History Literature / TheTraitorSonCycle

* CoolPet: The Red Knight has a pet [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent griffon ]].

** The Wyrm of Erch makes no secret of being interested in many, many women throughout the series, but he's clearly considerate of them, as Blanche's converstion with one of his flings shows.

** Al Rashidi, the Hemerticist of Dar Es Salam also fulfills this role

* DecoyAntagonist: Subverted with the [[spoiler:Ondine]] in ''Plague of Swords'' who are set up to be the next big threat after [[spoiler:Ash]] only to be defeated and return the heroes's attention to the former BigBad.

* EndOfAnAge: The first book has that feel; many characters comment that the Wild, once trapped far behind the Wall, has now become commonplace in Alba, and that a battle of Lissen Carak, which in the years past would be considered barely a skirmish, has now become a desperate struggle to survive. This mood slowly dispassates in later book, as our heroes make progress.

** Alba is 1300s England, specifically after the Black Plague. It is under the rule of law and has substantial rights for the peasantry, although there is a strong guerilla movement called the jacks that is allied with the Wild. A generation ago it won a great battle against the northern wild, but lost huge amounts of manpower doing so. Great amounts of the country have reverted to the wild and only a fifth as many men can be raised as a generation before.

** The Red Knight is an expy of [[spoiler: Mordred. His mother is the king's sister and in a throw-away line, the Red Knight notes that he was born from [[BrotherSisterIncest incest]] and [[ChildByRape rage.]] His mother intended him to be raised as a Champion of the Wild who would destroy the kingdom of Alba.

* {{Glamour}}: The various creaturs of the Wild are automatically compelled to obey the Powers, the most powerful magic users, though many of them can resist it to some extent.

** The final book involves Ash, the Odine, the Necromancer (who's actually an Odine rebel colony), the Duke of Mitla, Kevin Orley and the Pope of Rhum as antagonist forces for the Red Knight and allies to deal with.

** Fell Swords are magic constructs which can cut through souls, but not through matter, making them extremely useful in the athereal.

* {{Expy}}: There is a strong Arthurian influence in the series:

** [[spoiler:Ota Qwan]] returns to his old name when he decides to come back to the path of revenge he left behind back when he joined the Sossag.

* {{Mana}}: The magic comes from either the Wild (green magic) or the sun (golden magic), and hermeticists have to "charge up" from one or another before they can cast any spells. There's also black magic, coming from death.

* BlackKnight: Hartmut Li Orguelleus the Black Knight, a mercenary knight hired by the king of Galle to wage a guerilla war against Alba, is a towering man clad in pitch-black armor. The Black Knight is a religious fantatic who was a prominent slaver in Ifriqu'ya and despite his religion, he'll use any method to win including resorting to hermeticism. Hartmut is an amazing warrior and defeats Bad Tom, the best warrior in the Red Knight's company, and almost kills an intervening Ranald Lachlan who's one of the King of Alba's elite bodyguard.

* {{Curse}}: The King of Alba is said to have been cursed by one of his previous lovers to be infertile as a punishment for stopping the romance. In reality, [[spoiler:Ghause Muriens put the curse on him because he raped her.]]

* MothersBabyFathersMaybe: How the Galles were able to turn Alba against Queen Desiderata. Desiderata is pregnant, but the King has not had any children including by-blows in twenty years (other than the Red Knight which isn't public knowledge) and the King of Alba knows he's under a curse of fertility. It turns out that Desiderata's child really is the king's.

* BlackKnight: Hartmut Li Orguelleus, a mercenary knight hired by the king of Galle to wage a guerilla war against Alba, is a towering man clad in pitch-black armor.

** The Red Knight is an expy of [[spoiler: Mordred. His mother is the king's sister and in a throw-away line, the Red Knight notes that he was born from [[BrotherSisterIncest incest]] and [[ChildByRape rage.]] His mother intended him to be raised as a Champion of the Wild who would destroy the kingdom of Alba.]]

* GreenEyedMonster: Sir Jerent resents the Red Knight's captaincy for two reasons -- the Red Knight being a nobleman and Sir Jerent has over a decade of experience as a mercenary while the Red Knight has only five years under his belt. Bad Tom points out, though, that Jerent lacks the charisma and money to be a respectable military captain.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Irks are immortal shape-changers, able to switch between an elf-like party face and a hideous war form. Many of them have magic powers.

* PortalDoor: There are seven interdimensional gates in the world, leading to other spheres. The two we've seen directly so far -- in Lissen Carak and Daar As Salam -- look like large and ornate door.

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And so begins the story of The Traitor Son Cycle, an epic fantasy series by Miles Cameron (a pseudonym for Christian Cameron) which has five books:

* BadassGay: Aneas, the youngest of brothers Muriens, is a great sorcerer and figher, and interested only in men.

* Every army remaining by the time of ''The Fall of Dragons'' counts as one.

** The Gallish chancellor, Abblemont, is a downplayed example -- while he is certainly ruthless and manipulative, he is actually one of the few people able to reign in the worst impulses of the country's utterly insane monarch.

* VestigialEmpire: The Empire of Morea.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture / IstanbulNotConstantinople: Most of the series' nations are direct counterparts to medieval states, often with alternate historical names:

** Morea is the late Byzantine Empire. It's under the rule of the Paleologue dynasty, has lost much of its territory and is both bankrupt and dependent on mercenaries. Interestingly, it is not in the Balkans and Middle east but borders Alba, both being on the continent of Nova Terra.
*** The Morean capitol of Liviapolis is a counterpart to Constantinople, which was named after the Roman emperor Constantine. Liviapolis was named after the semi-legendary Archaic empress Livia
** Hoek is the Netherlands, specifically the Dutch Republic with them known primarily for being [[ProudMerchantRace merchants.]]
** Occitania is the historical region of the same name, though it borders on Alba rather than Galle.
** Iberia is, of course, Spain.
** Arelat is the Kingdom of Arles, which was known under the same name.
** Ifriquy'a clearly resembles Northern Africa. Even its name is based on an Arabic spelling of Africa.
** Etrusca and its various cities all essentially cleave to this trope.
*** Venike is Venice, complete with Canals and a massive port/mercantile economy.
*** Rhum is Rome, and is ruled by the Patriarchate of Rhum, the local expy of the Roman Catholic Papacy, much like the Lateran States during the Middle Ages.
*** Mitla is Milan, complete with its rivalry with the local version of Venice.

* CoolPet: The red Knight has a pet [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent griffon ]].