History Literature / BookOfSwords

* CatchPhrase: Whenever someone uses Farslayer, they recite the second line of its verse in the poem. Since the water sprite in Farslayer's Story simply threw it and it worked anyway to kill a demon, the catch phrase doesn't appear to be more than a tradition.

%%* MermaidProblem: Pops up, with sad results, in ''Farslayer's Story''.%%ZCE -- how does it pop up? What results?

** ''Cons:'' ... where it will stay. Which means that anyone nearby, say a distraught loved one, can use it. [[CycleOfRevenge Against the person who used it last]]. It will even work if the distraught loved one has no idea who sent the blade and just says "kill whoever did this".

* JerkassGods: At their nicest the gods are often meddlesome and serious effort has to be made to get their attention to do something nice. At their worst they can be incredibly petty and cruel, and they're always scheming against each other. Pretty fitting considering the sort of things they got up to [[Myth/ClassicalMythology in the original stories]].

** ''Cons:'' "No weapon" can stand up to it, [[ExactWords literally]]; Shieldbreaker can't harm unarmed opponents, or protect against unarmed attacks. Once drawn, Shieldbreaker can't be dropped when enemies are nearby, whom it will kill even if the user wants to show mercy. It also drains its wielder's stamina, eventually causing death by exhaustion, and making unarmed attacks even harder to stop. [[note]]These drawbacks were used to great effect to overwhelm the Smith God by mobbing him with a pack of unarmed human fighters when he was using the Sword -- he could not let it go, but the Sword couldn't hurt any of the fighters without a weapon, and he was eventually exhausted and overwhelmed. On a number of occasions, this has resulted in clever wielders and opponents essentially playing a game of "Musical Swords" where the opponent of Shieldbreaker's wielder will drop their Sword, forcing Shieldbreaker's wielder to drop it to avoid this weakness, and both try to get the non-Shieldbreaker sword in hand when the other isn't close enough to Shieldbreaker to pick it up.[[/note]].

** ''Cons:'' Doesn't protect against self-inflicted wounds.

* UnbreakableWeapons: The Swords are invulnerable to everything except each other.

%%* CoolSword: All over the place.

* YourCheatingHeart: At the start of the series Mala sleeps with a stranger, which leads to Mark's birth. Despite this she seems to manage to have a fairly good relationship with her husband Jord in spite of their arranged marriage, and the two have several children.

%%* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Kristin

%%* EvilAlbino: Vilkata.

* BadassBoast: Shieldbreaker's verse in the Song of Swords, the only one from a Sword's one perspective, boasts of its ability to destroy any foe or weapon raised against it.

* PuffOfLogic: Pretty much how [[spoiler: Shieldbreaker]] is destroyed. [[spoiler: The main character is stabbed by Shieldbreaker while Woundhealer is jammed through his heart. Shieldbreaker doesn't regard Woundhealer as a weapon since it's a HealingShiv, but he grabs at Shieldbreaker as he's hit, so he is armed- with Shieldbreaker. And Shieldbreaker destroys any weapon its target is armed with.]]

* BadassBoast Shieldbreaker's verse in the Song of Swords above

* DualWielding: Difficult for most people to do with Swords. Causes intense nausea, but some people can handle it. However, the major drawback is that this significantly amplifies the stamina drain of wielding just one Sword, causing even people that can pull it off to tire ''very'' quickly.
** Dual wielding Swords can have its advantages if the powers complement each other. For instance, dual wielding Shieldbreaker and Soulcutter prevents one from being affected by Soulcutter's life-draining power.

** ''Pros:'' [[AchillesHeel When used against a dragon it automatically guides its bearer to the most fatal spot, cutting though scales and limbs like butter.]]

* CycleOfRevenge: Farslayer remains in the body of the last person it killed until somebody removes it, commonly a friend of the last victim, who then orders Farslayer to kill the person who threw it at their friend--and vague instructions to kill the party responsible without the wielder knowing their identity will suffice. One of ''his'' friends can then pick up Farslayer and send it back, and so on until one side runs out of vengeance-minded friends and family in the immediate vicinity.

* VirginSacrifice: [[spoiler: Baron Doon]] attempts to do this out of desperation when cornered by a demon, but thankfully, he's interrupted before he can go through with it. Kristin, meanwhile, uses her own virginity for a [[IntimateHealing different sort of sacrifice]] in a situation that's almost as bad.
* YourCheatingHeart: At the start of the series Mala sleeps with a stranger [[spoiler: who turns out to be the Emperor]] which leads to Mark's birth. Despite this she seems to manage to have a fairly good relationship with her husband Jord in spite of their arranged marriage and the two have several children.

** Dragonslicer, which can [[CaptainObvious kill dragons]]. Since pretty much ''all'' dragons have been killed by the end of series, the Sword of Heroes is out of a job.