards can be identified by their bright scarlet uniforms.
- Magic Music: The Bardic Gift is a kind of projective Empathy, able to influence the listeners' minds and emotions while they are playing.
- Mind-Control Music: Generally not, though strongly-Gifted Bards can come close. This is the primary reason Bardic students are supposed to learn the ethics of their Gift before getting their Scarlets.
- Mind over Manners: Bards, especially Gifted ones, are supposed to be truthful. Those with the Bardic Gift are expected to only use it in performances, on the King's orders, and generally when it will do good. Vanyel's nephew Medren used his power to encourage Van to believe that the bruises he'd got in sword training were serious abuse. Van warned him sternly that if anyone in Haven was caught doing this sort of thing, Heralds would burn the Gift out of them and they'd be barred from Bardic Collegium.
- Muggles Do It Better: Discussed in the Last Herald-Mage trilogy — even with the Bardic Gift around, minstrels and non-Gifted Bards can still draw an audience. Tylendel gives a disappointed Vanyel an analogy he heard from Bard Breda: making love to a High-Class Call Girl and making love to your lover are both enjoyable, but the first is due to the courtesan's skill while the second requires mutual involvement. In his view, the second is better.
- Wandering Minstrel: Some Bards. All Bardic candidates have a "journeyman" stage where they're expected to travel, debut new music, and pick up local tunes.
Artificers and Generalists
Persons who gained an education at the Collegium, whether earned through unusual intelligence and creativity or bought by well-heeled parents. In later books, the inventors and engineers of this group become prominent, along with the beginnings of steam-based technology. While students, this group wear blue uniforms.- From Nobody to Nightmare: The "Blues" are a mixed bag of talented youngsters and lesser children of aristocrats. Since they rarely have political roles waiting for them, they tend to pass Beneath Notice when trouble's afoot and the bad ones generally have aristocratic families or connections, limiting the extent to which the Heralds can punish them. In Arrows of the Queen, a group of them bully Talia with no reprisal until their Deadly Prank very nearly gets her killed. The books written after the Mage Storms trilogy are usually discernible even without looking at the publication date because of the more balanced depictions of the Blues.
- Hufflepuff House: The students who aren't training to be Heralds, Healers, or Bards were the least explored branch of the Collegium until the Mage Storms trilogy.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: A few Artificers came to prominence just as magic was returning to Valdemar; their attempts to study magic energy as any other field of physics irritated Firesong no end, but it produced useful results.
Karse
A kingdom on Valdemar's southern border. They serve the sun god Vkandis and historically crusaded against Valdemar (and other neighboring kingdoms) for what they considered heretical beliefs and practices.- Arch-Enemy: Somewhat of an Evil Counterpart to Valdemar since Vanyel's day if not before, until the Mage Storms give them common cause.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: They specialize in magic and have a history of sending demons against their enemies. Years of intermittent war plus centuries of propaganda led both Karse and Valdemar to believe the other was an Always Chaotic Evil country full of evil sorcerers.
- Ban on Magic: A ban on Mind Magic, which they consider witch powers. Anyone found in possession of what Heralds would consider Gifts is executed by burning.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The priesthood wear different colors of robe, with black being highest.
- Corrupt Church: For centuries, the Vkandis priesthood was corrupt at best, evil at worst.
- Decadent Court: The Vkandis priesthood is filled with backstabbing and politicking with the bonus that if you failed or angered someone you shouldn't have, you likely got set on fire.
- God Is Good: Vkandis himself is good, but his followers have done horrific things in His name.
- Kill It with Fire: Due to their association with the sun, fire is considered the appropriate way to destroy 'unclean' things. This backfired on them somewhat when the Skybolts set fire to a mobile religious shrine, ending the 'Prophet's campaign against Rethwellan on the spot — it backfired dramatically during Lavan's time, when he brought what seemed to be the hammer of the gods down on the entire Karsite Army.
- Light Is Good/Light Is Not Good: They worship the Sun and the sun god Vkandis, but the priesthood has not always been saintly.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Played with even in-universe — the sheer number of priests who are also mages means that a 'miracle' is just a spell away. When Vkandis actually makes himself known, however, the true mages recognize his divine power because it's on a different 'frequency' than regular magic, plus the sheer scope of the deed (e.g. when he instated Solaris) is beyond what a single mage could accomplish.
- Mutant Draft Board: Any child with Mage-potential or high intelligence is drafted into the priest ranks, often involuntarily.
- Our Demons Are Different: Their most feared power is the ability to summon evil spirits. Solaris put an end to that practice after she came to power.
Kaled'a'in, Tayledras, and Shin'a'in
The Kaled'a'in are an ancient people which existed before the Mage Wars. Their most visible descendants, the Tayledras and Shin'a'in, serve the Goddess and are notoriously insular.- After the End: They have different but complementary roles in the wake of the Cataclysm: the Shin'a'in (People of the Plains) live in and guard the massive crater around Urtho's Tower where his remaining weapons are stored; the Tayledras (Hawkbrothers) travel to the places where the aftereffects of the Mage Wars have made the land dangerous and clean up the corrupted magic.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Tayledras raptors and Shin'a'in horses are far beyond the norm, though not quite to the level of Intellectual Animal.
- Animal Eye Spy: The Tayledras can look through their bondbird's eyes and do so readily while patrolling outside of their Vales. If the human's body is killed, then their mind stays with the bird - but because The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body and there's simply not enough space in even a very smart bird's head for a human mind, Death of Personality becomes an inevitability.
- Ban on Magic: The Shin'a'in force anyone with the Mage Gift to choose between exile, removal of their mage-gifts, or entering the shaman ranks. It's generally expected that those who leave are taken to join the Tayledras, though that's not mandatory. Some clans are harsher to the mage-gifted than others. The shaman of An'desha's clan was very difficult to work with and didn't countenance taking him to the Tayledras, so rather than become his apprentice, and not wanting to have his Gift removed, An'desha went looking on his own, to disastrous effect. The ban on magic is because the Shin'a'in guard the magic weapons of Urtho, and they don't want anyone around who might be tempted to use them. This restriction is lifted after the Mage Storms trilogy.
- Bargain with Heaven: Both the Shin'a'in and the Tayledras have a long standing bargain with the Kal'enel. In the first, the Shin'a'in are tasked with the duty of guarding the Dhorisha Plains and enforce a Ban on Magic in exchange for a cleansed and relatively safe homeland. In the latter, the Tayledras have a duty to cleanse the Pelagirs in exchange for great magical knowledge and an amplified ability to cast magic.
- Tayledras have been known to accept outsiders as "Wingsiblings" (honorary members of the clan), which aren't expected to be quite so closely intertwined.
- Bond Creatures: Tayledras usually first connect with bondbirds at around ten years of age. Their homes and furniture are designed to accommodate these birds, which have been modified to be social and intelligent and take years of training to become true partners. When the bird dies, the Tayledras is encouraged to take a new one before long. Mornelithe Falconsbane takes advantage by giving a captured Starblade a "bondbird" that is really just a magical construct helping maintain control over him, which repulses other characters when they find out.
- Somehow that was simply the crowning obscenity. To take the closest tie possible to a Tayledras other than a lifebond, and pervert it into an instrument of manipulation...
- Bondbirds are mandatory for Tayledras but they don't all have the same intensity of connection with them that the more prominent Tayledras characters do. Many mages, including Darkwind when he was a child, bond with birds like shriek-owls, fist-sized animals that are charming and social but fly slowly and not very far, aren't very bright, and are relatively short lived. Mages really only need birds to pass messages and pull a casual Animal Eye Spy, so they can have bondbirds that are essentially pets.
- Born in the Saddle: The Shin'a'in. Many of them can ride before they can walk.
- Conlang: Tayledras and Shin'a'in, both derived from Kaled'a'in. Comparing similar terms from the three languages is occasionally an interesting exercise. In Storm Rising, a pair of Kaled'a'in gryphons assume that they'll easily be able to read and comprehend some writings from Urtho's time, as those are in the Kaled'a'in language. To their chagrin they find that while the language they speak is closer to the old writings than the other two, the language has still changed over the past two thousand years and they can't be confident of the precise meanings.
- Cool Horse: The Shin'a'in are master equestrians who spent generations creating the ideal horse. Shin'a'in horses are famous for their endurance, willingness, intelligence, and loyalty. Shin'a'in warsteeds are all of that and more... but they're not pretty.
- Cozy Catastrophe: As payment for the dangerous job of stabilizing magic and clearing monsters from dangerous areas, Tayledras use Heartstones to create Vales, which have barriers to keep insects out and control the interior climate, plus abundant hot springs for soaking.
- Ethical Slut: The Tayledras are, according to their plains cousins, as shamelessly profligate as kestrels. Elspeth, who as a Herald is used to a general degree of free love, is rather flustered to see just how much more open Tayledras are. For example, when trysting in communal areas they hang tokens, some of which mean "Do Not Disturb" and some that mean "Everyone's Welcome".
- Exotic Extended Marriage: Not only is there no ban on same-sex pairings (see below), polyamory is apparently unremarked upon, as with the core members of the near-exterminated Tale'sedrin clan - all but one of Kethry's children who join the Shin'a'in have multiple marriages.
- Fantastic Racism: Notable for their In-Universe aversion where homosexuality is concerned. Among the Shin'a'in and Tayledras, same-sex attraction has apparently been accepted pretty much from the beginning. An'desha's memories in particular spell out that Shin'a'in (and presumably Tayledras) value such couples because their harsh lifestyle means orphans are inevitable, and same-sex couples are a good resource for raising those orphans, whereas automatically giving them to the nearest family member can make them a burden on a family group who have enough mouths to feed already. Also, polyamory is common, as are temporary pairings made for the explicit purpose of having children. There are multiple cases among the Tayledras where magic was used to ensure twins which were then divided up to be raised by different people.
- However, the clans often are subject to other forms of racism. When Tarma first took Kethry home to the plains to introduce her as her oath sister - the most treasured and sacred bond known to the Shin'a'in - she was met with skepticism and hostility for claiming this closeness to an outsider and it took a show of favor from the Star-Eyed to calm everyone down. This favor and Tarma and Kethry's own renown mean Kethry's children, years later, are readily accepted as Shin'a'in, but the same isn't always accorded to half-breed kids like An'desha, who felt unwelcome for his whole childhood despite being born on the Plains. In the short story Sword of Ice, Savil manages to become a Wingsister to the Tayledras, the first in all their history who wasn't one of the "Cousins" the Shin'a'in - the Tayledras are so isolationist that it took great persuasion to allow someone who wasn't blood related to them into their territory and Vale.
- The Tayledras meanwhile prioritize magic highly. An unusually high percentage of them are mages, but some still lack magic. Wintermoon relates that his father was disappointed and left him to be raised by others when he proved to be a Muggle Born of Mages, and also says that women in the clan aren't interested in long-term liasons with a man who doesn't have magic.
- Friend to All Children: Downplayed, but in Winds of Fate Darkwind mentions that the Tayledras tend to have a strong response to children, and that several hundred years ago a powerful blood-path mage who'd made themself look like a child had played on the emotions of k'Vala and decimated the clan, a costly encounter that led to the Tayledras becoming much more insular.
- Hidden Elf Village: Tayledras Vales are hidden and guarded to deter outsiders. The Shin'a'in are not hidden and many go out into the broader world temporarily or for good, so other peoples often know a fair amount about them, but they do not welcome outsiders into the Plains. The Kaled'a'in go a step further and have a Hidden Elf Country, in the nation of Iftel.
- Humanlike Animal Aging: Not much is shown about bondbirds as nestlings and fledgelings, but their partial uplift and increased size roughly triples their average wild lifespan. The rare and enormous bondbird eagles can reach seventy-five years.
- In Harmony with Nature: Both. The Tayledras take it a step further, using their magic to shape and cultivate nature in the process of cleansing it of the harmful magical energies left behind by the Mage Wars.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: The default for men.
- Magical Native American: The base concept, though they develop into their own cultures in time. The Shin'a'in have a nomadic, horse-based lifestyle that also suggests the Bedouins, and in a sourcebook are stated to also have Mongol influence.
- Meaningful Rename: Tayledras sometimes change their use-names, usually after a change of life so profound that they consider the person they formerly were to be 'dead'.
- Mighty Whitey: Gracefully averted. While non-natives from Rethwellan (Vows and Honor) and Valdemar (Last Herald-Mage, Mage Winds, Mage Storms) sometimes get involved in Tayledras or Shin'a'in affairs, they never take over and make the story about themselves, nor are the locals fawningly grateful afterward.
- Mundane Utility: Once the Tayledras establish a Heartstone in an area, they use its magic supply freely, even extravagantly. The Vales they live in are climate-controlled and tropical but not too hot. They have refrigeration, and they have their hertasi servants use some of the magic to set up elaborate systems of hot springs to bathe in. Justified, given that one of their jobs is to control and drain off Wild Magic from dangerous places.
- Mystical White Hair: All Tayledras, even the non-Mages, eventually get white hair and blue eyes because they live in close proximity to Nodes and Heartstones.
- Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: Tayledras use-names are poetic combinations of nouns: Dawnfire, Hawkwind, Iceblade, etc. Evidently they are shorthand for a certain mood; Darkwind says that his is meant to evoke a gathering storm. Kaled'a'in names are similar but usually include animal or earth themes (e.g. Amberdrake or Silverfox).
- Noble Bird of Prey: Hawkbrothers, as the name suggests, have an affinity for raptors, whom they have bred and adapted over time to be smarter and more sociable. All Tayledras out of childhood form a psychic partnership with at least one of these birds, though it's not to the level of the Herald-Companion bond: someone who has lost their bird will be able to bond with a new one (and often be encouraged to do so). Giving someone any feather is an invitation to a tryst, but giving them a large primary feather from your bondbird is effectively a marriage proposal.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: The Kaled'a'in and their descendants don't seem to have much in the way of gender roles and tend towards androgyny anyway. Women are fighters or mages without the remarks about this being unusual or looked down on that happen in other cultures. There's also absolutely no stigma against homosexuality, single motherhood, or multiple marriages. Two named Tayledras can also be read as genderfluid, and if anything Stormwing and Firesong have a higher status for it. The Shin'a'in see asexuality (as it's bestowed on the Sword-Sworn anyway) as a positive, if anything, and hold oath-siblings as the highest and most treasured bond between two people besides a lifebond.
- Oddly Common Rarity: The mages with the highest potential power in the setting are called Adept-class or just Adepts given enough training to realize that potential. Usually they're rather rare; when heroic characters move against Rethwellen in Oathbreakers and Hardorn in ''Winds of Fury" each king only employs one or two Adepts. Adepts are quite common among the Tayledras, as is the Mage Gift in general, with each Vale having several. People with Mind-Gifts are also generally rare, partly because otherwise only Valdemar and distant, only-mentioned Seejay see fit to recognize and have those Gifts developed, but every Tayledras has at least enough psychic power to communicate with a bondbird. Justified in that the Tayledras have been steeped in magic for two thousand years, were set on this path by a patron goddess (and are divinely blessed), and when they take in Shin'a'in or outsiders those usually have Gifts.
- Proverbial Wisdom: A trait of the Kaled'a'in peoples, most prominently among the Shin'a'in. There are a lot of proverbs out there, and those who know them never stop with just one.
- Punctuation Shaker: Apostrophes representing glottal stops are a hallmark of the Kaled'a'in language and its offshoot Shin'a'in. The Tayledras language, though also a derivative of Kaled'a'in, seems to have mostly phased out their use.
- Rite-of-Passage Name Change: Not all Tayledras change their birth names, but usually the names their parents choose for them seem silly when they're no longer children. They may change their names multiple other times afterwards after significant life events.
- Secret Art: The Kaled'a'in know a number of techniques which are lost to 'modern' Velgarth. No other group has an equivalent to the kestra'chern, and not even Firesong knows how to build their floating barges, which can carry any amount of weight and still be pulled by a single animal.
- Servant Race: Urtho, a great part-Kaled'a'in mage, helped to uplift Lizard Folk known as hertasi and instill them with a sense of gratitude for being changed and a drive to be helpful. They're ubiquitous in Kaled'a'in and Tayledras settlements, making sure the "Great Folk" are fed and have clean laundry, doing most of the grunt work. The Kaled'a'in, at least as of the Mage Winds era, actually consider them Kaled'a'in and incorporate them more openly in their society than the Tayledras do. Consequently Kaled'a'in hertasi are noted for being much more assertive and snarkier to humans than their Tayledras counterparts.
- Sworn Brothers: Shin'a'in have oath-siblings, a bond blessed by the Star-Eyed's mark leaving clean crescent-shaped scars on the hands. The bond between oath-siblings is considered sacred, only just under a lifebond in importance. Whether or not Tarma and Kethry are typical examples is unknown, but those two are close Heterosexual Life-Partners and while Tarma is the last Tale'sedrin, Kethry is considered to be of the blood and so her children are accepted as Shin'a'in and help to repopulate the clan.
- Sworn in by Oath: The ritual that makes someone an honorary member of the tribe. When Clan k'Sheyna offers Elspeth and Skif the honor of being named Wingsiblings, Elspeth worries about swearing an oath that will conflict with her duties to Valdemar, even though she knows Herald-Mage Savil did it with no problems centuries ago.
- That Man Is Dead: The significance of a change of Tayledras use-name. When 'Songwind' became 'Darkwind', he spoke about Songwind as if he were a former member of the tribe, as did everyone else.
- Tree Top Town: Tayledras vale-dwellers live in ekeles, or treehouses. They're considered lofty and luxurious, but most outsiders get nervous in the higher ones.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Tayledras are tasked with cleansing ravaged lands and dealing fairly with creatures warped by magic, killing the monstrous ones and taking benign ones with them as they progress. Despite this, they're quite suspicious of altered humans or "Changechildren", since many evil mages warp themselves with magic. k'Sheyna is noted as being unusually open in this regard, meaning that they won't generally kill Changechildren on sight like the other clans. In Winds of Fate it's mentioned that k'Sheyna easily accepted the gryphons as allies only because there was old lore about them dating from the Mage Storms.
- Wizards Live Longer: Tayledras live longer and maintain their youth much longer with Adepts and Healer Adepts living longest. It's explained that being steeped in magic naturally extends their lifespan though the price is that when they do die of old age, it's very painful as the magic burns them out.
- You No Take Candle: How bondbird Mindspeech is usually depicted, because of the limitations of a bird's mind. Some birds are smart enough to comprehend grammar and speak in full sentences, much to the pride of the humans they're bonded with.
The Eastern Empire
The Aurinalean Empire is an ancient and powerful nation founded in the wake of the Mage Wars. They have developed magic beyond any other political power in the world, which has also left them somewhat dependent upon it.- Animal Motifs: Wolves. The Emperor wears a crown with twelve wolves on it, and as one character notes, wolves only protect offspring and territory, not the old and useless.
- Conscription: All men have to serve a turn in the Army. All men of high rank with political aspirations need to do civil service as well.
- Cool Chair: The Iron Throne, made up of the personal weapons of every ruler whose territory the Empire has conquered.
- Decadent Court: All the politicking of Valdemar at its worst, with no moral compunction on its rulers. This is the kind of place where "assassin" is a respectable former job and being unable to lie is a death sentence.
- The Empire: Hits all the major notes: expansionist, military, and ancient.
- Magitek: Invested in magic to a ridiculous degree, to the point where the Mage Storms nearly bring it to its knees.
- The Magocracy: Magic is so woven into Imperial life that the Emperor and any candidates for Heir must be mages.
- Modest Royalty: The Emperor's personal style is stark and unadorned, but mostly because severity is more intimidating than opulence.
- Mundane Utility: The Empire uses magic for everything, from keeping the lights on to making and sending important documents. When the Mage Storms come through, the Empire's citizens take more of a hit than those in other countries, and are subjected to privations like rationing.
- No Woman's Land: On the whole. While there are strict laws in place against rape, there's no evident equality for women in the Empire. (Though it's not really different from other countries which are sexist to some degree) Notably, Hulda is the only named female character from the Empire, and even she might have been from elsewhere.
- Oh, My Gods!: They have a weak state religion honoring the Hundred Little Gods (all the former Emperors and their consorts). There aren't exactly a hundred, but it makes a nice round number to swear by.
- Omniglot: One of the few settings where it's explained — they have ways of magically acquiring languages quickly, not least because the Empire's Vast Bureaucracy requires clerks who can get a message out to any person, anywhere.
- Police State: The Emperor is in charge, but the Army is so vast and so well organized that they can and will pull a Military Coup if the current head of state is not to their liking. "Pay the Army, pay it well, and pay it on time" is a maxim.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In contrast to Karse and many other villains in the series, the Empire comes across as repressive and cruel but still harshly fair and pragmatic. The Empire encourages being ruthless and brutal but wanton evil is stupid and will swiftly get you killed.
- Properly Paranoid: At the highest levels of society, everyone has a hidden agenda, nothing can be taken at face value, every man has his price, and no one is Beneath Suspicion.
- Repressive, but Efficient: Baron Melles gets society back together in record time once the Mage Storms make magic unreliable, thanks to the Army and his own personal contacts. But he doesn't care too much about the 'bureaucratic mistakes' that could lead to innocent men being imprisoned because of his policies, or children being permanently separated from their parents... except where he might be able to use them to buy a little goodwill.
- Unperson: The harshest punishment in the Empire is to be removed from all official records. Doing so not only negates that person's earthly life, it denies them any immortality.
- Vast Bureaucracy: Inevitably, though magic and practice makes it run quite smoothly. Imperial clerks have cushy circumstances even during the deprivations of the Mage Storms, just because they're that essential.
- Vetinari Job Security: The ideal Emperor is the one who makes sure the Army gets paid and the people don't starve. As long as he can keep doing that, his job is secure... and no one will care too much about his methods.
