Literature / The Chronicles of Dorsa

Left: Joslyn. Center: Tasia. Right: Mylla.

Princess Natasia is the eldest child of Emperor Andereth, who rules over the vast Empire. Though much is expected of her, including marrying and producing a son to become the future Emperor, Tasia is headstrong and displeased by this. She regularly sneaks out of the palace to sleep with young noblemen, while secretly being lovers as well with her handmaid Mylla.

On one such excursion though, an assassin attacks Tasia, nearly killing her, and she is given a personal bodyguard in the taciturn soldier Joslyn. As she grows more aware of threats to hersef along with her father, Tasia and Joslyn become close, before falling in love. However, they are soon split apart as Tasia must flee all that she knows, each embarking on adventures against enemies that threaten both young women and the entire Empire.

Written by author Eliza Andrews, the books in order are:

• Princess of Dorsa (2018)
• Soldier of Dorsa (2020)
• Empress of Dorsa (2022)

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Tropes:

• Abdicate the Throne: Tasia implicitly gives up her throne at the end. She was believed dead, and rather than return, proving she's alive, stays that way to most people. Instead she happily retires to live a humble life with Joslyn.
• Abusive Parents: Joslyn was sold into slavery along with her older sister by their father, since as girls they were thought to be a waste of resources. She says selling one's own children is common among their people too, particularly with girls.
• Action Girl:
  • Joslyn is a veteran infantry soldier who's very skilled with a sword. She's appointed as Princess Tasia's bodyguard as a result. After this she starts to train Tasia in self-defense as well. She reveals how her test for entering the Army was to have all the male recruits attacking her at once, with deadly intent. Joslyn had killed three, wounded two, and three yielded. Hearing this, Tasia is extremely impressed by her skills. Under her tutelage, Tasia grows into a good fighter herself.
  • Megs, a female sergeant in the Imperial Army, becomes a supporting character during the third book and she's very skilled.
  • Pirate captain Akella becomes a supporting character in the same book. She's a Combat Pragmatist who's quite adept with a sword.
• Action Mom: Tasia, after becoming pregnant, still takes personal command of her troops on the campaign against the mountain men, despite warnings from her advisors not to. Sadly, it ends in her baby being killed by an assassin trying to murder Tasia.
• Aerith and Bob: The books have a mix of names like Tasia (full name Natasia), Andreth or Mylla and ones that are nearly or entirely the same (Markas, Joslyn, Remington etc).
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Tasia's full name is Natasia, but she's usually called this or Tazy by lovers (her late brother also did so). She calls Mylla, her handmaid and lover, Myll. Tasia further calls her late brother Nikhost, Nik (who she loved dearly).
  • Later, Joslyn is nicknamed as "Jozzy" by Tasia (who's her lover then) or "Joz" by her friends.
  • Linna's nicknamed "little seagull" by Akella, a pirate captain. She's not fond of it, but Akella means this with affection.
  • Tasia's younger sister Adela is called "Del" by Linna, who's her chambermaid, a close friend and has a crush on her.
• Age Without Youth: The king of Persopos is immortal but looks like a walking skeleton, with only thin skin covering his bones. It also applies to other immortal people in his realm. It turns out to be when the living shadows inside giving them immortality are weak. When they're strong, they look youthful once again.
• Amazon Brigade: The Order of Targhan are an all female group, witches who serve as assassins too.
• Animal Eye Spy: Beastwalkers can possess animals and then use them this way.
• The Apprentice:
  • Joslyn was apprentice to her ku-sai (sword master) to learn his skills. The second book starts detailing her apprenticeship via flashbacks. A ku-sai's apprentice is called a kuna-shi.
  • Later, she trains Linna, another Terintan, but doesn't formally accept that they're ku-sai and kuna-shi.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • At the start of the story Tasia's father Andreth is pushing her to marry, and had given her a choice in suitors. Because she'd rejected them all, he instead promises he'll decide on this himself then. Her lover Mylla too is having her marriage arranged.
  • Tasia later arranges her and her sister's marriages too for political purposes, feeling guilty about doing so as she had rebelled herself in the past from this, but seeing no other way to get needed support.
• Arrows on Fire: The mountain men fire flaming arrows while they're attacking the Imperial Army during an ambush in book three.
• Artificial Limbs: General Remington lost his leg in a battle and uses a peg leg which gives him an odd hobbling gait.
• Astral Projection: Joslyn's dreamwalking lets her do this in a way, as she can travel across a great distance while peeking into sleeping people's dreams and sees the landscape around doing so.
• As You Know: Norix, Tasia's tutor, reminds her about what she's already been told regarding a future husband of hers potentially being made the heir.
• Baby Factory: Tasia tells Joslyn women in the royal family are valued for producing children above all else, which includes her.
• Badass in Distress: Joslyn, though she's a very skilled warrior, is still wounded or otherwise put in great danger she needs help with multiple times.
• Barbarian Tribe:
  • The Terintan desert nomads have a simple, itinerant way of life as herders living in tents.
  • The mountain folk, or Quanca Carin, were Eastern people driven out of their homes by the Empire and into the mountains (thus their name). With help from the Empire's enemies, the Quanca Carin slowly drove the Empire back enough to retake the territory. Fierce, brutal warriors, they dress in furs and were initially far less organized. Over time, they got better weapons, organizing themselves enough to beat the Imperial soldiers.
• Bar Brawl: Tasia going into the city incognito with Joslyn ends up causing this when she inadvertantly offends a tavern patron, leading to a brawl. Joslyn is wounded in the mayhem getting Tasia away, and she feels quite guilty as a result.
• Battle Couple: Tasia and Joslyn (who were already lovers) become this after they reunite, fighting alongside each other against their enemies. Joslyn trained Tasia as well.
• Beat Still, My Heart: An undatai fighting a man rips his heart from his chest.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: The survivors from Megs' band took refuge in a burial mound. Rather than be captured and enslaved, they killed themselves.
• Big Bad: The unnamed undatai, who is a Prince of Shadows. He, or it, is the most powerful type among the living shadows, working to possess many people so that his kind can live in the mortal realm, not just the Shadowlands, with the goal of ruling the world eventually. Several lesser villains in the story turn out to be his minions.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Tasia kisses Joslyn after the latter is wounded, with her fearing she's dead. After doing so, she realizes that she's in love with Joslyn.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Wise Man Norix, who is Tasia's tutor and her father's chief advisor, initially seems at worst canterkerous. However, it turns out he was the mastermind behind the attempt on her life, and later her father's assassination. Tasia is framed for the latter.
  • Brother Rennus seems to be a benevolent, useful ally who willingly serves Empress Tasia. In book three it turns out that he's switched sides to the deathless king, her enemy, covertly helping with the mountain men's assault. He also tried to assassinate her multiple times. He recruited around half of the Brothers as well to his cause, with them attacking the Imperial soldiers in Pellon while Rennus then nearly kills Tasia as he mind controls one of her guards.
• Black Boss Lady: Akella is black, to judge by her description (dark brown skin, black hair in dreadlocks) along with her depiction on the cover of the third book, and she's also captain of a pirate crew. None of them ever doubt her authority, despite them all being men while she's the only woman, as a result of her skill and staunch loyalty for them. She also seems entirely happy with the gender ratio (she's a Butch Lesbian herself).
• Bodyguard Crush: Over time Tasia falls in love with Joslyn, her bodyguard. Joslyn does as well, and they grow into a couple.
• Breeding Slave: Akella learns her crew have been turned into this in Persepos after their capture for the Order of Targhan (an all female group). They have fathered a dozen children or so, with their shadow infection rendering them obedient drones. Additionally, they're the caretakers of the children. She's outraged with her crew being used as "stud horses" like this and frees them.
• Butch Lesbian:
  • Joslyn is a tough, taciturn woman who's quite stoic at first. She has short hair (at least relative to female norms in the story-shoulder length). As a soldier and bodyguard, she's usually in a military uniform with her sword. Given her profession, Joslyn has a muscular build and is very skilled with a sword. Eventually, she and Princess Tasia (whom she's charged to protect) fall for each other. She's explicitly slightly taller than Tasia too.
  • In the third book, Megs and Akella are introduced. While they don't get described as much, both of them are also women warriors (Megs a soldier, Akella a pirate) who fall for each other (while they both also had other female lovers). They both appear to wear masculine clothing too.
• Cassandra Truth: Akella warns the others in the third book not to keep sailing on their course, as she can tell a storm is coming. She's ignored, though sure enough their fleet goes right into a huge storm. Joslyn realizes as the ship's captain still fights against Akella's directions she was wrong, relieving him. After this, Akella's skill saves the ship, but many of the rest aren't so lucky.
• Cast from Hit Points: Sorcerers' spells drain them of energy. After creating the illusionary army for Tasia, Evrart and his fellow Brothers of Culo are exhausted. He estimates it will be three days until another feat like that could be performed.
• Cast Full of Gay: Not at first, but in the third book three more queer women join the cast along with Tasia and Joslyn. Akella, Linna and Megs all become viewpoint characters along with them. They are the only viewpoint characters, meaning everything is shown from this quintet's views and they are the main characters, with everyone else supporting.
• Cessation of Existence: The Wise Men teach that death is the end, with nothing after it.
• Child by Rape: It turns out that the Order of Taghren gets more members (or hosts), this way. An all-female group, they reproduce with enslaved male sailors to father daughters who will join the Order. Their fathers don't even know what's going on at the time, being mindless drones as a result of their shadow infection, fathering them and caring for the girls while in that state. Nonetheless, they love and want to protect them after getting freed too.
• Combat Pragmatist: Akella is a pirate captain whose combat style involves using anything necessary to beat her opponents. She tries to cripple them, throw dirt or anything else in their eyes which blinds them or whatever else possible. Linna picks this up from sparring with Akella. She uses it later in bouts against Joslyn, who approvingly says Linna should do anything necessary in defense of herself or Tasia (whom they protect as guards).
• Coming of Age Story: Tasia starts out as a rebellious but still sheltered and very naive princess just into her twenties. She grows over the course of a couple years in the books into the Empress, leading her people, being a capable fighter personally and becoming a powerful ruler.
• The Corruption: People who have been wounded by those with shadows willingly inside of them can be possessed as well, while simply one injury opens them to it. The more who are infected, the faster the possessions happen.
• Cyanide Pill: The assassin who attacked Tasia had hidden a poison pill inside a false tooth, which he killed himself with after being captured. However, upon learning who is behind the plot, Tasia speculates he was really murdered to make sure he'd never talk.
• Dark Action Girl: Joslyn saves Tasia from a skilled assassin who it turns out is a woman, Ty'Tsana, and nearly equals her skills. It turns out she's from the Order of Taghren, who are all-female witch assassins working an unknown enemy.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Joslyn was sold into slavery with her older sister by their own father. She was owned first by a family who didn't mistreat her (any more than slavery entails inherently), but then was sold again to a man who'd tortured her by burning Joslyn's breasts and genitals. It's also strongly implied he raped her. After getting free, she joined the Imperial Army. The recruiter though decided to have the male recruits all attack her with intent to kill. Luckily, she was skilled enough to kill and wound most, with the rest yielding.
  • Linna has a similar background to Joslyn. Double shamed as a salvik (a Terintan term for people who have mixed ancestry) born out of wedlock, her mother had sold her into slavery as a result. However, she suffered less, and was freed after Tasia was given her by Linna's owner.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • The shadow arts, though they draw power from the Shadowlands and the shadows which live there, aren't inherently evil (though many fear them due to their danger or evil uses). For instance, they can be used for healing or divination, while even other uses can also serve the good. However, they are dangerous to be sure. The shadows as well aren't entirely evil. Some are benevolent or neutral.
  • Imperial palace servants also always wear black, as Linna does due to being among them. She is good and they are at least neutral.
• Deal with the Devil: Joslyn has made multiple deals with an ambiguous otherworldly being whom she met when fighting the undatai. In the first case, she got back through promising to let it possess her later. After she's mortally wounded, Joslyn deals with it again, bargaining for one more year in return for giving another of its kind a body too. She escapes the deal after destroying the being, who's revealed to be another undatai later, which severs the bond which held her to it.
• Decided by One Vote: Tasia is convicted by a single vote at her trial, from 104 to 105.
• Demonic Possession: People can be involuntarily possessed by shadows, though most do this willingly.
• Determinator: Tasia is quite strong-willed, and keeps striving for whatever goal she sets herself to. On the negative side, this also means she's very stubborn and rarely will change her mind even when getting sound advice against doing things, or using a different means to achieve it.
• Does Not Like Magic: Worshipers of Preyla, like Akella, believe the goddess forbids them to use the shadow arts, as they're considered unnatural and too dangerous. Akella expresses fear and antipathy to them often.
• Dreadlock Rasta: Akella is a black female pirate captain with dreadlocks. It serves as a mark of her being an independent, freespirited woman and Lovable Rogue.
• Dream Land: The Shadowlands turn out to also be this, with dream walkers entering them from the normal world. While inside, people can also change things through dreaming them (dream walkers have more control over this). A person can also be trapped there inside a dream as well.
• Dream Walker: Joslyn's Ku-sai (sword master) was able to create a dream chamber and keep a part of his soul there then communicate with her in it, drawing Joslyn inside his dream then speak with her there together. She was to be taught this as well, but ran off and joined the Imperial Army instead before her training had completed. Later she starts learning on her own to create dream chambers and enter others' dreams, while shaping hers.
• Dream Weaver: A person can change their dreams in the Shadowlands with will and practice, including healing injuries their dream bodies receive. Some can also trap other people inside of dreams they conjure up.
• Dressing as the Enemy: An assassin in the uniform of an Imperial Army soldier attacks Tasia after she becomes the Empress, with the fact being covered up afterward because morale could be badly affected were the real soldiers aware more infiltrators could be among them.
• Eldritch Location: The Shadowlands appear as a barren wasteland, with a dimly lit sky, filled with living shadows as its denizens. It is also Dream Land, with both time and space distorted for this reason. Even so, it's also capable of containing a physical object if magically placed there.
• Elemental Embodiment: One undatai who's shown as a fire being is bound with magic by small men, since it's very dangerous to both their folk and humans. It looks like a humanoid made from fire and lava.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Tasia is horrified and outraged when her former lover/handmaid Mylla is a star prosecution witness at her trial claiming she disclosed desiring her father to die, along with revealing the relationship they had, which discredits her further in most people's eyes. Mylla claims later that she only did this because her father ordered her to, but Tasia retorts there is nothing that would have made her do the same.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Joslyn only called her sword master by his title, Ku-sai.
• Evil Chancellor: Wise Man Norix, chief advisor to Emperor Andereth, poisons him as he's convinced that the Emperor's mismanaging things, making himself Regent afterward.
• Evil Wears Black: The Order of Taghren witch assassins all wear black, living in service to the books' main villain.
• Face–Heel Turn: Brother Rennus, one of the good characters, is revealed to be a traitor who'd switched sides and joined the deathless king, believing his land was a utopia which could be extended across the world. He also recruited many other Brothers into his cause.
• Faking the Dead: Due to use of a close lookalike replacing her, Tasia is believed to have been killed fighting the mountain men. She lets most people continue to believe it.
• Familiar: Here, this means animals controlled by beastwalkers, people with an ability to do this. Some keep them as pets, though others simply use them for spying etc but don't have any affectionate bond.
• Fantastic Racism: Terintans are disdained and mocked by other people in the Empire often. On seeing her Terintan lover Joslyn get this, Tasia resolves that she'll do something in the future about it. Joslyn however is dubious that even she, the Empress, can undo this with her power.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Terintan desert nomads like Joslyn look like East Asians or possibly Native Americans. She also mentions beliefs in the elements' influence on people similar to traditional ones of China, along with having Coyote (a commonly occurring god in Native American religions) as their main deity, who's a trickster like him. Some aspects of their clothing and food also seems to be inspired from Arabs.
  • The tinkers, wanderers that fix things, are fortune tellers and trade. Given the description, they sound like the Roma or Irish Travellers given those occupations are shared by them. A few also are described as dishonest, faking being poor for money from generous passersby when they beg, activity like the kind stereotypically ascribed to Roma and Travellers.
• Fantasy Pantheon: Several gods are mentioned as worshiped in the books' setting, among the Terintans especially but people elsewhere too.
  • There is Father Mizzu, who it seems is the Top God for worshipers of his, believing he sets their fates.
  • Mother Eirenna is goddess of the dawn sun.
  • Father Eiren is god of the daytime sun.
  • Mother Moon is naturally the moon goddess.
  • Uncle Q'Util is god of the night sky and a trickster, though at heart he's benevolent. There are several other trickster deities also believed in by people of different regions.
  • Preyla, the sea goddess who Akella and other Abessians worship, as a seafaring people. It appears she's their only god, while other peoples don't appear to worship her.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Joslyn's first love was a girl who didn't return her affections and ran away with a boy. She's kept a flower the girl left her as a goodbye gift for years, destroying it after telling the story to Tasia.
• First-Name Basis: Tasia is on one with her handmaid/lover Mylla, given they're involved. It becomes a telling point when she tells Joslyn to do this as well (while in private at least), as they grow closer. Otherwise she is called her royal titles and honorifics.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: The Wise Men firmly maintain an afterlife, gods, magic, magical creatures and any other worlds are just false superstitions, asserting their scholars had proved these don't exist long ago. While some are left ambiguous, the last three undoubtedly do exist with evidence they could obtain quite easily, but they're clearly dogmatic and uninterested. Some, however, were also members of the Brotherhood, who are well aware that magic exists and secretly practice this. Only after people infected by shadows engulf whole cities and are only defeated with help from the Brotherhood do they tacitly concede this was wrong. Excerpts from an In-Universe history text mention that even later some are still trying to claim this was all mass hysteria.
• Frame-Up: Tasia is framed for having her own father murdered by Wise Man Norix, her tutor and his chief advisor, along with Mylla, her former lover/handmaid.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Tasia tells Joslyn she can call her by her nickname while in private, instead of Princess, as they both become closer, signifying they're no longer only a servant with her royal mistress. It's later cemented after they become lovers.
• Friend to All Children: Adessians strongly adore children as part of their culture. Though pirates, Akella and her crew (all Adessians) hold this still. Akella would never harm one, and even the idea outrages her. Her men, who were forced to sire children while shadow infected, become protective at once after they come back to themselves and see their daughters as well without hesitation.
• Frontline General: When she's a Rebel Leader, Tasia personally leads her soldiers in battle.
• God-Emperor: The king of Persopos is viewed as a god by his people.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Akella plays this routine with Linna when torturing a prisoner. Linna doesn't know it, but her objections are useful to offset when Akella threatens worse. She had done this with her first mate too, in the roles of honorable and bloodthirsty pirates. Objections by the honorable helped to get the prisoner fearing worse from the bloodthirsty, and give up information.
• Grand Theft Me Beastwalkers take control over animals' minds, to use them as familiars for spying. Skinwalkers can do the same thing with humans to read their minds as well.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The war between the Empire and the mountain men really comes off this way. On the one hand, the Empire is the entity our protagonists are part of so the reader may be inclined to sympathize with them, with many people there being decent. The mountain men though are simply fighting to get back their land, which the Empire conquered, even if they commit atrocities during their campaign. The Empire is, well, an empire, with the imperialism that entails. Racism is shown as rampant toward Terintans, an ethnic minority within it (who were also conquered) and common people get few rights (for instance, they can be summarily hanged without even a trial). However, the mountain men are backed by the evil Kingdom of Persepos, with an even worse ambition than the Empire has-world conquest, and far more people enslaved than is allowed in the Imperial lands, all supposedly for creating a utopia.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Red-haired Tasia becomes lovers with Joslyn, who's black-haired. Tasia is more naive, innocent, emotive, having had everything given to her (she's a princess) and freespirited. Joslyn is very stoic at first, jaded from a tragic history, much more experienced with the world, and comes from a very poor background, having also been a slave once.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: The Terintan desert nomads hold people of mixed ancestry like Linna, whom they call salvik in their language, are inferior, and treat them as outcasts, forbidding marriage with their own as this would pollute the nomad bloodlines in their view. Linna, who's half nomad and half tinker, in fact was sold into slavery by her mother (a nomad) as a result of this.
• Hand Signals: Imperial soldiers use this when speaking would give them away.
• Healing Hands:
  • Some of the Brothers can heal, and this is shown as laying their hands on or near the patient's body. Joslyn as well learns to heal with the energy of her q'isson.
  • Tasia also does this with her hands just over a patient upon learning magic.
• Heir Club for Men: Andreth the Just, Tasia's father and the Emperor, has no living sons (her brother died years ago). He pressures her to get married so her husband or son can be this. Unusually though he then decides to make Tasia his heir, despite it going against tradition and angering his own nobility because of it.
• Heir-In-Law: This is mentioned as one option for Emperor Andreth-his future son-in-law could become his heir. However, he ends up instead making his daughter heir. That's because making his son-in-law heir would entail his adoption into House Dorsa as a full son. Since Princess Tasia, his daughter, has been targeted for assassination, they risk adopting a man who's involved with the plot. Tasia later lets her husband Mace take the throne after she's believed dead.
• Heteronormative Crusader: A common view in the Empire is that same-sex relationships are wrong and "unnatural". As a result, Tasia keeps hers with Mylla a secret. It's used to discredit her at her trial as well. She later also keeps her relationship with Joslyn secret from most people as well due to this.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Imperial holdouts fighting the mountain folk have steadily become more like them, dressing as they do, scavenging their weapons and using brutal tactics. Megs, one Imperial band's leader, reflects on this and admits it's happening, though she sees no other way to survive.
• High Fantasy: Though it isn't obviously one at first, by book three the story has become this, as the deathless king is revealed to want world domination, which the heroes fight to stop.
• The High Queen: Tasia grows into this after becoming Empress. She's already very beautiful and well-trained in political acumen (even if she hadn't always been so attentive to her lessons in this before), using both along with her genuine cornern for people to win over many, inspiring loyalty.
• Hive Mind: The Order of Taghren it turns out is one. Every member knows what the others do, and the collective Order mind sees each individual as more akin to digits than anything else. Any one of them being killed is unimportant to it.
• Honey Trap: The prostitutes in the brothels which exist within the port of Persepos. As sailors who land come and have sex with them, they get vulnerable, then infected by shadows to enslave them for use as breeding slaves. Akella specifically refers to them as "honeypot traps".
• Hopeless Suitor: Linna laments that she always falls for women who don't share her feelings. First it's Tasia, who only has eyes for Joslyn. Later it's Adela, who is a straight girl. Then it's Megs, who loves Akella.
• How We Got Here: The last book, Empress of Dorsa, starts by following Megs, a new character (and only the third who's POV is shown), before the reveal it's after a devastating Imperial defeat in the East, with Tasia and Joslyn taken as prisoners in the mysterious Kingdom of Persopos. In Part II it then cuts to four months before, showing what happened following Joslyn and Tasia.
• Hyper-Awareness: Joslyn has this, using it to pick small details up that others miss, for instance about other people's appearances (even their smells) that provide clues on who they are.
• I Am Not Pretty: Joslyn always says that she's not beautiful when Talia tells her she is, replying that Tasia's the one who's beautiful. It stems from her self-consciousness over the scars on her breasts, as Tasia compliments them.
• The Immodest Orgasm:
  • Tasia exclaims loudly as she climaxes while Joslyn goes down on her in their first time, despite wanting to keep quiet so no one nearby notices.
  • At the end of book two, this happens again as Joslyn and she have sex when they had been apart a long time, despite wanting to keep quiet.
• Immortality Immorality: The deathless king and his followers embrace immortality, but at the cost of letting living shadows inhabit them (something dubious at best) and enslaving others who do the services they need (while also being immortal). Not to mention that they force this onto other people as well, seeking to rule the entire world so a supposed utopia in which no one dies will exist.
• Immortal Ruler: The king of Persopos is immortal and has ruled there for centuries.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Tasia goes on the campaign with her troops while pregnant, getting stabbed in the belly by one of her own guards who an enemy mind controls into attacking her, with her baby being killed.
• Incompatible Orientation:
  • Joslyn fell in love with another slave girl as a teenager. She didn't reciprocate however, despite Joslyn's impression, and ran away with a boy when they escaped.
  • Linna loves Adela, while she's aware that the latter doesn't like girls that way. She's content to be Adela's friend however, as that's love of a different kind.
• Indentured Servitude: Lord M'Tongliss has Fesulian mercenaries who serve him under a contract for seven years, and they can return home at the end if they're still alive.
• In the Back: General Remington is killed through a stab in the back, with Tasia mentally lamenting that an old veteran like him died in such an ignominious manner.
• Invisibility Cloak: Wise Man Evrart hides Tasia from sight due to enchanting herbs that she holds, so she can be snuck out of the palace and escape beheading the next day.
• I Surrender, Suckers: House Paratheen gives Tasia an assassin whom they caught while presenting gifts to her. It turns out that the woman actually let herself be caught, promptly frees herself, kills two guards and tries to kill Tasia before Joslyn stops her.
• It's All My Fault: Tasia blames herself and feels great guilt for everyone who died in her cause. It leads her to sometimes take actions like leading soldiers personally into battle in contrition which Joslyn judges quite rash.
• I Want Grandkids: Akella reflects on the fact that her mother found it hard accepting that she's a lesbian as she wouldn't provide her with grandchildren.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Akella, with Megs' help, tortures an Order of Taghren assassin she captures. Linna's objections unwittingly help too in a Good Cop/Bad Cop routine. The women fearing worse from them makes her talk more than the pain.
• Jerkass: Mylla is a racist asshole to Joslyn, who's from the Terintan desert nomads, whom she deems barbarians and primitives, insulting her repeatedly. Tasia, who initially resents Joslyn and is all right with a certain amount of ribbing, is increasingly appalled by how far her insults go, commanding Mylla to stop it.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She's quite rude about it, but Mylla is right in saying she lacks many options that Tasia has when the latter blows up at her over accepting a man's proposal without telling her. The pair could never stay together, since their society wouldn't permit it, and being from a minor noble house Mylla has to marry up, advancing her family in doing so.
• Just Between You and Me: Joslyn is aware that arrogant men can rarely resist expounding on their villainy, and so gets Brother Rennus talking when he's got Tasia hostage, distracting him so she can then save her.
• Just in Time: Tasia is rescued by the city guard in the first book right before an assassin was about to kill her when she's been overpowered.
• Kangaroo Court: Tasia's trial for murder and treason is, as she knows, completely contrived to convict her, as the real mastermind of the plot serves as the chief judge. A string of perjured witnesses implicate her, and statements she genuinely made are twisted to give the worst interpretation. Tasia manages to turn this around somewhat with her defense, but she gets convicted nonetheless.
• Keystone Army:
  • The Prince of Shadows caused infection that possessed people to serve him, so when he's killed, they're all freed.
  • This also happens when the deathless king is killed. All his minions who were also shadow-infected become free instantly of these, while confused and unable to fight.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Mylla, Tasia's handmaid at the beginning. They're also lovers, and the fact handmaids even sleep in the same bed as their mistresses helps disguise the fact.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: Joslyn is given one with the offer to give up her quest so she can either rule by Tasia's side or live a humble, happy life. She's tempted, but refuses. It's revealed this was a test of her resolve by the small men, which Joslyn passed.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Tasia is a Rebellious Princess who's fairly naive starting out, shows emotions and has a conventionally feminine style. Joslyn on the other hand is an experienced soldier, initially represses emotions and she's more masculine in her style.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Tasia and Mylla, her handmaid/lover, are both very feminine bisexual women. Both have long hair, wear gowns and were raised to be proper ladies by their families (Tasia is a princess, while Mylla's nobility). At the same time, both also sleep with men, but this is solely for pleasure and they have a romance. Once they part, Tasia becomes involved with her bodyguard Joslyn, a Butch Lesbian soldier.
• Little People: The small men, a mysterious species which have large owl-like eyes, their features wizened with hands and feet of disproportionate (to humans) size. Most only meet humans to trade with them (but will walk off instantly if the deal isn't what they like) and speak in a strange language. They live under the earth and mine, while they appear to be entirely male at first (but small women are shown later-it's the men that venture outside apparently). All of them are later revealed to live in a massive city which they've carved underground. They're capable of great magic, especially illusions and apparently vanishing or appearing at will (it's revealed that's due to traveling in the shadow world).
• Living Shadow: The creatures of the Shadowlands appear as being moving shadows. Usually they're just called "shadows" as a result. Not all of them are malevolent, but many are, with the worst, most powerful ones being undatai, called princes of shadows. They can possess people, willingly or not. Undatai also can create and enter dreams, appearing in many forms.
• Long-Lost Relative: Joslyn finds out in book two that her older sister Tasmyn, whom she had been separated from as a girl, is still alive when they meet while she's dreamwalking.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: In book three, Joslyn and Tasia become trapped inside a blissful dream by the deathless king. There, they dream of drinking together, having sex carefree while in the palace grounds. Meanwhile, the power of the more powerful living shadow, the undatai, is growing back so it can eventually possess them. Joslyn though realizes what's going on, working to free the two of them. It's very hard however with the allure of the dream.
• Lovable Rogue: Akella is a pirate captain, though quite charming and friendly. She's also fiercely loyal to her crew, feeling quite guilty at fleeing when they were captured (not that anything else was really an option at the time), going back for them at the risk of her own life. Akella is also kind to people whom she gets close with, and like all Adessians is very protective about children. Her piracy all takes place off page (which apparently had included selling captives into slavery at times) which also helps.
• Love Confession: Tasia and Joslyn confess their love for each other at the same time, after the latter first successfully dreamwalks into the former's mind.
• Love Triangle: Linna has feelings for Megs, who loves Akella and doesn't think of her that way.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Milo, a little boy, has the ability to serve as the gate of the shadow world, so the shadows can possess people. He was captured and enslaved for that purpose after the Order of Targhan identified him.
• Made a Slave:
  • Joslyn reveals that she was sold into slavery along with her older sister by their own father at age five. It's not uncommon among the Terintan desert tribes, Joslyn says, most especially with girls as they're worth more to buyers. Later it turns out that slavery is legal and fairly common all throughout the Empire, with many people sold.
  • Milo, a boy with the gift of being a gate for the shadow world, was enslaved after being identified to serve as this.
  • Linna was sold into slavery by her own mother due to only being half Terintan, which is considered a disgrace.
  • Thousands of people in Persopos it turns out also are enslaved through shadow infection. Most are kept as mindless drones, doing menial labor unaware, or breeding slaves in a smaller number of cases.
• Magical Incantation: Words or a word in the Old Tongue are needed to cast certain spells.
• Magical Society:
  • The Order of Targhan are witches who use their skills in magic as assassins.
  • The Brotherhood of Culo are all (male) sorcerers with different abilitites.
• Magic Knight:
  • The Order of Targhan are witch assassins, using mundane weapons along with magic on their foes.
  • The Brothers who Brother Rennus makes attack the Imperial Army use both magic and swords while doing so.
  • Tasia also becomes this after having learned sword fighting and later magic too in book three. She's not seen fighting using both at the same time however.
• Magic Pants: It's mentioned that the beastwalkers have perfected transforming into animals enough it no longer requires being nude to do. Now they can transform with their clothes as well, restoring them later.
• Magic Potion: The mountain men start drinking one which provides them with great strength and also temporarily numbs them to all pain, which helps them fight the Empire.
• Mama Bear: Joslyn essentially becomes a surrogate mother to Milo and Linna, becoming very protective of them. With her being an extremely skilled warrior, a person threatening them will certainly face dire consequences from her.
• Manly Facial Hair: Terintans don't consider a boy a man until he's able to produce a full beard.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Tasia, a feminine bisexual princess, becomes a couple with Joslyn, her butch lesbian bodyguard.
• Master of Illusion:
  • The Brotherhood of Culo can make totally realistic magical illusions.
  • The small men later also turn out to be experts with this magic.
• Master Swordsman: Joslyn is a mizana, the term for a female sword-master. She learned the art from her Ku-sai (teacher), another example, after going through intense initiation. Throughout the books she's doubtless the best sword fighter, with such feats as beating multiple opponents at once.
• Meaningful Name: General Remington, senior war advisor to the Emperor, shares his name with a famous gun manufacturer.
• Mercy Kill: Megs had killed her brother Milton at his urging after he was shadow infected. It left her with deep guilt nonetheless.
• Missing Mom: Tasia's mother died while she was a girl. She still misses her deeply.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: Tasia is disguised as a baker's girl in the city, but one of the guards who rescue her see through her disguise quickly, thinking she's a prostitute instead. He thinks he's owed free sex as a result, and nearly attempts to rape her before Tasia gets away.
• The Modest Orgasm: Tasia and Mylla, while the two have sex with a double-sided strap-on dildo, both moan as they're climaxing together.
• Morning Sickness: Tasia at first just seems seasick in book three, but then it's revealed she's pregnant too (with her seasickness probably exacerbated by this).
• Muggle–Mage Romance: Tasia and Joslyn remain a couple in the third book when it's revealed Tasia's been taught magic that she's very adept with. Joslyn still relies only on her skill with a sword.
• The Needs of the Many: Norix it turns out assassinated Emperor Andereth because he wouldn't end the war in the west, despite Norix's advice. This was best for the Empire overall Norix believed as it cost soldiers and gold at a huge rate without victory in sight.
• Never Learned to Read: Joslyn, who came from a desert tribe originally before becoming a soldier, is illiterate when the story starts. Tasia then teaches Joslyn herself.
• Nice to the Waiter: Tasia befriended the palace guards who hold the gate she uses to sneak in and out into the city so they won't inform her father (along with bribing them). She had been taught to treat all servants with respect, so this comes naturally for her. Later she also sticks up for Joslyn (who became her bodyguard) when she's mocked as a result of being Terintan.
• No Name Given: The main villain is an undatai, a powerful living shadow, who's never named. This also goes for his or its human host, the deathless king.
• Not Quite Dead: Tasia is certain that Joslyn's dead after being (it seems) mortally wounded protecting her. It turns out she's only close to death, and saves herself by making (another) deal with some otherworldly being.
• Not Staying for Breakfast: Tasia is introduced after her latest tryst with Markas, having stayed in bed later than usual with him. She always sneaks away without staying with him over night, but fell asleep by him that time and has to rush.
• Occupiers Out of Our Country: The mountain men were forced to flee their lands in the East after the Empire conquered them. Since then they regrouped, fighting the Empire for years to get it back.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Tasia forces Akella, a female pirate captain, to help her in book three, using such methods as locking her in a totally dark cell over several days until she agrees.
• Offing the Offspring: The enslaved Adessian sailors in Persepos were forced to murder any sons they fathered hours after birth, since their mothers (the enslavers) only want girls.
• Off with His Head!:
  • Joslyn kills Ty'Tsana by beheading her with a single swordstroke.
  • Later, she also kills the Prince of Shadows this way as well, with Tasia's help.
  • The deathless king is also killed by Joslyn this way, again with help from Tasia.
• Old Master: Joslyn was taught the art of the sword-master by her Ku-sai (teacher), an older man who's portrayed like a stereotypical East Asian sage.
• Oh, My Gods!:
  • People in the Empire usually swear by the gods, or Mother Moon (who is apparently one of the more popular deities).
  • Akella swears often by her goddess Preyla, usually exclaiming "Preyla's tit".
• One Head Taller: Joslyn is half a head over Tasia, as she notices when training with her. She's described as resting her cheek right on the top of Tasia's head.
• One of the Boys:
  • Joslyn seems fine with being the sole woman in the palace guards. She's friends with several. Later on though another woman does join.
  • Akella is the female captain of a pirate crew. They have mutual loyalty and affection, while no other women were members. Akella it appears was perfectly happy that way.
• One True Love: Tasia and Joslyn are this for each other. Over all the adventures and hardships they experience, both of them remain in love with each other fiercely, realizing this by the end.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Tasia is only occasionally called her full name Natasia, usually by her father or due to formality.
  • L'Linna is usually simply called Linna, including by the narrative itself.
  • Megstra is usually nicknamed Megs.
• The Order:
  • The Wise Men are monk-like scholars who serve as counselors and magistrates in the Empire. Strict rationalists, the Wise Men disbelieve in any gods, an afterlife, creatures like dragons or goblins and magic generally. They teach all of this is just superstition (much is revealed as being real).
  • The Brotherhood of Culo are sorcerers protecting the Empire, and humankind as a whole, from the creatures in the Shadowlands. In particular, they're good at magical illusions.
  • The Order of Targhan is a secret society with the opposite view from the Brotherhood, saying shadows once lived in the same world as humans, which they strive to restore, saying this is harmonious and the original, natural state that will offer them power. In pursuit of that end, they are assassins with both magic and ordinary weapons.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Tasia suffers losing her baby due to being stabbed in the stomach.
  • The Adessians who had been enslaved were forced to kill their own sons.
• Papa Wolf: The Adessian men who fathered daughters with the Order of Targhan women remain intent on protecting them, even when this was forced on them, fighting back after they're freed to get them away.
• Parental Substitute: Joslyn grows close to Milo and Linna, two juveniles with dead parents or ones who abandoned them, becoming a surrogate mother of both over time.
• Patricide: Tasia is accused of having her father the Emperor murdered after he named her heir so she could take over. She didn't do it however.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Akella and Megs justify torturing an Order of Taghren member (who are witch assassins) this way. Linna doesn't agree, saying it just makes them evil too.
• Pirate Girl: Akella is a female pirate captain whom Tasia forcibly enlists to help her in the third book.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Linna, as a petite girl of fourteen, can already take on three armed men and win since she's been trained by Joslyn, who's a sword master.
• Playing with Fire: Tasia reveals that she's learned magic by conjuring up a small fire over her palm for light in book three, which unnerves her lover Joslyn.
• Poisoned Weapons: Some assassins in the books make use of poison darts.
• Polyamory: Tasia and Mylla are in a secret relationship as the series starts, while they both also sleep with men on the side, fully aware of this while it happens.
• Praetorian Guard: The palace guards protect the Emperor/Empress and the royal family, while they also have black-clad guards as escorts when outside, with personal ones too. Joslyn is assigned initially to Tasia as the new member of the palace guard, and is her personal guard. The pair become lovers, and Tasia promotes Joslyn to lead the corps when she has become Empress. Linna also becomes a personal guard of Tasia's later.
• Precocious Crush: Linna developed a crush on Tasia when she was fourteen while the latter was then a young woman about six years older, but it soon faded. She knew Tasia loved Joslyn, her mentor, and even if Linna had been older would never think of her that way.
• Princess Protagonist: One of the two lead character is Tasia, who starts out as a princess (later becoming Empress).
• Private Military Contractors:
  • Tasia's entourage is attacked by well seasoned mercenaries from a group called the Golden Soldiers on her journey to the East, who are defeated only with great difficulty, and not before killing more than half the soldiers escorting her.
  • Lord M'Tongliss also has Felusian mercenaries in his employ bound to seven year contracts.
• Proxy War: It turns out that the Kingdom of Persepos is fighting the Empire indirectly through aiding its main enemy the mountain men when the story begins. This is done through supplying them with arms, apparently training so that they use better tactics, they're far more organized and most important of all many get possessed by shadows, making them much more formidable opponents.
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • After being seen first leaving Markas, her male lover in the city, Tasia returns to her handmaid Mylla... who it turns out she's also involved with (they soon have sex).
  • Joslyn relates that her first love was a girl, establishing herself as queer even prior to getting together with Tasia later. She's never shown or mentioned as attracted to men.
  • Megs has a girlfriend when she's introduced, with no sign of any attraction to men. Later, once her lover dies, she dates another woman.
  • Akella is first introduced getting up from bed beside another woman she slept with the night before. Her internal thoughts show that she's only attracted to women.
  • Linna reveals she had a previous crush on Tasia, then falls for Tasia's sister Adela.
• Rapid Aging: The woman who's the host of Ty'Tsana the second time almost instantly ages to an ancient crone when she's exorcised. It also happens to other shadow-infected people like her when exorcised too.
• Really Gets Around:
  • Tasia and Mylla are both described as having had sex with many men at the start. This is especially the case for Mylla, with Tasia doing so to copy her.
  • Joslyn later also mentions she's had sex with many women.
  • Akella is indicated to have casual sex with other women pretty often.
• Really 700 Years Old: The deathless king is revealed to be nearly eight hundred twenty years old, though at the cost of being essentially a walking corpse physically.
• Rebel Leader: Tasia becomes this, creating a rebellion by gathering followers to overthrow Regent Norix, who framed her and usurped her throne.
• Rebellious Princess: Tasia sneaks out into the city regularly to visit her lovers and has turned every suitor for her away, against what her father the Emperor wishes.
• Reduced to Dust: Some of the shadow-infected people have been kept alive through being possessed for far longer than normal, and thus when the possession gets broken they age very rapidly into a dust pile.
• Rotating Protagonist: Tasia is initially the protagonist along with the only viewpoint character. Joslyn becomes another though after a time, and co-protagonist, with the book focused on her equally.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Tasia starts out as a rebellious but still also spoiled princess who isn't interested by affairs of state. She learns to fight, flees home for survival and then leads armies on multiple occasions though after becoming Empress.
• Rousing Speech: Tasia gives many of these while she's rallying commoners to rebel against Regent Norix with her.
• R-Rated Opening: Inverted with Soldier of Dorsa's ending, as Tasia and Joslyn have passionate sex after having spent a long time apart just as the book ends.
• Sadist: Joslyn was sold to a man named Captain Samwin as a girl, who tortured her along with his other slaves for pleasure, burning her genitals and breasts. He did even worse to others, killing some. She eventually killed him in his sleep before running away.
• Scars Are Forever: Joslyn still bears many scars on her body from her sadist owner torturing her, and is self-conscious of them. She keeps them even after learning magical healing that can heal far worse injuries (although it's not explicitly shown whether this can remove scars).
• Secretly Gay Activity:
  • The fact that many handmaids and mistresses sleep in the same bed helps keep it secret that Tasia is having sex with her handmaid Mylla, not just doing this platonically.
  • The same thing later also happens with Tasia and her bodyguard Joslyn, whose duty is staying at her side for protection, whether in her living quarters or not. It makes their sexual relationship easy to hide.
• Secret Passage: Akella, a pirate, knows that every big city has secret tunnels used by smugglers to move illicit goods in or out. She searches for and locates one inside Pellon, which comes in handy.
• Secret Relationship:
  • Tasia keeps secret the fact that she's now in a relationship with her handmaid Mylla, as same-sex relationships are taboo in their culture.
  • When she and Joslyn becomes lovers, they also don't tell people because of this at first.
• Seers: Some of the Terintans have a real ability to see the future (though not everyone believes in or trusts this as valid). Lord M'Tongliss' mother is one, and he makes important decisions based on the things she predicts. Certain tinker fortune tellers also can genuinely tell the future, but it's apparently a diluted form of the seers' gift. Both do it through channeling the creatures of the Shadowlands when they drink tea made from horsetail mushroom. All of those we see are also women, indicating it's something only they can do.
• Sex Goddess: Joslyn is very skilled at having sex with women. When she's with Tasia, she always gives her an intense orgasm.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Tasia and Joslyn it turns out have sex first in the bath. It's not shown, Tasia only mentally confirms this later.
• Shared Dream: Some dream weavers have the power to create these, putting multiple people in one. Joslyn and Tasia become trapped in a very pleasant one this way, as the deathless king does it to them.
• The Siege: Once the shadows infect most of the people in Port Lorsin, they attack the royal palace at its heart, sending waves of bodies against it.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Tasia is one of the protagonists, who's a princess with green eyes and red hair. She later also becomes Empress.
• Slashed Throat:
  • Joslyn cut the throat of her sadist master Captain Samwin before escaping from slavery.
  • Wise Man Evrart kills his friend Crestin this way when he raises the alarm upon discovering that he's sneaking Tasia out of the palace.
• Slave Liberation:
  • Joslyn escaped from slavery, as did a girl she knew, while just a teenager.
  • Milo, a little boy with a magical gift, was captured and forced to aid the mountain men before Joslyn freed him.
  • Linna was sold into slavery by her own mother. Tasia took a liking to her when they met. Seeing it, her owner gave her Linna as a present (as she's his sovereign). Tasia swiftly freed her.
• The Smurfette Principle: Joslyn was the only women in the palace guards and, prior to that, in the Imperial Army. It's Played for Drama a bit, as in the latter case she'd been forced to defend herself from other recruits attacking her at the recruiter's instruction, killing several, and only was accepted for the Army after this.
• Something Only They Would Say: To test if the Tasia whom she sees is a dream simulacrum or the real one, Joslyn questions her about how she'd confessed to loving her. She passes, revealing to Joslyn it's the real Tasia.
• Starcrossed Lovers: Mylla, Tasia's handmaid, grew from just being her very close friend to her lover. They know however that it can't last as Mylla is going to leave and then marry a man not long in the future, as her father insists on. Even if this were not the case, same-sex relationships are taboo, and so it's keep a secret.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Akella can tell quickly on going into their quarters that the Order of Taghren children were sired by her men. With them being Adessian like her (black people, going by their descriptions) and they have white mothers, this results in the girls having darker skin plus kinky hair, as Akella notes, closer to their fathers. Additionally, some also have particular facial features in common too with her men.
• Superhuman Trafficking: Milo, a boy with the gift of serving as a gate to the shadow world, was then enslaved for this purpose by people who wanted his ability.
• Switching P.O.V.: The books switch between Tasia's and Joslyn's viewpoints after the latter becomes a co-protagonist at first. In the third book, Megs, Linna and Akella join them as POV characters.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Tasia and Joslyn become a such a duo near the end of the third book. It turns out Tasia has learned magic, as Joslyn remains a highly skilled sword master. Tasia however did learn some sword fighting from her, but isn't nearly as skilled.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Tasia is rescued from imprisonment after Linna and other surviving followers drug her guards.
• Tattooed Crook: Akella is a pirate captain who's described as having several tattoos, with the only visible ones usually those on the backs of her hands. This isn't related to being a pirate specifically though. Agessian rizalts (captains) all get more tattoos related to how brave they are.
• Telepathy: Tasia communicates with Joslyn by using this after learning magic. It helps them to silently coordinate their fight with an enemy.
• Their First Time: Tasia and Joslyn finally have sex together the first time in the latter half of the first book after heaps of sexual tension beforehand while taking a bath together.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Joslyn manages to hit Ty'Tsana with her Ku-sai's sword. It's explicitly mentioned not to work well though since it wasn't designed for this, but Joslyn doesn't need a killing blow with it, simply touching her so the shadow inside her gets expelled and she's weakened.
• Top God:
  • Father Mizzu is implied to be this for most people in the Empire, since he likely gets invoked most, and they believe he sets people's fates.
  • Coyote is the chief deity for the Terintan people. This is mentioned to be unusual, as generally the Trickster God is minor.
• Tragic Stillbirth: Tasia's baby is killed as a result of being stabbed in the stomach during an attempt on her life.
• Transparent Closet:
  • Tasia thinks her relationship with Mylla is a secret from everyone else. It turns out her bodyguard Joslyn quickly learned though, due to usually being in just the next room from them where she overheard the conversations the pair had. Being a lesbian herself could also possibly have helped, as Tasia learns later.
  • Joslyn and Tasia then keep their own relationship a secret from most people, due to their society at least being mildly homophobic. However, it turns out everyone who's a part of their inner circle knows this later, though no one holds it against them while respecting their privacy.
• Trickster God: Every region of the Empire has a different version. Gwydion, among people in the West, is cursed for plaguing them with minor pranks. The people of the Northeast believe Raven is a half-man, half-bird trickster god. People of the Central Steppes believe in the trickster Tayu. Terintans have Coyote. In their case, unusually, Coyote is the chief deity for them. Uncle Q'Util is god of the night sky along with a trickster in some people's beliefs as well.
• Truth Serum: The Wise Men have one to use when interrogating prisoners. However, it's possible for people to build up an immunity from ingesting it with increasing doses over time, which the assassin who targeted Tasia did. Norix, after being dosed with it, confesses that he'd assassinated the late Emperor Andereth along with others before framing Tasia as the murderer.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Tasia and Joslyn first have sex in the bath.
• Underground City: The small men turn out to live in a vast one named Xochitcyan which is big as the local human capitol, with most humans completely unaware that it even exists.
• Uptown Girl: Tasia, princess and heir to the Empire (later reigning Empress) becomes involved with her bodyguard Joslyn, a working class soldier who's from a tribe of desert nomads originally (she had also once been a slave).
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Brother Rennus, convinced by the deathless king that his realm is a utopia where no one dies and everyone lives in peace together, joins his side while recruiting more Brothers to the cause as well. After this, he tries to murder Tasia repeatedly, committing treason by doing so, and aids the mountain men's attacks, which kill many more Imperial soldiers with the goal of the deathless king ultimately conquering the world as they believe that this utopia will be spread over everything when that happens.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Beastwalkers can turn into animals, along with controlling them too.
• Vow of Celibacy: The Wise Men and Brothers both prohibit their members from marrying.
• Wall Bang Her: Tasia stands up against a tree near the camp while having sex with Joslyn in the woods nearby for their second encounter.
• Wandering Culture:
  • The Terintan desert nomads from Terinto, Joslyn's people, who travel constantly around as they herd their animals. Most everyone else in the Empire views them as superstitious barbarians, but also being tough warriors (which is true).
  • The tinkers are wanderers too, the name deriving from many men fixing things, but the women are fortune tellers. Many men are also traders.
• Weapon of X-Slaying:
  • Joslyn is given a magical spear for killing an undatai by the small men, since no ordinary weapon can do the deed.
  • Later, she gets her Ku-sai's sword, which will drive a shadow out of any host's body with just one cut.
• We Can Rule Together: The deathless king offers this to Tasia and Joslyn in book three, as he's very impressed by their skills. Both refuse him at once.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: The books make it clear that minor enemy guards and soldiers are still people who have their own lives, not just meaningless evil minions. As an example Adela, Tasia's younger sister, is distraught that Tasia and her rebel followers had to kill her guards while rescuing her from the palace, saying they were good men, one having a daughter her age. Tasia knows this and tries to avoid it, but they believed she's a murderer and traitor who was intent on harming her sister, so there was ultimately no other way.
• Willing Channeler:
  • Seers relate knowledge of the future through voluntarily channeling creatures of the Shadowlands when they drink tea made from horsetail mushroom.
  • The mountain men also voluntarily permit shadows to possess them, so their enhanced strength while doing so can be used in fighting the Empire.
  • Assassins from the Order of Targhan also all do this for the same reason as the mountain men.
  • Tasia lets a shadow inside her to defeat the deathless king in the final battle alongside Joslyn. However, temptation to use the power which this gives her soon nearly overwhelms her, and Joslyn has to expel it from her body.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Akella is impressed by how well Linna fights, while just fourteen, and privately admits being beaten in one of their sparring bouts was the first time she lost for years.
  • The deathless king also praises Joslyn and Tasia, citing the trope name, after he fights them. He offers that they can rule the world with him as a result (both refuse).
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child:
  • Joslyn knows the simplest way to stop other shadows from getting into the world is killing Milo, the boy who's the "gate" for them. She won't however as he's an innocent little boy and he had no choice about doing this, finding another way instead.
  • Akella may be a pirate, but she would never hurt a child, no matter what. The very idea that someone would infuriates her.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tasia is accused of staging attacks on herself to throw off suspicion and gain sympathy when she's tried for supposedly murdering her father. It's all lies however-they were genuine failed attacks by the people behind his murder.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Time flows very differently in Persepos compared with everywhere else. While there, people experience only a couple years. However, six years passed elsewhere.
• You No Take Candle: The small men speak in the human common tongue this way, with understandable though ungrammatical speech. Being the Little People who are very enigmatic they have limited contact with humanity, only trading occasionally.
• You're Insane!: The deathless king gives Joslyn an offer to rule the world with him. She scoffs at the idea, saying only madmen like him want that. Naturally, he brushes this off.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: In the Shadowlands, people can still be harmed due to this, but also harm others. Conversely, dream walkers also can heal, and change other things through the realization it's just a product of people's minds. The exception is Joslyn's sword, which can harm someone in the dreamworld equally as while waking due to its magic, no matter their power.

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