History Literature / SeptimusHeap

''Septimus Heap'' is a series of YoungAdult {{fantasy}} novels written by Angie Sage. Like the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books, they take place in a rather whimsical fantasy world resembling a sort of mash-up of MedievalEuropeanFantasy and the modern day. Like the ''Harry Potter'' books, they do not skimp out on the NightmareFuel for young readers.

[[TimeSkip Cut to ten years later]] -- and now they've been found out. The Heap family is forced to flee their home to protect Jenna. Along the way, they pick up a quiet young soldier boy "named" Boy 412, who joins them in their hideout deep in the marshes. Just from the title of the series alone, you can probably guess who he ''really'' is. Overjoyed to have finally found his family, Septimus becomes an apprentice to the most (politically) powerful wizard in the world -- and embarks on a slew of adventures with his sister Princess Jenna, his brother Nicko, best friend Beetle, and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many, many others]]. But plenty of ills lurk in the world, wanting to get their hands on either his innate mystic power or his sister's political worth. Including one ''distressingly'' close to home...

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: ''Are there ever!'' Even the incredibly minor characters have backstories. The 2009 guidebook provides information on a lot of them.

A SequelSeries, ''[=TodHunter=] Moon'', began in 2014. The sequel series is set many years after the end of ''Fyre'', and focuses on the adventures of a young female wizard. It consists of three books, ''[=PathFinder=]'', ''[=SandRider=]'' and ''[=StarChaser=]'', the final of these being described as "the magykal conclusion to the world of Septimus Heap."

A SequelSeries, ''[=TodHunter=] Moon'', began in 2014. The sequel series is set many years after the end of ''Fyre'', and focuses on the adventures of a [[spoiler:young female wizard who eventually becomes the [=ExtraOrdinary=] Apprentice of Septimus Heap.]]. It consists of three books, ''[=PathFinder=]'', ''[=SandRider=]'' and ''[=StarChaser=]'', the final of these being described as "the magykal conclusion to the world of Septimus Heap."

* [[AntiMagic Anti-]]'''[[AntiMagic Magyk]]''': The Darke Vortex that [=DomDaniel=] uses to incapacitate Marcia Overstand in ''Magyk''.

* AbusiveParents: Queen Etheldredda. Marcellus openly states that Etheldredda would prefer her hunting dogs to him.

* AfraidOfBlood: Merrim Meredith is afraid from blood, especially his own, which leads him to fight back in ''Magyk''.

** ''Fyre'' adds more fuel to the, er, fire of this theory. Septimus writes the date on the snow outside [[spoiler: the House of Foryx]]. It's... quite surprising, to say the least.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: It is mentioned that Spit Fyre likes to do that with people, so that Jenna cautions Wolf Boy against getting too near when they're fetching the dragon.

* AmbitionIsEvil: [[spoiler:Simon Heap is aiming to become [=ExtraOrdinary=] Wizard. When he’s stepped over in favour of Septimus, he’s turns to [=DomDaniel=] to get his wish.]] It doesn’t work out.

* ShoutOut: ''Fyre'', the last book, contains at least one by Hotep-Ra, referencing the FamousLastWords of Captain Oats, one of the men on Scott's Antarctic expedition.

* ChekhovsGun: The green rock Septimus finds in book one is [[spoiler:a dragon egg]].

* TheNotLoveInterest: Septimus is Jenna's not love interest and vice-versa. Syrah may or may not also be a candidate.

* BarrierMaiden: The safety of the Castle depends upon Jenna’s presence in it.

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood - How the heroes deal with the Hunter in the first book. And they're particularly nasty about it, giving him memories of a horrible backstory where no one loved him and he was constantly the victim of misfortune and stupid mistakes. When Jenna tries to soften it by giving the Hunter a dog who was his only friend, Nikko cuts her off by adding that the "dog" died. The Hunter ends up working as a buffoon in the circus.

* ChangelingFantasy: Jenna, the only daughter of the Heap family, after ten years of living within the Heap family is revealed to be the daughter of the Queen and heir of the Castle. She had been adopted by the Heaps after the Queen was shot and Marcia Overstrand only barely managed to rescue Jenna from the Assassin sent out to kill them.

* CordonBleughChef: Aunt Zelda is, erm, "renowned" for her boiled cabbage sandwiches, jellied eel stew, and haddock-and-banana pie. Only Septimus is a fan of her cooking, but it seems to be NostalgiaFilter for him. All of her dishes are perfectly edible, if rather odd-sounding.

* CoolOldLady: Aunt Zelda, being the Keeper of Draggen Island.
* CrazyPrepared: Though not in the usual sense -- Epheniah Grebe, who can't speak, has a box filled with ''hundreds'' of cards, apparently written to apply to any occasion, including one written just for the off-chance that he somehow meets the Queen or Princess ("Greetings, Your Majesty"). When his cards fail him (which requires a highly specialized situation, like needing to ask about the range of someone's '''Seek'''), he resorts to a pen and paper.

* ElderlyImmortal: Marcellus's imperfect immortality potion turned him into this. [[spoiler:He gets returned to his youthful appearance after drinking the perfected version.]]

* MistakenForBadass: Merrin was thought by [=DomDaniel=] to be Septimus Heap, who was the seventh son of the seventh son that was said to have extreme magical talent, so [=DomDaniel=] took Merrin in as an apprentice waiting for the talent to arise. It turns he was switched with the real Septimus at birth, so no such talent reveals itself. Merrin doesn't take this well.

* PeacefulInDeath: [[spoiler:Alice]] and [[spoiler:Aunt Zelda]]

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: When Simon has told the Supreme Custodian about the location of Zelda's cottage, the Supreme Custodian plans to kill Simon along with the other Heaps.
* RhymesOnADime: Tertius Fume does this to the point of being called out for this by Merrin Meredith.

* SealedEvilInACan: Etheldredda, the BigBad of ''Physik'' has spent 500 years trapped in a [[PhantomZonePicture painting]] before being released.

* SwitchedAtBirth: Jenna was taken by the Heap family after Septimus disappeared.

* TalkingAnimal: Stanley the Message/Secret Service Rat. In fact, all message rats can talk, since they convey their messages via voice.

* {{Tsundere}}: Marcia is a nonromantic variant -- she's self-centered and abrasive as all get-out, but she very clearly cares deeply for Septimus (when she slips enough to let it show).

* UngratefulBastard: Merrin Meredith.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Septimus's fear from heights; HandWaved that most powerful Wizards are afraid of heights.

* YouAreNumberSix: Happens to Stanley the message rat after [=DomDaniel=]'s heavies take over the rat office. The new head rat reassigns him as Rat 101 and strips away his chartered confidential status. The members of the Young Army also have numbers instead of names.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: Marcellus Pye, especially in ''Queste'', for example by constantly forgetting the reason for Septimus’s visits. Explained as a consequence of his age (about 500 years).

* HonoraryUncle: Aunt Zelda to Wolf Boy

* ''Magyk''
* ''Flyte''
* ''Physik''
* ''Queste''
* ''Syren''
* ''Darke''
* ''Fyre''

A SequelSeries, ''Literature/TodHunterMoon'', began in 2014. The sequel series is set many years later and focuses on the adventures of a [[spoiler:young female wizard who eventually becomes the [=ExtraOrdinary=] Apprentice of Septimus Heap.]]. It consists of three books, ''[=PathFinder=]'', ''[=SandRider=]'' and ''[=StarChaser=]'', the final of these being described as "the magykal conclusion to the world of Septimus Heap."

* ColorCodedWizardry: Wizardry is color-coded: Purple is used by the [=ExtraOrdinary=] Wizards and their Apprentices, while bright green is associated with other Magyk.

* LandOfOneCity: The Castle.
* LastNameBasis: Beetle is only known as "Beetle", since his full name is "O. Beetle Beetle". He was named this because his mother was told that his father (a man named Brian, but everyone, even his wife, called him Beetle) had died just as Beetle was born. When asked for the name of her newborn son, Beetle's mother was half-mad with grief, and could only cry out "Oh Beetle! Beetle!" The people there took that as his name, for some reason.

* ShoutOut: ''Fyre'', the last book, contains at least contains one by Hotep-Ra, referencing the FamousLastWords of Captain Oats, one of the men on Scott's Antarctic expedition.

* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: In ''Syren'' Septimus says that not even Milo would be stupid enough to acquire five thousand warrior jinn without knowing the Codes to control them. Turns out that [[BigBad Tertius Fume]] deceived him into doing so by promising to give the Codes later.
* WildHair: The boys in the woods

* AgeWithoutYouth: Without the help of a seventh son of a seventh son, Marcellus Pye’s formula gives him this, making him plan to kidnap such a child from a time 500 years in the future. His plan succeeds, and in ''Queste'', Marcellus looks like a man in his late 20's. He's still over 500 years old, though.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In ''Syren'', Septimus is given a Water Gnome, which is basically a Magykal watering can. Beetle notes that it's different from the rude ones he usually sees. At first this can just fly over your head as [[SirSwearsalot swearing]] inanimate objects (God knows ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' has enough of them), but once you take into consideration that it's a ''watering can'', it can easily be interpreted as [[{{Squick}} something far worse]]. Not a pretty thought when you're watering your plants.
** At one point in ''Fyre'', Simon reacts to most horrible news with "Oh, ''Foryx''" in a way that implies he had a [[PrecisionFStrike different word with similar beginnings]] in mind.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: [[spoiler: Septimus Heap is Boy 412.]]

* PurpleEyes: Violet eyes are the sign of the RoyalBlood of the Castle.

* GreenEyes: All people with at least a little training in wizardry have green eyes--if they weren't born with them, then their eyes turn green once they start using '''Magyk'''.

* WhatBeautifulEyes: GreenEyes are often described as this, such as in ''Syren'' where Simon is courted by a few women after falling in the harbour.

* EvilTaintedThePlace: In ''Flyte''. The Dark Wizard DomDaniel despite having only occupied the rooms of the Extraordinary Wizard Marcia for a few months leaves behind a nasty taint of black magic that attempts to possess Marcia when she least expects it.

''Septimus Heap'' is a series of YoungAdult {{fantasy}} novels written by Angie Sage. Like the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books, they take place in a rather whimsical fantasy world resembling a sort of mash-up of MedievalEuropeanFantasy and the modern day. Like the Harry Potter books, they do not skimp out on the NightmareFuel for young readers.

* CrazyPrepared: Though not in the usual sense -- Epheniah Grebe, who can't speak, has a box filled with ''hundreds'' of cards, apparently written to apply to any occasion, including one written just for the off-chance that he somehow meets the Queen or Princess ("Greetings, Your Majesty"). When his cards fail him, he resorts to a pen and paper.

** In '''Syren''' [[spoiler:Syrah Syara is '''Posessed''' by a '''Syren'''. Septimus nearly ends up joining/replacing her.]]
** In '''Darke''' Sarah Heap is briefly held prisoner by '''Things''' until Simon [[spoiler:undoes Marcia's '''Quarantine'''.]]
** In '''Fyre''' Jenna is '''Grasped''' by the Forest Witch Mother [[DownplayedTrope but is rescued by Milo before the chapter ends]].

* DeaderThanDead: All people become ghosts when they die. Except [[spoiler:Etheldredda]], who is killed with a dragon fire-based spell, and [[spoiler:[=DomDaniel=]]], who is eaten by Spyt Fyre.