Literature / Their Bright Ascendancy

Shizuka and Shefali: Goddesses, Empresses, Wives

Their Bright Ascendancy is a series by K. Arsenault Rivera set in a fictional fantasy world inspired by East Asia. O-Shizuka is the privileged empress of Hokkaro, and as a child she was bound by fate to Shefali, the quiet daughter of the leader of the nomadic Qorin people. Both of them were born with two pine needles marking their brows, and both of them are destined to be gods. North of Hokkaro is the Wall of Flowers, the only thing keeping the Traitor God from invading into the land of the living, and whatever else happens, it is Shizuka and Shefali's fate to go north and face him. While it is a fantasy epic, it is primarily a love story between the two women.

The first book, The Tiger's Daughter, is a hybrid-epistolary novel that tells the story of how Shefali and O-Shizuka met, became friends and, eventually, lovers, told through a letter written by Shefali to Shizuka, now Empress many years after they last parted.

The second book, The Phoenix Empress, picks up where The Tiger's Daughter left off, reuniting Shefali and O-Shizuka, and diving into O-Shizuka's story of what happened to her while they were separated while also progressing the present-day narrative of Shefali's fight against her affliction.

The third book, The Warrior Moon, continues where The Phoenix Empress left off, with Shefali and Shizuka's army's march across the Wall, with narratives from other characters occuring in the interrim, especially Sakura, Otgar, and Baoyi.

The main books in the series are

1. The Tiger's Daughter
2. The Phoenix Empress
3. The Warrior Moon

A short story was published along with The Tiger's Daughter, and more short stories are forthcoming

• An Excerpt from the Poet Prince, O-Itsuki's Unfinished Memoir
• Sixteen Swords (forthcoming)

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Tropes present in this series:

• Action Girl: Shizuka and Shefali both.
• The Alcoholic: After everything Shizuka endured, between losing her wife and suffering through war, she's developed an addiction.
• Alien Blood: The Blackblood and demons who serve the Traitor have oily black blood that turns those afflicted into monsters and bends them to the Traitor's will.
• All Myths Are True: Everything about Minami Shiori and Tumenbayar is true, to an extent. Even what's contradictory is true, because what's true is that Minami Shiori and Tumenbayar were real women, and their godhood eclipsed their real lives.

• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: Shizuka is prone to this when anyone insults Shefali or the Qorin. She doesn't need to state her title most times, as most people already know who she is, but when some traveling guards don't recognize her and don't take her oath of honor that the Qorin won't harm anyone at face value, she puts them soundly in their place.
• Animal Motif: Shefali with wolves ^Spoiler Qorin myth claims humans and wolves are related; she can shapeshift into a wolf, is named Empress Wolf by Shizuka (who doesn't know about the shapeshifting), and gains several wolf-like features in her human form, such as claws, pointed teeth, and an excellent sense of smell.. Foxes around Shizuka ^Spoilers Her ancestor, Minami Shiori, saved the first emperor from a Fox Woman, an ancestral ghost (probably of Minami Shiori) appears to her in a fox mask, and her wife uses a fox-faced war mask to conceal her affliction..
• An Arm and a Leg: Shefali loses her eye to the demons.
• Arranged Marriage: Alshara arranges her own marriage as part of a peace treaty; her and her husband see each other for long enough to have two children and that's it. Shizuka spends much of her teenage years trying to avoid one.
• Asleep for Days: When Shefali is infected with the blackblood.
• Attackpattern Alpha: Most military formations in both Hokkaran and Xianese forces have names; learning which ones are best for which situations is a big part of Shizuka's growth as a commander.
• Author Appeal: K Arsenault Rivera is an admitted huge fan of East Asian culture and Japanese anime in particular, and Revolutionary Girl Utena was a huge inspiration for her.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Many of the noble characters, but naturally special props to Shizuka and Shefali.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Burqila Alshara was already the daughter of a clan chief, but she became Kharsa by beating everyone who challenged her.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Unfortunately Shizuka is drunk for most of it.

• Badass Longcoat: The Qorin, technically, if you want to get creative in how you describe what a deel is.
• Big Bad: The villain of the setting is a God of Evil known only as the Traitor, who has unleashed a supernatural mutagenic plague called the "blackblood", and assembled an army of demons and formerly-human monsters afflicted by it.
• Big Eater: Shefali was one until the blackblood made everything except raw meat taste like dirt.
• The Big Damn Kiss: The first time Shefali and Shizuka kiss.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: As a blackblood, Shefali can smell people's histories and personal backgrounds. This is also why the Demons she encounters call her Steel-Eye.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Whatever is going on with the Traitor's lands is decidedly this.
• Blue Blood: Shefali is the daughter of the Kharsa, or horselord, of the Qorin people, and O-Shizuka is heir to the emperor's throne.
• Body Motifs: Eyes, in The Tiger's Daughter.
• Born in the Saddle: Shefali is a daughter of the Qorin, a nomadic horse tribe, and has known how to ride a horse since she could walk.
• Breaching the Wall: Before the start of the series, Shefali's mother, Burqila Alshara, used Dragon's Fire explosives to blast holes in the Wall of Stone and invade Hokkaro.

• Break the Haughty: Shizuka goes through this over the course of the series; starting off The Tiger's Daughter as an arrogant and pugnacious princess before having her face scarred and losing her beloved wife to exile. In The Phoenix Empress she's sent off to war by her hated uncle, watches her best friend/cousin get murdered right in front of her by a malevolent water goddess, and causes a tsunami by avenging her; leaving her with PTSD. In The Warrior Moon she literally gives up her heart to save Shefali only to watch her life be murdered in front of her, her mortal self is is only remembered as an incompetent alcoholic barely worthy of a footnote in the annals of history, and as a deity her title is the "Heartless Sun" and she's blamed for the suffering that Hokkaro went through during her war against the Traitor.

• Broken Pedestal: By the end of Warrior Moon, Baoyi feels nothing but contempt and anger bordering on hatred for her once-beloved aunts Shefali and especially Shizuka; due to them having not only taken years to stop the Traitor God, but having let the Traitor God and his army of blackbloods run rampant in the capital — which got countless subjects and her father killed as a result.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sakura is a former prostitute of noble lineage who wanted to learn how to read.....and goes on to become one of the most scholarly characters of the series. But she can never make her robes match because she doesn't care about what the rules of fashion are.
• Came Back Strong: Shefali is killed by Rikuto in Warrior Moon, but makes a deal with the Mother to come back apotheosized into a full-fledged goddess. As a deity, she is able to change at will into a giant wolf and is seemingly immune to the blackblood, letting her eat the Traitor's servants with impunity.
• Canis Major: After being afflicted by the blackblood, Shefali gains the ability to partially or fully transform into a demonic wolf, earning her the title of "Empress Wolf" in the second book. In the third novel, the Traitor himself reveals that Shefali's ability to turn into a wolf was would have acquired upon apotheosis, and he just decided to give it to her early.
• Cheerful Child: Lai Baoyi is very cheerful and very cute. At least until she grows up, becoming embittered and frustrated with the state of the empire and her predecessor, regarding both her deified aunts with contempt for their shortcomings and failures.
• Chilly Reception: Shefali receives one any time she's among the Hokkarans.
• Color-Coded Patrician: Each of the noble houses of the Hokkaran empire has its own associated heraldic colors, e.g. Xian-Lai is purple and green, Fuyutsuki is black and yellow, Shiratori is white and bright green.
• Comes Great Responsibility: Shizuka ascending the Phoenix Throne.
• Comforting the Widow: How Otgar and Alshara's relationship is implied to have started. Played With in that Alshara wasn't actually Shizuru's widow, but was deeply in love with her, and that Otgar didn't know Shizuru at all. Also, Otgar is Alshara's niece.
• Coming of Age Story: The first book for Shizuka and Shefali.
• The Corruption: The blackblood is an affliction that turns those infected into predatory monsters. Shefali contracts it from the demon Leng in The Tiger's Daughter and struggles to resist the ensuing bloodlust and hallucinations, eventually becoming a demon called Steel Eye.
• Cosmic Plaything: It's very subtly hinted that many gods are yanking at Shefali's leads.
• Courtly Love: O-Itsuki wrote to O-Shizuru in his famous style before she agreed to marry him.
• Creepy Uncle: Gender-flipped. Midway through The Tiger's Daughter, it's revealed that Burqila Alshara is sleeping with her niece, Dorbentei Otgar. Otgar is the same age as Alshara's son, and it's implied this relationship has been going on for three years or so. So far as creepiness goes, it's consensual on Otgar's part but Shefali, Alshara's daughter and Otgar's cousin, is majorly squicked out, especially since they don't appear to have told anyone.
• Culture Clash: Shizuka, raised pampered among the Hokkarans, must learn to look after herself among the Qorin.
• Cunning Linguist: While Dorbentei is a capable warrior, this is her true value to the Burqila clan. Not only can she read and write both Qorin and Hokkaran by the age of ten, but she can also interpret Burqila Alshara's sign language (which even Alshara's daughter can't do), and can speak several other languages, including one that she's never met a speaker of. Unlike many other Qorin warriors, who wear braids for their deeds in battle, Dorbentei wears a braid for each language she speaks.
• Dance of Romance: In The Phoenix Empress. Apparently Shizuka is a terrible dancer, but Shefali loves dancing with her anyway.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Shizuka makes two deals with malicious supernatural entities, both of which backfire on her. The first is when she gives up her ability to shed tears to the blackblood-corrupted river goddess Mizuha in exchange for safe passage across the Kirin River. The second time she lets the Spider eat her heart in exchange for Shefali being spared, and Rikuto kills Shefali immediately afterwards.
  • After her death, Shefali makes a deal with the Mother to return to the world of the living, though she has to return to the Underworld every new moon.
• Deity of Human Origin: The Mother, the Daughter, the Sister, the Father, the Son, the Grandfather, and the Grandmother are deities revered by Hokkaran culture, and in the third novel they are revealed to be reincarnating entities who start out as mortals before undergoing apotheosis. Shefali — an incarnation of the Grandmother — is deified as the Warrior Moon; and Shizuka — an incarnation of the Daughter — becomes deified as the Heartless Sun.
• Demon of Human Origin: In The Tiger's Daughter it's indicated that the demons that serve the Traitor are particularly powerful blackbloods, though the second and third novel somewhat retcon this, establishing the at least some of the demons are Yōkai — with only those that chose to serve the Traitor being imbued with the blackblood. Shefali herself becomes a demon called Steel-Eye after contracting the blackblood; and by the time of the second novel she has claws and fangs, her skin has turned grey and her ears have become pointed, and she can transform into a monster at will — though as the Traitor's influence over her grows she starts losing control.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Shizuka comes off to the reader this way, during The Tiger's Daughter. Initially a haughty empress, reading Shefali's letters slowly deconstructs Shizuka for the reader, so she becomes less the frosty empress and more a woman alone.
• Determinator: Shefali and Shizuka both.
  "I am always sure."
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Whatever affliction Shefali is suffering is usually referred to as "[the/my/her] affliction". It has no correspondence to any actual disease.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Emperor hates his niece. So he conspires with a Demon General to have her killed and has her raise an army of peasants and sends her off to war.
• The Dreaded: Burqila Alshara is explicitly named the most dreaded woman in all Hokkaro. Many, even among her own people, call her The Destroyer.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first book contains an explicit sex scene, with the context being Shefali describing her and Shizuka's first time in lurid detail in a letter written to her. This is the only scene of its kind in the entire series — all others being subjected to Sexy Discretion Shots.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Read the first two books and try to convince yourself the third is going to be okay. This series is depressing. The only thing we have going for us is that it's a queer author who hopefully wants to subvert Bury Your Gays. Shefali is killed in the third book, but comes back from the dead as the new moon goddess after making a deal with the Mother.
• Easily Forgiven: Shizuka tried to strangle Shefali as a child and no one seems to care so long as she apologizes.
• Eldritch Location: The land north of the Wall of Flowers has been corrupted by the Traitor God. Time flows differently there, and the sun appears as a black vortex of teeth.
• The Empire: Hokkaro assimilated the surrounding nations to become a massive empire, referring to the assimilated territories as the Empire's Children.
• Establishing Character Moment: Shizuka trying to strangle Shefali certainly establishes Shizuka as being uncontrollable.
• Everyone Is Related: The Traitor is the first Emperor, Shizuka's ancestor.
• The Exile: Poor Shefali is exiled twice. First when she loses control and tears a group of bandits apart, after which her mother exiles her from her clan and the Qorin people (a fate usually reserved for horrible criminals and kinslayers) and again when she kills a demon in front of the Emperor with her bare hands. This second one is a step down from the execution that would otherwise have happened, but it's still on the condition that Shefali retrieve a Phoenix feather, which takes her the full time between then and the 'present' timeline.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After ascending to the throne, Shizuka begins wearing more traditional attire, including how she wears her hair and how she shapes her eyebrows.
• Eye Scream: Poor Shefali has her left eye torn out by a demon. She gets it replaced by a steel one, which eventually becomes part of her body.

• Famed In-Story: Shefali notes people are retelling stories of the legendary Tumenabayar with Shefali as the protagonist. This foreshadows the reveal in the third novel that Tumenabayar was Shefali's predecessor as a Deity of Human Origin.
• Fantastic Racism: The Hokkarans look down on the Qorin, the Hanjeon, and the Qian Lai. Many Qorin also have a disparaging view of Hokkarans as a result.
• Fantastic Slurs: Ricetongue, for Hokkarans.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Hokkaro at large is Japan, Hanjeon is Korea, Xian-Lai is Han China, and Qorin is Mongolia.
• Fantasy Pantheon: An interesting case in that even the main characters claim to be gods. The deities appear to all be mortals with godly souls. It's speculated by the characters that most of the world's past gods were deified mortals who sought some sort of claim over their powers, and that most of the gods in the past were people just like them — which is eventually confirmed in the third novel.
• First-Episode Twist: The very beginning of The Tiger's Daughter reveals that Shizuka is the empress, long before we learn how she even came to the throne. Mentions of "Ink on Water" — the source of the adult Shizuka's PTSD — are also made, but the incident isn't revealed until the second novel.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: In Warrior Moon, due to the Year Outside, Hour Inside nature of the land beyond the Wall of Flowers, Otgar and Sakura find their homes drastically changed when they return to them. Otgar is disgusted and outraged by what she sees as the degeneration of Qorin culture in Alshara's absence, and forcibly brings the renegades in line. Sakura, meanwhile, falls into a depression upon realizing everyone she knew and loved from her past has either died or moved on, with only Shefali and Otgar to comfort her.
• Foreshadowing: The demons all refer to Shefali by the name "Steel-Eye" even from a young age. It only becomes clear what that means by the end of The Tiger's Daughter, when one of Shefali's eyes is torn out while she's in demon-form by another demon, rendering her unable to regenerate it, and she's given a steel prosthesis. By the time she returns to Hokkaro, she's become able to see out of it like it's a real eye.
• Four-Star Badass: Burqila Alshara and Minami Shizuru both.
• Generation Xerox: Barsalai Shefali, the silent and terrifying Qorin, is frequently noted to be much like her mother, Burqila Alshara. Minami Shizuka, the hot-headed, impetuous lady warrior, is likewise noted to be much like her mother, Minami Shizuru — to Shizuru's chagrin.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: There's an undercurrent of this to Shizuka's reign before she reunites with Shefali. She's not a bad queen, but her servants fear her due to her alcoholism and PTSD making her unpredictable and temperamental. In the third novel, after she apotheosizes her mortal self is remembered only as an incompetent alcoholic barely worth a footnote in the annals of history.
• The Great Wall: The series has two: the Wall of Stone, based on the Chinese Great Wall, between Hokkaro and the steppes where the Qorin live in the east, and the Wall of Flowers in the North, raised by a goddess to keep demons and blackbloods out. The Wall of Flowers slowly fails across the series, but Shizuka raises a new one.
• Green Thumb: The other major part of Shizuka's powers. She can grow whichever plants she wants wherever she wants, with flowers, herbs, and plum trees all being seen. It's due to being a reincarnation of whichever living god raised the first Wall of Flowers, a feat she replicates in The Phoenix Empress.
• Happily Married: Shefali and Shizuka have their disagreements and difficulties, but they're very much in love and happy to be married.
• High-Class Call Girl: Ren is a Singing Girl, noted to have the nicest house in her village. Once she moves to Fujino she runs an entire establishment of these.
• The High Queen:
  • Yui Minami O-Shizuka is an interesting aversion. She has almost all of the qualities of The High Queen, except the calm demeanor. She's attempted to cultivate it as an affect, but at her heart Empress Yui is hot-headed, tempestuous, and demanding. But her demeanor aside, Shizuka is good and bright, spreads hope to the people around her, connects to others easily, fights for everything that is good and right in the world, and generally otherwise fits the trope of The High Queen.
  • Lai Baozhai is a more conventional example, even before she actually gets the title of Queen.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Ren, although her heart of gold is only really towards Shefali.
• I Have Many Names: Minami Shizuka, Empress Yui, the Phoenix Empress, Daughter of Heaven, Light of Hokkaro, Celestial Flame, Flower of the Empire, etc, etc. As a goddess she is given the cruel moniker of the Heartless Sun.
• An Ice Person: Shefali apparently has these powers in addition to her shapeshifting and the blackblood
• I Know Your True Name: You must speak a Demon's name and then cut off its head to kill it permanently. If you don't speak the name, it will rise again later. Luckily, Shefali and Shizuka's divine nature gives them knowledge of demon's names: Shefali just knows, and Shizuka sees their name in glowing characters in the air around them.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Shizuka can cut or dodge arrows out of the air by book 2 despite not seeing the archer or knowing anyone was going to shoot at her. Apparently training with someone with Improbable Aiming Skills pays off.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Shefali is so good with a bow that she never misses if she doesn't want to. Even in the dark. Even blindfolded. Being a god helps.
• In Medias Res: The novel opens with Shizuka as empress, and Shizuka and Shefali already separated. Shefali's epistolary flashbacks tell the story of how this happened.
• Incompatible Orientation: Burqila Alshara was in love with Minami Shizuka, who she fought alongside in the first attempt to take the land beyond the Wall of Flowers. Shizuka, while affectionate towards Alshara, had eyes only for her husband.
• Intimate Healing: Midway through The Tiger's Daughter, Shizuka comes down with a nasty fever and, afraid she might not live through the night, has sex with Shefali — who notes in her retelling of the incident that Shizuka shouldn't have engaged in such strenuous activities in her condition. When Shefali's mother enters the ger the next morning, Shefali tries to pass off Shizuka's nakedness as them simply sharing body heat, but everyone sees through it. Alshara is unamused, but Otgar is impressed and teases Shefali over it.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: What the blackblood eventually does to people (well, if they count as people after the blackblood's got to them). Shefali also struggles with avoiding this and learns to somewhat control it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shizuka has shades of this, initially being brash and arrogant but trying to do the right thing.
• Jumped at the Call: Shizuka, who at eight years old is already declaring herself a god destined to go beyond the Wall of Flowers and kill the Traitor God.
• Kids Are Cruel: A four-year-old Shefali gets thoroughly beaten by her cousins, who resent her for being half-Hokkaran.
• "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Shefali is heavily implied to have some form of dyslexia, being unable to read Hokkaran/Xianese characters and having some trouble writing Qorin ones. Her cousin Otgar has to read and transcribe her childhood correspondence with Shizuka for her. Later, she and Shizuka work out how to write Hokkaran phonetically using the Qorin alphabet, which means she can actually write. This makes fact that she took the time and difficulty to write Shizuka the letter that makes up much of the first book all the more affecting.
• Little Miss Badass: Both Shizuka and Shefali are trained as warriors by age eight.
• Loophole Abuse: There's no law saying a marriage between two women isn't valid in Hokkaro. Specifically, such marriages are valid and legal (although non-practiced) in Xian-Lai, and no-one ever bothered to make them illegal throughout the rest of the Empire. this means that Shizuka and Shefali's marriage is completely legal, and thus Shefali is a member of the Imperial Family and cannot be executed
• Love at First Sight: Heavily implied for both Shefali and Shizuka, the latter of whom admits she's been in love with Shefali since she was at least thirteen.
• Master Swordsman: Shizuka, her mother, and their legendary ancestor Minami Shiori are all noted to be preternaturally skilled with a sword.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: When she falls seriously ill with a fever, Shizuka asks Shefali to have sex with her in case she doesn't make it.
• Noodle Incident: Shefali's adventures while in exile are briefly touched upon, but never exposited in any great detail.
• Oblivious to Love: Mutually, between Shizuka and Shefali. Shizuka doesn't put two and two together about Shefali taking Shizuka riding on her horse, despite that being something only married couples do in Qorin culture, even after years living with the Qorin; Shefali doesn't notice the significance of Shizuka, who has powers that let her heat things and start fires at will, constantly claiming she's cold in order to snuggle with Shefali. They work it out eventually.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The Warrior Moon retcons Shefali's demonic transformation in The Tiger's Daughter to have been into a monstrous wolf. It later turns out that this isn't part of her blackblood infection, but the Traitor God giving her premature access to a corrupted version of her divine form; and Shefali becomes able to freely transform into a giant wolf after her resurrection.
• Meaningful Name: Qorin are given a second name when they become adults and it usually reflects their deeds or personality; Shefali's is Barsalai, meaning 'tiger-striped', because she slew a tiger at age eight. Shizuka also has one; it's Barsatoq, meaning 'Tiger-Thief', because the Qorin consider her to have stolen Shefali's kill.
• Meaningful Rename: When Shefali is exiled due to the blackblood, her mother renames her Barsalyya Shefali Alshar. Barsalyya is contrasted with her previous name: where Barsalai means 'Tiger-Striped', Barsalyya means 'The Tiger's Daughter'. This is especially hurtful, since the 'yya' prefix is a matronymic, meaning Shefali has been stripped of the right to formally be called Alshara's daughter, and thus has been essentially disowned. When she returns, she gets a Meaningful Rename back to Barsalai Shefali Alsharyya due to having mastered her affliction and completed many heroic feats during her adventures.
• No-Sell: In the first book it's mentioned that some of the first Qorin victims of the blackblood plague were children who consumed it, but in the third book Shefali is able to swallow blackbloods whole to no ill effect.
• Official Couple: Barsalai Shefali and Minami Shizuka hook up midway through The Tiger's Daughter, and get married at the end to circumvent Yoshimoto having Shefali executed.
• One Head Taller: Shefali is, according to Word of God, at least a foot taller than Shizuka. Shizuka states at one point that Shefali can, when Shizuka's in the saddle of her horse, kiss her without taking a foot off the ground.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: The blackblood is a viscous black ooze that flows through the veins of those infected, and mutates its victims into monsters.
• One-Winged Angel: When Shizuka is injured by a group of bandits, Shefali's blackblood infection progresses in response to her extreme rage and she develops claws and fangs. When Shizuka's face is mutilated by a demon possessing Kagemori, Shefali fully turns into a demon. In the third book the Traitor God claims all he did was give Shefali access to a corrupted version of her godly form, which is proven to be the case when following her resurrection and apotheosis she becomes able to transform into a giant wolf at-will.
• Pals with Jesus: Shefali and Shizuka are literally gods, so everyone who is friends with them is friends with a god.
• Parental Favoritism: Both oldest-child and youngest-child forms are present in Shefali and Kenshiro's family. The terms of the peace treaty that arranged the marriage between Alshara (their mother) and Oshiro Yuichi (their father) specified that the older child would be raised Hokkaran and inherit Oshiro province, while the younger would be raised Qorin and inherit the title of Kharsa (fantasy Khan, which Alshara renounced as part of the treaty). While neither parent seems to particularly dislike the child that isn't 'theirs', they both clearly favour one, and become estranged from the other. Their father does comes to Shefali's aid at the end of The Tiger's Daughter by confirming that Shefali's marriage to Shizuka is legal and thus she can't be executed - while omitting the point that, since the marriage is unconsummated, the Emperor could have it voided.
• Petal Power: The Wall of Flowers. Shizuka's flower and plant-growth powers let her do this to demons, too
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Shizuka is noted to be very small, and very good with a sword.
• Playing with Fire: Shizuka never gets cold, doesn't ever need to worry about being burned, can start fires, and can set her blade on fire.
• Plot Hole: In the first book, it's established that the blackblood contagion was spread by curious children eating the Ominous Obsidian Ooze. However, in The Warrior Moon Shefali is able to devour dozens of blackblood to no ill effect, with no explanation as to how.
• Point of View: Uncommon in that much of the first book and a good half of the second are written in second person. The first book is largely a letter from Shefali to Shizuka, retelling their past, interspersed with moments set in the present from an adult Shizuka's perspective as she reads the letter. In the second book, Shefali and Shizuka take turns narrating the present-day portions, while the flashbacks are again second person, from Shizuka's perspective as she tells Shefali what transpired during their years apart.
• Praetorian Guard: The Dragon Guard and the Phoenix Guard. Which serve as bodyguards to the throne and which serve throughout the greater empire depends on whether an emperor or empress holds the throne.
• Religion is Magic: All notable magic powers seem to belong specifically and exclusively to those born as gods every few generations (e.g., Shizuka is immune to heat and fire and can make plants grow, Shefali can shapeshift into a wolf and generate cold, the Traitor has mind-control powers and can mutate people using the blackblood).
• Retcon: In the first novel, it's indicated that the demons are particularly powerful blackblood and that at least some of them were once humans — with Leng and Steel-Eye being examples. By the third book, most of the demons are Yōkai — with a tengu and jorogumo appearing, and kitsune being mentioned — with only those who chose to serve the Traitor being afflicted with blackblood.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: O-Shizuka is the Royal Niece, and later Empress, of Hokkaro, while Shefali is next in line to be Kharsa (warlord) of the Qorin. Both of them go to war against the Traitor God, and succeed in overthrowing him at great cost to themselves.
• Ruling Couple: Shizuka and Shefali, Empress Phoenix and Empress Wolf.
• Scars Are Forever: Shizuka gets one in a duel for her hand in marriage, leaving a scar across her nose and amputating most of one of her ears.
• Second-Hand Storytelling: Much of the books are flashbacks from Shefali's or Shizuka's perspective, narrated to the other.
• Secret Relationship: Shizuka and Shefali for much of their teenage years, until they marry to prevent Shizuka's uncle from executing Shefali.
• Sex Starts, Story Stops: Midway through The Tiger's Daughter, Shizuka falls seriously ill and her solicits Shefali to have sex with her in case she doesn't make it — with the two of them passing it off as Intimate Healing when they're caught in the morning. What makes the scene gratuitous is that 1) their intimacy is described in pornographic detail while all of the other sex scenes in the story are of the Sexy Discretion Shot variety, 2) they're teenagers, and 3) in the context of the narrative it's being recounted by Shefali in her autobiographical letter to Shizuka.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The disastrous Pyrrhic Victory that came to be known as Ink-On-Water has left Shizuka with post-traumatic stress disorder and a phobia of water, which she struggles to cope with even after being reunited with Shefali.
• Ship Tease: The Warrior Moon establishes a close relationship between Dorbentei Otgar and Sakura, with them being attracted to each other but not quite becoming an Official Couple.
• Shout-Out: To Avatar: The Last Airbender. Shizuka references a popular Qian-Lai song called "Four Seasons, Four Loves."
• Single-Stroke Battle: One of Shizuka's many nicknames is "One-Stroke Shizuka" due to her ability to almost-effortlessly defeat almost any opponent with a single slash.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Shefali towards Shizuka.
• Standard Royal Court: Complete with conniving nobility.
• The Stoic: Shefali's pretty stoic, being pretty quiet and reserved when she's not around Shizuka and not speaking much. Her mother takes it up to eleven with a vow of silence that she's only broken a handful of times.
• Super-Strength: The Blackblood gives Shefali this. It's enough to tear humans and demons apart or pick Shizuka up with one hand.
• Took a Level in Badass: Shefali was already badass, and then she got the blackblood, which granted her superhuman strength, senses, claws, and fangs.
• Tragic Keepsake: Burqila Alshara keeps a hank of Minami Shizuru (Shizuka's mother)'s hair inside her deel. Alshara was in love with Shizuru, who married the prince of Hokkaro, and keeps the hair even after Shizuru dies. Qorin believe that someone's soul is carried in their scent, so Alshara keeps a piece of Shizuru's soul with her.
• Turn Out Like His Father: Shefali turns out to be much like her mother: a quiet, badass warrior, Minami-fixated lesbian.
• Underestimating Badassery: Every single man who goes up against Shizuka in a duel.
• Unperson: In the third novel, it's revealed that those destined to become deities suffer this fate upon their apotheosis, with their mortal lives being conflated with their predecessors' or forgotten about entirely.
• Uriah Gambit: In The Phoenix Empress it's revealed that Yoshimoto made a deal with the Demon General Amari to send Shizuka on a suicide mission to the Wall of Flowers, thereby removing his impudent niece as a threat to his reign. This backfires as she not only survives, but the first thing she does is vengefully depose and exile him.
• The Virus: The blackblood. If a demon or infected's blood mixes with yours, you die in horrible agony over the course of three days, being tormented by demons, and rise as a deformed monster. Unless you are yourself a god. Then it takes a few years and become a demon yourself.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Shefali can turn into a giant wolf, which she initially assumes to be the result of her blackblood affliction turning her into a demon. In the third novel, the Traitor God himself tells her that her wolf form is actually due to her divine nature, not her affliction.
• Waif-Fu: While Shefali's perspective is probably biased, we have nothing else to go off of, and thus Shizuka is often described as small and delicate.
• Wham Episode: When Shefali and Shizuka fight their first demon together, which ends with Shefali being infected with the blackblood.
• Yōkai: Kitsune (referred to as Fox Women) are mentioned throughout the series, with Shefali teaming up with one in her journey to the Shadow's Mouth. Of the demons that appear in the series, Rikuto — one of the Demon Generals of the Traitor — is a tengu (referred to as a Lightning Dog), and another is a jorogumo referred to as the Spider.

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