History Literature / BloodOfElves

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: King Henselt's men after [[spoiler: the ambush on Yarpen's caravan]]. The realization they killed a bunch of people genuinely loyal to the cause of peaceful coexistence rather than collaborators shocks them out of their FantasticRacism and leaves them aware of their own status as murderers as well as traitors.

* AllForNothing: Yarpen goes to extraordinary lengths to prove his loyalty to King Henselt and that not all nonhumans want to wage war against humanity like the Scoia'tael. [[spoiler: A military commander assumes Yarpen is a traitor and thus sets up an ambush to kill him--only to have the convoy hit by the Scoia'tael and Yarpen fight with them against non-humans. His men still kill Yarpen's and they're left with the horrifying realization they killed a bunch of innocent dwarves willing to stand against their own people out of a belief in peace.]]

* CategoryTraitor: Yarpen is considered this by his fellow dwarves as well as other nonhumans.

The third book in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' franchise[[note]]Rather confusingly, it's often treated as the first book in ''The Witcher'' ''series''--this is the third book, but the first two are short story collections, while this one kicks off an arc of five full-length books. Not to imply those first two story collections are purely episodic--they very much contribute to the MythArc.[[/note]] by Andrzej Sapkowski, originally in Polish but translated to English. It is the first full-size novel in the series, as well as the first installment of the "Blood of the Elves Saga"/"Geralt and Ciri Saga".

The third book in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' series by Andrzej Sapkowski, originally in Polish but translated to English. It is the first full-size novel in the series, as well as the first installment of the "Blood of the Elves Saga"/"Geralt and Ciri Saga".

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: A surprising number of them throughout the book like Dijsktra, the Customs Official, and Philippa Eilhart. However, they're not the ones who really matter.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: A surprising number of them throughout the book like Dijsktra, the Customs Official, and Phillipa Eilhart. However, they're not the ones who really matter.

* AllForNothing: Yarpen goes to extraordinary lengths to prove his loyalty to King Henselt and that not all nonhumans want to wage war against humanity like the Scoia'tael. [[spoiler: A military commander assumes Yarpen is a traitor and thus sets up an ambush to kill him--only to have the convoy hit by the Scoia'tael and Yarpen fight with them against non-humans. His men still kill Yarpen's and they're left with the horrifying realization they killed a bunch of innocent drarves willing to stand against their own people out of a belief in peace.]]

* AllForNothing: Yarpen goes to extraordinary lengths to prove his loyalty to King Henselt and that not all nonhumans want to wage war against humanity like the Scoia'tael. [[spoiler: A military commander assumes Yarpen is a traitor and thus sets up an ambush to kill him--only to have the convoy hit by the Scoia'tael and Yarpen fight with them against them. His men still kill Yarpen's and they're left with the horrifying realization they killed a bunch of innocent men willing to stand against their own people out of a belief in peace.]]

* AllForNothing: Yarpen goes to extraordinary lengths to prove his loyalty to King Henselt and that not all nonhumans want to wage war against humanity like the Scoia'tael. [[spoiler: A military commander assumes Yarpen is a traitor and thus sets up an ambush to kill him--only to have the convoy hit by the Scoia'tael and Yarpen fight with them against them. His men still kill Yarpens and they're left with the horrifying realization they killed a bunch of innocent men willing to stand against their own people out of a belief in peace.]]

* TrainingFromHell: Not only was a witcher's training meant for boys, not girls, but it was meant for ''mutation-enhanced'' boys who were tough enough to survive the mutation process. Ciri undergoes it only because that's the only way of raising children witchers know. It will be insanely useful later.

After TheKingdom of Cintra was razed by TheEmpire of Nilfgaard in the previous book, the orphaned Cintran princess Cirilla is picked up by Geralt, her destined guardian. Safe at the witchers' stronghold Kaer Morhen, she receives combat training from the witchers. However, Ciri turns out to be [[OracularUrchin even less ordinary]].

* KickTheDog: The Kings of the North decide to liberate Cintra from Nilfgaard. Then they decide to find Ciri and kill her, lest she prevent them from dividing the country between them.

The witchers call upon the sorceress Triss Merigold for help, who soon realises the cause of the problem: Ciri is a latent magician, a Source. As such, she has to be tutored by someone more competent -- like Yennefer, Geralt's former lover. Meanwhile, prophecies linking the Ciri to unimaginable destruction come to light, causing kings, spies, and magicians alike to seek her out.

The witchers call upon the sorceress Triss Merigold for help, who soon realises the cause of the problem: Ciri is a latent magician, a Source. As such, she has to be tutored by someone more competent -- like Yennefer, Geralt's former lover. Meanwhile, prophecies emerge that link the lost Cintran princess to unimaginable destruction, so everyone starts searching for Ciri really hard.

* ACupAngst: Triss throws something of a WhatTheHellHero fit over the fear that Witcher training will prevent Ciri from developing womanly curves. May verge either on {{Narm}} depending on whether she has point.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/us_blood_of_elves_newjpg.jpg]]

* BiTheWay: Triss is revealed to be this in a paragraph.

* GenderIsNoObject: Deconstructed. The witchers see no problem in giving a girl the same training and diet that they went through, but Triss points out that their methods don't take her menstrual cycles into account, and can potentially cause imbalance her still developing body.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated : Triss was one of the fourteen mages reported to have died on Sodden Hill in the [[Literature/SwordOfDestiny previous book]]. She explains that she was gravely wounded and razed beyond recognition, which is what caused the confusion.

* ReportsOMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated : Triss was one of the fourteen mages reported to have died on Sodden Hill in the [[Literature/SwordOfDestiny previous book]]. She explains that she was gravely wounded and razed beyond recognition, which is what caused the confusion.

* ThickerThanWater: the local kings' favourite saying, apparently. Also applies in the case of Crach an Craite, for whom this is a reason to keep waging war on Nilfgaard: his cousin Eist Tuirseach was married to Queen Calanthe of Cintra, both of whom died in the Nilfgaard conquest.

The witchers call upon the sorceress Triss Merigold for help, who soon realises the cause of the problem: Ciri is a latent magician, a Source. As such, she has to be tutored by someone more competent -- like Yennefer, Geralt's former lover. Meanwhile, prophecies emerge that link the lost Cintran princess to unimaginable destruction, so everyone [[MacGuffinGirl starts searching for Ciri really hard]].

-->'''Triss Merrigold''': "The mushrooms whose secrets you guard so carefully,” she explained, “do, indeed, keep the girl wonderfully fit and strengthen her muscles. The herbs guarantee an ideal metabolic rate and hasten her development. All this taken together and helped along by grueling training causes certain changes in her build, in her adipose tissue. She’s a woman, and as you haven’t crippled her hormonal system, do not cripple her physically now. She might hold it against you later if you so ruthlessly deprive her of her womanly… attributes. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Dandelion's epic about Cintra, Geralt, and Ciri is subject to a real-time debate which almost turns into a riot after its performance. Everyone loves the debate but its actual meaning is subject to intense disagreement. Everyone also thinks Dandelion took liberties with the story but no one can agree WHAT were the liberties taken.

* BullyingADragon: a team of SiblingsInCrime is hired to off Geralt. Three of them promptly get killed, and the maimed fourth gets a CoupDeGrace. It wasn't [[GenreBlind genre-blindness]] on their part, they just didn't know the target would turn out to be a witcher.
** On a simply pragmatic point, the Scoia'tael are doing this. Geralt and Yarpen both know if all of the nonhumans in the world gathered together into a single military force, it would just mean humanity would kill them all.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Ciri gets a diet of mushrooms and special leaves by the Witchers which don't give her super-strength but make her insanely strong and fast for a teenager.

* FantasticRacism: The opening meeting is divided between Elven, Dwarven, Human, Commoner, and Nobleman listeners who all have something to say about each other. Many of them also hate Nilfgaard for various reasons relating to their mixed half-human/half-elven heritage.

*** And gets taken to a whole new level with the introduction of the Scoia'tael, who have made things so much worse for everyone.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Ciri suffers her first one, to Triss' outrage given the Witchers weren't even aware of it.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Triss Merrigold suffers from this and has some truly terrible memories from the battle of Sodden Hill.

* ThickerThanWater: the local kings' favourite saying, apparently. Also applies in the case of Crach an Craite, for whom this is a reason to keep waging war on Nilfgaard.

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: More or less the balliwick of the Scoia'tael. Geralt has a very unsympathetic view of them, believing that the only way to survive is live in peace with humanity.