History Literature / TheShadowCampaigns

* FullCircleRevolution: Shortly after evicting Orlanko, the Directorates-General ends up launching a reign of terror that includes many of the policies that they had rebelled against when Orlanko was doing them, and several that are worse, such as mass execution of people accused of being foreign agents (Read: being foreign) or working with foreign agents (Read: Objecting to the mass execution of foreigners just because they aren't locals).

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Sworn Church believes that Raesinia must be overthrown because she's host to a demon - casually forgetting the fact that ''they'' were the ones who put the demon in her in the first place, and using magic to interfere with politics is the reason they were thrown out of Vorenai in the first place.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Princess Raesinia and her band of conspirators plot a popular uprising to force the court to consider the plight of the common people, who are being starved out and systematically raped and looted by Borelgai [[LoanShark "tax farmers"]] and hidebound Vorenai law. Their well-intended attempt quickly mutates into a ReignOfTerror.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: The Royal Benevolent Home for Wayward Youth, popularly known as "Mrs. Wilmore's Prison." Ostensibly it provides shelter and education to orphaned girls in Vordan City; in reality it's a grim penal institution with a nasty habit of selling its inmates as sex slaves or worse. Winter is an escaped inmate, as is Mad Jane.
** GreatEscape: Winter's plot, which involved hiding in a cart full of laundry, scaling a twenty-foot stone wall and hiding in the gutters until she could stow away on a coach to the nearest army recruiting station.
** PrisonRiot: Mad Jane's method, in which she armed the entire population of the Home (a hundred-odd girls and young women) with improvised shivs and coshes, marched up to the prefects and demanded to be let out or else. The prefects complied; it was the first time someone had actually had the wherewithal to defy them in numbers. The escapees went on to form the Leathernecks, with Mad Jane at their head.

* SinisterMinister: Any priest of the Sworn Church has a decent chance of being this. Taken UpToEleven with the Obsidian Order.

** Winter might even fall closer to WholesomeCrossdresser: when she could legitimately drop the disguise after becoming CO of the "Girls' Own," she chooses not to, as by that point she'd spent almost half her life passing as male.

** ReligiousBruiser: Captain "Preacher" Vahkerson of the artillery battalion, who has the entire Wisdoms of Karis the Savior (this universe's version of TheBible) memorized, has verses of the Wisdoms engraved on his cannons, forbids drinking, smoking, swearing, gambling and wenching in his battalion, and is a frighteningly competent artillery officer.
** BadassBureaucrat: Lieutenant Fitzhugh Warus, the man who actually makes the Colonials run; he coordinates the supply shipments, collects and collates the intelligence, and handles the paperwork for the entire regiment. He's also a very skilled officer in his own right.

* EmergencyTransformation: Winter acquires the demon Infernivore as a last-ditch effort to save Vhalnich and d'Ivoire from a demon-possessed Concordat agent. It works.

* RankUp: Winter, Bobby and Graff all achieve this numerous times. Winter goes from Ranker (this universe's equivalent of Private) through several grades of Sergeant, and eventually ends up with a battlefield commission as a Captain. Bobby and Graff start out as Corporals and end up as Lieutenants.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: For any Vordanai soldier, a posting to Khandar is this. Officers get there by means of screwing up their careers just short of being cashiered; enlisted are sent there as penal duty. End result: the First Colonials are very much an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores, until Vhalnich cleans them up.

* TheLostLenore: Mad Jane starts off as this to Winter. They pull off a RelationshipUpgrade in the second book, but are on the rocks by the third.

** SweetOnPollyOliver: Graff develops this for [[spoiler: Bobby,]] who eventually drops the disguise after transferring from the Colonials to the Girls' Own]].

** GreatEscape: Winter's plot, which involved hiding in the laundry, scaling a twenty-foot stone wall and hiding in the gutters until she could stow away on a coach to the nearest army recruiting station.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: For any Vordanai soldier, a posting to Khandar is this. Officers get there by means of screwing up their careers just short of being cashiered; rankers are sent there as penal duty. End result: the First Colonials are very much an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores, until Vhalnich cleans them up.

** FantasyCounterpartCulture: Lots. Khandar is a fairly obvious {{Expy}} of the Near and Middle East, complete with a crumbling, decadent VestigialEmpire, a whole bunch of religious fanatics bent on holy war, veiled women, nomadic desert tribesmen, and a bunch of not-European colonial forces trying to hold the whole mess together. Vordan, of course, is France with a big pinch of Great Britain thrown in. Hamvelt is the Holy Roman Empire, Antova and the Free Cities are equivalent to Venice and Genoa, and the Free Churches/Sworn Church schism stands in for Protestantism vs. Catholicism.

** Winter might even fall closer to WholesomeCrossdresser: when she could legitimately drop the disguise after becoming CO of the "Girls' Own," she chooses not to, as by that point she'd spent half her life passing as male.
** SweetOnPollyOliver: Graff eventually develops this for [[spoiler: Bobby, who eventually drops the disguise after transferring from the Colonials to the Girls' Own]].

** SergeantRock: Sergeant Winter Ihernglass, after her RankUp in the beginning of ''The Thousand Names.''

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Massively understated; the Deputies General, ostensibly elected to provide a counterweight to the Vordanai DeadlyDecadentCourt, quickly sets its leader up as RegentForLife and kicks off a ReignOfTerror.

* DatingCatwoman: d'Ivoire winds up falling victim to this in ''The Thousand Names.'' The woman he falls for turns out to be a spy and assassin, and bound to a demon to boot.

The series chronicles the trials and adventures of a group of soldiers in the First Colonial Infantry Regiment of the Royal Vordanai Army, serving out punishment tours in the worst of Vordan's far-flung overseas colonies, which is currently being overrun by a gang of religious fanatics hell-bent on revolution. Things at home aren't rosy, either; Vordan is heavily indebted to the neighboring kingdom of Borel, the [[StateSec Ministry of Information]] has a nasty habit of snatching citizens off the streets, and the king is fatally ill, leaving his teenaged, painfully sheltered daughter next in line to the throne.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Princess Raesinia and her band of conspirators plot a popular uprising to force the court to consider the plight of the common people, who are being starved out and systematically raped by Borelgai [[LoanShark "tax farmers"]] and hidebound Vorenai law. Their well-intended attempt quickly mutates into a ReignOfTerror.

** GreatEscape: Winter's plot, which involved hiding in the laundry, scaling a twenty-foot stone wall and hiding in the gutters until she could stow away on a coach to the nearest recruiting station.

** SweetOnPollyOliver: Graff eventually develops this for [[spoiler: Bobby]].

** TheNeidermeyer: Captain Adrecht Roston, CO of the Fourth Battalion. A drunk, effete ladies' man who's actually a decent officer when he makes the effort, but generally can't be bothered to do so. After nearly losing his entire battalion to negligence (after which only the other captains' intervention saves him), he finally gets cashiered for mutiny and is forced to march into the desert, along with all the mutineers he led. They NeverFoundTheBody, though...
** BloodKnight, CavalryOfficer: Captain Harry "Give-Em-Hell" Stokes, captain of the Colonials' cavalry battalion. A pigeon-chested, bow-legged guy who frequently has to be physically restrained when the battle's joined, and firmly believes that there is no problem in warfare that cannot be solved by repeated application of cavalry charges and screams of "Give 'em hell!"

The series chronicles the trials and adventures of a group of soldiers in the First Colonial Infantry regiment of the Royal Vordanai Army, serving out punishment tours in the worst of Vordan's far-flung overseas colonies, which is currently being overrun by a gang of religious fanatics hell-bent on revolution. Things at home aren't rosy, either; Vordan is heavily indebted to the neighboring kingdom of Borel, the [[StateSec Ministry of Information]] has a nasty habit of snatching citizens off the streets, and the king is fatally ill, leaving his teenaged, painfully sheltered daughter next in line to the throne.

The series chronicles the trials and adventures of a group of soldiers in the Royal Vordanai Army, serving out punishment tours in the worst of Vordan's far-flung overseas colonies, which is currently being overrun by a gang of religious fanatics hell-bent on revolution. Things at home aren't rosy, either; Vordan is heavily indebted to the neighboring kingdom of Borel, the [[StateSec Ministry of Information]] has a nasty habit of snatching citizens off the streets, and the king is fatally ill, leaving his teenaged, painfully sheltered daughter next in line to the throne.

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* XanatosSpeedChess: Vhalnich turns out to be an absolute ''master'' of this, whether on the battlefield or at court. His nemesis, Duke Orlanko, is too, and Princess/Queen Raesinia gets in on the action as well, leading to a GambitPileup by mid-series.

** ChurchMilitant: The Penitent Damned, who willingly host demons (thereby eternally condemning themselves to Hell) in order to battle the Church's enemies, real or perceived. The novella ''The Penitent Damned'' explores their role in more detail.

** Bobby is another, perhaps straighter example: after Bobby suffers an apparently fatal gunshot wound, Feor effects a demon binding as a last-ditch lifesaving measure (it's depicted as a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to boot). PlayedForDrama in that Bobby appears to be somewhat less than human afterward.

* {{Qurac}}: Khandar appears to be equal parts Egypt and Afghanistan.

* RecycledInSpace: The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars WITH MAGIC!
** FantasyConflictCounterpart: The whole Khandarai adventure looks an awful lot like the Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1880).

** ChurchMilitant: The Penitent Damned, who willingly host demons (thereby eternally damning themselves to Hell) in order to battle the Church's enemies, real or perceived. The novella ''The Penitent Damned'' explores their role in more detail.
* DaChief: Captain Marcus d'Ivoire temporarily becomes this in ''The Shadow Throne,'' as Colonel Vhalnich has him seconded from the Army to command the Vordan City police forces.

** SergeantRock: Sergeant Winter Ihernglass, after her RankUp in the beginning of ''The Thousand Names.''

** PluckyMiddie: Corporal Bobby Forester, who is repeatedly described as "only a boy" by the other Colonials. [[spoiler: Bobby's boyish appearance makes a lot more sense when it's revealed that "Bobby" is short for Roberta, not Robert.]]

** Bobby is another, perhaps straighter example: after suffering an apparently fatal gunshot wound, Feor effects a demon binding as a last-ditch lifesaving measure (it's depicted as a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to boot). PlayedForDrama in that Bobby appears to be somewhat less than human afterward.

* PsychoLesbian: Mad Jane, oh so very much; it's outright stated in ''The Shadow Throne'' and turned UpToEleven in ''The Price of Valor.''

* LaResistance: Several, including Raesinia's own band of students, as well as the Leathernecks and the

** Bobby is another, perhaps straighter example: after suffering an apparently fatal gunshot wound, Feor effects the same treatment as a last-ditch lifesaving measure (it's depicted as a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to boot). PlayedForDrama in that Bobby appears to be somewhat less than human afterward.

* TheSquad: As befitting a military series, of course.
** ColonelBadass: Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, Count of Mieran. Starts out playing himself off as an UpperClassTwit; later reveals himself to be a crazy brilliant tactician, deadly with just about any weapon you'd care to name, and a student of magic to boot. Later becomes a FourStarBadass in ''The Price of Valor.''

** TheNeidermeyer: Captain Adrecht Roston, CO of the Fourth Battalion. A drunk, effete ladies' man who's actually a decent officer when he makes the effort, but generally can't be bothered to do so. After nearly losing his battalion to negligence, he finally gets cashiered for mutiny and is forced to march into the desert, along with all the mutineers he led. They NeverFoundTheBody, though...

** TheSquadette: Amusingly, this trope zig-zags around Winter and lands on [[spoiler: Bobby.]]

** Bobby is another, perhaps straighter example: Feor treats an otherwise fatal gunshot wound by the same method. PlayedForDrama in that Bobby appears to be somewhat less than human afterward.

** Bobby is another, perhaps straighter example: Feor saves her from an otherwise fatal gunshot wound by the same method. PlayedForDrama in that Bobby appears to be somewhat less than human afterward.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: For any Vordanai soldier, a posting to Khandar is this. Officers get there by means of screwing up their careers just short of being cashiered; rankers are sent there as penal duty. End result: the Royal Vordanai Colonials are very much an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores, until Vhalnich cleans them up.

* SinisterMinister: Any priest of the Sworn Church has a decent chance of being this.

** TheCaptain: Captain Marcus d'Ivoire. Probably the series' most LawfulGood character; he's repeatedly characterized as a knight born into the wrong era.
** TheNeidermeyer: Captain Adrecht Roston. Gets cashiered for mutiny and forced to march into the desert, along with all the mutineers he led... but they NeverFoundTheBody.
** TheBigGuy: Corporal Graff, who towers head and shoulders over practically every other soldier in the Colonials.

** SergeantRock: Winter Ihernglass, after her RankUp in the beginning of ''The Thousand Names.''

* XanatosSpeedChess: Vhalnich turns out to be an absolute ''master'' of this, whether on the battlefield or at court. His nemesis, Duke Orlanko, is too, and Princess/Queen Raesinia gets in on the action as well, leading to a ThirtyXanatosPileup by mid-series.

* CorruptChurch: The Sworn Church, which routinely interferes with temporal affairs, is the power behind the throne to the BigBad Duke Orlanko, and has no problem deploying demon-hosting secret agents to places it deems in need of "salvation."