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alt title(s): Valdemar The Heralds of Valdemar is a fantasy novel series written by Mercedes Lackey. The series is linked by its setting rather than focusing on a particular core group of characters; it covers roughly 3,000 years of history, all told. It is written mostly in the form of trilogies that do focus on a particular character, however (although there are a handful of independent novels as well).
The majority of the series revolves around The Kingdom of Valdemar and their protectors, the eponymous Heralds of Valdemar. Heralds are heroes of one stripe or another called to defend Valdemar from the most recent Big Bad. Sometimes they have to go on The Quest for the Mac Guffin that will save Valdemar, other times they have to root out The Mole or discover whatever Applied Phlebotinum solution they need to save the day. Almost always, it's a Coming Of Age Story as well.
An important aspect of the Heralds of Valdemar is their Companions. Companions are, in essence, Cool Horses with human-level intelligence and telepathy. They deliver the Call To Adventure to new Heralds by instinctively seeking out and recruiting youngsters with latent Gifts and good hearts, and always find the one person for whom they were meant Because Destiny Says So. This usually happens at just the right time to get the newly Chosen trained just before the kingdom needs them.
This series provides examples of:
- Abdicate The Throne: Elspeth, from the position of Heir.
- Achievements In Ignorance: Valdemaran mages pull off a lot of this in and following the Mage Winds trilogy.
- Action Girl: Most female Heralds. Jeri, Elspeth, Tarma, and Kerowyn are excellent examples.
- After The End, of a sort: An event in the distant past called the Cataclysm violently reshaped large sections of the planet, and is generally responsible for most of history since it occurred.
- The Alliance: Between Valdemar and several neighboring kingdoms.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Bondbirds and Shin'a'in warsteeds are not quite Intellectual Animals, but are notably smarter than normal birds and horses thanks to extensive magically-augmented breeding programs.
- Angst Coma: Vanyel in Magic's Price, Talia in Arrow's Fall.
- Anti Villain: Grand Duke Tremaine, as decent a man as could survive in the Imperial court.
- Asexuality: Tarma, and the other Shin'a'in Swordsworn, due to religious vows. The Shin'a'in Goddess is both merciful and practical, however — rather than force her adherents to torture themselves, she simply puts in a mental block preventing them from feeling any sexual desire for anything in the first place. But hey, they are all volunteers. In Tarma's case, it's necessary to keep her from being emotionally crippled due to her Rape As Backstory.
- Author Appeal: Mercedes Lackey really likes birds (especially raptors) and avian creatures in general. There are the Hawkbrothers and their bondbirds, the gryphons, and the avian humanoid tervardi.
- Horses, too. The Mage Winds trilogy includes an afterword all but admitting that the Companions and bondbirds are Lackey's wish-fulfillment compared to horses and raptors, and cautioning that real falconry and equestrianism are nothing like that, although still rewarding. (In at least one instance, a Herald rides a real horse and is surprised at her behavior compared to his Companion).
- Author Avatar: the character Myste is an obvious author self-insert (to make it clear how obvious, "Misty" is the author's nickname). And to make it even more obvious, Myste's position in the court is Herald-Chronicler, aka 'court historian', aka 'she writes down everything that's happening'.
- Battle Couple: It's easier to list who is not.
- Because Destiny Says So: The usual explanation for why Companions Choose who they do, when they do it and why people with the Gifts that will be needed always seem to turn up in time to get them trained before they have to be put to use. Between advanced psychic powers, powerful wizards, and activist gods, these people have turned Because Destiny Says So into a science.
- Subtly lampshaded in the last Arrows book. To paraphrase: "The Firestarter we desperately needed to win this battle just happened to spend the night with a ForeSeer, who had a prophetic dream and kicked him out of bed just in time to get here? How does that happen?" To directly quote: "Pure, dumb Heralds' luck."
- Justified in part, according to the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, by the existence of a magical Web in Valdemar binding Heralds and Companions which operates unconsciously but generally manages to get Heralds where they need to be when they need to be there.
- Beware The Nice Ones: Herald Talia is one of the nicest, kindest, (and literally!) most empathetic people in the world. But she has a point beyond which you just don't push it, and if you do... see the Mind Rape entry below.
- Bishonen: Vanyel and Firesong in particular. Especially Firesong, who is described as though he stepped right out of a medieval fantasy anime.
- Black Magic: Blood Magic and demon summoning. However, Blood Magic is not considered evil when it's only the caster's own blood (or Life Energy) involved, and/or the sacrifice is voluntary.
- Blue Eyes: All Companions have blue eyes, an indication of their Incorruptible Pure Pureness (and the fact that they can channel energy from magical nodes, a practice which bleaches any mage's hair and eyes to white and blue respectively).
- Bluffing The Murderer: Notably employed by Talia and Elspeth in Arrow's Fall.
- Boarding School Of Horrors: Lavan attends one in Brightly Burning.
- Bolt Of Divine Retribution: Vkandis' speciality - see Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter.
- Bond Creatures: The Companions, most prominently; also the bondbirds of the Tayledras. The Firecats of Karse may answer to this trope too. They're more independent-minded than their cousins the Companions, but still ultimately attached to one person.
- A Boy And His X: Heralds could be described as "people with Psychic Powers and their Non Human Sidekicks". The bondbirds of the Tayledras occasionally play this role, particularly in Owl Knight.
- Break The Cutie: Talia, quite comprehensively, in Arrow's Fall.
- Broken Bird: Winterhart of The Black Gryphon fits this to a tee.
- Bury Your Gays: Vanyel and Tylendel in The Last Herald-Mage, but entirely averted with Firesong and Silverfox in Mage Storms.
- Justified in Vanyel's case. Mercedes Lackey wrote about his death in the first chapter of Arrows, long before she decided to write about him in general.
- And he was only gay by accident. It later proves to be a plot point.
- Call To Adventure: Delivered without fail by Companions; their Chosen may jump at the Call or try to refuse the Call, depending on their situation at the time. All accept eventually, though on one notable occasion the Call repudiated one of the Called.
- Cannot Tell A Lie: Inflicted on Duke Tremaine by High Priest Solaris in payment for his murder of her friend.
- Cast From Hit Points: Mages who are low on Mana can do this. The ultimate version is known as a Final Strike and is invariably suicidal for the mage attempting it.
- Cat Girl: Nyara, also a Mad Wizard's Beautiful Daughter.
- Changing Of The Guard: As noted above, the focus character changes between trilogies. (Did you expect the same characters for all 3000 years?) Certain villains (most especially Ma'ar) put in appearances throughout the series, and a number of protagonists have persisted as well, largely by Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Character Derailment: Skif, who in Mage Winds devolves from a street-smart Bad Ass to Nyara's rather bland Love Interest, moving through an irritatingly overprotective crush on Elspeth on the way.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed with Need, which forces Chronic Hero Syndrome upon its bearers with no regard for any sense of proportion or self-preservation. Played straight by Heralds, for whom it's more or less contractually obligated.
- Circuit Judge: One of the primary everyday functions of the Heralds.
- Clingy MacGuffin: Need.
- Coming Of Age Story: Many of the series' heroes are teenagers at their first appearance, and the stories follow their growth into adulthood as much as their progress on The Quest.
- Complete Monster: The most iconic example is of course Ma'ar, also the series' Big Bad, a man who body-hops his way through the centuries since his original death in the Mage Wars and in each incarnation manages to rack up a spectacular body count, not to mention a record for utter depravity. Interestingly, he actually started out as something of a Well Intentioned Extremist, but managed to Villain Decay himself into a Complete Monster.
- Special mention also has to go out to the minor villain Hadanelith, the serial rapist/Mind Rapist from the Mage Wars trilogy.
- Conlang: Shin'a'in/Tayledras/Kaled'a'in. Other languages are handled entirely by Translation Convention.
- Continuity Nod: Main characters in one trilogy will frequently appear as minor characters in others.
- Cool Chair: The throne of the Eastern Emperor, constructed of the personal weapons of the rulers of the countries the Empire has conquered.
- Cool Gate: Gates, especially the rare permanent Gates.
- Cool Horse: Again, the Companions; also Shin'a'in warsteeds.
- Cool Sword: Need, in spite of her unique drawbacks.
- Corrupt Church: Played straight with the official sun-god worship of Karse... until the deity in question got sick of it and made his displeasure known.
- Costume Porn: Usually at least once a novel.
- The Dark Side: Blood Magic is said to be dangerously addictive to those who practice it.
- Deadly Decadent Court: The court of the Eastern Emperor, to the point where "master assassin" is considered a respectable entry on a prospective Emperor's resume, and one of the main characters reflects that being cursed to be unable to lie is the single most horrific fate that could ever possibly befall an Imperial nobleman.
- Death World: The Pelagirs are not a nice place to wander without native protection. Leftover magebuilt living weapons and other critters from a magical war two thousand years back, check. Flora/Fauna/People mutated by either the wave of magical power unleashed by the Cataclysm that ended said war or the abnormally high level of background
radiation mana even since, check. People both crazy/misanthropic enough to live there and Bad Ass enough to survive, check. Did I mention that the most consistently benevolent people there (pledged to their goddess to decontaminate the place) have a 50/50 chance of killing intruders on sight?
- Defector From Decadence: Admittedly Herald Alberich did not defect so much as get shanghaied but the end result remained thus.
- He protests it, too, once he recovers from his
mad dash for freedom journey. To the point where he seriously considers - for a few moments anyways - having his bond between himself and his Companion severed. He doesn't go through with it, mostly because of the mention that it would leave both of them badly damaged but it seems a close thing, even so.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Kerowyn, who was not so much cold as very narrowly focused. Played arrow-straight in The Black Gryphon, with Winterhart.
- Deus Angst Machina: Vanyel, though several protagonists have gone through hell.
- Doomed By Canon: Vanyel and Lavan Firestorm, both of whom have the conclusions of their stories told in Arrows of the Queen, the very first novel of the series.
- Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest: Inverted somewhat with Stefan, who does not resemble Tylendel all that much but is more or less confirmed to be his reincarnation, making his lifebond with Vanyel not so much a replacement lifebond as a re-lifebond.
- Dreadful Musician: Used for comedy in the supplementary filk song "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night." Also mentioned as one of Kerowyn's particular pet peeves.
- Driven To Suicide: Tylendel. Vanyel and Talia both make good tries at it, too.
- Dual Wielding: Mastered by Alberich.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Particularly in the Mage Storms trilogy when it seems as if The End Of The World As We Know It is going to happen no matter what anyone does to stop it, and the eventual victory comes at a heavy cost for the heroes. Also notable in Mage Wars, considering that the "happy ending" for the survivors of the Cataclysm means rebuilding in exile, with their homeland all but annihilated.
- The Empath: Empathy is a standard, if uncommon Psychic Power, generally found among Healers. Exceptional individuals who can project this ability are called MindHealers — the most notable examples being Talia and Amberdrake. There are also a rare few evil empaths, said to leave a trail of twisted minds behind them.
- Empathic Weapon: Need.
- Emperor Scientist: Urtho and Ma'ar serve as good and evil varieties.
- The Empire: The cleverly-named Eastern Empire.
- Evil Chancellor: Hulda.
- Lord Orthallen straddles this and The Evil Prince. Despite being a senior member of the privy council and a close personal friend of three generations of the Valdemar Royal Family, he either instigated or was heavily involved in at least four plots against the crown over the course of 20 years while avoiding suspicion almost completely until the day of his death.
- The Evil Prince: Ancar of Hardorn. To a lesser (or at least less competent) extent Thanel of Rethwellan, Prince-Consort of Valdemar.
- Famed In Story: The story of Kerowyn's first heroic exploits follows her throughout the rest of By the Sword. Rather to her chagrin. Vanyel also gets quite a bit of this in Magic's Promise and especially in Magic's Price.
- Fantasy Contraception: Mentioned occasionally, usually in a couple of varieties.
- Fighting For A Homeland: The Tedrel Mercenaries, which doesn't preclude them being depicted as a bunch of scum.
- Fighting From The Inside: An'desha in Winds of Fury.
- Fisher King: After years of misrule by Ancar, who ruined the land with magic, the people of Hardorn insist their new king go through a ceremony to become this so he won't even think about repeating the attempt.
- Fish Out Of Water: Newly-Chosen Heralds almost always have to go through a dramatic adjustment phase when they arrive at the Palace for training.
- Foe Yay: Occurs between Vanyel and his enemies on several occasions, usually as part of a temptation to evil.
- For Doom The Bell Tolls: The Death Bell, which rings of its own accord when a Herald dies.
- Foregone Conclusion: Vanyel and Lavan Firestorm again.
- For Halloween I Am Going As Myself: Specifically invoked in Winds of Fury when a bunch of mages and a Cat Girl have to sneak into Hardorn. "Where do you hide a red fish?" "In a pond full of red fish."
- Functional Magic: Has elements of almost all types.
- Gauze Gauze Kiss: Kerowyn and Eldan in By the Sword.
- Giant Flyer: Gryphons.
- Good Feels Good: Heralds in general and especially Skif, who does a Heel Face Turn because of it, not that he was all that bad to start with.
- Grand Theft Me: Big Bad Ma'ar has been possessing his descendants for thousands of years.
- Healing Hands: The Healers generally have this as an ability, though it's stressed that it has limitations and it's best to use normal medicine as much as possible.
- Healing Shiv: Need.
- Hell Hound: Wyrsa, pretty much.
- Heroic BSOD: Just about every major hero in the stories has at least one.
- Heroic RROD: Pushing one's magic too far can result in backlash; see also Cast From Hit Points.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Several. The Final Strike technique (used most notably by Vanyel) is basically a prepackaged Heroic Sacrifice in the form of a suicide-weapon-of-last-resort for mages, using all their energy at once in a huge explosion.
- Highly Conspicuous Uniform: The Heraldic uniform is unrelieved white - justified in that a Herald's normal duties are a mix of judge, police officer, and royal courier, all jobs in which being Highly Conspicuous is generally a good thing. Also heavily Lampshaded on various occasions, particularly by Kerowyn, who was a veteran mercenary before becoming a Herald and who refuses to wear Whites for anything short of a royal decree.
- Hikaru Genji Plan: Hulda and Ancar.
- Ho Yay
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Dirk and Talia.
- Hunting Accident: Prince Thanel's attempt to assassinate his wife Selenay, and also the official explanation for Thanel's death when the attempt failed.
- Hurricane Of Aphorisms: There are a lot of old Shin'a'in proverbs, and everyone loves to quote them.
- Hurting Hero: Vanyel especially.
- I Want My Beloved To Be Happy: Dirk tries this in Arrow's Fall. Talia, the Love Interest in question, is not amused when she finally realizes what's going on.
- Identical Grandson: "The Ashkevron family look tends to breed true, and when it doesn't the poor thing usually runs off to Haven."
- Impoverished Patrician: Kethry's backstory.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: One of the Heralds' defining traits. It's worth noting that the potential for this has to exist in order for the Companions to Choose them in the first place, and many a Herald with a troubled past has had to reconcile it before fully embracing his/her destiny.
- Also, it has been noted that the Heralds aren't beyond corruption - but the one time it gets mentioned, the same person who notes this to himself also takes care to point out the fact that whatever it would take to corrupt a Herald, evildoers probably wouldn't recognize it and might not even be able to offer it if they did. The one Herald who ever actually managed to be corrupted enough to be repudiated was Tylendel — and that was less "corrupted" and more "went mad and attempted a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge".
- Instant Expert: One of Need's powers is to make its bearer a master fighter if they are not already experienced.
- Or make them immune to magic.
- Intellectual Animal: Companions, most notably; also gryphons, Firecats, kyree, and hertasi, all of which were either divinely or magically created.
- Interspecies Romance: Skif and Nyara are only sort of an example, since Nyara was originally human before her father altered her. Lavan Firestorm and his Companion, on the other hand...
- Kids Are Cruel: Talia and Lavan Firestorm both catch a lot of this.
- Knight Of Cerebus: Ancar in the first trilogy, arguably.
- The Kingdom: Valdemar.
- Lady Of War: Queen Selenay; also something of a Winter Royal Lady, since she (like all Heralds) wears white on duty.
- Ley Line: The basis of the magic system is life energy, which bleeds off of living things and collects into "streams" and "rivers" of energy called ley lines that eventually flow to another plane. Where two or more ley lines meet, they form a node, an extremely powerful magic energy source.
- Life Energy: See Liquid Assets.
- Like Brother And Sister: Skif and Talia swear blood brotherhood after their failed teenage romance. Interestingly, they mean it, and any UST becomes moot after Talia acknowledges her lifebond to Dirk.
- Liquid Assets: Healing magic (and its Dark Side counterpart, Blood Magic) explicitly work this way.
- Living Lie Detector: All Heralds learn a "truth spell" which has this effect. Many can also perform an upgraded version which forces the subject to tell the truth.
- Love At First Sight: Supposedly this is true of all lifebonds; By the Sword provides probably the most dramatic example.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Lavan Firestorm. When his horse dies, everything burns.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Gifts and true magic are portrayed fairly consistently.
- The Magic Goes Away: At the end of The Last Herald-Mage, though it doesn't stick.
- Magic Knight: Vanyel, Elspeth, and Darkwind are the most notable examples. Most Heralds and many Tayledras tend at least a little toward this.
- Magic Music: The Bardic Gift.
- A Man Is Not A Virgin: Averted when a young man is the center of the Coming Of Age Story; played straight elsewhere. In fairness, female Heralds aren't celibate, nor are they expected to be.
- Mindlink Mates: Lifebonded pairings.
- Mind Over Manners: The Incorruptible Pure Pureness of all Heralds means that they basically never abuse their mind-magic. Kerowyn, meanwhile, uses hers as little as possible mostly out of the fear that the people around her would not be able to trust her if they knew she could read their minds.
- Mind Rape: Practically a hobby of several villains, most notably Mornelithe Falconsbane. It's established that anyone with strong Empathy is capable of this, but since most of them become Healers or Heralds, it's extremely rare.
- It's interesting to note that Talia, while mostly using her Empathy to help other Heralds who have had traumatic experiences, has done this as well on at least four occasions. The first was when she simply overwhelmed the mind of a madwoman to knock her out. The second occasion involved taking the worst nightmares of a boy who tried to seduce Elspeth and forcing him to experience it, then threatening to make him repeat the experience every time he closed his eyes if he said a word to anyone about what had happened. The third was when she lashed out at a dungeon guard who was hoping to rape her. The most extreme use of her powers ever, Mind Rape in the most literal sense, happened when she forced a man who had raped his stepdaughter to relive what the daughter had felt in a constant neverending loop, from which he could only be freed if he acknowledged that what he'd done was wrong.
- Modest Royalty: Nearly every good ruler. High Priest Solaris would be one if her role didn't require episcopal pomp; the Emperors of the Eastern Empire wouldn't be one except for their philosophy that austerity is more intimidating than opulence.
- Monochromatic Eyes: The Shin'a'in Star-Eyed Goddess, as implied by her name, appears as a woman with starfield eyes.
- My Death Is Just The Beginning: Ma'ar.
- Never Accepted In His Hometown: Vanyel gets acceptance from his family eventually, but it takes a very long time. Talia and Kerowyn, meanwhile, get this trope in full - especially Talia, who is completely disowned by the Holding she came from.
- Oddly Common Rarity: Lifebonds, supposedly very rare, are all over the earlier novels.
- Oh My Gods
- Older And Wiser: Tarma and Kethry in By the Sword; Talia in The Mage Winds, Kerowyn in and after The Mage Storms. Among others.
- Omniscient Morality License: The Companions exhibit this tendency from time to time, especially in the earlier novels, although Elspeth calls them out on it in Mage Winds. It later becomes subverted as we learn more about what Companions are.
- Companions generally operate on the unspoken rule that they will only advise their Heralds, and then usually only when asked. This can be a bit of a Wall Banger when several tangled interpersonal squabbles could easily be resolved if the Companions would just get their hooves into it and sort their Heralds out.
- This is part of a general Prime Directive, so it's not quite a Wall Banger. The Companions are effectively avatars of the Gods, and while it might seem like there are good reasons for the Companions to get involved, humans are expected to solve their own problems whenever possible.
- Our Gryphons Are Different
- Parental Abandonment: Pops up from time to time, though less often than one might think.
- Parental Incest: Just one of the many crimes of Mornelithe Falconsbane. Also occasionally pops up as a source of trauma for minor characters.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Most Adept-class mages can manage this. Special mentions go to Lavan Firestorm who reduces an entire army (and himself) to ash and sterilizes the pass they are coming through down to the bedrock, and Vanyel, whose combined CMoA and Heroic Sacrifice wipe out a powerful mage and the army he is leading into Valdemar.
- The grand prize, however, goes to Great Mages Urtho and Ma'ar of prehistory, who between their own vast powers and their Magi Tek WMDs managed to completely change the face of 99% of the known world in a magical cataclysm so powerful that it echoed through time to recur 3000 years later.
- Poor Communication Kills: Dirk, Kris, and Talia's Love Triangle would have been a lot easier to resolve if they had just talked to each other about it. Or, more accurately, if either Talia or Kris had bothered to talk to Dirk about it. Mind you, that would've been easier if Dirk hadn't been avoiding them so hard.
- Queen Selenay's marriage to Prince Karethanelan of Rethwellan and its unpleasant results could have been avoided if a) the Heraldic Circle and current Queen's Own Herald had been willing to discuss their misgivings about it with her and b) she'd been willing to listen to them. At least Elspeth turned out okay... eventually.
- Private Military Contractors: Tarma, Kethry, and the Sunhawks in Vows and Honor; Kero and the Skybolts in By the Sword.
- Psychic Powers: Mind-Magic or Heraldic "Gifts", which range from the relatively benign, like FarSight or ForeSight, to the potentially devastating, like Firestarting. Gifts often vary in strength, and many Heralds have more than one.
- Punctuation Shaker: glottal-stop apostrophes in the languages of the Kaled'a'in and Shin'a'in.
- Puss In Boots: Court-Baron Melles' valet, who is a gifted assassin in semi-retirement.
- Rampant Horse: The official crest of Valdemar.
- Rape As Backstory: Pretty often. See particularly Tarma, Kethry, and Nyara.
- Rape As Drama: Talia, Vanyel.
- Retired Badass: Tarma in By the Sword.
- Roaring Rampage Of Revenge: Tarma goes on one of these when bandits kill her Clan.
- Royal Brat: Princess Elspeth
- Royally Screwed Up: Almost completely averted in Valdemar thanks to the requirement that the Monarch must be a Herald. In full force, however, in Hardorn.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Monarch must be a Herald. Heralds are all Special Forces qualified.
- Although the Heir is the only Herald under orders to stay away from any danger they can reasonably avoid. When faced with a conflict between this injunction and her duty as a Herald-Mage to take the lead vs. the forces of evil, Elspeth was only able to resolve the conflict by abdicating her spot in the royal line of succession.
- Runaway Fiance: Talia, initially.
- Samaritan Syndrome: This tends to be happen to Heralds a lot, but none more so than Vanyel.
- Sapient Steed: The Companions.
- Screw Destiny: Elspeth, to the point where she gets Very Annoyed when people start mentioning Destinies, especially glorious ones, when trying to shanghai her into doing something. Need, naturally, approves — while Gwena finds it irritating to the extreme. But then, Gwena was the one trying to shanghai her into a Glorious Destiny, wherein Elspeth would be the first of the Herald-Mages to return to Valdemar after the last one died, several centuries ago. Interestingly, she does return to Valdemar as a Herald-Mage, albeit by a completely different path then the Companions had intended.
- Shout Out: Bard Aiken. Enough said.
- Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter: The priests of Karse spent several centuries drifting away from the true tenets of their god Vkandis, falling further and further into vile corruption and demon-summoning, while still invoking Vkandis' name to cement their theocratic rule. One fine midwinter's day, during the annual high holy ceremonies of their religion, Vkandis chose to actually answer an invocation. The following events earned him the fan nickname 'Vkandis The Unsubtle'.
- Spirit Advisor: The Shin'a'in "Swordsworn" — including Tarma — become these after death, and help to train and advise living Swordsworn. The ghosts of Vanyel, Stefan, and Yfandes also act as Spirit Advisors briefly in The Mage Winds and The Mage Storms before finally moving on "to Bermuda."
- Also, technically, the Companions themselves count, although they are embodied rather than incorporeal. So do the Firecats.
- Squishy Wizard: Most mages, including Kethry except that Need makes up the difference in her case.
- Street Urchin: Skif, Stefen, and a number of other characters.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Valdemaran mages and mind-mages tend to this, especially when a bunch of artificers get into the act in The Mage Storms.
- Superpower Lottery: An incident involving the creation of a gate left Vanyel Ashkevron with not only Adept-level mage ability but just about all Psychic Powers the Heralds knew of to one degree or another. Of course the same incident led directly to his lover's suicide so...
- The Sword That Speaks: Need, after she regains full awareness in Winds of Fate. Additionally, the ruler of Rethwellan is chosen by a sword that sings, though it's not quite an example of this trope.
- Taking You With Me: The purpose of a mage's Final Strike.
- Talking In Your Dreams: Kero and Eldan in By The Sword. For ten years.
- Tomboy And Girly Girl: Tarma and Kethry.
- Total Eclipse Of The Plot: In The White Gryphon.
- Trauma Conga Line: The price Vanyel apparently pays for his earthshattering powers is to be hated by his family, targeted by every enemy of Valdemar, and lose nearly everyone he cares about. Subtly justified with the revelation in Magic's Price that there really is someone who has it in for him and has been deliberately trying to destroy him.
- Trrrilling Rrrs: Gryphons tend to speak this way, although some, like Skandranon, can manage perfect diction.
- Tyke Bomb: Ancar of Hardorn is one of the single most successful examples (at least until Rage Against The Mentor started kicking in after several years on the throne). The irony is that he was probably Hulda's second choice.
- The Unfavourite: Queen Selenay's relationship with her eldest daughter was complicated well into the latter's adulthood by the former's fear that she subconciously regarded her as this. The fact that Elspeth looked a fair bit like her father did not help.
- Vanyel Ashkevron's early life is an example of this played dead straight, at least where his father was concerned. Both examples sort themselves out eventually.
- The Verse: The name of the planet on which the series takes place is Velgarth, but this is never mentioned other than in the introduction of the first trilogy written.
- Villain Decay: Ma'ar is an in-universe example of this, as his method for cheating death down the centuries gradually damages his psyche more and more. A bit of Nightmare Fuel in that his final incarnation, Mornelithe Falconsbane, is only an emotionally-crippled, erratic, semi-functional remnant of Ma'ar and is still one of the most terrifyingly competent and thorough villains ever seen in the novels. The heroes never are able to entirely defeat him until he is finally hit so hard that he gets brain damage.
- There's also some subversion here. It's revealed in Winds of Fury that part of the reason Falconsbane is so difficult to kill for good is that the gods have plans for the original inhabitant of his currently possessed body. Indeed, things are very carefully arranged so that he finally dies in exactly the proper circumstances to allow the body to be reclaimed.
- True, but that also means it took direct divine intervention to keep him from killing the entire cast twice over.
- We Have Reserves: Accurately sums up the attitude of both Ancar and Falconsbane towards military tactics, and also nearly wipes out the Skybolts.
- Well Done Son Guy: Vanyel is troubled by this for a significant portion of his life... not so much to get his father to approve of his accomplishments as to approve of him.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Vanyel gets a lot of this from his family.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Talia again, more so as time goes on.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Generally averted except for Lavan Firestorm. The traumatic awakening of his powers leaves him mentally fragile and only his bond with his Companion keeps him sane and his power in check. When she dies all bets are off.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: One of the driving tenets behind nearly every Herald's character. Herald-Mage Vanyel and Queen's Own Herald Talia have this to a particularly high degree.
- The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask: Queen Selenay. Her daughter Elspeth gets out of it by renouncing the throne and becoming a mage instead.
- Although it's a plot point that one of the primary purposes of the Heralds (especially the King's or Queen's Own Herald) is to ensure that the Monarchs will always have a small group of confidants that they can absolutely trust and let down their hair with, which does an enormous amount to help ensure that Valdemar maintains a tradition of sane and benevolent rulers. Most of the time. Occasionally, even with this system in place, Poor Communication Kills.
- The Woobie: A lot of the major characters, especially early on, start out this way. Vanyel and Talia are the most Anvilicious of the lot. (Vanyel never stops being one.)
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Talia
- You Shall Not Pass: Vanyel pulls a great big one at the end of Magic's Price.
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