History Literature / TheBlackWitchChronicles

* DeadlyEuphemism: After Elloren becomes distressed at seeing a Selkie in a cage, Vyvian reassures her that she's against the Selkie trade and believes that there are better ways to deal with them than by keeping them in cages. Later in the book, Elloren finds out that her aunt wants all Selkies killed on sight.

* AlphaBitch: Fallon Bane. Her mother was also like this.

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Shadow Wand itself. [[spoiler:It can control people and distort beings into monstrous caricatures of their former selves.]]

* DefiledForever: [[spoiler:Aislinn is forcibly fasted to Damion Bane, who beats and rapes her. She's later rescued, but believes that Jarod won't want her after what happened to her.]]

** [[spoiler:When the Alfsigr assassins come for Wynter at the North Tower, Ariel poses as her despite everyone's protests, which gets her hauled back to the sanitarium where she was tortured, and she's fed an overdose of nilantyr berries before Yvan and Elloren can rescue her, dropping her into a coma from which she will die. Naga takes her off to the wyverns for burial.]]

* HotBlooded: Diana Ulrich, daughter of Lupine alpha Gunther Ulrich, is noted by several of her friends for her problems with tact.

** [[spoiler:Uncle Edwin]] was in love with a Urisk woman, but sent her to the Noi lands for her safety.

** Elloren is initially interested in Lukas Grey, the mage her aunt wants her to fast to, but eventually also becomes attracted to Yvan Guriel, a Kelt, after he warms up to her from his initial dislike. [[spoiler:By the end of ''The Iron Flower'', Ren has chosen Yvan, but she's been forcibly wandfasted to Lukas before running away, with the magical binding that will punish her if she has sex with someone other than Lukas.]]

* MindRape: The Alfsigr do this to their entire race. At the age of twelve, every child is given a necklace that's enchanted to make them placid, serene and free of rebellious thoughts. Anyone who refuses to wear it is either banished or thrown into prison.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They're called Lupines, they can smell attraction and emotions, and they can shift anytime they want. They can turn others into their kind by biting them in the neck enough to draw blood on the full moon.

* {{Sadist}}: Styvius Gardner and Malkyn Bane.

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* DoesNotLikeMen: The Amaz turn this trope UpToEleven. They view all men as vile abusers, won't allow men within their nation, even refugees, and leave any male babies in the Lupine forests without caring what happens to them (they're usually taken in by the Lupines).

* MulticoloredHair: Gareth's is black with silver tips. In Gardneria, this is both radical and anomalous — Gardnerians all have black hair, so any Gardnerian with hair that isn't entirely black is suspected of having mixed blood. [[spoiler:In Gareth's case, they're right: he's half-Selkie.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Tessla slowly realises over the course of ''Wandfasted'' that the Gardnerians are no different from the Kelts or anyone else — they'll inflict atrocities on anyone different from them just for existing.

* RealityEnsues:
** Sage was never taught any magic. The first time she finally gets some spells, it takes a while for her to get them right because she doesn't know how to pronounce the words, which are in an ancient language that isn't used in conversation and isn't taught to anyone except practicing mages.
** A lot of wandfastings take place between couples who don't know or don't like each other, and were arranged by their parents with little or no input from the couples themselves. This results in several occasions where a girl has to be forced into fasting (Tessla, Draven, [[spoiler:Elloren]]).
** Sage is fasted to Tobias at the age of thirteen, but because of their ages, they don't live together afterwards, they both live at home for years until they become adults, and aren't even allowed to write to each other. By the time they're due to actually live together, they've barely said two words to each other. In the intervening time, Tobias has become involved with another woman, and has no real interest in Sage — and things only go downhill from there.
** Tessla is initially ecstatic at the Black Witch's triumph over the Kelts because it means that she and her family will be able to live in peace, without fear of being persecuted for existing. But as the book continues, she finds that the Gardnerians are just as xenophobic as the Kelts, and will happily commit atrocities to anyone of a race they don't like. By the end of the book, her idealised view of her country is all but gone.

-->'''[[spoiler:Tierney]]]''': *summons twenty kelpies* I ''have'' an army, Fyordan Lir.

* CannotTellALie: Dryad Fae can't lie to each other. Gardnerians are descended from Dryads, so those with particularly strong Dryad ancestry have trouble being dishonest with each other.

* DemotedToExtra: A large number of former main characters don't appear in ''The Shadow Wand''.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sage seriously contemplated throwing herself off a bridge after her fastmate beat her and tried to rape her, and their families blamed her for it. She was stopped at the last minute, though.]]

* StayInTheKitchen: Gardnerian culture holds that the men, who have the wand magic, are to be soldiers, while the women, who generally have little magic, are to give birth to more Gardnerian men to pass the power onto. What this means in effect is that the Gardnerian women with actual power, like Tessla and Sage, are effectively blocked from actually being taught to use their power, while Gardneria loses out on more soldiers because of its own cultural stupidity.

* BigBad: Marcus Vogel, who leads Gardneria on a march to exterminate all non-allied races and take over the Western Realm, and is also the wielder of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Black Wand]].

* FantasticRacism: All over the place. Every single species or faction has either pulled this on another group, or had it pulled on them — the multiple wars the Western Realm has suffered through are the cause of most of them. The only places where members of all races are accepted are the Amaz lands (no men allowed, however) and the Noi lands in the east.

* WhenTreesAttack: In ''The Iron Flower'', Elloren can feel the forest's hatred of her and desire to kill her because of her power.

* DoesNotLikeMen: The Amaz turn this trope UpToEleven. They view all men as vile abusers, won't allow men within their nation, even refugees, and leave any male babies in the Lupine forests without caring what happens to them (they're usually taken in by the Lupines).

* MeaningfulName: Sage names her newborn son "Fyn'ir", which means "freedom". Her son is not only [[spoiler:thought to be the Icaral destined to fight the next Black Witch, he's also one of the last remaining Smaragdalfar royals, his father being the other.]]

** [[spoiler:When the Alfsigr assassins come for Wynter at the North Tower, Ariel poses as her despite everyone's protests, which gets her hauled back to the sanitarium where she was tortured, and she's fed an overdose of nylantir berries before Yvan and Elloren can rescue her, dropping her into a coma from which she will die. Naga takes her off to the wyverns for burial.]]

''The Black Witch Chronicles'' is a YA fantasy series by Laurie Forest. The first book was published in 2017. The books in the series are:

* ''The Black Witch'' (2017)
* ''The Iron Flower'' (2018)
* Two {{prequel}} novellas, ''Wandfasted'' and ''Light Mage'', first published as e-books and later collected in ''The Rebel Mages'' (2019)

* FantasyContraceptive: Sanjire root, which is illegal in Gardneria. It's also weak to light magic, which is why Light Mage Sage ends up pregnant with Fyn'ir despite taking the root beforehand.

* ImportantHaircut: In ''Light Mage'', after realizing that Za'ya was right about what the Alfsigr are like, Ryvir goes outside and hacks his hair ''very'' short as a form of penance when he decides to officially join the rebellion.

* PunctuationShaker: Many Elven names, especially Smaragdalfar names (Za'ya, Ra'Ven Na'Zor, Na'bee, Fyn'ir, Rivyr'el).

* {{Glamour}}: Several Fae were hidden from the massacre of their kind by these, such as [[spoiler:Tierney Calix]]. [[spoiler:Yvan, being part Lasair Fae, can take his on and off as he wants.]]

* Two {{prequel}} novellas, ''Wandfasted'' and ''Light Mage'', first published as e-books, and later collected in ''The Rebel Mages'' (2019)

* BigBad: Marcus Vogel, who leads Gardneria on a march to exterminate all non-allied races and take over the Western Realm.

* There are also two {{prequel}} novellas, ''Wandfasted'' and ''Light Mage'', first published as e-books, and later collected in ''The Rebel Mages'' (2019).