War makes strange alliances.
Wraith King is the third book of the Wraith Knight series, a Deconstruction High Fantasy series by C.T. Phipps.
The Final Battle has arrived between the armies of Empress Morwen and Jacob Riverson's Iron Order. Unfortunately, Jacob's forces are greatly outnumbered and still rebuilding after centuries of misrule by the Old King Below. The Empress is willing to throw everything at him in and his wives in hopes of wiping out the forces of the Shadowkind for all time.
The battle proves disastrous for both sides and a bizarre alliance is formed between two mortal enemies. The secrets of the Three Worlds are also revealed at last as their hidden origins is laid bare. Old enemies and allies shift allegiances rapidly as Jacob must answer the question: what is the point of being a god if you cannot protect your people?
Wraith King contains the following tropes:
- Abdicate the Throne: Jacob, feeling he's failed his people, gives up rulership of Everfrost to Midori and Archus.
- Animal Motifs: Jassamine says that Jacob has ever been a big black dog: unconditionally loyal, ferocious, and somewhat stupid.
- Armored Closet Gay: Eric the Great is revealed to have been this, creating his The Hedonist persona in order to deal with his father's homophobia. Jacob is nonplussed by this revelation because it's not a major social taboo in the Empire.
- Bad Boss: Jassamine turns out to be willing to kill the vast majority of the Anessian Empire's forces in order to achieve her larger goal of defeating Jacob as well as opening a rift to the World Above.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The opening battle against Empress Morwen's forces takes roughly six chapters.
- Bittersweet Ending: Morwen is killed by Kurag Shadowweaver and her divine spark is stolen. Saint Jassamine is imprisoned in the bowels of the Thousand Hells. However, the majority of Jacob's (and the Empire's) armies are slaughtered while Serah is temporarily dead. Jacob has also chosen to Abdicate the Throne due to his failures. Both Ketra and Jacob end the story going after Kurag to keep him from releasing the Earthmother.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: What Jassamine sacrificed all of the soldiers in a massive Blood Magic ritual to do. Supposedly, now, all of the world is beholden to her. The truth turns out to be a bit more complex.
- The Caligula: Prince Regent Eric is revealed to have been one of these with orgies in the actual throne room and people loathing the purges conducted by his administration. A Downplayed Trope example due to the fact that he actually has nothing to do with the latter due to being a Puppet King.
- Cool Airship: The Lightbringer is effectively an enormous flying WW2 era battleship that is the flagship of the Imperial Air Navy.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jacob continues to be one of these but finds himself matched by the introduction of Empress Morwen.
- Dread Zeppelin: The biggest advantage the Anessian Empire's military has is that it has a fleet of these which Jacob points out is what gives them an almost unbeatable advantage in any encounter.
- Final Battle: Jacob is willing to bet most of his resources in an enormous battle against Empress Morwen's forces in order to inflict enough damage to cripple her offensive. He notes that he would not normally want to do this but they're so outnumbered that this is the most viable strategy left against them.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Prince Regent Eric says that Jacob not having enough men or resources are the direct result of him devoting so much effort to crushing any opposition to the Temple Reformation while they're (technically) still at war with the King Below.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Mahari Crimsonmoon pulls one of these on Jacob, which he accepts, when she's actually just trying to distract him long enough for Morwen to arrive on her enormous steel dragon.
- Kill Sat: A literal example of the trope as there is an orbital satellite leftover from the days of Old Terralan that is used to blast the armies of both Empress Morwen and Jacob, killing the majority of both. Jacob ends up destroying it by sacrificing his newly acquired human body.
- Puppet King: Prince Regent Eric the Great is revealed to have been this under Jassamine, his father having been incapacitated while he is intimidated into shameless debauchery. Eventually, Jassamine forces him to clean up his act but gives up none of her power.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The end result of the Sixth Great Shadow War. Empress Morwen is dead and Jassamine is imprisoned underneath Everfrost but millions are dead and the city of Everfrost will have to be evacuated.
- The Reveal: Several throughout the book.
- While there had been hints before, the book confirms the setting is in the distant future after humans had gone full Clarke's Third Law. The Three Worlds are just the product of godlike science and effectively amusement parks or live action MMORPGs.
- Jassamine and Morwen are actually both the Sorcerer Queen and Knight Protector deities that have been mentioned but never developed.
- The Trickster in Jacob's head is not actually a separate personality but just a split personality created by his mind being unable to handle all of the information placed in there when he took over the status of King Below.
- Jassamine and Jacob plotted the murder of the King Below together with the latter asking to have his memory erased to a time when he was still young and idealistic. It was meant to be an elaborate form of suicide.
- Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Jacob asks if Jassamine is having an affair with Eric the Unsteady in a flashback. Jassamine is offended at the accusation of her being a whore for power. Jacob then says he'd never believe that of her. She then says she's insulted he'd sleep with Eric for any reason but power. She isn't, though."Do you think I'd sleep with him for his personality?"
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Empress Morwen and Jacob constantly needle one another throughout their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Morwen, Kurag, Rose, Jacob, and Ketra are people who absolutely hate each other.
- Thanatos Gambit: Multiple.
- Serah arranges for her spirit to be moved into an amulet after her body is hopelessly damaged. This will, notably, give her access to much more power as she was not capable of handling it all as a goddess.
- Jacob turns out to have arranged the entire plot of the book series up until this point. He made arrangements to kill the King Below, erase his own memory, and overthrow the Lawgiver.
