History Literature / TheWayfarerRedemption

** Timozel. He despises Axis for sleeping with his mother, which is fair. But what he despises him and later Borneheld most for is not giving him the respect and position of authority that Timozel thinks he deserves. Because of this and MindRape on the Dark Man[=/=][[spoiler: [=WolfStar=]]] and Gorgrael's part, Timozel chooses to ally with Gorgrael so he can finally have the position of authority that he thinks he deserves.
** This is Isfrael's modius operandi from the start of Pilgrim until his death in Crusader. It goes horribly.

** Timozel resents Axis from the start of the books, at first it was just because Axis was occasionally lovers with his mother, then because [[ItsAllAboutMe Axis didn't "appreciate his talents" and because of his ego]]. Then over time it just gets worse and worse.

* TheResenter: Timozel resents Axis from the start of the books, at first it was just because Axis was occasionally lovers with his mother, then because [[ItsAllAboutMe Axis didn't "appreciate his talents" and because of his ego]]. Then over time it just gets worse and worse.

[[InAWorld In a world]] of all kinds of incest, we follow our protagonists on an inspiring, at times horrifying, and at times depressingly morally gray adventure. In this case, adventure means everyone had a crappy as hell day. Our first protagonist is [[HandsomeLech Axis SunSoar]], who is a member of a military order called the Axe Wielders, which is a part of a religion called the Way of the Plow. The leaders of such, the Brothers of the Seneschal believe that The Forbidden who live in the north are evil, nasty monsters, TheHeartless at their finest. There is even a recorded history showing the tyranny and evil of the Forbidden. After a glorious revolution, the Seneschal overthrew their dark masters and sent them into dark forests and mountains...

The Forbidden are really decent people, but one group of them, the Icarii, have wings, and the Avar have horns. They have magic music. And that glorious revolution was a Moral Event Horizon crossing for the Seneschal, who chopped down whole forests of habitats for the Avar and all 'round every human in those "glorious" wars of the axe were bastards. Nowadays, Axis is slowly learning his secret past. After assuming leadership of his new people, he has to fight his evil half-brother Borneheld, and uncover mysteries such as about [=WolfStar=], a heretic Icarii combo platter of the Magnificent Bastard, Complete Monster and Mad Scientist tropes. And, of course, deal with the Big Bad, another evil half-brother. This one is called Gorgrael, and he has an absolutely ''lovely'' prophecy to go with him.

Originally from Australia, where these were two separate book trilogies. In America TOR merged them into a six book saga.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted, they're as flawed as humans. The Icarii are arrogant and overly on the Star Dance and once they lose it, they have a lot of trouble just doing daily tasks. And the Avar as a whole denounce violence but are still a violent race who test toddlers to find out if they have the potential to be a Bane with a sometimes fatal tests and they often perform blood sacrifices. The Avar especially are often called out for being [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] [[SuicidalPacifist suicidal pacifists]].

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: [[spoiler: Both [=WolfStar=] and [=StarLaughter's=] final fates see them both banned from entering The Garden for their heinous crimes, forcing them together in death in the cold void.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Caelum. When interacting with someone he likes, he's mostly polite and reasonable. [[spoiler:But put him in the same room as Drago or Zared at the end of ''Sinner'' and he'll turn into a massive prick without hesitation. He even killed [=RiverStar=], his sister, because she claimed to be pregnant and was going to blackmail him, then implanted FalseMemories into Drago to frame him for the murder.]]

* BlessedWithSuck: So you're born into the [=SunSoar=] family? Congratulations, due to the father of your race cursing your ancestor in exchange for giving the Icarii the gift of flight, you can't find everlasting happiness in a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone outside of your family. And since the Icarii don't have a great birthrate, you're unlikely to have anyone for a very long time, if at all. You ''could'' be with someone outside of your family, but it will never last.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Avar as a whole have a strange morality system. They claim to be total pacifists and reject anyone who has murdered another, even in self-defense, but engage in horrific and nauseating blood rituals that make the other races highly uneasy.

** Deconstructed with Axis because of his many flaws that causes quite a few problems up until the end of Crusader. Plus once he fulfilled the prophecy and united the land, he abandoned it to go do his own thing, which caused a ton of problems. [[spoiler: Also the fact he was only chosen because [=WolfStar=] manipulated history to make him a chosen one.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler: Azhure watched her mother die be murdered at the hands of her father at age 5 and was physically abused by him for over twenty years.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Raspu, one of the Timekeeper Demons, turns when he is challenged to act as a butler of a household for a period of time as part of the conflict between the Demons and the defenders of Tencendor. He cracks under the sheer weight of the responsibility, begs for another chance, and basically ends up becoming ''the doorman of heaven''.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Azhure describes the entire Icarii race as this, stating that while at heart they can be good people, they're also really arrogant and are horrible at friendship.

** Borneheld. Throughout the first two books he's shown to be short tempered and quick to hurl abuse at anyone as well as desperate to outshine Axis and is nothing but a jackass to him to the point that he would happily let him die just to feel better about himself. Then from there, he turns into a massively abusive husband towards Faraday (He did try to be a good husband at first) who openly insults and abuses her without remorse in public and constantly cheats on her and has the King who is his uncle murdered because he might be considering allying with Axis. From there, Borneheld only gets worse until his dual to the death against Axis.

* MagneticHero: Axis. His charisma and natural Icarii grace enable him to win the hearts and loyalty of many throughout the series and is one of his greatest weapons, as he is a fantastic public speaker.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Axis' reaction to how he treated Azhure at the end of Enchanter when he thought she was [=WolfStar=] and invaded her mind to find out her secrets. He never stops regretting that and makes sure to make things right as best as he can.

* PrinciplesZealot: The Avar are called out on being suicidally pacifistic as well as hypocritical due to their obsessive hatred for any form of violence, including violence performed in self-defense, while they rely on brutal and gory animal sacrifice rituals to appease their god, The Mother.

* RomanticFalseLead: Strangely enough, Axis and Faraday are this for one another in the original trilogy. Axis marries Azhure who he has fallen in love with over the events of Enchanter and is destined to be with. In the second trilogy, Faraday ends up with Axis' son Drago due to being resurrected and still being physically in her early 20s.

** Faraday towards Axis for not telling her about Azhure and Caelum because she found out about them during the ceremony that recreated Tencendor and felt deeply humiliated and insulted by Axis' continual promising to marry her when it was obvious he wanted to marry Azhure. This betrayal haunts Axis during [=StarMan=], so he did infact feel bad about it and tries to apologize for it.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted, they're as flawed as humans. The Icarii are arrogant and overly on the Star Dance and once they lose it, they have a lot of trouble just doing daily tasks. And the Avar as a whole denounce violence but are still a violent race who test toddlers to find out if they have the potential to be a Bane with a sometimes fatal tests and they often perform blood sacrifices. The Avar especially are often called out for being [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical.]]

* TheDarkChick: [=StarLaughter=], in addition to being one nasty piece of work.

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Skraelings.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As Zared points out to both Axis and Caelum, the pointless civil war and half of the events of Sinner could have been avoided if Caelum had taken the chance to trust in Zared and allow him to recreate a ceremonial throne of Achar to allow the Acharites to have the pride of a ruler like the Icarii, Avar and Ravensbund people do. And it'd still be completely under the domain of the House of the Stars and if it went badly, Caelum or his descendants could have stopped it.
** The whole plot of the first trilogy could have been avoided if [[spoiler: [=WolfStar=] hadn't manipulated everyone into going along with his prophecy.]]

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Isfrael betrays the protagonists in Crusader to Qeteb and the demons and reveals the existance of the Sacred Groves to them. He's killed by Qeteb once he invades the Sacred Groves.]]

* BringMyBrownPants: Faraday gets a case of this when she witnesses the return of the Time Keeper demons firsthand. A front row seat to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt will do that to you.
* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Caelum and [=RiverStar=].]] Incest is actually a curse of the [=SunSoar=] family in general, but it's normally at least a few relatives removed, with relationships between cousins or grandparent/grandchild pairings being common. [=FreeFall=] and [=EvenSong=] are a primary example of this.
** It is stated that parent/child and sibling/sibling relationships are forbidden due to being Unclean, everything else is fair game so long as both members of the relationship consent.

* CainAndAbel: Drago and Caelum, with Drago initially as Cain when they were babies. As [=DragonStar=], he plotted with Gorgrael to dispose of Caelum so that [=DragonStar=] could be [=StarSon=], which Azhure foiled and then disinherited [=DragonStar=] of his Icarii heritage and name. In the second trilogy, it's Caelum who is the Cain and is more then eager to have Drago killed. They eventually reconcile.

* GoodIsNotNice: Axis, Caelum, Isfrael, and the Avar race as a whole.

* [[GoodIsNotNice Light Is Not Nice]]: All Icarii are capable of this due to their arrogance, so are the Avar.

* CoolHorse: Belaguez, Axis' horse. UpToEleven in the second trilogy, when he is brought back from senility and becomes [=DragonStar's=] Star Mount.

** Axis and Azhure are this to Drago[=/=][=DragonStar=] until the events of ''Crusader''. They also weren't exactly saints towards their daughters [=RiverStar=] and Zenith, either, and might be part of the reason the former was such an unpleasant person growing up (knowing your parents will never look at you with the same favour as their firstborn from ''infancy'' can't be pleasant to deal with). Not to mention being fine and dandy with [[spoiler:Niah taking over Zenith's body.]] ''And'' they clearly favored Caelum the most as first born to the point that he became ''incorrigibly'' arrogant and a SmugSnake.
*** Luckily they eventually realized that they screwed up big time as parents in the second trilogy, even if it was too late to do anything about it by then.
** Hagen is this to Azhure, primarily physically abusive. The worst of it is listed on the Nightmare Fuel page.

* AerithAndBob: There's Axis, Gilbert, Judith, Jayme, and Jack ... and also Azhure, Rivkah, Faraday, Borneheld, and any of the Icarii names.
** The more unusually-named people tend to be nobility or of a different race.

* BearsAreBadNews: For Qeteb that is, who gets the most humiliating death of the series: eaten by a bear named [[ThePowerOfLove Love]].

* BloodKnight: Axis is this in a way. While he's not itching for a fight, he seems to be happiest in a fight or when he's actually doing something, due to being a man of action.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted, they're as flawed as humans, the Icarii are arrogant and overely on the Star Dance and once they lose it, they have alot of trouble just doing daily tasks. And the Avar as a whole denounce violence but are still a violent race who test toddlers to find out if they have the potential to be a Bane with a sometimes fatal test and they often perform blood sacrifices.

** Deconstructed with Axis because of his many flaw that causes quite a few problems up until the end of Crusader. Plus once he fulfilled the prophecy and united the land, he abandoned it to go do his own thing, which caused a ton of problems. [[spoiler: Also the fact he was only chosen because [=WolfStar=] manipulated history to make him a chosen one.]]

* CoolHorse: Belaguez
** UpToEleven in the second trilogy.

* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: The Gatekeeper.
** [[spoiler: Urbeth]] Possibly qualifies.

** Timozel. He despises Axis for sleeping with his mother, which is fair. But what he despises him and later Borneheld most for is not giving him the respect and position of authority that Timozel thinks he deserves. Because of this and some manipulation on the Dark Man[=/=][[spoiler: [=WolfStar=]]] and Gorgrael's part, Timozel chooses to ally with Gorgrael so he can finally have the position of authority that he thinks he deserves.

** Caelum also counts. When interacting with Zenith or someone he likes, he's mostly polite and reasonable. But put him in the same room as Drago or Zared at the end of Sinner and he'll turn into a massive prick without hesitation. [[spoiler: He even killed the sister he was sleeping with because she claimed to be pregnant and was going to blackmail him.]]

* PhysicalGod: [[spoiler:Axis and Azhure are discovered to be the Star Gods of Song and Moon, respectively.]]

** Axis. Despite his capacity for cruelty and less likable actions like trying to have both Faraday and Azhure share him, he is still a compassionate man who gives as many chances as he can to people to join him if they do so loyally and is a FatherToHisMen who grieves for every man who dies under his commmand.

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Axis and Azhure are discovered to be the Star Gods of Song and Moon, respectively.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Rivkah and Leagh in the Axis Trilogy and Wayfarer Redemption respectfully. Their status as a Princess of Achar and Tencendor respectively plays an important part in a protagonist's role in the story.

* AbusiveParents: Axis and Azhure are this to Drago[=/=][=DragonStar=] until the events of ''Crusader''.
** Though not as bad, they weren't exactly saints towards their daughters [=RiverStar=] and Zenith, either, and might be part of the reason the former was such an unpleasant person growing up (knowing your parents will never look at you with the same favour as their firstborn from ''infancy'' can't be pleasant to deal with). Not to mention being fine and dandy with [[spoiler:Niah taking over Zenith's body.]] ''And'' they clearly favored Caelum the most as first born to the point that he became ''incorrigibly'' arrogant and a SmugSnake.

** Hagen is one to Azhure.
* ActionGirl: Azhure is one of these and it's one of the many things that Axis is attracted to about her.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The [=SunSoars=], and how! Most prominently [=StarDrifter=] and ''especially'' [=WolfStar=].
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The Timekeeper Demons are defeated and erased from the universe, but Tencendor is destroyed and everyone dies. On the bright side, eternity in a afterlife of everlasting happiness can't be too bad.]]
* BlessedWithSuck: So you're born into the [=SunSoar=] family? Congratulations, due to the father of your race cursing your ancestor in exchange for giving the Icarii the gift of flight, you can't find everlasting happiness with anyone outside of your family. And since the Icarii don't have a great birthrate, you're unlikely to have anyone for a very long time, if at all.
** You ''could'' be with someone outside of your family, but it will never last.

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Caelum and [=RiverStar=].]] Incest is actually a curse of the [=SunSoar=] family in general, but it's normally at least a few relatives removed (apparently cousin/cousin and grandparent/grandchild pairings are common.
** It is stated that parent/child and sibling/sibling relationships are forbidden though, everything else is fair game so long as both members of the relationship consent.
* BroughtDownToNormal:[[spoiler: The Star Gods and the Icarii Enchanters all lose their powers due to the Timekeeper Demons.]]
* CainAndAbel: Drago and Caelum.

* [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling The Old Woman Out]]: Zenith calls out Azhure for her and Axis's ParentalFavoritism, recalling how they pampered Caellum and left not only Drago, but herself and [=RiverStar=] feeling neglected. Azhure takes it and admits fault.

* ChosenOne: Axis then Drago.
** Arguably deconstructed with Axis because of his many flaws that causes quite a few problems up until the end of Crusader and his uniting the land and then going off to his own thing. [[spoiler: Also the fact he was only chosen because [=WolfStar=] manipulated history to make him a chosen one.]]
** Interestingly enough, Drago [[RefusalOfTheCall tries to refuse being the Chosen One]] for most of Pilgrim when he becomes TheAtoner, much to the frustration of Faraday and many others, but then it's revealed why. [[spoiler: In order for Drago to succeed, Caelum needs to be believed by the Timekeepers to be the [=StarSon=] and killed by them and Drago already feels massive guilt for how he treated Caelum in the past.]] It's not until Caelum and Drago finally talk about everything and come to terms with it all that Drago finally accepts the role.

* EvilOverlord: Gorgrael
** Qeteb.

* ForTheEvulz: Gorgrael's motivations, and this also applies to Qeteb and the Timekeepers to a degree. Qeteb just really really '''hates''' everything.
** Qeteb is the ''embodiment of destruction''! Of ''course'' he hates everything - his sole purpose for existing is to destroy and destroy until everything in all of creation is gone.

* HeroKiller: The Timekeeper Demons.

* ItsAllAboutMe: This is Isfrael's modius operandi from the start of Pilgrim until his death in Crusader.

** The [=TimeKeepers=] bring this about.
* MagneticHero: Axis. His charisma and natural Icarii grace enable him to win the hearts and loyalty of many throughout the series and is one of his greatest weapons as he is a fantastic public speaker.

* ManipulativeBastard: [=WolfStar=] and to a lesser extent [=StarLaughter=].

* MindRape: Happens to anyone who happens to be outside when the [=TimeKeepers=] have their hours, [[spoiler: unless you're a Acharite who died and was ressurected]]. Also happens to Timozel and Zenith in unrelated circumstances.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Isfrael, you really didn't need to tell Qeteb about the Sacred Groves.
** Considering he thought he'd actually get away with it, it crosses over with TooDumbToLive.

** Axis has ''two'' Cains to his Abel, both half-brothers at that - Borneheld on his mother's side, and Gorgrael on his fathers. [[spoiler:His mother later has another son with a different father - Zared, with whom he's on good terms generally speaking, but who sometimes makes Axis ''himself'' look like a Cain due to his Jerkassery, something he gets called out for multiple times.]]

** One could argue that [=WolfStar=] is this, despite the fact that he's a manipulative ass and all of the horrific stuff he's done and all of the death he's responsible for during the series, he does have a heart and seems to genuinely love his daughter Azhure and grandson Caelum and did everything he could to save Tencendor. [[spoiler: Averted hard in the second trilogy, where it turns out [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk he was really just pretending to care to curry favour with them.]]]]

The Forbidden are really decent people, but one group of them, the Icarii, have wings, and the Avar have horns. They have magic music. And that glorious revolution was a Moral Event Horizon crossing for the Seneschal, who chopped down whole forests of habitats for the Avar and all 'round every human in those "glorious" wars of the axe were bastards. Nowadays, Axis is slowly learning his secret past, plus the fact that he is actually [[spoiler: a "Forbidden" himself, which shakes his faith irreversibly.]] After assuming leadership of his new people, he has to fight his evil half-brother [[JerkassWoobie Borneheld]], and uncover mysteries such as about [=WolfStar=], a heretic Icarii combo platter of the Magnificent Bastard, Complete Monster and Mad Scientist tropes. And, of course, deal with the Big Bad, another evil half-brother. This one is called Gorgrael, and he has an absolutely ''lovely'' prophecy to go with him.

Also included is an [[EnfantTerrible evil baby]] named [=DragonStar=], who grows up to be [[spoiler:completely awesome]], Caelum, the "Abel" to [=DragonStar=]'s "Cain", who grows up to be [[spoiler:an absolutely loathsome Smug Snake who bangs his sister and arranges her murder and then clumsily throws it on Drago.]]

* {{Badass}}: Axis throughout the entire series, Azhure definitely counts too once she TookALevelInBadass.

** One could argue that [=WolfStar=] is this, despite the fact that he's a manipulative ass and all of the horrific stuff he's done and all of the death he's responsible for during the series, he does have a heart and seems to genuinely love his daughter Azhure and grandson Caelum and did everything he could to save Tencendor.