Pale Lights
is the second Web Serial Novel written by erraticerrata, author of A Practical Guide to Evil.
Described as a "Lovecraftian Renaissance," Pale Lights is set in the massive underground cavern known as Vesper, where humanity has taken refuge After the End. Cities and factions squabble amongst themselves, huddled beneath the cracks in the firmament that the light of the never-setting sun which burned the old world above shines down through. Monsters lurk in the dark of the Gloam, and gods walk amongst people, granting eldritch contracts to those that they take interest in.
The series follows Tristan Abrascal and Lady Angharad Tredegar, a thief and exiled noblewoman, respectively, on the run from the differing conspiracies that threaten their lives. The two are pointed towards joining the Watch, a company of elite god-killers, as their only chance of making it out alive, and to eventually seek revenge against those that have taken everything from them.
The first two chapters of Book 1, Lost Things, were released as a sneak peek on March 2, 2021, the same day as the premiere of Book 7 of A Practical Guide to Evil. The series properly began on August 26, 2022.
This series provides examples of:
- Academy of Adventure: A very dark version, the Scholomance trains god-killers and expects each cabal to fulfil weekly missions from their board, but has a very high casualty rate.
- Academy of Evil: The Scholomance is (partly) run by a Devil, and frequently pits cabals of students against each other. It was shut down for what's implied to be too-high casualty rates, even by the Watch's standards.
- After the End: By the time the series begins, the outside world has been long ravaged by an apocalyptic event, with the survivors taking refuge in the massive cavern known as Vesper. The only natural light sources that cities are built around are from cracks in the firmament, letting in light from a sun that apparently has never faded.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: The Watch is a fractured organization, but one rule that they all (mostly) follow is to prioritize themselves over outsiders. Not outright killing other students is the only rule in Scholomance.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Tristan is certainly of this opinion, and the Sacromonte nobles participating in the Trials on the Dominion of Lost Things certainly don't disprove it.
- Beneath the Earth: The world of Vesper consists entirely of a massive cavern, due to the above world being ravaged by a never-setting sun. Underground Cities huddle around the few holes in the Firmament that lets the light of the Glare in.
- Bit-by-Bit Transformation: Watch Navigators undergo a process known as "obscuring", where they effectively corrupt themselves into Darklings, one internal organ at a time. This is apparently the safest way to utilize Signs.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The Watch is focused on stopping Pandemonium and other world-ending threats. Considering how much of a Crapsack World Vesper is, this involves working with some pretty heinious people and societies, including Iscariot Accord-compliant Devils.Tupoc, proud member of a society practicing mass human sacrifice: “[The Watch] are the lid on a very deep well. Only when they succeed in that duty can they spare the breath to be anything more.”
- Bodyguard Crush: Ferranda Villazur and her Malani bodyguard Sanale are in a committed relationship.
- Body Snatcher: Devils crave human flesh, but are burned by the Glare. their usual method of dealing with this is to puppet their hollowed-out victims.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Angharad's contract allows her to receive glimpses of the immediate future, effectively granting her Super-Reflexes. Since she was already a very deadly duelist before this, making her a Empowered Badass Normal.
- Dark Is Evil: Eating food grown without light from the Glare, or otherwise spending too much time in the dark can lead to Gloam Sickness for normal humans. Darklings, those humans who have apparently embraced this fate are considered "strange folk" who while not necessarily Always Chaotic Evil, often do form Cults.
- Deal with the Devil: Or rather, Deal with Gods. These often now-defunct deities often make contracts with a human, granting them powers. Contracts that give certain powers like Brainwashing are banned by the Watch on pain of Family Extermination.
- Demonic Possession: "Saints" are people who's contract has allowed their god to take control of and warp their body, usually by drawing too deep on their Contract. Body Horror abounds.
- Eldritch Location:
- The quaint cottage that the 13th Brigade uses as a Home Base is charmed to be impossible to find unless you've already been there, and is eerily out-of-place compared to the surrounding ruins.
- The Scholomance itself is a former palace of Lucifer, now infested by a god who warps reality to try to kill its occupants.
- Exact Words: Angharad will always keep the very letter of her word, but if you deal with her unfairly, that is all she'll do. As when she made several promises to Augusto to resolve a hostage situation, already planning how to get around each and every one.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Some gods and lemures can corrupt, torture, or outright devour souls.
- "Gloam Sickness" is one of many illnesses that can affect people who don't get enough light. People who survive it usually become Darklings, cut off from the cycle of Reincarnation.
- The Gambling Addict: Tristan's contracted goddess, Fortuna, is obsessed with luck and gambling.
- Honor Among Thieves: Tristan will ditch almost anything in the name of survival, but he shows respect to other people in situations of desperate poverty or "rats." And he does not side with landlords.
- Honor Before Reason: Subverted. Malani and Peredur nobles both hold to a strict Code of Honor, but the Pereduri are more pragmatic about it. Angharad's Establishing Character Moment has her wait for a would-be assassin to pick his dropped weapon back up as a "fair chance". When he starts to mock her for it, he's Killed Mid-Sentence, since five breaths is considered enough to constitute that fair chance.
- Angharad is prepared to rules-lawyer her own code in a lot of ways, as the story progresses, particularly when dealing with dishonorable people.
- Human Sacrifice: The Mayincatec Kingdom of Izcalli practices this, though the current government downplays or denies it. Their infamous Panther Society is tasked with capturing criminals who've escaped over the borders; definitely not raiding neighbors for sacrifices.
- Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Invoked and exploited by Tristan, who claims to have this in order to trick a darkling into swallowing volcian yew, a poison for lemures, under the pretense of being a painkiller. When the darkling is later eaten by the Heliodoran beast, the volcian yew causes it to go blind.
- Inter-Service Rivalry: The Watch is full of them.
- The independent Free Companies resent the Conclave's nominal central authority.
- The Stripes (officer corps) tend to throw their weight around as the largest Covenant, and have tried to outright absorb the Cryptics (spies) several times over the generations.
- The three Covenants that make up the "College" (historians, magical R&D, and mechanical R&D) all squabble, but tend to band together against everyone else, especially on budgetary matters.
- Kill the God: The job description of the Watch, who are dedicated to enforcing peace between men and the eldritch monsters of the Gloam.Gods bleed. - Motto of the Skiritai Covenant
- Mirror Boss: Perduri Mirror-Dancer's earn their tattoos in ceremonial Duels against a kind of Lemure called a Grey Mirror, which transforms into a copy of them.
- One Person, One Power: Contacts work this way. Attempting contract with multiple gods causes insanity and death as the competing gods eventually devour the contractor's soul. A Sign-user who attempts to form a contract is in for a similarly bad time.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. The Captain of the Forty-Fourth Brigade is also named Tristan. Tristan the thief revels in the hope of people getting them mixed up.
- Power at a Price: Most Contracts have an associated cost per use, while some merely stress or alter the host's body or mind, effectively limiting their usage. Drawing too deep on a contract despite this cost can lead to sainthood.
- Played With in Song's contract with Luren: Desperate, she never specified a cost for her powers, essentially handing him a blank check. Years later, she still has no idea what the price will be, and Luren can come collect at any time.
- Psychological Torment Zone: The Lugar Vacio is an area of the Scholomance that shows you your greatest fears. The Watch uses it as extra credit, as strong emotions "harden" one's soul against future influence.
- There's also a pocket dimension that shows people their greatest possible joy, but the Watch has it kept strictly off-limits; too many students ended up committing suicide after being returned to reality.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Fisher once tormented the early Peredur people. They couldn't kill it, but they successfully "stole half its name" and locked it away. Angharad has sworn to free it.
- Soul-Sucking Retail Job: Hage, the owner of The Chimerical, makes a point to pay Tristan less than the going rate for his work at the coffee-shop.
- Spies Are Despicable: Members of the Kryptia Covenant (aka: "The Masks") aren't shy about blackmailing or even killing other members of the Watch (a huge taboo) if they deem it necessary.
- Stealthy Colossus: The Heliodoran Beast is a huge and dangerous lemure that exudes a thick mist that obscures it and causes an aura of total silence.
- The Teetotaler: Tristan doesn't drink because he despises anything that will affect his ability to think. He even refuses coffee, as its technically a drug.
- Thieves' Cant: The poorer residents of Sacromonte can identify themselves through making the "Sign of the Rat".
- Trickster Mentor: Song's god, Luren appears as a drunken, disorderly monk who tells Blatant Lies and gives nonsense advice: all things designed to prickle at her perfectionist personality. In Book 2, he seems genuinely pleased when she stops trying to hold herself to such unfair standards, and even offers some concrete advice for once.
- Unlucky Thirteen: The protagonists end up forming the Thirteenth Brigade, as they were some of the last to pick designations, and nobody wanted the association of bad luck in some cultures. Similarly, Tupoc ended up founding the Fourth Brigade, though he seems to enjoy the connotations.
- Weakened by the Light: The light of the Glare (shafts of bright light seemingly coming from holes in the surface) burns darklings and most lemures.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Tristan's contract allows him to become lucky, but it operates on Equivalent Exchange to where proportional bad luck soon follows.
