Literature / The Others Series

The Others is an Urban Fantasy series by Anne Bishop, with five books in the main series and an additional two books in the same universe as of May 2020. The Terra Indigene who rule the continent of Thaisia have an extremely uneasy truce with the humans who crossed the ocean to settle there. Simon Wolfgarde is running the Lakeside Courtyard as an experiment to see if, by opening their businesses to humans, they can improve relationships. The arrival of Meg Corbyn has the potential to destroy everything, but Simon and the other residents of the Courtyard eventually come to the conclusion that Meg is theirs to protect.

The first book, Written in Red, is primarily focused on the Lakeside Courtyard and the upheaval that occurs when The Others accept Meg Corbyn, a mysterious woman on the run from an unknown organization, into their home. Murder of Crows expands the story by introducing the Humans First and Last movement, who are actively killing the Crowgard were-crows to prevent the Others from keeping an eye on their plans, and Vision in Silver shows the tragedies that will inevitably lead to all-out war between Human and Other. The climax comes in Marked in Flesh, when Humans First and Last declare war on the Others, and the Elders retaliate in kind, with Etched in Bone dealing with the aftermath, both personal and large scale, of the 'war' between the terra indigene and humans.

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This book series provides examples of:

• All for Nothing: The actions of Humans First and Last, from the cutting off/hoarding of vital supplies to cause food shortages and turn the public sentiment against the Others, having wealthy backers sell their jewellery as part of an insurance scam (and then blaming the Others for the theft), to acts of terrorism, to outright declaring war against them and massacring entire packs of Wolfgard, both adults and pups, was meant to bring more land under human control for farming and exploitation. Instead, they incurred the wrath of those Terra Indigene who are known as 'Namid's teeth and claws'. Which as it turns out is what happens every time humans try to 'take what is not theirs'. See Broken Masquerade and Curb-Stomp Battle below.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Humans First and Last believe that the Terra Indigene are nothing but very smart animals who happen to be able to mimic human form, not realising that they also include the Elementals, who are capable of annihilating entire landmasses (there is a mini-Philippines called the Storm Islands where Central America should be, guess how that happened...) and the Elders, an entire class of essentially Physical God embodiments of the concept of an apex predator, who may or may not have wiped out the dinosaurs. The Sanguinati and Harvesters also count to a lesser extent.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Elders, the 'old forms' of terra indigene who make the 'big picture' decisions for the Others, are this. We aren't given any detailed descriptions of what they look like, other than that they are (usually) quadrupedal, invisible, may be hybrids of different animals, and have no sympathy for humans. The term most commonly used to describe them is 'Namid's Teeth and Claws'.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Crowgard naturally. Blood Prophets tend to be easily overwhelmed by disruptions to their routine due to the manner in which they are raised, which can also lead to inability to concentrate or react quickly when overwhelmed by new things. While Crowgard love shinies, many Blood Prophets finds it distressing.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Who's the bad guy — the non-humans willing to murder humans for even the smallest offense, or the humans who refuse to follow the laws laid down by the Others when they settled on their continent? The answer are the groups who are sending all resources and food overseas, forcing shortages and trying to get humanity to rise up against the "original inhabitants."
• Blood Magic: The Cassandra Sangue. They can see the future when they're cut deep enough to bleed.
• Broken Masquerade: Played With, the general public already knew that the Terra Indigene existed, but the nature of human-Other interaction means that virtually no one knew that the Elders and Elementals existed until they OBLITERATED the Humans First and Last movement and 'culled' the human population in the process.
  Cities couldn't afford to waste land on the dead when the living needed every acre that they were grudgingly permitted to lease from the terra indigene who ruled the continent.
  Who ruled the world. They had smashed and torn that harsh truth into humans around the world...Instead of gaining anything from the war, humans had lost ground-literally. Cities had been destroyed or were no longer under human control. People were running to anyplace they thought could provide safety, thinking that the larger cities were less vulnerable to what the Others could do. In that, too, humans were wrong. The destruction of so much of Toland, a large human-controlled city on the East Coast, should have taught people that much.
• Cast from Lifespan: Supposedly, the Cassandra Sangue only have a certain number cuts before they die. Cutting themselves allows them to speak prophecy, but at a cost.
• Category Traitor: Dubbed "Wolf lovers" by the HFL. Lieutenant Montgomery is seen as one because he killed a human to save a Wolfgard child.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Two characters quickly stand out:
  • Erebus Sanguinati, the leader of the Sanguinati. Affects classic vampire dress, loves old movies, will act hard-of-hearing towards armed gunmen. In this case he affects the mannerisms, but is actually quite savvy.
  • Skippy, a wolfgard juvenile who's brain 'skips' over things.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Basically what the controllers do to Jean and any Cassandra Sangue that they have no more use for.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In a back and forth sort of way; the majority of Terra Indigene shifters are virtually defenceless against humans armed with the equivalent of early-mid 20th century firearms, leading to the HFL thinking that they can take what they want from the Others. Even the Sanguinati and Harvesters like Tess are vulnerable to human weaponry. However, once the Elders and Elementals get involved, humanity inevitably loses, hard. This is made clear during the Great Predation at the end of Marked in Flesh.
  • It is mentioned in Murder of Crows that this has happened before, to the equivalents of the Mayans or Aztecs.
    No one spoke. Then Vlad stirred. "Did you know that the islands that comprise the western Storm Islands used to be a single body of land that linked Thaisia to Felidae?"
    "No, I didn't know that" Monty said. "What happed to it?"
    "The humans who lived there began a war with the terra indigene. They had been given part of that land as a human cradle. They wanted it all. Now they have less. And every year, the storms sweep in and remind them of why they have less."
• Declaration of Protection: To the shock of everyone in the Lakeside Courtyard, Erebus Sanguinati extends his informal protection to Meg after she goes to the trouble of personally delivering a parcel he has been waiting for for several months.
  "He has decreed that the sweet blood may enter the Chambers to deliver packages, that the Sanguinati will do nothing to harm or frighten the sweet blood within the Chambers or anywhere else in the Courtyard...he's made it clear what he expects from his own as far as Meg is concerned"
  • After discussing whether to hand over Meg to the authorities after the Controller has the police issue wanted posters claiming Meg stole something valuable (i.e, escaped from her enslavement), Simon has this message for Sergeant Montgomery.
    Simon: "I talked to the members of the Business Association, and we all agree that while the woman in the wanted poster bears a strong resemblance to our Liaison, they are not the same person''
    "Furthermore," Simon continued, "it seems the police are not the only ones who have made that mistake. Late Watersday night, someone tried to break in to the efficiency apartments we keep over the seamstress/tailor's shop...We have, of course, taken precautions. Meg Corbyn is now residing in the Green Comples, where safe access is only possible by prior arrangement. I live there. So does Vladimir Sanguinati and Henry Beargard."
    Message understood. No one who tried to reach Meg Corbyn when she was asleep or otherwise vulnerable would survive.
  • This is compounded when the ''elementals'' extend their protection to Meg as well. This is made apparent when they start referring to her as ' our Meg '.
    "Our Meg is going to stay, isn't she?" Winter asked, sliding a look at Elliot that chilled the air. "My sisters and I would be unhappy is someone made her leave."
• Elemental Embodiment: The series introduces a number of elementals, from weather patterns (in the form of ponies) to the Atlantic Ocean herself.
• Fantastic Ghetto: Inverted and Subverted in equal measure, the Courtyards may be the designated area for the Terra Indigene to live in human cities, but they are essentially small towns/villages surrounded by mini-nature preserves or national parkland, and serve as the Terra Indigene presence in the actual 'ghettos', the human cities. This is because unlike the usual narrative of settlers forcing natives to live on reservations, here the natives have confined the settlers within set boundaries, leading to resentment towards the Others.
• Fantastic Racism: Going both ways, humans against Others and Other against humans. Much of the story is dedicated to the main characters overcoming it for mutual survival.
  • From the human perspective, the Others are greedy, selfish animals who hoard land that could be used to grow crops and raise livestock, and make no use whatsoever of the minerals and other natural resources such as oil under that ground. Humans are kept in (by modern standards) small areas of land where rationing is required to prevent starvation and recycling is compulsory to an extent that would make most Real Life environmentalists green with envy, which are in turn surrounded by oceans of 'Wild Country', where if you are caught outside after dark or wander too far from the designated 'human places', you will be eaten. And the same applies to the Courtyards, which often take up enough land to grow food for 1/4-1/3 of the city itself, and are used for seemingly nothing other than giving the terra indigene a nice place to run around in.
  • The Others, for their part, see humans as the ultimate invasive species. Many openly refer to humans as monkeys, (a slur first used by the Liongard, which spread to the Thaisian Others when they first saw pictures of monkeys), and have no problems with eating them for trespassing on Terra Indigene land. The general sentiment among the others is that Humans will always lie or attempt to deflect blame, and cannot be trusted to follow the rules the Others have set. Humans are seen as little more than 'clever meat', only worth keeping around for the goods that they produce. This view is demonstrated by Simon when he is explaining the duties of a Human Liaison to Meg (though he begins to change his mind after getting to know Meg and other humans better).
    "Get this into your head, Meg Corbyn. We don't let humans live in our part of the world because we like you. We let you live here because you can be useful, and you've invented things that we like having. If it wasn't for that, you'd all be nothing but meat. Which is something you should remember."
• Fantasy World Map: There are maps in the books which have notes underneath them reading, "This map was created by a geographically challenged author. All distances are whimsical and subject to change without notice."
• Fire-Forged Friends: As the humans who work for the Others in the Courtyard, and those who work around it, like the police, become more and more entangled with them, they help each other survive various trials, to the point that it is influencing the Elders entire policy of whether humans should be allowed in Thaisia at all.
  Simon: Do you know why those earth natives are waiting to make that decision, Lieutenant? Because we changed things. Because Officer MacDonald died trying to save a Crow. Because you have helped us. Because this Courtyard, unlike any other, has a human pack. Because Steve Ferryman and the residents of Great Island want more of a partnership with the terra indigene.
  He looked at Burke.
  "This Courtyard. Your police officers. The humans in Ferryman's Landing. We are all that's preventing the extinction of humans in Thaisia."
• Gilded Cage: Supposedly, the Cassandra Sangue live in luxury at the compounds. In reality, they're bady abused. Imprisoned, have their bodies sold, and are tortured if they don't obey.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Tess is a monster known as a Harvester. There's one other who's known to inhabit a Courtyard. Although they kill with their gaze, they don't turn people to stone. That would be too easy. They're the monsters who the other monsters are terrified of. It might be because her method of feeding leaves the victim weakened from just a look, followed by the distinct sensation that it's raining inside your skull. The bodies are disturbing for those who've stumbled upon the victim of a Harvester.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: Both sides in the impending conflict see it as such:
  • The Humans First and Last Movement views their taking of Terra Indigene land, preceded by the slaughter of much of the Wolfgard in Thasia and a much of the Other population on the borders of Cel-Romano, as taking what humanity deserves and the multiple war crimes they commit doing so as this, illustrated by the below quote, which puts one in mind of a Nazi rally:
    Nicholas Scratch: As humans it is our right, our destiny, to claim the world for ourselves. We must display the fortitude needed to wrest the land away from animals who hoard water and land, who have no use for resources such as timer and oil, who make no contributions to art or science or better living conditions for anyone. We cannot become the supreme beings we were meant to be as long as we allow animals to frighten us into believing we have to submit to the boundaries they set. The human race has no boundaries. If we stand together, we will be invincible. We will be the masters, and the world will belong to us first, last, and forever.
  • The greater, ruling forms of Terra Indigene see their reprisal for the killing of the Wolfgard as this, not helped by their view that humans are an invasive species, leading to the absolute annihilation of the HFL movement and a good 50-90% of the human population:
    Words became thoughts conveyed as a wind that riffled the surface of lakes; as a taste in grass; as the smoke rising from a short lived natural fire. Those thoughts, those ideas, moved swiftly to the north, the south, the west, the east....Then, for just a moment, an odd and terrible silence formed a skin over the whole world. Then it was gone, leaving behind the answer.
    Distraction
    Diversion
    Destruction of the true prey
    Thin the herds
• Here There Be Dragons: In the fourth book the embodiment of the Atlantik gets involved. She fondly reminisces of the time period when map-makers labeled her domain with the script "Here be Monsters", and then adds that they should resume labeling the maps as such before laying down the rules by which humanity must abide by if they expect to have any ocean-going vessels survive passage through her domain.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Elementals, Harvesters and Sanguinati are all humanoid, and in the case of the latter two can pass for human. But the Sanguinati have fangs and an 'aura' that makes it apparent that they are predators, while Harvesters have multi-coloured hair that changes with their mood and writhes and coils like a snake when they are agitated to say nothing for what happens when their hair turns black. The Elementals, meanwhile, seem human at a distance, save for strange hair colours. But up close, they are described as being impossible to mistake for human.

• Living McGuffin: Meg and the Cassandra Sangue. Many people are willing to kill for their prophesies, and the Others fight to protect them.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Terra Indigene Elders see the Humans First and Last movements' slaughter of the Wolfgard as this, resulting in their decision to 'thin the human herds', leading to the outright annihilation of a good chunk of Thasias' population.
• Mysterious Waif: Meg, a small and weak young woman with strange mystical powers, appears on the Courtyard's doorstep and kicks off the story.
• Nice Guy: Lieutenant Montgomery is this, having saved a Wolfgard child from a serial killer/pederast. The rest of the city didn't think so, as the child reacted to being freed by killing and eating his former captor once the Lieutenant's back was turned. The lieutenant was upset to discover that the suspect had been eaten, but stood by his rescuing the child.
• Our Monsters Are Different: For starters, none of the Others are human in any way. They started out as nightmares which took on the appearance of predators, and then added the appearance of humans when they discovered we were the best predator other than them.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Terra Indigene vampires have none of the weaknesses common in other vampire books. One of the few ways they're vulnerable is when they turn into mist (to feed, travel, or observe), where a glass jar can be used to hold part of their bodies.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: If an animal is a predator or a scavenger, there's a group of Others that have taken their shape. The Courtyard has a large number of Crowgard and Hawkgard; there's also Jester, the were-coyote, and Henry, the were-bear.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Most Wolfgard stay in wolf form as much as possible. The leaders of Lakeside's Courtyard have to spend a great deal of time in human form, either to communicate with humans or to use human tools, but it's obvious to everyone that they're wolves first and foremost — especially because of their amber eyes.
• Papa Wolf: Simon Wolfgard feels this way about his nephew Sam. Lieutenant Montgomery is protective of his daughter Lizzy.
• Protectorate: Simon and his Courtyard will do anything to protect Meg, and the police will help them. Pity the poor fool who goes after her.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Burke fills this role for Lieutenant Montgomery, taking him under his wing when Montgomery is transferred to Lakeside city, and putting him in charge of a special detachment to liaise with the Other in light of . Lieutenant Montgomery himself fills this role with his new subordinates, generally respecting the experience and knowledge of the cops who've been working at the precinct since before his transfer to Lakeside.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Montgomery's assignment to Lakeside as a result of the Category Traitor incident is partly this, and partly the hope that it was a sign that he's well-suited to negotiating with terra indigene.
• Self-Harm: Cutting to produce a prophesy is euphoric and addicting to the Cassandra Sangue. Most die young from being overzealous in their cutting and bleeding to death.
• The Ingenue: Cassandra Sangue are called "Sweet Blood" by the Sanguinati because they retain childlike innocence throughout their lifetimes.
• Uncanny Valley: While many of the non-shifter terra indigene evoke this response, such as the Harvesters and Elementals, it is the Other's reaction to the Cassandra Sangue that best fits this trope. They are weak, frail human females who don't smell like prey. This mystifies all of the Terra Indigene, as they automatically regard all other humans as just deer on two legs. It is this lack of immediate assessment of Meg as a potential snack that opens the way for the Others of the Lakeside Courtyard to 'adopt' her, and eventually see their human employees as something other than food or useful assets.
• Wham Line: After granting certain humans sanctuary within his courtyard, convincing other Terra Indigene to help free the Blood Prophets from their compounds and then sending them to live in Terra Indigene across the continent, as well as an unprecedented degree of liaison and cooperation with the Lakeside police force, Simon receives a call from the Terra Indigene who actually make decisions for the whole of Thaisia. Suffice to say, he spends the next few hours in a cold sweat.
  "The sweet blood has changed things. You have changed because of her. We are intrigued by the humans who have gathered around your Courtyard, so we will give you some time to decide how much human the terra indigene ''will keep"''

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