History Literature / ShamanOfTheUndead

[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/szamanka_4633.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:259:Ladies and gentlemen, our unwilling heroine.]]
-> ''A medium's life is screwed-up. A medium who doesn't want to be a medium is screwed-up doubly. Medium with no vocation, but with aversion to spirits, is screwed-up in every way possible.''

''Shaman Of The Undead'' is a duology of UrbanFantasy books by Polish author Martyna Raduchowska, so far untranslated to any other languages. Its protagonist is a young woman born in the modern-day southern Poland - specifically, [[{{Masquerade}} the magical part]].

Ida Brzezińska is the BlackSheep of her family - a powerful, influential family of wizards, whose only scion [[MuggleBornOfMages seems to possess no magical talent whatsoever]]. Tired with her parents' plots to send her to magical university and then marry her off to some Wizard-Council-influential magician to whom she can bear properly magical children, Ida runs away to Wrocław, to study psychology. Things get complicated when it turns out that she does, in fact, [[TheCallPutMeOnHold have a gift]] - as a "shaman of the undead", she's able to foresee people's deaths and obliged to [[{{Psychopomp}} lead their souls to the Land Of The Dead]]. Trained by her tongue-in-cheek old aunt Tekla, Ida foresees her first assignment and sets off to do the job... but the case turns more complicated than it initially seems.

The duology consists of ''Shaman Of The Undead'' and ''The Mirror Demon''.

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!!This series contains examples of:
* ActionGirl: Redhead and Lena.
* AddictionPowered: Kwiatuszek's powers run on caffeine and high fat food.
* AlchemyIsMagic: It is mentioned as one of magical disciplines.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Bad Luck, Ida's personal [[spoiler: demon]].
* AntiquatedLinguistics: Tekla uses XIX century speech patterns, to the point that Ida thinks she's got a grammar problem. Also, it makes her sound rather snotty.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Kwiatuszek's main power is that she's genius analyst, capable of figuring out everything, given sufficient amount of raw data (and "sufficient" isn't much when she's concerned).
* BadassBureaucrat: Kwiatuszek is pretty much the BigGood of the story, helping Brittle under the desk and analyzing data for him and Ida.
* BigEater: "Brittle" Kruszyński. Ida once or twice complains about him clearing her fridge on every visit.
* BlackSheep: Ida's parents consider her to be one, mostly because she refuses to participate in ArrangedMarriage and she seems to possess no magical gift.
* BlessedWithSuck: So far, it seems like nothing good comes from being a shaman of the undead.
* BlueCollarWarlock: Extremely common in this universe.
* BondCreature: Variation of this occures with Ida and Bad Luck, although case of who has who never gets resolved. Played straight with Biter, Ida's dreamcatcher, and zig-zagged with Joanna who's a harpy accompanying Ida everywhere because Ida is supposed to guide her to Land Of The Dead [[note]]But she can't. Harpies are forever stuck in mortal world, so Ida will never get rid of Joanna[[/note]].
* {{Brainwashed}}: Any {{Muggle}} who has seen too much magic is subjected to this, with their memories of the events [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wiped out]].
* CreatorProvincialism: Except from a couple of scenes at the beginning of the first book and one or two in the second, the entire story takes place in Wrocław.
* CurseEscapeClause: A must for any immortal oath.[[spoiler: Too bad Ida didn't know this when she made one...]]
* TheDarkArts: Ol' fashioned black magic. It smells of ginger and pepper.
* DarkWorld: The world on the other side of the mirrors is a distorted and sometimes-creepy version of our reality.
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: Tekla. She]] died two years before the story started.
* DeadpanSnarker: Most notably Tekla, Okhamhaka and Redhead, although other characters have their moments as well.
* DemonicPossession: What most attempts at summoning a demon end with. It can also happen to bystander if s/he's present when ritual is finished.
* DemonSlaying: Brittle's job in WON. The departament actually hires a lot of demon slayers in case necromancer hunts or exorcisms go awry.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Ida foresees certain peoples' death, as well as important future events. Tekla states it's a {{Required Secondary Power|s}} so that she can be on time to lead the ghost to the Land of the Dead.
* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Ida, again, this time about [[spoiler:The Tempter]].
* FantasticAngst: Ida angsts over her parents' plans for her to study in a magical university and marry an influential wizard, despite her [[MuggleBornOfMages lack of magical talent]].
* FieryRedhead: Redhead, with her HairTriggerTemper.
* FightsLikeANormal: Ida, since her talent doesn't apply to the living.
* FunWithAcronyms: WON [[note]]''Wydział Opętań i Nawiedzeń'', Department of Possessions and Hauntings[[/note]] means "be gone" in Polish. Actually sort of fitting.
* {{Geas}}: Shaman of the undead must lead all the souls she dreamed of to the Land Of The Dead - otherwise she loses part of her own soul and somebody else dies.
* GeometricMagic: Circles are important, especially in necromancy and demon-summoning.
* HauntedHouse: Most notably Tekla's house and the apartment house Ida moved in. Both are benign versions. Karev's house, though, is absolutely creepy, but it's [[spoiler:the backyard that's haunted. ItMakesSenseInContext.]]
* {{Hell}}: Apparently, some worlds on the other side of the mirrors are hells ruled by powerful demons, most notably Tempter's hell. Only demons and people who were possessed in life go there, the latter only if their souls don't explode from BlackMagic's taint.
* HeroicRROD: Ida suffers from it through the first half of ''The Mirror Demon''.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Bad Luck]] in the end of ''The Mirror Demon''. [[spoiler:The epilogue implies he survived and is still bonded with Ida, though.]]
* IAmAHumanitarian: Demons like eating people, in case you wondered why it's so illegal to summon them.
* InSeriesNickname: Most agents of WON has those, as Polish tradition requires[[note]]In Poland it's quite popular to call workmates by nicknames derived from their surname, i.e. Smithson may be called Smith, Peterson - Petey etc. It usually indicates that they've been working together for quite a long time and are on friendly terms[[/note]]. Zofia is Readhead, Kruszyński - Brittle ("Kruchy" in Polish), Lena Wolf is Wolfie and so on.
* {{Intangibility}}: Ghosts, as well as Biter when he's personifying Ida's dreams.
* ISeeDeadPeople: Ida, to her reluctance, and Tekla. She can also see creepy life-like visions where BlackMagic was used.
* JacobMarleyApparel: Ida nicknamed [[spoiler:Mikołaj]]'s ghost "One-Eyed Cannibal" for a reason.
* JobTitle: By way of ProtagonistTitle.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Memory wiping is this, as so-called "sowers of oblivion" can make someone forget any person completely, provided that a proper personal trinket is given away. Said trinket acts like a storage for wiped out memory, so if the wiped-out person touches it, all the memories come back.
* MagicIsAMonsterMagnet: Magic Is A Ghost Magnet: Due to the Inner Eye, the source of shaman's powers, visible to ghosts as a bright, white light.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: Okhamhaka, the Indian boy-ghost who Tekla calls "probably the most powerful one she's ever met". How he came to be in ''Wrocław'', an ocean and half a continent from America, is left unexplained.
* MagicalSociety: WON, Department Of Possessions And Hauntings (''Wydział Opętań i Nawiedzeń''), the magical police.
* MagicMirror: ''Any'' mirror is this, a gate to all possible universes, including various hells, future and past. One can come through a mirror and move between them... But it's dangerous because residents of that hells mentioned earlier like human souls very much.
* MagneticMedium: Inner Eye informs the ghosts of presence and location of Ida, so she doesn't have to go searching for them, or at least not too far. Doubles as WeirdnessMagnet and Ida'd much rather do without it, thank you very much.
* {{Masquerade}}: And WON doesn't shy from {{Brainwash|ed}}ing to uphold it.
* MemoryGambit: [[spoiler:A subversion.]] Karev has his memories partially erased after his wife's and child's death and everybody thinks this is because he killed them and doesn't want memory-readers to prove it. [[spoiler:Not really. Child died of sickness and wife committed suicide, so Karev, suffering a massive depression, asked a friend to erase his memories of them. Only it had Gone Horribly Wrong...]]
* MemoryWipingCrew: WON hires "oblivion sewers" and "memory sewers", whose job is respectively deleting and planting false memories, to keep up TheMasquerade, although they work as regular psychologists as well.
* MirrorMonster: Demons and people able to walk in the mirrors tend to come off like this.
* MuggleBornOfMages: Ida spends most of her life confident that she's this. Her parents don't believe it, hence a variety of tests and traps to force her to reveal her gift. It turns out that she's always been a shaman, only her [[GoneHorriblyRight house's magical wards]] [[ScreeningTheCall prevented ghosts from coming to her]].
* NoEyeInMagic: In order to see her dreams caught by Biter, Ida must look him in the eyes.
* {{Necromancer}}: WON treats them as necessary evil, as they use black magic, but sometimes the opportunity to question the victim is priceless.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Kruszyński is constantly referred to by his nickname, Brittle.
* OurBansheesAreLouder: Banshees are people who can predict somebody's death and more often that not, deliver it.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They are entities that live on the other side of the mirror in various hells. Most are ruled by the Tempter. They can possess people, and people "tainted" by black magic and demonic possession may become demons themselves. They crave human flesh and souls, although some are satisfied with pranks.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They are either souls of dead people who have not left for the Land Of The Dead yet (or were [[{{Necromancy}} summoned back]]), or souls that came (or were pushed) out of their still living bodies. They can be destroyed, tainted by black magic or turned into demons, and can shatter if tainted too much.
* ParanormalInvestigation: Seems to drift slowly in this direction, which is reasonable, since some characters are magical policemen.
* PostModernMagik: Photographs can be used to contact the living, as they are perfect imitation of a person. Also, "crucifixes", or firearms for demons.
* ProphecyTwist: Ida ''did'' foresee the sudden death of [[spoiler: Mikołaj]] and when said person broke into her house and tried to kill her, she kept waiting for someone to come in and save the day. It turns out [[spoiler:she was his killer]].
* {{Psychopomp}}: A shaman of the undead's job is to guide the souls to the Land of the Dead, although not all souls need it. Shamans are so rare that WON has no records of them and had to do a lot of digging before they can believe Ida's claim to be one.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Discussed, but averted. Redhead suspects that Ida may be this for Brittle after the loss of [[spoiler: Wolfie]], but he disagrees, stating that he will not treat Ida as such.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: For Ida, her ability to see any soon-to-be deaths, so that she can get to them and guide them to the Land of the Dead, and her ability to see ghosts, for rather obvious reasons.
* ScreeningTheCall: Tekla suggests that that's what happened - Brzezińscy's house's magic wards were stopping the ghosts from coming to Ida, making her seem [[MuggleBornOfMages powerless]]. This is supported by the fact that, while in the hospital at the start of the story, she instantly sees [[spoiler:Mikołaj's future]] ghost. And that she's always seen and chatted with ghosts on funerals.
* ShoutOut: Multiple:
** Tekla's previous student was called Alice. [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland She went on the other side of the mirrors]] and disappeared without a trace. Alice even lampshaded this.
** When Ida realizes she can see ghosts, she states ''[[Film/TheSixthSense I see dead people]]''. The ghost [[LampshadeHanging thinks she's being funny]].
* TheCallPutMeOnHold: Until she's 21, Ida hasn't displayed any magical talents, which annoys her parents (both powerful wizards) to no end.
* ThePromise: The immortal oath Ida makes at the end of the ''Shaman'' causes the ''Mirror Demon'' plot.
* ProtagonistTitle: By way of calling by by a JobTitle.
* TheShrink: Karev's friend is, beside a psychologist in Muggle world, the "oblivion sower", meaning he can literally ''erase other people's memories'' and manipulate them to his wish. [[spoiler:Oh, and he turns out to be Big Bad of the books, being person who turned Karev into the Mirror Demon]].
* WeirdnessMagnet: Overlaps with MagneticMedium. Ida is one until she learns to conceal her Inner Eye, which works like ghostly lighthouse, bringing to her souls, demons, curious spirits and, by extension, WON's attention.
* WhereDidWeGoWrong: Ida's parents have this attitude towards their daughter, who wants a life of her own instead of fulfilling their expectations.
* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: Ida was supposed to be "necessary minimum" to secure her family's political power, be obedient daughter, study magic and marry an important wizard. And she wants nothing to do with magic, instead going tostudy psychology on a {{Muggle}} university. Dear parents riddle their house with magical traps, trying to prove she's only pretending to [[MuggleBornOfMages have no powers]]. Ida once had to wait spend a good fifteen minutes dangling upside down before someone came to free her of one trap.
* WizardsAndWitches: Series' premise.
* YouCantFightFate: Apparently one of rules in series' universe.
* YouCanSeeMe: Joanna's and apartment's ghosts' reaction.
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* JobTitle

* [[MagicIsAMonsterMagnet Magic Is A Ghost Magnet]]: Due to the Inner Eye, the source of shaman's powers, visible to ghosts as a bright, white light.

* ShoutOut:

''Shaman Of The Undead'' is a duology of UrbanFantasy books by Polish author Martyna Raduchowska, so far untranslated to any other languages. Its {{protagonist}} is a young woman born in the modern-day southern Poland - specifically, [[{{Masquerade}} the magical part]].

* FieryRedhead: [[CaptainObvious Redhead]], with her HairTriggerTemper.

Ida Brzezińska is the BlackSheep of her family - a powerful, influential family of wizards, whose only scion [[MuggleBornOfMages seems to possess no magical talent whatsoever]]. Tired with her parents' plots to send her to magical university and then marry her off to some Wizard-Council-influential magician to whom she can bear properly magical children, Ida runs off to Wrocław to study psychology. Things get complicated when it turns out that she does, in fact, [[TheCallPutMeOnHold have a gift]] - as a "shaman of the undead", she's able to foresee people's deaths and obliged to [[{{Psychopomp}} lead their souls to the Land Of The Dead]]. Trained by her tongue-in-cheek old aunt Tekla, Ida foresees her first assignment and sets off to do the job... but the case turns more complicated than it initially seems.

* BlessedWithSuck: So far, it seems like nothing good comes from being shaman of the undead.

* ScreeningTheCall: Tekla suggests that that's what happened - Brzeźnińscy's house's magic wards were stopping the ghosts from coming to Ida, making her seem [[MuggleBornOfMages powerless]]. This is supported by the fact that, while in the hospital at the start of the story, she instantly sees [[spoiler:Mikołaj's future]] ghost. And that she's always seen and chatted with ghosts on funerals.

* BlueCollarWarlock: Every wizard or witch in this universe.
* BondCreature: Variation of this occures with Ida and Bad Luck, although case of who has who never gets resolved. Played straight with Biter, Ida's dreamcatcher, and zig-zagged with Joanna who's a harpy accompanying Ida everywhere because Ida is supposed to lead her to Land Of The Dead [[note]]But she can't. Harpies are forever stuck in mortal world, so Ida will never get rid of Joanna[[/note]].

* CreatorProvincialism: Except from few scenes at the beginning of the first book and one or two in the second, whole story takes place in Wrocław.
* CurseEscapeClause: A must for any immortal oath.[[spoiler: Too sad Ida didn't know this when she made one...]]

* DarkWorld: The world on the other side of the mirrors is distorted and sometimes-creepy version of our reality.

* DemonSlaying: Brittle's job in WON. The department actually hires a lot of demon slayers in case necromancer hunts or exorcisms go awry.

* FantasticAngst: Ida angsts over her parents plans for her to study on magical university and marry an influential wizard, despite her [[MuggleBornOfMages lack of magical talent]].
* FieryRedhead: Redhead, as you might guess. She also has the most HairTriggerTemper of all the characters.
* FightsLikeANormal: Ida, as her talent doesn't apply to the living.

* {{Geas}}: Shaman of the undead must lead souls she dreamed of to the Land Of The Dead - otherwise she loses part of her soul and somebody else dies.

* IAmAHumanitarian: Demons like eating people, which makes it obvious why it's illegal to summon them.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Memory wiping is this, as so-called "sowers of oblivion" can make someone forget any person completely, provided that a proper personal trinket is given away. Said trinket acts like a storage for wiped out memory, so if wiped-out person touches it, memories all come back.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: Until the Magic Council is mentioned, the story could be mistaken for a tale of a girl looking for her purpose in life (provided you didn't read the title or description, of course).

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Okhamhaka, the Indian boy-ghost who Tekla calls "probably the most powerful one she's ever met". How he came to be in Wrocław, an ocean and half a continent from America, is left unexplained.
* MagicalSociety: WON, Department Of Possessions And Hauntings (''Wydział Opętań i Nawiedzeń''), magical police.

* MagneticMedium: Inner Eye informs the ghosts of presence and location of Ida, so that she won't have to travel to them, or at least not too far. Doubles as WeirdnessMagnet and Ida'd much rather do without it, thank you very much.

* MuggleBornOfMages: Ida spends most of her life confident that she's this. Her parents can't believe it and put her through tests and traps to force her to reveal her gift. It turns out that she's always been a shaman, only her house's magical wards prevented ghosts from coming to her.

* {{Necromancer}}: WON treats them as necessary evil, as they use black magic, but opportunity to question the victim can be priceless.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They are either souls of dead people who have not come to the Land Of The Dead yet or came back at call, or souls that came (or were pushed) out of their still living bodies. They can be destroyed, tainted by black magic or turned into demons, and can shatter if tainted too much.

* {{Psychopomp}}: Shaman of the undead's job is to guide the souls to the Land of the Dead, although not all souls need it. Shamans are so rare, WON has no records of them and had to do a lot of digging before believing Ida that she is one.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: For Ida, her ability to see who will die soon, so that she can get to him and lead him to the Land of the Dead, and her ability to see ghosts, for rather obvious reasons.
* ScreeningTheCall: Tekla suggests that that's what happened - Brzeźnińscy's house's magic wards were stopping the ghosts from coming to Ida, making it look as if she had no powers at all. This is supported by the fact that when she goes to the hospital at the start of the story, she instantly sees [[spoiler:Mikołaj's future]] ghost.

* ThePromise: The immortal oath Ida makes at the end of the ''Shaman'' is the reason for the ''Mirror Demon'' plot.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Overlaps with MagneticMedium, Ida is this until she learns to conceal her Inner Eye, which works like ghostly lighthouse, bringing to her souls, demons, curious spirits and, by extension, WON's attention.

-> ''Medium has a screwed-up life. Medium who doesn't want to be a medium is screwed up doubly. Medium with no vocation, but with aversion to spirits, is screwed up in all possible ways.''

''Shaman Of The Undead'' is a duology of UrbanFantasy books by Polish author Martyna Raduchowska, so far untranslated to any other languages. It tells the story of eponymous heroine in the modern-day southern Poland, where magical world hides from {{Muggle}} one.

Ida Brzezińska is the BlackSheep in her family - the only child to powerful, influential family of wizards, [[TheCallPutMeOnHold she seems to possess no magical talent whatsoever]]. Tired with her parents' plots to send her to magical university and then marry her off to some Wizard-Council-influential magician whom she can bear properly magical children, Ida runs off to Wrocław to study psychology. Things get complicated when it turns out that she has, in fact, a gift - she's the "shaman of the undead", a person able to foresee somebody's death and obliged to [[{{Psychopomp}} lead said person's soul to the Land Of The Dead]]. Trained by her tongue-in-cheek old aunt Tekla, Ida foresees her first assignment and sets off to do the job... but the case is more complicated than it seems.

The two books in the duology are ''Shaman Of The Undead'' and its continuation, ''The Mirror Demon''.

!!Series contains examples of:

* CurseEscapeClause: Any immortal oath should have it.[[spoiler: Too sad Ida didn't know it when she made one...]]
* TheDarkArts: Ol' fashioned black magic. Smells of ginger and pepper.

* DemonSlaying: Brittle's job in WON. The department actually hires a lot of demon slayers in case necromancer hunt or exorcisms go awry.

* FantasticAngst: Ida angsts over her parents plans for her to study on magical university and marry an influential wizard, despite her lacking magical talent.

* {{Hell}}: Apparently, some worlds on the other side of the mirrors are hells ruled by powerful demons, most notably Tempter's hell. Only demons and people who were possessed in life go there, the latter provided that their souls don't explode from BlackMagic's taint.

* {{Intangibility}}: property of ghosts, as well as Biter when he's personifying Ida's dreams.

* MagicMirror: ''Any'' mirror is this, as they are the gates to all possible universes, including various hells, future and past. One can come through a mirror and move between them... But it's dangerous because residents of that hells mentioned earlier like human souls very much.
* MagneticMedium: Inner Eye informs the ghosts of presence and location of Ida, so that she won't have to travel to them, or at least not too much. Doubles as WeirdnessMagnet and Ida'd much rather do without it, thank you very much.

* MuggleBornOfMages: Ida spends most of her life confident that she's this. Her parent's can't believe it and put her through tests and traps to force her to reveal her gift. It turns out that she's always been a shaman, only her house's magical wards prevented ghosts from coming to her.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They are entities that live on the other side of the mirror in various hells. Most are ruled by the Tempter. They can possess people, and people "tainted" by black magic and demonic possession may become demons themselves. They crave human flesh and souls, although some satisfy themselves with pranks.

* ParanormalInvestigation: Series seems to drift slowly in this direction, which is reasonable, since some characters are magical policemen.

* ProphecyTwist: Ida ''did'' foresaw the sudden death of [[spoiler: Mikołaj]] and when said person broke into her house and tried to kill her, she kept waiting for someone to come in and save the day. It turns out [[spoiler:she was the person to kill him]].
* {{Psychopomp}}: Shaman of the undead's job is to lead the souls to the Land of the Dead, although not all souls require it. Shamans are so rare, WON has no records of them and had to do a lot of digging before believing Ida that she is one.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Discussed, but averted. Redhead suspects that Ida may be this for Brittle after the loss of [[spoiler: Wolfie]], but he disagrees, stating that he will not treat Ida as second [[spoiler: Lena]].

** When Ida realizes she can see ghosts, she states ''[[Film/TheSixthSense I see dead people]]''.
* TheCallPutMeOnHold: Until she's 21, Ida hasn't had any magical talents, which annoys her parents (powerful wizards) to no end.
* ThePromise: Immortal oath Ida makes at the end of the ''Shaman'' is the reason for the ''Mirror Demon'' plot.

* WhereDidWeGoWrong: Ida and her parents. She was supposed to be a good daughter, excellent wizard and a proper wife. She turned out rebellious, unmagical and unwilling to settle down.
* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: Ida's parents attitude towards their only daughter. Ida was supposed to be "necessary minimum" to secure her family's political power, be obedient daughter, study magic and marry important wizard. She turns out to have no magical powers, be rebellious and wishing to study psychology on {{Muggle}} university. Parents are not happy and think she hides her powers from them so that they won't be able to send her to magical school. They actually set multiple magical traps in their house, trying to prove they're right. They're wrong and Ida once had to wait almost a quarter suspended upside down before they arrived to free her.

* TheObiWan: Aunt Tekla, although she avoids the dying part [[spoiler:by being already dead when the story starts]].

''Shaman Of The Undead'' is 21st-century series of UrbanFantasy books by Polish author Martyna Raduchowska, so far untranslated to any other languages. It tells the story of eponymous heroine in the modern-day southern Poland, where magical world hides from {{Muggle}} one.

Series currently has two parts, ''Shaman Of The Undead'' and its continuation, ''The Mirror Demon''.

* LikeRealityUnlessNoted

* {{Masquerade}}: And WON doesn't shy from {{Brainwash|ed}}ing to uphold it.

* TheCallPutMeOnHold: until she was 21, Ida didn't have any magical talents, which annoyed her parents (powerful wizards) to no end.

** When Ida realizes she can see ghosts, she states ''[[Film/SixthSense I see dead people]]''.

* MemoryGambit: [[spoiler:A subversion.]] Karev has his memories partially erased after his wife's and child's death and everybody thinks this is because he killed them and don't want memory-readers to prove it. [[spoiler:Not really. Child died of sickness and wife committed suicide, so Karev, suffering a massive depression, asked a friend to erase his memories of them. Only it had Gone Horribly Wrong...]]

* IAmAHumanitarian: Demons like eating people, which makes obvious why it's illegal to summon them.

* FightsLikeANormal: Ida, since her talent doesn't apply to the living.

-> ''Medium has a screwed-up life. Medium who doesn't want to be a medium, is screwed up doubly. Medium with no vocation, but with aversion to spirits, is screwed up in all possible ways.''

* {{Psychopomp}}: Shaman of the undead's job is to lead the souls to the Land of the Dead.

* HauntedHouse: most notably Tekla's house and the apartment house Ida moved in.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Overlaps with MagneticMedium, Ida is this until she learns to conceal her Inner Eye.

* ShoutOut: Tekla's previous student was called Alice. [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland She went on the other side of the mirrors]] and disappeared without a trace.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They are entities that live on the other side of the mirror and are ruled the Tempter. They can possess people, and people "tainted" by black magic and demonic possession may become demons themselves.

* AlchemyIsMagic: it is mentioned as one of magical disciplines.

* DemonicPossession: How most attempts at summoning a demon end with. It can also happen to bystander if s/he's present when ritual is finished.

* GeometricMagic: circles are important.

* InSeriesNickname: most agents of WON has those, as Polish tradition requires[[note]]In Poland it's quite popular to call workmates by nicknames derived from their surname, i.e. Smithson may be called Smith, Peterson - Petey etc. It usually indicates that they've been working together for quite a long time and are on friendly terms[[/note]]. Zofia is Readhead, Kruszyński - Brittle ("Kruchy" in Polish), Lena Wolf is Wolfie and so on.

* [[MagicIsAMonsterMagnet Magic Is A Ghost Magnet]]: due to the Inner Eye, the source of shaman's powers, visible to ghosts as a bright, white light.

* MagicMirror: ''any'' mirror is this, as they are the gates to all possible universes, including various hells, future and past. One can come through a mirror and move between them... But it's dangerous because residents of that hells mentioned earlier like human souls very much.

* MirrorMonster: demons and people able to walk in the mirrors tend to do this.
* NoEyeInMagic: in order to see her dreams caught by Biter, Ida must look him in the eyes.

* OurBansheesAreLouder: banshees are people who can predict somebody's death and more often that not, deliver it.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: they are entities that live on the other side of the mirror and are ruled the Tempter. They can possess people, and people "tainted" by black magic and demonic possession may become demons themselves.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: they are either souls of dead people who have not come to the Land Of The Dead yet or came back at call, or souls that came (or were pushed) out of their still living bodies. They can be destroyed, tainted by black magic or turned into demons, and can shatter if tainted too much.
* ParanormalInvestigation: series seems to drift slowly in this direction, which is reasonable, since some characters are magical policemen.
* PostModernMagik: photographs can be used to contact the living, as they are perfect imitation of a person. Also, "crucifixes", or firearms for demons.

* TheObiWan: aunt Tekla.

* WeirdnessMagnet: overlaps with MagneticMedium, Ida is this until she learns to conceal her Inner Eye.

* WizardsAndWitches: series premise.
* YouCantFightFate: apparently one of rules in series' universe.

* ISeeDeadPeople: Ida, to her reluctance, and Tekla.
* JacobMarleyApparel: Ida nicknamed [[spoiler:Mikołaj]]'s ghost "One-Eyed Cannibal" with a reason.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Ida foresees certain peoples' death, as well as important future events.