History BloodKnight / Literature

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAlice'' Hatcher, [[spoiler: formally Nikolas]] loves fighting, ready to swing his [[AnAxeToGrind hatchet]] into anyone unlucky enough to get too close to his loved ones. It's how he got his name.

* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', many [[BoisterousBruiser Mimbrates]], [[HornyVikings Chereks]], and [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Murgos]] fall into this trope. Taur Urgas, King of Cthol Murgos, is an [[AxCrazy especially]] [[TheCaligula scary]] [[TheBerserker example]]. He sleeps in his armour, is always at war with someone, and dies screaming at the man who killed him to come back and fight.

* 99.99% of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Drow]] race from R.A. Salvatore's [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt]] novels (and ''Dungeon & Dragons'' in general) are Blood Knights. They are born, raised, and die (usually before anything close to the natural end of their 700+ year lifespan) in a perpetual power struggle featuring hundreds of noble houses. And ninety nine percent of them (with the exception of Drizzt, his father, and a couple others from other scenarios, and they partially meet this tropes standards in the sense that although they don't kill for fun they get fun from killing), live for it and enjoy every second of their blood-soaked lives. Even Drizzt is a Blood Knight to a certain, less evil extent: in one of the [[ContemplateOurNavels long introspective commentaries]] placed at the opening of each act, Drizzt comes to realize that he is a "creature of action": he can only be truly content if he has his swords strapped to his waist and is going somewhere, though this is more of a [[InHarmsWay thirst for adventure]] than a true hunger for battle. He has, however, been known for bouts of [[BerserkButton berserker rage]] when the right buttons are pushed. Drizzt's rage [[TranquilFury does not hinder his incredible focus]] in the slightest, and makes him hundreds of times more dangerous to even disciplined foes.

** Ralan Bek from Since it turns out he is really [[spoiler:the Dasati God of War.]]

* The Silastic Armourfiends of Striterax in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' took this to extremes since if one was locked in a room by himself he would eventually beat himself up just for something to do.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen''

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', this is one of the things Big Brother wants you to be. At first glance, one might think that since Oceania is at war with Eastasia, it's natural that they'd want patriotic and devoted soldiers. However, as O'Brien tells him in then end, [[spoiler:the ForeverWar between Eastasia and Oceania is of no importance at all, and merely one more way for the party to control the people.]] So in effect, this is what Big Brother encourages people to become.

** At the end of ''Godless Murder Machine'' he actually declares that [[spoiler:killing people is way better than not killing people.]]

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': The Alethi people used to be a ProudWarriorRace charged with protecting the other nations from the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]], but when the Voidbringers were finally defeated, the Alethi never gave up their arms. Over four and a half thousand years later, the fighting is all they have left. The ideals of competition have pervaded every aspect of their society (even their religion has a points system), and they consider war the greatest of arts. Several times in the series, Alethi are asked "Why are we fighting," and the Alethi look at the asker like they're crazy. This is all made worse by the "Thrill," a nationwide bloodlust that afflicts the Alethi in battle, blunting the worst aspects of war even when they're on the front lines themselves.

* ''Literature/WildCards''. Billy "[[MeaningfulName Carnifex]]" Ray is this, displaying increased strength, speed and healing abilities to get him back in the fight. This is a man who once pursued an opponent with half of his face cut off, and seems to revel in combat. Considering that he's an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, it's not surprising.

** While [[BarbarianHero Karsa Orlong]] [[DynamicCharacter mellows out some]] during the course of the series, he begins it as straight-up obsessed with combat, bloodshed and [[GloryHound glory]]. He arrogantly derides his companion Bairoth Gild for advising caution when they are about to ambush the warriors of a rival tribe and charges straight in. Even as he sees more of the world and learns to think before acting, he never stops charging right into battle for battle's sake. He also wants to end civilization as it is and has no compunctions about the bloodshed that would cause.

** Ankh Morpork's Sam Vimes is a Blood Knight whom constantly restrains himself by hunting and arresting criminals as a Watchman to satisfy his hunger for violence. It becomes a plot point in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' and ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' that Vimes has a vicious nature buried deep that he calls "[[EnemyWithin The Beast]]" which seeks violence bloodshed but Vimes keeps it in check, he's The Watchman who watches even himself.

* Skeeter Traps from ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagic'' is a ten year-old version of this. While one of the good guys, she enjoys fighting and is naturally prone to violence.

* Several villains from ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' qualify as this - mainly Kitiara, the very deadly FemmeFatale, but also Ariakas, the goddess Takhisis and all villains of the Istar arena.

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Ward mentions this as the reason why his father fought in the king's wars so valiantly, even though he hated the king's guts - he just enjoyed fighting so much. Ward himself gets into the mindset, too, and is rather disturbed by it. He doesn't make it a lifestyle. Averted with his aunt and tactical advisor, Stala, who is strongly opposed to fighting for the sake of fighting, and advises him to only fight if he's clearly stronger (or has a bigger army) than the opponent.

* Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheElenium'' and ''Literature/TheTamuli'' trilogies had the Atans, a race who bred themselves as fighters-- but did so a little ''too'' well, giving them hair-trigger violent reflexes, so that their society was plunged into endless war until they voluntarily pledged their entire race to slavery to the peaceful Tamuli, who as a result gained an unconquerable empire by default. Every Atan believes that they ''have'' to have a master to hold them back, or they go on killing sprees.

* Major Sven Kornie in ''The Green Berets''. He is based on Lauri Törni - see the RealLife section.

* The Valerians of the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' universe are this - seven foot tall denizens of a three-grav world, whose favourite weapon is the space-axe (because personal shields increase their resistance with the velocity of the impacting body), whose ultimate goal is a warrior's death, and for whom a peaceful death is a disgrace. As Smith himself says: "No bifurcate race, and very few others, have ever willingly faced the Valerians in hand-to-hand combat." Fortunately they are the good guys, and more fortunately they are very good at recognising authority (in terms of who to kill and when to stop).

* Hunter from ''{{Literature/Neverwhere}}''. She wants one thing- to fight and kill the most ferocious beasts. She takes pleasure in this.

* From the Literature/{{Reboot Book Series}}, Wren 178 is stated to enjoy "the hunt" - the hunt of ''humans'', that is.

** "''I hope to have such a death - lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me.''"

* ''Literature/WildCards''. Billy "[[MeaningfulName Carnifex]]" Ray is this, displaying increased strength, speed and healing abilities to get him back in the fight. This is a man who once pursued an opponent with half of his face cut off, and seems to revel in combat. Considering that he's an {{Expy}} of Franchise/{{Wolverine}}, it's not surprising.

* In several of the later ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books she narrated, Rachel expressed fear that she might be slowly becoming like this. Too bad she was this soon after acquiring her grizzly bear form. Seriously. She and Zaraki up top would make a lovely couple.

* ''Literature/ChaosWalking'': When Mayor Prentiss witnesses [[spoiler:an army vastly superior to his own descending upon his city with the intention of killing him in retribution for a genocide that he committed]] for the sole purpose of instigating this war his reaction is to grin with joy and utter: "War. At last."

** Valerian becomes something of one after he gets the taste of real battle at [[spoiler:Terra and Vorlese]]. When before he was content remaining a historian within the walls of the Palace, he now finds himself restless and yearns to use his SuperSoldier abilities again.

* Kage in Gav Thorpe's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} The Last Chancers''. [[spoiler:At the end of ''13th Legion'', he receives a pardon, resolves to stay in the forces outside the penal legion, and shortly thereafter loses it by brawling. In ''Kill Team'', he is told that he used up his last chance and will never be pardoned again, and he can cope, realizing that he would have ended up fighting again.]]

** Mad-Eye Moody was one the greatest Aurors alive, personally filling up most of Azkaban with inmates and even past retirement Moody becomes giddy over the idea of bringing down dark wizards again.

** Ankh Morpork's Sam Vimes is a Blood Knight whom constantly restrains himself and hunting and arresting criminals as a Watchman is his way of satisfying his hunger. It becomes a plot point in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' and ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' and that Vimes has a vicious nature buried deep that he calls "[[EnemyWithin The Beast]]" which seeks violence bloodshed but Vimes keeps it in check, he's The Watchman who watches even himself.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/ColdDays'', Harry finds that [[spoiler:the Winter Mantle]] has a very strong drive for this. In fact, after a major battle, [[spoiler:Karrin]] says he had an erection throughout the battle. Suffice it to say, the change very much scares the person.

* 99.99% of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Drow]] race from R.A. Salvatore's [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt]] novels (and ''Dungeon & Dragons'' in general) are Blood Knights. They are born, raised, and die (usually before anything close to the natural end of their 700+ year lifespan) in a perpetual power struggle featuring hundreds of noble houses. And ninety nine percent of them (with the exception of Drizzt, his father, and a couple others from other scenarios, and they partially meet this tropes standards in the sense that although they don't kill for fun they get fun from killing), live for it and enjoy every second of their blood-soaked lives. Even Drizzt is a Blood Knight to a certain, less evil extent: in one of the [[ContemplateOurNavels long introspective commentaries]] placed at the opening of each act, Drizzt comes to realize that he is a "creature of action": he can only be truly content if he has his swords strapped to his waist and is going somewhere, though this is more of a [[InHarmsWay thirst for adventure]] than a true hunger for battle. He has, however, been known for bouts of [[BerserkButton berserker rage]] when the right buttons are pushed. Drizzt's rage [[TranquilFury does not hinder his incredible focus]] in the slightest, and makes him hundreds of times more dangerous to even disciplined foes.

** Ankh Morpork's Sam Vimes is a Blood Knight whom constantly restrains himself and hunting and arresting criminals as a Watchman is his way of satisfying his hunger. It becomes plot point in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' and ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' and that Vimes has a vicious nature buried deep that he calls "[[EnemyWithin The Beast]]" which seeks violence bloodshed but Vimes keeps it in check, he's The Watchman who watches even himself.

** Ankh Morpork's Sam Vimes is a Blood Knight whom constantly restrains himself and hunting and arresting criminals as a Watchman is his way of satisfying his hunger. It becomes plot point in ''Literature/NightWatch'' and ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' and that Vimes has a vicious nature buried deep that he calls "[[EnemyWithin The Beast]]" which seeks violence bloodshed but Vimes keeps it in check, he's The Watchman who watches even himself.

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': The Alethi people used to be a ProudWarriorRace charged with protecting the other nations from the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]], but when the Voidbringers were finally defeated, the Alethi never gave up their arms. Over four and a half thousand years later, the fighting is all they have left. The ideals of competition have pervaded every aspect of their society (even their religion has a points system), and they consider war the greatest of arts. Several times in the series, Alethi are asked "Why are we fighting," and the Alethi look at the asker like they're crazy. This is all made worse by the "Thrill," a nationwide bloodlust that afflicts the Alethi in battle, blunting the worst aspects of war even when they're on the front lines themselves. Ultimately, it is revealed that the Alethi Thrill is caused by [[spoiler:a spirit named Nergaoul, an [[FallenAngel "Unmade"]] spren serving Odium, the setting's resident BigBad GodOfEvil. Being a God of passion and hatred, he uses Nergaoul to corrupt armies into a berserk fury, even to the point of turning on their allies. Although some of the Unmade are sentient, Nergaoul itself is more akin to a force of nature than an intelligent being, acting as a pure expression of the need to fight and kill]].

** There's also the D'regs, a nomadic tribe from the desert regions of Klatch characterized by their love of fighting. It's said the D'reg word for "stranger" is the same as their word for "target". There is one scene in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' where someone has a hard time translating the concept of "fighting for freedom", since in the D'reg language they are the same word. It's also mentioned that when the nations of Klatch and Hersheba drew an arbitrary border across the D'Regs home desert, they leapt on this new division of nationality as a wonderful excuse to start fighting each other, too.

** Hell most Gryffindors in general appear to be Blood Knights as they’re eagerness for adventure and glory goes beyond heroics and into SuicidalOverconfidence. It’s especially evident in FinalBattle as [[WordOfGod JK noted]] the Gryffindors were most ready to fight for the sake of showboating and victory while Hufflepuffs (who were second biggest volunteers) are risking their lives out of genuine desire to protect their friends and loved ones.

** Godric Gryffindor apparently was one, especially as fans have pointed out [[FridgeLogic why the hell does a wizard]] [[FightsLikeA Normal need a sword]]? The explanation is that Gryffindor was so HotBlooded he enjoyed dueling {{Muggles}} but being [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen honourable]] Gryffindor would use his badass goblin forged magical CoolSword instead of his wand to fight.

** Godric Gryffindor apparently was one, especially as fans have pointed out [[FridgeLogic why the hell does a wizard]] need a sword?. The explanation is that Gryffindor was so HotBlooded he enjoyed dueling {{Muggles}} but being [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen honourable]] Gryffindor would use his badass goblin forged magical CoolSword instead of his wand to fight.