History Literature / TheForgesOfDawn

''The Forges of Dawn'' is the first in an upcoming series of Iron Lyon novels by E. M. Kinsey.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Happens to Fuga, the Beast Master, after he fails to [[spoiler:find Kamaria and her family]] for Vireka. The white lyon punishes him by turning him into a hound.

* WhatTheHellHero: Modak calls out Lochan for saying that Uluru will be just like the Pale Ones if she attacks them, and Ming Huo for objecting to him taking [[spoiler:Lochan's]] mane with him]], even though she herself uses dead animal parts for various jobs without ever thinking about it, as opposed to Modak's intention of respect to the dead.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Why Vireka turns Fuga into a hound, and later why Yu Song kills [[spoiler:Navya]].

''The Forges of Dawn'' is the first in an upcoming series of Iron Lyon novels.

It follows the somewhat clumsy and over sized lioness named Uhuru InAWorld [[HumanitysWake where humans have gone extinct]] and [[UpliftedAnimal animals have dominion over earth]]. Africa (called "Afriik" in the book) has been forcibly dominated by a large pride of white and pale lyons called "The Pale Ones", under the leadership of a Lord or Lady for generations, and finally one of them appears on her pride's doorstep, savaging her father and uncle with monsters controlled and created from their magic. The rest of her family is herded back to their stronghold to be made prisoners and slaves of, and a simple quest to infiltrate and free them turns into much more. She learns, while within the stronghold, that she is the heir to many strange powers and is "Red Queen" prophesied to bring an end to Pale One rule...

* AfterActionHealingDrama: Uhuru has to get [[spoiler:Lochan]] to a healer after she escapes [[spoiler:Chetna's prison.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: The Wiki has loads of information not present in the book.
* AlternateHistory: It is set in an alternate timeline where lyons killed all humans many thousands of years ago and became sapient, meaning that there are several pleistocene-era animals running around [[AllThereInTheManual according to supplemental material]] who were never driven extinct by humans.
* AndIMustScream: The Lyons lost inside of the hounds may still be aware of their actions, even as they kill and consume their own kind.
** The white lyon of old Tšatši [[spoiler:is reduced to nothing but a skull, buried under sand, while his magic continues to kill and claim lives. He doesn't ''want'' it to, but has no voice to countermand it and is still alive, technically, so his magic cannot die.]]
* AnimalisticAbomination: The Hounds.
* AxCrazy: Vireka, Yu Song, ''especially Vireka though''.
* BackToBackBadAsses: Tarute and Uhuru, and more like Stomach to back but --
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Why [[spoiler:Tarute and Uhuru]] jump off the cliff into the Tempest rather than be captured by the Pale Ones. [[spoiler:Tarute]] would have actually been killed, while [[spoiler:Uhuru]], would have just [[spoiler:been tortured and forced her to be Vireka's wife]], but of course she's not enthusiastic about that either.
* BigNo: Uhuru after [[spoiler:the Pale Ones catch up with her.]]
* BilingualBonus: The meanings of all of the character's names.
* BloodLust: All the Pale Ones are this to some extent, but Vireka is the most potent example, licking fresh blood off his paws when he strikes a subordinate hard enough to leave wounds behind.
* BloodMagic: The descendants of Lang'at all can use blood magic, using their own blood.
* BlowYouAway: Vireka's gift is to create hurricane-force winds.
* ButNowIMustGo: Uhuru and her allies leave the Barbari pride that she was training in to go to the Waste, to their disappointment (they had offered her a chance to stay and be one of their warriors).
* CainAndAbel: Mōbōr and Tšatši.
* CallARabbitASmeerp: All animals are given names with slightly to largely different spelling and pronunciation than their real world names.

* CarnivoreConfusion: Uhuru is quite surprised to see herbivorous animals joining the lyons in the Endian markets.
* CirclingMonologue: Vireka does it to Fuga before he turns him into a Hound.
* ColdFlames: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Unsurprisingly]], the Coldfyre.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Afriik. The Endians see it as a wondrous land, shielded from the evils of Mōbōr, and it is ruled by Tšatši's descendants. That doesn't mean it isn't an absolutely horrible place to live.
* CyanidePill: Tigrisians carry poison with them so they can kill themselves when the Endians try to interrogate them.
* DistantPrologue: The first chapter takes place about a century before the main story, and the narrative before that takes place probably thousands of years ago.

* DoomedHometown: The Pale Ones [[spoiler:capture Uhuru's pride and kill its leaders]] in order to [[spoiler:punish Kamaria.]]

* TheEmpire: The Pale Ones and Endia to a lesser degree.
* ExactWords: [[spoiler: Nirnasha says that he should have greater command over the Coldfyre than Vireka due to being a closer descendant]], and Uhuru assumes this means that [[spoiler:he's Mōbōr's son]], and that when he [[spoiler:gestures to the bones he wears, saying that he is always with him, it means that he is wearing his bones.]] But it turns out that this means he [[spoiler: ''is'' Mōbōr.]]
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: The Coldfyre, which is [[ExactlyWhatIsSaysOnTheTin what it sounds like, and is used by the villainous Pale Ones.
* ExtraEyes: Hounds have six eyes.

* FantasticRacism: The Pale Ones thinks darker pelted lions are expendable. In Endia, we see that the tigrisians and utans aren't particularly fond of the ruling class of lyons, and the lyons return the sentiment.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Vireka can be charming and soft-spoken, but there’s madness just beneath and he can snap at the most tenuous of provocations.
* FeministFantasy: It is a fantasy where the main character is a powerful lioness.
* FinalBattle: At the end of the book, between [[spoiler:Uhuru, Tarute and Modak, the Guardians, the Pale Ones' slaves and herders]] and [[spoiler: the Pale Ones, their hounds, and the Goras (until they make their ill-fated decision to abandon the fight.]]
* ForeignCultureFetish: The Heathen Barbari are noted to be obsessed with Afriik, or at least what they think Afriik is like.
* ForgingScene: Ming Huo forges Uhuru's armor in Part 3.
* GenocideBackfire: The Pales one seek to eradicate any ‘dirt pelted’, darker colored lions. Guess what spells the end of their reign?
* GodzillaThreshold: Uhuru doesn't [[spoiler:restore Tarute's sanity before the battle]], deciding that there isn't time for that anymore.

* GuttedLikeAFish: Yu Song loves killing animals this way. Navy tries threatening it to Uhuru, but she uses so much slang that the threat has no meaning to her.
* HonorAmongThieves: Navya says that Yu Song's pirates are like this to protest Uhuru stealing her salt (which is used as currency), only of Uhuru to point out all of the animals watching them as potential victims.

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Uhuru's fight with [[spoiler:Tarute]] in [[spoiler:Chetna's prison.]]

* IronicName: Lochan's name means "bright eyes", and he told Uhuru he named himself that as an ironic name because of his less-than enthusiastic personality. His original name, Layak, means "capable", and considering how incapable he is considered, he thinks this one's ironic as well.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: The continents get renamed just like animal species.

* KnightTemplar: The Pales Ones, but especially their leader, Vireka.
* LanguageDrift: The Heathen Barbari try to imitate African culture and believe they have the same language, but due to being separate for millennia it is noted that the languages have greatly diverged.
* LastStand: Tšatši held one against Mōbōr in the distant past, but he found a way to do better than a desperate stand when Araawa gave him power over the fyres.

* LightIsNotGood: The vast majority of the Pale Ones who, as their name suggest, are either Pale or White in pelt color.
* LightningBruiser: Hounds are twice the size of lions, extremely strong and hard to injure, and they're faster than cheetahs.

* MacguffinBlindness: The Pale ones miss that Uhuru's sapphire is a coldfyre stone because it is dull and because they simply never expected a coldfyre stone to show up in that context.
* MagicKnight: Uhuru and Vireka are both capable of magic, though the latter is more skilled and uses it more extensively while the former relies more on brute strength and her own determination.

** Uhuru’s name means ‘Freedom’. [[spoiler: After Lochan dies, she changes it to Uru, which means ‘Diamond’]]

** Kanali’s name means ‘Colonel’
** Koto = ‘Bulky’

** Oni’s means ‘Born in a Sacred Abode’
** Tarute’s name means ‘Live Through’ or ‘Contend’
** Vireka’s name means ‘Emptying’
* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:Uhuru's]] name change to [[spoiler: Uru]] reflects how [[spoiler: she is determined and unbreakable.]]

* NoOntologicalInertia: [[spoiler: Tšatši, Mōbōr, and Vireka's deaths]] lead to [[spoiler: the Hounds being turned back into lyons, the Waste and Tempest disappearing, the undead animals dying permanently, and the Coldfyre disappearing.]] However, [[spoiler: the Sunfyre is still imbued in Uhuru's armor, and this is noted to be because not all magic just disappears with its user's death.]]
* NoSell: Users of Coldfyre and Sunfyre are [[RequiredSecondaryPowers immune to what they use]], unless [[spoiler:a closer descendant of the fire's respective creators is nearby.]] One of Lochan's uncles is immune to regular fire.
* NothingCanStopUsNow: Vireka thinks this [[after he gets the Colder during the FinalBattle]], though the audience knows that [spoiler:Nirnasha can stop him if he just gets close enough.
* NothingIsScarier: We never find out just how [[spoiler:Chetna]] tortured [[spoiler:Lochan]], just that Uhuru thought it was almost as bad as hacking off bits of him.
* ObviouslyEvil: Uhuru expects the Pale Empire to actually look evil. As a result, the reality of well-kept and impressive-looking farmlands surprises her.
* PantheraAwesome: Almost the entire cast.
* {{Pirates}}: Yu Song and his crew are the brutish kind, though he pretends to be the roguish kind.
* PowerArmor: [[spoiler: After they traverse the Waste, Uhuru is able to imbue her armor with the PowerOfTheSun just before they face Vireka.]]
* ThePowerOfLove: What fuels the [[spoiler:Heartfyre.]]
* PowerOfTheSun: The Sunfyre, which, as befits its origin, is both [[FantasticNuke terribly destructive]] and [[AndIMustScream keeps whatever it kills alive.]]

* RedEyesTakeWarning: Red ''everything'' take warning, in Uhuru’s case. The Hounds also have red eyes, except for [[spoiler:Tarute, which is a sign of his sanity.]]
* RedIsHeroic: Uhuru's pelt, eyes, tail tuft, and underbelly are all red and she is indeed, [[TheHero the hero]].
* RedRightHand: The Pale Lords literally have a red paw, due to being descendants of the Red Queen Mjane.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Technically [[spoiler: Uhuru, as she is a part of the Pale One holy/royal line via her grandmother, Kamaria, who was the daughter to one of it’s princes.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Mjane lets herself be captured by the Pale Ones so they'll never find out about her son carrying on the line, stopping their attempt to get her power. But the Pale Lord just rapes her and installs the resulting child, Keita, on the throne, leading to the Pale Ones having more power than ever before thanks to control of the Coldfyre.
* SingleStrokeBattle: The Hounds versus pretty much anything, even two adult male lyons, excepting perhaps another hound. Uhuru mentions they can club a ''Rhino'' into unconsciousness with ease.

* TerrorHero: Uhuru tries to inspire as much fear in her as possible from the Pale Ones to gain an advantage, using her [[spoiler: Sunfyre armor, Tšatši's skull, and Lochan's mane.]],
* TheDragon: Kanali to Vireka. And Tai Yang to Yu Song.
* UndeathAlwaysEnds: Nirnasha and the undead animals of the Waste hope so [[spoiler:and they are right.]]
* UnholyMatrimony: Yu Song and Tai Yang.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Happens to Fuga, the Beast Master, after he fails to [[spoiler: find Kamaria and her family]] for Vireka. The white lyon punishes him by turning him into a hound.
* WasOnceAMan: All Hounds were once Lyons.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Lochan gets ignored by his relatives thanks to having the power to [[GreenThumb grow plants quickly]], which doesn't seem like much use for a potential ruler.
* WhatTheHellHero: Modak calls out Lochan for saying that Uluru will be just like the Pale Ones if she attacks them, and Ming Huo for objecting to him taking [[spoiler:Lochan's]] mane with him]], even though she herself uses dead animal parts for various jobs without ever thinking about it, as opposed to Modak's intention of respect to the dead.
* WhoWillBellTheCat: No one wants to be head beast tamer of the Pale Ones because of the chances of [[BadBoss Vireka]] turning you into a hound.
* WolverineClaws: The Pale Ones use bronze claws on top of their regular ones to be more powerful. In Endia, they're made of iron.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Why Vireka turns Fuga into a hound, and later why Yu Song kills [[spoiler:Navya.]]

* NoOntologicalIntertia: [[spoiler: Tšatši, Mōbōr, and Vireka's deaths]] lead to [[spoiler: the Hounds being turned back into lyons, the Waste and Tempest disappearing, the undead animals dying permanently, and the Coldfyre disappearing.]] However, [[spoiler: the Sunfyre is still imbued in Uhuru's armor, and this is noted to be because not all magic just disappears with its user's death.]]

* FantasticNuke: Tšatši's final spell, which transforms a huge section of the globe into an uninhabitable, zombie-infested wasteland.

* EvilAlbino: Vireka and his entire line. Well, [[InsistentTerminology to be exact,]] evil leucistic.