History Literature / TheWayfarerRedemption

** Arguably deconstructed with Axis because of his many flaws that causes quite a few problems up until the end of Crusader and his uniting the land and then going off to his own thing.

* ForTheEvulz: Gorgrael's motivations, and this also applies to Qeteb and the Timekeepers to a degree. Qeteb just really really '''hates''' everything. Justified due to being [[MadeOfEvil pure evil]].

Ahem, and all of that little story was a lie.

In a [[CrapSackWorld world]] of all kinds of incest, we follow our protagonists on an inspiring, at times horrifying, and at times depressingly morally gray adventure. In this case, adventure means everyone had a crappy as hell day. Our first protagonist is [[HandsomeLech Axis SunSoar]], who is a member of a military order called the Axe Wielders, which is a part of a religion called the Way of the Plow. The leaders of such, the Brothers of the Seneschal believe that The Forbidden who live in the north are evil, nasty monsters, TheHeartless at their finest. There is even a recorded history showing the tyranny and evil of the Forbidden. After a glorious revolution, the Seneschal overthrew their dark masters and sent them into dark forests and mountains...

* AbusiveParents: Axis and Azhure are this trope to Drago[=/=][=DragonStar=] until the events of ''Crusader''.

* DeaderThanDead: If your soul is killed in the afterlife, apparently, you're gone for good. This is also the fate of anyone Qeteb gets his hands on (as he [[YourSoulIsMine consumes their souls and the sum of their knowledge), including [[spoiler:almost everyone at the Sacred Grove at the time he destroys it]]; ''Crusader'' requires the heroes to play a near-constant game of cat-and-mouse to ensure everyone is sheltered from the Timekeepers (especially at midday) until they can destroy Qeteb himself for good.

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Apparently everyone ''had'' to die, and the happiness is kind of enforced on them. Plus the countries outside haven't achieved salvation.]]

* GoodIsNotNice: Axis, Caelum, Isfrael as well as the Avar race as a whole.

* {{Jerkass}} There's many examples throughout the series.

* TheMagicGoesAway... if you use it to burn up [[spoiler: hundreds of Gryphon that are about to massacre your army. Although it is regained through the PowerOfLove.]]

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Isfrael betrays Tencendor to the Demons in Crusader; Qeteb kills him when he invades the Sacred Grove, something he ''wouldn't'' have been able to do if Isfrael hadn't told him about it.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[ManipulativeBastard [=WolfStar=]]] to Gorgrael. And then [[spoiler: Noah]] to [=WolfStar=].
* TheResenter: Timozel resents Axis from the start of the books, at first it was just because Axis was occasionally lovers with his mother, then because [[ItsAllAboutMe Axis didn't "appreciate his talents" and because of his ego]]. Then over time it just gets worse and worse.

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As Zared points out to both Axis and Caelum, the pointless civil war and half of the events of Sinner could have been avoided if Caelum had taken the chance to trust in Zared and allow him to recreate a ceremonial throne of Achar to allow the Acharites to have the pride of a ruler like the Icarii, Avar and Ravensbund people do. And it'd still be completely under the domain of the House of the Stars and if it went badly, Caelum or his descendants could have stopped it.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted, they're as flawed as humans.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses:

* OurElvesAreDifferent: The Icarii and Avar; the Icarii are impossibly beautiful mystical enchanters with [[WingedHumanoid angel wings]] and a penchant for incest, and the Avar are xenophobic forest-dwelling fair folk who hate violence but power their magic with blood sacrifice.

* SealedEvilInACan: Qeteb for well over 15,000 years.

* SealedEvilInACan: Qeteb.
* SealedGoodInACan: The Sentinels become this. They're freed by Drago and thus help him return to life.

* WhatTheHellHero: Belial towards Axis at the end of Enchanter, Zenith towards Axis, Stardrifter and Faraday towards Axis and Azhure on multiple occasions.

* AbusiveParents: Axis and Azhure are this trope to Drago / Dragonstar until the events of ''Crusader''.
** Though not as bad, they weren't exactly saints towards their daughters [=RiverStar=] and Zenith, either, and might be part of the reason the former was such an unpleasant person growing up (knowing your parents will never look at you with the same favour as their firstborn from ''infancy'' can't be pleasant to deal with). Not to mention being fine and dandy with [[spoiler:Niah taking over Zenith's body.]] ''And'' they spoiled Caelum rotten to the point that he became ''incorrigibly'' arrogant.
*** Luckily they eventually realized that they screwed up big time, even if it was too late to do anything about it.
* ActionGirl: Azhure.

** The more unusually-named people tend to be nobility or of a different race, however.
* AffablyEvil: Qeteb in parts of Crusader.

* BadassNormal: Axis and Azhure become this. Belial definitely counts, given how he's one of the few men who can stand up to Axis without fear.

** Dragonstar and Faraday.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses

* HaveYouSeenMyGod: When Artor came to power, he threw the Star Gods into the Star Gate and sealed them away.

* ItsAllAboutMe: This is Isfrael's modius operandi from the end of Pilgrim until his death in Crusader.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Axis is mostly this. Azhure describes the entire Icarii race as this, stating that while at heart they can be good people, they're also really arrogant and are horrible at friendship.

** Caelum can also count. When interacting with Zenith or someone he likes, he's mostly polite and reasonable. But put him in the same room as Drago or Zared at the end of Sinner and he'll turn into a massive prick without hesitation. [[spoiler: He even killed the sister he was sleeping with because she claimed to be pregnant and was going to blackmail him.]]
* JerkAss: Axis has his moments, mostly in Enchanter or when he's interacting with Drago in Pilgrim. Borneheld's EstablishingCharacterMoment and main character trait is this.

The Forbidden are really decent people, but one group of them, the Icarii, have wings, and the Avar have horns. They have magic music. And that glorious revolution was a Moral Event Horizon crossing for the Seneschal, who chopped down whole forests of habitats for the Avar and all 'round every human in those "glorious" wars of the axe were bastards.
Nowadays, Axis is slowly learning his secret past, plus the fact that he is actually [[spoiler: a "Forbidden" himself, which shakes his faith irreversibly.]] After assuming leadership of his new people, he has to fight his evil half-brother [[JerkassWoobie Borneheld]], and uncover mysteries such as about [=WolfStar=], a heretic Icarii combo platter of the Magnificent Bastard, Complete Monster and Mad Scientist tropes. And, of course, deal with the Big Bad, another evil half-brother. This one is called Gorgrael, and he has an absolutely ''lovely'' prophecy to go with him.

Originally from Australia, where these were two separate book trilogies. In America TOR merged them into a six book saga.

* ''Starman'' (1996)

* EvilOverlord:Gorgrael

* GodIsGood: The Star Gods, the Mother counts too.

** [[spoiler: [=WolfStar=] killed 212 Icarii Enchanter children (Including his niece) as well as his wife and unborn son and was killed by his brother in response. He is then killed again by the Hawkchilds, who were once the Icarii Enchanters he killed.]]

* MeaningfulName: If a chapter's name happens to be a character's name, either a major event is going to happen involving that character or they're going to die.
* MindRape: Happens to anyone who happens to be outside when the [=TimeKeepers=] have their hours, [[spoiler: unless you're a Acharite who died and was ressurected.]] Also happens to Timozel and Zenith in unrelated circumstances.

* OffingTheOffspring: Axis attempts to do this to Drago in Pilgrim, thanks to Sicarius' intervention, he was stopped. Good thing too.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Isfrael betrays Tencendor to the Demons in Crusader, Qeteb kills him when he invades the Sacred Grove, something he wouldn't have been able to do if Isfrael hadn't told him about it.

* TheResenter: Timozel resents Axis from the start of the books, at first it was just because Axis was occasionally lovers with his mother, then because [[ItsAllAboutMe Axis didn't "appreciate his talents" and because of his ego.]] Then over time it just gets worse and worse.

* [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling The Old Woman Out]]: Zenith calls out Azhure for her and Axis's ParentalFavourtism, recalling how they pampered Caellum and left not only Drago, but herself and [=RiverStar=] feeling neglected. Azhure takes it and admits fault.

** The Time Keepers had a really impressive one, given that they were a little SealedEvilInACan at the time. They used some dreams to turn brother against brother, making one impossibly scared of the other, the other was made to loathe and hunt his brother in a dream, and this succeeded: Drago went on through, and they show him compassion...[[spoiler: its fake. They use his magic to jump through the universe until they reach Tecendor. They go on through, screwing over Drago in the process, thus eliminating one of the few things that could have stood in the way of resurrecting the BigBad.]]

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: This is in both trilogies.
** Deconstructed to a degree since no one is happy about it and Axis' flaws nearly screw up everything in the long run.
** It's unclear how much of it ''is'' destiny and how much is manipulation in the first trilogy, though.

* BigBadassWolf: Twelve, actually -- the Alaunt, hyperintelligent canines that serve [=WolfStar=], and his heirs. [[spoiler: Their servitude to Azhure makes [=MorningStar=] think that she is [=WolfStar=] in disguise.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The Timekeeper Demons are defeated and erased from the universe, but Tencendor is destroyed and everyone dies. On the bright side, eternity in a afterlife of everlasting happiness can't be too bad.
** EsotericHappyEnding: Apparently everyone ''had'' to die, and the happiness is kind of enforced on them. Plus the countries outside haven't exactly achieved salvation.

* TheChick: Faraday

** She might be CoDragons
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Azhure definitely earned hers, even if it was only for forty years.

* TookALevelInJerkAss: Axis took one throughout Enchanter, but he got better. Isfrael and Caelum took several of these throughout the second trilogy and this causes so many problems.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted.

** Arguably deconstructed with Axis because of his many flaws that causes quite a few problems and his uniting the land and then going off to his own thing.

* BadAss: Axis throughout the entire series, Azhure definitely counts too.

* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The Icarii gods went AWOL when Artor came to power.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Rox, one of the Timekeeper Demons, turns when he is challenged to act as a butler of a household for a period of time as part of the conflict between the Demons and the defenders of Tencendor. He cracks under the sheer weight of the responsibility, begs for another chance, and basically ends up becoming ''the doorman of heaven''.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Axis and most Icarii are this due to Icarii arrogance, but they aren't bad people.
* JerkAss: Axis has his moments, Borneheld holds onto this and never lets go and WolfStar is really good at this. Isfrael is a master of it though.

* TookALevelInJerkAss: Caelum took quite a few of these. Isfrael took even more of them after the Timekeepers invaded.

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted, and hard at that.

Originally from Australia these where two separate book trilogies. In America TOR meraged them into a six book saga.

* BoringInvincibleVillain: Gorgrael. [[spoiler: He hardly does anything at all and we never, ever see him until the very last chapters, where he promptly gets his ass handed to him by Axis.]]
** BoringInvincibleHero: Azhure, and to a degree Axis as well, outside of his HeroicSacrifice.

* LightIsNotNice: All Icarii are capable of this due to their arrogance, so are the Avar.

* JerkwithaHeartofGold: Axis and most Icarii are this due to Icarii arrogance, but they aren't bad people.

* TookaLevelinJerkAss: Caelum took quite a few of these. Isfrael took even more of them after the Timekeepers invaded.