Literature / Creature Court

Creature Court is a dark Gaslamp Fantasy trilogy by Australian author Tansy Rayner Roberts, featuring flappers, shape-changers and bloodthirsty court politics and set in Aufleur, a Culture Chop Suey of Ancient Rome mixed with 1920s America (and a pinch of urban Australia, for flavour).

The people of the daylight have no idea that when nox falls, a secret war is being waged over their heads - a war against the sky itself. The only ones who know the truth are the Creature Court, a secret society of ruthless, dysfunctional shapeshifters mostly devoted to saving the city, even at the cost of their own sanity. Rank Scales with Asskicking in the Court, with the basic shapeshifting courtesi, their stronger Lords, and the few, breathtakingly powerful, Kings - along with the beleaguered sentinels, bodyguards to the Kings. The strongest King is the Power and Majesty, ruler of the pack.

At the beginning of the first book, the Court is reeling from the sudden death in battle of their Power and Majesty, the beautiful, sadistic Garnet, and the return of Ashiol, the Court's other King, stripped of his powers and exiled by Garnet five years ago.

Protagonist Velody is an up-and-coming dressmaker in her mid-twenties, mostly concerned with keeping up with costume orders for Aufleur's never-ending calendar of festivals. But as Garnet dies in the sky above the city, Ashiol's stolen powers return...and so do Velody's, taken by a young Garnet many years ago, before she knew what she had come into.

Velody is a King, and Ashiol is looking for anyone but him to be Power and Majesty.

She turns out surprisingly good at it.

The series consists of:

Cabaret of Monsters (prequel novella, written later)

Power and Majesty

The Shattered City

Reign of Beasts

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Provides Examples Of:

• Agony Beam: A rare heroic use, when Velody, having just become head of the backstabbing, dysfunctional Court, who only respect shows of power, uses her animor like this against Livilla. She's still horrified by herself and utterly relieved when it's over, but notes that it's better than Ashiol's option: straight-up gutting people.
• Anyone Can Die: The ranks of the Court are very much dwindled by the end of the series, including most of the courtesi, Priest, Warlord, Crane, Heliora, Livilla (temporarily) and Rhian.
• Armour Piercing Response: This is what makes Garnet realise that Poet really is turning against him.
  Poet: [...] that he stole from me.
  Garnet, dismissively: Stole? You would have given me the moon and stars.
  Poet: Yes, I fucking would.
• Back from the Dead:
  • By the end of The Shattered City, the sadistic, tyrannical Garnet has returned from being swallowed by the sky, with Velody's help.
  • Velody herself is briefly killed diving into a sky rift to close it, but returns along with Garnet.
  • Livilla is murdered by Garnet at the beginning of Reign of Beasts, but returns during the final battle in the form of a steam angel.
• Badass Normal: The remaining sentinels (Macready, Kelpie and Crane) have no special powers beyond seeing what's Invisible to Normals, but hold their own in the Court through sheer weapon skills and badassery.
• Bed Trick: Rhian sleeps with Ashiol, who sees her as the dead Heliora owing to hallucinations and Heliora's echoes in her head.
• Bishōnen Line: Subverted with the shapeshifted forms of the various levels of the Court: the sentinels look completely human, the courtesi transform into swarms of animals, and the Lords use the powerful, glowing Bishonen-style form . . . but the Kings are fanged, clawed Animalistic Abominations.
• Brought Down to Normal: The result of a Court member drinking the blood of a sentinel. It's the only way to deal with wounds caused by skysilver, but it leaves them stripped of their powers for hours. Velody's first major challenge as the new Power and Majesty is to convince her Lords to charge into battle on her behalf without her powers to force them into compliance.
  • Done by Garnet to Ashiol in the backstory, which would have been permanent if Garnet hadn't up and died. It's mentioned this is a risk if ever two Kings have sex, as one can use the emotion and loss of control to take the other's animor.
  • Eventually happens to every surviving character, as they hand over their powers to Rhian, who delivers them back to the sky with extreme prejudice, finally ending the skywar.
• Casting Couch: In Cabaret of Monsters, the stagemaster of the Mermaid theatre troupe expects to sleep with with any actress looking to take or keep a role, especially any girl who wants to move out of the lambs' chorus - which in this case means actresses of twelve or thirteen. His attempt to do this to a young Livilla triggered her coming into her powers as a courtesa. It's mentioned that the stellar (lead performer) of the troupe is also sleeping with him regularly to keep her role.
  • Poet mentions sleeping with his actors occasionally, though he adds that he only beds those that approach him.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Velody makes a gown and a waistcoat and uses the work to channel her feelings of darkness and anger - and then gives the clothes to Isangell and Priest. Turns out the garments are infested with the remnants of Dhynar's corrupted shade and the noxcrawl Veldoy saved Poet from, and they allow the sky to possess Isangell, cancelling the festivals that allow Aufleur to heal, and Priest, forcing him to kill Janvier and Seonard and seriously injure Warlord, destabilising the trust Velody has built in the Court, and eventually using him as a Manchurian Agent to destroy Bazeppe. Velody manages to save Isangell, but it eventually turns out to have been too late for Priest.
  • There's also Poet's pocket watch, inherited from Saturn, which works as a conduit for the sky to manipulate him into attempting to trap Velody. Poet manages to shake it off, but the person who had the watch before him was Garnet, which ended...badly.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: A favourite amusement of Garnet's in the backstory as he went slowly crazier, mostly directed at his childhood friend and lover, Ashiol.
  • Ashiol also uses it (channelling Garnet to cope) when he believes he will have to lead the Court. He almost kills Poet before Velody steps in.
• Culture Chop Suey: Aufleur is a mix of 1920s America and Ancient Rome.
• Does Not Like Men: Rhian refuses to allow men into the house, owing to a traumatic incident during Lupercalia, the fertility festival. She eventually relaxes around a few characters, notably Macready.
• Duality Motif: Nonbinary actor Sunshine wears a costume which is a suit on one side and a dramatically sequined cocktail gown on the other for a stage performance in Cabaret of Monsters. Evie notes that the symbolism is really not that subtle.
• Dying as Yourself: Heliora passes on the futures to Rhian and faces down a dust devil, swords in hand, preferring to die as a sentinel than as the Seer.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: The mirrored ceiling of the Vittorina Royale theatre. When Velody and Garnet use the mirror to come Back from the Dead, it shatters and rains down on the audience, bringing down most of the roof with it. Many theatregoers are crushed to death or impaled and slashed to pieces by broken glass.
• The Flapper: Several, but notably hard-edged, violent Livilla and Hard-Drinking Party Girl Delphine.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Shapeshifting Court members' clothes don't change with them, usually leaving them fighting in the nude. They don't much care. Justified as their bodies in Lord form are difficult to damage, and they have a decent Healing Factor anyway.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Twice.
  • Velody hurls herself into a sky rift when the rest of the Court are about to be overrun by dust devils, satiating the sky and ending the attack. She comes Back from the Dead.
  • Rhian ends the skywar (as far as the Court can tell) by throwing herself into the sky and exploding with the combined animor of the entire Court. She's eventually reincarnated as a beautiful, empty city growing out of the earth where Tierce once stood, but is unable to communicate with anyone.
• Invisible to Normals: Regular humans don't see Court magic even if it's being worked right in front of them, or the attacks of the sky, or even the dust devils and steam angels. Even the destruction visited on the city every night goes unnoticed...though sometimes humans caught in the crossfire are found dead without a mark on them, which is known as the Silent Sleep.
• Kissing Cousins: Invoked - Eglantine worries that Isangell's planning to designate her cousin Ashiol as her consort, though she's more horrified by the fact Ashiol would make a terrible Duc-Consort than by the relationship. Ashiol, who's known Isangell since she was a toddler, is utterly squicked, and Isangell feels similarly. To the point that when Isangell flips tactics and attempts to seduce him, it's what tips Ashiol off that she's been possessed by the sky.
• Kryptonite Factor: Skysilver burns those of the Court, and causes wounds that require being Brought Down to Normal to heal.
• Love Dodecahedron: Oh, dear.
  • Velody and Ashiol develop feelings for each other almost immediately, but Ashiol is still hung up on Garnet and on Livilla, has history with Warlord as well, and is occasionally sleeping with Heliora and Kelpie.
  • Velody eventually sleeps with Ashiol, but not before she has power-up sex with Garnet that leaves several complicated emotions. Crane is in love with Velody but also makes several bases with Delphine.
  • Macready develops feelings for both Delphine and Rhian, who reciprocate, though Delphine also beds Crane and has several unnamed daylight boyfriends, while Rhian, of all people, sleeps with Ashiol, of all people, while in the guise of Heliora.
  • Poet is hopelessly in love with Garnet, who slept indiscriminately with Ashiol and Livilla and apparently loved them both (for a given value of "love").
  • Kelpie sleeps with Ashiol but eventually ends up with Isangell.
  • ...and so on.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The real reason behind Rhian's trauma and avoidance of men. She was the subject of an Attempted Rape during the Lupercalia festival, leading her destructive powers to manifest and kill them all. She's horrified by her own abilities and avoiding any possibility of triggering them again.
  • Velody gets it as well, after helping Garnet come Back from the Dead and unleashing him on Aufleur once again.
• One to Million to One: The Lords, Kings and Courtesi have the ability to transform into their signature animal based generally on their body mass, which leads to this if their animal form is small. The closest to swarming are Velody and Poet (mice and rats, respectively), but other Court members become multiple pigeons, bats, sparrows, cats etc. Downplayed with Livilla, who can become two smallish wolves or one really big wolf.
• Painful Transformation: Court warriors can usually shift into animal, Lord or chimaera form pretty easily. However, if they've had recent contact with skysilver, the transformation becomes a lot more unpleasant. Naturally, this happens to Ashiol at every given opportunity.
• Pest Controller: Velody discovers an affinity with her Court animal, mice, and sometimes uses them to run messages. Ashiol does the same with stray cats.
• Really Gets Around: Most of the Court spend their time sleeping with each other for fun and for power games, but the winner would have to be Ashiol, who seems to have bedded almost every named character.
• She Is the King: Ranks of the Court include the Lords and the Kings - particularly Lord Livilla, the posthumous Lord Tasha, and King Velody.
• Swarm of Rats: Poet's Court form, which he uses to frighten Velody and Delphine in the first book. Velody's Court form is similar - a Swarm of Mice.