History Literature / BloodSword

'''''Blood Sword''''' is a series of gamebooks created by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris and published by Knight Books in the late 1980s. It is set in the invented fantasy world of "Legend", the authors' own fantasy world, which was the setting for their ''Dragon Warriors'' role-playing game too. The storyline involves a group of [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]] who, after emerging victorious from a grueling adventure in the Battlepits of Krarth, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive stumble by pure chance]] upon the plot of the five True Magi, evil entities who were thought to have been destroyed during a catastrophic magic explosion centuries before, and are now trying to reincarnate on Earth and bring about eternal damnation. After surviving an attack from a couple of henchmen of Blue Moon (the eldest and most powerful of the Magi), the adventurers are given the scabbard of Blood Sword, the only weapon the True Magi actually fear, by an old man mortally wounded in the attack... and from thereon, begin their quest to reunite the pieces of the sacred sword and stop the True Magi before the end of the Millennium and the coming of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Judgement Day]].

* HopeIsScary: In book 4, your guide describes hope as the cruellest of the evils to escape Pandora's Box since it only makes the others more painful.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The True Magi; the "real" wizards who practiced a form of magic [[LostTechnology lost]] to the present; escaped from a botched SummoningRitual to become [[CelestialBody Celestial Bodies]], stars/comets in the sky that affect the word. [[spoiler: They actually did it on purpose to learn [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow The Music Of The Spheres]]

* DiscOneNuke: Multiple Adjust scrolls, (found early in the first dungeon), can make the Enchanter able to keep in mind and cast the best spell in the game in both the first 2 rounds of a cobat with negligle chance of failure. One shot will kill almost anything, 2 will kill everything except Angvar.

* DiscOneNuke: Multiple Adjust scrolls, (found early in the first dungeon), can make the Enchanter able to keep in mind and cast the best spell in the game twice with negligle chance of failure.

* AngelUnaware: An archangel and "Tor" aka Thundergod Thor are all seemingly human characters who help you out. Fatima is a very powerful sorceress who initially acts like defenseless woman.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The True Magi; the "real" wizards who practiced a form of magic [[LostTechnology lost]] to the present; escaped from a botched SummoningRitual to become CelestialBodies, stars/comets in the sky that affect the word. [[spoiler: They actually did it on purpose to learn [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow The Music Of The Spheres]]

* ActionGirl: Possibly. The gender of the adventurers is unspecified, so you can imagine some or all of them to be female.

* ObviousRulesPatch: In the remake of the first book, Sages can now Levitate away if they Exorcise the spirit of TheManBehindTheMan instead of being trapped forever. But ''only'' the Sage, Immediate Deliverance, aka Teleport, can't go far enough.

* AngelUnaware: An archangel and "Tor" aka Thundergod Thor are all seemingly human characters who help you out.
* AscendToAnotherPlaneOfExistence: The True Magi; the "real" wizards who practiced a form of magic [[LostTechnology lost]] to the present; escaped from a botched SummoningRitual to become CelestialBodies, stars/comets in the sky that affect the word. [[spoiler: They actually did it on purpose to learn [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow The Music Of The Spheres]]

* CelestialBodies: The True Magi are comets/stars whose light can influence things. And they can direct their servants personally.

* AscendedToAnotherPlaneOfExistence: The True Magi; the "real" wizards who practiced a form of magic [[LostTechnology lost]] to the present; escaped from a botched SummoningRitual to become CelestialBodies, stars/comets in the sky that affect the word. [[spoiler: They actually did it on purpose to learn [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow The Music Of The Spheres]]

* AngelUnaware: An archangel, The Virgin Mary, and "Tor" aka Thundergod Thor are all seemingly human characters who help you out.

* HopelessBossFight: You ''cannot'' beat Angvar, aka [[spoiler: Tor; aka Thor.]] But he will respect you if you ''survive'' his beating down on you.

** One should note; the fight against three avatars of evil gods summoned by Susurrien is possible when you consider they're not immune.
* OnlyMostlyDead: There are three one-use items that can being someone back from the dead; IF their body isn't destroyed; and they're all gotten (and can be missed) in the first 2 books. One can also reverse a ritual to turn a party member into a zombie in the second book; resulting in a resurrection, this makes that party member stronger because they "no longer fear death."

The series is set to be reprinted by Megara Entertainment.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Blood Sword, the sword created by the Archangels to destroy the living dead.

* HopelessBossFight: You ''cannot'' beat Angmar, aka [[spoiler: Tor; aka Thor.]] But he will respect you if you ''survive'' his beating down on you.

** Susurrien uses MagiBabble to explain that he created {{avatar}}s of evil gods that weren't really them.

** One should note; the fight against three {{avatar}}s of evil gods summoned by Susurrien is possible when you consider they're not immune.

* GenreShift: The series starts as a typical SwordAndSorcery

* UnbeatableBossFight: You ''cannot'' beat Angmar, aka [[spoiler: Tor; aka Thor.]] But he will respect you if you ''survive'' his beating down on you.

'''''Blood Sword''''' is a series of gamebooks created by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris and published by Knight Books in the late 1980s. It was set in the invented fantasy world of "Legend", the authors' own fantasy world, which was the setting for their Dragon Warriors role playing game too. The storyline involved a group of [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]] who, after emerging victorious from a grueling adventure in the Battlepits of Krarth, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive stumbled by pure chance]] upon the plot of the five True Magi, evil entities who were thought to have been destroyed during a catastrophic magic explosion centuries before, and are now trying to reincarnate on Earth and bring about eternal damnation. After surviving an attack from a couple of henchmen of Blue Moon (the eldest and most powerful of the Magi), the adventurers are given the scabbard of Blood Sword, the only weapon the True Magi actually fear, by an old man mortally wounded in the attack... and from thereon, begin their quest to reunite the pieces of the sacred sword and stop the True Magi before the end of the Millennium and the coming of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Judgement Day]].

The books are designed for multi-player, co-operative play, though there was also a single-player option, and one player could control more than one character at a time. A party could consist of up to four players, with each player being either a [[CombatMedic Sage]], [[SquishyWizard Enchanter]], [[LoveableRogue Trickster]] or [[KnightInShiningArmor Warrior]]. Each of the classes was well-balanced and offered a different playing style from the others. Characters advanced in level, gaining power as the series progressed, and were carried forward from book to book, giving the experience of one long story.

Each player was autonomous - often paragraphs would be for one player's eyes only, and he would be privy to some information that he was free to withhold from the rest of his party.

The first three books were also adapted into a children's book series (also three books) called The Chronicles of the Magi in the late 1990s by Dave Morris. They featured several of the events and plot points used in the Blood Sword series, although with some change in the order they happen in. Two original characters, Altor and Caelestis (a warrior-monk and a thief), take what would be the player's role in the story.

* AttackBackfire: In one of the gamebooks you could try dealing with a huge Djinni by blasting it with the Orb of Fire. He finds it refreshing and it doesn't end well for the character attempting it...

* EvilPrince: Susurrien.

* JerkAss: You will ''hate'' the Faltyns.

* ShockAndAwe: The Enchanter's most powerful spells, Sheet Lightning and Nemesis Bolt, are all electricity-based

* ThanatosGambit: One of the possible endings of the series. Remember, the final judgement is minutes away so [[spoiler: if the last of the True Magi currently exists only as an illusion in your mind, dying before he can become physical can win you the game.]]

* [[MyNameIsNotDurwood My Name Is Not Icon]]: It's actually Aiken of the Song Mountain. You foreign devils, always getting his name wrong...

''Blood Sword'' is a series of gamebooks created by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris and published by Knight Books in the late 1980s. It was set in the invented fantasy world of "Legend", the authors' own fantasy world, which was the setting for their Dragon Warriors role playing game too. The storyline involved a group of [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]] who, after emerging victorious from a grueling adventure in the Battlepits of Krarth, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive stumbled by pure chance]] upon the plot of the five True Magi, evil entities who were thought to have been destroyed during a catastrophic magic explosion centuries before, and are now trying to reincarnate on Earth and bring about eternal damnation. After surviving an attack from a couple of henchmen of Blue Moon (the eldest and most powerful of the Magi), the adventurers are given the scabbard of Blood Sword, the only weapon the True Magi actually fear, by an old man mortally wounded in the attack... and from thereon, begin their quest to reunite the pieces of the sacred sword and stop the True Magi before the end of the Millennium and the coming of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Judgement Day]].

!This series contains examples of the following tropes: